The history of Alamo Downs the short-lived Texas pre-war midget racing venue

The history of Alamo Downs  

the short-lived Texas pre-war

midget auto racing venue

Wes Saegesser 

On September 1 1933, the State of Texas legalized pari-mutuel wagering on thoroughbred racing. Shortly thereafter,  businessman Raymond Russell built the Alamo Downs one-mile horse racing facility on Culebra Road northwest of downtown San Antonio.  Alamo Downs opened its first racing meet on April 23 1934 with 14,000 fans in attendance which included Texas Governor Miriam A. Ferguson.

Horse racing at Alamo Downs ended on September 24 1937 after the Texas legislature again outlawed pari-mutuel thoroughbred wagering after several scandals. There were still horses boarded and trained on the Alamo Downs property but the facility sat largely unused until late 1940.

Famed automobile racing promoters O.D Lavely and his son Ray, through their company,  Lavely Racing Promotions Enterprises, signed a five-year lease in August 1940 to present midget racing at Alamo Downs. Lavely Promotions built the 1/5-mile banked oiled clay dirt track which measured 40 feet wide through the corners and 30 feet wide on the straightaways in front of the existing grandstands.  

The track construction included an innovative 36-inch high outer crash wall and an inner “hub rail.” Rather than locate the pit area in the infield, officials located the work area for the race cars underneath the grandstands in the paddock area.   

The Texas Oklahoma Racing Association (TORA) which sanctioned the Alamo Downs races, also presented races at the 1/5-mile Fair Park Speedway on the grounds of the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas, the Lavely’s 1/5-mile Houston Speedbowl and the ¼-mile Gold Mine Race Bowl in Dallas. TORA race tracks included Jefferson-Davis Speedway in Fort Worth, the original dirt Pan-American Speedway in San Antonio and the Panhandle-South Plains Speedway in Lubbock. TORA also raced in Texas at the Reaser Park track in Victoria as well as the Lions Field Speedway, a track which the author has been unable to locate.   

Admission to the first midget race at Alamo Downs on Sunday afternoon October 6 cost race fans 40 cents plus tax with free parking. Due to the late season opening, many midget drivers from the Midwest came to San Antonio to race against that local drivers that included Al Slaughter, Dick Word and the one-armed wonder, Wes Saegesser.

Other Texas entries came from Doster ‘Doc’ Cossey (AJ Foyt’s first racing hero), the 1939 Texas midget racing champion Mel Wainwright and Elmer “Rabbit” Musick, the youngest of five racing brothers from the Dallas area - his brothers were named Ben, Morris, Lyn and Leland.

 Al Slaughter won the very first Alamo Downs race, the 2-lap helmet dash over Abilene’s Cleo Glaze who set quick time in time trials at 17.31 seconds. Dale Burt, Word and Wainwright each won one of the eight-lap heat races, and Cossey won the second 10-lap semi-main event from eighth starting position.

During that second semi-main race, Denver driver Warren Hamilton took what the San Antonio Light article described as “a spectacular spill” on the first lap after he tangled with the car of JD Parks and Hamilton's car rolled over into the infield.

Slaughter took the race lead into the first turn of the 25-lap feature pursued by ‘Doc’ Cossey. ‘Doc’ pressed Slaughter hard until his car fell out on the ninth lap with electrical trouble, and Slaughter easily won by a half a lap over Glaze.     

The following Sunday, October the 13^th, the 1/5-mile track was much faster.  Jim Ward set quick time at 16.75 seconds, for a new lap record, while ‘Doc’ Cossey won the two-lap Helmet Dash in  34.88 seconds, then Al Slaughter won his eight-lap heat race with a new record time of 2 minutes, 19.26 seconds.

Cossey captured the 25-lap feature win over Ward in a record time of seven minutes, 37.76 seconds to score his second feature win in four nights, to go along with his Thursday night win at the Houston Speedbowl. Cossey’s Alamo Downs win on the 13^th marked his tenth midget feature win of the 1940 season.

Late in feature on the 13^th, three of the top cars driven by Dick Word, Lou Turberville and Earl Simmons tangled in front of the grandstands after Word’s car blew its water hose, and Word and Turberville both suffered facial cuts in the accident.  

Cossey became the first Alamo Downs repeat winner as he won on October 20^th in a program that extended the heat races to ten laps in length, and stretched the feature to 30 laps.  

The field on October 27^th featured new entries from Charlie Miller, the 1940 American Automobile Association (AAA) eastern midget series champion and the AAA Eastern midget runner-up George Fonder.

Al Slaughter scored his second Alamo win in the 14-car “Fall Championship” 30-lap race on October 27th, as he again went wire-to-wire to beat the $3000 'Jackson Special,' an Offenhauser powered car driven by Dallas’ “King of the Midgets” William Ben ‘Red’ Hodges.  

On November 3^rd, Slaughter won his heat race then powered to his third Alamo feature win over the helmet dash winner Miller. Car counts at Alamo Downs continued to increase such that on the 3^rd, the 10-lap Class ‘B’ feature featured an eighteen-car starting field.

On November 17th, Kansas City’s Vito Calia captured his 8-lap heat race in a new record time of 2 minutes 16.84 seconds, then finished  close second place behind Jim Ward in the first semi-main. Slaughter took the point for the first three laps of the 25-lap feature until Calia took over the lead and went on to set a new track record as he won with a time of seven minutes and 7.43 seconds.

Rain cancelled the races scheduled for November 25^th and before the next race on December 1, ‘Doc’ Cossey bought a new Elto outboard-powered midget and installed Mel Wainwright as the driver.  

Many of the Alamo Downs racers took part in the Thanksgiving night 100-lap “Southern Grand Prix” race in Houston won by ‘Red’ Hodges, and as a result only 20 cars signed in at Alamo Downs on December 1. To compound the low car count, only about 1400 fans showed up to watch the program won by ‘Red’ Hodges in the Jackson Offenhauser powered midget. 

The afternoon of December 8^th marked the final scheduled race at Alamo Downs for the 1940 season as the Lavely clan planned to head to the Pacific Coast to sign up more drivers for the 1941 Alamo Downs season set to open in February.  The 50-lap Class A championship race topped the December 8th program supplemented by the 15-lap Class B championship race.

The midget track on the other side of San Antonio on Seguin Highway also scheduled a race on that Sunday afternoon which diluted the field of entries at Alamo Downs to just 25 cars. ‘Red’ Hodges captured the 50-lap Class A feature but fell short of winning the 1940 track championship by six points, as Slaughter passed “Rabbit” Musik on the last lap to claim second place and secure enough points to win the championship. 

The Lavely’s ambitious plans for the 1941 Alamo Downs midget racing season never materialized and there is no evidence of another race held there. In January 1942 a fire swept through a stable on the Alamo Downs grounds and killed five race horses, then in September 1947 another fire partially destroyed the wood, concrete and steel paddock and grandstand. The area once occupied by the Alamo Downs track is now part of the Alamo Downs Business Park.

