The First Auto Race

[RTKar]

(From the Chicago Tribune)

On this day In 1895 - In America's first auto race, six cars drove from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston and back. Car designer James Frank Duryea was the winner and received a $2000 prize from the Chicago Times-Herald, the race sponsor.

[Railbird]

thanks for the reminder RT

Link (http://www.aaca.org/autohistory/02.html)

[FTG]

People in Indy complained that there weren't enough American drivers, and that the cars should be going in circles.

[RTKar]

Thanks for the link bird. It sounds more like a WRC event than anything else.

[Railbird]

please

could we leave the one-track-mind political bs out of a topic addressing an important date in American motorsports?

[Railbird]

RT it sounded more like an adventure than a race but you've gotta start somewhere. Intersting that the main topic of comparison was the horse rather than any of the already contested Euro events.

Kinda puts in perspective the isolation America existed in during that pre WWI era.

[lone_groover]

....Francis.

:p

[RTKar]

BTW...The commute from my home town mentioned in the article, (Waukegan) and Chicago during rush hour hasn't changed all that much ;) ...except for the horses...a hundred and some years and it seems we've come full circle. There are times I'd swear our average speed would be the same as 1895...

[pchall]

Originally posted by Railbird
RT it sounded more like an adventure than a race but you've gotta start somewhere.

Sounds more like the famous London to Brighton Emancipation Run of 1896 -- a gentleman's outing in their motorcars. But then, the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris event sounds more like a durability trial than a race, as well.

If you wonder why they chose London to Brighton for the route, it is because gentleman used to vie the the honor of fastest reported run in a four horse carriage on the turnpike road to Brighton. It was also the route run by the steam carriage "The Infant" in 1832 that produced some very restrictive regulations for motorized traffic in England that were lifted in 1896.

history link (http:/http://www.britishmm.co.uk/brighton.asp)

I don't have a link for this one, but a great first person account of the London to Brighton Emancipation Run may be found in the playwright and journalist Jerome K. Jerome's autobiography My Life and Times (1927) in the chapter "Wheels of Change".

ps: I thought FTG's observation was very appropriate and humorous.

[FTG]

Originally posted by Railbird
please

could we leave the one-track-mind political bs out American motorsports?

If the last 8 years have proven anything, it should be that the answer to that question is no.

[FTG]

Originally posted by pchall
[
ps: I thought FTG's observation was very appropriate and humorous. [/B]

You are a wise man with an excellent sense of humor.

[Railbird]

FTG

OK, if you and pchall both seem to find humor in simplistic inaccurasies, let me clarify:

your statement throws all the "people in Indy" in the same barrel while ignoring the fact that some of the most vociferous opponents of the "turn left" "all American" bs are Indy residents.

Now please excuse me for playing the grumpy old man.

[pchall]

Originally posted by Railbird
FTG

OK, if you and pchall both seem to find humor in simplistic inaccurasies, let me clarify:

your statement throws all the "people in Indy" in the same barrel while ignoring the fact that some of the most vociferous opponents of the "turn left" "all American" bs are Indy residents.

Now please excuse me for playing the grumpy old man.

The fun and humor in sweeping generalizations is that are, in the large, part true. If you don't like being in the barrel, climb out of it. ;)

[Railbird]

I would crawl out but I fear falling from the barrel to the buckeye.

[IlliniRacer]

Originally posted by Railbird
please

could we leave the one-track-mind political bs out of a topic addressing an important date in American motorsports?

I think Bird is still upset that he just missed out on a podium finish during the race ;) :p

[Railbird]

Podium finish?

nah, I'm still pissed because my Benz suite passes were revoked when my brother was caught scalping tickets.

Who knew?

[RichK]

Railbird, move out here to California if you want to toughen your skin regarding State residency generalizations! :D

I love it that the first race was a street race....

[Railbird]

, move out here to California


What, and live around all those fruits and nuts? ;)



pchall, the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (http://www.vccofgb.co.uk/lontobri/index2.htm) would be right behind the Goodwood Festival on my "must do" list if those damn lottery numbers would ever align themselves properly.