The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum featured this Alfa
Romeo 308 in a special “From the Vault” exhibit at the 2019 PRI (Performance
Racing Industry) show in Indianapolis Indiana, an unusual car with a colorful history.
This car, one of four built in the Milan factory, is powered
by a supercharged 2.99 liter (182 cubic inch) eight-cylinder inline engine was
designed by Gioacchino Colombo built for the 1938 Grand Prix season.
After the season ended the 308 was sold to
French racer Raymond Sommer. Sommer, who had raced in
the United States in the 1936 George Vanderbilt Cup race, used this 308 to win
several hill climbs and a street race in 1939 before he sold the car to a pair
of Americans in early 1940 as he enlisted as a private in the French army.
The car was brought to the United
States via the Italian liner the SS Rex by its new owners, Richard T
Wharton and Thomas W Dewart, who were described as “young wealthy New York
sportsmen” and officers with the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), an
amateur sports car racing club. Wharton’s mother was a Standard Oil heiress,
while Dewart’s father was the publisher of the New York Sun newspaper.
This historic photo shows Deacon Litz in the Richard Wharton Maserati
on the inside of the last row on the pace lap before the start of the 1939 Indy 500
courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection
The previous year, Wharton had
entered one of three Maserati V8RI racers (a total of four were
built) entered at Indianapolis in 1939. Wharton’s
silver car that carried number 52 was driven by veteran Pennsylvania driver Artha
“Deacon” Litz in the 1939 International 500-Mile Sweepstakes.
“Deacon,” who weighed a plump 225 pounds, qualified with a
four-lap average of 117.979 MPH (miles per hour) for his twelfth consecutive
‘500’ start. Litz qualified for the 31st
position and he shared the final row with Harry McQuinn and Billy DeVore. Unfortunately,
only seven laps after the start of the 1939 Decoration Day classic, the
Maserati, chassis number 4502, was forced into pits with mechanical troubles.
The crew worked over the Maserati V-8 engine for fifteen
minutes until the car was retired with “valve trouble,” and placed last. After
repairs, Wharton reportedly later drove the Maserati in ARCA events, including a
race that was held in conjunction with the 1940 New York World’s Fair.
Wharton and Dewart initially
pursued Tazio Nuvolari to reunite with the Alfa-Romeo 308 for the 1940
Indianapolis 500-mile race, but in early May they hired veteran driver Clarence
“Chet” Miller who had raced in ten consecutive 500-mile races at Indianapolis
since 1930. Miller left the Boyle team to drive for the new team with their
Italian machine.
Miller who had driven the last four
500-miles races in front-wheel drive machines for Mike Boyle, told an
interviewer “I have driven front drives
for the past four years and become accustomed to the handling. Going into a
rear-drive of conventional American racing design, while I felt I could go fast
with it, I would be under a strain throughout and would be dog-tired if I got
into the latter stages of the race.” It
sounded like Miller was counting on the Alfa’s four-wheel independent
suspension to smooth out the bumpy brick surface and help to conserve his
energy.
The 38-year old Miller assured his
interviewer that he was completely recovered from his injuries sustained in the
1938 Indianapolis ‘500’ three-car crash that took the life of Floyd Roberts.
Miller was hailed as a hero after he crashed into the wooden infield fence to
avoid Bob Swanson who was prone on the track after he had been thrown from his crashing
machine. Chet sustained a broken shoulder after his car flipped - he spent
eight weeks in the hospital and was out of racing for six months.
This photo shows Chet Miller weighing our featured car in 1940
courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection
Chet practiced the Alfa at 124
MPH, but the scheduled qualifying sessions in 1940 were plagued by rain and
gusty winds and Miller did not get on track for his ten-mile run until Monday
May 27. Miller posted an average speed
of 121.392 MPH, good enough for the 27th starting position on the
outside of the ninth row.
Later that evening, Chet was
elected President of the Champion Spark Plug 100-mile per hour club succeeding
Zeke Meyer, who gained membership with his 1936 Indianapolis ninth-place
finish. Miller had earned his membership in the exclusive club because of his
1935 fifth-place finish in which he averaged 100.474 MPH for the 500 miles.
