Looks like a rough one for Cannonball

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/241/

image getting paid to drive across country, then getting famous for it

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/581/

Cannonball Baker and Eddie Rickenbacker

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cannon-Ball-Baker-Rickenbacker-Six-Photo-Print-Car-Ad-1965-/164629626419

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1925-Balloon-Bumpers-Ad-Cannon-Ball-Baker-Chief-Test-Pilot-4-Rickenbacker-Six-/154104187813

When Eddie Rickenbacker started manufacturing cars in the 1920s, he hired Baker as chief test driver. Baker broke his own winter cross-country record with a 71 1/2-hour trip (driving time only). 

He also drove a Rickenbacker on a "three flag" journey from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Tijuana, Mexico, in 40 hours and 57 minutes.

Image from page 17 of Pan American Air Ways, Vol. 4, No. 3, June 1933. Caption reads: "Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, America's Ace of Aces in the world war, and "Cannonball" Baker, celebrated racing driver, about to embark at Dinner Key."

https://scholar.library.miami.edu/digital/files/original/eedd5e8f7317f8906235f8dbc63d197e.jpg

https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/history/people-of-ims/indianapolis-500-drivers/eg-cannonball-baker

https://www.historicracing.com/driverDetail.cfm?driverID=2937

Lil' Miss Dodge, not a rapper, a hip hop dancer, or beauty pageant winner in Dodge City... It's Betty Skelton! In 1955 flying over a Custom Royal Lancer at Florida's Cypress Gardens

She was the first female test driver in the auto industry in 1954 with Chrysler's Dodge division

Not only did she drive the pace car at Daytona, she also set a stock car record in a 1954 Dodge Red Ram V8 on the beach.

As auto industry’s first female test driver, she guided “L’il Miss Dodge,” a jump boat, over a 1955 Custom Royal Lancer on a ramp at Florida’s Cypress Gardens and she was part of a team that drove a 1955 Dodge to 395 new records at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

And in 1956, she broke Cannonball Baker's 40-year record for the Transcontinental Auto Race from New York to Los Angeles

why they figured this was a good marketing idea is anyone's guess. Seriously, flying speedboats? I would guess this was when Betty decided to go work for GM... safer, less ridiculous marketing stunts

http://www.overdrive.fi/forum/threads/vanhoja-valokuvia-ameriikan-raitilta.267070/page-489#post-3109577
https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/women-in-aviation/Skelton.cfm
http://www.amosauto.com/wp-content/uploads/h11-1211ae.jpg
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Betty_Skelton_Frankman_Erde

E.G. "Cannonball" Baker

https://www.facebook.com/john.pfeifer.357?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

Cannonball Baker's predicted course and time cross country

Cannon Ball Baker and the other 1911 hot shots in board track racing

One of the Indian's most famous riders was Jake DeRosier, who set several speed records both in America and at Brooklands in England, and won an estimated 900 races on dirt and board track racing. He left Indian for Excelsior and died in 1913, aged 33, of injuries sustained in a board track race crash with Charles "Fearless" Balke, who later became Indian's top rider.

 Work at the Indian factory was stopped while DeRosier's funeral procession passed so all of the employees could go out to pay their respects as it went by.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motocycle_Manufacturing_Company
image via https://www.facebook.com/groups/654324954604252/?fref=nf

Cannonball Baker, New York to San Francisco with a loaded truck

Found on http://www.trucktrend.com/features/consumer/163_1302_gmcs_centennial_1912_to_2012/photo_18.html

strange coincidence

I came across this image a couple months ago, and held onto it, thinking I'd go down to where this used to be.

Until then, I kept it where I'd see it, and today I was double checking my Cannonball Baker post, when I saw that I'd written that C.A. Sheppard was the dealer that supplied Cannonball with motorcycles for his cross country endurance races http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/12/cannon-ball-baker-he-set-143-endurance.html

Cannonball Baker, 8 years after his record setting run with an Indian in 1914, he went from New York to LA on a Ner-A-Car

Cannonball Baker rode a Neracar from Staten Island, New York, to Los Angeles, California, in the autumn of 1922. The journey of 3,364.4 miles took 174 hours and one minute to complete.

The advertizers publicized the Ner-A-Car's step-through design and its protection from road grime and engine fluids, both of which allowed riders to wear ordinary clothes, including skirts, cassocks, and kilts, while riding the cycle.

It was unique for its hub-center steering and widely acclaimed for its stability from it's low center of gravity.

In October of 1922, Erwin "Cannonball" Baker set out from Staten Island, NY, on a cross-country run to Los Angeles riding a stock 1923 Neracar motorbike. The only modification he made to it was the addition of a crossbar on the handlebars to stiffen them for what he knew would be "the rough stuff" that lay ahead on his journey to see for himself and prove to others just how reliable and economical this scooter-type motorcycle could be and appeal to the masses in the process. There were never any doubts on his part as to whether or not he'd reach Los Angeles. In fact, he was dead sure he would make it. What he wanted to know was just how cheaply it could be done... operating costs totalled $15.70 at the time. It took 48 gallons of gas.

In his own words, the story of how and why he went cross country on at Ner-a-Car http://www.motorcyclecannonball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=268:how-i-crossed-america-on-neracar

"The machine I used was picked off the floor from stock, and nothing special was put on it except a cross-bar on the handlebars to stiffen them for the rough stuff that I knew I would be up against. The machine was fitted with a Corbin-Brown speedometer and was only run enough to make sure that everything was OK, When I started my speedometer registered just 29 miles."

