Tommy Alden Wise – racer

Tommy Alden Wise – racer

Today we review the life and career of Tommy Alden Wise a California competitor in the dangerous pre-and post-World War Two period of automobile racing. Tommy never won a championship or the Indianapolis 500, but his life serves as a strak reminder how far safety has come in our sport.  

Born in the southern Arizona mining town of Lowell Arizona on September 5 1908, Tommy and his family, that included two younger sisters Frances and Murial, relocated to Los Angeles after the death of his father in 1929.

It is unclear when Tommy started his racing career but an October 1932 Los Angeles Times newspaper article described 24-year old Tommy as one of the “well-known drivers” scheduled to appear at the “new” Culver City Speedway, located one block south of the intersection of Washington and West Adams Boulevards northeast of downtown Culver City. Other drivers scheduled to appear included Herb Kelly, Jack Gardner, Ted Harvey and Howard Gunn. 

  

This 5/8-mile dirt track shared its name with another track, used primarily for motorcycle racing, adjacent to the Culver City Kennel Club dog track, located at the west end of Washington Boulevard at Lincoln Boulevard near Venice.

The oiled-dirt Culver City track, owned by R E “Dick” Weatherly Sr. and managed by his son, opened on Sunday August 21 1932 as an outlaw (not an AAA - American Automobile Association sanctioned) track that operated under the auspices of the California Auto Racing Association (CARA).  

The crowd was still filing in when tragedy struck during time trials and young Oliver Burton lost his life. As Burton entered a turn, a pin apparently fell out of the steering linkage of the “Hoover Special” and it veered out of control.

Burton’s car smashed through the wooden fence, rolled over three times and came to rest with Oliver pinned under the wreckage. Once extricated, the mortally wounded 20-year old driver died as the ambulance sped towards the Culver City Community Hospital. The crowd of 2500 fans watched as Clarence “Tex” Peterson won his heat race and the 20-lap main event, chased to the finish line by Herb Balmer in the “Covina Special.”

Two weeks later, on September 4, Peterson himself was critically injured in a crash at Culver City Speedway that provided a stark reminder of the dangers of auto racing.  On the 15^th lap of the day’s feature event, “Tex” came upon a slower car as the pair entered turn one.  As “Tex” moved to lap the slower car, the steering on his car failed and crashed through the fence.

According to the next day’s article in the Los Angeles Times, the ambulance first took Peterson to an unnamed hospital where he was treated and released. “Tex” returned to the speedway grounds but a short time later he collapsed and he was taken to the Queen of Angels hospital and admitted with a fractured skull. Loren “Red” Clark won the feature race completed after Peterson’s accident.    

Newspaper advertisements called the October 23 1932 Culver City event “one of the greatest gatherings of racing drivers ever assembled in the West,” with an entry list, that in addition to Tommy Wise, included Balmer, Peterson, Earl Mansell, Chris Vest, Al Reinke, and L M “Red” Clark in a  scheduled 40-lap main event.  

Tommy Newton won the two-lap dash, ten-lap dash, and the 25-lap main event (reduced from 40 laps) over Clark and Jack Gardner. Art Hungerford and Bob Hahn each won a five-lap consolation race.

In late February 1933 Tommy appeared at the Tri-City Speedway (also known as San Bernardino Speedway) a half-mile dirt track located near the Tri-City airport east of Colton in San Bernardino County. Wise finished third in the 25-lap feature race behind Foster Hall and Floyd Douglas in a Sunday afternoon combined automobile and motorcycle racing show promoted by Sid Wood and sanctioned by the CARA.

On May 7 1933 during qualifying at Culver City Speedway, Tommy’s car overturned in the north turn and rolled over him. Wise suffered unspecified internal injuries “which are expected to prove fatal” according to The Pasadena Post, and the following day he was transferred from the Culver City Hospital to the Hollywood Hospital. Earl Mansell won the May 7^th 50-lap feature ahead of “Red” Clark after front-runners Frank Wearne and Floyd Roberts both retired with mechanical failures.

