The road race in Lowell, Massachusetts only endured a couple of years but it attracted the major driving talents of the day. Expenses of staging the event proved to be an impossible business proposition. How the city may have prospered if the event could have surprised is impossible to know but it is fair to assume Lowell would have benefited from a healthy event.

Lowell Trophy & Race Carnival 1909

These articles concern one of the biggest auto racing events of 1909, the Lowell, Massachusetts road races and time trials. This was a speed festival as some of the articles reference an associated Federation of American Motorcyclists (FAM) race meet as well as auto time trials and shorter auto races for different classifications of the car.
Fairmount Park 1909

This is coverage on the 1909 Fairmount Park road race in Philadelphia. The competition was for the "Founder's Week Trophy." It was organized by the Quaker City Motor Club.
Brighton Beach - October 1909

These articles are about the Brighton Beach 24 hour endurance race held in October 1909. This event was won by the Lozier team with drivers Ralph Mulford and Cyrus Patschke. Both these drivers were important figures in the first Indianapolis 500.
Brighton Beach - August 1909

These articles recount the 24 hour race that took place at Brighton Beach August 27-28 1909. The troubled event, won by Charles Basle in a Renault, was overshadowed by accidents, two of which were spectacular with one involving two fatalities.
 
Brighton Beach - July 1909

The Brighton Beach track originally opened as a horse track in 1879 and was exceptionally successful until betting on horse races was outlawed in New York in 1908. Auto racing was introduced to the venue and in 1909 the Motor Racing Association (MRA) leased the track and modified it with the idea of dedicating it to motorsport.
Season Set to Rhyme

This is a curious item I found in the January 8, 1908 Indianapolis News that is evidence that some sports writer might have been a frustrated poet. As with any New Year the media of the day reflected on the previous year. In this instance the author was reviewing auto racing events of 1909 that he found most significant. I have provided links to original coverage of each of these events, all of which include additional links to biographical information on the drivers listed in bold.
 
In chronological order, the are:

Occasionally I run across obscure American road races that occurred before WW-I. This category is designed to capture and preserve such races.

Riverhead 1909, Bates Death & Mystery

The attached articles concern an auto race that occurred on Long Island little more than a month prior to the 1909 Vanderbilt Cup Race, the more established classic that took place in the same general vicinity.
 

This category is to further the body of knowledge about Ernie Moross, one of the most interesting personalities of early American auto racing. Moross was Barney Oldfield's manager for a good portion of that great driver's career as well as the first general manager of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He owned the Moross Amusement Company and campaigned other great drivers including Bob Burman and Teddy Tetzlaff, primarily in Benz racing machines. After he retired from promoting auto races he became a communist and ran for a Michigan state senate seat. Failing at that, he also suffered a huge financial set back during the Great Depression and died penniless at age 75 in 1949.

Moross On Naming Cars

Promoter extraordinaire Ernie Moross wrote this April 9, 1910 Indianapolis News article opining about how race cars get named. His main point that while manufacturers and teams introduced names the monikers that stuck boiled up from newspaper reporters or fans.

At the time of this writing it is April 2013. As a way of commemorating history I want to provide a look back 100 years day-by-day to share the events that were taking place throughout the month of May 2013.

Death of Harry Martin

These articles report the tragic story of the death of Stutz team riding mechanic Harry Martin almost a month after his amazing feat in the closing laps of the 1913 Indianapolis 500. As riding mechanic for driver Charlie Merz, Martin batted at flames, feeding on the inevitable splathering oil of the early cars, that had sprung up from under his engine cowling.

This folder has numerous articles on the inaugural auto races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. These races occurred only days after the Speedway hosted the Federation of American Motorcycles (FAM) race meet. The auto races were a blend of success and tragedy. Most of the major American drivers entered – Barney Oldfield, Ray Harroun, Bob Burman, Tom Kincaid, Lewis Strang, Louis Chevrolet, Jap Clemens, Charlie Merz, Eddie Hearne, Ralph De Palma and Tobin DeHymel among them. With the exception of a Fiat and a Benz, the entries were American, including: Marmon, Marion, Stearns, National, Jackson, Stoddard-Dayton, Buick and Apperson. Tragedy came in the loss of several lives, including Willfred Bourque, who became the first driver to die in a racing accident at the Speedway.

POV at IMS: 1909

I came across a pair of interesting articles from the August 20, 1909 edition of the Indianapolis Sun recently and was struck by how unique they were in terms of perspective. The articles report on events during the first auto races (August 19 - 21) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.