On November 28, 1895, Frank Duryea wins the first motor-car race
in the United States, a 54-mile loop along the lakeshore from
Chicago to Waukegan and back again. The race was a harrowing one
--It was held during one of Chicago’s great snowstorms, and the
contestants’ cars got stuck in snowdrifts, slid into other
vehicles and stalled repeatedly. Duryea, who completed the race
in 10 hours and 23 minutes, traveled at an average speed of 5
1/4 miles per hour. The world’s first "moto-cycle" race, an
80-mile jaunt from Paris to Rouen in July 1894, had clearly
demonstrated the merits of the Daimler gasoline motor--though 12
of the 46 cars that started the race were steam-powered, none of
the finishers were--and had generated a great deal of publicity
for the horseless carriage. Herman H. Kohlstaat, the publisher
of the Chicago Times-Herald and a tireless booster of the
newfangled automotive technology, decided to drum up interest in
the motor wagon by sponsoring a similar race. More than 80
people entered, most of w