Okla-homey
11/2/2007, 05:54 AM
November 2, 1895 First Gasoline-Powered Contest In America
112 years ago today, the first automobile race in the United States was held. In an event that would lead directly to the multi-billion dollar auto racing empire NASCAR, in early 1895, Chicago Times-Herald Publisher Herman H. Kohlsaat announced that his newspaper would sponsor a race between horseless carriages.
It would be the first race in America to feature gasoline-powered automobiles. Also significantly, unlike modern NASCAR and perfeshinul rasslin', the race wasn't rigged. Kohlstaat, who was offering $5,000 in prizes, including a first-place prize of $2,000, received telegrams from European racing enthusiasts and from automobile tinkerers across America.
After delaying the event for several months at the request of entrants who were still working on their racing prototypes, Kohlsaat finally settled on an official race date--November 2. When the day arrived, 80 automobiles had been entered, but only two showed up: a Benz car brought over from Germany by Oscar Bernhard Mueller, and an automobile built by Charles and Frank Duryea of Springfield, Massachusetts.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8615/duryeashowimage5kr.jpg
Frank Duryea
The disappointed Kohlsaat agreed to delay the official race yet again until Thanksgiving, but approved an exhibition contest to be run on this day between the Duryea brothers and Mueller. Enthusiastic spectators gathered along the 90-mile course from Jackson Park in Chicago to Waukegan, Illinois, and back again, and the Duryea car, driven by Frank, took an early lead over Mueller's motor wagon.
The race was as much about reliability as speed. The idea that one of these new-fangled motor carriages could negotiate a 90 mile course at a speed as least as fast as a horse-drawn vehicle was the proposition everyone wanted to see proven.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1686/dbenzscf93643ve.jpg
Benz first model. The one Mueller raced had the top removed.
However, less than halfway through the race, a team of horses pulling a wagon, frightened by the racket from Frank's noisy car, bolted into the middle of the road and the Duryea automobile was forced off the road and into a ditch smashing its differential housing. The undriveable car was taken back to Springfield by railroad, and the brothers began hasty repair work for the official race on November 28.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/4016/dimage874mq.gif
Duryea model #1.
Mueller was declared the winner of the exhibition by default, but on Thanksgiving Day he would have to face the Duryeas again, in an event that would be known as the Great Chicago Race of 1895. On that day, the Duryeas were victorious, maintaining an average blistering speed of 7mph!
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/5727/dmedal7nn.jpg
Winner's Medal
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8805/insane7zo0st.jpg
112 years ago today, the first automobile race in the United States was held. In an event that would lead directly to the multi-billion dollar auto racing empire NASCAR, in early 1895, Chicago Times-Herald Publisher Herman H. Kohlsaat announced that his newspaper would sponsor a race between horseless carriages.
It would be the first race in America to feature gasoline-powered automobiles. Also significantly, unlike modern NASCAR and perfeshinul rasslin', the race wasn't rigged. Kohlstaat, who was offering $5,000 in prizes, including a first-place prize of $2,000, received telegrams from European racing enthusiasts and from automobile tinkerers across America.
After delaying the event for several months at the request of entrants who were still working on their racing prototypes, Kohlsaat finally settled on an official race date--November 2. When the day arrived, 80 automobiles had been entered, but only two showed up: a Benz car brought over from Germany by Oscar Bernhard Mueller, and an automobile built by Charles and Frank Duryea of Springfield, Massachusetts.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8615/duryeashowimage5kr.jpg
Frank Duryea
The disappointed Kohlsaat agreed to delay the official race yet again until Thanksgiving, but approved an exhibition contest to be run on this day between the Duryea brothers and Mueller. Enthusiastic spectators gathered along the 90-mile course from Jackson Park in Chicago to Waukegan, Illinois, and back again, and the Duryea car, driven by Frank, took an early lead over Mueller's motor wagon.
The race was as much about reliability as speed. The idea that one of these new-fangled motor carriages could negotiate a 90 mile course at a speed as least as fast as a horse-drawn vehicle was the proposition everyone wanted to see proven.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1686/dbenzscf93643ve.jpg
Benz first model. The one Mueller raced had the top removed.
However, less than halfway through the race, a team of horses pulling a wagon, frightened by the racket from Frank's noisy car, bolted into the middle of the road and the Duryea automobile was forced off the road and into a ditch smashing its differential housing. The undriveable car was taken back to Springfield by railroad, and the brothers began hasty repair work for the official race on November 28.
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/4016/dimage874mq.gif
Duryea model #1.
Mueller was declared the winner of the exhibition by default, but on Thanksgiving Day he would have to face the Duryeas again, in an event that would be known as the Great Chicago Race of 1895. On that day, the Duryeas were victorious, maintaining an average blistering speed of 7mph!
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/5727/dmedal7nn.jpg
Winner's Medal
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8805/insane7zo0st.jpg