Aftermath of 1909 Indy races

With five deaths on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the three days of racing from August 19 to August 21, 1909, there were calls for a ban on auto racing. Several newspapers ran editorials denouncing the sport, and even the lieutenant governor of Indiana joined in the chorus. The August 28, 1909 Indianapolis Star carried the following brief article:

RUSHVILLE, Ind., Aug. 25—Lieutenant Governor Frank J. Hall is strongly opposed to automobile racing in Indiana and believes the Governor would be justified in calling a special session of the Legislature to pass a law prohibiting this sport.

"They talk of bull fights in Mexico," said Mr. Hall, "but did you ever hear of several people being killed in a bull fight? And yet, right here in Indiana, great crowds go out to witness an event in which it may be expected that human life may be sacrificed."

The very next day the Star published an article headlined "PROMINENT CITIZENS PRAISE BIG MOTOR SPEEDWAY RECENTLY DEDICATED." Twenty-seven men, beginning with Indianapolis mayor Bookwalter, endorsed the Speedway by way of a long-distance call from his summer home on Lake Maxinkuckee. Bookwalter praised track owners Carl Fisher, Frank Wheeler, Arthur Newby, and James Allison. He went on to extol the Speedway’s contribution to the local economy:

I watched Indianapolis very closely during the race meet, and eliminating the unfortunate accidents, and looking at the question from a dollar and cents view, the speed contests brought more into the city than does the State Fair, because it has been my observation that the man with an automobile is of all men, most generous, when it comes to spending money.

Most of the statements were from business leaders—people who had an economic interest in continued operation of the Speedway. But from the Speedway owners’ standpoint, the most important statement came from Mark Thistlethwaite, secretary to Governor Thomas Marshall:

A city could have no better advertisement than the new Speedway. We have been advertised from ocean to ocean. The fatalities are to be deplored, but I do not think that this will mean unfavorable advertising to us, because it is not a fault peculiar to Indianapolis or to Indianapolis Speedway. Wherever there are races there are accidents…

Thistlethwaite’s statement was a clear rebuke to the lieutenant governor. There would be no special session of the legislature to outlaw auto racing.

No one mentioned that the track’s dirt, gravel, and oil surface might be responsible for the two fatal accidents. Both took place during long-distance races after the 100-mile mark, when the surface had broken up. At the end of the first day’s races, after driver Wilfred Bourque and riding mechanic Harry Holcomb died when their Knox racer broke an axle, the American Automobile Association considered canceling the next two days’ races, but Speedway president Carl Fisher promised to repair the track overnight. He did so, but by the last race of the last day, the track was again in terrible condition. In fact, racer Johnny Aitken, who was forced out of the race due to engine trouble just past the 100-mile mark, predicted that someone would get killed because the track was breaking up. Very shortly afterwards, Charlie Merz’s National blew a tire and went hurtling through a fence, killing his (actually Aitken’s—see pervious story) riding mechanic and two spectators.

If Speedway management did not have to answer for the condition of the track, Carl Fisher acknowledged the problem, declaring that all future races would be canceled until the surface could be upgraded and safety features installed. By early September different types of bricks were tested. On September 16 the rebuilding began. And the Speedway would acquire a new nickname: The Brickyard.

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Note: When I began this series I expected to write a brief article on the 1909 races. I saw an article in the August 21, 1909 Elkhart Truth and realized I had the opportunity to write about something that happened in Indianapolis a century ago. But after checking out D. Bruce Scott’s excellent book, Indy: Racing before the 500 (Batesville, IN: Indiana Reflections LLC, 2005) and discovering an online collection of newspaper coverage of the events, I became more and more fascinated with the subject and with the people who made it happen. One brief article wouldn’t do.

There was Charlie Merz, the Indianapolis native who won the ten-mile race on the second day and had the misfortune of blowing a tire on the third. There Berna Eli "Barney" Oldfield, a consummate showman but a skilled driver. And there was the Buick team: Lewis Chevrolet, whose name would shortly become a household word, "Wild Bob" Burman, who took journalist "Betty Blythe" on the ride of her life, and Lewis Putnam Strang, the handsome, skillful driver who married the beautiful dancer Louise Alexander. While Strang won the 100-mile race on the second day, he had bad luck both with racing and with love during the next two years of his all-too-short life.

The next article will deal with artist, poet, and all-around cad Ferdinand Pinney Earle, and his brief, apparently platonic relationship with Indianapolis socialist Gertude Dunn.

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