Indoor hardtop racing in San Francisco

Part two

In early 1955, the Crown American Racing Club of San Francisco sponsored the Northern California Indoor Hardtop Championship (NCIHTC) races indoors at the Cow Palace sanctioned by the Oakland Racing Association.

While pre-race publicity billed the Cow Palace events as “the national debut of indoor stock car racing;” the author’s research suggests that this might not have been an outlandish claim.  There were indoor stock car races held over the winter of 1951-2 inside the cavernous Cincinnati Gardens in Ohio, but those were small cars, makes such as Crosley, Renault 4CV and Peugeot 203 stripped down and raced on a 1/10-mile oval, whereas the races on the Cow Palace 1/5-mile oval were for full-size stock cars.   

Interestingly, the Cow Palace’s opening night was scheduled against the final night of the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) 6-week indoor midget car racing series held across San Francisco Bay inside the Oakland Exposition Building.

While the hardtops were racing inside the Cow Palace, the victory in the final 14-lap race in the Pacific Coast Indoor Auto Racing Championship was captured by San Francisco’s Dave Holliday (who had started his racing career racing under his given name Dave Steele) in Vic Gotelli’s #154 as Johnny Baldwin won his third consecutive BCRA indoor title.

The inaugural night of indoor hardtop racing on Saturday night, February 12, 1955 featured qualifying, heat races, a 15-lap semi-main race and a 30-lap feature. Victory in the first race of the hardtop series was captured by Max (sometimes erroneously called “Mac”) McCord of Alameda, trailed by Henry “Cowboy” Alves in second. Carmel Fernandez Jr. won the semi-main and finished third in the feature, while roadster racer George “Blonde” Pacheco won the trophy dash for the four fastest qualified cars.       

It appears that the Oakland Racing Association (ORA) which sanctioned the races patterned themselves after the BCRA indoor races and awarded points by results from races throughout the night, not just the feature results.  

At the end of the first night of racing, Pacheco and Alves were tied for the points lead with 48 markers apiece trailed by McCord with 43 points, then Fernandez Sr. in fourth. Fifth through tenth in the “Big Ten,” were in order Bob Anderson, Richard Fishburn, Dick Smith, George Lawrence, Walt Moniz and Tom Olives. 

The author has been thus far unable to uncover the complete racing results from the second week’s results from February 19 program, but the fragments found list Carmel Fernandez Jr as the winner of the second heat race and Walt Moniz the trophy dash winner. “Cowboy” Alves padded his points lead as the winner of the night’s feature race in car #666 with only 2,500 fans reportedly in attendance. 

There was a two-week break due to other events at the Cow Palace, which included a musical concert by Liberace on the afternoon of Sunday February 27 which drew 13,000 fans.  Prior to the March 5, 1955 third round of races, Henry Alves from Oakland was listed as the points leader with 103 markers and he held a lead of 32 points over second place driver Lou Phillips from San Francisco.  Hot rod roadster racer George Pacheco was in third place in the points chase, followed by Fishburn, McCord and  Bob Anderson who worked as a typesetter for the Hayward Daily Review newspaper, in sixth place.   

Heat race winners for the March 5 program included Pacheco, George Hanson, Moniz, Fishburn, and Earl ‘Doc’ Sadler who also won the trophy dash. Chet Thompson in the #999 machine who sometimes raced under the moniker “Johnny Comet” won the semi-main, and Hanson took the victory in the 30-lap feature event. 

Beginning with the March 12, 1955 fourth round of racing inside the Cow Palace, the racing was “dual sanctioned” by BCRA and NASCAR (the National Association of Stock Car Racing) with the races described as “mixed company” with NASCAR modified stock cars equipped with racing engines and the BCRA hardtops racing alongside the ORA stock hardtops.

The addition of NASCAR sanction to the program brought along drivers Gene Dudley, Johnny Franklin, Vern Fry and Dwight Palmer for the scheduled 15-lap semi-main and the 30-lap feature while the BCRA contributed their two-time hardtop champion Lou Bernardoni and Ted Montague.

