The last half of the 1948 season at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl - chapter four

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part four - second half of the 1948 season

Author’s note – This  fourth installment of our 12-part article reviews the 12-year history of one of Southern California’s least-documented auto racing venues – the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

The Fourth of July fell on a Sunday in 1948 and for the holiday, a 50-lap feature event capped the Carpinteria Thunderbowl URA “Blue Circuit” midget racing program. The evening featured “lots of spills and thrills” as Bob Shimp lost control and hit the north wall during his heat race, while the machines of Johnny McFadden, Carl Brown, and Monty Kline all suffered broken axles and lost wheels during the night’s races. 

In winning the feature race over Johnny Garrett, Rod Simms, who earlier won the trophy dash, established a new track record for 10 miles as he took the checkered flag in 10 minutes and 18.1 seconds.

Gordon Reid won the July 11 feature, but the track’s first fatality overshadowed this result.  During a reported three-car “exhibition race,” James Joseph “Jimmy” McMahon died in an incident in the north turn. McMahon’s self-owned #161 midget suddenly swerved out of control, hit the wall, flipped and came to rest atop the crash wall upside down on the tail tank.

The track physician, Dr. Joseph E Whitlow of Ventura, pronounced McMahon dead at the accident scene and stated later to reporters that Jimmy died “almost instantly.” Track co-promoter Pete Truhitte, noted in a later newspaper interview with the Oxnard Press-Courier sportswriter Hal Totten that McMahon’s accident marked the first time that the track ambulance had been out of the infield that season.

McMahon’s death brought a close to a sad chapter of Australian midget auto racing.  A child movie star is his home country, as a young adult Jimmy McMahon raced motorcycles before he used his engineering skills and built his own pre-war midgets (called a speedcar in Australia) and engines.  In May 1947, Jimmy and his friend Dinny Patterson, the 1939 Australian speedcar champion, left Australia to race in the United States.

They traveled to the States with one-legged American racer Cal Niday, who spent the summer racing “down under.” Tragically, days after the pair’s arrival on United States soil, Patterson, 36 died after a time trial accident in his first race in the United States, the season opening race on the ¼ mile dirt track inside Balboa Stadium held May 30, 1947.  

The out-of-control midget Dinny drove crashed through the wooden outer fence and slammed into a concrete pillar. Newspapers reported that Dinny, admitted in fair condition to the nearby Quintard Hospital, suffered a broken collarbone, nose, and ribs but Patterson died on Tuesday, June 3rd.  Following instructions in a cable received from his wife Anita in Australia, officials cremated Dinny’s body and returned his ashes home.

An eight-cylinder engine of McMahon’s own creation powered the Kurtis-Kraft chassis that Jimmy drove that fateful July night in 1948 at Carpinteria. The engine used four Triumph 3T motorcycle vertical twin-cylinder barrels with the pushrods connected to a Ford V8-60 crankshaft located inside a fabricated sheet metal engine block. The innovative engine used three chain-operated camshafts – the inner chain controlled the intake valves and the two outer chains operated the exhaust valves

The oil pump and magneto drive mounted to the front of the chain case of the block, topped by a hand fabricated Intake manifold outfitted with a pair of Stromberg Model 97 carburetors.  Beyond these basics there are no details of the internal operation and the displacement of the one-of-a-kind McMahon midget engine.  

Jimmy’s wife, Betty, in the stands at Carpinteria that night, reportedly planned to take his body home to Sydney Australia, but on July 20 he was interred in the Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood.   

After Jimmy’s fatal crash, his one of a kind engine disappeared for many years. Found in a scrap yard, eventually it made its way into the hands of historian “Speedy Bill” Smith who restored it for display in the Museum of American Speed in Lincoln Nebraska, a tribute to a fallen racer.  

As part of the July 18^th Carpinteria racing program, two restored Ford Model T racers made exhibition runs while Johnny Garrett won the 30-lap feature in the Charlie Shaw owned Offenhauser. Days after the July 18 program, Pete Truhitte a barber who lived in Carpinteria, and ran a motel, told the Oxnard Press-Courier newspaper that he and co-promoter Harwood changed the midget racing program to Saturday nights effective immediately through the planned season conclusion on October 2, 1948.

