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At 10 a.m., the road-worthy cars will tour out of Balboa Park to the race venue in Point Loma where they will retrace the route of the race, returning to Balboa Park for the rest of the car show, until 4 p.m. The drivers and their families will describe the cars and participate in a living-history view of a 1915-era outing in the park. In addition to this exciting January event, photos taken at this event will appear in a March 2015 presentation about the original race, and the commemorative car show/tour, to be given by Newell Booth, of the HCCA, and Mac MacPherson, Executive Director of the Automotive Research Library, in La Mesa.

At 10:30 a.m. a ceremonial start will be held at the original grandstand-area on Rosecrans St., at Elliot St. in Point Loma.

On Jan. 9, 1915, the Automobile Club of Southern California and Al Bahr Shrine sponsored a 300 mile road race over a 6-mile course around Point Loma.

The race was planned as one of the opening events of the 1915 Panama California Exposition in Balboa Park. The race course routed around Point Loma starting on Rosecrans St., heading North, turning West Lytton St., South on Chatsworth Blvd. and Catalina Blvd., East on Cañon St. and back onto Rosecrans.

 Almost five hours and fifty one laps later, Earl Cooper in Stutz #8 won the race averaging over 65 mph. Only 5 of the 18 cars that started the race finished the grueling 300 mile 51 lap route. Racing cars in those days carried a driver as well as a mechanic. Other notable drivers were San Diegan, William Carlson, who finished 2nd, Barney Oldfield, Eddie Rickenbacker, and Bob Burman.

On the morning of the great race, an estimated 50,000 people spread out along the course to watch the spectacle. The San Diego Union newspaper proclaimed: “It was the greatest throng ever seen at one event in San Diego, excepting, perhaps, the opening of the exposition.”