"Bad Ass" David Bruce-Brown

Sure, David Bruce-Brown, the "badass" of the first Indianapolis 500, was a young, rich playboy but also one of the greatest talents of the Heroic Age. Unfortunately he additionally became one of the great tragic stories of the era as his life and career came to a brutal, early end.
 
The image here is of Bruce-Brown dominating the first day of the 1912 French Grand Prix in his 14.3 liter S-74 Fiat with his trusted mechanic, Tony Scudalari by his side. Yes, the French GP, easily Europe's most important race of the year, was a protracted contest staged over two days. The cars were impounded overnight with armed guards on the lookout.
 
Still, someone tampered with the American's car. Accusations flew that French interests could not stand the idea of an American in an Italian machine taking their home race. Soon after the start of the second day Bruce-Brown discovered a leak in his fuel tank. He stopped on the course to repair it and refuel. He was subsequently disqualified as rules prohibited work on the car outside of their pit.
 
Bruce-Brown was an outstanding road racer and his greatest moments came at the American Grand Prize in Savannah, Georgia. He won the race in two successive years, 1910 and 1911. The first year he drove for Benz and the second time he was at the wheel of a Fiat.
 
It was with the Fiat he tackled the first Indianapolis 500. He dominated the first half and ran the fastest laps of the race. Therein was the problem. If anyone that fateful day was curious about eventual winner Ray Harroun's strategy for the unprecedented contest, all they had to do was read the newspapers reporting on the previous May's Wheeler-Schebler Trophy, a 200-miler.
 
Harroun's victory there - and with the "500" - was all about tire management. He did not change a single tire in the 200-miler, and only swapped out his right rear in the "500." The engineer had determined a 75 mph average pace preserved his rubber. Meanwhile Bruce-Brown and many of the rest of the field hammered their throttles and endured blow out after blow out.
 
These maladies slowed Bruce-Brown but also his Fiat stumbled in the closing laps with ignition trouble. The result of punishment? Who knows. In the end he finished third and won many fans who appreciated his nerve and skill.
 
Like many legends, untangling the facts from the folklore of Bruce-Brown's life can be daunting. Some stories had him a Yale student and a member of the university boxing team. The best research suggests he had been a student at Harstrom's prep school whose graduates regularly attended Yale.
 
The murkiness of the facts about Bruce-Brown are so fundamental that even the year of his birth have been in question. The best information has 1887 - but a popular story has it at 1890.
 
Regardless, Bruce-Brown, among the first generation to grow up with the automobile, had the heart of a racer. Despite his mother's protests (his father passed away when he was a teenager), Bruce-Brown ran away from home. Mentored by Emanuel Cedrino, he set an amateur speed record on the sands of Daytona in 1908. Cedrino's fate - losing his life racing at Pimlico in 1908 - merely confirmed his mother's worst imaginings.
 
He only drove in two Indianapolis 500s. In 1912 he was the fastest qualifier in an era that lined up on the grid in order of entry - not speed. This time he had a ride with the Indianapolis National team, a company headed by Brickyard co-founder Arthur C. Newby. The assignment made him the teammate to eventual winner Joe Dawson.
 
Still, Bruce-Brown was never a factor. On lap 24 his National engine swallowed a valve. He should have had many more opportunities to win the classic race but all of those possibilities were dashed when on October 1, 1912 he ended his 25 years on Earth at the wheel of another Fiat during practice on the Milwaukee road course he hoped to make the site of his third successive American Grand Prize triumph. Scudalari lost his life in the accident - the result of a blown tire - as well.
 
Click thru the link to the image near the top of this page - but boy, oh, boy be prepared to dive deep into the time machine that is First Super Speedway. We love it when you do that.