Fred Agabashian

from the Bay Area to Indianapolis glory

Part three -1958 and a busy retirement 

 

Fred's 1958 IMS portrait in his

Champion Spark Plug 100 MPH club leather jacket

courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

Bignotti-Bowes Racing Associates entered their pair of Kurtis-Kraft 500G chassis for the 1958 Indianapolis '500' with Fred Agabashian and Johnnie Parsons set to return as the drivers, but in early April, they had to quickly find a driver. Agabashian resigned from the Bowes team in mid-April and accepted a large retainer from trucking magnate Pat Clancy to drive the "City of Memphis Special" another Kurtis Kraft 500G with Danny Quella as chief mechanic.  As Agabashian’s replacement Bowes and Bignotti chose his teammate from the 1956 Federal Engineering team, Bob Veith.

Agabashian came to Indianapolis in May 1958 fully expecting to start his 12th consecutive Indianapolis ‘500’ but the month proved to be a painful experience. Fred made an aborted qualifying attempt on May 17 the first day of qualifying. During a “test hop” in the “Helse Special” during practice on Wednesday May 21 he turned a lap at 143.9 MPH then spun and crashed in turn two.

This accident marked the first time in his twelve-year career that the 44-year old Agabashian crashed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fred suffered minor injuries to his left leg and hand in the crash and he also complained of pain in his mid-section. Fred took a private car, not an ambulance, to Methodist Hospital where he stayed overnight. 

The new Helse Kuzma chassis was one of three built for 1958 with independent front suspension and was originally assigned to second-year team driver Jimmy Daywalt who left the team in frustration after suitable speed could not be found.  Apparently the handling problems were not traced to the front suspension, but rather the new one-piece fuel tank design. In retrospect, it appears as though the frame was too flexible.  

An article in the May 21 1958 issue of the Indianapolis Star revealed that “just about everything has been tried by builder Eddie Kuzma and the mechanics, even stuffing inner tubes in the fuel tanks and inflating them to keep the fuel from swishing around too much and finally even cutting off some of the fuel tanks,” In addition to cutting off the fuel tank, prior to Agajanian’s crash crew chief Bruce Crower and his crew “rebuilt the Helse car virtually from the ground up” according to the Star. 

Fred's 1958 '500' qualifying photo

Author's collection

 

Three days after the crash on May 24 the third day of time trials Fred spun in the southeast turn on the second lap of his second qualifying attempt and brushed the wall which damaged the car’s front axle. After repairs Fred qualified the ‘City of Memphis’ Kurtis Kraft 500G at a relatively slow 142.135 MPH which bumped Dempsey Wilson from the field and placed Fred at the tail of the field.

On the windy final day of time trials, Wilson climbed into the ‘Sorenson Special’ and bumped Agabashian from the starting field.  Fred completed a four-lap run into the Racing Associates “D-A Lubricants Special” Kuzma backup car but his four-lap average was not fast enough to bump back in and Agabashian’s string of consecutive Indianapolis ‘500’ starts ended at eleven.  

Agabashian and the "City of Memphis Special" wound up as the 34th fastest qualifier and won $500 from the Speedway as the first alternate. In the third turn of the first lap of the 1958 ‘500’ Ed Elisian and Jim Rathmann tangled as they foolishly fought to lead the first lap.

Bob Veith who had replaced Agabashian in the second Bowes KK 500G was run over by Pat O’Connor’s 'Sumar Special' which flipped and O’Connor was killed instantly. In reaction to this accident, for the 1959 season USAC required that all cars have roll bars behind the driver.  In an interview after the race, Freddie told news reporters that "he wasn't too upset to have been bumped" as he had had a premonition of disaster. 

Fred never officially announced his retirement as a race car driver, he simply moved on to the phase of his life for which he had preparing for years.  According to automobile racing historian Chris Economkai, “Agabashian was one of the first racers to realize the value of public relations” and Fred began making public speeches about racing around 1950.

Fred's image appeared in Champion Spark Plug ads like this one for years

 early in his racing career Fred worked in sales at Bob Phillipi’s Lincoln Mercury dealership in Oakland but at the time of his retirement from driving in 1958, Fred was the senior member of the Champion Spark Plug Highway Safety Team, a group of 100 MPH club members who toured the country to speak to high school students about driving safety.  Fred worked for the Champion Spark Plug Company until he retired 1978 and was succeeded by Jerry Grant.  

