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Thanksgiving, Snow, and Spark Plugs: The Untold Story of America’s First Auto Race · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Breakfix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
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by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
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Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
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Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
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The 1895 Horseless Carriage Contest.
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Sponsored by the Chicago Times Herald.
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Also known as the first auto race in America.
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This presentation is a peek into the what, why, when, where, and who beyond the auto
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history lore of a Duryea victory on a cold and snowy Thanksgiving day in Chicago.
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Presenter David Schmidt is a director at the Society of Automotive
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Historians as well as a panel chair for the SAH Bradley Award.
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He is also a member of the Porsche Club of America and FuelFed, a private
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club for enthusiasts of European cars.
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Transcribed Born in Detroit, his father and grandfather both worked
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for General Motors at Fisher Body.
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Being a product of a certain generation, he experienced the muscle
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car era firsthand, cruising the famed Woodward Avenue in the late 1960s.
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David received a B.
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A.
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from Michigan State University, M.
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A.
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and Ph.
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D.
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from Indiana University, and after a career in financial
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services, retired from TIAA.
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As an auto enthusiast, He can be seen driving about town in a 1967 Volvo
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Amazon or a 1989 Porsche Carrera.
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The importance of his presentation is of this auspicious event and
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is perhaps best captured that same year by Peter Studebaker of the
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eponymous wagon maker, who with prescience commended the sponsoring
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newspaper quote, for transferring the manufacturer of the motorcycle, a term
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applied to the horseless carriage, concentrating the inventive faculties
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of the nation on this new departure.
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And my endeavor today is to discuss the first automobile race in America in 1895.
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You and I would be hard pressed to find a more appropriate
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introduction to my topic today.
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Hiram Percy Maxim, pioneer motor vehicle inventor and umpire in one of the vehicles
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entered in the contest, I will explore, wrote the following in his book, quote,
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the Times Herald horseless carriage race.
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Which I believe was the first motor race in America was to be held in
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Chicago on Thanksgiving day, 1895.
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I had yet to learn that being entered for a motor race is considerably
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different from participating in a motor race and altogether different
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from finishing a motor race.
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With over 80 entries in this contest, only six appeared at the starting line
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and only two finished in regulation.
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And because this contest has been so well documented, today, I will endeavor
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to address myself selectively to some of the facts and circumstances surrounding
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the event by examining questions of what, why, when, where, and who.
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So this is my effort to provide the context for that
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Thanksgiving Day contest in 1895.
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Chicago Times Herald, July 9, 1895.
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Newspaper reads, prize for motors must be tested in a race.
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Milwaukee to Chicago in November, cash rewards for inventors.
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The newspaper goes on to say, it is a fact which cannot be denied or overlooked.
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That the United States is in the rear of the procession in this
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branch of inventive progress, while it should be in the front rank.
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The horseless carriage is the sensation of the hour in France and Germany,
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and already has commanded favorable attention of the English parliament.
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These words were an obvious reaction to horseless carriage
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races in France, Paris to Iran in 1894, Paris to Bordeaux in 1895.
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As well as a reaction to inventories in Germany, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler.
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This July 9 announcement, no official race date had yet been established, but
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it was to be somewhere near November 1.
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And significantly, a committee was to be formed to oversee the race.
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Of greater or equal importance, the committee represented by the department
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of war, the national carriage builders association, and electrical engineers
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was to preside over the tests, which were designed to obtain vehicle technical data.
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Uh, This testing is to become an important element in
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granting the coveted gold medal.
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Subsequently, it would be determined that the preliminary testing for the racing was
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to be held starting October 29 for quote, vehicles, the mode of power of which
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will be electricity, steam, oil, gas, or air with a race date set for November 2.
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Fast forward to the very morning of Saturday, November 2, the
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Chicago Times Herald front page reads, Race is postponed.
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Judges of the motorcycle contest yield to pressure.
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I'll explain motorcycle in a moment.
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Informal trial today.
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Inventors not entirely ready for the final event.
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Of 83 inventors working on vehicles, less than a handful were ready.
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Contest gets postponed again until Thanksgiving day, November 28.
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But an exhibition run or consolation race or the informal trial with a 500 purse to
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the winner took place on that Saturday.
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For those vehicles that were ready.
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Two entries, H.
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Mueller Manufacturing Company of Decatur, Illinois and Duryea Motor
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Wagon of Springfield, Massachusetts made the run while remaining entries
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demonstrated their vehicles, but did not run the entire course.
