Racing & MOTOR: The Early Years BY CLAUDE MILOT

George Robertson’s Locomobile careens through the final turn to victory in the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup race.

hen William Randolph 100th anniversary of our magazine, and powered, so he began work on a new Hearst started MOTOR are excited about celebrating this mile- vehicle with a two-cylinder, four-cycle Magazine in 1903, he stone, by looking back on those 100 engine. It was completed in the spring no doubt knew instinc- years. A complete retrospective, of of 1895 and immediately “went into tively that the automo- course, is impossible; the history of the daily service,” as he put it in that bile was about to automobile industry is so varied and ex- March 1909 issue. change the world. The first few issues tensive we could not possibly do it jus- Duryea credited four contemporary read like a newsletter for Hearst’s rich tice in these few pages. Instead, we pioneers for the development of the friends;W after all, they were the only chose to bring you one small piece of automobile: of Koko- ones who could afford those fabulous automotive history that MOTOR record- mo, Indiana, who produced a vehicle in new toys back then. But you can sense ed rather well, we think. And that is the 1893 that was the first to use aluminum the excitement in those first pages early history of automobile in parts; George Selden, whose “road lo- about the real possibilities of the auto- America. comotive” wasn’t completed until 1905; mobile industry. One of the most extraordinary ac- Henry Ford, whose first four-wheel, We at MOTOR are proud to mark the counts of the development of the self-propelled auto was completed in American automobile industry ap- 1893; and Alexander Winton, who built Claude Milot’s 35 years with The Hearst peared in the March 1909 issue of his first in 1895 and began setting Corporation includes stints as Director MOTOR. It was written by Charles E. speed records in 1897. of Marketing and Director of Manufac- Duryea, the man generally considered turing for Motor Information Systems. to have built America’s first practical The First Races in America His long and distinguished service with motorized carriage in 1893 and who Charles Duryea won the first automo- MOTOR made him the perfect choice to thereby arguably launched America’s bile race ever run in America, on write this article. Claude is now retired automobile industry. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving Day, 1895. There were six and living in North Carolina. Duryea’s first car proved to be under- contestants. Duryea won with an aver-

March 2003 27 Racing & MOTOR: The Early Years

new tracks specifically for . Two modified horse tracks that fig- ured prominently in auto racing’s early days were Empire City in Yonkers, New York, and Brighton Beach near Coney Island in Brooklyn. To keep the dust down, the dirt surface was covered with a layer of oil before every race. And to cut down on the possibility of skidding out of control, the turns were banked— a change that made it possible for speed records to be broken at just about every meet. The use of horse tracks for racing brought another change—the switch from amateur drivers to professionals. were getting bigger and faster, and racing was becoming too dangerous for L.J. Bergdoll, with his No. 11 Benz, was the star of the 150-mile stock car race “gentlemen.” What had begun as enter- at Florida’s Ormond Beach, a premier locale in early beach racing. tainment for wealthy car owners had become a professional sport. age speed of 7.5 mph, not so bad con- signaled that racing had come of age. sidering the course was covered with as Records continued to be set. On Jan- The First Road Races much as 12 to 18 inches of snow and uary 13, 1904, on the ice of Lake St. Road racing did not make its debut in ice, according to Duryea. He won sev- Clair near Detroit, the Ford “999” cov- America until 1904. In 1899, American eral other races as the century neared ered one mile in an incredible 39.4 sec- newspaper publisher James Gordon its close. onds. As unbelievable as that record Bennett resolved to do something about For the next several years, all the im- was, it wouldn’t even last to the end of the French domination of racing. To portant races were run in Europe, al- the month. Records galore were about encourage American manufacturers to most all of them in France. For this rea- to be set in Florida on a long stretch of build cars that could compete with the son, France can legitimately claim to hard sand called Ormond Beach. French, he organized the Automobile have been the country where motor car Challenge Cup race and invited auto- racing began. The First Race Tracks mobile clubs from every country to Back in the United States, road rac- Interestingly, horses made the first au- compete. The race, which became bet- ing had not yet taken hold. Other than tomobile speed races possible. In its in- ter known as the Gordon Bennett Tro- the occasional one-on-one match, like augural issue in July 1903, MOTOR re- phy Race, became the first great racing the one between Henry Ford and ports that the “millionaire colony” gath- series in automotive history. The race Alexander Winton in October 1901, ered in Saratoga for the summer was ran only six years, from 1900 to 1905, which was won by Ford, racing was con- proposing the Saratoga racetrack as yet it set the tone for what would be- fined to attempts at speed records, ei- ideal for an auto race meeting. And come Grand Prix racing. ther on flat surfaces or on hill climbs. cities that had speedways meant for In 1904, William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. The very first speed record is said to horses, like New York’s Harlem River inaugurated the first road racing series have been set in 1897 by Winton, who Driveway, were petitioned to close in America. The Vanderbilt Cup would covered a mile in his little runabout in 1 them to equine traffic one day a week become America’s premier road race, minute, 47 seconds. But it wasn’t until in favor of automobiles. featuring the world’s best cars and driv- 1901 that records were taken seriously. Horse tracks were located mostly ers. It was called the “Classic of Ameri- On August 30, 1901, at Newport, near metropolitan centers and could can Motordom,” “the King of Automo- Rhode Island, millionaire sportsman draw large numbers of spectators to the bile Races” and “the Premier Event in William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. drove his grandstands. Since these spectators paid the World of Sport.” That’s how big the 1 Mercedes five miles in about 7 ⁄2 min- to get in, they provided some of the Vanderbilt Cup race was from 1904 to utes, and ten miles in 15 minutes. But funds necessary to finance the sport, a 1916. No other race came close in im- in less than three months, on Novem- formula that works well to this day. portance, and no other race got as ber 16 that same year, Henri Fournier Horse tracks weren’t perfect, howev- much ink in MOTOR Magazine. Largely drove his Mors one mile in 51.8 seconds er. The two big problems were dust and because of the success of the Vander- at the speed trials on Coney Island danger to spectators. Track owners bilt Cup, road racing in America would Boulevard in Brooklyn, New York. This would be forced to modify their tracks flourish for the next dozen years in feat created a national sensation, and to correct these problems, or to build many parts of the country.

