A year's worth of dust and glory: Ford celebrates motorsports centennial.

Pink slips, let alone racing for them, hadn't even been invented when 38-year-old automotive entrepreneur Henry Ford put his car-and his future-on the starting line against a heavily favored competitor. But when the dust settled after a 10-lap showdown at the Detroit Driving Club in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Ford and his 26-horsepower ``Sweepstakes'' racer had won the day.

That was Oct. 10, 1901. Boosted by his success on the track, by 1903 Ford had secured sufficient investment to

create the Ford Motor Co. The rest, as they say, is history.

That's the story the folks at Ford Racing will be telling and retelling this year as they celebrate the company's 100th year of motor racing that all began with ``the race that changed the world''-a race that Ford hoped would convince the public the automobile was more than just a ``fast toy.'' Ford wasn't alone: From Louis Chevrolet to Gottlieb Daimler, the young lions seeking to put the world on wheels knew the route to success often ran through the race course.

Ford built his car with the help of Oliver ``Otto'' Barthel and Ed ``Spider'' Huff, among others. The car's engine had two horizontally opposed cylinders, each with a seven-inch bore and seven-inch stroke. The engine was outfitted with a special porcelain spark coil insulator created by a local dentist. This forerunner of ...