Strang on Speedway Construction

This article was published in the March 21, 1909 Indianapolis Star and reported on the visit of one of America's top race car drivers, Lewis Strang and his visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the previous day.
Acetylene & Car Production

This is a small digest column item from the April 17, 1909 Indianapolis Star that inludes referenceces to acetylene headlights and national automobile prodution - among other items.
Cuneo Speaks Out

This article from the April 11, 1909 Indianapolis Star was developed from an interview with Joan Cuneo, the top female race driver of the early 20th Century. Cuneo enjoyed reasonable success with the best example coming in 1909 on an oval dirt track in New Orleans.
Dorothy Levitt

A contemporary and English counterpart to Joan Cuneo (America's top woman race driver) Dorothy Levitt was not only a competition driver but aviator and author as well.
IATA & French Lick 1909 + Strang Retires

The Indianapolis Automobile Trade Association (IATA), after two years of staging successful Indianapolis Auto Shows and the two "sealed bonnet runs" decided another Glidden Tour-inspired endurance run to French

This collection provides background on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's original great trophy, the Wheeler-Schebler Trophy. Commissioned by Frank Wheeler and George Schebler, founders of the Wheeler-Schebler Carburetor Company, the seven foot sterling silver trophy was designed by the Tiffany Company for $10,000. It is on exhibit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum today.

Wheeler Trophy "Finest in the World"

The Indianapolis Star reported on March 18, 1909 that Indianapolis Motor Speedway co-founder Frank Wheeler had contracted Tiffany Jewelers to produce a $5,000 sterling silver trophy.

The first competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a national championship gas filled balloon race organized by Speedway President Carl Fisher. Fisher and his co-founders James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur C. Newby were anxious to recover their investments in the Speedway. Since construction of the track did not begin in earnest until April 1909 it took months to prepare the track for motorized competition. Fisher, fascinated with aviation, sought to host the national championship balloon racing competition - and generate revenue for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Company. He formed the Aero Club of Indiana, became the 21st person to earn a balloon pilot's license in the United States and worked with mentor George Bumbaugh to develop balloon vehicles. Their craft was called the Indiana and together they survived a harrowing ride through turbulent wind currents. Check out a photo gallery of this great event elsewhere on First Super Speedway.

An Aeronaut's POV

On April 18, 1909 the Indianapolis Star published an article that presents the perspective of an "Aeronaut" or balloon pilot. This article was a direct result of the public interest in upcoming Aero Club of America national championship balloon race scheduled for June 5, 1909 at the Indianpolis Motor Speedway.

Called the "Western Vanderbilt" the initial Ira Cobe Trophy Race was run on a 23.27-mile road course completing a circuit between Crown Point and Lowell Indiana on June 19, 1909. It was commissioned by Ira Cobe, who founded the Chicago Automobile Club. Low attendance and the brutal punishment inflicted by the under-developed roadways contributed to the decision to move the contest for this classic trophy to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1910.

The Indiana Trophy

After a build-up of months the Indiana Trophy - the support race to the Cobe Trophy - was staged June 18, 1909. At long last Indiana and the mid-west United States had a major auto race.
Cobe Trophy Coverage

The much anticipated Cobe Trophy was months in the making and the Indianapolis newspapers reflected the enthusiasm of the age for all things automobile oriented.
Ira Cobe's Vision - Indianapolis News

The pace of change in automotive technology between the turn of the 20th Century and 1908 was pronounced and developments within motorsports reflected it. There were a handful of auto races in the United States in 1900 - inevitably involving at most a total of three or four cars of one or two cylinders.