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 16th. 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 29th 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 21st, 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.
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