 

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part six – another fatality and midget racing is suspended

 

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part six – another fatality    

Author’s note – This 12-part article highlights the brief 12-year history of one of Southern California’s least-documented auto racing venues – the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

On July 21, 1949 promoter Charlie Cake presented motorcycle racing for third time at the Thunderbowl. The program featured both ‘flat track’ racing on the 1/5-mile oval and ‘tourist trophy’ (TT) racing with both right- and left-hand turns as well as steeplechase-style jumps. Oscar Sherman won the flat track feature and ‘H Kimbel’ won the TT feature.

Cake, from Ventura, negotiated a deal with the new United Racing Association (URA) president Roy Morrison to bring the URA Red “B” Circuit (for rocker arm powered midgets) to Carpinteria, historically a “Blue circuit” (for overhead camshaft powered midgets) track. The URA earlier ran both the “Blue” and “Red” circuits, but Morrison created the “Red B” circuit, for slower flathead and motorcycle powered cars, as a lower-cost racing program for promoters designed to combat the inroads made by the “hot rod” roadsters.  

Johnny McFadden won the three-lap trophy dash for the two fastest qualifiers from time trials over Bill Martin to open the July 25^th racing program.  On lap 4 of the first 6-lap heat race, Don Keefe and Bob Saunders collided, which knocked both of their cars out of the race.

After the restart, on the final lap of the race, as Chris Christopher took the checkered flag, rookie Norman “Norm” Howton  who started from the tail of the field, attempted to pass Al Bridges, but misjudged and the right rear wheel of Howton’s machine hooked the left front wheel of Bridges’ car. Howton’s midget flipped and it landed upside down on top of the crash wall.

Howton, a 22-year old native of Santa Monica living in Venice, had joined the URA organization the previous Thursday and Carpinteria was his first race, Norm suffered a broken jaw and a fractured skull, with suspected brain injuries. An ambulance transported him to Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.   

The racing program continued after officials cleared away Howton’s damaged machine.  Bill LeRoy, Chuck Burness and Jackie Jordan won the remaining three heat races.  LeRoy won the fifteen-lap semi-main followed by future 3-time URA champion Lowell Sachs and Clay Robbins.  Jordan won the 30-lap feature race over Martin and McFadden with Johnny Coughlin in fourth place.

Norm Howton passed away at 6:30 AM the following day, and thus became the second driver to lose his life at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl in as many years. Norm, a veteran of the United States Navy, served in World War 2 as a seaman on board the destroyer escort USS Raymon W. Herndon in the assault on Okinawa. Survived by his father Glen, mother Irene, and older sister Lorraine, Norm is buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.  

Johnny McFadden from San Diego, led time trials for the next URA Red “B” program on Monday August 1^st with a best lap of 15.62 seconds, then he captured the trophy dash and his heat race. Other heat race winners included Bill LeRoy, Dwight Gunn and Bill Martin, who also won the semi-main 15-lap race. In the 30-lap feature, McFadden fell two positions short of a “clean sweep” as Bill Martin led Jackie Jordan to the finish line.

The following week, on August 8^th promoter Cake added a special appearance by the Southern California race track favorite ‘Charlie the Clown.’ Leo ‘Pop’ Faulkner, who starting racing in 1934 won the added Australian Pursuit race.   Bill LeRoy won the trophy dash while Johnny McFadden, Bob Allen, Clay Robbins and ‘big car’ racer Ken Crispin scored heat race victories. 

Norm Hall took the checkered flag for the 15-lap semi-main event. On the second lap of the feature, Robbins ran over the wheels of a stalled car and his midget flipped over the wall but he escaped injury. McFadden won the feature while on the penultimate lap Bill Martin and Jackie Jordan tangled as they battled for second place and both spun into the infield.

 ‘Charlie the Clown’ returned to Carpinteria on August 15^th but Jackie Jordan did not, as the URA suspended him for seven days for rough driving following the Carpinteria incident with Martin. Faulkner repeated his victory in the Australian Pursuit and Martin won the trophy dash and his heat race, as Crispin, LeRoy and Car Brown also scored 6-lap race wins.

On the opening lap of the semi-main, Johnny McFadden got squeezed into the outer wall and his midget took a series of side-over-side flips. When the car finally came to rest, Johnny climbed out of the wreckage with only a cut over his eye and badly skinned knuckles.

Bill LeRoy grabbed the early lead in the 30-lap feature then Charlie Miller challenged for the lead until Miller’s engine blew up, and Charlie suffered burns on his arms and legs as the car rolled into the infield. Bill Martin took up the chase after LeRoy, and as the laps wound down, Martin found the fast way around the top of the 1/5-mile oval. With just a few laps to go, Martin sped past LeRoy to take the victory with George Annis in third place.  

On August 18^th, the Ventura County Star-Free Press revealed that promoter Charlie Cake cancelled all Thursday night motorcycle races until track repairs could be made, but that the scheduled Monday night midget races would continue.  

The following day, the Ventura newspaper reported the cancellation of the remainder of the 1949 URA midget racing schedule at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl. According to promoter Charlie Cake, “hot rod” racing would replace the midgets on Monday nights, following the same program line-up as the midgets featuring a trophy dash, four heat races, a 15-lap semi-main and a 30-lap feature.  

On Saturday August 20, the Ventura County Star-Free Press carried an article about the Thunderbowl for the third day in a row.  The newspaper reported that in a telephone interview, Roy Morrison, the URA president revealed that on Friday, the URA board cancelled Charlie Cake’s franchise for URA midget racing at the Thunderbowl.

Morrison cited “non-payment of purses and officials fees,” as the reason for the cancellation, and noted that Cake had an outstanding debt of $781. Morrison added that URA’s Los Angeles attorney, J. Frank Armstrong would draw up papers and file suit in Santa Barbara “in the next ten days.”  In the meantime, Morrison said that the URA board would “strongly consider” a bid to hold races on the Ventura track.

Morrison claimed during his interview that Cake “held up the purse three times and gave the association nothing but trouble since he took over management of the track.”  Roy recalled that dealings with Bradley McLure the original 1949 franchisee were “very satisfactory.” Because of Cake’s actions Morrison claimed “the URA is operating at a loss at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.”

Cake, contacted by the Ventura County Star-Free Press, admitted that he held up purses “hoping to get more cars the following week,” and would continue to hold purse monies pending the outcome of a $5,000 breach of contract suit to be drawn up by his Ventura attorney Bernard J “Barney” Loughman. “The URA did not send the number of racers called for in the contract,” according to Cake.   

In the next installment, we will trace the rest of the 1949 season as new types of racing took over at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

The author is looking for any private vintage photographs of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl that readers may have. Please reach out to kevracerhistory@aol.com .  We can’t pay for use, we’re just looking to share images for those who never saw the track.     

The rise and fall of the Pacific Coast Speedways Association

The rise and fall 

of the 

Pacific Coast Speedways Association

In the glory days of midget auto racing in the Los Angeles basin in the late nineteen forties, there were two major sanctioning bodies that battled  - the United Racing Association, a regional midget-only group, and the American Automobile Association the powerful national organization that sanctioned all types of auto racing. The two organizations' battle sometimes put race track promoters in the middle, so they took action. 

In a meeting held at the posh Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel on Saturday January 19 1946, a group of nine men met and formed the Pacific Coast Speedways Association (PCSA), a nonprofit group of managers and owners of auto racing tracks to “help coordinate the sport on the Coast” according to the Los Angeles Times article.

