VOLUME 59 ISSUE 16 APRIL 19, 2022 P101
Fournier was impressed with the
youngster's ability on the pacing
bike and hired him to ride the
machine in Paris races.
De Rosier became known as
one of the best pacing riders in
the country and was pacing the
top American bicycle racers at
the turn of the century. While
pacing bicycle champion John
Nelson in 1901, De Rosier
met Indian co-founder Oscar
Hedstrom, who was building
tandem pacing machines at
the time. It was through that
meeting that De Rosier was
asked to become one of the first
employees of Indian. Although
De Rosier stayed with Indian
only a few months, he continued
to race the machines in the
endurance runs and bicycle
velodrome track races of the day.
De Rosier's breakthrough race
came at the 1908 Federation
of American Motorcyclist (FAM)
National Championships held in
Paterson, New Jersey. De Rosier
was the top rider of the meet and
was signed to a full-time racing
contract with Indian. From that
point forward, De Rosier won
races nearly every weekend and
soon became the acknowledged
king of professional motorcycle
racing.
In 1909, De Rosier began
racing 100-mile record trials
at the newly built Los Angeles
Motordrome, on the new board
tracks, which were much larger
than the bicycle velodromes
where De Rosier earned the
majority of his victories. De
Rosier's popularity was such that
promoter and board-track builder
Jack Prince hired De Rosier to
race at the opening of many of
the board tracks that he was
building across the country.
Also in 1909, De Rosier was
one of the riders who raced in
the very first motor racing event
at the then newly completed
Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In fact, when De Rosier crashed
on the oiled-gravel surface, hit
a fence post and was at first
thought to be seriously injured,
it led to a factory boycott of the
event.
De Rosier reached the
pinnacle of his career in 1911.
Racing on the board tracks, he
set numerous FAM records. In
an amazing show of dominance,
at the end of 1911 De Rosier
held every FAM speed record
for professional riders. The New
York Times ran an article on De
Rosier's records, calling him the
"Old War Horse."
It was during that year that De
Rosier traveled to Great Britain
It is believed that
Jake De Rosier won
approximately 900
motorcycle races
of all types before
passing away at the
age of 33.
