The early history of lap prizes for the Indianapolis
500-mile race
Most television viewers of the 2020 Indianapolis 500-mile race were probably unaware that 2020 marked an important anniversary at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the 1920 race introduced the award of $100 per lap to the leader.
The 2020 Indianapolis 500 Official Program included a brief article that touched on the history of the lap prize fund, but the author felt that racing historians might appreciate a more detailed history of the fund’s early struggles.
1920 - The beginning
The 28-man Citizens of Indianapolis Lap Prize Committee, its
membership equally divided among active and honorary members, began the first fund-raising
effort in late March 1920. George M. Dickson, the President of the National
Motor Vehicle Company, chaired the Citizen’s Lap Prize Committee, created by “Indianapolis Businessmen and Manufacturers
to express appreciation of the value to Indianapolis of the annual
International Sweepstakes, the world’s greatest race.”
Dickson started with National as its sales manager in 1907,
rose to become the General Manager then became the company's President 1917. George’s history with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
and racing in general dated back to 1910, when as a member of the Manufacturers
Contest Association, he wrote an article entitled “Speedways Develop
Automobiles” which was published in newspapers across the nation.
Dickson later helped author the brochure that celebrated the
victory by the National driven by Joe Dawson and Don Herr in the 1912
Indianapolis 500-mile race. In 1916, Dickson served as the starter of the
International 300-mile Sweepstakes, the last race before the two-year Indianapolis
race suspension due to America’s involvement in World War One.
The first fund-raising effort was not without controversy. In
early April 1920, committee member and local automobile dealer R. V. Law
suggested in a meeting that in addition to the $100 lap prizes, certificates be
awarded.
A debate broke out over how the committee could pay for the certificates until Theodore
Myers, the General Manager of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, volunteered the
Speedway to furnish the certificates, so that all the money collected by the fund
could be awarded to the competitors. The Speedway also provided the score card insert
for the race day program which listed the names of the Citizen’s Lap Prize Committee
members and the fund donors.
Initially, Dickson envisioned that donors would be assigned individual laps in the order that their donations were received, but eventually, the committee agreed that a drawing should be held to more fairly determine the order.
On April 24 1920 A. H. Adams, the field manager for the committee, reported that with $7,000 already collected, the Indianapolis Merchants’
Association had officially endorsed the lap prize fund.
Drivers Louis Chevrolet and Ralph DePalma both contributed to
the lap prize fund before it closed on May 17, 1920, with the final donation, which meant the fund reached it's $20,000 goal, came from Indianapolis Motor Speedway co-founder James Allison’s Allison
Experimental Company. The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the custodian of
the fund, held the drawing for the sponsorship lap order at a luncheon on May
19 1920.
The eighth annual International 500-mile Sweepstakes victory banquet, held on the evening of June 1 1920 in the Riley Ballroom at the plush Claypool Hotel, located at the corner of Illinois and Washington Streets in downtown Indianapolis.
Barney Oldfield “the
Master Driver,” served as the emcee, with five-time ‘500’ competitor with World
War One flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker as the keynote speaker, but most
attendees were there to collect their part of the total $93,550 race purse.
John Reynolds, secretary of the Indianapolis Chamber of
Commerce, awarded the lap prizes to Joe Boyer, who received $9,300, while Ralph
DePalma collected $7,900. The race winner,
Gaston Chevrolet, picked up $1,400, Frenchman Rene Thomas received a $1,200 check, while
Jean Chassagne and Art Klein each won $100.
The positive publicity created by the lap prize fund at
Indianapolis led to a similar effort later in the year in Los Angeles, led by A. M. Young, for
the 200-lap Thanksgiving Day race held at the high-speed 1-1/4 mile Los Angeles
Motor Speedway board track in Beverley Hills. Donors to the $5,000 Los Angles fund included
the Beverley Hills Hotel, actors Wallace Reid and Tom Mix, retired racer Barney
Oldfield, race car builder Harry A. Miller and the Gilmore Oil Company.
Jimmy Murphy got a check for $250 as he led the first lap of
the Beverly Hills race, while Roscoe Sarles collected the balance of the fund
as he led each of the race’s remaining 199 laps. Unfortunately, the
Thanksgiving 1920 Beverly Hills race is remembered more because of the triple
fatality.
