The Marchbanks Speedway

Hanford California

Part One- the early history of the first superspeedway west of the Mississippi River


This article previously appeared in the Classic Racing Times - subscribe at http://theclassicracingtimes.com/subscribe

Bircha Lewis “B.L”. Marchbanks was born in 1895 and grew up to become a cattle rancher in Lamb County in the southern part of the Texas panhandle until he went bankrupt in 1924 and lost his ranch. Marchbanks arrived in California nearly penniless and settled in Kings County in the Central Valley near the small town of Hanford.  

Through years of hard work he and his two sons-in law built a large cotton and corn farm southeast of Hanford, and in 1950 Marchbanks decided to devote 160 acres to the construction of a new stadium venue located at the corner of the Central Valley Highway (also known as 8th street in Hanford) and Idaho Avenue.

Marchbanks Stadium included a rodeo grounds and a half-mile dirt track with a quarter-mile long straightaway that would also be used for quarter-horse racing. The first rodeo took place during 1950, but B.L.’s hopes of pari-mutuel gambling never materialized, and automobile racing debuted with jalopy races on May 12, 1951.  

One of the more unusual features of the new facility was the building that was used primarily for the driver’s meetings – B. L. Marchbanks bought the old one-room  King Schoolhouse building and had it moved to the race track site which was just north and east of his ranch home at 6888 Idaho Avenue.  

Later that year, the fledgling National Association of Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) group staged five Grand National races in California; three at the half-mile dirt Carrell Speedway in Gardena, one at the 5/8-mile high-banked oil-dirt Oakland Stadium, and on October 28 1951, a 200-lapper at the new Marchbanks Stadium.  

Admission to the race promoted by Johnny Mantz, the winner of the inaugural NASCAR ‘Southern 500’ the previous year, offered grandstand seats for $2.40 each while box seats were priced at $3.60 apiece.

The fans that arrived early to watch qualifying which began at 2:30 PM saw Danny Letner of Downey emerge as the fastest qualifier of the 31 cars with a best lap of 29.92 seconds. Other entries that aimed for their portion of the $3,550 total purse included North Carolina’s Marvin Panch, Oregon racer Herschel McGriff, sprint car and midget standout Allen Heath, and Indianapolis 500-mile race veterans Harold “Hal” Cole and James “Dick” Rathman.    

Herb Thomas, on his way to capturing the 1951 NASCAR championship with six wins already that season, led the first 34 laps in a 1951 Hudson owned by Marshall Teague until he was involved in a crash which handed the lead to second place starter Truman ‘Fonty’ Flock. ‘Fonty’  held the point until lap 74 when his ‘Red Devil’ 1951 Oldsmobile dropped out of the race on the same lap that the day’s fast qualifier Letner crashed out in spectacular fashion as barrel-rolled his 1951 Hudson three times.

Denny (sometimes stated as Danny) Weinberg in a 1951 Studebaker Commander V-8 owned by Tony Sampo of Downey picked up the lead on lap 75. Weinberg led the rest of the way and local newspapers reported that Weinberg “outlasted the nation’s point leaders to win” with only five cars reportedly running when Weinberg took the checkered flag.

Weinberg was a member of the family that owned and operated the Coastal Grain Company in Norwalk California a firm that processed and stored dairy feed and made loans to its customers to finance their farm and livestock operations. Robert Weinberg, a vice-president of Coastal Grain fielded entries for three years on the AAA Championship circuit from 1950 to 1952 for former Southern California track roadster standout Manny Auyolo.

During the 1952 racing season, B.L. Marchbanks staged a weekly slate of race that featured jalopies, hardtops and roadsters under the sanction of the Valley Jalopy Racing Association (VJRA).  On Friday Memorial Day 1952 Marchbanks Stadium held a 100-lap VJRA jalopy race that proved to have high a level of attrition as many cars failed to finish due to broken axles, tire blowouts and crashes into the retaining wall.

The VJRA, run by Ed Spellman, appears to have been a short-lived organization that sanctioned races only during the 1952 season at Marchbanks, and nearby Central Valley tracks in Visalia and Selma.   

An aerial photograph of the Marchbanks facility taken during 1953 showed off the addition of some new features - a one-third mile oval (oiled dirt) within the half-mile oval and a new short infield section that created a five-eighth mile road course. In addition to the newly constructed permanent parking facilities, the half-mile track had been paved with asphalt, and the facility opened on Mother’s Day May 9 1954 with a heavily-advertised race on the half-mile paved track for the URA “sprint cars.” Driver Bud Richmond suffered a concussion when his car crashed during warm-up laps.

For the 1954 racing season NASCAR had expanded to the West Coast under the direction of former champion midget driver turned race promoter Bob Barkheimer. The NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model circuit presented a nine-race schedule at venues throughout California with   Marchbanks Stadium’s 100-lap race scheduled for Saturday June 26.

Don Basile who had previously managed Carrell and Clovis Speedways, told local newspaper reporters that NASCAR and the track planned for a 24-car field with at least eight different makes and models, but after qualifying was completed, only 22 cars representing six different makes started the race.

The field included entries from a pair of competitors that had participated in the 1951 NASCAR Marchbanks race, Danny Letner and Marvin Panch, but the 1951 winner Denny Weinberg had retired from racing. In addition to the race with a $2,500 guaranteed purse, the night’s admission price included a “free full half-hour” of fireworks.

The fast qualifier was John Soares who posted a lap at 29.264 seconds, almost 6/10 of a second faster than the 1951 pole position time. Soares led the first two circuits in his 1954 Dodge until he yielded to Panch’s similar machine, and Panch led the rest of the race to win $450 with Soares second and eventual inaugural NASCAR Pacific Coast series champion Lloyd Dane in eighth position.

