Ghosts of the Brickyard: 1911 Indianapolis 500 Lore

Welcome back! Today, we’re going over the lead up, the very first “Month of May”, the race and the controversy after the race! This is scripted (last one that will be) so here is the script! Enjoy!

It’s not clear on who actually had the idea for the 500 mile race – allegedly, Carl Fisher’s initial suggestions had been either a 1,000 mile race or a 24 hour race. According to James Allison’s first wife Sara, it was James who – potentially in an effort to dial Carl back – suggested a 500 mile race. And a 500 mile was still revolutionary and longer than any other race that had been completed but not quite as extreme as a 1,000 mile or 24 hour race

The 500 mile race was announced on September 7th, 1910. The tentative date was originally May 27th 1911, however it would eventually be pushed back to May 30th. The purse would be $25,000, roughly $816,000 in today’s money and at the time, it was reportedly the largest purse ever offered.  

The 500 mile race was, of course, a risk. The Speedway was putting all of its eggs into one basket and hoping for the best, essentially. Never before had a 500 mile race been held so ‘the Founders’ had no idea if the cars and drivers could even make it that long. And ‘the Founders’ certainly had no idea if people would even be willing to sit there and watch a race for that long (or if they’d even show up at all)

Nonetheless, entry blanks were sent out on September 20th 1910 with a deadline of 30 cars that needed to be entered by May 1st, 1911 for the race to receive AAA sanctioning.

On October 28th 1910, the Indianapolis Star announced that the first two entries had been received – one from J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company (if the name Case sounds familiar, this is the same company who made tractors). Racing star Lewis Strang would pilot the Case car. 

The other entry was from Simplex Automobile Company, a luxury car company headquartered in New York City but they did not name a pilot (yet). 

It was decided by the Speedway management that both the starting order and the car’s numbers would be decided by the order the entries were received in which gave Lewis Strang and his Case the pole (and number 1 on his car) and the Simplex would start second (with a number 2 on the car) and so forth.

The third entry belonged to Inter-State Automobile Company – an Indiana car company headquartered in Muncie – had entered a car with the driver TBD. The Speedway rang in 1911 with a new entry – National entered a car, tapping veteran Johnny Aitken to drive. Johnny was adamant that this race would absolutely mark the end of his racing career. 

Ralph DePalma came to Indianapolis in January, declaring his intent to drive in the 500 mile race. He met with A.C. Newby at National about potentially driving a National car but Simplex also wanted him to drive – he was a hot commodity. 

Ralph was born in Italy in 1882, immigrating to the US when he was 11. Like many drivers of this era, Ralph got his start as a bicycle racer (The bicycle craze of the late 1890s was no joke). By 22, he was racing motorcycles which eventually progressed into racing automobiles. Ralph was a successful automobile racer already – and he hoped that Indianapolis would further his successes. 

In mid-January, it was announced that Louis Disbrow and Frank Fox would pilot Pope-Hartfords. 

Also in January – AAA threw out the 100 mile limit and instead, instituted a 7 hour maximum for a race – which was coincidentally about the time it would take for a 500 mile race to be completed. 

On February 1st, the seventh entry was received – a specially built Westcott to be driven by Harry Knight. Westcott was a car company that was based in Springfield, Ohio but this car was manufactured in Richmond, Indiana.

By February 22nd, Case had added two additional entries – Joe Jagersberger and Louis Larsonneur.

On March 1st, the Indianapolis News reports these as the entries in addition to the ones I’ve already named:

• Spencer Wishart (in his dad’s Mercedes),
•  W.H. Turner in an Amplex, 
• an unnamed Marmon entry, 
• Joe Dawson in a Marmon
• Fred Belcher in a Knox
• Two Buicks with unnamed drivers
• Eddie Hearne in a Benz
• Harry Grant in an Alco
• Two unnamed National
• Two unnamed McFarland 6
• Fred Ellis and Harry Cobe in Jackson + a third Jackson entry with an unnamed driver (26)

On March 3, the Indianapolis Star noted that David Bruce-Brown, the “winner of the greatest classic of the 1910 racing season” would drive in a privately owned Fiat. Cutting Car Company also announced their intention to race.

