Quote:
Originally posted by Vitesse
You don't count that thing they ran beteween 1908 and 1916 then? "American Grand Prize" they called it ...
.... Savannah, Milwaukee, Santa Monica and San Francisco.
Or the one at Riverside in 1958? Of course, that was for sports cars ...
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Wading into muddied waters is always an adventure and few waters seem to be more muddied than those surrounding much of the American racing scene and its history.
The ACA Gold Cup or Grand Prize events were last run in 1916 at Santa Monica. During the Winter of 1916/1917 Willie Vanderbilt let the Motor Cups Commission that he was withdrawing the Vanderbilt Cup from competition for the time being, war or no war. The ACA followed by suspending the Grand Prize event for the duration of the war, but plans to revive the event never got past the discussion stages in the aftermath of the Great War. So, both the Gold Cup and the WK Vanderbilt Jr Cup passed into history as they say.
Alec Ulmann for his own reasons and with malice aforethought dubbed the 1958 Riverside race as the "I United States Grand Prix" or the "I United States Grand Prix for Sports Cars" -- both were used in race literature and the latter was the most common useage inn the material prepared by the promoter himself, Ulmann.
When Ulmann did this, he was one of several promoters vying for a potential American round in the CSI's World Championship for Drivers that the ACCUS was angling for with the CSI. The major competition was the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Corporation which Cameron Argetsinger head up. Both held rounds in the inaugural USAC Road Racing Championship in 1958, but Ulmann was clever enough to incorporate into the name of the Riverside event what was his real target -- the "United States Grand Prix".
Based upon the success of the 1958 Riverside event, Ulmann got the support within the ACCUS to get the nod for the final event of the CSI WCD calendar for 1959, which Ulmann held at his track at Sebring. Ulman dubbed the Sebring event the "II United States Grand Prix" and the ACCUS gave him the appropriate head nod and so it kept the "II" in the race title. The 1959 race at Sebring was a financial disaster and the same with the running of the "III USGP" at Riverside in 1960.
In 1961, Ulmann had the right from the ACCUS to promote the "IV USGP". However, the financial problems in the form of the many outstanding debts, unpaid teams, and general disgruntlement led the ACCUS to put some pressure on Ulmann to either make good the debts or else. Ulmann held on the rights to promote the USGP until August. Watkins Glen already had a spot on the International CSI calendar for its October libre race.
After Ulmann relingusihed the right to the race, the ACCUS put it up for bid and Watkins Glen got the race and scrambled to host the event on the first weekend in October as the "IV USGP".
As for the Grand Prize lineage not being taken up, there is not much on the record at the time as to why that was not done, but piecing things together it becomes apparent that it was probably an option that was noever seriously considered.
The Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, and Dallas events were all "City" races each one being the "Grand Prix of the City". The second Long Beach GP, 1976, is a bit of a muddied and muddled race since it was assumed to be the "I USGP west" when the 1977 race was the "III Grand Prix of Long Beach". However, I have come to the conclusion that most seem content to ignore such untidy tidbits and call it whatever the hell they want to call it. The "I Grand Prix of Long Beach" in 1975 was for F5000 cars so those being unworthy in the eyes of the F1 crowd this event is generally ignored as is the minor problem that Long Beach never hosted a USGP.
Nor do we even wish to bring up the USGPs held at The Meadowlands in 1984 and 1985....