Chance Kinsley- Hoosier "hot rod"

Part three

In 1923, Kinsley became one of the star attractions at the Hoosier Motor Speedway. Today the track would be well within the Indianapolis city boundaries, but from 1922 to 1925, when the oval track was in operation, it sat just beyond the eastern outskirts of the city of Indianapolis near the intersection of 38th Street and Massachusetts Avenue. Parking was free for those who drove their cars to the track, but the site was also serviced by the Fort Harrison bus and interurban lines.  

When it opened on Armistice Day November 11, 1922 with a 75-mile race, the Hoosier Motor Speedway billed itself as “the greatest half-mile race course in the world.” In that 1922 Armistice Day race, Chance Kinsley set quick time in qualifying and held the lead of the race when a broken connecting rod in his Lexington-Ansted Special’s engine ended his day prematurely.  The Ormsby brothers of Fort Wayne were the day’s big winners with Ralph in his Frontenac taking first as brother Homer finished second, with Joe Guinta of Chicago in third place.  

The Hoosier Motor Speedway did not run a schedule of regular weekly racing programs rather it staged occasional special-event long distance (for the time) races. For example the 1923 Hoosier Motor Speedway advertised schedule featured just six races on May 5, June 9. July 4, August 4, Labor Day and the season finale on October 13.

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For the track’s inaugural 75-mile race of 1923, the 23-car entry list included Kinsley, the Ormsby brothers (who were considered Frontenac factory drivers), future Indianapolis ‘500’ starter Joe Huff from Fort Wayne, Joe King of Chicago, and Bill Hunt who brought three cars to the track. Chance Kinsley was named one of the early favorites to win in the six-cylinder Ansted Special, the product of one of the many Connersville companies owned by Edward W. Ansted grandfather of long-time Indianapolis ‘500’ entrant and 1964 Indianapolis ‘500’ co-winning car owner William Ansted Junior. 

Other scheduled entries for the May 5 1923 Hoosier Motor Speedway race included Arthur “Fuzzy” Davidson with a “Red Arrow”, future ‘500’ mechanic Ford Moyer, Benton “Bennie” Schoaf from Paris Illinois and a young Hoosier racer named Warren “Wilbur” Shaw.  Two renowned speed equipment manufacturers, the Rajo Motor and Manufacturing Company in Racine Wisconsin and the Robert Roof Company of Anderson Indiana, each entered one car without naming their drivers. 

On Tuesday May 2 Hoosier Motor Speedway General Manager J.V. Lines directed oil be placed on the track surface to keep down dust, but too much oil was applied which resulted in slick conditions and the cancellation of that day’s practice.  After a large roller was brought to the track in the afternoon and after the surface was rolled practice resumed on the afternoon of Wednesday May 3.

A reported five thousand spectators were on hand on Saturday as the event opened with morning time trials to “weed out any slow cars,” which apparently included Kinsley’s Ansted entry. Twelve cars took the green flag with Ford Moyer the early leader until just past the 1/3 point of the race when his car slid high into the wooden guardrail.

 

A plank came through the cowling of the car and hit Moyer in the chest which forced him to pit. Moyer was relieved by a driver named Johnson but the car was out of contention for victory. With Moyer sidelined, Claude Fix in a Frontenac-Ford grabbed the lead which he held until just past halfway when his car’s axle broke.

With Fix’s retirement the race lead fell to Homer Ormsby who drove in place of his brother who had arrived late. At the 50-mile mark Ormsby still led with Schoaf who drove an Oakland in second followed by Koehler in another Frontenac-Ford in third place. The running order remained unchanged to the finish as there were only five cars still running when starter Roscoe Dunning dropped the checkered flag. Orsmby finished the 75-mile distance in one hour and 31.54 minutes for an average speed of more than 49 miles per hour. 

Chance Kinsley did not have long to reflect on the disappointment of his failure to qualify for the season-opening 75-mile race on May 5 1923 at the Hoosier Motor Speedway on the east side of Indianapolis, as his next race was scheduled for May 30 Decoration Day at Winchester Indiana.

The half-mile track built by Frank Funk adjacent to his lakeside amusement park west of the village of Winchester had been remodeled from its original flatter configuration.  While intimidating today the new configuration must have been even more so in 1923, with an oiled dirt surface and eighteen foot high banked turns which reportedly made it “the highest banked half-mile track in the world.”

Early entrants included the Fort Wayne based Ormsby brothers in a pair of Frontenacs entered by Arthur Chevrolet, along with Ray Butcher and Wilbur Shaw named as drivers of two of the three cars entered by Imperial Motors the predecessor to Craig-Hunt and Speedway Engineering run by Wilbert “Bill” Hunt.  There were twenty cars entered in the races with a purse of $1,500.

Chance Kinsley’s career received a boost as at Winchester he was entered as the driver of a  ‘Roof Special’ powered by a Ford four-cylinder engine fitted with an overhead Roof Racing “Peugeot style” cylinder head manufactured by the Roof Auto Specialty Company of Anderson Indiana. At this time in history, Roof, the Chevrolet brothers with their Frontenac heads, the Rajo Motor and Manufacturing Company in Racine Wisconsin and Hunt with Imperial Motors were engaged in stiff competition for Ford Model T conversion racing cylinder head superiority.   

A reported crowd of 25,000 saw an epic battle in qualifying as “four world records” were broken, as Homer Ormsby, Benton “Bennie” Schoaf and Ford Moyer each posted laps of 29 seconds flat which eclipsed the previous track record of 29 and 3/5 seconds but time trials ended with Ralph Ormsby on top with a lap of 28-4/5 seconds.