NASCAR established a strong position and served as the regular sanctioning body for Marchbanks Stadium. After the 1955 season when it co-sanctioned the jalopies, modified hard tops and claiming races (for amateurs) with the Valley Stock Car Racing Association (VSCRA), NASCAR became the track’s sanctioning body for many years.

   

On July 23 1954 the Northern California-based Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) and the Southern California based United Racing Association (URA) staged an unusual mid-season jointly sanctioned 100-lap midget race on the Marchbanks Stadium 1/3 mile oiled dirt track which was won by BCRA two-time defending Johnny Baldwin.

Nearly a month later, on August 21 1954, BCRA and URA co-sanctioned another 100-lapper won by the URA points leader Billy Garrett with Baldwin second trailed by BCRA regulars Earl Motter and Norm Rapp in third and fourth places respectively. The midgets returned to the Marchbanks 1/3-mile track one more time during the 1955 season with the August 27 BCRA sanctioned race won by Johnny Baldwin.

 On Sunday October 10th 1954 Marchbanks Stadium hosted a $1,000 purse jalopy and modified hardtop race on the “speedy half-mile paved track” that featured such emerging Central Valley racing stars Frank Secrist and Johnny Mello. In late July 1955 regular competitor Ronald McLane was critically injured when he inexplicably walked across the track during a yellow caution flag period of the 500-lap race. Struck by a passing race car, the impact broke both of McLane’s legs and his pelvis and he was reportedly off work for a year.

Marchbanks Stadium hosted a “Little Indianapolis” 500-lap race for jalopies and hardtops during the Memorial Day holiday in both 1956 and 1957 but the events were marred by tragedy. During the May 29 1956 running of the race, Arlen Smith a 22-year old mechanic for the car of ‘Chick’ Connery was struck in the back and shoulder by a wheel that had left the race car driven by Fred Dudley of San Jose.

Smith a resident of Las Vegas suffered a concussion when his head hit the ground after he was knocked down and he unfortunately died at the Hanford Community Hospital two hours after the accident.

One year and a day later, during the 1957 “Little Indianapolis” race, Ernest “Ernie” Cornelson, a successful Central Valley area jalopy and modified racer perished when his “Beacon Propane Special” rolled over several times, slammed into the retaining wall and burst into flames. Newspapers reported that the 30-year old Cornelson was mercifully killed instantly in the crash, and the race which had just completed its 148th lap was stopped for over an hour as the wreckage was cleared.

During the 1958 season the Marchbanks Sports Club Inc. appeared as the sponsor of the amateur claiming jalopy races sanctioned by NASCAR held every Saturday night during the season.  On Saturday September 20 the Marchbanks Stadium featured California Racing Association-sanctioned "big car" races, and the Marchbanks 1958 season closed with a visit from the NASCAR modified and sportsman series which drew entries from both the southern and northern California series.

For the 1959 season, B. L. Marchbanks under the guise of his company Marchbanks Sports Club Inc. became the promoter of the Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale California, and he made dramatic changes to the facility that included paving the racing surface with asphalt. The renovated facility opened on May 30 1959 with a double-header program of claimer jalopies and modified stock cars with the jalopy feature won by Ron McLane and the modified feature won by Johnny Mello who scored a bonus of 100 silver dollars from promoter B. L. Marchbanks.     

Marchbanks Stadium meantime had opened its 1959 season on May 10 and in early June Marchbanks’ two paved tracks featured back-to-back Saturday and Sunday night URA midget programs. The Marchbanks Stadium 1959 racing season closed in October with the “Valley Championships” for the modified hardtops and jalopies.   Big changes were on the horizon for the 1960 season at Marchbanks Stadium which will be detailed in the second and final installment of the history of the Hanford superspeedway.

Howard Segur Jr. 

Racing was in his blood

Howard Segur Jr. a Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) Hall of Fame member passed away on August 18, 2018 at the age of 77. The entire BCRA family is deeply saddened by the loss of this man who was an important part of the history of the club and midget racing in Northern California. 

 

courtesy of M&M Racing Photos

The entire BCRA family extends our sympathies to the Segur family for their loss and to honor Howard’s memory, before the racing program at Placerville Speedway on Saturday night August 25, defending BCRA midget racing champion Maria Cofer took a memorial lap in Howard’s honor while family gathered in the infield.




In 1939 Howard’s father Howard Sr. was one of the racers who transformed the Bay Cities Roadster Racing Association (BCRRA) into the midget organization that we know today. Segur Sr. was as a driver in the early days of BCRA and later a car owner with such drivers as Norm Rapp, Bert Moreland and Tommy Morrow.

Segur family legend has it that as a young man, Junior was banned from the family garage after he threw a handful of nuts and bolts in the engine of his Dad’s race car. In his early 20’s Howard kept losing weight and doctors gave him just months to live, but he overcame that setback and in 1966 bought his own midget race car. 


That car was a Ford V-8 60 powered Kurtis-Kraft chassis which he bought from BCRA legendary car owner Charlie Springer. Prior to Howard’s ownership, the Springer Kurtis-Kraft machine had been driven by BCRA standout Earl Motter

After Howard spent time updating and rebuilding the machine, he debuted as the driver of his own car at Bakersfield in 1968, the race of a driving career that lasted through the 1986 season. After a few years away from the sport, Howard returned as a car owner with drivers that included 1990 BCRA champion Tim Joyce, before both Howard and Tim retired from BCRA competition at the end of the 2004 season.  

Howard devoted 38 years to the BCRA in a multitude of roles - driver, car owner, member of the Board of Directors, and served as the club’s President from 1978 through 1980. Through the years Howard, his wife Karen, and daughters Carole Ann and Catherine selflessly gave their time, energy, and funds to help sustain the Bay Cities Racing Association. 

