May 30

1911

Ray Harroun drove his single-seater Marmon Wasp to victory in the inaugural Indianapolis 500, now one of the world’s most famous motor racing competitions. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built on 328 acres of farmland northwest of downtown Indianapolis after being proposed by auto dealer Carl Fisher. The idea was that occasional races at the track would pit cars from different manufacturers against each other in order to showcase their full power and entice spectators to check out the new models themselves. In 1911, Fisher and his partners decided to focus on one long grueling 500-mile race per year in order to attract more publicity. Harroun took home the $14,250 purse, clocking an average speed of 74.59 mph and a total time of 6 hours and 42 minutes.
He was also smart enough to use a one pound aerodynamic rear view mirror instead of carrying a 150 pound human to spot overtaking cars........of which there never were any in his case.