An excerpt from The Brown Bullet 

Today, we are proud to share an excerpt from the forthcoming book written by Bill Poehler which is due out on May 5 entitled The Brown Bullet: Rajo Jack's Drive to Integrate Auto Racing, that explores the life and career of  the African-American auto racing pioneer.

This excerpt from The Brown Bullet shares a story from 1937. 

"The rained‑out three‑hundred‑lap stock car race for the mile oval at Oakland Speedway was rescheduled for May 30, and Rajo had a better idea than putting his wife in his race car this time. Originally entered in a Dodge passenger car, Rajo managed to procure a Ford sedan delivery truck. The truck’s engine didn’t have the horsepower of the passenger cars entered, but it had another advantage.

Where most passenger cars of the day had a hard time surviving rutted and difficult dirt tracks like Oakland, a truck was one of the few vehicles capable of withstanding the pounding. Rajo removed the fenders and windshield of the truck—modifications allowed in the rules and common for the stock car class. 

The truck was nearly unrecognizable by the time he was done stripping it of its extraneous parts. And he painted the number 33 on the side. It was the first time in his career he used the number—the traditional number of starters in the Indianapolis 500—and it would become his trademark.

Oakland Speedway had a set of bathrooms for men and women in the infield. Though there were no signs the bathrooms were specifically for white people, it was assumed. But there were also no specific bath‑ rooms for black people. 

If Rajo or Herman Giles—who frequently traveled as Rajo’s mechanic—wanted to use the bathroom, they had to wait until the race was underway so it would be empty, and no one would see them use it. If there was a line for the bathroom, they would have to wait.

The Oakland race was minor in the racing world, but it was being billed as a national championship as Curryer was apt to do, and ten thousand fans arrived to bear witness. Joe Wilber led the other twenty‑ six drivers briefly from the pole position, but Duane Carter quickly passed him. 

On the fiftieth lap, a horse in the infield threw his rider and wandered onto the track through a gate mistakenly left open on the backstretch. The horse galloped along with cars down the backstretch for two hundred yards before being corralled and exiting uninjured.

On the fifty‑second lap, Ernie Criss—driving a Ford truck like Rajo’s—took over the lead, but Rajo passed him on the ninety‑third lap. Criss went back into the lead laps later and stayed there, though Rajo was never far behind. Criss pitted for fuel on lap 246, surrendering the lead to Rajo. 

Criss caught up to Rajo’s truck but blew a tire with twelve laps left, and Rajo’s lead extended to two laps in front of Les Dreisbach. Rajo slowed his pace greatly in the final laps and won after four hours and sixteen minutes.

“It should be called the Altamont Pass Sweepstakes. The trucks wouldn’t let the autos by,” purported IRS examiner John V. Lewis said.

The win was popular with Rajo’s fellow competitors, especially after his previous hard‑luck results at the track. And he took over the ARA lead with 730 points, ten more than Bay Area upstart Duane Carter.

Rajo’s win made headlines across the nation again, spreading throughout California and into places like Oregon, Montana, Nebraska, Hawaii, and Washington. Some in the press proclaimed it to be a victory for the working man over the idle rich. All Rajo cared about was that it put him closer to winning the ARA championship." 

Buy your copy of the The Brown Bullet: Rajo Jack's Drive to Integrate Auto Racing  at your favorite bookseller. 

The life of Don Herr

co-winner of the 1912 Indianapolis 500
part two 1912 and beyond  

1912

The National team skipped the early 1912 season races at Santa Monica, California and for the second annual World’s Championship International 500-mile Sweepstakes on May 30, 1912 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there were three National “Speedway Roadster” 124-inch wheelbase stripped stock chassis entries.  

The National 1912 '500 winner' on display in 

the original Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum 

Photo Courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

Each of the three National entries was powered by a four-cylinder, 490 cubic inch engine with an aluminum crankcase and the cylinders cast in pairs. The engines used two nickel steel valves per cylinder and a dual ignition system with two sets of spark plugs.

Herr was initially named as the driver of one of the National ‘500’ entries, but the late signing of drivers David Bruce-Brown and Joe Dawson relegated Herr to relief status.  Reading newspapers articles today suggests that with its four-driver line-up, National may be considered the first Indianapolis “super team.” National played coy about the final driver line-up for the three-car team, and it was only days before the race that Herr was confirmed as the relief driver.

A photo of the 1912 National team

Don Herr third from the right 

Photo Courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

Cars were required to complete one lap faster than 75 MPH to qualify for the field, but the starting order was determined by the order that the race entries were received. Howdy Wilcox started seventh with teammate Joe Dawson alongside in the eighth starting position. The #29 National driven by David Bruce-Brown started 23^rd in the 24-car field as he set a new track speed record of over 88 MPH for his qualifying lap.

