Part of the tradition of the Indianapolis 500 is the presentation of the Borg-Warner Trophy to the winner. The trophy has each winner’s face, name and winning year permanently etched. A silversmith is commissioned to create the new champion’s portrait in bas-relief for placement on the trophy. Sculptor Will Behrends, who has made the driver image since 1990, will make a full-scale clay model of Josef Newgarden’s face. The model is then used for a smaller model which is created out of a mixture of oil-based clay. The smaller model is then turned into a mold and casted in wax before being sent to a jeweler to be transformed into sterling silver.
In 1935, the Borg-Warner Automotive Company commissioned designer Robert J. Hill and Spaulding-Gorham, Inc of Chicago to create the trophy at a cost of $10,000. Originally, the trophy was 52 inches tall with room for the faces of 70 race winners. When there was no more room to add an additional image, a base was added in 1987 and a second base was added in 2004. It is now 64.75 inches tall (5 feet, 4.75 inches). The trophy weighs about 110 pounds and is valued at $1 million. Designed in the art-deco style, which was popular in the 1930s, at the top of the trophy is a naked man waving a checkered flag in the tradition of ancient Greek athletic sculptures.
The trophy recognizes the two instances in which there were co-winners with having both faces appear on the trophy. They are L. L. Corum and Joe Boyer in 1924 and Floyd Davis and Mauri Rose in 1941.
The Borg-Warner trophy was unveiled by Eddie Rickenbacker at a dinner in 1936. It was first presented to Louis Meyer, who won the race in that year. He commented, “Winning the Borg-Warner Trophy is like winning an Olympic medal.” To honor Anton “Tony” Hulman, who purchased the track in 1945 and saved it from being torn down, his image was added in gold in 1987.
The Borg-Warner Trophy was restored in the fall of 1991 by Gorham, Inc. During the two-month restoration, the faces were removed from the trophy, the handles were repaired and a crack was fixed. What was not fixed during the restoration was the spelling of Johnnie Parsons first name which had been misspelled Johnny for more than forty years.
Beginning in 1988, a 20-inch tall replica of the trophy, affectionately known as a “Baby Borg,” has been crafted in sterling silver for presentation to the champion. The base is inscribed with the winner’s name, winning team name, average speed and year of victory. It also has a hand-sculpted, three-dimensional sterling silver image of the winner, a duplicate of the image affied to the Borg-Warner Trophy. Formally known as the Borg-Warner Championship Driver’s Trophy, the “Baby Borg” was first presented to Rick Mears. In 1997, this tradition was expanded with the presentation of a Baby Borg to the winning car owner. Instead of the driver’s face, this trophy has a band of art-deco racing cars in gold to pay tribute to the value of teamwork in auto racing. The first Championship Team Owner’s Trophy was presented to Fred Treadway of Treadway Racing.
One of the most unique Baby Borgs was presented to Simon Pagenaud, the winner of the 2019 Indianapolis 500. As with other Baby Borgs, it has Pagenaud’s face but it also has the face of his Jack Russell Terrier, Norman, who helped Pagenaud celebrate his victory in Victory Lane. The Baby Borg are normally presented at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, but Pagenaud received his at a Team Penske employee breakfast with 550 members of the team.
While the Borg-Warner Trophy tradition started in 1936, there is a link to the earliest races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Borg-Warner Automotive, Inc. was formed in 1928 with the merging of automotive parts companies Borg & Beck, Marvel-Schebler, Warner Gear and Mechanics Universal Joint.
Marvel-Schebler was a manufacturer of carburetors. Its history goes back to when George Schebler of Batesville, Indiana, created a rudimentary carburetor. As a farmer with a mechanical bent, he took a tin can with a simple flap and attached it to a motorcycle engine. The problem with the early gasoline engines was that the carburetor couldn’t automatically adjust the mixture of fuel and air. He got the idea from a hog trough. A farmer Schebler knew devised an arm with a barrel on the end of the hog tough. At the other end was a valve. When the hogs drank, the arm would automatically open the valve which would put more water in the trough. In 1902, Schebler patented the first air-valve designed carburetor.
Schebler’s carburetor took off when he was introduced to Frank Wheeler by Harry Stutz in 1904. They formed the Wheeler-Schebler Carburetor Company in 1905 and built a plant in Indianapolis. The revolutionary carburetor took off after Wheeler spent $2,500 promoting it.
Schebler’s friend, Burt Pierce also created a carburetor which received a patent in 1909 as the Marvel design. In 1908, the Marvel Carburetor Company was formed and was subsequently merged with Wheeler-Schebler to form Marvel-Schebler.
Frank Wheeler was one of the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Wheeler-Schebler Carburetor Company donated a trophy which was the prize at a 300-mile race in August 1909. Designed by Tiffany & Company, the Wheeler-Schebler Trophy and is made of sterling silver. It is over seven feet tall and weighs over 500 pounds. While the Wheeler-Schebler Trophy race was run in 1909, the trophy was not awarded as the race was stopped at 235 miles of its scheduled 300 miles after multiple wrecks occurred during the race. The Wheeler-Schebler Trophy was awarded to Ray Harroun who won the race in 1910.
The trophy was retired in 1911 with the running of the first Indianapolis 500. It was reinstated in 1913 as a prize for the team leading the race at 400 miles. The deed for the trophy stipulates that it would be permanently awarded to whomever won the race in three consecutive years. That honor went to Harry Hartz who won the race as a driver in 1930 and 1931 and his Miller-Hartz car won in 1932. The Hartz family returned the trophy to IMS after Tony Hulman started the IMS Museum in 1952. It periodically is on display at the IMS Museum.