TheAAA Contest Board was themotorsports arm of theAmerican Automobile Association. The contest board sanctioned automobile races from 1904 until 1955, establishingAmerican Championship car racing. Modern-dayIndy car racing traces its roots directly to these AAA events.
All of the races at theIndianapolis Motor Speedway during that time period were sanctioned by AAA, including theIndianapolis 500. AAA sanctioned the1905 National Motor Car Championship, the first national championship for major auto racing. It resumed theNational Championship in 1916, and again from 1920 to 1955. It also sanctioned theVanderbilt Cup.[1]
The AAA Contest Board dissolved and decided to focus strictly on helping the automobiling public as a result of the1955 Le Mans disaster.[2]
AAA was established inChicago, Illinois on March 4, 1902. By June the same year, AAA also established the Racing Board.A. R. Pardington was appointed chairman and the board sanctioned its first race, the1904 Vanderbilt Cup held onLong Island, New York. It is unclear as to whyWilliam K. Vanderbilt had AAA sanction his race as opposed to theAutomobile Club of America (ACA), the predominant sanctioning body for U.S. racing at the time.
With the success of the racing board's experience sanctioning automobile events in 1904, the board announceda national track championship for 1905. The National Motor Car Championship was the first time in American auto racing history that a points system was used to officially decide an annual champion. From 1906 through 1915 the racing board, inexplicably, recognized no official championship seasons. It did, however, continue to sanction numerous individual events, the Vanderbilt Cup and events at theIndianapolis Motor Speedway.
In 1908, the ACA created theAmerican Grand Prize, anotherGrand Prix style race in the United States, along with the then established Vanderbilt Cup. This race started a feud between the ACA and AAA. Later in 1908 it was decided that AAA would sanction all big time racing nationally and the ACA would sanction all international events held on American soil. On December 2, 1908, AAA dissolved the Racing Board and created the Contest Board soon after. Though the rationale for this decision has been lost with time, the move was most likely done to allow AAA to oversee all automobile events and not just racing contests.[3]
TheManufacturers Contest Association (MCA) urged AAA to organize racing so American manufacturers could race mostly stock configuration cars, relevant to the needs of the general public, and ban the pure race cars being imported from Europe. The stock car style rules continued until 1916, when the Contest Board relaxed the rules allowing purpose built machines back into competition ahead of its nextofficially recognized championship season in 1916. Although AAA did not declare national champions from 1906 through 1915, the American automobile journalMotor Age published who they regarded the most outstanding American driver during the years of 1909–1915. These picks have becomede facto national champions of the day.[1]
During theFirst World War, AAA suspended the national championship and limited the number of sanctioned races as a whole. This period also saw the demise of the Vanderbilt Cup and the American Grand Prize, and the ACA folded during the war. American manufacturers saw the absence of European racers, and the relaxed rules due to no national level sanctioning, as a chance for the U.S. to catch up to the European racers who had dominated racing internationally up until that point. After the War, the Contest Board picked up the pieces and regularly held national championships from 1920 until the U.S. entered theSecond World War in 1941.
After World War I, the race car specifications for the national championship were mostly aligned with what the Indianapolis Motor Speedway wanted to run during itsMemorial Day classic, and this still holds mostly true today. AAA, again, restarted the championship with the close of the war for the 1946 season and continued uninterrupted through 1955.
