Sunday 12th January 1879

Born on this day, Ray Harroun, winner of the first Indianapolis 500 (1911) and the AAA season champion in 1910. After serving as a riding mechanic for a time, he began racing in 1906 and won the National Championship in 1910. He then joined the Marmon automobile company in Indianapolis as chief engineer. The company asked him to design and drive a car in the new 500-mile race. Harroun came up with a revolutionary design.

Race cars of the period were usually heavy two-seaters that carried the driver and a mechanic who kept the driver informed about what was happening behind him. Harroun designed a light, streamlined, one-seater with a pointed tail and a stabilizer. To replace the mechanic, he added a rearview mirror. Whether or not the car actually finished first at Indy, it performed exceptionally well, averaging 74.602 mph.

That was his last race. Harroun later invented a carburetor that was a forerunner of modern fuel-injection systems. He also developed a kerosene-burning Maxwell race car in 1914 that was running on tracks for nearly 15 years.

He died in January 1968.