On Decoration Day 72,000 paid spectators watched as Teddy Tetzlaff in the 589-cubic inch Fiat grabbed the lead at the start of the race from his front row starting position and completed the race’s first lap at a blistering 86 MPH.  The Fiat led lap two, then during the race’s third lap Ralph DePalma in his Mercedes picked up the race lead. By lap eight, Wilcox and Dawson moved into sixth and seventh place respectively. On lap 25 Bruce-Brown and his Italian riding mechanic Tony Scudellari retired their #29 National with a broken valve in the engine. 

At the 40-lap mark, 100 miles, the running order of the race remained close, with the top three DePalma, Dawson and Tetzlaff. As the race approached lap fifty, DePalma began to pull away and by the 108th lap, when second place Dawson came in for relief, the National was two laps in arrears to the leader.

The National 1912 '500 winner' on display in 

the original Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum 

Photo Courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

Don Herr as the relief driver, slid behind the 18-inch steering wheel and drove the National from lap 108 to lap 144 for 36 laps, or 90 miles, which allowed Dawson to rest for over an hour as the National averaged 77 MPH during that period of the race. It should be noted that while the driver was relieved, the riding mechanic Harry Martin, a young man from upstate Indiana was not.  

Dawson returned to the car on lap 145, with the National still in second place, but it was now four laps behind DePalma’s Mercedes. At 160 laps or 400 miles DePalma was clearly in total control of the race barring mechanical failure.  With ten laps to go, DePalma held a five-lap over Dawson and after six hours of racing, with the outcome seemingly determined, many spectators headed for the exits. 

As DePalma came down the front stretch to start his 195^th lap, the Mercedes trailed oil and the engine sounded rough.  The Mercedes had broken a piston and the connecting rod punched a hole in the crankcase. DePalma slowed down to 60 mph as he tried to limp the car home on three cylinders. 

However, as he completed his 198th lap, the Mercedes was traveling at just 40 MPH and DePalma’s lead over Dawson has shrunk to three laps. Then on DePalma’s 199^th lap, with the oil supply exhausted, the Mercedes engine seized, and the car coasted to a halt.

Author's photo of the 1912 trophy 

DePalma and his riding mechanic Rupert Jeffkins eventually pushed the massive Mercedes across the finish line but as the AAA rules stated that in order to be listed as a finisher, a car had to cross under the finish line under its own power, the #4 Mercedes which had led 195 laps was scored in 11^th place with 198 laps completed.

Author's photo of the 1912 National in the current Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum 

Dawson passed the crippled Mercedes three times to unlap himself and took the checkered flag from starter Fred Wagner as the National completed the 200 laps.   Dawson and Herr’s average speed for the 500 miles was 78.72 MPH a full four MPH faster than Ray Harroun and Cyrus Patschke’s combined finish in 1911.

This would be Wagner’s last race at the Speedway as the starter, as he and Carl Fisher later argued over Fisher’s decision to allow Ralph Mulford to continue to make laps hours after Dawson had taken the flag.  Wagner stormed off and never returned to the Speedway in an official capacity.

The winning National made four pit stops for the 500-mile distance, three of which were for the replacement of the Michelin tires - 1912 being the only instance so far in Indianapolis history when a car with equipped with Michelin was victorious in the 500-mile race.  With its 5-inch bore and 6-1/4-inch stroke, the 490-cubic inch engine four-cylinder National engine remains the largest powerplant ever to win the Indianapolis 500-mile race.   

The day following the race, the Indianapolis News wrote that “all the credit for winning the race is not due Joe Dawson. His relief driver, Don Herr, is deserving of much praise for Herr who showed his mettle when he relieved Dawson for ninety miles. Herr made a consistent drive and remained bunched with the leaders all the time he was at the wheel.”  

The News’ description of Herr closed by noting that Dawson and Herr were the same age - twenty-two years old. 

In a post-race press release from the National factory which contained an account allegedly written by Dawson gave his co-driver credit.  “I was greatly assisted by Don Herr, who relieved me for almost 90 miles while I rested in the repair pit. Instead of watching the race and keeping myself in a nervous strain, I flung my tired body of the grass and relaxed entirely.”  

In their advertising brochure entitled “The Fastest 500 Miles,” published in June 1912, National claimed to have won 84 races in the 1912 season - 9 road races, 11 speedway races, 20 beach races, 29 hill climbs and 15 “track meets.” The brochure, which made no mention of Don Herr’s involvement in the Indianapolis victory, noted that no water was added to the National’s radiator during the race, and three Bosch spark plugs were replaced.