Chet Miller's 1940 IMS qualifying photo
courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection
The 1940 Indianapolis ‘500’ proved
to be a disappointment for many drivers, as the last fifty laps of the race was
run under the caution flag due to persistent rain showers which froze the field
in position, Despite his hopes that the Alfa would preserve his energy, Miller
had stopped on lap 148, just before the caution flag came out and been replaced
by Englishman Henry Banks.
With the Alfa Romeo in seventeenth
place, all the cars were flagged off the track after Wilbur Shaw and the first
three finishers took the checkered flag. The Alfa Romeo 308 #34 finished with
189 laps completed and the Wharton-Dewart Motor Racing Team won $605 compared
to winning car owner Mike Boyle who collected $31,675. In addition to a new
Studebaker Champion, race winner Shaw also won an electric refrigerator.
Wharton and Dewart did not enter the
Alfa-Romeo 308 for the 1941 Indianapolis 500-mile race, and it and the Maserati
V8RI were later sold to Milt Marion in 1944, while
both Wharton and Dewart were serving in the US Navy in World War 2.
Marion ran
the Long island-based Marion Engineering & Machine Company and had started
racing as a driver on the New York dirt tracks in the mid-nineteen twenties
before he tried his hand at Indianapolis in 1931. Marion tried but failed to
qualify at Indianapolis as a driver on six occasions, with his last attempt in
1937.
The highlight of Marion’s driving
career came on March 8, 1936 when he won a AAA “strictly stock car” race held
on a 1.5-mile course on Daytona Beach. Driving a 1936 Ford V8 convertible
sponsored by Permatex Form-A-Gasket, Milt won the race which was shortened by
nine miles from its planned 250-mile distance when the tide came in, at an
average speed of 52 MPH. Another competitor in that day’s race was a local service
station owner named William France who years later founded his own stock car
racing association that held races on the beach.
With the defeat of Japan and
Germany, automobile racing resumed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 1946,
albeit with pre-war equipment. Milt Marion entered both his Italian-built
machines in March but did not name the drivers.
Once the track opened, Eastern AAA
‘big car’ ace Tommy Hinnershitz, a veteran of the 1941 ‘500,’ was tabbed to
drive the Maserati, while midget racer Louis Durant (who birth name was Durant
Lewis), was assigned the Alfa-Romeo 308. Durant a Kansas native who lived in
Los Angeles, in addition to driving, acted as a race promoter for several
pre-war races in his native state.
Durant had initially qualified for
the 1941 Indianapolis ‘500,’ but was ‘bumped out’ on the final day of time trials
by Al Putnam and the G & S Special became the first alternate. Durant
unsuccessfully attempted to bump back into the field with an unidentified car
owned by Milt Marion.
Sam Hanks crashed in pre-race practice
on May 29 and his damaged car could not be repaired in time, but Chief Steward
Ted Doescher stated that the rules called for the “the fastest 33 cars” and
would not allow Durant’s car to be substituted.
The short field due to the lack of
Hank’s 7 UP sponsored entry was compounded when on race morning, the garage
area fire claimed George Berringer’s rear-engine Gulf-Miller, as well as
Marion’s unidentified car, and so the 1941 ‘500’ starting field was comprised
of 31 starters. Louis Durant did manage
to compete in the 1941 500’ as he had two stints as a relief driver that
covered 84 laps.
Durant, qualified the Alfa-Romeo
for the 1946 International 500-mile race in the sixth starting position on the
first day of time trials, though he posted the day’s slowest speed average of
118.973 MPH for his ten-mile run.
Hinnershitz made a qualifying attempt on the
final day of time trials on May 28, 1946, but the aged Maserati’s speed was not
enough to bump out Al Putman’s qualified machine. Marion later sold the
Maserati to the Granatelli brothers who replaced the engine with an
Offenhauser.
In the first 500-mile race run at
the Speedway in five years, Durant had a steady if not spectacular day as he
finished in sixth position crossing the line more than 36 minutes after George
Robson took the checkered flag and was the last car to complete the entire race
distance. As he averaged 105 MPH for the 500 miles without relief, Durant
earned membership into the Champion Spark Plug 100 MPH club.
