History of the Indianapolis 500 – Part One
Story by Leigh Dorrington
The story of the Indianapolis 500 is the story of America in a pivotal century—the beginning of the
American Century. A rural nation rushing to embrace industrialization. Farm boys, fairgrounds and big city
promoters. Seat of the pants courage and genuine genius. Foreign invasions—so to speak—and
homeland traditions.
In 1910, the city of Indianapolis was home to 233,650 people and the 22nd largest city in America. The
U.S. Center of Population in 1910 was in Bloomington, Indiana, just 52 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
Indiana was already one of the early centers of American automobile production. Indiana had one of the
best railroad networks in the U.S., providing ready access to both raw materials and growing markets,
and an established carriage and wagon-building industry. Over 400 different makes of automobiles were
manufactured in Indiana at one time or another.
Some 217 Indiana automakers had already been at work by 1910, and another twenty would be added in
1911. One early Indiana automaker, Elwood Haynes of Elkhart who built his first automobile in 1893,
advertised that his automobile was ‘America’s First Car’. A Haynes-Apperson was also among the
automobiles entered in the first automobile race in America, the Chicago Times-Herald race between
Chicago and Evanston, Illinois in 1895.
Many pioneer Indiana automakers built as few as a single automobile. But some, like Auburn, Marmon
and Studebaker, would find ongoing success before the flame burned out. Other great Indiana
automobiles—Stutz, Duesenberg and Cord—hadn’t been introduced yet. But the automobile industry was
rapidly becoming a backbone of Indiana’s economy.
Indianapolis drew auto enthusiasts like a magnet. Carl G. Fisher was one of these men, but he was far
from typical. Fisher has been called the father of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway—and many other
things, including ‘Crazy Carl Fisher’.
The Father of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Carl Fisher wasn’t crazy; he was filled with ideas.
Carl Fisher
Fisher was one of a breed who were called ‘go-getters’ in his day. In addition to forging the idea of a
speedway to provide a testing facility for Indiana’s automakers, Carl Fisher was later credited with
developing Miami Beach from Florida swampland and spearheading the Lincoln Highway to provide a
stimulus for better highways across America that much later influenced the Interstate Highway System.
Coming from a modest background, Carl Fisher opened a bicycle shop in Indianapolis at the age of 17
and was an avid bicycle racer. By 24, he was the first automobile dealer in the United States after
meeting Ransom E. Olds at the 1900 automobile show in New York—America’s first auto show, held in
Madison Square Garden—and returning to Indianapolis with a contract as Oldsmobile’s first sales agent.
Soon Fisher had taken on other lines of automobiles and quickly made a name for himself for the
outrageous promotions he dreamed up for the automobiles he sold.
Fisher once hung a Stoddard-Dayton automobile below a hot air balloon and flew over the city of
Indianapolis. When the balloon landed, the Stoddard-Dayton was supposedly driven to the center of
Indianapolis and put on display in Fisher’s showroom. In fact, the automobile was too heavy for the
balloon to lift and mechanical components had been removed. A second car, reportedly hidden in the
bushes near the balloon landing, was actually driven into downtown Indianapolis where Fisher was
greeted by a large and cheering crowd.
Carl Fisher partnered with James Allison in 1904 to buy an interest in the patent rights to manufacture
acetylene headlights. In a day before electric headlights had been invented, the company—named PrestO-Lite—made virtually every headlamp sold on automobiles in the United States. Fisher and Allison sold
out to Union Carbide in 1913, but not before making themselves very wealthy. Union Carbide paid Fisher
and Allison $9,000,000 in pre-WWI dollars.
Fisher and Allison were examples of an age when men—and women—with vision and courage could
seemingly accomplish anything. With the building of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the race that
came to be called ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing’, they did.
The story of the Indianapolis 500 is the story of many individuals who made contributions—large and
small—to the Speedway’s history. No one knows these stories better than Donald Davidson, the
Speedway’s celebrated historian who co-authored The Official History of the Indianapolis 500 with Rick
Shaffer.
Newby, Wheeler and Fletcher
The Speedway was the brainchild of Carl Fisher. Fisher raced briefly at the turn of the century as a
‘barnstormer’, racers who travelled from one country fairground to another staging match races between
automobiles, airplanes and horses. The results were often preordained, but the excitement was authentic.
One of Fisher’s colleagues was another former bicycle racer, Berna Eli Oldfield—‘Barney’ Oldfield.
