VOLUME 59 ISSUE 25 JUNE 21, 2022 P123
banked. The surface was rolled
and oiled gravel. Pits were on the
outside of the main straight and a
5000-seat grandstand was built
on opposite side of the pits.
The buildup to the race was
huge, both in the local media and
the motorcycling press. It was
originally hoped that the British
motorcycle makers would bring
their factory teams over (thus,
the International designation),
but that never happened and
the only international entrant in
the 1919 race was New Zealand
Champion Percy Coleman. The
Marion Leader-Tribune newspa-
per featured a racer each day in
its pages in the weeks leading up
to the race and the entire front
page of the paper the day before
the race was devoted to stories
of the event.
Admission to the race was one
dollar and a reserve seat cost
the same. Promoters expected
a crowd of 20,000 (about the
exact population of Marion at
the time) and it's not clear how
they were going to make enough
money to cover the cost of build-
ing the track, even if they got the
20,000 fans they'd hoped. It is
apparent that the town of Marion
was contributing in some way
financially since the race was
seen as a way to promote the
town. The few hotels were filled
to capacity and Marion residents
were asked by city fathers to
open their homes to the visi-
tors coming from as far away as
Butte, Montana, and Boston,
Massachusetts.
Marion was on top of the Tren-
ton Gas Field, the largest natural-
gas field ever discovered up to
that time. In the 1880s, the field
was thought to hold a near end-
less supply of natural gas and the
area boomed with businesses
coming in to take advantage of
the cheap resource. But, by the
early 1910s, the gas field dried
up due to waste and overuse,
towns in the area were struggling
to keep businesses alive. So, the
race was an attempt to advance
the cause of Marion commerce.
Harley-Davidson, Indian and
Excelsior fielded factory teams
with six riders each. All the big
names of the day were in the
race and all three manufacturers
came to the race with machines
made to run at maximum, taking
advantage of the two-mile long
straights. Reports of the day put
The Cornfield Classic in Marion, Indiana, was one of
the biggest motorcycle road races of its era.
A portion of the track as it looks today.
