By Andrew Cutler
March 3 2009

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway kicked off it's two year-long Centennial Celebration this past weekend with a black-tie formal dinner at the Indiana Convention Center, honoring former Indy 500 and Allstate 400 at the Brickyard winners. The dinner was just the first of many events - some still to be determined - planned to celebrate the early years of the world-famous racetrack.

Comming up in early May, the Speedway will host a hot air ballon race, just one month shy of the 100th anniversary of a similar event that was the first ever comptetive "race" held on the property. Other events will follow throughout the next two years, leading up to the 100th anniversary of the inaugural Indy 500, in 2011.

In addition to parties and festivals, the town of Speedway, the City of Indianapolis & the state of Indiana are going to be spending alot of time and money to revitalize the area immediately adjacent to the track over the next few years. Plans have been drawn up to revitalize the shopping district, alter the flow of traffic just south of IMS & to turn the stretch of Georgetown Road which runs along the west edge of the track grounds into a pedestrian plaza.

Here is a brief run-down of major "dates of interest" in the early years of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

December, 1908: Businessman Carl Fisher & three associates purchase the land that will become IMS & announce their intentions of building a racetrack (the original name was to be; the Indiana Motor Parkway). 

March 1, 1909: After consulting with developers, the final layout of a 2.5 mile track with two 5/8 mile straits, four 1/4 mile turns & two 1/8 mile "short chutes" was decided upon (Fisher initially envisioned adding a 2.5 mile road course, snaking through the infield of the oval, for an overall length of 5 miles, but that plan was soon shelved & forgotten).

June 5, 1909: A hot air ballon race become the first ever event at the Speedway.

August 14, 1909: A series of motorcycle races are held: weather & complaints about the track surface - crushed gravel - shorten the planned three-day meet into a single day.

August 19-21, 1909: Three days of automobile races. Again, complaints about the track surface are raised.

Late 1909: 3.2 million paving bricks are laid over the track surface. Even before the resurfacing was complete, locals began refering to the track as "the Brickyard".

1910: Several days of racing are held in May, July & September. The new track surface gets high marks from the drivers, but Fisher is unhappy with the poor spectator turn-out. He decides that the solution for next year is to hold only one event: an "endurance" race of approximately six to seven hours in length.

May 30, 1911: the 1st annual "International Sweepstakes" - soon to be better known as the Indianapolis 500 - is held.