1913  

After winning the 1912 Indianapolis 500-mile race, the National factory racing team slashed its racing program and the ‘super team” drivers moved on. “Howdy” Wilcox signed to drive the Pope-Hartford “Grey Fox” built by former driver Frank Fox.

David Bruce-Brown, the driver of the third National in the 1912 ‘500,’ died in a crash in October 1912 while practicing in his Fiat for the Vanderbilt Cup race on the Wauwatosa Road Race Course in Wisconsin.

In early January 1913, the Ideal Motor Car Company announced Gil Anderson and Charles Merz as the drivers for its two “Stutz” entries with Herr listed as “an alternate driver,” then on February 5, 1913, at the Chicago Auto Show, Stutz announced a third entry at Indianapolis for Don Herr. 

Herr first took the Stutz onto the big Speedway brick oval on May 7, 1913 and the following day’s Indianapolis Star newspaper account reported that Herr was “the main noise at the track yesterday afternoon – in fact he made all the noise. The exhaust of the car could be heard a mile from the Speedway, and he traveled some fast laps.” 

The article stated that “Don showed craftiness on the turns and on the back straight let the car out until it became a flying streak.” Author A S Blakely noted that Herr’s “drive of the winning National last year did not get the credit it deserved.”   

Joe Dawson for his part was linked to several manufacturers in news articles through the spring of 1913 but announced no firm deal.  Finally, late in the month of May, Dawson signed to drive the mysterious Deltal racer designed and built in Connecticut by a pair of German men, Erik Delling and Paul Hackethal, in a program allegedly funded by Mercer.

Delling the builder, initially planned to drive the Deltal powered by a four-cylinder 298-cubic inch engine himself. Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials accepted the car’s entry, but upon its arrival at the track, refused to allow the inexperienced Delling to drive. 

A day after it was announced that Dawson would race the Deltal, it was announced that the car was withdrawn reportedly after the starter crank broke the crank case following a “grueling workout” and suitable repairs could not be made in time which left the 1912 ‘500’ champion unable to defend his crown.    

1913 Stutz team Don Herr at the wheel of #8

 Photo Courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

In order to start the third annual Indianapolis 500-mile race, entries had to complete one lap at over 75 MPH, but the actual starting order arranged in rows of four abreast was set through a blind draw the night prior to the race. Don Herr drew the fifth starting spot, while his Stutz teammate Gil Andersen was slotted 14^th and Charles Merz started 16^th from the outside of the fourth row.

Don Herr’s day ended early, as his #8 Stutz lasted only seven laps before he and his riding mechanic Robert Vernon were sidelined with a clutch shaft failure and he was placed 26^th in the field of 27 starters.  

Gil Andersen in the #3 dueled the eventual race winner Jules Goux for many laps in the middle stages of the race, and led 18 laps, but eventually faded. The Stutz retired on lap 187 with camshaft gear failed in the car’s Wisconsin engine and relegated Andersen and riding mechanic Frank Agan to a twelfth-place finish.  While not listed in the official AAA race statistics, Joe Dawson’s race report in the May 31, 1913 Indianapolis Star stated that Herr relieved Andersen following a pit stop to replace two tires that was completed in just 57 seconds. 

The third Stutz driver by Merz with the 1912 ‘500’ wining riding mechanic Harry Martin alongside had a dramatic end to their day. After a steady performance most of the day running with the leaders, with just a few laps to go, a fuel line feeding the Wisconsin engine cracked and began to leak. Then on their next to last lap, the engine burst into flame.

Having come this far, Merz and Martin were unwilling to abandon their 6-1/2 hours of effort (remember a racer had to finish the full distance to receive any prize money), so Merz leaned away from the flames and Martin bravely crawled forward and used his jacket to try to beat back the flames. The #2 Stutz crossed the finish line in flames and the pair’s bravery was rewarded with a third-place finish and a check for $5000 ($130,000 today). 

Sadly, less than a month later, Harry Martin the heroic mechanic was killed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during a private Stutz test. Martin a 24-year old native of Fulton Indiana was killed instantly according to the Indianapolis Star and his riding mechanic Frank Agan was severely injured. 

Accounts of the day June 26, 1913 indicated that Martin who was driving completed four laps around the oval and that team owner Harry Stutz signaled for Martin to slow down. Martin initially slowed down but sped up again towards the end of the fifth lap when the tragedy occurred. Witnesses stated that the right front tire blew out, swerved into the wall then began overturned multiple times for approximately 100 yards.

Team members that included Merz and Stutz removed the pair from the wreckage and they were rushed to the City Hospital, where Martin was pronounced dead upon arrival while Agan, 31, was admitted with head and chest injuries and was initially not expected to survive his injuries.  Agan recovered and lived until 1961 when he died at the ripe age of 80.

