The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part two - 1947 and 1948

At the end of our last installment of the story of Branch Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright, the rotund driver had just completed his 1946 midget auto racing season as he competed in a series of races held in Lubbock Texas during October 1946.

Little is known of the early part of ‘Tiny’s’ 1947 season, but the July 4th holiday found him entered for the races held on the 1/5-mile dirt track on the Tri-County Fairgrounds. Located in Mendota Illinois the races were sanctioned by legendary pioneer ‘big car’ racer turn promoter John Gerber’s Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA). An advance article in the Dixon Evening Telegraph listed Wainwright at a fairly a svelte (for him) 225 pounds but stated that he was so large that he required “an oversized cockpit to house his frame.”

The race, on the 1/5-mile dirt track built in 1941, featured a field of 20 competitors.  In addition to Wainwright, “the biggest driver in the business,” the drivers included 1946 Indianapolis ‘500’ competitor Danny Kladis, ‘Red’ Hoyle from Cedar Rapids Iowa, Harry Meeks and the appearance of Les Forrer in his front wheel drive midget powered by a Wisconsin four-cylinder air-cooled engine.

MMARA president Gerber noted in an interview for a newspaper article that the Tri-County 1/5-mile track was composed of distinct two types of soil – one end, the third and four turns, was comprised of sand while the other end of the track, turns one and two, was “regular dirt” and that the differing soil types required different driving techniques

The Friday July 4 afternoon race was unusual at Tri-County, which featured track lighting and seating for 5000 fans and typically held Thursday night races during the Summer months. The afternoon 20-lap feature was won by the previously unknown racer Vic Ellis from Rochelle Illinois.

Later in the 1947 season, race car owner Ray Tomaseski from nearby LaSalle Illinois took over the promotion of open competition midget auto racing at Tri-County under the sanction of the Chicago-based “Midwest Racing Association.” Midget racing apparently did not catch on in Mendota, as in subsequent years, the small flat track hosted only occasional AMA-sanctioned motorcycle races promoted by the local Rock River Riders Motorcycle Club.

Sunday July 13, 1947 found ‘Tiny’ in action with the MMARA midgets on the ½-mile Hawkeye Downs dirt track located in Council Bluffs Iowa. Originally built in 1925 as a rodeo grounds, the facility also featured a ¼-mile dirt track.  Wainwright was scheduled to drive the ‘Cotton Fasone Special,’ a Ford V-8 powered car from Kansas City which the Cedar Rapid Gazette identified as “specially designed to carry his 250-pound racing weight.”

Wainwright’s name did not appear as one of the top finishers in the day’s races at Council Bluffs, which were dominated by Danny Kladis from Chicago. Kladis set a new track record as he sped around the half-mile track in 28.44 seconds, and then he won the trophy dash and his five-lap heat race. Kladis started from the pole position for the twelve-car 10-lap feature race and led every lap to defeat a field of mostly local cars with Dick Hobel in second place and ‘Red” Hoyle third in the feature which was completed in five minutes and two seconds.

‘Tiny’ was listed as one of the entries for the midget races on Saturday afternoon August 2, 1947 held as part of the 93^rd Coles County Fair in Charleston Illinois. Other entries for the race promoted by the Parkes Brothers on the Coles County Speedway which had opened on Sunday April 27, 1947 included Frank Burany, Myron Fohr, Ray Knepper, Ben Chesney, and Rex Easton. The promoters promised that those drivers and “Tiny’ would drive Offenhauser powered cars on the 1/5-mile dirt clay oval managed by Indianapolis’ Orville Stiff who was identified as a pre-war midget auto racer.

‘Tiny’ Wainwright made a rare “big car” racing appearance in the 1948 first annual Memorial Day races on the Iowa State Fair track in Des Moines promoted by the Za-Ga-Zig Shrine temple of Altoona Iowa. In addition to ‘Tiny,’ whose hometown was listed as St. Louis, the “definite entry” list included “Pat Patterson from Wellman in a big McDowell race car,” Pat Cunningham from St Joseph Missouri and Kirk Washburn from St Paul Minnesota, with all four drivers described in the Associated Press wire story as “well known to midwestern auto race fans.” 

‘Tiny’ was entered in the notorious “Schrader car” the Offenhauser powered car owned by Virgil Campbell, so called because it was the car in which Gus Schrader was killed in Louisiana in October 1941 . Reportedly, ‘Tiny’ was replaced as the driver by ‘Rabbit’ Musick after time trials, but the Campbell car retired during the feature race.   

