Kristin Hayes, age 11, of Creswell, Ore., for her question
WHEN WAS THE FIRST INDY 500 HELD?
This year's Indy 500 automobile race was won by a driver named A1 Unser. More than a million dollars was given away to the 33 drivers who competed, with A1 receiving a record $290,363.70. Average speed for the race which had an attendance over 300,000 ¬was 161.363 miles per hour. It marked the third time
All had won the famous 500 mile contest.
Most famous and important automobile race in the world is the Indianapolis 500, usually called the Indy 500. Held in Indiana's state capital each Memorial Day weekend, the race attracts the largest paid audience of any sporting event in the world.
This year's speed for the race of 161.363 was not a record run. Tops for the 500 mile race was the 162.962 set by the late Mark Donohue in the 1972 competition.
The 1978 race marked the 62nd running of the Indianapolis 500. No. 1 was held in 1911, and the winner was a driver named Ray Harroun. The average speed for the first Indy 500 was 74.59 miles an hours.
In that first Indy 500, a total of 40 race cars were in the lineup. Harroun drove a Marmon Wasp and started in the sixth row.
The 1911 race took 6 hours, 42 minutes and 8 seconds to complete, while the 1978 race was run in a total of 3 hours, 5 minutes and 54.99 seconds.
Ray Harroun's prize for winning the first Indy 500 was $14,000, just $276,363.70 short of the amount won in 1978 by A1 Unser for his first place finish.
Right from the first race in 1911, the Indianapolis 500 became a spectator favorite. Speeds mounted quickly with 82.47 miles an hour average set by Rene Thomas in the 1914 race which lasted 6 hours and 3 minutes, to the 5 hour, 38 minute race in 1920 where Gaston Chevrolet averaged 88.62 miles per hour.
The first race with an average speed above 100 miles per hour was held in 1925. That year's classic was won by Peter DePaolo in 4 hours and 56 minutes, with an average speed of 101.13 miles an hour.
Conducting the Indianapolis 500 and about a dozen other Championship Trial races during the year, including 500 mile runs at Pocono, Pa., and Ontario, Calif., is an organization called the United States Auto Club.
To qualify for the Indy 500, drivers must compete in time trials held on the two weekends before the race. Thirty three make it into the race, and they begin the contest with a rolling start of 11 rows, three cars in each row.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has a track that is two and a half miles around. The first driver to complete 200 laps wins the world's most important automobile race.