Thursday, October 29, 2020

First Maserati entries at the Indy '500'

 

First Maserati entries at the Indy '500'


Most racing fans are familiar with the maroon Boyle Racing Maserati 8CTF driven by Wilbur Shaw that won the International 500-mile Sweepstakes back-to-back in 1939 and 1940. Shaw led 107 laps in  the 1941 '500' in his trusty Boyle Maserati in a bid to win three ‘500-mile races in a row,  but a wire wheel collapsed and Wilbur and the Maserati crashed out on lap 152.

Fewer know the story of the first Maserati entries at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway which came to the US in 1930.   

After the purchase of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by a group of investors who installed Eddie Rickenbacker as its President, Rickenbacker pressed the American Automobile Association (AAA) to revise its rules for championship racing, effective with the 1930 Indianapolis 500-mile race. These new rules required two-seat bodies, riding mechanics, and non-supercharged engines limited to a maximum displacement of 366 cubic inches (six liters) fitted with a maximum of two carburetors.    

In 1929, the Maserati factory in an effort to maintain competiveness, built the "Sedici Cilindri" (sixteen cylinder) Maserati Tipo (type) V4 (V configuration engine 4 liters). The power plant was two 122 cubic inch (2 liter) inline 8-cylinder double overhead camshaft Maserati Tipo 26B blocks set on a common crankcase.



Each engine was independent, with its own crank-driven supercharger, magneto, 16 valves, a single Weber carburetor, twin oil pumps, water pump, and the two individual crankshafts rotated clockwise and transmitted the estimated 280 horsepower through a central power take-off gear.   

Baconi Borzacchini (Baconino Francesco Domenico Borzacchini) drove the Maserati Tipo V4 most frequently.  After his service in the Italian army during World War I, he first raced motorcycles before he moved to automobile hill climb competitions in 1926.

The Tipo V4 made its racing debut on March 24 1929 at the Tagiura circuit in Libya in the 16-lap Tripoli Grand Prix. Baconi led for a time and ran the race’s fastest lap of 11 minutes and 10.2 seconds but finished 54 seconds behind winner Gaston Peri’s Talbot.  

On April 21 1929 as a member of Maserati factory team, Baconi drove a Tipo 26B and finished second in the non-championship race held on the temporary Alessandria Circuit in the Piedmont region of Italy behind Achille Varzi’s Alfa Romeo P2.  

At Monza on September 15 1929 Alfieri Maserati, one of the four Maserati car-building brothers, drove the Tipo V4 and placed well in the preliminary heat race but did not finish the feature race.

Less than two weeks later, on September 28 1929, on a course outside Cremona Italy, Baconi Borzacchini in the Maserati Tipo V4 set a new flying 10-kilometer world land speed record of 152.9 MPH (miles per hour) for FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile)  Class C cars with 3-liter to 5-liter engine displacement. The following day, in the Cremona Grand Prix, Borzacchini and the V4 suffered a tire failure during the first 39-mile lap and did not finish the race.

Baconi and the Maserati Tipo V4 returned to North Africa for the 1929 season-ending Tunisian Grand Prix on the Bardo road course held on November 17 1929. The V4 qualified second fastest behind René Lamy’s Bugatti, jumped into the lead at the start and led the first six laps until it retired with magneto failure.

To comply with the new Indianapolis rules, workers at the Maserati factory removed the 4V engine’s superchargers, reworked the cylinder heads to raise the compression ratio to 8.5:1 and installed a three-speed gearbox with a reverse gear to meet the 1930 Indianapolis rules. 

In March 1930, an Associated Press wire report mentioned that the Maserati factory planned to enter a 16-cylinder race car in the annual Memorial Day classic to be driven by World Record holder Baconin Borzacchini with Ernesto Maserati named as the co-driver.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway General Manager Theodore “Pop” Myers announced receipt of the Maserati entry via overseas cable on March 19, 1930.  According to W F Bradley, the American Automobile Association (AAA) representative in Paris, the two nominated drivers were in training for each to drive 250 miles “at sprint speed.” 

Before the 1930 Indianapolis  '500' entries closed, a second Maserati entry arrived – this one a straight-eight powered Maserati 26B serial number 15 driven and owned by Letterio Cucinotta.  

Letterio’s father died when he was young and his mother remarried Antonio Piccolo a wealthy textile manufacturer. Cucinotta’s three stepbrothers - Mario, Carmelo and Giuseppe Piccolo - also drove racing cars. 

Cucinotta arrived in Indianapolis first, on May 12 and began to familiarize himself with the giant 2-1/2-mile brick surfaced oval while Borzacchini arrived with the Tipo V4 on May 20. With the first day of time trials set to begin May 24, the Associated Press article noted that Baconi “has a period of intensive work ahead of him if he is to get his big car in shape in time” to make the planned 40-car starting field   

A tidbit in the Indianapolis Star’s “Speedway Gossip” column written by Blaine Patton revealed that Cucinotta, who wore a red helmet and was known as “the red bull” in his homeland, had been nicknamed “Piccolo Pete” by his fellow drivers. Patton reported that Letterio “accepted the nickname with a smile and nod and attempted to learn to pronounce his nickname in English.”  

Neither of the Maserati entries made a time trial attempt during the opening weekend. Baconin brought the 16-cylinder car out for three practice laps just before the track closed on Saturday. He returned to the track on Sunday and the Indianapolis Star reported that Baconin “had a brush” with Russell Snowberger’s Russell Eight Special which had qualified the day before.

Blaine Patton wrote of the Maserati Tipo 4V in the Indianapolis Star that the “foreign car had plenty of speed on the straightaways but its driver (Baconi) was cutting off on the turns to learn the track.” The article closed by stating “he probably could have qualified but decided to wait until later.”



Borzacchini and Rossi 
courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 


Both Borzacchini and Cucinotta qualified on Tuesday afternoon, May 27th, along with four other drivers. Wilbur Shaw led the day’s qualifiers with a four-lap average of 106.172 MPH and would start from the twenty-fifth position, while Baconin, with his riding mechanic  James “Jimmy” Rossi, ran the timed ten miles at an average speed of 95.213 MPH for the 28th starting position on the inside of the tenth row.  



