History
The race was founded in 1951 by Howard S. Wilcox, Jr., executive director of the Indiana University Foundation, who modeled the race after the Indianapolis 500 automotive race, which his father, Howard S. Wilcox, Sr. had won in 1919. Racers compete in teams of four, racing relay-style for 200 laps (50 mi (80 km)) along a quarter-mile (440 yd (400 m)) cinder track. Thirty-three teams are selected in qualifications trials to compete in the main race. Money raised by the event funds scholarships for working Indiana University students. The event is similar to a Madison in that is is a relay but only one rider participates in a time.
The events of the Little 500 were dramatized in the 1979 Academy Award-winning movie Breaking Away , which depicts a group of Bloomington townies who enter the race as the "Cutters" (from the local Indiana limestone stonecutters) and defeat the favored fraternity teams. In the early 1980’s following the release of Breaking Away , the very successful Delta Chi fraternity’s cycling team left their house amidst a fallout and took the name Cutters as their now ‘independent’ team moniker. Their first race under this name was in 1984, which they won. The former fraternity team are now students, who are traditionally either Bloomington locals or at the very least non-Greek, and have been tremendously successful, winning fifteen races that they have entered, with an average finish of 3.7, all while never finishing worse than 12th. [2]
The inaugural Women’s Little 500 was held in 1988. Four members of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority completed a qualifications run in the 1987 men’s event on their 3rd and final attempt, but failed to qualify into the field of 33. In 1988, the IU Student Foundation launched the Women's Race. Thirty-one teams competed in the first Women's Race which was won by an all-freshman team, Willkie Sprint, representing Willkie Residential Hall. Kappa Alpha Theta has been the most successful Women's Team, qualifying for every race, winning eight times with an average finish of 3.1. [3]
The 2020 Men's and Women's Little 500 races were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The race returned in 2021 but no spectators were allowed in the stadium due to Monroe County's, Indiana University's, and Big Ten Conference's COVID guidelines. [4] Fans were allowed back to Bill Armstrong stadium for the 2022 races.
Series events
The Little 500 includes four events beside the race itself: Qualifications, ITTs, Miss-N-Out, and Team Pursuit. These events are collectively known as "The Spring Series". The team that wins The Spring Series is also awarded a white jersey to wear during that year's race. These events also ensure that all the members of a team, not just those competing in the actual race itself, can still participate and compete.
2024 Spring Series Winners:
Men's: Sigma Phi Epsilon
Women's: Kappa Alpha Theta
Qualifications
Qualifications, commonly known as "Quals," is the first and one of the most important series events. Qualifications is a four-lap race around the track to see which team can get the fastest cumulative time. These times determine if a team qualifies to race in Little Five and, if so, where in the field of the top 33 teams they will be placed. Teams start the race lined up in 11 rows of three, starting with the pole winner up front on the inside, and teams choose their pits and jerseys in the order in which they qualify, so this is another reason to qualify high. Each team is given three attempts to qualify. The reason for this is in case a team botches an exchange, then they still have two more chances to qualify. The way that a team can fault on an exchange is if a member falls and takes the bike down with him, or if the team does not perform the exchange in the given distance, marked by white lines on the track. A team can use as many as four riders or as few as two riders. But whatever number of riders they use to qualify is the fewest riders they can use for Little Five. Meaning that if a team qualifies with four people, then that team must race with four people. But if they qualify using only three people, then they can use three or four people on the day of Little Five. The team that qualifies on the pole is given a green jersey for the race.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 qualifications were cancelled. The starting grid was determined by the results of the Team Pursuit Spring Series Event, with eventual winners, JETBLACH on pole for the Men's race and Alpha Xi Delta on pole for the Women's race.