Carl Fisher racing in Chicago
Fisher also entered or attended early automobile races in both Europe and the U.S., including the
Vanderbilt Cup Races on Long Island in New York. He designed and built a special race car with the
Indianapolis-based Premier Motor Manufacturing Company that he planned to drive in the 1905
Vanderbilt Cup Race, but the automobile failed to meet weight restrictions and did not race.
As early as 1903—four years before the Brooklands circuit opened in England—Fisher envisioned highspeed closed circuits of 1, 3 and 5-miles, with straights 100 to 150 feet wide. Such a track took into
consideration the inherent dangers to automobilists on narrow fairgrounds tracks created for horse racing,
and the ongoing need to accommodate ever-increasing speeds for testing and auto racing. Fisher wrote
to the editor of Motor Agemagazine in 1906 to share his ideas on the “Advantages of a Big Circular
Track”, as rediscovered by Donald Davidson.
Arthur C. Newby and Frank H. Wheeler were two other Indianapolis businessmen who would figure
prominently in the creation of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Newby is credited with creating the popular six-day bicycle races that briefly seized the American public’s
attention at the turning of the new century. In 1898 Newby built a 15,000-seat velodrome for bicycle
racing in Indianapolis. Newby had also risen to a position of responsibility with Nordyke & Marmon, one of
Indianapolis’s leading manufacturing firms and, since 1902, manufacturer of the Marmon automobile.
Newby then became president of the National Motor Vehicle Company founded in Indianapolis in 1904.
Frank Wheeler was the partner of George Schebler in the Wheeler-Schebler Carburetor Company in
Indianapolis, which had also benefitted hugely from the exploding popularity of the automobile.
A fifth partner—for no more than a matter of days—was Stoughton Fletcher whose family controlled one
of Indiana’s most venerable banks, founded in 1839. A venture involving automobile racing was deemed
by Fletcher’s family to be inappropriate to family interests, and the chagrined young Fletcher was forced
to withdraw.
Constructing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Property for construction of a speedway was selected outside of the city limits of Indianapolis, five miles
to the northwest at Crawfordsville Road. Four adjoining 80-acre tracts of flat farmland were for sale.
Successful negotiations led to purchase of the property for a total of $72,000.
Railroad tracks running past the property toward Crawfordsville conveniently ran—in the opposite
direction—directly to Union Station in downtown Indianapolis, providing a ready transportation link for
planned spectators.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Company was incorporated in March 1909 and construction of the
track was already underway before April. P.T. Andrews, a New York civil engineer, was retained to design
the track. Andrews initially laid out the configuration for a 3-mile speedway with a 2-mile road course
running through the infield. But as Andrews pointed out to the partners, the track would fit on the property
but would leave no room for grandstands. The solution was to reduce the length of the speedway to 2.5
miles, as it has remained for over 100 years. Plans for the infield road course were quietly forgotten.
Original Speedway Layout
The confident Speedway management announced four major events for the opening season in 1909,
including balloon, motorcycle and automobile races. A model of the track, made of cement, was displayed
to the public on the southeast corner of the site. The track surface was graded and then built up with
layers of gravel coated with asphaltum oil. The surface would quickly prove to be woefully inadequate,
and lead to a more famous resurfacing.
Speedway Model being inspected by driver Lewis Strang
Grading the Speedway
Carl Fisher inspecting the Speedway in 1909
Initial events at the Speedway included 1909 national championship hot air balloon races in June and
motorcycle races in August. Crowds for both events failed to meet expectations, and the loose track
surface proved to be a disaster for motorcyclists. Violent crashes and serious injuries led to the event
being cancelled even before the final scheduled day of races.
Balloon Races, June 1909
National Motorcycle Race Meet, August 1909
The first automobile races, announced for July, had already been cancelled until the track could be
completed. The initial automobile race on the Speedway took place in August 1909 just one week after
the motorcycle event. Crowds swelled to 15,000-20,000 spectators, according to D. Bruce Scott in IndyRacing Before the 500. They descended upon the Speedway on special trains, automobiles and horse-
drawn wagons. Three days of racing were scheduled including special races for trophies presented by
Prest-O-Lite, Wheeler-Schebler, Remy and others.
Louis Schwitzer, an Austrian immigrant, won the first automobile race at the Speedway on August 19,
1909 driving a Stoddard-Dayton in a five-lap event open to stock chassis with engines of 161-230 cu in.
Schwitzer also became an important figure in Speedway history in other ways—helping to design the
engine of the Marmon Wasp that would win the first 500 in 1911, heading the Speedway’s Technical
Committee from 1912-1940, and establishing an Indianapolis company to manufacture superchargers
and turbochargers that were later used on race-winning cars in the 500.
