Donald Davidson (historian)

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For other individuals with this name, see Donald Davidson (disambiguation)

Donald Davidson is the current historian of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

British born, he first learned of the Speedway when he became passionately interested in Grand Prix motor racing in the mid-1950s. It didn't take long for his interest to transfer over to the Indianapolis 500, plus other forms of American oval track racing. He came to the Speedway in 1964 after writing to radio announcer Sid Collins and amazed the crowd by being able to recite the record of every driver who had ever competed in the "500." He came back in 1965 and was hired by the United States Auto Club as statistician, a position he held for 31 years. As of January 1998 he officially became the historian of the Speedway. He also works on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. During the month of May and the weeks of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard and the United States Grand Prix he also hosts the popular call-in radio show The Talk of Gasoline Alley on WIBC, where he answers questions from listeners centering on past and current auto racing in general, and the Speedway in particular. After many years of helping others with their books on the Indianapolis 500, Mr. Davidson has written his own, put out through the publishers of "Autocourse," entitled "Autocourse Official History of the Indianapolis 500," co-authored by Rick Shaffer.