On Saturday July 24 heat races victories went to Johnny Garrett, Joe DeHart, Jackie Jordan, and Don Cameron, and “King” Karl Young won the trophy dash.  During the 15-lap semi-main the cars of Jordan, DeHart, Bob Thomas and Johnny McFadden tangled and blocked the track, which brought out  the red flag to stop the race.

 

Once action resumed, Jordan, Bob Garrett, and Carl Brown finished in a virtual dead heat with Jordan awarded the semi-main win by inches.  In the feature, Bill Taylor grabbed the lead, fought off repeated challenges from Johnny Garrett and Bob Barker and held on for the win trailed by Barker and Garrett with “King” Karl fourth.

We do not have any details on the July 31^st racing program at Carpinteria beyond that Allen Heath won the feature in the AJ Walker owned #111.  Heath, with his first name often misspelled “Allan“ and described in the press as “the colorful playboy from the Northwest,” battled Troy Ruttman for supremacy at the beachfront Culver City Speedway. After Allen’s August 3^rd victory at Culver City, he and Ruttman were tied with three victories apiece.

In early August, Bob Harwood the Carpinteria co-promoter with Pete Truhitte, gave up the promotion of the Bakersfield Thunderbowl in Oildale that he ran with partners Dick Springston and Bob Murphy.  The change occurred within days following the death of local midget racer Jesse Romero at the Oildale oval.  Murphy, the third promoter at Bakersfield in three seasons, continued to promote Murphy’s Thunderbowl near Tulare.

Romero a 45-year-old father of three, died in an accident which began on the second lap of the July 30 consolation race. Jesse’s midget struck something in the infield, and out of control, bounced off Ed Spellman’s car then overturned.  Marty Mazeman, unable to avoid Jesse’s overturned car, struck it and it caught fire. Romero suffered a fractured skull and passed away on the way to the hospital.  

The new Bakersfield track promoters, brothers Bob and Howard Hawk, local contractors and racers, immediately re-named the track Bakersfield Speedway and presented a benefit race for Romero’s family as their first event. The night’s proceeds aided Jesse’s family - his wife, two sons and a daughter as he reportedly died without insurance  

Harwood and Truhitte apparently were struggling financially at Carpinteria. In late summer 1948, the midget racing scene in Southern California featured two sanctioning bodies, the American Automobile Association (AAA) and United Racing Association (URA), with three different promoters at the largest seating capacity, and thus highest purse, race tracks.

The URA held the exclusive sanctioning rights with promoter Gene Doyle at the popular Gilmore Stadium, which averaged 10,000 fans for its weekly midget racing program. At the massive Los Angeles Coliseum, promoter Bill White held an exclusive sanction agreement with the AAA, as did Alex Thompson and Bert Freidlob, the co-promoters of the Rose Bowl board track, which averaged 8,000 fans on race nights.

Southern California midget race drivers were in a tough spot, as they were forced to choose, and remain loyal to, one sanctioning body. To help offset the penalty for the URA drivers shut out of races at the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl, some URA track promoters offered added bonuses - $100 to the feature winner and $50 to the semi-main winner, which was a lot of money for drivers that averaged $400 a week in prize earnings which of course were spilt with their car owner. 

Carpinteria, as a small venue, only paid URA $1,000 for a program or 40% if the gates receipts exceeded $2,500 (over 2000 fans) from which the racers were paid.  On a typical night with 4500 fans which meant $2,250 in sanctioning fees for the URA.  This was a far cry from the average $4500 purse paid Gilmore Stadium.  

   

Bill Taylor won the August 7^th Carpinteria feature in the blue-and-white Ernie Casale Offenhauser midget, and on August 14 the winner was Danny Oakes who also scored four 1949 Gilmore Stadium midget features. The 1948 Carpinteria Thunderbowl season suddenly ended   after the September 4^th 50-lap feature which Rodger Ward won at the wheel of the Lyle Greenman Offenhauser #35 midget. 

  

1949 at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl would see many changes in track operations as the season progressed.    

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.     

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part three

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part three - first half of the 1948 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.

For the 1948 season, the original Carpinteria promoter Jack Harwood had a new partner-  Pete Truhitte, a barber in Carpinteria. Before the 1948 season opened Harwood & Truhitte instituted a new format. According to Harwood, the program would start with four 10-lap heat races with the starting positions set by a blind draw.

The first six finishers in each heat (24 cars in total) then took a single time trial lap (instead of the previous three laps). The fastest 12 qualifiers then advanced to the 30-lap feature with a full invert. The top finishers in the 20-lap semi-main event which followed time trials would complete the feature starting field, with the three-lap trophy dash for the two top fastest qualifiers presented just before the feature. 

