Ray Harroun, First Indy Five Hundred Winner
Indiana
Remembered here is Ray Harroun, the man who won the very first Indianapolis Five Hundred.
On Memorial Day of nineteen eleven, before a crowd of eighty thousand, Harroun drove his bright yellow Marmon Wasp to victory over a field of forty cars. He averaged about seventy four miles an hour and finished in just under seven hours. Harroun was actually a retired engineer for the Marmon Motor Car Company, coaxed out of retirement for the race, and he retired again for good right there in the winner's circle.
He is also remembered for a clever innovation. Most drivers carried a riding mechanic who watched for cars behind them. Harroun rode alone and instead bolted a small mirror to his cowl, an early version of the rearview mirror now found on every automobile in the world.
