Ted Horn

Ted Horn (February 27, 1910 – October 10, 1948), born Eylard Theodore Von Horn, was an American race car driver. He won the AAA National Championship in 1946, 1947 and 1948 and collected 24 wins, 12 second-place finishes and 13 third-place finishes in 71 major American open-wheel races prior to his death at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds Racetrack at the age of 38.

Ted Horn was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. The family moved several times during Ted's childhood, finally settling in Los Angeles. At 15 years of age Ted found work at the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

On his way to work one day Ted was pulled over for speeding. Try as he might Ted could not get out of this situation easily. The policeman gave him a fairly unusual punishment for the infraction. The young man was to travel to a race track called San Jose Speedway where usually there were more cars than drivers, then find a willing car owner to let him drive. Once he got all the speed he had out of his system he could pick up his impounded car. Ted would heed the advice of the policeman and would eventually return to pick up his car. But he found a new passion in auto racing and would never "get the speed he had out of his system."

When Ted began his racing career in earnest at a California race track called Legion Ascot Speedway he found he had much to learn as he usually the slowest driver on the track. Eventually a few of the drivers gave him pointers on how to pick up his lap times which started to help develop his driving style. He suffered a serious racing accident which broke his foot and burned his back and kept him on the mend for several weeks. At the urging of his parents he promised to abandon the sport. He fully intended to abide by his parents wishes but after three years he began racing again.

Ted steadily improved to the point he finished a close second in a race to Indianapolis 500 winner Louis Meyer. Meyer was impressed with young Ted Horn. Ted felt he now needed to travel to the midwest and eastern part of the United States where there were more race tracks and opportunities for a young race driver.

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