The PCSA had three stated goals – coordinate racing dates, publicize the sport, and act as a liaison between the promoters and the midget driver association.  To fund group operations, each track pledged to contribute 1% of their gross receipts to the Association.    

The members unanimously elected Tom Haynes of San Diego as president, Bob Ware of Long Beach as vice-president and Dave Crosley and Long Beach as the group’s treasurer. The group named Bob Moore as their business manager.

In addition to those three promoters, attendees included Ross Page, promoter of races at Santa Maria and San Jose, Bill Loadvine from Culver City,  Harold Mathewson of Fresno, James LaFave and Frank Guthrie from San Diego. Promoters from tracks in Fresno, Stockton, Sacramento and Oakland did not attend the January 19^th meeting but instead provided proxies.      

The founding members

William E “Bill” Loadvine born in 1913 the son of oil wildcatter and real estate investor E W Loadvine, worked as a child actor at the Mack Sennett Studios in the silent movie era. Loadvine recalled that his meeting 1922 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Jimmy Murphy as a young man ignited his life-long interest in automobile racing.

Loadvine related that he raced on the Muroc Dry Lake in the early 1930’s and worked as a mechanic for “big car” drivers Ernie Triplett and Al Gordon.  According to Bill, injuries that he sustained in a crash in 1934 ended both his planned entry in the 1934 Indianapolis ‘500’ and his driving career. Bill began to work in racing promotion at various tracks, which he said included the Legion Ascot Speedway. 

After the end of World War Two, Loadvine purchased the former Culver City Legion race track, located at the western edge of Culver City near the northeast corner of the intersection of Lincoln and Washington Boulevards. The 1/4-mile dirt track was originally built in 1932 for the Culver City Kennel Club for greyhound racing.  The track operators surreptitiously allowed wagering which led to occasional police raids, but the track closed for good during 1939 after the new California Attorney General Earl Warren promised increased state enforcement.

The flat quarter-mile track briefly operated as a motorcycle and midget auto racing venue during 1941 known as the Culver City Legion Stadium co-managed by WH “Reg” Regelin and financier RC Wade with sponsorship from the local American Legion Post #46 and sanctioned by the United Midget Car Association.  

Robert K “Bob” Ware, a native of Arkansas had an impressive history in auto racing. He drove his first race car at the age of 16, and became one of the pioneers in midget auto racing with the United Midget Association (UMA). He finished fifth in the 1935 Turkey Night Grand Prix and was one of a group of thirteen drivers arrested at the infamous Victor McLaglen Stadium raid on July 30 1936 for violations of the Los Angeles city fire code.  Ware retired from driving after a serious crash at the Orange Empire Speedway in Colton California on July 4 1940.

In addition to his co-management of the Bonelli Stadium in Saugus Ware partnered in a Long Beach insurance agency with David “Dave” Crosley who co-managed the Bonelli Stadium race track owned by William Bonelli. Crosley, midget racing fan moved into race management in 1945.

Ware and Crosley proposed construction of a $125,000 stadium with parking for 7000 cars and a 16,000 seat concrete and steel grandstand for football, rodeos, and midget auto racing in Harbor City. When that plan fell through, the pair promoted a Labor Day 1946 midget and big car race, the first post-war race at the nearby “new” Gardena Bowl at 182^nd and Vermont Avenue built on land owned by Judge Frank Carrell. A crowd of 12,000 fans watched as Johnny McDowell won the midget feature ahead of Danny “Poison” Oakes after the early leader “Bullet” Joe Garson blew a tire.   

Ross Page lived in Santa Maria and had a colorful legal history. In 1940 and 1941, as the operator of the Melody Club, Page had several scrapes with local law enforcement regarding gambling and operating a lottery on the night club premises. In 1943 Page bought a supercharged 183-cubic inch Miller powered Indianapolis car from Leon Duray.

The February 5 1943 article in the Santa Maria Times demonstrates the inability of writers in that era to check and substantiate claims by their subjects. The article stated that the race car that Page purchased from Leon Duray is “the holder of the current Indianapolis Motor Speedway record of 130 2/5 miles per hour.” That statement blended several components of truth to craft a falsehood.

At the time, the standing lap record at the Speedway of 130.757 MPH set by Jimmy Snyder in the Joel Thorne owned 180-cubic inch Sparks “Little Six” powered car. The car Page bought built by Duray in 1938 never set on the pole position or set track records. As an owner/driver, Leon Duray, whose real name was George Stewart, set the track record in Indianapolis in 1928 of 122.39 MPH in his Miller front-drive car that stood for 11 years.

The Santa Maria Times article went on to indicate that Page himself would drive the car at Indianapolis when racing resumed, and noted that Page last drove at Indianapolis in 1936 in the Martz Special. The author has been unable to uncover any record to support the claim that Ross Page ever drove or was a riding mechanic at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The Larry Martz owned Hudson-powered car driven by George Bailey did not qualify in 1936, and in previous appearances in 1933 and 1934 was driven by Gene Haustein with Ed Beaudine as the riding mechanic. 

In September 1945, Page promoted a midget auto race on the ½-mile dirt track at the Santa Maria Fairgrounds in partnership with Dr. Lloyd Clemons won by Gordon Cleveland after favorite Johnnie Parsons crashed in time trials. 

For 1946, Page became the promoter of the San Jose Speedway on Tully Road, and that same year the “Ross Page Special” the proto-roadster built by Frank Kurtis and powered by the Duray supercharged 183-cubic inch Miller engine, first appeared in the Indianapolis ‘500.’

Tom Haynes and his partner, Frank Guthrie began promoting races at the San Diego City Stadium, later known as Balboa Stadium, in 1939 with the United Midget Association. In 1940 the pair took over the management of the Orange Empire Speedway in Colton and the Atlantic Speedway in East Los Angeles. In 1946, they refocused their efforts on San Diego. 

     

Harold “Hal” Mathewson from Fresno was a motorcycle hill climber an amateur member of the Indian motorcycle factory team and in 1938 was crowned the class B Pacific Coast champion. In 1937 as the president of the Fresno motorcycle club, Harold got his first taste of promotion while as he continued to compete. Hal’s events continued through 1942, as like auto racing, motorcycle racing events continued up until midnight on July 31 1942.   

Months after the Second World War ended, Hal and a partner Frank Ennis promoted a combined motorcycle and midget auto racing program on September 29 1945 at the Tulare-Kings County Fairgrounds. At the time of the Pacific Coast Speedways Association meeting in January 1946, Mathewson planned to build a new midget auto racing facility in Bassett, east of El Monte California. When that fell through he promoted midget races at the Huntington Beach Speedway.

The PCSA in 1946

In a meeting in Los Angeles on February 19 1946, the PCSA announced the sanctioning of four midget racing meetings - Stockton Fairgrounds promoted by Frank Crowley would open on April 7, the same date that Ware and Crosley were set to open Bonelli Stadium.

Ross Page would open the racing season at San Jose on May 5^th and Haynes and Guthrie were set to open Balboa Stadium in San Diego on May 30. The Association received applications from track in Alhambra, Bassett, Bakersfield, Long Beach and Santa Fe Springs, but indicated it would not issue sanctions to those planned tracks until permits were issued for construction.