After his accident, there is no record of Tommy’s racing activities for several years, but Tommy married Clarice Haney in Los Angeles March 25 1935 and together they had a daughter Joanna born in 1937. Sadly, Clarice died in January 1939 and left Tommy a widower with his young daughter to raise.

Tommy took part in the rapidly growing sport of midget auto racing in an afternoon race at the grand opening of the “dustless” San Bernardino County Sports Stadium on Easter Sunday 1939. The ¼-mile track, located not far from the Tri-City Speedway and built at reported cost of $35,000, featured 10-foot high 43-degree banked corners. The track promoter hosted two free practice days before the event which gave the drivers a chance to familiarize themselves with the track and the free entry increased local fan interest.  

The seven–race program boasted entries from Gib Lilly, Bill Zaring and Clyde Goss as they raced cars powered by a variety of Continental outboard motors, Ford V8-60s, and George Wright’s “Cragar Junior” engine. Tommy Wise piloted the #18 midget but did not transfer to start the 40-lap feature which a crowd estimated to be between 3000 and 4000 fans watched and saw “Speed” Baker take the checkered flag just as his midget car burst in the flames.

Tommy and crew before a "big car" race at Southern Ascot Speedway 

Sunday May 21 1939 saw Tommy Wise in action at “Southern Ascot Speedway” in Southgate California for the 75-lap “Indianapolis Cup” “big car” race. This track located at the intersection of Atlantic and Tweedy Boulevards was the third of four Southern California race tracks to carry the “Ascot” name. The original, a one-mile former horse track on Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles ran from 1904 to 1919, was followed in 1924 by the notorious 5/8-mile high-banked oiled-dirt Legion Ascot Speedway near Alhambra that claimed 24 lives before it closed in 1936.

The half-mile dirt “Southern Ascot,” located in a gritty neighborhood, opened in 1937 as the “Southgate Speedway” an “outlaw” track primarily remembered for the long railroad trestle bridge over the Los Angeles River visible beyond the track’s backstretch. Historic racer Barney Oldfield acted as the referee for the May 21^st afternoon program that also featured a 25-lap “Grand National Sweepstakes” for cross-country motorcycles led by “Suicide” Dockstiler proclaimed the “King of the Midwestern tracks.” 

Tommy and his riding mechanic pose at Southern Ascot Speedway

Bud Rose, the “Pasadena Bad Boy,” whose birth name was Harry Eisele, won the 3-lap helmet dash and the five-lap dash and was pressured early in the feature by Southgate standout “Shorty” Ellyson until “Shorty’s” car suffered engine trouble on lap 26. From there Rose, who later doubled for Clark Gable in films, was in control and took the checkered flag in 35 minutes and 36 seconds ahead of Bed Sennett with Tommy Wise in third place.   

Tommy finished fifth in the “Eighth Annual Fast Car Race,” which was the final auto race held on the Coconino County Fairgrounds (Arizona) ½-mile dirt track on August 20 1939. Tommy finished behind winner Bud Rose, Wally Schock, Earl Mansell, and Ken Palmer in the 25-lap feature sponsored by the Mark A. Moore American Legion Post #3.  After the race was over, the teams made the perilous 450-mile tow home to Los Angeles to start the Southern Ascot night racing season on Wednesday August 30 1939, with the race won by Bud Rose.

For 1940, there were changes at Ascot Speedway as in February Charlie Curryer signed a one-year lease and took over promotion and sanction of the facility with his American Racing Association (ARA).  Bud Rose started the season behind the wheel of a new 255-cubic inch Miller powered “big car” and easily won the 40-lap season-opener at the renovated facility.

