The men of the early 20th-century motor press sometimes referred to the 13th circuit of an automobile racecourse as “the hoodoo lap,” not because more bad stuff happened then, but because they fervently wished it would. The leaders, as mile 30 approached, were starting to lap the stragglers, so the field was a snake eating its own tail. At mile 140, some sources place Bruce-Brown a full three laps, or seven and a half miles, ahead of DePalma, with Ralph Mulford and his No. 8 Case bounced off the concrete retaining wall on the outer part of the track and skidded diagonally toward the infield, traveling perhaps 100 feet. The first races are scheduled for 1996. The race had gotten off to a thrillingly raucous start replete with aerial bombs and a grandstand packed with an estimated 90,000 enthusiasts. The Warner Horograph, as the Speedway’s timing system was known, was a ridiculously Rube Goldbergesque device involving miles of wire as well as rolls of paper, typewriter ribbon, springs, hammers, telephones, Dictaphones, marbles and hundreds of human beings. The parade was the 500 Festival’s first event back in 1957. Give a Gift. Worth Baker, Shrine Potentate in 1957 and Howard Wilcox, promotions director for the Indianapolis Star. Foyt’s invitation to attend the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on May 30 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where “Super Tex” will celebrate the 60th anniversary of his 1961 triumph, the first of his four Indy 500 victories. Several knuckles had given way early in the day, and at about 205 miles, relief driver Eddie Parker broke the one on the No. The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 Was a Bloody Prelude to Decades of Hardship, Thirteenth-Century Angkor Was Home to More People Than Modern Boston, England's Cerne Abbas Giant Dates to Saxon Period, An Exclusive Look at James Turrell's Visionary Artwork in the Arizona Desert, An Epic Monarch Migration Faces New Threats. No one sounded more exasperated than the influential weekly Motor Age, which dismissed the race as “a spectacle rather than a struggle for supremacy between great motor cars.” There were “too many cars on the track. But if it fell forward, it would drive Dickson’s head into the ground like a tent spike. The crowd fell silent. Belcher’s Knox, Wishart’s Mercedes and several other cars were among the first to hobble into the pits. Polaris expands its off-road business with the Polaris … Forty cars started the 1911 race, only a dozen finished. Coming at that point, a wreck would play nicely into the tabloid trope that superstitions are not to be flouted, and it would give a long car race some much-needed narrative cord. But she had proffered a tentative yes, the Star reported, after “she found out Knight was a man of good habits and devoted to his mother” and he presented her with a diamond solitaire. Drivers will start their engines at 2:23 p.m. The month-long celebration culminates a year of planning by volunteers guided by the 500 Festival, a not-for-profit organization directed by a board of 35 community leaders and operated by a full-time staff of 18. After 450 miles, the Lozier team would insist that its car was listed first on at least one of the scoreboards and that officials had assured team manager Charles Emise that was one of the rare scoreboard postings people could trust. ET, and the green flag is expected to fly at 2:30 p.m. Sensing disaster, scores of spectators began surging over the fence that separated the track apron from the homestretch. or Indianapolis Power and Light had a float in that parade, and it has continued to participate in the parade ever since then. If the Wasp truly had the lead, then it was Patschke who had put it there. When Mulford went to the winner’s circle to claim his trophy, he found Harroun already there, surrounded by cheering multitudes. March … As the trade publication Horseless Age put it, “The system...did not work as expected, merely because the cars were so numerous and tore around so fast.” In other words, if only there hadn’t been a car race at the Speedway that day, the Warner Horograph would have functioned just fine. Of course it was wrong, but moral questions wither in the face of a hoodoo, even one conjured by a coven of pasty-faced, ink-stained hacks. To compound the chaos, some cars were crossing the finish line and then backing up to their pit, so they (perhaps inadvertently) got credit for a whole additional lap when they emerged and traveled a few feet back across the line. During the 500 Festival’s 60+ years, four people have had an instrumental role in shaping it into the organization is it today. He is right about that, and what’s more, a brief film clip of this portion of the race, available on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=DObRkFU6-Rw), appears to bear out Davidson’s contention that there was no contact between the Case and the judges’ structure. What made all this especially maddening was that the race was proceeding exactly as everyone had expected it would, given the natural antagonism between bricks and tires: the smarter drivers, like Harroun, were going at the relatively easy pace of 75 miles an hour or so in an attempt to keep pit stops to a minimum, just as they had said they would in pre-race interviews. Advertising Notice 1916 – AAA relaxes