The opening daytime program at Carpinteria on Sunday May 2 saw light attendance with just 2500 fans and three Offenhauser cars supplemented by a field filled with Drakes and V-8 60s.  Walt Faulkner in an Offenhauser, Bob Barker in the Ray Gardner #4, Al Ward and Clarence Brock claimed the preliminary heat race wins.

In time trials, Barker set the day’s fast time at 17.22 seconds ahead of Harry Stockman who recorded a lap of 17.29 seconds. Rod Simms claimed the semi-main win, and Barker trounced Stockman in the trophy dash.  

The three Offenhauser powered midgets easily distanced themselves from the rest of the field in the feature, as Simms triumphed over Faulkner and Johnny Garrett, who had just returned to racing on April 30 at Orange Show following his burns suffered late in the 1947 season at the ARMS Rose Bowl event.  After the races, Harwood promised the crowd a complete field of URA “Blue Circuit” cars the following Sunday afternoon.

After that first week, the format reverted to its original order with time trials opening the racing program, albeit each car got only one flying lap to speed up the program. On the afternoon of May 9, the Thunderbowl delivered an exciting program, with the finish of three of four heat races reported as virtual dead heats.

The former P-38 pilot Rodger Ward was the day’s fast qualifier and beat Bob Barker in the trophy dash. In the first heat, Ward and 18-year-old Troy Ruttman in the AJ Walker Offenhauser midget battled over the entire 6-lap distance and Ward edged out the win by a nose. In the second heat race, Bill Taylor squeezed ahead of Barker at the finish line, while George Vevic edged out Frank Gilbert in the 20-lap semi-main.  

 “Roarin” Rod Simms won his second Carpinteria feature in a row in the red-and-white George Beavis #10 Kurtis-Kraft Offenhauser powered car. During the program, promoter Harwood informed the crowd that the Sunday program at Carpinteria would move to a 7:30 PM starting time the following Sunday.  

Simms could not defend his at Carpinteria crown on Sunday night May 16 as he recovered from injuries received in a single car crash at Gilmore Stadium on May 14.  Simms flipped and was knocked out but he later regained consciousness at Parkview Hospital as he received treatment for three broken ribs and facial lacerations. 

While Simms recovered from his injuries, Australian native George Beavis selected 43- year old “King” Karl Young to drive his repaired #10 midget.  Young started his racing career in “big cars“ in 1934 and began racing midgets in 1935. Karl quickly became one of midget auto racing’s early stars, along with Billy Betteridge, Fred Friday, Bob Swanson and Curly Mills, and won the 1936 Pacific Coast midget title.  

A new star, Troy Ruttman, emerged at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl on May 16^th. The fast qualifier Johnny Garrett was beaten in the trophy dash by Bill Taylor and Al Sherman held off Rodger Ward in the 15-lap semi-main. Troy Ruttman and Allen Heath battled throughout the 30-lap feature but as the pair sped out of turn four on the final lap, Heath’s mount lost its right rear wheel.

Heath somehow managed to keep his careening # 7 midget upright, but Billy Cantrell and three other cars passed Heath before his car skidded across the finish line in fifth place. The victorious Ruttman in the #111 midget had lowered the track record for 30 laps to 7 minutes and 52.65 seconds.

Ruttman won again on May 23rd to make it two victories in a row at Carpinteria as he lowered the 30-lap track record to 7 minutes and 50.32 seconds   Ruttman’s victory overshadowed the earlier record-setting exploits of pre-war racer Rodney “Corky” Benson in the #999 Ford V8-60 powered midget.

In time trials, Corky set a new one-lap track record of 14.65 seconds, then Benson thrilled the crowd with another record-setting victory in the trophy dash as he set a new three-lap record of 44.82 seconds. Corky set a new standard for 15 laps as he won the semi-main in 4 minutes and 13.38 seconds.

The May 29^th edition of the Ventura County Star-Free Press newspaper contained a promotional article in which Jack Harwood promised a “full card of lead foots” with “the best pilots in the southern section of the URA” for the Memorial Day Sunday evening show scheduled to start at 8 PM. However, there is no record in Dick Wallen’s book Distant Thunder for a URA “Blue Circuit” race held at Carpinteria on May 30, 1948, nor are there any contemporary newspaper reports.

