DePalma, Ralph
Auto racing
b. 1883, Italy
d. March 31, 1956
With just five laps to go, DePalma was leading the 1912 Indianapolis 500 when his car began leaking oil, He nursed it toward the finish, but it stopped on the track with less than a mile remaining, He and riding mechanic Rupert Jeffkins climbed out and pushed the car that last mile to the finish line, In the meantime, Joe Dawson passed them to win the race, and DePalma was disqualified, but he and Jeffkins won a standing ovation from the Indy crowd, and the newspaper photo of the gallant effort did as much as anything to glamorize the race to the American public.
DePalma's family came to America when he was 10 years old, During a 25-year career that began early in the century, he won an estimated 2,000 races on every type of surface imaginable, Before formal championships had been established, he was considered the champion of dirt track racing, the sport's birthplace, from 1908 through 1911.
He won the American Automobile Association's national championship in 1912 and 1914, After retiring for some time, he returned to dirt track racing in 1929 and won the Canadian driving championship.
DePalma had a legendary rivalry with Barney Oldfield, He was once quoted as saying, "I would rather beat Oldfield than eat five plates of spaghetti in a row," a statement he later denied making, The rivalry began in 1914, when DePalma was in his second year as captain of the Mercer factory team preparing for the Vanderbilt Cup race in Santa Monica, Oldfield was signed by Mercer executive to drive in the race, without DePalma's knowledge, When he found out about the deal, he resigned on the spot.
He then entered the race on his own, bringing an old Mercedes Grey Ghost out of retirement for the effort, Oldfield took the lead from DePalma with about 10 laps to go in the 300-mile race, but couldn't pull away, With fewer than eight laps remaining, DePalma slowed and signalled to his crew that he was going to make a pit stop, Oldfield decided he could get off the track, too, to replace a badly worn tire, But DePalma never stopped, He took the lead and held off Oldfield's desperate charge to win the Vanderbilt Cup, The same old Grey Ghost won the 1915 Indy 500, erasing the disappointment of 1912.
DePalma's last major race was the 1925 Indy 500, when he finished seventh, But during the mid-1930s he drove stock cars to a number of records in time trials, and later he became honorary referee at Indy until 1954, two years before his death.