The Fairmount Park Motor Races, 1908-1911

For four years in the early 1900s, the Fairmount Park Motor Races were run on an eight-mile course in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park. They drew half a million spectators the first year but surprisingly have largely been overlooked as part of automobile racing history. There were never any serious injuries and not a single death but after four years the event was banned, with safety concerns cited. Both the on-track action and the off-track events that affected the races are described as are the successful crusade to stop the races and the attempts to revive it in the years following.