Sigur Whitaker is an acclaimed auto racing history book author. First Super Speedway and Sigur are collaborating with this platform for her articles. You can receive her articles directly by subscribing to her e-mail newsletter. If you would like to be added to my subscriber list, please let her know at sigurwhitakerbooks881@gmail.com.

The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926

By Sigur Whitaker
One of the major players in the development of Miami Beach was Carl Fisher, one of the four founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He first fell in love with Miami on a visit in 1910 and decided to build a winter home in Miami.  Pretty soon, Carl, who was always doing something, decided that Miami Beach would be the perfect place to develop. Having been involved along with IMS co-founder Jim Allison in the development of the Speedway City, Fisher quickly saw the possibilities presented by the sun, the sand, and the warm weather.

Sigur Whitaker Book Review, "The Indianapolis Motor Speedway 1928-1945, The Eddie Rickenbacker Era" by Denny Miller

In the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there have only been four ownership groups. The first was Carl Fisher, James Allison, Arthur Newby, and Frank Wheeler who founded the Speedway. In 1927, the Speedway was sold to a consortium led by Eddie Rickenbacker. Tony Hulman bought the Speedway after it was closed during World War II. After Hulman’s death in 1977, his family took control of the Speedway. In 2020, the Hulman-George family sold the Speedway to Roger Penske.
 

Frank Wheeler

Frank Wheeler was the oldest of the four founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the least well known. He was born in 1863 in Manchester, Iowa.
 

Arthur C. Newby

By Sigur Whitaker
 

Speedway Founders, Turkey Run State Park

By Sigur Whitaker
As part of Indiana’s Centennial celebration in 1916, the state decided to set aside some land for state parks. Three areas in Indiana were identified as good places to start a state park system. The first was the dune region on Lake Michigan in northern Indiana, certain parts of Brown County in south central Indiana and the Turkey Run in Parke County. At the time, the US Congress was considering establishing the National Park Service.
 

When The Indy 500 Became Truly International

By Sigur Whitaker
The four Indianapolis 500 cofounders had yet another problem within five years of building the Speedway. Two years previously, the issue was the decline in spectator attendance. They decided to have one race per year, which is now known as the Indianapolis 500. After the 1912 race, they were concerned about the number and quality of the race cars and started discussing their options.

Jules Goux And The 1913 Indianapolis 500

By Sigur Whitaker

First Indy 500 Pace Car

The year was 1911, and the traditional start for auto races was from a standing start. However, unlike the normal field of perhaps five to eight cars, the field of 40 was too great to have a standing start. Carl Fisher thought back to his days of bicycle racing, when they always had a rolling start rather than a standing start. He thought this might work, and the decision was made.
 

Carl Fisher's Turkey Run, Circa 1890's

By Sigur Whitaker
 
Carl Fisher, one of the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was a man of limitless ideas and a marketing genius. In the 1880s and 1890s, he was very involved in bicycling and bicycle races including on a regional (Midwest) basis. In 1891, he and his two brothers, Earl and Robert (Rolla), started a bicycle repair shop in Indianapolis. It soon occurred to Fisher that there was more money to be made in selling bicycles than in repairing bicycles.
 

Ray Harroun

By Sigur Whitaker
Ray Harroun entered the history books of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the first winner of the Indianapolis 500 on May 30th, 1911. His story is much broader than that. He didn’t think of himself as a race car driver but rather as an engineer.
 
Harroun was born in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania, on January 12, 1879. In 1902, he took a job in Chicago as the chauffeur for W. C. Thorn, president of Montgomery Ward & Company. While working for Thorn, he became fascinated by the engine and built one of his own.