Indy 500 1915 post 2

Just going to jump right back in here with a photo of Ralph DePalma pulling out of the garage.  I recently found another photo reproduction of this event just a few seconds later, as they pull past the garages.  It's fun to know that my grandfather was right there watching it unfold, nearly 100 years ago.

Maybe this frustration in wanting to place the photos in a chronological sequence is becoming more clear, now.  Anyway, this next photo is a shot of DePalma in the pits, changing a tire.  Did these guys change their own tires?  I don't see him standing around having a little refreshment.  Also, notice where the photographer is standing.  We're standing on the track to take this photo!?

Here's another shot from the pits showing the jack being removed, and I'm still astonished at the guys casually walking up and down.  I was thinking that it might be qualifying, but who changes tires in qualifying?  Are they race officials?  This jack is much better than the one than we saw in 1913.

A weary-looking Dario Resta, who took second place this year.  I'd probably look this tired after six-plus hours of racing, too.  He'll cheer up when they write him a check for $10,900.  The star indicates that he died, as I've mentioned earlier.  Resta died racing in England in 1924.  Interestingly, his death indirectly lead the racing world to abandon using riding mechanics.

Some close racing.  Most of the photos of the actual racing are of tiny cars way down the track, so I'm trying to pull out the ones that are closer action. Dario Resta (#3) looks to me to be passing Willie Haupt (#28).  The tires on Resta's car appear to be leaning farther forward to me, and they seem like a narrower oval.  I'm sure you could calculate the car's speed if you knew the camera's shutter speed.  Speaking of speed, can you imagine winning this race in a 1962 VW bug? Heck, you might have been competitive in a VW bus!

This next photo is of Gil Anderson and his riding mechanic, who placed third.  Gil's teeth look like they have filled in between with dirt and oil from the race. You have my word that I did no photo-editing on this closeup. I read somewhere that these cars burned a huge amount of oil, and you can see the smoke in the first few pictures of the start of the race.  It looks to me like he wiped his teeth with a rag and the excess stayed in between. Many of the racer's faces are white where their goggles were, when removed for a photo.

Directly following this photo in the scrapbook is the following photo of Anderson on the track.

I'm not sure of the identity of this next driver, since there are quite a few Stutz cars in this race.  However, I particularly love expressions of the two boys to the right in the photo.

Howdy Wilcox, who finished seventh is pictured after a five or six photos of the race which are unremarkable.  I thought this next photo was a good candid capture, though.  You just don't see many unposed photos of the racers like this. Howard Samuel Wilcox died in an accident at Altoona in 1923.

Immediately following the photo above is this photo of Wilcox and his riding mechanic probably just following the race.  Goggles up and greasy, they're either just pulling off the track, or perhaps in for a pit stop.

I'll end here for this post.  There are many more photos to come, including Eddie Rickenbacker, Eddie O'Donnell, Bob Burman, Billy Carlson, Louis Chevrolet, and more.  It's beginning to look like two more posts on this race!

-kpw

1913 Continued...

I learned something interesting today.  I'm allergic to my grandfather's scrapbooks!  Last night while I was scanning, I had a couple of little sneeze attacks, but today, I'm pretty well overcome by sneezing every time I handle any of this material.  Is it a dust allergy?  I don't know but I'm going to be buying more Claritin if this keeps up.  Or wearing a dust mask.


So, more of 1913 before we move on to 1914.  I didn't have as much time to go digging today, but at least we'll have some interesting photographs.  I'm also still fussing around with the layout of the blog.  I'm sorry if this is annoying, I just want to get to a format that is easy to read and a bit more interesting.  I figured a photo instead of a scrapbook cover would be a better hook for someone visiting the blog for the first time.  Let me know what you think.  I'd like to see more color, but I'm still fussing.


The more I studied the scrapbook today, the less I think the photos I posted previously were from qualifying.  In the other two years (1914, 15 coming up) I'm pretty sure I have photos of the starting grid, the drivers all lined up on the start/finish line, bands playing, etc.  Not so with 1913, for some reason, so I'm assuming these are live racing photos.


