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.
 
In 1903, Harroun was part of a four-man team that set the original land speed record for driving from Chicago to New York. Harroun got into racing while doing some engine work for the very strong Buick racing team of Bob Burman, Louis Strang, and Louis Chevrolet. Harroun entered his first race in 1906 when the Buick team gave him a car for a race at Lowell, Massachusetts, where finished second to Louis Chevrolet.
 
Harroun was subsequently employed by Marmon Motor Company as an engineer. In 1910, he was the company's lead driver in automobile races and won three of the nineteen AAA sanctioned races entered. While the AAA did not award points during the season, Motor Age recognized him as the American automobile champion for 1910. Retroactively, in 1927, a points table was created and Harroun was at the top of the list. Upon completion of the 1910 racing season, Harroun told the Marmons that he was not going to continue to compete.
 
In 1910, he partnered with Carl S. Bates to develop an airplane engine and a monoplane with a steel frame, aluminum sheet skin and front mounted 24-horsepower Bates-Harroun engine.
 
He had a change of mind about racing and for the inaugural Indianapolis 500, he designed a one-seater car.  (Editor's note: The Marmon Wasp was not designed for the 1911 Indianapolis 500. It was designed for the Speedway and first appeard there in 1910.) Everybody else in the field had two seats, one for the driver and the other for the riding mechanic. This design cut the weight of the car and reduced resistance. Having seen a taxi driver in Chicago use a mirror extended on a pole to see what was behind him, Harroun attached a small mirror to the front cowl of the car. This brought complaints from the competitors that he was given an unfair advantage. He would later tell people that the mirror “shook so badly I couldn’t see a darn thing in it anyway.” Observing that the cars which frequently led in races had tire issues, he developed a strategy of driving at a steady pace. He believed if he drove 75 mph, he could win the race.
 
On May 30th, 1911, he climbed into the single seat yellow and black race car called the Wasp. He pursued his victory with an assisted by Cyrus Patschke as his relief driver. Starting in the 28th position, Harroun was in seventh place by the eighth lap. They finished first with an average speed of 74.6 mph. For his efforts, he won $10,000 in gold. Afterwards, the AAA banned the car from further competition.
 
Before moving to the Maxwell Company, he designed a six-cylinder, 48 horsepower engine for Marmon (the Marmon 48) . As chief engineer for Maxwell, he designed the car Eddie Rickenbacker drove in the 1915 Indianapolis 500.  During his long engineering career, which spanned a half-century, Harroun invented several automotive devices including a carburetor to convert gasoline engines to kerosene fuel. Working in his basement, Harroun invented and patented a tubular bumper. Harroun conceived the idea of aluminum wheel covers to reduce wind resistance and increase a car speed.
 
He began the Harroun Motor Car Company in Wayne, Michigan, in 1916.  Harroun Motor Car Company raised $10 million in stock. The company began operations in an 80,000 square feet building and the next year, Harroun added a 1,220,000 square foot factory. He designed the five passenger Harroun Model A-1 powered by an inline 4-cylinder engine capable of 16 mph. The car had a 107 inch wheelbase, and a 3-speed manual transmission. He fitted his cars with a shock absorbing steering wheel he developed to reduce driver fatigue. The company was producing 200 cars per day. In the spring of 1918, the company got a government contract for 200,000 artillery shells. Harroun planned to produce both the autos and the shells, but the Federal Government insisted that the factory could produce only 25 cars per day. During World War I, the company produced 23,899 shells weighing 93 pounds each. The company failed in 1920.
 
Harroun met Alex Pribil when he was working for Marmon. In the mid-1930s, Harroun joined Pribil and designed the Pribil Safety Air Car, an early motorhome. It was streamlined, had room for eight passengers, slept four and was equipped with a sink, table, refrigerator and radio. It got an amazing 50 miles per gallon. It was to be unveiled at the 1938 Chicago Auto Show. Pribil died shortly before the show and the motorhome never entered production.
 
During World War II, he designed a bomb carrier which was still being used in Vietnam.
 
As part of the celebration of fifty years of racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he helped Tony Hulman to lay the Golden Brick in the yard of bricks at the start/finish line. He drove the Marmon Wasp, which is part of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum collection, on demonstration laps as part of the 25th celebration of racing at IMS in 1937 and 1961. 
 
He died on January 18, 1968, in Anderson, Indiana. Upon learning of his death, Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman commented that Harroun was “an inspiration to three generations of ‘500’ contestants who combined charm and dignity with all the other qualities of a racing champion.”
 
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