Eddie Hearne

EDDIE HEARNE ranked among the stars of racing’s pioneer days and was a consistent winner as late as 1923. Prior to the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, Hearne participated in seven free-for-all races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ranging in distance up to 100 miles, and won five of them. He won a 200 mile road race at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1911 and finished second in the American Grand Prize at Savannah, Georgia, the same year. After participating in the first two Indianapolis International 500-mile Sweepstakes races, Hearne was semi-retired from the sport, but he returned to active competition following World War I and finished second to Howdy Wilcox in the 1919 Indianapolis 500 race. He also placed third in 1922 and fourth in 1923, the year in which he won the national title by scoring important victories on the board tracks at Kansas City, Missouri, and Altoona, Pennsylvania. He made the last of his nine Indianapolis 500 starts in 1927.