The Need For Speed

On this day in 1909, the first car race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the Indy 500. In that first five-mile race on August 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. The track’s surface of crushed rock and tar proved a disaster, breaking up in a number of places and causing the deaths of two drivers, two mechanics and two spectators.


High Octane x 3

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.