In front of a crowd of 7,500 fans, Wally Stokes, an up and coming ‘big car’ driver from Cleveland, Ohio, in his Offenhauser powered #2 grabbed three victories during the five-race program – his heat race, the trophy dash and the day’s 10-lap finale on the half-mile dirt track as he beat Herschel Buchanan to the finish line by 40 yards.  Sadly, Stokes would die a little over a year later in a traffic accident in August 1949, the day following his AAA championship car debut at Springfield Illinois, when the car driven by his wife left the road and hit a tree.

Wainwright was listed as one of the members of the Tri-State Midget Auto Racing (TSMAR) traveling circuit promoted by Glen and Lloyd Bauman prior its inaugural visit to Huron South Dakota on June 4, 1948. ‘Tiny,’ who was said to weigh 300 pounds, was described as the “showman of the troupe,” as the article in the Huron Hurronite said that the other drivers claimed that “Mr. Five-by-Five carries his machine around the track instead of the usual run of these things.”  Wainwright drove a Ford V-8 powered machine, while other featured drivers - George Binnie, Jay Booth, Buddy Rackley, and Charlie Taggert, all raced in Offenhauser powered midgets.

Promoter Lloyd Bauman, a South Dakotan, explained to the Hurronite writer that the Tri-State circuit included race tracks in five cities – Huron, Riverview Park in Sioux City Iowa, Playland Park in Council Bluffs Iowa, a ½-mile track in Canby Minnesota and a ¼-mile track in Luverne Minnesota. The Tri-State racing schedule started in Riverview Park on Sunday, moved to Playland Park Tuesday night, then headed north to Luverne on Wednesday night, on to Canby for Thursday night before the racers headed west and wound up their week in Huron South Dakota. Bauman said with an estimated 20,500 fans expected to attend the races weekly, that translated to a weekly guaranteed pot of $4,250 in prize money for the racers.    

After morning rain showers, Kansas City’s George Binnie was out-qualified by Buddy Rackley from Houston Texas by .06 seconds with a best lap of 18.43 seconds on a wet track. As the track dried, Binnie rebounded to win four of the evening’s racing events. Binnie’s near clean sweep included wins in the three-lap trophy dash, his eight-lap heat race, the eight-lap handicap race and the 15-lap ‘A’ feature. “The big, good-natured” ‘Tiny’ drove the black #3 Van Winkle Ford powered midget and finished as the runner-up to Binnie in both their heat race and the ‘A’ feature. 

Even though the drivers billed it the best track on the circuit, and the one that featured the best seating, midget auto racing at Huron South Dakota was short-lived. After the third Friday night event on June 18, the promoters moved the racing program to Saturday nights. After the June 26^th race, the races scheduled for July 3^rd and 10 were cancelled due to conflicts with the other fairgrounds events.

On July 15, 1948 the Hurronite newspaper carried the news of the cancellation of further midget races “for the remainder of the season” because the promoters judged that “the 1/5-mile track was not in shape.” TSMAR events at the two tracks in Minnesota never drew decent crowds and apparently the circuit collapsed midway through the 1948 season, as for the rest of the season ‘Tiny’ raced with John Gerber’s Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA)

Sunday afternoon July 11, 1948 Wainwright returned to the 1/5-mile clay surface at the Ce-Mar Bowl located on the grounds of the Ce-Mar Acres amusement park in Cedar Rapids Iowa for races promoted by MMARA. ‘Tiny’ who had debuted at Ce-Mar three weeks earlier was teamed with Jay Booth in a pair of potent Ford powered Kurtis-Kraft midgets owned by Lloyd Van Winkle of Lincoln Nebraska. The pair along with the familiar names of Danny Kladis, Johnny Hobel and ‘Red’ Hoyle were joined by Cliff Nalon the brother of the famed “Duke” Nalon and newcomers Dick Ritchie and Bud Koehler who also piloted a Kurtis-Kraft midget.   

5,423 fans turned out for the races which were dominated by local Cedar Rapids drivers. ‘Red’ Hoyle won the first heat race followed by ‘Tiny’ Wainwright, with the second heat also won by a local driver Dick Hobel.   Johnny Hobel, Dick’s brother, won the 14-lap handicap race, then led the first ten laps of the feature until he spun out. Johnny’s spin handed the lead to ‘Red’ Hoyle who won over Danny Kladis as ‘Tiny’ dropped out of the race with engine trouble.

