Mich. woman's mystery photo has link to LI

For more than 30 years, Donna McCoy had wondered about the race cars and drivers in a rare photograph from the early 1900s that she owned.

"About all I knew was they were race cars, they were Oldsmobiles and the approximate year," said McCoy, 81, a retired nurse and former Oldsmobile worker who lives in Owosso, Mich.

In less than 24 hours, Howard Kroplick, a Long Island expert on the Vanderbilt Cup races, solved the intrigue.

"The cars are entries in the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup races," said Kroplick, who has the same photo in his collection, as well as a photo of the race's winning car, the Black Beast.

McCoy had received the photo from her father-in-law, in part because she had worked for the defunct car line.

After she brought the photo to an antiques show in her central Michigan city last month, two appraisers turned to a newspaper for help.

The Lansing State Journal ran a story about her mystery photo on Tuesday, and by Wednesday, readers had referred her to Kroplick's website, vanderbiltcupraces.com.

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The Olds in the foreground of McCoy's photo was driven by Harry Stillman and finished 11th; his name and the model of the car are printed above the driver's side tire, Kroplick said.

The second car also was entered in the race, with Joe Nelson as the driver, but Kroplick said he can't be sure Nelson's car even started the race, because of a faulty starter.

It was the only time an Oldsmobile competed in a Vanderbilt Cup race, "so it was pretty easy to identify the cars," Kroplick said. "They probably were being prepped for the cup races and were being shown at a local hotel in Lansing."

McCoy and some Lansing-area historians think the hotel was the Downey House, which was destroyed in a 1912 fire.

Kroplick has long studied the history of the Vanderbilt Cup, a road race held from 1904 to 1910 on Nassau County roads. They were the first international road races held in the United States and drew massive crowds, from 25,000 to more than 250,000.

Oldsmobile, a General Motors luxury line, ceased production in 2004.

Kroplick said he paid $650 for his rare photo two years ago at an automobile auction near Boston.

Is McCoy hoping for the same for her photo, which might soon end up for sale on eBay or another site?

"I'd take that," she said.