1912 Indianapolis 500

2nd Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis 500
Sanctioning body	AAA
Date	May 30, 1912
Winner	Joe Dawson
Winning Entrant	National Motor Vehicle Company
Average speed	78.719 mph (126.686 km/h)
Pole position	Gil Andersen
Pole speed	N/A
Most laps led	Ralph DePalma (196)
Pre-race
Pace car	Stutz
Pace car driver	Carl G. Fisher
Starter	Fred J. Wagner[1]
Honorary referee	R. P. Hooper[1]
Estimated attendance	75,000[2]
Chronology
Previous Next 1911 1913

The 1912 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, or International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race, the second such race in history, was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday, May 30, 1912. Indiana-born driver Joe Dawson won the race, leading only the final two laps. Ralph DePalma dominated the race, leading 196 of the 200 laps, and pulling out to an over 5-lap lead. But with just over two laps to go, his car failed with a broken connecting rod.

In the aftermath of victory by Ray Harroun in the single-seat Marmon "Wasp" in the first 500-Mile Race the year before, new rules made the presence of riding mechanics mandatory; maximum engine size remained 600 cubic inches (9.83 liters) displacement. At $50,000, the race purse was nearly double that of 1911.

Out of 29 original entries, 24 qualified for the race by sustaining a speed faster than a minimum of 75 mph (120.7 km/h) for a full lap, an increase from the quarter-mile qualifying distance of the inaugural year. David Bruce-Brown was fastest at 88.45 mph (142.35 km/h), but starting positions were again determined by entry date. Lining up five cars to the first four rows and four to a fifth, a change from the previous year's starting method was movement of the pace car, a Stutz, from the inside of the first row to out in front of the field.

Upon wave of the then-red starting flag, Teddy Tetzlaff took the lead in a Fiat from the third starting position in the center of the first row, and lead for the first two laps before being overtaken by the grey # 4 Mercedes of Ralph DePalma.

DePalma's domination of most of the event was total, as he built an eventual five-and-a-half lap, eleven-minute advantage over second, and lead uncontested for the next 194 laps. On lap 87, DePalma led his 85th lap and became the all-time Indianapolis 500 lap leader with 89 laps led (he led 4 laps in the 1911 race), a title he would hold until lap 200 of the 1987 race, 75 years later. But at the beginning of lap 197, as his Mercedes began misfiring, and slowed on the main stretch at the conclusion of the lap. Nursed through the 198th lap by DePalma at reduced speed, the car finally lost all power at the end of the backstretch on lap 199, as a broken connecting rod tore a hole in the crankcase.

With the car's momentum carrying it around to the fourth turn, DePalma and riding mechanic Rupert Jeffkins then entered themselves into motor racing lore, as well as inspired the cheers of the more than 80,000 in attendance, as they climbed from the vehicle and begin pushing it down the five-eighths of a mile main stretch toward the start-finish line.

Indianapolis driver Joe Dawson and riding mechanic Harry Martin, running in the second position for most of the race in their blue and white National Motor Vehicle Company entry, finally passed DePalma midway down the main stretch to assume the lead for the concluding two laps, a record that would be held for the fewest led laps in history until 2011, following DePalma's 196 laps in the lead being the most ever in a race by a non-winner. Finishing more than ten minutes ahead of newly-second place Tetzlaff, Dawson completed another two laps for good measure upon fear of a scoring miscue. Sometime thereafter, DePalma and Jeffkins finally brought their car across the line, but in twofold futile endeavour: Speedway rules, requiring that all entries move under their own power, marked DePalma's final number of circuits at 198, and the push across the line, even if it counted, brought them only to the beginning of the final lap.

Dawson's run in the American-manufactured, four-cylinder National, with a winning time of 6:21:06 and averaging 78.719 mph (126.686 km/h), was twenty-one minutes two seconds faster than the previous 1911 record; The National team garnered $20,000 and additional contingency awards.

Throughout the remainder of the field, only the top ten finishers earned prize money, rules stipulating all entries complete the 500 miles (800 km) to collect. Ralph Mulford, being forced to stop numerous times due to clutch problems in his Knox, found irritation with the requirement and proceeded to drive on, long after all others were presented the chequered flag...and even after Speedway president Carl Fisher and starter Fred Wagner left the grounds (the latter after getting into an argument over whether to flag Mulford off before he had completed the distance, Wagner in favor and Fisher against).

Through numerous accounts of the run, including his reportedly changing shock absorbers for a gentler ride, as well as stopping for a dinner-on-the-go of fried chicken and ice-cream with his riding mechanic, Mulford's finish finally arrived, amid deserted grandstands and a setting sun over the main straightaway, 8 hours and 53 minutes after the start (approximately 6:53 p.m. local time), and with an average speed of 56.285 mph (90.582 km/h), which remains a record: the slowest finishing speed to date in 500 history.

Entries were required to complete one lap in excess of 75 mph in order to qualify. However, starting grid was determined by order of entry date.

