Howard Wilcox

Howard Wilcox 1922

Howard Wilcox at the 1915 American Grand Prix

Howard "Howdy" Wilcox (born June 24, 1889 in Crawfordsville , Indiana , † September 4, 1923 in Tyrone , Pennsylvania ) was an American racing driver .

Career

Howard Wilcox was one of the most outstanding racing drivers from the early days of racing. He won an event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before the 500 mile race arose. This was the 1910 Remy Trophy 100 mile race .

In 1915 he had the honor of being the first to sport pole position for the Indianapolis 500. He achieved an average speed of 98.9 mph (159.164 km / h ) in a qualifying  lap  , which was also the first single-lap record in the history of the track. In previous years, the starting order was determined based on the order in which the registrations were made for the race or by drawing lots.

In 1916 he won the American Grand Prix together with Johnny Aitken in a Peugeot EX5.

Wilcox participated in all of the Indianapolis 500 events from 1911 to 1923 . In 1919 he won the race in an old Lyon Grand Prix Peugeot from 1913. This was the last win for a European brand until 1965 when Jim Clark won his Lotus . It was also Goodyear's first win in the race and the first American winner since Joe Dawson in 1912 . Wilcox also won the AAA National Championship that year . For the Indianapolis 500 1920 , Peugeot commissioned its designer Maurice Grémillon to develop a car that would correspond to the new 3-liter formula. Inspired by the double-cam engines common before the war, Grémillon took a seemingly logical step and designed engines with three overhead camshafts, five valves per cylinder and double ignition from two separate magnets. These vehicles largely followed pre-war practices, with some differences. These four-cylinder engines were installed in chassis that rambled over the front axle to reduce ground clearance. Four vehicles were built, three of which were sent to America for the Indianapolis 500, one was retained. The drivers were André Boillot , Jules Goux and Howard Wilcox.

The vehicles could not meet the expectations. Ralph DePalma secured pole position in a French ballot . None of the three Peugeot finished the race. Despite the theoretical advantage of the triple camshaft engines, this concept was not a success. The vehicles went back to France and the engines were replaced with engines with two camshafts. In 1921 the Peugeot were not successful either. Wilcox dropped out after he was no more than third in the race.

Howard Wilcox died in an accident at Altoona Speedway in 1923 .

literature

• Rick Popely, L. Spencer Riggs: Indianapolis 500 Chronicle. Publications International Ltd., Lincolnwood IL 1998, ISBN 0-7853-2798-3 .

Web links

Commons : Howard Wilcox  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• About Howard Wilcox

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Indianapolis 500 1919