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 13th
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 27th, 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 113th
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 12th 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 15th, 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 10th. 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
