Ralph DePalma

Did You Know?

• DePalma led 196 laps of the 1912 Indianapolis 500 before a cracked piston forced him to push his car across the line, finishing 11th.
• On October 5, 1912, DePalma was impaled by a corn stalk during a race in Milwaukee and spent 11 weeks in the hospital.
• DePalma estimated he had earned $1.5 million by 1934 after 27 years of racing.
• His total of 612 laps led at Indianapolis stood as the all-time record until Al Unser surpassed it on the 200th lap of the 1987 race.

Biography

Ralph DePalma came into the world in Biccari, a town in Italy’s Apulia region. His family, hailing from nearby Troia, moved to the United States in 1891. Upon arrival, young Ralph was informed that he was already a U.S. citizen because his father had become naturalized. That turned out to be false: in March 1920, he discovered his father had never finished the paperwork. DePalma applied for citizenship himself and was granted it in August of that same year. As a youth, he gave bicycle racing a try, with only middling results. At twenty-two, he moved to motorcycles, and by 1909—the same year the American Automobile Association launched its national driving championship—he had switched to racing cars on dirt tracks. Success came quickly. In 1911, DePalma claimed victory in the first Championship Car race held at the Milwaukee Mile. But he is best known for a heartbreaking loss at the 1912 Indianapolis 500. He seized the lead on lap three and held it for 196 laps, only for his 1910 Mercedes—a 90-horsepower machine with overhead valves—to blow a piston. With just two laps to go, DePalma and his mechanic pushed the car across the finish line, finishing eleventh. At the time, only cars that completed all 200 laps earned prize money, and their push had only covered the 199th lap. That Mercedes now sits in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum. Later that year, on October 5, he nearly died during the Grand Prize race on a Milwaukee road course when a corn stalk impaled him. He spent eleven weeks in the hospital, recovered, and was back racing the following spring. In 1912 and again in 1914, DePalma won the Elgin Trophy at Elgin, Illinois. In 1914 he scored what he called his greatest victory when he beat Barney Oldfield to capture the Vanderbilt Cup on the roads of Santa Monica, California. He entered the 1914 Indianapolis 500 and qualified, but withdrew before the race claiming he felt his engine could not survive the race. DePalma had been let go by the Mercer Automobile Co. racing team in favor of Barney Oldfield. In a Mercedes "Gray Ghost," he showed he was a master tactician in beating Oldfield's much faster car. He ended 1914 by winning his second U.S. national driving championship. The following year, he drove to victory at the 1915 Indianapolis 500 with one of the Mercedes 4.5 liter GP cars that just before the War had won the July 1914 French Grand Prix in a dominating 1-2-3 triumph. DePalma became the subject of much controversy the following May, when he held out for appearance money to drive in the 1916 edition of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Track owner Carl G. Fisher refused, and DePalma did not run in the 1916 Indianapolis 500 race. All was forgiven by September, when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway held a special "Harvest Classic" event and an agreement was reached for the great driver to race one of the Speedway’s Peugeots. DePalma was an intense competitor but one of the most popular racers with his fellow drivers and the fans because of his good sportsmanship, a quality he displayed on and off the track. In June 1917 he lost to Barney Oldfield in a series of 10 to 25 mile match races at the Milwaukee Mile. On February 12, 1919, at Daytona Beach, Florida, he drove a Packard to a world speed record of 149.875 mi/h over a measured mile. International competition began following the adoption of the three liter engine limit in the U.S. and in Europe in 1920. DePalma began the year driving for the French manufacturer, Ballot. His Ballot vehicle won the pole position for the 1920 Indianapolis race and he led for many laps but bad luck dogged him in the race (faulty bearings on the Ballot) and he did not finish. However, DePalma did race his Ballot vehicle in the Elgin Road Race and won his third Elgin trophy in 1920. Then in 1921, DePalma travelled with other Americans to Le Mans to compete in the 1921 French Grand Prix. There, he finished second to the Duesenberg driven by fellow American, Jimmy Murphy. DePalma won the Canadian national championship in 1929. Around 1920, DePalma established the DePalma Manufacturing Company in Detroit to build race cars and engines for automobiles and aircraft. DePalma later competed in stock cars until he retired from racing in 1936. He was an honorary referee for the Indianapolis 500, the last time in 1954. DePalma died at his home in South Pasadena, California, from cancer on March 31, 1956, at age 73. He was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.