Welcome back — sorry for the delay but we’re going to aim for biweekly episodes/updates for the first half of 2025 and hopefully transition to weekly episodes by May!
This episode was scripted similar to the last one so here is the script. I think some of it got trimmed down in the editing so bonus content for the readers? HA
As always, thanks for listening/reading/supporting me (if that’s why you’re here. If you found this through a Google search and have no idea who I am, well thanks for stopping by).
Before we get into the actual Indianapolis 500s, I wanted to take some time to explain how American auto racing had formed and what the landscape was like because the Indianapolis 500s don’t happen in a vacuum.
But also – and not to just completely call him out – Josef Newgarden made more than one comment last May about how American motorsports started in Indianapolis and that is just completely untrue. (And if you know me, you know that I really need people to know when something is untrue)
The first American motorsport event was held in 1895 on Thanksgiving Day. Only six people entered and Charles Duryea won with an average speed of 7.5 mph.
I can’t really find anything concrete but I think motorsport goes to Europe between 1895-1905ish because Europe has roads that are suitable for racing and were just, generally much more organized – the first major races like the Gordon Bennett Cup were held starting in 1900.
Like I talked about in the pre-Indy 500 episode, American roads were nowhere near as good so most racing was held on horse track, dirt ovals. It was on one of these ovals that Henry Ford and Alexander Winton raced each other in 1901 – Ford — the unlikely victor — used the prize money to help establish Ford Motor Company.
In 1903, Barney Oldfield started barnstorming on primarily ovals. I could probably do a whole podcast series on Barney Oldfield but what’s essential to know is that — like I mentioned in the first Lore episode — Barney was originally a bicycle racer who like many bicycle obsessed young men in the late 1890’s progressed to racing automobiles.
I will link a few book and article recommendations if you’re interested in reading and learning more about Barney Oldfield but the important thing to know, at least in the context of this podcast and it’s scope is that Barney Oldfield really becomes the first American motorsport super star. (Note: A separate further reading article will be posted and can be found here)
And he does this by barnstorming on dirt ovals and by having this larger than life personality but he somehow managed to embody the working class spirit. And while motorsport is and has always been a sport that has required wealth and connections to participate in, Barney Oldfield prevented motorsport from becoming something like polo or yachting, thus something the regular American public could enjoy alongside the wealthy elites, even if they could not afford to participate in motorsports themselves.
And the wealthy elite were really interested in automobiles and motorsport from the very beginning. The fascination had begun early on in William Kissam Vanderbilt II’s life after he rode a steam powered tricycle in the south of France when he was only 10. In 1898, he purchased his first of many motorized vehicles.
In September 1900, Willie K, as he was known, helped organize a card of short races at Aquidnick Park horse track in Rhode Island and he actually won three of them. A year later, he won a championship duel in Newport driving a Mercedes. He then went to Europe to race and this was where he saw firsthand the success of not only the European road races but the success of the European race cars that were miles ahead of American cars.
Willie K decided to take a page out of James Gordon Bennett’s book and host an event in 1904 that he called the ‘Vanderbilt Cup’ which became the first major automobile road race in the US.
The Vanderbilt Cup is ultimately significant to us for the scope of the podcast for not only being the first major trophy race, a precursor for the Indianapolis 500 if you will but for sanctioning body reasons. Let me explain –
The Automobile Club of America – or the ACA – formed in 1899. Contrary to their name, it was a local group based in New York City but they quickly became the predominant sanctioning body and the ones who would help send American drivers to the Gordon Bennett Cup. Though, I think it’s important to point out that this period of motorsport in America is pretty disorganized.
Now, according to all of the articles I can find on Google, Willie K chose not to use the ACA and instead used the American Automobile Association – or the AAA and I always get the impression that it was a surprise move that nobody understands BUT viewing newspaper articles from the time, I don’t get the impression that it actually was a surprise – the general disorganization of American motorsport meant that multiple clubs were sanctioning events and the AAA was one of them and again – judging by newspaper articles at the time, the AAA was trying to establish themselves and a major trophy race would go a long way. Further, Willie K was on the AAA’s Racing Board so the AAA was the obvious choice to sanction his trophy race.
There was controversy that almost prevented the Vanderbilt Cup. The course was set up on public, taxpayer funded roads and there were big feelings among the community members in the rural part of Nassau County. But the promise of economic boon from the race attendees won out and the race went ahead as planned.
New York’s elite gathered on October 8th to see the 18 machines and drivers compete but so did regular people. Estimates from the time put that crowd at anywhere between 15,000 to 50,000 but the experts from vanderbiltcupraces.com used photographs to narrow that estimate to 17,500 to 25,000 people who lined the circuit.
