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Daily Cover: The First U.S. Car Race Was Won 125 Years Ago

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125 years ago, Thanksgiving saw the birth of a new American sport: auto racing. The first race, a 54-mile round trip journey from Chicago to Evanston and back, wasn’t really about seeing who could drive the fastest. It was about proving to a skeptical public that the newfangled “motocar”—which most Chicagoans had never laid eyes on—was superior to the beloved horse as a mode of transportation.

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