On March 15, 1946, the PCSA issued a sanction to the new track under construction in Oildale near Bakersfield by James Banducci and Carl Lindsay. Originally known as the ”B and L Speedbowl” it featured eight-foot high banked turns and grandstands seating for 6500 fans built on the west side of the track.  With the approval from the PCSA to open on May 4 1946, Roy Morrison, President of the United Racing Association, then issued his group’s sanction for Saturday night racing at Oildale in the 1946 season.  

In late April 1946 the Fresno Airport Speedway, rebuilt after the war with 3000 additional seats to allow for a total of 9500 fans, announced its affiliation with the PCSA. With Fresno’s scheduled opening on Sunday night May 5, the PCSA now had tracks in Sacramento, San Jose, Bakersfield, Fresno, Saugus and San Diego.

The 1948 Crisis

By 1948, the URA and the American Automobile Association (AAA) were in fierce competition for tracks and cars, and the Pacific Coast Speedways Association put themselves in the middle of the dispute. In the second week of January, the PCSA convened a three-day conference for the managers and operators of their 13 affiliated tracks at the storied Hollywood Roosevelt hotel to plan a unified racing schedule for the upcoming season. 

Attendees included charter PCSA members Haynes and Guthrie, and Mathewson with his new partner at Fresno, Huntington Beach and San Bernardino, Ernie Lauck. New PCSA members included Dick Russell, promoter of the Last Frontier Sportsdrome in Las Vegas (which had opened in late 1947), Stewart Metz, promoter at Orange Show Speedway, Bob Murphy, who ran the Tulare, Bakersfield (Oildale track) and Carpinteria “Thunderbowls,” Stan Moore and Billy Hunnefield, operators of Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, the Stockton 99 Speedway and Modesto 99 Stadium and Burt Chalmers the Culver City Stadium publicity director.

Also attending the January meetings were representatives from Carrell Speedway and Gene Doyle from Gilmore Stadium but those two tracks were not yet members of the association. The promoters listened to a presentation from representatives of the URA and when the meeting concluded on Wednesday January 7 the group agreed to continue to operate under a URA blanket sanction.  

Between four and six of the tracks would operate as “open tracks” which would allow Offenhauser and non-Offenhauser engines to compete, while the balance of the PCSA tracks would be part of the “Red” or non-Offenhauser circuit.  Haynes was re-elected PCSA president, Lauck, the vice-president, with Guthrie as the secretary and Metz as the group’s treasurer.      

Two days later, “Hollywood” Bill White, the promoter of midget auto races at the Los Angeles Coliseum announced that his events would be held under AAA sanction. At the announcement, AAA Western Region supervisor Gordon Betz took the opportunity to criticize the PCSA group and told Jack Curnow of the Los Angeles Times that the AAA was first invited to speak to the promoter’s group during the conference, then the invitation had been withdrawn. According to Betz, “the deal was cut and dried before the meeting opened.”    

Despite the blanket sanction agreement, there were still machinations behind the scenes, as the URA board balked at the concept of “open competition,” the board said that tracks were to be designated as either “Red” or “Blue” circuit tracks which did not align with the PCSA-URA agreement. 

On January 28^th Burt Chalmers, the PCSA spokesman, announced that Gilmore Stadium had joined the Association and thus would be a URA track in 1947.  Haynes detailed that five PCSA tracks - Gilmore, Culver City, San Bernardino, Fresno and San Diego - would be “open” to cars with either Offenhauser or pushrod engines. The remaining PCSA tracks - Tulare, Carpinteria, San Jose, Stockton, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Bonelli Stadium, Modesto and Huntington Beach – would ban Offenhauser powered midgets. 

Haynes the PCSA President than gave the URA board an ultimatum – they had seven days to either accept or reject the PCSA proposal. The PCSA’s inclusion of San Diego as an “open” track triggered an immediate outcry from URA ‘Red” circuit car owners and drivers, because Balboa Stadium in San Diego had traditionally been a stronghold for the non-Offenhauser URA circuit, and the change “would put them out of business.”  The URA board agreed with the non-Offenhauser car owners and drivers and refused to accept the PCSA proposal.  

With a race scheduled at Las Vegas on Sunday February 29, on Monday February 9 1948 Haynes and the PCSA began to sign up car owners and drivers in preparation for sanctioning their own races. The Los Angeles Times auto racing writer, Jack Curnow, reported that 36 car owners and 35 drivers signed up that first day. The list of car owners included AJ Walker, the 1947 URA “Blue Circuit” car owner champion, Ray Gardner, the Krause brothers and the Famaghetti brothers. Curnow reported that drivers that signed with the PCSA included the rising star Troy Ruttman and veterans Lyle Dickey and Johnny Garrett. 

Former racer Roscoe Turner the new URA President, called for an emergency board meeting on February 11 to reconsider the PCSA proposal specifically regarding Balboa Stadium. The URA Board still refused to consider San Diego as an “open” track and in response the PCSA group broke off negotiations.

On Valentine’s Day 1948 the PCSA announced that Gilmore, Culver City, San Diego, and San Bernardino would operate under AAA sanction in 1948.  Betz could barely contain his glee as many former URA drivers and cars that included Lyle Dickey, Gordon Reid and Peewee Distarce, signed in at the pit gate at the Los Angeles Coliseum for the season-opener the following night.  

Alas, the AAA alliance did not hold, as Betz could not guarantee 24 cars for every program, and after low car counts at Culver City in early April, just before the 1948 season opened in earnest, the PCSA announced that all 14 PCSA tracks would be “open” to Offenhauser and non-Offenhauser cars under URA sanction.

With all the races classified as “open,” Roscoe Turner and the URA had no problem meeting the 24-car minimum, particularly at the “Big Four” LA-area tracks - Culver City (Tuesday nights), Balboa (Wednesday nights), Gilmore (Thursday nights) and San Bernardino which ran a Friday night schedule.

This crisis was the last action by the Pacific Coast Speedways Association – in 1949, midget racing began to decline, the American Auto Association pulled out of the Southern California midget racing picture and the United Racing Association controlled its own destiny as far as schedule and the PCSA promoters’ group faded into obscurity.

For the 1949 season, the regular scheduled URA “Blue” circuit stops were Gilmore on Thursday nights, followed by San Bernardino on Friday nights and Culver City on Saturday nights. Huntington Beach on Tuesday nights, Balboa in San Diego on Wednesday nights and Fresno on Sunday nights became the regular stops on the 1949 URA “Red” circuit which banned Offenhauser engines.  

As the decade of the nineteen fifties continued midget car counts dropped so much that the URA ceased to count separate “Red circuit” or “Blue circuit” points and crowned a combined champion.      

The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part three – 1949 and 1950

Branch ‘Tiny’ Wainwright raced for most of the 1948 season with the Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA) a group run by John Gerber as he drove the black #2 Ford V-8 60 powered Kurtis-Kraft midget owned by Lloyd Van Winkle of Lincoln Nebraska. After the racing season ended, ‘Tiny’ was implicated as a member of a 5-man criminal gang that committed nineteen robberies.   