On March 19, the Indy Star reported that the drivers were forming a union known as the ‘Automobile Race Drivers’ Association’. Their first big request was to have inexperienced drivers try-out before they’re allowed to race in the big events such as the Indianapolis 500 mile race. They do note that the intention of this is not to boycott new drivers, but instead to keep all drivers safe(r). It doesn’t seem that their request was honored. 

On March 23, there was an article in the IndyStar that talked about Ray Harroun – remember, he is the Marmon engineer and reluctant driver who was adamant he would be retiring after the 1910 season. Ray was at the track to watch Joe Dawson practice and he reiterated that he was retired and he would not be unretiring for the 500 mile race. 

On March 30, it was announced that Lozier (LOW-ZUR), a luxury car manufacturer in Detroit entered 3 cars – driven by Ralph Mulford, Teddy Tetzlaff and Harold Van Gorder. 

On April 2nd, The Indy Star reported that Herbert Lytle, whose career had been feared to be over after he broke his leg at Indy in May 1910, would be racing in a car he owns. 

On April 6, it was noted that Bert Adams would be driving one of the McFarland 6 entries. 

The IndyStar reported that management were surprised at the ticket sales, saying that the ticket sales at more than a month out resembled what ticket sales look like right before the race actually happened and I just think about how exciting that had to be for the Founders? 

On April 7th, the Speedway opened and cars were allowed to start turning practice laps. Gil Anderson in a Stutz and Joe Dawson in a Marmon were the first to turn laps. A few days later, Joe Dawson wrecked during practice and while he was not seriously injured, he was described as “bruised and painful”. 

An IndyStar article on April 11th noted that former teammate, still VERY retired Ray Harroun was at the track and witnessed the wreck – it was a similar wreck to one that Ray had the July before and he noted that the cement retaining wall the Speedway had put in likely saved both his and Joe’s life. Also in that IndyStar article was that Charles Basle and Arthur Chevrolet would be racing the Buick’s cars. A few days later on April 14th, Indy Star notes that Ralph Beardsley and Ralph DePalma would each be driving a Simplex. Also noted in the article – Mercer confirmed to have entered two cars – one driver – Hughie Hughes was named.

On April 16th, the Indy Star reported that Caleb Bragg would drive a Fiat. Caleb Bragg was in the same group of drivers that David Bruce-Brown and Spencer Wishart belonged to – sons of wealthy men who had the privilege to focus on racing and were able to purchase European cars, which were arguably more advanced than American cars.

At about this time, the Marmon Wasp shows up at the Speedway and that begins speculation because Ray Harroun has been very insistent that he is still very much retired and has no plans to race. A modern day equivalent would be like an extra Ganassi or Penske car showing up to the track and nobody has any clue who might drive it. 

On April 21st, the IndyStar reported that the fortieth and forty-first cars were entered in the race by Velie (which was founded by one of John Deere’s grandsons). Arthur Gibbons was named one of the Velie drivers while the other was TBD. 

The bigger story that ran that day was that JF Gelnaw, one of the Fal drivers sent a telegram to Speedway management, requesting that he be assigned the number thirteen (the hoo-doo number) because it was his lucky number. He pointed out that it would be easy to do because they could assign him 13 and assign his teammate 14 instead of the 12.5 that was originally assigned (I am guessing JF was originally assigned 14 and his teammate was assigned 12.5)

So maybe you’re wondering – what the heck is hoodoo? The actual word hoodoo is taken from an African American-based tradition that makes use of natural and supernatural elements in order to create and effect change in the human experience – not to be confused with voodoo which is an actual religion. At some point post-Civil War (I could not figure out when), the phrase hoodoo seemed to enter white American vernacular for situations where there is a possible paranormal/mystical thing going on. Because of all of the deaths in early motorsports, there tended to be a lot of superstition so you see the term “hoodoo” quite a bit in this period of motorsports journalism. 

On April 22nd, it was announced that the very, most definitely retired Ray Harroun would be unretiring to race the Marmon Wasp. 

