Rajo Jack was also an extremely talented engine builder. Here’s a 1930s Champ Car racer proudly announcing he has a Rajo under the hood. (Photo Courtesy Steve Zautke Collection)
By the turn of the 20th Century, half- and one-mile county and state fairgrounds horse racing ovals were among the first tracks to host automobile races. (Photo Courtesy Steve Zautke Collection)
Stock car racing hit the beach at Daytona Beach in 1936 and set the stage for gas station proprietor and racer William Getty France to form a national organization that prompted the founding of NASCAR a decade later.
With that history as a backdrop, these are facts about cars, tracks, people, and events that had an impact on stock car racing in the 50-plus years leading up to the formation of the sport known today as NASCAR.
1 At the turn of the 20th Century, the total number of automobiles in the United States was estimated at around 10,000, about a quarter of the number of cars in the parking lot at any NASCAR Sprint Cup race today. By 1905, the number of cars in the United States had grown to 25,000; more than 200 companies tooled up to produce the new “horseless carriage.” Today, new auto sales in America total nearly 17 million units annually.
2 Sweepstakes was Henry Ford’s first race car. This 2,200-pound, 96-inch-wheelbase racer was built on a steel-reinforced wooden chassis. The 2-cylinder, water-cooled engine featured a massive 7 × 7–inch bore and stroke per cylinder. Mounted horizontally in the chassis, the estimated engine displacement was 538 ci (8.8 liters) topping out at 26 hp at 900 rpm. This is thought to be the first engine to have spark plugs with porcelain insulators. A 2-speed transmission and chain-drive configuration delivered the power payload to the rear axle. The car hit a top speed of 72 mph in testing, which bested the official automobile world speed record of 65.79 mph. Ford drove the car to victory over Alexander Winton in a historic 1901 race at Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He attracted enough financial interest to form the Henry Ford Company and later, the Ford Motor Company. Today, Sweepstakes is on display at the Henry Ford museum.
3 Steam-powered race cars were common at the dawn of the 20th Century. One of the earliest models to race consistently was the Keene Steammobile Runabout, a formidable car weighing 1,125 pounds. The Steammobile Runabout’s water tank capacity was 26 gallons and the chassis wheelbase measured 96 inches. Grounded by 35-inch wheels and 3-inch pneumatic tires, the Steammobile Runabout routinely ran in the 1901 Boston to Keene “endurance races.” These 85-mile events were organized and supported by Bay State Automobile Association and the New Hampshire Automobile Club.
4 Andrew L. Riker was one of America’s first tycoon racers. In 1900, Riker drove the Riker Torpedo to an electric-car world speed record of 29 mph over a 5-mile closed course. The record stood for more than 10 years. Riker was later instrumental in designing and producing the 1906 gas-powered, chain-driven Locomobile Old 16. With the famed George Robertson behind the wheel, the car went on to win the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup, which was, at the time, America’s most prestigious auto race.
5 Henry Ford was completely comfortable behind the wheel of Sweepstakes while racing Alexander Winton in 1901, but common sense told him he didn’t want anything to do with driving the company’s next racing creation, the Ford 999. In racing terms, the 999 was a beast. It was named (appropriately) after the famous New York Central Empire Express steam locomotive of the 1800s, which was the first man-made vehicle of any kind to exceed 100 mph. An iron-bar tiller steered 999; it featured a bare bones wood structure frame housing a massive 1,155-ci inline 4-cylinder engine capable of producing an estimated 70 to 80 hp. The car had a giant 230-pound flywheel with no transmission, just a wooden-block clutch and a solid-shaft direct drive to a rear ring and pinion gear. The 109-inch-wheelbase chassis had no rear springs and because the valvetrain and clutch were exposed, the ill-handling beast provided a constant oil bath for its driver. The 999 made its racing debut on October 25, 1902, at the Grosse Pointe track outside Detroit. With newcomer Barney Oldfield behind the wheel, the 999 secured the Manufacturers’ Challenge Cup for Ford with a time of 5 minutes 28 seconds, a world record for a 5-mile race on a closed course. Through the next year, Oldfield and the 999 toured the country and set countless speed records.
6 The Arrow was a “twin sister” to the Ford 999; both cars were built at the same time in 1902 by Ford engineer Tom Cooper. The Arrow was considered more sophisticated than the 999 because of an enhanced intake manifold that made the Arrow the faster of the two. Unlike the 999 however, the Arrow was star-crossed as it was involved in the first recorded fatality in American motorsports. On September 11, 1903, driver Frank Day was killed at the first automobile race at The Milwaukee Mile in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Henry Ford brought the Arrow back to Michigan where he repaired it in preparation for a land speed run. Ford, who originally declined to drive either car, wheeled the newly rechristened Red Devil 999 to a new land speed record of 91.37 mph on Anchor Bay at Lake St. Charles on January 12, 1904. Ford eventually retired both vehicles by the end of 1904.
7 Untold thousands of cars have raced at Daytona, both on the beach and at Daytona International Speedway. Only one, however, can claim to be the first at the World Center of Speed. Created by Ransom Olds, the Olds Pirate was the first car to make a timed pass at the first Daytona Beach Speed Trials in 1902. A bare-bones model of the Olds Curved Dash Runabout, the Pirate had no bodywork of any kind. Its most prominent feature was a pair of horizontally mounted torpedo-like gas and oil tanks. Propelled by a 95-ci single-cylinder engine, the Pirate and driver Horace T. Thomas cruised to a blazing 54.38 mph in the gasoline-powered 1,000-pound class in the 1902 Daytona trials. Because the event was officially sanctioned and scored by the American Automobile Association, the Pirate will forever have the distinction of being the first car to take an official race run at Daytona.
The Olds Pirate will be forever identified as the first great car to hit the sands and make an official timed speed run at Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo Courtesy General Motors)
8 Built in 1904, the Pope Toledo Racer was a prototype for the company’s stock Touring models introduced over the next several years. The car featured a 120-hp 4-cylinder gas internal combustion engine with twin cast heads and integrated copper water jackets. The car also had a gear-driven magneto and multiple-disc clutch. The Pope was one of the first American cars with a 4-speed transmission, as well a fifth “reverse” gear. All were fitted into a frame of chrome-nickel steel construction with a 104-inch wheelbase and 34-inch wheels. The Pope Toledo competed in the first Vanderbilt Cup Race in 1904; it finished third. Over the next several years, Pope continued to race the Torpedo model and use its successes to promote its Touring cars as one of the most advanced, fastest, and reliable cars available. Unfortunately, the strategy didn’t work and Albert Pope declared his auto company bankrupt in 1907.
9 Chrysler Corporation took NASCAR by storm in the 1960s when it introduced its 426 Hemi engine. The powerplant, while revolutionary in NASCAR, was not a new concept. The Hemi had made its debut in 1906 in the Pungs-Finch Limited. Built in Detroit, the Pungs-Finch engine was a 600-ci 4-cylinder model featuring hemispherical combustion chambers and angled valves. Thanks to the giant engine, the wooden-frame and -body car had an estimated top speed of 55 mph. Today, only one 1906 Pungs-Finch car remains in existence. The restored classic has won numerous vintage racer awards at both the Pebble Beach and Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance meets. It sold at auction in 2015 for $852,500.
10 Maybe the most important car ever, Henry Ford rolled out his first Model T October 1, 1908. Ford had been actively producing automobiles since 1903 with eight different models (the A, B, C, F,