The Carpinteria Thunderbowl
Part five - the first half of the 1949 season
Author’s note – This 12-part article highlights the brief 12-year
history of one of Southern California’s least-documented auto racing venues –
the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.
The Carpinteria Thunderbowl began its third season of
operation on Friday evening May 6th, 1949 as it hosted the ‘Ken Baker Circus of
Thrills’ auto thrill show. The show starred the ‘Streamline Death-Defying Hell
Drivers’ with precision driving by Dave Arnold and Earl McComb, the “ice crash”
in which Bob “Jumpin’ Jack” Niles crashed a sedan into 20-ton wall of ice, rollover crashes by
“Reckless” Dick Getty, a head-on crash by Getty and McComb, and closed with a
fireworks finale.
Carpinteria was the inaugural show for Ken and Dottie
Baker’s troupe, based in North Hollywood that used the advertising phrase
“Smoke and Flame - we earn the name.” Later Baker tour stops included Lakeland
Park Ranch & Stadium (also known as El Monte Speedway) in El Monte, Balboa
Stadium in San Diego, San Fernando’s Valley Fiesta and Contra Costa Stadium in
Walnut Creek.
The Saturday May 14th edition of the Ventura
County Star Free Press featured an article that revealed that the
Carpinteria Thunderbowl 1949 midget auto racing season would start on Monday
evening May 16th. The article revealed
that “the track will be under the management of Bradley and Wanda McLure,” a
couple that lived at 155 East Vince Street in Ventura.
The article stated that Mr. McClure, who had 20 years’
experience as a superintendent at the Saticoy Rock Company in Ventura County, would
“handle the track arrangements, while Mrs. McClure will attend to the
concession stand.”
On Monday May 16 the Ventura County Star Free Press
featured a Carpinteria Thunderbowl advertisement on page eight but on page nine,
an article headlined “Rain Threat cancels Carpinteria Races,” noted that the
Thunderbowl had scheduled a program “which featured an All-star card of
top-notch drivers was lined up” until “Mrs. Bradley McLure cancelled due a
threat of rain this morning and deferred until a week from tonight.”
On May 20 the Ventura County newspaper carried a follow-up
article in which Bradley McLure announced the cancellation of the races
scheduled for May 23 and May 30 due to unfavorable weather conditions with the
1949 grand opening of the Thunderbowl postponed to June 6.
The United Racing
Association (URA) “Blue Circuit” drivers scheduled to headline the opening
Carpinteria racing program included Danny Oakes, Johnny Garrett, Walt Faulkner,
Dominic “Pee Wee” Distarce, “King Karl” Young and Rodger Ward. For the 1949
season, two drivers who jumped from the URA to the American Automobile
Association (AAA) during the late summer of 1948, Norm Holtkamp and Cal Niday, returned
to the URA fold along with their respective car owners, Roscoe Hogan and Arnold
Krause.
On June 6th, Faulkner defeated Ward in the Trophy
Dash, with heat races wins to Garrett, Eddie Anderson, Jimmy Bryan and Bob
Kelsey. Bryan beat Distarce to the checkered flag in the 15-lap semi-main which
featured a crash that involved Bob Shimp and Al Sherman that required a red
flag stoppage. Heath won the feature over Billy Cantrell in a comparatively
slow time of 8 minutes and 18 seconds for the thirty laps.
The following week, June 13th, Doug Groves set
quick time in time trials at 11.95 seconds, but was edged out in the Trophy
Dash by Billy Cantrell. ‘Skee’ Redican, Rodger Ward, Cliff Epp, and Bill
Homeier recorded victories in their 6-lap heat races. Ward won the 15-lap semi-main
event, then Bob Barker won the feature after both Jimmy Bryan and Cantrell spun
themselves out of contention.
Allen Heath won the June 20 URA “Blue Circuit” feature in
the Lyle Greenman owned Offenhauser and Frank “Satan” Brewer won on June 27 in
his own Ford V8-60 powered midget. In the meantime, the McLure family was
negotiating to get out of their lease.
On July 1, a new promoter, Charlie Cake, signed the
Carpinteria track lease with owner Jim Slaybaugh. In an appearance days later at
the Ventura Police Boys’ Club, Cake announced his intention to also promote
weekly motorcycle races at Carpinteria, which would begin with an exhibition
during the scheduled July 4 URA “Blue Circuit” event.