Over seventy years later, the author’s assumption is that the May 30 race was not held, perhaps due to low car count, as the URA had trouble providing enough cars for shows in outlying areas away from Los Angeles during May 1948 for several reasons. First, two URA star drivers Simms (broken ribs) and Walt Faulkner (broken shoulder and fractured skull) were both out with injuries.

Secondly, many URA drivers and cars were in England for the disastrous midget racing tour promoted by Hollywood producer Bert Friedlob, the husband of movie star Eleanor Parker, and tinplate heir Henry J “Bob” Topping, who had recently married screen siren Lana Turner.

A third factor in the low URA car counts was that several of the URA stars were in Indianapolis to try their hand at the big 2-1/2-mile oval for the big 500-mile payday. Mack Hellings and Johnny Mantz, two stalwarts at Carpinteria, made their first ‘500’ race appearances.

Mack drove Southern California car dealer and radio broadcasting heir Tommy Lee’s ‘Don Lee Special’ Kurtis 2000 to a fifth-place finish after he started 21^st, while Mantz drove the similar #98 ‘City of San Pedro Special’ to a 13th place finish with 185 laps completed after he started in the 8th position.  

1948 IMS qualifying photo of Johnny Mantz

Author's Collection 

Mantz almost did not get his chance, as the American Automobile Association (AAA) the governing body of championship car racing, ruled that racing promoter Joshua “JC” Agajanian could not enter the #98 car at Indianapolis. 

The AAA barred Agajanian because he was the president of an “outlaw” racing organization, the Western Racing Association (WRA), which sanctioned “big car” races in California.   To bypass the AAA edict, Mantz’ car was officially entered by Agajanian’s two mechanics, Clay Smith and Danny Jones.

In qualifying that started the June 6 Carpinteria Thunderbowl program, Troy Ruttman set a new one-lap track record of 14.44 seconds, but he lost the trophy dash to Norm Holtkamp who drove the red-and-yellow #34 midget. 

In the second heat race, Rocky Ferrell hooked a rut hit the north turn outer wall and suffered a facial cut that took six stitches for track medics to close   Pedro “Pee Wee” Distarce won the semi-main event with a new record time 4 minutes and 8.34 seconds ahead of Johnny McFadden and Joe DeHart.  Ruttman found victory lane at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl in as many attempts.  

  

The June 13, 1948 Carpinteria race marked Rod Simms’ return after recovery from the injuries he suffered May 14 at Gilmore Stadium.  Simms set quick time, then defeated Bill Taylor in the 3-lap trophy dash. Troy Ruttman, Al Long, Bob Barker and Johnny McFadden won their respective 6-lap heat races and Bob Rhodes won the Semi-main race.

 

In the feature, Ruttman dominated until the 11th lap when he climbed the crash wall in the north turn. Simms grabbed the lead after starting tenth, but he later bobbled in traffic and Bob Barker beat him to the finish line in a photo finish.

On Sunday night, June 20, Al Long, Allen Heath, Kiwi star Frankie “Satan” Brewer and Bill Taylor won the four heat races while Bob Sellers captured the trophy and kiss from the trophy queen in the dash. Bob Barker led the feature early but dropped out with mechanical problems which handed the lead to Dean Metzler in the Krouse #7.

Metzler doggedly held on as his main pursuers, Gordon Reid and Johnny Garrett, touched wheels and spun out on the 18th lap, then Metzler lost the lead when he spun out on lap 21.  Tommy Elliott in the Joe Petruzzi #8 Offenhauser inherited the lead and held on to win over Rod Simms, while Reid recovered from his earlier spin to finish in third place.

During the week before the June 27 race at Carpinteria, Troy Ruttman switched rides, as he moved from the #111 to the Murphy Motors #47, and Allen Heath replaced Ruttman in the seat of the #111 owned by AJ Walker.  The Carpinteria program opened as Johnny Garrett beat Billy Cantrell in the trophy dash.  

The 1/5-mile track proved to be lightning fast this night as Art George, just back from England, reset the six-lap track record in his #16 Offenhauser as he blazed to the win in the 6-lap heat race in one minute and 30.97 seconds. Pee Wee Distarce and Al Long also posted heat race wins.

