1934 Indianapolis 500

22nd Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis 500
Sanctioning body	AAA
Date	May 30, 1934
Winner	Bill Cummings
Winning Entrant	H.C. Henning
Average speed	104.863 mph (168.761 km/h)
Pole position	Kelly Petillo
Pole speed	119.329 mph (192.041 km/h)
Most laps led	Frank Brisko (69)
Pre-race
Pace car	LaSalle Model 350
Pace car driver	"Big Boy" Rader
Chronology
Previous Next 1933 1935

The 22nd International 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 30, 1934. The winner was the number seven car driven by Bill Cummings, an Indianapolis native, at an average speed of 104.863 miles per hour. Cummings led for 57 laps total, including the last 26.^[1] Of the 33 cars that began the race, only 12 were running at the finish, although there were no crashes resulting in serious injuries. One serious incident involved George Bailey, whose car went over the outside wall, but resulted in only a broken wrist to the driver. The finish was the closest in the history of the race to that point, with second-place finisher Mauri Rose within 100 yards of Cummings at the finish (officially 27.25 seconds behind). Rose would also file a protest that Cummings had illegally gained ground during a "slow-down" period following a crash.^[2]

Cummings was accompanied by riding mechanic Earl Unversaw. The race was part of the 1934 AAA Championship Car season.

Time trials

Ten-lap (25 mile) qualifying runs were utilized.

Results

Finish	Start	No	Name	Qual	Rank	Laps	Led	Status
1	10	7	Bill Cummings	116.116	6	200	57	Running
2	4	9	Mauri Rose	116.044	7	200	68	Running
3	20	2	Lou Moore	113.442	16	200	0	Running
4	19	12	Deacon Litz	113.731	14	200	0	Running
5	24	16	Joe Russo	113.115	18	200	0	Running
6	8	36	Al Miller	113.307	17	200	0	Running
7	18	22	Cliff Bergere	115.243	8	200	0	Running
8	9	10	Russ Snowberger	111.428	23	200	0	Running
9	3	32	Frank Brisko	116.894	4	200	69	Running
10	14	24	Herb Ardinger (R)	111.722	22	200	0	Running
11	1	17	Kelly Petillo	119.329	1	200	6	Running
12	29	5	Stubby Stubblefield	105.921	32	200	0	Running
13	28	49	Charles Crawford (R)	108.784	30	110	0	In pits
14	11	31	Ralph Hepburn	114.321	10	164	0	Connecting rod
15	12	18	George Barringer (R)	113.859	11	161	0	Bent front axle
16	6	26	Phil Shafer	113.816	12	130	0	Camshaft drive
17	7	8	Tony Gulotta	113.733	13	94	0	Rod
18	13	1	Louis Meyer (W)	112.332	20	92	0	Oil tank
19	22	6	Dave Evans	102.414	33	81	0	Transmission
20	15	15	Shorty Cantlon	117.875	2	76	0	Crankshaft
21	5	4	Chet Gardner	114.786	9	72	0	Rod
22	17	51	Al Gordon	116.273	5	66	0	Crash T1
23	23	35	Rex Mays (R)	113.639	15	53	0	Front axle
24	25	42	Dusty Fahrnow (R)	113.070	19	28	0	Rod
25	21	41	Johnny Sawyer	109.808	27	27	0	Rod
26	33	33	Johnny Seymour	108.591	31	22	0	Pinion gear
27	27	45	Rick Decker	110.895	26	17	0	Clutch
28	2	3	Wilbur Shaw	117.647	3	15	0	Lost oil
29	26	73	Doc MacKenzie	111.933	21	15	0	Crash NC
30	31	29	Gene Haustein	109.426	28	13	0	Crash T4
31	30	63	Harry McQuinn (R)	111.067	24	13	0	Rod
32	16	58	George Bailey (R)	111.063	25	12	0	Crash T3
33	32	46	Chet Miller	109.252	29	11	0	Crash T1
[3]

Alternates

• First alternate: Willard Prentiss^[4]

Failed to Qualify

Bill Chittum (R) (#59) Maynard Clark (R) (#56) George Connor (R) (#39) Wesley Crawford (#44) Danny Day (R) (#62) Pete DePaolo (#27) - Withdrew Leon Duray (#54) Fred Frame (#34) Sam Hoffman (R) (#47) Ted Horn (R) (#53) Harry Hunt (R) (#43) Peter Kreis (#14) - Fatal accident

Harry Lewis (R) (#52) Tee Linn (R) (#62) Milt Marion (R) (#57) Vern Ornduff (R) (#62) Jack Petticord (#52) Harold Shaw (R) (#65) - Driver refused Orville Smith (R) (#61) - Driver rejected Babe Stapp (#44, #54) Al Thiesen (R) (#530 Charles Tramison (R) (#72) Bob Wallace (R) (#53) Doc Williams (R) (#38) - Driver rejected[5]

Race details

For 1934, riding mechanics were required.^[6]

References

2. CUMMINGS VICTOR IN 500-MILE RACE Associated Press as printed in the New York Times May 31, 1934, page 26, sports. (requires subscription to read full article)
3. "Indianapolis 500 1934". Ultimate Racing History. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
4. The Talk of Gasoline Alley - 1070-AM WIBC, May 14, 2004
5. "1934 International 500 Mile Sweepstakes". ChampCarStats.com. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
6. Blazier, John E. and Rollings, Tom (1994). Forgotten Heroes of the Speedways: The Riding Mechanics.