The Santa Monica road race course was an American

race track A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also us ...

consisting of public roads. Established by a consortium of

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

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 Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, the Santa Monica road races lasted for ten years.

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.

1912 races

The free-for-all race of the 1912 event was won by Teddy Tetzlaff in a

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...

. He was awarded a medal for the win.

Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize

Santa Monica hosted both the

Vanderbilt Cup The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing. History An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held on October 8 on a course set out in Nassau County, New York, Nass ...

and the American Grand Prize in 1914 and in 1916. A fatality occurred in practice for the 1914 event when a car crashed into the crowd and killed a spectator. The 1916 event was marred by a total of five deaths: After a

mechanician A mechanician is an engineer or a scientist working in the field of mechanics, or in a related or sub-field: engineering or computational mechanics, applied mechanics, geomechanics, biomechanics, and mechanics of materials. Names other than m ...

had been fatally injured in practice, driver Lewis Jackson and three people lining the road died as a result of a crash during the Grand Prix race.

Final race

A record crowd of 150,000 people saw millionaire sportsman Cliff Durant drive his

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

Special to victory on a shortened course in 1919. Walter Melcher sustained fatal injuries when his car overturned.

References

{{AAA tracks Defunct motorsport venues in the United States Motorsport venues in California Sports venues in Los Angeles County, California Sports in Santa Monica, California

Inaugural event

1912 races

Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize

Final race

Further reading

References