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- the forgotten hero 

part two 

1911- the year of glory

In April 1911, Cyrus in his role as a “racing expert” appeared with a Stearns owned by his employer, Guy Vaughn, as part of a demonstration run by a Commer commercial truck. The truck, loaded with four and half tons of furniture, traveled 109 ¾ miles from New York to Philadelphia at an average speed of 15 ¾ miles per hour. 

On April 15, 1911, Cyrus surprised even his closest friends when he married a Lebanon girl, Amelia “Millie” Rickes in Philadelphia, and the pair settled in Kingston New York. The bride was described in the Lebanon Daily News as the “prettiest of the clerical force at the Bon Ton department store,” while Cyrus was identified as a “daring motor racer.”

On May 7, 1911 W D “Eddie” Edenburn wrote a lengthy article in the Indianapolis Star newspaper that previewed the upcoming inaugural 500-mile International Sweepstakes to be held on the 2-1/2-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. One section of the article attempted to answer the question of who would drive the two Benz cars recently entered by promoter Ernest Moross. 

Moross promoted former bicycle and motorcycle racer Berna Eli “Barney” Oldfield’s early barnstorming appearances, beginning in 1904, and later worked as the press agent and the contest director during the 1909 and 1910 seasons at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Moross bought Oldfield’s racing equipment after Barney was suspended by the AAA for his unsanctioned October 1910 match race against boxer Jack Johnson.

Following his defeat of James Jeffries on July 4, 1910, other boxers refused to face John Arthur “Jack” Johnson, so Johnson, an automobile fan, planned to race his cars. However, there was one huge obstacle to Jack’s plan – at the time, the AAA banned negro race car drivers from competition.  Johnson sent in an application using his birth name, and the AAA initially issued Johnson a racing license. When the AAA officials realized their error, they rescinded Johnson’s license and refunded his $1.00 license fee.

Barney Oldfield was a friend and business partner of Jeffries, and he made the startling claim that Jeffries had been “doped” prior to his losing match with Jack Johnson. Oldfield challenged Johnson to a three-heat $5000 match race at the Sheepshead Bay race track to avenge his friend’s boxing loss. 

On October 25, 1910, Oldfield, already under AAA suspension for taking part in an unsanctioned race in Readville Massachusetts, drove a 60-horsepower Knox against Johnson in 70-horsepower Thomas, and easily won the first two 5-mile heats. When news of the match race broke, the AAA Contest Board suspended Oldfield for a period of two years and Oldfield sold his racing cars to his old manager Moross.

  

In his article, Edenburn suggested Patschke as a leading candidate to drive one of Moross’ cars, which included two four-cylinder Benz, one whose engine displaced 444 cubic inches and the other equipped with a 520-cubic inch engine.  “Eddie” wrote of Patschke’s racing accomplishments in glowing terms. “Eddie” made one error however, as he estimated Cyrus to be “about 25 years old” when in fact Patschke was just 21 years old.  Edenburn’s supposition was faulty, as in the 1911 ‘500,’ “Willie” Knipper drove the smaller Moross Benz while Bob Burman handled the 520-cubic inch entry.

Unbeknownst to Edenburn, Patschke had written a letter to the Marmon Motor Car Company President, Howard Marmon, to inquire about a position on the Marmon team, according to the book The Marmon Heritage written by George and Stacey Hanley.  According to the Hanley’s book, after he received Cyrus’ letter, Howard Marmon discussed hiring Patschke with Marmon engineer and retired race driver Ray Harroun.

Harroun was familiar with Cyrus’ accomplishments, particularly in long-distance racing, and agreed with Marmon that they should hire Patschke as the relief driver for the ‘500.’  The plan was to use Cyrus as a relief driver for both the Marmon entries:  the ‘Wasp’ which carried race #32 and the #31, conventional Marmon entry powered by a 495-cubic inch 4-cylinder engine to be driven by Joe Dawson with riding mechanic Bruce Keen.

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

The Marmon ‘Wasp’ was lighter than its contemporaries, estimated to weigh 2,800 pounds, compared to the minimum weight of 2,100 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. The ‘Wasp’ was powered a six-cylinder 477-cubic inch engine, not the smallest nor the largest engine displacement in the field.

