The Brick Wall of the Cobe Trophy

This image comes from a photograph published June 17, 1909 in the Indianapolis News just prior to the June 18-19, 1909 Indiana Trophy and main event Cobe Trophy race, named after the cup donor Ira M. Cobe. These races were organized by the Chicago Auto Club with American Automobile Association (AAA) sanction and were the first major road races held in Indiana.
 
The race course was over notoriously poor public roads in northwestern Indiana between Crowne Point, Indiana and Lowell, Indiana while skirting the community of Cedar Lake. While most of the course's 23.6 miles cut through Hoosier countryside it also sliced down the main streets of both the towns of Crown Point and Lowell. This image is from downtown Lowell where the cars threaded the needle of a street between brick office buildings making for treacherous travel. Check out First Super Speedway's extensive library of research on the Cobe Trophy and its preliminary race, the Indiana Trophy.