Racecar driving had come a long way by the time this Mercedes-Simplex won on the Grosse Pointe track in Detroit in 1902

CREDIT: "H.S. Harkness in His Mercedes-Simplex, Winning Five-Miles Event in 6:1 3-5, Grosse Pointe Track, Detroit." Detroit Publishing Company, copyright 1902. Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920, American Memory collections, Library of Congress.