Free on bond awaiting trial, Wainwright was without a ride for the second midget auto race of the 1949 season at the Ce-Mar Bowl in Cedar Rapids Iowa, although it was reported that he had contacted car owner Paul Van Zee and asked to drive the #63 midget. The defending MMARA series champion Danny Kladis driver of the #39 midget, was in Indianapolis in an unsuccessful attempt to qualify the ‘Speedway Cocktail Special’ for the 500-mile race, but his midget car owner Eric Lund stated that he would not put any other driver into his car in Kladis’ absence.  

The featured attraction at Ce-Mar on Sunday afternoon May 22 was the appearance of the “Marvel Man” Don Haynes who had had himself welded inside a 1949 Kaiser Deluxe 4-door sedan. Haynes from Ashland Oregon claimed that he intended to live inside the car for 14 months to win a $25,000 bet with a local farmer.  Haynes was a 39-year-old truck driver and an ex-Merchant Marine so his stunt was also known as the “Seaman of the Sealed Car.’  

Haynes was welded inside his car on February 19, 1949 with chrome bars installed over the windows along with an exercise machine, chemical toilet, folding bathtub, electric shaver, typewriter, radio and a record player. There was no need for a bed, as the Kaiser already featured a rear seat that folded down into a bed. Haynes sponsored by Richard Reinan, the owner of an Ashland lumber mill planned to visit the major cities in all 48 states with visits at Kaiser-Frazer dealerships. Haynes, stopped at Ce-Mar in support of Dan Hunter the local Kaiser-Frazer distributor while enroute to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indianapolis 500-mile race.  

Haynes eventually lost his bet (which after all that time appeared to be a fabrication) when he had the car doors cut open and he exited the car after being inside thirteen months and eighteen days. Haynes had drove a reportedly 110,000 miles, but ended his ordeal because public interest in his stunt waned and no more paid appearances were booked.  Haynes and his wife tried a similar stunt in 1958 as they were welded into a 1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser station wagon but it met with much less success then his earlier publicity stunt.

Tiny drove the John Spach #7 at the Ce-Mar Bowl on May 22, and at Playland Park on May 24 where he finished second in the trophy dash. At Indianola Iowa on June 14 ‘Tiny’ finished seventh in the 20-lap feature, and when the MMARA series visited Davenport on Friday June 17, 1949, Wainwright did not have a ride, but he was scheduled to drive the John Spach #7 midget at Ce-Mar on Sunday June 19. That did not occur because ‘Tiny’ was arrested on Saturday in Columbia Missouri and he was transported by Missouri State Highway Patrolmen to the Cole County jail in Jefferson City Missouri.    

Joe Heninger, an older bachelor farmer who lived in rural Russellville Missouri, alleged that on the evening of Thursday June 16, Wainwright and an unknown accomplice acted as though they had experienced car trouble in front of Heninger’s farmhouse. When Heninger came to investigate, the pair drew guns on him and forced him back inside his home. The pair then used adhesive tape to bind the farmer to a chair and proceeded to ransack his home, while they repeatedly shouted, “where do you keep your money?” When the robbers found no money after several hours, they left bound and Heninger worked himself free from his bonds early Friday morning and called police.

Once ‘Tiny’ was in jail in Jefferson City, police found that he was already under indictment in Moberly Missouri for his participation in an earlier burglary with $315 taken from a food market in Columbia Missouri on March 25, 1948.  Wainwright made his first appearance before Magistrate Foster S Wheatley in Jefferson City at 3 PM on Monday June 20, 1949 and his bail was set at $10,000.  On July 6 a hearing was held in Moberly without ‘Tiny’ who was still in jail in Jefferson City, regarding the 1948 burglary and it was discovered that in addition to his $5000 bond for that case, Wainwright was also out on a $3000 bond on a charge of safe burglary in Dallas Texas.

On July 27, 1949 ‘Tiny’ was released from the Jefferson City jail on a $10,000 bond posted by two Kansas City women, Stella Parke Beatty and Glady Parke Kline. In his next court appearance before Judge Sam Blair on October 3, ‘Tiny’ entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of assault with intent to rob. Two weeks later, his accomplice, William DeWayne Brown, a parolee from Leavenworth who had served 11 years of a 25-year sentence for theft of US mail was identified, arrested and charged.

During his March 1950 assault trial, Wainwright testified that he had driven home to Kansas City from Davenport Iowa, and arrived home in the early hours of June 20, 1949. He said he slept until the afternoon, ate dinner at the Golden West Bar and Grill and then attended a Catholic church carnival until 10 PM. His local attorney, HP Lauf, called ten witnesses that supported ‘Tiny’s’ account, but on March 14, 1950 the jury returned a guilty verdict and recommended Wainwright receive a two-year prison sentence.  

Judge Sam Blair postponed sentencing to allow time for appeal and on April 12 another of ‘Tiny’s’ attorneys, Ed C Orr, requested a new trial on the basis that the entire testimony was not recorded while the trial was in progress and that the prosecution testimony was weak, ambiguous and incomplete. A month later Judge Blair held the appeal hearing and on May 17 ‘Tiny’ was granted new trial over the objections of Prosecutor James T Riley.

While out on bond and awaiting his new trial date, ‘Tiny’ raced Bruce Bromme’s Offenhauser powered ‘big car’ at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in De Moines in August 1950. ‘Tiny’ qualified 14^th fastest in a field of 27 cars with a time of 28.80 seconds.  During the “B” feature, due to rough track conditions the front suspension of the Bromme car collapsed and the car flipped end-over-end as it cartwheeled along and through the inner wooden guardrail. ‘Tiny’ reportedly was thrown free and suffered only facial cuts and bruises.      

On September 7 Wainwright drove the repaired Bromme #77 in the two-day IMCA ‘big car’ program at the half-mile track at the South Dakota State Fairgrounds in Huron, ‘Tiny’ timed in eleventh fastest in time trials with a lap of 29.20 seconds compared to Deb Snyder’s fast time of 24.85 seconds. Wainwiright finished third in his heat race and advanced to compete in the feature race where he finished eighth behind winner by Frank Luptow.

Wainwright’s second trial on the felonious assault charges against Joe Heninger was held October 4, 1950 again before Judge Blair. On October 5, after 2-1/2 hours of deliberation, the second jury found ‘Tiny’ guilty and recommended a two-year sentence in the Missouri State Penitentiary. On October 31 ‘Tiny’s’ attorney Ed Orr filed paperwork that requested a new trial, but in open court on November 6, 1950 Orr asked that Judge Blair overrule his appeal of ‘Tiny’s’ second conviction, as his client was out of money and unable to continue the legal battle.

Judge Blair immediately sentenced Wainwright to two years in prison and he was assigned prisoner number 64186 in the Missouri State Penitentiary also located in Jefferson City.  His accomplice in the Heninger assault, William DeWayne Brown, was tried in Howard County on October 26 and the jury deadlocked but in his second trial held on January 18, 1951, Brown was convicted and given a two-year prison term.  

“Tiny’s’ racing career was on hold while he was incarcerated for assault – in the next and final installment we will share the direction Wainwright’s life took after 1951. 

The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part two - 1947 and 1948

At the end of our last installment of the story of Branch Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright, the rotund driver had just completed his 1946 midget auto racing season as he competed in a series of races held in Lubbock Texas during October 1946.