In 1959, Fred joined the Indianapolis Motor Speedway radio network as the driver expert on the annual 500-mile race broadcast hosted by Sid Collins, and Agabashian’s gravelly voice was heard nationwide providing expert insight on the Memorial Day broadcast through 1965, and again from 1973 to 1977.

Agabashian worked as an USAC observer and later the chief steward of the Mobilgas Economy Run in 1967 and 1968. In the final  Run held in 1968, Fred dropped the checkered flag on contestants as they crossed the finish line at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after the original finish in New York City was abandoned after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.  

Fred remained active and regularly visited local Bay Area tracks and was an annual visitor to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway until he passed away in October 1989 at his home in Alamo California.  His daughter reportedly still lives in the home and his office  remains just as it was when Fred was alive.  
 

For his career accomplishments Fred Agabashian is an inductee into the Bay Cities Racing  Association (BCRA) Hall of Fame, the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) Hall of Fame and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Auto Racing Hall of Fame. 

 

Fred Agabashian

from the Bay Area to Indianapolis glory

Part two from 1952 to 1957 

Fred with his wife Mabel daughter Joanne and son Fred Junior posed in front of the 1949 Indianapolis 500 pace car. Photo appears courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

In 1952, Fred Agabashian took on his ultimate “research and development” project as his drove the “Cummins Diesel Special.”  Rumors about the car began in November 1951 as news reports claimed that the Cummins Engine Company had invested over $150,000 (nearly $1-1/2 million today) on their entry which some reporters predicted “could revolutionize racing.” Don Cummins formally announced the entry in a press conference at company headquarters in Columbus Indiana on January 19. Later in the month, photographs emerged which showed Agabashian seated in the cockpit of the still-unpainted low-slung Kurtis chassis that was less than two feet high at the cowl.

Cummins press photo from the authors' collection

The Cummins entry powered by an Elliott turbocharged fuel-injected 6-cylinder 400-cubic inch ‘JBS’ diesel engine that was laid on its right side 5 degrees off horizontal in the chassis made its first practice laps at the Speedway on April 19 1952. While the ground-breaking engine configuration lowered the car’s center of gravity and provided less drag through the air, even with extensive use of aluminum and magnesium the car was heavy at over 2100 pounds, but with a factory claimed 380 horsepower on tap it proved fast. The Cummins machine featured dual shock absorbers and two brakes per wheel.

Agabashian admitted later that he “sandbagged” during practice runs early in the month of May, and on Pole Day, May 17, Fred shocked the crowd with a one–lap track record of 139.104 MPH and a four-lap average speed of 138.01 MPH.  Agabashian and the Cummins Diesel grabbed the pole position and the track record away from Andy Linden who had set a new four-lap record of 137.002 MPH earlier in the day.

By the end of the time trial run the Cummins’ overheated Firestone tires were beginning to shred their tread, which raised concerns about the race, but Fred’s startling record run and pole starting position made him and the Cummins Diesel nationally recognized names overnight. The following weekend, first Bill Vukovich in Howard Keck’s new Kurtis 500A roadster and then veteran Chet Miller in the front-wheel drive Novi supercharged V-8 eclipsed the Cummins’ record speed, as Miller finally set the new one-lap standard of 139.6 MPH.

The mighty Cummins Diesel on display inside the company museum

Author's photo

On race day, the slow pace of the start allowed the field to get away from Agabashian before the diesel’s turbocharger built up boost pressure to allow maximum power. While running in fifth place the car began to trail black smoke, and a couple of long pit stops, the Cummins was retired with 71 laps completed without explanation, but company officials later claimed the car suffered a clogged turbocharger inlet which caused the engine to overheat. The following day Cummins officials announced that the car would not return for the 1953 ‘500’ but the attendant publicity paid dividends, as Cummins introduced the diesel fuel injection system tested on the race car in production models on July 1, 1954.  

