Erwin "Cannonball" Baker in New York with his Indian motorcycle after his 1912 international journey.

 

Today in motorcycle history, March 12, 1882

 

  Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker, the man, the myth, the legend, is born in Dearborn County, Indiana.

  A natural born entertainer, Erwin Baker began his career as a vaudeville performer, but turned to driving, riding and racing after winning a dirt-track motorcycle race in Crawfordsville, Indiana in 1904.

  Baker's road to fame began with his record-setting point-to-point drives, in which he was paid to promote the products of various motorcycle and automobile manufacturers.

  In 1908, with money from his promotional drives/rides,  Baker bought imself an an Indian motorcycle and began entering, and winning, local races.  He actually won the in first race ever held at the then newly built Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909. 

   Bored, Erwin felt he needed a road trip, so in January 1912 he bailed 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 (and your buddy is still going on and on about his 507 mile trip).   He then 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 Railroad made famous by Casey Jones.

  His best-remembered drive was in 1933. From New York City to Los Angeles 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 really crappy television series.

  The owner of many driving/riding records, his first was set in 1914, riding coast to coast on an Indian motorcycle in 11 days.  Guaranteeing sponsor's "no record, no money".

  When all was said and done, he made 143 cross-country motorcycle speed runs totaling about 550,000 miles.

  Did you know, Erwin later became the first commissioner of NASCAR. Seriously.  Look it up.

  Nearly 40 years after he died (in 1960) Erwin Baker was inducted into the American Motorcycle Association Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.  That long?  Really? You weren't sure if he qualified?