The short-lived Argonne Forest Speedway

Part 2 -1940 - the final season

When the 1940 racing season opened on in late April at Argonne Forest Speedway in Southwestern Dayton Ohio, the terms “jalopies” and “junk yard derby” were no longer used in promotions. The race cars were then referred to as “stock cars,” and the racing was described as “hazardous but not dangerous.” The figure-eight ½-mile layout was gone, as the track had been re-worked into a 3/5-mile oval with a lake in the infield. Harold “Red” Korn was named the track’s new promoter.

New challengers to 1939 favorite drivers Ashbaugh, McCabe, Epperly and LeRoy Nooks included Amer Smith, Fred Larkie, Al “Pappy” Aker all of Dayton and Ray Saunders from Middletown.

Orval Epperly a winner at Argonne Forest during 1939 now hailed from Fort Wayne Indiana won his heat race then won the 20-lap feature over Miamisburg’s Adam “Doc’ Eshbaugh. The May 19^th program apparently was rained out.   On Sunday May 26, 1940 during his qualifying attempt Dayton driver Roy Knight’s car skidded and went over the top of the track’s banking.

The 22-year-old Knight was thrown from his machine which then rolled over and crushed him. He was transported to St. Elizabeth Hospital where he died an hour later and left behind a widow and baby daughter. Later a hailstorm struck the area which forced the postponement of that day’s races.

Orval Epperly claimed his second 1940 season Argonne Speedway win on June 2, over Amer Smith after Orval won his 10-lap heat race earlier in the day. Jim McCabe and Charles Vale suffered less severe injuries when their machine hurtled the banking, and Russ Crowic lost control and his car wound up in the infield lake.

Eshbaugh captured the June 9 feature over Epperly and LeRoy Nooks while “Doc” Viock was seriously injured in a crash during the program and suffered a broken collarbone, ribs, and fractured pelvis. Amer Smith won his heat race, but lost control of his car during the feature and drove into the lake.

On the night of June 11, 1940 members of the Central States Stock Car Racing Association (CSSCRA) voted to rename their group the Argonne Forest Speedway Association (AFSA). The group also announced that beginning with the June 16^th program all cars entered at Argonne would race in the same division. Time trails were scheduled to commence at 11 AM with racing set to begin at 2:30 PM.

The AFSA announced that racing programs at Argonne would feature three eight-lap heat races, a consolation race and a 35-lap feature race, and on June 16, a pie-eating contest would be an added attraction. Drivers were scheduled to drive two laps around the track, then stop and eat a pie before continuing, with a stop scheduled to eat a pie each successive lap until five laps were completed.

The previous two weeks’ work on the track surface resulted in Ray Farquar setting a new track record in qualifying at 38-1/2 seconds, nearly a second fastest than the previous record. Unfortunately for the second straight week, the rains arrived just as the feature was being lined up and cut the program short.    

On June 23, 1940 LeRoy Nooks and Ray Krueger won their 8-lap heat races and 22-year Ray Everhard crashed and suffered a dislocated shoulder in an accident before racing was suspended for the third consecutive week in row by rain. On June 30, negro driver LeRoy Nooks won his heat race and then captured the 35-lap feature over Fred Larkie, Saunders and Aker. 

On July 4, 1940 Argonne Forest Speedway staged a standard racing program as a benefit to aid injured driver “Doc” Viock.  Nooks and Farquer battled all afternoon in their heat race and reportedly the finish of the feature was nearly a dead heat between the two Dayton drivers but Farquar took the win, his second of the season.  Ray Saunders crashed and suffered a deep laceration in his right leg.

On July 14, “Bus” Henderson was the fastest qualifier, but L.C. Smith from Dayton won his heat race and then won the 25-lap feature as he outdistanced E. Corrin by half a lap. “Pappy” Aker challenged Smith over the first 12 laps of the 35-lap feature but dropped out with a burnt rod bearing in his car’s engine.  “Bus” Henderson was the day’s quick qualifier and won the first heat race.

The pie-eating contest was rescheduled for the July 21 program, but we do not know the results of that contest or the day’s other races.

Due to races scheduled at other Dayton area tracks, Argonne Park Speedway was dark until August 11, 1940. ‘Doc’ Eshbaugh was the fast qualifier and won his heat race but he was eliminated during the feature when his car lost a wheel. The win was captured by Jimmy Springfield over heat race winner ‘Bus’ Henderson, Al Aker, and Howard Seither who had won the day’s third heat race. Eshbaugh also won the day’s novelty race a 15-lap “all-pleasure car race.”

Argonne did not host another race until September 1, as the drivers took part in big money races held at Frank Funk’s Dayton and Winchester Speedways. Orval Epperly claimed his third Argonne win of 1940 as he barely bested Dick Beard and the day’s fast qualifier Ray Kreuger.   

Following the September 8 racing program, a group of four drivers were injured in a crash as they drove home following the races. The car driven by Thomas Rhodes, struck a passing car driven by Joseph Heller and overturned. Rhodes and Mr. Heller were uninjured while Ashbaugh and Ray Marang were treated at St. Elizabeth Hospital and released, but 18-year old James Larkin a high-school sophomore was seriously injured and was hospitalized for several months.

On Sunday September 22, in addition to the regular modified stock car feature, Argonne Speedway featured a special 15-lap “jalopy race” for cars older than 1931 models. Sadly, tragedy struck on the seventh lap of the day’s 25-lap feature.

Sophomore driver Amer Smith passed Doc Eshbuagh for second place as the pair passed under the flag, but as they entered turn one Smith’s car shot over the top of the nine-foot tall embankment and overturned. Smith 26 years old was thrown out and crushed by his race car owned by John Fry. Smith was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Elizabeth Hospital, and the races were halted with Orval Epperly in the lead.  

The Journal Herald newspaper reportedly the following that day that his family that included his wife, two children, mother, brother Ellery and married sister, Carrie Stowe,  attempted to talk Smith out of racing, but that as he left he told them “I only have one time to die.”  According to the Dayton Herald newspaper, at Amer’s funeral, held on September 25 at his mother, Nettie Nemyer’s home, she spoke to the dozen drivers that attended. The grieving mother asked the group not to race at Argonne again until the track was made safe, and she made a public appeal to investigate conditions at the Speedway.

The group of drivers gathered around Mrs. Nemyer and one-by-one, promised not to race. The drivers then presented her with a check for $4.25 that represented Amer Smith’s winnings from his last race. When Judge Hodapp was informed of the driver’s agreement, he told the Herald reporter that he didn’t care, as “the place has never made any money,” and “we can’t afford to fix it.” Hodapp said as far as he was concerned the track was closed forever.

