The early history of lap prizes for the Indianapolis 500-mile race Part One

 

The early history of lap prizes for the Indianapolis 500-mile race

Most television viewers of the 2020 Indianapolis 500-mile race were probably unaware that 2020 marked an important anniversary at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the 1920 race introduced the award of $100 per lap to the leader. 

The 2020 Indianapolis 500 Official Program included a brief article that touched on the history of the lap prize fund, but the author felt that racing historians might appreciate a more detailed history of the fund’s early struggles. 

1920 - The beginning

   

The 28-man Citizens of Indianapolis Lap Prize Committee, its membership equally divided among active and honorary members, began the first fund-raising effort in late March 1920. George M. Dickson, the President of the National Motor Vehicle Company, chaired the Citizen’s Lap Prize Committee, created by “Indianapolis Businessmen and Manufacturers to express appreciation of the value to Indianapolis of the annual International Sweepstakes, the world’s greatest race.”

Dickson started with National as its sales manager in 1907, rose to become the General Manager then became the company's President 1917.  George’s history with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and racing in general dated back to 1910, when as a member of the Manufacturers Contest Association, he wrote an article entitled “Speedways Develop Automobiles” which was published in newspapers across the nation.

Dickson later helped author the brochure that celebrated the victory by the National driven by Joe Dawson and Don Herr in the 1912 Indianapolis 500-mile race. In 1916, Dickson served as the starter of the International 300-mile Sweepstakes, the last race before the two-year Indianapolis race suspension due to America’s involvement in World War One.   

The first fund-raising effort was not without controversy. In early April 1920, committee member and local automobile dealer R. V. Law suggested in a meeting that in addition to the $100 lap prizes, certificates be awarded.

A debate broke out over how the committee could pay for the certificates until Theodore Myers, the General Manager of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, volunteered the Speedway to furnish the certificates,  so that all the money collected by the fund could be awarded to the competitors. The Speedway also provided the score card insert for the race day program which listed the names of the Citizen’s Lap Prize Committee members and the fund donors.

Initially, Dickson envisioned that donors would be assigned individual laps in the order that their donations were received, but eventually, the committee agreed that a drawing should be held to more fairly determine the order. 

On April 24 1920 A. H. Adams, the field manager for the committee, reported that with $7,000 already collected, the Indianapolis Merchants’ Association had officially endorsed the lap prize fund. 

Drivers Louis Chevrolet and Ralph DePalma both contributed to the lap prize fund before it closed on May 17, 1920, with the final donation, which meant the fund reached it's $20,000 goal, came from Indianapolis Motor Speedway co-founder James Allison’s Allison Experimental Company. The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the custodian of the fund, held the drawing for the sponsorship lap order at a luncheon on May 19 1920.  

The eighth annual International 500-mile Sweepstakes victory banquet, held on the evening of June 1 1920 in the Riley Ballroom at the plush Claypool Hotel, located at the corner of Illinois and Washington Streets in downtown Indianapolis. 

Barney Oldfield “the Master Driver,” served as the emcee, with five-time ‘500’ competitor with World War One flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker as the keynote speaker, but most attendees were there to collect their part of the total $93,550 race purse.

John Reynolds, secretary of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, awarded the lap prizes to Joe Boyer, who received $9,300, while Ralph DePalma collected $7,900.  The race winner, Gaston Chevrolet, picked up $1,400, Frenchman Rene Thomas received a $1,200 check, while Jean Chassagne and Art Klein each won $100.

The positive publicity created by the lap prize fund at Indianapolis led to a similar effort later in the year in Los Angeles, led by A. M. Young, for the 200-lap Thanksgiving Day race held at the high-speed 1-1/4 mile Los Angeles Motor Speedway board track in Beverley Hills.  Donors to the $5,000 Los Angles fund included the Beverley Hills Hotel, actors Wallace Reid and Tom Mix, retired racer Barney Oldfield, race car builder Harry A. Miller and the Gilmore Oil Company.

Jimmy Murphy got a check for $250 as he led the first lap of the Beverly Hills race, while Roscoe Sarles collected the balance of the fund as he led each of the race’s remaining 199 laps. Unfortunately, the Thanksgiving 1920 Beverly Hills race is remembered more because of the triple fatality.

The #6 Frontenac, driven by the reigning Indianapolis 500-mile race champion Gaston Chevrolet, tangled with the #9 Duesenberg driven by Eddie O'Donnell as they passed the slower car of Joe Thomas. Gaston, just 28 years old,  perished instantly in the accident, while 33-year old O’Donnell and his riding mechanic Lyall B. Jolls (given surname Headen) passed away the following day. The only survivor, John Bresnahan, Chevrolet’s mechanic, thrown from the car, slid down the banking to safety.

1921 - the ninth running

For 1921, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce pared the Citizen’s Committee down to ten members, and the donors from 1920 put on a “roll of honor” which gave them the opportunity to renew for 1921 before any new donors were approached. 

A. H. Adams served as the committee chairman with members that included Dickson and representatives of Indianapolis Power & Light, the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and the Willard Storage Battery Company.  

