Howdy Wilcox
American racing driver (1889–1923)
Howard Samuel "Howdy" Wilcox (June 24, 1889 – September 4, 1923) was an American racing driver active in the formative years of auto racing. He won the 1919 Indianapolis 500.
Formative years and family
Wilcox was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on June 24, 1889. He was preceded in death by his wife, who died in 1918. Wilcox's son, Howard Jr., founded the Little 500 bicycle race, which has been held at Indiana University annually since 1951.
Racing career
In 1911, Wilcox set the world beach racing speed record of 89.23 mph.
In 1919, Wilcox won the 1919 Indianapolis 500 driving a Peugeot. After starting second, Wilcox took the lead shortly after the halfway point when driver Ralph DePalma's car had mechanical trouble. Wilcox went on to led the last 98 laps of the race and claim victory.
In addition to winning the Indianapolis 500, Wilcox is considered the AAA National Champion of 1919.
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This entry incorporates text from “Howdy Wilcox” 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.