This day (June 25, 2006) it is exactly 100 years since the first Grand Prix was held. Of course there had been races before, notably the Gordon Bennet Races. After the French team had won the last Gordon Bennet cup in 1905, they had to organize the next one, but they refused because they thought the rules didn’t work in their favour. Therefore the French designed a new set of rules that favoured the commercial and individual interests before the national interest. This first Grand Prix was held on the Circuit de la Sarthe, a more than 100 kilometre long track west of the city of Le Mans. Held over two days, 6 laps each day, it was won by the Hungarian driver Ferenc Szisz after driving a gruelling 1236 kilometres. A full report of this race has been written by Leif Snellman on the Forix website. The French artist Jean-Marie Guivarc’h has made several beautiful watercolours of this race of which you see above one of the Itala’s that didn’t finish. He also made one of Ferenc Szisz’ winning Renault AK (below).











June 25, 2006