The same day, the Herald published a scathing editorial entitled “Death Ends a Death Trap,” that read in part “three times young men have gone to that track to race and lost to death,” and that “three times is enough. There should be no more races there under present conditions.” The editorial closed by stating “The pity is that this death trap could not have been closed before another life was claimed.”     

Two days later, promoter Korn responded in an interview with the Herald in which he stated that racing at Argonne Forest Speedway was operated “more or less as a place for the boys to race as a hobby and not to make money.” Korn maintained that the track “is in fairly decent shape,” and that he had visited with Judge Hodapp, and if the boys want to race, it is okay with him, and the next scheduled race was October 13.

The racers held true to their promise to their fallen friend’s mother, there was never a race held at Argonne Park Speedway. Judge Null M. Hodapp died on January 5, 1945 at age 51, three days after he had been found in a coma on the floor of the kitchen at his home located on the Argonne Forest Park property.   After his death, his family steadily sold off portions of the park property, with most of the property, 300 acres, sold in 1966 to the Montgomery County Parks District, which renamed it the Possum Creek Reserve.

The clubhouse built in 1927 still stands, and visitors can glimpse the rotting remains of the Park structures as they hike the trail through the Argonne Forest section of the reserve, but the figure 8 racetrack is beneath the man-made Argonne Lake built by the parks department in 1979.  Visitors to the Possum Creek Reserve are likely unaware that three brave race drivers lost their lives at the park.                 

The short-lived 

Argonne Forest Park Speedway

Part one

Note - the author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of his friend and fellow racing historian Bob Lawrence, who provided information about Bowen & Onley and the results of the 1939 races referenced in this article. A link to Bob’s website is provided at the end of this article.

  

Growing up in the Linden Heights neighborhood of Dayton Ohio, Null M. Hodapp’s childhood best friend was his neighbor Ralph Clemens. The pair shared many adventures as young men, grew into adulthood, graduated college and became prominent men in Dayton in the nineteen-teens. 

Hodapp worked as an attorney with the firm of Burkhart, Heald and Pickrel, in downtown Dayton while Clemens was a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with the pioneering Dayton accounting firm of Louis G. Battelle.   

With the entry of the United States into the Great War in Europe, both men registered for the draft in June 1917 and were drafted into the United States Army in September 1917. Assigned the same unit, the 322^nd Field Artillery Unit, they reported to Camp Sherman near Chillicothe Ohio for training.




Clemens became a sergeant in Battery ‘A’ while Hodapp was assigned to the Headquarters Company. The 322^nd
shipped out of Camp Sherman on June 4, and then boarded the SS Canopic in Hoboken New Jersey on June 12, 1918 for their deployment overseas.

Upon the 322^nd Unit’s arrival in Europe, they were sent to the Western Front.  The 322^nd supported the US Army's 37^th Ohio Division in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest and bloodiest operation of World War I, which cost more than 26,000 American lives.  Sergeant Ralph Clemens was killed in action just hours before the Armistice went into effect at 11 AM on November 11, 1918 in the dense Forest of Argonne near Belgium.

Hodapp, heartbroken at the loss of his life-long friend, returned to Dayton after his wartime service. Nell continued his career in the law, in partnership with his brother, married, had two children and was elected a municipal court judge in Dayton in 1926.


That same year he bought land southwest of Dayton along Germantown Pike on the banks of Possum Creek. On the site Hodapp created the Argonne Forest Park in memory of his childhood friend and the place where he had fallen, to provide a place for veterans and their families to enjoy the outdoors.  

The clubhouse for veterans was the first building constructed on site and was dedicated on October 15, 1927 along with a reenactment of the Meuse-Argonne engagement. Later Hodapp and a group of investors incorporated as Argonne Forest Park, Inc. and through the years added an 80-foot by 40-foot dance pavilion, a carnival midway, a horse race track and stables, a gasoline filling station and a football field.


The Park also featured a baseball diamond with bleachers, a shooting range and a swimming hole with a diving platform. Later after his divorce from his wife, the noted soprano LoRean Hodapp in 1932, Hodapp built a home on the Park site.

Argonne Park became a popular destination for family picnics and group gatherings, and the hall hosted dining and dancing on Wednesday and Saturday nights and the occasional boxing match.  For many years on his birthday, July 4, Hodapp and members of the 322^nd Field Artillery Association would reenact the artillery battle of the Forest of Argonne.  Through the years thousands of Daytonians attended the reenactments which always closed with a huge fireworks display.

The deepening Great Depression caused attendance at the park to decline so additional activities were added which included auto races known as “junk yard derbies” on a new figure-eight dirt track in the Summer of 1939. These races were promoted by Don C. Onley, onetime partner with his brother, W. W. Bowen in the Bowen & Onley racing promotions company from 1926 to 1931 until Bowen retired. In addition to auto races, Onley Amusements & Sports Promotion promoted events from Ohio to California that included automotive and motorcycle stunt shows and boxing matches.

“Junk yard derbies” were popular in the late nineteen thirties in the Midwest with events held in dozens of cities in the state of Ohio. Oftentimes, these events were not held on established race tracks, but instead on roughly-hewn tracks in a farmer’s field and generally attracted several hundred spectators that paid 25 or 30 cents each for admission.

Many of these tracks had no names, but others used colorful names with references to Lucifer, such as “Satan’s Merry Go Round” which was located one mile north of Piqua Ohio and was also known as the “Devil’s Bowl.”  Early in 1939, the ½-mile figure-eight track at the Argonne Forest Park was promoted as the “Devil’s Race Bowl”, then became known as the “Argonne Forest Speedway.”   

The vehicles entered in these “junk yard derbies” could scarcely be called race cars, as the only rules were that the driver had to 21 years of age and the car had to be stock and worth $100 or less. Safety was of little concern and these type of “junk yard” races sadly had a high fatality rate, with many of the driver deaths recorded as traffic accidents.  As many as seven “junk yard” racers died in Ohio during the Summer of 1939, including one man who left behind a widow and ten children. 

It appears that the first automobile race at the Argonne Forest “Devil’s Race Bowl” was held Sunday July 30, 1939 on what was described in advance promotional articles as “the world’s most hazardous auto race course,” and the “famous hair-raising figure eight track.” Despite the threat of rain, a reported 4,000 fans attended – children were admitted for 10 cents while adults paid 40 cents each, except for “blonde ladies and plump ladies over 200 pounds,” who were admitted free. 

The inaugural fifty-lap feature race, with all the cars carrying a driver and a rider, was described the following day in the Dayton Herald as a “comic novel event with chills and thrills,” was won by “Doc” Ashbaugh of Miamisburg, Ohio but not without some controversy, as other racers filed post-race protests. 

