Roscoe Turner’s 1929 Packard

While the author was in Indianapolis for the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show, he saw that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum had placed a 1929 Packard Custom Eight 6-40 Dual-Cowl Phaeton on display at the Indianapolis International Airport to promote its special “From the Vault” exhibition, While it is a beautifully finished example of a spectacular era of automobile manufacturing, what is most fascinating about the Packard is its original owner - the famed aviator Colonel Roscoe Turner.  

Born in Corinth Mississippi in 1895, Turner worked at various jobs until he enlisted for World War One. Roscoe first served first in the balloon corps then later as a fighter pilot.  Upon his return to the United States, the mustachioed Turner used his wartime pay to buy and airplane and became a dashing barnstormer and stunt pilot.

A consummate self-promoter, Turner was a pioneer in what we today call “personal branding.”  In public, Roscoe always wore a custom uniform the consisted of a military-style tunic, jodhpurs, and highly polished riding boots. He accessorized the outfit with an officer’s cap embroidered with a winged insignia with the monogram "RT" and the matching logo on a pin on his chest and on his large brass belt buckle.

In 1928, young film maker Howard Hughes purchased Turner’s huge Sikorsky S-29-A twin-engine biplane airliner for air-to-air filming of his epic film Hell’s Angels. Roscoe flew the airliner and worked as a stunt pilot until towards the end of filming, in March 1929, when Hughes asked Turner to undertake a dangerous “spin” stunt in the Sikorsky which Roscoe thought too dangerous.

With Turner’s refusal, Hughes fired him and enlisted another crew to fly the stunt. The Sikorsky, disguised as a World War I German Gotha bomber, crashed and one member of the crew was killed. Turner continued to work in Hollywood for several years as a stunt pilot and appeared in several films as an actor.  

In early 1929, Turner and his first wife, Carline, used the proceeds from his Hughes movie work to purchase this Packard from Douglas M. Longyear’s dealership Hollywood Motors Inc.  The car is identified as a ‘6-40’ which identifies it as the sixth series of Packard production built on a 140-inch wheelbase chassis. The car is fitted with a catalog #341 dual-cowl phaeton five-passenger body which means the car features no side windows but has a second cowl and windshield for rear seat passengers that was built by the Holbrook Company of New York.   

The Turner’s Custom Eight Packard was the mid-range of the 1929 Packard automobile line - Packard offered the Standard Eight, the Custom Eight and the Deluxe Eight, as well as the ultra-rare two-seat Speedster. The heavily optioned 6-40 is equipped with the dual side-mounts (spare tires with covers) and wire wheels, powered by the Packard L-head straight eight engine that displaces 384 cubic inches and develops 105 horsepower.

One of the major selling points for the new-for-1929 Packard was the new Packard Shock Absorbing System that features double-acting hydraulic shock absorbers on all four wheels for a smoother ride to complement the smooth slow-revving Packard straight-eight engine that features a crankshaft with nine main bearings.  

This photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Center for Digital Scholarship

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection shows Roscoe Turner's Packard 6-40

parked in the IMS infield in 1934.

Roscoe Turner continued his aviation career by forming with partners Nevada Airlines that flew a fleet of new Lockheed Vega 5B airplanes between Los Angeles, Reno and Las Vegas, with Turner as the operations manager and chief pilot. In 1929, the Governors of the states of Mississippi, Nevada and California all bestowed Turner with the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel as a member of their personal staffs and thus for the rest of his life, he was known as “Colonel Roscoe Turner.”  

Nevada Airlines was promoted by Turner as “The Fastest Airline in the United States," and he used the Vegas as his springboard to enter the emerging sport of air racing and record-setting with moderate success. Turner later persuaded oil tycoon Earl Gilmore to purchase a pair of racing airplanes- a Wedell-Williams Model 44 and a Lockheed Model 3 Air Express which used a parasol wing design fitted with wheel pants for streamlining that was primarily used in cross-country events.   

This photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Center for Digital Scholarship

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection shows left to right

Roscoe Turner, Madonna Turner, Mary Fendrich Hulman

and Anton "Tony" Hulman gathered around the stuffed lion "Gilmore"

For several years, Turner toured the country in the Air Express flying with his pet lion cub, another promotional idea, as a stylized lion’s head was the symbol of his sponsor, the Gilmore Oil Company. Eventually the lion grew too large to handle and went to a private zoo, but after the lion “Gilmore” died in 1952, Roscoe had it stuffed and kept it in his home. 

