Ken Parrotte Research

Thanks to auto racing historian and researcher Ken Parrotte for this important contribution.

Tom Mix was a top box office draw from 1920s Hollywood. His genre was Wild West tales where he played cowboy roles. This article reports a departure from his accustomed role to that of a race driver. The movie was, "The Road Demon," (1920).

This is another important contribution concerning early American auto racing by Ken Parrotte. Click on the attachment for a nice summary of the brilliant racing career of Herb Lytle. Lytle was an important figure in the first decade of American auto racing and no where in the world can you find more biographical information about the man than First Super Speedway.

This article is from a "novel" automobile competition held at Narragansett Park trotting track outside of Providence, Rhode Island. It is a good insight to the buzz throughout the nation about the rise of the automobile and inevitable passing of the horse as the primary source of individual transportation. The cars were called horseless carriages and the event was novel because people only spectated at horse races in the past. 

This article is from a "novel" automobile competition held at Narragansett Park trotting track outside of Providence, Rhode Island. It is a good insight to the buzz throughout the nation about the rise of the automobile and inevitable passing of the horse as the primary source of individual transportation. The cars were called horseless carriages and the event was novel because people only spectated at horse races in the past. 

This article is the latest contribution from our friend and top auto racing history researcher Ken Parrotte. It features a wonderful March 7, 1920 Minneapolis Journal profile of two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Tommy Milton by Robert Edgren. The article appeared as Milton's career was ascending.

This March 28, 1920 Motor Age article reports on Tommy Milton's victory on the 1.25-mile oval in Beverly Hills. This wonderful, high quality copy of the original article describes intense competition across three heats of sprint racing.

This is another important contribution by auto racing historian and researcher Ken Parrotte. We have three Atlanta Constitution articles that describe a thrill show at the Lakewood Park dirt oval in July 1917.

Auto racing researcher Ken Parrotte continues to deliver terrific analysis of auto racing history. In his attachment he breaks down the top three finishers of every Indianapolis 500 and their other career highlights such as pole positions.

This is an advertisement placed in the June 26, 1903 Fort Wayne Sentinel to promote a match race between Barney Oldfield and his buddy, Tom Cooper. This is another item of auto racing history provided by auto racing researcher Ken Parrotte.