It was George Heath in a French Panhard that won the first Vanderbilt Cup with an average speed of 52.2 mph and a time of 5 hours, 56 minutes and 45 seconds. His margin of victory was incredibly close for the time, finishing only one minute and twenty eight seconds ahead of Albert Clement in a Clement-Bayard. Third place was American Herb Lytle, driving a Pope-Toledo.
Photo Courtesy of the Detroit Public Library
Likely spurred on by the success of the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup, the AAA sanctioned it’s first championship season with 11 points paying races. The AAA also sanctioned it’s first Glidden Tour – a reliability tour that highlighted the conditions of the roads in 1905.
Barney Oldfield ended up becoming the national champion, though serious wrecks marred the championship, ending at least two careers. The media pushed back on auto racing. A Motor Age article from August 1905 observed that:
“The sentiment of the press, trade and automobiledom in this city is practically unanimous that the track racing game is not worth the sacrifice of life and limb its promotion during the past two years has occasioned. Some extremists in the present state of excited feeling caused by the recent accidents to Jay, Kiser and Olfield, insist that the A. A. A. should sanction no more track racing of any kind. Others, who view the situation more calmly, suggest that there is no necessity of placing an embargo, except when the racing of dangerous high speed machines, which the game has created, and that contests of touring and stock cars, capable only of speed within reason, present practically no danger, furnish good sport and a useful test and need not be prohibited.”
After the 1905 season, the AAA did not sanction a championship again for 11 more years. The AAA did continue to sanction races and starting in 1909, the publication Motor Age polled journalists and named champions based off of that.
Turning back to the Vanderbilt Cup – the 1905 race included some changes to not only the course but also the entry process. The course was kept at the same approximate length, however changes were made to avoid going through towns and to eliminate sharp turns.
Each country was limited to five entries so a qualifying race was held prior to the actual Vanderbilt Cup to determine which five of the twelve that had entered would actually compete. A young man from Indiana named Carl Fisher entered his Premier, though it was ruled to be overweight and did not compete in the trial. Also among these American entrants was Lee Frayer and his protege and riding mechanic, Eddie Rickenbacher.
There were an estimated 100,000 people in attendance for the second Vanderbilt Cup which is believed to be one of the largest crowds for a sporting event up to this point. The large crowd watched as a Fiat driven by Vincenzo Lancia took an early lead, only to be hit from behind by Walter Christie. Ultimately it was Frenchman Victor Hemery, in a French Darracq, who won the race with 1904 winner George Heath in second.
Of all the Vanderbilt Cup races, the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup is probably the one that has the most lasting impact.
As the race started, spectators broke through the six foot fences that had been erected and ventured onto the road. One of the participants, Joe Tracy, stopped after his first lap to warn the race officials, telling them that “Hundreds are going to be killed if the crowd is not controlled.” Willie K and the race chief Surgeon made a fast lap around to clear the course – which was successful temporarily, but people would soon crowd the course.
Curt Gruner from New Jersey would unfortunately learn a fatal lesson on why it was a bad idea to crowd the roadway when Elliott Shepard Jr’s Hotchkiss struck him. One child was struck by a car and suffered a broken leg while another child was struck and dragged, though with no serious injuries.
The 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race is also the first race where a checked flag was used to signal that Frenchman Louis Wagner in a Darracq was the winner – although I don’t think the flag was really noticed or mentioned at the time because the spectator that was killed and others injured was the point of outrage and controversy.
The outrage was centered on the fact that the course was on public roads and how the crowds could not be controlled. Willie K and the AAA were forced to re-evaluate. At this point – there were no roads constructed specifically for automobiles, much less a dedicated private park solely for motorsports so the conclusion on what to do probably wasn’t as obvious as it seems but ultimately Willie K decided to construct his own parkway in Long Island and to use a portion of this roadway for the Vanderbilt Cup.
Long story short, this parkway was not done in time for a Vanderbilt Cup to be held in 1907.
It only takes like. 4 years for there to be sanctioning body fighting in American racing which tracks. Mark Dill of firstsuperspeedway.com explains it best:
Mark writes in part:
“Throughout 1907 and into 1908, however, a rivalry emerged between the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the Automobile Club of America (ACA). The ACA, with an earned reputation for being a club of elitists were closely linked with the international auto racing leadership at the Automobile Club of France (ACF) where international rules for racing were established. The ACF (Automobile Club of France) required that each country be represented from a single automobile club and that had been established with America as the ACA. In a meeting in Ostend, Belgium in 1907 new rules for race cars were established without America represented. The AAA perspective focused on the weight of cars while the new Ostend rules, more modern, focused on cylinder displacement.
