This image was purchased along with 100s of other Official Indianapolis Motor Speedway photographs from famed Indianapolis 500 Photographer Jim Haines' personal collection. 

The 31st International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, May 30, 1947. 

Late in the race, Lou Moore teammates Bill Holland and Mauri Rose were running 1st and 2nd. The pit crew displayed a confusing chalkboard sign with the letters "EZY" to Holland, presumably meaning for him to take the final laps at a reduced pace to safely make it to the finish. Mauri Rose ignored the board, and charged to catch up to Holland. 

Holland believed he held a lap lead over Rose, and allowed him to catch up. The two drivers waved as Rose passed Holland, with Holland believing it was not more than a congratulatory gesture.

In reality, the pass Rose made was for the lead, and he led the final 8 laps to take the controversial victory. The race was marred by a 41st lap crash that claimed the life of Shorty Cantlon.

Rose's distance finish time of 4:17:52.17 was the second fastest finish of the Indianapolis 500 ever, at the time. Only the 1938 Indianapolis 500 had been completed in a faster total time as of 1947.

After Rose completed the 500 mile distance, approximately 40 minutes was given for additional drivers to finish, before any remaining drivers who had not completed the distance by then were flagged off the track. The 1947 race was also the coldest on record, with an average temperature of 50 degrees and morning low of 37.

Although Rose had driven in every Indianapolis 500 since 1933, he earned his first pole position when he put his Maserati on the pole for the 1941 Indianapolis 500; but spark plug problems sidelined his car after sixty laps.

 He then took over the Wetteroth / Offenhauser car being driven by Floyd Davis that had started in 17th place. Rose went on to win. In 1947 and 1948, Rose captured back-to-back Indianapolis 500s driving one of the Diedt/Offenhauser Blue Crown Spark Plug Specials, owned and prepared by veteran driver/car owner Lou Moore.

Late in the 1947 race, Rose found himself lying second to his rookie teammate, Bill Holland, when both were given a sign reading "EZY" from pit lane. Holland reduced speed, but Rose ignored the sign and continued on. 

Rose closed on Holland and to his amazement, Holland gave way without a battle and even gave Rose a friendly wave as he went past on his way to victory. But Holland thought he had more than a lap lead on Rose, instead of just a few seconds. Holland was furious afterward.

In 1949, with Holland leading and Rose again running second late in the race, Rose set out to overtake his now-veteran teammate. Rose again ignored car owner Lou Moore's "EZ" signs from the pits and continued to push in pursuit of Holland. This time, Rose's car broke while Holland cruised home to victory—and Moore fired Rose on the spot after the race for disobeying team orders.

Rose made his fifteenth and final Indianapolis 500 start in the 1951 race. Knocked out from an accident after 126 laps, the forty-five-year-old Rose retired to a home in California. For the 1967 race, officials of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway invited him to drive the pace car.