Here’s some exceptional, seldom-seen film footage of the inaugural 1911 Indianapolis 500-Mile Sweepstakes. You’ve never seen anything like this—just watch.
Sometimes it can be difficult to wrap our heads around the concept that the Indianapolis 500 is now more than 100 years old. Auto racing seems like such a contemporary enterprise.
But watch this film and the realization is driven home: It truly was a different world in 1911. Take the moment in the lead image above, for example: Here’s a race car crash attended to by soldiers on horseback. There are jaw-dropping wonders in every second of footage here. We all carry around our little mental snapshot of the first Indy 500: winner Ray Harroun, average speed 74.602 mph, so on—but it represents only a tiny sliver of what actually happened that day.
In watching the film, most of all you may be amazed that a hundred people weren’t killed—only one, riding mechanic Sam Dickson. Thrown from the Simplex driven by Arthur Greiner, he was reportedly killed instantly. National guardsmen then had to beat back the mob of gawkers with their rifle butts to clear a path for the physicians.
There’s so much going on here that simply defies description. All we can say is watch.
In addition to the total lack of safety I’am amazed these cars could even hold together for 500 miles.
Wow, that was incredible! Like an old silent war movie.
Mac, this video is crashing me every time I try and open it. Very frustrating!! Might be my own fault for running IE9 though …
Fabulous, fabulous images. The soundtrack not really the best. If the film is owned by Macs, then a copy should be given to an accredited lab/museum for restoration, improvement. What a treasure! Cheers, Mick
Can’t claim any ownership, all public domain material.
That really is a wonderful film. It’s easy to forget how truly dangerous racing was up til not that long ago. But it’s all here: smoke, dust and oil on the track, no Nomex or roll cages and not much in the way of brakes or spectator control. Brave men indeed.
They were brave men to an extent, but much of the risks and dangers they faced were due to ignorance and lack of knowledge of machines and racing them. Even into the 60’s when there were those fatal crashes and the fires from those crashes where several driver’s were killed the safety of racing these open wheeled cars was not advanced along with the speeds they attained. Watching yesterdays race and how much safer the current cars are was amazing.
Love these Old films you find and Thank You for Sharing them.
I love the so-called “moving picture” effect! Exciting, indeed!