AAA: From American motorsport sanctioning body to roadside assistance provider

The sanctioning and organization of motorsport in America has been a little haphazard and prone to evolution — but one of the earliest sanctioning bodies in the United States was the AAA Contest Board.

Yes, that AAA, the American Automobile Association, the organization best known for its “roadside assistance” program that provides aid to everyday drivers in need of some emergency help. This is the story of the AAA.

AAA Contest Board: A history

Motorsport sanctioning has been a bit disorganized and haphazard when compared to the sanctioning style of European racing. The sheer size of the United States meant that countless local or regional bodies popped up throughout history — and those different bodies loved to fight with each other.

The AAA Contest Board was derived from an organization called the Automobile Club of America, which was founded in 1899. The ACA was basically a group of gentlemen racers who started a little organization to ““maintain a social club devoted to the sport of automobilism and to its development throughout the country.”

The AAA was founded three years later, in 1902, when it also developed the Racing Board. Where the ACA was founded to, effectively, enter a man named Alexander Winton in the Coupe Internationale Automobile in 1900, the AAA was founded to take on a more national approach to organizing motorsport events.

The AAA’s first major event was the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup in Long Island, New York. William Kissam Vanderbilt organized the event with a significant prize purse, which attracted racing talent from all over the world.

It was enough to inspire the AAA to create its first season-long championship in 1905 (even though, between 1906 and 1915, the AAA didn’t actually recognize any further championships). It started sanctioning events like the Indianapolis 500, and it continued with the Vanderbilt Cup.

But trouble was brewing.

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AAA vs. ACA

In 1908, the AAA and the ACA faced their first significant ideological differences. Events like the Vanderbilt Cup began to draw in exceptional European talent, and American manufacturers that were slower to develop were soon overrun at the Indianapolis 500.

That was also in part due to the formation of another sanctioning body, the MCA, or Manufacturers Contest Association; this group of automakers lobbied the AAA to create more favorable racing rules for American automakers, but that resulted in that simply couldn’t compare to the best of Europe.

So, the AAA and ACA soon fractured, with the AAA handling national races and the ACA handling international events that took place on American soil.

However, just before its demise during the Great Depression, the ACA quietly rejoined the AAA in a last ditch effort to keep itself afloat; the ACA was ultimately dissolved in 1932.

Between World War I and World War II, AAA sanctioning really kicked off; Europeans had been slow to return to America, which gave American drivers and manufacturers a chance to relax the rules and start focusing on innovation.

Further, the Indy 500 became the pinnacle of the AAA’s sanctioning calendar; as a result, the championship calendar developing around the United States tended to prioritize “Championship car” racing, or what we would today recognize as IndyCar racing.

AAA Contest Board’s downfall

At the end of 1955, the AAA disbanded its Contest Board in response to what was a truly horrifying year for motorsport.

Many international racing fans are familiar with the 1955 Le Mans disaster, where the Mercedes of Pierre Levegh crashed into a crowd of spectators and killed over 80 people in gruesome fashion.

However, the AAA had faced its own horror that year. During the 1955 Indianapolis 500, Bill Vukovich — who had won the race the two previous years — was killed despite holding a 17-second lead over the rest of the field.

As Vukovich exited Turn 2, he couldn’t avoid a three-car pileup between slower drivers Rodger Ward, Al Keller, and Johnny Boyd. When Vukovich struck Boyd’s car, his own machine went airborne and launched out of the track, crushing several cars in the parking lot. He had been killed instantly.

Stepping in to fill the void was the United States Auto Club (USAC), which was founded in the AAA’s aftermath by Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner tony Hulman.

AAA outside of racing

The American Automobile Association was initially founded in 1902 in response to the growing number of automobiles flooding the American market, and the shocking lack of suitable roads for those cars to drive on. Several different motoring clubs banded together to begin advocating for things like a cross-country highway.

Other early AAA work included printing road maps and hotel guides, organizing driver safety schools, and conducting studies on motorist safety. During wartime, it aided the government with transportation logistics and defense planning.

Now, AAA is perhaps best known for its “roadside assistance” program. With this service, drivers pay a monthly fee to protect against emergencies; should you end up stuck on the side of the road with no gas or a blown tire, AAA roadside assistance services will connect you to a local service that can solve those issues.

But most folks in America have no idea about the speedy past of the AAA.

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