Tom Bigelow
racecar driver
Thomas Allan Bigelow (born October 31, 1939, in Elkhorn, Wisconsin) is an American former driver in the USAC and CART Championship Car series.
Racing career
Midget car racing
Bigelow began his racing career at the Badger Midget Racing Association at Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. His first attempt at the National Championship was in 1967, and he finished eighteenth. He had 1968 midget wins at Hales Corners Speedway in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, and at the Sycamore, Illinois, track. He won the first Astro Grand Prix in the Houston Astrodome in 1969. His come back in Midgets started in 1981 driving for Sandy Racing.
In 1984, Bigelow was National USAC Midget Champion. For two years in a row (1982 and 1983), he was USAC Spreedrome champion.
USAC/CART
Bigelow raced in USAC and CART in 17 seasons (1968–1983 and 1985), with 104 combined career starts, and started in the Indianapolis 500 every year during 1974 to 1982. He finished in the top-ten 39 times, with his best finish in second position in 1978 at Texas World Speedway and Milwaukee.
The public source identifies “Tom Bigelow” as racecar driver. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bigelow, racecar and driver.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Tom Bigelow”, the useful work is to connect “racecar driver” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7814959. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1967, 1968 and 1969.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Tom Bigelow”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Tom Bigelow primary sources, Tom Bigelow archive and Bigelow research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tom Bigelow”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Tom Bigelow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.