Tim Joyce, left ,and Howard Segur Jr, right ,at their

 BCRA Hall of Fame induction in 2006

courtesy of M&M Racing Photos

 

Both Howard and Karen were recognized as recipients of the annual Lloyd Nygren Sportsmanship Award, and in 2006, Howard was honored as he joined his father as a member of the BCRA Hall of Fame the same year as his former driver Tim Joyce.

Despite suffering from failing health in the last few years of his life, Howard worked on the restoration of his first midget race car and provided the funding to start the racing career of his grandson Robert Carson. 

The author extends his thanks to the Segur family, Bob Roza, Matt Sublett, Tim Joyce, and historians Floyd Busby and Tom Motter for their assistance in providing the background information for this article.    

 

Indoor hardtop racing in San Francisco

Part three

Following the success of the North California Indoor Hardtop Championship (NCIHTC) races indoors at the Cow Palace, the Oakland Racing Association (ORA) scheduled a second series of races, the Cow Palace Stock Hardtop Championship, set to begin May 7, 1955 and run through the month of May for four weeks.

The outdoor racing season had already opened in Northern California, so the Saturday night indoor races were paired with Sunday afternoon outdoor races on the ¼-mile dirt Vallejo Speedway. In an interesting promotion, the indoor races were scheduled head-to-head against the NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) hard tops which raced Saturday nights at San Jose Speedway.

Before the races could begin, the Cow Palace hosted the Grand National Junior Livestock Exposition from April 2nd to the 6^th, then the 10-round non-title boxing match between world middleweight champion Carl “Bobo” Olson and middleweight Joey Maxim. In a match that was broadcasted nationally on television and radio on April 13, Olson was awarded the unanimous decision.

In early May, ORA General Manager Marc Mott and Race Director Jack Smith announced a partial list of competitors for the Spring series; the winter indoor champion Henry “Cowboy” Alves would defend his crown, while runner-up Max McCord entered with his sights set to win the title this time.

Other winter indoor racers who filed their entries included Chet “Johnny Comet” Thomson, Walt Moniz, George Hanson and Lou Phillips who was scheduled to race a new Hudson coupe. Alves and Thomson competitors on the track were partners in an Oakland used auto sales lot, “Chet & Cowboy’s Car Corral,” on East 14^th Street.  

Also on the Cow Palace entry list were names which were familiar to many Bay Area racing fans - Bob Anderson and Carmel Fernandez, both Junior and Senior joined by ex-Oakland traffic officer Dick Marcell, Joe Guisti from Stockton, veteran Jack Perrin from San Leandro and Phillip Wong, a racer from Oakland billed as the “only Chinese driver on the West Coast” whose 1954 racing season at Oakland Speedway featured four flips and four destroyed race cars.     

Dick Seyler, who hailed from San Carlos, won the first night’s 20-lap main event on May 7^th which was interrupted by the crash of Max McCord’s car, with McCord, who won two races in the Winter indoor series, transported to Kaiser Hospital in South San Francisco. McCord’s injuries were variously described as “minor” and “not serious” and he was released after several hours.  

The following day a group of Bay Area high schoolers took part in the Junior Chamber of Commerce “Road-E-O” in the Cow Palace parking lot. All the young drivers drove identical 1955 Chevrolets in four events set up in the parking lot: parallel parking, a serpentine course, a smooth stopping test and a straight-line course.

Stephen Reiden from San Mateo High School scored 250 points out of a possible 300, won a trophy and the opportunity to compete in the state finals in June in Fresno with a chance to advance to the third annual national contest to compete for a $1500 college scholarship. 

Before action got started for the Cow Palace indoor race on the evening of May 14, Jerry Hoyt shocked the world as he won the pole position for the 1955 Indianapolis 500-mile race. On a windy Hoosier day, Hoyt in the Jim Robbins Special edged out Tony Bettenhausen in the only other car to make a qualifying attempt. That evening on the 1/5-mile track inside the cavernous Cow Palace, Phillip Wong beat Fernandez Sr to win the trophy dash for the four fastest qualifiers then also won his heat race.

Other May 14 heat race winners included Fernandez Sr, Oakland’s Joe Ratto, and Dick Selen, while McCord, recovered from his previous week’s accident, won the 8-lap semi-main event over Joe Nelson. Joe Diaz, who earlier in the evening had lowered the track record to 11.33 seconds during qualifying, won the 20-lap main event over Johnny Comet with Fernandez Sr in third place.

The following day, May 15, the ORA regulars were in action on the ¼-mile dirt Vallejo Speedway as George Tietjen, a tow truck driver during the week took the honors over Henry Alves and Johnny Comet. Midweek before the next race, Tietjen and the May 15 Vallejo trophy dash winner Chuck Minshell announced their entries for the May 21 Cow Palace races under the flag of starter Charles “Chuck” Ray.

Prior to the May 21 Cow Place event, Alves led the ORA points over Chet Thomson and Walt Moniz with Minshell and McCord tied for fourth place.  Chet Thomson won the May 21 trophy dash and his heat race, with other heat race victories to Bob Abaddie, Smokey Slocum and Joe Diaz. Alves won the semi-main event trailed by Bob Anderson and Jack Perrin, but “Cowboy” had to settle for third place in the 25-lap main event behind winner Joe Diaz and runner-up Walt Moniz. 

The next day at Vallejo Speedway, Thomson set a new track record of 22.24 seconds for one lap in qualifying, with the heat race wins grabbed by Abaddie, Diaz, Don Berrins Jack Perrin and Dick Atkins. Tietjen won the semi-main by a hair over “Cowboy” Alves, while Lou Phillips won the 30-lap feature over Perrin and Diaz. 

The finale of the Spring indoor series was set for Saturday May 28^th with qualifying at 7:15 PM followed with races at 8:15 PM with Alves leading the points chase trailed by Diaz on the strength of his two victories.  However, that is where the mystery begins, as the Saturday pre-race newspaper article is the last mention in the local press that the author has found for the Cow Palace indoor races or the Oakland Racing Association for that matter. The Oakland Racing Association, formed in late 1953 to sanction racing at the Oakland Speedway (Stadium) appeared to have simply disappeared early in the 1955 season.