In 1947, Milt Marion entered his
Alfa-Romeo and was allied with Speedway management, rather than siding with the
upstart ASPAR (American Society of Professional Auto Racers) organization which
was campaigning for a higher purse and threatened to boycott the race.
Marion had signed sponsorship for
the Alfa-Romeo from the New York-based Permafuse Corporation, which
manufactured and marketed a new system of relining brakes. Instead of the use
of rivets, the installer used a strip of patented Permafuse tape to attach the
new shoe to the lining. With the assembly clamped together, it was heated in
the Permafuse electric oven. When completed, the manufacturer claimed that
their system doubled the life of brake linings as the shoe and new lining were
“virtually fused together.”
As Louis Durant had allied himself
with the ASPAR group, Marion selected Indianapolis rookie Walt Brown from
Massapequa New York, an Eastern AAA ‘big car’ racer who was the current track
record holder at the one-mile track in Trenton New Jersey as his driver.
Brown
had appeared in several pre-war championship races and had been entered by
Marion in six races held in late 1946. Walt was not at the Speedway full-time
in the early part of the month of May 1947, as he was a regular on the AAA
Eastern big car circuit and ran several big car races in early May, then passed
his Indianapolis drivers test on May 22.
Brown qualified the Alfa-Romeo on May 26 at a
speed of 118.355, which placed it fifteenth in the field of 30 starters, and as
the fastest non-ASPAR qualifier of the day received a check for $500.
On Race
Day, Walt steadily moved up through the field, largely by attrition as the
machines of Ken Fowler, Russ Snowberger, Cliff Bergere and Shorty Cantlon were
eliminated by mechanical failure or in the case of Cantlon a fatal crash.
Brown at age 35, wound up as the
second-highest finishing rookie in seventh place as fellow rookie 39-year-old
Bill Holland finished second. Walt was the last driver to complete the full 500
miles, flagged off a full 37 minutes after winner Mauri Rose took the checkered
flag.
Milt Marion entered the Alfa-Romeo
for the 1948 Indianapolis 500-mile race but despite its record of two top ten
finishes in the last two races, it did attract the interest of any drivers.
Late in the month, Colorado driver Johnny Mauro struck a deal and bought the
car from Milt Marion.
Mauro reportedly raced for several
years in the pre-war period using the nom de guerre “Jack Morris,” although the
author has been unable to find any results to confirm this story. Mauro entered
a car under his own name in the 1940 22nd annual Labor Day race up
Colorado’s Pikes Peak, and finished either third, fourth or fifth, depending on
which newspaper article one chooses to believe.
In 1947 Mauro became an unwitting
player in the ASPAR dispute with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In early 1947
Mauro reached an agreement with Babe Stapp to act as his crew chief for his
inaugural entry at Indianapolis and he sent his entry form to Stapp’s home in
Los Angeles. Stapp mailed the form onto the Indianapolis Motor Speedway office
marked “in care of Ralph Hepburn,” as Hepburn was the original president of the
ASPAR group.
The entry form arrived at the
Speedway office at 444 North Capitol Avenue before the April 15 deadline, but Indianapolis
Motor Speedway President Wilbur Shaw would not open the envelope, as Hepburn
the addressee was not associated with the Speedway. Shaw instructed a secretary
to place the envelope in the office safe. In early May, Mauro arrived in
Indianapolis with his race car and was shocked to learn that he and his car, an
older small displacement eight-cylinder supercharged Miller, was not
entered.
Mauro tracked down the paperwork,
and the envelope with Stapp’s return address was retrieved from the safe, but
Stapp initially refused to allow Shaw to open it. Finally, on May 15 in the
presence of several reporters, Shaw opened the envelope which contained the completed
entry form and Mauro’s check inside. Shaw allowed Mauro’s entry, which carried
sponsorship from the local Phil Kraft Southside bakery chain. Mauro passed his
required physical and practiced but was unable to complete his drivers test.
Mauro, who worked as an accountant
when not racing, returned with the supercharged Miller in 1948 but was not
competitive in the car which press reports indicated had the smallest engine on
the grounds, which leads the author to suspect it was a 91-cubic inch powered
Miller. Mauro saw the unused Alfa Romeo 308 in the Garage Area and struck a
deal with Milt Marion to buy the car and transferred the Phil Kraft sponsorship
to his new ride.
