Early racing: from town-to-town trials to the first tracks.

Paris-Rouen, 1894

On 22 July 1894 the Paris newspaper Le Petit Journal ran what its editor, Pierre Giffard, billed as a competition for horseless carriages. The Mercedes-Benz archive calls it the Concours du Petit Journal and gives the distance as 126 km. It was not a straight race: Grace's Guide explains that cars were assessed on speed, handling and safety. Of 102 paid entries, 69 vehicles ran a 50 km qualifying event.

The sources disagree on how many took the start of the main run from Porte Maillot. Grace's Guide says 25 were selected; the Mercedes-Benz archive says 21 started. Both agree that 15 finished. Count Jules-Albert de Dion's steam car arrived first but did not take first prize. Grace's Guide says it needed a stoker, which the rules did not allow, and names Peugeot and Panhard as the official winners; the Mercedes-Benz archive says the jury placed the steam car second for not meeting the requirements. The archive also notes that nine finishers used engines built under Daimler licence and gives an average speed of 20.5 km/h.

Paris-Bordeaux-Paris, 1895

A year later the contest became a long-distance run. Émile Levassor drove a two-seat Panhard-Levassor and arrived first, almost six hours ahead of the next car, according to Grace's Guide. He drove nearly all of it himself, as his relief driver could not be found when he reached Bordeaux early. The rules called for a four-seater, so the official first prize went to a Peugeot driven by Louis Rigoulot, and Levassor received second prize (Mercedes-Benz archive). Nine vehicles, eight petrol and one steam, finished inside the 100-hour limit.

The basic figures differ by source:

Britannica credits Levassor with putting the engine at the front of the car, ahead of the driver, around 1891, and records that he died in 1897 of injuries from a race.

The Gordon Bennett Cup, 1900 to 1905

James Gordon Bennett Jr., owner of the New York Herald, created the trophy. It was first contested in France in 1900 and run every year until 1905, with the previous year's winning nation acting as host (Grace's Guide). Wikipedia adds that entries came from national automobile clubs, up to three cars each, and that every car had to be built entirely in the country whose colours it carried.

Because racing on public roads was illegal in Britain, the 1903 race was held in Ireland, around Athy in County Kildare (Grace's Guide). Wikipedia dates it to 2 July 1903 and describes a closed figure-of-eight course made possible by the Light Locomotives (Ireland) Bill. Grace's Guide says Britain raced in green because red, white and blue were already taken, and that the shade became known as British racing green; it describes the link to the Irish race only as reputed, and we could not confirm the origin.

Camille du Gast

Women raced in this era too. Wikipedia records that Camille du Gast was one of two women entered in the 1901 Paris-Berlin race and finished 33rd of 122 starters. In the 1903 Paris-Madrid race she ran as high as eighth in a works De Dietrich before stopping to help an injured driver; that race was halted at Bordeaux after fatal crashes. In 1904 women were barred from racing in France, which Wikipedia attributes to the government, and the ban kept her out of a Benz seat in the Gordon Bennett Cup. That December she became the Automobile Club de France's only woman official.

The first Grand Prix, 1906

France was the largest car-making nation, yet in the Gordon Bennett Cup it was limited to three entries like everyone else. The Automobile Club de France answered with a race open to any manufacturer. Forix records that the first Grand Prix ran near Le Mans on 26 and 27 June 1906: 12 laps of a circuit of roughly 103 km, about 1,236 km in all, over two days. Thirty-two cars from 12 makers started. Ferenc Szisz won for Renault in 12 h 14 min 7 s, at about 101.8 km/h. Renault's cars used Michelin's detachable rims, a real advantage when only the driver and riding mechanic were allowed to work on the car. Britannica records that the French Grand Prix ran again in 1907 and 1908 and then resumed in 1912, and that the first Italian Grand Prix was held in 1908.

The Vanderbilt Cup, from 1904

William K. Vanderbilt Jr. believed European cars were ahead of American ones and started a race to push the US industry to catch up. The first ran on 8 October 1904 over a triangle of public roads in Nassau and Queens counties on Long Island, starting at Westbury: ten laps, 284.4 miles. Eighteen cars started, five American, six French, five German and two Italian. George Heath, born on Long Island, won in a French Panhard at an average of 52.2 mph (Vanderbilt Cup Races; The Henry Ford). The Henry Ford notes that a Connecticut-built Locomobile won in 1908, an early American victory.

After a spectator was killed by a car during the 1906 race, Vanderbilt pursued a private road with no spectators on the course. The Long Island Motor Parkway opened on 10 October 1908; the museum's history site calls it the first parkway built only for cars, and it closed on 17 April 1938. Six Vanderbilt Cup races were held on Long Island from 1904 to 1910. The 1910 race, in which two riding mechanics were killed, effectively ended road racing there.

The Targa Florio, 1906 to 1977

The Targa Florio was first run in 1906 in Sicily's Madonie mountains. Ferrari's magazine says it lasted until 1977 and ended over safety concerns. Wikipedia names its founder as Vincenzo Florio, a wealthy driver and enthusiast, and the first winner as Alessandro Cagno in an Itala, in about nine hours. It was a round of the World Sportscar Championship from 1955 to 1973. Wikipedia records that the course was shortened more than once, that Porsche won 11 times and Alfa Romeo 10, and that the race is often called the oldest sports car race; Ferrari counts seven of its own wins. The 1977 edition, a national-level race, was stopped after four laps following a fatal crash (Wikipedia).

Brooklands, 1907

Historic England describes Brooklands, at Weybridge in Surrey, as the world's first purpose-built motor racing circuit, built in 1907 and financed entirely by its owner, Hugh Locke King. The Brooklands Museum timeline says Hugh and Ethel Locke King began work in late 1906 on a 330-acre site. Ethel led the opening procession on 17 June 1907, and the first official race meeting followed on 6 July. The concrete track was 100 ft wide and 2.75 miles round, with banking almost 30 ft high; the Finishing Straight took it to 3.25 miles. In late June 1907 S.F. Edge set a 24-hour record of 1,581 miles there, averaging almost 66 mph, which stood for 17 years. It held the first British Grand Prix in 1926, and its racing story runs on into the Grand Prix era.

Indianapolis, 1909 to 1911

Carl Fisher, James Allison, Arthur Newby and Frank Wheeler bought 320 acres in 1908 as a proving ground for the car industry. The 2.5-mile oval was laid with crushed stone and first raced on in 1909 (National Park Service). The sources differ on when the bricks went down: the Park Service says the track was bricked in 1910, while the Indianapolis Business Journal says 3.2 million bricks were laid in about 1909.

Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 in May 1911 in the locally built Marmon Wasp, driving without a riding mechanic. WRTV reports that 40 cars qualified, that Harroun started 28th and averaged 74.59 mph over about 6 h 42 min, and that his car carried what many consider the first rear-view mirror on a race car; Britannica gives the winning speed as 120.04 km/h. Its later story is on our American racing page.