1912 Indianapolis 500

The 1912 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, or International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race, the second such race in history, was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday, May 30, 1912.

No race is won until the tape is crossed and I realized that all the time. It's hard luck, but it's all in the game.
I did my best, and since I've lost out, I'm for the man who picked the prize.

— Ralph DePalma, post-race interview

2nd Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis 500
Sanctioning body	AAA
Date	30 May 1912
Winner	Joe Dawson
Winning Entrant	National Motor Vehicle Company
Average speed	78.719 mph (126.686 km/h)
Pole position	Gil Andersen
Pole speed	N/A
Most laps led	Ralph DePalma (196)
Pre-race
Pace car	Stutz
Pace car driver	Carl G. Fisher
Starter	Fred J. Wagner[1]
Honorary referee	R. P. Hooper[1]
Estimated attendance	75,000[2]
Chronology
Previous Next 1911 1913

Dawson after winning

Joe Dawson winning the race

The 1912 winning car, now located at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum

Ralph DePalma and Rupert Jeffkins, pushing the Mercedes down the main straightaway at the conclusion of the 1912 500-Mile Race.

Gil Andersen's crashed Stutz at T3.

Mel Marquette's wrecked McFarlan.

Bob Burman's crashed Cutting

Results

In the aftermath of victory by Ray Harroun in the single-seat Marmon "Wasp" in the first 500-Mile Race the year before, new rules made the presence of riding mechanics mandatory; maximum engine size remained 600 cubic inches (9.83 liters) displacement. At $50,000, the race purse was nearly double that of 1911.

Out of 29 original entries, 24 qualified for the race by sustaining a speed faster than a minimum of 75 mph (120.7 km/h) for a full lap, an increase from the quarter-mile qualifying distance of the inaugural year. David L. Bruce-Brown runs fastest at 88.45 mph (142.35 km/h), but starting positions were again determined by entry date. Lining up five cars to the first four rows and four to a fifth, a change from the previous year's starting method was movement of the pace car, a Stutz, from the inside of the first row to out in front of the field.

Upon wave of the then-red starting flag, Teddy Tetzlaff took the lead in a Fiat from the third starting position in the center of the first row, and lead for the first two laps before being overtaken by the grey # 4 Mercedes of Italian-born Ralph DePalma.

DePalma's domination of most of the event was total, as he built an eventual five-and-a-half lap, eleven-minute advantage over second, and lead uncontested for the next 194 laps...before suffering one of the most confounding mechanical failures in motorsport history at the beginning of lap 197, as his Mercedes began misfiring, and slowed on the main stretch at the conclusion of the lap. Nursed through the 198th lap by DePalma at reduced speed, the car finally lost all power at the end of the backstretch on lap 199, as a broken connecting rod tore a hole in the crankcase.

With the car's momentum carrying it around to the fourth turn, DePalma and riding mechanic Rupert Jeffkins then entered themselves into motor racing lore, as well as inspired the cheers of the more than 80,000 in attendance, as they climbed from the vehicle and begin pushing it down the five-eighths of a mile main stretch toward the start-finish line.

Indianapolis driver Joe Dawson and riding mechanic Harry Martin, running in the second position for most of the race in their blue and white National Motor Vehicle Company entry, finally passed DePalma midway down the main stretch to assume the lead for the concluding two laps, a record that would be held for the fewest led laps in history until 2011, following DePalma's 196 laps in the lead being the most ever in a race by a non-winner. Finishing more than ten minutes ahead of newly-second place Tetzlaff, Dawson completed another two laps for good measure upon fear of a scoring miscue. Sometime thereafter, DePalma and Jeffkins finally brought their car across the line, but in twofold futile endeavour: Speedway rules, requiring that all entries move under their own power, marked DePalma's final number of circuits at 198, and the push across the line, even if it counted, brought them only to the beginning of the final lap.

Dawson's run in the American-manufactured, four-cylinder National, with a winning time of 6:21:06 and averaging 78.719 mph (126.686 km/h), ws twenty-one minutes two seconds faster than the previous 1911 record; The National team garnered $20,000 and additional contingency awards.

Throughout the remainder of the field, only the top ten finishers earned prize money, rules stipulating all entries complete the 500 miles (800 km) to collect. Ralph Mulford, being forced to stop numerous times due to clutch problems in his Knox, found irritation with the requirement and proceeded to drive on, long after all others were presented the chequered flag...and even after Speedway president Carl Fisher and starter Fred Wagner left the grounds (the latter after getting into an argument over whether to flag Mulford off before he had completed the distance, Wagner in favor and Fisher against).