The other racers claimed that the #22B 1929 Ford driven by Ashbaugh, appearing in his first race, was equipped with a “full-fledged race motor.” Although “Doc” kept the victory, officials would not accept his entry for the next week’s race unless he agreed to race with a different motor.

Despite the early controversy, Ashbaugh proved to be a solid competitor in jalopy racing at Argonne and moved up the ladder and became a favorite in modified stock car racing across the state of Ohio. “Doc” later raced track roadsters with the Mutual Racing Association after the World War II with fellow Daytonian and Argonne alumni, negro racer Leroy Nooks, and participated successfully in a series of midget races held in Pomeroy Ohio in 1948 and 1949.   

The next race at Argonne Forest on Sunday August 6 introduced a novel idea - the Gold Cup Trophy. Each week’s top six qualifiers were eligible to compete in a 10-lap dash, and the first man to win three of these weekly dashes would win the permanent trophy, a 24-inch tall gold cup filled with silver dollars.  

The first dash was won by Ashbaugh, the days’ fastest qualifier at 50 second flat, while the feature was won by Jim McCabe of Dayton driving a 1929 Ford. Two racers were injured in a grinding crash at the figure 8 intersection – driver Glen Tyler sustained a compound leg fracture and his rider Henry Vrining suffered a fractured spine. Several of the drivers had equipped their car with “safety hoops” and officials encouraged this addition for safety but did not yet require their use.

For the August 13th race at the “Devils Race Bowl” in the Argonne Forest Park, officials eliminated the requirement for cars to carry a rider, trumpeted as a safety measure. The racing program opened with “Doc” Ashbaugh of Miamisburg as the winner of the 10-lap dash, to complete his second leg in pursuit of the Gold Cup Trophy.  The day’s feature race was marred by a serious accident in which Daytonian Robert Dulinsky’s car tangled with the machine of John Eaton also of Dayton and left the 21-year old Dulinsky with a fractured skull.

With Dulinsky transported to St. Elizabeth Hospital in grave condition, the race was called complete at 30 laps following the accident. The leader at the time Jim Edwards of Franklin Ohio a small community about a dozen miles south of the racetrack was declared the winner with Bud Cider second and Bates Lewis scored third in a 1929 Ford.

Dulinsky lingered in the hospital for nearly a week then died at 9:20 AM on Saturday August 19, survived by his parents with whom he lived, and two married sisters. The next day’s race at the “Devil’s Bowl” became a benefit race for injured drivers that also featured automotive and motorcycle daredevil stunts interspersed into the racing program. In addition to the money raised through gate receipts, fans donated $70 for Dulinsky’s family during the program.

In qualifying Jim Edwards set quick time, a new track record of 47 seconds, then in the feature ran down the early leader Ashbaugh, passed him on lap four then led the rest of the distance. Ashbaugh finished second as he edged 20-year old driver Ray Kruger, younger than the track’s 21-year old age limit, but who raced with the permission of his mother, Etta, who was in attendance.  

On Sunday afternoon August 27, the track debuted its new oiled surface designed to control dust, and brunettes were admitted free of charge. After his car lost a wheel during a special four-car 15-lap match race, Ashbaugh came back and again visited victory lane in his 1929 Ford.  During the week before the next race held the day before the Labor Day holiday, Ashbaugh spilt with the owner of the successful #22B 1929 Ford but come Sunday, in a new car, Ashbaugh smashed the track record by three seconds. Jim Edwards won the feature.

On September 10, the program featured a special 10-lap race for women drivers won by 23-year-old Margaret Quire in a time of 9 minutes and 47 seconds. Jim Edwards swept the race of the program as he won the 10-lap heat race, the 15-lap match race and the 20-lap feature over Ashbaugh and Ray Kruger.

Ashbaugh, a crowd favorite who drove in house slippers, claimed three wins on September 17 – the “slow” feature, the “fast” feature and the 10-lap heat race, while John Turner finished second in all three races. Ms. Quire won the 10-lap ladies’ race and lowered her winning time to nine minutes flat. 

On September 24, the Argonne Forest course was quiet, as many of the track’s stars, including Ashbaugh, Krueger, McCabe, and Edwards were all scheduled to take part in the modified stock car races at Frank Funk’s high-banked ½-mile oiled dirt Dayton Speedway.

Argonne Speedway officials put the off week to good use as they added a ¼-mile track for midget car racing and graded and resurfaced the ½-mile figure-eight track which had seen more accidents since the oiled surface was adopted. 

Argonne officials cancelled the scheduled October 1 event early due to predicted rainy weather and many of the track’s top drivers raced instead at Funk’s Dayton Speedway modified stock car event. Ashbaugh led the first 35 laps at Dayton Speedway before his car experienced mechanical troubles; Ashbaugh’s retirement handed the lead to Jim Roberts of Springfield, Ohio who led the rest of the way to victory.

The October 8 feature victory which featured 20 cars was copped by 21-year old Orval (alternately spelled “Orville”) Epperly of Dayton, who went on from his start racing at Argonne to have a growing career in post-World War II American Automobile Association (AAA) “big car” racing until he lost his left leg in a gruesome heat race accident at Winchester (Indiana) Speedway on July 25, 1948. 

The 50-lap 1939 Argonne season finale on October 15 was captured by Russ Cowic also of Dayton in a time of 36 minutes flat. Russ Cowic raced for many years until he was seriously burned in an accident at Eldora Speedway in 1971.  It appears that no driver was able to win a total of three “Gold Cup Trophy” dashes and claim the permanent trophy. 

Don Onley’s promotional efforts at Argonne Forest Speedway ended at the close of the 1939 racing season with the promotion and sanction taken over by the Central States Stock Car Racing Association.

We will continue with the history of the Argonne Forest Speedway by looking at the 1940 season in the next installment.

Visit Bob Lawrence's websites: http://winfield.50megs.com/

Indoor hardtop racing
in San Francisco

Part one

 

The Cow Palace shown during the nineteen fifties 

on a postcard from the author's collection

 

 

In early January 1955, multiple newspapers in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area began to publish articles about an upcoming series of indoor full-size stock automobile races to be held in the Cow Palace in San Francisco.  

The Cow Palace (known officially as the California State Livestock Pavilion), located seven miles south of downtown San Francisco in the Bayshore District, was first proposed based on success of the livestock pavilion at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition (World’s Fair).




After many years of planning, the final site near the San Francisco and San Mateo county boundary was selected and purchased in 1935. Construction began in the summer 1936 with funding from San Francisco and San Mateo counties supplemented with federal Public Works Administration (New Deal) funding.   

 

Photo of the interior of the Cow Palace shortly after completion from the book Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration by C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. Photo appears courtesy of the Living New Deal program in the Department of Geography at the University of California.

