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| A Panoramic View of the 1909 National Balloon Race held at the Speedway |
You might think of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as home to Indy car racing, a place where cars set speed records in a race that's steeped in tradition and history. You'd be right to think of the track this way, but it is and always has been a business venture. In fact, before the track's construction had finished its President, Carl Fisher, was thinking of ways to get a return on the money his investors had put into the track.
The National Balloon Race held on June 5th 1909 was organized as an attempt to recover some of this money. Construction of the track began in early April of 1909 and and, as you can see from the image above, it would be some time before the facility would be ready to host an automobile race. Carl Fisher always had been fascinated with aviation and he became the 21st person in the United States to earn a balloonist’s license. According to the Indiana Historical Society site most of the spectators show in this image didn’t pay admission, instead they gathered outside the Speedway grounds to watch the show from afar.
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| A Photo Postcard of the 1909 National Balloon Race held at the Speedway |
The amazing panoramic view of the pre-race preparations comes from the digital archives of
the Indiana Historical Society and I highly recommend making a trip over to
their site where you can zoom in to look at individuals in the crowd. I’m not sure
about the positioning of this photo, but I believe it’s what will be the north
end of the track.
There also are some great Indianapolis
Star articles at the First Super Speedway site,
take a look!
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