28 replies to this topic

[mac miller]

Well, as I drive on 16th street everyday, I see the billboard proclaiming this years Indy500 to be "the most important race in history" (I assume they really mean "the most important Indy500 in history).......... I can't recall, in my lifetime, any truely important race ever being contested with worn out, 8 year old specracer jalopies.
In true historical prospective, the importance of this race would be in the bottom 10 percent.

The real question is "Which Indy 500 was really the most important in history?"

1911 - because it was the first one.

1946 - because it was a miracle that the track and the race were saved after WW2.

1964/1965 - because, for better or worse, these races were the battle, to the death, between the front engine and rear engine cars

mac miller in INDY




http://www.youtube.c.../macmiller46241

[Ray Bell]

Why would an Indy 500 rank as the most important, anyway?

Surely the very first race would be more important, predating Indy by nearly twenty years?

Or a race which changed the course of automotive history or design? In that regard, the 1911 race introduced the rear vision mirror, we're told, so that might be 'important'.

[stevewf1]

It may be the most hyped race in history. Sadly. Thankfully, since the once-famous "Month of May" has been shortened, we only have to endure this for a couple of weeks...

[johnny yuma]

How about the first Monaco Gran Prix, Avril 1929 ? Kind of set the stage for what we have today to some degree in F1.

[fbarrett]

Looking back through our collective memories, can any of us truly claim that any single race is truly "important" on a global and human level? Racing is not, in and of itself, an "important" factor in the past, present, or future of the human race. That said, one or more past races might be considered more "important" than other races. But what do you really mean by "important"?

Frank

Edited by fbarrett, 09 May 2011 - 02:28.

[RA Historian]

Yeah, they bill it as "the most important race in history." We all know that it is not. Just advertising and hyperbole, which go hand in hand. Realize that, and just sit back and enjoy it.
Tom

[chdphd]

I wonder how they'll market the 100th running of the Indy 500.

[Bauble]

Well I would think that the Paris - Rouen of 1894 must have a pretty good claim to 'the most important motor race' title, it being the first of them all!!

Other than that the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour, made the most impact on the world of motor racing.

[Allan Lupton]

Well I would think that the Paris - Rouen of 1894 must have a pretty good claim to 'the most important motor race' title, it being the first of them all!!

Other than that the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hour, made the most impact on the world of motor racing.

I'd say that the impact of the 1903 Paris-Madrid was similar to that Le Mans.
However this search for something to match the ad-man's slogan is inevitably pointless, so let us not debate it endlessly.

[T54]

Mac is actually asking, which of the Indy 500 races was the most important, not that the Indy 500 of any year was the most important race in history...

The real question is "Which Indy 500 was really the most important in history?"

So would it be the first one, in 1911, or another?
There are several other candidates in my humble opinion. What's yours?

[Amphicar]

Mac is actually asking, which of the Indy 500 races was the most important, not that the Indy 500 of any year was the most important race in history...



So would it be the first one, in 1911, or another?
There are several other candidates in my humble opinion. What's yours?

My nomination would be the first 500 in 1911 - not just because it was the first race but because Ray Haroun's winning Marmon Wasp introduced the rear-view mirror, allowing him to dispense with a riding mechanic. As riding mechanics continued in Grand Prix racing until 1925, this was a rare example of Indy racing pioneering something that would later become universal racing practice.

My second choice would be the 1961 race - because of Jack Brabham's drive in the mid-engined Cooper - the first chimes of the death knell for the traditional front-engined Indy roadster.

[arttidesco]

From an active drivers and possibly some spectators perspective the next race is always the most important so the marketing men may not have got it entirely wrong, from a historic perspective I do not see how any could have had a greater impact than the first in 1911 which set the precedent for all the others, though there are of course many other candidates in which interesting precedents were set including 1913 first European entries 1961 first entry with a motor in the back and so on.

Jolly difficult to pin down that word 'important' which is probably why the marketing men used it.

[Amphicar]

If we go beyond the Indy 500 (and indeed beyond motor racing), my nomination for "the most important race in history" is the 1929 Schneider Trophy race at Calshot Spit (though a case could also be made for the 1927 and 1931 races).

[Vitesse2]

My nomination would be the first 500 in 1911 - not just because it was the first race but because Ray Haroun's winning Marmon Wasp introduced the rear-view mirror, allowing him to dispense with a riding mechanic. As riding mechanics continued in Grand Prix racing until 1925, this was a rare example of Indy racing pioneering something that would later become universal racing practice.

