Who Invented the Infield Road Course?

A few weeks ago, I received a press release trying to build anticipation for the 50th running of the 24 Hours of Daytona sports car race, which doesn’t even take place until January, 2012 at Daytona International Speedway.

The release traced the history – which is long and proud – of auto racing in the Daytona area, dating to 1903 and land speed record runs on the hard-packed sands of Ormond Beach. After the Depression, stock car and motorcycles races were held at Daytona Beach on a course that incorporated beach sand and the adjacent paved highway.

By 1953, Bill France had begun lobbying local politicians for permits to build a permanent superspeedway, which opened in 1959. While France’s primary focus was American stock car racing, he also wanted a venue for other forms of motorsport so, according to the press release, he “devised a revolution concept and constructed an infield road course, perfect for major sports car and motorcycle racing,” the press release proclaims.

Throw the black flag! Someone needs to go to the pits for at least a stop-and-go penalty. Bill France did not invent the infield road course. I remember seeing a photograph of the original plan for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a track that opened in 1909, and those plans included an infield road course.

Three years earlier, construction had begun in England on the Brooklands, a high-banked and kidney-shaped track that incorporated an infield road course within its narrower end.”

In 1922, a track was constructed at Monza, Italy (see the image above), that incorporated road-racing and oval tracks that shared a pit straightaway. In 1957 and 1958 the famed Race of Two Worlds, pitting American and European cars and drivers against each other, was contested on Monza’s oval.

P.S. – That race in January, 2012 will not be the 50th running of a 24-hour race at Daytona. The 1962 and 1963 races were three hours in duration. In 1964 and 1965, the distance was 2000 kilometers. It wasn’t until 1966 that the sports car raced twice ‘round the clock.

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Photo Credit: Waldo Pepper