IMS Timing & Scoring - 1909

This is an interesting article that sings the praises of the state-of-the-art timing, scoring and communications system installed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for its first motorized events in August 1909. Published in the Indianapolis Star on July 18, 1909 the article tilts its focus toward anticipation for the inaugural automobile races.
 
Oldfield Struck by Car

This article appeared in the July 21, 1909 Indianapolis Star. It is a brief and odd item that reports on a traffic accident where superstar race driver Barney Oldfield was struck crossing Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
Oldfield's Lima Record

This item was published in the July 28, 1909 Indianapolis News and reports on Barney Oldfield driving his National "Old Glory" racer to a new mile record on the Lima, Ohio half-mile horse track.
Log of My Motor - Vanderbilt

This article originally appeared in the August 15, 1909 Indianapolis Star but is for the most part a re-print of a book review from the July issue of the trade publication "Touring." The article was written by Harry Caldwell who provides a scathing review of the book, "Log of my Motor," by William Kissam Vanderbilt Jr. who would later become known as

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.

National Enters First IMS Races

This article first appeared in the July 13, 1909 Indianapolis Star and discusses the entries of the National Motor Vehicle Company in the first automobile races ever held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
America's Brooklands

This article was published in the August 15, 1909 Indianapolis Star and reports on the Brooklands track of Weybridge, Surrey, England. Constructed in 1907, a full two years before the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Hoosiers inevitably compared their homegrown facility with the English concrete-paved closed circuit course.
 

Information about the operations of the AAA as the primary sanctioning body of auto racing in the United States, especially in the earliest days of the sport.

AAA Amateur Status Policy

This item was originally published in the August 15, 1909 Indianapolis Star. It states the American Automobile Association's (AAA) position on the status of amateur drivers as opposed to professional ones.
AAA Operations, 1909

This article was originally published in the August 15, 1909 Indianapolis Star. It provides an overview of the mission of the American Automobile Association (AAA) as well as a list of its board members, executive staff complete with names and titles. The article localizes its report with a list of the executives of the Indiana State Automobile Association and city/county affiliates.
 
On the national level the AAA officers were:
 
AAA Stock Car Rules

This is an interesting item on the American Automobile Association's (AAA) rules for race cars in 1909. The article appeared in the Indianapolis Star on August 15, 1909. The key issue of the day was to rule on what cars were considered "stock" versus purpose-built as race cars.

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.

Return of the Cobe Trophy

This article was originally published in the August 15, 1909 Indianapolis Star and concerned the Cobe Trophy race that had been ran weeks earlier in June with Louis Chevrolet winning. While it was a financial failure on a course that was later deemed inadequate it was and is historically significant as the first major race conducted in Indiana. In fact this was the first major auto race staged west of the eastern seaboard.