On May 3, 1921, Adams reported that subscriptions to the lap prize fund passed the half-way mark, but with the United States economy in a recession, progress on fund-raising apparently stalled after Adams’ announcement. To remedy that situation, the Committee and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway scheduled the first “Drivers’ Day” on Saturday May 21 with all the money collected earmarked to complete the lap prize fund.

On May 21^st, race fans that paid 50 cents admission each watched as Seth Cline (Klein) the Speedway’s “official announcer” introduce   the drivers entered for the ‘500.’ Klein, who ran a radiator service shop at 820 North Meridian Street, later became the 500-mile race assistant starter in 1923 and the chief starter from 1935 through 1954.  

5,294 fans saw Ralph DePalma and Tommy Milton stage a short “dash,” followed by Howdy Wilcox, Jean Chassagne, and Bennett Hill in a three-way “brush.”  

The program also included appearances by Arthur Chevrolet, 1911 ‘500’ winner Ray Harroun, Barney Oldfield, and “the fastest car in world,” the twin-engine sixteen-cylinder Duesenberg that Tommy Milton drove in April 1920 to the 156.046 mile per hour (MPH) land speed record on the Daytona Beach sands. The Indianapolis Star reported that a crew towed the record-setting Duesenberg past the grandstands but the car did not make a lap. 

Unfortunately, after expenses “Driver’s Day” only collected  $2,382 which brought the lap prize fund total to $16,700. When the fund-raising closed five days later on Thursday May 26^th, the fund’s account contained only $17,150. 

Because of the shortfall, the fund paid the leader of each lap $100 up to lap 150, after which the fund paid $100 to the leader of alternating laps over the final 50 laps or 125 miles.  

Ralph DePalma led 108 laps in the '500' before his French Ballot broke a connecting rod, which handed the lead and the victory to Tommy Milton in a Frontenac, designed by his friend Cornelius "CW" Van Ranst and built by the Chevrolet brothers.  

At the Victory banquet, DePalma received $10,650 in lap prizes, while Milton won $6,300 and Joe Boyer, the leader at lap 2, and Roscoe Sarles, the leader at lap 6, each won $100. The firms and individuals that donated $100 each and the one $50 donor, the WB Burford Printing Company, were all identified in an article in the May 31 1921 edition of the Indianapolis Star newspaper.

1922 

After the 1921 lap prize fund shortfall, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce reduced the total lap prize fund to $10,000, to pay the leader $50 per lap during the 1922 International 500-mile Sweepstakes. 

The 1922 Committee members included Wallace O. Lee, the Vice-President of the Indianapolis Power & Light Company, Spanish-American War veteran Captain Harry M. Franklin and Carl H. Wallerich, an Indianapolis Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge dealer.

Born in Iowa in 1883, Carl came to Indianapolis in 1900 and in 1903 joined the new Overland Automobile Company (which later became Willys-Overland). Wallerich served as a “Clerk of the Course” and managed various aspects of track operations during the 1912 International 500-mile Sweepstakes.  

Several companies reportedly donated the same $100 amount as in previous years and claimed two laps. Committee chairman A.H. Adams announced on April 7 1922 that the fund already contained “about $3,000.” The Committee held its first meeting on Saturday May 13 and in his report Adams described the fund as “about half subscribed.” 

The Citizen’s Committee staged another “Drivers’ Day” on Saturday May 20 1922 but it appears that in the recession economy, the lap prize fund again fell short of the goal with a total of $8,375 collected. 

The race winner, Jimmy Murphy, led 153 laps from the pole position and received a payment of $6,300. Harry Hartz led 42 laps and received $1,825 and a $100 radio set, while Peter DePaolo led three laps and got $100, and Leon Duray led two laps and got $50, according to the report in the Indianapolis Star.      

1923

For 1923 the prize was back to a $100 a lap and on May 17 the Citizen’s Committee new chairman, Harold Hampton, kicked off the $20,000 lap prize fund subscription period with the “Drivers’ Day” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway scheduled for Friday May 25^th.

In his Indianapolis Star column “Speedway Appetizers” on Thursday May 24^th William Sturm claimed that “businessmen have contributed $10,000.”  The newspaper advertisement for the 1923 “Drivers’ Day” promised thrills with “exhibition races,” and suggested attendance as a civic duty to support the fund. 

     

Once again, the 1923 lap prize fundraising fell short of the goal of $20,000, so the prizes were only awarded for the first 125 laps. The fund distributed $12,100 among five drivers, per the United Press International report. The race’s first two-time winner, Tommy Milton, led 128 laps and banked $8,500 in lap prizes, a small amount as many of his leading laps came late in the race including the final 50 laps.

Milton’s HCS Motor Company teammate, Howdy Wilcox, led 51 laps and received $2,000. Third place finisher Jimmy Murphy, the 1922 race winner, led eleven laps early in the race and got $1,100.  Russell “Cliff” Durant, earned $400 for four laps led, although Cliff scarcely needed the money since he was a multi-millionaire and owned eight of the cars entered in the 1923 race.  Harry Hartz, the second place finisher in a Durant entry, led twice for a total of six laps, but only got paid $100 for leading one of those laps.