Through numerous accounts of the run, including his reportedly changing shock absorbers for a gentler ride, as well as stopping for a dinner-on-the-go of fried chicken and ice-cream with his riding mechanic, Mulford's finish finally arrived, amid deserted grandstands and a setting sun over the main straightaway, 8 hours and 53 minutes after the start (approximately 6:53 p.m. local time), and with an average speed of 56.285 mph (90.582 km/h), which remains a record: the slowest finishing speed to date in 500 history.

Official results

Qualification results

Entries required to complete one lap in excess of 75 mph (120.7 km/h) to qualify, but starting grid determined by order of entry date.

Driver			Far Inside			Inside Center			Center			Outside Center			Far Outside
Time	Speed
	(mph)	(km/h)
Row 1			Gil Andersen			Len Zengel  R			Teddy Tetzlaff			† Ralph DePalma			Eddie Hearne
			0:01:51.21	80.93	130.24	0:01:54.14	78.85	126.90	0:01:46.84	84.24	135.57	0:01:44.63	86.02	138.44	0:01:49.96	81.85	131.72
Row 2			Spencer Wishart			Joe Dawson			Howdy Wilcox			Harry Knight			Bert Dingley  R
			0:01:47.21	83.95	135.10	0:01:44.49	86.13	138.61	0:01:43.21	87.20	140.33	0:01:58.55	75.92	122.18	0:01:51.43	80.77	129.99
Row 3			Johnny Jenkins  R			Bob Burman			Eddie Rickenbacker  R  Qualified by Lee Frayer			Billy Liesaw  R			Bill Endicott
			0:01:51.36	80.82	130.07	0:01:47.00	84.11	135.36	0:01:56.43	77.30	124.40	0:01:56.11	77.51	124.74	0:01:51.70	80.57	129.66
Row 4			Ralph Mulford			Hughie Hughes			Joe Horan  R			Mel Marquette			Len Ormsby  R
			0:01:42.41	87.88	141.43	0:01:50.01	81.81	131.66	0:01:51.83	80.48	129.52	0:01:55.27	78.08	125.66	0:01:47.03	84.09	135.33
Row 5			Joe Matson  R			Charlie Merz			David L. Bruce-Brown			Louis Disbrow
			0:01:52.64	79.90	128.59	0:01:54.10	78.88	126.95	0:01:41.75	88.45	142.35	0:01:57.59	76.54	123.18

Race results

Race finishing times recorded down to second intervals.

All entries still running at conclusion scored ahead of non-finishing entries, regardless of race completion percentage.