The Marmon Wasp is a really iconic piece of Indianapolis 500 history, it definitely is part of the mythology of the Indy 500. This car was actually developed in the beginning parts of 1910 as the racing counterpart to the Marmon 32. The Marmon Wasp was originally called The Marmon Yellow Jacket but at some point, somebody decided Wasp was better. Ray Harroun piloted the Marmon Wasp to victory at Indianapolis in May 1910, winning the 200 mile Wheeler-Schebler Trophy. 

I think part of the like mythology of the car is because it has such a distinct look – for starters, it is bright yellow. It’s also a single seater car and I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that explicitly has said it but I think it’s easy to get the impression that the Marmon Wasp was completely totally ground breaking and nobody else did it and that is… not quite true, in my opinion. To my best knowledge – I believe that Cole had the ‘Little Cole 30’ race car that was also a single seater that debuted at roughly the same time as the Marmon Wasp. 

The front of the car is hexagonal which is pretty standard to other cars in this time period, but the Wasp is special because it has a tail. The best I can describe it is like they attached a triangle to the back of the car? It was supposed to be more aerodynamic. 

Another big aspect of motorsports in this time period were the speed trials – they’d go down to Daytona Beach and on April 23 1911, Bob Burman broke Barney Oldfield’s record and became ‘the Speed King’. Bob Burman was – at this point – the only really big name not confirmed to be participating in the 500 mile Sweepstakes

On April 30th, IndyStar reports that Cole is entering two cars – one driven by Bill Endicott, the other TBD which brings the car count to 43. On May 1 the entries closed, although Speedway management did tell the Indy Star that they anticipate at least a few more to still be in the mail. 3 more cars are entered by May 3 – including a car to be driven by Bob Burman, the Speed King. 

Starting on May 4th, the drivers who weren’t local to Indianapolis start arriving – many of them drove the cars they’re going to compete in to the track from as far as New York in Louis Disbrow’s case or Massachusetts in Fred Belcher’s case. Fairly similar to how it still is, the track was open for teams to acclimate and to tune their cars – qualifying as it is now, wasn’t a thing yet but each car had to average approximately 75 mph over a quarter mile stretch of straight away (which was basically a quarter mile in 12 seconds or less). 

Arthur Chevrolet holds the title of being the very first person to crash during Indy 500 practice in May – a tire blew when Arthur was rounding the third corner in his Buick and the car skidded into sand and overturned, throwing both occupants. Neither Arthur or his riding mechanic Albert Seraye were seriously hurt, though Albert received a scratch on his forehead from the ordeal. Arthur credited the sand, which was laid around on the inside of the track to cushion wrecks, with saving his life. He was able to repair his car.

On May 18th, Teddy Tetzlaff in a Lozier broke the right steering knuckle and hit the wall. Neither Teddy or his riding mechanic were injured. The car’s damage was repairable so Teddy had the car shipped back to the Lozier factory in Detroit and newspapers had reported that it would be back on track within the week. 

On May 21st, Joe Jagersberger driving a Case blew his right front tire coming off the north turn into the home stretch. The car turned around, grazed the wall and then lurched across the track into the bed of sand. The momentum from the crash buried the wheels up to the hubcaps. The people in the pits witnessed the crash and ran towards the car, expecting Joe and his mechanic to be hurt and they were all shocked to see Joe standing in the sand, looking at his car. The car was only minimally damaged and able to come into the pits under it’s own power (once it was not buried by the sand). 

Later in that practice session, Gaston Morris in the Amplex Number 44 blew a tire, crashed into the retaining wall, bouncing back onto the track before hitting the retaining wall again. There is a little murkiness because the newspapers don’t report any injuries – they just say that he won’t drive the 44 and either leave it at that or say that he is refusing because the 44 is a ‘hoo-doo’ car but in ‘Blood and Smoke’ Charles Leerhsen writes that Gaston did suffer broken bones from the incident. 

