Engine Rules & Briarcliff

This article is more about engine rules than a second Briarcliff race in 1909 but the information is presented in the context of the race's future. Briarcliff was destined not to occur again and it is curious that its organizers would debate special rules for the event. The easy solution would be to continue as a stock car race and open the contest to various classes of cars. From this article, published in the Indianapolis Star on December 20, 1908, it seems the organizers were allowing themselves to get caught up in the latest trend in thinking about race car regulations: engine capacity.
 
This was sparked the previous year (1907) at the Ostend Conference in Belgium where America was not represented and European auto clubs agreed to a landmark decision that would forever change the technical assessment of race cars. Their decision cast off the previous regulations based on the maximum weight of car to focus on engine capacity.