the rules to allow purebread race machines back into competition ahead of the inaugural 1916 championship racing season. Event. Jagersberger’s riding mechanic, Charles Anderson, fell or perhaps jumped in panic out of the vehicle and wound up underneath it, lying on his back; one of the Case’s rear wheels passed directly over his chest. Tickets to the gala were $5 a couple. Harroun, the official winner, didn’t have much to say beyond, “I’m tired—may I have some water, and perhaps a sandwich, please?” Or something to that effect. The auto racing tracks of the day simply did not have the technology to keep track of split times and running order once cars began passing one another and going into and out of the pits. Studebaker Special #22 driven by Cliff Bergere leads the team with a 3 rd place finish. Cookie Policy And when it did, it fell forward, killing Dickson. But by braiding their accounts, and occasionally referencing the Revised Results, we can begin to recreate a very rough version of the race. Virtually all sources converge again at mile 60, where they have DePalma ahead, and most also say Bruce-Brown reclaimed the lead soon after and held it for a good long while. At about mile 185, Bruce-Brown blew a tire and made his first pit stop of the day, and Patschke took the lead. Actress Cyd Charisse, wrapped in ermine, and Hugh O’Brien, television’s “Wyatt Earp,” perched on the backs of convertibles and waved to a crowd of over 150,000 people lining the parade route. Though not a serious mishap—no one was hurt and Parker got out and with a few others pushed his car a few hundred yards into the pits—it set the stage for what steering knuckle historians know as the Big One. For more than six decades, the 500 Festival has shown commitment and excellence by producing a wide range of programs and events to unite the community in celebration of the Indianapolis 500. Dickson tensed. Meanwhile at the Speedway medical tent, one reporter noticed a curious sight: Art Greiner reading an extra edition of the Star that had been dropped off at the Speedway just minutes before. The AES 500 Festival Parade consistently ranks among the nation’s top three parades, among the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. |. Still, the denizens of the infield press box—more skeptical than the average fan, and with a better perch—couldn’t help noticing that the Speedway’s four scoreboards were usually not in agreement, and that a crew from the timing department was frantically trying to repair a tripwire that had been snapped by who knows which automobile a lap or two back. Gordon Johncock edges out Rick Mears to win the 1982 Indianapolis 500 in what was then the closest Indy 500 finish in the race’s 66 year history: 0.16 seconds. Knight was a rapidly rising young pilot trying to win enough money to marry Jennie Dollie, the so-called Austro-Hungarian dancing sensation. This Timeline article, written by David Wells, appeared in the April 2014 issue of Snow Goer magazine. So eager were some men, women and children to get a closer look that they would risk their own lives by running across a track teeming with racing machines. It was Gulf’s interest in frontier-extending motor racing research that prompted it to attack the Indianapolis 500 with the fabulous rear-engined “Gulf-Miller” four-wheel drive cars as long ago as 1938. DePalma bore down so furiously that he was forced to come in for tires three times over a mere 18 laps. 35 Apperson, taking his own and Herb Lytle’s car out of the race. game: Indy 500 released by KASCO in 1969 Learn about the history of the race Many books capture important moments in the history of the Indy 500. It was a mighty task, but where there’s a will, there had to be a way. The Verizon IndyCar Series and its team owners will gather this summer and vote on whether a replacement for the Dallara DW12 chassis will happen in 2021 or 2022. Racing to the finish line, runners from the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon signify one of the nation’s most beloved half marathons. If the car fell backward, returning to its three remaining tires, he might get nothing worse than a jolt. The Star said it was the 125th mile, the Horseless Age between the 150th and 160th miles when Teddy Tetzlaff, a California driver on Mulford’s Lozier team, blew a tire and crashed into Louis Disbrow’s No. All rights reserved. Date. Tony Stewart to join Foyt for 60th Anniversary of First Indy 500 Triumph “I’d be honored,” said Tony Stewart when he accepted A.J. They weren’t a bad lot, the newspapermen who had come to the two-year-old Indianapolis Motor Speedway to cover the event, but they required—and by some standards of judgment deserved—all the help they could get. They had recorded the arrival of virtually every “sweepstakes pilot” in the race, especially Ray Harroun, driver of the No. TV coverage of the 2020 Indianapolis 500 will begin at 1:00 p.m. The gasoline additive Ethyl made its debut at Indy, increasing octane ratings from the 50’s to the high 80's. The track is a two-and-a-half-mile, nearly rectangular oval with a seating capacity of over 200,000. It was a mighty task, but where there’s a will, there had to be a way. Bryant brings more than 25 years of experience creating brand-defining successes and significant revenue growth in categories including