Saturday 22nd January 1949

The United Racing Club (URC), held its first awards dinner at the Hotel Stacy-Trent in Trenton, New Jersey. The URC, through the visionary leadership of Harry Johnson (and later Louie Kunz) became known for innovative ideas that always seemed to be one step ahead of the other groups. One of the earliest of these innovations was that of an actual sit-down championship awards banquet. The AAA never held such an affair and although some of the Eastern independent groups would have a “gathering” to celebrate the past season, the URC was first to have a real awards dinner. In addition to the usual driver awards, another first was introduced with recognition of the car owners through their own set of points.