 Letterio and Petillo
courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Letterio slotted into the 30th starting position (outside of the tenth row) with his 4-lap run of 91.584 MPH, accompanied by his riding mechanic, a 26-year old Californian of Italian descent named Cavino Michelle “Kelly” Petillo.   Petillo had attempted to qualify for the 1928 Indianapolis 500-mile race, but crashed in practice, and since then established his reputation as an AAA “big car” racer at Legion Ascot Speedway. Petillo, of course, would win the 1935 Indianapolis 500-mile race in his own Offenhauser powered car.

Before the 1930 race, the radio announcers of the local Indianapolis radio station WFBM AM 1230 tasked to broadcast updates from the race met with reporters from the Indianapolis Star to learn the pronunciation of “Baconin Borzacchini” and “Letterio Cucinotta.” Despite the preparation, the following day the Indianapolis Star humorously reported that “the announcers had more than a little difficulty making ‘Borzacchini’ and ‘Cucinotta’ sound like anything but static on the air.”

On Memorial Day, the flat red #26 16-cylinder Maserati encountered problems early and pitted on the fourth lap with ignition problems. Borzacchini turned the car over to his mechanic Rossi to try and diagnose the problem, but the 4V retired from the race permanently on lap seven with magneto problems.  The Maserati factory entry placed 36th in the 38-car field and won $285.

Cucinotta, on the other hand doggedly hung in with his Tipo 26B Maserati, which was at times the slowest car on the track. An hour after winner Billy Arnold took the checkered flag in the Miller-Hartz, officials flagged the red #47 Maserati off the track with 185 laps completed, and awarded Letterio twelfth place with $510 in consolation money. 

The two Italian race car drivers and their Maserati race cars returned to Italy. Later in 1930, the Maserati 4V was sold and later fitted with a sports car body. Today the car reportedly still retains that body as well as the original chassis and engine.




Neither Baconin nor Letterio returned to Indianapolis, and it would be seven years before the Maserati name returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Henry “Bob” Topping entered his 1936 Maserati supercharged V8-powered V8Ri chassis number 4503 for veteran Elbert “Babe” Stapp which finished 31st after clutch failure.   

   

 

 

 

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

The 1931 Pismo Beach World Record Trials

1931 Pismo Beach 

World Record Trials



In 1769 the Spanish explorer Don Gaspar de Portola led an expedition to explore the Central California coast. The explorers encountered Chumash Indians who found the Indians used tar, which the natives called 'pismu' to seal the joints in their tomols (wooden plank canoes). In the latter part of the nineteenth century, John M. Price’s Pismo Beach Company subdivided the area and created the town of Pismo Beach.  

Tourism became the basis of the economy of the area with Pismo Beach advertised as “the Clam Capital of the World” or “Clam City” due to the large-sized ocean clams native in the area. The town fathers were on constantly on the lookout for promotional opportunities to increase tourism. 

In the monthly meeting of the San Luis Obispo County Unity Committee meeting in June 1931, Fred Swartz secretary of the Pismo Beach Chamber of Commerce presented a report of progress for the proposed “auto speed classic” be held on the beach

Swartz revealed that in an important step forward developer Harold Guiton agreed to dismantle the abandoned Oceano pier south of Pismo Beach, so at low tide there would be a 300-foot wide seven-mile long stretch of beach available for racing.  

In the summary his report, Swartz listed three items to still be resolved in order to hold the races. 

First the required formation of the Pismo Beach Oceanside Speedway and Racing Corporation (the Corporation). 

Second, the County District Attorney needed to draft a resolution for the Board of Supervisors to approve to grant the Corporation the right to use Pismo Beach for racing. 

Third, the organizers needed to obtain “a list of instructions for the races” from Arthur C Pillsbury the West Coast Regional Director for the American Automobile Association (AAA) Contest Board.

Pillsbury, an independently wealthy Southern California racing official, ruled the West Coast for the AAA Contest Board with an iron fist. Pillsbury, a New England native and graduate structural engineer, migrated to California and wound up the Engineer for the City of Beverly Hills and laid out the City’s original plat plan. 

In 1910 Pillsbury, in partnership with Jack Prince, also designed and built the 1-mile circular Los Angeles Motordrome board track in Playa del Rey, and later the nineteen twenties’ Beverly Hills and Culver City board tracks as well as the design and construction of most of the country’s board tracks used for auto racing.

The Pismo Times newspaper reported that on June 15, the County Board of Supervisors “found it to be of interest to the County that the project be furthered,” and authorized the Corporation to use the tide lands of Pismo Beach.  According to the plan submitted to the Supervisors, “the entire beach will be policed and an area defined beyond which the public is not permitted.”

The Board of Supervisors heard that on the day of the event, officials of the AAA “will handle the supervision, starting, technical inspection, timing and scoring will certify the results to send to Washington.”  The Corporation planned to hold beach races semi-annually – in August and January – with the exact dates determined of course by the tides.

On June 19, the Pismo Times reported on the organization of the Corporation, with eight directors nominated that included attorney Richard Cummings of Los Angeles, local dairyman John Shannon (elected President), Santa Barbara hotelier Frank Miratti, Schwartz of the Chamber of Commerce, Vaughn Scott developer from Atascadero, and WT Massengill of the Pacific Railroad.  

Other directors named were Edward Grey of Pacific Properties, Charles Kelly of the local power company, the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation, and R C Itjen a Pismo Beach resident. The last two directors, John Plessas and DA Terradell, were added later. 

In the July 10th edition of the Pismo Times published a letter dated June 29th from Pillsbury addressed to the Corporation that stated that Richard Cummins advised him that beach conditions would be best on August 29th and 30th, but added “it is impossible for me to schedule until I know the amount of money you will post for the two days of speed trials.”

Pillsbury added that “any number of speed trials could be held if sufficient funds are available. Naturally the larger the purse the more attractive program could be arranged. If your prize money is sufficiently large to justify eastern drivers making the trip here,” Pillsbury offered to send out “special notices of inducement.”  

