Stutz, Marion & the Indiana Trophy

This image comes from a photograph in the May 27, 1909 Indianapolis News. This is a picture of one of two Indianapolis-based Marion race cars entered in the June 18, 1909 Indiana Trophy support race to the June 19 main event - the Cobe Trophy race, named after the cup donor Ira M. Cobe. One of the Marions, in the hands of driver Adolph Monson, finished third and the other, driven by designer Harry Stutz, finished ninth.
 
Harry Stutz, who would go on to found the Stutz Motor Company in 1911, is believed to be in the passenger seat. At this point he was chief engineer at Marion. The man at the wheel is his cousin Charles Stutz who had earlier been announced as one of the drivers but there is confusion about who drove in the race. Harry may have ended up driving in the race which was unusual as he usually hired professionals for that duty. These races were organized by the Chicago Auto Club with American Automobile Association (AAA) sanction. 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.