1924

The May 14 1924 edition of the Indianapolis Star reported that the committee members were selected at a noontime Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Harold Hampton, the Chamber of Commerce athletic committee chairman, announced that for 1924, the prize would be $50 a lap and the article stated that Hampton “expressed belief that contributions this year would make this easily possible.”

Solicitations began immediately and after a follow-up meeting two days later, the Committee chairman, insurance agent Austin J. Edwards, told the Indianapolis Star  that the AAA and the local Yellow Cab Company each stepped up to sponsor two laps, while the Indiana Bell Telephone Company, the accounting firm Ernst & Ernst, and the Indianapolis Indians baseball club each sponsored one lap.

On Monday May 19, the Indianapolis Star printed an appeal from A. L. Block, the President of the prestigious L. Strauss & Company department store, which read in part “Indianapolis people cannot do too much toward helping the daring drivers whose feats have made the city internationally known.”  Block’s statement closed by saying that “my greatest hope is that each lap will have its award that the drivers may not think us ungrateful for their efforts.”       

Indianapolis Star sports editor W. Blaine Patton reported in his “Observed from the Speedway Pits” column in the May 21^st edition of the that the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, Polk Sanitary Milk Company, the L. S. Ayres & Company department store chain, Nordyke & Marmon and the Indianapolis Star newspaper all donated $100 to the fund.     

The Speedway held the annual “Drivers’ Day” on Tuesday afternoon May 27 1924 with 3,500 reported attendees which added $1,600 to the fund after expenses. The Indianapolis News reported that race car builder Harry A. Miller wrote a check for $200, which brought the fund total up to $5,900. Apparently, the 1924 fund topped out at $6,250 which paid the leader of each the race’s first 125 laps.

Austin J. Edwards the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce’s representative, distributed the lap prizes at the 1924 ‘500’ victory banquet, which was held in the Rainbow ballroom at the Casino Gardens clubhouse. Formerly known as the Indianapolis Canoe Club, the building still stands two miles east of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the west bank of the White River. 

Earl Cooper, the second place finisher, received $3,400, and third place finisher Jimmy Murphy received $2,800, while co-winner Joe Boyer (with L.L. Corum) got $50 as he led the first lap from his fourth place starting position.   

We will examine the fundraising and distribution for years 1925 and beyond in future installments.     

For fans interested in viewing the individual 500-mile race programs covers, the National Indy 500 Collector Club has an excellent website at  https://www.ni500cc.com

The Pete Kreis story Part four - 1929 through 1931

 

The Pete Kreis story

Part four - 1929 through 1931

In February 1929, 29-year-old Albert Jacob ‘Pete’ Kreis was named in a lawsuit by a dancer named Irma Sedivic for injuries she suffered in a brawl in the Avalon nightclub in St Louis on December 22 1928. Ms. Sedivic alleged in her suit that Kreis threw a glass goblet during a club melee that injured her eye and asked for $25,000 in actual damages and $25,000 in punitive damages. 

In response, Pete told Knoxville reporters that it was a case of mistaken identity, saying “I had nothing to do with throwing that goblet.” The author has been unable to find any information about the final outcome of the case.  

When entries closed for the 17^th running of the International 500-mile Sweepstakes on May 30 1929 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, no team nominated Pete Kreis as a driver. Kreis nonetheless made his annual trip from Knoxville Tennessee to Indianapolis in May to watch practice and visit his friends in the racing community.

All the racers knew that this would be the last time that they would race under the 91-1/2 cubic inch rules package. On January 17 1929, the American Automobile Association (AAA) Contest Board published the new rules package for the 1930 Indianapolis 500- mile race pushed through by Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Eddie Rickenbacker.

As the AAA stated, "At the request of the Speedway, engineers drew up a set of regulations designed to return a type of car less expensive, less specialized and calculated to furnish experimental departments with more constant and tangible lessons of value in every-day motor car designing and building."  

Throughout the month of May 1929, Tommy Milton and the ‘Detroit Special’ team tested the car which Milton and Van Ranst refined over the long winter. Van Ranst and Milton developed new designs for the engine block, timing gears, and valve springs to deal with the engine’s high boost pressure. Chief among the new innovations were the enlarged “pop-off valves” in the supercharger piping system which now sported a large external intercooler.  

These valves redesigned by Cornelius Van Ranst with larger surface areas were located in the supercharger piping and designed to open when the supercharger or engine backfired to relieve pressure rather than wreck the manifolds on the straight-eight Miller engine. Van Ranst also designed a new rubber coupling for the supercharger drive.    

As he waited for mechanic Harry “Cotton” Henning to reassemble the Miller front drive entered for him by Santa Ana California oil company executive M R. “Dick” Dodd, Milton’s protégé Bob McDonogh turned many laps of practice over the 2-1/2 mile brick oval in the ‘Detroit Special’ as the Milton team waited for the car owner - multi-millionaire sportsman, financier and driver - Russell “Cliff” Durant to appear.

