Assetto Corsa: 1916 Duesenberg Indycar at Indianapolis 16

As the initial luster of the Indianapolis Sweepstakes Race wore off, attendance of both fans and drivers began to wane. It also probably didn't help that many European drivers were caught up in the Great War, some of whom would become legendary fighter pilots, while many others would lose their lives.

In a board meeting with speedway owner Carl Fisher, management insisted that a 500 mile race was simply too long and reduced it to 300. To help accommodate fans, the race start time was moved from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm. A paltry 14 cars arrived for the May 30th race, with an additional 7 cars added by Indy management to make what is still today the smallest starting field in Indy history. Dario Resta took the lead on lap 7 and never relinquished, winning in his Peugeot ahead of Wilbur D'Alene in a Duesenberg.

As an attempt to make up for lost profit, Carl Fisher announced The Harvest Classic, a series of shorter races that would be held on Labor Day weekend at the speedway (this was later moved to September 9th to avoid a scheduling conflict with the Cincinnati board track). Two of the three races were won by Johnny Aitken by less than a car length. Despite the excitement generated by the shorter races, the event scored poor attendance thanks partially to the Indiana State Fair. The 1917 Indy 500 was cancelled the following March due to a dispute between Fisher and the local hotels, along with increasing political unrest. This marks 1916 as the final year in which multiple races were held at the speedway until 1994 when Nascar arrived in August for the Brickyard 400.

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