Qualifications returned in 2022, with Kappa Alpha Theta on pole for the Women's race [7] and Phi Kappa Psi on pole for the Men's Race. [8]
2024 Pole Sitters:
Men's: Sigma Phi Epsilon
Women's: Teter
ITTs
Like a qualification, an Individual Time Trial (ITT) is a four-lap (one mile) sprint around the track. But unlike qualifications, it is performed individually. It is a test of both speed and sprint endurance. There are up to four riders on the track at a time. One rider is placed at each turn of the track. The riders line up with the start/finish line that is drawn in white on the track. Then a race official will come behind the rider and hold the bike steady so that the rider can set both feet on the pedals. In recent years, there has been a five-beep countdown, but in 2007 a gun start was used. The riders begin from a dead stop and race around the track. It is possible to catch other riders on the track while racing, but similar to most triathlon competitions, drafting is prohibited. A rider caught blatantly drafting off of another rider is automatically disqualified.
ITTs All-Time Record:
Men’s: 2005 Hans Arnesen (Alpha Tau Omega) - 02:15.78
Women’s: 2018 Brooke Hannon (Melanzana) - 02:33.083
ITTs 2024 Winners:
Men's: Luke Naas (Sigma Alpha Epsilon) - 02:26:61
Women's: Audrey La Valle (Kappa Alpha Theta) - 02:39.98
A standard elimination race in track cycling, each heat consists of five to eight riders, depending on the number of riders signed up for the day. At the end of the second lap and each subsequent lap, the rider in last place at the end of each lap is eliminated and exits the track. Riders keep racing until there are only three riders left. These three riders move on to the next round. This process continues until the final heat of eight. In this heat, riders continue to race and get out until the last three remain and then they commence a one-lap full-out sprint and the first-, second- and third-place winners are determined by the order in which the riders cross the finish line.
2024 Miss-N-Out Men's Finals:
1st: Connor Furlong, Beta Sigma Psi
2nd: Max Martin, Sigma Phi Epsilon
3rd: Judah Thompson, Cutters
4th: Luke Naas, Sigma Alpha Epsilon
5th: Will Pitts, Sigma Phi Epsilon
6th: Jeff Raley, Sigma Nu
2024 Miss-N-Out Women's Finals:
1st: Audrey La Valle, Kappa Alpha Theta
2nd: Allison Edgar, Teter
3rd: Dorothy Curran-Munoz, Novus
4th: Cecilia Bell, Teter
5th: Tatum Montague, Delta Zeta
6th: Evelyn Morris, Melanzana
Team Pursuit
Run under UCI rules for team pursuit in track cycling's version of the event, two teams of four race around the track. Unlike the UCI banked version, the race lasts 15 laps (6,000 meters), which is longer than a traditional UCI team pursuit by five laps, or 2,000 meters. The team's time is the time of the 3rd rider to cross the line. The final heat sees the two fastest teams race head-to-head. Up until 2021, the women's event was 10 laps (4,000 meters), which since 2012 is the standard international distance.
Team Pursuit All-Time Record:
Men’s: 1986 Cutters - 08:38.81
Women’s 10 Lap Record: 2011 Teter - 07:50.11
Women's 15 Lap Record: 2024 Kappa Alpha Theta - 10:16.95
Team Pursuit 2024 Winners:
Men's: Black Key Bulls
Women's: Kappa Alpha Theta
Thirty years later, in 2009, Smithville produced a half-hour-long documentary, Ride Fast, Turn Left, that followed four teams preparing for and competing in the race. In February 2015, One Day in April was released which depicts two men's and two women's teams' preparation and dedication preceding the race.
A Bollywood movie Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar , based on the Little 500 and an adaptation of Breaking Away, was made in the year 1992, starring Aamir Khan.
Highlights of the 1981 race were shown on ESPN and the first major coverage was by CBS Sports Saturday for the 1982 race. CBS's auto racing announcer, Ken Squier called the race, with Dave Blase providing color commentary. The races have also been broadcast live on the Indiana University student radio station WIUX and on television since 2002 on AXS.tv (formerly known as HDNet), which is owned by Indiana University alumnus Mark Cuban. [9]
