page_title: 1923 Grand Prix season
section_title: Season review
hierarchical_section_title: 1923 Grand Prix season / Season review
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Départ du Grand Prix de l'ACF 1923 (Le Monde Illustré du 7 juillet 1923, p.13).
context_page_description: The 1923 Grand Prix season was part of a watershed year for motor racing that saw significant advances in motor-racing engineering, design and events. Fiat's chief designer, Guido Fornaca, developed the 805, the first supercharged car to win a Grand Prix. Benz appeared with the first mid-engined racer and, along with Bugatti and Voisin, produced some of the first efforts at aerodynamics on racing cars. With the United States also adopting the 2-litre formula, Harry Miller could use the smaller engine size to design the first single-seater race-car, ideally suited to American oval racing.
  The inaugural Spanish Grand Prix for racing cars was held at a newly built oval at Sitges, near Barcelona. The first 24 Hours of Le Mans was held in June. The iconic race would influence the separation between grand prix and sports car racing and become a test-bed for production car development. The Belgian Automobile Club would promptly copy the format for its own 24-hour event at the new circuit at Spa-Francorchamps.
  Alfa Romeo got a 1-2 result at the Targa Florio with Ugo Sivocci winning after Antonio Ascari's car stuttered almost within sight of the finish line.
context_section_description: As usual, the first major race of the season was the Targa Florio across northern Sicily. The winner of the last two times, the Conte Giulio Masetti was invited to join the official Alfa Corse works team. The company made a big effort with five entries. Masetti, Antonio Ascari and the veteran Giuseppe Campari had the 2.9-litre of the RL model. Ugo Sivocci had the 3.2-litre version while Enzo Ferrari ran an ES model. There was not as much international interest this year. Aside from Alfieri Maserati's 2-car Diatto team, a three-car team came from Steyr (including Italian drivers Ferdinando Minoia and Conte Gastone Brilli-Peri). André Boillot bought a Peugeot 174 Sports, and privateers filled out the field of seventeen.
  The Alfa Romeos controlled the race. Although Campari and Ferrari retired, Ascari had the fastest lap and would have won. However, on the last lap his engine broke at Cerda within sight of the line. With push-starts not allowed, by the time his mechanic was able to get it going again, team-mate Sivocci had made up the time and won by three minutes. Minoia brought home his Steyr in third, just ahead of Masetti. From the great publicity across Italy, and in celebration of the 1-2 victory, Alfa Romeo named the car the “RL Targa Florio”. It also encouraged Nicola Romeo to look at building a Grand Prix car.
  Jimmy Murphy's victory the previous year in the Indianapolis 500 had attracted a lot of interest in Harry Miller's engines. The entry list for this year's event included 11 of the new Miller 122 (in its various guises) in the 24 starters. Cliff Durant had a number made up and eight were entered as Durant Specials. The drivers included Murphy, Eddie Hearne, Harry Hartz and Cliff Durant himself. Harry C. Stutz had another two entered as HCS Specials for Tommy Milton and Howdy Wilcox. Packard returned for the second and last time. Its drivers were the veterans Ralph DePalma, Dario Resta and Joe Boyer. Fred Duesenberg was a late arrival, with just the single car ready for rookie Wade Morton.
  With a unified formula again, European interest was renewed in the Indianapolis 500. Bugatti had five Type 30s modified as single-seaters. Pierre De Vizcaya and Betrand, Prince of Cystria were joined by British Aston Martin-driver, Louis Zborowski and wealthy Argentineans Martín de Álzaga and Raúl Riganti. Mercedes brought their three 1.5-litre cars, being the first supercharged cars at the event, along with perennial drivers Christian Lautenschlager, Max Sailer and Christian Werner.
  Milton threw down the gauntlet from the start setting a new qualifying record of 108.7 mph to take pole position. Early in the race, Lautenschlager was cornering, engaged the supercharger too soon and spun into the wall.  The two other Mercedes initially provided a close contest but engine issues dropped Werner and Sailer back to third and fourth by halfway and they eventually finished down the field. In an exciting first half of the race the lead changed 25 times: initially between Milton and Murphy, until Wilcox and Durant pushed up to vie for the lead. When Wilcox had to retire after 60 laps, he relieved Milton in his car for the third quarter of the race. The Milton/Wilcox car eased ahead and, between them, they led the second half of the race. Milton went on to become the first two-time winner of the race, ahead of the Durant-Millers of Hartz, Murphy and Hearne. Milton collected almost $30000 in prize-money (the average industrial worker's salary was about $1500). It was at a cost, as his hands were badly injured, firstly by blisters from his driving gloves shrinking and then scalded from the glue out of the steering wheel.
  Milton, Murphy, Hearn and the Miller drivers won all the races in the 8-race AAA season, blocking out Duesenberg. With two wins and four seconds across the season, Eddie Hearn was retroactively announced in 1927 as Champion for the Year. Murphy was runner-up as he missed the latter part of the season to take his Miller across to Europe. Howdy Wilcox, however, was killed at the inaugural Altoona 200 in September.
  In June t
caption: Start of the French Grand Prix
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