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.