Mercury Pace Car Starting the 1957 Indianapolis 500 Race
THF105806 / Mercury Pace Car Starting the 1957 Indianapolis 500 Race
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Artifact Overview
This photograph shows the Mercury pace car at the start of the 1957 Indianapolis 500. Pace cars head the pack of race cars for the first unscored lap. They pick up speed around the track before pulling off the course. Racers used this lap to warm up their cars' engines and tires before speeding off on a "rolling start."
Artifact Details
Artifact
Photographic print
Subject Date
May 1957
Place of Creation
Collection Title
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Object ID
84.1.1660.P.833.111697.77
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.
Material
Paper (Fiber product)
Technique
Gelatin silver process
Color
Black-and-white (Colors)
Dimensions
Height: 4 in
Width: 4.875 in
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Related Content
SetIndianapolis 500 Materials at The Henry Ford
- 25 Artifacts
When Carl Fisher and his partners opened Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909, the crushed stone and tar track surface quickly proved too dangerous. Fisher had the entire track resurfaced with 3.2 million paving bricks. The track was fully paved with asphalt by 1961, but a three-foot brick strip -- at the start/finish line -- remains, as does the speedway's nickname: the Brickyard.