1911 Indianapolis 500

The 1911 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, or International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday, May 30, 1911. A departure from previous Speedway policy of holding numerous smaller racing meets during 1909 and 1910 racing seasons, the singular, large-scale event attracted widespread attention from both American and European racing teams and manufacturers, and, despite controversy surrounding its conclusion, proved far and away a successful event, immediately establishing itself both as the premier motorsports competition in the nation, and one of the most prestigious in the world.

"Too much racing"
The 1910 racing season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway began well, with 60,000 spectators for the 200 mile Wheeler-Schebler Trophy on Memorial Day, won by Ray Harroun The crowds grew progressively smaller for the rest of the season, however. After seeing a second decline in attendance in as many days for Labor Day, September 5, the final day of the concluding meet, Speedway co-founders Carl Fisher, James Allison, Arthur Newby and Frank Wheeler conferred to decide on a new course for the following year.

While the appearance on Monday of some 18,000 was reasonable enough in some respects, given both the rain showers occurring early that morning and the large parade held downtown in the afternoon, neither the two days of the Labor Day meet nor the July 4 weekend races had come near to equalling the Memorial Day turnout. While potential explanations for the decline included the summer's extreme heat and the women of the city making holiday plans for their families that did not include auto racing, one of the most likely, they reasoned, was an overabundance of the very events they exhibited: too many races had diluted turnout to including only those most interested in the sport.

Timing and farming
By the next day, Tuesday September 6, local newspapers had already heard rumors of the decision, and reported the four partners chose to concentrate on a single race. They considered a 24-hour contest, in the fashion of Le Mans, or a 1000 mi endurance event, with a spectacular $US25,000 (Fr1.25 million, about ₤5250 ) purse, more than high enough to attract global as well as local and regional competition contest for 1911. The endurance event was favored by several manufacturers, but debate soon proceeded as to what would be most beneficial to spectators as well as participants; while 24-hour event would be possible on a technical level despite its extreme nature, all agreed potential ticket-buyers would inevitably depart the grounds well before its conclusion. Deciding on a "race window" extending from 10:00 A.M. to late afternoon, local time, early estimates placed the planned race distance at 300 to 300 to 500 mi; the winner of the event, with purse estimates ranging toward $30,000, could expect to see as much as $12,000.

In choices for a specific date for the race, Memorial Day, already the occasion of the largest attendance, was always foremost. As suggested to the Speedway owners by Lem Trotter, the date coincided with the completion of a late-spring agricultural practice known as "haying," after which the farmers acquired an effective two-week break. While the intention, Trotter argued, would certainly be to draw from far more than just the local farming community, simple business sense called for as little interference as possible with the regional economy. That such an opportunity to avoid a potential conflict of interest fell on a major national holiday sealed the decision: within two days, formal announcement was made of a 500 mi, marathon-distance motor race, to be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 30, 1911.

Superlatives, preparation
As desired and expected, news of the inauguration of a contest of such distance evoked strong enthusiasm both within and without the motorsport community. Newspaper and trade magazine articles used ever-new superlatives for the challenges expected to soon face both drivers and engineers, and continuing discussion throughout the spring and winter kept the race as the primary conversation piece of the average citizen. Everyone, it seemed, had something to say about it.

Due to the publicity thus created, Speedway management, which had for the previous two seasons of meets charged the effectively nominal entry fee of one dollar per mile of scheduled race distances, took measure to ensure that the conceivably large entry list did not include any but the most serious participants: at an accordingly heightened fee of $500 per car, participation became a nominally risky proposition to teams and manufacturers, since, although the high finishers were due to receive record purse money and accessory prizes, no money at all was offered to finishers below tenth place. Interest, however, was far from dampened, with entry blanks distributed over the course of the following month quickly returning filled, the first of which being an automobile built by the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company of Racine, Wisconsin, to be driven by Lewis Strang. By May 1, the final potential day for entry, an extensive total of some 46 cars had been nominated to compete.

