The Pete Kreis story Part three 1927 & 1928 The Cooper years

 

The Pete Kreis story

Part three 1927 & 1928  

The Cooper years

Earl Cooper, the three-time American Automobile Association (AAA) national champion in 1913, 1915, and 1917, had a remarkable driving career both before and after World War One. Before the war, as a member of the powerful Stutz Racing Team, Cooper notched sixteen victories mostly on dirt tracks and early road courses before he retired in 1919.

Cooper, a close friend of Barney Oldfield since their early years, raced just once in the 1921 and 1922 season before he returned to full-time driving in 1923 at age 37. Earl proved to be an adept board track racer during the Miller 122-cubic inch era with a string of top five finishes and Cooper finished second in the AAA drivers’ standings in 1924 and fifth in 1925.

During the 1926 AAA season, Cooper drove the Miller supercharged 91-cubic inch front wheel drive chassis number #2605 and eventually bought the car.  Over the winter of 1926-7, funded by Buick Motor Company, Earl Cooper built three cars which were essentially Miller copies, with the full approval and assistance of Harry A. Miller.

The new Cooper cars were each equipped by supercharged 91 cubic-inch eight-cylinder Miller copies which reversed the intake and exhaust manifold locations and breathed through four Miller “Dual Throat Updraft’ carburetors that produced 167 horsepower and powered the front wheels.

The front drive assembly marked the major difference between a Miller and Cooper. Instead of the Miller jewel-like front drive, designed and engineered by Leo Gosssen, Cooper’s cars used patented Ruckstell planetary gearsets with two-speed Ruckstell axles to achieve four forward speeds.  

Left to Right

Eddie Pullen

Joe Thomas 

Glover Ruckstell

circa 1914

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Ruckstell components were designed and manufactured by retired pioneer racer Glover Ruckstell, born in San Francisco in 1891 and raised across the Bay in Oakland. After just two years of high school, Ruckstell dropped out of school and by age 20 became a partner in an automobile repair garage in Maricopa California.    

Ruckstell began automobile racing around Bakersfield in 1913 and by the following year became a member of the successful Mercer racing team and recorded two top finishes at Tacoma in July 1914. In 1915, after strong early finishes in races San Diego and Venice, the mighty Mercer team entered Glover for the Indianapolis 500-mile race along with drivers Eddie Pullen and Joe Nikrent.

The new Mercer cars arrived in Indianapolis late and only Ruckstell qualified his #20 Mercer for the 1915 Indianapolis ‘500’ starting field. The team withdrew the car after qualifications, as Mercer Chief Engineer Eric H. Deiling cited the lack of time to prepare for the race.

Later in July 1915, Ruckstell won the 250-mile Montamarathon Trophy Race on the two-mile board track in Tacoma Washington with his Mercer teammate Pullen third. Glover then finished fourth behind winner Pullen the following day in the 200-mile Golden Potlach Trophy Race on the same track.

After a fourth-place finish in the 1916 150-mile Championship Award Sweepstakes at the original one-mile Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles, Glover Ruckstell retired from race driving. In addition to his work with the Ruckstell Sales & Manufacturing Company, Glover became heavily involved in the aviation engine industry before during and after World War One.  

As Cooper built his three new front-drive machines, he appeared in advertising for Buick passenger cars as one of the “nine internationally famous AAA speedway racing stars that demonstrated their approval of the new Buick,” along with Peter DePaolo, Fred Comer, Bennett Hill, Frank Lockhart, Frank Elliott, Dave Lewis, Cliff Woodbury and Bob McDonogh. According to the advertising copy, these drivers “singled it out above all other cars for their personal use and for their families.”

Cooper built homely-looking grilles for his entries that mimicked the 1927 Buick passenger cars, but at the last minute, Buick withdrew its support of Earl Cooper’s program, so the official International 500-mile at Indianapolis entry list released on May 4 1927 contained three new front-drive cars entered by the Cooper Engineering Company. Cooper listed the three drivers as himself, Albert Jacob “Pete” Kreis, and Bob McDonogh, with the Miller entered by Earl Cooper personally with the driver to be named later. 

Cooper’s entries represented four of the eleven front-drive machines entered at Indianapolis in 1927, which included the former Peter Kreis front-drive Miller known as the ‘Detroit Special’ equipped with the two-stage supercharged straight-eight Miller engine for driver Cliff Durant.

McDonogh had the privilege of taking the first lap in one of the new Copper front-drive creations on Tuesday May 17, followed later that day by Peter Kreis and newly-named Cooper teammate Bennett Hill who replaced Cooper. Earl later named Memphis Tennessee’s Julian “Jules” Ellingboe to drive the fourth Cooper entry, the #18 Miller front drive.

Twenty-one cars qualified for the 1927 Indianapolis 500 starting field on Thursday May 26, with the existing track record broken four times, with defending winner Frank Lockhart with the pole position and new track record at over 120.1 miles per hour (MPH) for his ten-mile run. 

The three new Cooper Specials in 1927

Peter Kreis at the right

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

Pete Kreis found that the Copper handled better than his previous Miller front-drive but the cars were not particularly fast.  All four of Cooper’s cars qualified for the 1927 ‘500,’ led by McDonogh in the #14 Cooper at 113.175 MPH for the seventh position, the inside of the third row. Bennett Hill anchored the outside of the third row in the #4 Cooper front drive with his 112.013 MPH average for four laps.  Peter Kreis qualified the third new Cooper machine at 109.90 MPH, fast enough for the outside of the fourth row. 

