On August 21st, 1909, the 300-mile Wheeler-Schebler race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was waved off — not because that weekend's racing had claimed the lives of five drivers, mechanics, and spectators, but because, after the racing had continued, yet another car crashed into a pedestrian bridge crossing the racing surface.

No one was killed in that crash. No; the real reason the race was being flagged was because so many spectators had flocked to the pedestrian bridge to gape at the wreckage that the whole structure was sagging. That, finally, gave Speedway personnel a reason to call things off.

In the days that followed, newspapers erupted with condemnations about auto racing — but before we can really understand the outcry and its impact on the motorsport scene in America, we need to understand more about the man who concocted the audacious scheme to build a 2.5-mile race track in Indiana within the first decade of the 20th century.

Today on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're going to delve into the life of Speedway founder and confidence man Carl Fisher, and how his harebrained marketing schemes brought to life a track that still hosts one of the world's greatest motorsport events. Over the next two episodes, we're looking at the early history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and how, against all odds, it became an American institution.

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Episode Bibliography: 

• Blood and Smoke: A True Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and the Indy 500 by Charles Leerhsen

• https://web.archive.org/web/20120920022310/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/library-and-archives/notable-hoosiers/carl-fisher 

• https://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/articles/prest-o-lite