events, sports, broadcast, motorsports, entertainment, consumer products, retail and online. More than 60 years later, this pre-race Red Carpet event continues on under the name Off the Grid. Many by then had been in Indianapolis for a month or more, pumping up the importance of the Speedway and the coming sweepstakes—the longest race ever contested on the track—via the dispatches they filed for their far-flung dailies. Gulf’s star-studded motor racing record extends further into history than many people can recall. The Lozier hovered 35 seconds behind the Wasp from mile 300 to 350 and onward, according to Horseless Age. Indy 500 pace cars timeline part 4 (1971-1990) Music Eye of the Tiger by Survivor 500 Festival Building 21 Virginia Avenue, Suite 500 Indianapolis, IN 46204, In 2003, the 500 Festival Board of Directors named, 100th Running Celebration Mural at the 500 Festival Building. At mile 158, Harroun pitted and turned his car over to a fellow Pennsylvanian named Cyrus Patschke. Barney Oldfield, a racing pioneer and the first person to drive 60 mph, recruits a parachute manufacturer to design a restraining harness for his Indy 500 car. The spectator could not follow the race.”. With “a nice shiny coal oil lantern hung on the radiator cap” and the light “of a bright moon,” he wrote, it had found its way to the city of big dreams. Keep up-to-date on: © 2021 Smithsonian Magazine. Ethanol is a more commonly-used fuel component than ever, but once again Indy cars beat the consumer market to the punch: part-ethanol fuel made its Indianapolis 500 … Get the best of Smithsonian magazine by email. But no. Or so said some sources. 5 Pope-Hartford, seriously injuring the Lozier riding mechanic, Dave Lewis, and taking both cars out of the competition. Oldfield had seen several drivers get hurt, and even die, after being ejected from their vehicles. You might start with "Black Noon: The Year They Stopped the Indy 500," about the race in 1964 that began with a massive wreck that killed two drivers. A timeline of Indianapolis Motor Speedway safety innovations and improvements: 1911: Inaugural Indianapolis 500 winner Ray Harroun employs what is believed to have been the first rear-view mirror on his No. Newspapers and auto-industry magazines noted that for most of the day many seats in the grandstand, though paid for, went unoccupied, and lines at lavatories and concession stands remained serpentine. Following in step, the marching band signifies one of the 500 Festival’s original events, the AES 500 Festival Parade. 1922 – The Seat Belt Comes to the Indy 500. Copyright © 2011 by Charles Leerhsen. Today’s Parade is made up of more than 80 entries, including celebrities, race car drivers, floats, bands, balloons and specialty units. 1926 More than 150,000 spectators lined the parade route in downtown Indianapolis. One of the best-selling snowmobiles of all time, the Indy 500 brought many new features to the snowmobile market before settling into a comfortable position of being one of the best values in the sport. It took some crews only two minutes to change a tire, others eight or 10 or 15, and no one was timing these stops officially, so the already debatable running order became inscrutable. And so it was on May 30, 1911, as several dozen reporters leaned forward anxiously to watch the 40-car field for the first-ever Indianapolis 500-mile race power past the starting line for the 12th time and roar yet again into turn one. Around the 250-mile mark, Patschke pulled into the pits and hopped out of the Wasp, and Harroun grabbed a hot-water bottle and hopped back in. In any case, with the halfway point approaching, the Indianapolis News reported, “so much excitement was caused in the judges’ and timers’ stands that the time for the 250 miles was overlooked.” Horseless Age said Harroun’s reliever, Patschke, had the Wasp ahead at the halfway point; the Star said Harroun himself had the car in the lead, and the Revised Results said it was Bruce-Brown, followed by the Wasp, then Mulford’s Lozier. Sitting proudly, front and center of the mural design is the modern IndyCar adorned with the 500 Festival’s logo on the nose, as it crosses the finish line first. You can view the timeline of the 500 Festival HERE. 44 Amplex, a bright red car driven by Arthur Greiner and traveling in mid-pack, lost a tire, though accounts vary as to which. The 500-mile Indianapolis 500 is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where open-wheel enthusiasts recently celebrated 100 years of Indycar heritage and tradition. The Indianapolis 500, a History. His love for Miss Dollie notwithstanding, he crushed the brakes and veered toward pit row—where he crashed into the vermilion and white No. (The crew succeeded, but the wire was immediately rebroken.) Its sheer complexity was impressive, but the Horograph was utterly useless when it came to recording time and keeping track of races. A few writers—a largely ignored minority, to be sure—were frank about the problems. All Knight had to do was to pay for the ring, but here now was Anderson literally standing between him and a possible share of the purse. But what exactly did they see there? Charles Leerhsen’s previous book was Crazy Good, a portrait of the harness-racing champion horse Dan Patch. A mile or so later, Bruce-Brown’s Fiat dropped back behind Harroun. Standing alone over the wreck of Dickson and Greiner’s race car was a 14- year-old Hoosier named Waldo Wadsworth Gower, who had sneaked into the Speedway the day before and spent the night in the pits. The Revised Results, however, have it Bruce-Brown, DePalma, Patschke. Year. 33 Lozier third. 