On 5 June 1909, the first official national balloon championship in the United States, the National Balloon Race, took place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The first official balloon race in the United States was organised by Carl Fisher, a well-known automobile tycoon and promoter of motor racing. In 1906, he came up with the idea of building a racing facility in Indianapolis that could be used for both vehicle testing and motor racing.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the track was officially named, was initially scheduled to open in May 1909. However, adverse weather conditions caused delays to construction, meaning the first car race at the new facility had to be postponed.
Fisher then came up with another idea – how to open the track without organising a motor race there. Instead, he decided to promote his facility by holding a balloon competition at the future race ground.
First, he founded the Aero Club of Indiana, a local branch of the Aero Club of America. Then, Fisher managed to attract nine balloon crews from across the country to compete in the inaugural National Balloon Race.
On the evening of 5 June 1909, the balloons took off for the competition in front of approximately 40,000 spectators. Carl Fisher himself crewed one of the aerostats, joining G.L. Bumbaugh aboard the Indiana balloon.
The first National Balloon Race was held in two categories, for balloons with capacities of 40,000 and 80,000 cubic feet respectively. In the first category, three aerostats named Ohio, Indianapolis and Chicago entered the handicap competition. The event was won by the Indianapolis balloon, crewed by G. Link and J.R. Irwin.
The balloons that entered the main competition were New York, Saint Louis III, Cleveland, Hoosier and University City (or University City of St. Louis, according to some sources), as well as the aforementioned Indiana.
The competition was won by University City, crewed by John Berry and his assistant, Paul McCullough. They covered almost 380 miles (611 kilometres) and spent thirty-five hours in the air before finally landing in Fort Payne. Fisher and Bumbaugh received the award for the longest flight duration, having remained airborne for forty-eight hours and thirty minutes.
Interestingly, during the flight, the competing balloons and their crews became targets for many trigger-happy farmers on the ground. Fisher later reported that shooting began shortly after Indiana left the track grounds and continued throughout the journey to the landing site, becoming even more frequent over Tennessee. Fortunately, there were no reports of injuries among the competing crews.
Cover photo: Indianapolis balloon race 1909 – Chicago, Indiana, and Hoosier netted down to ground (Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-78453, cropped)