Surely Harroun was merely taking advantage of a loophole in the rules which specified two seats but not two people? Which was quickly "corrected". In Formule Internationale racing, two seaters were still specified until the introduction of the 1934-37 Formula, even though riding mechanics were not.

As for it being "pioneering" - there were single-seaters at Brooklands before 1911, Nautilus, KN and the recently-discussed Toodles II being just three examples.

[Vitesse2]

I wonder how they'll market the 100th running of the Indy 500.

D'you think there'll actually be one?

[Roger Clark]

In Formule Internationale racing, two seaters were still specified until the introduction of the 1934-37 Formula, even though riding mechanics were not.

What do you mean by "specified"?

[arttidesco]

My nomination would be the first 500 in 1911 - because Ray Haroun's winning Marmon Wasp introduced the rear-view mirror, allowing him to dispense with a riding mechanic. As riding mechanics continued in Grand Prix racing until 1925, this was a rare example of Indy racing pioneering something that would later become universal racing practice.

Continuing that line of thought my nominations include 1950 the first time fuel injectors were used in the Indy 500 some years before they first appeared in Grand Prix cars IIRC, 1952 rates as important thanks to the #28 entry not only because of the number of turbo diesel powered vehicles found on the roads these days my 'daily driver' included, but also 25 years before a turbo appeared attached to the 'Tea Pot' at Silverstone,;)

[Vitesse2]

What do you mean by "specified"?

As in "written into the rules" Even in the almost unknown and never-implemented 1931-33 formula, which specifies a minimum measurement for the width of the cockpit and a maximum for how far back the mechanic's seat could be positioned.

Edited by Vitesse2, 09 May 2011 - 16:59.

[Roger Clark]

As in "written into the rules" Even in the almost unknown and never-implemented 1931-33 formula, which specifies a minimum measurement for the width of the cockpit and a maximum for how far back the mechanic's seat could be positioned.

I thought that formula was withdrawn.

[LB]

Strangely I'd go very recent 1996, because it was the first one after the split, It was important because it started the decline of the Indy 500 and the rise of Nascar as the dominant force in US motorsports.

[T54]

I wonder how they'll market the 100th running of the Indy 500.

D'you think there'll actually be one?

Indy car racing will be run on fermented carrot juice augmented by pedal-power by then, according the the Green Plan engineered by the Evil Archer-Midland Co and the loons in our gov... car bodies will be made of sod!

[chdphd]

D'you think there'll actually be one?;)

I hope so and that I'll be around to see it

[stevewf1]

Strangely I'd go very recent 1996, because it was the first one after the split, It was important because it started the decline of the Indy 500 and the rise of Nascar as the dominant force in US motorsports.

I'll go with that.

[johnny yuma]

A shame cars weren't around for the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush.Would have made the Baja look like an octagenarians tea party. Ten thousand allotments grabbed around Guthrie in half a day after a rattling race on wagon,horseback or shanks pony across the "reservation" from the border start line.. Now that was a race with Purpose ! And plenty of cheating !

Edited by johnny yuma, 11 May 2011 - 06:24.

[Lee Nicolle]

I wonder how they'll market the 100th running of the Indy 500.

100 years, not the 100th race . The war [s] intruded on some of those years.

[Tim Murray]

Hence chdphd's question.

[Vitesse2]

Hence chdphd's question.

... not to mention IMS having been trumpeting their "centennial era" since 2009, a hundred years after the track opened.

[Michael Ferner]

Mac is actually asking, which of the Indy 500 races was the most important, not that the Indy 500 of any year was the most important race in history...



So would it be the first one, in 1911, or another?
There are several other candidates in my humble opinion. What's yours?

I'll vote for 1946, the postwar miracle. 1911 would be next. 1965 and 1974 were pretty important, too, after those disasters in the previous years.

[E1pix]

IMHO.... for whatever it's worth as a lifetime fan of that event.... Indy Car is looking much better this year than it's looked for 15 years.... and I believe the long drought is over (Thanks Again, Tony!).

I'd certainly prefer it didn't use spec chassis, but if they hadn't have done that it would be Game Over. "No Choice in the current climate" comes to mind, and of course a big part of that is to save itself from the stifling effects of NASCAR and the resulting shortage of sponsors left over.

Though I don't particularly agree with 'most important race in history' concept, certainly the race is inescapably more important than many have quoted here so far.