Charles Leerhsen also points out that another big story that was seemingly missed was that Gaston Morris wasn’t even supposed to be driving the 44 in the place, it was supposed to be Walter Jones. There is a brief mention of it in the Indy Star but according to Leerhsen, essentially Walter’s mother was writing, telegraming, calling and showing up to visit AAA and Speedway officials to ask them to bar her son from the race. A few drivers (no idea who) apparently kidnapped him. Walter bowed out and did not race. 

The most serious crash in practice happened on Wednesday, May 24th when Joe Horan was driving the Amplex No 12. He was meant to drive the 44 when it was fixed but he was driving the 12 just to acclimate to the track when he skidded coming off the turn 4. The car rolled twice before stopping in soft mud. Joe had been thrown approximately 30 feet and he sustained a fracture below his right knee as well as a bad gash over his right eye. Everett Ward, his riding mechanic, was also thrown from the car but he escaped with only bruises. 

Like with Joe Jagersberger’s crash, many of the people in the pits came running to Joe Horan and Everett’s aid. The Indianapolis Star reported that they found Joe propped up on his left elbow, unable to stand but the only thing he said was “Let me see the front end of my car.” Joe Horan was loaded into Spencer Wishart’s Mercedes and driven to the Speedway’s offices where an ambulance took him to the hospital. Shortly after it was announced that Arthur Greiner would drive the Number 44 “hoo-doo” car for the race. 

In the May 21st Sunday edition of the Indianapolis Star, there was an article that discussed some of the finer details of the race and the things that happen before the race. Some interesting tidbits:

• Management announced that the top ten finishers (the car owners, not the drivers) would also receive an engraved plaque commemorating their finish
• The Saturday before the race, there would be a school for the drivers, riding mechanics and relief drivers where the AAA officials would go over all the rules.
• The AAA warned the drivers that if a driver is to drive recklessly, they will get a yellow flag and be forced to withdraw
• To notify drivers of a crash on track that the drivers need to slow/slow, there are two poles set up on each side of the track, each between the two turns with a blue banner attached. When the official was notified of the crash, they’ll pull the blue banner so the drivers can see it
• To aid in scoring, each car will have a disc fixed onto the car about 12 inches behind the driver and about a head high with the following color scheme:
  • Cars 1 thru 9: Black disc with a white number
  • Cars 10 thru 19: White disc with black number
  • Cars 20 thru 29: Red disc, white number
  • Cars 30 thru 46: Yellow disc, red number
• The Speedway employed approximately 1,237 men to work this race:
  • 110 users
  • 530 concession workers
  • 20 telephone operators to be used with the scoring system
  • 35 timers
  • 100 scorers
  • 30 ticket sellers
  • 40 men to “take in the pasteboards”
  • 12 men with deep brass voices to announce through megaphones
  • 10 men in information booths
  • 300 men for security
  • 50 men to sell programs
    • Each program has a photograph and biography about each driver as well as all AAA records and technical descriptions of each car

With one week to the first Indianapolis 500, we’ve got some drama: C.B. Baldwin, who was slated to drive the Interstate Bull Dog is out and Harry Endicott is in. Harry was originally the relief driver for the team and the move surprised everybody but the Indy Star did note that Harry had participated in all of the 1910 Speedway races while C.B. had never raced at the Speedway. Manufacturers were also protesting the fact that Bob Burman – our Speed King – would be driving the Blitzen Benz (which was the car he used to set his speed record) an hour before the race in an attempt to set more records and be crowned “Speed King”. They were protesting because the 500 mile race had been billed as the only feature for the day and because the manufacturers were spending so much time and money on this event, they felt entitled to all of the publicity. The Indy Star reported that the Speedway management would be considering the protests and the final action would be announced later on in the week. The Speedway ended up going ahead with the time trials and crowning. 

F. E. Edwards, a AAA technical committee chairman, had also begun to examine the cars to make sure that they are compliant, however they wouldn’t be deemed compliant until they’re weighed, which was scheduled to happen on Saturday after qualifications.

A problem that the Speedway/the City of Indianapolis found themselves in is that they have so many people from outside of Indianapolis coming in to watch this 500 mile race that they don’t have enough accommodations for everybody in traditional hotels so they had to ask private citizens of Indianapolis to offer up spare rooms for accommodation. An Indianapolis News article from May 23, 1911 reports that people from as far as San Francisco, LA, Portland, OR, Mexico City and Montreal were traveling to Indianapolis for this race. 

