A general description of the three day’s event for the first motor racing events of coming August 1909.
Text and jpegs by courtesy of hathitrust.org www.hathitrust.org, compiled by motorracinghistory.com
AUTOMOBILE TOPICS, Vol. XVIII, No. 14 July 10, 1909
Indianapolis Speedway to Open August 19
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana, the biggest mortordrome in the world, next to the Brooklands track in England, is scheduled to be opened on Thursday, August 19, when a three days‘ meet will be held. Finishing touches are being made to the track and on the opening day it will be in first class condition. The speedway, which is four miles from the heart of Indianapolis has grand stands capable of seating more than 25,000 persons, while the grounds will accommodate 200.000.
On each of the three days, commencing with the opening, there will be a long-distance race for machines, under the new racing rules of the American Automobile Association. The first day, Thursday, there will be short sprints and record trials for all types and sizes of cars, and a number of domestic and foreign machines are expected to participate in these events.
The first day’s program will be completed with a race of 250 miles, for cars having a piston displacement of from 231 to 300 cubic inches. On the following day the semi-finals of the free-for-all races will be run, as well as additional record trials. As on Thursday, the last race on the card on Friday will be a long one. It will be a 300-mile classic for the Prest-O-Lite trophy, possessing a coin value of $1,000 in melted silver. This trophy, which will be raced for by cars having from 301 to 450 cubic inches displacement, will weigh close to 2,000 ounces, troy.
On Saturday the star races of the meet will be run. There will be the finals of the free-for-all handicap, as well as the finals for stock cars entered in the short-distance events. A liberal trophy will be presented to the driver who shall have covered the fastest mile during the meet.
The three days‘ racing carnival will be concluded with what is claimed will be the greatest race ever held in the world. It will be a stock chassis event for cars ranging in piston displacement from 451 to 600 cubic inches, and a trophy that weighs 500 pounds of coin silver, standing over eight feet in height. The coin value alone of this trophy, which was donated by Wheeler & Schebler Co., is $5.000, while half as much more was spent on the design and manufacture of the same.
Preparations are being made to hold a twenty-four hour championship event in September that will bring the fastest cars in the world in competition for the around-the-clock race, as well as for short events that will precede it. The event will probably be run about September 24 and 25. Early in September there will be an event for balloons, dirigibles and aero planes, and arrangements are being made to have the Wright brothers, or some of their pupils, take part in the events. Carl G. Fisher, who participated in the first national balloon contest to be held in this country, which started from the Speedway on June 5, will pilot his new dirigible at this meet, while many other sky craft of this type will also compete.
An enormous crowd is expected to attend the opening of the new motordrome. Motorists and enthusiasts from all over the United States will visit Indianapolis, and the management of the Speedway will make arrangements for their accommodation.
Sixty thousand visitors can be nicely accommodated in Indianapolis hotels, so that early reservations will not be necessary.
