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.  

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.

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.    

Fred Agabashian

from the Bay Area to Indianapolis glory

Part one 1947 to 1952  

 

All photographs appear courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

San Francisco Bay Area midget driver Levan “Fred” Agabashian achieved great success in local midget racing before he made it to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In his years at the Speedway which coincided with the early part of the roadster era, "Doctor" Agabashian was highly regarded for his ability to diagnose and solve the problems with ill-handling race cars.

Born in Modesto California in 1913 to Armenian immigrants Levan and Nevart Agabashian, legend has it that Fred drove his father’s car at age five and tinkered with cars as a youngster. Fred participated in his first race with a jalopy at age 17 in 1931 while still a student at Berkeley High School. One of Fred’s three younger sisters, Alice Elcano, became a famed Bay Area radio Big Band singer. 

During his career, Fred drove stock cars and ‘big cars’ but he made his name in midgets and won his first midget racing championship in 1937 with the short-lived Northern California Racing Association. Fred raced with such midget legends as Herk Edwards, “Lucky” Lloyd Logan, Ted Ayers, 3-time STAR midget champion Al Stein, and Tony Dutro on long-lost tracks such as the 1/5-mile dirt ‘Motordromes’ in San Francisco and San Jose and the 1/6-mile dirt Neptune Beach Speedway which was next to the amusement park of the same name in Alameda.   

In 1946, Agabashian won his first Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) championship for car owner Jack London and the following year Agabashian made his first visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the rookie driver of the “Ross Page Special” a supercharged Miller-Offenhauser powered Kurtis chassis owned by one the promoters of the San Jose Speedway.

Fred and the Ross Page Special shown in 1947.

Note the clear Plexiglas fairing behind Fred's head 

 

Though many observers were drawn to the clear Plexiglas fairing behind driver Agabashian’s head, the maroon and white Ross Page car with gold trim is considered to be the forerunner of Frank Kurtis’ later roadster designs as it featured an offset engine and driveline. After he finished ninth in the 1947 ‘500,’ he returned to the Bay Area, and Agabashian won the BCRA title again in  1947, this time for car owner George Bignotti.      

Agabashian was one of 25 drivers who took part in the February 1948 “Aztec Championship” a series of 15 races that the BCRA club staged in Mexico City. The tour organized by Damon Miller and Art Driefer led by BCRA starter Hank Madeiros and Floyd Busby who filled in for “Boots” Archer the BCRA business manager.

The venue was the new Ciudad de los Deportes stadium which reportedly held up to 65,000 fans. The Mexican promoters guaranteed the club $18,000 for six nights of racing, with three nights of racing each of the planned two weeks with an option to extend the contract for up to two months.

A group of nearly 100 people (wives and mechanics) left the Bay Area aboard a Southern Pacific train on January 20 1948. The rail line promised to arrive at the stadium in Mexico City in five days for a cost of $205 per car but five teams elected to tow their cars and equipment to Mexico.

Once there the teams learned that their cars did not run well at Mexico City’s altitude even with the use of high octane gasoline. Agabashian won the opening night race before 20,000 fans over Andy Guthrie. Johnnie Parsons won the trophy dash and finished third in the feature ahead of Jerry Piper.

The author could not find any more race results in period newspapers, but thanks to Bay Area racing historians, the author pieced together a few more details. BCRA historian Jimmy Montgomery provided his copies of the results of the seven non-points races in Mexico City. The first race was held on Thursday February 5 with 26 cars entered.

Woody Brown set quick time of 13.58 seconds in the Jack O’Brien owned Ford V8-60 powered midget which stood as the track record for three days until Johnnie Parsons reset the track record of 12.92 seconds three nights later. The Mexico City racing programs featured time trials each night followed by a trophy dash, four 5-lap heat races, and two 6-lap “finals” for the top finishers in the heat races. After a break the BCRA racers ran a 15-lap semi-feature and a 25-lap feature.