Little is known of the early part of ‘Tiny’s’ 1947 season, but the July 4th holiday found him entered for the races held on the 1/5-mile dirt track on the Tri-County Fairgrounds. Located in Mendota Illinois the races were sanctioned by legendary pioneer ‘big car’ racer turn promoter John Gerber’s Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA). An advance article in the Dixon Evening Telegraph listed Wainwright at a fairly a svelte (for him) 225 pounds but stated that he was so large that he required “an oversized cockpit to house his frame.”

The race, on the 1/5-mile dirt track built in 1941, featured a field of 20 competitors.  In addition to Wainwright, “the biggest driver in the business,” the drivers included 1946 Indianapolis ‘500’ competitor Danny Kladis, ‘Red’ Hoyle from Cedar Rapids Iowa, Harry Meeks and the appearance of Les Forrer in his front wheel drive midget powered by a Wisconsin four-cylinder air-cooled engine.

MMARA president Gerber noted in an interview for a newspaper article that the Tri-County 1/5-mile track was composed of distinct two types of soil – one end, the third and four turns, was comprised of sand while the other end of the track, turns one and two, was “regular dirt” and that the differing soil types required different driving techniques

The Friday July 4 afternoon race was unusual at Tri-County, which featured track lighting and seating for 5000 fans and typically held Thursday night races during the Summer months. The afternoon 20-lap feature was won by the previously unknown racer Vic Ellis from Rochelle Illinois.

Later in the 1947 season, race car owner Ray Tomaseski from nearby LaSalle Illinois took over the promotion of open competition midget auto racing at Tri-County under the sanction of the Chicago-based “Midwest Racing Association.” Midget racing apparently did not catch on in Mendota, as in subsequent years, the small flat track hosted only occasional AMA-sanctioned motorcycle races promoted by the local Rock River Riders Motorcycle Club.

Sunday July 13, 1947 found ‘Tiny’ in action with the MMARA midgets on the ½-mile Hawkeye Downs dirt track located in Council Bluffs Iowa. Originally built in 1925 as a rodeo grounds, the facility also featured a ¼-mile dirt track.  Wainwright was scheduled to drive the ‘Cotton Fasone Special,’ a Ford V-8 powered car from Kansas City which the Cedar Rapid Gazette identified as “specially designed to carry his 250-pound racing weight.”

Wainwright’s name did not appear as one of the top finishers in the day’s races at Council Bluffs, which were dominated by Danny Kladis from Chicago. Kladis set a new track record as he sped around the half-mile track in 28.44 seconds, and then he won the trophy dash and his five-lap heat race. Kladis started from the pole position for the twelve-car 10-lap feature race and led every lap to defeat a field of mostly local cars with Dick Hobel in second place and ‘Red” Hoyle third in the feature which was completed in five minutes and two seconds.

‘Tiny’ was listed as one of the entries for the midget races on Saturday afternoon August 2, 1947 held as part of the 93^rd Coles County Fair in Charleston Illinois. Other entries for the race promoted by the Parkes Brothers on the Coles County Speedway which had opened on Sunday April 27, 1947 included Frank Burany, Myron Fohr, Ray Knepper, Ben Chesney, and Rex Easton. The promoters promised that those drivers and “Tiny’ would drive Offenhauser powered cars on the 1/5-mile dirt clay oval managed by Indianapolis’ Orville Stiff who was identified as a pre-war midget auto racer.

‘Tiny’ Wainwright made a rare “big car” racing appearance in the 1948 first annual Memorial Day races on the Iowa State Fair track in Des Moines promoted by the Za-Ga-Zig Shrine temple of Altoona Iowa. In addition to ‘Tiny,’ whose hometown was listed as St. Louis, the “definite entry” list included “Pat Patterson from Wellman in a big McDowell race car,” Pat Cunningham from St Joseph Missouri and Kirk Washburn from St Paul Minnesota, with all four drivers described in the Associated Press wire story as “well known to midwestern auto race fans.” 

‘Tiny’ was entered in the notorious “Schrader car” the Offenhauser powered car owned by Virgil Campbell, so called because it was the car in which Gus Schrader was killed in Louisiana in October 1941 . Reportedly, ‘Tiny’ was replaced as the driver by ‘Rabbit’ Musick after time trials, but the Campbell car retired during the feature race.   

In front of a crowd of 7,500 fans, Wally Stokes, an up and coming ‘big car’ driver from Cleveland, Ohio, in his Offenhauser powered #2 grabbed three victories during the five-race program – his heat race, the trophy dash and the day’s 10-lap finale on the half-mile dirt track as he beat Herschel Buchanan to the finish line by 40 yards.  Sadly, Stokes would die a little over a year later in a traffic accident in August 1949, the day following his AAA championship car debut at Springfield Illinois, when the car driven by his wife left the road and hit a tree.

Wainwright was listed as one of the members of the Tri-State Midget Auto Racing (TSMAR) traveling circuit promoted by Glen and Lloyd Bauman prior its inaugural visit to Huron South Dakota on June 4, 1948. ‘Tiny,’ who was said to weigh 300 pounds, was described as the “showman of the troupe,” as the article in the Huron Hurronite said that the other drivers claimed that “Mr. Five-by-Five carries his machine around the track instead of the usual run of these things.”  Wainwright drove a Ford V-8 powered machine, while other featured drivers - George Binnie, Jay Booth, Buddy Rackley, and Charlie Taggert, all raced in Offenhauser powered midgets.

Promoter Lloyd Bauman, a South Dakotan, explained to the Hurronite writer that the Tri-State circuit included race tracks in five cities – Huron, Riverview Park in Sioux City Iowa, Playland Park in Council Bluffs Iowa, a ½-mile track in Canby Minnesota and a ¼-mile track in Luverne Minnesota. The Tri-State racing schedule started in Riverview Park on Sunday, moved to Playland Park Tuesday night, then headed north to Luverne on Wednesday night, on to Canby for Thursday night before the racers headed west and wound up their week in Huron South Dakota. Bauman said with an estimated 20,500 fans expected to attend the races weekly, that translated to a weekly guaranteed pot of $4,250 in prize money for the racers.    

After morning rain showers, Kansas City’s George Binnie was out-qualified by Buddy Rackley from Houston Texas by .06 seconds with a best lap of 18.43 seconds on a wet track. As the track dried, Binnie rebounded to win four of the evening’s racing events. Binnie’s near clean sweep included wins in the three-lap trophy dash, his eight-lap heat race, the eight-lap handicap race and the 15-lap ‘A’ feature. “The big, good-natured” ‘Tiny’ drove the black #3 Van Winkle Ford powered midget and finished as the runner-up to Binnie in both their heat race and the ‘A’ feature. 

Even though the drivers billed it the best track on the circuit, and the one that featured the best seating, midget auto racing at Huron South Dakota was short-lived. After the third Friday night event on June 18, the promoters moved the racing program to Saturday nights. After the June 26^th race, the races scheduled for July 3^rd and 10 were cancelled due to conflicts with the other fairgrounds events.

