Gordon Bennett; The Man and his Race
In light of last Saturday's post of the dual 1902 Paris to Vienna and Gordon Bennett races consisting of the Vanderbilt Cup Race drivers that came out of that race, here are a few interesting videos depicting Gordon Bennett, the man, his life and the races held in his namesake.
Greg O.
James Gordon Bennett Jr. (May 10, 1841 – May 14, 1918) was born into wealth on May 10th, 1841. His father, James Gordon Bennett Sr. (1795–1872) emigrated from Scotland in 1819 eventually going on to become founder and publisher of the New York Herald newspaper. In 1867, Bennett Jr. took over the helm of the paper and continued its huge success in the latter half of the 1800's. He distinguished himself from his father by dropping James and was simply known as Gordon Bennett.
The avid yachtsman introduced both the first polo match and the first tennis match into the United States, and he personally won the first trans-oceanic yacht race. For us early racing aficionados, he also organized the early Gordon Bennet Cup Races from 1900-1905.
Born with the proverbial 'silver spoon in his mouth', Bennett Jr. lived a life of privileged luxury to a debaucherous excess as described in the videos below, but, also thanks to him, modern auto racing can be directly traced back to his amazing contributions in the early days of automotive racing. Watch the fascinating videos below.
In his You Tube channel, 'Today I found Out', Simon Whistler goes on to describe the incredible events of Gordon Bennett's wild and crazy life.
On July 2nd, 1903, early film studio Pathe filmed some of the earliest automobile racing from the Gordon Bennett Cup race in Ireland that year.
Here, the presenters of the You tube channel, 'Carfection', go on to explain the details surrounding the 1903 Bennett Cup race and how the Gordon Bennett races went on to eventually become modern-day Formula 1.
In this video, Patrick Lynch, the author of 'At The Greatest Speed', goes into the details of Bennett's extraordinary life.
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