1894 motor racing season

The 1894 motor racing season was the inaugural season of motor racing. The only race, the Le Petit Journal Competition for Horseless Carriages from Paris to Rouen, was won by [driver] on a [vehicle]. The race attracted both already established brands as well as exotic and novel vehicle concepts as entrants and marked the advent of point-to-point racing in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Paris-Rouen Race
The "Le Petit Journal Competition for Horseless Carriages" (Le Petit Journal Concours des Voitures sans Chevaux) was officially announced by the newspaper in December 1893. The objective of the event (in addition to advertising the newspaper) was to find the safest, easiest to operate, and cheapest vehicle. The focus was not on reaching the finish line quickly, as in later races, but rather on the demonstration of new technologies.

The race result was merely one of several criteria that were taken into account in the scoring. The winner's prize was paid to the constructor whose "car comes closest to the ideal. The remaining prizes was awarded by the jury of Le Petit Journal.

A total of 102 people indicated interest in the race. Among them were already established constructors as well as amateur drivers. Some participants planned to compete with unusual and inconceivable technologies such as " gravity" or "automatic", but these participants did not show up for the qualifying race.

In the end, [xx] vehicles arrived in Paris for the race: [xx] steam vehicles, [xx] gasoline-powered vehicles, [xx] electric vehicles and one compressed-air vehicle competed in the qualification run. The participants had to complete a 50km route within three hours in order to be accepted to participate in the race. Two more experimental cars were expected, but contrary to the expectations of Le Petit Journal, did not appear for the race.

Qualifying was held from 19–21 July 1894, [results here].

At 8:00 am on Sunday 22 July, twenty-one qualifiers started from at Porte Maillot, from where the riders headed to the Bois de Boulogne. The riders then crossed the northwest of Paris and then followed the Seine until they reached Mantes, where they stopped for lunch from 12:00pm to 1:30pm. The riders then continued to follow the Seine and passed through Gaillon, Heudebouville and Pont-del-Arche, among others, from where the participants headed to the Champs des Mars in Rouen. While the track in downtown Paris was dominated by curves, it was significantly faster in after the first quarter of the race. Another winding passage followed after Pont-del-Arche, after which the riders only had to negotiate the very fast passage into downtown Rouen.

[Race highlights & results here].