eleven o'clock
Moreover , as this was the United States , the country of the greatest gamblers of the world , bets were made of every sort and of enormous amounts . The start was to be made at eight o'clock in the morning ; and to avoid crowding and the accidents which must result from it , the automobiles were to follow each other at two minute intervals , along the roads whose borders were black with spectators . The first ten racers , numbered by lot , were dispatched between eight o'clock and twenty minutes past . Unless there was some disastrous accident , some of these machines would surely arrive at the goal by eleven o'clock . The others followed in order . An hour and a half had passed . There remained but a single contestant at Prairie-du-chien .