Pillsbury’s letter also outlined that a minimum of five miles of beach will be required to be divided as “two miles to speed up, the measured mile, and two miles to stop.” Pillsbury closed his letter with a quote of $250 a day for the AAA sanctioning fee.  Pillsbury attached an AAA sanction application to his letter, and noted that when “signed and returned with a check for $500, publicity can then start and the event scheduled on our racing calendar.”  Eventually, the Corporation posted a total of $2000 in cash prizes with an added bonus of $500 to any car that broke an existing record.   

The Corporation held its first board meeting on July 7th 1931 during which the Board assigned roles, and passed a resolution to offer 2500 shares of capital stock at $20 a share. The Board also adopted the revised Articles of Incorporation to create a corporation with limited liability. 

Under California limited liability law, this meant that no individual shareholder could be found personally liable for the debts of the corporation. The board pushed the decision to set the event dates to their next meeting but authorized the hiring of Leland C, Lewis of the Los Angeles Evening Herald to handle publicity for the event.

On July 21, H Kirby Shellaby, the assistant Regional Director for the AAA Contest Board, visited Pismo Beach to inspect the beach conditions and its suitability of racing. His letter to the Chamber of Commerce stated his opinion that the beach “lends itself splendidly to the staging of speed trials” due to “the concrete-like smoothness of Pismo Beach, together with its extreme length and width.” 

That same day, Pillsbury wrote a letter that directed the Chamber of Commerce to hire engineers “to survey the course using precise measurements and establish permanent points at the two ends of the measured mile,” and furnish Pillsbury a small sketch and an affidavit.

The Corporation board met again and formally set the date for the one-day “Pismo Beach World Record Trials” for Sunday August 31 1931.  After the California Division of Corporations issued permit 52450LA to allow the Corporation to sell and issue securities, the entire offering of 2500 shares quickly sold out.

On July 24th the Corporation board voted to hire Shellaby as the manager, or “Director General” of the Pismo Beach races. Shellaby first came to public notice as the manager of aviation daredevil and stunt pilot Ormer Locklear. 

After Locklear’s death while he performed a stunt for the film The Skywayman,  Shellaby worked with Pillsbury in management of the Beverly Hills and Culver City board tracks before he moved east in 1925 to manage the wooden Rockingham Speedway in New Hampshire. With that track’s demise in 1928, Kirby returned to the West Coast to work for the AAA Contest Board as Pillsbury’s assistant. 

A month before the trials, Shellaby arrived in Pismo Beach, set up his office in the Chamber of Commerce and mailed out entry blanks to drivers that included Dave Evans and Francis Quinn Forms were also sent to car owners, most notably Harry Hartz, whose car won the 1930 Indianapolis 500-mile race and “Hollywood” Bill White. Shellaby supervised the work of the surveyors as they laid out the course that started south of the “Ward Pier,” today known as the Pismo Beach Pier, and ran south to Oceano.


Less than two weeks before the event, the Pismo Times reported that crews were scheduled soon to remove the pilings of the disused Oceano pier and erect the grandstands at the south (Oceano) end of the course.  

Another article noted the start of advance ticket sales by mail, with choice reserved seats (located behind Fred Wagner’s starter stand) priced at $1.50 and unreserved seats $1.00 apiece. Famed AAA drivers Hartwell “Stubby” Stubblefield and Francis Quinn stopped in Pismo Beach on their way to race August 16 in San Jose and met the race committee members and reviewed the course.      

Meanwhile Leland C, Lewis churned out a series of flowery press releases. As an example, the article in the August 22nd edition of the Oakland Tribune stated that “on Sunday, August 30, Pismo Beach extends itself to the goddess of speed in its invitation for open record competition on the straightaway strand of San Luis Obispo County. Pismo Beach presents its natural five-mile course as a maelstrom in the midst to a turbulent group to race car builders who have grasped this opportunity as the long awaited chance to definitely ascertain the maximum velocity which motors can propel.”

The article noted that with “prizes of both gold and glory as bait to America's racing fraternity, the Clam City Chamber of Commerce is preparing to welcome the most colorful and complete entry list ever to signify intentions of attacking straightaway speed records.”

Hyperbole aside, the ‘World Speed Trials,’ issued AAA sanction number 2540, boasted an impressive line-up of AAA Pacific Southwest drivers that included Francis Quinn, the defending AAA Pacific Southwest champion, Stubby Stubblefield, and Ernie Triplett, the current leader (and eventual champion) of the 1931 AAA Pacific Southwest title chase.

Avrol Brunmier (whose given name and surname were frequently misspelled) led the list of Legion Ascot Speedway stars entered along with Mel Kenealy, Les Spangler, Al Gordon, Chet Gardner, and Kelly Petillo.   Notables rounding out the 26-car entry list were Chris Vest, Byron “Speed” Hinkley , Danny DePaolo, the younger brother of 1925 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Peter DePaolo in the “Gilmore Lion,” George “Swede” Smith, and young Nick Martino in the Hooker Special.

Most of the cars and drivers aimed to break the American Class C record for cars with unsupercharged engines that displaced between 183-305 cubic inches. The late Jimmy Murphy established the record of 122.615 miles per hour (MPH) for the “flying mile” and 122.77 MPH for the “flying kilometer” set at Daytona Beach Florida in the Meteor-Duesenberg on April 27 1920.

The cars entered to challenge the Class C record at Pismo Beach included Art Sparks’ ‘Sparks Special,’ driven by Brunmier, Quinn’s own 200-cubic inch Miller Marine “151’ engine powered car, the new ‘Cragar Special’ built by Harlan Fengler for Stubblefield, and the ‘Tucker Tappet Special’ a Miller chassis powered by a bored-out four-cylinder Ford block topped with a double overhead camshaft Cragar cylinder head.

James Wade of Chicago owned the ‘Tucker Tappet Special’ maintained by Clay Ballinger and entered for Triplett. Quinn drove the car with a two-man body in the 1931 Indianapolis 500-mile race, then Triplett drove it in a single-seat configuration later in 1931 in AAA championship races at Detroit, Roby Indiana and Syracuse.

