Erwin "Cannon Ball" Baker

By Sigur Whitaker
The first races at IMS were for motorcycles. The Federation of American Motorcyclists (FAM) held their annual convention in Indianapolis and were the first to take to the track. It was still a work in progress. Big rollers were still smoothing the track made of crushed stone and taroil.
 

Motorcyclists were accustomed to racing on board or dirt tracks. When they looked at the track, many were immediately concerned about their safety.  Nevertheless, some motorcyclists took to the track and Indianapolis resident Erwin “Cannon Ball” Baker won the first race, a ten-mile free-for-all with a time of 11 minutes, 31 1/5 seconds.
 
“Cannon Ball” Baker was born in 1872 in Dearborn County, Indiana, which is southeast of Indianapolis. When he was twelve years old, the family moved to Indianapolis where his father worked for the Big Four railroad. In the early 1900s, Baker found work as a machinist at the Drop Forge Company earning 88 cents per day. Despite what must have been grueling work, at the end of a 10-hour day, he would go to the South Side Turnverein gymnasium (the Turners). The Turnverein was a German-American group where members could participate in both social and athletic activities. He could punch up to twelve bags at once while lying on his back using his head, feet, knees and hands. While at the Turnverein, he worked on acrobatics and became an expert. This led to a contract with a vaudeville company in 1906 with shows across the nation. While in San Francisco, he decided to quit the vaudeville act and returned to Indianapolis.
 
Resuming his job at the Drop Forge Company, he bought an Indian motorcycle which changed his life. In 1908, he decided to enter a race at the Crawfordsville Fairgrounds. He won one race and finished second in another. Based upon his success, he decided he would pursue motorcycle racing. Within a year, he joined the professional ranks and started riding for factory teams for a salary or on an all-winnings basis. In 1912, the Hendee Manufacturing Company, which made the Indian motorcycle, hired him to represent the company on a goodwill tour of Cuba, Jamaica and Panama where he rode 14,000 miles. For the next twelve years, he rode for Indian without a written contract.
 
In 1914, he rode a 7-horsepower stock Indian motorcycle 3,362 miles across the United States from San Diego to New York City including 1027 miles of desert, 232 miles of prairie mud and 64 miles down a railroad track in 11 days, 11 hours and 10 minutes. The previous record was 20 days, 9 hours and 1 minute made by Volney Davis in 1912. 
 
On a Hendee sponsored tour of Australia in 1916, he established several new records including a 24-hour record at Mortlake of 1018 ¾ miles. Despite a torrential rainstorm and flocks of rabbits, he established new records for 200, 300, and 1,000-miles. He set a record of 980 miles in a road race to Melbourne. The previous record of 775 miles was made by H. H. Collier of England. He also set a new record covering 1,027 miles in 21 ½ hours at Melbourne.
 
By 1917, his record had been broken by Alan T. Bedell who rode a Henderson. With his reputation at stake, he took to the track and rode 511 miles in practice. On June 26, 1917, he began his run at the Cincinnati Speedway board track. Just as with the 24-hour record setting attempt in Australia, Baker faced a torrential rainstorm at the 900-mile mark. At one point, he was going approximately 60 mph when he hit a rabbit with about 600 miles to go. He suffered an injury to his right hand resulting in severe swelling.  Still, he rode on. One of his trademarks was his ability to plan ahead. He put four red lanterns in each turn. He also was supported by a team made up of several Indian agents who refilled the gas and oil every 100 miles.Monitored by four FAM timers and four scorers, he rode 1386 ¼ miles in 24 hours, which was 233 miles further than Bedell’s record. With an average speed of 61.8 mph, he also shattered the records for 500-miles, 1,000 miles, and 12 hours.
 
Not only was Baker an established rider, through his time in vaudeville, he understood the value of promotion. He got support from United States Tires and from Diamond Chains, an Indianapolis company of which IMS co-founder Arthur Newby was an early investor. (Newby sold his interest in 1899 to a bicycle trust). Diamond Chain advertised that they “did not even need an adjustment during the twenty-four hours.”
 
Baker did not confine himself to setting motorcycle records. In May 1915, he drove a Stutz Bearcat 3,728.4 miles from San Diego to New York City in eleven days, and 7 ¼ hours. He later established cross-country records for Lexington, Wills Sainte Claire and Franklin automobiles. He promised the automakers, “No record, no money.” He participated in the 1922 Indianapolis 500 driving a Chevrolet Brother’s Frontenac to 11th place without a relief driver. He was frustrated by spending more time in the pits than he planned due to engine trouble.
 
A New York journalist gave him the moniker “Cannon Ball” after he raced the New York Central’s Cannonball Express passenger train on its run from New York to Chicago in 1928 driving a Franklin. He considered this his greatest feat.  He is also known for his 1933 drive from New York to Los Angeles in a little over 53 ½ hours, a record that stood for more than 40 years. During this run, he slept only 30 minutes. This run inspired the original Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, created by journalist Brock Yates in 1971. This was the inspiration behind Burt Reynolds' film, The Cannonball Run”.
 
0ver his career, Baker set an unmatched 143 records, driving more than 5.5 million miles including 126 coast-to-coast trips. He became an American Motorcycle race official, and in 1947 Bill France tapped him to be the first commissioner of NASCAR.
 
Baker died in 1960 of a heart attack. He had just returned home from a NASCAR race in Darlington, SC. In 2017, the Indiana Historical Bureau, the Friends of Garfield Park, and the Garfield Park Neighbors Association put an historical marker in Garfield Park across from his home.