After rain postponed time trials on Friday May 27 Ellingboe qualified the yellow and black Miller chassis on Saturday morning May 28 at 113.239 MPH. Originally slotted into 22^nd position, Jules move up to the outside of the seventh row after first day qualifier 1924 ‘500’ co-winner L.L. Corum withdrew his Duesenberg which qualified at just 94 MPH.

 Race Day 1927 at Indianapolis proved to be a disappointment for Earl Cooper and his Cooper Engineering team, as of his four entries, only McDonogh finished the race in sixth place, 24 minutes behind rookie winner George Souders. Ellingboe crashed the yellow and black Miller chassis into the north short chute wall on his 26^th laps. After it hit the wall, the car rolled over and Jules suffered a crushed chest and internal injuries.

Ellingboe, confined to Methodist Hospital until mid-July, retired from racing and died from pneumonia in Oregon in 1948. Cooper sold the badly wrecked Miller front-drive machine to Phil “Red” Shafer who rebuilt it and entered it in the 1928 ‘500’ for Elbert “Babe” Stapp and finished in fifth place. In 1929, Shafer sold the car to the French auto manufacturer Derby and as the “Derby-Miller” it subsequently set many closed course land speed records driven by Gwenda Stewart.   

Almost simultaneous with Ellingboe’s accident on the 1927 race’s 26^th lap, Bennett Hill brought his #4 Cooper to the pits with a broken rear spring shackle mount and retired credited with a 28^th place finish.  Peter Kreis made it to lap 101 before he pitted and Harry Hartz took over. Peter later received treatment at the Speedway infield hospital from Dr. Horace “Frank” Allen for burns on his leg.  Hartz drove the #9 Cooper entry for 22 laps until it retired with a broken front axle, placed 17^th and earned $470 in prize money.

The original nominated driver (and funder of the program) Cliff Durant, did not drive Kreis’ former car, the ‘Detroit Special’ in 1927, as he took ill, and rather than pick a new driver, Milton unretired and drove the car himself.  The 1921 National Champion and 1921 and 1923 “500’ champion’s previous race appearance came in February 1926 at the Fulford board track. In his first qualifying attempt for the 1927 ‘500’ on May 26^th, the “Detroit Special” burnt a piston and failed to complete the ten-mile dash.

Milton qualified on May 28^th at 108.78 MPH to start 25^th, his worse starting position since his rookie year in 1919.  Milton’s final ‘500’ driver appearance proved unremarkable as the ‘Detroit Special’ began to lose power around the 200-mile mark and Milton pitted and handed the car over to his partner Cornelius Van Ranst.

In his third ‘500’ appearance and second as a relief driver, Van Ranst completed 24 laps, and diagnosed the problem as a fuel system leak at speed. Van Ranst pitted and after five minutes of hurried repairs, turned the car over to Ralph Hepburn. The former motorcycle champion drove the “Detroit Special” over the final 93 laps but pitted several items to repair more fuel system leaks and finished eighth, crossing the finish line 45 minutes after winner George Souders.  

Ten days after the 1927 ‘500,’ Kreis and the #9 Cooper front drive appeared in Tyrone, Pennsylvania on the Altoona Speedway 1-1/4 mile board track along with his teammates Bob McDonogh and Bennett Hill.  The entry list at Altoona included 45 cars - 22 championship cars and 23 semi-stock cars that were set for the preliminary 50-mile race.     

McDonogh’s entry burned a piston in practice and did not start the 160-lap 200-mile race. Leon Duray won the pole position with a lap of 136.3 MPH, while Kreis qualified ninth and Hill fourteenth.  Peter completed just 22 laps before the Miller engine in his machine burnt a piston. On the race’s 47^th lap, the machines of Frank Elliott and Ralph Hepburn tangled as they lapped Earl Devore and all three cars were eliminated.

Hill pitted on lap 84 and McDonogh took over the #4 Cooper front drive. On lap 105, Dave Lewis destroyed his car after he drifted high hit the upper guardrail and the Miller somersaulted down the banking. On lap 123, Bob coasted into the pit and retired with a burned piston. Peter DePaolo dominated in his Miller front-drive and won the race by two full laps over Harry Hartz. 

Kreis joined the AAA competitors in Salem New Hampshire at the Rockingham Park Raceway for the July 4^th Independence Day 300-mile race. While DePaolo romped to another victory and averaged 124 MPH, the Cooper Engineering team had another forgettable day. Earl Cooper dropped out on lap 4 and Kreis on lap 22, both with broken valves in their engines, and McDonogh retired on lap 75 with a broken exhaust manifold.

Pete Kreis, Earl Cooper and two of the Cooper Engineering Company machines traveled to Monza Italy to take part in the 1927 Gran Premio d'Italia (Italian Grand Prix), the last race on the Continent for which the 91-1/2 cubic inch (1-1/2 liter) engines would be legal in the Automobile World Championship.

Kreis drew the pole position but a rod broke in the engine and exited the crankcase on the first lap of the 50-lap race held on September 4 in a downpour. Kreis returned to the pits and took over for Earl Cooper and battled back to finish third albeit more than half an hour behind winner Robert Benoist’s Delage.

Kreis and the Cooper team returned to the United States and Rockingham Park Speedway for a scheduled 200-mile race on Columbus Day Wednesday October 12. Throughout the early part of the event, leader Frank Lockhart, who qualified at 144 MPH, battled wheel to wheel with Harry Hartz until lap 51 when Hartz’ car crashed and caught fire.  Harry broke his right leg and received critical burns. Officials stopped the race with 52 laps completed and Kreis in tenth place, four laps behind the leaders. 