Although the Cummins Diesel Special only held the Speedway track record for a week, and had a less-than stellar race performance in its only race, the unlikely story of a diesel engine car that won the pole at Indianapolis made the car (and its driver) an iconic part of Speedway history.   In January 1953, Fred Agabashian now nearly 40 years old was named by Chicago speed shop owner Anthony “Andy” Granatelli as the drive of a “special new” $25,000 Kurtis-Kraft 500B chassis.

Granatelli, one of Fred’s 1951 AAA season car owners, went the conventional route, as  the car sponsored by Martin Skok’s Elgin Piston Pin Company of Elgin Illinois was powered by a 270-cubic inch Offenhauser engine. The blue and red-trimmed #59 roadster was one of the fastest cars on track during practice early in the month, and Fred posted the second fastest average speed in qualifying, 137.546 MPH, and earned his third straight front row start in the Memorial Day Classic.   

The 1953 Indianapolis 500-mile race is frequently remembered for its intense heat, with the air temperature that reached 91 degrees Fahrenheit (at the time it tied with 1919 as the second hottest race on record) and the track temperature which reportedly topped 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The intense heat and humidity caused many drivers to request a relief driver. Six drivers required medical treatment but driver Carl Scarborough waited too long, collapsed after he climbed out of the ‘McNamara Special’ on lap 70 and later died in the infield hospital.

Fred Agabashian led his first lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when leader Bill Vukovich pitted on lap 49, but Vukovich retook the lead when Fred pitted the next lap. Agabashian requested relief during his pit stop on lap 105 and veteran midget driver Paul Russo whose own entry fell out earlier drove the #59 entry the rest of the way to the finish.  

At the drop of the checkered flag, the Elgin/Grancor Special was initially reported to have finished in second place behind winner Vukovich one of only two drivers who finished the race without relief. Reporter Harold McClelland wrote that late in the race the Granatelli crew believed their car was a lap ahead of Art Cross and ordered Russo to slow. The team later realized that Cross’ “Springfield Welding Special” was on the same lap as Russo apparently finished just a car length ahead of Cross.

Initial news reports stated that the Agabashian/Russo combination completed the 500-mile distance in 3:56:32.25 at an average speed of 126.830 MPH while Art Cross finished with an elapsed time of 3:56:32.56 to average 126.827 MPH. When the official results were posted by AAA officials the next day, after a “electric time recheck” by Clifford Rigsbee the director of timing and scoring the Elgin/Grancor Special dropped to fourth behind Cross and Sam Hanks.  Granatelli immediately protested the finish and this initial protest was denied.

The two-position change cost car owner Granatelli $14,350 who continued to contend that his car finished second, and he was granted an appeal hearing by “500-mile motor speedway officials” on June 11 with “a decision to announced later” according to a United Press (UP) wire report.   There was “no indication when a final decision would be reached” according to a report from the Associated Press (AP) which noted that “the mix-up resulted from the complicated system used in checking the number of laps made by each car.  During the 200 turns of the 2-1/2 mile track, a lap is sometimes missed by the checkers.” The author did not find any follow-up stories on the Granatelli protest, and the AAA historical records list Agabashian and Russo as the fourth place finishers.   

In the meantime Agabashian took part in a ten-week tour with the “Irish Horan Hell Drivers” automobile thrill show which began June 2. Fred performed primarily public relations work, although he also reportedly put on several “precision driving exhibitions.” 

For the 1954 Indianapolis ‘500’ Agabashian was nominated to drive the ‘Merz Engineering Special’ a brand new Kurtis Kraft 500C roadster with 270-cubic inches of Offenhauser power that was “tilted 36 degrees.” The car was owned by Indianapolis businessman and Democratic Party political boss Miklos Sperling. Several years earlier, Sperling purchased Merz Engineering from founder Fred Merz who drove at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the earliest day including four of the first six International 500-mile sweepstakes races.  The new maroon and white car arrived at Indianapolis late, only a few days before the first weekend of time trials, but while he waited Fred test-drove the Chinetti Ferrari V-12 assigned to Danny Oakes.

The Kurtis cars assigned to Fred and defending ‘500’ champion Bill Vukovich were not ready to qualify the first weekend, and after it arrived Agabashian called and asked his friend and former car owner George Bignotti to come to Indianapolis and help out the short-handed Sperling crew. This marked the beginning of Bignotti’s magical 29-year career at the Speedway that earned him seven ‘500’ wins.