 

The main structure, the Livestock Exhibition Building, was a reinforced concrete arena with a 6-acre steel arched truss roof designed by San Francisco architect Wilbur Peugh. With permanent seating for 12,000 visitors, construction of the arena was completed in February 1938 at a cost of $700,000. However, the complex, with a final project cost to $2.5 million, was not completed for several years and the first event in the Cow Palace, the Western Classic Holstein Show was held in the new arena on April 20th and 21st 1941.  

The Cow Palace complex was formally dedicated by Governor Culbert Olson during the opening ceremonies for the first Grand National Livestock Exposition on November 15 1941. The initial Grand National exposition was a huge success, with over 142,000 attendees, but three weeks later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States government requisitioned the Cow Palace.

Beginning in January 1942, for a rental cost of $1.00 a year, the Army used the Cow Palace as a processing center for troops prior to their deployment to the Pacific Theatre. Later in the war the Ordnance Corps used the facility as a vehicle repair center through 1946, with the second Grand National Livestock Exposition held in November 1946.

 

The Cow Palace arena shortly after completion in 1938 from the book Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration by C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown.

 

Photo appears courtesy of the Living New Deal  Program in the Department of Geography at the University of California.

 

The Cow Palace, owned and managed by the 1-A District Agricultural Association, a California State agency regularly held rodeos, horse and livestock shows, concerts, consumer shows and sporting events such as roller derbies, basketball games and boxing and wrestling matches.


The idea of indoor hardtop, or stock car, races was novel, and public interest was piqued on January 13 1955 when several Bay Area newspapers carried the announcement of the North California Indoor Hardtop Championships.

The races were scheduled be held every Saturday night for two months beginning February 12 1955 -  each night would feature qualifying and the 11-race program, scheduled for 50 cars each night, was sponsored by the Crown American Racing Club of San Francisco.


On February 2 1955 an article in the Oakland Tribune newspaper reported that an all-steel guardrail was being erected inside the Cow Palace “to afford greater safety for spectators” during the upcoming races, and noted that “more than 200 drivers have applied for entry for the national debut of indoor stock car racing.”

As the college basketball regular season wound down (the University of San Francisco used the Cow Palace as a home court for its biggest opponents), on Sunday February 6, the Oakland Tribune published an interview with Jack Smith managing director of the Oakland Racing Association (ORA), the group that would sanction the races. ORA appeared to have started during the 1954 season to sanction "stock hard top" racing. 

Smith revealed the roster of officials for the Cow Palace races, which was headed by Hillary Govia of Hayward as the referee, with Frank Vogel as the starter and the legendary BCRA Jack Carmedy the public address announcer while Mack (Mac) McGrete of Concord worked the timing clocks.


In the pit area, George Sweeney was the technical inspector with Bob Moss the pit marshal assisted by Steward Manuel Picanco and course clerks Harry Schilling, Tim Ahern and Bill Evans.  McGrete and Schilling had served of co-promoters of Oakland Speedway located near San Leandro during the 1954 season.

The article in the February 6th edition of the Oakland Tribune claimed that the 1/5-mile Cow Palace oval would be “the world’s fastest indoor paved speedway” and that “tests are being run to ascertain the best type of asphalt that will be applied in special areas on the paved speedway.”  The field of over 200 entries received would be winnowed “down to the fastest 50 cars" after a rigid screening and qualifying process by the Oakland Racing Association (ORA) board.”
 

During the week before the February 12 1955 inaugural race, the ORA released a partial list of entrants for the first night of the Cow Palace hardtop races. The list was topped by Ben Gregory of Crockett California whose given name was Gordon Campbell, raced under a nom de guerre to hide his racing activities from his employer, the California Highway Patrol.

 

In 1952, Gregory won $2,500 (equivalent to $23,000 today) for his victory in the 250-mile stock car race held on the Bay Meadows one-mile thoroughbred race track.  Gregory the day’s fastest qualifier took the lead with three laps to go in his 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 coupe.

Other entries for the first Cow Palace race included noted sports car racer Jack Flaherty of San Francisco, Joe Roletto, the 1954 American Racing Association (ARA) ‘big car’ champion, veteran San Jose Speedway hardtop racer Carmel Fernandez, and hot rod roadster racer George “Blonde” Pacheco, as well as drivers Dan Regan of Palo Alto, Joe Cairate from San Bruno, Glen Jensen of Menlo Park and Ted Hanning, Orval Rose, and Dave Davies, all of San Francisco.  

 

In our next installment we will reveal the results of the 1955 wintertime races in the Cow Palace.

 

 

The early history of

Indianapolis Raceway Park

 

 



This article originally appeared in the Classic Racing Times (CRT), and is offered for those who do not subscribe to CRT. The author encourages readers to visit the CRT website at http://www.theclassicracingtimes.com/ and consider subscribing to CRT.

The original plans for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), announced in February 1909, called for an outer 2-mile banked 50-foot wide track and an inner 3-mile road 25-foot wide course which when connected would result in a five-mile course. In March 1909 after the purchase of additional property along Crawfordsville Pike the plans changed to a 2-1/2 mile long oval with an inner 2-1/2 mile long road course.  

 

This 1911 newspaper drawing shows the

intended IMS layout with infield road course

 

Construction crews rushed to complete the facility in time for the inaugural racing events, a motorcycle meet on August 13 and 14 followed by the first automobile races held between  August 19 and 21 1909. During those disastrous first races the track surface treated with 235,000 gallons of coal oil mixed with gravel failed badly, and the planned construction of the inner 2-1/2 mile road course was superseded by the necessity to re-surface the oval track with bricks. 

The IMS infield was used as an aircraft repair and training facility during World War One and then in August 1929 the Speedway’s second owner, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker opened a 9-hole infield golf course designed by native Hoosier course architect William Diddel. In the latter 1990’s an infield road course was built at IMS to allow the track to host the 2000 United States Formula One Grand Prix. 

Anton ‘Tony’ Hulman who bought and rehabilitated the once-dilapidated Indianapolis Motor Speedway after World War Two, dreamed of transforming the Speedway into a multi-use racing facility but at that time he viewed that the construction of a road course inside the big oval was not feasible.  Instead Hulman assembled a group to build Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) east of the town of Clermont, a six-mile drive from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Crawfordsville Pike.

IRP’s articles of incorporation were signed at the downtown Indianapolis Athletic Club and filed at noon on November 9 1959. In addition to Hulman, who was the IRP Inc. Chairman, the group was comprised by fourteen businessmen who each invested at least $5,000 up to a maximum of $25,000.