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Cyl	Displ (in³) (L)	Color	Qual Speed (mph) (km/h)	Rank	Start Pos	Laps Led	Laps Run	Time	Speed (mph) (km/h)	Status	Prize Money ($)
1	8	Joe Dawson*[3]	National	National Motor Vehicle Company	National	National	4	491 8.05	blue / white	86.13 138.61	4	7	2	200	6:21:06	78.719 126.686	finished	20,000
2	3	Teddy Tetzlaff	Fiat	E. E. Hewlett	Fiat	Fiat	4	589 9.65	red	84.24 135.57	6	3	2	200	6:31:29 +0:10:23	76.632 123.327	finished	10,000
3	21	Hughie Hughes	Mercer	Mercer Motors Company	Mercer	Mercer	4	301 4.93	yellow	81.81 131.66	11	17	0	200	6:33:09 +0:12:03	76.307 122.804	finished	5,000
4	28	Charlie Merz	Stutz	Ideal Motor Car Company	Stutz	Wisconsin	4	390 6.39	gray	78.88 126.95	18	22	0	200	6:34:40 +0:13:34	76.014 122.333	finished	3,000
5	18	Bill Endicott	Schacht	Schacht Motor Car Company	Schacht	Wisconsin	4	390 6.39	red	80.57 129.66	15	15	0	200	6:46:28 +0:25:22	73.807 118.781	finished	2,500
6	2	Len Zengel  R	Stutz	Ideal Motor Car Company	Stutz	Wisconsin	4	390 6.39	gray	78.85 126.90	19	2	0	200	6:50:28 +0:29:22	73.088 117.624	finished	2,000
7	14	Johnny Jenkins  R	White	White Motor Company	White	White	6	490 8.03	white	80.82 130.07	13	11	0	200	6:52:38 +0:31:32	72.704 117.006	finished	1,500
7	22	Joe Horan  R	Lozier	Dr. W. H. Chambers	Lozier	Lozier	4	545 8.39	white / red	80.48 129.52	16	18	0	200	6:59:38 +0:38:32	71.491 115.054	finished	1,400
9	9	Howdy Wilcox	National	National Motor Vehicle Company	National	National	4	590 9.67	blue / white	87.20 140.33	3	8	0	200	7:11:30 +0:50:24	69.525 111.890	finished	1,300
10	19	Ralph Mulford	Knox	Ralph Mulford	Knox	Knox	6	597 9.78	white / red	87.88 141.43	2	16	0	200	8:53:00 +2:31:54	56.285 90.582	finished	1,200
11	4	† Ralph DePalma	Mercedes	E. J. Schroeder	Mercedes	Mercedes	4	583 9.55	gray	86.02 138.44	5	4	196	198	did not finish		connecting rod	0
12	15	Bob Burman	Cutting	Clark-Carter Auto Company	Cutting	Cutting	4	598 9.80	white / red	84.11 135.36	7	12	0	157	did not finish		accident, turn two	0
13	12	Bert Dingley  R	Simplex	Bert Dingley	Simplex	Simplex	4	597 9.67	red / white	80.77 129.99	14	10	0	116	did not finish		connecting rod	0
14	25	Joe Matson  R	Lozier	O. Applegate	Lozier	Lozier	4	545 8.93	white / red	79.90 128.59	17	21	0	110	did not finish		crackshaft	0
15	7	Spencer Wishart	Mercedes	Spencer Wishart	Mercedes	Mercedes	4	583 9.55	gray / black / red	83.95 135.10	9	6	0	82	did not finish		water connection	0
16	1	Gil Andersen	Stutz	Ideal Motor Car Company	Stutz	Wisconsin	4	390 6.39	gray / white	80.93 130.24	12	1	0	80	did not finish		accident, turn three	0
17	17	Billy Liesaw  R	Marquette-Buick	Will Thomson	Marquette	Buick	4	594 9.73	tan / red	77.51 124.74	21	14	0	72	did not finish		caught fire	0
18	46	Louis Disbrow	Case	J. I. Case T. M. Company	Case	Case	6	450 7.37	white / red	76.54 123.18	23	24	0	67	did not finish		differential pin	0
19	23	Mel Marquette	McFarlan	Speed Motors Company	McFarlan	McFarlan	6	425 6.96	gray	78.08 125.66	20	19	0	63	did not finish		broken wheels	0
20	6	Eddie Hearne	Case	J. I. Case T. M. Company	Case	Case	6	450 7.37	white / red	81.85 131.72	10	5	0	55	did not finish		burned bearing	0
21	16	Eddie Rickenbacker  R	Firestone-Columbus	Columbus Buggy Company	Fiat	Firestone-Columbus	4	345 5.65	crimson / black	77.30 124.40	22	13	0	43	did not finish		intake valve	0
22	29	David L. Bruce-Brown	National	National Motor Vehicle Company	National	National	4	590 9.67	blue / white	88.45 142.35	1	23	0	25	did not finish		valve trouble	0
23	10	Harry Knight	Lexington	Lexington Motor Car Company	Lexington	Lexington	6	422 6.92	brown / white	75.92 122.18	24	9	0	6	did not finish		engine trouble	0
24	26	Len Ormsby  R	Opel	I. C. Stern & B. C. Noble	Opel	Opel	4	450 7.37	gray / red	84.09 135.33	8	20	0	5	did not finish		connecting rod	0

*Joe Dawson was relieved by Don Herr for laps 108-144.

† De Palma is usually shown as American, but his application for a US passport (available at ) reveals that he did not become a US citizen until 1920

Notes

Race field average engine displacement:

• 491.46 in³ / 8.05 L

Race field average qualifying speed:

• 81.762 mph / 131.583 km/h

Finishing entries average time and finishing speed:

• 6:57:25 (-8:02 from previous year and previous record)
• 72.457 mph / 116.609 km/h (+1.717 mph / +2.763 km/h, from previous year and previous record)

Race details

• For 1912, riding mechanics were made mandatory.[4]
• Don Herr relieved Joe Dawson for several laps.

Works cited

• Popely, Rick and L. Spencer Riggs. Indianapolis 500 Chronicle. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International, Ltd., 1999. ISBN 978-0-7853-2798-1
• 2006 Indianapolis 500 Official Program

References

1. Fox, Jack C. (1994). The Illustrated History of the Indianapolis 500 1911-1994 (4th ed.). Carl Hungness Publishing. p. 22. ISBN 0-915088-05-3.
2. Greenough, Walter S. (May 31, 1912). "Motor Mad Throng Sees Indiana Boy Win $35,000". The Indianapolis Star. p. 1. Retrieved June 3, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
3. Associated Press (June 19, 1946). "Joseph Dawson, 56, Auto Racing Figure". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-17. Joseph Dawson, winner of the 500 mile national sweepstakes auto race at ...
4. Blazier, John E.; Rollings, Tom (1994). Forgotten Heroes of the Speedways: The Riding Mechanics.