1920 AAA Championship Car season

Auto racing season August 2023 AAA Championship Car 1920 AAA National Circuit Championship 5 February 28 November 25 National champion USA 1912 Gaston Chevrolet USA 1912 Gaston Chevrolet 1919 1921 The 1920 AAA Championship Car season consisted of 5 races, beginning in Beverly Hills, California on February 28 and concluding in Beverly Hills on November 25. The AAA National Champion and Indianapolis 500 champion was Gaston Chevrolet. The 1920 season later became a source of confusion and misinformation for historians when in 1926 the AAA published a revisionist history, naming another driver as the season's point champion.Capps H. Donald February–March 2010 John Glenn Printz and the Struggle for the Past: The A.A.A. Catastrophe - Arthur Means, Val Haresnape, Russ Catlin, and Bob Russo http://forix.autosport.com/8w/rvm/rvm-vol07-no06.pdf Rear View Mirror 7 6 21–38 During the final race of the season on November 25 the Beverly Hills event witnessed a tragedy, as that year's Indianapolis 500 winner and soon-to-be National Champion, Gaston Chevrolet, was killed, along with Eddie O'Donnell and his riding mechanic, Lyall Jolls.1920 Beverly Hills Race 5 http://www.champcarstats.com/races/192011.htm Official schedule and results Rnd Date Race name Track Location Type Pole position Winning driver 1 February 28 US 1912 Beverly Hills Race 1 - 250 Los Angeles Motor Speedway Beverly Hills, California Board US 1912 Jimmy Murphy US 1912 Jimmy MurphyNCMarch 28 US 1912 Beverly Hills Heat 1 - 50Los Angeles Motor SpeedwayBeverly Hills, CaliforniaBoard — US 1912 Art Klein US 1912 Beverly Hills Heat 2 - 50 — US 1912 Jimmy Murphy US 1912 Beverly Hills Main - 50A A — US 1912 Tommy Milton 2 May 31 US 1912 International 500 Mile SweepstakesB B Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana Brick US 1912 Ralph DePalma US 1912 Gaston ChevroletNC June 19 US 1912 Universal Trophy Race - 225 Uniontown Speedway Hopwood, Pennsylvania Board — US 1912 Tommy Milton 3 July 5 US 1912 Tacoma Race - 200 Pacific Speedway Tacoma, Washington Board US 1912 Tommy Milton US 1912 Tommy Milton 4 August 28 US 1912 Elgin National Trophy - 255C C Elgin Road Race Course Elgin, Illinois Road US 1912 Ralph DePalma US 1912 Ralph DePalmaNC September 6 US 1912 4th Annual Autumn Classic - 225 Uniontown Speedway Hopwood, Pennsylvania Board — US 1912 Tommy MiltonNC September 19 US 1912 Syracuse Race - 50 New York State Fairgrounds Syracuse, New York Dirt — US 1912 Ralph DePalmaNC October 2 US 1912 San Joaquin Valley Classic - 200 Fresno Speedway Fresno, California Board US 1912 Eddie O'Donnell US 1912 Jimmy Murphy 5 November 25 US 1912 Beverly Hills Race 5 - 250 Los Angeles Motor Speedway Beverly Hills, California Board US 1912 Jimmy Murphy US 1912 Roscoe Sarles #FFFFFF Dirt/Brick/Board Oval solid 1px #AAAAAA #D0E7FF Road Course/Hill Climb solid 1px #AAAAAA #FB9902 Non-championship race solid 1px #AAAAAA A A Starters limited to first four finishers for each preliminary race B B 183 in3 L on maximum displacement. C C Points allocated on the basis of advertised distance of 250 miles. Controversy over official race schedule The 5 race schedule has been confirmed as the correct and historically accurate schedule for the championship season of 1920. In the race day program for the final race at Beverly Hills was the points distributionBeverly Hills race day program "The present standings of the championship contenders who race today" 25 November 1920 for the championship contenders over the previous four races of the season. The championship was confirmed in the weeks leading up to the race by various newspapers around the country printing the four race championship standings leading to the final race.Detroit News. 26 September 1920, Sect. II p. 7L.A. Times. 21 November 1920, Pt. 6 p. 1 Confusion about the season began in 1926 when, for "comparative reasons", Contest Board member Arthur Means reworked the schedule to include 10 races and changed the champion to Tommy Milton. The earliest that the ten race standing occur are in the 27 October 1927 issue of Motor Age.Motor Age. 27 October 1927, Pgs. 17 & 20 In 1951 Racing Board member Russ Catlin found these retroactive crib sheets and folded the results into official AAA documentation, continuing the confusion about the 1920 season and early AAA history as a whole. The added races to the season were all of the Non-championship races of the above official schedule, excepted the two races at Uniontown Speedway. In 1961, Al Bloemker attempted