On July 15, 1948 the Hurronite newspaper carried the news of the cancellation of further midget races “for the remainder of the season” because the promoters judged that “the 1/5-mile track was not in shape.” TSMAR events at the two tracks in Minnesota never drew decent crowds and apparently the circuit collapsed midway through the 1948 season, as for the rest of the season ‘Tiny’ raced with John Gerber’s Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA)

Sunday afternoon July 11, 1948 Wainwright returned to the 1/5-mile clay surface at the Ce-Mar Bowl located on the grounds of the Ce-Mar Acres amusement park in Cedar Rapids Iowa for races promoted by MMARA. ‘Tiny’ who had debuted at Ce-Mar three weeks earlier was teamed with Jay Booth in a pair of potent Ford powered Kurtis-Kraft midgets owned by Lloyd Van Winkle of Lincoln Nebraska. The pair along with the familiar names of Danny Kladis, Johnny Hobel and ‘Red’ Hoyle were joined by Cliff Nalon the brother of the famed “Duke” Nalon and newcomers Dick Ritchie and Bud Koehler who also piloted a Kurtis-Kraft midget.   

5,423 fans turned out for the races which were dominated by local Cedar Rapids drivers. ‘Red’ Hoyle won the first heat race followed by ‘Tiny’ Wainwright, with the second heat also won by a local driver Dick Hobel.   Johnny Hobel, Dick’s brother, won the 14-lap handicap race, then led the first ten laps of the feature until he spun out. Johnny’s spin handed the lead to ‘Red’ Hoyle who won over Danny Kladis as ‘Tiny’ dropped out of the race with engine trouble.

Tragedy struck the MMARA circuit on Friday night August 13^th during the third heat race on Gerber’s 3/10-mile track at the Mississippi Valley fairgrounds in Davenport Iowa.  On the third lap of the race, Glenn Cromwell of Erie Illinois in the Paul Kaminsky’s #4 midget hit a rut in the second turn and the car spun to a stop. Clyde Skinner steered his midget to the upper groove of the track but could not avoid Cromwell’s machine. The impact turned Cromwell’s car over; Glenn suffered critical head and chest injuries, and the injured driver was transported to Mercy Hospital in Davenport. 

Cromwell had survived an earlier crash in May in a different midget at the ¼-mile Jefferson Iowa track when his car rolled twice and came to rest upside down with Glenn trapped underneath.  Cromwell had escaped the May crash without serious injuries but he did not survive the August crash. Glenn passed away at 1:20 AM on Saturday morning, August 14^th as he left behind Lois his wife of just eleven months, who was at the track when the accident occurred. Wainwright’s car had again suffered engine trouble during the Davenport program, and his car was not fixed in time for him to compete in the August 15 race at the Ce-Mar Bowl.

When the MMARA midgets appeared at Ce-mar on August 22, ‘Tiny’ had a new teammate on the Van Winkle team for this race – young Clyde Skinner who had been involved in the Cromwell tragedy substituted for Jay Booth.  The MMARA teams ran a Sunday afternoon show at Davenport, then drove northwest to race at Cedar Rapids for a Sunday night race. The Ce-Mar Bowl which had seen growing crowds over the past three weeks had enlarged the parking lot and added bleachers which could accommodate up to 7,500 fans. The track had also added a new safety feature – red, green and yellow “safety lights” were installed in the corners to alert drivers of the conditions on the track.

On Thursday night August 26 the MMARA circuit appeared at the ¼-mile oval at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Indianola Iowa.  ‘Tiny’ in the “improved” Van Winkle Ford set the quick time for the night as he ran a best lap of 17.36 seconds in time trials. Ray Hall of Kansas City won the feature followed by Dick Hobel with Paul Newkirk third and ‘Tiny’ in fourth place.

A record crowd of 5,963 fans turned out at Ce-Mar on Sunday night September 5, 1948 as ‘Tiny’ and the Van Winkle team arrived at the track late.  He posted the second fastest qualifying time, then won the 15-lap semi-main over his teammate Jay Booth, but neither driver emerged as the   finishers in the evening’s feature race.

On Wednesday night September 22, the MMARA teams visited a new venue, a 1/5-mile track at the Northwest Missouri State Fairgrounds in Bethany Missouri, but the program was plagued by three accidents. Early in the evening, an errant machine ran over MMARA pit steward Truman “Shorty” Berryhill of Cedar Rapids and injured his leg.

Later during the handicap race, George Miller of Cedar Rapids spun and his car was hit by Ray Hill, the evening’s fast qualifier in Paul Kaminsky’s #11 midget, with Hall’s car damaged badly enough that it scratched for the rest of the night. In the evening’s feature Dick Ritchie spun out and Miller’s car climbed over Ritchie’s and rolled over – George was unhurt but his car was badly damaged. ‘Tiny’ won his heat race and finished second in the feature behind Walter Raines of Alta Iowa.

Two nights later, Wainwright won the semi-main event at Davenport as Danny Kladis won the feature which was marred by a seven-car accident that eliminated five cars from the race. Two days later, the MMARA cars were back in Cedar Rapids for the first afternoon show at Ce-Mar Bowl. There was more mechanical carnage in the 20-lap main at Ce-Mar as seven cars crashed and the race had to be restarted three times on a slick slow track. ‘Tiny’ started on the pole position and led the first eight laps then yielded to Kladis as only four cars finished the feature which was witnessed by a small crowd of less than 3,000 on a cold wet and windy day.

In October 1948 Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright was identified as a member of five-man criminal gang that was responsible for a string of nineteen safe burglaries in restaurants, drugstores, and other small retail establishments during the Summer and Fall of 1948. Two members of the gang were jailed in the Boone County Missouri jail, while another, Roy Rees, was in the Bethany Missouri City Jail, with another conspirator jailed in Lexington Kentucky. ‘Tiny’ was the only gang member free at the time, and was rumored to be at the time in Los Angeles California. On November 15, 1948, ‘Tiny,’ identified as a local taxi cab driver, surrendered to police in Kansas City and was charged with participation in the March 25, 1948 safe burglary at the Columbia Fruit Company in Columbia Missouri.     

Look for our next installment which reviews 1949 and 1950 as ‘Tiny’s’ previously unknown life of crime interfered with his midget auto racing career.  

        

The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part one - 1946 racing season

Since its beginnings at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento California on June 4, 1933 there have been some nefarious characters Involved the sport of midget auto racing, such as Diego ‘Dee’ Toran, but none the author is familiar with came close to approaching the level of criminal activities conducted by racer Branch Milton “Tiny” Wainwright.

Wainwright, born August 31, 1912 in the small town of Delmar Maryland, came of age in the Kansas City area as a stout young man of less than average height - feet five inches tall.  His nickname of “Tiny” was ironic, as he weighed at least 250 pounds though period press reports varied; some articles stated that he weighed 275 pounds, while some pieces listed his weight as high as 300 pounds.  

When Wainwright enlisted in the United States Army at Fort Leavenworth Kansas on March 24, 1944 he claimed that he was married and listed his occupation as an “actor.” Military records reviewed by the author have not provided any answers as to Wainwright’s duties in the Army or the length of his service.

