 | |||||
| Indianapolis Motor Speedway | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indianapolis 500 | |||||
| Sanctioning body | AAA | ||||
| Date | May 31, 1926 | ||||
| Winner | Frank Lockhart | ||||
| Winning Entrant | Pete Kreis | ||||
| Average speed | 95.904 mph (154.343 km/h) | ||||
| Pole position | Earl Cooper | ||||
| Pole speed | 111.735 mph (179.820 km/h) | ||||
| Most laps led | Frank Lockhart (95) | ||||
| Pre-race | |||||
| Pace car | Chrysler Imperial 80 | ||||
| Pace car driver | Louis Chevrolet | ||||
| Starter | Seth Klein[1] | ||||
| Honorary referee | Arthur Brisbane[1] | ||||
| Estimated attendance | 135,000[2] | ||||
| Chronology | |||||
| |||||
The 14th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday, May 31, 1926. Louis Chevrolet drove the Chrysler pace car for the start.[3]
Rain halted the race at lap 72, and officials waited for the track to dry out. The race was resumed over an hour later. Rain fell again, and the race was called at the 400 mile mark (160 laps).
Rookie Frank Lockhart moved up from 20th to fifth by lap 5, having had passed 14 cars on that lap alone.[4] He moved up to second on Lap 16.[4] After the rain delay, Lockhart and Dave Lewis battled for the lead for about 20 laps, until Lewis dropped out.[4] After Lewis retired with a broken valve, Harry Hartz closed on Lockhart and briefly took the lead at about 250 miles as the crowd roared. But soon afterward Hartz was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop. [5] Lockhart then stretched out a two-lap lead when the race was called, and he was declared the winner. It was the first rain-shortened race in "500" history, and Lockhart was the fourth rookie to win the race. Lockhart may have actually completed as many as 163 laps (407.5 miles), but official scoring results reverted to the completion of lap 160.
- ^ a b Fox, Jack C. (1994). The Illustrated History of the Indianapolis 500 1911-1994 (4th ed.). Carl Hungness Publishing. p. 22. ISBN 0-915088-05-3.
- ^ "Youthful Driver Declared Victor After 400 Miles". The Indianapolis Star. June 1, 1926. p. 1. Retrieved June 3, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Seattle Daily Times, June 1, 1926, Page 18.
- ^ a b c Biography at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, Retrieved March 15, 2007
- ^ Book "The Indianapolis 500: A Complete Pictorial History p.70-71