Cliff Durant photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

On the evening of May 22^nd, just two days before time trials began, the hard-living Durant announced the end of his 14-year race car driving career at age 38 and named Pete Kreis as his replacement. “Time has taken its toll” said Durant in an Indianapolis Star interview, “I could not give the car which Milton has prepared the ride it deserves.” 

With little time to test, Pete Kreis drove the ‘Detroit Special’ to the second fastest qualifying time on the second day of time of Sunday May 26^th.  Johnny Seymour in a Cooper Engineering Company front-drive (Marmon did not renew the 1928 sponsorship) qualified with a 114 MPH average followed by Kreis in the ‘Detroit Special’ at 112.528 MPH. The pair started the 1929 Indianapolis 500-mile race side by side in the seventh row.   

The 1929 Indianapolis 500-mile race starting field included two cars with female owners. Maude Yagle of Philadelphia owned the #2 Simplex Piston Ring Special formerly owned by Frank Lockhart and driven by Ray Keech, while Marion Batten the widow of Norm Batten lost at sea in the sinking of the SS Vestris in November 1928 owned the #49 Miller driven by Wes Crawford.

Pete Kreis and the Detroit Special in the garage area in 1929 

Contemporary new reports suggest that Kreis and the ‘Detroit Special’ ran well, in the top five as they neared the 200-mile mark, but the engine seized on course on its 91^st lap. Pete returned to the pit area and relieved Cliff Bergere behind the wheel of the ‘Armacost Special ‘Miller front-drive for 54 laps. Pete turned the car back over to Cliff on lap 146 and Bergere drove the rest of the way to finish in ninth place and earn $1,500.

Pete Kreis left Indianapolis with the knowledge that if he drove at the Speedway again in 1930, the cars would be fair different than the small jewel-like Miller machines with which he became familiar. In general, the new rules package for the 1930 Indianapolis 500-mile race were in the AAA’s words  “designed to produce either (a) a car susceptible of adaption from production car chassis or (b) development cars that embody new engineering principles or adaptions as contrasted against what may be termed ‘normal’ cars.”  Rickenbacker and the AAA officials believed that passenger car manufacturers would become involved in racing in a big way.

Beginning with the 1930 ‘500,’ engine size was limited to 366 cubic inches with a maximum of two valves per cylinder no supercharging allowed and a maximum of two carburetors. Each race car weighed a minimum of 7-1/2 pounds per cubic inch of engine displacement and not less than 1750 pounds in any case. By comparison a 1929 Miller 91 typically weighed 1450 pounds. Finally, each car would carry both a driver and a riding mechanic. Today, historians derisively refer to this rules package as the “Junk Formula.”

Harry Hartz recovered from burns and back in racing as a car builder and owner bought the Miller front-drive chassis #2703 built for Peter DePaolo in 1927 that had been driven by Bob McDonogh in 1929 for car owner Dick Dodd.  With the help of metalsmith Phil Sommers Hartz converted the car into the required two-man configuration. For power, Hartz built a 152-cubic inch Miller engine with his stash of leftover Miller 122-cubic inch parts.

Early in the month of May 1930 Hartz, Ralph Hepburn, and Billy Arnold all took practice laps in the car (Miller-Hartz 1) which led to speculation who would drive the car in the race. On the first day of time trials, Hartz took the car out, made a single timed lap at 110 MPH and returned to the pit area.

Later in the day, Arnold took the car out for a qualifying attempt with William “Spider” Matlock as his riding mechanic. The pair won the coveted pole position with a speed of 113. 268 MPH, the fastest car by over two miles an hour. Peter Kreis spent the month of May 1930 in Indianapolis but never landed a ride. After the race, Pete returned to his construction project in Kansas.

On Race Day 1930, second fastest qualifier Louis Meyer the 1928 500-mile race winner took the early lead, but Arnold passed him on lap three and never looked back. Arnold led a record 198 laps and won by seven minutes (estimated as four laps) over William “Shorty” Cantlon in a 183-cubic inch Miller powered machine owned by Bill “Hollywood” White.

Lou Moore and Floyd Sparks built two front-drive machines for the 1930 Indianapolis ‘500’ the Coleman Motors Company that built four-wheel drive trucks. Coleman intended for Joe Unser (uncle to Al Senior and Bobby) to drive one car and Moore the other but Unser died in an accident and was replaced by Phil “Red” Shafer. Both Coleman cars, which reportedly used parts from Coleman production vehicles, qualified for the 1930 ‘500.’ The #14 Coleman driven by Moore and mechanic Sparks wound up perched on top of the third turn wall after a six-car tangle on lap 23 while and Shafer finished in seventh after he started eighth with mechanic Terry Curley who started his riding career in 1922. 