Bill White owned Chet Gardner’s entry, a narrow 91-cubic inch Miller chassis equipped with an unsupercharged 183-cubic inch Miller Marine engine.  The previous year, Stubblefield set new American Class D record in the same chassis, equipped with a supercharger for the mile and kilometer at Muroc Dry Lake.

Petillo entered the ‘Tri-Flex Special’ a car powered by a 176 cubic inch four-cylinder Ford engine with a 16-valve (four valves per cylinder) Frontenac cylinder head to lead the class of cars that displaced less than 183 cubic inches that also included entries from Johnny Kreiger, George Weber and Earl Woodford.

Parker Abbott, the Southern California sales manager for Reo, entered the ‘Reo Special’ a semi-stock entry powered by a straight-eight 358-cubic inch power plant. The Reo was only car entered at Pismo Beach that aimed to break the existing class record for cars with engines that displaced above 305 cubic inches.

After the Wednesday night August 27th race at Legion Ascot, won by Brunmier, practice on the Pismo Beach course began on August 28.  Timed by hand held stop watches, “Speed” Hinkley in the Miller powered ‘Kingsley Special’ reportedly eclipsed the existing record with Triplett and Gardner not far behind.  Unfortunately, Hinkley’s car soon encountered mechanical troubles and was withdrawn before the event.

 


Sunday August 30 dawned with the full AAA event staff in place. Barney Oldfield made his appearance as the honorary timer, with Fred Betz as the chief timer assisted by electrician Harold Harper, who installed the electric timing lights and the public address system.

George Stephenson head of the technical committee had made initial inspections of the race cars. If a car set a new record, it would be subjected to a more thorough inspection to tear down and confirm the engine displacement.

Asa Porter, a member of the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors from Arroyo Grande served as the race’s honorary referee, while Clarence Beesemyer, vice-president of the Gilmore Oil Company acted as the Chief Steward and Referee, and Frank Hood the chief scorer assisted by Charles Morris.

The schedule of events for August 30 called for seven racing events on the Pismo Beach. Each car would make runs through the measured mile course from a flying start in each direction, with the fastest twelve cars advanced to the following events which were termed “match races.”  

In five of the “match races,” a heat of four cars would accelerate north up speed through a mile, race through the measured mile, slow down, turn around a barrel, and race back south through the measured mile to the finish. The sixth featured race of the day, the “barrel race” called for the racers to complete three laps around the measured mile with the course marked with barrels at either end to create a two-mile course.

Nearly ninety years later, it is hard to imagine that the AAA Contest board sanctioned and the racers agreed to the “barrel races,” given the challenges of turning a speeding “big car” around 180 degrees on the 300-foot width of the flat hard-packed beach. Perhaps the inclusion of the “match races” explains why eight of the originally entered cars did not appear, notably the machines of Al Gordon, Francis Quinn, Les Spangler and the Hooker Special. 

Only four cars appeared for the class for cars that displaced less than 183 cubic inches – Charles Gelston, Kreiger, Petillo, and the ‘Rasor Special’ driven by “Swede” Smith did not start   To compound the car shortage, the 183 – 305 cubic inch machines driven by Mel Kenealy, Frank Whitty, and George Conners did not start either. 

With the event scheduled to start at 1 PM, the first car did not make a run down the beach until nearly 3 PM after the tide retreated sufficiently.  Only fifteen eligible cars in the three classes made at least one timed run, and Chet Gardner’s 183-cubic inch Miller #47 broke a ring gear and did not complete its return run.  Cars continued to make runs through the afternoon, while the organizers urged the AAA officials to start the “match races.” The first “match race” did not start until after 6 PM, after the departure of many of the estimated eight thousand fans, chilled by the late afternoon wind blowing in off the Pacific Ocean.  

At the end of the day’s timed runs, four new unofficial American records were set. Ernie Triplett unofficially reset the American Class C flying mile record at 130.647 MPH (with Stubblefield second at 125.35 MPH that also exceeded Murphy’s old record.  Stubblefield unofficially reset the American Class C flying kilometer record at 131.12 MPH that edged out Triplett’s best of 129.23 MPH over the flying kilometer.

Kreiger unofficially reset the flying mile record at 123 MPH for the 122 to 183 cubic inch class in the ‘Western Super Special,’ and Parker Abbott unofficially reset the flying mile record at 104 MPH for the 305 – 488 cubic inch semi-stock class record in the 358 cubic inch ‘Reo Special.’ 

The first one-lap “match race” featured the day’s four fastest qualifiers with cars driven by Brunmier. Kreiger, Stubblefield, and Triplett. Considering the fact that the racers covered the flying mile in less than thirty seconds, the pace of the one-lap race was slow, as Brunmier won over Triplett in a time of one minute - 25 4/5 seconds.

Kelly Petillo in the ‘Tri-Flex Special’ won the second 2-lap “match race” for cars that qualified fifth through eighth in the time of one minute-42-2/5 seconds. Bill Page won the fourth event, a one-lap two-mile affair for the four slowest qualifiers as he drove the “Golden State Special.”  Brunmier beat Triplett in the second two-mile heat race for the fastest four cars.

The featured “barrel race,” open to the fifth through twelfth qualifiers, only featured seven starters lined up across the beach at the start.  Chris Vest won in the #12 ‘Moore Special’ owned by Lloyd Moore of San Dimas over early leader Petillo, the only other driver to finish. As darkness fell, the organizers set bonfires along the beach for the day’s final race, the third one-lap heat race for the four fastest qualifiers. Stubblefield won this last race on the “Golden Strand” over Triplett over and Brunmier.       

Articles in the hometown Pismo Times were effusive in their praise of the event, but the rival weekly Arroyo Grande Valley Herald-Recorder published a harshly critical report. Under the headline “Public Gypped on Races,” the article opened with the statement that the speed trials “may have been a great success from the point of view of AAA officials but as far as the spectators were concerned it was a decided flop.” 

According to the Herald-Recorder writer, “no consideration was given to the people who had paid their money….to see car compete against car.” The article closed with the statement “when such events are staged, the public should get a square deal – and the decidedly DID NOT Sunday.”