The second night in Mexico City, February 7th, Parsons won the Trophy Dash and the feature, and Woody Brown captured the third night 25-lap feature on February 8. After a night off, racing resumed on the tenth and Parsons won his third trophy dash and Agabashian his second Mexico City feature race. Marvin Burke won the fifth feature over Agabashian on February 12 over Agabashian and the racers took a few days off before their next race.

On February 15 in the penultimate Mexico race the car count dropped to 24 midgets, and fast qualifier Jerry Piper won the Trophy Dash, while Vic Gotelli won the feature over Parsons. The last Aztec race was run on February 19 as Woody Brown won his second feature over Marvin Burke and Agabashian.

The tour was not extended beyond the original contract and Al Slonaker in his February 24 “Speedway Sparks” column in the Oakland Tribune reported that “midgeteers are drifting home from Mexico City” and that   Agabashian won the Aztec Championship.   The tour ended after the contracted two weeks because according to the recollections of Floyd Busby, Sr. the size of the crowds steadily declined over the six nights.

Slonaker later reported in March that “Mexican publicity billed our boys as ‘suicide pilots’ and ‘death defying drivers.’ Somehow our sensible speedway sportsmen began to believe this nonsense, and overnight they became madmen. Mexico City saw two weeks of the craziest and downright wildest driving ever witnessed.” There seems to be a measure of exaggeration in Slonaker’s article as Floyd Busby, Jr. remembers that his father told him that despite the local press hype, none of the ‘death defying drivers’ even turned a midget over while they raced in Mexico. This second-hand recollection was confirmed by historian and writer Tom Motter.  

Agabashian returned to Indianapolis in May 1948 to reprise his roles as the driver of the ‘Ross Page Special’ and bumped his way into starting field but the 183-cubic inch Leon Duray-designed supercharged engine broke an oil line with just 58 of the 200 laps completed.  In October Agabashian was crowned the BCRA champion for the third consecutive year, after his chief competitor Jerry Piper broke his arm in a crash during a BCRA midget race in Santa Rosa late in the season which ended Piper’s season early.   

For 1949, Piper and Agabashian started the BCRA season as teammates for George Bignotti, with Piper taking the wheel of the 1948 championship car while Fred drove the brand-new Kurtis-Kraft #154 “Burgermeister Special.” Fred set the quick time in the first race in the BCRA winter indoor championship held January 8 on the 1/10-mile oval laid out on the concrete floor of the Oakland Exposition building.

Agabashian set quick time on three occasions during the 8-race series and eventually lowered the track record to an amazing 8.22 seconds. Fred won the penultimate feature race, but Hayward’s Bob Sweikert won the inaugural BCRA indoor championship.

In May 1949 at Indianapolis, Fred was again nominated as the driver of the ‘Ross Page Special,’ but the Miller-Offenhauser supercharged engine broke its crankshaft during a practice run on Friday May 27. The next day, Fred jumped into the Indianapolis Race Cars Inc. (IRC) Maserati 8CL chassis number 3035 and posted a four-lap qualifying average speed of 127.007 miles per hour (MPH) which bumped Henry Banks from the field.

IRC was a group of three Indianapolis businessmen led by investment banker Roger Gould Wolcott that purchased the assets of the Boyle Racing Team after the 1948 death of Boyle chief mechanic Harry “Cotton” Henning. Evidently the IRC team mechanics lacked the understanding of the complexities of Italian engineering that Henning had possessed as both of the IRC team’s Maserati entries retired from the 1949 ‘500’ early.

Agabashian’s car dropped out first, with terminal overheating on lap 38 and teammate Leland “Lee” Wallard retired the 1939 and 1940 winning Maserati 8CTF 17 laps later with gearbox troubles.  Near the end of the 1949 AAA season, Agabashian substituted for injured driver Johnny Mantz in JC Agajanian’s Kurtis 2000 in the 100-mile race at the old California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento. Fred started from the pole position and led 99 of the 100 laps to post his first (an only) AAA championship victory. 

