Bill Cummings

An Indianapolis hero- part two

Bill Cummings and Earl Unvershaw shown here in 1931

won the 1934 "500' from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

in IUPUI University Center for Digital Studies

In February 1935, 1934 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Bill Cummings traveled to Daytona Beach Florida where he drove Clessie Cummins’ 364-cubic inch supercharged six-cylinder two-stroke diesel powered 1934 Indianapolis ‘500’ entry in record attempts on the beach while fellow Indianapolis driver Dave Evans piloted the competing Waukesha ‘Silver Comet’ diesel powered machine. Evans first set a new record of 125.065 miles per hour (MPH), which Cummings eclipsed on March 1 with a two-way run that averaged 133.023 MPH. Before he left the beach the next day, Cummings set a mark of 137.195 MPH.

In May 1935, defending Indianapolis ‘500’ champions Cummings and his friend and riding mechanic Earl Unversaw qualified the 1934 Boyle front-drive Miller fifth in the starting field and were considered the favorites to repeat their victory in the Decoration Day race. The pair never led a lap and finished third, four minutes behind the Offenhauser-powered car driven by the winner Cavino “Kelly” Petillo who broke Cumming’s 500-mile speed record by over one mile per hour.

Later in the 1935 American Automobile Association (AAA) racing season, Cummings finished second to Petillo at the Minnesota State fairgrounds in St. Paul then finished second again behind Billy Winn at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. Cummings closed out the season with a sixth place finish on the new Altoona mile and an eighth dirt track located in Tipton Pennsylvania. Cummings the defending champion skipped two races on the schedule and finished as the runner-up in the 1935 AAA National Championship behind Petillo. 

According to Bill Neely’s book Daytona USA on March 8 1936 the AAA sanctioned a “strictly stock car” 250-mile race on a 3-mile combination road and beach course at Daytona Beach Florida. With a $5,000 purse, entries came from open wheel racers Bill Cummings, Milt Marion, Bob Sall, as well as George ‘Doc’ MacKenzie in a Buick and Bill Schnidler prior to the loss of his left leg in the race’s lone Dodge. Cummings, the fastest qualifier at over 70 MPH in Michael J Boyle’s supercharged Auburn 851 Speedster, started last in the fully-inverted 27-car field that went off in one–minute intervals in a handicap start.

The Schweitzer supercharged straight-8 Lycoming engine in Cummings’ Auburn failed after 16 laps and he finished 26th. The race was stopped at 241 miles with Milt Marion in the lead in a 1936 Ford V-8 when the tide came in and blocked the course.  The fifth place finisher in a 1935 Ford was a local service station owner named William “Big Bill” France, who later formed his own stock car racing sanctioning body twelve years later. Bill France told author Neely that due to the large number of fans who watched the race with buying a ticket, race promoter (and former IMCA big car champion) “Sig” Haugdahl allegedly lost $22,000 (equivalent to $380,000 today).

For unknown reasons at the 1936 Indianapolis ‘500,’ the team of Bill Cummings and riding mechanic Earl Unversaw separated after they had run the five previous races together. Reportedly the two were such close friends that Cummings named his only daughter, Earlene, after Unversaw, although this appears to be wishful thinking as Earlene was born in 1928. Earl who rode with Mauri Rose in 1936 and 1937 died in 1990 in Whiteland Indiana at age 95.

The 1936 ‘500’ was an embarrassing defeat for Cummings and mechanic Henning – after he qualified thirteenth, on Decoration Day, the clutch in the Boyle Miller front drive machine overheated on the grid. When the Packard 120 pace car with Tommy Milton behind the wheel pulled away, Cummings’ car did not join the field and he finished dead last. News reports of the day stated that Cummings was the first driver in Indianapolis ‘500’ history that lined up on the grid but did not make the start of the race.

After the ‘500,’ Cummings’ faithful Miller front-drive chassis was fitted with a 255 cubic inch four cylinder Offenhauser engine and the results were forgettable in the three remaining AAA points-paying races all of which were held in New York State. Bill started and finished eleventh in the ‘Goshen 100’ race held at the Good Times Park thoroughbred track in southern New York, and then was involved in a three-car crash with Shaw and Gardner in turn one on the first lap at Syracuse. Cummings finished seventh in the Vanderbilt Cup on the twisting Roosevelt Raceway road course in the wholly unsuitable Boyle Miller front drive machine.

In January 1937, Cummings returned to his roots and was one of 98 riders in the first Daytona 200 race for motorcycles held on a two-mile beach/asphalt loop at Daytona Beach Florida. For the 1937 Indianapolis ‘500,’ Cummings was paired with a new riding mechanic Frankie DelRoy, who would later become a Speedway chief mechanic and was the chair of the technical committee for the United States Auto Club when he and six other officials perished in the 1978 USAC plane crash.  In time trials the 255 cubic inch Offenhauser powered Boyle #16 set a new one-lap speed record of 125.19 MPH and Cummings started for the pole position at Indianapolis for the second time in his career.

At the drop of the green flag, Herb Ardinger in Lew Welch’s supercharged Offenhauser powered car shot into the lead from the outside of the front row. The fuel limitations of the last four races were gone, so the race pace was faster. Cummings finished sixth behind first time winner Wilbur Shaw who drove a car that Shaw owned and had built with the assistance of Ford Moyer.  Cummings made just one other AAA appearance during 1937, in the Vanderbilt Cup race at the much-revised Roosevelt Raceway, and repeated his previous result with a seventh place finish.

A candid 1938 photograph of Cummings

 from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

in IUPUI University Center for Digital Studies

For the 1938 Indianapolis ‘500,’ Cummings drove the same eleven-year old Boyle front-drive entry as in previous years but with a narrowed chassis and new body powered by a 268 cubic inch engine as the AAA "junk formula" era had ended.  The 1938 Boyle entry carried sponsorship from the labor union with which car owner Boyle was associated, the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers (IBEW). 