Surprisingly (to me, anyways) the timing trials were not covered extensively and no times were recorded. But according to the Indianapolis Star, all but ten cars were able to make the required time (and those ten would have a last chance to try again on Monday before the race started). 

The ten that did not make the needed time were:

• One Mercer
• Two McFarlands
• Two Velies
• Ralph DePalma’s Simplex (which had blown a cylinder the day before and could not be repaired in time)
• A Cole ‘thirty’
• One Amplex 
• The Cutting
• Van Gorder’s Lozier

Spoiler alert: One of the McFarlands, Van Gorder’s Lozier, One Velle and the Cole did not qualify. Two Fals are also listed as failed to qualify but they never even made it to the track. 

Finally, we make it to RACE DAY WOO. 

Before we get to the actual race day, we need to pause and explain the scoring system that the Speedway used to time and score this race because it’ll be important later. 

Charles Leerhsen does a wonderful job explaining the system in his book “Blood and Smoke” – This system was known by a few names – the Warner Electrical Timing Device, Warner Timing System or just ‘the Horograph’. It was meant to be state of the art, cutting edge to allow the officials of motorsport events establish a reliable running order of cars, no matter how many cars were in the field or how long the race was. 

It was not so dissimilar to earlier timing systems so it worked like this: There was a wire a few inches above the ground of the start finish line and another one at the mile mark. When a car would pass over it, the hammer would hit the typewriter ribbon which would press into the paper, recording the time. Each car had a spotter and they would call out their car’s number when he hit the wire and the timer would write down the order the numbers were being shouted. On the other side of the track, the same process would happen and the timer would telephone the head timer at the start finish line to give the order (at approximately the same time the cars were coming back to the start finish line) 

Also in the judges stand are lap counters (one for every entrant) who picked up a marble out of a huge bowl and put it down a numbered tube each time the car they were watching passed the start/finish. There were also runners shuttling information to the men who ran the four scoreboards, technicians stood near the wires in case they broke and then repaired them (or attempted to).

All’s that to say – there was A LOT of room for human error. It didn’t help that Carl Fisher invited ‘distinguished men’ of Indianapolis to be scorers so none of them really had any experience scoring races which is… problematic.

Race day dawns and the crowds are everything the Founders could have ever hoped for. According to the Indianapolis News, the stands were already full by 9 AM. At promptly 10 AM, Carl Fisher in a Stoddard-Dayton led the field of 40 cars to the red flag (because at that time, red flag meant clear course ahead). 

Accounts of this race do tend to vary but we have compiled a rough idea of what happened: 

It is seemingly agreed upon that Johnny Aitken in a National took the lead at the start of the race, leading the first four laps. Spencer Wishart took the lead on lap 5 and held it until lap 9 when he had to pit with a bad tire. Fred Belcher led laps 10-13. On Lap 13 (which was referred to as the hoo-doo lap), Arthur Greiner, driving the hoo-doo car lost his front right tire and his car ended up flipping and his riding mechanic Sam Dickson was killed in the accident but the race kept going. 

This is the point of the race where different versions of events really start to emerge so either David Bruce-Brown, Ralph DePalma or Johnny Aitken were leading at 50 miles (20 laps). 

By mile 60 (lap 24) however, most accounts agree that David Bruce-Brown was leading. Bruce-Brown was the first driver to reach 100 miles (according to the Warner system)

Motor Age reported that from mile 70 to the 180 mile mark, David Bruce-Brown leads. According to Indy News, Bruce-Brown leads at the 80th and 90th miles. Motor Age’s account has Louis Disbrow losing a tire and skidding broadside into Teddy Tetzlaff on the 45th lap (90th mile). 

The Butte Miner’s account of the race places, Bruce-Brown first, Mulford second and Tetzlaff third after 100 miles have been completed. 

