The Pete Kreis story
Part one
Background and his rookie year- 1925
Albert Jacob “Pete” Kreis is an intriguing figure to
automobile racing historians; described as a “Southern gentleman sportsman” at
the time, he competed purely for the love of sport. After three seasons of board track racing,
for the last six years of his career, Pete only drove in one race a year – the
Indianapolis 500-mile race. Although he never won a race, Kreis’ career
intersected with many of the great names of racing from the mid-nineteen twenties
until his death in 1934
Born into a generationally wealthy and prominent Knoxville
Tennessee family on January 19 1900, Kreis grew up as a child of privilege. His
grandfather, Harman Kreis, emigrated from Switzerland and fought in the American
Civil War as a Union cavalryman since East Tennessee tended to be pro-union. After
the war, Harmon worked as a timekeeper at the Knoxville Marble Company before
he went into the quarry business for himself.
Harmon Kreis developed several quarries, and with a partner
founded the Appalachian Marble Quarry Company which innovated by floating huge
blocks of marble from their quarries on rafts down the Tennessee River to the
mills in Knoxville known then as “Marble City.” Harmon later served two years
as the reformist Sherriff of Knox County and died in 1937 at age 91.
Pete’s father, entrepreneur John Alva Kreis, owned one of
the area's biggest dairy farms, the Riverside Dairy and Hatchery grew to become
a farm with 215 registered Holsteins, 35 employees and 12 delivery trucks. The
Riverside Hatchery housed 600,000 chicks and had an egg capacity of 300,000 per
month. As a young man Pete helped out on
the farm; first he drove a horse-drawn delivery wagon, and later the farms’
first delivery truck.
John Kreis also owned the eponymous national engineering and
contracting company which specialized in large railroad, levee and bridge jobs,
with customers that included the Southern, L&N and Missouri Pacific
railroads. Pete would later work with his father and older brother in
construction.
Pete, who adopted his nickname as young man, attended
Central High School in Knoxville and followed in the footsteps of grandfather
and father to become a champion skeet shooter and won many tournaments around
Knoxville. Some historians suggest that Kreis began racing on dirt tracks at
local county fairs but nearly a hundred years later the author found no records
of Kreis’ early automobile racing career, but he liked to drive fast.
On February 22 1924, Pete had an accident while on a test
drive which killed his passenger, 23-year old car salesman Carroll McCall. The
roadster Kreis drove, reportedly “at a lively clip” according to witnesses, missed
a curve and struck a bridge abutment, rolled over and pinned Kreis and McCall
in the wreckage. Rescuers found McCall dead and the steering wheel had to be
removed to free Kreis who went to the hospital with cuts and a shoulder injury.
Kreis and his father attended the inaugural race at the new
wooden Charlotte Speedway oval in October 1924 won by Tommy Milton. Pete’s
American Automobile Association (AAA) championship racing debut came at the new
Culver City 1-1/4 mile high-banked (50 degrees) board track, a few weeks before
Christmas in 1924 as a paying member of the four-car Duesenberg racing team. In practice runs Bennett Hill and Harry Hartz ran
laps at the astonishing speed of 134 miles per hour (MPH) in their supercharged
Miller racers.
While his three Duesenberg teammates – Wade Morton, Peter
DePaolo, and Phil Shafer – all started the race, rookie Kreis is listed in AAA
records as one of two drivers who did not qualify for the 16-car starting
field. More than 70,000 spectators saw Hill
win the 250-mile race over Hartz in just one hour and 58 minutes with the
phenomenal average speed of nearly 127 MPH.
Kreis returned to Culver City two months later, again as
part of the Duesenberg team, behind the wheel of the #35 supercharged
Duesenberg 122-cubic inch eight-cylinder machine. Kreis started at the rear of
the twenty-car field and finished in fifth place behind winner Tommy Milton,
who shaved 5-1/2 seconds off Hill’s December winning time.
This bizarre event started on February 22 but officials stopped
the race after 25 laps due to treacherous oily track conditions created by the
three-car crash of Frank Elliott, Dr. William Shattuc and Stuart Wilkinson. Stuart
received severe back injuries which caused the end of his short automobile
racing career.