The author welcomes any additional information or photographs of the indoor stock car racing held during 1955 in the Cow Palace near San Francisco from our dedicated readers.  

  

Indoor hardtop racing in San Francisco

Part two

In early 1955, the Crown American Racing Club of San Francisco sponsored the Northern California Indoor Hardtop Championship (NCIHTC) races indoors at the Cow Palace sanctioned by the Oakland Racing Association.

While pre-race publicity billed the Cow Palace events as “the national debut of indoor stock car racing;” the author’s research suggests that this might not have been an outlandish claim.  There were indoor stock car races held over the winter of 1951-2 inside the cavernous Cincinnati Gardens in Ohio, but those were small cars, makes such as Crosley, Renault 4CV and Peugeot 203 stripped down and raced on a 1/10-mile oval, whereas the races on the Cow Palace 1/5-mile oval were for full-size stock cars.   

Interestingly, the Cow Palace’s opening night was scheduled against the final night of the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) 6-week indoor midget car racing series held across San Francisco Bay inside the Oakland Exposition Building.

While the hardtops were racing inside the Cow Palace, the victory in the final 14-lap race in the Pacific Coast Indoor Auto Racing Championship was captured by San Francisco’s Dave Holliday (who had started his racing career racing under his given name Dave Steele) in Vic Gotelli’s #154 as Johnny Baldwin won his third consecutive BCRA indoor title.

The inaugural night of indoor hardtop racing on Saturday night, February 12, 1955 featured qualifying, heat races, a 15-lap semi-main race and a 30-lap feature. Victory in the first race of the hardtop series was captured by Max (sometimes erroneously called “Mac”) McCord of Alameda, trailed by Henry “Cowboy” Alves in second. Carmel Fernandez Jr. won the semi-main and finished third in the feature, while roadster racer George “Blonde” Pacheco won the trophy dash for the four fastest qualified cars.       

It appears that the Oakland Racing Association (ORA) which sanctioned the races patterned themselves after the BCRA indoor races and awarded points by results from races throughout the night, not just the feature results.  

At the end of the first night of racing, Pacheco and Alves were tied for the points lead with 48 markers apiece trailed by McCord with 43 points, then Fernandez Sr. in fourth. Fifth through tenth in the “Big Ten,” were in order Bob Anderson, Richard Fishburn, Dick Smith, George Lawrence, Walt Moniz and Tom Olives. 

The author has been thus far unable to uncover the complete racing results from the second week’s results from February 19 program, but the fragments found list Carmel Fernandez Jr as the winner of the second heat race and Walt Moniz the trophy dash winner. “Cowboy” Alves padded his points lead as the winner of the night’s feature race in car #666 with only 2,500 fans reportedly in attendance. 

There was a two-week break due to other events at the Cow Palace, which included a musical concert by Liberace on the afternoon of Sunday February 27 which drew 13,000 fans.  Prior to the March 5, 1955 third round of races, Henry Alves from Oakland was listed as the points leader with 103 markers and he held a lead of 32 points over second place driver Lou Phillips from San Francisco.  Hot rod roadster racer George Pacheco was in third place in the points chase, followed by Fishburn, McCord and  Bob Anderson who worked as a typesetter for the Hayward Daily Review newspaper, in sixth place.   

Heat race winners for the March 5 program included Pacheco, George Hanson, Moniz, Fishburn, and Earl ‘Doc’ Sadler who also won the trophy dash. Chet Thompson in the #999 machine who sometimes raced under the moniker “Johnny Comet” won the semi-main, and Hanson took the victory in the 30-lap feature event. 

Beginning with the March 12, 1955 fourth round of racing inside the Cow Palace, the racing was “dual sanctioned” by BCRA and NASCAR (the National Association of Stock Car Racing) with the races described as “mixed company” with NASCAR modified stock cars equipped with racing engines and the BCRA hardtops racing alongside the ORA stock hardtops.

The addition of NASCAR sanction to the program brought along drivers Gene Dudley, Johnny Franklin, Vern Fry and Dwight Palmer for the scheduled 15-lap semi-main and the 30-lap feature while the BCRA contributed their two-time hardtop champion Lou Bernardoni and Ted Montague.

Dan Regan won the trophy dash, with the heat race wins garnered by Montague, Anderson, Alves, Roletto and Dan O’Connell of San Leandro.  Bernardoni won the semi-main trailed by Montague with Anderson fourth. The win in the crash-filled feature went to McCord, followed by Bob Burdock, Olives and Roletto. 

The faster modified stock cars dominated the March 19^th fifth round of indoor racing at the Cow Palace, as ORA regulars Dick Anderson in the Hayward Printers Special and father and son Fernandez Sr and Jr were unable to qualify for the program. The victory in the night’s first race, the four-lap trophy dash victory went to Palo Alto’s Dick Seyler, while ‘Doc’ Sadler won both the first and second ten-lap heat races behind the wheel of his “stock” 1934 Plymouth coupe.

Joe ‘Rollover’ Roletto won the third heat race, while Burdock and Olives won the fourth and fifth heat races respectively. The seventh event of the evening, the 15-lap semi-main was captured by Marty Flores of San Leandro followed by Leroy Davies.

Chuck Webb, the 1953 track champion at Sacramento’s West Capitol Speedway won the night’s featured 30-lap main event as he battled through heavy traffic.  San Francisco’s Lou Bernardoni who set the track record for qualifying around the Cow Palace 1/5-mile oval at 11.2 seconds finished second and Joe Nault was third. 