Cummings qualified a disappointing 16th and dropped out of the ‘500’ on lap 72 with a radiator leak. Cummings attempted to qualify an unidentified Maserati at for the race at the Springfield Illinois state fairgrounds and then finished eighth at Syracuse in Russell Snowberger’s “Loop Café Special’ (the old Boyle front-drive Miller) after mid-race relief from his car owner to close out his 1938 racing season.

On Monday night February 6, 1939, as he drove his passenger automobile along State Route 29, now known as Southeastern Avenue, Cummings dropped the car’s right front wheel onto the soft shoulder. The car veered, plunged through the wooden guardrail on the bridge approach near Adina Boulevard and traveled an estimated 50 feet into the waters of Lick Creek below. Passing motorists who witnessed the accident found Cummings beside the wreckage of the car face lying down in approximately 18 inches of water.

The March 1930 issue of Motor Age 

contained these two photos of Cummings accident

Three men pulled the unconscious Cummings from the water and saved him from drowning; when he arrived at Methodist Hospital ten miles away he was admitted in critical condition with a concussion. The next day, doctors performed emergency surgery to relieve the pressure on Bill’s brain but later that night, Cummings began to slip away.

The Indianapolis Star newspaper reported that “doctors injected insulin into his blood and his heart rallied for several hours but he died at 6 o'clock in the morning.” Cummings never regained consciousness after the accident before he died on Wednesday morning February 8 at age 32 survived by his widow Leota and 10 year old daughter Earlene.

700 people attended services held on Saturday afternoon February 11 at the Royster & Askln Mortuary located at 1902 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis presided over by evangelist Raymond G. Hoekstra.  Among the guests who attended the service were Harry A. Miller, Roscoe Dunning, (mechanic and car builder), driver Louis ‘Billy’ Devore, riding mechanic Lawson Harris (who would die later that year in a crash with Babe Stapp during a tire test at the Speedway), and Earl Twining of the Champion Spark Plug Company.

Other attendees at Cumming’s funeral service included car owner Bill White, Fred Lockwood of the Borg-Warner Corporation, former driver and AAA official Charles Merz, and a pair of Bill’s former dirt track competitors from the early days Howard ‘Howdy’ Wilcox II and Frank Sweigert. Indianapolis Motor Speedway General Manager Theodore E “Pop” Myers, Mauri Rose, and Peter DePaolo also attended.

At the conclusion of the service, Cummings’ casket was carried down the mortuary steps to the waiting hearse by the six of his fellow racing drivers; Wilbur Shaw, ‘Shorty’ Cantlon, Deacon Lltz, Lou Moore, Chet Miller, and Russell Snowberger. The hearse carried Bill Cummings’ remains east on Washington Street to the Memorial Park Cemetery for the graveside service. As Cummings’ casket was lowered into the grave an airplane piloted by Lawrence “Gene” Genaro a test pilot for the Civil Aeronautics Administration circled overhead and dropped flowers. Genaro pioneered the aerial filming of the Indianapolis ‘500’ and helped Cummings earn his pilot’s license in 1932. 

A widely circulated article headlined Cummings planned a comeback was written after his death by Bob Consodine of Randolph Hearst’s International News Service. The article inaccurately stated that Cummings “won about $50,000” for winning the 1934 Indianapolis ‘500’ as it was actually $29,725 some of which had of course gone to car owner Michael Boyle. 

Consodine wrote of Cummings “he cashed in on his new fame. Big car companies signed him up to extoll the merits of their cars, the accessory companies paid him for his stamp of approval, and the jerk-town tracks that once paid him off in hot dogs gave him good guarantees just to appear.”

A brochure drawings of a 1935 Chevrolet master Deluxe Sedan

the model that Cummings drove

Like many other top drivers Cummings endorsed the use of Richfield gasoline, Champion Spark Plugs, and Pyroil oil additive. The author also found a 1935 newspaper advertisement that stated “’Wild Bill’ Cummings, National AAA racing champion, recently took delivery of his second Chevrolet - a new 1935 Master Deluxe sedan with which he is pictured. Cummings became a Chevrolet owner following his victory at Indianapolis last Decoration Day.”

A 1936 advertisement in Popular Science magazine for the “turret-top” 1936 Chevrolet contained a photo of Cummings and famed British land speed and boat racer Kaye Don as they examined the all-steel roof of a new Chevrolet which was advertised as being both safer and cooler than a fabric insert.

Notice that Cummings is wearing a helmet

 in his official 1934 IMS photo he wore a cloth helmet.

This style helmet was required at Indianapolis in 1935

Research also uncovered Cummings’ June 1934 nationwide endorsement of Camel cigarettes, complete with headshots of Bill in a hard-shell helmet and text that quoted the 1934 Indianapolis 500 winner “I felt pretty well played out at the end of the race. My mechanic and I turned to Camels for that first luxurious smoke that chases that tired feeling away.” 

Consodine’s article continued “with the coming of that dough he got soft - the hungrier more desperate men became to pass him even on the turns. The glamour peeled off him and in a little while he was broke again and for the first time he knew doubt. When at last he hit bottom, he started back and his reflexes dulled by success became razor sharp again.”

Mr. Consodine’s claim that Cummings became ‘soft’ after his Indianapolis victory and subsequent rebound is just not supported by the facts. Cummings was the fastest qualifier in two 1934 races after his ‘500’ win and Bill made a strong defense of his Indianapolis win and AAA national championship title in 1935. While the results of his disappointing 1936 season marred by a crash and mechanical failures was certainly sub-par, Cummings had another successful season in 1937 before his puzzling poor last season in 1938.

To characterize Cummings as “broke” at one point is probably a case of journalistic embellishment. Cummings bought a tavern in Indianapolis and built a home in the Five Points suburb of Indianapolis, though at the time of his death, Cummings reportedly worked between races during the offseason as a car salesman.   

The mention of a “comeback” is odd, as Cummings was just 32 years old, and no racing historians are aware of any Cummings retirement announcement. The article mentioned that Boyle mechanic ‘Cotton’ Henning was headed to Italy to pick up an Alfa Romeo which Cummings hoped would return him to the top, but that statement is erroneous.

