Auto Racing 1: Early History
Auto racing is just a little bit younger than the automobile. Germans Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler independently built the first genuinely successful gasoline-fueled autos in 1886. Daimler displayed a car at the 1890 Paris Exhibition, and the French quickly became interested in this newfangled device.
In December of 1893, Le Petit Journal, a Paris news magazine, announced the first competition for motor cars, a 78-mile trial from Paris to Rouen. This wasn't a race, strictly speaking, but a reliability test, with a jury to select the automobile that showed the best performance.
The trial took place on July 22, 1894, with 21 starters, pared down from 102 entries. A de Dion steam tractor reached Rouen first, but was rejected by the jury because it wasn't considered a genuinely practical vehicle. First prize was awarded to a Peugeot powered by a Daimler engine.
The first real race was staged the following June, a grueling 732-mile competition from Paris to Bordeaux and back. Again, the first-place finisher didn't win the prize. Emile Levassor finished in just over 48 hours, but he was driving a two-seater and the rules specified that the winning car had to be a four-seater, so the 31,000 francs was award to M. Koechlin, whose Peugeot took 59 hours to cover the distance.
The Chicago Times Herald sponsored the first race in the United States on Thanksgiving Day, 1895. Frank Duryea won the 54.36-mile round-trip race between Chicago and Evanston with an average speed of 7.5 mph. Duryea, who with his brother Charles had developed America's first gasoline-powered car in 1892, was one of only two finishers.
The shape of things to come in the United States, though, was foreshadowed by a 5-mile race at Cranston, Rhode Island, in September of 1896. This race was staged on a 1-mile track built for harness racing. There were eight entries; the winner was an electric car, driven by C. H. Whiting, that averaged 24 mph.
France dominated automobile manufacture (such as it was) into the early part of the 20th century. The Automobile Club of France, founded in 1895 to govern racing, held major inter-town races annually through 1903, except in 1897. The ACF staged the first international race, from Paris to Amsterdam and back, in 1898, and followed with races from Paris to Berlin in 1901, to Vienna in 1902, and to Madrid in 1903.
The Paris-Madrid race marked the end of competition on open roads. During the first stage, to Bordeaux, there were eight fatalities: two drivers, a riding mechanic, and five spectators. The government stopped the race at that point. Fernando Gabriel, who averaged 65.3 mph, was the unofficial winner.