After racing

Don Herr, at the time of Martin’s fatality, had already stepped away from competitive race driving and planned for a life away from racing, largely based on his hair-raising experience with Howdy Wilcox in 1912.  In May 1913, the Horseless Age reported that Wilcox and Herr with a partner BW Rout started the Indianapolis Auto Sales Co., an auto livery business based at 522 North Delaware in Indianapolis.

Earl Cooper took over the driving duties of the #8 Stutz for the balance of the 1913 AAA racing season and won five consecutive races - the Potlach Trophy and Montamarathon Trophy Races in July at Tacoma Washington, the Santa Monica Road Race in August, and two races held the same day, September 9 1913 in Corona California and was considered the 1913 AAA season driving champion.

In 1916 the Indianapolis News reported that Wilcox and Herr had taken on the Indiana distribution of White and Case cars built by the J L Case Company of Racine Wisconsin. In 1919, Wilcox won the Liberty 500-mile Sweepstakes and he invested his winnings wisely as he and Herr became the owners of the Yellow Cab Taxi Company in Indianapolis.

Herr was exempt from the military draft for World War One, as he was married with a dependent child. During 1920, Donald Herr made an unsuccessful bid for the office of Indiana State Representative from Indianapolis’ fourth ward, for which he reportedly spent $15 in campaigning.

After Howdy Wilcox’ Labor Day 1923 fatal accident at the blindingly fast Altoona Pennsylvania1-1/4-mile board track after a tire failure on his Duesenberg, Herr and Wilcox’ mother sold the Yellow Cab Company to the Blue Cab Company, and Herr formed the Don Herr Cab Company, Garage and Auto Laundry at 111 Kentucky Avenue in downtown Indianapolis.

Herr’s shop in addition to performing general automotive repairs later became a sales agent for the short-lived Wills Sainte Claire automobile and a licensed applicator of the Duco auto refinishing system patented and distributed by the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company. Although his earlier political career had fizzled, in the early 1930’s Herr was elected President of the Indiana State Automobile Association and later rose to become the president of the National Automotive Maintenance Association. 

In 1937, Herr sold his garage business and went to work for the Ramsey Accessories Manufacturing Company (RAMCO piston rings) as the manager for their central states’ sales operations with an office in the Merchants Bank building in Indianapolis.

Since the mid 1920’s, Herr had owned the 1912 ‘500’ winning National and occasionally drove the car in parades accompanied by one of his two sons.  In May 1939, Don rode along as Henry McLemore, the nationally syndicated Hearst newspapers sports columnist drove the old car on a two-lap spin around the Indianapolis track.

McLemore stated that “the National handles like a mired army tank must handle. To turn her wheels is a feat of strength, to straighten them another.” McLemore stated that the National was “equipped with a motor that any housewife would brand as unfit for her washing machine” after the pair reportedly sped down the straightaway at 28 MPH. 

Herr, who had driven the car to victory at Elgin in 1911 as well as at Indianapolis in 1912 was quoted in the column: “No one could have convinced me the day we came out for the race that there would ever be a faster prettier car then this one. She was so pretty in her day that people used to stand around her by the hour just to admire her graceful lines.”

The Federal Mogul Service Division plant seen during the 1950's  

In 1945, Herr accepted a job as the manager for the newly-formed service division (sales to the replacement market) for the Federal-Mogul Corporation, sold the family home and moved with his wife Lauretta to Coldwater Michigan.   

Just weeks after his son, Robert’s wedding, Herr died at age 63 on June 21, 1953 at his vacation home on Lake James Indiana. He is interred as are many of auto racing’s greatest names in the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.   

The life of Don Herr

co-winner of the 1912 Indianapolis 500
part one 

Today we examine the racing career of an auto racing pioneer, Don Herr, the man who co-drove with Joe Dawson to win the second Indianapolis 500-mile race.

Donald Herbert Herr was born in the central Pennsylvania town of Salona on August 31, 1889. When he moved to Indianapolis in 1904, he worked for Carl Fisher’s automobile dealership as a mechanic, then by 1909 he worked as a mechanic for National racing team.  The team was based at the National Motor Vehicle Company factory on East 22^nd Street in Indianapolis Indiana, the manufacturing company co-founded by Arthur Newby, one of the four founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In auto racing’s early days, one pathway to become a race car driver at the top level of racing was to be buy your own race car, which even in the early days required an enormous sum of money. Don Herr did not have that kind of money, so he followed what we call the “the development track” for the factory-supported teams.   

A young man first began work as a pit mechanic, then if he dared, advanced to the role of the “mechanician” (riding mechanic), which could prove to be harrowing and oftentimes deadly. 

