1920 Grand Prix season

Automotive companies were gradually re-establishing themselves after re-tooling from a wartime footing and getting production lines rolling again.

A new 3-litre formula was adopted on both sides of the Atlantic and the Indianapolis 500 would be a close contest between the best of the new designs from France and the USA.

Chevrolet won the AAA season championship; despite being killed at the end of the year in a collision at the Beverley Hills race he had already accumulated enough points.

[8] The general unification of regulations encouraged manufacturers to build new designs that could run on both sides of the Atlantic.

[9][8] As it would turn out, after a decade of leading racing development, this would be the last grand prix car designed and built by Peugeot.

The Monroes and Frontenacs were then affected by the same issue: Klein slid into the wall on lap 58, then Sarles and Louis Chevrolet did the same.

Then Sarles then took over Hill's Frontenac but the same fault spun him out – this time right in front of the Ballots of Thomas and Chassagne who narrowly avoided him.

A few laps later, the steering arm on Boyer's Frontenac broke, then in his pursuit of Chevrolet, Chassagne hit the wall.

With the pressure off, Gaston Chevrolet held on to win by six minutes from the Ballot of Thomas, with Milton and his Duesenberg barely ten seconds back in third.

[10][9][13] Chevrolet had got through the race without taking a single tyre-change,[14][15] and his Monroe-Frontenac was the first win by an American car at Indianapolis since 1912.

[9][16] Chevrolet's win at Indianapolis gave him sufficient points to be posthumously awarded the AAA championship from Tommy Milton in the abbreviated season of five races.

[18] Twenty-two cars were entered, including works teams from Bugatti, Bignan, Majola and Eric-Campbell (who had René Thomas as a driver).

Pierre de Vizcaya, Ernest Friderich and Michele Baccoli moved straight into the top-three places.

[9] This left Friderich to inherit the lead, and winning by a margin of 20 minutes from the Bignans of Nougue and Delauney.

The Targa entry list also included the Contessa Maria-Antoinetta d’Avanzo in an American Buick, a pioneer among women in motorsport.

[20] Held again as four laps of the 108km medio Madonie, the drivers once more had to battle heavy rain and high winds.