to reconcile the two different accounts for the 1920 season. He surmises that there was an issue with sanctioning fees paid by the Uniontown Speedway and their two races held that year were not included in the final season standings."500 miles to go; The story of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, New York, Al Bloemker, 1961, p. 153 The printed media of the time is silent about any issue with the Uniontown races not being championship events. They did in fact hold two races but they were not part of the championship. If Uniontown did pay for championship level racing but was not credited for them, lawsuits would have surely been filed but no such record exists. Official final points standings Note: Drivers had to be running at the finish to score points. Points scored by drivers sharing a ride were split according to percentage of race driven. Starters were not allowed to score points as relief drivers, if a race starter finished the race in another car, in a points scoring position, those points were awarded to the driver who had started the car.. The final standings based on reference.1920 AAA National Championship Trail http://www.champcarstats.com/year/1920.htm List of American Championship car racing point scoring systems Pos Driver BEV1US 1912 INDYUS 1912 TACUS 1912 ELGUS 1912 BEV2US 1912 Pts 1US 1912 Gaston Chevrolet 1 7 8 6 1030 2US 1912 Tommy Milton 16 3 1* 2 11 930 3US 1912 Jimmy Murphy 1 4 6 3 4 885 4US 1912 Ralph DePalma 8 5 11 1 DNQ 605 5US 1912 Roscoe Sarles 14 17 5 1* 540 6France René Thomas 2 520 7US 1912 Joe Thomas 2 8 10 7 5 351 8US 1912 Ralph Mulford 7 9 2 4 350 9US 1912 Eddie Hearne 6 6 3 DNQ 3 345 10US 1912 Eddie Miller gold RY silver DNP 2 260 11US 1912 Ira Vail 3 12 140 12US 1912 Eddie O'Donnell 5 14 8 5 7 110 13US 1912 Art Klein 13 8 4 62 14US 1912 Ken Goodson orange R silver 4 61 15France Jean Chassagne 7 50 16US 1912 Tom Alley 10 7 36 17US 1912 Percy Ford 6 35 18Canada 1868 Pete Henderson 10 14 19US 1912 John DePalma 9 10 20US 1912 Harry Thicksten orange R silver 8 2 -US 1912 Jim Crosby 8 0 -US 1912 Joe Boyer 11* 12* 9 0 -US 1912 Al Melcher 9 0 -US 1912 Eddie Pullen 10 0 -US 1912 John Thiele orange R silver 10 0 -US 1912 John Boling orange R silver 11 0 -US 1912 Riley Brett orange R silver 11 0 -US 1912 Cliff Durant 15 DNQ 12 Wth 0 -US 1912 Reeves Dutton 12 0 -US 1912 Aldo Franchi 13 0 -US 1912 Ray Howard 13 0 -France Jules Goux 15 0 -US 1912 Willie Haupt 16 0 -US 1912 Wade Morton orange R silver 16 0 -US 1912 Bennett Hill 17 17 DNP 0 -US 1912 Jerry Wunderlich orange R silver 17 0 -US 1912 Waldo Stein 18 DNQ DNP 0 -US 1912 Salvatore Barbarino 18 0 -US 1912 Louis Chevrolet 18 0 -US 1912 Howdy Wilcox 19 0 -France Jean Porporato 22 0 -France André Boillot 23 0 -US 1912 Toland Nicholson DNQ 0 -US 1912 John White DNQ 0 -US 1912 Arthur Chevrolet DNQ 0 -US 1912 Jules Ellingboe DNQ 0 -US 1912 Frank Elliott DNQ 0 -US 1912 Kurt Hitke DNQ 0 -US 1912 Glenn Howard DNQ 0 -UK Jack Scales DNQ 0 -US 1912 Dave Lewis DNQ 0 -US 1912 Alton Soules DNQ 0 -US 1912 Stuart Wilkinson DNQ 0 -US 1912 Tom Rooney DNS 0 -US 1912 W. H. Seymour DSQ 0 Pos Driver BEV1US 1912 INDYUS 1912 TACUS 1912 ELGUS 1912 BEV2US 1912 Pts Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th-10th place Dark Blue Finished(Outside Top 10) Purple Did not finish(Ret) Red Did not qualify(DNQ) Brown Withdrawn(Wth) Black Disqualified(DSQ) White Did not start(DNS) Blank Did notparticipate(DNP) Not competing In-line notationBoldPole positionItalicsRan fastest race lap*Led most race lapsRookie of the YearRookie See also 1920 Indianapolis 500 References http://www.driverdb.com/standings/1140-1920/ AAA National Championship 1920 Åberg, Andreas Driver Database 2011-04-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20121019120959/http://www.driverdb.com/standings/1140-1920/ 2012-10-19 live http://www.champcarstats.com/year/1920.htm 1920 AAA National Championship Trail ChampCarStats.com 2011-04-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20120323154720/http://www.champcarstats.com/year/1920.htm 2012-03-23 live http://old.motorsport.com/stats/champ/byyear.asp?Y=1920 Champ Car Statistics 1920 Harms Phil Motorsport.com 2011-04-26 https://web.archive.org/web/20120912162848/http://old.motorsport.com/stats/champ/byyear.asp?Y=1920 2012-09-12 dead http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053905/http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf 2016-03-04 (p. 77) AAA Championship Car season Category:AAA Championship Car Category:1920 in American motorsport