A file of research on Louis Chevrolet, the leader of the Chevrolet brothers, which included Arthur and Gaston, who won the 1920 Indianapolis 500. Chevrolet was an excellent driver, mechanic and engineer. He struggled with his business dealings, losing his interest in the Chevrolet Motor Company, which eventually became part of GM. Several other efforts went south as well and he was reduced to humble means by the time of his death in 1941.

Frontenac Motor Company

A collection of articles documenting Louis and Arthur Chevrolet's Frontenac automobile business. Check out excellent information about this sad business story.
 
Sunoco Oil

Late in life, Louis Chevrolet tried to trade on his name. Teaming with Sunoco and the AAA, he participated in a promotional test to demonstrate the effectiveness of a new Sunoco Oil product. These are ads promoting that product. The tests were first ran in 1934.
Louis Chevrolet in 1914 Cactus Derby

The significance of this article is that Louis Chevrolet entered the 1914 Los Angeles-to-Phoenix "Cactus Derby" in his return to auto racing as a driver for the first time after starting the Chevrolet Motor Company with William Durant in 1910. Chevrolet and Durant had a fabled falling out, but what is interesting with the 1914 Cactus Derby is that Louis came back to racing driving a Chevrolet - owned by his race driving teammate, Cliff Durant. Cliff was the son of William.

This collection of articles reviews the July 4 weekend race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1910. This was the second race meet of the track's season, the first coming over Memorial Day. 1910 was one of the Speedway's busiest years ever, hosting three major auto race meets, an aviation show and another balloon race. The events of this year even rival the hard work the management team at the Speedway currently performs to pull off their mega-events.

Louis Chevrolet's Practice Accident

This is a terrific article describing Louis Chevrolet's accident during practice for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's July 1910 race meet. The car rolled over and Chevrolet escaped serious injury by diving deep into the cockpit.

This folder contains accounts of the races that occurred at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway over the Memorial Day weekend in 1910. All the stars of the day attended, including Ray Harroun, Joe Dawson, Bob Burman and Barney Oldfield. Harroun won events for Marmon and Oldfield set a new track mile record in his world land speed racer, the “Lightning Benz,” otherwise known as the “Blitzen Benz.” This race also offered an obstacle course promoted by the Overland Motors Company. This entailed wooden ramps and a route that took cars off the Speedway’s course, into the infield and through the drainage ditch in the southwest turn. Ernie Moross was the Director of Contests and was responsible for developing the program of events.

Harroun Wins Remy Brassard

This is a huge collection of articles that ran in Indianapolis newspapers on May 30, 1910. Aside from Ray Harroun's Remy Brassard, this 28 PDF page collection summarizes the three-day May 1910 race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway overall, with particular focus on the final day one interesting piece summarizes the attendance over the three days, estimating a total of 100,000 people passed through the turnstyles.

This is a wonderful collection of Indianapolis News, Indianapolis Sun and Indianapolis Star newspaper articles covering the August 14, 1909 Federation of American Motorcyclists (FAM) national championship race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This was the first motorized competition at the Speedway and delivered mixed results at best. The track was simply not ready, its rough macadam and tar surface broke up during the events. Further, the nature of the surface and length of the giant track was such that the riders could attain speeds in excess of 70 miles per hour but the lightweight bikes bounced dangerously over the loose stones. Many observers called a fiasco as numerous planned events were canceled when riders refused to take any more risks. Champion rider Jake DeRosier suffered serious injuries in a spectacular fall in a match race conceived on the fly. Also see my story of this event from the 2008 Moto GP Program.

Note: I will update this section with a synopsis of each article as time permits.

Jake De Rosier Profile, 1910

This is the best single article (two different copies of the same article in the attachments) I have yet to find on Jake DeRosier. I honestly believe you can't find a better backgrounder written during his lifetime on this brave pioneering champion of the motorized two-wheelers than what you will find here.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, August 1916
This rare article documents a 100 mile track speed record run that occurred at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August 1916. Much was made of America winning back the record from the French, with driver Georges Boillot and his Peugeot. The driver was Willard “Big Boy” Rader and the engineer was Jay Vincent. Carl Fisher and James Allison oversaw the event. Fisher was happy to make himself available to the press.

Packard Sets Speedway Record, 1916

This article reports on a new speed record for cars of 350 cubic inch (I'm not sure, tell me if you know) engines at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The car was a Packard using a specially designed aviation engine. The date was August 2, 1916 and the driver was "Big Boy" Rader. The engineer was J.G. Vincent. Much was made of the drive because it was an American car and it displaced a record set by Frenchman George Bolliot in a Peugeot. Ever patriotic Speedway President Carl Fisher celebrated the accomplishment by promoting it.

During the 1914 racing season promoter Will Pickens worked with Barney Oldfield and the renowned aviator Lincoln Beachey to stage the "Championship of the Universe." The men barnstormed the country, playing to more remote areas at county fair horse tracks. The premise was that Oldfield would race his automobiles against Beachey's biplanes for the ultimate championship. The program was extremely successful, netting the men over $250,000 - worth millions by today's value of money.

Beachey and Oldfield at Coney Island

This 1914 article describes an aerial show that occurred at Coney Island, New York and featured Lincoln Beachey in a Glenn Curtiss biplane.

This article reports on preparations for the Sheepshead Bay board track’s 1916 Astor Cup auto race. This article mentions Johnny Aitken’s success on the Cincinnati board track and at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s first and only “Harvest Classic.” Gil Anderson and Dario Resta are also mentioned in this article.

1916 Astor Cup Entries

This article discusses entries for the September 1916 Astor Cup. Defending champion Gil Anderson had been seriously injured at the Cincinnati Speedway board track and could not enter. By the time this article was written, 19 cars were entered including Peugeots for the two top drivers of the season, Dario Resta and Johnny Aitken. Sheepshead Bay board track management had made the decison to shorten the race from the previous year's distance of 350 miles down to 250. A commensurate reduction in the purse accompanied the shorter race cutting the 1915 purse in half from $50,000 to $25,000.

Balloon racing returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1910. Again, Speedway President Carl Fisher partnered with his friend and ballooning mentor, George Bumbaugh in their craft, "The Indiana."

Prep for Balloon Races - 1910

This article discusses preparations for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's national championship balloon races in September 1910. The Speedway hosted these races both in 1909 and 1910. The decision reflected Speedway President Carl Fisher's love of aviation. The 1910 season was particularly busy for the Speedway as it hosted an auto show in March, three major automobile race meets, an aviation meet featuring the Wright Brothers and the balloon championship.