Fred qualified the “Merz Engineering Special” on Sunday May 23rd with the fourth slowest average speed of 137.746 MPH and started from the 24th positon. Fred drove a smart race on Memorial Day and finished in sixth position, completing the 500 miles distance three and half minutes behind repeat winner Bill Vukovich. As he completed the entire 500-mile distance without relief with an average speed of 128.771 MPH, Fred Agabashian earned his membership in the exclusive Champion Spark Plug Company 100-MPH hour club and its treasured leather jacket.   After the race, mechanic Frankie DelRoy found the Kurtis chassis cracked in two places.

Once again the Indianapolis Motor Speedway suffered timing and scoring problems during the 500-mile race.  At the Victory banquet the night following the race Tony Hulman was unable to present the check for $500 to the driver with the fastest lap during the race because the “timing crew had not figured that one out in time.”

A Champion Spark Plug matchbook from the author's collection

shows Agabashian's 1955 entry

Agabashian drove in the 1955 and 1956 Indianapolis 500-mile races for car owner Dan Levine of Detroit in the ‘Federal Engineering Special’ named after the Levine family’s Detroit-based fixture and die-making company. The team was managed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway legend Russell Snowberger who been at the Speedway since 1927 as a driver, car builder, and mechanic, assisted by veteran mechanic and car builder Francis “Frank” Bardazon.

In 1955 Agabashian was the replacement for Larry “Crash” Crockett was killed in an AAA Eastern Division ‘big car’ crash in March 1955 at Langhorne Pennsylvania.  Agabashian was assigned to drive the team’s new Kurtis 500D chassis while rookie Chuck Weyant drew the Kurtis 3000 upright chassis which had been driven to Stark-Wetzel Rookie-of-the-Year honors the previous year by former track roadster racer Crockett. At Snowberger’s direction, Kurtis-Kraft Inc. had built the 500D with a wheelbase four inches longer in the cockpit area to accommodate Crockett’s height.

On the second day of the 1955 time trials, Agabashian put the #14 yellow with blue trim Kurtis into the starting field on the inside of the second row. 1955 was the year that “Pole Day” was windy and the drivers allegedly agreed that no one would make a qualifying run, until Jerry Hoyt went out near closing time in the “Jim Robbins Special.” Tony Bettenhausen was the only other driver to complete his timed run on the first day.

With his own car in the field Fred turned to help his teammate. Fred was helpful to rookie drivers, as remembered by Rodger Ward in 1989. "He wouldn't force things on you, but if you asked him, he would always help you. His philosophy was: If you make a mistake on the race track, I might be behind you. He recognized it was a dangerous sport, and there was quite a transition in those days between what we normally raced and going to Indianapolis."

Rookie Weyant made his first qualifying attempt in the yellow and blue #41 on the third day of time trials and the second-year 32-year old rookie spun in the fourth turn on his fourth and final lap. The car spun several times but did not hit anything and came to a stop pointed the right direction, so Weyant drove into the pits, the crew changed the tires and he want back out and qualified 25th.  On Race Day 1955, Freddie spun two full revolutions and into the infield off the two turn in the oil dropped by the surprise pole siting car, the “Jim Robbins Special.” 

Fred's 1956 '500 qualifying photo  appears courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

In 1956, the environment was different at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the AAA Contest Board announced it would quit sanctioning races in August 1955 and had been replaced by a new organization, the United States Auto Club (USAC). Agabashian was joined on the 1956 Federal Engineering team by a driver he knew well; Speedway rookie and future BCRA champion Bob Veith, who had committed to drive the entire season for Federal Engineering and thus was assigned Levine’s newest car, a Kurtis 500E, the only one ever built by Kurtis-Kraft.

Fred easily qualified for the 1956 ‘500’ and started from the seventh position. Qualifying the first day freed Agabashian’s time so he could help Snowberger and Veith sort out the handling problems with the new car and Veith eventually qualified 23rd.  Freddie was in eighth place when he had to pit for the first time on lap 15, and he continued to make a number of pit stops for various mechanical problems and Agabashian lost four laps and he finished the 1956 ‘500 in twelfth place.     