The next step up the ladders was to drive a race car in private practice sessions, then if that went well, a man might be selected to serve as a relief driver for long-distance racing events. 

Finally, if one survived and showed good results, the young man could become a full-time race car driver for the factory team, first in smaller shorter races, with the goal of racing in the Indianapolis 500-mile race.

1909 & 1910

In 1909, Don Herr served as a riding mechanic for National and took part in the first races automobile races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which were sanctioned by the American Automobile Association (AAA). These races were held over three days, from August 19 through the 21st, 1909 and each day featured several short races and a long-distance trophy race.

The finale for the Thursday August 19, 1909 slate of races was the 250-mile (100 lap) Prest-O-lite Trophy race for AAA Class 2 stripped chassis machines with engines sized from 301 to 450 cubic inches. The race was sponsored by the Prest-O-Lite Company, which was owned by Speedway co-founders Carl Fisher and James Allison and manufactured and sold cylinders filled with compressed acetylene gas used to power automotive headlights.

For the Prest-O-Lite Trophy race, the hometown National team entered two of their signature blue-painted machines – number 6 driven by Tom Kincaid with Don Herr as his riding mechanic and the other car, #7, driven by Charles Merz with riding mechanic Claude Kellum. Merz finished third in the 100-lap race behind winner Bob Burman as the National of Kincaid and Herr retired on the 99^th lap with a broken fuel line.  

At National, Don worked with another mechanic, Howard Samuel “Howdy” Wilcox, who hailed from Crawfordsville Indiana and was the same age as Herr.  Through the years, Wilcox and Herr became close friends as their honed their skills on the “development track.”

An article in the May 29, 1910 edition of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette stated “we are all familiar with the names of the intrepid drivers who guide the high-speed creations, but few of us know the names of the iron hearted mechanicians who sit beside the drivers and share their danger. “

Riding mechanics were not typically recognized by name in news articles, but in the case of the National “40” team, the Journal Gazette article noted that there were two emerging stars - Wilcox and Herr.  The article stated that “Aiken and Kincaid are ever so full of praise for the fearless youngsters who serve so faithfully at their seats and are coaching Herr and Wilcox for their debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”  

Wilcox was the first of the pair to make his debut as a driver at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as a few months after that article was written, he drove in the Remy Brassard Trophy Race on July 2, 1910 sponsored by the Remy Electric Company of Anderson Indiana which manufactured magnetos for automotive ignitions.  Interestingly, not all the cars in the race were equipped with Remy magnetos, for instance the National racers used C F Splitdorf magnetos. 

The Remy Brassard on display in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum 

Unfortunately, the 21-year old Wilcox crashed out his National in the third turn on the first lap of the 20-lap race.  The winner of the race, Bob Burman drove a Marquette-Buick, a car which had just been reinstated by the AAA the day before and received a bronze engraved arm band (arm shield) would receive a check for $75 a week until the next Remy race.

Two days later, on the Fourth of July holiday, in the Cobe Trophy race, Wilcox outpaced his two older National teammates, Aiken and Kincaid, and finished ninth, albeit 25 laps behind the apparent victor Bob Burman’s Marquette Buick (Buick 16). 

Weeks later, in a ruling announced on July 28 1910, the AAA Contest Board ruled that the Buick factory had failed to uphold their end of a pre-race agreement regarding the advertisement of the victory by the “Marquette-Buick” and the Buick 16  racers were retroactively banned from AAA competition until December 31 1910 with the Cobe trophy awarded to Dawson’s Marmon.

At the next racing meet held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, two months later, on September 3, 1910, Howdy Wilcox won the 40-lap (100-mile) Remy Grand Trophy race.  Dawson, who drove a Marmon, started in the fourth position and led the first lap, then yielded to 46-year old W. Fred “Jap” Clemons in the Dayton-built Speedwell before Wilcox, who started third, took the lead on the fourth lap.

Wilcox held the lead until Dawson took the point again on lap 13. Dawson held the lead until lap 18 when the Marmon began to fade and eventually retired on the 25^th lap. “Handsome” Howdy Wilcox led the rest of the way for a total of 32 laps and took the win nine seconds ahead of his teammate Charles Merz. 

1911

While Wilcox had won the 1910 Remy Grand Trophy race as a driver, Don Herr remained a National mechanic until 1911. Herr was identified as the team’s lead mechanic and a reserve driver for the three-car National team for a series of races held at the one-mile Los Angles Motordrome board track originally scheduled for January 14 and 15, 1911.  The circular Motordrome was wide and high-banked and fast- with laps speeds averaging over 100 MPH.

The National team barely arrived on the Coast in time for the races on Saturday the 14^th and Merz won both the 10-mile and 25-mile stripped chassis races, and Nationals finished second and third in the 5- and 10- mile “free for all races.”  

