page_title: 1912 Grand Prix season
section_title: Season review
hierarchical_section_title: 1912 Grand Prix season / Season review
caption_attribution_description: English: Louis Wagner in his Fiat at the 1912 French Grand Prix at Dieppe.
context_page_description: The 1912 Grand Prix season saw Grand Prix motor racing in Europe and the United States. The growing economic confidence and interest from car manufacturers saw bigger fields and more races in the season. The French Grand Prix was held for the first time since 1908 and staged at Dieppe. The American Grand Prize was held in Milwaukee, moving from its previous home in Savannah.
  Peugeot was the team to beat this year, with their new twin-cam 7.6-litre L-76. In the French Grand Prix, after American David Bruce-Brown’s FIAT had retired after leading for most of the two-day race, victory went to the Peugeot of Georges Boillot. Team-mate Jules Goux repeated the success at the Coupe de la Sarthe held at Le Mans. The Peugeot voiturettes had also won at Le Mans and Ostende. However, it was a British Sunbeam that was first voiturette home at Dieppe.
  In the three big races in the United States Joe Dawson won the second running of the Indianapolis 500. Ralph DePalma beat a small field in the Vanderbilt Cup. In the American Grand Prize held over the same weekend, rising star David Bruce-Brown was killed in practice while Caleb Bragg won the race in a FIAT S74.
context_section_description: The season started in Italy with the Targa Florio. After damage to the Madonie circuit in the previous year, the race instead became a tour on the coastal roads around Sicily, as the Giro di Sicilia. A good field of 16 cars arrived in Palermo for the clockwise course around the island. This allayed organiser Vincenzo Florio’s fears that his race was fading to obscurity. Englishman Cyril Snipe, racing for the SCAT team, built up a considerable lead. Learning in Trapani, the second to last checkpoint, that he had an eighty-minute lead he told his co-driver Pedrini that “twenty minutes will be enough” and stopped to have a meal and a sleep at a hotel for an hour. Pedrini managed to rouse his team mate in time and they reached Palermo again to win with a half-hour margin over the Lancia of Giordano, after a 24-hour journey.
  
   
  
  The organisers of the Indianapolis 500 doubled the prizemoney on offer from $27550 in 1911 up to $52225 including $20000 for the winner. The race was run to the same specifications, however after Harroun’s effort the previous year, riding mechanics were now mandatory. Although the Mason did not qualify, both the Mercer and Stutz did. David Bruce-Brown in a FIAT had the fastest lap in practice, while Gil Andersen drew pole position. A number of American factory entries were present as well as three privateer entries in European cars: Spencer Wishart and Italian-American Ralph DePalma in Mercedes and Teddy Tetzlaff in a FIAT. Tetzlaff took the lead initially, until DePalma passed him on the third lap. He continued to lead right up until the engine failed with only two laps to go. With over a three-lap lead, DePalma and his mechanic got out and pushed the car down the front straight to the cheers of the 80000 spectators, but to no avail. Joe Dawson overtook him to take the victory in a National. Race rules stipulated that drivers had to complete all 200 laps to be classified and receive prizemoney. Tetzlaff, helped by Caleb Bragg, came home second ten minutes later, with Hughes (Mercer) and Merz (Stutz) in third and fourth respectively. Ralph Mulford, second the previous year, finished last over 2½ hours after Dawson. Reputedly even stopping to change his shock absorbers and have a chicken dinner, he crossed the line in front of empty grandstands. Even the organisers had left. He completed the slowest ever 500 miles in the race. Two other records were set where DePalma had led the longest distance without winning (196 laps) and Dawson led the least to win (2 laps) until 2011.
  
  The French Automobile Club (ACF) revived its Grand Prix this year. Once again it was staged over two long days – over 1500km – at Dieppe, where the last Grand Prix had been held in 1908. To encourage entrants, the organisers used Formula Libre (open) regulations with the only restriction being that cars must be no wider than 1.75 metres. They also decided to run the Coupe des Voiturettes (3-litres or less) concurrently with the larger cars. Fourteen Grand Prix cars and 33 voiturettes were entered. The “Charlatans” arrived with their three new Peugeot L-76s.  The strongest challengers were the three FIAT S74s for Louis Wagner and Americans Ralph DePalma and David Bruce-Brown. There were also teams from Rolland-Pilain, Lorraine-Dietrich and a six-cylinder Belgian Excelsior. An entry from Mercedes was rejected by the organisers on the pretext that the entry was filed by the manufacturer’s Belgian agency and not the company itself.
  With Peugeot devoting its energy to its Grand Prix cars, they only had a single voiturette entry for René Thomas. Ranged against him were a number of teams from France (including Sizaire-Naudin, Grégoire and Th. Schneider) and Great Britain (Sunbeam, Vauxhall and others).
  Boillot had put in the fastest lap time in practice. The race started at 5.30am with Victor Rigal’s Sunbeam leading out the voiturettes and Victor Hémery’s Lorraine the first of the Grand Prix cars. Bruce-Brown set the pace, running ahead of Boillot then Wagner. But although the FIATs were faster the Peugeots had much more efficient pit-sto
caption: Louis Wagner, FIAT. French GP
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