ABSTRACT
Although the British played a central role in the development of many modern sports, they cannot lay claim to having instigated or nurtured the early development of motor racing. Instead it was in France, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that the initial creation and popularization of motor racing took place. Not only, for example, were the majority of important early races organized and regulated by the Automobile Club de France (ACF), but these races were also dominated by French racing cars and French racing drivers. However while the French might have dominated the early history of motor racing, the British did make an important and lasting contribution to the development of the sport. This was achieved by successfully organizing the 1903 Gordon-Bennett cup race, the first significant motor race to take place in the British Isles. What was notable about this race, and in sharp contrast to the Paris to Madrid race which had taken place just a few weeks earlier, was that the Gordon-Bennett cup race took place without the loss of any competitor or spectator lives. While the Paris-Madrid race was abandoned after the first day, and the very existence of motor racing as a publicly acceptable sport was being seriously questioned throughout much of Europe, the safe organization of the Gordon-Bennett cup race, as Montgomery (2000) suggests, saved motor racing from the possibilities of being banished into extinction during the very infancy of its development.
