The Carpinteria
Thunderbowl
Part six – another fatality
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.
On July 21,
1949 promoter Charlie Cake presented motorcycle racing for third time at the
Thunderbowl. The program featured both ‘flat track’ racing on the 1/5-mile oval
and ‘tourist trophy’ (TT) racing with both right- and left-hand turns as well
as steeplechase-style jumps. Oscar Sherman won the flat track feature and ‘H
Kimbel’ won the TT feature.
Cake, from
Ventura, negotiated a deal with the new United Racing Association (URA)
president Roy Morrison to bring the URA Red “B” Circuit (for rocker arm powered
midgets) to Carpinteria, historically a “Blue circuit” (for overhead camshaft
powered midgets) track. The URA earlier ran both the “Blue” and “Red” circuits,
but Morrison created the “Red B” circuit, for slower flathead and motorcycle powered
cars, as a lower-cost racing program for promoters designed to combat the
inroads made by the “hot rod” roadsters.
Johnny McFadden
won the three-lap trophy dash for the two fastest qualifiers from time trials
over Bill Martin to open the July 25th racing program. On lap 4 of the first 6-lap heat race, Don
Keefe and Bob Saunders collided, which knocked both of their cars out of the
race.
After the
restart, on the final lap of the race, as Chris Christopher took the checkered
flag, rookie Norman “Norm” Howton who started
from the tail of the field, attempted to pass Al Bridges, but misjudged and the
right rear wheel of Howton’s machine hooked the left front wheel of Bridges’
car. Howton’s midget flipped and it landed upside down on top of the crash wall.
Howton, a 22-year
old native of Santa Monica living in Venice, had joined the URA organization
the previous Thursday and Carpinteria was his first race, Norm suffered a
broken jaw and a fractured skull, with suspected
brain injuries. An ambulance transported him to Cottage Hospital in Santa
Barbara.
The racing
program continued after officials cleared away Howton’s damaged machine. Bill LeRoy, Chuck Burness and Jackie Jordan
won the remaining three heat races.
LeRoy won the fifteen-lap semi-main followed by future 3-time URA
champion Lowell Sachs and Clay Robbins. Jordan
won the 30-lap feature race over Martin and McFadden with Johnny Coughlin in
fourth place.
Norm Howton
passed away at 6:30 AM the following day, and thus became the second driver to
lose his life at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl in as many years. Norm, a veteran
of the United States Navy, served in World War 2 as a seaman on board the
destroyer escort USS Raymon W. Herndon in the assault on Okinawa. Survived by
his father Glen, mother Irene, and older sister Lorraine, Norm is buried at the
Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.
Johnny McFadden
from San Diego, led time trials for the next URA Red “B” program on Monday
August 1st with a best lap of 15.62 seconds, then he captured the
trophy dash and his heat race. Other heat race winners included Bill LeRoy,
Dwight Gunn and Bill Martin, who also won the semi-main 15-lap race. In the
30-lap feature, McFadden fell two positions short of a “clean sweep” as Bill Martin
led Jackie Jordan to the finish line.
The following
week, on August 8th promoter Cake added a special appearance by the Southern
California race track favorite ‘Charlie the Clown.’ Leo ‘Pop’ Faulkner, who
starting racing in 1934 won the added Australian Pursuit race. Bill
LeRoy won the trophy dash while Johnny McFadden, Bob Allen, Clay Robbins and ‘big
car’ racer Ken Crispin scored heat race victories.
Norm Hall took
the checkered flag for the 15-lap semi-main event. On the second lap of the
feature, Robbins ran over the wheels of a stalled car and his midget flipped over
the wall but he escaped injury. McFadden won the feature while on the penultimate
lap Bill Martin and Jackie Jordan tangled as they battled for second place and both
spun into the infield.
‘Charlie the Clown’ returned to Carpinteria on
August 15th but Jackie Jordan did not, as the URA suspended him for
seven days for rough driving following the Carpinteria incident with Martin. Faulkner
repeated his victory in the Australian Pursuit and Martin won the trophy dash
and his heat race, as Crispin, LeRoy and Car Brown also scored 6-lap race wins.
On the opening
lap of the semi-main, Johnny McFadden got squeezed into the outer wall and his
midget took a series of side-over-side flips. When the car finally came to
rest, Johnny climbed out of the wreckage with only a cut over his eye and badly
skinned knuckles.
Bill LeRoy
grabbed the early lead in the 30-lap feature then Charlie Miller challenged for
the lead until Miller’s engine blew up, and Charlie suffered burns on his arms
and legs as the car rolled into the infield. Bill Martin took up the chase
after LeRoy, and as the laps wound down, Martin found the fast way around the
top of the 1/5-mile oval. With just a few laps to go, Martin sped past LeRoy to
take the victory with George Annis in third place.
On August 18th,
the Ventura County Star-Free Press revealed that promoter Charlie Cake
cancelled all Thursday night motorcycle races until track repairs could be
made, but that the scheduled Monday night midget races would continue.
The following
day, the Ventura newspaper reported the cancellation of the remainder of the
1949 URA midget racing schedule at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl. According to
promoter Charlie Cake, “hot rod” racing would replace the midgets on Monday
nights, following the same program line-up as the midgets featuring a trophy
dash, four heat races, a 15-lap semi-main and a 30-lap feature.
On Saturday
August 20, the Ventura County Star-Free Press carried an article about
the Thunderbowl for the third day in a row.
The newspaper reported that in a telephone interview, Roy Morrison, the
URA president revealed that on Friday, the URA board cancelled Charlie Cake’s
franchise for URA midget racing at the Thunderbowl.
Morrison cited
“non-payment of purses and officials
fees,” as the reason for the cancellation, and noted that Cake had an
outstanding debt of $781. Morrison added that URA’s Los Angeles attorney, J.
Frank Armstrong would draw up papers and file suit in Santa Barbara “in the next ten days.” In the meantime, Morrison said that the URA board
would “strongly consider” a bid to
hold races on the Ventura track.
Morrison
claimed during his interview that Cake “held
up the purse three times and gave the association nothing but trouble since he
took over management of the track.” Roy recalled that dealings with Bradley McLure
the original 1949 franchisee were “very
satisfactory.” Because of Cake’s actions Morrison claimed “the URA is operating at a loss at the
Carpinteria Thunderbowl.”
Cake, contacted
by the Ventura County Star-Free Press, admitted that he held up purses “hoping to get more cars the following week,”
and would continue to hold purse monies pending the outcome of a $5,000 breach
of contract suit to be drawn up by his Ventura attorney Bernard J “Barney” Loughman. “The URA did not send the number of racers
called for in the contract,” according to Cake.
In the next
installment, we will trace the rest of the 1949 season as new types of racing took
over at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.
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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