Fellow historian Bob Lawrence found the earliest record of Tiny Wainwright’s racing career via a photograph that showed him as the driver of Carl Oliver’s #3 Ford V8-60 powered rail-frame midget at CeJay Stadium in Wichita, Kansas on Sunday September 16, 1945. That date was less than a month after the Office of Defense Transportation lifted the wartime ban on automobile racing. CeJay, which took its name from the initials of the track promoter Carl Johnson, was a 1/4-mile dirt oval track that was located on the southeast side of Wichita that operated until 1949.

‘Tiny” was not related to the famed Texas pioneer midget racer and later Texas-Oklahoma Racing Association business agent and promoter Mel Wainwright but both competed in some of the same events in early 1946.  In a promotional article prior to that start of racing San Antonio Texas Pan American Midget Speedway, ‘Tiny’ was billed in the San Antonio Light newspaper with “a weight of 275 pounds, the biggest midget race car driver in the world.”

Wainwright is credited with a second-place finish in the February 24 “B” feature ahead of ‘Dee’ Toran, then he earned a fourth-place finish in the “B” feature on Sunday March 10 in a program that also featured California drivers Jerry Piper, Cal Niday, and Bill Vukovich.

The following week, in the Sunday afternoon show on March 17 on Pan American’s 1/5-mile clay surface, ‘Tiny’ scored another third-place finish in the ‘B’ feature. On March 31, which was the final scheduled Sunday program for the 1946 racing season, “hard luck” Wainwright was unable to compete due to what the San Antonio Light reported as “a lack of parts for his red midget.”

In the debut of Friday night racing under the lights at Pan American on April 5, 1946, ‘Tiny’ was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 16.36 seconds but his car “threw a shoe” in the third heat, and the San Antonio Light reported that “his masterful driving brought cheers from the crowd as he steered into the pits on three wheels without injury to himself or other drivers in the race.”  After the incident, Wainwright’s car was done for the night, so he did not appear in the evening’s 20-lap feature which was won by Californian Johnnie Parsons in an elapsed time of five minutes and six seconds.

While there is a bit of confusion as some reports of his early racing exploits identified him as ‘Tony,” a week later, on April 12, at Pan-American Speedway, Wainwright finished sixth in the ‘A’ feature as Parsons won again. During the April 19 racing program ‘Tiny’ ran into trouble twice in the same evening.  Just after the start of the consolation race, ‘Tiny’s’ car tangled with those of Jimmy Hicks and ‘Red’ Dowdy.

All three cars restarted after their spins and ‘Tiny’ transferred to the night’s feature race. On the ninth lap of the feature, Dowdy spun in front of ‘Tiny’ and 'Tiny's' car crashed into Dowdy’s then rolled over, with both drivers taken to the hospital where they were checked and released.

Tiny was listed as a competitor in the Sunday afternoon midget racing programs on May 12 and the Tuesday night races on May 14 held on the 1/4-mile clay oval Wichita Falls (Texas) Speedrome along with ‘Red’ Dowdy, Emmett ‘Buzz’ Barton, Dick Sharp, Elmer ‘Rabbit’ Musick (one of five Texas racing brothers), Ted Parker and a pair of local brothers, Tommy and Dale Mendenhall.  

‘Tiny’ also was entered in the AAA (American Automobile Association) sanctioned midget auto races held at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds track in West Allis. These races were held on the big one-mile flat dirt track, not the smaller track in the infield that was used for weekly midget races. A series of AAA races on the Milwaukee Mile were held as part of the ‘Milwaukee Centurama’ celebration, a thirty-day event that marked the city’s centennial which ran from July 12 to August 12, 1946.

Wainwright, described in a pre-race article in the Hammond Times as a “newcomer“ and “a Kansas City star” joined such legendary midget racers as Tony Bettenhausen, Dennis ‘Duke’ Nalon, Frank Burany, and Henry Banks in a two-day program that saw time trials and heat races completed on Saturday and the 100-mile feature on Sunday June 23, 1946 which was won by two-time pre-war badger Midget Auto Racing Association (BMARA) champion Ray Richards.

Fall 1946 found ‘Tiny’ Wainwright in Lubbock Texas for the Southwest Racing Championship races held on the 1/5-mile dirt Panhandle-South Plans Fairgrounds track along with Dowdy, Parker, Kansas’ Leonard ‘Cotton’ Musick (who was not related to the Texas Musick brothers), Oklahoman Jay Booth and Amarillo’s Lloyd Ruby.

The series of midget auto races, promoted by local garage owner JT Wolfe and sanctioned by the Texas-Oklahoma Racing Association, were slated to start on July 18 but it was July 27 before the first seven-race program began on Saturday night with Parker the red-headed driver from Dallas the initial winner.

Parker repeated with a second victory on August 3, then scored his third win in a row on August 10 in an evening in which he also won the helmet dash before 2,500 fans. Bud Camden won the 25-lap feature on August 17^th and Jay Booth won on August 24.  Parker claimed his fourth series feature victory on August 31, which was the final Saturday night program, after which the races were switched to Thursday nights to avoid conflicts with football games (even in those days in Texas, football was King).  

Wainwright was not listed as one of the original drivers announced for the Southwest Racing Championship series, but he was mentioned in press reports as an entrant prior to the September 5 races. That evening Clarence Brooks of Dallas won the 8-lap “Championship race,” then finished second in the first 10-lap semi-main to transfer to feature which he won over Kansan Bud Camden and Tulsa’s Junior Howerton. On the morning of September 12 race promoter Wolfe announced via an article published in the Lubbock Morning Avalanche newspaper that that night’s races were cancelled for unspecified reasons.

The next week’s midget auto racing program, scheduled for the evening of September 19^th was postponed due to rain.  When racing resumed on Thursday September 26, Corky Benson won the feature, and ‘Tiny’ won his heat race.  The following week was packed with racing, with the midgets scheduled to race four consecutive days during the six-day run of the Panhandle-South Plans Fair which was being held for the first time since 1941.

On Tuesday afternoon October 8, ‘Tiny’ Wainwright led the feature with Benson in second when their cars tangled and they both spun out. Third place driver “Count” Walter Von Tilius of Denver Colorado in the Frank Hingley owned Kurtis-Kraft Offenhauser powered midget avoided the melee and went on to win the feature as ‘Red’ Dowdy finished in second place. The race program the following day, Wednesday the 9^th was rained out, rescheduled for Sunday afternoon, the final day of the fair.  

The Panhandle-South Plains Fairgrounds 1/5-mile dirt track dried sufficiently for the midget races to resume on Thursday October 10, with Eddie Carmichael of Oklahoma City was declared the feature winner as his midget crossed the finish line in a near “dead heat” with the machine of Corky Benson with ‘Tiny’ Wainwright in fourth place.  

On Friday afternoon October 11, Texans swept 3 of the top 4 finishing spots as 18-year-old Lloyd Ruby won the feature, followed by Houston’s Bill Marshall in second place, and local driver Corky Benson in fourth place.

The Sunday afternoon midget finale, the make-up date from the 9^th, was a barn-burner. Corky Benson set quick time in time trials, then spun out on the second lap of the feature and had to restart from the tail of the field. Benson carved his way up through the field in dramatic fashion and claimed his second series feature victory.

In our next installment we will trace ‘Tiny’ Wainwright’s exploits through the 1947 and 1948 racing seasons.