Brother United Interlude
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There are only three sports, bull fighting, motor racing, and mountain climbing; everything else is just a game. While historians may argue whether this famous quote must be attributed to author, Earnest Hemingway or his contemporary, Barnaby Conrad, it is difficult to ignore the truth in it is message. The truth is that challengers who gamble their lives to compete is worthy of a good deal of extra measure of respect. It is fitting that we know this very necessary distinction in honor of those who ante up. For more than 100 years drivers from around the world have come to Indianapolis to test themselves and their machines. There is no place on world that gives more in triumph and takes more in disaster than the two and a half mile oval at Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway turns dreams into legends. None of that, however, would be possible without the truehearted and fanatical aid of the viewers who come each year to witness the greatest spectacle in racing. The Indianapolis 500 mile race is the greatest one day sporting event in the world. Attendance, which has never been officially published, is presently approximated at almost 400,000 thrill-seeking spectators. There are no contenders for this throne. The Indy 500 is the unquestioned king of motor sport races. Fittingly, it is history is evenly astonishing. THE FOUNDING FATHERS When neared by an inventor of an acetylene lamp for use on automobiles, Carl Fisher seized the prospect to start out formulating head lights for the automati industry and through a series of plants around the country supplied the headlights for most each automobile and truck made in America. Carl Fisher’s dealership sold, Oldsmobile, Packard, Stutz, and the Stoddard-Dayton automobiles. On a trip to Europe in 1909 or shortly prior thereto, Carl encountered the European automobile manufacturers were building superior automobiles. He took a special interest in a big automobile test track he visited in Surrey England and came back home with plans to build one himself. Carl was well on his way to getting a wealthy man by this time. He had various successful ventures including a company which fictitious the Prest-o-Lite lamps installed on almost each truck and car built in the United States. He forged friendships with other local enterprisers and recruited three of them to be his collaborators in this new venture. James Allison, Arthur Newby, and Frank Wheeler signed on, invested their cash with Carl and soon formed the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Company. They purchased a 240 acre farm a few miles northwest of Indianapolis and later expanded it to include the 530 acre property it is today. James Allison, the inventor of the Allison Perfection Fountain Pen, met Carl Fisher through their mutual interest in the bicycle craze. Together they formed the ZigZag bicycle club. Later they joined as collaborators in the Prest-o-Lite venture. James Allison then formed the Indianapolis Speedway Team Company, which evolved into the Allison Engine Company that is now the Allison Transmission Company of General Motors. Rolls Royce acquired the engine building section of Allisons in 1995. Arthur Newby was the president of National Motor Vehicle Company, located in Indianapolis. His company started out it is venture by formulating electric automobiles. Though the Company faltered in 1924, it managed to formulate the winning entry for the 1912 Indianapolis Motor Speedway, before closing it is doors forever. Frank Wheeler, the fourth founding fellow member of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was a collaborator in the Wheeler-Schebler Carburetor Company, which fictitious carburetors for automobile manufactures allround the United States. Frank Wheeler and his collaborator George Schebler commissioned the Wheeler-Schebler Trophy, which was the initial trophy staged to winners of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, and the predecessor of the Borg Warner Trophy. The farm they purchased, known by the locals as the Pressley Farm, sat near the corner of Crawfordsville Pike (now known as 16th St.) and Georgetown Rd, five miles west of downtown Indianapolis. However, another farmer named Levi Munter owned 80 acres, which sat directly on the corner of what is now 16th and Georgetown Road. The Fisher collaborators purchased an option on the 80 acres in December 1908 and exercised the option sometime shortly after filing their articles of incorporation for the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway Company on March 20, 1909. In the spring of 1909, the land around the speedway was for the most part pasture land, but a few factories, located just south of the internetlocation of the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway, had been in operation for assorted years prior. Those factories included the Prest-o-Lite company built and operated by Carl Fisher. James Allison’s machine shop was likewise located just south of the website of the new speedway. The Allison machine shop that later became the Allison transmission and engine company is still in operation at or near the same emplacement today. The town of Speedway was founded in 1926 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway now sits wholly within the city limits of Speedway, Indiana. Automobile racing was not general at that time. Building a race course for the sake of keeping automobile races, was not Carl Fisher’s plan. His plan was to build a testing ground for American automobile manufacturers to test their machines and make them quicker and more reliable. The races he organized in 1909 were percentage of his plan to promote the track and give hope or courage to automobile makers to take up the challenge. Better cars meant happy buyers which in turn brought in regards to enthusiastic sales. Carl Fisher and his collaborators were perchance better capable to gain from the anticipated boom of automobile sales than any other humans in the world. With the firstborn automobile dealership and a formulating plant that made running lights for nearly each automobile made in the United States at that time, Carl Fisher was poised to make an enormous fortune. Since 1911 when the firstborn Indianapolis 500 mile race was run, numerous stories turned to legend and helped insure that the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be recorded for posterity. Flamboyant drivers, owners and mechanics came to Indianapolis to compete for the prize of fortune and fame. Some have faded into the pages of history in spite of risking their life, fortunes and reputations and are these days not one thing more than a footnote in history. Others, however, made their mark though success or disaster and are memorialized on the pages of historical books, photographs and film. There is perhaps no race driver in history who did more to capture the attention and wonderment of the world, than Barney Oldfield. Born Berna Eli Oldfield, in 1878 near Waseon, Ohio, Barney started his racing career by competing in bicycle races throughout the country. He transitioned to automobile racing by joining a friend and fellow racer Tom Cooper in a racing venture, which sprang from a short interlude with future automobile titan, Henry Ford. Ford, who’s two prototype cars were difficult to start, sold both of his cars to Cooper for $800.00. Cooper put Oldfield behind the wheel and entered the car in the 1902 Manufacturer’s Challenge Cup. When Oldfield beat Alexander Winton, the defending champ and odds on favored by more than a half mile in a car built by Henry Ford, both men were catapulted into automobile history. Oldfield became synonymous with speed and Ford got the financial backing he necessitated to get started his automobile developing company. Barney Oldfield was the firstborn man to break the 60 mile per hour barrier in a mile run at the Indianapolis State Fair Grounds a few years later. He raced in the Indianapolis 500 in 1914 and 1916, finishing 5th in both races. He never won the Indy 500, but he became a close friend and business associate of Carl Fisher. For a great deal of years, motorcycle cops around the country, were fond of asking “who in the hell do you think you are, Barney Oldfield?”, when stopping motorists for exceeding the speed limit. Oldfield, with his trademark cigar and thick black mustache, was one of the most celebrated drivers in the early years at the Indianapolis 500. His barnstorming sudden intense sensation shows and record setting speed exploits also helped give international prominence to the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. |
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