Mark Dill's blog

This week's feature article focuses on the December 17 & 18, 1909 time trials staged at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After a disastrous first auto racing meet on a running surface of crushed stone and "asphaltum oil" where five men were killed (including two spectators - Homer Joliff and James West), Speedway management had to take steps to make the track safer or there would be no track. After some deliberation they arrived at a brick surface as the most durable, fastest and safest paving material.