The 100th Indianapolis 500 is still nine months away, but today is the 106th anniversary of the first automobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. IMS had already held a balloon race and a race for motorcycles, but on Aug. 19, 1909, cars took to the 2.5-mile oval for the first time. An estimated 12,000 spectators were on hand as Louis Schwitzer, chief engineer of Stoddard-Dayton, won the race at an average of 57mph in his over a five-lap sprint race. The tar and crushed rock surface broke up badly during the race, so IMS set about replacing it with bricks, and the sprint-race format in favor of a longer endurance event, for the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911. Improvements in the...
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