On July 13, 1955, SenatorRichard Neuberger (D-OR) called for a bill to ban automobile racing after theLe Mans disaster and the1955 Indianapolis 500 fatalities. The bill did not pass, but pressure from the Senator was enough that the AAA announced on August 3, 1955 it would disband the Contest Board and cease motorsport sanctioning.[2] TheIndianapolis Motor Speedway and other Midwestern promoters formed a "Temporary Emergency Committee," later known as theUnited States Auto Club (USAC), to replace the AAA. At the international level, theAutomobile Competition Committee for the United States (ACCUS), formed in 1957 by USAC, theNational Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and theSports Car Club of America (SCCA), replaced the AAA Contest Board as the national sporting authority representative to the FIA.[4] During the last half of the Racing Boards existence they sanctioned many forms of racing such asmidgets,sprint cars,sports cars andstock cars as well as top levelchampionship car racing.[1]
| Year | Champion | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| AAA National Motor Car Championship | |||
| 1905 |  Barney Oldfield | ||
| 1906 | No official national championships | ||
| 1907 | |||
| 1908 | |||
| 1909 | |||
| 1910 | |||
| 1911 | |||
| 1912 | |||
| 1913 | |||
| 1914 | |||
| 1915 | |||
| Year | AAA National Championship | ||
| 1916 |  Dario Resta | ||
| 1917 | No official national championships (World War I/flu pandemic) | ||
| 1918 | |||
| 1919 | |||
| 1920 |  Gaston Chevrolet | ||
| 1921 | Tommy Milton | ||
| 1922 | Jimmy Murphy | ||
| 1923 | Eddie Hearne | ||
| 1924 | Jimmy Murphy | ||
| 1925 | Pete DePaolo | ||
| 1926 | Harry Hartz | ||
| 1927 | Pete DePaolo | ||
| 1928 | Louis Meyer | ||
| 1929 | Louis Meyer | ||
| 1930 | Billy Arnold | ||
| 1931 | Louis Schneider | ||
| 1932 | Bob Carey | ||
| 1933 | Louis Meyer | ||
| 1934 | Bill Cummings | ||
| 1935 | Kelly Petillo | ||
| 1936 | Mauri Rose | ||
| 1937 | Wilbur Shaw | ||
| 1938 | Floyd Roberts | ||
| 1939 | Wilbur Shaw | ||
| 1940 | Rex Mays | ||
| 1941 | Rex Mays | ||
| 1942 | No automobile racing held due toWorld War II | ||
| 1943 | |||
| 1944 | |||
| 1945 | |||
| 1946 | Ted Horn | ||
| 1947 | Ted Horn | ||
| 1948 | Ted Horn | ||
| 1949 | Johnnie Parsons | ||
| 1950 | Henry Banks | ||
| 1951 | Tony Bettenhausen | ||
| 1952 | Chuck Stevenson | ||
| 1953 | Sam Hanks | ||
| 1954 | Jimmy Bryan | ||
| 1955 | Bob Sweikert | ||
Each year from 1909 to 1915 and again from 1917 to 1919, the American automobile journalMotor Age selected a "driver of the year".[5] Likewise, other contemporary publications such asThe Horseless Age, MoToR,The New York Times, andLos Angeles Times published similar selections. These were similar in concept tonewspaper decisions. While these selections are strictlyunofficial, they are customarily regarded as thede facto champions for the respective seasons. No such selections were made for1916, since an official points system was in place that year to determine the champion.
| Year | Motor Age | Horseless Age | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1909 | Bert Dingley | — | — |
| 1910 | Ralph Mulford | — | — |
| 1911 | Harvey Herrick | — | — |
| 1912 | Ralph DePalma | — | Teddy Tetzlaff (L.A. Times) |
| Bob Burman (NYT) | |||
| Ralph DePalma (Chicago) | |||
| 1913 | Earl Cooper | Earl Cooper | — |
| 1914 | Ralph DePalma | Ralph DePalma(road racing) | Ralph DePalma (MoToR) |
| René Thomas(speedways) | |||
| 1915 | Earl Cooper(road racing) | Earl Cooper(road racing) | Earl Cooper (MoToR)(road racing) |
| Gil Andersen(speedways) | Eddie Rickenbacker(speedways) | Dario Resta (MoToR)(speedways) | |
| Eddie Rickenbacker(tracks) | Earl Cooper(overall) | — | |
| 1916 | — | — | — |
| 1917 | Earl Cooper | — | — |
| 1918 | Ralph Mulford | — | — |
| 1919 | Tommy Milton(road racing) | — | — |
| Eddie Hearne(speedways) | |||
| Eddie Hearne(overall) |
Between the years of 1902 and 1919, although AAA sanctioned many races, an official national championship of drivers was only declared and awarded in 1905 and 1916. On two separate occasions, Contest Board record keepers changed the results of certain seasons, and used extraneous points tables and methods to calculate retrospective national champions for years in which one had not been declared. These ill-advised records made their way into official publications, books, magazines, and media guides, and largely due to the scarcity of records, were accepted as fact for decades by an unsuspecting public. It was not until further research was undertaken during the 1970s and 1980s that the truth behind the history was brought back to light. These actions collectively have made it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction regarding the first two decades of AAA sanctioned national championship racing.
