100 Greatest Moments in Indianapolis 500 History - #97

 #97 – Jules Goux Pops Champagne on the Way to Victory

Something that has always made the Indianapolis 500 so special is that uniquely American. From the racing itself, to the patriotism shown before the race all the way to the end with traditions that only Americans could think of. But something that also makes it special is the international flare it always has. But in the first two runnings of the Indianapolis 500, of the 64 total entries, only six were non-Americans. For the 1913 event, they matched that number with six European-born drivers coming over the race. Jack Tower set the fastest speed in qualifying, but the field was set by a blind draw giving Caleb Bragg the pole position and forcing Tower to start from twenty-fifth in what was expected to be a wide-open race. While trying to weave through traffic and get the front, Tower lost control of his car just past lap fifty and the car flipped over resulting in a broken leg for Tower and broken ribs for his mechanic Lee Dunning. Shortly thereafter, early leader Bob Burman’s car burst into flames and put him out of contention. French driver Jules Goux grabbed the lead and did battle with Bob Evans for most of the middle part of the race. Now, when you think of drinks at the Indy 500, milk is clearly what everyone thinks of. But that’s a tradition that didn’t start for a couple more decades. What about champagne? That may not be what you think of, but that’s what Goux thought of as something to boost his performance. As the drivers came down pit road for scheduled pit stops, Goux would drink bottles, yes, bottles, of champagne. Now, for the number of bottles that he drank, we’re a bit unsure of. Some people that tell the story say that it was as many as six. Clearly, whether it was the champagne or something else, something worked really well, because after Bob Evans’ car failed, Goux was gone. He took an enormous lead that he would not give up and went on to win the race by more than thirteen minutes as he became the first non-American winner of the Indianapolis 500. So that’s the story of the winner of the 1913 Indianapolis, but that doesn’t fully complete the story of this race. Why? Well, back in those wonderful days, only the top-ten finishers received prize money. Oh, and by the way, the race wasn’t over when the winner took the checkered flag. The rest of the top-ten finishers had to complete the 500-miles no matter how many laps/miles they were behind. And because of that, it led to a wild ending in a tight battle for second between Charlie Merz and Spencer Wishart. As the two started their final lap, Merz’s car caught on fire. But do you think that would stop bad ass Charlie Merz from getting his money? Heck no! Merz kept driving the flaming car around the track on the final lap. And that’s not all! Merz’s riding mechanic, Harry Martin, decided he would exit his seat in the car and crawl onto the hood of this MOVING car and attempt to beat out the flames. The crowd, as you would imagine, were amazed at what they were seeing before their eyes. Merz coasted home to finish third and receive the $5,165 prize money. And all I have to say about this race is this: the winner of this race drank champagne throughout the whole thing, a driver completed the last lap on fire while his riding mechanic crawled to the hood of the moving car to preserve the prize money… let’s just say, it was a different time.

100 Greatest Moments in Indianapolis 500 History - #98

So yesterday we talked about the second Indianapolis 500, a race that will forever be remembered more for the heartbreak of Ralph DePalma more than it will for the triumph for Joe Dawson. God bless Ralph DePalma, because after that enormous heart shattering loss, he kept coming back to Indy trying to win the race that we so close to in 1912. Thankfully for him, 1915 was much nicer to him. Here is Indianapolis 500 Greatest Moment number 98. 

#98 – DePalma’s Redemption Victory

The fifth running of the International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race was initially schedule for Saturday, May 29, 1915, but rain washed out the race and the organizers of the event didn’t want to run the race on a Sunday. So, everyone came back on Monday and the race was on with Indiana-native Howdy Wilcox leading the field to the start. Wilcox led five laps early in the race, but Ralph DePalma, the hard-luck loser in 1912 that we ready about yesterday, asserted himself as the dominant driver of the race and stormed to the lead. Unlike the race three years prior, however, DePalma couldn’t pull away from the competition and was held close by Dario Resta, polesitter Howdy Wilcox and 1912 polesitter Gil Andersen. As the race came down to its final laps, Wilcox and Andersen faded making it a two-horse race between DePalma and Resta. The two drivers combined to lead 169 of the 200 laps. It was setting up to be a shootout to the very end, but that possibility went out the window when Resta’s car broke loose and badly skidded his tires in the late laps and was forced to pit in fear of a puncture. This gave DePalma and insurmountable lead, but as we know, he had that three years earlier in 1912 and a mechanical failure cost him the race. But 1915 was a different year for DePalma, or was it? DePalma’s car suddenly dropped on power and he completed the final laps running on just three cylinders, but the racing gods smiled upon the Italian/American driver and he was able to coast to the checkered flag and to victory in the fifth Indianapolis 500. Being that this race was 106-years ago, none of us know this for sure, but I would imagine that the fans that were there, about 60,000 were in attendance, celebrated this win, and some fellow drivers probably did as well. What a redemption story it is! To be that dominant and that close to victory in 1912 only to have it snatched away from you in the final laps, and then to keep coming back and trying again and then getting that long-awaited victory three years later, that’s an amazing story. Good for Ralph DePalma!

100 Greatest Moments in Indianapolis 500 History - #99

We are 99 days away from dropping the hammer at the world's greatest racecourse for the 105th Indianapolis 500 and in case you couldn't tell, I can hardly wait. We're continuing our countdown of the one hundred greatest moments in the history of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Here comes moment number ninety-nine.