Tragedy struck the MMARA circuit on Friday night August 13^th during the third heat race on Gerber’s 3/10-mile track at the Mississippi Valley fairgrounds in Davenport Iowa.  On the third lap of the race, Glenn Cromwell of Erie Illinois in the Paul Kaminsky’s #4 midget hit a rut in the second turn and the car spun to a stop. Clyde Skinner steered his midget to the upper groove of the track but could not avoid Cromwell’s machine. The impact turned Cromwell’s car over; Glenn suffered critical head and chest injuries, and the injured driver was transported to Mercy Hospital in Davenport. 

Cromwell had survived an earlier crash in May in a different midget at the ¼-mile Jefferson Iowa track when his car rolled twice and came to rest upside down with Glenn trapped underneath.  Cromwell had escaped the May crash without serious injuries but he did not survive the August crash. Glenn passed away at 1:20 AM on Saturday morning, August 14^th as he left behind Lois his wife of just eleven months, who was at the track when the accident occurred. Wainwright’s car had again suffered engine trouble during the Davenport program, and his car was not fixed in time for him to compete in the August 15 race at the Ce-Mar Bowl.

When the MMARA midgets appeared at Ce-mar on August 22, ‘Tiny’ had a new teammate on the Van Winkle team for this race – young Clyde Skinner who had been involved in the Cromwell tragedy substituted for Jay Booth.  The MMARA teams ran a Sunday afternoon show at Davenport, then drove northwest to race at Cedar Rapids for a Sunday night race. The Ce-Mar Bowl which had seen growing crowds over the past three weeks had enlarged the parking lot and added bleachers which could accommodate up to 7,500 fans. The track had also added a new safety feature – red, green and yellow “safety lights” were installed in the corners to alert drivers of the conditions on the track.

On Thursday night August 26 the MMARA circuit appeared at the ¼-mile oval at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Indianola Iowa.  ‘Tiny’ in the “improved” Van Winkle Ford set the quick time for the night as he ran a best lap of 17.36 seconds in time trials. Ray Hall of Kansas City won the feature followed by Dick Hobel with Paul Newkirk third and ‘Tiny’ in fourth place.

A record crowd of 5,963 fans turned out at Ce-Mar on Sunday night September 5, 1948 as ‘Tiny’ and the Van Winkle team arrived at the track late.  He posted the second fastest qualifying time, then won the 15-lap semi-main over his teammate Jay Booth, but neither driver emerged as the   finishers in the evening’s feature race.

On Wednesday night September 22, the MMARA teams visited a new venue, a 1/5-mile track at the Northwest Missouri State Fairgrounds in Bethany Missouri, but the program was plagued by three accidents. Early in the evening, an errant machine ran over MMARA pit steward Truman “Shorty” Berryhill of Cedar Rapids and injured his leg.

Later during the handicap race, George Miller of Cedar Rapids spun and his car was hit by Ray Hill, the evening’s fast qualifier in Paul Kaminsky’s #11 midget, with Hall’s car damaged badly enough that it scratched for the rest of the night. In the evening’s feature Dick Ritchie spun out and Miller’s car climbed over Ritchie’s and rolled over – George was unhurt but his car was badly damaged. ‘Tiny’ won his heat race and finished second in the feature behind Walter Raines of Alta Iowa.

Two nights later, Wainwright won the semi-main event at Davenport as Danny Kladis won the feature which was marred by a seven-car accident that eliminated five cars from the race. Two days later, the MMARA cars were back in Cedar Rapids for the first afternoon show at Ce-Mar Bowl. There was more mechanical carnage in the 20-lap main at Ce-Mar as seven cars crashed and the race had to be restarted three times on a slick slow track. ‘Tiny’ started on the pole position and led the first eight laps then yielded to Kladis as only four cars finished the feature which was witnessed by a small crowd of less than 3,000 on a cold wet and windy day.

In October 1948 Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright was identified as a member of five-man criminal gang that was responsible for a string of nineteen safe burglaries in restaurants, drugstores, and other small retail establishments during the Summer and Fall of 1948. Two members of the gang were jailed in the Boone County Missouri jail, while another, Roy Rees, was in the Bethany Missouri City Jail, with another conspirator jailed in Lexington Kentucky. ‘Tiny’ was the only gang member free at the time, and was rumored to be at the time in Los Angeles California. On November 15, 1948, ‘Tiny,’ identified as a local taxi cab driver, surrendered to police in Kansas City and was charged with participation in the March 25, 1948 safe burglary at the Columbia Fruit Company in Columbia Missouri.     

Look for our next installment which reviews 1949 and 1950 as ‘Tiny’s’ previously unknown life of crime interfered with his midget auto racing career.