The incorporators included United States Auto Club (USAC) President Thomas Binford who was named IRP’s President, two-time Indianapolis ‘500’ champion Rodger Ward, broadcaster Charlie Brockman as secretary, car owner and promoter extraordinaire J.C. Agajanian, car builder A.J. Watson and New Bremen (Ohio) Speedway owner and promoter Frank Dicke as vice-president.  

The roster of the remaining investors who were all board members was comprised of engineer and USAC official Rhiman Rotz, Connersville physician Dr. Gerald Watterson, Howard Fieber, an Indianapolis insurance executive, construction executive Lee R Ford, former steel executives John H. Holliday and  Charles Harvey Bradley Jr., attorney Robert D Morgan, and James H. Coover.   

The centerpiece of the site located in Lincoln Township in Hendricks County was to be a ½-mile oval track, which the group initially was unsure would be dirt or paved. Other IRP features included a 10,000 seat grandstands, a 4,300-foot drag strip and a 2-1/2 mile road course. In an interview with the Indianapolis Star, Binford explained the plan called for the oval track to be banked a maximum of 12 degrees on the turns and be at least 60 feet wide.  Binford added “that all the most modern safety precautions will be made a part of the plant including super-strong guard rails at least four feet high.”

“We’re not seeking the fastest auto racing track in the United States," Binford emphasized, "Instead, we want to have the safest and most competitive," and said that plans were for an oval with long straightaways and relatively tight turns. "We don’t want them to be able to run flat-out all the way around like they can on some tracks," Binford said "we want a multiple groove race track-we want them to have to accelerate and decelerate so that driving skill will play a greater part."

Binford said that construction would start as soon as zoning clearance was obtained from Hendricks County authorities with the target date for the opening racing program in mid-June of 1960 or July 1 at the latest. However before the $780,000 construction project could begin the group had to settle a lawsuit filed in Hendricks County Superior Court by Alvin and Henryetta Haverkamp owners of a trailer camp on an adjoining 130 acre parcel. On April 8 1960 the Haverkamp suit was withdrawn after IRP officials promised that there would be no night racing.

On April 15 1960 the group closed on the final 140 acres of property and Binford stated in an Indianapolis Star interview  that construction at Raceway Park was due to start in 30 days on the now 5/8-mile flat oval track and the dragstrip. Binford clarified that the new plan was to eventually build grandstands to accommodate 40,000 fans, but to start with a 12,000 seat grandstand and parking for 10,000 spectator cars.

During the winter of 1960-61 IRP Incorporated made flurry of announcements. First, IRP would also promote races at the ½-mile dirt oval New Bremen Speedway with Frank Dicke named to manage both tracks. In November 1960 IRP vice-president Lee Ford signed an agreement with Wally Parks of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) which made IRP the permanent home for the NHRA U.S. Nationals beginning with Labor Day weekend 1961. Finally, Joseph L. Quinn Jr. the IMS Safety Director was named the director of racing and Robert H. Humphrey was named the superintendent of grounds and the drag strip manager.

 

This is the layout of IRP

 

Indianapolis Raceway Park’s first event, a Sports Car Club of America Indianapolis regional race, held on Sunday April 17 1961 was less than successful. The sports car racers were greeted by a snowstorm with 40 mile per hour (MPH) winds which delayed the start of racing for four hours while the track crew cleared ice and snow from the course. On the fifth lap of the first 10-lap race of the day, Andrew Barnes flipped his Turner sports car on the main straightaway (the drag strip) but was unhurt.

Two laps later an errant Alfa Romeo racer spun in the pit area and crashed into a parked Corvette. At that point Chief Steward Duke Knowlton called the day’s racing program complete and declared Bill Andrews the winner in his Morgan. Knowlton told reporters "we hated to have to cancel it, but we didn't want to press our luck.  It got so bad the drivers couldn't see in front of them even when it wasn't snowing because the muddy water from other cars was coming up in their faces.”

The new facility scheduled its grand opening known as the “Pre-500 Speed-O-Rama” from May 27 to May 29 1961. Advance advertising promised fans the chance to see “Drivers . . . Champions . . . Record-Breakers!”   

First up on Saturday May 27 were drag races held on the 7000-foot dragstrip with entries that included Ralph and Bob Musick’s “Musicmaker” 290-cubic inch non supercharged dragster which held the NHRA B/Dragster record at 145.16 MPH, as well as Ray Goodman’s 170 MPH supercharged Chrysler- powered ‘Tennessee Boll Weevil,’ and Mickey Thompson’s “Attempt,’ a four-cylinder supercharged Pontiac Tempest-powered dragster. Making a special static appearance was Dr. Nathan Ostich’s “Flying Caduceus,” the world's first jet propelled land speed car. 

The following day, Sunday May 28 the 5/8-mile oval which was still a dirt surface, opened with a United States Auto Club (USAC) 30-lap ‘big car’ race that featured such stars as Elmer George, Leon Clum and Bob Wente racing for a $5700 purse.  A total  of 30 drivers which included Indianapolis 500-mile race starters AJ Foyt, Roger McCluskey and AJ Shepherd signed in for time trials along with such established big car stars as Chuck Hulse, Alvin 'Cotton' Farmer, Johnny White and Rex Easton.

The program nearly spelled disaster for two of the ‘500’ drivers that day. McCluskey a 30-year Indianapolis rookie set quick time in qualifying with a best lap of 27.57 seconds but during the second 8-lap heat race McCluskey lost control in turn three hit the outside wall and the car rolled over twice. Roger escaped with bumps and bruises but the H-O-W #4 car was finished for the day.

On the first lap of the feature AJ Shepherd, scheduled to start 14th in the Memorial Day Classic, crashed the Sterling Plumbing #55 car but escaped injury. Two days later at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Shepherd and McCluskey were both involved in the spectacular six-car chain-reaction crash on the main straightaway that wound up with Jack Turner flipping his roadster high in the air.

A.J. Foyt, whose car carried the number 1 as the 1960 USAC Eastern 'big car' series champion, led 29 laps of the feature and won $819 as he finished ahead of Hulse and Bob Cleberg who drove in place of Jim Hurtubise.

On Monday May 29 the USAC stock car division invaded the IRP 5/8-mile dirt oval for a 90-lap contest. The defending USAC stock car champion, Paul Goldsmith, was on the grounds but not in action as he was qualified for the Indianapolis ‘500.’  

Likewise, ‘500’ starter Bill Cheesbourg chose not to drive his 1959 Ford, and entrusted it to 1956 500-mile race winner Pat Flaherty. USAC stock car regular Don White won $623 as he led 69 laps in his 1961 Ford ahead of Ernie Derr’s 1961 Pontiac. Shortly after the completion “Pre-500 Speed-O-Rama” races, the oval received its now-familiar covering of bituminous asphalt. 