AAA referee A.T. Hart ruled the race complete at 65 miles, with a second race of 60 laps (75 miles) set to start after crews cleared the Hartz crash and serviced the remaining cars.  Earl Cooper chose to not start the second race (he never raced again), and Kreis’ Cooper front drive fell out of the second race with a broken valve on lap 15. Lockhart won the second race by a quarter lap over Babe Stapp.    

Harry Hartz remained hospitalized in a Lawrence Massachusetts hospital for months and in February 1928 he announced his retirement from his hospital bed. Hartz’ doctors allowed him a temporary reprieve to attend the 1928 Indianapolis 500-mile race. 

Following the 1927 season, as board track racing began to decline, and under pressure from his family Pete Kreis cut back on racing. Pete became a licensed pilot and devoted himself eleven months of the year to his career with his family’s contracting firm, the John A. Kreis Construction Company. Despite his family’s wishes, Pete he still took off the month of May to race on the big Indianapolis 2-1/2-mile brick oval.    

When the Speedway opened in early May 1928, racers were still coming to grips with the death of Frank Lockhart the 1926 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner and 1927 ‘500’ pole-sitter who led 110 laps in 1927 before a connecting rod broke. Lockhart, known as the “the Boy Wonder” died on April 28 1928 in Daytona Beach Florida in the crash of his Stutz Blackhawk land speed record machine.     

For the 1928 ‘500,’ car owner Earl Cooper had landed hometown Nordyke & Marmon Company   sponsorship for two of his three cars driven by Pete Kreis in #32 (the same number carried by 1911 ‘500’ winning Marmon Wasp) and rookie Johnny Seymour in #33. Marmon’s sponsorship highlighted the manufacturer’s new Model 68, a smaller model powered by a 202-cubic inch straight eight engine.  Instead of the original grille, the new grilles on the Cooper Engineering entries mimicked the Marmon 68 grille design.

Just as the Indianapolis entry list closed for 1928 Cooper Engineering Company entered the unsponsored third car which carried #34, with rookie Russell Snowberger the nominated driver.

Peter Kreis in his 1928 Marmon

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

All three Cooper-owned cars qualified for the 29-car starting field, with former motorcycle racer Seymour in eleventh at 111.671 MPH, Kreis, the fastest second day qualifier at 112.906 MPH, started nineteenth and rookie Russell Snowberger in 22^nd starting position at 111.618 MPH. Cliff Durant finally got to drive his Detroit Special and qualified 18^th the slowest first day qualifier at 99.99 MPH.

None of the Cooper Front Drives finished the 1928 ‘500-mile race. Snowberger’s car headed to the sidelines on lap four with supercharger failure, then on lap 73 Pete Kreis’ car retired with a failed rod bearing, leaving just Seymour who retired on lap 171 also with supercharger failure. 

Durant’s ‘Detroit Special’ with relief driver Bob McDonogh (Milton’s protégé) at the wheel dropped out four laps later when its two-stage supercharger failed.  Louis Meyer led the final 19 laps and became the third rookie driver in a row to win the Indianapolis ‘500’ in a Miller purchased by Alden Sampson from Phil Shafer just days before time trials. 

With his retirement from the 1928 ‘500,’ Pete Kreis returned to the family business where he worked on a Missouri Pacific railroad tunnel project near Gray Summit Missouri and waited for 1929.

 

    

 

 

 

Cyrus Patschke- forgotten hero

Part three 

1912 - 1913 Retirement

In January 1912, his hometown Lebanon Evening Post newspaper reported that Cyrus Patschke had purchased an interest in the Ideal Automobile Company, a combination garage and Chalmers and Franklin automobile dealership located at 21 South Ninth Street. The article revealed that Cyrus would move back to his hometown from his current residence in Kingston New York.  Cyrus was named one of the company’s directors initially as the company secretary and manager, but he later was named a company vice-president. 

Cyrus did not race during the 1912 or 1913 season, as he threw his efforts into promoting his new business venture. Late in 1912, his late father’s estate was settled, and Cyrus and his wife moved into a bungalow on Hill Street in the 12^th Street Heights neighborhood that he had inherited from his father's estate.

During the winter of 1912, the Marmon ‘Wasp’ went on a brief tour of automobile shows, which began in New York, traveled to Chicago and then to Dayton Ohio’s Memorial Hall for a week before it closed it tour in Cincinnati, Ohio.  At its car show appearances, both Ray Harroun and Cyrus Patschke were listed as the “Wasp’s” drivers in the 1911 Indianapolis ‘500’ winning effort.    

1914 – out of retirement 

On May 23, 1914 came exciting news out of Lebanon – Cyrus Patschke had signed a contract to drive a second Charles Erbstein-owned Marmon entry in the 1914 Indianapolis 500-mile race as teammate to Joe Dawson, the winner of the 1912 Indianapolis ‘500.’ 

The reader will recall that Marmon had built three “long stroke” 445 cubic inch four-cylinder powered “special” road race cars, one of which Dawson drove in the first ‘500,’ with the remaining cars built later made their first appearance at the Santa Monica Road Races in 1911 driven by Patschke and Dawson.

The Marmon factory did not race the cars after the 1911 season-ending Savannah races, and by 1914 the three “long stoke” cars were in the hands of private owners.  The car that Patschke was scheduled to drive in the 1914 ‘500’ was of two “long stroke” Marmon race cars then owned by Charles Erbstein, a colorful Chicago based criminal lawyer.

