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.