In the semi-main, Hal Minyard in Vern Boone’s V8-60 powered midget destroyed the old track record as he finished the 15 laps in 4 minutes and 6.01 seconds. In the main, Heath proved that car owner AJ Walker made the right decision as he won in a new record time of 7 minutes and 44.46 seconds ahead of “Roarin” Rod Simms and Garrett. 

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.     

Part two of the history of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl race track

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part two – racing through the 1947 season 

Author’s note – This is part two of our 12-part series that highlights the brief 12-year history of one of Southern California’s least-documented auto racing venues – the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

The 1/5-mile dirt oval dirt “Carpinteria Thunderbowl,” a racing facility designed for midget auto racing, located approximately one mile east of the coastal community of Carpinteria, began its second month of operation as it hosted the United Racing Association (URA) “Blue Circuit” midgets on Labor Day evening, September 1, 1947.

A crowd of 4,500 fans were on hand as Gordon Reid, a native Oregonian who lived in Burbank and worked in the film industry, won the 15-lap semi-main race which featured a flip. The left front wheel of Dick Hogan’s machine hooked the inside rail and the midget flipped one time and landed on all four wheels with Hogan miraculously unscathed.

Johnny Garrett won his third 30-lap Thunderbowl feature race in four attempts in Cecil Shaw’s maroon and white #42 Offenhauser-powered midget and edged out the previous week’s winner, Johnny Mantz with Walt Faulkner, who earlier won his 6-lap heat race, in third place.

The September 8, 1947 midget racing program drew a “near-capacity crowd” according to the next day’s Ventura County Star – Free Press newspaper report. Joe DeHart won the15-lap semi-main event, then Johnny Mantz in the Ernie Casale #25 returned to his winning ways in the feature race and broke the 8-minute barrier as he finished the 30 laps in 7.59.78. Johnny Garrett finished second with Ronald “Mack” Hellings, who won the trophy dash, in third place while Walt Faulkner finished fourth.

The United Racing Association’s “Blue Circuit” point leader Mack Hellings set quick time on September 15^th and opened the night’s racing program as he beat Johnny Mantz to the line in the three-lap trophy dash. Bob Barker and Willard “Billy” Cantrell each won their respective 6-lap heat races in motorcycle engine powered machines and newcomer Frank Wilson won the semi-main event over Jimmy McMahon. 

Johnny Garrett took command early in the 30-lap main event and was headed for another win until his car broke its driveshaft on lap 27.  Johnny’s misfortune handed the lead to Barker, who held the lead over the last three circuits in the #16 Billy Cantrell owned Drake-powered Kurtis-Kraft machine to win over Johnny Mantz with an elapsed time of 8 minutes and 6.64 seconds.  

With just a week left in the 1947 URA regular season, Mack Hellings led the URA “blue circuit” points with 1030 markers, which placed him far ahead of Mantz with 672 points and Johnny Garrett with 618 points.  Gib Lilly, a distant fourth in the URA standings with 523 points who won a 25-lap race in Las Vegas at the Lost Frontier Sportsdrome on September 14th, trailed by Walt Faulkner with 322 points in fifth place.

The outcome of the next midget race at Carpinteria on September 22^nd was again decided by mechanical trouble.  Mantz, the night’s fastest qualifier in his #25 midget, scored the trophy dash win over Mack Hellings. Chauncey Crist of Garden Grove won the first 6-lap heat race and newcomer Frank Armi won the second preliminary race.

Jim Springfield in his #120 two-cylinder motorcycle-powered midget won the third heat race. Jim’s midget was “the only car in the business with a plastic body” according to the next day’s Ventura County Star-Free Press newspaper report. Johnny Garrett won the fourth also known as the “fast” heat race, while Armi won the semi-main over Ed Kassold and Crist.

Garrett and Mantz battled for the lead in the feature until Mantz’ midget suffered engine trouble and slowed. Mantz’ sudden problem caught out seventeen-year-old hot rod roadster graduate Troy Ruttman. Troy ran into the back of Mantz’ #25 machine then his car bounced into the backstretch guardrail. 

With Ruttman and Mantz eliminated, Garrett roared to his fourth Carpinteria feature victory ahead of Hellings and Rod Simms in 8 minutes and 4.01 seconds.

