November 27, 1911
(Photo; vanderbiltcupraces.com)
Ralph Mulford drives a Lozier to victory in the first Vanderbilt Cup race to be held in Savannah, Georgia, USA.
The first race organized by Vanderbilt was held on dirt roads on Long Island and moved to Savannah in 1911. Savannah welcomed the racers, holding lavish parties and improving the circuit that AAA’s Fred Wagner called, “the finest road course in the world.” More banking was added to the turns, and the course was straightened and widened where possible. American road racing had found a new home.
The crowd erupted when Smilin’ Ralph Mulford, dressed in a bright white sweater in the nearly stock white 51 hp Lozier, finished over 2 minutes ahead of the famous Mercedes of Ralph DePalma in 2nd, and nearly ten minutes in front of the 3rd place Mercedes of Spencer Wishart. The Lozier was basically a “stock car” with the fenders removed, meaning anyone could buy one from a dealership. The engine, transmission, suspension, steering and brakes were stock. What the crowd didn’t know is that every single part was disassembled, inspected, cleaned and polished, tested, disassembled, and inspected again. The Lozier team was carefully prepared to take the Vanderbilt Cup. The crowd didn’t care. An American stock car had defeated Europe’s mightiest purpose-built racing machines. Driving at nearly constant speed and babying his tires, Mulford covered the 291 miles at an average of 74.07 mph, missing a world record by just a few tenths.
Mulford may also have won the first Indianapolis 500, in 1911, but he didn't get credit for it. He was given the checkered flag before Ray Harroun and he took three extra laps as a precaution. When he finished the third lap, Harroun was in the winner's circle and Mulford's protests were largely ignored.
The following year, bonus money was offered to the first twelve finishers at Indy. Mulford was running tenth and last with more than 100 miles to go when Joe Dawson won the race. He was told he actually had to finish the 500 miles to collect the bonus money, so he took his time, at one point stopping to have a fried chicken dinner. Mulford finished the race nearly nine hours after it had started.
Known as the "Gumdrop Kid" because he ate gumdrops throughout his races, Mulford was the national driving champion in 1911 and 1915. A superb engineer, he dreamed of building his own passenger car, but was swindled out of more than $200,000 in one attempt to form a manufacturing company. Mulford retired from racing on tracks after 1922 but for some years continued to compete in hill climbs. At one time he held the record for both the Mount Washington and Pikes Peak climbs.
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