The rule changes affected the Vanderbilt Cup and American manufacturers who did not want to make the investment to build new, purpose-built race cars for the big race. The result was that America’s race cars were essentially of a different “formula” than those from Europe. The rivalry of the two American clubs became a bitter feud as the ACA got busy and began to organize the first American Grand Prize in Savannah.
Meanwhile Vanderbilt and his crew struggled to drum up enough entries from American manufacturers and the private owners of aged European makes. After much acrimony the two sides mended fences but the Vanderbilt Cup would be forever reduced in stature. Prior to that, however, the struggles to pull off the race were legion – including staging the race in Long Island despite the fact that the course was no more safe than it ever was and crowd control was an issue. Still, Vanderbilt and his New York Society friends wanted the event close to home.
Throughout 1908, Vanderbilt and his organizing team struggled to attract entries to their race, obtain the cooperation of the European cars and clubs and battle the ACA. Vanderbilt went on a quest to get the ACF to relent and allow French manufacturers enter his race. The ACA had appealed to the ACF to choke off foreign entries in the Vanderbilt Cup. The ACF agreed and the Vanderbilt Cup’s field was reduced both in terms of quality and quantity.
The two clubs also fought for influence by claiming rights to sanction auto races, especially the big road races. After the AAA announced that it would only sanction the Vanderbilt Cup, the Jefferson DeMont Thompson stock car race (much discussed, never happened), and the Glidden Tour it left an opening for the ACA. The 1908 Briarcliff road race became a bone of contention. The Briarcliff road race was never repeated after its inaugural run in 1908.
The ACA – AAA war finally ended in September. As much as anything the agreement partitioned the “sandbox.” The ACA was recognized as the sole organization representing United States auto racing to the international governing body. The AAA was recognized as the governing body for all national or domestic races not builded as “international.” What, exactly, distinguished an “international” race from a “national” one was not immediately clear.
The important thing in the moment was that they were not discrediting each other and that they would no longer try to sabotage one another. The ACA agreed to stop trying to persuade local clubs across the country from leaving the AAA as the national organization. Also, the agreement opened the door to allow the foreign manufacturers to enter the Vanderbilt Cup in subsequent years. Again, it was still unclear as to how the two races would resolve those national and international designations.
I will link the article that I quoted in the show notes (find the article here) – the full article includes many newspaper articles and further explanations, I did edit the article down for the sake of brevity. I also would like to take a second and make a unprompted plug for Mark Dill and his website, firstsuperspeedway.com – it is the only website that covers early American auto racing and Mark does so in-depth and he does it in a way that promotes accessibility of information that I really, really appreciate.
Mark is also an author of a few books – he has written “The Legend of the First Super Speedway” in novel form but also in a children’s book as well. His newest book is “The Master Driver of the World” about Barney Oldfield and the 1914 Cactus Derby.
I will be linking his book website in the show notes as well – if this episode has peaked your interest at all, I can’t recommend his books and his website enough. (Again, this was a completely unsolicited plug)
Looping back to the Vanderbilt Cup and the American Grand Prize, 1908’s crown jewel races – with the European factory teams not participating, an American named George Robertson in a Locomobile, won the Vanderbilt Cup – much to everybody’s delight. In Savannah, 1906 Vanderbilt Cup winner Louis Wagner, this time in a Fiat, bested the rest of the field.
In 1909, the American Grand Prize was ultimately not held – likely because an economic recession had led to a cancellation in the French Grand Prix and European automakers had started to reduce the amount of money they were putting into motorsports.
The Vanderbilt Cup, though, was still run. It was won by Harry Grant who was driving an Alco.
Also in 1909, IMS opened and had the disastrous first weekend that led to the Speedway being paved by Bricks. If you haven’t, I suggest that you go listen to that episode to know about what happened the first two years of Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s existence.
The AAA made a decision in 1909 that I think one could argue, still affects American motorsports to this day – they banned women from AAA sanctioned races.
There seems to be a misconception I think, that women weren’t interested in motorsports until the 1970’s when Janet Guthrie arrived on the racing scene but that is just, completely untrue. Women have had interest in automobiles and motorsports for just as long as men have.
Dorothy Levitt in England was racing by 1903 and in the US many women took part in various motorsport events like endurance runs and hill climbs. Arguably the first and most well-known American female driver at the time, was Joan Newton Cuneo.
Joan Newton was born on July 22, 1876 in Holyoke Massachusetts, the youngest of four daughters. Her father, a self-made millionaire had desperately hoped for a son and was not deterred when his fourth and final child was not. She was largely treated more like a son than a daughter which afforded her more opportunities than other girls of this time.