Baker later started a Neracar dealership in Los Angeles.(above)

http://www.snipview.com/q/Ner-A-Car
https://yeoldecycleshoppe.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/1920-1927-neracar-article-brochure/
http://www.motorcyclecannonball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=389:coast-to-coast-on-a-neracar&catid=36:history-stories&Itemid=58
http://www.usscootermuseum.com/ner-a-car.htm

Cannonball Baker heading to New York from San Diego on the early board road over the desert sand of East California, with a Stutz and with an Indian

Both found on the Old Motor http://theoldmotor.com/?p=88359

A small belt-driven lathe from Cannonball Baker’s garage is still in use today at Schulteti’s ‘Southside Harley-Davidson’ on the south side of Indy. Still setting a record for a ‘long run.’

Cannon Ball Baker, he set 143 endurance and speed records from 1910 to 1930. Cannonball Runs are still happening in celebration of his memory

A new sidecar record for the Three Flags Run- Canadian border to Mexican border- 1717 miles in 2 days, 17 hours and 53 minutes


As a young fellow, E.G. Baker enjoyed many physical fitness activities, including boxing, sparring, wrestling - and motorcycling. He worked for the United States Tire Company in his home town in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he rose to the position of superintendent of the motorcycle tire testing department, and it was there that he found an outlet for his remarkable stamina. Baker had an ability to complete fast, long distance rides without experiencing fatigue - a useful skill for testing tires. from http://www.motorcyclecannonball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121:baker-hits-the-road&catid=36:history-stories&Itemid=58

In January 1912 he left Indianapolis on a two-speed Indian and covered 14,000 miles in three months, traveling through Florida, down to Cuba and Jamaica, and then to Panama. He took a steamer up to San Diego where he based himself for a while and from there he competed in several endurance runs in both California and Arizona. It was during this time that Baker decided he would attempt to break the transcontinental record. After a record-setting transcontinental drive in 1914, he received his nickname "Cannon Ball" from a New York newspaper writer who compared him to the Cannonball train of the Illinois Central made famous by Casey Jones.

His first was set in 1914, riding coast to coast on an Indian motorcycle in 11 days. He normally rode to sponsor manufacturers, guaranteeing them "no record, no money". In 1915, Baker drove from Los Angeles to New York City in 11 days, 7 hours and fifteen minutes in a Stutz Bearcat, and the following year drove a Cadillac 8 roadster from Los Angeles to Times Square in seven days, eleven hours and fifty-two minutes while accompanied by an Indianapolis newspaper reporter.

Found on http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com 

His first was set in 1914, riding coast to coast on an Indian motorcycle in 11 days. He normally rode to sponsor manufacturers, guaranteeing them "no record, no money". In 1915, Baker drove from Los Angeles to New York City in 11 days, 7 hours and fifteen minutes in a Stutz Bearcat, and the following year drove a Cadillac 8 roadster from Los Angeles to Times Square in seven days, eleven hours and fifty-two minutes while accompanied by an Indianapolis newspaper reporter.

By 1917, Erwin Baker had been racing motorcycles and setting records for 13 years. He was an Indian rider from Indianapolis with a valuable reputation. After a quick coast-to-coast ride, he became nationally known by the speedy and marketing-appropriate nickname, “Cannonball.” Long before racing vehicles were covered in corporate sponsorship, Baker earned the support of some of the biggest names in automotive manufacturing. from http://goodsparkgarage.com/the-brilliance-of-cannonball-baker/

In 1924 he made his first midwinter transcontinental run in a stock Gardner sedan at a time of 4 days, 14 hours and 15 minutes. He was so impressed by the car, that he purchased one thereafter. In 1926 he drove a loaded two-ton truck from New York to San Francisco in a record five days, seventeen hours and thirty minutes, and in 1928, he beat the 20th Century Limited train from New York to Chicago. Also in 1928, he competed in the Mount Washington Hillclimb Auto Race, and set a record time of 14:49.6 seconds, driving a Franklin.

His best-remembered drive was a 1933 New York City to Los Angeles trek in a Graham-Paige model 57 Blue Streak 8, setting a 53.5 hour record that stood for nearly 40 years. This drive inspired the later Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, better known as the "Cannonball Run", which itself inspired at least five movies and a television series. In 1941, he drove a new Crosley Covered Wagon across the nation in a troublefree 6,517-mile run to prove the economy and reliability characteristics of Crosley automobiles.

Other record and near-record transcontinental trips were made in Model T Fords, Chrysler Imperials, Marmons, Falcon-Knights and Columbia Tigers, among others.

information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Baker and http://thisdayinmotorsporthistory.blogspot.com/2015/03/erwin-cannonball-baker-born-march-12.html?spref=fb

above Pikes Peak and Frankin Special found on http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2013/03/cannonball-bakers-greatest-record.html

living in San Diego I found the info that he spent a good amount of time in San Diego interesting: His 7 hp, two-speed electric model twin was provided by the Hendee company, who arranged for him to be supplied with a machine from the stock of San Diego Indian dealer, C.A. Shepherd 

FYI, next year there will be a cross country motorcycle run for pre-1937 motorbikes!

In 2010 and 2012 ,the brave riders of the Cannonball proved that antique motorcycles could indeed be put to the ultimate test. A test that would pit rider and machine against the North American continent. Reviving a tradition as old as the motorcycles themselves, they took a ride into history. Not only proving the capabilities of the machines,but also confirming the pioneering spirit this great country was built upon

Eligible Machines.........This will be a difficult ride, only the best machines should be considered for it. Much will have to be done to your machine if you decide to run the cannonball. No motorcycle built after 1936 can run for the prize. The machine must be powered by an original engine. Many things could be changed on a machine, and updates made for safety sake, but the core of the machine must be 1936 or earlier.  http://www.motorcyclecannonball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=256&Itemid=61