Moross to Europe for Aero Meet - 1910

This article was published in the February 15, 1910 Indianapolis Star. It concerns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's continued quest for the right to host the second annual international aviation show. The inaugural held in 1909 at Rheims, France featured Glenn Curtiss' convincing victory in the James Gordon Bennett Trophy competition. By virtue of this success his home country - the United States - won the right to stage the 1910 contest and cities throughout America sought to attract it to their confines.
 
Speedway President Carl Fisher, an avid aviation enthusiast, believed his track could be positioned as America's captial of aviation. Its facilities, which including grandstands and aerodrome, offered a flat, contained surface that could be used to launch and land the aircraft of the day. With this goal in mind he sent the Speedway Director of Contests Ernie Moross to Europe to visit Rheims and its rich aircraft industry to recruit entries and support. The article reports that Moross planned to visit not only France but London and Berlin as well. Included among his objectives was to gather as much intelligence as possible about the costs and expertise required to stage such a large scale aero event. Speedway management failed to attract the international air show but staged their own in June 1910.
 
The article also shares that in addition to talking aero Moross also intended to solicit support for the Speedway's previously announced "international amateur" auto race. The goal was was to showcase famous and exotic European auto marques such as Benz and Fiat. He also planned to visit the famous concrete-paved English closed circuit race track, Brooklands.
 
Before heading to Europe Moross planned a stop in Dayton, Ohio to address the Aero Club of Ohio. This visit was primarily about attracting support for a planned ballooning competition. Dayton was home to balloonists owning five of the racing regulation 80,000 pound capacity "bags" and the article indicates there was enthusiasm for an Indianapolis event. Charles Coey is noted as having ordered a balloon from George Bumbaugh with the intention of bringing it to the Speedway competition.
 
The aticle closes with comments about yet another event the Speedway was striving to attract. The report indicates that Fisher believed that a national open-air automobile show would be staged at the Speeway on September 1. There is no evidence this event ever took place.