By Brenda Williams
Automotive racing began, as a speed competition to see which make of car was the fastest. It was a powerful marketing tool for automotive manufacturers as the one with a winning car could expect dramatic increases in sales. Later, however, another form of motor sport developed, the endurance race. It differed from earlier events in that it was designed to test not just speed, but also the dependability of the machine. This competition would determine many factors about a car. Could it hold together when driven continuously at high speeds? Could it do this over public roads? And could it do this in both nighttime and daytime? The one important difference between endurance racing and other motor sports is the requirement for driving at night.
The first endurance competition was held in England as the first event on the newly completed closed circuit track, Brooklands. The race was sparked by Selwyn Edge, a British Napier dealer, who publicly announced that he and his team would drive continuously around the track for twenty-four hours at sixty miles per hour without a rest stop.
Edge was able to accomplish this. However, his achievement aroused the anger of the residents living near the court. The result was the innovation of The Double Twelve. In this event, drivers would race on one day from eight in the morning until eight at night. The cars would then be locked in for the night to be sure there would be no attempts at maintenance. They would race the following day, again from eight until eight.
In 1923, the Automobile Club of Sarthe in France established the first 24 hours of LeMans. It began on May 26, 1923 at four in the afternoon and ended at the same time on the following day. This competition differed from Brooklands in that part of the race was on public roads. Supposedly the desire to establish the dependability of headlights played a leading part in the organization of the event. While headlights, like many other accessories are taken for granted today, they were in their babyhood back then. With the exception of the World War II years and 1936, this is now an annual event. However, when LeMans was the scene of one of motor sports’ worst accidents in 1955, some regulations were changed and new ones implemented to improve safety.
The United States also organized endurance races, notably the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Over the years, these two races together with the 24 Hours of LeMans have come to be recognized as the most challenging of all and have earned the designation of ‘The Triple Crown.’ A Porsche 962 was the last car to win it in 1986. However, in 2003, Daytona made significant changes in the regulations and it is now impossible, because of the new car rules, for one racing car to claim the Crown. However, a driver can still win all three events and the first one to do this was the famous American racer, A. J. Foyt.