1913 Grand Prix season
Peugeot drivers Georges Boillot and Jules Goux claimed a 1-2 victory for the company after Zuccarelli had been killed in practice.
In the United States, the growing expense of hosting the Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize meant they were not held this year.
The Europeans crossed the Atlantic for the race and Goux had a comfortable 13-minute margin of victory for Peugeot ahead of Spencer Wishart’s new Mercer.
Peugeot did not contest the Coupe de la Sarthe at Le Mans where Paul Bablot and Albert Guyot, in the new Delage Type Y, had a 1-2 victory themselves.
However, with the new 3-litre EX-5 variant, Peugeot won the last major race of the year with Boillot and Goux finishing 1-2 at the Coupe des Voiturettes.
By winning five of the fourteen races in the series, Earl Cooper in the new Stutz, was acclaimed as the AAA national champion for the year.
[6] For the second year the Targa Florio was not held on the Madonie circuit, but as the Giro di Sicilia – going clockwise on the coastal roads around Sicily.
At the end of the first day, it was Giovanni “Gigi” Marsaglia in an Aquila Italiana, who held a half-hour lead over Felice Nazzaro, the long-time works driver for FIAT, now driving a car of his own making.
[12][13] With the Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize not being held this year, it meant the Indianapolis 500 became the premier event in the United States.
[14] Carl Fisher, on the organising committee, sent an invitation to Peugeot to attend, and they accepted sending two cars (with engines modified down to 7.3 litres) with Goux and Paolo Zuccarelli.
[6] Other Europeans were drawn to the big money on offer: Isotta-Fraschini had three cars for Italian Vincenzo Trucco and Americans Teddy Tetzlaff and Harry Grant.
Stutz ran cars for Gil Andersen and Charlie Merz while Jack Tower had one of the three Masons from the Duesenberg brothers.
[6][15][8] With a maximum of three cars per team, the entry list was still strong enough that the ACF did not need to include a voiturette category this year.
Peugeot arrived with the new model EX-3 with a 5.6-litre engine (115 bhp), to be driven by its three regular works drivers: Boillot, Goux and Zuccarelli.
On the first lap, Moriondo rolled his Itala, but he and his mechanic, unhurt, were able to jump out and straighten the steering and change a wheel to resume the race.
Honours went to Delage with a 1-2 victory for Bablot and Guyot, ahead of Pilette and veteran Otto Salzer in their Mercedes – the last chain-drive cars in A Grand Prix-level event.
When Dario Resta and Chassagne both retired with rear-axle failures on their Sunbeams in the first half of the race, it proved to be an easy victory for Boillot.
Earl Cooper, driving the new Stutz, won five of the races at four of the rounds and was second at another to be proclaimed the unofficial National Champion for the year.