The Indy Star reports that during the 125th mile (or the 50th lap), Louis Disbrow and Teddy Tetzlaff crashed when Disbrow skidded and Tetzlaff could not avoid him, while the Chicago Tribune reports that on the 51st lap, it was Teddy Tetzlaff, who blew a tire and Louis Disbrow tried to avoid him and skidded into him. Teddy’s riding mechanic was badly injured. 

The Indy Star reports that on the 128th mile (or part way through the 51st lap), Harry Grant crashes due to a broken crankshaft and at approximately the same time, Basle in a Buick also has a blown crankshaft. However, the Indy News account of the race has Harry Grant withdrawing at the end of 140 miles (lap 56) because of a burnt bearing and Basle’s Buick going out due to a broken crankshaft on the 175th mile (Lap 70).

Butte Miner’s version has Harroun into second place at 150 miles (Lap 60). The Indy Star’s version reports Ray Harroun in the Marmon Wasp, relieved by Cyrus Patscke at lap 63 and ends up in P2 behind Bruce-Brown, with Patscke leading by mile 190 (Lap 76). During lap 81, Eddie Hearne’s car broke a steering knuckle. 

According to Butte Miner, when the race hit 200 miles (80 laps), Harroun was first, Bruce-Brown second, Mulford third. Indy News reported that at the 230th mile (lap 92), Eddie Hearne’s Fiat ran into the outer ditch. 

The Chicago Tribune’s version of the race is that on the 89th lap (mile 222) Joe Jagersberger broke a steering rod 50 yards from the judges stand. The riding mechanic then fell out of the car. As he was getting up, 3 cars came toward him. Harry Cobe and Jack Tower were able to avoid him but Harry Knight tried to dodge him and stop. Knight started to skid toward the crowded pits and hit Herb Lytle’s empty car. But in Motor Age’s version, all of that happened on the 95th lap (mile 237). While the Indy Star’s version put this wreck at mile 240 (or lap 96). It’s important to note that whenever this wreck happened, the judges stand cleared out and effectively, nobody was scoring the race from that stand. 

Butte Miner’s version of the race put Louis Disbrow’s blown tire and subsequent collision with Teddy Tetzlaff’s car at the halfway mark (250 miles, 100 laps). Disbrow’s rear wheels were torn off and Tetzlaff’s car was turned turtle which injured the riding mechanic.

Motor Age had the running order at half distance as Harroun, Mulford, Bruce-Brown, Wishart and Dawson. Indy Star’s version of the race places Harroun at the lead, Mulford to 2nd, DePalma to 3rd, Bruce-Brown 4th at the 300 mile mile mark but Butte Miner has the running order at this point as Harroun was leading, Mulford second and Bruce-Brown 3rd.

Motor Age has Johnny Aitken’s day ending with a broken connecting rod on the 123rd lap (~Mile 308), but the Indy Star doesn’t have Johnny Aitken’s day ending until the 330th mile or Lap 132, which was shortly after Lewis Strang’s day ends, both due to mechanical issues

It seems that all accounts agree that Ray Harroun was still leading but his final stop erased his margin but that was gained back when Mulford and Bruce-Brown had to pit.

Ray Harroun held on to finish the race in the lead, while Ralph Mulford finished second while David Bruce-Brown finished third. Joe Dawson DNF’d at last second so Spencer Wishart finished 4th, DePalma finished 5th. 

But there was controversy – did Ray Harroun actually win this race?

The thing that I think is the funniest about the controversy is that there is controversy about the controversy because there are people who are of the opinion that the controversy didn’t even happen in the first place! Charles Leerhsen acknowledged the “protest deniers” in “Blood and Smoke” saying that, “In the small world of people who still discuss and debate the first Indianapolis 500, there is a subset of buffs that maintains there was no rising up of voices in the wake of all the timing and scoring problems, or at least no significant one, because no mention of a protest occurs in the Indianapolis Star, then and now the city’s leading newspaper.”

