Historic Racing Facts

Despite it’s unclear origin the checkered flag has become synonymous with winning.  It’s not uncommon to hear the winner of a race say he got the checkered flag rather than say he won the race, despite the fact that everyone who finished got the checkered flag.

The checkered flag is one of the most widely used images in racing today.  Some say the origin of the checkered flag came from early dirt track racing.  The story is that the only way the women could get the guys to stop for lunch was to wave the table cloth at them, which was of course checkered.  Another origin theory is that the checkered flag's earliest known use was for 19th century bicycle races in France.

The oldest photo of a checkered flag being used to end a race was from New York in 1904 during the inaugural Vanderbilt Cup Race.  Although some say it was in 1906 or 1908.

Go to Wikipedia for more interesting facts about auto racing.