Santa Monica road race course[1]
1912 Santa Monica road races[2]
LocationSanta Monica, California
Coordinates34°02′20″N 118°29′17″W / 34.039°N 118.488°W / 34.039; -118.488
OpenedJuly 10, 1909
ClosedMarch 15, 1919
Major eventsAmerican Grand Prize
Vanderbilt Cup
1909–16
Length8.417 miles (13.546 km)
1919
Length7.36 miles (11.845 km)

The Santa Monica road race course was an American race track consisting of public roads. Established by a consortium of Southern California auto dealers who sought to promote cars, buying them as well as racing them, at a time when they were rather rare in Los Angeles, the Santa Monica road races lasted for ten years.[3]

Inaugural event

An estimated 50,000 people attended the 1909 Santa Monica road races. Harris Hanshue was the winner of the heavy-car division in an Apperson Jackrabbit and Bert Dingley won the lightweight division in a Chalmers-Detroit Forty.[3]

1912 races

The free-for-all race of the 1912 event was won by Teddy Tetzlaff in a Fiat.[2] He was awarded a medal for the win.[4]

Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize

Santa Monica hosted both the Vanderbilt Cup and the American Grand Prize in 1914 and in 1916.[1] A fatality occurred in practice for the 1914 event when a car crashed into the crowd and killed a spectator.[5] The 1916 event was marred by a total of five deaths: After a mechanician had been fatally injured in practice,[6] driver Lewis Jackson and three people lining the road died as a result of a crash during the Grand Prix race.[7]

Final race

A record crowd of 150,000 people saw millionaire sportsman Cliff Durant drive his Chevrolet Special to victory on a shortened course in 1919.[3][8] Walter Melcher sustained fatal injuries when his car overturned.[8]

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b "Santa Monica Road Race Course". ChampCarStats.com. Archived from the original on 2022-01-31.
  2. ^ a b "Santa Monica road race 1912". First Super Speedway. Archived from the original on 2020-12-10.
  3. ^ a b c Solomon, Charles (January 31, 2001). "Racing down Santa Monica's Ocean Avenue, way back when". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2020-12-10.
  4. ^ "Santa Monica road race souviner". First Super Speedway. Archived from the original on 2020-11-05.
  5. ^ "One killed and five hurt at practice spin". San Francisco Chronicle. February 17, 1914. Archived from the original on 2022-01-31.
  6. ^ "Auto road race practice written in blood". Santa Monica Bay Outlook. November 10, 1916.
  7. ^ "Racing auto leaps track; four killed" (PDF). The New York Times. November 19, 1916. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-10-01.
  8. ^ a b "Auto racer is killed when car upsets". The Gazette Times. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Associated Press. March 16, 1919.
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