Sometime during the years 1926 through 1929, Arthur Means, the Assistant Secretary of the AAA Contest Board, with the approval of Secretary Val Haresnape, retrospectively calculated championship results for major AAA-sanctioned races contested in 1909–1915 and 1917–1920. Means used points tables from the mid-1920s to create his hypothetical calculations. By reworking the 1920 docket, adding five events that were originally run as non-points or "exhibition" races, the pair effectively strippedGaston Chevrolet of his 1920 championship; instead declaringTommy Milton the new champion. However, by no later than 1929, they restored the 1920 championship back to Chevrolet.[6][5][7] Their work, meant to be for "comparative reasons" only, was soon accepted as fact. In addition, various arithmetic inconsistencies created further confusion and glaring anomalies.
In 1951, Russ Catlin a sportswriter and publicist for the AAA Contest Board, made substantial revisions to the recorded history of early AAA racing. Using his own devised system of awarding championship points, and building upon the erroneous work previously generated by Means and Haresnape, Catlin fabricated, distorted, and/ornegated AAA Contest Board records for 1902–1920. Catlin first published his list in the1952 Indianapolis 500 program, and also published what he believed to be a history of AAA racing, intended to celebrate its upcoming 50th anniversary. Catlin retroactively created seven new champions (1902–1908), and revised others. He namedVictor Hémery the champion for1905, the winner of that year'sVanderbilt Cup; it is possible he was unaware that an official1905 champion (Barney Oldfield) had actually been declared. He also namedGeorge Robertson the champion for 1909, differing from Means and Haresnape, who had settled onBert Dingley. Furthermore, Catlin rerevised the 1920 champion toTommy Milton once more, even after Means and Haresnape had backtracked that decision and given it back toGaston Chevrolet.[8][9]IndyCar currently recognizes Russ Catlin's list from 1909 to 1919, but with Gaston Chevrolet as champion for 1920.[10]
All retrospectively awarded championships named by Means & Haresnape and Catlin are unequivocally considered unofficial by professional historians and statisticians. Furthermore, most consider themrevisionist history, and discredit the entire effort made by both parties as illegitimate, unnecessary, fictional, and not consistent with contemporary accounts. The actions of Means, Haresnape, and Catlin made it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction regarding AAA sanctioned national racing, and handbooks and official statistical supplements continue to intermix the revisionist accounts with official and historical record. A gradual increase in the number oftrained auto racing historians, aided by digital technology enabling better collaboration and access to historical records, has resulted in progress made towards correcting historical inaccuracies. Bolstered by assistance and advice from professional historians, officialIndyCar statisticians during the leadership tenure ofRandy Bernard undertook significant corrections to the series' Official Historical Record Book published annually between 2011 and 2013.[11] In more recent years historians have encountered resistance and disinterest on the part of IndyCar Series leadership, and as of 2024, the granite base of theAstor Challenge Cup awarded to American National Champions continues to ignore the 1905 Championship won by Barney Oldfield and unjustly list Tommy Milton instead of Gaston Chevrolet as the 1920 Champion.[3]