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.
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