During practice runs at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Harroun and Patschke discovered that the ‘Wasp’ was not the fastest car entered - that honor went to the Fiat of David Bruce-Brown which was powered by a massive 589-cubic inch 4-cylinder engine. The pair of Marmon drivers settled on a planned race pace that they felt would lead to victory.   

The Fiat started 25^th while Harroun started 28^th in the same five-car row, as the starting lineup was set by the order in which the entries were received. By lap 62 the ‘Wasp’ was in second place behind the Fiat but fell back after a pit stop. When Harroun stopped on lap 70 he was in fifth place behind David Bruce-Brown. As he handed off the ‘Wasp’ driving duties to Patschke, Harroun abandoned the earlier plan to run at a set pace and shouted instructions for Cyrus to run down the Fiat. 

Patschke had the ‘Wasp’ close to the lead when he pulled back into the pits on lap 102.  Harroun climbed back into the cockpit and soon pushed the ‘Wasp’ in the race lead for the first time as the Fiat suffered a tire failure.  From that point forward, the race lead traded back and forth between Harroun and Ralph Mulford in the Lozier, and Harroun took the lead for good on lap 182 and won by one minute and 43 seconds over Mulford. 

Cyrus shown at the wheel of the second 1911 Marmon entry. 

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection 

The Marmon ‘Wasp’ won the first ‘500,’ while the second Marmon entry, in which Patschke relieved Dawson, finished fifth, thirteen and half minutes behind the winner. Unfortunately, the records of when and for how long Cyrus relieved Dawson are unclear.   

As one would expect, Cyrus Patschke was the toast of his hometown of Lebanon Pennsylvania, as the hometown newspaper, the Lebanon Daily News quoted the Indianapolis News story “Patschke’s eighty-mile spin was one of the best exhibitions of fast driving ever seen on the speedway and when he stopped at the pit the car had gained several laps and was well up in the bunch of winners.”  Reportedly, Patschke ran faster laps than Harroun in his effort to chase down the Fiat as directed.

On June 1, the Lebanon Semi-Weekly News revealed that “Patschke will go back to Kingston later this week and will stop off here (in Lebanon) for his wife who spent a week here with his mother. A royal welcome awaits him from a host of admiring friends.”  On Friday, June 2, a note in the Daily News stated that “Patschke left for Kingston New York where he will resume his duties,” presumably with his employer Wyckoff, Church and Partridge the New York automobile dealership.

Despite the contemporary legend, put forward by Charles Leerhsen in his book Blood and Smoke, that the finish of the first '500' was mired in controversy, the inaugural Indianapolis ‘500’ second place finisher Ralph Mulford stated in a June 4 1911 wire story, datelined Detroit, that he was "more than satisfied with the outcome of the race” and stated that he “gives full credit to Ray Harroun and Cyrus Patschke for their great victory."

Mulford noted to the writer of the article 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 the Lozier was forced to stop eleven times to the ‘Wasp’s’ four stops.

Later in 1911

During the month of June 1911, Cyrus was mentioned several times in news articles as a potential entrant in the Brighton Beach Motordrome event scheduled for July 3 and 4 promoted by Ernest Moross. Rather than a 24-hour race, there were eight short races scheduled each day with three featured events – a 60-mile race for cars meeting Indianapolis rules (less than 600 cubic inches of engine displacement that weighed more than 2100 pounds) on each day, and three three-lap “free for all” heat races to determine the winner of the Remy Brassard on July 4^th.

Expected entries of Indianapolis rules cars entered at Brighton Beach included National, Knox, Lozier and the Jenatzy 90-horsepower Mercedes formerly owned by Belgian racer Camille Jenatzy for which Cyrus was mentioned as a potential driver.  The program advertised daily exhibition runs by Bob Burman in the 1300-cubic inch four-cylinder powered 200-horsepower ‘Blitzen Benz’ which was owned by Moross, but it’s engine was so large as to be ineligible for any of the scheduled races except the July 4^th free-for-all.

Cyrus also drove the “Prince Henry” Benz at Brighton Beach - a 1910 Benz Grand Prix car so named for its success in the famed German long-distance tour. The Benz featured a cardan (prop shaft) drive system, an aerodynamic body with a tapered rear tail, and was powered by six-cylinder engine with 445 cubic inches displacement.