There were three races held on Decoration Day 1923 and Claude Fix from Clinton Indiana in a “Powell Special” designed and owned by Charles Powell of Greensburg Indiana won the 10- and 20-mile races.  Both races were finished in record times despite the fact that Fix was still recovering from burns on his throttle foot sustained in a recent race in Lafayette Indiana. Fix led at the 25-lap mark of the featured 30-mile race but soon after his car suffered a blown tire which knocked him from contention. Chance Kinsley won the race in a time of 33 minutes and 15 seconds at an average speed of 54 MPH over Homer Ormsby and Ford Moyer, as these were the only three cars to finish the race.

CC Kinsley was listed as entrant in the “Deluxe Special” for a series of three races or 10, 20 and 30 miles on June 17 1923 at Centlivre Park Speedway in Fort Wayne Indiana. This unique narrow half-mile track was originally built by the Centlivre family of brewery fame to train their stable of race horses. Several years after the family lost interest in trotting horses, the property was bought by the Fort Wayne Auto Racing Association and the group headed by Ray Harper and Sam Novick built a new grandstand and restored the facility for motorcycle and automobile races.

It unclear whether Kinsley raced that day as only five of the fourteen cars entered actually appeared. The same day that his brother Ralph won the 100-lap race in Grand Rapids Michigan Hometown racer Homer Ormsby swept all to victory in all three of the Centilvre races. The site of the race track and park near Spy Run Creek is now home to the Centilvre Apartment complex.   

By the time of the Fourth of July 100-mile race at the Hoosier Motor Speedway Kinsley was a Frontenac team driver in the employ of Arthur Chevrolet. The race was highly anticipated, with a $1000 purse for the winner, the second place finisher set to win $500, third place $200 and fourth place $100.  After the track was treated with what the Indianapolis Star reported was “twelve tons of dust-laying chemical preparation” (later revealed to be calcium chloride) an open practice session was held on Sunday June 24 for those cars that were early entries.

Besides Kinsley, early local entries were received from Fred Koehler, S. R. Rosenbaum and M. M. Cowherd. During the next week, entries were received from D.E. Jacques who hailed from the Boone County town of Thorntown and Fred Wilson of Crawfordsville which brought the total number of entries to eighteen. Claude Fix had already told track General Manager J.V. Lines that he would be racing with the Powell Special at Winchester on July 4.  

After another practice session on Sunday July 1, another coating of calcium chloride was applied to the track surface in preparation for qualifying on Tuesday July 3 to winnow the field down to the twelve fastest cars. After he ran 20 laps of practice in the freshly-built Frontenac, Chance Kinsley was the first car to qualify and he set a new track record of 31-1/5 seconds, two seconds faster than the previous track mark.

The next car out  to qualify was Chance’s teammate Arthur ‘Fuzzy” Davidson in another Frontenac-Ford whose lap was timed at 35-3/5 seconds  Charles Moorhead took to the Speedway in his Essex and posted a time of 35 seconds flat as rain began to fall and washed out the rest of time trials.

JV Lines planned to resume qualifying at 8 AM on July 4th but unfortunately the rain forced the rescheduling of the race to Saturday July 7 and many of the racers including Kinsley headed east to Winchester for the 40- and 60-mile races. In time trials at the high-banked half-mile Funk’s Speedway Paul Clancy from Chicago in a Miller Special lowered the track record to 28 seconds flat.  

In the latter stages of the 40-mile race, Clancy battled Claude Fix for the lead. On the last lap, Fix steered the Powell Special into the low groove to pass for the lead. Clancy dropped out of the middle groove to block and forced Fix’s car into the inner berm. The resulting impact tore the rear wheels off the Powell Special as Clancy claimed the win ahead of Arthur “Fuzzy Davidson.

Clancy completed the 40 miles in 40 minutes and 20 seconds, which shaved seven minutes off the old record for that distance. In the 60-mile feature event at Winchester the former one-lap track record holder Ralph Ormsby cruised to victory in sixty minutes and 46-2/5 seconds nearly ten minutes better than the old mark for the third new track record established that day.

With the Hoosier Motor Speedway postponement to July 7 the entry list grew to 35 cars which included Claude Fix in his repaired Powell Special and Auter Thompson winner of the July 4 race at the Ripley County Fairgrounds in Osgood Indiana but rain again forced a postponement to July 14.

This second delay though it led to a reduction in the race distance to 75 miles, brought an added celebrity attraction, as General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing who was in town for the annual reunion of the 42nd “Rainbow” division was scheduled to attend the race along with his guest and World War 1 comrade in arms French General Henri Gouraud. 

Chance Kinsley took the lead of the race on the opening lap and looked to have the race won until his Frontenac-Ford suffered “compression trouble” on the 125th or the 150 laps and was forced into the pits. Kinsley’s teammate Worth Schloeman a lap behind Kinsley in his own Frontenac-Ford soon unlapped himself and assumed the race lead, an exciting turn of events for the young man who had left his home state of Iowa two years earlier and just 13 months before rode with Wilbur D’Alene in a Monroe in the Indianapolis 500-mile race.  

After quick repairs, Kinsley rejoined the race in second place scored three laps behind Schloeman. Chance only made up one lap of the deficit by the time the checkered flag fell with Dempsey Chancey in another Frontenac in third place while Claude Fix rounded out the top finishers in fourth. With the shorter race distance the purse was cut in half from the original July 4 race and Schloeman won $500, Kinsley $300, Chancey $200 while Fix received $100.   

At some point during the course of the race tragedy struck after a multiple car accident occurred.  In the confusion after the accident, a guard at the track, 34-year old Joseph Battley (also reported as Betler or Betley) ran onto the track to warn the  drivers. Battley was struck by the “Imperial Special” driven by Ray Butcher and died of his injuries the following day July 15 in an area hospital.

The story of Chance Kinsley’s breakout 1923 racing season continues in our next installment.