However, for unknown reasons, this effort never came to fruition, as only Dawson’s Marmon appeared in the 1914 Indianapolis ’500,’ and Joe crashed on the backstretch on lap 46.  He swerved off the track to avoid running down a riding mechanic involved in an earlier accident and the Marmon rolled over. Joe sustained serious back injuries which would end his racing career.      

On May 26, 1914 Cyrus served as the referee for the automobile races held on the half-mile Lebanon Valley Fairgrounds. In an exhibition run, Louis Disbrow who broke the two-mile ‘world’s record” with a time of two minutes seventeen seconds, 1 and 3/5 seconds faster than the record time he had posted the week before in Johnstown Pennsylvania driving the Simplex Zip.

In addition to the record run, the program featured an Australian Pursuit, and the scheduled five-mile race was broken into a series of two-car match races due to “the considerable amount of dust which at times hid the racers from view of the 5,000 spectators” according to the next day’s Lebanon Daily News report. In reading the news reports, the author suspects that this was a “hippodrome” – a race for which the outcome was previously determined.

   

Curiously, the AAA scheduled two races far apart for the same day in 1914. There were two races scheduled at the 2-mile Pacific Coast Speedway in Tacoma Washington on July 3^rd and 4^th 1914 with Wilbur D'Alene scheduled to appear in Ernest Moross’ “long stroke” Marmon, while Patschke was set to drive a Erbstein “long stroke” Marmon on the two-mile dirt Sioux City (Iowa) Speedway in the 300-mile “Fourth of July Classic,” in place of the injured Joe Dawson.

On June 18, 1914, Patschke left Lebanon, bound first for Indianapolis where he spent a few days, before the Erbstein team left for Sioux City Iowa. While in Indianapolis, Cyrus tested the Marmon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and visited Dawson who was still confined to bed at the Methodist Hospital.

The Sioux City track had been built in late 1911 after its enthusiastic backers attended the first Indianapolis 500-mile race. The track set on a 400-acre property across the river from Sioux City Iowa in Stevens (now North Sioux City) South Dakota was initially built without a grandstand.  The investors later added a grandstand, designed to accommodate 10,000 spectators, and the 1914 “Fourth of July Classic” was the track’s grand opening.  

On June 28, Patschke joined Barney Oldfield, Gil Anderson (both in Stutz racers), millionaire racer Spencer Wishart in a Mercer and Harry Grant in a Sunbeam in practice at Sioux City Speedway. Cyrus set the fastest time in practice with a lap of one minute 29 seconds, but “did not do his best being handicapped with spark plug trouble,” according to The Daily Times of Davenport Iowa.

That same day, far from Sioux City in the Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo, the visiting Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated, an event which would lead to the start of World War One a month later and eventually prevent racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during 1917 and 1918, although the AAA continued to sanction races throughout the War.  One of the racers at Sioux City, Eddie RIckenbacher (the original family surname spelling) would become a national hero during World War One and later own the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

Qualifying runs were held in Sioux City on July 1 - each car entered was required to complete one two-mile lap in one minute 42 seconds, or an average speed of 70 miles per hour, to be eligible to start the 300-mile grind. Ten cars qualified that first day, led by Wishart who posted a time of one minute 27 4/5 seconds, but Cyrus was not among the qualifiers  

Patschke’s four-cylinder Marmon suffered a repeat of its 1911 American Grand Prize troubles, as a cylinder loosened from the crankcase in practice before qualifying commenced.  Car owner Erbstein told the Sioux City Journal that his yellow Marmon would be repaired and ready to try to qualify again the next day, On July 2, five more cars qualified for the starting field, led by Patschke who recorded a one minute 29 second lap. Three cars - two Stutz entries and the Moon - were too slow.   

At 11 AM on Saturday July 4, sixteen cars and drivers, arrayed in rows of three, faced starter Fred Wagner for the race’s 45 miles per hour rolling start, and Wagner displayed the red flag to start the race. This starting method was used after pioneering aviator Matt Savidge refused to take to the air and drop signal bombs as originally planned due to high winds aloft.

Front row starter Bob Burman took the early lead followed by Mulford, Wishart, Anderson, Patschke and Oldfield. Meanwhile, Rickenbacher steadily moved his Duesenberg up from his 13^th starting spot. On the fifteenth lap, the engine in Burman’s Peugeot faltered which left Wishart driving the Mercer in the lead.

Over the next 55 laps, the lead traded three times between Wishart, Tom Alley in a Duesenberg and “Billy” Knipper’s Delage. On lap 89 of the 150-lap race, Rickenbacher surged past Knipper into the lead and held on the rest of the way and won with an average over 78 miles per hour.

Confusion reigned among the scorers during the race, and several scorers thought that Patschke won the race as he passed Rickenbacher late in the race, but Wagner presided over a review of the scoring. The final finishing order listed Rickenbacher the winner, with Wishart in second place, 47 seconds behind Eddie at the finish. Patschke, in his overheating Marmon, finished third, thirteen minutes behind Wishart, with Gil Anderson fourth and Ralph Mulford in fifth place in relief of Alley, who was burned when his Duesenberg caught fire on lap 77. 

Cyrus and Lou Heineman were entered as the drivers of Erbstein’s pair of Marmon racers for the next AAA race, the Chicago Auto Club Trophy race on the Elgin Illinois road course scheduled for August 21, 1914, with Charles Luttrell the designated relief driver for both cars.   However, at the end of July, it was announced that Cyrus Patschke had retired from racing at the request of his wife, Millie.  Charles Erbstein then sold the car designated for Patschke to W H Harris who nominated Mel Stringer to drive the Marmon at Elgin. 

