Webb Jay @ Premier 1909

The two attachments below both contain very brief articles on an early race driver of the time, Webb Jay. The article in attachment WebbJay052009 appeared in the May 20, 1909 Indianapolis Star. It reports that Jay was named to manage the offices of the Premier Motor Manufacturing Company distribution center at 2329 Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Jay apparently led a group of men who had purchased Premier cars on a road trip to Chicago. The men's names were W.A. Stalnaker, J.H. Seek and A.B. Caldwell.
 
As an aside, the article is part of digest column and there is a note about the withdrawal of the Marmon team from the Cobe Trophy due to the passing of Howard and Walter Marmon's father, D.W. Marmon.
 
The second attachment, WebbJayNews060709, contains another article about Jay and his role as a manager for Premier. This article, published in June 7, 1909 Indianapolis News  says that Jay, driving a six-cylinder Premier, led a group of drivers into Chicago. This was called an "innovation trip" Jay had scheduled to lead.
 
The trip between Indianapolis and Chicago was an incentive to get Chicago-based customers to drive their own cars from the Indianapolis factory instead of shipping them. A.B. Caldwell, mentioned above, was the customer of the car Jay drove. Jay dropped it off at Caldwell's house shortly after his arrival in Chicago.
 
The article also reports that Jay had the honor of naming a particular model of Premier. He called it, "the Club" car. The first recipient of the Premier Club car was J.H. Seek, also mentioned previously here. Gray and William Stalnacher had each purchased Premier "30" model and apparently paid someone to drive them up with Jay heading the "expedition." One customer, a Mr. Henderson, drove his own Premier roadster as part of the group.
 
In his racing days Webb Jay was one of the hottest shoes of the 1905 track season, breaking records with his "Whistling Billy" White Sewing Machine Company steam racer. His racing career was cut short by a nearly fatal accident at the Kennilworth horse track when during a race meet his car crashed through a fence and careened into a pond. Jay was unconscious spared by the quick thinking of teenage boys who pulled him from the wreckage. He remained in a coma for some time afterward and never returned to wheel-to-wheel competition. He remained affiliated with automobile business however and this article is evidence of that as it reports he 
 
Also, check out this content elsewhere on First Super Speedway for another Webb Jay update from 1910.