Below is a collection of articles about the great American driver Joe Dawson who won the second Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in 1912. Also check out this article on Joe from Vanderbilt Races.
Earl Kiser was one of America's early professional auto racing drivers and a chief rival to his much more well-known contemporary, Barney Oldfield. Kiser succeeded Oldfield on Alexander Winton's Bullet II race car when Barney and Winton had a falling out. Kiser was also a colleague of Indianapolis Motor Speedway founder Carl Fisher.
I discovered a Web page presented by auto racing historian Don Stauffer that has some excellent copy and interesting photos of early track racing in Minnesota. Check out the photo of Webb Jay and his racer, Whistling Billy, as well as the J. Walter Christie's massive front wheel drive racer.