Charles Leerhsen goes on to point out that there were news sources at the time that did mention the protest, for example, the “harder-to-find Indianapolis Sun” as well as the Washington Post. It actually wasn’t just who finished first that was in question – David Bruce-Brown’s team contended that he had actually finished second, ahead of Ralph Mulford. The New York Tribunes ran an article that read, “Question as to Ralph Mulford and the Lozier car’s title to the second honor in the 500-mile race at the  motor speedway yesterday occupied an official committee today and tonight. David Bruce-Brown, who was announced as finishing third, protested that he should have second place… Confusion as to the number of laps run by several of the cars was the main source of contention. The management of the Lozier team asserted that the scoreboard showed Mulford ahead of Harroun. Mulford was signaled to slacken speed and save the car for the finish.”

According to Joe Freeman and Gordon Kirby in “Second to One: All but For Indy”, Fred Wagner agreed with Lozier but Carl Fisher overruled him.

And while Ralph Mulford may have been a gracious loser publicly, in Blood and Smoke, Ralph Mulford’s grandchild confirmed that Ralph Mulford felt for the rest of his life that he won the race. Ralph himself said that Ray Harroun was a fine gentleman, champion driver, a great development engineer, and that he wouldn’t want him or IMS to suffer any embarrassment – they didn’t call Ralph Mulford ‘The Parson’ for no reason. 

The claim for Mulford was when Jagersberger’s car crashed near the judges stand, it made the judges clear out and Mulford had an extra lap that was unnoticed at this point. Personally, it’s hard for me to ignore the fact that Howard Marmon was a close personal friend and business partner of Carl Fisher, that Marmon was an Indianapolis based company so it looked very good for Harroun to win (especially because Carl Fisher had already bent the rules a bit when Howard asked him to assign his cars 32 and 33 and when people protested that Harroun had no riding mechanic he told them all to get lost so I mean – it’s not out of the realm of possibility).

So what did the Speedway do?

The officials were all called into a room (along with the Speedway publicist) and had all of the scoring sheets and dictaphone brought to them. They would not emerge until they were sure of the final finishing order. They worked until 3 am when A.R. Pardington, the referee (or the head official), informed the press that they would finish setting the order the next day BUT he said no matter what happened, Ray Harroun would remain in first place.  

There is absolutely no way to evaluate these claims now because Carl Fisher ordered all of the timing strips and notes be destroyed (and while there is some video footage of the race, the full race is not recorded).

What do I think?

Well, I think that it’s impossible to know either way for sure. The judges stand was cleared out for an unknown amount of time – different sources say 45 minutes, others say an hour. And it was just straight chaos – I think that’s pretty established by the inconsistencies in the newspaper reports. 

So maybe Ralph Mulford did get an extra lap in, unnoticed by the chaos. 

Maybe he didn’t. 

I honestly don’t think the scoring controversy should be treated as something stupid and like, not worth talking about. Races now with all of the technology we have, still have scoring issues so I don’t think it’s beyond possibility to think that maybe it happened here. And I don’t think suggesting otherwise is somehow devaluing the Indianapolis 500 or it’s legacy by saying the scoring of the first Indy 500 was a bit of a shit show. 

I also absolutely do not agree with the assessment that it didn’t happen because the IndyStar didn’t cover it – I think that is a silly argument. I also think that it’s hard to ignore that Carl Fisher had a lot of motivation to make sure Marmon and Ray Harroun won. 

So yeah, I think this is one of those history things where we’ll never actually know. And I think that’s okay! 

The final top 10 finishing order for the first Indy 500 was as follows (officially, according to the speedway):

1. Ray Harroun in a Marmon Wasp
2. Ralph Mulford, Lozier
3. David Bruce-Brown, Fiat
4. Spencer Wishart, Mercedes
5. Joe Dawson, Marmon (officials determined that he actually completed the race before breaking down, giving him back his finish and his prize money)
6. Ralph DePalma, Simplex
7. Charlie Merz, National
8. W.H. Turner, Amplex
9. Fred Belcher, Knox
10. Harry Cobe, Jackson

To be honest, I don’t really have time this week to post a wide array of photos like I would normally so here is the photo gallery that I would have gotten them from. The Detroit Public Library also has some photos which you can find here.

As always, if you have questions/comments/concerns, please send me an email. I truly never not want to talk about this stuff ha! Find me on X here!

Until next time! <3