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.