Tommy in action in the Southern Ascot "Irish Derby" race  March 17 1940

The next “big car” race at Ascot in 1940 was the 35-lap ‘Irish Derby’ held on St. Patrick’s Day Sunday March 17^th and featured some unusual twists. First was the inverted start for the feature so the fastest qualifiers started at the rear of starting field. The other unusual twist dealt with the cars themselves – instead of numbers, the cars carried names on their tail tanks. Tommy Wise’s car owner I.W. Holland, owner of the Holland Auto Parts, chose to name his car “Juliana” after the Dutch Princess.

 Sennett set fast time and a new track record at 27.50 seconds and Negro driver Rajo Jack (birth name Dewey Gatson), Bud Rose and Ray Bray each won their 5-lap heat races. Unlike the AAA, Curryer’s ARA allowed black drivers to compete.  Twelve starters took the green flag for the feature - Bud Rose quickly maneuvered his way forward and took the lead on the 11^th lap and from that point on was never challenged to the checkered flag.

On lap 20 of the feature, Negro driver Mel Leighton’s car blew a tire and the car flipped twice. Leighton was later reported “out of danger” at a Lakewood hospital.  Rose took the checkered flag ahead of Sennett, Rajo Jack and Van Edwards with Tommy Wise in fifth place.

The following week, on Easter Sunday March 24th the results seemed to be headed to be a repeat of the past Sunday. First Sennett lowered the track record to 26.8 seconds and later Bud Rose handily led the feature until disaster struck. The Miller engine in Rose’s car quit on lap 26 which handed the lead to Wally Schock.

Wally, the manager of the Santa Rosa Montgomery Ward store held on to win in his DO HAL “Riverside Tire Special” (the brand of tires sold at Montgomery Ward) with Sennett second and Rajo Jack third for the second straight week and Tommy Wise repeated his fifth place finish.  The DO (Double Overhead camshaft) HAL engine built by Howard Hosterman of Akron Ohio could be competitive with a top-line Miller engine at a far lower cost.  

After the race, Sennett was scored as the ARA point leader, ahead of Rose by two points, with Rajo Jack third and Tommy in fourth 28 points behind the leader. On May 12, the ARA racers visited Curryer’s primary racing facility, the one-mile dirt Oakland Speedway for a 100-lap feature.

6200 fans saw a thrilling feature won by Schock by two laps over Rajo Jack and Rose who drove a borrowed car. Mel Leighton, recovered from his Ascot spill on March 17 was not so lucky this time as his car left the track in the third turn, went through the fence then tumbled down the embankment and Mel suffered broken ribs and a broken right foot. Tommy Wise finished twelfth and last at Oakland on May 12^th after his car suffered an early mechanical failure.   

On June 2 1940 the ARA racers visited the “newly reconditioned” 5/8-mile Goshen Speedway in the San Joaquin Valley. Veteran Ed Barnett set quick time, then won the helmet dash won and the first heat race.  Tommy Wise won the second heat race as he passed Butch Devore in the last 500 feet before the finish line.

Early in the 25-lap feature, Tommy pressed Barnett for the lead before he retired with mechanical troubles. Barnett won easily over Van Edwards as Devore finished fourth.  Wise and the rest of the ARA drivers returned to Goshen on Sunday June 23 and Rajo Jack claimed the feature win over Barnett.      

In July Tommy returned to the midget race cars. On the 9^th he raced at the ¼ mile paved Atlantic Stadium near the intersection of Atlantic Boulevard and Olive Avenue in Lakewood and finished second in the 15-lap B main. On the 26^th he returned to San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway and finished third in his heat race. 

Tommy was entered as the driver of the #17 ‘Lehamann Special’ for the third annual Labor Day  500-mile “Little Indianapolis” ARA “big car” race held at Oakland Speedway but apparently was not fast enough to qualify for the 33-car starting field. Tommy wound up sixth in the 1940 American Racing Association points behind champion repeat champion Wally Schock, Slim Mathis, Rajo Jack, Van Edwards and Tex Peterson.  