The 15-turn 2-1/2 mile IRP road course hosted its first professional race a month later for the Hoosier Grand Prix USAC Road Racing Championship which was run in twin 100-mile heat races. The entry list included road racers Augie Pabst, Ken Miles, Bob Holbert and Bill Krause as well as such 500-mile race stars as Rodger Ward, Lloyd Ruby, Ebb Rose, Jimmy Daywalt, and Len Sutton.

Ruby who drove Frank Harrison’s Maserati 450S won the first heat over Miles and Pabst, and then Pabst in the Scarab Mark II won the second heat ahead of Ruby and Pabst was declared the Hoosier Grand Prix overall winner based on the lowest elapsed time.

The first few years for IRP Inc. were financially difficult; the company lost $54,000 before depreciation and interest in 1961 followed by a loss of $16,000 in 1962. In 1963, IRP turned the financial corner with a net profit of $46,000 before deductions for depreciation and interest.  

IRP Inc. continued to operate the facility and added appearances by the USAC championship cars and midgets until the facility was sold to the NHRA in 1979.  Under NHRA’s ownership there has been tremendous investment the addition of NASCAR racing and the facility’s annexation by the town of Brownsburg in the facility now known as Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.  

 

The Pack-Age-Car’s connections to racing history

 

 

courtesy EBay

This restoration uses incorrect wooden doors

 

Recently the internet auction site EBay Motors listed for sale a 1931 Stutz Pak-Age-Car, which caught the author’s attention. At this point, you the reader might reasonably ask “what do these trucks have to do with racing history?”  The author’s research into Pack-Age-Car history revealed a surprising number of connections between the history of these humble utility trucks and historic automobile industry and racing personalities.  

 

The Pak-Age-Car, known originally as the Pac Car, was a small urban delivery vehicle introduced in 1925 as an alternative to horse-drawn city light delivery wagons. The simple all-steel body truck with a 92 ½ inch wheelbase powered by a two-cylinder horizontally opposed two-cylinder Hercules engine coupled to the rear axle packaged in a slide-out module. The Chicago-based manufacturer claimed that in case of mechanical troubles the engine package could be exchanged in fifteen minutes by a two-man crew without disturbing the truck’s payload.  

 

 

The early Pack-Age-Cars resembled horse-drawn wagons minus the horse. The Pack-Age-Car could be controlled from either side of the 52-inch wide cab by the standing driver. The throttle, clutch and brake functions were all controlled through a lever, with one lever mounted on either side of the cab and the steering wheel in the center of the cab. The top speed of the wagon-like vehicle was a scary 12 to 15 miles per hour with an advertised average fuel consumption of one quart of gasoline per hour.

In December 1927 it was announced that Stutz Motor Car Company of America based in Indianapolis Indiana had taken over the distribution of Pack-Age-Car trucks in the United States.  Early advertising for the Stutz Pack-Age-Car referred to it as “the horse’s only competitor - designed to be more economical in maintenance and operation that a horse and wagon.”  The powered wagon sold for a retail price of $995 with the exterior of the body finished in white undercoating ready for the customer to paint in their colors

Harry Stutz had founded his eponymous automobile manufacturing business in 1911 and the company built its reputation from a Stutz’ performance in the inaugural Indianapolis 500-mile race. Team driver Gil Andersen started from the twenty-second position (based on the date the entry was received) and finished the grueling grind in under seven and half hours in eleventh place. This result led Stutz to advertise as “the car that made good in a day.” Stutz himself left the business in 1919, and after the company’s financial failure in 1922, the new board of directors brought in Frederick E. Moscovics to run the company.

Moskovics understood the publicity value of automobile racing, having been involved in the management of the 1910 Los Angeles Motordrome board track in Playa del Rey California. Stutz built a reputation of speed and reliability through their success in early stock car races. Unlike the modern-day NASCAR silhouette “stock car” races, these American Automobile Association (AAA) sanctioned races were open to strictly stock cars that displaced 300 cubic inches or less. To ensure the stock nature of the cars, the AAA Contest Board reserved the right to select the cars at random and supervise their preparation.

The races were scheduled, often in conjunction with AAA championship races on two East Coast board tracks - the Rockingham Speedway in New Hampshire and Atlantic City Speedway in New Jersey. Cars raced less the windshield, fenders, running boards and tops with the only mechanical adjustments allowed limited to “valve grinding, cylinder honing, relieving bearing clearances, and fine tuning.”  1924 Indianapolis 500-mile race co-winner LL Corum, along with drivers Ralph Mulford, Tom Rooney, Bert Dingley, and Gil Andersen competed and won races with factory-entered Stutz Blackhawk Vertical Eight Speedsters.  

Despite the racing success, the late nineteen twenties, Stutz automobile sales began to drop off so Moscovics used the Stutz dealer network for the distribution of the Stutz Pak-Age-Car in 1927. On November 28 1932, with automobile sales and the company’s finances ebbing, the Stutz board of directors approved the purchase of the controlling interest of Pak-Age-Car from Mechanical Manufacturing Company of Chicago.  

A long wheelbase Pack-Age-Car

 

At the New York Automobile Show held in January 1933 Stutz unveiled the redesigned Stutz Pak-age-Car built by the new Package Car Division established in the Stutz factory at 1002 North Capitol Avenue in Indianapolis.  The redesigned Pack-Age-Car was powered by a four-cylinder opposed engine with a more contemporary truck-like front end design with fenders. Stutz also expanded the line with the availability of a longer 106-inch wheelbase, and the earlier dual lever control system was abandoned in favor of a typical left-hand stand or seated driver setup with a single gauge bezel in front of the driver.  

 

Stutz also tried to shore up their automobile sales in the deepening economic depression with the introduction of lightweight six-cylinder models. The new automobiles models failed to score big sales and after consecutive years of ever-increasing losses, new Stutz president and former company treasurer Marvin Hamilton ended passenger car production in 1935.

Although the once-proud Stutz automobile was no more, Pak-Age-Car production continued and on May 3 1936 Hamilton announced that George H. Freers formerly with Marmon joined Stutz as the chief engineer in charge of all Pak-Age-Car activities.

 

 

Freers, an Indianapolis native and 1908 graduate from the Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute Indiana worked for several truck manufacturers before he joined Nordyke & Marmon the builders of the Marmon automobile in 1912. During his lengthy career at Marmon, Freers became professionally and personally close to Howard Carpenter Marmon one of the company co-founders Daniel Marmon’s two sons.   