The races scheduled for the next day January 15^th were postponed until the 22^nd presumably by weather and the National team took four first place finishes, three second place and two third place finishes in the Sunday program. Herr was not specifically named as a driver or riding mechanic in the articles about the races.   

After the Los Angeles races, the National team traveled north for the races scheduled for February 22nd on the temporary Portola Road Course located south of Oakland California. The 10.9-mile course was set up on closed public roads in hilly Alameda County between the cities Hayward and San Leandro. 

With a crowd reported at over 100,000, Merz in his National won the “heavy car” 152-mile race at an average speed of 66 MPH (miles per hour) and finished second in the 163-mile “free-for-all” race, as he finished five minutes behind winner Bert Dingley’s Pope-Hartford. Once again, reports of the Portola race do not mention Herr as either a driver or riding mechanic.           

On July 4, Herr and the National team participated in a series of nine races held at the Brighton Beach New York track and Herr scored two wins. Herr’s first win as a driver came in the fifth event of the day, a ten-mile race for non-stock cars with a maximum engine of displacement of 600 cubic inches and a minimum weight of 2100 pounds, and the writer of the New York Tribune article commented that “Herr handled the car beautifully.”

Herr also won the 23-mile Australian Pursuit Free-for-all race, in which cars were eliminated as they were passed until only one car remained. Herr started fifth and by lap 8 several of the cars ahead of him on the track, the other two Nationals and a Simplex, were eliminated and left Louis Disbrow’s Pope-Hartford in the lead. Herr slowly closed the gap, then on the 23^rd lap, the Pope-Hartford blew a rear tire, slowed and was passed by Herr who took the win. In the day’s longest event, a fifty-mile race, Herr led from the start until lap 27, when the National’s engine broke a valve and retired which left the victory to Disbrow.      

Herr scored his first major AAA win in the Illinois Trophy race held on the Elgin Illinois road course in August 25, 1911, paired with Harry Martin as the riding mechanic behind the wheel of a stock chassis 4-cylinder 446-cubic inch National.  There were only four starters listed for this race for cars with piston displacement between 301 and 450 cubic inches. The Illinois, Aurora, and Kane County trophy races for three separate classes of cars were all run simultaneously on the same course.  

The race started as the competitors receiving the signal from AAA starter Wagner on 30-second intervals; Herr, the first car off, finished his first 8-1/2-mile lap in 7 minutes and 37 seconds which he lowered to 7:15 for the second lap. On the fourth lap, Merz took over the race lead which he held until the 15^th lap. Herr and Martin led the final eight circuits and finished with an average speed of 65.6 MPH only nine seconds ahead of their teammate Merz.   

For his victory, Herr won $400 cash and the following day W D “Eddie“  Edenburn, in an article written for the Indianapolis Star, reported that “the boy driver” (Don was days away from his 22^nd birthday) had scored an upset in a race that was dominated by the two Nationals. Edenburn’s article quoted the taciturn Herr after the race - “I have nothing to say but that I am a glad I won, that the National finished first and that I hail from Indianapolis.” 

A post-race newspaper advertisement trumpeted the fact that Nationals had accomplished a one-two finish without either car needing to make a pit stop. The ad noted that consumers could buy a similar National ‘40’ Speedway Roadster for $2500 ($65,000 today).

On September 9, 1911 Don Herr represented National at the Port Jefferson Hill Climb on Long Island New York. The 2000-foot climb over an oiled gravel surface with an average grade of 10 percent and a maximum grade of 15 per cent was capped by a banked curve near the top.  The climb was considered a “very fair test of the power of an engine,” with light cars allowed a starting run of 800 feet, while the heavier cars, like the National, got a 400-foot flying start.

The event promoted by WJ Fallon was scheduled for 16 events, with entries divided by vehicle price, engine displacement, and was open to both amateurs and professionals. Herr in the National swept the day, as he won all five professional events in which he was entered.

Herr’s first win of the day came in the fifth event for gasoline cars priced from $1201 to $3000, and the National’s time up the hill of 24.45 seconds was nearly a second faster than second place Hugh Hughes’ Mercer. The National next won the “Free for all” event which included entries from Mercer, Knox, Mercedes, Fiat and the 389-cubic inch four-cylinder Pope “Hummer” with a time of 21.31 seconds.

Herr’s time though slower than Ralph DePalma’s winning time of 20.48 seconds set the previous year in a 200 horsepower Fiat, was set on a course on which conditions were “far from ideal” according to the New York Times with the weather described as “rainy and dismal.”  For his “free for all” win, Herr won the Ardencraig Trophy, sponsored by a local inn, and a $150 cash prize.