In the third event on July 3rd, a five-mile (five lap) race for cars with engines not larger than 450 cubic inches, Patschke topped a pair of Nationals driven by Fay Sheets and Billy Knipper. Cyrus and the Benz also took part in the next race, a five-mile race for cars of up to 600-cubic inch displacement. That race was won by Ralph DePalma in a Simplex while Patschke did not finish in the top three of the seven cars entered. 

On July 4^th, Cyrus again drove the “Prince Henry” Benz and won the five-mile, seven cars, 450-cubic inch maximum displacement race over Sheets in the National. Next up was a ten-mile race run under Indianapolis rules which was won by DePalma’s Simplex with Cyrus third in the Benz.  In the three later free-for-all races run for the Remy Brassard trophy, Patschke drove the Jenatzy Mercedes and placed third in each of the three three-lap heats, all of which were won by Bob Burman in the ‘Blitzen Benz. ‘

The next documented race for Patschke came at the Dick Ferris Trophy “Free-for-All” race held on the 8 ½ - mile beach side Santa Monica Road Course on October 14, 1911. Cyrus drove in the race sponsored by race manager Dick Ferris as a teammate to Bob Burman and Joe Nikrent for the three-car Marmon factory team headed by crew chief Ray Harroun.

This was third year of racing on the temporary Santa Monica street course, with four races held the same day for different classes of cars.  Marmon had not entered any AAA races since the ‘500’ but had built two more “long stroke” 445-cubic inch four-cylinder powered road race cars, copies of the car that Joe Dawson drove in the first ‘500.’

Cyrus started 11^th in the 12-car field, but he led the first lap before he was passed by local driver Harvey Herrick in a 427-cubic inch four-cylinder National “40” (which indicated horsepower)  Patschke and Herrick exchanged the lead three times until Cyrus established a lead on lap 9 which he held until lap 21 of the 24-lap race, when the Marmon’s engine started mis-firing.

Herrick passed Patschke, led the final three laps and crossed the finish line at a new world’s record speed of 74.6 miles per hour. The National finished two and half minutes ahead of Patschke’s Marmon with Dawson third in other Marmon, two minutes behind Cyrus. Nikrent in the third Marmon was the last car to finish, in eighth place, one lap behind the winner.

The final two events for the 1911 AAA racing season were held at the end of the month of November at the 17.1-mile road course in Savannah Georgia. The 290-mile William Vanderbilt Cup was scheduled for November 27 and then the 410-mile American Grand Prize race was scheduled to be held three days later. Dawson, Nikrent and Patschke were the core members of the Marmon team joined by Bob Burman. It is unclear what the specifications were for the fourth Marmon entry assigned to Burman, as it is assumed by the writer that Patschke, Nikrent and Dawson drove the “long stroke’ Marmon racers 

Both Dawson and Nikrent crashed their Marmons during practice runs and did not start the Vanderbilt Cup race on November 27. Burman started second and retired after seven laps with a sheared magneto, while Patschke started 12^th and his Marmon retired after eight circuits with a broken water pump.   Ralph Mulford in the stock specification (less fenders) 51-horsepower Lozier won the Vanderbilt Cup by two minutes over Ralph DePalma in a Mercedes at an average speed of 74.07 miles per hour.  

The final race of the 1911 season, the American Grand Prize, was held on Thanksgiving Day co-sanctioned by the Automobile Club of America (ACA) and the AAA.  Burman’s Marmon was not repaired in time, so he took over the repaired #46 Marmon originally assigned to Dawson while Nikrent’s damaged car could not start the race.

Both Marmon entries went out early - Burman with another sheared magneto on lap four, and Patschke led a lap but soon fell back as a cylinder loosened from the crankcase and the car slowed. Patschke was eliminated for good when he and riding mechanic Richard Whistler went off course in the #51 Marmon during their ninth lap.     

Our final installment will look at Cyrus' later career and his life after auto racing.   

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.

Al Putnam’s final ride

updated December 12 2017

 

 

Al Putnam in 1946

 

George Kuehn born in 1907 grew up in a wealthy family in Milwaukee Wisconsin to become what was then known as a “gentleman sportsman.” Kuehn was the 1937 and 1939 APBA (American Powerboat Association) outboard class high-point champion and at one time held the C-class outboard world record, made the move into automobile racing in a big way as in late 1941 he became an Indianapolis race car owner.

