The founding of Speedway, Ind. is the story of the “disruptive technology” of the early 20^th century—the automobile—and had impacts on Indy and beyond.

Speedway and IMS: How it all began

Carl Fisher and James Allison, two of four co-founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, were early tech enthusiasts and in 1904 began producing the first headlights for automobiles at a plant in Indianapolis. An acetylene gas explosion led them to relocating the plant to a rural area five miles northwest, which is now the Town of Speedway.

Fisher founded what is believed to be the first automobile dealership in the United States. He was known for elaborate publicity stunts, like attaching a hot air balloon to an automobile and flying it over downtown Indianapolis.

This type of promotional vision led Fisher to conceive the idea of a test track—a safe place to test new automobile technology while attracting people willing to pay to watch it. He crafted the name “Speedway,” and this was the first facility to use that term.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was founded in 1909 by four partners: Arthur Newby and Frank Wheeler along with Fisher and Allison. They purchased 328 acres for $72,000 (about $1.9 million today). Allowing space and capital for grandstands and other improvements, they settled on a track designed as a 2.5-mile oval (approximately one mile long by one-quarter mile wide). Their total investment was $250,000 (about $6.7 million today). The speedway was paved in bricks, not because that was just the standard road surface material of the day, but because the partners researched and tested materials and determined that was the best surface to use.

In 1912, the four partners also collaborated to develop a residential neighborhood south of the track, recognizing a need to house workers for their growing businesses.  Ever forward-thinking, they also conceived it as a place where the residents would drive automobiles versus horses.

Evolving Businesses: Then and Now

Fisher and Allison’s original headlight business, Prest-O-Lite, was sold to Union Carbide in 1913 for $9 million (the equivalent of approximately $230 million in 2020), but Allison and Fisher continued in related businesses, producing parts for military aircraft in WWI, armored tanks in WWII, and commercial vehicles such as delivery trucks and buses in the post-war era. Acquired by General Motors in 1929 (following Allison’s death in 1928), their business eventually became two divisions of GM, one focused on aviation and the other on land vehicles. Today, three descendants of the original company operate in Speedway and Indianapolis:

• In 1995, the aviation business was sold to Rolls Royce Aerospace, which continues corporate and manufacturing functions in Indianapolis with 4,000 employees.
• In the late 1990s Allison Transmission, still part of GM, became one of the early researchers and producers of hybrid electric vehicle technology. Allison Transmission was acquired privately in 2007 but remains affiliated with GM. They maintain three facilities in Indianapolis including their headquarters and a new plant opened in 2010 to produce hybrid commercial trucking vehicles. The Speedway facility currently employs 2,500 people.
• A spin-off of the original gas-based headlamp company continues in Speedway as Prax Air and employs 1,000 people in Speedway.

Development outside of Indianapolis

From 1912-1914, Fisher was engaged in developing the first cross-county US highways, the east-west Lincoln Highway and the north-south Dixie Highway in 1914. In 1915, he led a caravan from Indiana to Florida. Also included in that caravan was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later—as President—created the Interstate Highway System.

Fisher was one of the most active promoters of the Florida land boom of the 1920s. With two partners, John Graham McKay and Thomas Walkling, he was co-developer of Miami Beach. Unfortunately, Fisher’s fortune was lost in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and resulting Great Depression. However, Miami’s Fisher Island, which he once owned and which is named after him, remains to this day one of the country’s most wealthy and exclusive neighborhoods.

Recent History: Investments and Redevelopment

The 20^th century was the century of the automobile, and the Town of Speedway was largely able to roll with the times, but by the turn of the 21^st was showing its age. In 2000, a group of local leaders met and expressed a goal to bring Speedway into the 21^st century. Their first task was to gain authority from the State of Indiana to implement tax increment financing (TIF), a process that took six years but resulted in substantial revenues. Besides local businesses Allison Transmission and Prax Air, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is also a taxpayer—the only major sporting event in the U.S. to pay taxes.

The Town of Speedway and IMS have spent the last several years making valuable property improvements and creating a stronger sense of place.

• Prior to the 100^th running of the Indy 500 in 2016, IMS owners the Hulman-George family invested $100 million in additional seating, suites, and technology and an improved Gate 1 at the head of Speedway’s Main Street.
• Also in 2016, the Town of Speedway earned the Indianapolis Monumental Award for their revitalization of Main Street. They replaced outdated and deteriorated streets with new infrastructure supportive of a more walkable and mixed-use town center, including curbside parking to serve area businesses and a bike lane.
• The IMS was sold by the Human-George family in 2019 to Penske Entertainment, who have continued extensive property improvements. Not all are glamorous. For example, they include some 9,500 restroom fixtures. During the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2000, the Indy 500 was first postponed from May to August and then run without fans in attendance. In Spring 2021, the IMS has been used as a drive-through vaccination facility. The 2021 Indianapolis is scheduled for its regular date, the Sunday before Memorial Day (May 30, 2021), with seating at 40% of capacity (approximately 120,000 fans.)

Sources: Wikipedia, ULI Indiana events, and various online articles