Chance Kinsley- racer

Part two

In the first part of the Chance Kinsley story, the young racer from Greenfield Indiana won the 1920 Labor Day races at the Shelby County Fairgrounds in Shelbyville Indiana. This second installment of his story begins Decoration Day weekend in 1921, with Kinsley entered in the 100-lap race on the ½-mile dirt track at the Butler County fairgrounds in Hamilton Ohio.

Wilbur D'Alene in 1919 in his Duesenberg

Photograph courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

The race was promoted by well-known race driver Wilbur D’Alene a Hoosier native whose given name was Edwin Wilbur Aleon. D’Alene had raced with the American Automobile Association (AAA) since 1914, first for the Marmon factory and later the Duesenberg team. D’Alene nicknamed “the wild man from the West” finished second in the 1916 Indianapolis 500-mile race. D’Alene’s name was familiar to Southwestern Ohio fans as he finished second at the Cincinnati Motor Speedway board track in Sharonville Ohio on Labor Day 1916.

After he divorced his first wife Amy.in late 1916 Wilbur enlisted and served as an instructor for the aviation section of the US Signal Corps at Kelly Field in San Antonio Texas during World War 1.  On leave, D’Alene married for second time in July 1918 at age 33 and after his release from the service apparently raced little though he did appear in the 1919 Liberty 500-mile race.  D’Alene and riding mechanic William Vetere narrowly escaped disaster as their Duesenberg spun at high speed after one of the front tires blew out and jammed the steering. With the front axle broken the car was retired with 300 miles completed.   

During 1920, D’Alene settled in Fort Wayne Indiana where he operated a service station and a Miller Carburetor distributorship and was involved in “Garden City,” a planned amusement park and 1-1/4 motor speedway project. D’Alene’s race date at Hamilton was the first of a two-race promotion with the second race scheduled in Erlanger Kentucky on Saturday June 11.

The promised $1000 cash purse attracted a strong field. Drivers from Ohio included Charles Vischer from Toledo in a Chandler,  Joe Fielding of Columbus with an Essex,  Frank Varagnue from Walbridge and his Duesenberg,  Waldo Sober from Cleveland with a Roof Special and C. M. Fox of Toledo with an Oldsmobile racer.  In addition to Chance Kinsley in his Chevrolet Special, Hoosier entries among the fifteen cars and drivers entered included Frank Thomas from Indianapolis with a Rajo Special, Wilbert “Bill” Hunt in his ‘Craig-Hunt Special’ from Indianapolis and rookie driver Harold Werst from Fort Wayne with his Roof Special.

The Sunday afternoon pre-race practice session from 2 to 5 PM, held to give the drivers a chance to familiarize themselves with the track and tune their cars, was free and open to the public and attracted a sizeable crowd. The Monday May 30th race program was scheduled to begin at 2:30 PM, opening with an “elimination round” as each car took one flying lap against the clock to determine the nine-car starting field for the 100-lap 50-mile main event. Each successful qualifier was guaranteed $50 to start the race with the race winner set to receive $500, second place $300, third place $125, and the fourth place finisher $75.

On a day that featured “perfect weather” according to the report in the next day’s Hamilton Evening Journal the crowd which was “not as large as expected” enjoyed a thrilling afternoon of racing.  Alas, Chance Kinsley’s qualifying lap was not fast enough to advance to the 100-lap race which was marred by two accidents.

 

About a third of the way into the race, five cars tangled and all were knocked out of the race with Hunt’s Craig-Hunt Special faring the worst with as the Evening Journal  described the car as “practically destroyed with three wheels torn off.”  Driver Bill Hunt was rushed to Mercy Hospital with “painful and serious injuries” with cuts on his knee and chest and several broken ribs.

Later in the race while trying to catch the leader, Frank Thomas his ‘Rajo Special’ ran over the wheel of Bob Jackson’s Craig-Hunt Special and both cars were eliminated after the ensuing crash. At the end of the 50-mile race, D’Alene waved the checkered flag for the only three cars were still running with Joe Fielding’s Essex the victor by a three-lap margin over second place finisher Ben Lawwell with Ford Moyer from Indianapolis in third place. 

Apparently race promotion was not a long-term career path for D’Alene, and he returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the following May in 1922 as a driver for the Monroe-sponsored three-car Frontenac team. Wilbur was teamed with young racer Worth Schloeman as his riding mechanic in a machine that was scheduled to carry a “radiophone” wireless system for communication between the car and the pit box according to Schloeman’s hometown Estherville Iowa Vindicator and Republican newspaper.  Schloeman born in 1899 had left his hometown just a year earlier with his home-built race car in tow in search of fame and fortune in the Middle West.  

Despite the pre-race publicity the honor of carrying the first radio set in the 1922 ’500’ went to Jack Curtner and his mechanic Homer Smith in the #18 Frontenac-Ford entered by the Chevrolet brothers.  During the 1922 ‘500’ D’Alene’s Monroe burst into flames on the backstretch and “singed” D’Alene and Scholeman.

 

The fire was extinguished and repairs were made, but the car lost many laps and when it was flagged off the track it had completed only 160 laps.  After he retired from racing D’Alene worked for a time as a deputy Federal Game Warden under his birth name Edwin Aleon.