Roscoe with the Packard 6-40 and the three major US aviation trophies

 that he won in his career. On the left the Thompson Trophy,

the center is the Harmon Trophy and at right is the Bendix Trophy

             

Turner won the 1933 cross-country Vincent Bendix Trophy race from New York to Los Angeles with the time of 11 hours and thirty minutes in the Gilmore Wedell-Williams. In 1934, Turner won his first Charles Thompson Trophy race, known as the “Indianapolis of the Sky,” and he covered the 150 miles on the ten-mile closed course above Cleveland at an average speed of 248 miles per hour (MPH) in Wedell-Williams.

In 1935, Turner lost the cross-country Burbank-to-Cleveland Bendix Trophy race by a mere 23 ½ seconds. Turner won the Thompson Trophy race again in 1938 and 1939 as he piloted the ‘Meteor,’ a plane of his own design. Roscoe won the 1939 300-mile race with an average speed of 282 MPH and became the only racer to win the Thompson Trophy three times.

During his career, Turner also was awarded the Clifford Harmon Trophy for the United States twice in 1932 and 1938 as the outstanding aviator in the United States. Roscoe also won the Clifford Henderson Award of Merit three times in 1933, 1938 and 1939 as the United States’ fastest air racing pilot. In 1939 and 1940, Turner also starred in the CBS Network weekly radio drama Sky Blazers that was supported by a mail-order model plane and comic book series.

The Gilmore-sponsored Lockheed Air Express powered by a Pratt & Whitney Hornet 525 horsepower nine-cylinder radial engine was capable of 175 MPH, but it did not have the same racing success as the Wedell-Williams plane. Turner bought the Lockheed Air Express from Gilmore in 1932 and flew it until 1938. During his ownership of the Air Express, Roscoe commissioned a custom-made hood ornament for the Packard that was a detailed miniature of the plane complete down to a working propeller that spun in the wind.       

Turner was involved with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for many years beginning with when the facility was owned by his friend the World War I ace and four-time “500’ starter Eddie Rickebacker. Roscoe served as the starter for the 1933 Indianapolis 500-mile race, which was the last year the starter’s role was ceremonial. Turner served as the race’s honorary referee in 1940, and he greeted the 1939 and 1940 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Wilbur Shaw in Victory Lane as the Champion Spark Plug representative.   

Turner moved to Indianapolis in 1940 and formed the Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corporation based at the Indianapolis Weir Cook Municipal Airport to teach students the skills of aircraft mechanics and provided flight training. Roscoe and his wife bought a three-story 5,500 square foot four-bedroom four-bathroom home located at 6800 West 10th Street in Indianapolis. The 1929 Packard was kept in a special enclosed section of the large detached Turner garage.

Turner attempted to enlist for service in World War 2, but was rejected due to his age, and he spent the war touring war materiel plants and giving speeches. In 1945 Turner was divorced by Carline, from whom he had been separated since 1938, and in late 1946 he married a Hoosier woman 20 years his junior. With the dawning of the jet age, air racing and the name Roscoe Turner faded from the headlines and he stopped wearing his military-style uniform.

This photo courtesy of the Ray Satterlee collection at the Ball State University

Library Digital Media Repository shows an interview in 1961

conducted prior to the start of the Indianapolis 500-mile race.

At left Earl Cooper, announcer Jim Phillippi, Roscoe Turner,

Eddie Rickebacker and Ray Harroun on the right.

Roscoe forged a strong friendship with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s new owner, Anton “Tony” Hulman who was an aviation enthusiast. Turner was included in a group of “old timers” along with Ray Harroun, Earl Cooper and Rickenbacker. that piloted antique race cars around the oval before the start of the Golden Anniversary 1961 Indianapolis ‘500.

Given his friendship with Hulman, it is not a surprise that the 1929 Packard 6-40 was donated to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum several years after Roscoe’s death in June 1970 by his widow Madonna, while the rest of Roscoe’s trophies, airplanes (including the Wedell-Williams and the “Meteor”) and memorabilia (included the stuffed pet lion) were donated to the Smithsonian Institute.

