1933 Indianapolis 500

21st Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis 500
Sanctioning body	AAA
Date	May 30, 1933
Winner	Louis Meyer
Winning Entrant	Tydol-Meyer
Average speed	104.162 mph (167.632 km/h)
Pole position	Bill Cummings
Pole speed	118.530 mph (190.756 km/h)
Most laps led	Louis Meyer (71)
Pre-race
Pace car	Chrysler Imperial
Pace car driver	Byron Foy
Chronology
Previous Next 1932 1934

The 21st International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday, May 30, 1933. Louis Meyer defeated Wilbur Shaw by a time of 401.89 seconds (6.69 minutes). The average speed of the race was 104.162 miles per hour (167.632 km/h) while Bill Cummings achieved the pole position with a speed of 118.521 miles per hour (190.741 km/h). The race was part of the 1933 AAA Championship Car season.

Meyer was accompanied by riding mechanic Lawson Harris.

The 1933 month of May at Indianapolis would go on record as the deadliest running of the 500. Five participants were fatally injured. During practice, Bill Denver and his riding mechanic Bob Hurst were killed in a crash. On race day, Mark Billman was killed in a crash on lap 79 while Lester Spangler and his riding mechanic G.L. "Monk" Jordan were killed in a crash on lap 132. It was the fifth straight year at least one competitor would die in a crash during the month.

Time trials

Ten-lap (25 mile) qualifying runs were utilized.

Results

Finish	Start	No	Name	Qual	Rank	Laps	Led	Status
1	6	36	Louis Meyer (W)	116.977	7	200	71	Running
2	23	17	Wilbur Shaw	115.497	12	200	0	Running
3	4	37	Lou Moore	117.843	4	200	0	Running
4	15	21	Chet Gardner	112.319	22	200	0	Running
5	10	8	Stubby Stubblefield	114.784	13	200	0	Running
6	36	38	Dave Evans	109.448	36	200	0	Running
7	12	34	Tony Gulotta	113.578	15	200	0	Running
8	17	4	Russ Snowberger	110.769	27	200	0	Running
9	16	9	Zeke Meyer	111.099	25	200	0	Running
10	20	46	Luther Johnson	110.097	31	200	0	Running
11	9	6	Cliff Bergere	115.643	11	200	0	Running
12	18	47	L. L. Corum (W)	110.465	29	200	0	Running
13	40	49	Willard Prentiss (R)	107.776	41	200	0	Running
14	27	14	Raúl Riganti	108.081	39	200	0	Running
15	28	29	Gene Haustein	107.603	42	197	0	Flagged
16	14	26	Deacon Litz	113.138	17	197	0	Flagged
17	31	18	Joe Russo	112.531	20	192	0	Flagged
18	39	51	Doc MacKenzie	108.073	40	192	0	Rear axle
19	25	27	Kelly Petillo	113.037	18	168	0	Spun & stalled
20	32	28	Chet Miller	112.025	23	163	0	Rod
21	24	19	Al Miller	109.799	35	161	0	Rod
22	19	68	Bennett Hill	110.264	30	158	0	Rod
23	29	45	Babe Stapp	116.626	9	156	60	Out of gas
24	26	32	Wesley Crawford	109.862	33	147	0	Crash T1
25	1	5	Bill Cummings	118.521	1	136	32	Radiator
26	7	15	Lester Spangler (R) ✝	116.903	8	132	0	Died in crash at T1
27	35	65	Freddy Winnai	111.018	26	125	0	Engine trouble
28	30	57	Malcolm Fox	112.922	19	121	0	Crash T1
29	3	12	Fred Frame (W)	117.864	3	85	37	Valve
30	22	64	Mark Billman (R) ✝	112.410	21	79	0	Died in crash at T2
31	34	53	Johnny Sawyer (R)	110.590	28	77	0	Clutch
32	11	2	Peter Kreis	114.370	14	63	0	Universal joint
33	5	16	Ernie Triplett	117.685	5	61	0	Piston
34	13	25	Shorty Cantlon	113.384	16	50	0	Rod
35	42	3	Mauri Rose (R)	117.649	6	48	0	Timing gears
36	2	58	Frank Brisko	118.388	2	47	0	Oil too hot
37	8	10	Ira Hall	115.739	10	37	0	Piston
38	41	23	Ralph Hepburn	110.001	32	33	0	Rod bearing
39	37	59	Ray Campbell	108.650	37	24	0	Oil leak
40	33	24	Paul Bost	111.330	24	13	0	Oil line
41	38	61	Rick Decker	108.280	38	13	0	Manifold
42	21	22	Louis Schneider (W)	109.850	34	1	0	Stalled
[1]

Alternates

• First alternate: Sam Palmer (R)^[2]
• Howdy Wilcox II had qualified for the race, but officials disqualified him from the field when the learned that he had diabetes. On race day, he was replaced in the car by Mauri Rose.^[3]

Failed to Qualify

Race details

For 1933, riding mechanics were required.^[5]

"Will Overhead"

In 1933, one of the more famous bits of Indy 500 nostalgia occurred. Telegraph was still being used to transmit race information to newspapers and other outlets across the United States. George Zanaon, a typesetter for The World-Independent newspaper in the town of Walsenburg, Colorado was preparing a story for that day's Indianapolis 500. Since Memorial Day was a holiday, his young editor John P. Fitzpatrick was alone monitoring the Associated Press wire for race updates. The race took several hours to complete, and the AP wire was shut down prior to the finish. Fitzpatrick had nearly the entire story ready for print, minus the winner of the race. A helpful AP editor in Denver advised him that he would send the name of the winner via Western Union telegraph.

The telegraph Fitzpatrick received, in typical newspaper shorthand lingo was: "WILL OVERHEAD WINNER OF INDIANAPOLIS 500," meaning that he would send the information by telegraph when the information was available. The young editor misunderstood the jargon in the message, and interpreted it as saying a driver named Will Overhead was the winner. The headline read "Will Overhead won the Indianapolis Memorial Day race today. At the two hundred fifty mile post Babe Stapp was leading the string of racing cars, but gave way to Overhead on then last half of the 500 mile grind." The true winner was Louis Meyer. The gaffe put the town of Walsenburg, and the The World-Independent newspaper (now known as the Huerfano World Journal), on the map in racing circles.^[6][7][8]

References

• 1933 Indianapolis 500 - Racing Reference