1928 500 Starting Lineup

 

I’m a big fan of Shorpy, a really top-notch online archive of historical photographs and the month of May gave me an opportunity to plumb its depths for an Indianapolis 500 photographs. You're looking at track-level view of the starting lineup for the 1928 race. In the shot you cans see Tony Gulotta’s car (8), Babe Stapp’s car (7), Ralph Hepburn’s car (16), Louis Schneider’s car (24), and Lou Moore’s car (28). This puts the photographer on the inside of the track, at the third row of cars.

Louis Schneider, seen conversing with his mechanic, like so many early drivers was an Indianapolis native. Can you imagine how he must have felt sitting in his car, waiting for the starter's flag to drop on what was his second Indy 500? I bet he had butterflies the size of condors flitting around in his stomach. Schneider raced for six seasons, winning the 500 in 1931. He would die in September 1942 at the young age of 41.