On race day, Mark Billman was killed in a crash on lap 79 while Lester Spangler and his riding mechanic G.L.

42 cars averaged faster than the designated 100 mph mark, making for the largest starting field in the race's history.

George Zanaon, a typesetter for The World-Independent newspaper in the town of Walsenburg, Colorado was preparing a story for that day's Indianapolis 500.

Since Memorial Day was a holiday, his young editor John B. Kirkpatrick was alone monitoring the Associated Press wire for race updates.

A helpful AP editor in Denver advised him that he would send the name of the winner via Western Union telegraph.

The young editor misunderstood the jargon in the message, and interpreted it as saying a driver named Will Overhead was the winner.

The gaffe put the town of Walsenburg, and The World-Independent newspaper (now known as the Huerfano World Journal), on the map in racing circles.