What was the average speed of the first winner of the Indianapolis 500, Ray Harroun in 1911?
Indianapolis 500 is a car race held every year the last weekend in May. The event celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011, as the inaugural race took place in 1911, writing the name of its winner in history.
Ray Harroun won the first race with an average speed of 74.602 Mph. It took him 6 hours, 42 minutes and 8 seconds to drive the famous 500 miles. He was nicknamed the little professor for his innovative work on the Marmon Wasp (including a rear-view mirror), and drove for Marmon (an automobile manufacture) from 1909 to 1911. He was more of an engineer than of a racer, and, as he said, he only drove to watch his creations working.
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19 Comments
✨KRISTA✨
I have been to the modern day 500 many times. It is truly a spectacle of racing!🏎
earlepg
Kimberly Kennedy, It wasn't unusual back in 1965.
Robert Oldenburg
I had seen the number before and knew it to be a two digit number. Turned out using double chance wasn’t needed.
Kimberly Kennedy
75 mph is the current speed limit on most U.S. interstate highways. If they could have seen the future.
Mr.LaFaye
If you want to see it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DObRkFU6-Rw
Joseph A. Robitaille
Wrond=g answer
Julie Allen
Gery Tillmanns, Almost everywhere but the USA. I had to convert from kph.
Rob Farr
Wow, that would have been a real effort in the cars of that day .... a great sports history trivia question and explanation.
Gery Tillmanns
That would be 120 km/h in Canada!
Bill Coe
Stop! Stop! You're both right. The 2016 race marked a milestone as the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. The race came five years after the event's Centennial Era, a three-year long commemoration which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the opening of the circuit (1909), and the 100th anniversary of the first Indy 500 (1911).
Bernadine Martin
Good guess
Mark Johnson
Check your sources. The 100th Anniversary was 2016.
( EIGHT**BALL)
Got it right.
Jack Kircher
I figured it couldn't be too fast since even in the thirties, if you went 35 in town you got a speeding ticket! My dad told me that the cop would place his knee on the running board of the car (used as a step to climb into the car), and use his knee as a table to write out the ticket!
Vicki Dani
On a track made of brick, hence "The Old Brickyard"