From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
COR, GORDON BENNETT! The man who was to lend his name to the first international series of motor races as well as a series of balloon and air races was born in May 1841. Gordon Bennett Snr was the outspoken founder editor of the New York Herald which he was to build into one of America's major newspapers. Henrietta, the mother of James Gordon Bennett Jnr, was an Irishwoman whose maiden name was Crean.
Bennett Snr was not popular in New York and his wife decided to take her son to the altogether friendlier atmosphere of Paris, where James Jnr. lived happily until he was 16. He then returned to New York to learn publishing from his father.
Yyoung Bennett managed to spend his fairly generous allowance, mostly on fast horses, elegant carriages, wagers and the finest champagne and wine. He also acquired a yacht, the 160-ton Henrietta.
When the American Civil War started, he served as master of this yacht in the Union Navy.
Elected the youngest ever member of the New York Yacht Club, Bennett conceived the idea of the world's first transatlantic yacht race. Three yachts took part, the Henrietta, the Vesta and the Fleetwing for a prize of $90,000. The race was run in December 1866 and no fewer than six crew members were lost overboard. A close contest resolved in favor of Bennett's Henrietta with only a few miles to go.
In 1872 the death of Bennett Snr left his son in control of a powerful and lucrative publishing empire. In 1875 he became engaged to Caroline May, daughter of a prominent Baltimore family, but his behaviour at a New Year's Day party caused such outrage that he found the doors of New York society politely, but firmly shut against him.
Undeterred, he moved to Paris, where he was to spend the remaining 42 years of his life. In 1887, he established a European edition of the New York Herald. It was to create publicity for this publication that he began to sponsor several of the cycle races then taking place as part of the cycling boom sweeping Europe.
The spark which led to his donating the Gordon Bennett Trophy (although he seems to have preferred the title Coupe Gordon Bennett) was a worthy warfare between M Charron and Mr Winton during 1899 as to the respective merits of French and American cars which induced Bennett to give the cup to the winner of a race which Charron and Winton would have the opportunity of taking part in. The cup was given to the Automobile Club France (ACF) for the framing of conditions to make the contest an international one.
Thus was born international motor racing. Or rather, not, for the contests held in 1900, 1901 and 1902 were hardly worthy of the name and the contest became simply a minor appendage to some of the great city-to-city races. The totally unexpected victory of S F Edge in the 1902 contest proved the salvation of the series. It fell to the winning country to organise the following year's race and, Because of the strong anti-car lobby in Britain, the only possible venue was Ireland.
The 1903 race did, of course, go ahead in Ireland amid unprecedented interest. It was contested by the US, France, Germany and Britain. The race took place at a crucial moment in motor racing history and pointed the way clearly for the future development of the sport.
It's no exaggeration to sat that the modern Grand Prix series traces its ancestry back to that single race held in Ireland.
So successful did succeeding races become that the ACF abandoned the Gordon Bennett series in favour of its own Grand Prix series in 1906.
James Gordon Bennett, sickened by the wrangling commercialism that had surrounded the 1905 race, turned his attention to other things and donated a prize to be awarded for a series of balloon contests. This series ran until 1929 and, in this guise, the competition came into contact with Ireland again in 1921 when it was won by the balloon, Zurich, for a flight from Brussels which ended on Lambay Island.
Finally, in 1909, Bennett inaugurated a parallel contest for aircraft which continued until 1920.
James Gordon Bennett Jnr died in 1918, after a life in which he squandered several fortunes and created the impetus that gave birth to international motor racing. Strangely, he never learned to drive a car, and today is perhaps best remembered in the Cockney exclamation, Cor, Gordon Bennett!