The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part one - 1946 racing season

Since its beginnings at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento California on June 4, 1933 there have been some nefarious characters Involved the sport of midget auto racing, such as Diego ‘Dee’ Toran, but none the author is familiar with came close to approaching the level of criminal activities conducted by racer Branch Milton “Tiny” Wainwright.

Wainwright, born August 31, 1912 in the small town of Delmar Maryland, came of age in the Kansas City area as a stout young man of less than average height - feet five inches tall.  His nickname of “Tiny” was ironic, as he weighed at least 250 pounds though period press reports varied; some articles stated that he weighed 275 pounds, while some pieces listed his weight as high as 300 pounds.  

When Wainwright enlisted in the United States Army at Fort Leavenworth Kansas on March 24, 1944 he claimed that he was married and listed his occupation as an “actor.” Military records reviewed by the author have not provided any answers as to Wainwright’s duties in the Army or the length of his service.

Fellow historian Bob Lawrence found the earliest record of Tiny Wainwright’s racing career via a photograph that showed him as the driver of Carl Oliver’s #3 Ford V8-60 powered rail-frame midget at CeJay Stadium in Wichita, Kansas on Sunday September 16, 1945. That date was less than a month after the Office of Defense Transportation lifted the wartime ban on automobile racing. CeJay, which took its name from the initials of the track promoter Carl Johnson, was a 1/4-mile dirt oval track that was located on the southeast side of Wichita that operated until 1949.

‘Tiny” was not related to the famed Texas pioneer midget racer and later Texas-Oklahoma Racing Association business agent and promoter Mel Wainwright but both competed in some of the same events in early 1946.  In a promotional article prior to that start of racing San Antonio Texas Pan American Midget Speedway, ‘Tiny’ was billed in the San Antonio Light newspaper with “a weight of 275 pounds, the biggest midget race car driver in the world.”

Wainwright is credited with a second-place finish in the February 24 “B” feature ahead of ‘Dee’ Toran, then he earned a fourth-place finish in the “B” feature on Sunday March 10 in a program that also featured California drivers Jerry Piper, Cal Niday, and Bill Vukovich.

The following week, in the Sunday afternoon show on March 17 on Pan American’s 1/5-mile clay surface, ‘Tiny’ scored another third-place finish in the ‘B’ feature. On March 31, which was the final scheduled Sunday program for the 1946 racing season, “hard luck” Wainwright was unable to compete due to what the San Antonio Light reported as “a lack of parts for his red midget.”

In the debut of Friday night racing under the lights at Pan American on April 5, 1946, ‘Tiny’ was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 16.36 seconds but his car “threw a shoe” in the third heat, and the San Antonio Light reported that “his masterful driving brought cheers from the crowd as he steered into the pits on three wheels without injury to himself or other drivers in the race.”  After the incident, Wainwright’s car was done for the night, so he did not appear in the evening’s 20-lap feature which was won by Californian Johnnie Parsons in an elapsed time of five minutes and six seconds.

While there is a bit of confusion as some reports of his early racing exploits identified him as ‘Tony,” a week later, on April 12, at Pan-American Speedway, Wainwright finished sixth in the ‘A’ feature as Parsons won again. During the April 19 racing program ‘Tiny’ ran into trouble twice in the same evening.  Just after the start of the consolation race, ‘Tiny’s’ car tangled with those of Jimmy Hicks and ‘Red’ Dowdy.

All three cars restarted after their spins and ‘Tiny’ transferred to the night’s feature race. On the ninth lap of the feature, Dowdy spun in front of ‘Tiny’ and 'Tiny's' car crashed into Dowdy’s then rolled over, with both drivers taken to the hospital where they were checked and released.

Tiny was listed as a competitor in the Sunday afternoon midget racing programs on May 12 and the Tuesday night races on May 14 held on the 1/4-mile clay oval Wichita Falls (Texas) Speedrome along with ‘Red’ Dowdy, Emmett ‘Buzz’ Barton, Dick Sharp, Elmer ‘Rabbit’ Musick (one of five Texas racing brothers), Ted Parker and a pair of local brothers, Tommy and Dale Mendenhall.  

