On this day in 1895: The motor-car race that changed history and paid off big
It is exactly 130 years since Illinois hosted the Chicago Times-Herald race on Thanksgiving - the first of its kind in the U.S.
One hundred and thirty years ago today, Illinois was the stage for a historic event deemed to have kick-started the U.S.’s automobile industry. On November 28, 1895 - Thanksgiving Day - the Chicago Times-Herald newspaper organized the country’s first ever motor-car race.
The event initially attracted around 80 entrants - but, come race day, only six vehicles actually took their place on the start line. And amid inclement, snowy conditions, just two vehicles made it to the end of a dramatically shortened race course.
Organizers had originally planned on a route running from Chicago, Illinois, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, some 90 miles away. However, they finally had to settle for a 54-mile return trip between Chicago and Evanston, Illinois.
Who won the U.S.’s first car race?
The winner was a car built by two Massachusetts brothers, Charles and Frank Duryea, who went on to found the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in the aftermath of the race. It was Frank who steered the siblings’ Duryea Motor Wagon to victory - ahead of a Benz automobile - and earned a reported $2,000 prize check.
“The horseless vehicle is the coming wonder”
In a 2024 article on the Chicago Times-Herald race, the Smithsonian Magazine’s Eli Wizevich explains that the driving force behind the event was Herman H. Kohlsaat, the Times-Herald’s editor and publisher.
Having seen Paris host one of the world’s earliest motor-car races five months earlier, he resolved to take the idea to the U.S. “Inspired by the French, Kohlsaat wanted to promote American automobiles, which he believed would soon outstrip horse and carriage travel, while also celebrating the 50th anniversary of his own paper,” Wizevich writes.
The race was hardly the high-octane speed-fest that motorsport fans of today can expect from competitions such as Formula 1. In The Automobile Age, the automotive expert James J. Flink notes: “Duryea’s winning average speed was less than 8 mph.” Per the Encyclopedia of Chicago, it took Duryea just under eight hours to reach the finish line.
Nevertheless, the race not only benefited business at the Duryea Motor Wagon Company, which over the following year is said to have sold 13 cars, more than any other automobile manufacturer in the U.S. The event is also widely seen as a moment when the very concept of the motor car truly arrived in America.
Per Flink, it led Thomas Edison to tell The New York World: “The horseless vehicle is the coming wonder”.
The race, Flink says, has been credited with accelerating by five years the development of the then-embryonic American automobile industry. Today, the sector is estimated to be worth more than $1.5 trillion to the U.S. economy each year.
In his book Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886-1930, the automobile historian G. N. Georgano agrees that the event “brought the car to the attention of the American public”. “Within three years,” Georgano continues, “more than a hundred cars were made for sale. By 1900, the figure was over 2,500.”
Related stories
Get your game on! Whether you’re into NFL touchdowns, NBA buzzer-beaters, world-class soccer goals, or MLB home runs, our app has it all.
Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more – plus, stay updated on the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.