The final race of the six-week North California Indoor Hardtop Championship (NCIHTC) winter program concluded on Saturday night March 26, 1955. The first 10-lap heat race was captured by future BCRA midget champion Dick Atkins of Hayward, while Ned Mosely and Joe Diaz won the second and third heat races. Joe Justie, from Stockton earlier the winner of the trophy dash, won both the fourth and fifth heat races.

Jimmy Stewart (not the actor) won the semi-main as he edged Max McCord who had entered the night’s racing leading by 11 points, with Anderson in third. ORA regular Henry ‘Cowboy” Alves won the 30-lap feature over BCRA regular George Hansen, with Diaz in third place. With his victory Alves overtook McCord’s slim points lead and won the NCIHTC title as he tallied 230 points to McCord’s 212 with ‘big car’ veteran Joe Roletto placed third.

The two top drivers, Henry “Cowboy” Alves, and Max McCord, were the only drivers to win more than once in the series’ six races, with George Hanson of San Francisco and Chuck Webb of Sacramento single race winners. Although the BCRA outdoor racing season kicked off the week following the NCIHTC finale, promoter Marc Mott scheduled a Spring series of indoor stock car races to launch on May 7 1955 to run through the month of June.  

Biographies of the 

2017 BCRA Hall of Fame inductees

The 2017 Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) Hall of Fame inductions were held at the July 15 Jack London bash picnic held at Behrens Park on the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds. The inductees or their families received a plaque and a lapel pin that denotes this high honor. The author’s brief biographies of the four 2017 inductees follow in alphabetical order. 

    

Jim Abreu

Jim Abreu wanted to get involved in automobile racing, so in 1949 he approached San Jose Speedway promoter (and former BCRA business manager) Robert Barkheimer for a job as a photographer. Although Jim was only 18 years of age (back in those days a person had to be 21 to enter the pits), Barkheimer hired the young Abreu to shoot “head shot” photographs of the drivers for use in newspaper articles promoting and reporting on races at San Jose Speedway.  

Abreu leveraged that access the following year to get credentialed access into the BCRA indoor midget races held inside the Oakland Exposition Building.  Jim Abreu continued to photograph BCRA drivers and racing action during the glory years of nineteen sixties and seventies, and only stopped photographing races a few years ago due to his sciatica.

Jim maintains his archive of treasured historical photographs and his photos have been reproduced in several racing history books. Through the years, Jim worked closely with teams in the BCRA midget lites division providing them with photographs for sponsor and promotional use. Jim Abreu is truly a friend of the Bay Cities Racing Association.

Doug Bock

Doug’s introduction to Bay Area sports fans came as a star lineman on the Sir Francis Drake High School football team in San Anselmo. Doug started his racing career as half-owner of a race car at Vallejo Speedway, and he has been a stalwart BCRA car owner for over twenty years. Doug was the owner of the #26 midget that fellow BCRA hall of fame member Glenn Carson drove to capture his third BCRA championship in 2000.

John Sarale, inducted into the BCRA Hall of Fame last year also drove for Doug who in recent years fielded cars for such rising stars as Justin Grant, Thomas Meseraull, Shane and Dustin Golobic and Taylor Simas. Doug’s grandson, Britton carries on the family name in racing and was in action at Petaluma Speedway for the Jack London races in both a winged sprint car and a midget.

Dick Geide

In talking to Dick about his induction, he told that author that “I ran in a great era of Bay Cities Racing Association with many great drivers.” It is hard to argue with Dick’s statement, as the list of drivers that he raced with include champions and hall of famers Norm Rapp, Billy Vukovich, Johnny Baldwin, Dick Atkins, Dave Strickland, George Benson and Burt Foland just to name a few.

Dick started to work for Norm Rapp’s racing supply business during 1959 and for a few years could warm up Norm’s midget before races. Dick made his BCRA midget racing debut during the 1962 season at Sacramento’s Hughes Stadium behind the wheel of Richard Walsh’s rail frame midget.

For the 1963 season Geide partnered with Paul Sechini and they purchased Lloyd Ridge’s Kurtis-Kraft midget powered by a Ford V8-60 engine. In 1964 the pair finished fifteenth in BCRA points and the little Kurtis was the top-scoring Ford powered car.

For 1965 Geide and Sechini bought Porter Goff’s “Easter egg” Quinn Epperly built Offenhauser powered midget and finished sixth in the points behind two-time champion Dick Atkins. Geide improved to fourth in points at the end of the 1966 BCRA season behind champion Billy Vukovich before the car was sold. During that time that he drove the Offy, Dick set new one- and three-lap records at Santa Maria Speedway and a new three-lap standard indoors at Oakland. 

In 1967 Dick served as the BCRA president and drove for Karl Hokanson at the indoor races and Frank Fiore for the outdoor season. In 1967 Dick captured at least two semi-main victories indoors. In 1968, Dick won the semi-main in the 100-lap United States Auto Club national midget race at San Jose Speedway driving a Ford Falcon powered roadster midget. Billy Vukovich won the feature that day trailed by George Benson and Mel Kenyon.

In recent years, racing fans and racing historians alike have enjoyed Dick’s sharing of his scrapbook book photos and memories on the BCRA fan site on Facebook.  

Marietta Nichols

Marietta Nichols’ life was always about family and racing. Her father, BCRA Hall of Fame member Art Shanoian bought his first race car the year Marietta was born, so many of her childhood memories revolved around racing, particularly at Calistoga Speedway. Later when Art bought his first midget race car, which began the family’s seven decades of involvement with our club, Marietta was a crew member.

Marietta met her husband, Hall of Famer Ken Nichols, the 1973 BCRA champion at that year’s banquet, and her son, Jimmy Screeton also a BCRA Hall of Fame member drove for his grandfather Art beginning in 1983.  Her youngest son, Chad began his BCRA career in the nineteen nineties also driving for Art and continues to be a fierce competitor in the orange #17 midget.

