Quote:
Originally Posted by David W
I found this in a box of old post cards I won in a local auction.
Any chance it is of Louis Meyer, Racing Hall of Famer, and first 3 time Indy 500 winner?
He won in car number 8 at Indy in 1936, for his 3rd and final win.
Edited to say, I think it MIGHT possibly by Joe Dawson, who won the 2nd Indy 500 in 1912 in the number 8 car. The car
looks to old to be of Meyer, and looks pretty close to the car Dawson would have driven. In addition, Dawson drove in
many other types of races, as noted on the hood of the car.
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I believe the postcard is Joe Dawson. Below is a link showing Dawson and I think he strongly resembles the driver in the postcard. He also won the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup race, which was the biggest race there was until the Indy 500 began.
The 1912 Indy 500 is one of the more famous races in event history. Ralph DePalma led 196 of the 200 laps that year, but did not win the race. DePalma was five laps ahead of second-place Dawson when a connecting rod in DePalma's engine broke and punched a hole in the crankcase. DePalma and his riding mechanic erroneously thought they coming for lap 200 instead of lap 199 and got out of the car to try and push it across the finish line.
Dawson made up his five laps and passed DePalma and the riding mechanic as they were pushing their car.
The incident was then replicated over a half century later by "The Flintstones" as Fred Flintstone (racing under the alias "Goggles Pisano" in the
Indianrockapolis 500) got out to push his car after his rock tires disintegrated from him abusing them.
https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/d...bio/joe_dawson