By: A. Micheal Knapp, 1979  Twenty-four hour motor races. Test
of endurance of men and machines. Headlights roaring out of the
distance; red tail lights whining away to pinpoints. Grime.
Romance. Major repairs in minutes. Luck . Strategy. Planning
Organization. Stamina. LeMans. Daytona. Columbus.  Columbus?
Yes, Columbus, Ohio! The first 24-hour automobile race was run
right here at what the "Columbus Sunday Dispatch" called "the
splendid and long-famous oval track at the Columbus Driving
Park." It was a dirt horse- racing track, and was, at the time,
located on the near-east side on Bryden Road.  The motor car
itself was barely out of its infancy. Ten years earlier, the
first automobile race had been run from Paris to Bordeaux, won
by a Pauhard- Levassor by driver Boulanger at an average speed
of 15 miles an hour. When the 24-Hours of Columbus was
contested, The Ford Motor Company was only two years old, having
produced an automobile only a bit more than a year earlier.
1905. The 24-Hours of Columbus began