After the 1912 Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis manufacturers Marmon and National which had won the 1911 and 1912 races along with Buick decided that they would not participate in the 1913 contest. Since these were among the three most popular teams, Speedway management became concerned not only about the size of the field but also about the quality of the participants. As a solution, they looked toward Europe and recruited teams from England, France, Italy and Germany. The French teams dominated the race in both 1913 and 1914.
With the onset of World War I, the majority of European teams were not able to participate in the 1915 race. After the race, Indianapolis native and National employee Johnny Aitken suggested to Jim Allison that the Speedway should have its own racing team. Faced with the ongoing hostilities in Europe, Carl Fisher and Allison decided to implement this idea.
They negotiated the purchase of two Peugeots from Europe which arrived in Indianapolis on September 3, 1915. Fisher also commissioned the Premier Motor Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis to build three racers which were almost identical to the Peugeots. These five automobiles formed the nucleus of Speedway Team Company, which was incorporated on September 14, 1915, for $20,000. The owners were Fisher and Allison, fellow IMS owners Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby, and Theodore (Pop) Myers who managed the Speedway office and ticket sales. Johnny Aitken was hired as the manager, chief engineer, and ranking driver of the team. Aitken hired Tom Anderson and Gil Rooney as drivers.
Eddie Rickenbacker, who would later gain fame as the World War I flying ace, had participated in the Indianapolis 500 in 1911 as a relief driver for Maxwell Motor Company. When Maxwell announced that they would not continue to participate in races, Rickenbacker approached Allison and Fisher to start a second racing team. Allison and Fisher purchased two Maxwells and incorporated the Prest-O-Lite Team Company on September 14, 1915.
Rickenbacker was given the choice of two compensation packages. The first was that he would earn 50 percent of all winnings provided he paid the expenses of the second team driver, Pete Henderson. In this scenario, Prest-O-Lite Team Company would assume all team maintenance expenses. He selected the second option. He received 75 percent of the winnings but bore all of the expenses of running the team. The Prest-O-Lite Team won the first race it entered at Narragansett Park, in Providence, Rhode Island, in September 1915.
Initially the two teams were housed in downtown Indianapolis. For any testing, they had to be driven to the Speedway. Allison soon realized that this did not make sense. In late 1916, he told Fisher, “Let’s quit fooling around. This thing of running the cars out to the track for testing and then back to the shop three miles away is a nuisance and inefficient. Let me take over the company and I’ll build a real shop out near the Speedway where it will be convenient.”
By this time, Fisher had become involved in the development of Miami Beach. He sold his interest in Speedway Team Company to Allison but maintained his interest in the Prest-O-Lite Team.
The foresight of Allison and Fisher to purchase these cars was very beneficial. Of the thirty cars entered in the 1916 race, seven were owned by the Speedway Team and Prest-O-Lite Team companies. Only twenty-one cars qualified for the race which was shortened to 300 miles. As Allison watched, Johnny Aitken took the pole for the race and Rickenbacker started from the second position. Gil Anderson started from the third position in a Speedway Team Premier racer. The race wasn’t very competitive. Rickenbacker took the lead for the first nine laps, but Dario Resta, driving a Peugeot, led 103 laps and won the race.
With concerns that the hostilities in Europe would spread to the United States, Fisher wanted to organize a second day of racing in the fall which, he believed, would give them additional funds in case the war interrupted auto racing. After his partners reluctantly agreed, the Speedway held the “Harvest Auto Racing Classic” in September. These races returned to the format of the first two years of racing at IMS. They had a 20-mile race with a purse of $1,000, a 50-mile race with a purse of $2,000, and a 100-mile race with a purse of $9,000.
A week before the Harvest Auto Racing Classic, there was a race in Cincinnati where many of the autos which were expected to be part of the Harvest Classic experienced engine difficulties including Ralph DePalma, the 1915 Indianapolis 500 winner and Dario Resta, the 1916 Indianapolis 500 winner. The Harvest Auto Racing Classic had only sixteen teams participate. Speedway Team Company had four cars in the race with drivers Aitken and Charlie Merz driving the Peugeots and Howdy Wilcox and Dave Lewis driving the Premiers. After DePalma’s engine failure in Cincinnati, he took over Wilcox’s seat in the Peugeot.
Johnny Aitken, driving a Peugeot, won the 20-mile race by about one car length over teammate Howdy Wilcox. Dave Lewis finished fifth in the race while Ralph DePalma finished sixth. Rickenbacker, driving a Maxwell, decided not to participate in the race and Pete Henderson, driving the other Maxwell, finished ninth but didn’t complete the first lap. Starting from the pole, Aitken also won the 50-mile race. Dave Lewis finished fifth, Howdy Wilcox sixth, and Ralph DePalma, who dropped out of the race after 7 laps with dirty spark plugs, finished eighth. Aitken and Rickenbacker battled throughout the 100-mile race. The race was very close for the first 75 miles. At the 90-mile mark, Aitken’s car had the steering arm for the right wheel break slowing his speed. It then appeared that Rickenbacker would win the race but at the 95-mile mark, the left rear wheel’s wooden spokes began to break. On the last lap of the race, Rickenbacker’s tire burst, and he lost control of the racer and finished ninth. Aitken won the race for the Speedway Team. Of the $12,000 in prize money for the Harvest Auto Racing Classic, the two affiliated teams took home $5,900.
Rickenbacker, disappointed that he would not win the AAA championship, announced his retirement from racing and the Prest-O-Lite team was dissolved. It was also the last appearance for Aitken as a driver at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He retired from racing with a remarkable record. In a career which started in 1905, he won 15 races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and remains the all-time leader of wins there. He died in 1918 of the worldwide influenza pandemic.
The United States entered World War I on April 16, 1917, and the next day, Allison canceled all racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.