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Mueller won the contest.
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Duryea was sidelined when running into a ditch, trying to avoid a
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collision with a horse drawn wagon.
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Two weeks later, rules for the Thanksgiving day race were revised
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and published on November 16.
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There were 27 articles in the rules, such as must have three or more wheels,
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must have trumpet, fog horn, or other signal capable of sounding warning signal
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of approach requiring an umpire be in each vehicle, et cetera, et cetera.
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But article 20 seems to me to be the key to race results.
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It reads.
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The judges recall the committee I was mentioned above recall the judges will
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base their awards on the showings made in the preliminary tests and in the road
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contest in November 28 and making the final awards judges will consider and
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weigh the general utility and adaptability ease of control speed economy of operation
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cost general appearance and And excellence of design in each contesting motorcycle.
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What is that term?
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Well, it was a term applied for horseless carriages after a naming contest was
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sponsored by the Times Herald because the term automobile was not yet widely
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accepted and perhaps seen by some as too quote Frenchy close quote.
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And by the way, there was also a publication of the same name,
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motorcycle appearing for a few issues covering developments of this
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budding new horseless carriage era.
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Preliminary tests for the Thanksgiving Day race began on November 19 in
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a building owned by the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company.
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They made the facility available for race tests, as well as
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the exhibition of motorcycles.
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Race rules required each vehicle be tested before being allowed to compete.
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The testing machine was a raised platform dynamometer.
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Horseless age, the periodical of the time, similar to motorcycle, wrote with this
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device it is possible to measure the load the vehicle will carry, how steep a grade
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it will climb, the consumption of fuel, the power and efficiency of the mechanism.
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So we go to race day, which finally arrives.
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This is the Chicago Times Herald of November 29, the following day.
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Of 11 entrants the night before, pre race favorite Haynes Apperson Crash
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trying to avoid a street car and four others failed to make the starting
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line with inclement weather, which was 12 inches of snow and 60 mile an hour
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winds the previous days, leaving ice and drifts coupled with race temperatures.
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In the thirties, a race shortened 54 mile contest commenced with six competitors.
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After more than 10 hours, the Duryea Wagon was first with a speed of 5 miles an hour.
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Mueller Benz was second.
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The Macy Benz finished the next day, not in regulation time.
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Based upon reports of the umpires in each vehicle reporting lost
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time, any violations, etc.,
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Plus testing data, the judge awards were announced not until December
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5th on page three, not on page one on December 6th in the Times Herald
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to the verbiage and award of 2, 000 to the Duryea Motor Wagon Company for
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best performance in the road race.
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For range of speed and pull with compactness of design,
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an award of 1, 500 to H.
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Mueller and company motorcycle for performance in the road
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race and economy of operation.
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And an award of the Times Herald gold medal to the Morris Solemn Electrobat, the
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name of the electric horseless carriage that they had for best showing made in
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the official tests for ease of control, safety, absence of noise, vibration,
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heat or odor cleanliness, and general excellence of design and workmanship.
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So interestingly, Duryea and Mueller get the purse, but
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Morris and Salomon get the gold.
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A logical question might be asked if the contest was held
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on November 28, why did it take another week to announce the awards?
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On that, the Times Herald wrote, the problem presented
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to judges was a knotty one.
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And that problem was, all three contestants that finished
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the race violated the rules.
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All went off course, some had to be pushed, one failed to
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finish in the allotted time.
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Hence the Times Herald wrote.
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It is therefore found that under any construction of the plain rules
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of the race, not a contestant had a valid claim to a first award.
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And yet, between practicality on the one hand, so many entrants, over 80, with an
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abundance of interest in the outcomes, not just race results, but testing
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results as well, And then on the other hand, preserving the newspaper and its
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publisher's reputation, somehow closure was reached and awards were presented.
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The test results were announced by Horseless Age in January 1896, quote,
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the first scientific investigation of this important subject.
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It will be awaited with interest by manufacturing and technical world.
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Well, the report of the committee with detailed figures and performance came
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out on February 16, 1896, covering horsepower, fuel economy, and pull.
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And this is one scientific American in April, 1896 carried a piece
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entitled motor vehicle tests.
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The engineers submit their report to the tests made at Chicago, valuable
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data for makers and users alike.
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So that's what happened in the contest in 1895, a condensed version of a much
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larger experience with many tales shared in print by a variety of participants
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in that Thanksgiving Day race.
