In 1911, the first ever Indianapolis 500 was held and the lone Italian entrant was Ralph DePalma, who drove his Simplex to a sixth place finish. DePalma would later go on to become the first even Italian winner of the Indy 500, when he won the 1915 race in a Mercedes, leading 132 of the 200 laps. In fact, DePalma is one of the earliest prominent Italian racecar drivers -- he supposedly won over 2,000 races over the course of his motorsport career and is inducted into multiple motorsport halls of fame.