Eddie Rickenbacker Paves the Speedway

By Sigur Whitaker
The opening weekend of racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was disastrous with five dying. It was enough to cause race officials to stop the 300-mile feature race at 235 miles. The future of the Speedway hung in the balance and the owners decided to pave the crushed stone and oil track with brick. The next year racing returned and while there was an occasional death, it was accepted as part of the risk in the sport.
 
The track was built when a race car was incapable of averaging more than 90 miles per hour.  The original corners, designed in 1909, had the first fifty feet with an angle of 16 degrees and 40 minutes. The last 10 feet were canted sharply upward to 36 degrees and 40 minutes. This had the potential impact of launching a car over the low retaining wall.
 
While the 1928 race was won by Louis Meyer with an average speed of 99.482 mph, Leon Duray set a one-lap record of 124.018 mph and a four-lap record of 122.391 mph during qualifying, a record that would stand until 1937. By 1930, speeds had increased and so had the serious crashes.  In 1931, three men (a driver, a riding mechanic, and a bystander) were killed. A riding mechanic and a driver died in 1932. The next year, five died including three during the race. In 1934, a driver and his riding mechanic died. Responding to the crashes, the Speedway was the first track in the world to have green and yellow warning lights installed. They also required the drivers to wear crash helmets, something that wasn’t mandated until 1952 in Europe.
 
When four died in 1935, Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Eddie Rickenbacker knew something more needed to be done to decrease the carnage. The solution was a revamping of the corners of the track. On July 25, 1935, Rickenbacker announced the upcoming changes in the Indianapolis News. “Anticipating future speeds which will come with the increased efficiency of motors, we have decided to completely remodel the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and keep ahead of racing progress.” He continued, “Contrary to statements made by inexperienced commentators, the track has not outgrown itself because its founders, who constructed it in 1910, were possessed with a foresight which made it capable of sustaining the speeds of today. It is our hope, therefore, to exercise the same foresight as these pioneers who developed this great laboratory of the automotive industry and provide a testing ground of speed and stamina which will support the developments of the future.”
 
With a cost estimated at $100,000, the work began later the next week with steam shoves dismantling the corners. The revamped corners had the entire surface angled at 16 degrees, 40 minutes lowering the last ten feet of the corner. The inside of the corners was expanded and was hard surfaced. A new wall was constructed inside of the old wall. The new wall was about six feet high at its highest section while the old wall was 30 inches high at its highest point. The combination of the two walls made for a thickness of eighteen inches. The new retaining wall was designed to send the car into a safety runway. Experts stated that the improvements would make IMS the most advanced automobile racing course in the world. Improvements were completed in early November.
 
The work done on the Speedway was effective in reducing the carnage. There were no deaths in the 1936 Indianapolis 500. While 1937 had three deaths, two were caused by a freak accident where a crankshaft broke which punctured the racer’s gas tank resulting in an explosion. There were two deaths in 1939, one during the Indy 500 and the other during a tire test in September. It wasn’t until the mid-1950s when fatal crashes at the Speedway again became an issue.
 
I am so excited to be going to Salisbury, Maryland, where I will be the featured speaker at the noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Wicomico County and that evening at the Eastern Shore Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America on Tuesday, April 2. Please come if you are in the area.
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