The 1941 schedule at Southern Ascot Speedway in Southgate changed radically from previous years as the ARA “big cars” were not emphasized. In fact with a weekly slate of Sunday afternoon racing programs that started on January 5, the “big cars” did not race there until May 11. The ARA big cars opened their season at Oakland Speedway and Tommy scored a tenth place finish behind winner Hal Cole.

During the Winter and Spring, fans at the half-mile Ascot track saw a variety of stock car, jalopy, motorcycle, midget car and stock roadster races and “Captain Bob Ward’s Daredevil Aces Death Circus,” a motorcycle, automobile and airplane thrill show.

Tommy Wise qualified among the fastest eight cars at Ascot on May 11 and thus did not have to run the 10-lap race that advanced six non-qualifiers to the rear of the 14-car starting field for the 100-lap race.  “Tex” Petersen grabbed the lead on the first lap and remained out front until Kenny Palmer passed Tex for the lead on lap 85. A couple of laps later Palmer began to slow as the gasket on his car’s fuel pump began to leak and Petersen recaptured the lead.

Late in the race Buck Whitmer, a racer who had been declared dead after a crash the previous year in Hammond Indiana, passed the faltering Palmer machine on the last lap to claim second place, while Wise settled for a fifth place finish.   Tommy in tenth place in the ARA season points returned to Ascot on June 7^th and Petersen won his second straight “big car" 100-lap feature. 

Wise appeared in the #6 big car at Oakland for a 200-mile race on July 4^th that boasted a total purse of $5000 and then qualified the #53 car 29^th in a field of 30 starters for the 500-mile Labor Day race at Oakland, but we do not have Tommy’s results from either race. 

In August and again in October, Tommy and the ARA drivers christened the “new” ¼-mile dirt Santa Rosa Speedway sponsored by the VFW Post #1844. Previously known at the DiGrazia Motordrome when it opened in 1939, the track was now managed by Charles Curryer.  Hometown hero Wally Schock easily won both races at the facility.

Tommy took part in the “Western Association Championship”150-lap “big car” race on November 9 1941. Less than a month later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor which shelved the 1942 American Racing Association schedule.  Ascot Speedway closed forever after a final “jamboree” on Sunday July 26^th, 1942 that featured roadster and motorcycle racing and two thrills shows. The official Office of Defense Transportation ban on auto racing went into effect at midnight on July 31 1942. 

Tommy Wise lived in a one-bedroom apartment on Seventh Street in Boyle Heights when he had registered for the Selective Service on October 16 1940. Some sources indicate Tommy served in the United States Navy during World War Two, but his family is unaware of his wartime service. Tommy might have received deferment status given his age (32) and his status as a widower with a dependent child.

Tommy met and married Martha Akre, and they settled into a small apartment on Siskiyou Street in the Boyle Heights neighborhood. During the summer of 1947 at the age 39 Tommy returned to race a “big car” with the Western Racing Association (WRA) at Carrell Speedway in Gardena.  Joshua James “JC” Agajanian, the President of the WRA was heir to a San Pedro-based Armenian trash collection and hog farming business and yielded to family pressures as he chose to become a car owner and promoter instead of a race car driver.  

The WRA an “outlaw” (non-AAA) club, sanctioned and promoted races at Carrell, built by excavation contractor Emmett Malloy in 1946 as the “Gardena Bowl” on land owned by Inglewood Judge Frank R. Carrell at 182nd Street and South Vermont Avenue in Gardena. Advertised as “the world’s fastest ½-mile track” that featured 10-foot high banked turns it steadily hosted midget, hot rod roadster, stock car, big car, jalopy and motorcycle racing.

“Veteran driver” Tommy Wise entered the “big car” races held on Sunday afternoon August 10, along WRA point leader Bayless Levrett, “”Slim” Mathis, Fred Luce, Bud Rose, Buck Whitmer, Hal Cole, newcomers Roy Prosser, Andy Linden and Jack McGrath and negro racer Leroy Nooks.  