28 March 2003 Racing & MOTOR: The Early Years

Over 80,000 spectators jammed the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to watch the 1911 500-mile Memorial Day Sweepstakes race.

Vanderbilt was the grandson of Cor- from France, five each from Germany The inaugural Grand Prize race was nelius Vanderbilt, the New York rail- and the United States, and two from held on Thanksgiving Day, 1908, in Sa- road magnate. He spent his inherited Italy. The cars started two minutes vannah, Georgia. It attracted 20 superb wealth on endeavors other than the apart, beginning at 6 a.m. Seven fin- automobiles from France, Germany, family business. Indeed, William’s great ished. After more than seven hours of Italy and the United States, as well as passion was not the railroad, but the au- racing, the winner was American expa- the best drivers in the world. At 402.08 tomobile—more precisely, automobile triate George Heath driving for France miles over a 26-mile course, it was the racing. in a Panhard. He averaged 52 mph. longest race in America. Vanderbilt was probably one of those For the next decade-plus, MOTOR The last Grand Prize race was run in people William Randolph Hearst had in thrilled readers with eyewitness ac- Santa Monica in 1916, until Grand Prix mind when he started MOTOR Maga- counts of all the Vanderbilt Cup races— racing was revived in 1959. World War I zine. His name appears in MOTOR’s ear- except, amazingly, the last, in 1916. Af- had put an end to road racing in Eu- liest accounts of hill-climbing contests ter the race, Vanderbilt decided to re- rope, as well. The Grand Prize, like the and speed meets. He set the world tire his trophy. Commercialism, if any- Vanderbilt Cup, was now a completed record for the mile at Ormond Beach in thing, killed the Vanderbilt. Speedway chapter in the history of early American Florida in January 1904, driving a 90-hp racing now offered purses of $50,000 to racing. Mercedes. His time was 39 seconds flat $100,000 and speeds over 100 mph. and his top speed was 90 mph. With the Vanderbilt offering no more Hill Climbs & Beach Racing Interestingly, as in Vanderbilt’s case, than $10,000, the prestige of winning When George Mallory was asked why racing was done by the owners of the was not considered reward enough. he wanted to climb Mount Everest, he vehicles and not by professional race The winner of the final Vanderbilt answered, “Because it’s there.” This drivers. MOTOR put this phenomenon was Englishman Dario Resta in a classic response reveals a basic human in perspective in its October 1903 issue: French Peugeot (he won the previous impulse—the irresistible urge to climb. year, as well). But MOTOR never even Men no sooner had invented the auto- Explain, if you can, why the man of means who places a high value on his life, delights bothered to report on the race. mobile than they wanted to race them. in a motor vehicle at such pace that Before World War I there were two So it became a natural evolution in the the odds are scarcely even that he will road races in America that stood above process for them to want to race them emerge with a whole body. Those who take all the others. One, of course, was the up those darn hills. Thus was born the enjoyment in this manner tell of the exhila- Vanderbilt Cup; the other was the sport of automobile hill climbing. ration of moving through space at this great rate, the excitement of the moment allaying Grand Prize. Officially known as the For the first dozen years of the 20th all sense of fear. There are those who be- Automobile Club of America’s Interna- century, hill climbs were one of the lieve that the disease is something which tional Road Race, the Grand Prize, or most popular forms of automobile rac- grows upon the motorist until he is a chron- the Gold Cup, as some called it, was es- ing in America. ic victim of this speed mania. tablished in 1908 as America’s premier Hill climbs always had an element of MOTOR covered the first Vanderbilt international road race. It was patterned danger in them. In the early days, road Cup race in great detail in its Novem- after Europe’s Grand Prix races and was surfaces were not paved and guardrails ber 1904 issue. The race featured 18 ve- conducted under the rules of interna- had not been invented yet. It was not hicles from four different countries—six tional racing. unusual, therefore, for a car to take a

