On This Day: August 19, 1909 - Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ho...
On This Day: August 19, 1909 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hosts Its First Auto Race
On This Day: August 19, 1909 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hosts Its First Auto Race
On August 19, 1909, the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) staged its inaugural auto race—a historic milestone that marked the dawn of motor racing in Indiana and set the stage for a century-plus of motorsport legacy.
Built just five miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis on 328 acres of farmland, IMS had been conceived as both a testing ground and racing venue for the burgeoning automobile industry.
Local businessmen Carl G. Fisher, James A. Allison, Arthur C. Newby, and Frank H. Wheeler formed the founding group behind the Speedway.
Learn more about them in the video below.
The original track measured 2.5 miles in a near‑rectangular oval, featuring four identical turns linked by two long and two short straightaways.
On that first day, roughly 12,000 spectators gathered to watch Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win the very first 5‑mile, two‑lap race, posting an average speed of about 57.4 miles per hour.
To improve safety the Speedway’s owners replaced the unstable surface with 3.2 million paving bricks laid in mortar, giving rise to its enduring nickname: “The Brickyard.”
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Today, a single yard (3 feet) of the original bricks remain exposed at the start-finish line as a nod to that transformative moment.
Within just two years, IMS would host its iconic flagship event: the inaugural Indianapolis 500 on May 30, 1911.
Ray Harroun emerged victorious in that first 500‑mile race, averaging 74.59 mph and completing the marathon in 6 hours and 42 minutes.
Since then, the Indy 500 has been held every year—with breaks only during World Wars I (1917–1918) and II (1942–1945)—becoming a hallmark of American motorsport and regularly drawing average crowds of around 300,000, making it one of the best-attended sporting events in the U.S.
On This Day: August 19, 1909 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hosts Its First Auto Race was originally published on 1075thefan.com