Henning did travel to Italy not to buy an Alfa Romeo, but the Maserati 8CTF which Wilbur Shaw drove to back to back wins for Boyle Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1939 and 1940. If he had not crashed into Lick Creek that February night, could that have been Bill Cummings behind the wheel of the Boyle Maserati in 1939? 

For his accomplishments, William C Cummings Junior was inducted in 1970 as a member of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Auto Racing Hall of Fame. 

Bill Cummings 

the hero of Indianapolis – part one

William C. ‘Bill” Cummings Junior was a hero to Central Indiana racing fans as he grew up on Indianapolis’ near west side two miles from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he found glory in 1934. Cummings spent his life in the city of Indianapolis, then died and was laid to rest there.  

Bill Cummings the son of a race car driver, began his racing career on motorcycles but switched to racing big cars during 1926. The following year Cummings began to experience some success as he raced the ‘Deluxe Taxi’ Frontenac Ford ‘big car’ on the dangerous “Hoosier outlaw circuit” with such legends as Frank Sweigert, Ira Hall, Francis Quinn, Bill McCoy, and George “Bennie” Benefiel (often misspelled Bennefield) on Hoosier tracks such as Sunflower Park located between the towns of Brazil and Terre Haute and Jungle Park north of Rockville billed as “the fastest oiled track in the world.’

By 1929 Cummings was a consistent winner as he drove a factory supported Frontenac on the Hoosier circuit that included the Linton race track, Huntington Motor Speedway, and George Rogers Clark Speedway in Vincennes. Bill began to expand his travels to tracks in Dayton and Hamilton Ohio and as far away as St. Paul Minnesota. Bill captured the 20-mile race for the “National dirt track championship of the United States” at an unidentified track in Louisville Kentucky at the end of September after he was injured in a crash at Roby Speedway in the Chicago suburb of Hammond Indiana in early August.

 

 

An aerial view of Langhorne Speedway

the site of Bill Cummings first AA victory

 

In 1930, Cummings got his shot at the big time and in his first race in an AAA championship car he started from the pole position and won at the one-mile circular Langhorne Pennsylvania Speedway behind the wheel of the car that Michael Ferner identified as Karl Kizer's “Century Tire Special” 91-cubic inch Miller. Cummings’ next stop was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a member of the factory Duesenberg team managed by 1925 Indianapolis ‘500’ champion Peter DePaolo.

Cummings drove a Myron Stevens built chassis powered by a 242 cubic inch straight-8 single overhead camshaft (SOHC) engine sourced from a Model ‘A’ Duesenberg passenger car. With  36 laps of mid-race relief help from teammate Fred Winnai, the #6 Stevens/Duesenberg completed all of the 200 laps around the rough 2-1/2-mile brick surface and Cummings scored a fifth place finish.

Cummings was entered in the same factory Duesenberg for the 100-mile race held on the Michigan State Fairgrounds dirt mile in Detroit and he finished third.  The 23-year old driver then followed up that result with a fourth place finish in a rain-shortened race on the 1-1/4 mile Altoona Pennsylvania, his first appearance on a board track. 

Cummings closed out his rookie AAA season with a win on the New York state Fairgrounds “Moody Mile” in Syracuse.  With two wins to his credit as a rookie, Cummings finished third in the 1930 AAA championship behind ‘500’ winner Billy Arnold who had notched three wins during the season. With his aggressive driving style, Bill Cummings had quickly become an established racing star.  

During the winter of 1930-1931, Cummings traveled the West Coast circuit and raced on big dangerous high-speed tracks that included Bakersfield and Legion Ascot Speedway where his nickname “Wild Bill” first came into popular use. Cummings drove for the team of Paul Weirick and Art Sparks and competed against such established West Coast stars as William ‘Stubby’ Stubblefield, William ‘Shorty’ Cantlon, and Ernie Triplett and finished eighth in the 1931 AAA Pacific Coast Southwest big car championship.  

For the 1931 AAA championship season, Cummings drove East coast car owner Floyd Smith’s ‘Empire State Gas Motors Special’ a Miller-powered Cooper front drive creation. The car was one of three originally built in 1927 with Buick factory support by Earl Cooper, the three-time American Automobile Association (AAA) national champion in 1913, 1915, and 1917.  

The transmission in Cooper’s cars, created with the design assistance of Miller designer Leo Gosssen, used a Grover Ruckstell planetary gear set and two-speed axle to achieve four forward speeds. Originally powered by a Miller supercharged engine, with the introduction of the AAA ‘junk formula’ which outlawed pure racing engines and required a riding mechanic, the Cooper chassis was widened, the engine supercharger removed, and piston stroke lengthened to increase the engine’s cubic inch displacement. The car was topped off with new bodywork built by local craftsman Floyd “Pop” Dreyer.

Cummings started the 1931 Indianapolis 500-mile race from the middle of front row but retired early with a broken oil line and finished poorly. Over the course of the season, Cummings scored three second-place finishes and one third place to go along with two top ten finishes to wind up 10th in 1931 AAA points. Cummings returned to the West Coast over the winter to close out his 1931 season. Bill won the forty-lap Thanksgiving Day feature at Legion Ascot Speedway ahead of Bryan Saulpaugh and Chet Gardner, then followed that up with a second place finish behind Saulpaugh in the Legion Ascot 100-lapper on December 20.  

Cummings opened 1932 on the West Coast behind the wheel of one of three new Miller 16 valve DOHC Miller ‘big car.’ In May at Indianapolis he drove one of 1931 ‘500’ winner Louis Schneider’s widened Miller chassis rebuilt by metalworking wizard Myron Stevens. Cummings was eliminated on lap 151 when the Miller 122-cubic inch engine broke its crankshaft. This was Bill’s second ‘500’ start alongside his friend and riding mechanic Earl Unversaw a World War I veteran who was born in Perry Township south of Indianapolis.