 

 

 

 

Kuehn was president of Metal Products Corporation which manufactured the Flambeau outboard motor in a factory located at 245 East Keefe Avenue in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The 2-1/2 and 5 horsepower Flambeau outboard motors were unique as both were constructed using a two-piece clamshell aluminum casting which resulted in light weight a very attractive benefit.  Flambeau also advertised that their motors sported two other features - “uni-control for one simple control for fuel mixture” and "visual control priming - to take the guesswork out of starting."

 

 

 

George’s father Louis Kuehn was born in Alsace-Lorraine immigrated to the United States in 1888 at age 20.  Louis arrived in this country with $60 in his pocket and at first worked in a pottery shop in Canton Ohio. He later became the Midwestern territory salesman for a steel products company then he left that firm and started the La Crosse Steel Roofing & Corrugating Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1896.  

In 1902, Louis sold his La Crosse firm and relocated to Milwaukee where with the help of the Fred Pritzlaff of the Pritzlaff Hardware Company, he founded the Milwaukee Corrugating Company.  Initially, the Milwaukee firm produced corrugated steel siding but Louis steadily expanded the company’s product line through acquisitions to feature a wide selection of products for the hardware and sheet metal trades.

By the 1920s Milwaukee Corrugating was one of the country’s leading building materials suppliers offering items such as steel roof tiles and stamped metal ceilings with branches in six cities. In 1930, the company name was changed to Milcor Steel Company and In 1936 Milcor was purchased by Inland Steel Company for three million dollars. Louis remained involved as Milcor’s chairman until 1940 when he retired and later helped his son fund the creation of the Metal Products Corporation in 1943.  

The car George Kuehn bought was a “three-spring” championship car, with two parallel leaf springs on the front axle and a transverse spring for the rear suspension had been built in 1936 by Curly Wetteroth for Harry Hartz. According the fellow historian Michael Ferner the car with its body built by Myron Stevens proved to be too heavy at 1800 pounds to be competitive on half-mile tracks but was a decent mile track car.

Hartz’ driver Ted Horn did not care for the new single-seater and only drove the grey and blue car twice – both times in the George Vanderbilt Cup races held at Roosevelt Raceway in 1936 and 1937.  After the car sat idle for the 1937 season, in 1938, Hartz sold the car to the Chicago IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) union president and racing team owner Mike Boyle.

Boyle Racing Team mechanic Harry “Cotton” Henning pulled the car's Miller engine and fitted the car with a 255-cubic inch four-cylinder Offenhauser engine. Painted in Boyle Racing’s trademark maroon and cream colors, Elbert “Babe” Stapp drove the car to victory in August 1939 at the Milwaukee Mile. 
 

Harry McQuinn drove the car in 1940 in two AAA races but failed to finish. After the 1941 season during which the ‘Boyle Special’ was driven by George Connor in three races with two top three finishes, Boyle sold the car to George Kuehn who planned to enter it in the 1942 Indianapolis 500-mile race for driver Adelbert William “Al” Putnam.

Al Putnam was born in Salt Lake City Utah in 1908, but grew up in southern California, and began his racing career in the nineteen thirties at San Diego's 5/8 mile Silvergate Speedway. Throughout the thirties Putnam competed in the AAA (American Automobile Association) Pacific Coast championship up and down the West Coast with races at the second 5/8-mile Ascot track, Oakland and Legion Ascot (the third track called "Ascot"). Al finished 17th in the 1936 AAA Pacific Coast standings prior to his relocation to the Midwest.

Putnam considered himself a “hard luck driver” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  He tried to qualify for the 1936 Indianapolis 500-mile race in one of Phil Shafer’s “Buick 8 Specials” but he wound up as the first alternate after his ten-lap qualifying average speed of 110.481 miles per hours (MPH) was surpassed by Emil Andres’ 111.455 MPH qualifying run.

 

In 1937, Putnam returned to the 2-1/2 mile brick paved oval again behind the wheel of one of Shafer’s Buicks sponsored the local Indianapolis Kennedy Tank Manufacturing firm but once again his qualifying speed fell short of making the 33-car field.

Prior to the 1938 Indianapolis 500-mile race, Al, who had been married previously with two sons, married Pearl the widow of William “Spider” Matlock who had died in a crash at Legion Ascot Speedway in January 1936 along with driver Al Gordon.

