Mystery Foto #32 Solved: The 1905 Locomobile taking a practice run in Bridgeport for the 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup
The Helck Family Collection challenged to identify this weekend's Mystery Foto.
Answers to the Mystery Foto questions:
Identify:
- The location of the Mystery Foto.
The Locomobile factory at Bridgeport , Connecticut
- The race car and its driver
The 1905 Locomobile racer driven by Joe Tracy. Article courtesy of https://www.firstsuperspeedway.com .
- The month and year of the Mystery Foto
June 1905
Kudos question: What race was the racer practicing for?
The 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup in France and, later, the 1905 American Elimination Trial and Vanderbilt Cup Race. Article courtesy of https://www.firstsuperspeedway.com
In the Gordon Bennett Cup, driver Joe Tracy stripped two of the four forward gears and the #18 Locomobile was retired from the Gordon Bennett Cup with only a couple laps under its belt.
Comments (2)
Congrats to Steve Lucas and Dick Gordon for identifying Joe Tracy practicing the Locomobile at the Bridgeport factory.
No kudos since everyone missed the 1905 date and preparations for the 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup in France.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Caption on reverse side of the photo:
Locomobile Factory Bridgeport Conn
1st Trial of racing car built
for Gordon Bennett Race, France 1905
This about June 1905
Close-Ups
Locomobile Factory, Bridgeport, CT
The corner turn in the Mystery Foto can be seen in this photo of the factory.
Comments
I’m fairly certain that’s the Locomobile factory in Bridgeport, CT. so the car is probably a Locomobile. The rest is just a series of educated guesses. Since the photo is from the Helck collection, could that be Joe Tracy driving in September of 1906 in preparation for the 1906 American Elimination Trials?
Mystery Foto #31… The Foto was taken at the Locomobile factory at Seaside Park in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The race car is a Locomobile (probably Old 16 before it was numbered) as driven by Joe Tracy.
Photo date could be September or October of 1906.
Probably practicing for Vanderbilt Cup race.
One of the earliest hot-rodding events anywhere in the world, this time in Connecticut in 1905, during the infancy of motoring.