Despite the Corporation‘s original plans for semi-annual events, racing never occurred again on Pismo Beach though the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post built a ¼-mile dirt track close to the Beach in 1956 that briefly hosted jalopy races.

Wilbur Shaw eclipsed Triplett’s flying mile record at Muroc Dry Lake in March 1932 with Shaw’s record subsequently beaten by Harry Hartz in March 1933. The story of the Muroc record runs can be found in the July 2017 archive of this blog.  


Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Hal Minyard 1948 Southern California Midget Racing Association champion

Hal Minyard

1948 Southern California Midget Racing Association Champion



The Southern California Midget Racing Association (SCMRA) formed early 1948 with 'Speed' Boardman as the club president while racer Jerry Curry served as the business manager.  Jim Rae, Offenhauser Engineering employee Al Long, driver Hal Minyard and car owner Willie Childers were board members.

This club appealed to racers whose equipment, typically powered by Ford V8-60 engines, was not quite fast enough to challenge the United Racing Association or American Automobile Association regulars, might best be characterized as the Southern California midget “minor league.”  The club scheduled races at 5-H Speedway and considered bookings at the Firestone Boulevard Motordrome (aka Don-Mar Speedway) and DeAnza Speedway in Riverside, but races at those two venues apparently never came to fruition.    

Boardman, from Burbank, was active in 1945 and 1946 with the United Midget Association, and won a midget race at the small Lincoln Park Stadium track in 1946. In September 1947 while racing at Balboa Stadium in San Diego with the URA “Red Circuit” for non-Offenhauser powered midgets, Boardman flipped in successive weeks and both times wound up in the same hospital room.   

Harold E ‘Hal’ Minyard born in 1925 in South Gate California, started his racing career in soap box derby cars, then before the war worked on and tested “junior midget cars” powered by modified washing machine engines. Hal enlisted in the United States Army in 1943 and after his military service, he raced during 1946 and 1947 with the United Racing Association (URA) in select “Red Circuit” races in a Ford V8-60 powered midget owned by Vern Boone. 

The SCMA (the group frequently dropped the “R”) scheduled their first race at the 5-H Ranch Speedway in Roscoe (today known as Sun Valley) at the corner of Sunland Boulevard and San Fernando Road north of North Hollywood. After World War 2 ended, real estate investor Paul Holland purchased the property and with his wife and three children developed it into a full-service equine facility.  The 5-H Ranch started by offering horse boarding and training then Holland added a lighted rodeo arena with bleacher seating for 7000 that also hosted open-air community dances. 

In late 1946 Holland added a restaurant and cocktail lounge to the 5-H Ranch complex then in early 1947 opened the “Pony Express Saddle Shop” that sold tack and western clothing.  During the winter of 1947-1948 the 5-H Ranch added a banked 1/5-mile dirt track with a 4000 seat grandstands. The track known variously as the “5-H Ranch Speedway” or simply the “5-H Speedway” opened in January 1948 with a 25-lap hot rod roadster race presented by American Sports Cars Inc.

The inaugural 5-H Ranch automobile race featured entries from the 1947 American Sports Cars Inc.  series champion Chuck Burness and runner-up George Seeger,  “Hook” Klein (the pride of Pacoima), Bob Bayer and local Roscoe racer Bill LaRoy who drove a “four-barrel Plymouth.”  Burness won the feature as he edged Bill Stevens and Grant Lambert in a time of 8 minutes 29.38 seconds for the 25 laps before a reported crowd of 4000 fans.

The inaugural SCMA midget auto race scheduled for March 14 1948 rained out and rescheduled for the following Sunday afternoon March 21st.  Speed Boardman won the three-lap trophy dash over Carl Brown, then Seeger won the 15-lap semi-main event over Jack Jordan. Chuck Burness became a 5-H Ranch Speedway won the 25-lap main event over Joe Dehart and ‘Inky’ Ingram in a time of 7 minutes and 35.64 seconds.

The following Sunday in the second SCMA midget race at 5-H, Carl Brown won the trophy dash and the feature while ‘Speed’ Boardman won the semi-main race.  In the April 11 program Jerry Curry set a new three-lap record of 53.55 seconds to edge out Hal Minyard in the trophy dash but the results of the feature were missed in the newspaper reports.  

5-H Speedway official Bob Machado announced that beginning on May 4 the SCMA midgets would race on Friday nights. Before the next midget racing event on April 25, the track brought in an 8-inch layer of clay and placed it over the previous gravel base. 

The 1948 SCMA season formally opened on Friday night April 30 at 5-H with a 25-lap main event which Minyard won over Jackie Jordan and Jerry Curry. During the feature, Fred Hanson ran over the back of Chuck Burness’ car, his midget flipped and landed upside down on top of Kent Emmerling’s car.

Taken to Glendale Community Hospital in serious condition with a “brain injury,” Hanson survived but apparently never raced with the SCMA midgets again, while Emmerling miraculously escaped injury.  Jerry Curry won the May 7th trophy dash and the feature. In an unusual promotion, the drivers switched cars for the Australian Pursuit race, and Joe DeHart won that race in Curry’s midget.

On May 14th at 5-H, Tommy Beverlin set a new track record in the trophy dash as he completed the three laps in 51.84 seconds. Joe DeHart captured the win in the 20-lap in six minutes and 45.52 seconds.  In late May on back-to-back Friday nights at 5-H Speedway, both the semi-main winners went on to score the feature victory -  Warren Sorenson on May 21st and Hal Minyard on the 28th.  As June 1948 opened, Curry, Minyard, and DeHart were the top three in the SCMA points.

Before 2700 fans DeHart won the shortened feature on June 18th suspended after Beverlin hit the wall on the 16th lap with Minyard scored in third place. The following week, Minyard won the trophy dash and the feature and just missed a clean sweep as he finished second to Jackie Jordan in the semi-main.  On July 3rd at 5-H, Minyard finished second to Speed Boardman in the trophy dash then won the 25-lap main event ahead of Boardman.

The weekend of July 17 and 18 1948 proved to be a very successful one for Hal Minyard. On Friday night, Minyard topped Jordan and Boardman to win the 25-lap feature at 5-H Speedway. On Saturday night, the SCMA racers christened the new El Monte Speedway, a ¼-mile dirt oval on South Durfee Road which opened the week before with California Roadster Association (CRA) hot rod roadster racing.  