The July 5th race report in the Ventura County
Star-Free Press noted that the 1/5-mile clay oval “appeared in better shape last night than since midget auto racing
began two years ago.” The program started off with a bang when Walt
Faulkner set a new track record in qualifying with a lap of 14.66 seconds.
Faulkner whipped URA point leader Billy Cantrell in the trophy dash, then
easily won his heat race.
Howard Gardner, who flipped during the semi-main race on June
27th, reversed his fortunes and snagged the semi-main win. Faulkner, with chance for a “clean sweep”
started the feature from seventh place, passed his teammate Len Faas for the
lead on lap five, and romped to victory ahead of Faas, Chet Fink, Danny Oakes
and Doug Groves.
A preview written before the first Thunderbowl weekly motorcycle
race promised “at least 30 top-notch drivers from Ventura and Santa Barbara
counties” that included Cal Cline, the operator of a local motorcycle shop, who
took part in the July 4 exhibition. The scheduled motorcycle program included a
four-lap trophy dash, eight lap heat races, a 15-lap semi and a 30-lap feature race.
On July 7th brothers Glenn and Bob Mullaney of Santa Barbara
“threaded their two-wheeled broncos
through the pack to win first and second place” according to the July 8th
Ventura County Star-Free Press report, which noted that many in the
average-sized crowd went away disappointed.
The article explained that “most of the blame…can be passed off to the track which was little more
than a soft lumpy dirt road by the time three heat races were turned, and even
worse when it came time for the consolation race and the main event.” Cal
Cline, the local hero, flipped in the mushy dirt midway through the feature,
but reportedly received "only friction burns on his hands and arms."
In the next URA midget program on Monday night July 11, Doug
Groves of Van Nuys set quick time at 14.99 seconds then beat Bill Zaring in the
Trophy Dash. The evening’s heat race victories
went to Bill LeRoy, Jim Bryan, Hal Minyard and Rodger Ward. The semi-main race
win went to Bryan who set a new 15-lap record of 4 minutes and 64/100 seconds
ahead of Kenny Morrison.
Just after Bill Cantrell took the checkered flag for the
feature win, chaos erupted behind him. Hal Minyard hit the front stretch wall
and his midget spun to stop, facing the approaching field. Doug Groves in third
place, with nowhere to go, hit the Minyard car and his car flipped. Groves’ car
came to rest upside down, with Doug who was unconscious, pinned inside for many
minutes until he could be freed.
Minyard miraculously escaped unhurt, but once Doug was removed from his midget, an ambulance rushed him to the Lying-In
Osteopathic Hospital in Oxnard where the 33-year old driver was admitted with
broken left leg and severe bruises on his chest.
The following week’s URA program on July 18th was
a benefit for Groves, with Doug brought to the track from the Oxnard hospital
by Jay Ryan’s Ventura County ambulance service. Faulkner edged Garrett in the
trophy dash, while Ward, Minyard, Cantrell and Bob Shimp scored heat races
wins. Shimp led the semi-main until the Lea-Francis engine in his midget failed.
which handed the win to Frank Brewer in his own Ford V8-60 powered car.
The 91-cubic inch Lea-Francis engine, purpose built in England
for midget auto racing, featured dry-sump oiling, gear-driven double camshafts,
four SU carburetors, with a high compression
ratio to run on alcohol. Record-setting British
driver Dudley Froy, Lea-Francis designer Ken Rose and chief engineer Albert
Ludgate made trips to the United States in 1948 and 1949 to show and sell
examples of the engine.
Besides Shimp, several US midget racers (including Woody
Brown in Northern California) used the four-cylinder “LeaF” engine but it never
became popular (less than a dozen were built), given that its 120 horsepower
could not match the power of the Offenhauser four-cylinder engine and it
sometimes put connecting rods through the side of the aluminum block.
The Ventura County Star-Free Press newspaper report called
the July 18th midget feature race “one of the most spectacular races
ever at the Thunderbowl” as Cantrell, in the Casale Offenhauser, finished in
seven minutes and 45.02 seconds, ahead of Bob Barker, who hounded Cantrell for
all thirty laps, with Johnny Garrett the third place finisher.
The author is looking for any private vintage photographs of the
Carpinteria Thunderbowl that readers may have. Please reach out to kevracerhistory@aol.com . We can’t pay for use, we’re just looking to
share images for those who never saw the track.
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