1906 - US Steel Company builds steel plant and founds the city of Gary. Given such chaos, was it really so wrong to wish for a spectacular accident that would wipe away the early muddle and allow the beleaguered scribes a second chance at getting a grip on the action? But mostly they accepted the Speedway’s official version of events as disseminated by Shuart—even though it did not always jibe with the venue’s scoreboards, and would change substantially when the judges issued their Revised Results the next day. The dashing David Bruce-Brown, we can say with a fair amount of certainty, played an important role. ET on NBC. Virtually all the writers agreed that his Fiat, leading when the Amplex plunged into the infield on lap 13, was still ahead when the field began to stream past the 40-mile mark. It began in 1957 with four men who recognized the need to create a special event preceding the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. 1897 - Tribal status of the Indiana Miami was terminated, however there were still 90 Miami listed on the 1910 census of Indiana. Information and images for the Coin-op Misc. 4 National car, had grabbed the early lead, only to be passed, after about seven miles, by Spencer Wishart, a mining magnate’s son driving a squat, gray customized Mercedes said to have cost his daddy $62,000. Could Weirdly Straight Bolts of Lightning Be a Sign of Dark Matter? The committee felt the project should be a civic-oriented, annual activity keyed to the 500-Mile Race. The opening half-hour had been bewildering enough, but at least it was fairly apparent in those first 30 miles who held the lead. In the opinion of every reporter at the Speedway, and according to the initial data provided by the Horograph, Patschke reached the 200-mile mark first. California Do Not Sell My Info Right on cue, the No. This series is the most comprehensive history of the modern Indianapolis 500-Mile Race published, starting with Wilbur Shaw's tire test at the Speedway. All 9,000 reserved chair seats were full. 1997. But with every mile the story line had become more and more scrambled and the spectators more and more subdued. Studebaker enters a five-car team at the Indianapolis 500 - 1932 Studebaker enters a five-car factory-backed team at the Indianapolis 500. Hendrix worked to increase sponsorship and attendance, as well as further develop programming within current events and activate the 500 Festival Foundation. For the first Festival, only a parade, a ball and a square dance were planned. The history of the Indianapolis 500 By From staff and wire reports May 28, 2011 12 AM PT 1909: Street paving bricks — 3.2 million of them — are laid over the entire 21/2 -mile track. Whether he ever wondered if he really crossed the wire first, we will never know. Gradually, though, as my research deepened, I came to realize that except in moments of crisis very few spectators were following the action. If the operators of the Warner Horograph hadn’t lost the thread of the race narrative before that moment, they would have done so then. The deadline to complete all the needed details for such an undertaking was set in stone to be up and running within 60 days. Those charged with describing the “excitement” to an eager audience of millions were feeling the first damp signs of panic. In real time, the upended Amplex couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds to fall. Mulford, in this version of events, crossed the wire first, and, as was the custom among drivers of that day, ran an “insurance lap” after getting the checkered flag, to be sure that he had covered the required distance. The writers did this partly by guessing at what they were seeing and by agreeing to agree on certain premises. Hauck was later named Executive Director. For men accustomed to doing little more on a workday than walking the length of a boxing ring to ask one toothless man his opinion of another, this was arduous labor. 111 likes. Mulford’s Lozier also had tire trouble: late in the race, he pitted for a replacement that took less than a minute, then came in again a few laps later for several minutes. 3/10 After more than 30 years without a three-time winner, Bobby Unser repeated Johnny Rutherford’s feat by winning his third Indianapolis 500 in 1981. Eight laps later Wishart (who wore a custom-made shirt and silk tie beneath his overalls) suddenly pitted with a bad tire, leaving the lead to a big brown Knox driven by an unheralded public-school kid from Springfield, Massachusetts, named Fred Belcher. Should he mow down the hapless riding mechanic and perhaps improve his position in the running order—or swerve and quite likely wreck? Today, the 500 Festival has grown to encompass the nation’s largest half marathon and one of the nation’s premier parades. And the worst breaches of order and continuity were yet to come. Twenty-five minutes later, the invading spectators had been dispersed by Speedway security guards, and the grandstand resumed its distracted rumble. 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