When the AAA officials completely restarted the race on
Sunday March 1, drivers Elliott and Shattuc were in the field with their
repaired cars, along with Kreis, whose car carried a new crankshaft but Wilkinson
still hospitalized did not restart. Kreis
ran as high as fourth place in the race until he stopped on lap 120 for a tire
change but Pete recovered to place fifth among the nine finishers due to the
high attrition rate,.
Kreis did not appear on the entry list for the April 19
Culver City 25- and 50-mile sprint races which included ten veteran drivers as Harry
Hartz established a new speed record for 50 miles of over 135 MPH. Pete skipped
the next race on the 1-mile Fresno Speedway board track, and raced next on
Monday May 11 on another 1-1/4-mile board track, the Charlotte Speedway in
Pineville North Carolina, about ten miles south of the City of Charlotte North
Carolina.
The Charlotte Speedway featured 40-degree baked turns built
with an estimated 4 million board feet of lumber by the Prince Construction
Company of Oakland California. Remarkably,
the Charlotte Speedway which cost an estimated $450,000, received its charter
from the State in May 1924 and hosted its first race AAA championship race in
October, less than six months later.
The promoters of the 1925 Confederate Memorial Day $25,000
250-mile race arranged with the Southern Railroad system to offer promotional
Pullman fare packages from Raleigh, Durham and Goldsboro in North Carolina as
well as from Selma Alabama and Chattanooga Tennessee. Reserved seats in the two
grandstands sold for $3.50 or $5.00 each, while 8-seat boxes sold for $8
each.
The racers in the Fresno race all arrived via special
freight train, which included Bennett Hill, Earl Cooper, Frank Elliott, Harry
Hartz, Leon Duray, Peter DePaolo, and last year’s
Charlotte winner, Tommy Milton. Those stars were joined by eight others drivers
that included Wade Morton, Earl Devore, Phil Shafer and Kreis.
An estimated crowd of 50,000 fans saw Tommy Milton jump into
the lead in his Miller and hold on to the lead for the first 100 miles ahead of
Cooper and Duray. Over the next 60 miles, the machines of challengers Hill,
Elliott and Duray all retired and Harry Hartz moved into third place while
Milton led the pack with an average speed of 122.7 MPH.
As the leaders neared the 200-mile mark, Milton’s Miller
engine developed a miss, and Cooper surged into the lead on the 156th
lap. On lap 174, the ignition on Kreis’ Duesenberg failed and he retired to be
placed tenth. Cooper held on to win over
Hartz, Milton and Comer, with the highest placed Duesenberg driven by DePaolo
in fifth. Cooper banked $10,000 for the win, while Hartz received a check for
$5000 and Milton, $2750. The teams packed up to ship their cars by rail to
Indianapolis, with the cars expected to arrive in the Hoosier capital by May 15th.
The Duesenberg brothers entered three cars and drivers for
the 1925 International 500 Mile Sweepstakes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Pete Kreis drove the #35 with the other cars assigned to Peter DePaolo and LL
Corum – the fourth Duesenberg entry did not have a driver assigned initially,
but on May 12, Fred Duesenberg named Frenchman Antoine Mourre, who finished
ninth in his rookie ‘500’ appearance in 1924 behind the wheel of his own
Miller.
On May 26th, 1925 Kreis qualified his #35
supercharged Duesenberg ninth fastest with an average speed of 106.338 MPH for
his four-lap ten-mile run, while the team leader DePaolo briefly held the track
record at 113.083 MPH Leon Duray’s run of 113.196 MPH edged DePaolo off the
pole. Mourre qualified for the middle of
the sixth row, but as Decoration Day neared pronounced himself displeased with
the handling of the #23 machine, withdrew, replaced by Wade Morton.
With only a 22-car starting field in 1925, there were a
number of driver substitutions before race day, as in addition to Mourre, there
were six other drivers that chose to withdraw their original mounts. Bennett Hill started the confusion when he withdrew
his Miller front drive (one of two built for the late Jimmy Murphy) in favor of
a conventional rear drive Miller originally qualified by Ray Cariens.