Life after racing

In June 1915, Cyrus resigned from the Ideal Automobile Company and began construction of his own garage at 1105 Cumberland Street in his hometown. Patschke’s Garage opened in October 1915 and enlarged it in 1918. 

In March 1919 the garage grew again as Cyrus bought a 150-ton Firestone solid tire press to service truck tires and in December 1919 he and partner John Knull added parts sales to the garage business.   In an interesting twist, in 1923, Cyrus became a dealer for Oldfield Tires manufactured by Firestone and promoted by his old racing rival Barney Oldfield.  

1918 and 1919 were years of heavy personal burdens for Patschke, as in February 1918 his brother-in-law Eli Attwood passed away suddenly at age 62, then a year later 1919, Cyrus and Millie’s infant son, Cyrus Junior passed away at less than four months old in Philadelphia’s Children’s Hospital, and two months later Cyrus’ mother, Sallie, passed away in Philadelphia at age 63   

In February 1920, Cyrus and Millie welcomed a son Fredrick (named after his great-grandfather) and then in January 1922 they added a daughter, Joan, to their family.  Fred studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati then enlisted and served two years in the US Army in World War 2, then after the war returned to the University of Cincinnati and received his degree. Joan, a talented dancer, toured the country with the Littlefield Ballet troupe before she married in 1946 and started a family in Lebanon. 

    

Cyrus became a community leader and booster in his hometown and for a time served as president of the Lebanon Automobile Trade Association, but in 1937 he tired of running his own business and sold out to Reading-based E S Youse Company Inc.  The Youse firm sold auto parts and machine shop equipment on a wholesale rather than a retail level. 

Cyrus continued to manage the Youse Lebanon store until his death.  On Sunday afternoon May 6, 1951 Cyrus Patschke died of a heart attack at age 63 at his home. Cyrus reportedly had suffered heart trouble for several years but had worked a full day at the shop the day before.

Although forgotten by modern racing fans, Cyrus Patschke was a remarkable man whose racing career covered just four partial seasons over a period of six years and he took part in less than a dozen major races, of which he won three and scored four top five finishes.  

Most significant is that all of Cyrus’ accomplishments, including winning the inaugural Indianapolis 500-mile race, occurred before he turned 25 years old. Cyrus who was inducted into the Central Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports hall of Fame in 1974, competed in and excelled in a wide variety of racing venues in the pioneering era- road races, long-distance races, track races and hill climbs.      

Cyrus Patschke - the forgotten hero

part one

Most open-wheel racing fans know that Ray Harroun won the first International 500 Mile Sweepstakes held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 30, 1911, but the important contribution of relief driver Cyrus Patschke to Harroun’s victory is often overlooked.

As you will read in this multi-part article, Cyrus Patschke’s career encompassed much more than that relief appearance as he had a short but distinguished career in the pioneering years of automobile racing in the United States. Cyrus Richard Patschke was born on July 6, 1889 in the steel mill town of Lebanon in southeastern Pennsylvania, the only son and youngest of five children of Sallie and Augustus, a second-generation rope manufacturer. Cyrus was recognized in grammar school as an outstanding student, but his formal schooling ended early, which was typical in the first part of the twentieth century.     

Beginning in 1904, while he lived with his parents in the family home at 234 South Eighth Street, Cyrus worked as the mechanic and chauffer for his brother-in-law, Eli Attwood, who owned the Lebanon Chain Works & Iron Company. Several years later Eli bought a new Acme passenger car, built by the Acme Auto Manufacturing Company in nearby Reading Pennsylvania. Cyrus’ driving abilities came to the attention of the new owner of the Acme factory, Herbert Sternbergh who had bought the company out of receivership in February 1907.

Cyrus’ racing career begins - 1908

Cyrus Patschke’s first automobile race took place on May 30, 1908 at the Giants Despair Mountain Hill Climb in Laurel Run, near Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania.  The one-mile hill climb, with a 650-foot rise in elevation, with grades up to 20%, included six turns, including the 110-degree “Devil’s Elbow” was first held in 1906 and continued through 1910.  

Early Giants Despair Hill Climb overall winners included future Indianapolis ‘500’ competitors William “Willie” Haupt in 1908 and David Bruce-Brown in 1909 as well as 1915 ‘500’ winner Ralph DePalma who won in 1910 as he drove a massive 200-horsepower Fiat.

Notable winners after the 1951 event revival included Carrol Shelby who broke the magic one-minute mark in a Ferrari in 1956, Roger Penske in 1959 in a Porsche RSK, and Oscar Kovelski who won five times in a McLarenM8B Can-Am car including three years in a row.   After another inactive period in the early nineteen eighties, the event resumed in 1986 has continued to be run annually on Memorial Day.

While Willie Haupt won the featured event in 1909 with a time of one minute and 38 3/5 seconds in a Great Chadwick six-cylinder 707-cubic inch touring car rated at 60 horsepower.  Cyrus Patschke drove an Acme Type 19 four-cylinder car with an engine rated at 24 horsepower and won his class by one minute 15 seconds.

Following his maiden race win, Patschke and the Acme Type 19 went to Jamaica Long Island for the June 5^th, 1908 speed trials held on Hillside Avenue in conjunction with the railway station opening ceremonies. The event, managed by the Long Island Automobile Club, used a 3-mile stretch of road connected by two gentle curves. 