Marietta was passionate and involved in the sport of midget auto racing and supported her family and the club in any way she could whether it was buying and maintaining equipment, reserving travel, driving trucks and trailers, or nursing their injuries after accidents. 

Marietta encouraged her father, husband and sons - she sponsored them, scored them in races, and occasionally provided constructive criticism of their driving. Marietta was the heartbeat of a family that has raced with BCRA for seven decades and scored 116 main event wins (and counting). BCRA was honored to have Marietta’s family on hand to celebrate the induction of this great friend of the BCRA into the Hall of Fame.

BCRA racer Joe Leonard passed away

Joe Leonard began his racing career on motorcycles in 1951 and by 1953 he reached the expert class, but that season was cut short by severe injuries from a crash. Joe returned in 1954 aboard Tom Sifton’s Harley-Davidson and captured the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) Grand National Championship.
 

1954 marked the first season that the champion was determined by an eighteen race season rather than by the result of a single race. Those eighteen races included a mixture of road races, races on one mile and hall-mile dirt ovals and Tourist Trophy (TT) steeplechase races which are held on a modified dirt oval with at least one right hand turn and one jump.

Leonard won eight AMA races in 1954 (a record which stood for years), posted a win on each type of course, and over a ten-day stretch won four straight races and defeated Paul Goldsmith for the Grand National title. As the defending champion, in1955 Leonard won three motorcycle races and finished third in the AMA Grand National championship. That same year Joe Leonard made his debut with the mighty midgets of the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) in a race at Contra Costa Speedway in Pacheco on May 14 1955, and finished sixth in the semi-main race.

During the early months of 1956, Leonard raced with the BCRA midgets indoors at the Oakland Exposition Building and captured two semi-main victories. Later that year, on his motorcycle Joe won two of the seven AMA races and repeated as the Grand National champion, and then in 1957 he won four of eight races to win his second consecutive and third career Grand National championship.

 

Click to enlarge

Joe Leonard is in the center wearing a stylish flannel shirt

in this page from a BCRA indoor racing program

 

Joe Leonard continued to race motorcycles as well as midgets with the BCRA and modified stock cars when his schedule allowed. In 1961, Joe won two BCRA main events at the Oakland Exposition Building on back-to-back nights January 20 and 21 both while driving Walter Booth’s “Booth Brothers Garage” Ford V8-60 powered midget. At the end of the 1961 AMA season, after he won three races and finished second in championship, Leonard retired from motorcycle racing to concentrate on racing on four wheels full-time.

In the 1964 season, Leonard raced full-time on the United States Auto Club stock car circuit and scored his first win at the one-mile Illinois State Fairground dirt track at DuQuoin on September 6 behind the wheel of Ray Nichels’ 1964 Dodge.

 

The next day, Joe took his first ride in a USAC championship car on the same DuQuoin track in Bruce Homeyer's “Konstant Hot Special” and finished fourteenth. Leonard drove in four more championship races for legendary car owners George Walther, Joe Hunt and Ernie Ruiz, while on the stock car trail he scored six top ten finishes with four top ten finishes and was named the USAC stock car division’s Rookie of the Year.

The following year, 1965, Joe arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and after a problem passing the vision test, he qualified Dan Gurney’s Halibrand rear-engine car to make his first of nine Indianapolis 500-mile race appearances. Barely a month later at Langhorne Pennsylvania, Leonard became a hero to many for his bravery as he helped to pull an unconscious Mel Kenyon from the inferno of his burning roadster and saved Kenyon’s life.

On August 14, 1965 in only his twelfth USAC championship car start Joe was victorious on the paved one mile at Milwaukee. While it would not be until 1970 that he notched his second USAC championship win, in 1968 Leonard started from the pole position for the Indianapolis 500-mile race and came within nine laps of victory in the STP wedge-shaped Lotus turbine car.

Joe was crowned the 1971 USAC National Champion on the strength of his very consistent season in his “Samsonite Special” as he recorded one victory, five top five and two top ten finishes. Leonard repeated as the USAC National Champion in 1972 as he tallied three straight wins at Michigan International Speedway, Pocono Raceway and the Milwaukee Mile. Leonard finished out of the top five twice in his eight 1972 USAC race appearances which included his best finish of third place in the Indianapolis 500-mile race.

After two championships, Leonard suffered through a rough 1973 USAC championship season and finished fifteenth in the season points, then suffered a brutal crash during the 1974 California ‘500’ at the Ontario Motor Speedway after it appeared that his car’s left front Firestone tire failed. Leonard suffered a compound fracture of his lower left leg with his ankle was crushed and his foot nearly severed in the accident, and it reportedly took rescuers nearly half an hour to extract him from the destroyed Vel’s/Parnelli Eagle.

Joe Leonard missed the rest of the 1974 USAC racing season as he recovered from his injuries, and after eight months in a full-length cast, he attempted a comeback in March 1975 at age 42.  Before practice opened for the 1975 ‘California 500,’ USAC officials tested Leonard’s level of physical fitness and found that his left foot was not sufficiently healed as he could not fully depress the brake pedal of AJ Foyt’s backup car.  That failed physical brought a sad end to Joe Leonard’s brilliant racing career that included three AMA Grand National Championships, two USAC National Championships, and two BCRA main event indoor victories.  After several years of health problems, Joe Leonard passed away on April 27 2017.

The author thanks historian and author Tom Motter for supplying many key historical details used in this article.

Vintage midgets on display

at the Vukovich Classic

 

 

photos by the author

 

 

Roadster racer Don Kolb’s 1949 season

Don Kolb's 1948 photograph from the Oakland Tribune

 

When we last visited the story of Oakland roadster racer Don Kolb, he was a newlywed and finished third in the 1948 season points for Racing Roadsters Incorporated (RRI). In this installment we look at Kolb’s 1949 season.

