24May
05/24/2013
Mark Dill

May 24 - Tension mounts at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the Indianapolis 500 is less than a week away and some cars are just arriving. Albert Guyot, driver of the British Sunbeam, is finally practicing on the Brickyard but the Italian Isottas are somewhere on the Atlantic ocean aboard the ocean liner Lusitania - the same ship that would figure prominently in WWI when it was sunk by a German U-Boat.

May.24.2013
1800
23May
05/23/2013
Mark Dill

May 23, 1913 - The local newspapers reported that cold temperatures the previous day put a chill on practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Nevertheless a number of drivers hit the track including Stutz man Don Herr who drove relief on the Indianapolis 500 winning car the previous year. Ralph Mulford's gleaming white Mercedes got attention not for his brief four-lap practice session but because he was driving the car Ralph DePalma nearly won the race with the previous year.

May.23.2013
1799
22May
05/22/2013
Mark Dill

May 22, 1913 - Race fans, Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials and most of all the drivers of the Italian Isotta cars nervously await the cars' arrival. The local newspapers ran photos and an interesting editorial cartoon for their readers.

May.22.2013
1798
21May
05/21/2013
Mark Dill

May 21, 1915 - The Indianapolis Motor Speedway's announced limit on the number of starters - 30 - for the Indianapolis 500 would obviously not be tested. An entry list of 29 was reduced by one when Fred Adams' Smada racer was withdrawn. There simply was not enough time for the team to get their act together.

May.21.2013
1795
20May
05/20/2013
Mark Dill

May.20.2013
1788
20May
05/20/2013
Mark Dill

May.20.2013
1789
19May
05/19/2013
Mark Dill

May 19, 1913 - Local newspapers reported a great practice crowd of 10,000 fans showing up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the previous day. One of the attractions was a car named after a 19th Century race horse - the Jay-Eye-See - in the hands of Case team leader Louis Disbrow. The car wasn't even eligible for the upcoming Indianapolis 500 and was built for land speed records.

May.19.2013
1787
18May
05/18/2013
Mark Dill

May 18, 1913 - Peugeot driver Jules Goux continued to grab the attention of railbirds and the press at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Clocked at speeds of over 115 MPH down the front stretch his amazing French car was clearly the class of the field.

May.18.2013
1786
17May
05/17/2013
Mark Dill

May 17, 1913 - Led by the Peugeot team drivers Jules Goux and Paul Zuccarelli an all-star cast of the top racing drivers of the day blasted around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway "Raising Ned" - slang in the day for taking great risk. The newspapers marveled at the sizzling speed in excess of 90 MPH lap averages.

May.17.2013
1784
17May
05/17/2013
Mark Dill

One the great and most colorful stories about Jules Goux winning the Indianapolis 500 people always like to share as soon as they hear it is that he drank wine during his pit stops. The article in attachment StarWine051331 sheds some light on a subject that inevitably gets embellished with each telling of the story.

May.17.2013
1785