Sanctioning in American races

What was the reason for races sanctioning and drivers permissions in America in the fifties and earlier?

As I can see most of tracks had particular sanctioning body and drivers used to race only in event sanctioned by particular body. I know AAA, IMCA, ACA, NASCAR, ARCA. What else?

SCCA
Or aren't you including road racing?

It doesn't matter. I want to understand principle.

Originally posted by Kvadrat
I want to understand principle.

A very, very abbreviated version of an answer:

American sanctioning bodies were terriorial in both the figurative and literal sense. Sanctioning bodies were often in competition with one another and it was in their best interest to bind the best possible talent to their organization and series. This meant that there was an extraordinary level of animosity between the groups during the 1950s and 1960s: NASCAR and AAA -- and later USAC -- could barely stand being in the same country together much less the room. The AAA and IMCA were scarcely at each other's throats by this time, but they were scarcely buddies. The USAC and the SCCA had a long series of battles that were centered on the nature of road racing at the upper levels -- amateur or professional on one level, but really who would be THE leader in that area on another level.

IMCA was the result of promoters of events at the State Fair tracks finally getting tired of the AAA so they struck out on their own. The AAA always considered IMCA an "outlaw" organization and never hesitated to punish AAA drivers who strayed over to that side of the fence. The myriad other sprint and midget organizations were really small potatos and so generally operated below the noise level, although they did much the same as the AAA and IMCA did with drivers -- using suspensions and so forth to discipline them.

The Automobile Club of America (ACA) and the AAA had a relationship that might be best described as Very Nasty. The ACA never quite recovered from its shock that Willie Vanderbilt picked the AAA Racing Board to sanction his Cup and not them. This led to no end of bitter fights twix the ACA and the AAA with the Grand Prize race being one result and the complete decline of the ACA in racing being another. By the mid-20s the AAA had even replaced the ACA on the CSI, its last holdout in the racing world.

NASCAR was one of merely a number of organizations sanctioning stock car racing in the late-40s. By the mid-50s it had absorbed or destroyed any real competition.

Not as good an answer as I would like, but a start since others will chime in....

No mention of ACCUS?

It became the umbrella for them all, the link between the rest and the FIA. I think I've got that right...

Yet another thread that needs the input of Michael Argetsinger. But I think he's done something on some of this before. Maybe a search using his name would help?

Originally posted by Ray Bell
No mention of ACCUS?

That is another whole kettle of fish and one that Mike was very familiar with. John Bishop and I spoke about this very issue for many hours when I visited him in Florida about two-and-a-half years ago. It was quite illuminating, to say the least. Mike father, Cameron, is another wealth of knowledge for this topic.

Bishop told me that NASCAR and USAC would argue for the first half hour or so of the ACCUS meetings, especially when Big Bill France and Henry Banks would attend. After that they would get down to business.

When the AAA Contest Board closed shop at the end of 1955, the US literally did not have a voice at the CSI since during 1956 since the Contest Board was the US member on the CSI. The AAA basically did nothing that year and the USAC, which had expected -- indeed anticipated -- to be the US member on the CSI and, therefore, the top dog of US racing was a bit miffed to find that its ascension to the throne was covered with banana peels.

The ACCUS was the solution to the US situation since there was no way that any of the other organizations, NASCAR and the SCCA and later the NHRA, would let the USAC be the voice of American racing.

The ACCUS was a compromise and one that has withstood the test of time and actually works, albeit not always smoothly at times.

US racing has always been the scene of dogfights, from the big ACA versus AAA one in 1904 to the enduring IRL versus CART/CCWS one. Indeed, it is much easier to note the absence of strife than to record the wars.

Can I ask a very basic question: What does "Sanctioning body" actually mean? How does it differ from the "Organising club"?

My understanding would be that the sanctioning body allows the race to go ahead to its rules, and possibly provides the officials, whereas the organising club puts on the race and sorts out the rest of the logistics.

So, for instance, in the UK today, most domestic series are sanctioned by the MSA, but will be organised by BARC, BRSCC, BRDC, CCMRC or whomever.

Correct term for America, I think, was "promoter", not "organizing club".

Is it correct that if some promoter wanted to organize a race he should choose sanctioning body to be sure that he will take on proper number of participants? And driver should choose sanctioning body to be allowed to race.

D-Type

Maybe the best way to answer your question is that the Organising Club of your question picks up the classes and rule book form somebody. Certainly in places like UK and Oz there has always been some form of umbrella group by which BRDC, BARC, AARC,ARDC et al would run their events.

In the US it was the Sanctioning Body that set classes and rule book and in most cases collected season points for some form of "championship".

At the heart of most of the arguements was a combination of money, employment and ego driven territory, (geographic and type/style of racing). Maintaining control of the "best" drivers was also an issue. A name driver never, well practically never, switched sides. Sometimes a few aliases were used to protect one's livlihood.

The stock car racers, roudy round open wheelers and road racers really were different folk trying to make their "thing" more viable.

Hope this helps explain.

Regards

Philadelphia Midget Racing in the 30's and early 40's.

Very interesting story on two Philadelphia's speedways - Yellow Jacket Speedway and National Speedway - and their switching from AAA to Central States Racing Association for sanctioning.