1930 Indianapolis 500

18th Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis 500
Sanctioning body	AAA
Date	May 30, 1930
Winner	Billy Arnold
Winning Entrant	Harry Hartz
Average speed	100.448 mph (161.655 km/h)
Pole position	Billy Arnold
Pole speed	113.268 mph (182.287 km/h)
Most laps led	Arnold (198*) *All time race record
Pre-race
Pace car	Cord L-29
Pace car driver	Wade Morton
Chronology
Previous	Next
1929	1931

The 18th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, May 30, 1930.

Pole position winner Billy Arnold took the lead on lap 3, and led the entire rest of the race. He led a total of 198 laps (all consecutive), which stands as an all-time Indianapolis 500 race record. Arnold was accompanied by riding mechanic Spider Matlock.

Arnold was the first driver to complete the entire 500 miles in under five hours (over 100 mph average speed) without relief help. Pete DePaolo finished the 1925 race in under five hours, but used a relief driver for 21 laps. Arnold would eventually be named the first member of the prestigious 100 mph Club.

Rules changes and the "Junk" formula

The 1930 race ushered in a series of substantially new engine rules and specifications. The allotted displacement was increased from 91.5 cu in (1.5 L) to 366 cu in (6.0 L). Superchargers were banned with the exception of two-cycle engines, and riding mechanics were made mandatory once again. In addition, the traditional mandate of a maximum 33-car field was lifted.

Contrary to popular belief, the rules changes were not made in response to the stock market crash of 1929. The rules package is sometimes referred to disparagingly as the "Junk Formula" or the "Junkyard," and a common misconception is that it was implemented in order to "dumb down" the cars and maintain full fields during the Great Depression.

Speedway president Eddie Rickenbacker had decided to make the changes in order to lure back the passenger car manufacturers, and make the cars on the track resemble more those sold to the motoring public. Rickenbacker's desire was to move away from the supercharged, specialized racing machines that had taken over the Speedway through the 1920s. The rule changes were in fact being laid out as early as 1928, and were approved by the AAA Contest Board in early January 1929.

Time trials

Four-lap (10 mile) qualifying runs were utilized. Billy Arnold won the pole position.

Results

Finish	Start	No	Name	Qual	Rank	Laps	Led	Status
1	1	4	Billy Arnold	113.268	1	200	198	Running
2	3	16	Shorty Cantlon	109.810	3	200	0	Running
3	4	23	Louis Schneider	106.107	6	200	0	Running
4	2	1	Louis Meyer	111.290	2	200	2	Running
5	22	6	Bill Cummings	106.173	4	200	0	Running
6	33	24	Dave Evans	97.342	24	200	0	Running
7	8	15	Phil Shafer	102.279	13	200	0	Running
8	7	22	Russ Snowberger	104.577	11	200	0	Running
9	9	25	Leslie Allen	101.919	14	200	0	Running
10	17	2	L. L. Corum	94.130	29	200	0	Running
11	16	38	Claude Burton	95.087	28	196	0	Flagged
12	30	42	Letterio Cucinotta	91.584	34	185	0	Flagged
13	15	41	Chet Miller	97.360	23	161	0	Flagged
14	38	46	Harry Butcher	87.003	38	127	0	Flagged
15	23	10	Mel Kenealy	103.327	12	114	0	Valve
16	34	21	Zeke Meyer	95.357	26	115	0	Rod
17	6	17	Ernie Triplett	105.618	9	125	0	Piston
18	13	35	J. C. McDonald	98.953	21	112	0	Fuel tank leak
19	37	28	Roland Free	89.639	37	69	0	Clutch
20	20	9	Tony Gulotta	100.033	18	79	0	Valve
21	11	33	Frank Farmer	100.615	17	69	0	Crash
22	35	44	Bill Denver	90.650	35	41	0	Rod
23	26	34	Joe Huff	101.178	15	48	0	Valve
24	25	3	Wilbur Shaw	106.135	5	54	0	Wrist pin
25	14	29	Joe Caccia	97.606	22	43	0	Crash
26	10	36	Cy Marshall	100.846	16	29	0	Crash T3
27	19	32	Charles Moran	89.733	36	22	0	Crash T3
28	24	7	Jimmy Gleason	93.709	30	22	0	Timing gears
29	12	14	Lou Moore	99.867	20	23	0	Crash T3
30	31	12	Deacon Litz	105.755	8	22	0	Crash T3
31	32	8	Babe Stapp	104.950	10	18	0	Crash T3
32	18	39	Johnny Seymour	93.376	31	21	0	Crash T3
33	21	5	Peter DePaolo	99.956	19	19	0	Crash T3
34	29	45	Marion Trexler	92.978	32	19	0	Crash T3
35	27	19	Speed Gardner	95.585	25	14	0	Main bearing
36	28	26	Baconin Borzacchini	95.213	27	7	0	Magneto
37	36	48	Rick Decker	92.293	33	8	0	Oil tank
38	5	18	Chet Gardner	105.811	7	1	0	Spun T1

Note: Cars not finishing were awarded positions in the order in which they left the track, regardless of lap count

Race details

• First alternate: none
• For 1930, riding mechanics were required. It was the first time since 1922 that riding mechanics were mandatory.
• This was the first Indy 500 to utilize the green flag to signify the start of the race. Previous years had used the red flag, before the development of standard uniform traffic guidelines and protocol as defined by the MUTCD and AASHTO.
• This was the first 500 after the stock market crash of 1929, and the first to be held under the Great Depression.

Chet Miller

One of the most famous nostalgic stories of Indianapolis 500 lore occurred with driver Chet Miller during the 1930 race. Just short of the mid-way point, Miller was in for a pit stop in his Fronty-Ford. The car, which was made up mostly of Model T parts, was discovered to have a broken right front spring. Race officials would not let Miller return to the track until repairs were made, so the crew began a search for replacement parts.

Within a short time, the crew spotted an unattended Model T, that ostensibly belonged to a spectator, parked nearby in the infield. With the owner nowhere in sight, the crew proceeded to remove the spring they needed, and subsequently installed it on Miller's race car sitting in the pit area. After a stop of over 41 minutes, Miller was back out on the track with the borrowed spring, and drove to a 13th place finish.

Following the race, with the vehicle's owner still not located, the crew re-installed the spring on the Model T. It is believed that the owner of the car was never aware of the entire situation.

References

Grand Prix Race
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