For the next 1932 AAA championship race at Detroit, Cummings moved into the seat of Chicago labor organizer Michael J. Boyle’s ‘Boyle Valve’ Stevens chassis powered by a Miller 268 cubic inch engine. After his steering broke at Detroit, Cummings scored two third-place finishes at Roby and Syracuse, a second place at the second Detroit race and closed out the 1932 AAA championship season with another win from the pole position in the 150-mile race on the one-mile oiled dirt Oakland Speedway. Cummings finished fifth in the 1932 AAA national championship standings.

Bill Cummings would spend the rest of his racing career as a member of the Boyle Racing Team for mechanic Harry “Cotton” Henning, a former riding mechanic who prepared cars in the Boyle team headquarters, located less than three miles east of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Bill won the coveted pole position for the 1933 International 500-mile Sweepstakes with an average speed of 118.53 miles per hour (MPH) for his ten-lap run.

Cummings and Unversaw led the first 32 laps of the 1933 ‘500,’ but the car retired on lap 136 with a terminal radiator leak and Bill finished 25th in the 42-car field. Despite winning two of the 1933 AAA season’s three races from the pole, Cummings finished seventh in the AAA standings as a result of a his nineteenth place 1932 Indianapolis ‘500’ finish. Cummings earned 120 points for each of his 100-lap wins not nearly enough to overcome Louis Meyers’ 600 points for winning at Indianapolis.

 

Cummings and Unvershaw posed for their official qualifying photograph

Courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital studies

 

For the 1934 Indianapolis ‘500,’ cars were limited to just three gallons of fuel to complete the ten-lap qualifying run, and only 45 gallons for the entire 500 miles. Cummings and Unversaw qualified the white #7 Boyle Products Special, a widened 1927 front-drive Miller chassis powered by 221 cubic inch four-cylinder Miller Marine engine in tenth position in the 33-car field. 

Cummings worked his way through the field and took the lead on lap 72, and then battled Mauri Rose for the win the rest of the way after early leader Frank Brisko’s FWD Special faded.  Cummings led 57 laps to Rose’s 68 laps, but Cumming led the one that counted as before a crowd of 135,000 fans he led Rose across the finish line by 27 seconds the closest finish in the Speedway’s 23-year history.

Cummings completed the race one minute and 54 seconds faster than Louis Meyer’s winning time from the previous year’s ‘500,’ to set a new speed record for the 500 miles of 104.863 miles per hour which earned him membership in the Champion Spark Plug 100-MPH club. The four-cylinder Miller marine engine was the first four-cylinder engine to win the ‘500’ since Gaston Chevrolet’s Frontenac in 1920.    

Cummings’ win was not without controversy as Rose’s car owner retired driver Leon Duray filed a post-race protest with the stewards. Duray claimed that Cummings had built up an unfair advantage of ¾ of a lap during one of the caution periods to remove a wrecked car from the track. The race stewards led the chief steward W.D. “Eddie” Edenburn reviewed Duray’s protest but denied it. In those days yellow flags were displayed around the track, and the stewards admitted that there had been a delay in the display of the caution flag at all the locations around the track.

Leon Duray immediately filed an appeal with the AAA Contest Board and it was not until July that Cummings was officially ruled the Indianapolis ‘500’ winner.

Despite Duray’s pending appeal Cummings was publicly acclaimed as the 1934 Indianapolis ‘500’ champion although he had not collected a large portion of his winnings for the victory as the combined prize money of $44,075 for first and second places was withheld by Speedway officials until the final ruling. To prevent a reoccurrence of the controversy, for 1935 Indianapolis Motor Speedway became the first track install signaling light, six sets of green and yellow lights installed around the 2-1/2 mile oval.

 

 

Cummings posed on his Harley Davidson motorcycle in 1934

Courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital studies

 

Three days after his ‘500’ victory on June 3, Bill appeared in Dayton Ohio at a ‘big car’ race held at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds after he rode in from Indianapolis on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Cummings had previously committed to race in Dayton that day but Bill told reporters that his doctor had forbid him to enter. According to historian Rick Patterson Cummings made a few ceremonial laps on his motorcycle around the ½-mile oval to the cheers of the crowd of 3000 fans.   

Cummings returned to Dayton again in mid-August 1934 to attend the first annual All-American Soap Box Derby as the event was sponsored by Chevrolet for which he was a spokesman.  Bill also attended the Soap Box Derby, along with the legendary retired driver and car owner Harry Hartz in 1935, 1936, and 1937 after the Derby moved to its permanent home in Akron Ohio.  

Cummings’ results for the rest of the 1934 AAA racing season were not spectacular with a pair of top ten finishes despite starting from the pole position at Syracuse and Springfield Illinois. The Boyle Miller engine broke a crankshaft in practice and Cummings missed the season finale at Mines Field (now the site of Los Angeles International Airport)  but the 600 points earned at the ‘500’ were enough for Bill Cummings to be crowned the 1934 AAA National Champion and the right to carry the number ‘1’ through the 1935 season.

Our next installment will cover “Wild Bill” Cummings later career and untimely death.

Roadster racer Don Kolb's 1948 season

Today we take a look at a year in the life of a track roadster racer in Northern California against the background of the rapidly changing race sanctioning environment of the era.

After World War II the popularity of auto racing in the United States exploded in particular midget car racing. Many race-hungry veterans like Oakland California racer Donald “Don” Kolb looked for a more economical form of racing and found it with “hot rods” or track roadsters.

These race cars were built up from stripped-down pre-war cars and powered by “hopped up” powerplants such as six cylinder GMC or Ford V-8 engines. As we shall see, 1948 proved to be a very significant year for Don Kolb both professionally and personally.

The 1948 Don Kolb story begins even before the racing season started, in February as the 24-year old Kolb helped create a new roadster racing sanctioning association. Through the period of 1946 to 1947, a majority of the roadster races in the California Bay Area were sanctioned by Northern California Roadster Racing Association (NCRRA), a non-profit group run by business manager Nils Lilejedahl. According to writer and promoter Al Slonaker’s ‘Speedway Sparks’ column in the Oakland Tribune during 1947 some members of the NCRRA became disenchanted with “the lack of profits” with NCRRA organization and formed their own for-profit sanctioning group known as Racing Roadsters Incorporated (RRI).

