Machinist with Knox Motor company, a local company based in Springfield, for whom he started working in 1901, he was also a long time auto and airship mechanic. He was a World War I hero and a popular man around his local area. Knox decided to go racing and Belcher was a factory driver for them for three years, from 1909 until 1911. He won fourteen races during that time and as well as the first Indianapolis, he also competed in the 1909 and 1910 Giants' Despair Hill Climb races. Belcher ended up having the fastest average actual running time of the first ever Indianapolis 500, but unlike Ray Harroun, Belcher suffered more mechanical and tyre trouble. In addition to his career as a race car driver, Belcher also was the engineer on one of the first controlled motor-powered flights in U.S. history on May 2, 1904, and also served in a U.S. aeroplane squadron during World War One.

Biography last updated 2 Jul 2017