Dave Lewis replaced Cliff Durant, the son of General Motors
founder William Crapo Durant as the driver of the second Miller front drive
machine while Milton Jones replaced H.J. Skelly after he withdrew from the
Frontenac-Ford. Ira Vail replaced Reginald
Johnson in a Miller and L.L. Corum, the 1924 ‘500’ co-winner stepped out the
Duesenberg he qualified in favor of Phil “Red” Shafer.
DePaolo dominated the early and late stages of the 1925
500-race, as he led 115 laps that included the final 27 circuits while Kreis is
credited with an eighth place in the third-highest placed Duesenberg. The common
denominator between DePaolo and Kreis was the essential driver of the day -
Norm Batten.
Augie and Fred Duesenberg tabbed Norm who had debuted the
previous season with the Duesenberg team at 31 years old at Syracuse, as the
team’s designated relief driver at Indianapolis. Batten relieved eventual race winner DePaolo
for 22 laps mid-race, then jumped into the #35 machine in relief of Kreis on
lap 136 and drove to the finish.
The AAA championship cars and stars traveled next to Altoona
Pennsylvania to compete in the 250-mile ‘Spring Classic’ at the fast
high-banked board track which had already claimed the lives of two prominent
racers – Howdy Wilcox I in the inaugural race in the fall of 1923, and Joe Boyer the 1924 Indianapolis co-winner the
previous fall. Kreis started 12th in the 18-car field and finished
sixth behind winner Peter DePaolo.
Kreis’ next appearance came on July 11 1925 at the 1-1/8
mile 48 degree banked original ‘Baltimore-Washington Speedway’ board track in
Laurel Maryland in the #35 Duesenberg. Another quickly built facility, the track’s
parent corporation was formed in February 1925.
During the inaugural July 1925 race at Laurel, Kreis’ car
spun on the wooden banking without incident and Pete continued on until something
failed in the Duesenberg engine on lap 50.
With his own car eliminated, Kreis relieved Duesenberg teammate Phil
Shafer until the #9 machine also experienced engine trouble and retired. 25-year
old Bob McDonogh took the checkered flag, 3.68 seconds ahead of DePaolo, but
Peter protested the finish.
A check of the scoring records overnight found that the
scorers missed one of DePaolo’s laps and the AAA officials declared Peter
DePaolo as the race winner, for his fourth straight win, as he had won a July 4th
non-points race held on the 1-1/4 mile dirt Rockingham Park Speedway in Salem,
New Hampshire.
The $600,000 facility, built on 360 acres, only hosted two
races before the corporation went bankrupt.
A subsequent track operator staged occasional “outlaw”
(non-AAA) races sanctioned by the National Motor Racing Association at the
facility through 1926 until filing for bankruptcy the following year. After
another failed resuscitation attempt crews dissembled the board track facility
in 1928.
A ½-mile paved track built in 1965 in nearby Beltsville
Maryland operated for the first year as the ‘Baltimore-Washington Speedway’ and
hosted a National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Grand National
late model stock car race won by Ned Jarrett. The following year the operators
changed than track name to Beltsville Speedway, and it operated under various
sanctions until 1978.
23-year old Boston investment heir Harold L “Vic” Spooner,
who drove several practice laps at the Laurel oval, appeared as the only
representative of the Duesenberg team at the 250-mile “Autumn Classic” held
September 7th at Altoona Speedway in Tyrone Pennsylvania.
Bob McDonogh won the Altoona race in Tommy Milton’s Miller which
ran non-stop without a caution. After the race, Bob became the godfather of a
nine-and-half pound baby boy born in the infield hospital prior to the race. Spooner drove the car that his family
purchased from Wade Morton to an eight place finish 17 laps behind the winner.
Meanwhile the regular Duesenberg AAA team drivers – Peter DePaolo,
Tommy Milton and Kreis - were in Monza Italy for the 1925 Italian Grand Prix. Milton and Kreis were teammates in 122 cubic
inch Duesenbergs while DePaolo drove an Alfa Romeo P2.