The new group’s president was announced as John Milton owner of the #5 “Milton Hudson” track roadster driven by Stan Dean. The Milton Motor Company located on 14th Street in Oakland California had been a Hudson dealership since 1938. RRI’s Vice-president was Al Dickman from Manteca California the owner of the #9 Ford V-8 powered roadster, while Arthur Garden, the group’s attorney acted as the non-voting secretary/treasurer.

Don Kolb was one of the RRI board members along with Hank Keith, Don Milton, Don Kolb, Dave Zimola, L. D. Plumley, and Henry K. Richardson. The corporation issued voting and non-voting members and Wilton and most of the board members took only non-voting stock for obvious political reasons.

RRI officials told Slonaker that they had more than 35 cars signed up for the 1948 season and contracts in place with the Oakland Stadium, Belmont Speedway, and Salinas Valley Speedway. For its part, the NCRRA organization claimed to have signed contracts to present races at Stockton 99 Speedway and Contra Costa Speedway with their stars “Lightning” Lemoine Frey (who drove for Dickman in 1947), “Jumpin” Joe Valente, “Sad” Sam Hawks, and young Ed Elisian. 

Despite its name, the 5/8-mile paved Oakland Stadium was located near the intersection of  East 14th Street and 155th Avenue in suburban San Leandro and featured a hugely banked 62-degree third and fourth turn complex, but it also had a ¼-mile track inside which was sometimes used by the roadsters. The ¼-mile dirt Belmont Speedway (also known as San Carlos Speedway) was located adjacent to the Bay Meadows thoroughbred race track which itself occasionally hosted auto racing. Both race tracks are long gone and are now the site of shopping centers.   

The 1/3-mile paved Salinas Valley Speedway was located in the Alisal (sycamore in Spanish) area east of Salinas. The Salinas area was a hot-bed of Northern California roadster racing and also featured Devils Bowl Speedway. Salinas was the home of Elmer George, Norman Garland, Arnold Chapman and the “King of Northern California roadsters," Johnny Key, the 1947 and 1948 NCRRA season champion. Although he was from Santa Cruz racer and service station owner Lloyd Ragon was also considered by most Bay Area roadster fans to be a member of the “Salinas Boys.”  

Contra Costa Speedway was a lightning fast ¼-mile dirt oval that was advertised as being in Walnut Creek but actually was in Pacheco adjacent to Buchanan Field. Contra Costa Speedway appears in scene of the 1960 motion picture “Wild Ride” that starred a young Jack Nicholson. Stockton 99 Speedway like Contra Costa a high-banked 1/4-mile except it was paved opened as a dirt 1/5-mile track 1947.

Built and operated by one-time boxing promoter William G. 'Billy' Hunefeld, the Stockton track initially had a youth football field in the infield. Of all the tracks mentioned in this article that the “roaring roadsters” raced, it is the only facility that is still open for racing.   

RRI officials also promised that their new group would require the use of safety hubs. Slonaker somewhat humorously noted that “this little precaution should make faithful fans a little more at ease in the stands. It's no fun trying to duck a flying wheel, too often the case when safety axles are omitted.”

Slonaker did not mention that RRI’s new rule would save driver’s lives as well. Many track roadster drivers died in accidents when their car flipped over after the rear axle broke and the car lost a wheel. A safety hub was a two-piece assembly with one part bolted to the rear end housing and the other welded onto the wheel hub. Combined with a bearing the assembly prevented the wheel from breaking loose in case the car’s axle broke.

Cyclone Safety Hubs were manufacturered by Mendel “Cookie” Ledington's "Cooks Machine Works in 1946 and 60 years later is still in business in same location

On Sunday April 25 Bob Sweikert a racer from Hayward came from eleventh starting position to claim victory at Salinas Valley Speedway over Tommy Cheek from Oakland with Johnny Key in third place. Sweikert posted a “clean sweep” that day – in addition to his win in the 25-lap main, run in 8 minutes and 5-1/2 seconds,  Sweikert set quick time in time trials with a lap of 18.70 seconds, won six- and eight-lap heat races, and beat Kolb to win the four-lap trophy dash.

Sweikert was one of many California drivers along with the Rathmann brothers and Troy Ruttman who used track roadster racing as a springboard to greater success. Born in Los Angeles but raised in Hayward Sweikert served domestically in the US Army Air Force in World War II. After his discharge Sweikert met UCLA coed Marion Edwards in 1947 and married her in 1948.

The Sweikert newlyweds returned to Bob’s hometown where he ran an auto repair shop in his parent’s garage and built his roadster.  Later, Sweikert would graduate to racing midgets, then big cars, before he “went east” to race with the American Automobile Association (AAA). Divorced and re-married Sweikert started his first Indianapolis ‘500’ in 1952 and won the 1955 Indianapolis 500-mile race before he perished in an AAA ‘big car’ accident in June 1956.

The same day as the Racing Roadsters’ Salinas Valley race, April 25, the Northern California Roadster Racing Association (NCRRA) staged a 25-lap race won the George “Blonde” Pacheco of Oakland at Bayshore Stadium a ¼-mile dirt former dog track next to the Cow Palace arena in Daly City. Head-to-head scheduling by the two Bay Area track roadster sanctioning bodies until car counts for both groups dropped and they merged to become United Roadsters Inc. in mid-1950.

During the RRI race held May 1 at Salinas, hometown driver Norm Garland was black flagged out of a comfortable lead on the 34th lap of the 35-lap feature for a leaking radiator that created a “track hazard” as fans roared their disapproval. After the race, enraged fans swarmed the speedway and in the ensuing riot, flagman Bill Jagger was punched in the face. Chaos reigned until the local sheriff was called upon to restore order.