Fred’s entry for the 1950 Indianapolis ‘500’ was announced very early, in mid-January with Fred as the teammate to Johnnie Parsons, the defending American Automobile Association AAA National Champion in the Kurtis-Kraft “house cars.”

Fred in his #28 car to the left of his teammate in #1 Johnnie Parsons

 

Parsons drove the same Kurtis-Kraft Offenhauser that he drove in 1949 for St. Louis car owner Ed Walsh, Frank Kurtis’ partner and the President of Kurtis-Kraft Inc. while Fred was assigned the team’s “new” Kurtis 3000, one of five built for the 1950 ‘500.’ What made Agabashian’s “Wynn’s Friction Proofing Special” different was that it was powered by an experimental 179-cubic inch supercharged Offenhauser engine.

“I always liked research and development, new stuff," Agabashian said in an interview at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1987. "I could've probably had better luck if I drove something conventional." Never was that statement truer than in 1950.

During May Fred turned some of the fastest laps in practice, and he coached rookie driver Walt Faulkner, a fellow midget driver who struggled with JC Agajanian’s #98 Kurtis 2000 upright chassis. On “Pole Day” May 13 Agabashian’s #28 “Wynn’s Friction Proofing Special” was the first car out and posted a 10-mile qualifying average speed of 132.792 MPH much to the delight of the more than 50,000 fans which held up through the day as the fastest average speed. 

Just before time trials closed at 6 PM local time, Faulkner in the #98 ‘Agajanian Special’ took to the track. After a “slow” first lap of 132 MPH, Faulkner’s best lap was his second, recorded at 136.013 MPH before laps of 134.8 and 133.8 MPH for a four-lap average of 134.343 MPH. Faulkner’s last second run not only knocked Agabashian off the pole, but set new track records and nudged Fred to start from the middle of the front row for the ‘500.’

On Memorial Day, Fred ran in third place at 40 laps, but the yellow #28 Kurtis 3000 fell out on the 64th lap with a broken oil line while his teammate’s conventional Offenhauser-powered Kurtis chassis won the rain-shortened race. Fred drove the supercharged ‘Wynn’s Friction Proofing Special’ for Ed Walsh for the rest of the AAA season and appeared in nine of the twelve 1950 AAA championship races and wound up 14th in points.  

In October, Fred received special permission from AAA’s West Coast Supervisor Gordon Betz to participate in the BCRA midget portion of the Bert Moreland Benefit race held on the ¼-mile oval at Oakland Stadium. Moreland who had driven Agabashian’s midget in BCRA competition had been paralyzed in a crash at Contra Costa Speedway earlier in the season and would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life until he passed away in 2001. 

In January 1951 it was announced that Fred had assumed the responsibilities of the manager of the BCRA club but his reign was a short one, as he resigned on April 8 under pressure from the AAA following Bill Holland’s suspension for “outlaw (non-AAA) activities.” 

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Fred in the “Granatelli Bardahl Special” was the fastest of only three drivers to complete a qualifying run on the second day of time trials and his 135.029 MPH four-lap average earned him the 11th starting position. The clutch on the Granatelli Kurtis 3000 failed as Fred left the pits on his 109th lap and he was placed 17th in the final standings.

Fred’s 1951 AAA racing season was a difficult one, as Agabashian failed to qualify for two other AAA races with Andy Granatelli and he drove for three other car owners – Ray Brady, Pat Clancy, and JC Agajanian for a total of six AAA race appearances with a best finish of sixth recorded twice during the season. After the 1951 AAA season, Fred now 38 years old, cut back on his racing appearances and focused his energies on success in just one race a year- the Indianapolis 500-mile race.

In our next installment we’ll continue to tell the story of Fred Agabashian’s Indianapolis ‘500’ career.