Smiling Ralph Mulford, early race car driver, was not smiling in 1911 when many felt that he won the first Indianapolis 500 by a lap instead of credited winner Ray Harroun. Mulford still managed to garner enough points to become the 1911 National Driving Champion, a feat that he repeated seven years later in 1918. In 1919, he won Tacoma Speedway's 40 mile race with a time of 24:02 and 100.2 mph, outracing Frontenac teammate Louis Chevrolet and Cliff Durant. Returning in 1920 for the 225 mile Tacoma Classic, he finished second in his Monroe racing car, numbered "3." Ralph Mulford retired from speed racing after 1922 but continued to compete in hill climbs. At one time, he held the record for climbing both Mount Washington and Pikes Peak. Mulford lived to a ripe old age, a rare feat for the early drivers; born in 1884, he died October 23, 1973. (www.hickoksports.com; TNT 7-3-19, p. 1; 6/29/1920) G52.1-027, Speedway 096
<bdi><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21714431" class="extiw" title="d:Q21714431"><span title="American photographer">Marvin Dement Boland</span></a>
</bdi>
1919<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1919-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p17061coll21/id/28773">http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p17061coll21/id/28773</a>