30 March 2003 corner too fast and plunge off the edge for speed, they also had enormous ways were being built in every part of of the road. grandstands that accommodated many the country. Soon interest waned, until MOTOR followed hill climbing exten- more spectators than could the dunes of a Hudson Super Six finally broke sively for many years. But these compe- Ormond Beach. There are scant refer- through at Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay titions were so popular and numerous, ences in MOTOR to Ormond Beach af- speedway on May 1 and 2, 1916, setting MOTOR couldn’t do them all justice. As ter 1911, but the records set on the a new world record of 1819 miles, it turned out, only one climb would sands of Florida from 1903 to 1911 breaking the old record of 1419 miles challenge America’s best drivers—Pikes would hold a special place in the annals set at the Los Angeles speedway on Peak. of auto racing in America. April 8, 1911. The following year a new When Zebulon Pike in 1806 discov- record was set—1898 miles in 24 hours, ered the mountain that would be Endurance Races: with an average speed of 79.08 mph. named after him, he said it would never Twice Around the Clock The track once again was the be conquered. He was right...for a When we hear “24-hour race,” we auto- Sheepshead Bay speedway. while. The first man did not reach the matically think of the 24 Hours of Le With America’s entry into the war summit until 1820, and it would take Mans. Except for a 10-year interruption there would be no further commentary another 80 years for an automobile to caused by World War II, this classic en- on 24-hour racing in MOTOR for some negotiate the 18-mile stretch that durance race has been with us since time. But then, Le Mans was just climbed 8109 feet from the valley floor 1923. But the history of “Twice Around around the corner. to the mountain’s 14,109-foot peak. the Clock” racing goes back a lot further In the first 15 years of racing, auto- As a hill climb, Pikes Peak had no than that. mobile enthusiasts raced on the beach, equal. Not even Mount Washington The idea of conducting a race over a up hills, around race tracks, on public came close. In 1916, when almost all fixed period of time came up almost as roads, even where there were no roads. other hill climbs had disappeared into an afterthought. In the first decade of Finally, this mania led to the ultimate the pages of history, Pikes Peak began the 20th century, when automobile rac- contest, a race around the world. The its run of annual hill climbs that contin- ing was in its infancy, all year was 1908; the contest, the New ue to this day. was over a specific distance: one mile, York-Paris Race. When it came to record-breaking five miles, 10 miles, 100 miles, etc. Long-distance racing in America speeds, however, straight, flat and There were some endurance races as wasn’t new in 1908. Five years earlier, smooth surfaces were the best. And the well, but they were always from point to four motorized vehicles had actually best place to set speed records, it point. gone coast to coast. The first was a 1.5- turned out, was the beach. In the early- The first true 24-hour race took place hp California driven by to mid-1900s, beaches from Maine to in Columbus, Ohio, on July 3 and 4, George Wyman. He left San Francisco Florida reverberated with the sound of 1905, with three entries. No less than on May 16, 1903, and reached New race engines. 11 contests were held in 1907, with York on July 6. That made him the first The one speed venue that was get- “single car” records set and broken sev- person ever to cross the continent on a ting the most attention in those early eral times in Philadelphia, St. Louis, motor-driven vehicle. days, however, was the 15-mile stretch and Brighton Beach, New The first automobile to make the of beach between Ormond and Day- York. journey was a Winton touring car tona on Florida’s east coast. Here, the By the end of the first decade, speed- owned by Dr. H. Nelson Jackson, who smooth, hard surface at low tide was perfect for attempts at speed records for the mile and the kilometer, as well as for distances of up to 50 miles. Here’s how MOTOR described racing on Flori- da’s beaches in its January 1904 issue: Here is a course with an abundance of width, endless dunes alongside that serve as safe vantage ground for the onlookers, and nothing more serious than a salt water bath opposite if the luckless pilot lose control of his high strung bundle of mechanism. Soon, with the advent of high-speed ovals in places like Indianapolis, Sioux City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Ray Harroun, driving Sheepshead Bay, New York, the Florida his famed Marmon Wasp, won beaches lost their attraction as speed the first Memorial Day Sweepstakes venues. Not only were the ovals built race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1911 with an average speed of 74.62 mph.