A reported crowd of 3011 fans watched Boardman beat Minyard to the line in the three-lap trophy dash, then Hal turned the tables on Boardman and won the 30-lap feature after he started in the eighth position for his fifth consecutive SCMA feature victory.

On Friday night July 24th Jackie Jordan broke Minyard’s win streak as he just edged out Hal in the 25-lap race that finished in 8 minutes and 8 seconds, but Minyard returned to victory lane the following day at El Monte again after he started eighth. On Monday night August 2, the SCMA racers visited another new venue - Talbert Stadium in Huntington Beach at which the promoter broke with the URA.  Few of the 2200 fans were surprised when Minyard took the win in the 30-lapper after he started the feature in sixth position.   

Beverlin took the SCMA feature win at El Monte Speedway on August 8, as Minyard won the trophy dash. Five days later on Friday night August 13, Minyard cruised to victory in 50 laps over the decomposed granite at Huntington Beach in fourteen minutes to add to his commanding points lead. Minyard capped his successful 1948 SCMA championship campaign with a victory at El Monte on Sunday November 21, 1948.   

In 1949, Hal returned to run with the URA “Red Circuit” and he finished third in the 1958 URA season standings in the Bob Bogan-owned midget and he won the Kearney Bowl midget championship in 1960. During the nineteen sixties, Hal occasionally raced midgets but focused on sprint cars and won the California Racing Association title with ten feature wins in 1964 with Leonard Surdam and 1965 he scored four feature wins with three different car owners. In defending his title in 1966, Hal scored one win and finished seventh in overall CRA driver points.

Hal Minyard had a great racing career as a driver but his greatest racing accomplishment was his partnership in creating the “McHal” racing helmet in the early nineteen fifties which used state-of-the-art materials and a design lower across the front the sides and the back of the helmet which provided more protection for the driver. Due to the materials used, Minyard and his partner John McMurray could heat up the helmet in an oven and tailor it to fit the driver’s head for the best protection.


Hal got his only shot as a driver at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1966 at age 39 in the rear-engine 252-cubic inch Offenhauser powered 1964 Troutman-Barnes chassis owned by Louis Senter with sponsorship from Senter’s Ansen Automotive Engineering. JC Agajanian commissioned this one-of-one car for Parnelli Jones but Jones rejected it favor of the “old Calhoun” Watson chassis for the 1964 Indianapolis 500-mile race then crashed the Troutman-Barnes car at Trenton in July 1964.  

The Senter-led team struggled with engine issues all month and the white #49 car was in line to make a qualifying run on the final day of time trials when the clock ran out.  The following week at the Milwaukee Mile, Hal drove the rear-engine 252-cubic inch Offenhauser powered 1963 Vollstedt chassis #6 owned by Richard Compton of Portland Oregon.

Hal got the Milwaukee ride because the car owner had a dispute with his previous driver Art Pollard. Pollard and the red and white #49 car were bumped from the 33-car Indianapolis starting field by Ronnie Duman’s Eisert-Ford.  

Days later, car owner Compton swore out a theft complaint against Pollard.  Art was convicted in Marion County court in August, after he told the court that he had taken the equipment as “security” for the $4,450 owed him by Compton.

Hal missed the Milwaukee starting field on time, then crashed into the turn four inside guardrail during the consolation race. Though he was uninjured, the crash ended Minyard’s USAC championship driving career as Bruce Jacobi replaced him the following week in the race at Langhorne Pennsylvania.  

In May 1967 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, many drivers wore McHal helmets, but the final 33-car starting field contained only one driver with a McHal helmet – AJ Foyt, who led 27 laps and dodged a last lap crash on the front straightaway to win his third Indianapolis ‘500’ title.

Hal's last racing appearance came during the 1978 season  and Minyard retired in 1999 after 25 years of service as an employee of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was  inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2007, and passed away in Speedway Indiana on March 4, 2010 at age 85.


Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Herbrand Tools "The official tool supplier to the Indianapolis 500-mile race"

 Herbrand Tools

"The official tool supplier to the

Indianapolis 500-mile race" 





Tool sponsorship of the Indianapolis 500-mile race is not well-documented, even by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself. The tool sponsorship by the Herbrand Company appears a few years after Anton ‘Tony’ Hulman purchased the track in 1946.

According to the reference book Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, inventor Jacob Herbrand and local businessmen Charles Thompson and JB Van Doren founded the Herbrand Company in 1881 in the north central Ohio town of Fremont to manufacture and sell carriage parts.  



Herbrand patent

Jacob Herbrand held several patents for drop forged parts for carriages; which included a drop perch, and running gear, with his final patent for improvements in vehicle springs, issued after Jacob’s death in 1884.  By 1909, the company’s line of products included a variety of carriage forgings, bicycle wrenches and a safety razor manufactured under the Henry Leach patent.

By 1911, Herbrand added pliers to their tool lineup and the 1914 Automobile Trade Directory listed Herbrand as a manufacturer of screwdrivers. Herbrand further expanded their tool offerings and began production of drop-forged tools for automobile tool kits. 

In 1915 Herbrand expanded their factory and adopted a three-shift work schedule to keep up with the demand for tool kits for the Ford Motor Company. Herbrand, which advertised as “the Aristocrat of Tools,” eventually occupied a huge block-long multi-structure factory site at the corner of Napoleon and Stone Streets in Fremont Ohio.

In 1919 Herbrand began to use the "Van-Chrome" trademarked brand name for their line of alloy steel tools. Over the next twenty years Herbrand continued to expand their line of tools and supplier to high-volume retailers such as Western Auto Supply and Montgomery Ward with brand names "Van-Chrome" and "Multi-hex." In 1935, the American Machinist magazine reported that the Herbrand Company entered receivership, but after several months it emerged as the Herbrand Corporation. 

The Corporation moved away from high-volume contract manufacturing for the consumer market and focused on the high-end professional tool market and expanded their tool line to include a full range of automotive service tools, including sockets and drive tools, a wide variety of wrenches, pliers, gear pullers, and a large number of specialty tools.

