The opening weekend of racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was disastrous with five dying. It was enough to cause race officials to stop the 300-mile feature race at 235 miles. The future of the Speedway hung in the balance and the owners decided to pave the crushed stone and ...
Eddie Rickenbacker
Eddie Rickenbacker Purchases the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
After Frank Wheeler, one of the original founders, committed suicide on May 27, 1921, Jim Allison bought his shares making Allison the largest stockholder at 56.75%. Carl Fisher had moved to Miami Beach where he was busy developing Miami Beach and was planning an upscale development in Montauk, Long Island. ...
The Winningest Driver in IMS History
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 ...
Brickyard Crossing
Brickyard Crossing, Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s golf course, can trace its origins to the 1920s in Miami Beach. Golf was becoming a pastime of the rich and the people who wintered in Carl Fisher’s Miami Beach resort demanded it. Interestingly, Fisher really didn’t care for golf. In fact, he was terrible ...