1921 

Results from Chance Kinsley’s 1921 racing season are incomplete but the author found two reports.  Chance competed in the 25-mile race held on the ½-mile dirt track on the Fairgrounds in Warren Indiana on Saturday September 3 1921. An article in the Huntington Press newspaper the day before stated that “every plan of the management of the local races has been completed, and all is in readiness for the races. 

The writer promised that "every care is to be taken by the management to prevent accidents and show the public a clean, keenly contested race.” However, the article went on to note that “the public is warned to keep away from the fences and turns on the track, and is asked to aid in any way possible in making the race safe for the spectators.”

Earlier it had been revealed that F. S. Howell “entered a new 16 -valve Dodge which .will be driven by Chance Kinsley' of Greenfield, an old head at the racing game, having had a number of years of experience on the dirt tracks throughout the country.” Kinsley was joined by D. E. Jaques will appear in his Jaques Special from Thorntown, Ind., where he owned and operated the Jaques Auto and Garage Company which sold Dort and Velie automobile and Firestone tires.

Another entrant, Hugh Rife was identified as a former member of the Chevrolet team who “last year won six firsts out of ten starts” and there was an entry from Fred Clemons of Indianapolis with the ‘Speedway Special.’ Clemons was identified by the Huntington Press as “an old time driver and in 1911 and 1912 was driver for the McFarlan team in the 500-mile International races at Indianapolis.”

Clemons in fact had appeared at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1910 and 1911 and finished fifth in a McFarlan in the 1910 Remy Grand Trophy Race and fifth in an 80-lap race held on September 5 1910. Clemons and the McFarlan were entered for the 1911 “500’ but failed to maintain the required 75-mile per hour minimum speed.

The featured driver among the seventeen entries was Worth E. Schloeman of Estherville lowa with his ‘Schloeman Special.  Schliemann had reportedly entered his first races “in this section of the country” in 1920 and won fourteen out of sixteen starts. Among Worth’s accomplishments were victories in both the July 5th and the Labor Day events at Winchester, Indiana. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette article stated that Schloeman “won first place at Greenfield in the fastest time made this year, beating a field of the fastest dirt track cars in this section of the country.”       

The races in Warren were apparently plagued by a small crowd (estimated at 1,000) and poor track conditions and there were several accidents which resulted in two injuries. In his five-mile elimination race, Jaques skidded in one of turns and flipped end-over-end twice and then caught fire with flames “shooting 20 feet in the air” as Jaques received severe burns around his left shoulder.

Meanwhile at the other end of the track a car swerved through the outer wooden fence and the riding mechanic L. Chapman was thrown from the car and suffered a deep wound below his left eye. In the other five-mile elimination ace the Frontenac-Ford of Ralph Ormsby of Fort Wayne the day’s fastest qualifier was eliminated for the day after the car’s rear axle broke.    

Five cars started the 25-mile feature race that Kinsley, Schloeman and Homer Ormsby. Homer’s car was eliminated when it too broke an axle on third lap, then Kinsley’s 16-valve Dodge dropped out with engine trouble on the 23rd lap. Schloeman led the remaining two cars to the finish in a time of 28 minutes and 58 seconds judged to be “exceptional considering the conditions.” No prize money was mentioned but Worth won “a beautiful silver loving cup put up by the racing association” and some handsome lap prizes donated by the merchants.”

Two days later on Labor Day Monday September 5 1921, many of the same drivers were among the fifteen race cars entered at the steeply banked half-mile Funk’s Speedway in Winchester Indiana. The Labor Day races featured a pair of races, 20 miles and 30 miles and attracted a large crowd despite the threatening skies overhead.

At some point during the afternoon, Chance Kinsley’s car went through the wooden guardrail and he suffered a “badly bruised” arm and chest. Kinsley was the only driver to suffer injuries at Winchester that day, though Worth Schloeman’s car reportedly turned over twice, and while the car was eliminated from racing for the rest of the day, Schloeman escaped injury.

Charles Brown of Indianapolis won the first 20-mile race in his ‘Brown Special’ in a time of 23 minutes and 54 seconds, more than two minutes faster than the previous track record for that distance. Brown won $200, while Cecil D Laum of Bloomington won $100 for finishing second in his Ford and local driver Everett Cox won $50 for his third place finish.

Arthur Chevrolet made a rare appearance on Labor Day as the driver and it paid off with a $400 victory in the thirty-mile feature event.  Chevrolet made limited starts after he was injured in a practice crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1920. The May 24 collision with Rene Thomas and Ralph DePalma left Arthur with facial cuts and a bruised chest.  On Labor Day 1921, Arthur’s Frotenac was chased across the finish line at Winchester by Waldo Smith and Charles Brown.     

1922

Click to enlarge

 

Results for Chase Kinsley's 1922 season are non-existent but an advertisement in the Shelby Democrat newspaper days before the scheduled October 8 1922 races at the Shelby County Fairgrounds identified Kinsley as a “famed motorcycle racer” who had driven “the Speedway Special in nine races this season and never finished out of the money.” 

In our next installment we will continue the story and look at how 1923 became Chance Kinsley’s breakout racing season.