1911 Grand Prix season
The 1911 Grand Prix season consisted of Grand Prix races in the United States and Europe. It was a significant year as European racing gradually came out of the doldrums. A Grand Prix was held in France again. The first Indianapolis 500 was held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, joining the American Grand Prize (held in Savannah, Georgia) as a leading race. The Automobile Club de la Sarthe et de l’Ouest organized the Grand Prix de France of 1911. This race is not considered to be part of the lineage of French Grand Prix, as it was a separate event from the official French Grand Prix, the Grand Prix de l'ACF, organized by the Automobile Club de France from 1906 onwards. Major races Sources: Season review The season started with the Targa Florio with fifteen cars entered. It included cars from new Italian companies ALFA and SCAT (another company from the Ceirano family). Heavy rain beforehand had made the roads treacherous and they quickly turn to mud. Franchini, in the ALFA, led until he had to retire after the second lap from exhaustion of manhandling the big machine for six hours. In the end only five cars finished the three laps,