‘Tiny’ also was entered in the AAA (American Automobile Association) sanctioned midget auto races held at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds track in West Allis. These races were held on the big one-mile flat dirt track, not the smaller track in the infield that was used for weekly midget races. A series of AAA races on the Milwaukee Mile were held as part of the ‘Milwaukee Centurama’ celebration, a thirty-day event that marked the city’s centennial which ran from July 12 to August 12, 1946.

Wainwright, described in a pre-race article in the Hammond Times as a “newcomer“ and “a Kansas City star” joined such legendary midget racers as Tony Bettenhausen, Dennis ‘Duke’ Nalon, Frank Burany, and Henry Banks in a two-day program that saw time trials and heat races completed on Saturday and the 100-mile feature on Sunday June 23, 1946 which was won by two-time pre-war badger Midget Auto Racing Association (BMARA) champion Ray Richards.

Fall 1946 found ‘Tiny’ Wainwright in Lubbock Texas for the Southwest Racing Championship races held on the 1/5-mile dirt Panhandle-South Plans Fairgrounds track along with Dowdy, Parker, Kansas’ Leonard ‘Cotton’ Musick (who was not related to the Texas Musick brothers), Oklahoman Jay Booth and Amarillo’s Lloyd Ruby.

The series of midget auto races, promoted by local garage owner JT Wolfe and sanctioned by the Texas-Oklahoma Racing Association, were slated to start on July 18 but it was July 27 before the first seven-race program began on Saturday night with Parker the red-headed driver from Dallas the initial winner.

Parker repeated with a second victory on August 3, then scored his third win in a row on August 10 in an evening in which he also won the helmet dash before 2,500 fans. Bud Camden won the 25-lap feature on August 17^th and Jay Booth won on August 24.  Parker claimed his fourth series feature victory on August 31, which was the final Saturday night program, after which the races were switched to Thursday nights to avoid conflicts with football games (even in those days in Texas, football was King).  

Wainwright was not listed as one of the original drivers announced for the Southwest Racing Championship series, but he was mentioned in press reports as an entrant prior to the September 5 races. That evening Clarence Brooks of Dallas won the 8-lap “Championship race,” then finished second in the first 10-lap semi-main to transfer to feature which he won over Kansan Bud Camden and Tulsa’s Junior Howerton. On the morning of September 12 race promoter Wolfe announced via an article published in the Lubbock Morning Avalanche newspaper that that night’s races were cancelled for unspecified reasons.

The next week’s midget auto racing program, scheduled for the evening of September 19^th was postponed due to rain.  When racing resumed on Thursday September 26, Corky Benson won the feature, and ‘Tiny’ won his heat race.  The following week was packed with racing, with the midgets scheduled to race four consecutive days during the six-day run of the Panhandle-South Plans Fair which was being held for the first time since 1941.

On Tuesday afternoon October 8, ‘Tiny’ Wainwright led the feature with Benson in second when their cars tangled and they both spun out. Third place driver “Count” Walter Von Tilius of Denver Colorado in the Frank Hingley owned Kurtis-Kraft Offenhauser powered midget avoided the melee and went on to win the feature as ‘Red’ Dowdy finished in second place. The race program the following day, Wednesday the 9^th was rained out, rescheduled for Sunday afternoon, the final day of the fair.  

The Panhandle-South Plains Fairgrounds 1/5-mile dirt track dried sufficiently for the midget races to resume on Thursday October 10, with Eddie Carmichael of Oklahoma City was declared the feature winner as his midget crossed the finish line in a near “dead heat” with the machine of Corky Benson with ‘Tiny’ Wainwright in fourth place.  

On Friday afternoon October 11, Texans swept 3 of the top 4 finishing spots as 18-year-old Lloyd Ruby won the feature, followed by Houston’s Bill Marshall in second place, and local driver Corky Benson in fourth place.

The Sunday afternoon midget finale, the make-up date from the 9^th, was a barn-burner. Corky Benson set quick time in time trials, then spun out on the second lap of the feature and had to restart from the tail of the field. Benson carved his way up through the field in dramatic fashion and claimed his second series feature victory.

In our next installment we will trace ‘Tiny’ Wainwright’s exploits through the 1947 and 1948 racing seasons.