For the roadster race two weeks later at Oakland Stadium the group’s season opener at the track on May14, promoter Charlie Curryer advertised it as a grudge match between the “heroes of the lettuce belt” and Oakland drivers that included Mel Senna, Al Slinker, Budge Canty, ‘Red’ Corbin and Kolb. The throttle on Jim Heath’s car hung open and Heath's car hit a large electrical pole adjacent to the ¼-mile track and burst into flame. Rescuers pulled Heath from the car and he suffered a compound fracture of his left leg but no burns. In the 25-lap feature, Tommy Cheek passed Bob Sweikert on the last lap to steal the win.

On Friday of the 1948 Memorial Day weekend 3,100 fans paid $1.00 admission at Oakland Stadium to watch Johnny Key win the 25-lap feature as Kolb finished in second place with Sweikert in third place.

On Saturday night July 10 1948 Kolb drove Walnut Creek car owner George Dietrich's Mercury-powered car to a 25-lap victory at Belmont Stadium. Kolb took the lead on the third lap after Stan Dean, in the “Milton Hudson” roadster went wide through the first turn on the flat quarter mile speedway, and Kolb was never seriously challenged again on the way to victory.  

Salinas’ Elmer George brought the crowd their feet on the twenty-fourth lap after he crashed head-on into the crash wall in front of the grandstand when his car broke a steering arm in turn four. George was miraculously uninjured and later “went east” in 1954 with his friend Johnny Key to race with the AAA. George eventually married his AAA ‘big car’ owner Mari Hulman, the daughter of Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman. George was the 1957 United States Auto Club (USAC) Midwest ‘big car’ champion and started the Indy ‘500’ on three occasions before he retired from driving following his failure to qualify for the 1964 Indy 500.

On Sunday August 22 1948 Kolb married his fiancé Dorothy Quintel in a unique ceremony held on the front stretch of the 5/8-mile Oakland Stadium track in front of 7,500 witnesses as part of the second annual “Invitational Roadster Classic.” This race brought together drivers from Northern California roadster clubs as well as the cars and drivers from the California Roadster Association (CRA) from the Los Angeles area. The CRA cars carried the letter “X” to help fans differentiate between their local heroes and the southern invaders.

 

After the trophy dash, Kolb and Ms. Quintel who was RRI President John Milton’s secretary were married. As Kolb sat in his car, Quintel was brought “down the aisle” (the front stretch) as she rode in another roadster. As Dorothy stood in the cockpit of the roadster, Kolb stood beside her as Oakland Municipal Court Judge James S Blaine presided while he stood in the cockpit of a third roadster parked in front of the couple. Later, Johnny Key won the feature as Walt James in sixth was the highest finisher of the CRA cars.

The couple had an abbreviated honeymoon as the following Saturday, August 27 Kolb won the 25-lap feature at Oakland Stadium in front of 3,300 fans. Kolb started on the pole, led briefly, and then came back to defeat Jimmy Davies of Los Angeles and Bill Pettit of Oakland with US Navy veteran and future sports car racer Jack Flaherty in fourth place.

In October 1948 the Bay Area’s season racing champions were announced. Fred Agabashian reigned as Bay Cities Racing Association midget champion for the third year in a row, while Johnny Keys won his third consecutive Northern California track roadster championship with the Racing Roadsters Incorporated (RRI). Don Kolb placed third overall in RRI points behind Bob Schellinger of Danville. The 1948 champion of the rival Northern California Roadster Racing Association NCRRA was “Jumpin” Joe Valente a racing showman who became a track flag man after he retired from race driving.   

The 1970 Shriner’s Indianapolis race

 

 

1970's IMS logo

For many years, from 1919 until 1994, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted just one race each year, the International 500-mile Sweepstakes. Today when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosts multiple races and events during the calendar year, it is hard to imagine that the great track sat idle for eleven months out of the year except for testing sessions.  The exception is an all-but-forgotten exhibition race held at the Speedway in mid-July 1970.

The 1970 Shriner's Convention

During the third week of July 1970 from the 13th to the 17th the City of Indianapolis Indiana hosted the 96th annual convention of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, an organization commonly known as the Shriners. 1970 marked the third time the city played host to the Shriner’s Convention with the previous conventions held in 1919 and 1940. Unlike the 2013 Indianapolis Shriners convention which hosted 15,000 members, in 1970 the convention hosted an estimated 40,000 Shriners as articles in the local press described local hotels as “jammed.”

With the convention held in the hometown of the first native Hoosier Imperial Potentate J. Worth Baker, the principal theme was automobiles and automobile racing so many of the meeting venues used a black and white checkered flag motif.  The highlight of the week, at least for racing fans, was what was described as “a shortened version of the Indianapolis 500” held on Wednesday afternoon July 15 between sessions of the Shriners Convention. The Superintendent of the Speedway grounds since 1948, Clarence Cagle, himself a Shriner was the driving force behind the special event. 

The United Press International (UPI) reported that the 10-lap exhibition race would be contested by seven drivers but listed eleven drivers as probable entrants; Johnny Rutherford, Roger McCluskey, Art Pollard, Rick Muther, Bruce Walkup, Jim Malloy, Mike Mosley, Bob Harkey, Joe Leonard, Bentley Warren and Mel Kenyon. During the 25-mile race, drivers and the teams would be required to complete one demonstration pit stop complete with a tire change.

In addition to the estimated 10,000 Shriners on hand, there were several distinguished guests Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Anton “Tony” Hulman Junior was joined the Imperial Potentate Worth, the 43rd Governor of the State Indiana Edgar Whitcomb, and Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar.

There were long-standing connections between the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the local Shriners Murat Temple, as Captain Eddie Rickenbaker the owner of the Speedway from 1927 to 1945 was a member. The traditional Pole Position Mechanic and the Indianapolis ‘500’ Victory banquets were both held in the huge Egyptian Room at the downtown Murat Temple until 1972 when the Victory banquet moved to the newly-opened Indiana Convention Center.

