Ford's field of dreams

By ALASTAIR SLOANE, motoring editor

For a while there, Sweepstakes, one of two hand-built replicas of Henry Ford's first racecar, might have made it to New Zealand. But the timing wasn't right. The car is going to Australia for three public appearances in Ford's centenary year, at the Bathurst 1000 race, the Sydney motor show, and Ford Australia's headquarters in Melbourne.

"Unfortunately, time constraints associated with the Australian schedule mean that there is not enough time between its trip there and its next appearance in North America to bring Sweepstakes to New Zealand," said Ford NZ communications manager Edward Finn.

"But it is exciting to have one of only two working Sweepstakes replicas come Downunder, as this vehicle has an important place in the company's history.

"Without Henry Ford's victory in Sweepstakes it would be highly unlikely that the motor company would be celebrating its centenary this year."

The story of Sweepstakes begins in 1901. Ford built the racecar to help kickstart a career that looked in danger of stalling.

His first carmaking venture, the Detroit Automobile Company, was going out of business. The cars had not sold well and his stockholders decided to dissolve the company.

The car that Ford really wanted to build would be mass-produced, uncomplicated, reliable, and sold at a price most people could afford. That was a revolutionary idea in 1901, when the automobile was still a novelty and much too expensive for all but the very wealthy.

Ford was confident somebody would succeed in producing the mass-market car he envisioned, and above all else he wanted to be the one to do it. But that would require significant financial investment. He needed to prove to potential backers that he had good, sound ideas, and that his cars could be a commercial success.

Racing Sweepstakes, he believed, would provide a high-profile way to promote his name and reputation.

The event was set down for October 10, 1901, and billed as Detroit's first automobile race. It was to be raced on a mile-long dirt track built in 1895 for horse racing. The prize was $1000 and a cut-glass punchbowl.

Promoters had worked hard to hype the event. America's best car racers had signed up, hoping to break the land speed record for the mile of roughly one minute and 14 seconds.

But one by one, the racers dropped out. By raceday, just two competitors were left: Alexander Winton, a pioneer carmaker from Cleveland, and Henry Ford.

The Detroit Free Press said of the raceday: "City offices and even the courts had closed and the streetcars were leaving for the track every 30 seconds. More than 8000 people packed the grandstand - many of them dressed in a display of feminine finery expected to attract quite as much attention as the speedy machines."

Ford was clearly the underdog. Winton was an established racer who had competed in Europe. His 40bhp car was considered hard to beat, and he was so confident of winning that he had his sales manager help race organisers pick the punchbowl trophy so it would go with the decor in his home.

Ford, 38, was described as a "local mechanic and chauffeur". He had never raced a car in his life. He had just finished building his 26bhp two-cylinder car that morning. He was not in the race for money. He was in it to resurrect his business prospects.

The two racers throttled off the starting line, the crowd cheering wildly. Ford, wrote Booton Herndon in his 1969 book, Ford: An Unconventional Biography of the Men and Their Times, "sat up high with nothing but the wheel to hang on to".

Winton took the lead right away. Ford's car didn't have any brakes and he had to shut down the engine to coast through the turns. His rider/mechanic Ed "Spider" Huff rode on a makeshift running board, leaning out to work the curves. (Winton had a similar assistant.)

But Ford began to gain ground as he figured out how to manoeuvre his less powerful but much lighter car. In the sixth lap, he gained on Winton.

"The crowd roared louder as the two rumbled side by side," said the Detroit Free Press. "Suddenly, in the seventh lap, Winton's vehicle began to smoke. His rider poured oil on the motor, but to no avail. Winton was out. Ford made the finish line alone and victorious."

The hometown crew "went wild," Clara Ford later wrote to her brother, Milton Bryant. "One man threw his hat up, and when it came down, he stamped on it, he was so excited.

"Another man had to hit his wife on the head to keep her from going off the handle. She stood up in her seat and screamed, "I'd bet $50 on Ford if I had it!"'

Back on the track, young boys rushed up to the grimy, breathless Ford.

"Boy, I'll never do that again!" he said. "I was scared to death!"

The win changed everything for Ford. The prize money and offers of financial support from several people watching the race set him on the road to establishing Ford Motor Company in June 1903.

Ford went on to prove his belief in low-cost production with the Model T, the car that put the world on wheels.

Sweepstakes was eventually stored at the Henry Ford Museum and, over time, all but forgotten. It had no papers to verify it as the original Sweepstakes. Museum personnel came to accept it was a replica built by Henry Ford in the 1930s.

It wasn't until near the 100th anniversary of the 1901 race that the car's authenticity was verified. Soon after, restoration of the original Sweepstakes and the building of two working replicas began.