Portola Road Race

The races were held in concert with the Portola Festival celebrating San Francisco's renewal following the devastation of the 1906 earthquake.

[1] The fastest lap of the day may have been produced by car number 15, a Stearns driven by Charles Soules who was reported by one newspaper as having clocked in at 18:19 for the 21.18-mile circuit to yield 69.4 mph (111.7 km/h).

[5] Frank Free driving a Knox went off the road on Stanley Avenue near Foothill Boulevard[3] and gravely injured a man who was standing next to his wife-to-be watching the race.

[7] The winner of the lightweight race, called the Oakland Trophy, was Charles Bigelow in a 30-horsepower Mercer car averaging 57.3 mph (92.2 km/h).

[10] The heavyweight race, called the St. Francis Hotel Trophy, was won by Charlie Merz in a National car averaging 66.8 mph (107.5 km/h).

[7][11] The Panama-Pacific Road Race, a "free-for-all" unlimited event, was won by Bert Dingley in a Pope-Hartford; he kept a pace of 65.76 mph (105.83 km/h).

[12] Several injuries were sustained by spectators who crowded the course, forcing drivers to run a narrow gantlet at some points in the race.

Newly seated California Governor Hiram Johnson refused to call up the National Guard for the race; undeterred, some Guardsmen attempted to provide crowd control in civilian clothing but were not successful.