Patschke won his class for gasoline cars priced from $1,251 to $2,000 at all three timed distances – he covered the kilometer in 38 3/5 seconds, the one-mile distance in one minute and 3-3/5 seconds and the two-mile timed section in two minutes and seven seconds.  His hometown paper understandably trumpeted the young man’s accomplishments - his first two races had resulted in two wins!

On September 11, 1908, the youthful Cyrus made his first track racing appearance as one of the team drivers of the six-cylinder Acme entered in the Brighton Beach 24-hour race. These long-distance races, which drew huge crowds, were promoted by the Motor Racing Association, which leased the former Brooklyn thoroughbred horse racing mile track after the New York State Legislature banned pari-mutuel betting on horse races.

Eleven cars started the twice-around-the-clock grind at 8 PM on Friday night the 11^th, with the Acme driven for the first 18 hours by Louis Strang, before he handed off the driving duties to Patschke for three hours. During Cyrus’ stint, the Acme suffered a broken water pump, but repairs were made, and it completed the 24-hour grind. 

“Smiling” Ralph Mulford in a 60-horsepower six-cylinder Lozier won as he covered 1,107 miles in 24 hours, 15 miles ahead of a 45-horsepower four-cylinder Lozier. Due to delays caused by the mechanical failures, the Acme finished eighth with 976 miles completed.  

Patschke’s next race on October 10, 1908 was the 200-mile road course event on the eight-mile course laid out inside Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. The event promoted by the Quaker City Motor Club was part of the City’s Founder’s Week celebration. George Robertson won the historic race in a Locomobile with a time of 4 hours 2 minutes 30 seconds, while Cyrus crossed the line in second place in the Acme with a time of four hours fourteen minutes and 54 seconds. Ralph Mulford finished third in a Lozier in a race that was marked by a high degree of attrition, as only eight of the sixteen starters finished the race. After the Fairmount race, advertising copy called the Acme “the car that continues to make good.”

Two weeks later, at the fourth running of the George Vanderbilt Cup, Patschke drove a 90-horsepower Acme ‘Sextuplet’ on the new course, which used a section of the new concrete paved Long Island Motor Parkway. Unfortunately, the Acme broke a camshaft gear in its engine during the third lap, while George Robertson won his second consecutive major race in the Locomobile.   

Cyrus Patschke was initially entered as the driver of an Acme for the Thanksgiving Day 400-mile “Grand Prize of the Automobile Club of America (ACA)” race scheduled over a 25-mile course comprised of public roads Savannah, Georgia. However, just two weeks before the event Cyrus was replaced as the Acme driver by Leonard Zengle.

Reports were that Acme company officials felt that Patschke at age nineteen was “at present a bit too young for such responsibility.” Louis Wagner averaged over 65 miles per hour (MPH) to win the Grand Prize in a Fiat, while the 21-year old Zengle retired the Acme on the seventh of sixteen laps with a broken spring.

1909

The author believes that during the early months of 1909, Cyrus Patschke helped prepare the Acme entry for the Ocean-to-Ocean Automobile Endurance Contest and likely performed a support role during the event.  

The event, that covered 3878 miles was sponsored by M. Robert Guggenheim (of the famous wealthy family) and sanctioned by the ACA (Automobile Club of America) required the competitors to travel from New York City to Seattle Washington to demonstrate the durability of the automobile and focus the public’s attention on the need for a transcontinental highway.

Acme entered a six-cylinder 48-horsepower roadster fitted with Firestone tires and carried George Salzman the driver and alternate driver Fay Sheets.  Six cars left the starting line in New York City at 4:03 PM on June 1 and the first car, a Ford Model T runabout, arrived in Seattle on June 23^rd 23 days and 55 minutes after leaving New York.  The little Ford finished 17 hours ahead of the second place 40 horsepower Shawmut Runabout. 


The Acme entry finally reached Seattle on the afternoon of June 28^th as the third and final finisher.  

After more than four months of protests and counter protests, the Ford was disqualified for the use of a substitute engine enroute and the Shawmut declared the winner of the gold and silver M. Robert Guggenheim Transcontinental Trophy and the $2,000 cash prize. This reversal came too late as the Shawmut Motor Company factory near Boston had been destroyed in a fire in November 1908 and Ford had already garnered the publicity for the victory, and without financing to rebuild, Shawmut ceased to exist.  

Cyrus got his first taste of 1909 racing competition at Brighton Beach in another 24-hour race that started on July 30. The 60-horsepower Acme driven by Cyrus Patschke and his co-driver H A Van Tine, a New Yorker who had been racing since 1905, fell behind early with mechanical issues early during the 3^rd and 4^th hours, and was never a factor-  between the tenth and 17th hours, the Acme completed just twelve miles and it was retired before the 21^st hour with just 385 miles completed.

Patschke’s next long-distance race at Brighton Beach began at 10 PM on Friday night August 27, 1909 and he nearly met with disaster. Ninety minutes into the race, the rear wheel collapsed on the Stearns as it raced down the main stretch in front of the clubhouse grandstand. The Stearns tumbled out of control towards the infield and struck the front of Patschke’s Acme, which was exiting the pits.  

The Stearns rolled over several more times with both Laurent Grosse, 27, a local driver who had been racing since 1903 and his riding mechanic Leonard Cole crushed beneath the car.  Cole was pronounced dead at the scene while Grosse suffered a broken back and internal injuries. Grosse was taken to the nearby Coney Island Reception Hospital then later transferred to Kings County Hospital where he died two days later never having regained consciousness.  