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hired Sewall K. Crocker as his driver. They left San Francisco on May 23 and arrived in New York on July 26 after a cir- cuitous route that totaled some 6000 miles. Two other auto- mobiles, a Packard and an Oldsmobile runabout, completed the same trek later that summer. Having documented these events in its December 1903 is- sue, MOTOR decided to sponsor a transcontinental race in 1904, which it billed as The Supreme Endurance Test. A cup and gold medals would go to the survivors. Of course, there were no roads in the west, so the prerace discussions cen- tered on which was the best route to take, especially over the Rockies. Said MOTOR in its February 1904 issue: Not the least of the good that is likely to result from the publicity given to transcontinental motor-vehicle trips and other extended automobile tours will be a further popularizing of the various movements now afoot for good roads. A number of motorists took up MOTOR’s challenge. The winners were L.L. Whitman and C.S. Caris in a 10-hp Franklin, who completed the journey in 32 days, 17 hours, 20 minutes. Having conquered the ocean-to-ocean barrier, the in- domitable motorist would soon look to new challenges. In 1907, proposed a race across three conti- nents, from New York to Paris. The first stage of the course, from New York to San Fran- cisco, was expected to take around 30 days. From California, the cars would then travel by ship to Valdez, Alaska, and then motor 1100 miles across to Nome, a stage that would take an- other 30 days. From Nome, the cars would sail to Siberia and from there motor 5400 miles across the frozen tundra to Moscow and another 2600 miles across Europe to Paris. This 1 last stage was expected to take 2 ⁄2 months. E.R. Thomas, an American car manufacturer, eventually won the race, beating out three entries from France and one each from Italy and Germany. The auto traveled 22,000 miles, 13,341 of them on land under its own power. For its ef- fort, the Thomas was awarded a trophy that weighed 1800 pounds and was eight feet high, the largest trophy ever of- fered or won in competition. The Speedway Era For nearly a century the Indianapolis 500 has stood at the pinnacle of automobile racing. In terms of race cars, drivers, prize money and publicity, Indy’s reputation as a racing classic is unequaled. While many books have been written on the In- dianapolis 500, no early history of Indy matches MOTOR’s cov- erage of the speedway’s early years. MOTOR’s February 1909 issue detailed plans by the newly organized Motor Speedway Company, headed by Carl G. Fischer, president of the Prest-O-Lite Company. The stated

This Lisle ad is a reprint from the April 1929 issue of MOTOR.