At the time of the donation, the car was painted two-tone silver and gray and even though it had accumulated many miles, it was in excellent condition. The author recalls seeing the Turner Packard 6-40 on display in the “new” Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum around 1976, and since that time, the Packard 6-40 has been beautifully restored by the Museum staff in its two-tone brown livery.

All color photos by the author

        

Mario Andretti ICON exhibit

at the 2019 PRI show

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum had an exhibit at the 2019 PRI (Performance Racing Industry show that honored Mario Andretti in the anniversary year of his historic victory in the 1969 Indianapolis 500-mile race with four significant cars from Mario’s career.

These four cars were featured in previous additions of this blog, please check out the archived articles referenced if you are interested in more details about these race cars.  To enlarge the photos, double click on the photo.

Hawk II

The 1967 Hawk Mark II built by Clint Brawner in Phoenix Arizona for car owner Al Dean of Dean Van Lines. was a further development of the original tube frame semi-monocoque chassis with the DOHC Ford engine as a stressed member in the rear of the car. As is evident in the photograph, aerodynamics began to creep in the picture with the addition of winglets and air ducts on either side on the nose.

At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Andretti and Hawk Mark II posted the fastest lap in practice and then on ‘Pole Day’ reset the single lap track record at 169.776 miles per hour (MPH) and captured his second straight pole position start with a four-lap average of 168.982 MPH.f

Andretti led the 33 cars into the first turn on race day, but Parnelli Jones in the STP Pratt & Whitney turbine swept past Andretti in turn two.  On the second day of the running of the ‘500’ after a stoppage due to rain, Andretti lost a wheel on his 58^th lap after a lengthy pit stop. For more detail on this car, check the archive (listed on the right side of the page) for our original article written on January 20 2016.

VPJ-1

Philippe's 1972 design of the VPJ-1 for the VPJ Racing Team featured symmetrical air foils that sprouted at a 45-degree angle off the monocoque beside the driver - identified as “dihedral wings” which also contained the radiators. The most shocking feature of Phillippe’s patented design was the lack of a rear wing mounted behind the turbocharged Offenhauser engine, as Philippe believed that the dihedral wings provided enough downforce as they reduced drag.

The new VPJ-1 design also featured new Phillipe-designed suspension technology known as “dual camber compensators” which was designed to keep the triangular shaped chassis monocoque level in all racing conditions and the VPJ-1 rode on patented lightweight four-spoke cast racing wheels wrapped in Firestone tires.

In early testing the VPJ-1 proved to be a horrible combination – it was both scary and slow. The team went to work to revise the design and develop the VPJ-1, which included the loss of the dihedral wings during the month of May and the addition of a rear wing. Despite the early problems, the revised VPJ-1 race cars finished well- Al Unser finished second, Joe Leonard third, and Mario Andretti eighth in the 1972 Indianapolis ‘500.’ 

VPJ-2

Maurice Phillipe penned the 1973 Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing Team entry, the VPJ-2 which used torsion bars on all four corners and a very shallow monocoque tub, but the most notable feature of the original design was the rear wing which was part of the bodywork over the turbocharged Offenhauser engine. 

This car design was widely regarded as a failure - Andretti qualified this car sixth for the 1973 Indianapolis ‘500’ and finished 30^th as the VPJ-2 Offenhauser engine burned a piston on lap 4.

VPJ-4

Late in the 1974 Formula One Grand Prix season the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing Team debuted the VPJ-4 Formula 1 car designed by Maurice Philippe which was powered by a 182-cubic inch Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) engine.

Andretti qualified sixteenth in VPJ-4 at the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport, the penultimate round of the 1974 Formula One season in the 26-car starting grid. Andretti and the VPJ-1 finished seventh, one lap behind the winner Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus.

Two weeks later at the 1974 United States Grand Prix, Andretti qualified the VPJ-4 third on the starting grid but was disqualified when the Cosworth engine stalled on the starting grid and the VPJ crew pushed the car after the rest of the field was away.

For more details on the VPJ cars, check out our archive (listed on the right side of the page)for the original article posted on August 19 2019.

All photos by the author

A Lola T70 Mark 3 with an interesting history

As he wandered through the garages at the CSRG Charity Challenge at Sonoma Raceway the first weekend of October 2019 , the author found this Lola T70 Can-Am car that competed in the famous Group 7 Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Canadian-American Challenge Series in 1967 and 1968 owned by a famous mechanic, sponsor and with a pair of well-known drivers.

