Champion Brands, LLC has announced the sponsorship of a race-car team from South Carolina entered in the 110th Anniversary running of the 1908 Great Auto Race from New York to Paris.
In 1908 the “horseless carriage” was a novelty, certainly not suited for long distance travel. That would all change when the 1908 Great Auto Race from New York to Paris was run with six teams from Italy, France, Germany, and the United States.
The 1908 Great Auto Race was sponsored and organized by the NEW YORK TIMES and LA MATIN (a Paris newspaper). The torturous New York to Paris race route included: NYC, Albany, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Valdez Alaska, Japan, Vladivostok, Omsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris.
After 22,000 miles and 169 days the American Thomas Flyer and it’s driver George Schuster won this historic racing event, changing forever the course of the automobile. Shuster was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2010.
On the 110th Anniversary of the legendary 1908 test of men and machines, the Champion Racing Oil sponsored 1929 Model A Speedster, owned by Jack Crabtree of Gosse Creek, SC, will begin an 85 day journey starting in June 2018 from Times Square heading west to San Francisco. The vehicles will board a ship bound for Yokohama, Japan then enter the continent of Asia at the port of Vladivostok, Russia. Paralleling the Trans-Siberian Railroad the Champion’s Model A Speedster will head for Moscow, on to Berlin and finish at the Eiffel Tower in October 2018. http://www.2018nytoparis.com/