Herr and the National also won the class for cars with engines from 301 to 450 cubic inches in a time of 23.19 seconds beating Louis Disbrow’s Pope Hartford by over a second and scored the Belle Terre Cup and $50 cash.  Herr returned to win another $50 as he captured the win in the 451 to 600 cubic inch engine class with a time of 21.37 seconds.

Herr and Martin in action in the National in Philadelphia in 1911

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library 

Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection  

Next up for Herr and Martin was the “Philadelphia race” in their #6 National “40” for cars in division 4C with displacements from 301 to 450 cubic inches held on the famed 8-mile Fairmount road course in Philadelphia. The initial race date was postponed from Saturday to Monday due to rainy conditions. Herr finished the 25-lap, 202-mile race in third place - 12 minutes behind the winner, his National teammate Louis Disbrow.   

On December 15, 1911, in an under-reported event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Wilcox and Herr presented a match race in their Nationals for a group of distinguished visitors that included six visiting state governors from the states of Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, Ohio and Nevada.   Wilcox won the five-mile contest at an average speed reported in the Indianapolis Star of 92 MPH by a few yards over Herr.

After the 1911 racing season was over, Herr and Wilcox shared an experience that garnered national attention and shaped their future lives. In early December it was reported that the pair hailed a taxi after a social event in Indianapolis cab and during the ride the driver considered it his opportunity to demonstrate his prowess behind the wheel.

When the driver dropped off Wilcox at his home, ‘Howdy’ told the driver to give his buddy Herr a real thrill ride. The prank backfired as the driver’s dangerous driving enraged Herr, who reportedly pounded on the separating glass to no avail, and the driver only stopped after Don kicked out the glass.

In our next installment we'll examine Herr's breakout performance in the 1912 Indianapolis 500-mile race.

  

“Big Oly” Off Road Racing Legend

Rufus “Parnelli” Jones’ name is instantly familiar to racing fans everywhere and his accomplishments are legendary. He started auto racing in a jalopy as a 17-year old in 1950, and he became the 1960 United States Auto Club (USAC) Midwest sprint car champion in the small-block Chevrolet-powered Fike Plumbing Special.

In 1961, Parnelli shared Rookie of The Year honors in the Indianapolis ‘500’ with Bobby Marshman and repeated as the USAC sprint car titlist as he beat Roger McCuskey, Jim Hurtubise and AJ Foyt. The following year, Parnelli became the first man to qualify at over 150 miles per hour (MPH) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

   

Jones dominated and won the 1963 Indianapolis ‘500’ as he led 167 laps although officials nearly black-flagged Jones due to a cracked leaking external oil tank on the JC Agajanian owned #98 roadster.

In 1964 Parnelli in Bill Stroppe’s Mercury Marauder won the USAC stock car championship with ten race wins that included five consecutive wins at the Milwaukee Mile and his second straight Pikes Peak Hill Climb victory.  Jones came within four laps of winning the Indy 500 for a second time, in 1967 with Andy Granatelli’s radical STP turbine car. Jones led 171 laps, but the car retired with nearly a lap lead after a six-dollar transmission bearing failed.   

Jones, through his partnership with fellow racer Marvin Porter and longtime auto dealer and supporter Vel Miletch, founded Parnelli Jones Enterprises in his adopted hometown of Torrance California in April 1964. Through the years, Parnelli became a successful businessman with his own race team and built a chain of 14 Firestone eponymous tire stores across the Western United States. 

During journalist Ray Brock’s annual Christmas party in 1967, old friend Bill Stroppe jokingly challenged Parnelli to try off road racing. Jones accepted the challenge, but Jones’ and Stroppe’s early attempts with a stock-frame Ford Bronco ended in failure because the machine couldn’t hold up to Jones’ flat out driving style.  

Jones and Stroppe won the 1970 ‘Baja 500’ in the “Bronco Pony,” a modified automatic-transmission two-wheel-drive Bronco.  Although the pair completed the 558-mile triangular course in a record time of 11 hours and 55 minutes, Jones was not satisfied.   

Following that race, Parnelli designed a tube-frame ‘silhouette” Bronco off-road racer and   enlisted the talents of Bill Russell, a fabricator at Stroppe’s shop, to build it at night. When Stroppe learned of the project, it he moved the unfinished vehicle from the Parnelli Jones Enterprises shop in Torrance to his nearby Long Beach racing preparation shop. 

Stroppe knew how to build race cars to handle abuse- his Mercury team won the Pan American Race in 1952 and 1953 as they finished 1-2-3 and with driver Tim Flock Stroppe won the 1957 Daytona Beach race.

