1912 Grand Prix season

In the French Grand Prix, after American David Bruce-Brown’s FIAT had retired after leading for most of the two-day race, victory went to the Peugeot of Georges Boillot.

Team-mate Jules Goux repeated the success at the Coupe de la Sarthe held at Le Mans.

In the American Grand Prize held over the same weekend, rising star David Bruce-Brown was killed in practice while Caleb Bragg won the race in a FIAT S74.

With four victories over the season, Ralph DePalma driving a Mercedes, was acclaimed as the AAA national champion for the year.

Sources: [1][2][3][4] Basic attempts at aerodynamics appeared this season, as cars started to shape their tail sections to cover the fueltanks and spare tyres.

[5] At Peugeot, the three driver-engineers Georges Boillot, Jules Goux and Paolo Zuccarelli (dubbed “The Charlatans”[6]) had worked with Ernest Henry and produced their first design.

[9] In the United States, the first cars built specifically for racing appeared from Mercer, Stutz and the Mason of the Duesenberg brothers, to take on the stock chassis.

After damage to the Madonie circuit in the previous year, the race instead became a tour on the coastal roads around Sicily, as the Giro di Sicilia.

Learning in Trapani, the second to last checkpoint, that he had an eighty-minute lead he told his co-driver Pedrini that “twenty minutes will be enough” and stopped to have a meal and a sleep at a hotel for an hour.

Pedrini managed to rouse his teammate in time and they reached Palermo again to win with a half-hour margin over the Lancia of Giordano, after a 24-hour journey.

David Bruce-Brown in a FIAT had the fastest lap in practice, while Gil Andersen drew pole position.

With over a three-lap lead, DePalma and his mechanic got out and pushed the car down the front straight to the cheers of the 80000 spectators, but to no avail.

Tetzlaff, helped by Caleb Bragg, came home second ten minutes later, with Hughes (Mercer) and Merz (Stutz) in third and fourth respectively.

Reputedly even stopping to change his shock absorbers and have a chicken dinner, he crossed the line in front of empty grandstands.

To encourage entrants, the organisers used Formula Libre (open) regulations with the only restriction being that cars must be no wider than 1.75 metres.

[9] With Peugeot devoting its energy to its Grand Prix cars, they only had a single voiturette entry for René Thomas.

But although the FIATs were faster the Peugeots had much more efficient pit-stops with their knock-off wheel-hubs to change tyres and a pressure-system to refuel.

Bruce-Brown continued his lead through the morning but on the 15th lap he stopped out on the track with a broken fuel tank after hitting an errant dog.

[5] This left Boillot with a comfortable lead over Wagner, but on the penultimate lap the Peugeot’s universal joint seized up.

David Bruce-Brown, America’s most promising young driver of the time, and his mechanic Tony Scudelari were both killed at the end of practice for the race.

The drivers in the Vanderbilt returned and were joined by Caleb Bragg in a FIAT and three Benzes for Bob Burman, Erwin Bergdoll and Joe Horan.

But it was the rise of innovative engineers like the Duesenberg brothers, Harry Miller and those at Mercer that marked the future for American motorsport.