There could be three titles to this story of one of the great races in the history of the American Automobile. The story of David and Goliath; Good Versus Evil, or Success and Failure. The litte inexspensive Ford against the four other large and pricey cars; The little cheap evil Ford that had to break the rules to win against the others that obeyed all, but were also rans; and Ford became the largest seller in American history whereas within one year the Shawmut, the real winner, was out of business and faded into history.

Let's start from the conception of this race to its ending.  Copied from the Alaska-Yukon- Pacific Exposiion of 1909 is a about as good as an overall article that one can find. Here is a synopsis of the article verbatim in quotes.

"Ocean-to-Ocean: Car Contest or Race?

Hoping to capitalize on the excitement and publicity generated by the 1908 New York to Paris Automobile Race , the organizers of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in collaboration with the Seattle Automobile Club planned a great race of their own, an ocean to ocean New York to Seattle outing whose start would coincide with the fair’s opening.

In response to the refusal of the Manufacturers’ Contest Association, an industry watchdog, to sanction the event, the Seattle organizers announced that all speed limits would be obeyed. They contended that it was not to be a race, but a “motor contest.”  No one ever explained the difference!

With their feathers ruffled, the Seattle Automobile Club adopted the rules of the Manufacturers’ Contest Association that forbade changing major components of the automobile during the face. They also split the contest in two parts, an endurance test for the part of the run to St. Louis and a speed race from St. Louis on. In the East, driving was permitted only during daylight hours for 12-hour stretches at legal speeds between six checkpoints. Late arrivals at the checkpoints were penalized with a 12-hour delay. After St. Louis, there were no checkpoints or speed rules.

M. Robert Guggenheim, a 24-year-old motorcar enthusiast and a wealthy scion of the Guggenheim mining fortune, sponsored the race and was its sole referee. The Guggenheim Trophy and $2,000 in cash were the prizes. Ostensibly, Guggenheim chose to sponsor the race to assist the "good roads" movement, organizations and individuals lobbying nationwide to upgrade the quality of roads for automobiles. Guggenheim hoped for at least 30 entries in the race. He even hired drivers and entered his own car. Fortunately, he didn’t have to decide if his Itala obeyed the rules. It dropped out in Wyoming, the day after the winners arrived in Seattle.

For a variety of reasons some of which must be tied to the controversy stirred up by the Manufacturers’ Contest Association and a disagreement with the Automobile Association of America that sanctioned the race, only five cars started on June 1. Two of them were Henry Ford’s lightweight and stripped down Model Ts. Guggenheim’s Itala, an Acme and a Shawmut. The sixth car, a Stearns, started on June 5 and dropped out of the race the same day, only 24 miles from the city limits.

The Model T had been launched in 1909 and Ford hoped to capitalize on a win to market his new product. He had one important advantage over the competition. He had a string of dealers across the country who could guide the drivers over the shortest routes and provide pit stops and do repairs whenever needed. " He also had two crews who would do anything to win.

The Ford may seem to have been the underdog to these other five cars, except for the Itala which was also a racer,  they were specially made as racers and not your family automobile.

The six cars were:

1909 Model T Ford The Family Car The first year of the Model T Ford No. 1 Both racers were identical Frank Kulick, Driver H.B. Harper, Relief	Ford No. 2  Special Built Racer Ford Motor Co., Detroit, MI 1903-Date B.W. Scott, Driver C.J. Smith, Relief
1909 Shawmut Touring Shawmut Automobile Co. Stoneman, MA 1905-1909 F.A. Pettingell, Driver C.H Chapin and R.A Messer, Reliefs	1909 Stearns Touring F. B Stearns Co. Cleveland, OH 1899-1930 Robertt C. Maxwell, Driver Harry Sohmers, Relief Diver  and Kenneth Majors, Mecanic
1907 Itala Race Car Italian Automobile 1901-1929 Gus Lechleitner, Driver Albert Bellows and F.B. Whitteman, Reliefs This photo was to give an idea of what the Itala car looked like. The day before the race, the Itala Company decided that they wanted to have an entry. The Automobile was delivered to site. When Guggenheim saw the car, he bought it entered it into the race.	1909 Acme Automobile Reber Manufacturing Co, Reading, PA. 1903-1911 George Salzman, Driver Henry Price, Faye R. Sheets, and J.A. Hemstreet, Reliefs

All of Ford's competition had been winners in different races. The Itala had won the Peking to Paris Race in 1907 and the Shawmut had won several endurance races including the non-stop Boston, MA to Bretton Woods, NH and back with a perfect score. In 1908, the Shawmut factory was destroyed by fire an all the cars were destroyed but this one.  The owners were depending on the publicity that would be given to the winner would get new investors to keep the company in business, but none was forthcoming. It had to closed down.

The race can best be described by articles submitted almost every day to the New York Times. These are images taken from the New York Times Digital Library and are posted as images and cannot be altered or corrected. I hope that you will gain some knowledge from these articles.

The Prize Sterling Silver $3500.00 Guggenheim Winner's Trophy

SYRACUSE, June 2. -- Precisely on schedule time the five cars competing in the New York to Seattle contest for the M. Robert Guggenheim trophy arrived here at 7 o'clock to-night, having made 220 miles in twelve hours. Half of the journey from Poughkeepsie to Syracuse was made on good State roads, and the cars had to have their speed proclivities curbed by John H. Gerrie, the pace
Henry Ford at the right of the driver welcoming his crew to Seattle	The winner on display in the Seattle Armory Notice the huge crowd
The Shawmut with the Ford in the Armory See the differeence in the size of the visitor	The Old War Horse by itself. You did yourself proud! You were robbed of all the glory and glamour that was your due.
Ford had two entries in the race to increase hs odds and there was always help with Ford crews to do maintenance work as needed. The car following is the real 1909 Model T	Ford  No. 1 Group of men and boys from Ellensburg, Washington standing about an automobile that participated in the Great Auto Race of 1909 If you think that the Shawmut looks tire and worn out, Take a look at the Ford No. 1, still not in Seattle.

