The Grand Prix became firmly established as the biggest race in Europe, and in 1908 the US Grand Prize (as it was then called) was held on a 17-mile course on roads around the Island of Hope district of Savannah, Georgia. The first ever Grand Prix, for which the ‘Big Prize’ was 45,000 French francs (equal to 28 lb of gold) was held over two days on June 26-27, 1906 on a 64-mile course on closed roads around the historic city of Le Mans. From now on, closed loops of roads – circuits – would become the norm. This aspect was to prove decisive in the evolution of racing, because in 1903, city-to-city events were outlawed due to unmanageable public safety concerns. The Gordon Bennett Cup raced on a route that started and ended at the same place, further building excitement and making it easier for the press to capture the stories and photographs that they needed to fill their pages. It all started when American newspaper baron, James Gordon Bennett, seized upon the excitement that new city-to-city racing fostered and through his newspapers, the New York Herald and the International Herald Tribune, and established the Gordon Bennett Cup in 1900 as a new European event.

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