In time trials on the night of September 29. Troy Ruttman and Rod Simms tied for quick time, with each posting a best lap of 14.93 seconds.  Ruttman won the three-lap trophy dash over Simms, then Tommy Beverlin, Hal Minyard, and Billy Cantrell won the first three heat races.  In the fourth “fast” heat race, the finishing order was Mantz, Garrett and Hellings and Frank Wilson won the 15-lap semi-main race over Earl “Rosie” Rousell and Minyard

The feature shaped up as a titanic battle between the “big three” of Mantz, Garrett and Hellings, but both Mantz and Garrett experienced mechanical troubles. Mantz dropped out of the lead on the 25^th lap when his car broke its driveshaft.  Mantz’ problem handed the lead to Garrett, but soon the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine in the Shaw Special began to misfire.

Johnny fell back as Hellings inherited the lead. Hellings and the Johnson Offenhauser powered midget blazed across the finish line ahead of Ruttman as Garrett settled for third place with a new track record time of seven minutes and 47.27 seconds.

Johnny Garrett was not in action at Carpinteria on October 6 as he nursed the burns that he suffered at the Rose Bowl on Sunday night after his midget caught fire. Mack Hellings the newly-crowned 1947 URA “Blue Circuit” champion emerged as the big winner at the Rose Bowl and was crowned the American Motor Racing Society (AMRS) national champion. Hellings won the first of two 100-lap races and the final 50-lap race among the top finishers of the previous races to decide the AMRS championship. 

The AMRS was a year-old national group comprised of sanctioning bodies, drivers, car owners, and promoters. In addition to its president, Ab Jenkins, other racing luminaries involved in the AMRS were Oklahoma promoter Ray Lavely, Pennsylvania promoters Irving Fried and Ed Otto, and former Indianapolis 500-mile race winners Harry Hartz and Louis Meyer. The season-ending races at the Rose Bowl was advertised as a national championship, but few if any Eastern or Midwestern midget racers attended.  

    

Before the October 6 program began, Carpinteria Thunderbowl promoters Bob Murphy and Jack Harwood announced that due to chilly Fall evening temperatures, the rest of the 1947 Carpinteria races would be held on Sunday afternoons. 

The fastest qualifier, Gib Lilly, won the trophy dash and Hal Minyard won the semi-main. In the feature, Billy Cantrell in the Walton & French Drake-powered machine doggedly hung onto the lead as he kept the #56 Kurtis-Kraft midget tight against the inside rail.

Lap after lap, Johnny Mantz attacked Cantrell but could not get past and at the end of 30 laps, Johnny settled for second ahead of Ruttman.  With his Carpinteria win, Cantrell capped off a great week – he scored three wins and captured the URA 1947 Red Circuit season championship.

On Sunday afternoon October 12 1947, promoters Jack Harwood and Bob Murphy presented a “hot rod roadster” racing program sanctioned by American Sports Cars Incorporated (ASCI). The officials of the association, in business since July, pointed out to the writer of the Ventura County Star-Free Press article that the cars “must pass rigid safety inspection and are not to be confused with common garden variety of hot rods.”  Prior to Carpinteria, the ASCI roadsters staged several races at Don-Mar Speedway, a ¼-mile dirt oval located on Firestone Boulevard between Downey and Norwalk.

Mickey Davis won the 15-lap semi-main event and Bill Steves won the Sunday afternoon 25-lap Carpinteria “hot rod roadster” feature. The Ventura County Star – Free Press reporter observed that the larger roadsters appeared to have trouble as they negotiated the narrow short track and were slower than the more nimble midgets.  During the program, it was announced that the midgets would return the following Sunday afternoon. 

October 19 saw a day-time midget program midget racing program capped off with a 50-lap feature.  With neither Mantz nor Garrett entered, the feature win went to Rod Simms in the Beavis Offenhauser with Rodger Ward second Allen Heath third and Gordon Reid, who finished second in the trophy dash behind Gib Lilly, in the fourth position. Ed Kassold won the 15-lap semi-main over Jack Habermehl and Burton Spickler.

The Thunderbowl’s final event for 1947 was a two-hour auto thrill show presented by Frank R. Winkley’s “All American Thrill Drivers.”  Winkley’s group, described as the East’s largest thrill show, stopped in Carpinteria as part of its West Coast tour on Sunday afternoon October 26.   

Jimmie Jones described as “the World Champion stunt man” jumped a stock sedan ramp-to-ramp over a transcontinental bus lengthwise and “Crash” Cook, the “King of the Daredevils” performed end-over-end and side-over-side rollovers. The show promoter Winkley then crashed a car head-on into a pyramid of steel barrels. Other acts featured Dick Jones who performed “T-Bone” and “Dive Bomb” crashes and “Tex” Burke who jumped a car over exploding dynamite.