"Few gave the Shawmut a chance, with no factory to provide spare parts. But Pettengill and relief drivers Earle Chapin and Robert Messer, all of Stoneham, stayed neck-and-neck with the Fords for much of the race, as the Acme fell far behind and the Itala dropped out. But, the Shawmut consistently ran into what seemed like rigged obstacles. On June 8 in Glasgow, Mo., the Stoneham car reached the Missouri River moments after the Fords, only to watch as a ferry carried the Model T's across, then shut down for unscheduled maintenance. The Shawmut had to scramble along the eastern bank searching for a railroad bridge to cross.

Undaunted, the Shawmut gained a five-hour lead by June 15, when it arrived at Wyoming's Fort Steele and found the Platte River's wagon bridge washed out. At the nearby railroad crossing, the armed agent for Union Pacific refused to let them onto the bridge without permission from management in Omaha. The Stoneham men, waiting all night and into morning, watched in disbelief as the Fords sped by with permits, having been alerted to quirks throughout the race by its national dealership network. Shawmut lost 17 1/2 hours there, more than the eventual disparity at the finish."  Copied from Boston.com.

"After 22 days and a horrible push through deep snow with R.P. Rice, the local Ford dealer and Henry Ford himself working to get the car over Snoqualmie Pass, the Model T No. 2 arrived at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition and was heralded as the winner of the race.  Bert Scott was at the wheel assisted by mechanic C. J. Smith. Henry Ford initiated a huge marketing scheme trumpeting the victory and assuring the dominance of the American automobile market for his lightweight vehicle for nearly another 20 years." AYP Web site

Because there were no communications possible from the pass, and in anticipation of the Ford may have trouble, it is plausable that R.P. Rice, a Ford Company employee, could have been waiting there to help. There were no cell phones or helicopters standing by for instant help. He did not know exactly when the Fords would arrive and he could have been there for several hours. The Shawmut crew reported that a third man was seen to take the driver's position and drive the car through the pass and then let the original driver take control. If Henry Ford were there, he had to beat the No. 2 car back to Seattle to have been waiting to celebrate its arrival. Does this make sense?

"Racers in a Model T Ford that was in third place at the time describes the June 23 descent from the pass as follows:

"We were on the top of the last difficulty. We had pushed through the snow with less trouble than we had expected. We would be in Seattle by four o’clock. When a rock hidden in the mud and snow sprang up to give us one last foul blow. For seven hours we worked on the top of the mountain up among the clouds remedying the trouble that rock had caused. At 5 p.m. [June 23] we were going again. A half mile over the ties of the new "Milwaukee" railroad brought us to the down grade and ninety miles from the finish. The rest was easy"

  Copied from  History Link    Yvonne Prater, Snoqualmie Pass: From Indian Trail to Interstate (Seattle: The Mountaineers, 1981)

Most researchers say that the axle was changed in Idaho, but I would say that it was changed in Rawson, WY. Both Fords broke down a few miles out of Rawsom and had to be towed back to Rawsom and spent four hours for repairs. The NO. 2 Ford was in bad shape. This is the only checkpoint that I could find where a significant amount of time was spent.

The Seattle AAA Club set the rules for the automobiles. Why didn't they and the Referee, Guggenheim, inspect the automobile on arrival to see if the Ford had replaced forbidden parts?  They made the rules. Why were Ford automobiles used for Pace Keepers instead of neutral automobiles?  It is beyond imagination that this was carelessly forgotton. Could it have been because Ford was the largest seller of automobiles in the world and that he had spent a tremendous amount of money in preparation and he had a vast amount of promotional material to be sent out to the news organizations the moment that his car arrived. He had large dealerships in the west that would be hurt if he had lost.

All of this against a small almost bankrupt company in Stoneham, MA with one car.

Guggenheim decided to hold a hearing which took five months. The AAA overturned his decision and gave the Shawmut the prize money, trophy, and the credit it deserved. Ford had made millions, but Shawmut had gone bankrupt and out of business. One must wonder if Henry Ford ever made any apologizes to the American Automobile Association for his crew's deception in the race or was he ever embarrassed for his actions.  I think not.

One thing that was impressive was when the Itala and Shawmut stopped to help the Acme crew to retrieve their automobile from a ditch.

At the Alaska, Youkon, and Pacific Exposition, Robert Guggenheim discounted the challenge to the victory by the Shawmut and Acme teams.  In November, however, the Automobile Club of America overturned the victory. Ford had changed the No. 2’s engine in Idaho. That gave first place to the Shawmut. In the light of Ford’s marketing success, the Shawmut Automobile Company was soon forgotten and out of business.

Meyer Robert Guggenheim  (May 17, 1885 – November 16, 1959) referred to as  M. Robert Guggenheim, was an American Statesman and a member of the prominent Guggenheim Family who owned owned the American Smelting and Refining Company. He served in the U.S. Army during the First World War. He served as the Ambassador to Portugal from 1953-1954. He died at the age of seventy-four and is buried at the Arlington National Cemetary.

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