Dan Regan won the trophy dash, with the heat race wins garnered by Montague, Anderson, Alves, Roletto and Dan O’Connell of San Leandro.  Bernardoni won the semi-main trailed by Montague with Anderson fourth. The win in the crash-filled feature went to McCord, followed by Bob Burdock, Olives and Roletto. 

The faster modified stock cars dominated the March 19^th fifth round of indoor racing at the Cow Palace, as ORA regulars Dick Anderson in the Hayward Printers Special and father and son Fernandez Sr and Jr were unable to qualify for the program. The victory in the night’s first race, the four-lap trophy dash victory went to Palo Alto’s Dick Seyler, while ‘Doc’ Sadler won both the first and second ten-lap heat races behind the wheel of his “stock” 1934 Plymouth coupe.

Joe ‘Rollover’ Roletto won the third heat race, while Burdock and Olives won the fourth and fifth heat races respectively. The seventh event of the evening, the 15-lap semi-main was captured by Marty Flores of San Leandro followed by Leroy Davies.

Chuck Webb, the 1953 track champion at Sacramento’s West Capitol Speedway won the night’s featured 30-lap main event as he battled through heavy traffic.  San Francisco’s Lou Bernardoni who set the track record for qualifying around the Cow Palace 1/5-mile oval at 11.2 seconds finished second and Joe Nault was third. 

The final race of the six-week North California Indoor Hardtop Championship (NCIHTC) winter program concluded on Saturday night March 26, 1955. The first 10-lap heat race was captured by future BCRA midget champion Dick Atkins of Hayward, while Ned Mosely and Joe Diaz won the second and third heat races. Joe Justie, from Stockton earlier the winner of the trophy dash, won both the fourth and fifth heat races.

Jimmy Stewart (not the actor) won the semi-main as he edged Max McCord who had entered the night’s racing leading by 11 points, with Anderson in third. ORA regular Henry ‘Cowboy” Alves won the 30-lap feature over BCRA regular George Hansen, with Diaz in third place. With his victory Alves overtook McCord’s slim points lead and won the NCIHTC title as he tallied 230 points to McCord’s 212 with ‘big car’ veteran Joe Roletto placed third.

The two top drivers, Henry “Cowboy” Alves, and Max McCord, were the only drivers to win more than once in the series’ six races, with George Hanson of San Francisco and Chuck Webb of Sacramento single race winners. Although the BCRA outdoor racing season kicked off the week following the NCIHTC finale, promoter Marc Mott scheduled a Spring series of indoor stock car races to launch on May 7 1955 to run through the month of June.  

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 Sauter Porsche – one of one

One car on display as part of the special single-marque exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum entitled ‘The Porsche Effect’ is this modified 1951 Porsche 356 known as the “Sauter Porsche.” While the car’s history does not include any major racing victories, it is a remarkable story and the significance of its impact on Porsche design is undeniable.

In 1951, Heinrich Sauter, the young heir of the German Hahn + Kolb toolmaking firm based in Stuttgart, purchased Porsche 356 cabriolet chassis #10359. The rear-engine, rear-wheel drive 356 powered by an air-cooled flat four-cylinder engine was Porsche’s first post-war production car. Sauter’s car was powered by a 1300 cubic centimeter (CC) (79 cubic inch) engine advertised to develop 44 horsepower, plenty of power to push along the lightweight 1290-pound machine.

Sauter was a racer who competed mainly in hill climbs and rallies, and he wanted more performance so he contacted Karosserie (coachbuilder) Klenk in Frankfurt Germany to modify his 356. Klenk had close ties to the Porsche factory and installed a new larger Porsche 1500S (1500 CC or 91 cubic inches) engine which developed 55 horsepower, but the important change was the new steel low-profile bodywork.

 

 

 

With input from the factory, Klenk built a body with “suicide” (front opening) doors, a new panel to fill in for the missing convertible top, air ducts to cool the front brakes, small competition windscreens, ducts at the rear to allow air out of the engine compartment and an external fuel tank filler.      