Meanwhile in November 1945, Terre Haute Indiana grocery supply heir Tony Hulman bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Eddie Rickenbacker for $750,000 and set to work with the Hulman & Company team to refurbish the facility for the first postwar 500-mile on May 30 1946.  

The July 2, 1947 edition of The Sandusky Register newspaper reported the formal merger of Herbrand Corporation and the Bingham Stamping Company of Toledo, Ohio.  Just over a month later, on August 21, 1947, the company stockholders voted to formally change the company name to the Bingham-Herbrand Corporation with the Fremont plant known as the Herbrand Forging Division.


This photo from the IUPUI University Library Center
for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection, 
shows Johnnie Parsons (left) and his chief mechanic Harry Stephens
 posed with a Herbrand tool box studying a tool 


Herbrand tools first appeared as a sponsor at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1950. As the result of his victory in the rain-shortened 500-mile race, Johnnie Parsons driver of the winning Kurtis-Kraft ‘Wynn’s Friction Proofing Special’ won a set of Herbrand Tools, $57,458.63 in prize money, the Mercury Pace Car, free meals for a year at the Wheeler Catering Company a registered cocker spaniel puppy and year’s supply of Ideal Dog Food the latter two items supplied by Wilson & Company.  


This poor quality photo from the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection, 
shows Harry Stephens, left, posed with a Herbrand tool box 

Harry Stephens, the car’s chief mechanic who according to legend, discovered a crack in the car’s Offenhauser engine block on race morning, also won a set of Herbrand tools and the Sergeant Edward Stomper Memorial Trophy. Mrs. Evelyn Stomper of Chicago donated the 33-inch tall gold trophy in 1946 in memory of her husband, one of 3,504 servicemen who lost their lives in action during the World War Two invasion of the Philippine Island of Leyte.    

In 1951, stock in the Bingham-Herbrand Corporation sold for $1.76 a share as sales were up 47% and the company’s net income increased 35% over 1950. 

In 1951 Bingham-Herbrand expanded even more through a teaming arrangement with the Studebaker Corporation to manufacture aircraft jet engine parts.  Execution of the full contract would have meant that Bingham-Herbrand needed to add five hundred more employees but the end of hostilities in Korea in July 1953 meant the new facility, specifically built never opened, and resulted in a major loss for the company.    


Popular Mechanics ad 


The July 1951 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine advertised with a quote from Speedway President Wilbur Shaw that Herbrand Tools was the “Official Tool Supplier of the Indianapolis 500-mile race.” At the Victory Banquet held in the Riley Room of the Claypool Hotel on May 31, George Salih, the chief mechanic of the 1951 ‘500’ winning car, the #99 241-cubic inch Offenhauser-powered Kurtis-Kraft chassis owned by Murrell Belanger, took home a chest full of Herbrand Tools and the Stomper Trophy. 

The 1951 Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Lee Wallard, the “Cinderella Man” received a matching set of Herbrand tools and tool chest along with the John W Hobbs trophy (as the leader at 250 miles), the Borg-Warner trophy, and a check for $63,612.12.  

Sadly, just three days later, Wallard received severe burns when a borrowed ‘big car’ caught fire in a race at Reading Pennsylvania. Wallard underwent 37 skin grafts while hospitalized for 121 days and his injuries ended his racing career.

For the 1952 Indianapolis ‘500’ the Bingham-Herbrand Corporation subscribed to the Indianapolis Citizens Speedway Committee’s leader lap prize fund, as the sponsored five laps at $100 apiece.  In addition to the publicity, representatives of the company received practice day Garage Area passes for the month of May and Race Day access to the Pagoda.  


This poor quality photo from the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection,
shows JC Agajanian (left) and Troy Ruttman (right) posed with a Herbrand tool box. That may be Clay Smith in the middle.   

The author was unable to find any press references to Herbrand tools as the official tool supplier or that tools were awarded to the 1952 race winner, but the author did find proof. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway archive contains a grainy 1952 photograph that shows the winning car owner JC Agajanian and 1952 Indianapolis ‘500’ champion Troy Ruttman posed with a Herbrand Tool box.

The Herbrand Division staged a contest in conjunction with the 1952 500-mile race, in which entrants filled out a form to guess the winning speed of the race. The winner received a $500 Royal Deluxe Herbrand Rollway and Deluxe Magic Chest filled with the master mechanic tool set. Second place received a $200 fully stocked Herbrand Master Rollway while third, fourth, and fifth finishers in the contest each received a complete master mechanic tool set in a MC-3 Magic Tool Chest, said to be worth $100.  We’ll leave to the reader’s imaginations what similar prizes would be worth today.

For the 1952 Holiday season, Herbrand advertisements suggested readers “be practical this year and give a Herbrand Tool gift certificate. They are available in any denomination you chose and the man who gets one of these wonderful gifts can use the certificate in payment for Herbrand Tools of his own selection.”  

For the 1953 Indianapolis ‘500,’  Herbrand again paid for five laps of sponsorship at the new amount of $150 each while the Ford Motor Company led all lap prize sponsors with seven laps subscribed. As in previous years, Herbrand awarded two sets of tools valued at $275 per set for the race winning driver and mechanic. 


This  photo from the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection
shows Bill Vukovich (center) and his wife Esther and their crew posed with a Herbrand tool box 


After he appeared earlier in the day and drove the pace car at the AAA ‘big car’ event at the Winchester Speedway, 1953 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Bill Vukovich received the Herbrand tools, the keys to the Ford Sunliner convertible Pace Car, and a check for $89,496.98, $29,500 of which were lap prizes. 

Vukovich won his second set of tools in 1954, and was on his way to a third victory in 1955 when he crashed Lindsay Hopkins’ Kurtis 500 C and perished on his 56th lap. Bob Sweikert won the ‘500’ and the Herbrand Tool chests for himself and his young mechanic AJ Watson. The tool chests came in handy for storing another of their prizes, a set of Kramer Cam-Lok roller ratchet wrenches for use of tube fittings.   