This car, chassis number SL73/127 was originally sold to famed racing mechanic George Bignotti sometime during the middle of the 1967 season.  Bignotti at the time was employed by Texas oil man and racer John Mecom, who was the Lola Cars importer for the United States. In 1967, Bignotti had already amassed three Indianapolis 500-mile victories – two with AJ Foyt in 1961 and 1964, and a third in 1966 with rookie driver Graham Hill in a career that would eventually total seven Indy ‘500’ wins.  

While the Ford Motor Company was very successful in Indianapolis-type car racing with Indianapolis 500-mile race wins in 1965, 1966, and 1967, as well as United States Auto Club (USAC) national championships those years, along with victories at LeMans in endurance racing in 1966 and 1967, Ford struggled for success in Can-Am racing.

Despite well-funded efforts with Dan Gurney’s All-American Racing team, Shelby American, and Holman & Moody, as well as its own G7A program with the unique three-valves per cylinder Calliope V-8 engine, Ford had been unable to break the McLaren/Chevrolet stranglehold in the Can-Am series. The 1967 Bignotti effort was another innovative Ford effort that used the proven-at-Indianapolis Ford double overhead camshaft DOHC "four cam" V-8 engine bored out to 305 cubic inches of displacement.  

The Bignotti Lola T70 with race number #98 was initially entered for the third round of the1967 SCCA Can-Am series, the ‘Player’s 200’ at Mosport Park in Canada in late September for driver Al Unser, but the car did not appear as the engine was not yet ready. The car appeared finished in metallic blue at the series’ fourth round in mid-October at Laguna Seca Raceway carrying race number 21 for driver ‘Parnelli’ Jones with sponsorship from American Rubber and Plastics Corporation.

American’s owner John Chalik Junior from LaPorte Indiana had raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1961 through 1964, with his first year the most successful. Veteran Hoosier midget car racer Gene Hartley started the 1961 ‘500’ in fifteenth place in a Floyd Trevis built machine and finished eleventh, two laps behind winner AJ Foyt. 

In 1962, Chalik expanded his efforts to two cars, a new Quinn Epperly-built laydown for driver Paul Goldsmith and the previous years’ Trevis built chassis was assigned to Eddie Johnson. Both entries made the starting field, but both cars retired early in the race within laps of each other with magneto failure.      

For 1963, Chalik contracted with famed car builder Frank Kurtis to build the final Kurtis Kraft chassis built for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the KK500L roadster, which incorporated three innovations – first, a roll cage around the cockpit to reassure the driver, NASCAR stock car star Robert “Junior” Johnson, second, fully independent suspension on all four corners and finally, the car’s Offenhauser engine used a battery and distributor ignition system, as Chalik now mistrusted the common magneto ignition system after the team’s Indianapolis 1962 debacle. Chalik remained a two-car team owner, as he also entered the Epperly laydown roadster for New Mexico rookie driver Bobby Unser.

Johnson was never comfortable in the Kurtis-Kraft and stepped out of the car before his completed his rookie test and was replaced by Colby Scroggin. The battery system in the KK500L did not allow the Offenhauser engine to develop full power, and Scroggin could not generate enough speed to qualify for the 33-car starting field. Unser successfully completed his rookie test, then spun and afterwards, Chalik asked Unser to buy his own tires. After Unser landed a Novi ride and left the team, Chalik replaced Unser with Bob Harkey, who crashed in practice and the seriously damaged car could not be repaired in time.

In 1964, the repaired Epperly was entered for journeyman driver Chuck Rodee, but early in the month, Rodee ran over some debris and crashed. Later in the month, the engine blew during practice and car owner Chalik elected not to repair the damage. 

Chalik’s Indianapolis efforts ended with a whimper, and most historians assumed that was the end of Chalik’s involvement in racing. While it is unclear on how (or why) John Chalik Jr.  became involved in the Bignotti Can-Am effort it is without question as the American Rubber and Plastic Corporation sponsorship was (and still is) emblazoned on the Lola’s front fenders.  