The #6 Frontenac, driven by the reigning Indianapolis
500-mile race champion Gaston Chevrolet, tangled with the #9 Duesenberg driven
by Eddie O'Donnell as they passed the slower car of Joe Thomas. Gaston, just 28 years old, perished
instantly in the accident, while 33-year old O’Donnell and his riding mechanic Lyall B. Jolls (given surname Headen) passed away the following day. The only survivor, John
Bresnahan, Chevrolet’s mechanic, thrown from the car, slid down the banking to
safety.
1921 - the ninth running
For 1921, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce pared the Citizen’s
Committee down to ten members, and the donors from 1920 put on a “roll of honor”
which gave them the opportunity to renew for 1921 before any new donors were
approached.
A. H. Adams served as the committee chairman with members that
included Dickson and representatives of Indianapolis Power & Light, the Firestone
Tire & Rubber Company and the Willard Storage Battery Company.
On May 3, 1921, Adams reported that subscriptions to the lap
prize fund passed the half-way mark, but with the United States economy in a
recession, progress on fund-raising apparently stalled after Adams’ announcement.
To remedy that situation, the Committee and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway scheduled the first “Drivers’ Day” on Saturday May 21 with all the money collected earmarked to complete the
lap prize fund.
On May 21st, race fans that paid 50 cents
admission each watched as Seth Cline (Klein) the Speedway’s “official
announcer” introduce the drivers entered for the ‘500.’ Klein, who ran
a radiator service shop at 820 North Meridian Street, later became the 500-mile
race assistant starter in 1923 and the chief starter from 1935 through 1954.
5,294 fans saw Ralph DePalma and Tommy Milton stage a short “dash,” followed by Howdy Wilcox, Jean Chassagne, and Bennett Hill in a three-way “brush.”
The program also included
appearances by Arthur Chevrolet, 1911 ‘500’ winner Ray Harroun, Barney
Oldfield, and “the fastest car in world,” the twin-engine sixteen-cylinder
Duesenberg that Tommy Milton drove in April 1920 to the 156.046 mile per hour (MPH)
land speed record on the Daytona Beach sands. The Indianapolis Star
reported that a crew towed the record-setting Duesenberg past the grandstands
but the car did not make a lap.
Unfortunately, after expenses “Driver’s Day” only collected $2,382 which brought the lap prize fund total to $16,700. When the fund-raising closed five days later on Thursday May 26th, the fund’s account contained only $17,150.
Because of the shortfall, the fund paid the leader of each lap $100 up to lap
150, after which the fund paid $100 to the leader of alternating laps over the
final 50 laps or 125 miles.
Ralph DePalma led 108 laps in the '500' before his French Ballot broke a
connecting rod, which handed the lead and the victory to Tommy Milton in a
Frontenac, designed by his friend Cornelius "CW" Van Ranst and built by the
Chevrolet brothers.
At the Victory banquet, DePalma received $10,650 in lap
prizes, while Milton won $6,300 and Joe Boyer, the leader at lap 2, and Roscoe
Sarles, the leader at lap 6, each won $100. The firms and individuals that
donated $100 each and the one $50 donor, the WB Burford Printing Company, were all
identified in an article in the May 31 1921 edition of the Indianapolis Star
newspaper.
1922
After the 1921 lap prize fund shortfall, the Indianapolis
Chamber of Commerce reduced the total lap prize fund to $10,000, to pay the
leader $50 per lap during the 1922 International 500-mile Sweepstakes.
The 1922 Committee members included Wallace O. Lee, the Vice-President
of the Indianapolis Power & Light Company, Spanish-American War veteran
Captain Harry M. Franklin and Carl H. Wallerich, an Indianapolis Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge
dealer.
Born in Iowa in 1883, Carl came to Indianapolis in 1900 and
in 1903 joined the new Overland Automobile Company (which later became
Willys-Overland). Wallerich served as a “Clerk of the Course” and managed
various aspects of track operations during the 1912 International 500-mile
Sweepstakes.
Several companies reportedly donated the same $100 amount as
in previous years and claimed two laps. Committee chairman A.H. Adams announced
on April 7 1922 that the fund already contained “about $3,000.” The Committee held its first meeting on Saturday
May 13 and in his report Adams described the fund as “about half subscribed.”
The Citizen’s Committee staged another “Drivers’ Day” on Saturday May 20 1922 but it appears that in the recession economy, the lap prize fund again fell short of the goal with a total of $8,375 collected.