For 1931, Coleman Motors entered a single car fitted with both the Miller 183 cubic inch engines to drive the front wheels. Driver Lou Moore found the beast uncontrollable and withdrew to join the Boyle Valve team. Late in the month, Pete Kreis agreed to give the car a shot. While it was undoubtedly powerful as with two engines it pushed the 366 cubic inch maximum engine size requirement, the Coleman had to be a handful to drive. On May 27, Pete qualified the Coleman Special at 102.860 MPH but subsequent clutch troubles led the team to withdraw the machine before the race.

Harry Hartz still dabbled as a driver and took test laps in Arnold’s machine during practice for the 1931 Indianapolis 500-mile race. Arnold did not qualify well, but on Race Day Arnold in the Miller-Hartz 1 passed seventeen cars and took the lead on lap 7. Arnold and riding mechanic Spider Matlock led the next 155 laps through intermittent rain showers that slowed the field twice. On lap 162, with a five-lap lead, Arnold spun in oil on the track in turn three and collided with Luther Johnson’s Studebaker.   

The Miller-Hartz hit the north short chute wall rolled over and both Arnold and Matlock were injured as Arnold suffered a broken pelvis and Matlock a broken collar bone. A wheel off the car flew over the wall bounced, rolled and struck young Wilbur Brink playing in the front yard of his family home on Georgetown Road. The 11-year old boy later died from his injuries.

After crews cleared the accident, Indianapolis police officer Louis Schenider took the lead in the Bowes Seal Fast-sponsored Miller-powered machine and won in the 1930 International 500-mile Sweepstakes by 43 seconds over Fred Frame in Hartz’ second entry, a 142-cubic inch Duesenberg powered machine.    

During the 1931 500-mile race, records credit Pete Kreis with 53 laps driven in relief of Ralph Hepburn in Harry Miller’s entry. On lap 144, Hepburn returned to the seat and finished the race in third place. The local Knoxville newspapers suggested that without Kreis’ assistance, Hepburn would not have finished in third place. Depending on which paper you read, Kreis drove either 250 or 300 miles. The Knoxville News-Sentinel claimed that Pete’s performance “marks him as one of the outstanding drivers in the game.”

Less than a month after the 1931 ‘500,’ Kreis announced that he had accepted the role of manager at the Morristown Speedway in Morristown Tennessee and that his first race promotion would be on July 4^th. 

Alternately known as Inskip Speedway, the ¾-mile dirt oval built in 1928 by a group of six men led by Fred Wallace. The track near the community of Inskip planned to stage its first race on Labor Day 1928, but rain ruined the opening. The track known as the Knoxville Motor Speedway set its opening for September 8 1928 but continued rains postponed the opening to Sunday September 16 1928. The selection of this date immediately caused controversy as ten local pastors protested races held on Sunday but manager Frank Easley ignored the outcry and staged the races anyway.

The opening day’s races boasted 8000 fans who saw Homer Linebaugh win the 50-lap feature in his Essex after early leader Al Romans’ Frontenac Ford overheated while he held a lap and a half lead.  Gordon Willis won the 14-lap and 25-lap races in the second event held on Sunday October 14, and it appears that the season finale set for Armistice Day November 11 1928 rained out.   

During the winter of 1928-1929 Easley proposed a slate of four races for 1929 on Decoration Day, Jul 4^th, Labor Day and Armistice Day but in early March the original ownership was replaced by a new group led by Joe B “JB” Cate.  “JB” came to Knoxville in 1923 as a traveling demonstrator of the Rickenbacker automobile then stayed in town and worked as a real estate salesman and later finance company official.

The new group which boasted $50,000 in capitalization planned eight races for 1929, with the planned construction of a 30,000-seat grandstand and the track was rebuilt with 90-foot radius turns with 8 feet of banking and 70-foot wide straightaways. 

After successful 1929 and 1930 racing seasons which drew big-name drivers to Knoxville that included Al Theisen in the Witte “Dayton Special” and Mauri Rose in the John Vance Special from Dayton the future appeared bright. But in late October 1930 Cate was charged with theft and in March 1931 the Knox County Grand Jury indicted Cate for the alleged embezzlement of $500 from the Knoxville Motor Speedway involving a stock sale.

Cate’s involvement with the Inskip Speedway ended with his indictment, and Pete Kreis temporarily took over as track manager for several months.  Cate pled not guilty and a jury acquitted him in October 1931.  The Knoxville track continued to operate under a succession of different managers through the 1935 season.

Our final installment will review Pete Kreis’ life after 1931.

From mechanic to driver to death

the Ray "Red" Cariens story

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

Raymond Lloyd “Red” Cariens, the third of eight children born to George and Lura Belle Cariens, was born on a farm near the village of Cisne Illinois on December 20, 1899. As a young man, Ray trained as an apprentice mechanic at the Hudson/Essex factory in Detroit, and then he lied about his age enlisted in the United States Army Air Force and worked as an aircraft mechanic at Wilbur Wright Field near Dayton Ohio.  

According to an article in the August 9 1924 edition of the Altoona Mirror newspaper, Cariens first raced as Eddie Pullen’s riding mechanic in the factory Hudson at one of the five American Automobile Association (AAA) races held on the Beverley Hills board track during the 1920 season.  Cariens then reportedly worked in the Duesenberg Motors engine plant in Elizabethtown New Jersey perhaps on the Jimmy Murphy/Tommy Milton Daytona Beach land speed record car before the plant was closed and Duesenberg relocated operations to Indianapolis.