In 1924 Freers was named Nordyke & Marmon’s assistant chief engineer in charge of the experimental department and in 1926 he built a new three-bedroom home in Indianapolis’ Irvington neighborhood at 5124 East Walnut Street. Freers’ appointment to succeed Thomas J. Litle Jr. as the Marmon Motor Cars Company’s chief engineer was announced in the Indianapolis Star on October 21 1929. Three days later the Wall Street Crash occurred which led to the worldwide economic depression which would eventually spell the end for many automobile manufacturers including Marmon.

While in charge of the Nordyke & Marmon experimental department, Freers and his staff worked with race car builder Earl Cooper to prepare the two Marmon 1928 Indianapolis 500-mile race entries.  Marmon which had competed in racing since its stunning victory in the inaugural 1911 Indianapolis ‘500, and likely wanted to build on the publicity of the eight-cylinder Marmon 78 being selected as the race’s Official Pacemaker. The yellow and red Marmon Model 78 rumble-seat roadster would be driven for its pacing duties by Joe Dawson, the 1912 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner who had driven a Marmon to a fifth place finish in the inaugural 1911Indidnapolis ‘500.’  

 

A factory photo of the 1928 Marmon 68 Special

Courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 

The Marmon entries were built by Earl Cooper, who had a remarkable driving career both before and after World War One was the three-time American Automobile Association (AAA) national champion in 1913, 1915, and 1917. Before the war, as a member of the powerful Stutz Racing Team, Cooper notched sixteen victories mostly on dirt tracks and early road courses. Cooper returned to race driving in 1922 at age 36 and proved to be an adept board track racer during the Miller 122- and 91-cubic inch eras with a string of strong top-five finishes.  

During the 1926 AAA season, Cooper bought the Miller supercharged 91-cubic inch chassis number #2605 and over the winter of 1926-7, he built three copies, with the full knowledge or and assistance of Harry A. Miller. Funded by Buick Motors, each of the three new Copper-built cars were powered by a supercharged 91 cubic-inch eight-cylinder supercharged Miller engine breathing through four Miller Dual Throat Updraft carburetors that produced 167 horsepower and powered the front wheels.  

The major difference between a Miller and Cooper was the construction of the front drive assembly. Instead of the typical Miller jewel-like front drive, with the design assistance of Leo Gosssen, Copper’s cars used a Ruckstell planetary gear set paired with two-speed Ruckstell axle to achieve four forward speeds.

Near the end of their construction, Buick withdrew its support and all four of Earl Cooper’s cars were entered for the 1927 running of the Indianapolis 500-mile by Cooper Engineering for veterans Peter Kreis, Bennett Hill, Bob McDonogh and Jules Ellingboe.  All three new cars qualified for the 1927 ‘500,’ but Kreis’ and Hill’s cars had mechanical failure and Ellingboe crashed so only McDonough finished coming in with a sixth place finish with the re-badged Miller.

By 1928 Earl Cooper had sold his original Miller chassis and for the 1928 ‘500’ landed Nordyke & Marmon Company as the sponsor for two of his three cars, and part of the sponsorship agreement included Cooper’s use of the Marmon engineering shop and staff to help prepare the cars.

On April 13 1928, Earl Cooper formally entered two “Marmon 68 Specials,” and the Indianapolis Star proclaimed that by “entering the 1928 500-mile race the Marmon Company is using the event as an actual means of testing many new and advanced engineering principles.”  "Changes in the future design of passenger automobiles are coming so fast that we decided to take some of our advanced engineering ideas to the race course for a trial," Howard Marmon was quoted "We are entering the Indianapolis race, not so much from a competitive standing but rather to forward the splendid achievement of our cars and to see just how near a state of perfection the innovations that we have conceived have progressed."

Cooper would later enter his third front-drive car under his own name after on-track practice had opened on May 2 for rookie driver Russell Snowberger. This entry after the official close of entries was allowed after it was evident that the Speedway was facing a short field of entries.

 

Peter Kreis' Marmon Special on race morning 1928

Courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 

The two “Marmon 68 Specials” were assigned to drivers Albert J. “Peter” Kreis and Johnny Seymour. Kreis, from a wealthy Tennessee family finished eighth in his first ‘500’ in 1925, and for the 1926 ‘500’ bought a new Miller. Kreis became ill after he qualified the car and turned it over to rookie Frank Lockhart to drive in the ‘500,’ and Lockhart won the rain-shortened race. During the 1927 racing season Kreis earned his pilot’s license and at his wife’s request had reduced his racing schedule to Indianapolis only.     

In comparison to the veteran Kreis who was listed as an early favorite to win the ‘500’ Seymour a former motorcycle racer on Daytona Beach and the board tracks was an Indianapolis rookie. In fact the 1928 ‘500’ was the first official AAA (American Automobile Association) race start for the driver from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  

Unlike the modern schedule in 1928 time trials were held three consecutive days from May 26 through May 28. The nineteen cars that qualified on the first day included Seymour in the Marmon #33 with an average speed for his ten mile run of 111.673 miles per hour (MPH). Kreis in the Marmon #32 was the fastest qualifier on the second day of time trials with a four-lap average of 112.906 MPH and was scheduled to start in the 20th position.

When qualifying closed at sundown on Monday May 28 there were only 28 cars in the field which led Speedway officials to extend time trials into Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, Buddy Marr’s qualified “BW Cooke Special” (owned by the operator of the Coyne Electrical School of Chicago) crashed was badly damaged and later withdrawn which moved Kreis’ #32 Marmon to the inside of the seventh row on Memorial Day.   

Snowberger in the third Cooper entry was the first car out of the race with a broken supercharger. By lap 73, Kreis’ Marmon entry was sidelined with burnt rod bearings, and Seymour’s entry dropped out with a broken supercharger on lap 170. Kreis earned $499 for his 22nd place finish, while Seymour earned just $69 more for his 17th place finish.

1928 marked the last formal appearance of the Marmon name on a race car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway until 1993 when the Marmon Group returned as the sponsor of John Andretti’s Lola 9200. Lee Oldfield’s Marmon-powered bizarre rear-engine home-built machine that appeared at the Speedway during the late nineteen thirties was not a factory-support effort. 

In the late nineteen twenties, Nordyke & Marmon restructured. Howard Marmon’s brother, Walter became the company president and was named chairman of the board of Nordyke & Marmon in 1924. In 1926 Walter sold off the company’s grain-milling equipment business line which was the foundation of the company.  During 1929, the Marmon Motor Car Company was spun off as an individual entity with Howard named the new company’s president.

In 1931, the company headed by Walter Marmon entered a partnership with Colonel Arthur William Sidney Herrington for the manufacture of trucks under the name of the Marmon-Herrington Company. The British-born Arthur Herrington had served as racing official with the AAA since at least 1905 and served as the powerful Chairman of the AAA Contest Board until the AAA withdrew from race sanctioning at the end of the 1955 season. 