Driver		Far Inside		Inside Center		Center		Outside Center		Far Outside
Time	(mph)
Row 1		Gil Andersen		Len Zengel  R		Teddy Tetzlaff		Ralph DePalma		Eddie Hearne
		1:51.21	80.93	1:54.14	78.85	1:46.84	84.24	1:44.63	86.02	1:49.96	81.85
Row 2		Spencer Wishart		Joe Dawson		Howdy Wilcox		Harry Knight		Bert Dingley  R
		1:47.21	83.95	1:44.49	86.13	1:43.21	87.20	1:58.55	75.92	1:51.43	80.77
Row 3		John Jenkins  R		Bob Burman		Eddie Rickenbacker  R  (*)		Billy Leisaw  R		Bill Endicott
		1:51.36	80.82	1:47.00	84.11	1:56.43	77.30	1:56.11	77.51	1:51.70	80.57
Row 4		Ralph Mulford		Hughie Hughes		Joe Horan  R		Mel Marquette		Len Ormsby  R
		1:42.41	87.88	1:50.01	81.81	1:51.83	80.48	1:55.27	78.08	1:47.03	84.09
Row 5		Joe Matson  R		Charlie Merz		David Bruce-Brown		Louis Disbrow
		1:52.64	79.90	1:54.10	78.88	1:41.75	88.45	1:57.59	76.54

Note: (*) Car qualified by Lee Frayer

Finish	No	Driver	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Cyl	Displ (in3)	Color	Qual (mph)	Rank	Grid	Laps	Time/Status
1	8	Joe Dawson (Don Herr Laps 108–144)	National Motor Vehicle Company	National	National	4	491	blue/white	86.13	4	7	200	6:21:06
2	3	Teddy Tetzlaff (Caleb Bragg)	E. E. Hewlett	Fiat	Fiat	4	589	red	84.24	6	3	200	+10:23
3	21	Hughie Hughes	Mercer Motors Company	Mercer	Mercer	4	301	yellow	81.81	11	17	200	+12:03
4	28	Charlie Merz (Billy Knipper)	Ideal Motor Car Company	Stutz	Wisconsin	4	390	gray	78.88	18	22	200	+13:34
5	18	Bill Endicott (Harry Endicott)	Schacht Motor Car Company	Schacht	Wisconsin	4	390	red	80.57	15	15	200	+25:22
6	2	Len Zengel  R  (Billy Knipper)	Ideal Motor Car Company	Stutz	Wisconsin	4	390	gray	78.85	19	2	200	+29:22
7	14	John Jenkins  R  (Charlie Arnold)	White Motor Company	White	White	6	490	white	80.827	13	11	200	+31:32
7	22	Joe Horan  R  (George Ainslee)	Dr. W. H. Chambers	Lozier	Lozier	4	545	white/red	80.48	16	18	200	+38:32
9	9	Howdy Wilcox (Bill Rader)	National Motor Vehicle Company	National	National	4	590	blue/white	87.20	3	8	200	+50:24
10	19	Ralph Mulford	Ralph Mulford	Knox	Knox	6	597	white/red	87.88	2	16	200	+2:31:54
11	4	Ralph DePalma	E. J. Schroeder	Mercedes	Mercedes	4	583	gray	86.02	5	4	198	Connecting rod
12	15	Bob Burman	Clark-Carter Auto Company	Cutting	Cutting	4	598	white/red	84.11	7	12	157	Crash T2
13	12	Bert Dingley  R	Bert Dingley	Simplex	Simplex	4	597	red/white	80.77	14	10	116	Connecting rod
14	25	Joe Matson  R	O. Applegate	Lozier	Lozier	4	545	white/red	79.90	17	21	110	Crankshaft
15	7	Spencer Wishart	Spencer Wishart	Mercedes	Mercedes	4	583	gray/black/red	83.95	9	6	82	Water connection
16	1	Gil Andersen	Ideal Motor Car Company	Stutz	Wisconsin	4	390	gray/white	80.93	12	1	80	Crash T3
17	17	Billy Leisaw  R  (W. H. Farr)	Will Thomson	Marquette	Buick	4	594	tan/red	77.51	21	14	72	Caught fire
18	46	Louis Disbrow (Neil Whalen)	J. I. Case T. M. Company	Case	Case	6	450	white/red	76.54	23	24	67	Differential pin
19	23	Mel Marquette	Speed Motors Company	McFarlan	McFarlan	6	425	gray	78.08	20	19	63	Broken wheels
20	6	Eddie Hearne (Neil Whalen)	J. I. Case T. M. Company	Case	Case	6	450	white/red	81.85	10	5	55	Burned bearing
21	16	Eddie Rickenbacker  R	Columbus Buggy Company	Fiat	Firestone-Columbus	4	345	crimson/black	77.30	22	13	43	Intake valve
22	29	David Bruce-Brown	National Motor Vehicle Company	National	National	4	590	blue/white	88.45	1	23	25	Valve trouble
23	10	Harry Knight	Lexington Motor Car Company	Lexington	Lexington	6	422	brown/white	75.92	24	9	6	Engine trouble
24	26	Len Ormsby  R	I. C. Stern & B. C. Noble	Opel	Opel	4	450	gray/red	84.09	8	20	5	Connecting rod
Sources:[3][4][5]

Note: Relief drivers in parentheses^[6]

 R  Indianapolis 500 Rookie

Race field average engine displacement:

• 491.46 in³ / 8.05 L

Race field average qualifying speed:

• 81.762 mph / 131.583 km/h

Finishing entries average time and finishing speed:

• 6:57:25 (-8:02 from previous year and previous record)
• 72.457 mph / 116.609 km/h (+1.717 mph / +2.763 km/h, from previous year and previous record)

• For 1912, riding mechanics were made mandatory.^[7]
• Don Herr relieved Joe Dawson for several laps.

• 
  Joe Dawson winning the race
• 
  1912 winning car, now located at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum
• 
  1912 winning car, now located at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum
• 
  Ralph DePalma and Rupert Jeffkins, pushing the Mercedes down the main straightaway at the conclusion of the 1912 500-Mile Race.
• 
  Gil Andersen's crashed Stutz at T3.
• 
  Mel Marquette's wrecked McFarlan.
• 
  Bob Burman's crashed Cutting

• Popely, Rick and L. Spencer Riggs. Indianapolis 500 Chronicle. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International, Ltd., 1999. ISBN 978-0-7853-2798-1
• 2006 Indianapolis 500 Official Program