1935 Indianapolis 500

The 1935 Indianapolis 500 held at Indianapolis on Thursday, May 30, 1935. Despite attempts to improve participant safety by requiring crash helmets and installing green and yellow lights around the track, the event that year would prove to be one of the worst in terms of fatalities.

Pre-race and qualifying
On May 21, nine days before the race, three prospective participants lost their lives. Rookie Johnny Hannon, on just his first lap at racing speed, had his car go over the outside retaining wall and was killed from a fractured skull. Later that day, driver Hartford "Stubby" Stubblefield also had his car go over the outside wall, and both he and his riding mechanic Leo Whittaker died from injuries they received being thrown from the vehicle. Kelly Petillo, the eventual winner, had his own difficulties getting into the field. His initial qualifying run (a record-breaking 121.687 mph was voided when his car was ruled to have exceeded the fuel limit. Returning to the track, he had an engine blow, before finally having a qualifying run of 115.095 that placed him 22nd in the field.

Race
Driver Clay Weatherly would beg Leon Duray, the owner of Hannon's crashed car, to allow him to drive it in the race. The car would prove no luckier for Weatherly, who would be killed when the car hit the outer wall on lap nine. Rex Mays would lead most of the first 300 mi before being forced out with mechanical failure. Petillo had climbed to second, and after Mays' departure led most of the remainder other than briefly following a pit stop. Petillo easily broke the record for the fastest average speed (115.095 mph) despite being slowed somewhat by rain near the end of the race. Petillo received approximately $33,000 in winnings for the race.

Aftermath
The driver deaths in 1935 caused the Speedway to develop a program to test rookie drivers which was instituted in 1936. Adjustments were also made to the configuration of the turns. Petillo would race in five more 500s, never again finishing higher than 18th. Six of the thirty-three drivers who started the race would end up having their lives ended in accidents at the Indy Speedway.