10-4 Magazine May 2023

Special Feature: By Mark Harter Welcome to the month of May! For those of you who don’t know me, outside of my passion for the trucking industry, my other passion in life is the Indianapolis 500 and the NTT IndyCar Series. While Memorial Day weekend in Indy is focused on 33 drivers who want to drink the milk in victory lane and become the next driver to have their face immortalized on the Borg-Warner Trophy, it’s also a special time for many of us to get together with friends and family for a BBQ. But most importantly, Memorial Day is about celebrating the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces, and paying homage to those who have given their lives to defend and protect our great country. To the casual observer outside of Central Indiana, many don’t know the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, although famous names like Andretti, Foyt, Unser, Mears and Penske, along with iconic open wheel race cars, are the first things that come to mind when they think of the Indianapolis 500. As for me, I grew up and resided in the Racing Capital of the World in Indianapolis, where Indy 500 race fever has gripped the city for over 100 years, culminating in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing on every Memorial Day weekend. Along with my friend and former Indianapolis resident Duncan Putman, we wanted to feature some of the interesting history involving the race, and how the trucking industry plays a vital role in the event. At one time, Indianapolis had more automobile manufacturers than Detroit. Due to this fact, the Speedway was the dream of Indianapolis based businessman Carl G. Fisher, who saw the need for a facility for these automakers to be able to test and race their cars in a sustained environment. The Speedway would also provide a proving ground for these auto manufacturers in the U.S. during the early twentieth century. As America became motorized, the trucking industry grew out of the early auto industry, and from the need to move goods and supplies more efficiently. While engine makers like Chevrolet, Ford, Cosworth, Offenhauser, Ilmor and Honda, and chassis builders like Watson, Eagle, March, Lola, Reynard and Dallara are commonly known at the Speedway, the names of truck manufacturers like Mack, Kenworth, Peterbilt, Freightliner and others, are not, and have never had entries in the race. However, the first car to win the Indianapolis 500 in 1911 was a Marmon! Marmon Trucks are a direct descendant of the former Indianapolis based Marmon Motor Car Company, and from the early 1960s until 1997, they made high-quality Class 8 trucks. Fisher envisioned the Speedway as a place to not only race, but also a place for manufacturers to prove what they made. In1931,ClessieCummins, founder of the Cummins Engine Company from nearby Columbus, Indiana, saw the value of racing in the Indy 500, and entered his first car, driven by Dave Evans, to showcase the power and efficiency of the diesel engines he had been developing. The 1931 Model A Duesenberg race car had an 85-hp 361ci four-cylinder diesel engine. While the car did not win the race, it did reach speeds over 100 mph, and ran the entire 500 miles on one tank of fuel. As a side note, Clessie Cummins was a crew member for Marmon in 1911 when Ray Harroun drove the Marmon Wasp into racing history! Cummins did enter diesel powered race cars in 1934 and 1950, but in 1952 the game changed, and Cummins was ready to take full advantage of the Indy 500 rulebook that year. The new rules in 1952 allowed four-cycle diesel engines that were twice as big as their gasoline counterparts. Taking full advantage of this rule, the 1952 #28 Cummins Diesel Special was powered by an inline 401 ci (6.6 Liter) Model J I-6 turbocharged engine, that reportedly made 430-hp. The car was unlike anything the racing world had ever seen before. With the chassis manufactured by legendary race car builder Kurtis Kraft, combined with the big 6.6 liter Cummins engine, which was installed on its side, the car weighed nearly 3,100 pounds. On its qualifying run, the 1952 Cummins Diesel Special, driven by Freddie Agabashian, shocked the racing world by setting a new track record and qualifying on the pole position for the 36th Indianapolis 500, with a four-lap average of 138.010 mph. To put that power and speed in perspective, Ferrari’s 12-cylinder gasoline powered entry that year averaged 134.300 mph during its four lap qualifying run. Gear-driven centrifugal blowers known as “superchargers” had been used since the 1920s to increase the efficiency and power output of engines competing at the Indianapolis 500. But the 1952 Cummins Diesel Special was the first car to compete at the Indianapolis 500 using 34 10-4 Magazine / May 2023 DIESEL POWER AT INDY