1916 Grand Prix season

With the organisers wanting to appeal to the spectators, this was the only year that the race was scheduled for a shorter length – to run only 300 miles.

The Vanderbilt Cup and the American Grand Prize returned to Santa Monica, California, at the end of the year.

Sources: [1][2][3][4] As the Great War rolled inexorably through its second devastating year across Europe, the only motor-racing of note was the AAA National Championship.

Organisers of the International Sweepstakes at Indianapolis reduced it to 300 miles for the first and only time in its history, nominally to encourage more entries and incite greater crowd-appeal than the previous 5-6 hour marathons.

The Peugeot Auto Racing team had prepared new cars for Dario Resta, Ralph Mulford, Johnny Aitken and veteran Charlie Merz.

Shortly after the end of the 1914 French Grand Prix, Carl Fisher had purchased two of the Peugeot EX-5s and gave them to Premier for three replicas to be made.

[7] These were ready for the race and the team hired former Stutz drivers Howdy Wilcox and Norwegian-American Gil Anderson, as well as Tom Rooney.

[5] The Premiers and the American Peugeot drivers were all entered by the Indianapolis Speedway Team to bolster the entry numbers.

French manufacturer Delage arranged for cars for Jules Devigne as well as Barney Oldfield and Jack LeCain.

It was also without Bob Burman, as he and his mechanic had been killed in April when his Peugeot lost a wheel and crashed while leading a non-championship event at Corona, Los Angeles.

[9] Fastest car in qualifying was Johnny Aitken’s Peugeot, with the front row filled out with Rickenbacker and Andersen.

From there on the Briton stayed in the front with a trouble-free run after Aitken retired, winning by two minutes from d’Alene’s Duesenberg with Mulford’s Peugeot in third.

Ira Vail led a trio of Hudsons, Earl Cooper was in his Stutz and Lewis Jackson in a Marmon.

The 900 points Resta had got for his Vanderbilt Cup victory now put him in front of the points-table, ahead of Aitken who had scored none.

Unaware of the rule that only the starting driver would score any points (a precedent set with Rickenbacker at the Indianapolis race earlier in the year) Resta was alarmed that he would now lose the championship.

While auto racing continued in the United States after their entry into the First World War, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was turned over to the government to use.