The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race also known as the “Indy 500” celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011.  The race is held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana in a suburb known as Speedway, Indiana.  The event is held over the       Memorial Day weekend and draws a tremendous crowd.  It is billed as “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” and is considered one of the three most prestigious           motorsports events in the world, the largest single-day sporting event in the entire world.  On the 100 year anniversary, the total purse exceeded $13 million, with over $2.5 million awarded to the winner, making it one of the richest cash prize funds in sports.  Traditionally, the field consists of 33 starters, aligned in a starting grid of eleven rows of 3 cars apiece.  The Indy cars are professional-level, single seat, open cockpit, open-wheel, purpose-built race cars. The Speedway is a 2.5 mile oval circuit and the racers run counterclockwise around the circuit 200 laps for a distance of 500 miles.  The original complex was built in 1909 as a gravel and tar track.  The first long distance event was the 100-lap Prest-O-Lite Trophy.  The asphalt just couldn’t take that kind of abuse and began to breakup leading to two fatal accidents in the first two long-distance events, which were 250 and 300 mile races.  The fact that the paying crowds were upward of 40,000 convinced the owner Carl Fisher to invest $155,000 to repave the track with 3.2 million bricks.

Read the article in its entirety in the May 2014 Bevil newsletter, which accompanies the cover.