Blueprint of IMS

On April 4, 1909 the Indianapolis Star published several images and a brief article (which can be found elsewhere on First Super Speedway) describing progress on the construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Curiously while they note that the first official event would be the national championship balloon race it also reports that plans called for racing to begin April 23. Given the images associated with the article this is obviously not realistic.
 
The article suggests that the Speedway, while six miles to the west of downtown, was easily accessible especially to the motorist as Fall Creek Road provided ideal "spinning around." Garages, restaurants and "spacious restrooms" were reportedly under construction.
 
This particular image is of a schematic that lays out the track's facilities. The contract to do much of the work was  to a company known as the King Brothers. One hundred men were employed using 72 mules three 15-ton steam engines. Beyond the track the plan called for grandstands as well as training quarters for the factory teams to be constructed. Railroad tracks were being built that led up to the course. The project plan called for the work to be complete in 60 days.
 
Check out the other images from this edition of the newspaper: a mule cart on the banking, steam engines and three mule carts.