Her father encouraged her interests, allowing her to drive a steam train and a six-horse team. She also was an expert horsewoman and bicyclist.
Joan married Andrew Cuneo in 1898. Andrew was the adopted son of millionaire Antonio Cuneo. Antonio was a banker and one of the very first slumlords in New York City and he was believed to be very wealthy.
Two children, a son and a daughter quickly followed for Joan and Andrew. In 1902, Andrew bought Joan a Locomobile which she took to immediately. By 1905, she upgraded to a White Motor Company Steam Car.
Photo Courtesy of Detroit Public Library
Automobiles were definitely Joan’s passion and while Andrew was supportive, I don’t think he shared the same sort of enthusiasm for them that Joan had. And so, he hired a neighbor’s son, Louis Disbrow – who had been recently cleared of a murder charge which – we will talk about in the near future – to be her riding mechanic.
Photo Courtesy of Detroit Public Library
Joan entered the Glidden Tour in 1905 though not without some adversity because when she sent in her application for the tour, AAA promptly rejected it. Joan pushed back – she was already a member of the AAA and she pointed out that nowhere in the rules did it explicitly prohibit women’s participation and well – she had enough of a point that the AAA allowed her to participate.
Her celebrity really skyrockets during the Glidden Tour because there was an incident. On the first day, she had to swerve to miss a fellow competitor who had stopped and started to back up at the entrance of a narrow bridge. Because the bridge was narrow, the car fell off the bridge into the stream bed below. Nobody was hurt and she was able to drive the car out of the streambed and continue on but the story of her incident was circulated widely in the US.
After the 1905 Glidden Tour, Joan started to participate more in motorsports, though generally limited to exhibition runs and setting speed records. She ran a race on an oval dirt track and later had called that experience, “love at first sight”.
Joan quickly became an experienced driver who could handle the early cars of this era – cars that were not easy to steer or ride in. Even more impressive was that Joan was reportedly of a small build.
1908 was the height of her racing career and celebrity – she completed the Glidden Tour that year with a perfect score and continued to set speed records. She had been invited to enter two races specifically for women during a Mardis Gras festival in Louisiana but Joan went a step further – entering all of the races that they were holding that weekend.
Top names of the era were at this festival – drivers such as Bob Burman, Ralph DePalma and George Robertson. And in the 50 mile race, she finished second only to Ralph DePalma (who in my opinion is probably the best driver of this era).
Now perhaps coincidentally, right after this weekend, the AAA bans women from their events. I couldn’t find any articles that specifically announced this ban or any of the reasoning against it so I am really not quite sure the reasons but the timing does make it seem like it was related to Joan Cuneo’s participation and success in the Mardi Gras races. Whether or not she actually was the reason, Joan was largely remembered as the “one who got women banned from motorsports”.
The ban against women drivers by the AAA held until 1955 when the AAA decided to no longer sanction races. Women could still participate in smaller, local races and I’m sure they did but being barred from AAA races would limit what female drivers could accomplish.
And because women were banned by the AAA, this also meant they were banned from participating in the Indianapolis 500. Women weren’t even allowed into the pits or the garage until the 1970’s. The USAC though, did not ban women from driving and by 1959, Josie Von Neumann was racing in the USAC sports car races.
And while the ban did not cause the exclusionary ideas about female participation in motorsports, it certainly did not help. These exclusionary ideas will become a common theme anytime a female dares to even think about participating in motorsport throughout motorsport history and unfortunately, still happens even now.
Women weren’t the only group banned by the AAA.
African-Americans were banned from AAA participation from its conception. I haven’t been able to find anything that explores this ban in-depth because this was not an outright written rule – it was more of a gentleman’s agreement, a commitment to close ranks and make sure that not only could no Black driver compete but any White driver, mechanic or owner who was found to be aiding the Black driver were swiftly and severely punished. The precedent was this:
Jack Johnson was a Black boxer.
He rose to prominence and celebrity when he became the first Black heavyweight champion in 1908 after defeating Tommy Burns.
Jack Johnson was independent, he was outspoken, he didn’t bother to hide his wealth and he liked to date white women which – was so far outside the realm of what people thought a good Black man “should be”. And so some of his celebrity was derived from this antithesis personality that he had.
In 1910, still the ‘heavyweight champion of the world’ Jack Johnson was challenged to box Jim Jeffries – a retired but undefeated former champion who was also a white man. Unsurprisingly, many people felt that Jim was the true champion. Jim was called the “great white hope” in the lead up to this match-up.