Records indicate that Sauter raced the car sparingly before his sold it back to the Porsche factory and during 1952 it was raced across Europe by Frenchman Francois Picard, before it was sold to American Jack Armstrong. Armstrong shipped the car to the Unified States and it was raced on the West Coast in 1953 by Stan Mullin in SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) events at Santa Barbara and Long Beach. Armstrong himself drove the Sauter 356 at the August 1953 races held at Moffett Field Naval Air Station near Mountain View California.

 

 

 

By the time of the SCCA Orange Empire National Sports Car Races held at March Air Field in November 1953, Mullin and Armstrong were listed as partners in the ownership of the special-bodied Porsche. Mullin became the owner/driver in 1954, and after a single appearance at the March races held at Minter Field in Shafter California, the Sauter Porsche dropped from sight.

 

Porsche factory photo of a 356 America

 

While not a great success on the racetrack, the ground-breaking styling of the Sauter Porsche inspired three subsequent Porsche 356 designs. In 1952, Porsche built a small series (less than 25) of cars destined for the North American market known as the “356 America Roadster.” Clad with an aluminum body built by Dresden-based Gläser-Karosserie with cut-down doors and a removable windshield, the “America” a true roadster with no permanent top or roll-up windows weighed 1330 pounds. However, the cost of production was higher than expected and reportedly coachbuilder Glaser lost money on each body. In the end the high-priced stripped down racing “America” sports car was a dismal commercial failure.  

 

 

 

In late 1954 in his New York City showroom designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Porsche importer/dealer Max Hoffman unveiled the iconic “356 Speedster” which featured the design elements shown in the Sauter Porsche, namely a 1500 CC engine, a stripped down interior with no roll-up side windows and a cut-down windshield. Equipped with a minimal convertible top,  the “Speedster” was an immediate hit with over 4,100 Porsche 356 and 356A Speedsters built before production ended in 1959.

The Speedster appealed particularly to Hollywood celebrities. Before he traded it in on his Porsche 550 Spyder death car, actor James Dean owned and raced a white 1955 Porsche 1500 Super Speedster, chassis # 80126, and won one race at Palm Springs in March of 1955. “The King of Cool” Steve McQueen owned and raced a black 1959 Porsche 1600 Super Speedster serial number 84855 equipped with Rudge alloy knock-off wheels and won a SCCA novice race at the Goleta airport course on Memorial Day 1959.

 

 

The final Porsche production car that can trace its origins back to the Sauter Porsche is the 1955 Porsche Continental, the brainchild of North American Porsche importer Max Hoffman who thought that a plusher Porsche would appeal to the American market. In addition to a plusher interior and high-quality convertible top, the bodywork of the Continental, built by Stuttgart’s’ Karosserie Reutter, was accented by “Continental” in gold script on the front fenders, “turbine style” wheel covers and whitewall tires.  Within the first year however, the name of the car was changed to “European” reportedly after the Ford Motor Company explained that they held the rights to the “Continental” trademark for automobiles.    

The history of the Sauter Porsche itself fast forwards to 1982 when an Indianapolis physician Dr. Ray Knight bought a strange “Porsche/Volkswagen hybrid” from a rural eastern Indiana junkyard. Reportedly the car had been stored outside since 1958 and was fitted with an incorrect albeit blown engine, but Knight paid $4,500 for the car and then set out to research its history and restore the car.

Knight tracked down the car’s provenance through interviews with Sauter, Klenk and Mullin and spent nearly 4,000 man-hours to bring the car up to the level of finish we see today. Several years ago Knight sold the car to collector Phil White, and Dr. Knight donated half of the “high six figure” proceeds to his alma mater Wabash College. Under Mr. White’s ownership the Sauter Porsche won an award as the “best open 356” at the Porsche Club of America 2017 Werks Reunion in Monterey California.  

Color photographs by the author