First Auto Race

November 29, 2008

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Profile America — Saturday, November 29th. Newspaper headlines in Chicago on this date in 1895 told of the nation’s first automobile race the day before — among vehicles which still looked like buggies. Six left Jackson Park in the morning for a 54-mile run to Evanston, Illinois, and back through the snow. Inventor Frank Duryea won the race at an average speed of 7½ miles an hour. Such early races proved the reliability of motorized vehicles and, by 1911, the first Indianapolis 500 was held. That year, horses still outnumbered cars by a margin of 33-to-one, but increasing interest led to sales of 211,000 cars, trucks and buses. Today, that many cars and light trucks are sold in less than five days. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: Famous First Facts, 7260
Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 519, 716
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, t. 1026
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2008edition.html