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Just in time for the Rolex at Daytona, Bobby gives us a fascinating and entertaining tour of the world's first 24 hour automobile races.-Editor-
By 1905, the auto racing industry was experiencing explosive growth in Europe as well as the United States. While the Gordon Bennett races were winding down in Europe, France was getting ready to launch its own “Grand Prix” race in 1906, while Sicily would launch its famed Targa Florio the same year. In America, the Vanderbilt Cup road races were just taking off. But another form of racing was gaining interest - racing against the clock.
The land speed record had been established with runs in France and America. The Automobile Club of France (ACF) did not recognize the records set on American soil since the Americans used mechanical timers rather than electronic ones. This seemed to matter little to its participants, as they continued to set records in America.
Another form of racing the clock appeared in America in 1904. Packard designer/driver Charles Schmidt attempted to drive 1,000 miles without turning his engine off on a dirt track at Grosse Pointe (Detroit), Michigan. He crashed after 228 miles and the effort was aborted. Later that year, Schmidt ran 820 miles, aided by two relief drivers, in 24 hours and passed the 1,000 mile mark about six hours later. In 1905, Charles Wridgeway ran 923 miles in 24 hours at the Empire City track in a Peerless, reaching 1,000 miles in 25 hours and 50 minutes, and then Guy Vaughan drove a 1902 Decauville 40 racer 1,015 miles in 24 hours to set a new record. Later that year, ‘Jap’ Clemens and Charlie Merz drove their National 1,094 miles to break the record. Fred ‘Jap’ Clemens would later be the runner up in a Stoddard-Dayton in the first race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August, 1909. The Stoddard-Dayton would be the pace car for the first 500 in 1911.
First 24-hour Race
The Columbus (Ohio) Auto Club organized the first 24-hour race with multiple competitors at the Columbus Driving Park, a horse racing track. The race began at 3:20 p.m. on July 3, 1905 when the secretary to Governor Myron T. Herrick fired the starting pistol and ended on the Fourth of July.
Four cars were entered, but Roy Repp had to withdraw his White Steamer after he was hospitalized for surgery the day before the race. That left brothers Charles and George Soules in a Pope-Toledo, Lee Frayer, builder/driver of the air-cooled Frayer-Miller car, and Ballenger and Feasel driving Louis Hoster’s Peerless. Barney Oldfield, America’s best-known driver of the time, drove the Peerless for an hour (around midnight) but was not listed on the entry list. The Hoster-Columbus Associated Breweries put up a silver cup valued at $500 to be awarded to the winner.
The Ohio State Journal reported, “The course at Driving Park has been illuminated with half a hundred arc lamps and all preparations have been made that will be conducive to speed and record-braking for twenty-four hours. The drivers will continue to drive at breakneck speed from the crack of the governor’s gun this afternoon through the same hour tomorrow afternoon, stopping long enough to take on gasoline and to replace tires burned through to the thinnest fabric owing to the terrific friction.”
The leading Peerless blew a tire as it was pitting after several hours of racing and crashed through a wooden fence and into a water barrel. The impact sheared off the starting crank handle and damaged the radiator. The car was repaired and was soon back on track.
The Soules brothers took the lead in their Pope-Toledo, but suffered a similar fate when a tire blew causing them to crash along 100 feet of fencing before flipping into a ditch. The frame was straightened, a new radiator installed and a new set of wheels was mounted. The car was back on track after 60 minutes of repairs had been completed and still had a 50-mile lead!
The Frayer-Miller had a stone thrown up, which broke three teeth from the main gear and bent the camshaft. It would take many hours to repair before they could return to action.
A crowd of 15,000 (exceeding a few recent Rolex 24’s) showed up for the July 4th afternoon finish. The distinction of winning the world’s first 24-hour race fell to the Soules brothers and their Pope-Toledo, which covered a distance of 828.5 miles. The Frayer-Miller car finished 100 miles down with the Peerless another two miles in arrears.
The owners of the losing cars also filed the first protest in a 24-hour race. They claimed the Pope-Toledo was a ringer: a special built racing car owned by the factory and not by the entrant. The protest was rejected and the Soules brothers’ victory remained intact.
Peerless stopped making cars in the 1930’s and reoriented the company to produce beer under the Carling Black Label brand!
Grinds
There were no 24 hour races in 1906, but the day and night “grinds,” as they become known, exploded with 12 events scheduled in 1907. The first grind of the year was held on May 25 at the one-mile Point Breeze horse track near Philadelphia. The “International Endurance Derby” was sanctioned by the newly-organized United States Motor Racing Association (USMRA) under promoter Bill Pickens. Arc lights were set up in the infield with the pits opposite the main grandstands. Ten cars started with four cars finishing and the race was won by an Autocar, which covered 791 miles. One month later another grind was held at Point Breeze. The event was marked by eight solid hours of rain, and was won by Ralph Mulford in a Lozier, who lurched across the finish line on his right chain, the left chain having broken on the final lap.