This was a huge deal when it was happening – I’m being brief for the sake of time but I will link you to a plethora of sources about this – Ken Burns did an excellent documentary on all of this. But this fight, Jack Johnson vs Jim Jeffries was the fight of the century and the racial narrative surrounding it drew much more media interest than a regular boxing match – over 500 media members traveled to Reno to cover the run-up to the match.
Jack Johnson won decisively. Jim Jeffries said, “I could never have whipped Johnson at my best. I couldn’t have hit him. No, I couldn’t have reached him in a thousand years.”
The public reaction to Jack Johnson’s victory were race riots that led to mostly Black deaths and it’s thought to be the single worst day for race riots in American history until the late 1960’s.
But Jack? Jack was not fazed by the reaction.
Instead, Jack immediately shifted his sights to a new target – automobile racing.
He had been interested in automobile racing for a while – known to push his cars to their limit. The journalists covering motorsport were eager for a slice of the attention that Jack Johnson was getting.
The Indy Star reported less than a week after the fight of the century on July 9th, that not only was Jack slated to drive in the Vanderbilt Cup, he had been invited to participate in Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Labor Day races.
On July 15th though, it was reported by the Indy News that actually, he wasn’t allowed to participate in the races but the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would allow him to run exhibition runs.
Now, without going too far into speculation, what I suspect happened is this: Carl Fisher really liked publicity stunts so when he caught wind of the fact that Jack Johnson wanted to race automobiles, he saw this golden opportunity for publicity. But the AAA stepped in and reminded Fisher that they didn’t really care about his little publicity stunts, Black men were not driving in AAA races and either Fisher complied or they ruined IMS and the huge ass investment that was sunk into IMS and had yet to be recouped.
Jack Johnson never raced at Indianapolis Motor Speedway because at least two racing stars – Buick’s Bob Burman and Louis Chevrolet publicly protested and stated they would not race if Jack’s name was included in the weekend’s program. Louis Chevrolet was quoted as saying, “Jack Johnson is a prize fighter and has become notorious in that particular field. There are no negro automobile race drivers at the present time and if I understand correctly, there is a ban against it. I am not willing to allow my name to be used in the same race program as that of Jack Johnson, and if the Indianapolis motor speedway management can not confine itself to automobile racing without bringing a negro barn-storming pugilist, I believe it is time for the white drivers to quit the game on that track.”
Speedway management relented and Jack Johnson was not allowed to make an exhibition run.
But Jack was undeterred.
He publicly challenged the three top drivers – Ralph DePalma, Barney Oldfield and George Robertson to match races.
Barney Oldfield took the challenge.
And Barney Oldfield just destroyed Jack Johnson. Barney even drove a car with less power and it didn’t matter – Jack was clearly out of his depth against a true master driver.
Barney was punished severely by the AAA for this match race. A two year ban was handed down, by far the longest ban given to a driver.
The precedent was set.
(I could not find any photos of this match race on the public domain and I am really not trying to catch a lawsuit over photos so apologies. For more info, you can see Mark Dill’s entry on this here. I will also be including sources I found about Jack Johnson on the source page)
I’d like to be very clear though – just because African-Americans were banned, doesn’t mean they weren’t interested in motorsports. Once we get to the 1920’s, I will cover the ‘Colored Speedway Association’ and the ‘Gold and Glory’ Sweepstakes and all the people who were involved because they were there, they were capable but they were banned by the AAA.
And maybe you’re thinking, “Wow, this episode kind of took a turn” and you’re right, it did. Partially because I’m still learning how to write podcast episodes and couldn’t find a super great transition but also, I think this should be jarring and make everybody uncomfortable.
I think some people tend to think that motorsport is a white man sport because only white men are interested in it, that the fact that minority groups like women and BIPOC aren’t involved is some sort of fluke or flaw but in reality, it was designed to be this way – that these exclusionary attitudes are so deeply ingrained because they’ve been there from the very beginning.
One of the things you can expect from me and this podcast is that I’ll be sharing the stories of as many people as I can — priority given to people who didn’t fit into wealthy white men box.
There wasn’t a National Champion declared by the AAA in 1909, though Motor Age declared it to be Bert Dingley based on merit and his on-track performance. This was seemingly confirmed in 1927, when AAA retroactively applied the 1920 points table to the 1909 season and Bert Dingley had in fact, scored the most points.
The 1910 champion was declared to be Ray Harroun which again, was declared by Motor Age due to his merit and on-track performance. The retroactive points table did confirm Ray Harroun as the national champion (though I would like to point out that this retroactive points application is generally not thought to hold a lot of weight but we will talk about this in future episodes).
Find sources and further reading from the episode here!
