Air Show Plans, Jackson Protest

The attached article, published September 4, 1909 was published in the Indianapolis Star shortly after the first auto race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Despite the tragedies endured in that event where five people lost their lives, the Speedway forged ahead with plans to stage an air show and additional auto races in the weeks following the August 19 - 21 races. The devestating fatal accidents the first and third days of the meet. The five men killed were:
 

• William Bourque, driver.
• Harry Holcomb, riding mechanic
• Claude Kellum, riding mechanic
• James West, spectator
• Homer Jolliff, spectator

 
This article announces plans that Speedway management had decided to stage the air show on October 14 through 16. Speedway Director of Contests Ernie Moross was heading up the project to attract the right pilots, planes, balloons and dirigibles to the event.
 
As confirmed in a previous article super star Glenn Curtiss had indicated he planned to participate. Curtiss was a big "get" in the day, the winner of "airship races" in Rhiems, France. This was the first great air race in history and would serve as the gold standard for such endeavors for many years hence. It was here that Curtiss won the James Gordon Bennett Cup for aviation, recognized as the highest honor for such events.
 
The article indicates that finding a date where the right people and aircraft were available was a challenge. For example, Speedway President Carl Fisher and his ballooning mentor George Bumbaugh were competing in an airshow in "Fulton" (there is a Fulton County Indiana as a well as Fulton, New York so it is unclear exactly where they planned to be) so Moross had to plan around even their schedule.
 
This article also provides an update on the Jackson Automobile Company's protest of the Speedway and the American Automobile Association (AAA) decision to call off the Wheeler-Schebler Trophy 300 mile race. A Jackson was leading at the time and even though 235 miles had been completed the race was effectively declared "null and void" and all prizes and trophies were withheld. Jackson found this totally unacceptable and filed a protest.
 
Moross filed a written complaint with AAA Chairman Frank Hower seeking to dismiss the protest based on technicalities concerning procedure of filing a protest. Moross was seeking to bar Jackson from entering any future AAA sanctioned races.