The race
winner, Jimmy Murphy, led 153 laps from the pole position and received a payment
of $6,300. Harry Hartz led 42 laps and received $1,825 and a $100 radio set,
while Peter DePaolo led three laps and got $100, and Leon Duray led two laps
and got $50, according to the report in the Indianapolis Star.
1923
For 1923 the prize was back to a $100 a lap and on May 17 the
Citizen’s Committee new chairman, Harold Hampton, kicked off the $20,000 lap prize
fund subscription period with the “Drivers’ Day” at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway scheduled for Friday May 25th.
In his Indianapolis Star column “Speedway Appetizers” on Thursday May 24th William Sturm claimed that “businessmen have contributed $10,000.” The newspaper advertisement for the 1923 “Drivers’ Day” promised thrills with “exhibition races,” and suggested attendance as a civic duty to support the fund.
Once again, the 1923 lap prize fundraising fell short of the
goal of $20,000, so the prizes were only awarded for the first 125 laps. The fund
distributed $12,100 among five drivers, per the United Press International
report. The race’s first two-time winner, Tommy Milton, led 128 laps and banked
$8,500 in lap prizes, a small amount as many of his leading laps came late in
the race including the final 50 laps.
Milton’s HCS Motor Company teammate, Howdy Wilcox, led 51
laps and received $2,000. Third place finisher Jimmy Murphy, the 1922 race
winner, led eleven laps early in the race and got $1,100. Russell “Cliff” Durant, earned $400 for four
laps led, although Cliff scarcely needed the money since he was a
multi-millionaire and owned eight of the cars entered in the 1923 race. Harry Hartz, the second place finisher in a Durant
entry, led twice for a total of six laps, but only got paid $100 for leading
one of those laps.
1924
The May 14 1924 edition of the Indianapolis Star reported
that the committee members were selected at a noontime Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
Harold Hampton, the Chamber of Commerce athletic committee chairman, announced
that for 1924, the prize would be $50 a lap and the article stated that Hampton
“expressed belief that contributions this
year would make this easily possible.”
Solicitations began immediately and after a follow-up
meeting two days later, the Committee chairman, insurance agent Austin J.
Edwards, told the Indianapolis Star that the AAA and the local Yellow Cab Company
each stepped up to sponsor two laps, while the Indiana Bell Telephone Company,
the accounting firm Ernst & Ernst, and the Indianapolis Indians baseball
club each sponsored one lap.
On Monday May 19, the Indianapolis Star printed an
appeal from A. L. Block, the President of the prestigious L. Strauss &
Company department store, which read in part “Indianapolis people cannot do too much toward helping the daring
drivers whose feats have made the city internationally known.” Block’s statement closed by saying that “my greatest hope is that each lap will have
its award that the drivers may not think us ungrateful for their efforts.”
Indianapolis Star sports editor W. Blaine Patton
reported in his “Observed from the
Speedway Pits” column in the May 21st edition of the that the
Standard Oil Company of Indiana, Polk Sanitary Milk Company, the L. S. Ayres
& Company department store chain, Nordyke & Marmon and the Indianapolis
Star newspaper all donated $100 to the fund.
The Speedway held the annual “Drivers’ Day” on Tuesday
afternoon May 27 1924 with 3,500 reported attendees which added $1,600 to the
fund after expenses. The Indianapolis News reported that race car
builder Harry A. Miller wrote a check for $200, which brought the fund total up
to $5,900. Apparently, the 1924 fund topped out at $6,250 which paid the leader
of each the race’s first 125 laps.
Austin J. Edwards the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce’s representative,
distributed the lap prizes at the 1924 ‘500’ victory banquet, which was held in
the Rainbow ballroom at the Casino Gardens clubhouse. Formerly known as the
Indianapolis Canoe Club, the building still stands two miles east of the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the west bank of the White River.
Earl Cooper, the second place finisher, received $3,400, and
third place finisher Jimmy Murphy received $2,800, while co-winner Joe Boyer (with
L.L. Corum) got $50 as he led the first lap from his fourth place starting
position.
We will examine the fundraising and distribution for years 1925 and beyond in future installments.
For fans interested in viewing the individual 500-mile race programs covers, the National Indy 500 Collector Club has an excellent website at https://www.ni500cc.com
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