The race that would become known as the United States Grand Prix was known for the first six years of its existence as simply “The Grand Prize.” The first race took place just over 100 years ago, on March 18th 1908,  in Savannah, GA, in front of a crowd of 5000 excited spectators. It was won by French driver Louis Wagner in a FIAT at an average speed of 65.11 mph. Wagner also holds the distinction of winning the first ever British GP

Louis Wagner crossing the finish line in Savannah to win the first American Grand Prize race.

After a year’s break the race returned to Savannah in 1910 and 1911 and on both occasions was won by American David L Bruce-Brown, first in a Benz and then in a FIAT by which time average speeds were up to 74 mph. The 1910 event holds the distinction of being the longest US GP on record with a race distance of 415.2 miles.

In 1912 the event was moved to a new home (starting what would become something of a tradition for the USGP over the next century) with the race taking place in Milwaukee. A FIAT once again lead the field, this time piloted by another American, Caleb Bragg. Two time defending champion Bruce-Brown was killed during practice for the event.

There was no 1913 race, and in 1914 the race for the Grand Prize moved to Santa Monica, CA where the streak of victories by home drivers continued with a win for Eddie Pullen in a Mercer.

1915 saw the first British winner of a US GP when Dario Resta took the win in a Peugeot. (He also went on to win the Indy 500 the following year.) This time race was held in the San Francisco area.

British driver Dario Resta - Winner of the 1915 American Grand Prize race

The race returned to Santa Monica in 1916 where Peugeot once again took the victory, this time with the car being shared by American drivers Howdy Wilcox and Johnny Aitken.

The 1916 event would be the last “Grand Prize” race and the US racing community would have to wait another 42 years before the arrival of the first true United States Grand Prix.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 2:59 am and is filed under Formula One, USGP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.