[Skip Fix]

My Dad was a big photographer (his Dad made movies in the 40s and 50s). He was at Purdue in 1949 getting his Masters in Mechanical Engineering -after WWII delayed his Texas A&M Bachelor in ME. He always talked about going to Indy while there so I think these must be from them.

[Skip Fix]

More

[Skip Fix]

A few more -check out the scaffolds one even in a truck bed!

[Skip Fix]

This looks like an adjacent dirt track for midgets. One looks like the lights are on some maybe an evening/night race, or maybe a different exposure on one they are not as visible.
35 mm I think his Argus camera.

[indymanjoe]

Awesome pics! thanks for sharing.

[carcrazy]

Thanks for sharing...great pics!

[b-man]

Wow.

Talk about historical racing photos !

Very skillful photographer capturing those Indy cars at speed. I love the wire wheels leaning against the pit wall and the Radio Flyer wagon carrying what looks to be batteries.

Incredible, these shots should be published somewhere other than just on a Pontiac internet forum.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by Skip Fix

My Dad was a big photographer (his Dad made movies in the 40s and 50s). He was at Purdue in 1949 getting his Masters in Mechanical Engineering -after WWII delayed his Texas A&M Bachelor in ME. He always talked about going to Indy while there so I think these must be from them.

Yep. The pits on the front straightaway when the old grandstands were still at IMS.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by Skip Fix

This looks like an adjacent dirt track for midgets. One looks like the lights are on some maybe an evening/night race, or maybe a different exposure on one they are not as visible.
35 mm I think his Argus camera.

That is what became Indianapolis Raceway Park in Avon, IN. It was a dirt track decades before it was paved.

[mgarblik]

Thanks for those great pics. I just love the Indy 500. The history, the size, the pageantry, the memorial remembrances for our military,the entire month of May. I have been to over 20 races and they all have highlights, even this year. A few tidbits about the 1949 race. Race won by Bill Holland, car #7, starting from the inside of row 2. Blue Crown Spark Plug special. Offenhauser engine. qualifying speed 128.67 mph. Race speed ave: 121.327 mph. Laps led: 146, (200) Margin of victory 3m 11 sec. Winning driver Holland had finished each of the two previous years in second to Mauri Rose. Offy roadsters dominated Indy in this period for 15+ years. Finally, in 1965, Jim Clark broke the incredible streak with a rear engine car and as they say, the rest is history. Thanks again for the first hand pictures.

[Skip Fix]

My dad being an engineer and a math guy got into SCCA Rally with a friend that had an Alfa. Since in Rally you can not be too early or late to check points you had to do math to tell how much and how long to speed up or slow down. back then it was all slide rule calculations! They did pretty good in the Dallas SCCA. He took me to soem road races and drag races at Green Valley and came and watched my impala at the drags in '72 and came out to the drag strip when i was up in Dallas for the Pontiac Southern Nationals.
His WWII delay was being at Oegon State for some Special Detail training then at Los Alamos in the Special Engineering Detail-main job hauling high explosives for the detonators.

[Jack Gifford]

Originally Posted by hurryinhoosier62

... That is what became Indianapolis Raceway Park in Avon, IN...

Raceway Park (now Lucas) is in the town of Brownsburg. Where is Avon?

[tempest1964]

Avon is just west of Indianapolis. Just head west on Rockville Rd (SR 36). It's just inside of Hendricks County, just outside of Marion Co (Indianapolis).

[johnta1]

Wasn't Indy (dragstrip) considered in Avon, until the Pro's came to Brownsburg? (and they change address?)

I remember always going by Bob Glidden's place when we went to the dragstrip. (and some others, can't remember names)

[Steve C.]

Great stuff ! !


.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Thanks for those great pics. I just love the Indy 500. The history, the size, the pageantry, the memorial remembrances for our military,the entire month of May. I have been to over 20 races and they all have highlights, even this year. A few tidbits about the 1949 race. Race won by Bill Holland, car #7, starting from the inside of row 2. Blue Crown Spark Plug special. Offenhauser engine. qualifying speed 128.67 mph. Race speed ave: 121.327 mph. Laps led: 146, (200) Margin of victory 3m 11 sec. Winning driver Holland had finished each of the two previous years in second to Mauri Rose. Offy roadsters dominated Indy in this period for 15+ years. Finally, in 1965, Jim Clark broke the incredible streak with a rear engine car and as they say, the rest is history. Thanks again for the first hand pictures.

Ok - "Donald Davidson"...



K

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Ok - "Donald Davidson"...



K

I am a little embarrassed to say I had to look up Donald Davidson in the IMS musuem page!. I do have a couple coffee table books about the Indy 500. The book I got that info from has about 3 pages of highlights from every Indy 500 run to the time the book was published which was 2016 I think. When those 33 cars come down the front stretch for the green flag to start the race, it's the most exciting 2 minutes in motorsports IMO. The only other thing that comes close for me is night qualifying for the US Nationals in the fuel classes in front of a packed house. Thanks to Arnie Beswick, we were able to run in front of that same crowd a couple times in our Pontiac powered race cars. A gift I can never repay.

[Lightfoot]

Originally Posted by hurryinhoosier62

Yep. The pits on the front straightaway when the old grandstands were still at IMS.

That's what I thought I was seeing. When men were men.
Curious about the refrigerators spaced along the wall down the front stretch. I wonder if they where for cold drinking water for the drivers, or something else. Refrigeration was still pretty new in the late forties, I'm thinking.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

I am a little embarrassed to say I had to look up Donald Davidson in the IMS musuem page!. I do have a couple coffee table books about the Indy 500. The book I got that info from has about 3 pages of highlights from every Indy 500 run to the time the book was published which was 2016 I think. When those 33 cars come down the front stretch for the green flag to start the race, it's the most exciting 2 minutes in motorsports IMO. The only other thing that comes close for me is night qualifying for the US Nationals in the fuel classes in front of a packed house. Thanks to Arnie Beswick, we were able to run in front of that same crowd a couple times in our Pontiac powered race cars. A gift I can never repay.

He was a savant when it came to Indy history. He would do the color commentary with all those type of arcane factoids and details, just off the cuff and completely from memory. Simply amazing.

Now - we have Google.

K

[promptcritical]

I really like the way the early cars look.