Joe Dawson Snares Ira Cobe Trophy

Another super package of articles on the July 1910 auto race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This collection covers the last day of the races and features Joe Dawson's brilliant drive in a Marmon to capture the coveted Ira Cobe Trophy. The previous year the race for this trophy, presented by Ira Cobe of Chicago, was held on public roads around Crown Point, Indiana and was won by Louis Chevrolet.
 
This package includes a Marmon ad celebrating their accomplishment. Nice shot of the Ira Cobe Trophy, which currently resides in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum. Note that I have also included - for historical context - a report on Jack Johnson's heavyweight boxing championship fight with Jim Jeffries. Johnson defeated Jeffries to become the first African-American world heavyweight champion. Johnson was also a racing enthusiast and some claim he was hosted by Carl Fisher who gave him a tour of the track when it was under construction in 1909. Much as I wish this was true do to the cool factor I can't find hard evidence. The fighter also raced Barney Oldfield in a match race later in 1910. Oldfield, a friend of Jeffries (a fact not lost in promoting the contest) won. Johnson was killed when speeding his car late at night in North Carolina in 1946.
 
This file was optimized in Adobe Reader 6.0 to achieve file reduction for upload to my site.