Howdy Wilcox

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

Howard Wilcox was one of the most prominent racers from the early days of racing. He won an event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway before the 500 - mile race was born. This was 1910, the 100 - mile race Remy Trophy.

In 1915 he had the honor of 500 to win the first athletic pole position for the Indianapolis. He reached an average speed of 98.9 mph ( = 159.164 km / h ), which was the first Einrundenrekord the track history at the same time in a qualifying round. In the years before the boot sequence was determined according to the order of registration for the race or by Loszug.

In 1916 he won the American Grand prix along with Johnny Aitken in a Peugeot EX5.

He participated in all sweeps of the Indianapolis 500 from 1911 to 1923 in part. In 1919, he won the race in an old Lyon Grand Prix Peugeot from the year 1913. This was the last victory for a European brand to 1965 Jim Clark won in his Lotus. It was also the first win for Goodyear in this race and since Joe Dawson, 1912, the first American winner. Wilcox won this year the AAA National Championship. For the Indianapolis 500 1920 Peugeot commissioned its designer Maurice Grémillon to develop a car that complies with the new 3- liter formula. Inspired by the usual pre-war twin cam engines, Grémillon made ​​a seemingly logical step and designed engines with three top -mounted camshafts, five valves per cylinder and twin ignition of two separate magnets. These vehicles were followed mostly practices as they were used before the war, but with some differences. These four cylinder engines have been installed in the chassis, the ausschweiften on the front axle, in order to reduce ground clearance. Four vehicles were built, three of which were sent to America to 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 in a French Ballot pole position. None of the three Peugeot finished the race. Despite the theoretical advantage of the triple - cam engines, this concept was not a success. The vehicles went back to France and the engines were replaced by engines with twin camshafts. Also in 1921 was the Peugeot unsuccessful. Wilcox fell out after he was up to third place in the race.

Wilcox died in 1923 in an accident on the Altoona Speedway.

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