Chicago 1895
   The 1895 Chicago Times-Herald race was the first organized automobile race in the United States, held on a cold Thanksgiving Day of November 1895. Conceived by publisher Herman H. Kohlsaat, the event covered a 54-mile round-trip course between Chicago and Evanston, Illinois. Severe winter weather and heavy snow reduced the field from over 80 registrants to just 6 starting participants: four gasoline-powered and two electric vehicles.
   The electric entries suffered battery exhaustion in the snow, leaving the gasoline cars to contest the finish.
   J. Frank Duryea won the race in an American-built Duryea Motor Wagon, completing the distance in 10 hours and 23 minutes at an average speed of 5 mph. Oscar Mueller was the only other driver to complete the course, finishing 24 minutes later. The event included the first formal vehicle testing using a dynamometer, providing empirical data that stimulated early American automotive engineering and validated gasoline propulsion in North America. 
   Some must have said that these were “Days of Snow and Blunder”, but in the end this was the real first American automobile race, showing the potential of these horseless carriages. A wonderfull summary on the Times-Herald race can be found on “Racing Nellie Bly”: racingnelliebly.com/weirdscience/first-american-car-race