Rondie Harris

Even during the war, however, he continued his interest in racing cars. He made foot-long miniature automobiles, patterned from his favorite ‘96” to pass away the time during the war. Equipped with gas engines, the baby-sized cars could attain surprisingly high speeds.
Rondie set the world one-mile flat track felxi sidecar record on an Indian about 1922. He raced as part of the Indian factory team in the Midwest and eastern states for several years.

Rondie competed in both motorcycles and automobiles until the mid 1920’s. In 1924, Johnny Seymour of Escanaba, Michigan and Ralph Hepburn of Los Angeles came to the Midwest as part of the Indian Motorcycle team and Rondie had to compete against them.
Rondie’s greatest thrill was when he beat Ralph DePalma in a 25-mile race at Jackson in 1925. DePalma ran third in the event and then quit because of car trouble. Rondie raced for over four decades. His last race was at Traverse City in 1961.
When Rondie “retired,” he didn’t exactly retire from racing altogether. He gave pointers to Lansing area stock car and kart racers. He was the starter at East Lansing Kart Track until shortly before his death in 1967.