An acquaintance of mine (actually I'm going to call him a friend) wrote me a very encouraging email about the blog today.  I call him a friend because he's been extraordinarily kind and open about a project that he has going on, and he's actually the reason I started the blog.  His name is Brian Karli and he's building a Curtiss Jenny just like my grandfather flew.  Some of you may be following this since we worked together at Cessna.  I think you'd really enjoy a visit to his blog here.


Well, he asked me to post every photo and every journal entry!  It would take me (he'll laugh at me, since he's been at his project for six years) years to complete this project if I include everything.  As it is, I expect this will actually take me at least a couple of years, but I don't plan on making this a career.  Some of the photos are just not interesting enough to post, quite honestly.  Some of them are of family members or friends, and I have no clue who they are.  Do you really want to see grandma Cora's begonias?  Seriously, I have some.


Okay, enough blabbing, here are some more of Indy 500 from 1913.  Many of the race photos themselves are of tiny, indistinguishable cars off in the distance.  These had some photographic merit, I thought.

The race is on!

If these fellas seem a little close, it's because they're
brothers - Bill and Harry Endicott. Joe Nikrent behind them.

Mystery driver. Help me out if you can.

This is going to have to do for tonight.  1) I can't stop sneezing, and 2) I spent nearly an hour trying to discover the identity of mystery driver!  I'm usually pretty lucky with a jersey, a guy standing next to a car, or a photo that I can ID from the list of entrants.  I just struck out on this guy.


I need to mention one last thing about the photo with the star over driver's head.  My grandfather followed up in his scrapbooks throughout the years, and would put a star above anyone in his photos who had died.  Sadly, you'll see this a LOT when we get to the photos of flying.  That was really deadly.

-kpw

1913 Indy 500

I'm picking up the story in 1913, which is where there are a load of pictures of the Indianapolis 500.  I have another scrapbook full of family photos with cars, the Chalmers factory, a tire company, and more... cars.  I think I'll spare you all the tedium of looking at pages and pages of old... cars.  I'm trying to get to the airplanes as quickly as I can, but the racing photos occupy a large chunk of these scrapbooks.  There are also a few motorcycle racing photos just prior to these.  I'm open to requests if you'd like to see them.

I have no way of knowing whether Van and Ivan had crew passes, press passes or none of the above, but there are some fabulous photos taken on the track, and in the pits.  Perhaps someone will know the race particulars better and fill us in. 


I began thinking of how far it is from Amsterdam, New York to the speedway.  I'm from California, originally, so what do I know?  Turns out that today you can make the drive in about 13-14 hours by interstate.  In 1913 you would have probably taken the train, and the New York Central Railway (seriously, look at this link) would probably have been the choice.  I won't speculate on the time, but I can imagine... oh wait, I'm speculating.  It took a while, longer than it takes today by a wide margin, what with changing cars and such.  The scrapbooks suggest that the whole family took the trip, which would have included Cora and Corinne.  I guess the train ride was boring to them, since there are no photos of the actual trip.  Anyway, pack up our trunks with cameras and film and off we go.

Pre-race pits of Louis Disbrow.  High tech jack there, fellas.

Jules Goux won the race in this Peugeot. He hasn't started drinking, yet.

Pre-race. Jack Tower's Mason, Harry Endicott's Nyberg.

One of my favorites.  Louis Disbrow, perhaps qualifying? (stands are empty)

I think these photos are from qualifying, since you can see the #15 Peugeot behind Joules Goux's car in the pits. This car did not race, and I have a photo of it with the side of the hood blown open, about the size of a runaway piston or something.

I changed my cropping with this last photo, and I'll likely stay with this from now on.  the first three photo's show that the prints were hand cut, which I thought was cool at first, but now I just think its distracting.  Also, in the last photo, I'm wondering if Van or Ivan was standing on the track, or did they find a hole in the fence to shove the camera through for the shot?  Finally, it's just a fabulous composition, probably the result of releasing the shutter right when the car was in the center of the photo!  Heh.


That's enough for tonight... a few more 1913 coming very soon.  I've decided I'm not going to rush forward to the airplanes (my apologies to Brian Karli, who was the inspiration for this blog, btw).  There are just too many good photos to pass over in order to get there.

-kpw