Louis Meyer

LOUIS MEYER competed successfully in major races for 12 full seasons, beginning in 1927. He earned the enviable distinction of being the first three-time Indianapolis 500 race winner with victories in 1928, 1933, and 1936. He also captured the National driving title in 1928, 1929, and 1933. His record includes victories in three 200-mile races on the board tracks at Altoona, Pennsylvania, and several on the nation’s one-mile dirt tracks. He unwittingly started a famous Indianapolis 500 tradition in the 1930s when he was filmed drinking buttermilk after winning the Indianapolis 500 on a hot day. He retired from driving in 1939. After World War II, he went into partnership with Dale Drake to purchase the Offenhauser engine business, whose engines were in every Indianapolis 500 winning car from 1947 through 1964. Meyer sold his interest in the company to Drake in 1964, and from then until 1970 was the distributor for the Ford racing engines used in Indianapolis 500 races and in United States Auto Club National Championship races.