Mystery Friday Foto #27 Solved: #9 Peugeot driven to victory by Dario Resta in the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race
Did you identify this weekend's mystery racer?
Answers to the Mystery Foto questions:
- Car & Driver
#9 Peugeot EX3 driven by Dario Resta
- Race date and location
1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race held in San Francisco, California on March 6, 1915
- Outcome for this racer
Completed all 77 laps and finished 1st, averaging 66.443 mph.
- Kudos: Link this racer to Preston Tucker
Resta's engine was one of the first race engines built by future Preston Tucker Indy partner, Harry Miller.
Comments (5)
Congrats to David Miller, Wayne C. Petersen, Steve Lucas, Ken Parotte and Dick Gorman for identifying Dario Resta's Peugeot
Kudos to David Miller and Steve Lucas for linking Harry Miller to the Preston Tucker and Resta's Peugeot.
Greg O. & Howard Kroplick
Comments
This is Dario Resta, the driver of a 1913 Peugeot EX3. He came in first in the 1915 VCR held on March 6th in San Fransisco. His time was 4:27.37. The mechanic responsible for building the engine of the car was Harry Miller. In 1935 Harry Miller teamed up with Preston Tucker to build 10 race cars for Ford for the 1935 Indy 500.
Dario Resta 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race Winner San Francisco, CA in a 1913 Peugeot EX3. Not quite sure of the name of his Riding Mechanic? “Bill Perkins” Keeping American Automotive Racing History Alive!
That’s the #9 Peugeot EX3 racer driven by Dario Resta. The location is San Francisco where Resta drove the same car to victory in the American Grand Prize race on Feb. 27, 1915 and the Vanderbilt Cup race on March 6, 1915 during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The racer was prepped and set-up for racing by Harry Miller, who years later joined with Preston Tucker to build several Ford racers for the 1935 Indy 500.
Dario Resta
Peugeot
March 6, 1915, Vanderbilt Cup, San Francisco
Dario Resta is the only driver to win the Vanderbilt Cup (1915 & 1916) the Indianapolis 500 (1916) and the American Grand Prize (1915)
Resta was the 1916 AAA Champion
Dario Resta was killed in a race at Brooklands September 3, 1924
Mystery Foto #27…The car is a 1912-1914 Peugeot EX3 as driven by Dario Resta. The race was the1915 American Grand Prize and Vanderbilt Cup race at the Panama-Pacific international Exposition in San Francisco. That was in February or March of 1915. And this car and driver won the race.
There were 3 L56 Peugeots in the U.S. in 1914. Bob Burman drove one of them in the January 9, 1915 San Diego Exposition race and broke the engine. This car had a new engine fabricated by Harry Miller that was finished in early April 1915. It’s not very likely that Resta drove this car in San Francisco in February/March 1915 for the U.S. Grand Prize and the Vanderbilt Cup. Resta’s car for these races was listed at 344.8 cu. in. The Burman/Miller engine had been reduced to below 300 cu. in. to comply with the 5 Liter limit in 1915.