 

Being a newlywed must have helped as Al qualified for his first Indianapolis race driving a Miller-powered Stevens chassis owned by Arthur Sims with sponsorship from Tidewater Petroleum through its Troy Tydol brand. Al started 23rd in the first race since the end of the two-man AAA “Junk Era” but finished a disappointing 32rd position after the Miller engine broke its crankshaft on lap 15.

In May 1939 Al who had relocated to Detroit was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway all month but never was nominated for a ride.  During the 1939 race Al drove relief on two occasions for Harry McQuinn for a total of 59 laps in the Brisko-powered machine.  

In 1940, Putnam was named as the driver of Tony Gulotta’s Offenhauser powered Clyde Adams chassis sponsored by the Refinoil Motor Oil Company. Refinoil advertised as the “tough-bodied oil” the result of a “patented refining system that lubricates your motor better and lasts longer” and was “guaranteed equal to or better than any 35 cent per quart motor oil at 12 cents per quart.”

Al qualified the Refinoil Special at 120.818 MPH to start from the twenty-eighth position and was still running when race officials flagged off the remaining cars due to rain. Later in the season on Labor Day Al Putnam was gravely injured in a pre-race practice crash at the Moody Mile at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse New York
 In 1941, Al who had recovered from his injuries and relocated to Indianapolis, drove all three of the AAA championship series races for Milwaukee car owner William Schoof in a six-year old Curly Wetteroth chassis powered by a 270-cubic inch Offenhauser engine. Al bumped his way into the 33-car starting field with a speed of 121.951 MPH that bumped out Louis Durant’s Mercury V-8-powered ‘G&S Special.’ 

 

The ‘Schoof Special’ went on to finish the 1941 '500' in 12th place at an average speed of 101.381 MPH after Al Putnam was relieved at lap 154. Louis Durant who had driven the Schoof car in 1938 and 1939, drove the car the rest of the way to the full 200-lap distance.

Later in the 1941 season, Putnam finished fourth in the bright orange ‘Schoof Special’ at the Milwaukee mile in August and eleventh at Syracuse New York in September and wound up twelfth in the 1941 AAA drivers’ championship.     

Al and the Kuehn crew members prepared their new car for the 1942 Indianapolis 500-mile race but the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941, plunged the United States into World War II.  The coming of war brought about the cancellation of the 1942 Indianapolis ‘500’ on December 29 1941 followed later by the government mandated cessation of all automobile racing in June 1942 to conserve rubber and gasoline. Like all race cars, the Kuehn/Putnam car went into long term storage for the duration of the war. 

During the War, Al Putnam was one of 3,250 workers at the massive Indianapolis Curtiss-Wright Corporation plant that manufactured hollow steel airplane propellers. The historic 400,000 square foot plant on South Kentucky Avenue at Harding Street originally part of the massive Nordkyke Marmon factory before it was purchased by Curtiss-Wright in 1941.

During the war Al Putnam was featured in an article published in the Indianapolis Star newspaper on Memorial Day 1943 that marked the second year of no racing at the great Brickyard.  In the article Al was quoted; "No, I haven't won a Speedway race, yet, because something always has gone haywire, but I did manage to make a good showing in each race. And I intend to win some day." Putnam was shown in a photograph that accompanied the article with fellow Curtiss-Wright employee George Souders the 1927 Indianapolis 500-mile race winner.

Within months after the war was won, Curtiss-Wright laid off its employees and closed the plant, but transferred Al Putnam to one of its Indianapolis based subsidiaries, LGS Manufacturing.  LGS whose product line consisted of spring clutches had at one time been a division of the Cord Corporation, and became part of Curtiss-Wright after their purchase of a number of Cord’s manufacturing assets including LGS after the collapse of the Cord Corporation during 1938.  

 

Al Putnam posed in the LGS Spring Clutch Special

for a promotional photo for Permalube Motor Oil.

 

On March 7, 1946 Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Wilbur Shaw announced the cream and blue #12 car owned by Kuehn to be driven by Putnam and sponsored by Putnam’s employer, LGS Spring Clutches as one of first 10 entries in the 1946 Indianapolis 500-mile race.  

 

Al posed with two Indianapolis motor officers

 

Al qualified for the 1946 Indianapolis 500 on Wednesday May 22, described as “the full day of sunshine since time trials last weekend.” There had been three qualifying runs held on Monday May 20th after persistent rain on Sunday May 19th had prevented qualifying runs.