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During my literature review, I came upon this Saturday Evening Post article that
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caught my attention because Alexander Witten, inventor of the steering
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wheel, is the man Henry Ford beat in a sweepstakes race in 1901, which
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subsequently helped put Ford on the map.
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But I'm jumping ahead about six years.
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Wynton began experiments with horseless carriages in 1893.
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Duryea brothers, 1891, 1892.
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So I wanted to dig a little deeper.
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We know what happened on that Thanksgiving day, but why this race in 1895?
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Because according to Horseless Carriage, quote, until the year 1895, few American
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inventors devoted any attention to the problem of mechanical propulsion of
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vehicles, and the results of the laborers are generally crude and impractical.
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The stimulus of a widespread public interest was lacking then.
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Few inventors whose ideas assumed the more practical form were forced to curb
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their impatience and wait until the public should manifest a livelier curiosity.
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That way it was, of course, brief.
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Paris to Rwanda in 1894, and then Paris to Bordeaux in 1895 led to an explosion
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of efforts on both sides of the pond.
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The Horseless Age wrote, the race from Paris to Bordeaux and return last June
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was such a phenomenal performance that all Christendom paused for a moment.
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The Chicago Herald Times offering of cash rewards for inventors
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was the spark on this continent.
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Inventors had operated in isolation from one another.
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Quote, blissfully ignorant that so many of us began work so nearly the same
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without the slightest notion that others were working on the same problem, wrote
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Hiram Percy Maxim in his book, Horseless Carriage Days, nearly four weeks before
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the contest on November 2 in 1895, a letter to the editor of the publication,
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the Motocycle, the other Horseless Carriage publication, addressing itself
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to the upcoming Times Herald race.
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Quote, your action in the Times Herald has hastened the development
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of motorcycle several years.
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And what is more important, it has had the effect of transferring the manufacturer
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of the motorcycle from Europe to America.
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That letter was written by Peter Evers Studebaker of Studebaker
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Brothers Manufacturing Company.
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He was the publisher of the Times Herald newspaper and is credited
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with organizing the first auto race.
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And as far as I can determine, there are at least four
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reasons why this is the case.
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First from Colsette in his own words, carried in a Saturday evening post
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article, January, 1924, it reads quote in May, 1895 in the Chicago club,
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I picked up a copy of El Istracion of Paris containing an account with
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illustrations of the Of an automobile race between Paris and Bordeaux, which
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had taken place a few weeks before.
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It gave me an idea, a contest in Chicago of horseless vehicles.
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Second reason for the contest was that Colesat felt, quote, the greatest
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use of the motor wagon would be for the army and commercial trucks.
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He actually turned to president Grover Cleveland and asked the war department
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to both take charge of the experiments, AKA vehicle testing, as well as the race.
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The motorcycle, the publication wrote in December, 1895.
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With armor clad, horseless carriages, capable of climbing fences, running
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over rocks and such obstacles and of being moved over the country, Uncle
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Sam would have a formidable weapon.
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Well, obviously the war department heading up the race day committee
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had already taken notice and was awaiting test results along with
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80 plus other interested parties.
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The third reason Colsette sponsored the race was he was a shrewd businessman.
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Apparently La Petite Journal increased its own circulation by sponsoring
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the 1894 Paris to Iran excursion.
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In those days, newspapers had to scratch for circulation.
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There were 29 newspapers in Chicago.
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In Carriages Without Horses by Richard Sharsberg, He writes, all newspapers were
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giving space to the announcement of the coming race, and it was all good publicity
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as much as they hated to have anything to do with promoting a news story fostered
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and thrust upon the public for the express purpose of advertising a rival journal.
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And the fourth reason why Colesat was to sponsor the race was to celebrate the
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50th anniversary of the Times Herald.
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This was the Chicago Tribune on Thanksgiving day.
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Writing, the day we celebrate the day when Turkey and football rule could be 2023.
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This rival newspaper's front page referenced football.
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University of Michigan was playing University of Chicago at Marshall
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Field in close proximity to the start of the first auto race in America.
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Saturday Evening Post wrote.
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As they, the vehicles, passed Lincoln Park, they were greeted suddenly by
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cheers from a crowd of thousands.
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These weren't race fans, but attendees at the football game between University
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of Chicago and University of Michigan, who noticed the horseless carriages
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slowly working their way up the street on that Thanksgiving day.
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But wait, according to Colesat's own article in January, 1924, in the Saturday
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Evening Post, he said when the contest was to be held, on the 4th of July.
