Cliff Woodbury (July 8, 1894 – November 13, 1984) was an

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racecar driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organis ...

. Cliff raced all over the US during one of the most dangerous times in motorsports. Woodbury was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He started his career about 1915 running in state fairs across the Midwest in his Duesenberg, winning purses that sometimes amounted to more than $500. In 1921 and 1922, he worked with Ruth Law with her barnstorming Flying Circus which paired a race car and bi-plane. The highlight of the show was when a female daredevil would climb a ladder from the Cliff's race car to the plane while both were racing around the track. Woodbury was a popular local hero at the motor sports tracks in Chicago and appeared often in ''The Chicago Tribune'' with his Fronty Ford. AAA named Cliff the Dirt Tack Champion of the Nation in 1924, 1925 and 1926. In 1926, Woodbury joined Mike Boyle's Boyle Valve Racing Team and began his career on board tracks driving supercharged Millers. Woodbury finished third on his first attempt at the Indianapolis 500 in 1926 and set the pole in qualifying in 1929. Woodbury also set the one mile (1.6 km) record at

Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...

in 1930 with a run of Woodbury retired after a severe wreck in Altoona, Pennsylvania in June 1929 which killed the 1929 Indy 500 winner, Ray Keech. After retirement Woodbury established a successful auto repair business "Woodbury Bros" with his brother Elmer which was based in Chicago. He died in 1984 in

Alton, Illinois Alton ( ) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the ...

Indianapolis 500 results

References

Indianapolis 500 drivers Indianapolis 500 polesitters People from Alton, Illinois 1894 births 1984 deaths Racing drivers from Chicago AAA Championship Car drivers {{US-autoracing-bio-stub