American racecar driver and winner of the first Indianapolis 500 Eylard Theodore Von Horn, known today as Ted Horn, was born February 27, 1910 in Cincinnati, Ohio. During his childhood his family moved several times and finally settled down in Los Angeles. When Ted was 15 years old he got his first job at the Los Angeles Times newspaper.
On his way to work one day, he was pulled over for speeding. He could not get out of this situation easily even though he tried as hard as he could. He was given a fairly unusual punishment for his infraction. The officer told him to travel to a race track called San Jose Speedway where he was to find a willing car owner to let him drive one. After he got out all the speed he had in his system he was allowed to pick up his impounded car. But because he found a new love for auto racing he would never get all the speed he had out of his system.
He began his racing career at a California race track called Legion Ascot Speedway, where he found he had much to learn as he was the slowest driver on the speedway. The other drivers finally gave him some pointers on how to pick up his times which started to help him develop his driving style. When he was 18 he suffered from a serious crash which broke his foot and burned his back, after the urging from his parents he agreed to find a safer job. But three years later he decided he would race again. At the age of 21 he entered another race, where he crashed again but returned this time to racing after he left the hospital.
He steadily improved, at one race he finished second to Indianapolis 500 winner Louis Meyer. Ted now felt he needed to travel to the Midwest and the eastern part of the United States where there were more race tracks. In 1934 in his preparation for the Indianapolis 500 he drove a sprint car on a rigorous schedule and was successful enough to attract Harry Miller and Preston Tucker's attention. They offered Ted to ride in one of the new Miller Ford V8 cars, which he accepted and made the field for the 1935 Indy 500.
Ted was rejected from military service during World War II because of his past injuries. Then in 1945 racing resumed on a limited scale, where he was suddenly a winner placing first in all seven races that he entered. Although there was no national championship that year he won the title in 1946, 1947, and 1948, becoming the first three time winner. In 1948 he clinched the championship with a third place finish at the DuQuoin, IL track in September.
Deciding to race at the DuQuoin track again a month later, he crashed on the second lap. He was then taken to the hospital where he died at the age of 38 on October 10, 1948.