IMS - Work In Progress

Many times I think of the digitized attachments on First Super Speedway, especially images, as artifacts. This may be the archetypal example of all the content on this site. Originally published as a photograph in the July 29, 1909 Indianapolis News, it supported an article you can find elsewhere on First Super Speedway. The reason I find it so interesting is because, as you can see, it raises some questions. The image was presented as a way to show that much progress was being made on construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the facility emerged from farmland. I'm not sure it is effective in meeting the goal. 
 
Understand that a majority of people in central Indiana had not visited the track so most Hoosiers reading the paper that day were probably unsure of what they were looking at. Some may see in what we see here what appears to be a track witht the curves of a paperclip doubling back on itself. If you are reading this, you are almost certainly aware of the layout of the Speedway and therefore know that it does not cross itself like a figure eight.
 
If you read the original photo caption that appears below in italics, you discover this is not one image, but two. I am guessing the left side is a point of view from the exit of turn two, while the one on the right was taken at the edge of the track near the entrance of turn one. I don't really know, but I am certain it is something like the perspective I describe. Essentially, it looks like the south end of the track but with the short chute effectively cropped out.
 
Note that in the image you can just barely make out a mule team hauling a cart in the distance. Again the caption provides some insight, calling it a "road roller." Other black specs are almost certainly laborers hard at work laying tar or smoothing the surface of crush stone. At the perimeter of the track we see what appears to be the banking of the turn. There was great interest in the progress of construction as the first motorized competition at the Speedway were just about two weeks away in the form of motorcycle races with the inaugural auto race meet slated for a week later.
 
The caption originally associated with the photo read as follows:
 
"Work on the big motor speedway is rapidly nearling completion. It will be entirely finished early in August. The two views show two of the closing stages of the work. The road roller in the distance rolling the first coat of broken stone. This two-and-one-half-mile outside track is now practically covered with rough first coating of stone and the work of spreading the final coast is going ahead rapidly. The men in the other picture are engaged in spreading the coat of taroid just previous to putting on the final coat of finely ground dustless stone. The dark surface is taroid. This track will be used the first time at the meet of the National Federation of American Motorcyclists. The convention is to be held August 10-14. The two days of racing will be on August 13 and 14."