#99 – Joe Dawson Becomes First Hoosier Winner

Our 99^th greatest Indianapolis 500 moment takes us back to Thursday, May 30^th, 1912 when the second 500-Mile Race at Indianapolis was run. A year after Ray Harroun’s heroics of riding with just a rear-view mirror rather than sharing the car with a mechanic, those riding mechanics were made mandatory. Time trials were held prior to the race, but only to see which cars were able to make one lap faster than 75-miles-an-hour. As was the year before, the starting grid was set by the date of entry. That put Norwegian Gil Andersen on pole position. The red flag was waved (yes, they once used a red flag to signal the start of the race) and the second 500-mile classic at Indianapolis was underway. Polesitter Andersen was overtaken on the first lap by Fiat driver Teddy Tetzlaff, but Tetzlaff’s lead didn’t last long as the Mercedes driven by Ralph DePalma soared by to grab the lead, a lead which he wouldn’t soon relinquish. Now, in 2018, many people took to Twitter to voice their displeasures with the race. Many thought that race was not competitive. Lord only knows what Twitter would’ve looked like 106-years prior when DePalma stretched out a lead of over five laps, or about ten minutes. DePalma’s lead was never challenged and was on his way to one of the most dominant victories ever, past, or present. And then, disaster. Complete and total disaster. At the beginning of the 197^th lap, DePalma’s Mercedes started to sputter and slow due to a broken connecting rod. The car eventually came to a stop on the backstretch with two laps to go. With the lead dwindling, but still intact, DePalma, along with riding mechanic Rupert Jenkins, dashed from their car and started pushing the machine. Their extraordinary efforts went for not as Joe Dawson sped by to take the lead and led the last two laps on his way to victory. Meanwhile, DePalma and Jenkins pushed the car all the way back to the finish line to complete the 199^th lap, but it didn’t count as scoring required the car to complete laps under its own power. DePalma was officially scored with an eleventh-place finish. For Dawson, it was the stunning victory after running a distant second for most of the race. Dawson, from Odon, became the first Indiana-native to win at Indianapolis with a performance that stayed in the record books for nearly a century by leading just two laps on his way to victory, a record that wouldn’t be topped until 2011. DePalma’s heartbreak was real, but he kept his cool after the race by saying “No race is won until the tape is crossed and I realized that all the time. It's hard luck, but it's all in the game. I did my best, and since I've lost out, I'm for the man who picked the prize”. There was another intriguing and rather fantastic story that came from this race surrounding a driver by the name of Ralph Mulford teasing officials and grabbing a fried chicken dinner and ice cream for dessert while finishing the race, but if you’d like to read up on that story, you’ll have to Google it for yourself. DePalma on the other hand, is mentioned one more time on this countdown. Stay tuned in to find out where.

100 Greatest Moments in Indianapolis 500 History - #100

Hello one and all, in case you haven’t heard, we are just one hundred days away from the 105^th Indianapolis 500. And of course, if you know me any at all, you know that the Indianapolis 500 is the most important day on the calendar for me each and every year. The only day that even comes close for me is March 12^th, my inspirational mother’s birthday. So, in celebration of this date, we’re going to start doing a daily countdown over the next hundred days until we reach the 105^th edition of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, and with it, we are going to relive the 100 greatest moments in Indy 500 history. With that being said, let’s start the countdown with the 100^th greatest moment in Indianapolis 500 history!

 

#100 – Peter DePaolo Goes 100mph

This works out really well in the game of numbers. Our number 100 moment is the first driver to average 100 miles an hour in Indy history. It was the 13^th running of the International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race, what we now know as the Indianapolis 500, on May 30^th, 1925. This year’s 500 will be on the 96^th anniversary of this moment. Peter DePaolo had good speed on the entire leadup to the race. His four-lap qualifying run at 113.083 miles an hour put him second on the grid alongside pole winner Leon Duray who set the then four-lap track record. However, it was DePaolo who set the new one-lap track record when he timed in at 114.285 miles an hour during his time trial run. Once the race started, DePaulo’s car stalled on the start line dropping back into the running order before gaining the lead thanks to his hard charging style and fast pace setting Duesenberg. However, on lap 105, DePaolo came down pit road and car owner Fred Duesenberg pulled his driver out of the car and get his hands bandaged due to severe blisters. Norman Batten took control of the car and ran the next 21-laps. DePaulo got back in the car on lap 128 running in fifth position and began to set a blistering pace (see what I did there?) to reclaim the lead for good. He overcame fast closing Dave Lewis and DePaulo took the checkered flag and win the race by 53-seconds, and with that, the 27-year-old from Roseland, New Jersey would live forever in racing history. With his performance, he was the first to complete the race in under five hours, four hours and fifty-six minutes to be exact, putting his average speed at 101.127 miles an hour. DePaulo led 115 of the race’s 200 laps, and his accomplishment, which may seem inconsequential today thanks to 220+ miles per hour speeds, was significant for it’s day. DePaulo had Indy running through his veins. His uncle was 1919 winner Ralph DePalma, and Pete would constantly return to the track even after retirement. In fact, in 1971, he became the first former driver to sing “Back Home Again in Indiana” prior the race. The 1925 race would be his lone win in seven starts at Indianapolis, and one of the great achievements in Indianapolis 500 history.