6 replies to this topic

[Hans Etzrodt]

Introductory clarifications:

• 1– The ACA (Automobile Club of America), a wealthy snobbish New York-based organization, was formed in 1901.
  2 – The AAA (American Automobile Association) was formed in 1902 through the ACA. An AAA Executive Committee was formed by one representative of each of seven little clubs.
  3 – The ACA was recognized as the national club of the USA and awarded a seat in the prestigious AIACR.
  4 – The AIACR (forerunner of the FIA) was founded on June 20, 1904, when a meeting of the International Automobile Clubs was held in Homburg (Germany) and the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR) was formed at this meeting. In addition to the German Automobile Club, the founding members of the AIACR were the Automobile Clubs of France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, America, Russia, Denmark and Portugal, who all took part in the meeting.
  5 – In 1926 America was represented in the AIACR by the ACA, which at that time had nothing at all to say in America, while the mighty AAA with its 800,000 members was everything, and denied any influence in international sporting matters.[/list=1] Recognition:
  It took the two American affiliations (ACA and AAA) until October 1926 to reach an agreement at the AIACR meeting in Paris that spells out exactly their individual future sporting responsibilities as follows: The ACA for Europe, the AAA for America, meaning, the AAA expressed their approval that the ACA alone will officially represent America at the European races. In reverse, the ACA agreed that the AAA exercises supreme sporting power in America.
  
  Questions:
  [list]
• Which exactly were the authorities (ACA or AIACR) that had sufficient clout to always prevent the AAA recognition by the AIACR, something the AAA had tried to accomplish in the years prior to 1926?
• In 1926, M. Hogan was the ACA delegate at the AIACR, a job he held also in 1924, when he was elected as one of the AIACR Executive Committee Vice Presidents. Who were the ACA delegates in the years prior to 1924 all the way back to 1904?
• W.F. Bradley was the AAA Contest Board’s first delegate in 1910/11 at the AIACR, a job he held until 1937. How could he be AAA delegate before 1926 if this club was not recognized at the AIACR? He also represented the interest of the Indy 500 Race Director Pop Meyers in Europe. WFB also secured the uncertain Duesenberg team entry for the 1921 French Grand Prix. What was W.F. Bradley’s influence at the AIACR meetings before 1926, if any?

Sources: Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung (Wien) --- AUTOMOBIL-REVUE (Bern) --- Griff Borgeson and Russ Catlin in Automobile Quarterly (Kutztown)

[Don Capps]

Introductory clarifications:

• 1– The ACA (Automobile Club of America), a wealthy snobbish New York-based organization, was formed in 1901.
  2 – The AAA (American Automobile Association) was formed in 1902 through the ACA. An AAA Executive Committee was formed by one representative of each of seven little clubs.
  3 – The ACA was recognized as the national club of the USA and awarded a seat in the prestigious AIACR.
  4 – The AIACR (forerunner of the FIA) was founded on June 20, 1904, when a meeting of the International Automobile Clubs was held in Homburg (Germany) and the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR) was formed at this meeting. In addition to the German Automobile Club, the founding members of the AIACR were the Automobile Clubs of France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, America, Russia, Denmark and Portugal, who all took part in the meeting.
  5 – In 1926 America was represented in the AIACR by the ACA, which at that time had nothing at all to say in America, while the mighty AAA with its 800,000 members was everything, and denied any influence in international sporting matters.[/list=1] Recognition:
  It took the two American affiliations (ACA and AAA) until October 1926 to reach an agreement at the AIACR meeting in Paris that spells out exactly their individual future sporting responsibilities as follows: The ACA for Europe, the AAA for America, meaning, the AAA expressed their approval that the ACA alone will officially represent America at the European races. In reverse, the ACA agreed that the AAA exercises supreme sporting power in America.

1. The ACA was formed in NYC in 1899. It was the entrant for Alexander Winton for the I Coupe Internationale Automobile in 1900.

2. The formation of the AAA was not done "through the ACA." Indeed, the AAA was formed as an antithesis to the ACA. The seven original member clubs of the AAA were not necessarily all "small." The basis for forming the association was to create a means for lobbying aganst the livery industry.

3 & 4. Having been recognized as the de facto national automobile club for America since the running of the first Gordon Bennett event in 1900, along with its focus being more external than internal, it would have been a surprise had the ACA not been the American representative.

5. Simply the result of a long-running feud that even when it became irrelevant, continued to have consequences.

I have the report submitted to the AAA Contest Board as printed in its Official Bulletin. I can scan it and make it available.

Questions:
[list]

Which exactly were the authorities (ACA or AIACR) that had sufficient clout to always prevent the AAA recognition by the AIACR, something the AAA had tried to accomplish in the years prior to 1926?

In 1926, M. Hogan was the ACA delegate at the AIACR, a job he held also in 1924, when he was elected as one of the AIACR Executive Committee Vice Presidents. Who were the ACA delegates in the years prior to 1924 all the way back to 1904?

W.F. Bradley was the AAA Contest Board’s first delegate in 1910/11 at the AIACR, a job he held until 1937. How could he be AAA delegate before 1926 if this club was not recognized at the AIACR? He also represented the interest of the Indy 500 Race Director Pop Meyers in Europe. WFB also secured the uncertain Duesenberg team entry for the 1921 French Grand Prix. What was W.F. Bradley’s influence at the AIACR meetings before 1926, if any?

