1950 Indianapolis '500' pole winner 

On display in Duman’s Turn 4 Restorations shop during the IRMA Bench Racing Weekend tour was the record-setting Kurtis 2000 which captured the pole position for the 1950 Indianapolis 500-mile race driven by rookie Walt Faulkner.

In early 1948, racing promoter Joshua “JC” Agajanian bought this car, chassis #318, the second of eleven Kurtis-Kraft 2000 Championship cars built, to race at the Indianapolis 500-mile race.  

Agajanian’s plan quickly went awry, when the American Automobile Association (AAA) the governing body of championship car racing, ruled that JC could not enter a car at Indianapolis because he was the president of an “outlaw” racing organization (in other words, a non-AAA affiliate), the Western Racing Association (WRA), which sanctioned “big car” races in California.   

Because of the AAA edict, the car, powered by a 270-cubic inch four-cylinder Offenhauser engine, was officially entered by Agajanian’s two mechanics, Clay Smith and Danny Jones. Johnny Mantz qualified eighth for the 33-car 1948 Indianapolis starting field and finished in the 13^th position.

At the August  AAA race at Milwaukee the second of three AAA races on the dirt State Fairgrounds mile,  Mantz qualified for the pole position, led early, then passed Emil Andres on the final lap and won the 100-mile race. Later in the year in the season finale at DuQuoin Illinois, Mantz was involved in the Ted Horn fatal crash and the Kurtis was sent to Los Angeles craftsman Eddie Kuzma for off-season repairs that included a modification of the front axle and suspension.

Mantz drove the #98 Agajanian entry again for the 1949 AAA season with lukewarm results, and Mantz was entered as the driver of the ‘Grant Piston Ring Special,’ for the Indianapolis ‘500’ but in early April Johnny Mantz announced his retirement from track racing and instead competed in the Mexican Road Race with the Lincoln factory team.

Days later, Agajanian named midget racing star Walt Faulkner as the driver of his cream and red #98.  Faulkner a native Texan, started racing midgets in 1940 in Southern California, scored 28 pre-war midget feature wins and the United Midget Association championship in 1941 and 40 wins with the prestigious United Racing Association (URA) through 1949. 

Walt who stood only 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed less than 130 pounds was nicknamed “The Little Dynamo” and like most drivers, Walt was superstitious; he always climbed into a race car from the left side and carried an old penny in one of his shoes.

Walt passed his “rookie test” at the Speedway on May 11, 1950 and on “Pole Day” May 13, 1950, Faulkner’s inaugural Speedway qualifying run started just as the gun fired that signaled the end of the first day of qualifying.

1950 Walt Faulkner qualifying photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library 

Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

Note the wire wheels 

Many members of the crowd of 50,000 fans were filing towards the exits as the unknown California began his run , but when the track public address announcer called out Walt’s first lap speed – 132.743 miles per hour (MPH) many in the crowd reversed their tracks. 

The second lap was even faster- 134.811 MPH and the third lap was the fastest official lap ever turned at the old 2-1/2-mile brick oval - 136.013 MPH!  Walt eased off for his fourth and final lap to record a new record ten-mile average of 134.343 MPH.

Faulkner became the first rookie to set the fastest qualifying time since Georges Boillot in 1914 and he smashed the one- and four-lap speed records which had stood since 1946, set by the late Ralph Hepburn in the NOVI.  

For the 500-mile race, chief mechanic Clay Smith switched the Offenhauser engine over to run on gasoline which improved the car’s fuel mileage but cut power and the car’s top speed. 

1950 IMS official Walt Faulkner photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library 

Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

 note the Halibrand wheels 

Another change on race day was the use of the “new” Halibrand solid magnesium wheels after the car qualified on wire wheels. Walt ran among the top five positions through most of the race and was scored in seventh place when rain came and ended the race at 345 miles (138 laps). The Rookie-of-the-Year award was not awarded at Indianapolis until 1952, but clearly Walt would have won the Rookie award had it been awarded in 1950.  

On August 27^th, Walt won his first AAA championship race on the dirt one-mile oval at Milwaukee as he battled Tony Bettenhausen and Paul Russo for the win. Bettenhausen led the first 75 circuits until he made a pit stop, which handed the lead to Faulkner who led until he too pitted on the 113^th lap.  

Russo picked up the lead until lap 131 when Walt passed Paul for the lead and never looked back. The #98 ‘Grant Piston Ring Special’ set a new record for the 200-mile distance at Milwaukee , six minutes ahead of the previous record set in 1948 by Myron Fohr.

Walt Faulkner finished a close second in the tight three-way battle for 1950 AAA National Championship, only 73 markers behind champion Henry Banks and just four points ahead of Indianapolis winner Johnnie Parsons. 

In ten 1950 AAA champ car appearances, Faulkner scored one win, four top five finishes and four top ten finishes, with his 12^th place at the second Springfield Illinois race his worst 1950 finish. Walt failed to qualify at the first Springfield race and the #98 was withdrawn after it broke a connecting rod the Offenhauser engine in practice at Langhorne Pennsylvania.

For the 1951 season JC Agajanian purchased a new chassis built by Eddie Kuzma for Faulkner and assigned the #98 Kurtis 2000, entered as the “Agajanian Featherweight Special” to third year driver Troy Ruttman.  

1951 Troy Ruttman qualifying photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library 

Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection 

The “Featherweight” term did not refer to the car itself, as many believe, but rather it was for a new product that JC Agajanian signed as sponsor;  it was a plastic liquid that was sprayed on as an automotive undercoating – according to news reports, this materials only added five pounds to a typical car compared to fifty pounds for other contemporary undercoating products.

Ruttman in the #98 ‘Featherweight Special’ qualified sixth, while Faulkner again set new one- and four-lap track speed records in the new Kuzma, but he started 15^th, as his record runs came on the third day of time trials as the new Kuzma built car had arrived new late from the West Coast on May 10^th. The ‘Featherweight Special’ but was out of the 1951 ‘500’ on lap 78 with a burnt bearing in the Offenhauser engine.

Agajanian sold the Kurtis 2000 chassis to Tom Sarafoff who owned a chain of diners in the Terre Haute, and Sarafoff entered the car for Cliff Griffith who qualified and finished the 1952 ‘500’ in ninth place. 

The car did not qualify at Indianapolis in 1953 as Sarafoff entered the Kurtis for rookie Bob Sweikert, but Bob quit the team before the Speedway opened and drove for Al Dean during the 1953 AAA season.   Dayton Ohio’s J. Carlyle “Duke” Dinsmore then tried the car but was too slow to make the field.

In 1954, Cliff Griffith one the comeback from serious burns suffered in a 1953 Indianapolis practice crash, tried the Kurtis 2000 but quit on May 12 as he explained “one hand doesn’t fully work and there’s no use kidding myself I don’t feel comfortable above 124 MPH.” After George Tichneor failed to make the 1954 33-car starting field, Sarafoff sold off all his racing cars and equipment.

Rick Duman’s fine restoration of the Agajanian 1950 ‘Grant Piston Ring Special’ as driven by Walk Faulkner is a fitting tribute to the drivers, car owners and mechanics of that bygone era.

All Color photos by the author