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So let's backtrack a moment.
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What happened?
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Of the 60 contestants entered at that time, only one horseless carriage was
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ready, Haynes Apperson of Kokomo, Indiana.
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So the contest was to be rescheduled, possibly to Labor Day.
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But then on July 9th, the Times Herald wrote, The 85 miles between
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Chicago and Milwaukee probably afford the finest roadway for such a test
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that can be found in the country.
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Date of the contest will not be far from the 1st of November.
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But a month later in August, roads north of Waukegan near Racine,
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Wisconsin were judged undesirable.
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So the contest would now start and end in Chicago.
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Contestants, again, not having their vehicles ready, petitioned
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for another extension of time.
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So it was again, rescheduled back to Thanksgiving day, November 28,
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and the contest from Chicago to Waukegan and back of only 92 miles.
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Then due to severe snow storm, 12 inches on the 25th of November, a
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couple of days before the event, coupled with cold weather, winds, and
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snow drifts on race day, the contest distance was further reduced to 54
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miles from Chicago to Evanston and back.
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That gets me to.
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The question of where a newspaper reporter for the New York Herald described crowds
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in the first race in France, spurring American newspapers to attempt something
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like the 1894 Paris Durand race.
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So that begs the question, where in America should such an event take place?
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New York City?
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Kokomo, Indiana?
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Allow me to suggest three reasons for the contest being held in Chicago.
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First, I don't believe it's a mere coincidence that the initial horseless
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carriage contest in France and the United States both followed in the sights of
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imagination and invention that in those days accompanied the world expositions.
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Expositions provided opportunities for the newest developments in
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machinery, science, and technology.
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For example, the Paris Expo of 1889 saw escalators, diesels, and
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Electric cars and talking films.
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Chicago in 1893 introduced the automatic dishwasher, fluorescent light bulbs, the
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zipper, and the first electric automobile in America initially developed in 1890.
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There were only two horseless carriages at the Chicago World's Fair, William
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Morrison's electric carriage and Gottlieb Daimler's gas engine quadricycle.
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It became apparent that the gas engine Daimler had the more lasting impact.
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Elwood Haynes, Ransom Olds, Charles and Frank Duryea, Henry Ford, Charles B.
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King, William Packard, all visited the World's Fair and examined the Daimler.
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They all came to recognize the gasoline engine was likely the better source
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of power for horseless carriages.
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Even William Steinway of Steinway Pianos saw merit in the gas engine Daimler.
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As his archives suggest, the American Daimler Motor Company produced a gas
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powered vehicle around 1895 or 1896.
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And there was an additional link between inventors with
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curious minds and world's fairs.
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Medals and awards were very popular, especially from world's
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fairs in the decade 1890 to 1900.
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Paris in 1889, Chicago in 1893, Brussels 1897, Paris in 1900.
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So it should come as no surprise that Kolstad in promoting this horseless
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carriage event would arrange to give awards for various aspects of
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engineering or design innovation coupled with a prestigious gold medal
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for the best horseless carriage.
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My second reason for the race being in Chicago is bicycles.
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Albert Pope helped launch the cycling craze in America with the introduction of
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his Velocipede under the Columbia brand.
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And as you can see that same Columbia brand was later applied to automobiles.
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In 1890, American companies built 30, 000 bicycles.
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60, 1894.
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By the mid to late 1800s, Chicago was the home to nearly 100 bicycle manufacturers.
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German immigrant Ignaz Schwinn came to America in 1890 to
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explore the bicycle industry.
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In 1895, he and a meatpacker, Adolf Arnold, formed Arnold Schwinn and Company.
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A year later, Schwinn built an electric car, but decided to proceed no further.
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The Rambler name was applied to a bicycle in Chicago prior to becoming
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a well recognized name in automobile history and moving to Chicago.
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You can see the transition from Velocipede to bicycle to automobile, but the bicycle
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craze was on the decline by the mid 1890s.
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Albert Pope tried to expand his Columbia bicycle business by hiring Hiram Percy
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Maxim under the Pope Manufacturing Columbia Motor Carriage firm.
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Alexander Witten had a bicycle shop in Cleveland.
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He later founded Witten Motor Carriage.
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Most interesting, James Fink, author of America Adopts the Automobile 1895 to
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1910 wrote, quote, no preceding technical innovation, not even the internal
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combustion engine was as important to the development of automobiles as the bicycle.
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That gets to my third reason, transportation,
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proximity to transportation.