In Italy, the officials set the starting field by car
numbers, and all three of the American drivers started in the middle of the 25-car
starting field that included 1913 Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Jules Goux.
Kreis recorded the race’s fastest lap of 3 minutes 38
seconds on the opening 6.2–mile long lap but crashed on the second lap and
placed last. Milton finished fourth in the marathon five and a half-hour long 496-mile
race, and edged out DePaolo by a minute and a half at the finish.
The 1925 AAA championship cars and stars returned to action
at the newly-built Rockingham Park Speedway board track in Salem New Hampshire
in early October. During practice runs
on the 1-1/4 mile bowl on October 12, held in conjunction with the track’s
grand opening, Peter DePaolo ran a lap at 128 MPH, a speed which other drivers
including Spooner then took to the track to beat. Due to the informal nature of the practice
session, a group of race car mechanics gathered close to the track surface in a
“dugout” to observe the action.
As Spooner’s car ran on the high side of the banking, above
the machine of William “Doc” Shattuc, a steering knuckle pin broke on the
Duesenberg’s front axle. The car wobbled then shot down the track as Dan Shaw,
the car’s mechanic, inexplicably ran from the “dugout” towards the track.
Spooner’s out of control Duesenberg pounded the inside rail and flipped high
into the air.
The Duesenberg catapulted through the air with Spooner
thrown out, and the careening car struck Shaw before it came to rest in flames
which spread to the track surface. Officials pronounced the 24-year old Shaw
dead at the scene while Spooner suffered a fractured skull. The young Bostonian
survived but never raced again.
In Rockingham practice on October 14th, Harry
Hartz ran a lap timed at 135 MPH, then in qualifying on October 15th
DePaolo smashed all previous speed records as he circled the 1-1/4 board track
in 32 3/5 seconds, for an astonishing lap speed of 138 MPH. Remarkable since it
would be 26 years before a car reached such a lap speed at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway. Milton, in his Duesenberg, timed in seventh fastest while Kreis
qualified in thirteenth place.
Rain initially postponed the inaugural Rockingham board
track race scheduled for Saturday October 17th until Monday the 19th,
but on Monday rain won again and organizers set the make-up date for October 31st,
as the AAA had a race already scheduled in Laurel Maryland on October 26th.
In the second race held during the 1925 season at the Baltimore-Washington
Speedway, Kreis’ Duesenberg fell out with unspecified mechanical troubles after
just 31 of the 222 laps as McDonogh won his second straight race, this time
behind the wheel of Tommy Milton’s second Miller numbered 14 but not without
trouble. Bob held a two-lap lead with twenty-five laps to go when the engine
began to sour. The Miller engine
sputtered and backfired through the final laps as DePaolo closed but Bob held
on and won the race by 24 seconds.
Back in Salem New Hampshire on October 31st, pole-sitter
DePaolo raced into lead and led for the first ten laps until fellow front-row
starter Bennett Hill surged into the lead which he held for the next 87 laps, until
the clutch in his Miller failed. Hill’s retirement handed the lead to Earl
Cooper.
Cooper’s Miller ‘Junior 8’ held the point for twenty laps,
before DePaolo recaptured the lead and Peter led the remaining 83 laps and won
by a lap over Ralph Hepburn, the pilot of the Miller owned by Cooper. Earl Cooper finished a lap behind his own car
in third place, and Pete Kreis’ Duesenberg in 11th, the last car
running, flagged with 160 laps completed.
On November 11, Tommy Milton won the AAA championship
circuit’s second visit to the Charlotte board track as engine failure
eliminated front-runners DePaolo and Hill. Kreis closed out his 1925 season as
he qualified twelfth and finished tenth, with 160 of the 200 laps completed.
With eight race appearances and a single top five finish scored
in his first race at Culver City, Pete Kreis finished 14th in the
1925 AAA driver standings, behind fellow rookies Ralph Hepburn in ninth and
Norm Batten who finished eleventh overall in AAA points with just three 1925 race
appearances.
In our next chapter, we will look at Pete Kreis’ 1926 AAA
racing season.
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