May 1 also marked the beginning of an eventually decades-long tradition of the opening of the Speedway, on the first day of the month, to practice by any and all participants. A policy originally established so as to allow teams unfamiliar with the 2.5 mi, recently brick-paved high-speed course as much time to acclimate as necessary, it ultimately proved most advantageous to the locally-based teams, given many of the entries from abroad not even setting out for the city until well into the month. One example of such, the double-entry Pope-Hartford team based in Springfield, Massachusetts, came by way of the team's actual racing cars themselves simply being driven, while loaded up with toolboxes and as many spare parts as they could hold, cross-country, making overnight stops in New York City, Buffalo, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, before finally arriving, where they were duly met at the city's East Washington Street by Frank Fox, who was not only the slated driver of one of the two cars but also the company's local agent.

The 500-mile race
The largest racing purse offered to date, $27,550, drew 46 entries from the United States and Europe, from which 40 qualified by sustaining 75 mph along the quarter mile-long main straight. Grid positions were determined by date of filing of official entry forms, rather than speed, a difference from the contemporary European practice of lottery. Entries were prescribed by rules to have a minimum weight of 2,300 lb (1,043 kg) and a maximum engine size of 600 cubic inches (9.83 litres) displacement.

The cars lined up five to a row, excepting the first and last. Row One, from what is now called the pole position, was led by co-founder and president of the Speedway Carl G. Fisher in a Stoddard-Dayton pace car. Row Nine had just single car to make up for the shifted positioning that resulted. Fisher's use of the Stoddard-Dayton is believed to constitute the first use of such a vehicle, for the first known mass rolling start of an automobile race.

Amid roiling smoke, the roar of the 40 machines' engines, and the waving of a red flag which signalled 'clear course ahead', American Johnny Aitken, in a National, took the lead from the fourth starting spot on the extreme outside of the first row, and held it until lap 5 when Spencer Wishart took over in a Mercedes, himself soon overtaken by David L. Bruce-Brown's Fiat which would go on to dominate the first half of the race. Nearing the halfway point, Ray Harroun, an engineer for the Marmon-Nordyke company and defending AAA national champion, and the only driver competing without a riding mechanic due to his first-ever-recorded use of a cowl-mounted rear-view mirror, passed Bruce-Brown for the lead in his self-designed, six-cylinder "Marmon Wasp" (so named for its distinctively sharp-pointed, wasp-like tail).

Others falter during the marathon event; of the 14 cars to fall out, riding mechanic Sam Dickson is the lone fatality, killed when driver Arthur Greiner hits the wall in the second turn on lap 12.

Harroun, relieved by Cyrus Patschke for 35 laps (87.5 miles / 140.82 km), led 88 of the 200 laps, the most among the race's seven leaders, for a race-average a speed of 74.602 mph (120.060 km/h) in a total time of 6:42:08 for the 500-mile (804.67 km) distance to win. During the midpoint of the second half the race, Harroun and Lozier driver Ralph Mulford had fought an intense duel, with Harroun holding a small advantage near the 340 mile (550 kilometer) mark, whereupon one of the Wasp's tires 'let go'. Harroun's forced stop allowed Mulford to move to the front, before Mulford also pitted for new rubber. After Mulford came back onto the track, Harroun was scored in the lead with a 1 minute 48 second advantage. It is on this statistic controversy hinges.

Upon Harroun's declared victory, second-place finisher Mulford protested, contending he had lapped Harroun when the Marmon limped in on the torn tire, an argument appearing plausible to some, due to an accident disrupting the official timing and scoring stand at nearly the same time. However, race officials were quick to note Mulford's subsequent pit stop forced the Lozier crew to spend several minutes themselves changing a tire which stuck to the wheel hub; Mulford's protest was thus denied.

After the race, and collection of $10,000 for first place, Harroun returned to the position he had taken at the end of the 1910 racing season: retirement. He would never race again.