After Wilbur Shaw’s death in a plane crash in October 1954, in January 1956, the Novi Equipment Company in Indianapolis advertised the sale of Shaw’s tool collection that included “Herbrand tool sets, chests and assorted Herbrand tools” offered at “low prices.”  

In its pre-race coverage on May 29, 1956, the Indianapolis News published an article that highlighted recent Herbrand innovations at the Speedway. In an interview with representative Ralph Little and engineering supervisor Howard Greer in the Herbrand tool crib, located under the parquet stands behind the Indianapolis Motor Speedway pit lane, the pair revealed four innovative tools from the $15,000 inventory.  


The first known as the “multiscope” used like a doctor’s stethoscope to diagnosis problems inside engines without disassembly.  Next up - the hand-operated Herbrand valve seating tool, designed for use with the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine, used a carbide cutter to cut and groove the valves seat that replaced the electric operated abrasive grinders previously used. 

The pair then showed the reporter the “dzus tool” a short-handled screwdriver used to remove the self-ejecting ¼-turn dzus buttons used to attach the car’s outer skin which came to favor in auto racing following World War Two.  

Herbrand wheel hammer 

Finally, the Herbrand representatives showed the reporter the company’s ‘500’ special wheel hammer with a brass head and aluminum handle used to tighten or loosen the wheel spinner.

Late in 1956, Van Norman Industries purchased the Bingham-Herbrand Corporation and Herbrand with 800 employees continued operations in Fremont Ohio and introduced an economy line of tools known as "Vi-Chrome”

Before the 1957 Indianapolis race at the annual Mechanic’s dinner held at the Murat Temple, Ray Nichols chief mechanic for the Sumar Racing team won a fully-stocked Herbrand Rollway cabinet. Herbrand tools posted the prize money for two laps of the 1957 Indianapolis ‘500’ - lap 103 and lap 196.

The ‘500’ winner Sam Hanks made it a clean sweep as he led both of those laps then collected the master mechanics tool set in rolling cabinet as part of his record-setting $103,844 prize money with George Salih claiming his second set of Herbrand tools for winning the ‘500.’ 

In 1958, the Herbrand division of the Bingham-Herbrand Corporation posted $300 to sponsor two laps of the ‘500,’ lap 120 and lap 199.  Johnny Boyd in the ‘Bowes Seal Fast Special’ led the race at lap 120, and winner Jimmy Bryan claimed the prize for lap 199.

In 1959, in honor of being the official tool of the Indianapolis 500-mile race for the tenth straight year, Herbrand produced a special limited edition run of their new “Hex-fit” thin-body combination wrenches with a set of seven  wrenches finished in 20 karat gold in special ‘500’ packaging. Years later, these sets are considered highly collectible.

On Saturday May 2 1959, the first day of practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jerry Unser turned several relatively slow warmup laps at 133 mph before the bluish silver ‘Helse Special’ spun backwards in the fourth turn, slid 580 feet and hit the inside wall. That contact punctured the fuel tank and fuel splashed over Unser. As the car slid across the track and hit the outside retaining wall broadside it exploded into flame.

Still conscious Jerry was trapped in the crumpled Kuzma by the bent steering wheel as rescuers fought to extinguish the flames and extract Unser from the car. Jerry reportedly told rescuers “My legs are on fire. Call my wife.” Jerry was transported to Methodist Hospital and admitted in critical condition with third degree burns on his legs, left arm and right hand over approximately 35 to 40% of his body. Jerry fell into a coma before he passed away from “blood poisoning” (uremia infection from his burns) at 10:15 Sunday morning May 17.

In the aftermath of Unser’s crash, Herbrand’s Ralph Little distributed dzus tools free of charge to all the members of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Safety Patrol. Little told Indianapolis News reporter Wayne Fuson that the thin, lightweight tool could easily be carried in a pants pocket. Most mechanics carried the tool to remove the half-turn fasteners, but Unser’s accident revealed the need for rescuers to have them as well.

Herbrand Tools sponsored two laps in the 1959 Indianapolis ‘500’ – lap 65 and lap 165. Johnny Thomson took the $150 check for leading lap 65 in the pink Racing Associates Lesovosky lay-down roadster, then Rodger Ward took over on lap 85 in the “3-W” entry and led the rest of the way as chief mechanic AJ Watson won his second set of Herbrand tools.

In 1960, Dick Rathmann won the Herbrand tool chest as the winning driver, but there remains controversy years later as to whom the chief mechanic award truly belonged. Up until his death in 2001, Henry “Smokey” Yunick staunchly maintained that he was the chief mechanic for the ‘Ken-Paul Special’ in 1960, but official USAC records list former riding mechanic Takeo "Chickie" Hirashima as the team’s chief mechanic, so “Chickie” collected the tool chest, the diamond pin from Wynn Oil and the Stomper Trophy at the 1960 Victory Banquet.   

Nearly sixty years later, it is unclear whether Herbrand returned in 1961 for a twelfth year as the official tool supplier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the parent company, Van Norman Industries, was in financial difficulty. In July 1961 all of the Bingham-Herbrand Corporation Fremont plant equipment was sold to the American Brake Shoe Company of Chicago which announced that it would move all the equipment to Chicago.

Simultaneously, Van Norman Industries sold its hand tool division (the designs and names) to the Tool Division of the Kelsey-Hayes Corporation.  On January 1962, the Herbrand Fremont plant officially closed with Herbrand manufacturing operations relocated to a new facility built in Orangeburg South Carolina. Today on a few buildings remain on the old Herbrand site in Fremont.  

Beginning with the 1962 Indianapolis 500-mile race, Proto Tools became the Official Tool Supplier with a tool room located under the Tower Terrace grandstand near the entrance to Gasoline Alley, and during the nineteen seventies, SK Tools became the official Indianapolis 500-mile tool supplier. 

In 1964 Kelsey-Hayes bought the Bonney Forge and Tool Company and folded it into the Utica Tools Division, then in 1967 the Triangle Corporation bought the Utica Tools Division from Kelsey-Hayes. Initially all three tool brands remained in production at least until Triangle was bought out by Cooper Industries, but at some point, the Herbrand line of tools disappeared from the marketplace forever.