Art George, Lenny Lowe, Joe Gemsa and 17 year old Troy Ruttman each won the 6-lap heat races, as Legion Ascot veteran Arvol Brunmeier crashed in his heat race but escaped with cuts and bruises.  Marine veteran Andy Linden led the majority of the 30-lap feature but was passed on the 27th lap by Jack McGrath who sped away to victory.

Ed Korgan won the August 16th 300-lap “National Championship Gold Cup” stock car races for 1946 and 1947 model cars complete with fenders, bumpers, starters and other factory parts, less mufflers under the track’s new lighting system. Korgan turned the tables on his competitors as he drove a Willys Jeep to victory ahead of Johnny Mantz in a full-size Mercury at an average speed of 54 miles per hour for the 150 miles before a reported crowd of 30,000 fans. 

After McGrath repeated his winning ways in the August 23rd 30-lap WRA “big car” main event, on Wednesday August 27, Carrell hosted the “rambunctious” California Roadster Association (CRA) “hot rod roadster” races that starred many familiar names –   Ruttman the CRA points leader, McGrath, Linden, Nooks and Manny Ayulo, the son of a Peruvian diplomat. During the night’s first race, the 3-lap trophy dash, Troy Ruttman’s car spun, hit the wall and lost its right rear wheel.

The loose wheel bounded over the retaining wall and chain link fence and struck a young Glendale girl, Carole Waldbillig, seated with her family in the third row of the grandstands. Seven-year-old Young Carole was rushed to Southwest General Hospital but pronounced dead on arrival.  When the program resumed, Archie Tipton, Pat Flaherty, Leroy Nooks and Jack McGrath each won their five-lap heat races and Flaherty won the 10-lap semi-main.  McGrath won the 20-lap feature over Ayulo.

On September 3 a Los Angeles County coroner’s jury held an inquest to review the facts of Carole Waldbillig’s death. After hearing testimony from several witness, the jury delivered the decision that the seven year old’s death was an accident and found no one criminally liable.  The jury held that the track “was equipped with adequate safety devices” and that Ruttman “exercised maximum precautions.”   

There were 40 cars entered Saturday night August 30^th WRA “Trophy Cup” “big car” race with a driver lineup that included Tommy Wise, 1935 Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Cavino “Kelly” Petillo, Hal Cole, McGrath, Ruttman, and ‘Tex’ Peterson. The WRA championship was up for grabs as the 1946 WRA champion Bayliss Levrett had temporarily switched his focus to racing in the Midwest.  

Frank McGurk won the three-lap trophy dash, then during the formation of first heat race another car failed to start and officials sent Tommy out to join the field. During the race, Pinky Hill’s car spun and as he tried to avoid Hill, Tommy collided with the machine driven by Ed Korgan.

Tommy’s car rolled over three times and he was thrown out, while Korgan was slightly injured. Tommy was admitted to Southwest General Hospital unconscious suffering from a compound fracture of the left ankle and a severe head injury. He passed away shortly before midnight on Saturday night

Tommy’s body was taken to Utter-McKinley Mortuary and he was interred in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles. Tommy was survived by his mother, two sisters, his daughter and his pregnant wife Martha who gave birth to Tommy’s second daughter, Sherry Lynn Wise, on January 4, 1948.

Tommy Wise was one of many victims of the dangerous years of auto racing in the nineteen forties on poorly prepared tracks with wooden guardrails before the acceptance of seat belts and other rudimentary equipment such as roll bars.   Sadly many of the drivers Tommy competed with at Carrell were later seriously injured such as Bayliss Everett and Tex Peterson and several, that included as “Slim” Mathias and Fred Luce, lost their lives there.

Thanks to Tommy Wise’s family members, Joanna Palooza and Hal Richey, for their research assistance and providing the family photos of Tommy.