1920 AAA Championship Car season


The 1920 AAA Championship Car season consisted of 5 races, beginning in Beverly Hills, California on February 28 and concluding in Beverly Hills on November 25. The AAA National Champion and Indianapolis 500 champion was Gaston Chevrolet. The 1920 season has been a source of confusion and misinformation for historians since 1926.

Official schedule and results

"Note: AAA had two different listings for the 1920 season. At the start of the year, 11 races were listed as counting toward the championship, but at the end of the season, AAA determined the championship to be based on the results of five races giving Gaston Chevrolet the championship. These results were considered official by AAA from 1920-26 and 1929-51. The 11-race championship was first recognized in 1926 with Tommy Milton as champion and was considered official for 1927 and from 1952 to 1955, the final year that AAA sanctioned auto racing."
RndDateRace NameLengthTrackLocationTypePole PositionWinning Driver
1February 28 Beverly Hills RaceLos Angeles Motor SpeedwayBeverly Hills, California1.25 Mile Board Jimmy Murphy Jimmy Murphy
NCMarch 28 Beverly Hills Heat 1Los Angeles Motor SpeedwayBeverly Hills, California1.25 Mile Board— Art Klein
NCMarch 28 Beverly Hills Heat 2Los Angeles Motor SpeedwayBeverly Hills, California1.25 Mile Board— Jimmy Murphy
NCMarch 28 Beverly Hills MainLos Angeles Motor SpeedwayBeverly Hills, California1.25 Mile Board— Tommy Milton
2May 31 International 500 Mile SweepstakesIndianapolis Motor SpeedwaySpeedway, Indiana2.5 Mile Brick Ralph DePalma Gaston Chevrolet
NCJune 19 Universal Trophy RaceUniontown SpeedwayHopwood, Pennsylvania1.125 Mile Board— Tommy Milton
3July 5 Tacoma RacePacific SpeedwayTacoma, Washington2 Mile Board Tommy Milton Tommy Milton
4August 28 Elgin National TrophyElgin Road Race CourseElgin, Illinois8.5 Mile Road Ralph DePalma Ralph DePalma
NCSeptember 6 4th Annual Autumn ClassicUniontown SpeedwayHopwood, Pennsylvania1.125 Mile Board— Tommy Milton
NCSeptember 19 Syracuse RaceNew York State FairgroundsSyracuse, New York1 Mile Dirt— Ralph DePalma
NCOctober 2 Fresno RaceFresno SpeedwayFresno, California1 Mile Board Eddie O'Donnell Jimmy Murphy
5November 25 Beverly Hills Race 2Los Angeles Motor SpeedwayBeverly Hills, California1.25 Mile Board Jimmy Murphy Roscoe Sarles

Official National Championship standings

# DriverManufacturerPoints
1 Gaston Chevrolet†Frontenac1030
2 Tommy MiltonDuesenberg930
3 Jimmy MurphyDuesenberg885
4 Ralph DePalmaBallot605
5 Roscoe SarlesFrontenac, Duesenberg540
6 René Thomas520
7 Joe Thomas351
8 Ralph Mulford350
9 Eddie Hearne345
10 Eddie Miller260

† Chevrolet was killed along with Eddie O'Donnell and Lyall Jolls, O'Donnell's mechanic, at the final race in Beverly Hills.

Controversy over official race schedule

The 5 race schedule has been confirmed as the correct and historically accurate schedule for the championship season of 1920. In the race day program for the final race at Beverly Hills was the points distribution for the championship contenders over the previous four races of the season. The championship was confirmed in the weeks leading up to the race by various newspapers around the country printing the four race championship standings leading to the final race. Confusion about the season began in 1926 when, for "comparative reasons", Contest Board member Arthur Means reworked the schedule to include 10 races and changed the champion to Tommy Milton. The earliest that the ten race standing occur are in the 27 October 1927 issue of Motor Age. In 1951 Racing Board member Russ Catlin found these retroactive crib sheets and folded the results into official AAA documentation, continuing the confusion about the 1920 season and early AAA history as a whole.
The added races to the season are as follows:
DateRace NameLengthTrackLocationTypeWinning Driver
March 28Beverly Hills Heat 1Los Angeles Motor SpeedwayBeverly Hills, California1.25 Mile Board OvalArt Klein
March 28Beverly Hills Heat 2Los Angeles Motor SpeedwayBeverly Hills, California1.25 Mile Board OvalJimmy Murphy
March 28Beverly Hills MainLos Angeles Motor SpeedwayBeverly Hills, California1.25 Mile Board OvalTommy Milton
September 19Syracuse RaceNew York State FairgroundsSyracuse, New York1 Mile Dirt OvalRalph DePalma
October 2Fresno RaceFresno SpeedwayFresno, California1 Mile Board OvalJimmy Murphy

Notes: In the Beverly Hills Main the starters limited to first four finishers for each preliminary race and in the Fresno Race Eddie O'Donnell started on the pole.
The false championship results table is as follows:
# DriverTeamPoints
1Tommy MiltonDuesenberg2095
2Jimmy MurphyDuesenberg1410
3Gaston ChevroletFrontenac1135
4Ralph DePalmaBallot605
5Roscoe SarlesFrontenac, Duesenberg580

In 1961, Al Bloemker attempted to reconcile the two different accounts for the 1920 season. He surmises that there was an issue with sanctioning fees paid by the Uniontown Speedway and their two races held that year were not included in the final season standings. The printed media of the time is silent about any issue with the Uniontown races not being championship events. They did in fact hold two races but they were non-championship. If Uniontown did pay for championship level racing but was not credited for them, lawsuits would have surely been filed but no such record exists.
The two Uniontown events are as follows:
DateRace NameLengthTrackLocationTypeWinning Driver
June 19Universal Trophy RaceUniontown SpeedwayHopwood, Pennsylvania1.125 Mile Board OvalTommy Milton
September 64th Annual Autumn ClassicUniontown SpeedwayHopwood, Pennsylvania1.125 Mile Board OvalTommy Milton