At the 1967 Laguna Seca Can-Am race, Parnelli Jones qualified the metallic blue #21 fourth for the ‘Monterey Grand Prix’ behind pole sitter Bruce McLaren, a Weslake Ford-powered Lola T70 Mark 3 driven by Dan Gurney, and Denny Hulme.   On race day, October 15, Jones dropped out after 14 of the 106 scheduled laps with fuel vaporization issues. 

Two weeks later, at Riverside International Raceway, Jones qualified sixth for the ‘Los Angeles Times Grand Prix’ and finished in fourth place, one lap behind winner Bruce McLaren.

At the 1967 Can-Am season finale, held in early November at the Stardust International Raceway outside Las Vegas Nevada, Jones qualified fourth only ½ second behind pole-sitter Bruce McLaren. In the October 12^th ‘Stardust Grand Prix,’ Jones jumped the start from the second row and surged into the early lead, but the Lola was eliminated after just four laps when the gear selector linkage broke at the shifter. This race marked Parnelli’s final appearance in North America’s famed Group 7 racing series.

For 1968, the driver of the Bignotti DOHC Ford-powered Lola T70 Mark 3 for the Can-Am series was two-time USAC National Champion Mario Andretti, who had appeared at five 1967 Can-Am rounds behind the wheel of the fast but unreliable Holman & Moody ‘Honker II.’ At the opening round of the 1968 Can-Am series at Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin, Andretti qualified eighth and was running in third place on lap 48 of 50 when the DOHC Ford engine lost oil pressure and grenaded in spectacular fashion.

   

Two weeks later, on September 17^th at the ‘Bridgehampton Grand Prix’ held on the Bridgehampton Road Course on Long Island, Andretti again qualified the metallic blue #21 to start eighth on the grid, but this time during the race the DOHC Ford Indy engine lost oil pressure on the fourth lap and Andretti retired in the car’s final SCCA Can-Am race appearance.

Andretti and Bignotti skipped the next two rounds of the 1968 Can-Am series but reappeared at the final two rounds with a new car, the red #3 Lola T160, chassis number SL160/1 which was powered by a Ford 427 cubic engine built by Holman & Moody that carried STP Oil Treatment sponsorship. The Lola blew its engine during the qualifying session at Riverside, but in the season finale at Las Vegas, Andretti qualified the red T160 sixth and finished twelfth after a lengthy mid-race pit stop.

The appearance of such a historic machine as Lola chassis SL73/127 that appears as it did in 1967 and 1968, even though it is now equipped with a small block fuel injected Chevrolet engine at the CSRG Charity Classic highlights the importance of vintage car racing in keeping racing history alive. It was true joy to watch car owner Carl Moore of Alamo California put this restored beauty through its paces.      

Sleepy Tripp midget re-creation

at Turkey Night

Photo by the author

    

As part of the festivities at the 79^th annual ‘Turkey Night Grand Prix’ which honored Gary Zarounian and Ron “Sleepy” Tripp was this re-creation of the famous Zarounian Edmunds midget on display on the Ventura Raceway midway.

Photo by the author

This car is a recreation of the Zarounian/Tripp 140 cubic inch Autcocraft Volkswagen powered Edmunds coil midget, displayed as it would have appeared in the 1984 USAC (United States Auto Club) midget season carrying the number “1” to signify Tripp’s championship in the USAC Western States midget series in 1983. 
 

Photo by the author

Tripp also captured the 1985 USAC Western States Series championship in the same Edmunds car with Volkswagen power as well as a win at the Belleville Midget Nationals, and he won the Western States Series championship and the Belleville crown again in 1987 when the Edmunds built car was powered by a Cosworth engine.

Photo by the author

In his storied career, Tripp won eighteen midget feature races at Ventura Raceway, part of his total of 104 USAC Western States Series wins, 78 of which came behind the wheel of a Zarounian owned midget. When combined with his 59 USAC National Midget Series wins, Tripp is third on the USAC all-time wins list and is a member of the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame  

Photo courtesy of Ventura Raceway

With the original Edmunds car lost after it was sold in 1988, Jeff Terry sourced a similar chassis from Texas. Since Terry was a member of the crew for the original car, he was able to restore it over a three-month period and display the re-creation at the 2019 Turkey Night Grand Prix, which featured a scale model of the car built by Ventura promoter Jim Naylor as the trophy presented to race winner Kyle Larson.     

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