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Chicago had become the railroad Mecca of America.
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By the 1880s, Cord Scott pointed out that Chicago had been a central crossover
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point for rail and river shipping.
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So inventors had the opportunity to ship their cars to Chicago rather
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than drive and risk any number of potential impediments, accidents,
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breakdowns, or bad weather.
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And indeed that is exactly what RH Macy Benz, yes, that department store Macy,
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did after leaving New York for Chicago and getting no further than Schenectady.
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Bicycle department manager, Frank McPherson had the carriage loaded
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onto a train bound for Chicago.
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So a Chicago World's Fair, Chicago is the bicycle capital of America
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and Chicago as a transportation hub, all contributed to explaining where
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the first auto race would be located.
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This gets me to inventors and industrialists having briefly examined
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questions of what, why, when, and where.
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In closing, I am taking the liberty of selecting a few names who failed to
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garner the recognition of the Duryea brothers, much less the later luminaries
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such as Ransom Owls or Henry Ford.
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Nevertheless, these three award winners were involved in the development of
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the horseless carriage from the outset.
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A bit about the endeavors of the second place finisher, the many
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automotive accomplishments of the umpire in that second place
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vehicle, and the electric powered gold medal winner, all participants
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in that Thanksgiving Day contest.
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Then there are two titans of industry I found to be of interest,
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plus a famous piano manufacturer.
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We know the race winner, Duryea Brothers, accredited with building the first
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automobile in America and going into production for a number of years, Duryea
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Motor Wagon, later Stevens Duryea.
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But what of Hieronymus Muller?
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The driving force behind the second place, Mueller Benz.
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He was intrigued with the horseless carriage because during my interview
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with the Mueller museum director, she said either he, or perhaps
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his wife was afraid of horses.
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So he bought the Benz in April, 1895, refined it with such features
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as a reverse gear, water cooled radiator, newly designed spark
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plugs, all leading to patents.
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While horseless carriages were a sideline to his very successful plumbing business.
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He did intend to go into production with his own motors, not a Benz motor.
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He built half a dozen vehicles, but in 1900, while working on one
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of his vehicles, he was exposed to open flame around gasoline fumes.
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The fire resulted in very serious burns that claimed his life.
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His wife was so upset.
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She told the Chaundra to sell the vehicles and the patents.
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Thus the brief history about the tragic ending of our second place finisher.
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Brings me to Charles B.
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King.
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Charles B.
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King was the umpire in that Mueller Bench, driven by Harroneth Mueller's son, Oscar.
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King steered that Mueller Bench to second place, as Oscar was either
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overcome by the wind, snow, and cold weather, or as another tale suggests,
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Oscar was given a flask, whiskey, from which to drink to keep his insides warm.
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Accepting that Oscar may not have been accustomed to alcohol, this apparently
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had a very negative consequence as he was unable to continue driving.
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But back to Charles B.
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Smith.
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He was an inventor who, like many others, could not finish his vehicle, a four
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cylinder, four stroke engine in time for the race, but the vehicle became the first
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car on the streets in Detroit in 1896.
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He drove Woodward Avenue long before the Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise.
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A tale often suggests that he was followed that day in a bicycle
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by none other than Henry Ford.
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King was a prodigious inventor with 40 patents.
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He won the prize at the Columbia Exposition in Chicago, was recognized
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for engineering prowess at home, connected for a time with ransom oals,
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and abroad had the opportunity to participate in the 1894 race Paris Rouen
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with the Stintz Gas Engine Company.
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Developed the first eight cylinder engine, left hand drive, proposed the American
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Motor League, which many of the automobile pioneers merged into, and in 1904, became
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AAA, American Automobile Association.
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He helped Henry Ford, working at the time for Edison in
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Detroit, build his quadricycle.
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And later he formed the Automobile Old Timers in 1939, which today is the
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automotive hall of fame in Dearborn.
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Brings me to the Electrobat.
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This is the electric powered vehicle, nicknamed the Electrobat
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by Morris and Solem of Philadelphia, which won the gold medal.
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The publication Motorcycle, parroting the awards committee wrote, Morris
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and Solem get the gold medal in the Electrobat, notwithstanding the fact
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that they did not go over the course, but the general excellence of the machine
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was shown so decidedly in its official tests that this award must meet with the
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hearty approval of all interested in the perfect development of the motorcycle.
24:04
The carriage is very economical, in power, to say nothing of almost
24:07
complete absence of noise, vibration, total absence of heat and odor.