Louis Schwitzer (center)
Other entrants included already well-known names like Marmon engineer Ray Harroun, Louis Chevrolet,
Bob Burman and Lewis Strang—on Buicks—Charlie Merz (National) and Barney Oldfield who won a 25mile race on a German Benz. Tragically, the track surface again proved deadly, taking the lives of one
driver, two riding mechanics and spectators.
Race starter ‘Pop’ Wagner, representing the sanctioning American Automobile Association, declared that
there would be no more races sanctioned by the AAA at the Speedway until problems with the track
surface had been fixed. The Detroit News went further, publishing a scathing editorial challenging the
future of track racing altogether.
Becoming The Brickyard
Carl Fisher immediately announced that all future races at the Speedway would be cancelled until the
racing surface could be improved and additional safety features installed, regardless of cost. Various
surfaces were considered and tested before approval was given on September 16, 1909 to resurface the
entire track with paving bricks.
The work was completed in a remarkable 63 days according to historian Scott. A total of roughly
3,200,000 bricks were utilized in resurfacing the full 2.5 miles of the Speedway, giving rise to the name
that still sets the track apart from every other in the world—The Brickyard.
The management of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway planned a full schedule of events for 1910. These
included auto races on Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day holidays, as well as a 24-hour race in
August and hot air balloon races again in August and September.
The three-day May 1910 event was scheduled to include a total of 31 separate races! All of the events
were designed for stock chassis. Indianapolis-built Nationals won ten of the events in the hands of
multiple drivers.
Louis Chevrolet on Buick
Both Louis Chevrolet and Bob Burman won again on Buicks. But Ray Harroun and his Marmon was the
big winner, taking races of 10 and 50 miles and the featured 200-mile race for the 7-foot high WheelerSchebler trophy, which was commissioned from New York jeweler Tiffany at a reported cost of $10,000.
The July 1910 event, also scheduled over three days, included 28 events. Marmon repeated their May
victory in the all-important 200 mile race with Joe Dawson in 1st and Ray Harroun in 3rd place. Harroun
again led the 200 mile highlight race of the two-day, 20-event September 1910 auto races before both he
and team mate Dawson fell out with motor failures, allowing the National team to finish 1-2.
While racing on the new surface proved to be highly successful, crowds for the events dwindled rapidly
after the Memorial Day event. From a high of 50,000 spectators on the peak day of the Memorial Day
event, attendance fell to 20,000 on July 4th and even fewer for the Labor Day races. The proposed 24hour race was cancelled during the July 4th meet and the September event was shortened to two days.
Was it too much racing, the partners wondered?
Just one day after the Labor Day 1910 event, Carl Fisher announced that racing at the Speedway in 1911
would be limited to one race—at a distance of 500 miles on Memorial Day, for a total purse of $30,000.
The First Indianapolis 500
The distance of the 1911 Memorial Day race was proposed for as long as 1,000 miles, or a duration as
long as 24-hours. Both found early favor with manufacturers as a true test and demonstration of their
automobiles.
The partners chose the distance of 500 miles, however. A 500-mile race would still provide a significant
test of machines and drivers, and would allow spectators to return home in time to enjoy their dinners.
The race would take more than six hours to complete.
The first entry for the 1911 Indianapolis Motor Speedway International Sweepstakes 500-Mile Race—as
the event was to be called—was received in October 1910 from the J. I. Case Threshing Machine
Company of Racine, Wisconsin. Case also produced automobiles from 1911-1925, and earned the
coveted first starting position for the 1911 500 by virtue of posting the first entry received by the
Speedway.
Entries were received from U.S. and prominent European auto manufacturers giving the race a legitimate
claim to the ‘International Sweepstakes’ title. Indianapolis automakers were well represented by Marmon,
National, Cole and the Ideal Motor Car Company, which was soon to be re-named after the firm’s
founder—Harry Stutz. Entries from other Indiana-based manufacturers included Amplex, Apperson,
McFarlan and Westcott.
Joe Dawson Marmon #31 5th 1911 Indianapolis 500
Johnny Aitken National #4 1911 Indianapolis 500
Herb Lytle Apperson #35 1911 Indianapolis 500
W.H. Turner Amplex #12 1911 Indianpolis 500
Entries of European-built automobiles were received with nominations for top American drivers who were
more familiar with American-style circle track racing. A Benz was entered for 1909 IMS Prest-O-Lite
trophy-winner and 1911 Land Speed Record-holder Bob Burman, and a Mercedes for Philadelphia native
Spencer Wishart. A trio of Grand Prix Fiats was entered for Americans David Bruce-Brown, Eddie Hearne
and Caleb Bragg.
