The winningest driver at IMS isn’t one of the four-time Indianapolis 500 winners or Jeff Gordon, who won five Brickyard 400 races. Rather, it is Johnny Aitken who amassed fifteen victories on the fabled track. Known as “Happy Johnny,” he started racing in 1905 as a member of the National Motor Vehicle Company team which won twenty-four races at the Indianapolis Fair Grounds.
In the two years preceding the Indianapolis 500, the Speedway hosted weekends of racing. Each day, there were races of various lengths and by engine size culminating in a featured race of 250 or 300 miles. It was during this period that Aitken set the record against some of the premier drivers including Barney Oldfield, Bob Burman, Louis Chevrolet, and Ray Harroun. Aitken was the only driver to win races in each of the four automobile race weekends held during 1909 and 1910. He also holds the record for the most starts at IMS at 41. The next closest is A. J. Foyt at 16 races.
An Indianapolis native, Aitken worked for National Motor Vehicle Company. The featured race on the final day of racing in 1909 was the 300-mile Wheeler-Schebler Trophy Race. Aitken set a world record for the first 100 miles of the race at one hour, 31 minutes, 41.9 seconds. His lead did not last long. Two laps later, his car’s cylinder head cracked, ending his day of driving. The race didn’t finish the 300 miles because the AAA officials ended it due to the track’s severe deterioration causing several serious crashes.
The owners faced a decision. Would they resurface the track, or would they abandon their investment? They turned to Johnny Aitken to test if it was better to pave with concrete or the more expensive bricks. He made several high-speed runs over the bricks. To further test the bricks, Aitken’s National racer was anchored to the track with ropes attached to two posts. Aitken ran the car at full throttle causing the tires to churn on the brick surface. After the track was resurfaced with bricks, the racers returned to IMS for Memorial Day in 1910. Indianapolis manufacturers Marmon and National had strong teams and rivalled the Chevrolet team. At the end of the weekend, the Marmon and National teams had won twelve of the 24 races with Ray Harroun of the Marmon team and Aitken winning four races each.
National had three cars entered in the inaugural Indianapolis 500. Aitken dropped out of the race after 125 laps for a 27th place finish. Marmon, which won the 1911 Indianapolis 500 with Harroun at the wheel, decided to terminate its racing team. They had nothing else to prove, and should they lose, it could negatively impact sales. Aitken announced his retirement from racing, Arthur Newby appointed him the manager of National’s racing team.
The 1912 race was dominated by Ralph DePalma driving a Peugeot. At the halfway mark, he was leading by two laps which increased to five laps with 100 miles remaining. On lap 195, his car began to slow after a broken connecting rod damaged the crankcase. With only three cylinders running, his pace, which seemed insurmountable, slowly deteriorated. As he and his riding mechanic pushed the racer down the front stretch, he was passed by Joe Dawson handing the 1912 Indianapolis victory to National Motor Vehicle.
For the next two years, the Speedway depended upon entrants from Europe to fill out the field as Chevrolet, Marmon and National all dropped out of racing. Lured by the race’s purse, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy sent teams for the 1913 race. The French team included Jules Goux in a Peugeot, considered the fastest car on the continent. Used to road racing, the European drivers had trouble negotiating the Speedway’s turns during practice. Although offers of help were made, the Europeans were suspicious that the Americans might benefit by learning things about their cars. After several frustrating days of practice and tire failure, Jules Goux asked Carl Fisher to recommend a technical advisor. Fisher immediately recommended Aitken. After watching Goux practice, Aitken told Goux he was entering the corners too high and too fast. He also recommended using Firestone tires and different shocks. These recommendations made all the difference. Goux took the lead permanently on lap 136 and crossed the finish line first. He was the first driver not to utilize a relief driver and finished the race in six hours, 35 minutes, and 5 seconds.
Aitken repeated as the manager for the Peugeot team when it returned to the Speedway in 1914. When the Peugeot team was returning to France, they extended an invitation for Aitken to come visit their factory. After landing in France, he couldn’t help but notice that there were cards in the windows telling the citizens that war was almost a certainty. One day, when he went to breakfast, the streets were filled with soldiers. Arriving at the Peugeot factory, he found the doors closed. The French had deserted the factory. It was more important to protect their homeland than build race cars.
With war looming on the horizon which would keep the European racers away, Aitken suggested that IMS should develop its own racing team. Fisher and Allison negotiated to purchase two Peugeots from France and had Indianapolis manufacturer Premier build three racers. With these cars, they started the Speedway Team with Aitken as the manager, chief mechanic, and driver. When Maxwell Motor Company decided to terminate its racing team, Eddie Rickenbacker approached Fisher and Allison to form a second team. They did with two Maxwells with Rickenbacker as the manager and driver. This decision was very beneficial to the Speedway. The two teams provided one-third of the twenty-one cars which qualified for the 1916 race. The race was shortened to 300 miles with Fisher believing that possibly 500 miles was too long of a race. Johnny Aitken took the pole with an average speed of 96.690 mph, Eddie Rickenbacker started from second, and Gil Anderson in a Speedway Team Peugeot qualified third. Despite the strong starting positions, they were not a factor in the race which was easily won by Dario Resta in a Peugeot.
In 1916, AAA established the championship series that included more than a dozen races. The racing started at the Sheepshead Bay Speedway and ended at Ascot Park in Los Angeles. Aitken dominated racing in that season and won more than $50,000. IMS management decided to hold a fall day of racing to support the championship series and give them a financial cushion should World War I involve the United States. The Harvest Auto Racing Classic went back to the original format of racing at the Speedway with a 20-mile race, a 50-mile race and a 100-mile race. The week before the Harvest Classic, there was a race at Cincinnati and many of the racers expected at the Speedway withdrew because of mechanical issues. The field had sixteen racers, of which the Speedway Team provided four cars. Johnny Aitken easily won the 20-mile and 50-mile races. Eddie Rickenbacker of the Prest-O-Lite Team did not participate in the first two races, but the 100-mile pitted the Speedway Team cars against Rickenbacker.
The 100-mile race was very close for the first 75 miles. At the 90-mile mark, Aitken’s car broke a steering arm. While he could continue to drive, it appeared that Rickenbacker would win the race. At the 95-mile mark, Rickenbacker’s left wheel spokes began to break. He continued on but on the last lap, his tire burst and he crashed, handing the victory to Aitken. After the race, Aitken again announced his retirement from racing.
Despite participating in a very dangerous sport, Aitken never had a serious accident. In 1917, he wrote to Stuart W. Sanders of the Herald Bulletin, “During my racing career, however, many of my closest friends, some teammates and some competitors, have met with sad fates. This luck is not due to extraordinary skill on my part—it is just luck.”
Johnny Aitken died of pneumonia at his home on October 15, 1918, during the great influenza pandemic. Arthur Newby, president of National Motor Works, commented to the Indianapolis News, “Johnny was one of the most fearless, resourceful and daring drivers I ever saw pilot a race machine around any track in the country.” “He was a wonderful man in the research department and a man who could be depended upon to do the right thing at the right time in any emergency.”