 In 1916, the Des Moines, Iowa Evening Tribune wrote "’Smiling’ Ralph Mulford, who invariably wears a starched collar, white necktie and insists that everything about his mount be spick and span, will drive a Super-Six at the Des Moines race. It was Ralph Mulford who drove a hudson stock chassis 1,819 miles in twenty-four hours, making a new world's record. He drove the same car 102 miles an hour at Daytona.
Mulford won the 1910 roadracing championship after capturing the first place in the Elgin trophy race. The next year he won the seventh Vanderbilt cup race at an average speed of over seventy-four miles an hour. Later he won second place in the first 500 mile Indianapolis race.
Promoter Bill Pickens moved his “grinds” to Brighton Beach, New York where they were held for several years. Fifteen stripped passenger cars were entered with Monty Roberts winning the event.
The New York Times reported in its Sept. 15, 1907 edition, “Automobile races of twenty-four hours duration have attained an unusual degree of popularity this year. Eight events of this character have already been held and four more have been announced in different parts of the country for the next three weeks.”
“In England, S.F Edge drove a six-cylinder Napier to a then record 1,581 miles in a 24 hour endurance test on the three-mile Brooklands track.”
“America, however, has been the country where the twenty-four hour endurance test for stock cars originated and has been perfected. Previous to this year there had been but four events of this character and only one of them was an actual contest. With the widespread interest in twenty four hour races this season, the Racing Board of the American Automobile Association (AAA) has been led to adopt definite rules, specifying just what is meant by a stock car, thus conserving the value of the race to the general public.”
Twice around the clock races were held over the next several years at tracks around the country including Detroit, Chicago, Saint Paul, Brighton Beach and Morris Park in New York, Birmingham, Alabama, Seattle, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles.
Nine cars started the September grind at the Morris Park Motordrome in 1907 with a Renault taking the win. Three weeks later nineteen cars started with an Italian FIAT winning the rain-soaked event.
Mulford won the 1908 race at Brighton Beach in his Lozier, covering a distance of 1,107 miles. Three weeks later a Simplex covered 1,117 miles to break the record. Later that year Mulford won the Morris Park race on his wedding day, setting a new distance record of 1,196 miles before retiring from the sport. He came out of retirement to finish second in May of 1910.
The New York Times reported in the July 30, 1909 edition that the entrants to the Brighton Beach 24-hour race “were on Broadway yesterday, and they attracted general attention as they sped along with a continuous crackle as of musketry coming from their exhausts. It is said that more wagers have been made upon the result of the twenty-four hour race this year than on any previous race of the kind.”
A second 24-hour race was held at Brighton Beach three weeks later, and the New York Times reported, “Brighton Beach race track, recently converted into a motordrome by the Motor Racing Association, has undergone many changes since July 30-31, when a series of short races and a twenty-four hour event were run off. The track has been almost entirely reconstructed for the second time within a few months. The turns have been macadamized, the entrances to the stretches have been widened, the banks have been increased, and the surface of the mile oval has been rolled and oiled anew.”
Tent villages occupied the infield for the mechanical crews and race drivers, their workshops, a restaurant, illuminated scoreboards, and track lighting. Medical personnel and “motor-propelled ambulances” were also located in the infield.
A third grind was held at Brighton Beach that year and smaller, cheaper cars were allowed to participate. Increased attendance created advance ticket sales for the first time. The New York Times reported “The tickets will be on sale at the leading hotels and theatre ticket agencies. The association will endeavor to prevent all chances of accident, outside of the carelessness of drivers, by the installation of a block system of signals which will be used at this meet for the first time in the history of automobile racing.”
“Warning signals in the shape of electric bulbs will be used and will be stretched overhead across the track at the judge’s stand. The flashing of red bulbs will be a warning to competitors to go slowly because of some mishap ahead, while the display of green bulbs will notify them that the danger has been eliminated. A simultaneous flashing of red and green lights will be given for the instant stopping of all cars. Similar signals are to be installed on both the turns and in the back stretch, all operated from the judge’s stand.”
 The race was postponed by rain and the first “rain checks” were issued. The NY Times reported “An effort will be made in the intervening two weeks to increase the entry list for the day and night grind.”
Grinds usually began at 8 p.m. Friday nights and concluded the following evening. “For those who become rooted to the spot by the intensity of the race, a caterer on the grounds will provide meals and refreshments.”
Gambling was outlawed in New York in 1908, and when the 24-hour races failed to generate enough revenue to save the Brighton Beach track it closed. It was razed in the 1920’s and converted to residential real estate.
The last grind was held in August 1910. Only seven cars started with a Stearns covering 1,253 miles for the win. It was the last 24-hour race until the French “invented” twice around the clock racing at Le Mans in 1923. The only 24-hour grind (of any consequence) in America today is the Daytona 24, which started in 1966.
Bob Brannon |
