The Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part nine – 1952-1955 The Tri-Counties Racing Association & Parnelli Jones

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part nine – 1952-1955  

The Tri-Counties Racing Association 

& 

Parnelli Jones 

Parnelli Jones in 1963

photo appears courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection  

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 opened for the 1952 season with the California Jalopy Association (CJA) on Monday night April 14 with an eight-race program with thirty cars and drivers, many of whom spent the winter months racing at the Culver City Stadium clay track.

“Rip” Erickson came into Carpinteria as the points leader with several feature wins to his credit, along with defending two-time champion Fred Russell and Danny Letner.  Those top CJA racers were supplemented by Ventura County drivers that included Tony Nelson, Bob Ellsworth, Al Goelz, Lee Andrews and Eddie Deal.

It appears that the feature race length became 100 laps for several of the Monday night races; Paul Norman the current CJA points leader, won the June 2 event by a full lap over Ellsworth and Ken Ebert from Lompoc.   Eighteen cars started the feature but only five cars finished, the result of four separate accidents.

Two weeks later, it was announced that the CJA and the promoters of the Thunderbowl, Tony Coldeway and Bud Hines Junior, parted ways, with future races co-sanctioned by the Tri-Counties Racing Association (TCRA) and the Pacific Racing Association (PRA).  That decision meant that Paul Norman, the CJA points leader and winner of six of the nine 1952 Carpinteria features, would not return.

The absence of the CJA regulars opened the way to victory lane for the local drivers, as Tony Nelson of Oxnard won the June 23^rd feature trailed by Ellsworth and Buford Lane. The big holiday weekend 100-lap race with fireworks scheduled for July 5 had to be postponed to July 7th due to foggy conditions.

Local driver and Navy veteran Sonny Mars won the July 14^th feature, and Rip Erickson crashed on Sunday July 20^th at Culver City and broke his leg which put the Carpinteria favorite on the sidelines for the rest of the season.  

With “Rip” out of action, Tony Nelson out-dueled Mars on July 21 to win the 30-lap “Navy Night” feature. A week later, Mars won his heat race then followed it up with a main event win over Nelson. During the their heat race, drivers Bill Cherry and Paul Lang got into a wheel-banging feud that ended with Lang’s car upside down and Cherry’s car in the wall and neither able to continue.   

In early August the Thunderbowl went to the birds in a matter of speaking, as in back-to-back weeks the track hosted avian competitions along with the jalopies.   On August 11, “Hercules” a four-year old golden eagle was paired against “Major” a four-year old pelican in a scheduled ten-minute race. 

The event turned out to be a flop, as the eagle slipped his leash and left the pelican waiting at the starting gate. In the jalopy race, Nelson won over Bob Heffington.  This unusual promotion was followed the next week by scheduled  race between a pair of ostriches, “Whirlaway” and “Man O’ War” ridden by a pair of brave jalopy drivers selected by fan voting.     

Ventura resident Bob Ellsworth won the Labor Day 100-lap feature although he ran out of gas on the last lap. With a substantial lead he inherited after Lee Andrews and Buford Lane suffered blown tires, Ellsworth coasted across the finish line ahead of rookie driver Bill Torgeson. 

Over the final three weeks of the season, Nelson and Ellsworth battled for the TCRA title as they traded feature victories. At the conclusion of the Thunderbowl’s final 1952 race on October 13, Tony Nelson prevailed in the special 60-lap feature and won the title by nine points over Bob Ellsworth. 

  

Over the winter of 1952-1953, track owner James Slaybaugh took over promotional duties and requested that the Tri-Counties Racing Association assume the sole sanctioning duties at the Thunderbowl. In a truly unusual twist, Slaybaugh was not just the track owner and promoter, he also raced a jalopy in the weekly Carpinteria programs. 

In its annual meeting held on March 9 1952, the TCRA Board accepted Slaybaugh’s proposal and the organization elected retired driver Pat Deardorf as the club president. Deardorf named John Shaw as the starter, Don Larson the pit manager and Jack Moore to be in charge of timing and scoring at the Carpeinteria Thunderbowl.   

The TCRA set the opening day as April 20 with an open test date on April 12, but the opening night was rained out as was the scheduled make-up date of April 27^th.   The May 5^th opening brought “near perfect weather” and a “full house” according to the next day’s Ventura County Star-Free Press account. Rip Erickson recovered from last year’s broken leg  nearly scored a clean sweep, as he won the trophy dash and the feature but narrowly lost his heat race by a fender to Paul Lang.

Erickson repeated with a feature victory the following week in a racing program that included a trophy dash, three heat races, the semi-main event and the thirty-lap feature, all completed in an hour and 35 minutes. Over the following weeks, Erickson, the Santa Barbara speedster stretched his victory skein to five races before he split with his car owner. The split did not seem to effect Erickson who won 9 of 11 races by July 21 and successfully passed a post-race technical inspection by TCRA officials.

Rip’s streak of success ended August 4 after he sold his Ford to fellow competitor Bob Heffington and he ran into delays building his new Chevrolet entry.   Erickson led Paul Lang by only 12 points when he returned to action on August 31 as he drove one of only three Chevrolets in the program.  On September 7^th, Rip returned to victory lane at Carpinteria, as he inherited the win when the leaders tangled on lap 45 of the 50-lap feature.

