Grand Prize Entries - 1910

The attached article appeared in the May 1, 1910 Indianapolis Star and is a follow-up to an April 17 article announcing the date of the 1910 American Grand Prize.
 
The article reports on German entries to the 1910 American Grand Prize coming up that October. The cars were filed by the German auto club, Kaiserlicher Automobile Club and received by William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. best known in racing circles for founding the Vanderbilt Cup, America's first major auto race. Vanderbilt served as president of the Motor Cups Holding Company, an organization formed as part of compromise fashioned to end feuding between the rival American automobile organizations, the Automobile Club of America (ACA) and the American Automobile Assocition (AAA).
 
Their dispute - discussed elsewhere on First Super Speedway - fractured the sport of auto racing for over a year and severely damaged the reputation of the Vanderbilt Cup. The acrimony between the two organizations is touched on briefly in the article and the agreement forming the holding company is reported as signed on September 11, 1908. The American Grand Prize, first held in 1908, went on hiatus in 1909 and so its return in 1910 was a healthy sign. As the article reports, the announcement of the German cars - all of Benz manufacture - was made by ACA Secretary Charles E. Forsdick. 
 
The article indicated that the reason there was no 1909 Grand Prize is that there was no significant racing in Europe in 1909. Although not clearly stated, this is probably in reference to the cancellation of the French Grand Prix which was initiated in 1906 but halted after a French humiliation at the hands of the Germans in 1908. It was not resumed until 1912.
 
The article indicates that officials anticipated entries by Fiat, the company that won the inaugural Grand Prize. While plans called for the Grand Prize to be conducted over the same course (which included a portion of the Long Island Motor Parkway) as the Vanderbilt Cup which was planned for two weeks earlier no one could know that due to fatal accidents and spectator injuries in that race plans would change. The Grand Prize was postponed to November and conducted over the Savannah, Georgia venue that played host to its first running.