The City of Corona, California, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first AAA National Championship auto race around the city’s not-quite-three-mile Grand Boulevard circuit with a re-enactment of the event this September 14.
Half a dozen vintage racecars from the period assembled for several exhibition laps around the circular city street layout that formed the original circuit and, after appropriate introductory remarks from local dignitaries, set off to cheers from the gathered crowd.
The event honored a pair of races that took place in 1913 and boasted a then-record purse of $10,000, with the winner’s share of $5,000 going to double victor Earl Cooper, driving a Stutz. Cooper would go on to become that year’s National Champion, claiming the first of his three National Championships.
The 1914 edition of the Corona Grand was won by Eddie Pullen’s Mercer, while victory in the third and final race in 1916 went to Eddie O’Donnell in a Duesenberg. That race, however, was marred by the deaths of famed driver Bob Burman, his riding mechanic and a track security guard, which brought an end to racing in the streets of Corona.
By John Zimmermann
