Text and jpegs by courtesy of hathitrust.org www.hathitrust.org, compiled by motorracinghistory.com
CYCLE AND AUTOMOBILE TRADE JOURNAL, Vol. XIV, No. 11, May 1, 1909
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
In the near future America will have the fastest enclosed automobile race course in the world. This motor speed- way, now in course of construction, is located in Indianapolis, Ind., and will be known as the Brooklands of America. A general plan of the track is shown in the accompanying cut.
At the time the company was formed to build the speedway it was thought that a five-mile course arranged with two miles of outside and three miles of inside track would be most practical. A second survey of the 328 acres owned by the Speedway Company, however, demonstrated that it would be possible to make the curves much longer than first contemplated by lengthening the outside and shortening the inside course. The outside course is now two and one-half miles in length with curves such that it will be possible for racing cars to travel at a speed of seventy miles an hour around them. By making the outside course longer it was possible to eliminate the W shape of the inside course by cutting one-half mile off the original plan. In this way sharp curves were done away with. Under the present arrangement the track passes the main grand-stand three times and it is possible to see cars on any part of the five-mile track.
A cup has been offered to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by the Wheeler- Schebler Company of Indianapolis. The cup is a Tiffany design of exquisite workmanship, the motif suggesting the development of travel. The design depicts the transition from the primitive Indian pole-drag to the racing car today.
The actual size of the trophy is eight and one-half feet, its coin value being $5,000. It is sterling, the silver being of dull finish, with oxydizing around the relief work.