The 1947 season saw more than 300 midget races staged across Southern California, but Carpinteria was a small venue compared to the larger facilities, such as Gilmore Stadium, the Rose Bowl and the Coliseum. 1948 would see changes in promoters and programs at the 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.     

 

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part one - The creation and first month of racing

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl 

Part one - Creation and first month of racing 

Author’s note – This begins our series of 12 articles that highlight the brief 12-year history of one of Southern California’s least-documented auto racing venues – the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

The popularity of midget automobile racing in the United States exploded after the end of World War 2, and with the opening of the 1947 racing season there were a total of sixteen tracks located in the Southern California geographic area where midget automobiles regularly raced.

With midget race sanctions divided between two competing organizations, the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the United Racing Association (URA), there were at least eight midget races staged each week in the Los Angeles area, with a race program every night of the week plus another on Sunday afternoon. 

  

Construction of a new 1/5-mile oval dirt racing facility designed for midget auto racing, known as the Carpinteria Thunderbowl, broke ground in March 1947 on a bluff west of highway 101 that overlooks the Pacific Ocean, approximately one mile east of the coastal community of Carpinteria, in Santa Barbara County roughly midway between the cities of Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Carpinteria (pronounced phonetically Carp-in-ter-e-a) takes its name, as do many California communities, from a Spanish phrase. The history of the area relates that soldiers with the Gaspar de Portola Expedition in August 1769 watched as members of the native Chumash tribe built tomols (wooden plank canoes), so the soldiers called the area “el taller de Carpinteria” which translated into English means "the Carpenter Shop."  

 

Eastern settlers began to migrate to the area after the end of the Civil War, and the streets for the town were platted in 1887, although Carpinteria was not officially incorporated as a city until 1965. Agriculture dominated the local economy with lemons and avocados as the major cash crops, with the economy supplemented by tourists drawn to what the local Chamber of Commerce advertised as “the World’s Safest Beach.”

Early passenger automobile traffic between Ventura and Santa Barbara used a crushed stone service road which the Southern Pacific Company built alongside its Coast Line railroad tracks.  The road featured wooden causeways built over the areas susceptible to flooding from the ocean tides. The State of California built the permanent coastal road in 1913 – designated State Highway 1 which later added the US Highway 101 designation.

The owners of the new race track were James “Jim” F. Slaybaugh and his wife, Pearl, who lived on Solimar Beach in Ventura Township.  Jim, born in 1889 in Oklahoma, started his racing career on a bicycle while he was a student at the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (today known as the Oklahoma State University) before he and his family moved to California in 1913.

By 1915, Slaybaugh was a Harley-Davidson sales agent in downtown Santa Barbara with a showroom located at 21 West Ortega Street, and he raced motorcycles locally. In 1921, he suffered a broken collarbone in a spill at a race in Santa Maria, and in 1934 (at age 45) he raced in a team event held on the Ventura Junior High School running track.

The new Carpinteria Thunderbowl, which advertised that its grandstands could seat up to 6,000 race fans, scheduled its inaugural event for the URA “Blue Circuit” midgets on Monday night, August 4, 1947. The “Blue Circuit” was the more elite of the two circuits sanctioned by the URA, and featured mostly Offenhauser-powered machines. 

This is a copy of a 1947 program,

as it lists Harwood and Murphy as the promoters 

The URA also sanctioned the “Red Circuit,” which was reserved for non-Offenhauser powered midgets, commonly powered by Ford V8-60 and motorcycle engines. The URA events at Carpinteria were promoted by partners Jack Harwood and Bob Murphy. Murphy also promoted the midget racing venue south of Tulare which was known as “Murphy’s Thunderbowl.”

On that cool August night, 5,000 eager fans braved cool and cloudy conditions and each paid $1.25 for general admission with a reserved seat available for an additional 50 cents. Time trials started at 7 PM and 5-foot 4-inch tall Walt “the Little Giant” Faulkner, the 1941 United Midget Association “night speedway” champion, emerged as the evening’s fastest qualifier with the fastest lap at 15.47 seconds which edged out mustachioed Mack Hellings’ lap of 15.52 seconds.

