Thread by @jakequery

If you’ve ever driven to the Children’s Museum, you’ve upassed this house 100 times. In its history is the story of a man who once went out the backdoor to avoid the Press- & they weren’t there to ask of the man he’d killed 2 years earlier. Rather, a triumph brought them.Thread👇

On July 17, 1889, in Odon, IN, Dawson was born into a family of engineers. His father worked for the Marmon motor company, the same company for which Joe and his brother would later serve as engineers. Yet it was not designing cars, but racing them, in which Joe Dawson made a

name for himself. The fledgling automobile industry used racing exhibitions to showcase their product, and Marmon found a daring pilot in Dawson. By 1910, he was winning short distance races at mesmerizing speeds. He took the 100 mile Remy Trophy at Indianapolis, and followed up

winning the 200 mile Cobe Cup, and the 100 mile City of Atlanta trophy. Dawson’s success led him to run the prominent Vanderbilt Cup of Long Island in 1910. He was enjoying a comfortable lead when a spectator entered onto the 12.5 mile course, & Dawson, unable to avoid him, hit

the onlooker, catapulting then man into the air. A crowd gathered, and Dawson, who admitted to a damaged psyche, limped his car to pit road. He was told the man was miraculously unharmed, so a relieved Dawson returned to the race, finishing 2nd behind Harry Grant.
By 1911,

with Dawson’s impressive 1910 record garnering positive attention, the Marmon company contemplated ending its racing efforts. But a new, 500 Mile “International Sweepstakes” promising a $25,000 winner pay day was too much to decline. Marmon entered two cars, and selected Dawson,

along with his co-worker Ray Harroun to race them. Dawson, with a riding mechanic, started 27th and finished 5th. Harroun, the only of the 40 entries without a passenger, drove his Marmon “Wasp”, with advent of the 1st rear view mirror, to victory. The race was the 1st Indy 500.

By 1912, Marmon finally elected to retire their racing efforts, and Dawson was “loaned” to the National Car Company to pilot one of their 3 entries for the 2nd “International Sweepstakes.” Ralph De Palma, who the shy Dawson greatly admired, dominated the race in his Mercedes But,

when a piston failed on his 199th lap, DePalma was left to try pushing his car for the final distance. The slow down allowed Dawson, who was avergaging 78 MPH, to eventually pass DePalma to lead the final 2 laps. At 22 years of age, Joe Dawson, born in Odon, Indiana and residing

with his parents in Indianapolis, was an Indianapolis 500 champion. Today, he is still the 2nd youngest winner of the event, his record standing for 40 years before Troy Ruttman tasted milk in 1952.
For Dawson, it was not milk, but a sandwich, the sent him home after his win.

Dawson, hungry and sore from his 6 hour and 21 minute drive to victory, got out of his car to find the majority of reporters flocked to DePalma. So, he went home to that house near today’s Children’s Museum and did what any kid does while living at home- asked his Mom for a

peanut butter sandwich. News had started to spread that the kid on North Illinois Street had won the big race, and eventually newspaper writers came calling. The shy Dawson, his hunger satisfied but his body still sore, eluded their interview requests by slipping out a back door

and walking to Capitol Street. There, he caught a trolley car ride to the downtown YMCA for a steam bath, after which he walked home- presumably up the same path you’ve driven 100 times. He raced only once more at Indianapolis, an accident on lap 45 of the 1914 Indy 500 injured

him to the point of ending his career as a racer. All told, the once short race champion turned 444 laps in 3 Indy 500s, but his 2 career laps led are the fewest of any Indy 500 champion. Dawson eventually moved to Pennsylvania and became a respected race official of the American

Automobile Association. It was in that capacity that he was inspecting the track at Langhorne on June 17, 1946. Feeling ill, Dawson pulled his car to the sode of the road, where he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was month shy of his 57th birthday. Little is left as reminders

of his legacy. But, that house still stands. Where a guy ate a sandwich and slipped out the back door. In a place you’ve passed 100 times.