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2006
Stanley Land Speed Record Centennial
KINGFIELD, Me. - No Stanley celebration has received more attention or energy
than the celebration of the 1906 Stanley Land Speed Record. Appropriately
so—this is the single event that made the Stanley Steamer the stuff of legend.
Starting with the 50th anniversary, collector-dealer-historian Donald Randall
tried to get racecar driver Fred Marriott himself to go back to Ormond to
celebrate just months before he died in 1956.
 After
Randall himself died in 1985, his son Howard took up the cause, pushing the
Stanley Museum, founded in 1981, to celebrate the 80th, then the 90th. Finally
the 100th has arrived. Serious planning began as early as 1995 when the Stanley
Museum set the schedule of celebrations with the centennial of the first Stanley
Steamer in 1997 in Newton, Mass.
An attempt to build a full-scale replica was shelved, but planning continued. In
2000, Dan Smith, Beach Race Director for Ormond Beach, contacted the Stanley
Museum about participation in the 2003 centennial of the race’s 1903 beginning.
In 2002, Museum president and director Susan Davis and chairman Mike Roach
traveled to Ormond Beach. There they met with Smith, interested and sponsoring
parties, and governing officials of the City of Ormond Beach and of Volusia
County Beach Services, which oversees and controls the Beach itself.
Pictured: Fred Marriott in the cockpit of the Stanley Rocket Racer.
Since that time, the Stanley Museum has had a presence at race centennials in
2003, 2004 and 2005. During this time, Davis has selected hotels, vendors,
designed logos, worked with Ormond Beach and other area officials and
communicated with the Stanley Museum’s worldwide membership.
Without question, this centennial will be the single largest celebration the
Stanley Museum has ever mounted. Steam car owners, Stanley family, Stanley
Museum members and those affected by the energy the plans have generated are all
turning their attention toward northeast Florida in January of 2006. Many are
planning to attend. The Museum is also publishing a book on the history of
Stanley racing culminating in the 1906-1907 events as the official commemorative
program.
Governed by the tide, the beach event itself is to start at 9 a.m., Thursday,
January 26. Flags and banners on the beach and throughout the city will lend a
festive air. Antique airplanes are to fly over at the start of the demonstration
runs. Live broadcasting on radio and TV and professional film crews recording
for at least one documentary promise to heighten the excitement these vintage
vehicles already command on this historic beach.
For northern steam car owners, transporting cars in winter weather has been a
concern. But storage locations have begun springing up, allowing steam car
owners from the North the opportunity to transport their cars in warmer fall
weather and to take them back north in the spring.
In addition to the race celebration itself, the Museum has arranged three days
of touring in the area for those attending with steam cars. The scenic Ormond
Loop through old Florida forests, visits to historic Saint Augustine to the
north and Ponce Inlet to the south, and a planned parade lap around the track at
Daytona USA, are arranged to give car owners a taste of both historic and modern
Florida.
As official presenter of the steam event, the Stanley Museum shares sponsorship
with Ormond Beach Leisure Services, Motor Racing Heritage Association, Ormond
Beach Historical Trust, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, National Parts Depot and other
businesses and individuals in the Ormond Beach, museum and automobile community.
The significance of the celebration has found its match in the hospitality of
this historic Florida community.
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