24:12
Yet Charles B.
24:13
King suggests the award was not without some consternation among contestants.
24:16
And in fact, in March, 1896, Veronimus Mueller has a letter to the editor
24:21
that appears in Horseless Age, noting that quote, it seems as if there was
24:24
no first prize as the carriage coming in first received the 2, 000, but
24:29
did not receive the gold medal for reasons best known to the judges.
24:32
Morrison Salem announced that they had plans to manufacture,
24:35
sail, and rent their vehicles.
24:37
But in 1897, Morrison Salem sold off their enterprise, which was later
24:41
reincorporated and insured by Albert Pope and the Columbia Automobile Company.
24:46
And as for electricity, Alexander Witten said, electric vehicles
24:50
clogged the market, but in the end, opinion turned to gasoline because
24:54
it was clean, safe, and dependable.
24:56
Which brings me to the tycoons of the world of electricity.
24:59
Westinghouse and Edison competed for the contract to light
25:03
the 1893 Columbia exposition.
25:05
Westinghouse underbid Edison and won.
25:07
In 1895, George Westinghouse is said to have started work on a gas engine.
25:12
I found no activity of note until 1901 when Westinghouse purchased
25:16
patents of hub motors, which produced a few electric cars in Chicago.
25:19
In 1905, Westinghouse introduced gas powered vehicles designed in Pittsburgh,
25:24
but manufactured by Westinghouse in France, production ceased in 1907,
25:28
and Edison said in November of 1895, 17th of November issue of New York
25:34
World, quote, the horse is doomed.
25:37
The horseless vehicle is the coming wonder.
25:39
Will these vehicles be run by electricity?
25:41
I don't think so.
25:42
As it looks at present, it would seem more likely that they will be run by a
25:45
gasoline or naphtha motor of some kind.
25:48
It's quite possible, however, that an electrical storage
25:50
battery will be discovered, which will prove more economical.
25:54
But at present, the gasoline or naphtha motor looks more promising.
25:57
And on that Edison never gave up, hoping to develop better performing batteries.
26:01
He started in 1899 on an alkaline storage battery that took 10 years to perfect.
26:05
By then the Model T was on its way to cementing its place in the automobile
26:09
world, Edison patented an electric car, building three in 1912, but
26:14
they never went into production.
26:15
It's been suggested that Henry Ford partnered with Edison
26:18
around 1914 to explore options for low cost electric cars.
26:22
I did not pursue it.
26:23
That gets me to Steinway, Steinway of piano fame founded American Daimler
26:28
motor company in 1888 building motors using American rights to Daimler patents.
26:34
They were used primarily for stationary machines and boats.
26:37
Steinway company had good woodworking knowledge for boat building,
26:41
having been producing pianos.
26:43
The archives suggest that there was a vehicle produced around 1895.
26:47
Steinway dies in 1896 and the firm was declared worthless.
26:50
Following Steinway's death, a new Daimler manufacturing company was
26:54
formed in 1898, takes over the business of Daimler Motor and produces the
26:58
first Mercedes made in America and continues in production until 1913.
27:03
And if you visit the Mercedes Benz Public Archives or the Mercedes Benz
27:07
Group magazine, you'll note Mercedes Benz still celebrates its original
27:11
adventure with William Steinway.
27:13
Writing of the Thanksgiving Day Race, America's oldest literary magazine,
27:17
Yale Review summed it up with these words, Thus, amid praise and
27:21
ridicule, our pioneer motorists made their first feeble assaults upon the
27:25
barriers of space that one man had built and another could keep motion.
27:28
Strong in this faith, they suffered, endured, and conquered.
27:31
Yale Review, December, 1895.
27:34
So with that, I'd like to thank you for your attention.
27:36
Allow me to share the source information from my slides by thanking IMRRC and
27:41
SAH, as well as my son and daughter for their assistance in cropping, arranging,
27:45
coloring, and sizing some of the images.
27:47
I look forward to receiving any questions.
27:49
Thank you much.
27:50
This episode is brought to you in part by the International
27:53
Motor Racing Research Center.
27:54
Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history
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of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series.
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The center's collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie
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of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world.
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The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of
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race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and
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brought to life through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events.
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To learn more about the Center, visit www.
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This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians.
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They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history.
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The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers.
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and deepen the understanding of motorized, wheeled land transportation through
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the modern age and into the future.
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For more information about the SAH, visit www.
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org.
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