This weekend the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will host the Red Bull Air Race – but it won’t be the first time the storied track has staged an aviation extravaganza. That history was created from June 13-19, 1910. The most anticipated aviation team of the event came from two of the most famous aviators of all, Wilbur and Orville Wright.

The Wright Brothers’ planes arrived June 7. Of the 11 entries, the Wrights owned six.

The Speedway had a transformed look from its debut in 1909. In the infield stood an “aerodrome” to house planes. At the track’s entrance was a wooden “monorail,” a guide with a groove cut in it to launch the planes of the age because they used skid pads instead of wheels.

American flags marked a course in the infield and judges assessed how well pilots stayed within its parameters as they did “laps.” Wing-to-wing competition was too dangerous, so competitors started at different points on the circuit and raced to see who closed the gap.

As the first licensed aviation meet in America, the event was historic. This was the first public demonstration of aviation in Indiana – it was still a marvel to see machines fly. Carl Fisher, who could not resist flying with Orville Wright, became one of the earliest passengers in aviation.

An exhilarated but humbled Speedway president confessed to a white-knuckle experience: “I’ve had enough. If there are no dents in the framework where I had it gripped it is because I couldn’t squeeze hard enough.”

Romantic accounts of Orville Wright soaring to lofty heights at dusk and peering over the horizon to see the sun after darkness coated the ground below mesmerized Indianapolis. Inexperience among the pilots, called birdmen by the press, reflected the nascent nature of aviation.

Walter Brookins, the Wrights’ 21-year-old star, had only taken up flying three months prior. All the more astounding, then, was the daring of young Brookins, who on Monday, June 13, took a 40-foot wingspan plane made of balloon silk stretched over a spruce wood frame to a new world altitude record at 4,384.5 feet.

While Monday was beautiful, the rest of the week offered intermittent rain and turbulence. With planes more temperamental than racecars, Speedway management offered “wind checks” as well as traditional rain checks to insure customers. Pilots found a happy hour late in the day when conditions calmed but they still had light.

First-day attendance disappointed, but news of Brookins’ bold moves attracted a respectable crowd of 19,000 by Wednesday. Of interest, too, was a creative promotion done in cooperation with Overland (whose test car is pictured above).

The Indianapolis auto company fashioned a novelty car called a Wind Wagon (pictured). Its engine powered an eight-foot wood propeller at the rear, mounted on a chain-driven shaft and positioned high enough to clear the ground. The car raced airplanes around the brick oval, losing a close finish to Brookins on Thursday.

Later Brookins put on a dazzling display of air acrobatics. Twisting his cloth-winged flyer in mid-air at 82 degrees, the young pilot had fellow aviators in awe. Timed by Orville Wright, Brookins spun the plane a full revolution in 6.4 seconds. Both Wright brothers ran to their student when he touched ground, excitedly shaking his hand.

When asked if Brookins would attempt the daring maneuver again, Wilbur Wright said, “Never again with my consent. I don’t think he or anyone could do it again and get away with it.”

Friday’s big event was the highlight of the week – another world’s altitude record by Brookins. In another dusk-time flight, Brookins wasted no time in climbing to high altitude. After ground engineers measured his height at 4,938 feet the plane disappeared from the sight of Speedway onlookers. His engine failed on his descent and he glided the plane at the mercy of the wind, landing some four miles north of the Speedway, unhurt.

Saturday proved anti-climatic with one exception. After the planes of his other pilots were stored in the aerodrome, Orville Wright mounted the skies to close the meet. As Wright pirouetted in the air with exceptional skill the handful of remaining spectators marveled at the spectacle.

The legendary Wright’s masterful command of the amazing new aircraft brought a fitting conclusion to an event hosted by the legendary track founded as a technology proving ground. While the crowds approached 20,000 in the closing days, they frequently dwindled to a few hundred as gusty winds hampered the fragile craft. Aviation events became a brief chapter in Speedway lore, never to be repeated – until this year.

For more from author Mark Dill, visit http://www.firstsuperspeedway.com.