Marmon-Herrington moved its operations to the defunct Duesenberg Company plant at 1511 West Washington Street a 16-acre site located on the corner of West Washington and Harding streets in Indianapolis. This site housed the Marmon-Herrington factory until it ceased Indianapolis operations in July 1963, and today one of the original Duesenberg buildings still remains intact.  

Marmon renowned for its series of magnificent luxury automobiles introduced the successful “Little Eight” in 1927 and followed it up with a new lightweight 201-cubic inch 70 horsepower straight-eight powered car for the 1929 model year. The Roosevelt which honored the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was advertised as the “car for all” as one body style retailed for less than $1000. Despite its startling low price, there were rumors in the press of a “soft crankshaft” and like many “junior” marques introduced by other luxury automakers such as Stutz and Locomobile the Roosevelt was a sales failure. In 1930, the marque was renamed the Marmon-Roosevelt and in 1931 and 1932 it was sold as the Marmon Model 70, but sales remained awful.

 

Marmon 16 Convertible Sedan

 

The Marmon “16” introduced in January 1930 was a spectacular machine powered by a 490 cubic inch 45 degree sixteen-cylinder overhead valve aluminum engine that produced 200 horsepower. The Marmon “16” advertised as "The World's Most Advanced Car." weighed 4,600 pounds but was guaranteed by the factory to reach 100 MPH.  Available in either a coupe, sedan or a Convertible Sedan body style, all the “16” series models were styled by Walter D. Teague and his son Walter Junior who worked with Frank Lockhart on the body design of the ill-fated Stutz Blackhawk Land Speed Record Car.

Like other luxury automakers Marmon’s sales plummeted through the Great Depression. Production of the magnificent “16” totaled 12,369 units in 1930, and then fell to 5,687 units in 1931. Only 1,365 cars were built for the 1932 year with only 86 16-cylinder cars built in 1933.

In 1932, Howard Marmon envisioned a new car - the HCM. With Marmon in severe financial straits, the car was built in a corner of Marmon factory by a team led by George Freer. The car’s reported cost of $150,000 was personally financed by Howard Marmon himself.  The HCM was ground-breaking with such advanced features as a central backbone chassis riding on independent front and rear suspension with inboard brakes.

For the HCM’s engine, Marmon and Freer eliminated the four rear cylinders of the 16-cylinder engine to create an aluminum 368-cubic inch 45 degree overhead valve V-12 engine that developed 150 horsepower. The aerodynamic two-door sedan body designed by Walter Teague Junior featured rear-hinged “suicide” doors and the headlights set into the front fenders reminiscent of a Pierce-Arrow.

 

The HCM

 

Unfortunately by the time the new HCM car was completed in the fall of 1933, the Marmon Motor Car Company was already in bankruptcy proceedings. In its last quarter of operation Marmon Motor Car Company lost $234,000 and during the final year of operation lost $1.8 million. Shortly after the bankruptcy filing Walter Marmon shocked many in the automobile industry when he told the Auto Topics magazine that Marmon Motor Car had been completely independent from Marmon-Herrington for “over a year.”

Howard Marmon took his HCM car on a nationwide driving tour but could not find financial backers to save his company and build the HCM. There were several competing efforts to rescue the Marmon Motor Car Company out of receivership including a 1934 plan that involved promoter Preston Tucker and race car builder Harry A. Miller. After their failure to take over Marmon, the pair formed Miller-Tucker which built the ill-fated ten-car Ford V8 race team under contract to N W Ayer & Son, the Ford Motor Company’s advertising agency that was entered in the 1935 Indianapolis ‘500.’     

Although the HCM never advanced past the single prototype, Freers and Marmon submitted patent applications in 1933 for their backbone chassis and independent front suspension  designs and received patents for each in 1935 and 1937 respectively.

Howard Marmon’s still-born HCM prototype remained parked in the garage of his Pineola North Carolina estate ‘Hemlock Hedges’ until his death in 1943. After his death Marmon’s widow would not sell it and instead gave the car to Fred Moscovics. As a testament to the closeness of their relationship, Howard Marmon’s last will and testament bequeathed the amount of $5000 cash to George Freers, which is equivalent to $70,000 today.

Alas the Stutz Pack-Age-Car career of George Freers did not last long, as Stutz filed for bankruptcy on September 29, 1937. With Stutz’ failure, the patents and licensing rights for the production of the Pack-Age-Car light delivery truck reverted to Northern Motors of Chicago. The rights were then purchased during 1938 by former Auburn Automobile Company executives (Auburn had failed just a few weeks after Stutz) and the men formed a new company the Pak-Age-Car Corporation on August 25, 1938. Former Auburn General Manager John McGowan was the new company’s vice-president, and Auburn vice-president Roy H. Faulkner was installed as the new Pak-Age-Car company president.

Tooling was moved to Connersville Indiana and Pack-Age-Car production resumed in the Auburn Central Manufacturing Company plant on October 15 1938. Central Manufacturing founded early in the twentieth century and in 1928 Errett Lobban Cord acquired a controlling interest in from the Ansted family and folded it into his Cord Corporation. Years later, William Ansted son of the original founder of Central became a noted car owner at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the roadster era and was one of the co-owners of AJ Foyt’s 1964 “500’ winning machine.

Although the Cord Corporation was bankrupt, the Auburn Central Manufacturing managed to remain open throughout due to its income from its many lucrative contracts to supply sheet metal stampings to other automakers and for home products sold by Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck & Company. 

The revised Pack-Age-Cars used key components supplied by other Cord Corporation divisions; they were powered by a four-cylinder Lycoming CT flat-head engine hooked to a Columbia axle packaged in the removable rear sub frame. Since the manufacturer lacked a dealer network, the trucks were distributed through Diamond T Motor Car Company truck dealerships beginning with the 1939 model year. Diamond T Pack-Age-Cars were built in small numbers probably until March 1941 when the Auburn Central Connersville factory switched over to the manufacture Jeep bodies for Willys-Overland which continued throughout World War 2.  

Exact Pack-Age-Car trucks production numbers during the approximately 15 years of manufacture are unknown, but very few Pack-Age-Car truck remain today, largely due to their design. As the trucks lacked any built-in refrigerant system for their perishable payloads, the trucks were instead packed with ice. Drivers stood atop of a wood pallet arrangement so they did not have to stand in water from the melting ice, but of course within just a few years the Pack-Age-Car sheet metal bodies began to rust from the inside out.

 

Research was conducted using the Automotive Research Library of the Horseless Carriage Foundation of which the author is a proud member. Check out their site at https://www.hcfi.org/