Friday 24th April 1908

Ralph DePalma made his racing debut in an Allen-Kingston at the Briarcliff Trophy Race in Westchester, New York. DePalma would go on to win nearly 2,000 races in his 25-year career, including wins at the Vanderbilt Cup, the Savannah Grand Prize, and the Indy 500 of 1915. DePalma is most famous for both his domination at Indy, and his failure to win more than once there. His record of leading 613 laps at the Brickyard over his 10-year career stood until it was broken by Al Unser in 1987. In one of the most memorable finishes in Indy history, DePalma and his riding mechanic Rupert Jenkins, while leading the 1912 race near the finish, attempted to push their fabled Mercedes “Grey Ghost” car across the finish line only to be caught yards short by Joe Dawson. DePalma became a national icon on the basis of his good looks and his grace as a competitor. Born in Italy, he immigrated to the U.S. just before the turn of the century. DePalma won races in all varieties of cars and he even held land-speed records for brief periods of time. He is also well-known for his lucrative match race rivalry with the dashing Barney Oldfield. The rogue of the racing world Oldfield played the villain to DePalma’s white knight persona. DePalma proclaimed his greatest race his defeat of Oldfield at the 1914 Vanderbilt Cup Race. Truth be told, Oldfield was a more talented driver. But DePalma, over his career, created for the sport the paradigm of the racer as a representative for the sport. He ran his last Indy 500 in 1925, a race his nephew Peter DePaolo won.