The Fairmount Park Motor Races, 1908-1911

For four years in the early 1900s, the Fairmount Park Motor Races were run on an eight-mile course in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park. They drew half a million spectators the first year but surprisingly have largely been overlooked as part of automobile racing history. There were never any serious injuries and not a single death but after four years the event was banned, with safety concerns cited. Both the on-track action and the off-track events that affected the races are described as are the successful crusade to stop the races and the attempts to revive it in the years following.

Michael J. Seneca is a member of the Society of Automotive Historians, the Organization of American Historians and the National Council on Public History. He lives in Glendora, New Jersey.