Sources: Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung (Wien) --- AUTOMOBIL-REVUE (Bern) --- Griff Borgeson and Russ Catlin in Automobile Quarterly (Kutztown)

** The clout obviously belonged to the ACA whose membership as a founding member of the AIACR made it a solid member of the club. The AIACR deferred to each country to designate its ACN and in America that was not subject to the government or head of state. The ACA was in place and in possession of the seat. However, the AAA membership by the early 1920's dwarfed that of the ACA. Also, the problems that reached back to January 1904 and the decision of W.K. Vanderbilt II to ask the AAA Racing Committee to sanction the running of his Cup in October of that year, a decision to which the ACA strenuously objected long and loud. The subsequent agreement which saw that the ACA and the AAA working together on the subsequent Cup events did not resolve the problems between the two organizations, it only forced them to work together because WKV II made them. The running of the I Grand Prize of the ACA at Savannah in 1908 is proof of the ill-will which still bubbled beneath the surface in the realtionship of the two clubs.

** I do not recall seeing a complete list of ACA delegates to the AIACR, but I do remember seeing a few names mentioned in various places and sources. I will have to see if I can dredge any of them up to the surface.

** I don't think that you could refer to W.F. Bradley as a "delegate" to the AIACR since only the ACA could send delegates to that august body whose presence would be recognized and allowed to speak and serve on the various committees. It could be inferred that the creation of the CSI in 1922 served as a catalyst for renewed AAA efforts to pressure the ACA -- and the AIACR -- that the AAA play a role in the AIACR. After WWI, the AAA was the major force in American automobile racing as well as being the most important automobile club in the country.

As for Bradley and Pop Myers, they played a role in attracting European entries to the International Sweepstakes. Using his leverage to provide "opportunities" for the European teams, any influence Bradley (and Meyers, of course) had was strictly Unofficial with the AIACR. In the years prior to and in the immediate aftermath of The Great War, America provided a a market for European racing machines and a place for the European teams to harvest some low-hanging fruit on occasion. The 1921 formula that the AIACR and the ACF used was the only that the AAA Contest Board and the IMS had devised for 1920. So, any influence by Bradley was strictly on a business level and not on an official level.

This is all off the top of my head, but once I get home I will see what else I can find. I think I covered some of this in RVM colums in early 2002.

[Hans Etzrodt]

Originally posted by Don Capps
...5. Simply the result of a long-running feud that even when it became irrelevant, continued to have consequences.

I have the report submitted to the AAA Contest Board as printed in its Official Bulletin. I can scan it and make it available...

Don thanks a lot for straightening out my distortions. I was not aware that information by Russ Catlin carried inaccuracies. I never thought about checking Albert Bochroch's account, which is entirely my fault. I would definitely be interested in your scan.

[Don Capps]

I will have the report scanned and on its way this afternoon as soon as I get home.

As for the Russ Catlin information, you have to keep in mind that you have to think about it in the frame of "omission rather than commision." Once you dig into Bochroch and other materials, you get a more complete picture and begin to fill in the many blanks that Catlin leaves. However, having said that, in many areas Catlin provides some background that is a huge help in beginning to sort things out. One other help has been the AAA microfilm which, while far from complete, has been invaluable in being able to shed some light on the events as they were perceived at that level.

I think that you have posed an essential question and one which few have bothered to even consider. Note that after the AAA delegation visited Paris, the ACA assumed the role that the AAA -- speaking of an irony! -- has today with the FIA: the element of the ACN which concerns itself with those matters relating to tourism and automobiles. The ACCUS is the ASN, its focus being solely within those area dealing with the sporting powers of the FIA. In the 1927/1928 timeframe, the AAA Contest Board assumed those powers given to the ASN within a country. Consider for a moment that Pop Meyers had both the front door and the back door covered at the CSI after the mid-1920s....

The issues of the RVM which covered some of this were in the 30 January 2002 (ACA) and 13 February 2002 (AAA, part 1) editions.

[Hans Etzrodt]

Originally posted by Don Capps
...The issues of the RVM which covered some of this were in the 30 January 2002 (ACA) and 13 February 2002 (AAA, part 1) editions.

Don, I cannot access this site, since I have no membership there due to the fact that I do very little reading of F1 stuff. Is it possible for you -if not too much work- to please extract the relevant portion and show it here?

[Don Capps]

Hans, I am emailing some information to you concerning this issue: copies of the RVM articles from my collection; "Settlement of the International Racing Controversy" from the Official Bulletin of the AAA Contest Board of 2 November 1926; and, "Report on Meeting of International Sporting Commission at Paris, October 11" in the 14 November edition of the Contest Board Bulletin. Both AAA items are in Acrobat PDF format and available to anyone interested.

In early 1926, the AIACR adopted a by-law which permitted the ACN to allow that club to delegate its racing authority to another club/organization, including membership on the CSI. The "Settlement" contains exactly that -- the agreement between the ACA and the AAA regarding the AIACR. Very Interesting! I had not read it in a good while and had forgotten portions of it.

"1. The American Automobile Association recognizes the Automobile Club of America as the sole American representative of the International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs in the United States."

"4. The Automobile Club of America agrees that the American Automobile Association shall be the sole representative for the Automobile Club of America in all automobile races held in the United States which may require the sanction or come under the jurisdiction of the International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs, and both parties agree to apply the general rules and appendices thereto of the said International Association."

"5. The Automobile Club of America, as sole representative of the International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs in the United States hereby grants an exclusive sanction to the American Automobile Association to conduct national automobile racing in the United States to the end that records made in such races have official recognition throughout the world."

It also states the ACA will have two members on the AAA Contest Board and the AAA Contest Board will nominate the two members for the International Racing Commission (CSI). The representatives are: E.V. Rickenbacker and Ernest N. Smith. Smith as the AAA Contest Board General Manager, by the way.

Hope this helps.

[Hans Etzrodt]

Don - thanks for all your good information and your exceptional e-mail attachments. It will take a while to digest it all but for now I will extract a small part of the information to better understand certain aspects of AAA involvement with the ACI and AIACR in 1925.