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Bob Brannon called the other day to propose an article on the history of 24 hour automobile races, pointing out they go back at least to 1905 and Columbus, Ohio, USA...whatever the French may think. I said sure, thinking it would be a good lead-up to the Rolex 24 at Daytona at the end of the month. Bobby being just a little bit "off center," I was only mildy surprised when the following landed in my in-box.
"What's this?" I asked. "I was expecting a history of 24 hour races."
"Well, I kept looking for an opening paragraph, and there was always something earlier I felt I had to deal with," said Bobby. "I promise, I'll get to the 24 hour thing."
On reading this entertaining first part, I'm more than a little pleased it worked out this way. I think you will be, too. Enjoy. (And I promise, we will get to the part about 24 hour automobile races.) -Editor-
Racing before the Automobile
Man’s desire for speed, coupled with his fierce competitive nature, was expressed in many forms of racing long before the invention of the internal combustion engine. No doubt, Ned Neanderthal saw the need for speed when a saber-toothed tiger ran him down and enjoyed a mid-day meal. Similarly, in a cave near Les Eyzies, France, CroMagnon Pierre learned about speed the first time his woman whispered, “Faster!” in his ear.
The happy, victorious Pierre subsequently received a bone-club “upside the head” from his woman as a reward for his speedy finish. During the ensuing vigorous discussion, Pierre learned the concept of “endurance.” Thus, speed, coupled with endurance became the ultimate goal. The French penchant for rule-making, regulations and penalties was thus born and continues to this present day. Other important terms were coined that day: strategy, team manager and body damage. The invention of signals and the white flag would come later.
Pedestrianism
Man’s earliest competition against man was through running. The Greeks valued short speed races, as well as marathons which required endurance. Legend has it the Greeks invented the marathon in 490 BC, when Greek messenger Pheidippides, was sent from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians (that would be Iran now) had been defeated. It is said that he ran the entire distance (approximately 26 miles) without stopping, burst into the Athenian assembly, exclaimed 'We have won!' collapsed, and died.
Competitive walking came into being in the late 16th century or early in the 17th. Members of the English aristocracy employed footmen, who jogged along behind the coach to accompany them on their travels. It was the footman’s duty to deliver messages ahead of the traveling party.
Inevitably, one nobleman remarked to another that he had the fastest footman around. Wagers were placed and competitions were held. Over time, these competitions were reformulated as a race against time over a certain distance. “Pedestrians,” as the walkers were called, could win a large sum for walking dozens or hundreds of miles within a prescribed time. Wagering accompanied these contests. One of the most popular events was to cover 100 miles in 24 hours. Upon completion of this achievement, one was dubbed a “Centurion.” City to city races became the rage in the early 19th century, and heavy gambling made these events the most popular sport in England for a while.
Pedestrianism came to America in the early 19th century, and each town had a local champion. Sometimes a traveling pedestrian would come into a community and challenge the local champ, resulting in a match of between ¼ mile and 30 miles.
By the 1850’s newspapers began to cover local sporting events, and interest in pedestrianism grew. It became a major sport in Antebellum America, with victors often winning a purse worth up to 40-years worth of wages a factory worker could earn. Of course, wagering was part of the game as usual.
Interest in pedestrianism revived after the Civil War, largely due to Edward Payson Weston walking from Portland, Maine to Chicago in 25 days in 1867. Weston won a $10,000 purse for covering the 1,326 miles and became a household name throughout America. Weston broke the world record in New York when he walked 100 miles in 22:19:10. He became known as the “father of modern pedestrianism.”
Local communities began to build walking arenas and indoor tracks. Each town had a local champion and major competitions began to take place. American and English champions crossed the Atlantic to compete. Irish immigrant Daniel O’Leary challenged Weston to a race, but Weston refused on the grounds that this upstart was “insufficiently qualified.”
In 1874, Weston walked in his first six day race (a new event), and lo and behold, one Daniel O’Leary was entered as well. O’Leary completed 500 miles in 153 hours, thus becoming the Champion Pedestrian of the World. In a re-match in 1877, O’Leary was victorious again in front of 70,000 spectators, and created enough interest and excitement that Sir John Dugdale Astley, a British Member of Parliament, created a series of races to determine the “Long Distance Champion of the World.” These became known as the Astley Belt Races, and large cash prizes were offered. The races were go-as-you-please events, which meant that walking, jogging or running was allowed.
O’Leary won the first two races with British challenger Charles Rowell winning the third event. Weston was triumphant in the fourth, setting a new record of 550 miles. Rowell won the final three events, and by the rules, winning 3 in a row, was declared the permanent champion in 1879. Interest waned after that and the sport dried up. An interesting account of the 3rd race held on March 11, 1879 at Gilmore’s Garden in New York can be found here.
The Ponies
Horse racing is an ancient sport. The horse was first domesticated around 4500 BC in Central Asia. For thousands of years, horse racing flourished as the sport of kings and the nobility. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 638 BC, and the sport became an obsession in the Roman Empire.