To begin the 1949 season apparently there was a cease fire between RRI and the rival Northern California Racing Roadster Association (NCRRA).  The NCRRA sanctioned races in the San Joaquin Valley, east of the Bay Area, with Stockton’99’ Speedway as the group’s home track while RRI, with whom Kolb raced, sanctioned most of its 1949 races at Oakland Stadium. As an added attraction, several RRI races were paired with the new automotive ‘fad,’ demolition derbies, which began on the West Coast during 1947 at Carrell Speedway.

The Racing Roadsters Inc. 1949 season opened on Sunday night April 24 1949 at Contra Costa Speedway, a banked 1/4-mile dirt oval located near Buchanan Airfield on Pacheco Road four miles north of Walnut Creek California. The roadsters scheduled a full program that featured time trials, a trophy dash, four heat races, two semi-main races and a 25-lap feature race.  

The defending RRI champion Johnny Key won his heat race, one of the semi-main races and the feature, while Don Kolb won his heat race but his car dropped out during the feature. Other drivers at Contra Costa that night were Elmer George, Ed Andres, Al Slinker, Bill Grossi, former NCRRA regular Bob Schellenger (alternately spelled Schellinger) and a new driver to the Bay Area, young Bill Pettit originally from Salt Lake City Utah in his #222 roadster.

On Friday night May 6, the Racing Roadsters made their first appearance of the season at the freshly paved ¼-mile oval at Oakland Stadium, actually located at the intersection of 155th Avenue and East 14th Street in San Leandro. 4200 fans in the stands for the ‘Golden Gate Fields Sweepstakes’ meant that the RRI stars were racing for a purse of $2100. The 25-lap feature was captured by Sacramento’s Butler Rugaard who had started the race dead last. Second place went to Santa Cruz driver Lloyd Ragon followed by Don Kolb in third position with Pettit in fourth place in the race completed in just seven minutes and 36 seconds.

One week later, Kolb began the night’s races at Oakland Stadium in second place in RRI points behind Lloyd Ragon. Kolb beat Johnny Key to the stripe to win their heat race, but in the 25-lap feature later that evening, the finish was reversed as Key won a caution-filled race over Kolb and Slinker before what Oakland Tribune writer Rod Lee described as a small crowd.

Back at the Oakland Stadium on May 20 time trials, the trophy dash, and running of the heat races went smoothly, but the start of the evening’s 25-lap feature race was delayed for half an hour as drivers “squabbled over starting positions” according to a report in the next day’s Oakland Tribune. Once the feature began, Don Kolb took the lead on lap four and held on until lap nineteen when he gave way to Lloyd Ragon, the trophy dash winner. Ragon from Santa Cruz scored the victory over Kolb with Bob Schellenger third.

Based on his strong performances over the last two weeks Don Kolb entered the May 27 race at Oakland as the RRI point leader by eleven markers over Ragon. Kolb scored a clean sweep of the night’s racing as he won the trophy dash, his heat race, and the feature. Don took over the race lead from Schellenger on the nineteenth lap and won with a time of seven minutes and 32 seconds.

After the Oakland 5/8-mile track hosted the Western Racing Association (WRA) big cars on May 29, on Memorial Day the roadsters were back in action with twin 25-lap daytime features. Don Kolb won the trophy dash, but his name does not appear in the results of either feature. The first feature which honored flagman (and local new car salesman) Hank Mederios was won by Joe Perry, while the second race the ‘Memorial Day Sweepstakes’ was captured by Elmer George over his friend  and fellow Salinas resident Johnny Key.

At the next RRI race held on the ½-mile track in Watsonville on June 5, Don Kolb qualified third but had mechanical troubles during the evening and lost the RRI points lead to Ragon and Don would never again be in contention for the 1949 RRI drivers’ championship.  When the roadsters returned to Oakland on June 10, Kolb’s troubles continued as he and Schellenger tangled on lap 5 of the feature. Neither car finished while Ragon won again to pad his lead.

The following night, Kolb scored his second feature win of the 1949 season on the ¼-mile dirt track at Belmont City Stadium adjacent to the Bay Meadows thoroughbred track, Back at Oakland on Friday night June 17 for the ‘Captain Bolger Sweepstakes’ Kolb finished in third place behind Johnny  Key and  Stan Dean  in his trademark #33 roadster. Two days later in another Oakland Sunday daytime program, Key repeated as he won the 25-lap ‘Spike Jones Racing Roadster Handicap’ over Schellenger and tied the track record as he completed the 25 laps in seven minutes and six seconds at an average speed of over 52 miles per hour (MPH).

The following Friday night at Oakland after Ragon, Perry and Pettit crashed out on lap nine Johnny Key had victory in sight when his car blew a tire on the 22nd lap. With Key out of the running, Al Slinker inherited the win while Kolb finished in the fourth position.  Key returned to his winning ways at Oakland Stadium on July 1, but on Sunday July 10 for the “Radio Sweepstakes.” run on the 5/8-mile oval which featured a steeply banked third and fourth turn, the cars of Key, Kolb, Ragon and Slinker all broke down and did not start the 35-lap feature which was won by Stan Dean.

On Friday night July 15 the racing roadsters returned to the ¼-mile Oakland infield oval paired with the destruction derby. Al Slinker won the 5-car derby while Ragon won the 25-lap roadster main. The following night at Belmont, three spectators were injured after a wheel flew off Niles resident Chet Richards’ car and into the grandstand on the 33rd lap of the scheduled 35 lap feature. The rest of the race was cancelled with race leader Lloyd Ragon declared the winner.

Prior the start of the ‘hot rod’ race the next night July 16 at Contra Costa Speedway Ragon was listed as the RRI point leader, but after Johnny Key won the night’s feature race, Lloyd found himself trailing Johnny by seven points. Even though he won the trophy dash and finished second in the feature Don Kolb remained in fourth place in the RRI season standings behind Schellenger. Back at Oakland Stadium on Friday night July 22 1949 Don Kolb finished the 25-lap feature in third place behind winner Lloyd Ragon and runner-up Johnny Key.