Driver Joe Thomas and "mechanician" R.L. "Red" Cariens

pose in their 1921 Duesenberg entry 

During 1921, the red-headed Cariens rode with in the 1921 Indianapolis ‘500’ with driver Joe Thomas in the factory Duesenberg 183-cubic inch straight eight powered machine which had been qualified by Joe Boyer. 'Red' miraculously escaped injury when the Duesenberg’s  and it crashed after the steering failed during the pair's 25th lap. Thomas and Cariens then finished eighth in the 100-mile AAA ‘Universal Trophy Race’ held June 18 1921 at the Uniontown (Pennsylvania) board track, and a few weeks later on July 4, Cariens also rode along as Joe Thomas captured a third place finish at the 2-mile long wooden Pacific Coast Speedway Tacoma Washington.  

At the start of the 1922 AAA season, Cariens, sometimes called “Big Foot” because of his size 14 feet, now used Los Angeles as his home base, and continued to work as a mechanic for the Duesenberg racing team. While in California he rode with Jerry Wonderlich on April 16 in the ‘Golden State Motor Derby’ at San Carlos and again on Thursday April 27 in the ‘Raisin Day Classic’ on the wooden one-mile Fresno Speedway. The pair finished sixth in both races which were dominated by the Duesenberg team. 

During May 1922 Cariens joined the Cliff Durant-Harry A. Miller factory team, a timely move as the Miller racing cars were soon to become the hottest vehicles in AAA racing. In September 1922 “Red” rode with Bennett Hill at the inaugural race at the Kansas City board track, but is listed in AAA records as “Leslie” Cariens.   The pair started on the pole and finished the tragic 300-mile event marred by the loss of Roscoe Sarles in sixth place.   

For 1923, riding mechanics became optional by AAA championship racing rules, and of course no one used them. Early in the season “Red” Cariens worked as a mechanic on Bennett Hill’s red #3 Miller but when the circuit moved east, he joined the Durant team and primarily worked on Harry Hartz’ second place '500' finisher, but chances are with seven Durant team cars entered at Indianapolis , Cariens worked on every one of the Durant Miller entries at one time or another during the month of May 1923.  Cariens continued to work as a mechanic on Hartz’ trio of Miller race cars throughout 1923 and the early 1924 AAA season.

Fall 1924 was a pivotal season for Ray Cariens, as he transitioned from his role as “the world’s best race car mechanic “(according to the writer for the Altoona Mirror) and became a race car driver.   Cariens debuted in the 200-lap “Fall Classic” held on the 1 ¼ -mile Altoona Pennsylvania high-banked board track, one of the country’s most deadly.  

 

Ira Vail 

Cariens' car owner was driver Ira Vail, who had first raced his new ivory-colored Miller double overhead camshaft (DOHC) 8 cylinders in-line 122 cubic inch engine chassis #2431 at the 1924 season opening race at Beverly Hills. Vail finished eighth in the car at Indianapolis and ninth in the AAA circuit’s first 1924 season visit to Altoona three months earlier. At the previous AAA race in Kansas City, Vail qualified the car but turned it over to rookie driver Lou Wilson for the race.

Ray Cariens started from the pole at Altoona on Labor Day 1924 and then ran into mechanical difficulties but hung on to finish in eighth place, 14 laps behind winner Jimmy Murphy in a race that saw Joe Boyer lose his life.  Two weeks later Murphy himself would lose his life in a crash on the "Moody Mile" at Syracuse New York.   At the end of the 1924 season, Vail sold the Miller and Cariens was out of a ride, and 'Red' closed out the year working as a mechanic for Bennett Hill.

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1925, Cariens was nominated to drive the red #3 Miller ‘122’ rear-drive chassis #2403 owned by Bennett Hill, who had great success with the car during 1924 with six top five finishes. Hill won the 1924 AAA season-ending 250-mile race at Culver City Speedway with a startling average speed of over 126 MPH after a supercharger had been added to the Miller engine to compete with the newest Miller ‘122’ race cars.  

In a continuation of a long-running Indianapolis tradition, Bennett Hill gave up his regular ride for one that he felt had a better chance of winning at the Speedway.  At the time of Jimmy Murphy’s death Harry A. Miller Engineering was building two front-drive cars that Murphy had ordered.  The two cars were subsequently known as “Front Drive # 1” for use at Indianapolis and the board tracks, and ‘Front Drive #2” that was designed and built specifically to set land speed records and which used outboard front brakes located inside the disc wheels to reduce the frontal area. After Murphy’s death, Harry A. Miller had completed both cars and entered them himself for the 1925 Indianapolis ‘500.’

