The 1932 Indianapolis 500

By Donald Davidson

Monday, November 14, 2011

Share |

Enjoy a complete gallery of images from the 1932 Indianapolis 500 below. These were recently digitized from our photography collection and is the first time they’ve appeared on the IMS site.

 

About The Race:

Fred Frame won for driver-turned-owner Harry Hartz, but it was Frame’s teammate, Billy Arnold, who had most of the fans talking. Arnold, who led 198 of the 200 laps on his way to winning in 1930 and then led from lap seven until 162 in 1931, was the dominant driver again.

This time he took over on lap two and was never headed until lap 60, when he crashed while trying to avoid a spinning car. It extended his record over a three-year period to 411 laps led out of 421 completed, for an average of 97.62 percent.

Taking advantage of a revised set of rules designed to encourage a return of the major automobile companies, Studebaker of South Bend, Ind. commissioned a team of five racing cars to be powered by its eight-cylinder President passenger car engine. All five qualified, Cliff Bergere’s finishing third.