The origins of modern horse racing occurred during the 12th century when English knights returned from the Crusades with swift Arab horses. These were bred with English mares to produce offspring with speed and endurance. The nobility wagered on two-horse match races.
These races evolved during the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14) when match racing gave way to races involving several horses on track on which the spectators wagered. Racecourses sprang up all over England, and breeding and owning fine race horses became very profitable. The Jockey Club was founded in 1750, and drew up a set of rules and regulations governing the sport. In 1791 the General Stud Book was published, and is continually updated through today. Thoroughbreds are so inbred that the pedigree of every single animal can be traced back father-to-father to one of three stallions, called the “foundation sires.”
Horse racing came to America and the first track was laid out on Long Island, NY as early as 1665. Organized racing did not arrive until after the Civil War. The American Stud Book was first published in 1868. The popularity of horse racing exploded during the Industrial Revolution as increased wages meant more money available for gambling on the contests. The American Jockey Club was formed in 1894 by the nation’s most prominent track and stable owners and they ruled with an iron fist to eliminate the corruption so prevalent during the early years of the sport.
Steamboat Racing
The history of the steam engine is vast, dating back to the first century AD. The first recorded rudimentary steam engine being the aeolipile described by Hero of Alexandria. The first practical steam-driven engine was a water pump developed in 1698 by Thomas Savery. Thomas Newcomen designed the “atmospheric engine,” a development of previous designs. This paved the way to the Industrial Revolution.
The next major step occurred when James Watt further developed Newcomen’s design. Watt modified his engine to provide a rotary motion suitable for driving modern machinery, further accelerating the pace of the Industrial Revolution.
Steam engines were adapted for usage on ships in the late 18th/early 19th centuries. A few steam-driven boats were tried out in Europe, and American Robert Fulton built the “North River Steamboat.” In 1807, he began a successful passenger service between New York City and Albany, NY. The boat made the 150-mile trip in 32 hours.
In 1811, the first in a continuous line of river steamboats left the dock at Pittsburgh to steam down the Ohio River to the Mississippi to New Orleans. The river pilot and author Mark Twain, in his Life on the Mississippi, described much of the operation of these vessels. Most steamboats were destroyed by boiler explosions and fire. From 1811 to 1899, 156 steamboats were lost to snags or rocks between St. Louis and the Ohio River. Another 411 were damaged or destroyed by fire, explosions or ice during that period.
Steamboat captains, or pilots, began racing each other up and down the rivers to gain bragging rights. Disregarding their passenger’s safety, the pilots would throw on more resin, wood, pitch or tubs of lard or bacon (for a burst of speed) and push their boilers to the point of explosion, which many did. Racing side-by-side, as the channel narrowed, the pilots would rub against each other, trying to crowd the other one out of the way. Many ships were destroyed and many lives lost due to these reckless maniacs.
 Once again, wagering on these races became popular. The most famous and last of these river races was held in 1870 when the Natchez and Robert E. Lee raced from New Orleans to St. Louis. Read about this fascinating race here.
Five commercial steamboats currently operate on U.S. waterways. They are the Belle of Louisville, the Mississippi Queen, Julia Belle Swain, Natchez, and American Queen. The Delta Queen was retired in 2009.
Velocipedes
The first two-wheeled device was invented by Baron Karl von Drais in 1818 and was variously called a draisine in England, a velocipede from the Latin terms for “fast foot,” a “hobby horse,” or a “dandy horse.” These devices did not have peddles and were straddled and pushed along by the feet. Today, one would be seen as a complete geek if seen scurrying about on one of these devices!
The two-wheeled peddle-powered velocipede, invented in the 1860’s in France, was the forerunner to modern day bicycles. The velocipede, or velo, had a huge front wheel (up to 5 feet in diameter!), the larger the better for speed. Too expensive for the common man, young affluent sporting men raced them at breakneck speeds. The expression “breakneck speed” came into use because of disastrous accidents known to catapult riders over the monstrous front wheel of the bike when attempting to brake. Two broken wrists was a common occurrence as riders thrust their hands out to break their fall.
 Bicycle racing achieved widespread popularity in the late 19th century. The invention of the pneumatic tire and a re-design of the bike to equal-sized tires and chain-driven rear wheel drive generated even more interest in the bicycle. This was known as the “safety” bicycle. Nearly every town or county fair held bicycle races. Street races became the favored venue over the circular velodromes of the past.
Authur Zimmerman, the “New Jersey Skeeter,” could peddle so fast he won over 1000 races during his career in the late 19th century through the early 20th century. He was the first professional athlete to cash in on his name by endorsing “Zimmy Shoes” and “Zimmy Clothes.”
The 6 day race returned in England and riders rode around on a cinder track continuously until they dropped. In America, the single rider was replaced by a two man team. The two men alternated riding over the six day event. Road racing replaced the circular tracks and continues to this day, the most famous event being the Tour de France.
The Future
On August 14, 1877 Nicolaus Otto, of Deutz, Germany, received a patent for “gas-motor engines,” the first internal combustion engine. It would be a few short years before this world-changing device led to the invention of the automobile and was adapted for motorcycle and automobile racing.
Bob Brannon |
