The Brickyard
Near Indianapolis, Indiana
Carl Fisher was thirty-five years old and already rich from selling automobile headlights when he decided Indianapolis needed a racetrack. The automobile industry was young and unproven, and Fisher's idea was that a dedicated test circuit would allow manufacturers to push their cars to failure in a controlled setting, then fix what broke. The proving ground would sell cars. He raised the money from business partners, bought three hundred twenty eight acres northwest of the city, and broke ground in March of nineteen oh nine.
The original surface was crushed limestone, gravel, and tar. The first race was held in August of nineteen oh nine. In two days of racing, one driver, two mechanics, and two spectators died. The surface had begun tearing apart under the cars, and when tires failed at speed, the results were catastrophic.
Fisher replaced the surface with three million two hundred thousand bricks, each weighing ten pounds. Traction tests had confirmed that brick was less slippery than gravel and more durable than concrete. Workers laid the entire surface in sixty-three days. Drivers made their first test laps on the new brickyard surface on December fourteenth, nineteen oh nine.
The first five-hundred-mile race was held on May thirtieth, nineteen eleven, Memorial Day. An estimated eighty thousand people attended. Ray Harroun, an engineer with the Marmon Motor Car Company of Indianapolis, started twenty-eighth and won. His car, the Marmon Wasp, was a single-seat design, unusual for the era. Other drivers complained that Harroun, racing alone without a riding mechanic to watch traffic, was a hazard. He responded by mounting a small mirror to the cowl of the Wasp, angled so he could see what was coming from behind. It is believed to be the first rearview mirror fitted to a racing car. Harroun won at an average of seventy-four miles per hour.
Almost all the original bricks are now buried under asphalt. One yard of the original surface remains exposed at the start-finish line. Drivers who win still climb out and kiss the bricks.