Al’s average speed was the slowest of the five cars that qualified which also included Emil Andres, Mauri Rose, Joie Chitwood and Russell Snowberger. Putnam’s average speed of 116.483 MPH for the 10 mile run was barely above the minimum speed of 115 MPH set by Speedway management. Even though it was the slowest time in the field Al’s speed held up and Putnam started the first post-war Indianapolis 500-mile race from the thirteenth position.

 

 

The LGS Spring Clutches Special on pit lane on Race Day

 

On Memorial Day, George Robson who started 15th in the Thorne Engineering Special on the outside of the same row as Putnam, took over the race lead on lap 93, and led the rest of the way. Meantime, Al was relieved at lap 110 by veteran George Connor whose own entry, the “Ed Walsh Special” Kurtis chassis, had dropped out on the 38th lap. Connor was at the wheel ten laps later when the ‘LGS Spring Clutches Special’ was forced to out of the race with a broken magneto and was awarded a fifteenth place finish.   

During August 1946, Kuehn sold the car to Indianapolis resident Richard L “Dick” Palmer and Rex Mays qualified the ex-Hartz machine dubbed the “Bowes Seal Fast Special” at Atlanta’s Lakewood Speedway but retired after just three laps due to a loss of oil pressure.  

 

 

 

The “Palmer Special” was entered for the ‘‘Indianapolis 100,’ promoted by the Indianapolis Auto Racing Association Inc. a group run by former riding mechanic driver and current car owner Lou Moore. On Sunday September 15 1946 there were 16 mostly rag-tag cars on the grounds of the Indiana State Fairgrounds mile for the first dirt race to be run in Indianapolis since before the war.

The racing world was still in mourning from the tragic crash two weeks earlier at Atlanta’s dusty Lakewood Speedway in which the reigning Indianapolis champion George Robson and veteran driver George Barringer died after they collided with Billy DeVore in the slow ‘Schoof Special.’  

 

 

The ‘Indianapolis 100’ program contained a memorial page dedicated to the two fallen heroes lost at Lakewood Special 

  

 

 

Al a veteran at 37 years old who was driving his first dirt race since 1941, was the fourth car out and was on his third warm up lap before qualifying  when the car skidded at the west end of track between third and fourth turns. The cream and blue “Palmer Special” crashed through the wooden fence and hit the concrete abutment of the vehicle access tunnel nearly head-on. The impact was so powerful that the steering wheel pierced Putnam’s chest and he was thrown from the car.

After the gravely injured Putnam was loaded into an ambulance, the confused ambulance driver reportedly made several laps around the track as he missed the track exit several times.  By the time the ambulance carrying the 37-year old Putnam reached in the field hospital at the nearby Fairgrounds Coliseum building where his wife Pearl was waiting Putnam was pronounced dead on arrival.

Following the crash cleanup and fence repairs, qualifying was completed with Rex Mays in the mighty Bowes Seal Fast Winfield straight eight powered machine on the pole position with a best lap of 41.34 seconds.  The race’s fourteenth and final starter Bud Bardowski was determined by a draw after both Charlie Rogers in the ‘Jewell Special’ and Bardowski in his ‘Army Recruit Special’ were unable to complete their qualifying runs.  Rex Mays dominated the race as he led every lap from the pole position and won by a lap over second place finisher Mauri Rose who had started sixth in the Blue Crown Lencki machine.

According to the Palmer team’s chief mechanic Bill Castle, the car originally built for Harry Hartz in 1936 was scrapped. Al, whose two children lived with their mother in Santa Ana California, was laid to rest on September 20 1946 in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. Al’s widow Pearl was laid to rest next to him after her death in July 1989 and the pair shares a headstone.

It would be easy for a casual observer to discount Al Putnam’s AAA championship career which included just six appearances in the famed Indianapolis 500-mile race, two of those as a relief driver, with a best finish of fifteenth in his final ‘500,’ but clearly the man was dedicated to racing and determined despite repeated misfortunes.         

Scans of the 1946 “Indianapolis 100” program courtesy of Wesley Winterink

Thanks to Jim Thurman for his information regarding Al Putnam's early racing career on the West Coast.

Black and White photos are courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection part of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Scholarship

The author is always interested in learning more about Al Putnam’s early racing career on the West Coast, as well as contact information for Al Putnam’s children.