As the 1953 season entered its final weeks, Lang closed the gap on Erickson with a win on September 14 but Erickson salvaged a second place finish to cling to a 14 point lead. In the final points-paying race, Buford Lane won the feature while neither Erickson nor Lang scored any points, so Rip was the 1953 Tri-County Racing Association champion with 85 tallies to Lang’s 71 while Lane was third with 59 points.

For 1954, Jim Slaybaugh and the Tri-Counties Racing Association (TCRA) moved the racing schedule at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl to Friday nights. Rip Erickson continued he winning ways on opening night May 14. Two weeks later Bill Heffington of Santa Barbara drove Erickson’s former machine and won the ‘Poor Man’s Indianapolis” 50-lap feature. At age 65, Slaybaugh continued to race his jalopy and in early June, he took part in a special “old timers” match race against the fathers of Lee Andrews and Rip Erickson.

The July 16th program saw a drivers’ revolt after Jim Slaybaugh announced that he was shifting the program to Monday nights. The drivers immediately protested and refused to race.  Jim Shepherd led the drivers who claimed that their contract with the Thunderbowl specified Friday night race dates and that the drivers were not consulted before the announcement.   

After peace was restored, Lee Andrews won the feature but then a protest was filed, but after his car was torn down it was found to be legal. During August, Slaybaugh introduced motorcycle races on alternate Saturday nights, and as the jalopy season ended on September 10, Andrews from Ventura won the TCRA 1954 championship by 20 points over Buford Lane.

In 1955, another future Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Parnelli Jones arrived  the Carpinteria Thunderbowl. 

 For the 1955 season at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl, track owner and promoter Jim Slaybaugh continued the track’s sanction with the Tri-Counties Racing Association and the jalopy racing schedule shifted back to Monday nights set to open on May 2.

The season opened in a predictable way as Rip Erickson won his heat race, the Australian Pursuit race and the 30-lap feature then he followed it up with another feature win on May 9th, as the Thunderbowl pits were jammed with 35 cars.  Erickson made it three in row on May 16^th as he passed leader Bob Ellsworth on lap 28 of the 30-lap feature. 

 

The runner-up in the May 16^th trophy dash was a 21-year old racer from Torrance named “Parnellie” Jones, who first raced a jalopy as a 17-year old in 1950 at Carrell Speedway in Gardena. Little would fans present that night at Carpinteria know that Parnelli Jones (he would soon drop the “e”) would became the 1960 United States Auto Club (USAC) Midwest sprint car champion, then share Rookie of The Year honors in the Indianapolis ‘500’ with Bobby Marshman and repeat as the USAC sprint car titlist in 1961. 

In 1955, no one could predict that in 1962 Parnelli would be the first man break the magical 150 miles per hour (MPH) barrier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and win the 1963 Indianapolis ‘500.’

On May 16, 1956 Parnelli followed up his solid finish in the trophy dash with a solid second-place feature finish behind four-time winner Erickson after the original runner-up Fred Tomlinson was disqualified when his car owner refused to allow the car to be inspected.

56 jalopies were on hand for the annual 50-lap “Poor Man’s Indianapolis” on May 30 although after time trials and the preliminary races, only 18 cars started the feature on the 1/5-mile oval.  Rip Erickson won his fifth Carpinteria feature in a row and the lion’s share of the $500 guaranteed purse from the Santa Barbara Merchants Association. It wasn’t easy however as Rip started dead last but he took the lead on the 30^th lap and led the rest of the way as Heffington finished second and Jones third. 

Surprisingly, after that win, Rip announced that he would not race at Carpinteria any more in 1955, as “the prize money didn’t pay his way” from his home in Culver City. Erickson’s absence on June 6^th opened the door for Chuck Gibson of Ventura to win the feature.

The following week June 13, Parnelli Jones won the trophy dash as he beat fast qualifier Frank Kephart with a new track record of 17.28 seconds. In what the Ventura County Star-Free Press described as “one of the wildest seen at the bowl this year,” early leader Glen Wallen lost a wheel and hit the wall then second place “R. Spencer” (a nom de guerre for a local schoolteacher, Spencer Blickenstaff) ran into Wallen’s stalled machine.  New race leader Sonny Mars flipped twice on lap 13, then Ellsworth held the lead until his tire blew on lap 25.  Buford Lane led the final five laps and took the checkered flag ahead of Parnelli and Kephart. 

On August 1 Parnelli took part in a match race against famous local lady race Hila Paulson. Before the event, Jones told reporters “No girl is going to walk off and leave me too far behind if I can help it.” However, as reported in the Ventura County Star-Free Press, Hila used some “very unladylike tactics” to beat Parnelli as she “shoved Jones’ car into the wall coming around the final turn and came out in front.”

At some point Rip Erickson returned to Carpinteria and on August 15 he was leading the feature when he tangled with the lap car of Ventura’s Jim Jennings and dropped to fourth place. At the end of the evening, Buford Lane led the TCRA points with 69, Parnelli jones was second with 47, while Erickson was fourth with 31 markers.   

In the season’s penultimate race on September 29, after he won his heat race Parnelli breezed to an easy win in the 30-lap feature over Pete Gallagher of Ventura. Parnelli wound up second with 61 points as Buford Lane, the club president and 1955 champion scored 89 points and received his trophy at the Tri-Counties Racing Association banquet on October 22 at the American Legion Hall in Ventura. 

 

Parnelli closed out his successful 1955 season as he debuted at Gardena Stadium on Christmas Day before 960 fans. He nearly swept the program – he won the trophy dash, his heat race, the handicap dash and finished second in the feature behind Oscar Tolstein after he started dead last.