Tommy Milton Up Close

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. Milton, a Minneapolis native, was less than fifteen months from his first Indianapolis 500 victory. 
 
The article is a sensationalized interview that provides insights into the most harrowing moments of Milton's early career. Among them are a crash into a wood fence where a post impaled his car and grazed his head leaving whitewash on one side of his face. In another incident, his legs were so severely burned they required skin grafts to heal during his nine-week hospital stay. The stories are of the dangers of high-banked board tracks like Altoona and the dusty dirt tracks that forced competitors to drive blind.