  

The impact from the Stearns bent the Acme’s front axle and broke a spring perch but the damaged Acme was repaired and Patschke rejoined the race. Cyrus, with his co-driver VanTine and riding mechanic Arthur Maynard, finished the race in third place with 883 miles completed. 

Charles Basle won in a Renault with 1,050 miles completed, but Patschke won the $200 prize for completing the most miles in one hour as he covered 55 miles in the race’s first hour. During the last hour of the race, the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper reported that Patschke made a pit stop and the Acme crew changed all four tires and filled the car with fuel in a reported one minute and 22 seconds.

Several days after the race, Patschke was one of a group of drivers and riding mechanics called to testify at a coroner’s inquest. After hearing conflicting testimony regarding the track conditions (Patschke did not have any complaints), Brooklyn Coroner Henry J Brewer ruled that Laurent Grosse and Leonard Cole were “killed by their own carelessness.” 

Likely due to the negative press publicity that followed the double fatality, Cordner and Flinn, the New York sales agents of the Acme automobile run by A B Cordner and his partner Welton Flinn, decided to temporarily withdraw from racing.

Patschke and the Acme had already been entered for the September 6, 1909 Vesper Club Trophy for cars with 301- to 450-cubic inch piston displacement at the 10.6-mile Merrimack Valley Course in Lowell Massachusetts but the Acme did not arrive at the race site. 

On September 17, 1909, Patschke signed to drive for the Lozier Motor Company factory team, which at the time was based in Plattsburgh New York. Patschke co-drove with Ralph Mulford at the Brighton Beach 24-hour race run on October 15-16, 1909.  Cyrus drove the stock chassis Lozier for three hours which completed a new record total of 1,196 miles in 24 hours, and the team won $1000 along with the Sewall and Alden Trophy awarded for the most miles completed at the Brighton Beach Motordrome.  Once again, Patschke scored a $200 bonus for completing the most miles in one hour, as the Lozier covered 51-1/2 miles in the last hour of the race.  

1910

During the winter of 1909-1910 Cyrus Patschke worked for his brother-in-law’s company, the Lebanon Chain Works & Iron Company, as a traveling salesman. The New York Times reported on May 1,1910, that in preparation for the season opening long-distance race at the Brighton Beach Motordrome, the promoters added a “top dressing” to the track surface – a mixture of clay and cement and had also increased the banking in the corners. Patschke and Mulford were confirmed as teammates to drive the Stearns #1 entry.

Twelve cars started the race on May 13^th which was sanctioned by AAA for the first time under sanction number 143. The race was marred by another fatality, as early on the morning of the 14^th, the Marion, driven by Gil Anderson, crashed through the wooden fence after it hooked a rut.

The car, known as the Model 33 Bobcat, which weighed 1,870 pounds with a 255-cubic inch engine, had been built in Indianapolis from a design penned by Marion Motor Car chief engineer Harry Stutz before he left and founded his eponymous company.  During the accident, the Marion’s riding mechanic, William Bradley, a resident of Newark New Jersey was stuck in the head by a wooden fence post. Freed from beneath the wreckage by rescuers, Bradley was transported to the Coney Island Reception Hospital where he died shortly after arrival.

The Simplex, driven by the team of Al Poole and Charles Basle, took the race lead in the twelfth hour and won with 1,145 miles completed, while the Stearns, driven by Patschke and Mulford finished second with 1,120 miles completed in 24 hours. Ralph DePalma finished third in a Fiat that covered thirteen miles less than the Stearns. The winning Simplex had been on pace to break the record of 1,196 miles but speeds slowed as rain fell in the latter stages of the event. Ten cars, including the repaired Marion, finished the race  

The records for the 1910 season are spotty, but it appears Patschke drove the 60-horsepower four-cylinder Stearns in “free-for all” race at Brighton Beach in July and again in mid-August. “Free-for-all” meant that the cars could be modified from stock.  

In the August 19-20 race, Cyrus, teamed with Al Poole, but the car they drove was not a Stearns factory entry, rather it was owned by John Rutherford of New York City who reportedly had loaned Patschke the car just 24 hours before the race.  Cyrus completed the first lap of the event in 1 minute and fourteen seconds from the standing start, and then set a new track record as he completed 57 miles in the race’s first hour.

During the second hour, the 60-horsewpoer six-cylinder Matheson driven by Basle, took the lead but crashed, and while the Matheson was in for repairs, the Stearns regained the lead which it never relinquished, and Patschke and Poole set a record of 1,253 miles completed to the Matheson’s 1,175 miles. Only four of the nine cars finished the event.  

1910 proved to be a trying year for Cyrus personally, as on September 6, Cyrus was driving a Stearns demonstrator car near Sandy Hook Connecticut when he encountered two men along the road whom Cyrus claimed shouted and stood in the path of the car.  Patschke assumed they were hold-up men, and though he attempted to swerve around them he struck one of the men, Michael Hourigan. Cyrus drove onto Waterbury Connecticut where he reported the incident to the police.  

Days later, Cyrus, 21 years old, and identified in press reports as a resident of Kingston New York, was arrested and charged with the responsibility for Hourigan’s death. Coroner Clifford Wilson heard testimony from both Patschke and the third man in the incident, Thomas Shehan, who claimed the pair were on their way home from a local pub and tried to flag a ride.  

On September 10, Coroner Wilson issued his determination that Patschke was not at fault for Hourigan’s death with a broken neck. “Patschke, an expert driver, was not driving recklessly, but was using due caution and had his car under control.”    The Coroner’s ruling was accepted by the Grand Jury and the matter was closed.   