During the following week, word reached the West Coast of the tragic death of 21- year old Bill Pettit in a July 23 crash in Iowa. The Salt Lake City native had moved to Oakland and raced with RRI from the start of the 1949 season through the July 1 race, after which young Pettit had married and traveled “back east” to race with the Hurricane Hot Rod Association a group run by Chicago speed shop owner Anthony Granatelli.

Before the fateful race, Pettit who turned 21 only eight days earlier, reportedly sold his roadster and told his bride of two weeks that he would quit racing. On the last lap of the Saturday night feature race at the Playland Park Speedway in Council Bluffs Iowa, Pettit tried to slice between two cars in their battle for second place. Pettit’s #222 hooked wheels, barrel rolled three times, and came to rest upright, but he suffered fatal head injuries.

The Council Bluffs track was part of an amusement park complex across the Missouri River from Omaha Nebraska owned by Abe and Lou Slusky. The ¼-mile dirt track was originally the site of the shuttered Dodge Park dog track allegedly owned by mobster Meyer Lansky. The race on July 23 was the third ‘hot rod’ race ever held there as the track usually hosted midget car racing.

To honor their fallen comrade before the ‘July Sweepstakes’ feature on the 29th at Oakland, Lloyd Ragon carried a checkered flag on a memorial lap. Kolb’s car the evening’s fastest qualifier at 16.69 seconds, broke on the first lap of the feature and Don finished 12th in the 12-car field as Lloyd Ragon won and re-captured the RRI point lead by six points over Key.

In a sad postscript to the Pettit story, pioneering black roadster racer Curtis “Cyclone” Ross was killed at Playland Park on July 30 during the running of the ‘Bill Pettit Benefit Race.’ Ross, who had been one of the drivers involved in the Pettit fatal crash, died after his car ran over the back of another car and flipped end-over end several times.

Ross at 32 years old was much traveled as he had raced with the Midwestern-based Mutual and the California Roadster Associations. The ‘Pettit Benefit Race’ that brought in over $1300 for Bill’s young widow was the final ‘hot rod’ race at the Playland Park track which continued to race stock cars until 1977.

The roadster racing season moved into August 1949, and on the fifth newcomer Bob Gonzales won the 25-lap feature and set a new ¼-mile Oakland track record of seven minutes and six seconds for the distance. After the race card on the 11th was rained out on the 18th Don Kolb his won his third roadster feature of the 1949 season after an interesting series of events.  

During qualifying Johnny Key’s usual #5 entry broke a connecting rod and Key jumped into the seat of the #11 car. After the engine in the #5 car was repaired, Kolb took it over and won the 15-lap semi-main race to advance into the feature starting field.  During the 25-lap feature, Key in #11 moved up from his tenth starting position to take the lead on the fourth lap and maintained his lead until the engine failed in his #11 mount on the race’s 22nd lap. Kolb led the final three laps in the #5 “John Milton Special” to claim the win. Despite his three wins, by the end of the 1949 RRI season, Kolb finished the season in fifth place behind Johnny Key, Lloyd Ragon, Bob Schellenger and Stan Dean as reported at the March 2 1950 awards banquet.

 

 

A newspaper ad for A BCRA "hardtop" race 

 

During the fall of 1949 Don Kolb participated in several Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) “hardtop” and midget races. “Hardtops” were a relatively new phenomenon which the BCRA had debuted in August at Contra Costa Speedway followed by a slate of weekly races, often held in conjunction with BCRA midget races, as the “hardtops” quickly supplanted midget and roadster racing in popularity.

Later in August BCRA officials suspended midget point leader Jerry Piper for “conduct detrimental to the organization” after he and former BCRA business manager Bob Barkheimer founded their own “hardtop” sanctioning body, the California Stock Car Racing Association (CSCRA).  With Piper on the sidelines, Marvin Burke won the 1949 BCRA championship. In the coming years the CSCRA with Piper as its President grew to sanction races at more than 20 tracks in the state. 

Kolb described as one of the “new BCRA pilots” together with future BCRA Hall of Famers Bob Rushing and Cliff Roberts debuted at the BCRA “hardtop” race at Oakland Stadium on October 4. Kolb finished third behind BCRA “regulars” Johnny Soares and Bert Moreland in the 25-lap ‘Hayward Moose Sweepstakes.’ Kolb also was documented as an entry in the final BCRA “hardtop” race of the 1949 season held November 27 won by Ed Normi ahead of Bert Moreland and George Bignotti.   

Kolb was one of eighteen drivers entered in the annual BCRA midget “Invitational Classic’ scheduled for November 6 1949 on the Oakland Stadium 5/8-mile track. Other entries included Ed Elisian, Bob Veith, Walt Faulkner, Bill Vukovich, and Earl Motter. Bob Sweikert who had sold his own Kurtis-Kraft midget in February  after he captured the six-race 1949 inaugural BCRA indoor championship, returned to drive George Bignotti’ s #1, while three-time BCRA champion Fred Agabashian entered his Ford V-8 60 powered machine for rising BCRA star Larry Terra of Hayward.

The November 6 1949 event was rained out after time trials were completed and the entire program was rescheduled for November 13. Earl Motter was the fast qualifier on the 13th as he posted a best lap of 20.11 seconds which was nearly a tenth faster than the quick time he posted a week earlier. Kolb did not start the 25-lap feature, which was won by Bob Sweikert over Motter and Marvin Burke in a caution-filled race completed in 12 minutes and 39 seconds.   

In our next installment we will continue to follow Don Kolb’s career in the rapidly changing Bay Area racing environment in the early nineteen fifties.