Bennett Hill in 1924

Veteran Dave Lewis drove ‘Front Drive #1,” while Hill drove the red #21 “Front Drive #2.” After qualifying, the diminutive Hill was apparently spooked by its handling and Harry Miller withdrew the car from the race on the eve of the ‘500.’ Hill returned to drive his rear-drive Miller ‘122’ which Cariens had qualified for the field in 21st starting position with an average of 104.16 MPH. Ray Cariens was out of the ‘500,’ though he did relieve Hill from lap 57 to lap 68 before the car was retired with a broken rear spring. After his car was eliminated, Hill relieved Dave Lewis and drove the last 26 laps on the way to “Front Drive #1’s” second place finish. 

It is unclear precisely what Ray Cariens did after the 1925 ‘500,’ but presumably he continued to work as a mechanic, probably for Bennett Hill. On October 3, at the Fresno 1-mile board track “Red” drove Tommy Milton’s #14 Miller ‘122’ which earlier had rear wheel brakes and truss rods to stiffen the frame added for Indianapolis. Cariens replaced driver Norm Batten who had been injured in the car in a crash during the Syracuse race weeks earlier.  The Fresno track owned by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors had nearly burned down in September of the previous year, and only by working day and night had a team of 200 carpenters rebuilt the track and grandstand in time for the 1924 ‘San Joaquin Valley Classic.’

The sixth annual “San Joaquin Valley 150-mile Auto Classic’  held on October 3, 1925 featured some of the top drivers of the time – Peter DePaolo, Leon Duray, ‘Doc’ Shattuck, and Bennett Hill and drew a crowd estimated by officials to be 30,000 people.  Cariens started on the front row of the Fresno eight-car field alongside veteran Jerry Wonderlich, with whom he had ridden just three years earlier.  The 150-mile race was completed is less than hour and half, with the victory going to Kansas’ Fred Comer for his first and only career AAA win with Cariens finishing in third place.

After he won the race at the circuit's October 26  stop at Laurel (Baltimore) Maryland, Bob McDonough crashed the Milton Miller at Charlotte on November 11, so Cariens was back in the car for the season-ending race scheduled for Thanksgiving Day at “the fastest track in the West” Culver City Speedway.  The race was re-scheduled to Sunday November 29 at the request of the drivers, and “Red” and Jerry Wonderlich again started side-by side, but this time they made up the third row in the 15-car field, as four drivers had withdrawn before the race for reasons unknown.   

A view of racing at the Culver City Speedway

Pole-sitter Earl Cooper, who had posted a lap of 141 ½ MPH in qualifying around the 1 ¼ mile track, shot into the lead with Ralph Hepburn and Leon Duray in hot pursuit as the leaders averaged 135 MPH over the first ten laps, before fourth place Earl Devore retired on lap 23 with a broken valve. Tragedy struck on the next lap when Wonderlich’s #10 car blew a tire as he raced down the backstretch in front of grandstand ‘B’, and Jerry’s car first careened up the 45-degree banking, then slid nose down towards the five-foot high inner wall.

Cariens who was close behind, swerved the #14 to avoid Wonderlich’s car, brushed Hepburn’s passing machine, spun twice, then the Miller smashed backwards into the inner wall which was backfilled with dirt.  After the impact, Ray’s car overturned and he was thrown onto the track surface. Meantime, Wonderlich’s car, perhaps 100-200 feet behind, crashed nose-first into the inner wall but stayed upright, though Jerry suffered scratches on his face and a stiff neck. The entire crash sequence was captured by photographer Ted Wilson, and the photos can be viewed at   https://revslib.stanford.edu/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=cariens

One of Wilson’s graphic photographs shows the unconscious Ray Cariens lying on the track face down minus his shoes and cloth helmet but still wearing his trademark white gloves while another photograph depicts Cariens’ overturned car facing the wrong way on the track.  While the race continued, eventually won by Frank Elliott at a new world’s record average speed of over 127.87 MPH, Ray was removed to the Angelus Hospital, 10 miles away where he was initially given an “even chance at recovery.”

Newspapers the following day reported that Cariens remained unconscious in “very critical” condition. Ray “Red” Cariens, just days away from celebrating his 26th birthday, passed away just before midnight December 2 with his death attributed to a basal skull fracture and internal injuries.  Cariens’ body was transported to West Branch Iowa where his mother had relocated after his father George’s death in 1919. 

 

Ray rests in the Cariens family plot in the Municipal Cemetery alongside his mother, father, two brothers, and two sisters.  In those days, race cars were durable, and a fatality meant little to car owners; for example, the car that Frank Elliott used to win at Culver City in November 1925 had been the same car in which Jimmy Murphy lost his life.

Tommy Milton sold his Miller ‘122’  after the  damage to the fuel tank, hood, and cowling of the car from Ray’s fatal crash at Culver City was repaired. The car was re-numbered #15 for the 1926 and was driven by owner Peter Kreis for the first four AAA races while his new car was finished, then the Miller '122' was sold to Illinois garage owner Henry Kohlert. 

 

Peter Kreis bought a new Miller 91-cubic inch supercharged and intercooled front-drive machine which was delivered in time for the 1926 Indianapolis 500-mile race and easily qualified for the starting field in 20th position. Peter became ill with the flu days before the race and was replaced by a brash young rookie named Frank Lockhart, who drove Kreis’ car to victory in the rain-shortened 1926 Indianapolis 500-mile race.
 

