Edgar Alan Gordon (March 27, 1902 – January 26, 1936) was an American

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

Life and racing career

A postman from

Redlands, California Redlands ( ) is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 73,168, up from 68,747 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The city is located a ...

who also became a

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

night club owner among other things, Gordon took up racing in 1925. Gordon made nine starts in the

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming * AAA (video game industry) - a category of high budget video games *'' TripleA'', an open source wargame Mu ...

-sanctioned

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

from 1932 to 1935 and entered two non-points paying races after that, scoring a win at

Oakland Speedway The Oakland Speedway was a motor racing track in San Leandro, California, a suburb of Oakland, California. It was a one-mile, banked dirt oval track built in 1931, which operated throughout the Great Depression and postwar years. The track featured ...

in January 1936. He drove in the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

, and

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

, but never finished the race, having qualified second in 1935. A regular at

Legion Ascot Speedway Legion Ascot Speedway was an American race track in El Sereno, California that operated from 1924 to 1936. It hosted AAA Champ Car races. History Early success under Bentel ends with a scandal After the construction of a -mile dirt oval in ...

, Gordon won the AAA Pacific Coast championship in 1933.

Death

While competing in another AAA non-championship race in January 1936, both Gordon and his

riding mechanic A riding mechanic was a mechanic that rode along with a race car during races, and who was tasked with maintaining, monitoring, and repairing the car during the race. The various duties included manually pumping oil and fuel, checking tire wear, ...

Spider Matlock William Earnest "Spider" Matlock (June 30, 1901, St. Joseph, Missouri – January 27, 1936) was an American stuntman, stunt pilot, car racing promoter, driver and mechanic. Stunt flying One day, an airshow was scheduled at the Burdette Air Po ...

, were fatally injured in a crash at Ascot, which ended racing at the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

track.

Awards and honors

Gordon was inducted into the

National Sprint Car Hall of Fame The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum is a hall of fame and museum for sprint car drivers, owners, mechanics, builders, manufacturers, promoters, sanctioning officials and media members. The museum is located in Knoxville, Iowa, the h ...

in 1999.

Motorsports career results

Indianapolis 500 results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Al 1902 births 1936 deaths Sportspeople from Redlands, California Sportspeople from Long Beach, California Racing drivers from San Francisco Indianapolis 500 drivers AAA Championship Car drivers 20th-century American sportsmen Racing drivers who died while racing Sports deaths in California