The Shriners’ national leader in 1970, J Worth Baker, then the local potentate was one of four men who founded the “500 Festival Associates in 1957 along with then Mayor Alex Clark, Joseph Quinn, Safety Director for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Howard S. Wilcox, promotions director for the Indianapolis Star and son of the 1919 Indianapolis ‘500’ race winner.


The 1922 Shriner's Day race

1970 was not the first time that an automobile race had been staged in connection with a Shriner’s Convention. On June 14, 1922, as part of the 40th annual meeting of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine Imperial Council, the Aahmes Temple in Oakland California sponsored a “Shriner’s Day” non-championship AAA-sanctioned 150-mile race at the Greater San Francisco Speedway, a 1-1/4 mile board track actually located adjacent to an airfield 25 miles south of San Francisco on the peninsula town of in San Carlos.

The race which was held as part of a day-long celebration was preceded by a parade, picnic and an aviation and automobile thrill show. Following a 25-mile “semi-stock Ford race”  the day's featured race was won by Joe Thomas in a factory Duesenberg over his teammate Roscoe Sarles.

Less than a week after the Shriners Race, on June 18 1922, about half of the San Carlos track and 3/4 of the grandstands were consumed by flames carried by a strong wind. Initially blamed on “hobos,” (a quaint term for homeless men) the cause of the fire was later traced to a pile of oil-soaked wood scraps and shavings left under one of the turns after the track’s construction. 

Jack Prince who built the San Carlos facility in partnership with engineer Art Pillsbury traveled west from Kansas City where he was supervising the building the pair’s next board track and estimated it would cost $200,000 to rebuild the facility as 1-1/2 mile track.  Despite and immediate pronouncement by Speedway association president Fred Morton that the loss was entirely covered by insurance and general manager Bill Pickens’ mid-July 1922 announcement of a scheduled 250-mile championship race on October 15, the seven-month old San Carlos track which hosted three automobile and two motorcycle races in its time was never rebuilt.

The outcome of the 1970 Shriner's race

With the last previous race on the 1970 United States Auto Club (USAC) National Championship Trail schedule the 'Michigan Twin 200s' held on July 4, many teams were in Indianapolis to prepare for the ‘Indy 150,’ scheduled for July 26 at the nearby Indianapolis Raceway Park road course. Prior to the start of the exhibition race, 25 members of the Indianapolis ‘500’ Shrine Club drove their modified Volkswagens mini-Indy cars on a ceremonial parade lap around the historic 2-1/2 mile Speedway.  

Johnny Rutherford won the 25-mile race

 

Texan Johnny Rutherford won the July 15 exhibition race reportedly by a mere five feet over Mike Mosley as he averaged 142.787 miles per hour (MPH) for the 25 miles. While the car that Rutherford drove was only identified in news articles as being powered by a turbocharged Ford, research can identify the likely car. 1970 marked the third year that Johnny drove an updated 1967 AAR “Patrick Petroleum” Eagle for Michigan car owner Walt Michner which at various times during the 1970 USAC season was powered by a turbocharged Ford engine. Mosley was behind the wheel of the Ralph Wilke owned “G C Murphy Special” turbocharged Offenhauser-powered Watson originally built new for the 1969 USAC season.  

Jim Malloy finished third

 

Third place fell to Jim Malloy in the Federal Engineering owned Gerhardt turbocharged Offenhauser “Stearns Transi-Tread Special.” This was the car sponsored by the manufacturer of rubber conveyor belts used in airport baggage handling carousels that Malloy had qualified in the ninth position for the 1970 Indianapolis ‘500’ but crashed in turn four during the pace laps after a heim joint in the Gerhardt’s right rear radius rod broke.

Art Pollard finished in fourth place in the Shriners exhibition race as he drove Jim Hayhoe’s Clint Brawner built Scorpion powered by a turbocharged Ford engine which was driven by Roger McCluskey during the 1970 USAC season with sponsorship from Quickick, an “isotonic action drink” and “sports gum” from sports medicine supplier Cramer Products.



Art Pollard's 1970 USAC season

Pollard was between rides after the dissolution of his Art Pollard Car Wash/Race-Go Incorporated racing team at the end of June.  

Art Pollard's 1970 Indy 500 photo

courtesy INDYCAR

 

The March 14 1970 edition of the Indianapolis Star carried the story that Art Pollard had signed to drive a new Grant King built 750 horsepower turbocharged Offenhauser semi-monocoque entry for Race-Go Incorporated. The unique part of the deal was that the car one of three entered by the new team would be called the “Art Pollard’s Car Wash Systems Special,” which made Pollard one of the few racers ever to be his own sponsor. 

The Star article said Race-Go Inc. “was organized two months ago by John F Newcomer and Allan Warne of Indianapolis to sell car wash systems” and that “a second driver will be named to the team after Pollard qualified for the ‘500.’” Grant King, like Pollard a veteran of the Northwest CAMRA racing circuit was identified as the team’s chief mechanic; King and Pollard had worked together the previous season with STP Oil Treatment sponsorship.

Contrary to the claim in the Star, Art Pollard Car Wash Systems Inc. filed for its Indiana State business license on July 21, 1970, with three principals: Newcomer, Warne and Roger R Isch of Bluffton Indiana. Newcomer, Race-Go’s Chairman of the Board, had relocated his family to Indianapolis in early 1970 after he worked as an area manager for a grocery store chain and a homebuilder in Tucson. Newcomer told the Star that “auto racing will go down as the sports of the 70’s,” and that his company was getting in on the ground floor.

Allan Warne was a vice-president of Acme Building Materials Incorporated a well-known Indianapolis building material firm and local manufacturer of Precision Homes, prefabricated homes sold in five Midwestern states. Nothing is known of Isch or Marley Mangold who was identified as the President and General Manager of Art Pollard Car Wash Systems Inc., but it suffices to say that none of the four men had been involved in the racing industry prior to the formation of Race-Go Inc.