Kohlert entered the former Milton Miller 122 at the “Elgin Piston Pin Special” for Legion Ascot Speedway veteran Fred Lecklider at Indianapolis in 1927, and then crashed the car during the race himself while driving in relief. The following year, Kohlert entered the “Elgin Piston Pin Special” for a young rookie, future 1935 ‘500’ winner Kelly Petillo who crashed the car in practice.  

Kohlert abd his crew reapired the damage to the Miller, and Henry squeezed into the field on the final day of time trials and finished in 13th place. Kohler then sold the car to a pair of Pittsburgh businessmen who raced it in the 1929 Indianapolis 500. The car disappeared with the dawning of the Rickenbacker “Junk Formula” era, as historian Michael Ferner believes the Milton Miller was cut up to build a two-man chassis.  

Ray "Red" Cariens quickly advanced up the racing ladder as every young man would have dreamed of as he advanced from a mechanic on the sidelines to become a riding mechanic and then ultimately a race driver. Surprisingly, given their hazardous nature ,"Red" was the only driver to die in a board track during the 1925 AAA season.    

Val Haresnape – the forgotten AAA official

Born in Kansas in 1891 to British immigrant parents, Valentine ‘Val’ Haresnape, his brother, sister, and parents moved to Los Angeles where he became interested in auto racing and first worked as a pit official under Art Pillsbury at the original Ascot one-mile track. In April 1924 in addition to his job at the Riverside Portland Cement Company, Val was elected to serve as the Southern California representative to the AAA (American Automobile Association) Contest Board. Val served as a member of the Board until he was named National Secretary on May 23, 1926 with Means as assistant secretary.       

Soon after he was named Secretary, the Contest Board directed Haresnape and Means to complete a historical analysis of the records of all pre-1920 AAA races to determine the “true” National Championship winners for the 1909 to 1920 championships. Most notable in their analysis, the pair developed a points system and decided to count all 11 AAA sanctioned events held in 1920 and thus awarded the 1920 National Championship to Tommy Milton instead of Gaston Chevrolet. Their altered championship results stood until 1951 when the controversial Russ Catlin revised them yet again, and Catlin claimed he partially used Haresnape’s notes.  

Val quit the AAA on December 3 1927 after 18 months of service to join the Stutz Motor Company on December 18 but quickly returned as Board Secretary in early 1928 while remaining a part-time Stutz employee.  In 1929, in addition to his regular national duties, Val served on the contest committee with Tommy Milton the first two-time winner of the Indianapolis ‘500,’ and Indianapolis Motor Speedway Vice-President TE “Pop” Myers for the record runs at Daytona Beach Florida.  

During the winter of 1929/30, Haresnape contracted scarlet fever and he resigned from the AAA on February 3 1930, replaced by his mentor Arthur Pillsbury. Though he resigned as secretary, Haresnape retained his role as Racing Director for the AAA at the upcoming 27th annual Daytona Beach speed trials. 

The Sunbeam team poses with the Silver Bullet at Daytona

Louis Coatelen, the Frenchman who ran the Sunbeam Motor Car Company of Wolverhampton England had directed the design and construction of the Sunbeam ‘Silver Bullet’ powered by two supercharged V-12 24-liter (1465 cubic inch) aircraft style engines that together produced an astounding 3000 horsepower. Almost immediately upon Coatelen’s arrival in Florida in mid-March 1930 Louis and Irish driver Kaye Don began a series of disputes over the preparations of the 31-foot long 4-ton machine which resulted in repeated delays.

On March 21 1930 annoyed by the Sunbeam team’s delays, Val Haresnape issued an ultimatum to the pair to patch up their differences or the AAA would withdraw sanction for the trials. A few days later, after Val acted as an arbitrator, Kaye made a one-way practice run at 198 (MPH) miles per hour against Henry Seagrave’s record of 231 MPH in the Napier ‘Golden Arrow’ which ended with the car on fire. 

Apparently the stress of events was too much for Haresnape’s weakened heart as he collapsed and went home to Los Angeles in the early April. Despite repeated trial runs, the Sunbeam effort was ultimately unsuccessful - the team abandoned the attempt and returned to England on April 22. The following day, Val Haresnape suffered a massive heart attack at his residence at 1535 Cambria Avenue in the Los Angeles Westlake neighborhood and died at 39 years old.  

As they commented on Haresape’s passing, the editors of Automotive Industries magazine wrote, “he was the hardest working individual ever to hold the position of Secretary of the AAA Contest Board. His two terms were marked by outstandingly aggressive administration. Val Haresnape’s outstanding contribution was a sense of duty that knew no middle ground. He was relentless in his opposition to misstatements and evasion and believed himself insusceptible to the toll of overwork.”

Valentine ‘Val’ Haresnape was laid to rest in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale California. His widow Geneva who never remarried, died in 1975 and rests beside him.