On May 25, 1948 the day following the
finalization of his purchase of the Alfa Romeo 308, Mauro took the car out on
track for practice and promptly spun in turn two, but he managed to collect the
car without hitting anything and returned to the pit area with a bent wheel. Two
days later May 27, Mauro was the slowest of the seven qualifiers with a
four-lap average of 121.790 MPH, to start from the 27th position.
Once again in 1948 in the 32nd
International 500-mile Sweepstakes, Mauro and his Alfa proved the old adage that
the best finishes do not necessarily go to the swiftest, as the trusty 308
posted its third consecutive top ten finish when Mauro crossed the line in
ninth place with 198 laps completed when he was flagged off the track forty
minutes after winner Mauri Rose took the checkered flag.
To complete the race, Mauro relied
on the relief efforts of Louis Durant, the 1946 Alfa driver, who drove the car
from lap 112 to lap 140. The day following the race, race officials announced
that a recheck of the scoring tape revealed that Mauro had finished in eighth
place and for his efforts, Mauro the car owner earned $4115.
On Labor Day 1948, Mauro drove his
Alfa Romeo 308 in the 12.42-mile AAA-sanctioned Pikes Peak Hill Climb and
finished third with a time of 16 minutes and 55 seconds, one minute and six
seconds slower than the winner Al Rogers who drove an Offenhauser-powered
machine to victory. Mauro’s finish was celebrated in a nationwide advertisement
for Mobil Oil that appeared in newspapers just days after the event.
Johnny Mauro entered the now
eleven-year-old Alfa Romeo, for the 1949 Indianapolis ‘500,’ but technology had
caught up as the “railbirds” opined that it would take an average qualifying
speed of better than 126 MPH to make the 33-car starting field. Mauro himself
never presented the car for qualifying, but Tony Bettenhausen gave it a try on
May 28th after his original entry was bumped.
Tony and his Flavell Special
powered by a Sparks “little six” 183-cubic inch supercharged six-cylinder engine
was bumped from the starting field. Robert Flavell from Los Angeles purchased
the car in late 1946 from the original owner, Joel Thorne, after Joel got himself into one
of his periodic legal jams and needed some fast cash. The Flavell/Sparks car
had easily qualified for the 1947 and 1948 editions of the ‘500,’ but like the
Alfa, it had reached the limit of its speed at 125.754 MPH and was bumped.
Tony could not find the speed in
the Alfa Romeo 308 in a desperate attempt to bump back into the field, so the Mauro
Alfa Romeo 308 missed the big show at Indianapolis in 1949.
Mauro qualified the Alfa 308
fourth overall for the annual Labor Day 1949 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, but on race
day, crowd control was lax and errant spectators caught several drivers out.
Mauro was within sight of the finish line when he had to swerve to avoid two
women with cameras who had wandered into the racing line. Though he avoided a
tragedy, Mauro crashed the Alfa Romeo into a parked car and did not finish.
On March 23, 1950 it was announced
by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that it had received Johnny Mauro’s entry of
the Alfa-Romeo along with two others for Jack McGrath and Cecil Green. Headed
into the final weekend of time trials, the 308’s engine threw a rod and the
damage was not repaired in time to make a qualifying attempt. The Indianapolis
Motor Speedway would not see another Alfa-Romeo
entry until 1990.
In 1952, Mauro entered a Ferrari
375 Grand Prix car at Indianapolis with sponsorship from the locally-based Kennedy
Tank company. Mauro probably used his family connections to obtain the
4.5-liter V-12 powered machine as his brother owned an exotic car dealership in
Denver. Unfortunately, the white with blue trim Kennedy Tank Ferrari 375 never approached qualifying
speeds.
Mauro raced the Ferrari 375 at Pikes Peak through 1956, and
in 1958 Mauro founded the United States Truck Driving School, Inc. (USTDS) to
train professional truck drivers. Mauro donated the Alfa Romeo 308 to the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway in 1969, and in 2003, Mauro was killed in a traffic
accident in his hometown of Denver when he was 92 years old.
Color photographs by the author
