San Carlos’ time in the spotlight of car racing

The Redwood City Standard said the opening race took place in “beautiful, ideal” weather. The race, claimed Chamber of Commerce President Asa Hull, would give San Carlos “unlimited advertising.” The winner was Jimmy Murphy whose Duesenberg completed 200 laps at an average speed of 111.8 mph. Murphy beat 13 other drivers to win $7,000 ($89,000 today) of the $25,000 total purse.

The advance publicity about the opening race drew crowds to the mechanics garages on Main Street in Redwood City to see the racing cars that included the French Ballot automobile of driver Ralph DePalma who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1915. He and Murphy had raced earlier in the famed Le Mans Grand Prix, which Murphy also won. De Palma was the favorite in the San Carlos race. He was not only expected to win, he was also expected to break the world speed record. Although he passed Murphy in the 20th lap, brake problems caused him to lose time at pit stops. He finished nine minutes behind Murphy.

The track was the work of Jack Prince, who designed some of the nation’s foremost speedways, among them a highly successful one in Beverly Hills. Prince said the San Carlos track was his best, predicting it would provide the fastest surface. Four million board feet of timber was used to build the race track which featured seating tiers that were 1,800 feet in length and 30 feet high. One-inch by 8-inch boards were placed edgewise for the racing track.

Prince was disappointed by Murphy’s time, but pointed out that the drivers had little practice time on the new track. Old-timer Barney Oldfield, a racing legend, visited the track prior to the race and said the drivers were suffering from the nervous strain of the final championship race of the year.

Two more auto races, plus some motorcycle events, were held at the San Carlos venue before the fire in 1922 burned most of the track. The motorcycle races included the May 14, 1922, Championship Motorcycle Race won by Ralph Hepburn who rode an Indian bike at 100 mph over 50 miles.

The New York Times reported that the June blaze caused $200,000 damage, meaning the track was a total loss. The oil from the race cars had saturated the wooden track, aiding the speed of the spreading flames that originated in a grass fire. Prince planned to rebuild, but in 1923 the land was sold and what was left of the Greater San Francisco Speedway was demolished.

Why was the track christened “San Francisco” when it was on the Peninsula? One reason may have been that at the time there was a “Greater San Francisco” movement that hoped to make San Francisco akin to New York with the surrounding regions mere districts or boroughs.

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.