On October 23, Cyrus’ father Augustus, who had retired from the rope business, died suddenly at his home in Lebanon from “acute indigestion “at age 60.

Our next chapter will examine Cyrus' key role in winning the first Indianapolis 500-mile race.  

The Marmon Wasp

The 1910 Marmon Wasp, the car that won the very first International 500-mile Sweepstakes is typically displayed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) Hall of Fame and Museum on a raised platform.  However, during the author's May 2019 visit to the Museum, visitors had a treat as they were allowed up close access to the historic machine.

For the 1911 ‘500,’ there were no time trial runs to set the order of the starting field, rather the starting order and the car numbers were set in the order in which the entries were received.  For example, the pole-position starter, Lewis Strang, drove in the #1 Case, while the Wasp the 32^nd entry received race number 32.   

To qualify for the 40-car field, a car had to run a minimum required speed of 75 miles per hour (MPH) from a rolling start on a 1/4-mile section of the main straightaway. Those qualifying runs were conducted on May 27 and 28, and three cars entered before the Marmon, which included a pair of F-A-L-cars (Fauntleroy, Averill and Lowe from Chicago) and a McFarlan (from Connersville) driven by Fred “Skinny” Clemons were too slow, and the 29^th entry, a Lozier was destroyed in a practice crash, so the Wasp, the 32^nd entry started the race in 28^th position.   

The Wasp was entered by the Indianapolis-based Marmon Motor Car Company factory (a division of Nordyke & Marmon), with Ray Harroun, a Marmon engineer at the wheel. Harroun, "the King of the Speedways," the defending AAA (American Automobile Association) national champion behind the wheel of the Wasp, who had won seven previous races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, had retired from race driving after the 1910 season, but came out of retirement to drive the Wasp in the first 500-mile race.

Compared to its contemporaries, the Marmon Wasp was lightweight, estimated to weigh 2,800 pounds, compared to the minimum weight of 2,200 pounds, and was narrow and streamlined compared to other entries, as it carried only the driver, the only car in the race to not utilize a riding mechanic.

1911 '500' starting field was arrayed in rows of five, with the Stoddard-Dayton Pace Car on the inside of the first row, which left the last starter, the Benz (with the smallest engine in the field at 444 cubic inches) driven by "Billy" Knipper alone in the ninth and final row.

Harroun received relief driving help from lap 71 to lap 102, and his relief driver Cyrus Patschke drove the Wasp up through the field, as Harroun took the race lead for the first time on lap 103 one lap after he resumed the driving duties.

From that point forward, the race lead traded back and forth between Harroun and Ralph Mulford in the Lozier who had started 33rd. Harroun took the lead for good on lap 182 and won by one minute and 43 seconds over Mulford. 

Harroun led three times for a total of 88 laps in a race that took over 6-1/2 hours to complete. By comparison, 2019 '500' winner Simon Pagenaud completed the same distance in less than three hours.  Harroun who promptly retired again in victory lane, won $10,000 from IMS and earned an additional $4,250 in accessory prizes in addition to the race purse.

The Wasp rode on Firestone tires on Dorain de-mountable rims, while the spark for the inline engine was provided by a Remy magneto from Anderson Indiana that fired Bosch spark plugs that ignited the fuel/air mixture fed through a single Schebler carburetor, with lubrication by Monogram oil produced by the New York Lubricating Oil Company. 

Contemporary legend, primarily fueled by Charles Leerhsen's book Blood and Smoke, is that the finish of the first '500' was mired in controversy, but IMS historian Donald Davidson states unequivocally that IMS records indicate that there were no protests filed.

Second place finisher Mulford stated in a June 4 wire story datelined Detroit that he was "more than satisfied with the outcome of the race and gives full credit to Ray Harroun and Cyrus Patschke for their great victory."

Mulford, who drove the race without relief, stated that his actual running time for the 500 miles in the Lozier was fourteen minutes less than the Marmon's, but that due to the weight of his Lozier (reported as 3,240 pounds) he suffered repeated tire failures and stopped eleven times to Harroun's four stops.

Mulford went on the state that he did not believe that any one of the 40 cars entered could have beaten this combination, as the Marmon "was built for this kind of work." Mulford admitted that if a similar race were run again, the result would be the same.

Ray Harroun spent the rest of his life working in the automotive industry. He later started his own eponymous albeit short-lived car company, patented many inventions and even attempted to develop a midget auto racing engine. He died at age 89 on his farm near Anderson Indiana in 1968. 

Cyrus Patschke is sadly a forgotten man, seldom mentioned as the co-winner of the first Indianapolis 500-mile. He also drove relief in the 1911 '500' for the second Marmon entry driven by Joe Dawson.

Cyrus drove in three more races for Marmon in 1911, retired from racing, and briefly returned for a single race in Sioux City Iowa in 1914, after which his wife prevailed upon him to retire from racing permanently. Patschke returned to his hometown of Lebanon Pennsylvania and ran a service station until he died in his hometown in 1951 of heart attack at age 63.

As for the Marmon Wasp, it remained in the hands of the Marmon family and made occasional public appearances until it was sold to Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Anton “Tony” Hulman during the nineteen fifties and has been a centerpiece in the IMS Museum since the original museum opened in 1956.

1963 Indianapolis '500' winner Parnelli Jones had the honor of driving the Wasp in parade laps prior to the 100th anniversary running of the '500' in 2011. A connecting rod broke and severely damaged the six-cylinder 447-cubic inch engine block which was later repaired.