Watch the early heroes of the Indy 500, including Ray Harroun, Ralph DePalma, and Wilbur Shaw, trade famous racing stories in this wonderful 1946 Firestone color film, Crucible of Speed. This will make your day, race fans. 

We’ve featured the 1946 Indianapolis 500 before here at Mac’s Motor City Garage. It was an important race for the Speedway, and there’s plenty of great material available, including an awesome newsreel summary starring Red Barber you don’t want to miss. However, this 1946 color promotional film from Firestone, entitled Crucible of Speed, offers even more great stuff.

The Firestone film offers some great behind-the-scenes footage of the 1946 race, including the preparations in Gasoline Alley. But our favorite part is the act one setup, which features three-time Indy 500 winner and Speedway president Wilbur Shaw in a bench-racing session with 1915 winner Ralph DePalma and Ray Harroun, winner of the inaugural 500 in 1911.

As we often say, seeing the early personalities on film provides marvelous insights, helps us to know them better. Here, DePalma is smooth and dapper while Harroun, seated in his Marmon Wasp, looks tough as nails. And there’s lots of great historical race footage, too, including the 1911 event. Enjoy the film.