Throughout it’s history, the Indianapolis 500 has earned a status of helping to make the career of any driver fortunate enough to win the great race, with names such as Buddy Lazier and Buddy Rice forever being enclosed in history thanks to their respective Memorial Day triumphs in 1996 and 2004 respectively. But for every driver fortunate enough to taste the bottle of milk at the Brickyard there are countless others who suffered the misfortune of failing to win the great race in their career, and in today’s update we look at a man who many consider to be the greatest never to win the 500.

When looked from purely a statistical perspective, Ted Horn can be considered one of the greatest drivers ever to compete in the Indianapolis 500. During a ten race career at the Brickyard, Horn enjoyed a run of nine successive races in which he never failed to finish outside of the top four, in the process completing every lap he participated in bar one as well as claiming a pole position for the race. Yet for Horn his inability to convert any of his strong showings into wins at the Brickyard mean that his name is often lost in the shuffle of 500 greats, a figure that I will hope to correct when I devote today’s article to his colourful career.

Born Eylard Theodore Von Horn on the 27th of February 1910, Ted Horn’s first interests were not in motor sport but rather in the world of the arts. His parents Armandus Henry and Mary Horn were theatre players in the Cincinnati German Theatre, and after spending the early years of Ted’s life travelling as part of the Theatre’s productions the family eventually settled in Carlifornia in the small Los Angeles suburb of San Mateo in 1920. Following in his family’s footsteps, Ted soon began to display a talent for writing, poetry, and practical jokes as a kid, and at the age of 15 earned himself a job working as an intern for the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

During a commute to work in 1926, Horn was caught speeding by a local police officer, who immediately asked the 16 year old to pull over for police questioning. Horn had been involved in multiple speeding offenses over the past year, with his recklessness on the road soon beginning to attract the attention of the local authorities. Rather then received a reprimand however, the police officer questioning Horn offered an unusual suggestion; the young man was to travel to 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.”

After finishing an impressive second to Indy 500 winner Louis Meyer in 1933, Horn soon began to attract the attention of many high profile names in the World of Indycar racing, and after a successful campaign in sprint car racing across the east and Midwest of America was soon approached by Harry Miller over driving for his team in the 1935 Indianapolis 500. Although the Miller project featured heavy investment from the Ford Motor Company, Horn spent the entire month of May struggling to get the machine up to speed. After qualifying for the race in 27th place, a design flaw in the car would eventually result in the steering gear in the car to eventually freeze up and the car being impossible to steer. Ted dropped out of the race after 145 laps, most of which was spent fighting the steering problem.

After his first Indy 500 Ted felt that he failed to make an impression. Former driver turned car owner Harry Hartz felt otherwise about the young driver and thought that he did an excellent job of driving under difficult circumstances. Hartz was impressed enough to offer Ted a chance to drive his car in the 1936 Indy 500, which Ted gladly accepted. Hartz, a consistent finisher in his years driving the Indianapolis 500, took Ted under his wing. The combination Hartz and Horn was immediately a potent one as Ted would finish second on his first race with the pairing. For the next 8 races and 11 years Horn would remain a prominent figure at the front of the Indianapolis 500, consistently qualifying inside of the top ten before working his way through the field to be a mainstay in the top five come the end of the race. Although he finished one lap down to winner Wilbur Shaw in the 1940 500, Horn finished on the lead lap of every other 500 during that time, in the process claiming a further four third place finishes and four fourth place finishes to boot. Even though the outbreak of World War II threatened to end his strong showings at the Brickyard, Horn returned from the ceasing of hostilities as strong as ever, claiming three successive AAA championships between 1946 and 1948, along with his only Indianapolis 500 pole position in 1947.

Despite his strong showings however, Horn’s inability to convert then into wins at the Brickyard soon became a stigma that would come somewhat tar his career, even though he was a perennial figure in the top 5 at Indy Horn would only ever lead 20 laps at the Brickyard during his Indycar career, and by the late fourties the frustration of not being able to claim the great race was beginning to show for the California native. On the 10th of October 1948, Horn competed in a local sprint car race DuQuoin Fairground track in Illinois, when he was involved in a serious collision on the second lap of the race that saw him lose control and collected by the oncoming machine of Johnny Mantz. Although Horn was taken to hospital alive, the accident saw him suffer concussion and severe damage to his chest, and despite the best efforts of doctors Horn succumbed to his injuries a short while after his arrival at hospital. Horn was 38 years old at the time of the accident, and left behind his second wife Gerry whom he had married just 17 days prior to the accident.

Although Ted was never able to succeed in his dream of winning the Indianapolis 500, his strong showings at the Brickyard as well as his considerable success away from the race make him a bonafide legend when it comes to American Open Wheel Racing. And one that in recent years will hopefully come to earn the recognition he long deserves.

Unfortunately there is no video on YouTube focusing specifically on Ted Horn (most of the search results are about How I Met Your Mother), but I promise that will be rectified in tomorrow’s update.