Nearly 50 years later, Pollard’s role in Race-Go Inc. is confusing to say the least. At different times it was stated in various Indianapolis Star articles that “Pollard signed a contract to drive,” “Pollard got into the car wash business,” and at one point the Star reported that the company named Pollard President. Pollard was quoted “they even gave me an office. The other day I sat in on a board meeting and they even let me say something once in a while.” Later, Pollard told the Associated Press (AP) auto racing editor reporter Bloys Britt that “his investment for the year” would exceed $400,000. Depending on which statement you chose to believe, Pollard was a contract driver, employee, investor, car owner or some combination of the four.  

 

Greg Weld's 1970 IMS photo

Courtesy INDYCAR

 

Pollard drove the #93 turbocharged Offenhauser powered 1969 Gerhardt chassis at the 1970 USAC season opener at Phoenix, and was running in fourth place when he spun. Pollard then drove the new #10 King chassis at Trenton New Jersey with the Gerhardt driven by Greg Weld. At Indianapolis Art Pollard qualified the #10 at 168.595 miles per hour to start the ‘500’ from sixth position on the outside of the second row.  

Car owner Newcomer told the Star “the whole thing is very exciting, of course, but it is also great for promoting our car wash business. This is the best advertising in the world."  After he crashed on the first day of time trials, Greg Weld qualified the #93 Gerhardt chassis at 166.121 MPH on the third day of time trials to start from 28th position as the fastest rookie driver in the starting field.    

In an article published in the Anderson Herald on May 30 the day of the ‘500,’ Grant King related “there is no such thing as a car being completely ready. You keep tearing them down and putting them back together. You never know what you’re going to find after even a practice run of a lap or two.” “After Art qualified we discovered missing tooth in the rear end so we replaced the entire rear end with a new unit,” said King.  Prior to the race, King decided he wanted to re-size the rods and shipped them to Los Angeles. On return flight, the plane carrying the rods was delayed eight hours in St. Louis so the team worked all night to get the car completed in time for tests on Carburation Day.  

 

The end of Pollard's 1970 Indy 500

courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

IUPUI University LibraryCenter for Digital Studies

 

In a pre-race poll of four unidentified veteran observers Bloys Britt quoted the following odds: Al Unser at 2-1 was ranked as “tough to beat if he doesn’t break.”  Pollard was ranked as “could finish well up with 15-1 odds, while Weld went off at 30-1 odds with the comments “if it was only a sprint race.”

Alas both the “Art Pollard Car Wash Systems Specials” were eliminated very early in the race both with burnt pistons. Weld retired on lap 12 and Pollard brought out the race’s first caution flag on lap 28 to finish 32nd and 30th respectively. Pollard appeared in the #10 car in the Rex Mays Classic and fell out on lap 119 with an oil leak. Pollard was entered at Langhorne on June 14 but the car did not appear.

In his “Speaking of Speed” column in the June 21 1970 edition of the Indianapolis Star, George Moore’s revealed that Race-Go had fired Grant King. Moore reported that ”financial remuneration-or the lack of it” was the root cause but also that “there were some personality differences.” Moore wrote that “the team is reorganizing personnel and moving its base of operations to Atlanta.”

Newcomer admitted that “Atlanta doesn’t sound like the best location for running a championship car, but then we may not be there permanently.” The new chief mechanic was Jim Ruggles backed up by JD Roberts. As the team decided to switch to Ford engines, “Ruggles is slated to spend some time at the Foyt engine plant in Houston to pick up some points on the power plant.”

Ruggles earlier in his career was a shop foreman at Nichels Engineering and would later build the Buick V-6 engines which powered Rich Vogler to the 1989 USAC national sprint car championship. Art Pollard told Moore that he “had worked with Grant King for a long time but there were factors involved which just made it advisable for the people involved to pursue another course.”

Pollard appeared at the ‘Rocky Mountain 150’ at Continental Divide Raceway on June 29 and drove the #21 “Art Pollard Car Wash Systems” entry a turbo-charged Ford powered 1967 Vollstedt chassis rented from Rolla Vollstedt. John Cannon had failed to qualify the #21 Vollstedt chassis at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pollard retired after just two laps due to overheating, and this was the last time the Art Pollard name appeared on a car as a sponsor. In four months, Pollard went from sponsoring his own car to hunting for a new ride mid-season.  

Pollard picked up a ride for the “Michigan Twin 200s” at Michigan International Speedway in Dayton industrialist George Walther’s Morris Marauder chassis powered by a turbocharged Ford engine. The entry built by former Halibrand employee George Morris known as “Walther’s Tyrone” carried sponsorship from a Volkswagen dealership located on Tyrone Boulevard in St. Petersburg Florida that Walther co-owned with Ted Meuche.

Pollard would later drive a sister Scorpion to the car he drove in the “Shriner’s Race” to a second place finish at the Ontario Motor Speedway in the inaugural ‘California 500.’  Pollard initially lodged a protest that he won by a lap but withdrew after he reviewed the scoring tapes. Based primarily on his finish in the California 500, Pollard wound up third on the USAC winnings list with earnings of $102,155 for the 1970 season.

The final finishers in the Shriner's Race

Rick Muther grabbed fifth place

Fifth place in the Shriner's Race went to Rick Muther in the Two Jacks Racing tube frame Brawner-Hawk which had sat on the pole for the 1965 Indianapolis 500. Of the seven exhibition racers, only Muther had finished the 1970 ‘500’ as he recorded an eight place finish.

Bill Vukovich Junior crossed the finish line in sixth as he drove Don Gerhardt’s Thermo-King Gerhardt Offenhauser in place of Gary Bettenhausen the USAC trail’s most recent winner at Michigan International Speedway.

Bruce Walkup finished seventh in the seven-car exhibition as he drove a car only identified as a “car that did not qualify for the Indianapolis 500.” Walkup had qualified for the ‘500’ only three months earlier in JC Agajanian’s “Wynn’s Special” the only car fitted with a roll cage to qualify for the ‘500.’

After the completion of the Shriners exhibition race the Indianapolis Motor Speedway remained mostly silent for over nine months until May 1 1971 when it opened for practice for the 55th 500 Mile International Sweepstakes.

All images appear courtesy of INDYCAR except as noted