The Importance of Ballooning, 1909

Of all things, a passenger balloon race. The national championship, no less. The reality is, almost without exception "fans" of the the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are all about the Indianapolis 500. There have been times in recent decades when people with little interest in the classic "500" came to the Speedway to witness their preferred branch of motorsport, either NASCAR or Formula One. 
 
For a host of reasons - not the least of which is the departure of F1 - the track really leans on those captivated by the special, Hoosier cultural experience of the "500." There may be cranberry relish on the table but we all know the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving dinner is that big bird.
 
In the context of the track's history the anomaly of the 1909 passenger balloon is interesting to Indianapolis 500 fans simply because it was organized by and started from the track. It's not that there is a critical mass of their number who actively follow ballooning or its history with passion. The suggestion actually sounds preposterous.
 
It's actually amusing to hear every year along about May 1 the trivia pursuit kind of question pop up posing as a revelation: what was the first race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? The inquisitor is inevitably smiling, eagerly awaiting the neophyte to stumble with a logical but erroneous response so the grand revelation can take place. Actually, I have heard this play out so many times it can be hard to believe there is anyone left that doesn't know the answer.
 
As an aside, did you know there were two balloon races at the Speedway? The second came in September 1910. 
 
Let's not go down that rathole. The point is, ballooning is only relevant because it took place at the Speedway. It took place for two fundamental reasons. 
 
One, the track's founders carried very little debt and put up the money to build their grand complex out of their personal resources. As a result, they wanted to start promoting events to recoup their investment as soon as possible. With the facility still under construction, they turned to the then popular spectacle of ballooning. 
 
Two, Carl Fisher had an interest in emerging technology and that included aviation as well as motorized, independent land travel.  While passenger balloons had been in use for over 125 years, what happened in 1903 with the advent of the Wright Brothers heavier-than-air motorized airplane rekindled interest in all things aero. What's more, the proliferation of the increasingly compact internal combustion engine introduced innovations in ballooning that would produce the zeppelin or blimp that overcame one of the banes of ballooning - the inability to control your own course.
 
Balloonists were left to the vagaries of air currents and experienced balloon pilots quickly learned that those atmospheric conditions flow much like streams and varied in intensity and even direction at various altitudes. With an engine attached, the possibilities of determining your destiny were enhanced.
 
No, the 1909 balloons in the national championship were not outfitted with engines. Still, all the possibilities of the age were in the mix as pilots took flight. Their minds were working in the moment and then afterward they considered development of their aircraft. The options for product development going forward very much saw gas-inflated craft as a serious rival to the rudimentary winged craft.
 
Such was the world in the era. 
 
The balloon races yielded mixed results at best. Many people clogged Crawfordsville Road with their wagons and cars as they parked to watch the ascension. If they had purchased tickets, as many did, they could have walked among the balloons and their teams to get a closer look and ask questions.
 
Fisher wanted to commemorate the event and that's the point of the image you can suck into your eyeballs here. I don't believe the trophy it depicts or the original photo still exists today. In fact, this aspect of the event would be lost to the ages if it had not been called to the surface here at First Super Speedway.