Entries & Officials IMS 1909

This article comments on new entries and slate of officials for the first automobile races held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway appeared in the August 15, 1909, Indianapolis Star.
 
This article appeared on the morning of the day following the first motorcycle race meet at the Speedway as both events were within a week of each other. The lead of the article focuses on the new drivers and car with Fiat driver Ralph DePalma at the top of the list. Joining DePalma on the list of new entries were three cars from Marion. Walter Christie is noted as a driver who was one of the early arrivals at the Speedway.
 
The management power base of auto racing at the time was within the AAA still geographically dominated by those in the northeast especially New York. The ascendancy of the midwest within both the auto industry and motorsport could not be denied however and the article underscores this.
 
The article describes the Speedway as the "connecting link" between "eastern and western factions," even connecting the Automobile Club of America (ACA) and the American Automobile Association (AAA). Among the men named as officials were Lewis Speare (Boston), F.B. Stevens (New York), F.H. Elliot (New York), Walter Baker (Cleveland), Frank Ford (Cleveland), Frank Hower (Buffalo), Christen Hecker (Detroit), Frank Trego (Chicago) Asa Payne (Minneapolis), Charles Root (Chicago), David Beecroft (Chicago), George Cox (Terre Haute) and Fred Wagner (New York).
 
Some notes on a few of these men listed above follow. Speare was the reigning president of the AAA. Baker founded an electric car company in Ohio. Frank Hower was the current chair of the AAA Touring Committee that organized the Glidden Tour. Fred Wagner was the starter of the first two Indianapolis 500 Mile Races while Charles Root replaced him in 1913.