In the three-lap trophy dash that kicked off the night’s racing program, Hellings turned the tables and topped Faulkner.   Heat race wins went to Bob Barker who drove a Ford V8-60 against the Offenhauser entries, Ted Tracy in the Art Hall owned #98, Johnny Garrett and Art George, who also won the 15-lap semi-main event.

As the crowd awaited the start of the scheduled 30-lap main event, fog rolled in, which cut visibility on the backstretch, according to the article published the next day in the Ventura County Free Press-Star newspaper.  Perry Grimm, who had finished second in his heat race, drove the #27 Vic Edelbrock- owned midget to victory with a time of 8 minutes and 14.5 seconds.  Faulkner finished second and Hellings third. Bob Barker finished fourth and veteran pre-war racer Jackie Sayers rounded out the top five finishers.

Grimm’s victory was no surprise, as Perry was riding a wave of success, as he won the 1946 Thanksgiving Night “Hollywood Grand Prix” along with eight other races during the 1946 season at midget racing’s crown jewel facility, the Gilmore Stadium. In 1947, Grimm continued his torrid run of success, and prior to his victory in the inaugural Carpinteria race, he had won seven features at San Bernadino’s Orange Show Stadium Speedway in 1947 which included a string of five Thursday night wins in a row that began on July 10.

For the second URA midget race at Carpinteria, held one week later on August 11 1947,  5,000 fans watched as Perry Grimm set the night’s quick time of 15.32 seconds over Johnny Garrett’s best lap  which was just 2/100 of second slower.  As the racing program began, Johnny won the 3-lap trophy dash after Grimm spun out on the second lap.

Heat race wins went to former United States Air Corps P-38 fighter plane instructor Rodger Ward, Doug Groves, Texan Bill Homeier and Huntington Beach resident Gib Lilly. Ward, behind the wheel of a Ford V8-60 powered machine, topped Hal Minyard and Homeier in the 15-lap semi-main event after front-runners Bob Barker and Walt Faulkner collided and were eliminated.

The fifth place finisher in the semi-main was Chuck Stevenson, described by press reports as a local resident. This was almost accurate, as during the previous year, 1946, Stevenson and his family lived with a relative, Harry Vind and Harry’s wife Sadie, on their avocado and lemon ranch on nearby Casitas Road while Chuck worked in a local machine shop. 

Johnny Garrett’s Offenhauser-powered midget started eighth in the feature line-up. Over the course of the 30-lap feature, Johnny maneuvered through the field and won in a time of 8 minutes and 21.39 seconds ahead of Jackie Sayers’ similar machine. Johnny Mantz finished third in a car powered by a Ford V-8 ‘60’ engine, with the previous week’s winner Grimm in fourth place. Bill Homeier finished the feature in fifth place in a midget powered by a rare Sower(s) double-overhead camshaft engine built in Burbank by machinist Ray Sowers in partnership with Francis Crew.

4,000 fans passed through the turnstiles for the third weekly Monday night midget racing program on August 18 1947, and they watched as Johnny Garrett, whose son, Billy, would follow him into the sport, scored his second consecutive main event victory.

Garrett nearly scored a “clean sweep,” as Gib Lilly set the quick time, then Johnny won the trophy dash, his heat race and captured the feature race. Johnny finished the 30-lap distance in a new record time of 8 minutes and 8.37 seconds. Jackie Sayers finished second in the feature with Australian driver James Joseph “Jimmy” McMahon, a former child movie star, in third place after he earlier won the 15-lap semi-main race.  

At the Carpinteria Thunderbowl’s fourth weekly race on August 25, Johnny Garrett set the evening’s quick time, as he reset the track’s one-lap record at 14.83 seconds, then he won the trophy dash over Jackie Sayers.  Following the heat races, the near-capacity crowd of 5,500 fans watched in horror as on the sixth lap of the semi-main event, Eddie Anderson’s car lost its right front wheel and cartwheeled end-over-end down the straightaway. 

Anderson who wore a lap belt, survived the scary crash with just a bump on his forehead, but in the interest of time, officials called the race complete with Bud Chaney (or Cheney) in the lead.  Garrett’s bid to win three feature races in a row fell short as he finished second behind Johnny Mantz’ Ford V8-60 powered machine with Bill Homeier in third place. Mantz set a new record time of 8 minutes and 8/10 of a second to cover the thirty-lap distance.

In part two of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl, we will continue the history of the track through 1947.

The author is looking for any private vintage photographs of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl that readers may have access to – 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.