Many of you may remember the 1965 movie The Great Race by Blake Edwards staring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood, and Peter Falk. The Movie was based on an actual race which occurred in 1908, where the new fangled motorcar was raced from New York City to Paris. This year is the 110 anniversary of The Great Race and as in 1908 the race stopped here in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
A luncheon was planned at the Historic Plains Hotel where the menu was as close to what was served to the original racers in 1908. There were Oysters Rockefeller, a turkey sandwich, tomato salad, sweet potato fries and chocolate cake. It was reported to be 70% accurate.
During the meal Jeff Mahl, the great grandson of George Schuster (more on him in a bit), spoke to us about The Great Race of 1908 and revealed some very interesting side bar stories.
“The Great Auto Race of 1908” was an international event with six cars entered with teams representing Germany, Italy, France and the United States.
Teddy Roosevelt was our president at the time and made sure there was a United States entry. The United States entry was the Thomas Flyer built by E. R. Thomas Company of Buffalo, New York. Montague Roberts was the driver and George Schuster, then chief mechanic and road tester for E.R. Thomas, as the mechanic. He would later become the driver and finish the race.
Jeff Mahl was lucky enough to hear the stories first hand from his great grandfather. It was 48 hours before the start of the race Schuster was told he was to be the mechanic and to get to New York.
The 1907 Thomas Flyer weighed five-thousand pounds, had a 4-cylinder, 60 horsepower engine and could reach speeds of 60 mph.
As it was Spring as they crossed Nebraska, the terrain was rather muddy. When arriving in one town the local fire department was called out to an emergency. The emergency was to use the firehoses to wash the mud off the cars.
When the race arrived in Cheyenne they were treated by 16,000 people. Schuster had a rife, shotgun, and a 32 cal pistol. There was a fear that buffalo would attack the cars, Schuster was taken to a local gun shop and a .45 cal pistol was purchased for buffalo protection.
As the race came to the outskirts of Paris they were greeted by a Gendarme who was collecting a tax on the petrol in the vehicles. The officer noticed a headlight was broken on the Thomas Flyer and would not allow the vehicle to proceed. Along comes a bicyclist and learn of the Thomas Flyer’s predicament and offers his bicycle light. Unable to remove the light from the bicycle, the bicycle was mounted on the Thomas Flyer and was allowed to proceed. The bicycle was still attached when the Thomas Flyer crossed the finish line.
Starting on February 12, 1908, 22,000 miles and 169 days later, on July 30, George Schuster crossed the finish line in first place. He was the only driver to complete the full route and the first to drive across the United States by auto in winter.
Of the six vehicles which started only three finished, these were the US, German and Italian entries.
In the movie The Great Race, there was a good bit of shenanigans portrayed, and yes there were shenanigans in the real race.
After this group arrives in San Francisco there are plans to continue on and cross Asia to Paris. Their progress can be followed at http://www.2018nytoparis.com/home.html
Interestingly, we learned there had been a 4 mile auto race track here in Cheyenne built in 1909. Yes, this was before Indianapolis and hosted drivers like Barney Oldfield and Eddie Rickenbacker. The track lost popularity after a driver was killed on the course when he hit a cow.
The race winning 1907 Thomas Flyer was identified by George Schuster and became part of Harrah’s collection after restoration. Jeff Mahl told me Harrah’s had the Walt Disney Company do the restoration. It is now on display at The National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.
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