1903 Gordon Bennett Race -- Camille Jenatzy Drives the Race of His Life

 

Mercedes-Simplex 60 hp wins the Gordon Bennett Race

Camille Jenatzy in Clarence Gray Dinsmore’s Mercedes-Simplex 60 hp won the 4th Gordon Bennett Cup race on 2 July 1903 in Ireland. Photo taken at the start of the race. (Photo index number in the Mercedes-Benz Classic Archive: 21568

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• The races for the Gordon Bennett Cup 120 years ago are regarded as the forerunners of the subsequent Grands Prix. Three weeks before the start of the race on 2 July 1903, a major fire at the Cannstatt factory of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) destroyed 90 vehicles that were almost finished or still under construction. The flames also destroyed three Mercedes Simplex 90 hp cars. They were scheduled to start in what was probably the most internationally renowned race at the time. American publisher and “New York Herald” editor Gordon Bennett gave his name to the competition. The 1903 edition took place in Ireland. Two circuits of 65 and 83 kilometres were to be driven alternately. In order to be able to contest the race despite the major fire, DMG borrowed and bought back three Mercedes-Simplex 60 hp from customers, one of them from American millionaire Clarence Gray Dinsmore. The three emergency stand-in vehicles make their way to Ireland. There, Belgian Camille Jenatzy (born 1868; died 1913) drove the race of his life: although Dinsmore’s car was inferior in terms of output, the competition stood no chance against it or Jenatzy’s fearless, spectacular driving style on that cool, cloudy day. He covered 592 race kilometres in 6:39 hours, corresponding to an average of 79.24 km/h. With this tremendous international success, the German Mercedes brand established itself in the circle of racing nations alongside England and France.