The Chicagoland MG Club had its First Annual (we hope) America's First Race
Centenial Celebration today on the 101st aniversary of the first automobile
race in America. We met at the historical marker denoting the event at the
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago at 10:00 am, accompanied by a news
crew video-taping the event for later broadcast.
For the historical significance, the original race had (best as I recall from
the marker) six cars, four with gasoline engines and two electric. The race
(if you can call it that) ran from the south side of Chicago to Winettka (44
miles) and returned to the starting point. The event was won by Dureyea with
a gasoline powered car. His elapsed time was 7 hours 53 minutes, for an
average speed just over 11 mph.
For our first celebration of this event we had 5 MGs enjoying the open air
(not to mention 1 VW), a chrome bumper MGB roadster, a rubber bumper MGB
roadster, a MGBGT, a MGC roadster, and one MGA roadster. All the MGs were
going topless today (the GT had the windows down) in honor of the original
contestants. My thermometer in Naperville (27 miles west) was reading 26dF
at 9am, 35dF at 4 pm, and the weather was sunny and calm, a near perfect day
for a top down cruise. After the news crew was finished doing their thing,
the MGs cruised off to a local restaraunt for lunch.
So guys, happy Thanksgiving, and where's the next event?
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA
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