Saturday 6th March 1915

Dario Resta, driving a Peugot, won the 10th Vanderbilt Cup Race at the Pan-Pacific International Speedway in San Francisco, California. The Vanderbilt Cup, the first international car race in America, was organised in 1904 to introduce Europe’s best drivers and manufacturers to the U.S. Named after its founder, millionaire racing enthusiast William K. Vanderbilt Jr., the Vanderbilt Cup became the world’s premier racing event after laws in Europe, designed to protect spectators, restricted the level of competition at venues there. The first Vanderbilt Cup was won by George Heath, a Frenchman, in a Panhard automobile. Heath averaged 52.2mph over the course of three 10-mile laps in Hicksville, New York. French cars dominated the event until 1908 when George Robertson drove the 90-horsepower Locomobile, a.k.a Old 16, to victory in the fourth Vanderbilt Cup. It was the first victory in an international racing event by an American car. The Vanderbilt Cup moved to Savannah, Georgia, in 1910, and later out to California. The race was christened with a French victory, and it would be laid to rest with a French victory. Dario Resta won the final Vanderbilt Cup in 1916 driving his Peugot. That year Resta also won the Indianapolis 500 and the 100-mile Chicago Cup Challenge–during which he became the first man to average over 100mph over a race of that distance. After the race, the French driver reportedly exclaimed “Who betta than Resta?” Indeed, who better to win the last version of America’s first great car race?