During the Bronco construction process, Jones by then retired from driving championship open-wheel cars, helped Ford Motor Company win the 1970 Sports car Club of America (SCCA) Trans-American sedan championship in a Bud Moore built Ford Mustang. Parnelli led all drivers with five wins, but the Trans-Am series did not award a driver championship award until 1972.  

The chassis built by Russell used 4130 chrome-moly tube steel covered by aluminum inner panels and cloaked by a fiberglass Bronco replica body built by Bill Loper three inches narrower with three inches sectioned from the factory dimensions. The most obvious feature of “Big Oly” is the huge aluminum wing mounted on the roof, fitted with retractable Cibie lights, and adjustable from the cockpit in 10-degree increments.  

The ground-breaking off-road machine is powered by a Ford 351-cubic-inch Windsor small-block V-8 mated to a Ford C6 three-speed transmission that feeds power to the rear wheels.  To boost performance to 400 horsepower, the engine is fitted with an Iskenderian racing camshaft, a Cobra high-rise single plane aluminum intake manifold with a single Holley 650 carburetor, and tubular exhaust headers. 

The oil and transmission coolers are mounted up behind the cockpit in the clean airflow, and the engine’s air filter is mounted inside the cockpit to get the most dust-free air possible. The Bronco’s bed also carries the twin 22-gallon Firestone fuel cells.

Parnelli’s Bronco used a twin-I-beam front suspension with the links mounted at the leading edge of the chassis with coil springs and single Monroe shock absorbers with 10 to12 inches of wheel travel. The rear suspension is a four-link design again with coil springs and shock absorbers, a transverse Panhard rod, 9-inch rear axle and a Detroit Locker differential.

All four wheels have Airheart disc brakes with Parnelli Jones 100 Firestone tires mounted on 15-inch US Mag aluminum wheels.  Parnelli and Art Hale started US Mags to supply custom aluminum wheels to sell alongside the line of eponymous performance tires at Jones’ Firestone retail stores.    

Painted red-white and blue when it first debuted, known as the “Crazy Colt,” it carried sponsorship from Johnny Lightning diecast toy cars which also sponsored the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Indianapolis car driven by Al Unser that won the 1970 Indianapolis ‘500.’ In the fall ‘Baja 1000’ race, Jones and Stroppe were leading when the ‘Crazy Colt” broke down and placed 19^th.

Along came the Olympia Brewing Company from Tumwater Washington, which brewed its beer with water obtained from artesian wells. The company which advertised “It’s the water,” wanted to expand sales with ambassadors that included motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel. When Olympia stepped up to sponsor Jones and Stroppe, “Big Oly” was born.  

Driving “Big Oly,” Parnelli, 36 years old, and Stroppe, 52 years old, won the 1971 883-mile ‘Baja 1000,’ that ran from Ensenada to La Paz on the Baja Peninsula, in record time, as their 14-hour and 59-minute run knocked over an hour off the old record. “Big Oly” became a legend as Jones and Stroppe won the 1972 Baja 1000 and the 1973 ‘Baja 500’ off-road races.

The pair also won the 1973 ‘Mint 400’ the premier United States off-road race sponsored by Del Webb's Las Vegas Mint Hotel and Casino in 9 hours and 10 minutes with titles in both the 2-seat car division and the overall 4-wheel vehicle championship.  

In late July 1974 during the ‘Baja 500,’ Parnelli, Stroppe and “Big Oly” crested a hill near Ojos Negros at over 80 MPH when they collided head-on with a motorcyclist. The rider, Michael Vaughn who was not involved in the race and traveling uphill against race traffic, died instantly in the collision. Jones sustained burns as “Big Oly’s” fuel tank ruptured and a broken-hearted Parnelli ended his off-road race driving career on the spot.  

The accident did not end his involvement in off-road racing however, the 1975 Chevy pickup owned by Parnelli and driven by Walker Evans won the 1976 SCORE (Southern California Off Road Enthusiasts) Class 8 Championship. 

With its dominant success in Class 8, with class wins at Baja 500 and Baja 1000, the sanctioning body moved it into Class 2 against single and two-seat race vehicles for 1977, but it remained highly competitive and won the 1977 SCORE Overall Class 2 Points Championship.

Both Parnelli Jones and Bill Stroppe were inducted into the Off-Road Racing Hall of Fame in 1978.

The Aurora HO slot car- author's collection 

“Big Oly” became a celebrity, as the Aurora toy company produced it as a H.O. scale slot car. It co-starred in the original 1974 film “Gone in 60 Seconds” as one of the 48 vehicles stolen, and Parnelli also appeared in the film in a cameo role.

The author took these photos of “Big Oly” at the 2019 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show as part of the ‘Ford Out Front’ display of first-generation Ford Broncos.