Bob Burman Benz #45 1911 Indianapolis 500
Spencer Wishart Mercedes #11 1911 Indianapolis 500
David Bruce-Brown, Fiat 1911 Indianapolis 500
Eddie Hearne Fiat #18 1911 Indianapolis 500
Marmon entered two cars in the 1911 500-mile race, for Ray Harroun and teammate Joe Dawson. While
Dawson’s 4-cylinder car had previously raced at the Speedway, Harroun’s was a new 6-cylinder car
designed and built by Harroun working with chief engineer Howard Marmon. The car’s narrow, single seat
bodywork ended in a pointed tail; with its yellow paint, the car was quickly dubbed the ‘Marmon Wasp’.
Marmon Wasp, 1911 Indianapolis 500
The Speedway opened for practice on May 1, which became a Brickyard tradition that lasted for
generations. Activities filled the entire month of May.
A total of 46 entries were received. Two of those were not completed in time, and four failed to meet the
rudimentary qualifying requirement to hold a speed of 75mph for a quarter mile from a flying start. Trial
runs requiring one full lap of the Speedway at over 75mph did not begin until the following year and later
evolved into a four lap qualifying procedure.
Ray Harroun
During practice, competitors soon complained that Harroun would not be able to see other cars
overtaking without a riding mechanic and would present a hazard on the track. Although he often denied
that he deserved credit for ‘inventing’ the rear view mirror, Harroun did mount a 3” x 8” mirror to metal
rods affixed to the cowl of the Marmon Wasp. He later admitted, according to Donald Davidson, “It shook
so badly at speed on the bricked surface that (I) was unable to see anything anyway.”
With the large field of 40 cars remaining, Fisher created another innovation for the first 500—the first use
of a pace car. Races in the day typically began from a standing start. Recognizing the need to keep 40
cars in line, Fisher and Allison lined up a Stoddard-Dayton touring car on the ‘pole’ position, with the first
row of starters lined up beside the pace car.
1911 Indianapolis 500 front row with Stoddard-Dayton pace car
The race would be 200 laps of the 2.5-mile Speedway—500 miles. The forty starters were lined up in four
cars abreast in ten rows.
Finally, at 10:00am on May 30, 1911 an aerial bomb announced to all who were present that it was time
to start of the race. The Stoddard-Dayton pace car led the field away from the starting grid and toward—a
red flag! In another interesting part of Speedway lore, a red flag was used to start the race presumably
because it was thought to be more easily seen by the swarm of speeding cars. Use of a green flag to start
the race was not adopted until the 1930s.
As soon as the race started, the partners’ expectations were met. Five different drivers had led the race
by lap 20. Johnny Aitken on his National became the first driver to lead the Indianapolis 500, starting from
the outside of the front row and leading the first ten miles. Spencer Wishart led the next five laps on the
Grand Prix Mercedes, only to be passed by the relatively unknown Fred Belcher on a Knox, who gave up
the lead to David Bruce-Brown on one of the Grand Prix Fiats just four laps later. On lap 20, popular
Ralph de Palma took over the lead on his New York-built Simplex.
Spectators at 1911 Indianapolis 500
Press car at 1911 Indianapolis 500
But it was Ray Harroun’s race to lose. Harroun is unfortunately often thought to be a ‘one-time wonder’ as
the winner of the first 500. But, as we have seen, he was in fact a wizened veteran sometimes called ‘The
Little Professor’, who was as interested in developing racing cars as in driving them. Harroun’s multiple
starts and victories in 1909-1910 Speedway races of lengths from five miles to 200 miles gave him a
wealth of experience, which he put to good use.
Donald Davidson, again, explained how in previous races at the Speedway and practice throughout May
1911, “Harroun was literally running tire tests in order to determine the best compromise between speed
and wear.” By reducing his lap speeds to the minimum qualifying speed of 75mph, Harroun found he
could double the distance between tire changes. A relief driver, Cyrus Patschke, was provided to give
Harroun a rest during the punishing 500-mile race. But after Harroun returned to the Marmon, he led all
but ten laps in the second half of the race.
At the finish, it was Indianapolis’ own Ray Harroun who won the first 500, finishing the 200 laps in six
hours and forty-two minutes and averaging 74.60mph for the distance while faster competitors fell by the
wayside.
Ray Harroun wins the first Indianapolis 500 on the Marmon Wasp