32 March 2003 objective was to furnish facilities for Two other big speedways opened at Moines Speedway held only two events, driving and testing American cars for about the same time as Indianapolis— one in 1915 and the other in 1916. Like long-distance or high-speed contests, the Atlanta Speedway and the Los An- many of the other tracks, it was a finan- and to furnish suitable grounds for out- geles Motordrome. The Atlanta track cial failure. door shows and meetings of automobile was very fast, and records were broken Most of these tracks did not make it engineers, manufacturers or dealers. from the very first day it opened in late past World War I. Some were convert- The Indianapolis Motor Speedway 1909. But dark clouds were forming, ed to wartime use, others lay idle for was designed to be the safest high- and after barely a year of racing, the At- lack of interest and some simply fell into speed race course in the world, with no lanta Speedway closed. disrepair. Amazingly, racing on wooden building or fence closer than 50 feet Open in 1910, the Los Angeles Mo- track speedways made a comeback on a from the roadway. It would also have tordrome introduced a brand-new con- national scale in the 1920s. Some en- testing and repair facilities that would cept in the construction of speedways— joyed a measure of success, but none make it possible for owners to prepare a one-mile, steeply banked circular would survive the Great Depression. and test their cars in advance of the track with a wood surface patterned af- contests. The Speedway was unques- ter board bicycle tracks. In fact, when it The Business of Racing tionably the finest racing venue in the was built, it was the largest wooden In the beginning, automobile racing world. structure of any sort built in America. It in America was nothing more than a The Indianapolis Speedway form of amusement for the held its first races in August wealthy who were looking 1909, but plans were already The Automobile Industry: for things to do with their underway for a national cham- The First 20 Years new toys. A handful of pio- pionship meet to be held neers like Alexander Winton, there. With 44 cars entered, n 1917, the United States produced 1,795,840 pas- Henry Ford and Charles the first International Sweep- Isenger cars. Just 20 years earlier, in 1897, not one Duryea raced just to see stakes, run in 1911, was billed passenger car was sold in this country...zero! How what their cars could do in as the world’s greatest motor could this country produce such an explosion of tech- competition. It wasn’t long, racing event, run on the great- nology in such a short time? however, before American est track, at the greatest dis- These questions were explored in detail by automobile manufacturers tance and for the greatest Alexander Johnston in a feature article published in got serious about racing. prizes ever offered. The purse MOTOR in January 1918. This article offers such insight Typical of the attitude of into the birth and early development of the automo- put up by the race manage- bile industry that we offer it to you in its entirety as American manufacturers was ment was $25,000, with part of MOTOR’s retrospective on 100 years of publica- this comment, printed in the $10,000 going to the winner. tion. Log on to www.motor.com to access the article. July 1909 issue of MOTOR, by There were also several special Alfred Reeves, general man- prizes offered by manufactur- ager of the American Motor ers that brought the total prize money operated with varying degrees of suc- Car Manufacturers’ Association: to $33,800, an unheard-of sum in those cess until January 1913, when it was de- days. Ray Harroun, driving a Marmon stroyed by fire. No one can deny the good that comes from races and touring contests, for be- Wasp, was the winner of the first Indy Besides Indianapolis, Atlanta and Los sides lending a certain element of sporting 500, averaging 74.62 mph. Angeles, there were no other tracks of interest to automobiling, they add materi- By 1915, all racing in Europe had any importance until 1915 brought a ally to the knowledge of cars on the part stopped because of the war; Indy suf- rash of wood-surfaced tracks. Sheeps- of the buying public and on the part of the fered the same fate in 1917, speedway head Bay Speedway in Brooklyn, New manufacturer himself. It would, indeed, be regretful to see any waning of interest officials canceling the Memorial Day York, operated its two-mile track from on the part of the manufacturers... Sweepstakes. Thus the pre-WWI histo- 1915 to 1919. Cincinnati Motor Speed- ry of the Indy 500 came to an end. way was also two miles and opened in They found out early on that winning The only long-running success 1916. It attracted as many as 65,000 races meant selling more cars, and im- among speedways is Indianapolis. Ex- spectators to some meets. Its last event proving the breed, as well. So what had cept for the cancellation of the Indy 500 was a 48-hour endurance run for Essex begun as pure entertainment became during WWI and WWII, it has operat- automobiles in 1919. the business of racing. ed without interruption since 1909. Its Chicago Speedway enjoyed a brief success has been attributed to a number success from 1915 to 1918. Omaha’s Visit www.motor.com to of factors: outstanding facilities for rac- 1.25-mile track opened in 1915, but download a free copy of this ers and racing teams, factory support, broke up in a 1917 race. Pacific Coast article. Copies are also available by sending $3 for each copy to: enormous spectator capacity, a durable Speedway in Tacoma had the longest Fulfillment Dept., MOTOR Magazine, surface, large purses and the tradition of run of any wooden track. It opened in 5600 Crooks Rd., Troy, MI 48098. the Indy 500 on Memorial Day. 1915 and lasted until 1922. Finally, Des

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