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15 unusual facts about American Automobile Association


1910 American Grand Prize

After a successful race in 1908, the Automobile Club of America made plans with the rival American Automobile Association to hold the Grand Prize and Vanderbilt Cup together on the Long Island Motor Parkway in 1909.

Cumberland Falls State Resort Park

Following a $2 million renovation project in 2006, the park received an upgraded rating from two diamonds to three diamonds from the American Automobile Association (AAA) in 2007.

Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge

A local AAA chapter spearheaded a failed effort to have the bridge named after William Penn.

Don Callander

In 1952, Callander married Mary Lee Omohundro and moved to Washington, D.C., where he began a 30-year career as a writer, photographer, editor and graphic artist with the American Automobile Association.

F. Stuart Wilkins

He also served as the chairman of the board of the American Automobile Association from 1989 to 1991.

Jimmy Daywalt

Born in Wabash, Indiana, he drove in the AAA and USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1950, 1953–1957, 1959, and 1961–1962 seasons with 20 starts.

Johnny Aitken

Outside of his participation at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Aitken is known to have started at least 33 AAA-sanctioned races, from 1907 to 1916, and to have driven relief in at least three others.

Le Cirque

The architectural lighting design was completed by Paul Gregory, principal of Focus Lighting Inc. There is a second flagship restaurant at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas that holds One Michelin Star and a AAA Five-Diamond rating.

Ludowici, Georgia

The AAA went so far as to specifically label Ludowici as a speed trap.

Perkiomen Bridge

To avoid the necessity of curved approaches, the American Automobile Association lobbied for the removal of the old bridge in 1938, to be replaced by a steel and concrete bridge.

Rallying

Rather gentler (and more akin to modern rallying) was the Glidden Tour, run by the American Automobile Association between 1902 and 1913, which had timed legs between control points and a marking system to determine the winners.

SunTrust Indy Challenge

AAA held two National Championship sprint car races at the track when it was still a half-mile dirt track under the name Strawberry Hill Speedway.

Sutton Place Hotel

The Sutton Place Hotel Vancouver is one of Canada's only two hotels to be awarded the AAA 5-Diamond Award.

Thumb Fun

Daffy opens his gift and finds that it is an (American Automobile Association-approved) Acme Hitchhiker's Thumb, which he vainly tries to use all winter for a ride.

Wankers Corner, Oregon

Because this is not a recognized community, it has never had a post office, nor does it consistently appear on maps of Oregon (although the AAA map of Oregon shows it in an inset).


Aero Club of America

In the summer of 1905, several members of the Automobile Club of America including Charles Glidden, Homer Hedge, David Morris, John F. O'Rourke, and Augustus Post founded the Aero Club of America.

Al Keller

He drove in the AAA and USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1954-1959 and 1961 seasons with 32 starts, including the Indianapolis 500 races in all but the first of those years.

Elmer George

He drove in the AAA and USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1956–1963 seasons with 64 starts, including the Indianapolis 500 races in 1957, 1962, and 1963.

Eric Gurney

He illustrated Punctured Poems (1971) by Richard Armour; How to Live with a Neurotic Dog (1960) (text by Stephen Baker); How to Live with a Calculating Cat (1962) (text by William Nettleton); an edition of Sportsmanlike Driving (1965), a textbook published by the American Automobile Association; and many other titles, whose total sales number in the millions.

Joe Sostilio

In AAA competition, Sostilio won seven races between 1948 and 1950 at tracks all over the country: South Bend, Indiana, Milwaukee Mile, Akron, Ohio; Miami, Florida and Heidelberg, Pennsylvania.