On this day in history, August 19, 1909, Indianapolis Motor Speedway's inaugural race takes off

Castroneves loves the Memorial Day tradition

On this day in history, Aug. 19, 1909, the inaugural race occurred at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway — now home of the world’s premier motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500, as History.com pointed out.

"In that first five-mile race on Aug. 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour," the same source noted.

Local businessmen Carl G. Fisher, James A. Allison, Arthur C. Newby and Frank H. Wheeler started the speedway.

It was originally created as a testing facility for Indiana’s growing automobile industry and was built on 328 acres of Midwest farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana, the same source said.

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The rectangular 2½-mile track linked four turns, each exactly 440 yards from start to finish, by two long and two short straight sections, as History.com chronicled.

In that first five-mile auto race on Aug. 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer Louis Schweitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour, according to the same source.

Josef Newgarden (#2) competes during the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, on Sunday, May 28, 2023, in Indianapolis.  (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

The Speedway’s debut was a little rocky, said the Indiana Motorcycle Preservation Society.

The original raceway oval featured a 2.5-mile distance and a packed gravel road — but the gravel was susceptible to potholes and dips, the same source recounted.

The speedway’s inaugural meets had tragic circumstances.

The first official Indy 500 was held on May 30, 1911. 

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