For the 1957 Indianapolis 500-mile race Agabashian was reunited with his old midget car owner and friend George Bignotti with fellow Californian Johnny Boyd in a pair of new Kurtis-Kraft 500G models powered by 270-cubic inch Offenhauser engines sponsored by the Bowes Seal Fast Company of Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway facility much changed from the 1956 running of the ‘500,’ with a new concrete pit lane separated from the racing surface by a concrete wall, a new eight-story control tower that replaced the ancient Pagoda, and new grandstands. The track was completed paved with asphalt except for 650 yards of the main straightaway. With this new configuration the cars could be lighter as they did not have to be built as ruggedly as years past to withstand the pounding of the uneven track surfaces.

There was a new car at the Speedway in 1957 the Belond Exhaust Special built and owned by long-time crew chiefs George Salih and Howard Gilbert, who gambled everything they had on their new car, as they mortgaged their homes to get the money to complete the car and pay Quinn Epperly to build the aluminum body. Their new car used a design concept with which Agabashian was intimately familiar - its four-cylinder Offenhauser engine was laid nearly on its side only 18 degrees from horizontal.

Salih and Gilbert had closely studied the 1952 Cummins Diesel Special and together they worked out a way to get the oil to properly circulate in the Offenhauser engine in the nearly flat positon. Like the Cummins Diesel, the “laydown” engine lowered the car’s center of gravity and allowed a smaller profile to face the wind, but unlike the diesel, the “Belond sidewinder” was lightweight. 

After practically ruling the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the middle of the decade of the nineteen fifties, by 1957 Frank Kurtis’ latest designs faced competition from new lighter cars built by AJ Watson. The 500G was designed by Frank Kurtis as a “dual purpose” roadster that could be raced on the 2-1/2-mile oval in Indianapolis as well as the shorter one-mile paved and dirt ovals. As with most compromise designs the Kurtis 500G fell short of expectations. With the opening of practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the design proved to be handful to drive and worse yet, not immediately fast. 

The Bowes Seal Fast team worked together and solved the Kurtis 500G’s handling quirks in time to qualify well on the first day of time trials   Freddie qualified fourth with a four-lap average of 142.557 MPH, while Johnny Boyd was just a tick slower at 142.102 MPH to start alongside Agabashian in the second row of the eleven rows of three.

On race day, apparently in an effort to focus attention on the new pit lane, the field started single file from pit lane, which created chaos. In the confusion, as Elmer George, the track owner’s son-in-law maneuvered through the field to reach his ninth starting sport, he rear-ended Eddie Russo’s car and knocked both cars from the race before the green flag flew. Once the race started, both the “Bowes Seal Fast Specials” ran near the front of the field until they both suffered problems in the pit area. 

Johnny Boyd ran in third place as he made his first pit stop, but the stop took over two minutes, which dropped him far back in the running order, although he was able to recover to sixth place by the time the checkered flag fell.  Freddie Agabashian likewise was scored in third place when he made a pit stop on lap 100 and a fire erupted.

The fire was extinguished, but the fuel tank had split from the sudden internal pressure and Fred’s car was eventually retired on lap 107. Veteran Sam Hanks in the radical “Belond Exhaust Special” took the race lead the first time on lap 36 and led a total of 136 laps including the last 65 to win the 1957 ‘500’ in dominant fashion.

Coming up in the final installment we will take a look at the last year of Fred Agabashian’s Indianapolis career and his busy retirement.

The forgotten ‘500’ champion- L.L. Corum

Part three

1924 Indianapolis ‘500’ race co-winner LL “Slim” Corum qualified the #17 supercharged Duesenberg straight-eight  for the 1928 ‘500’ on Monday May 28 at 86.172 miles per hour (MPH). Scheduled to start near the rear of the field, Corum crashed the car in practice on Memorial Day morning and was forced to withdraw from the race.

In 1929 Corum was not entered for the 17th annual International 500-miles Sweepstakes but served as a relief driver for the Duesenberg team and drove just four laps in place of fifth-place finisher Freddy Winnai during the middle of the race.      

The 1930 Indianapolis 500-mile race ushered in the era of the so-called “Junk Formula” rules package pushed through the AAA Contest Board by Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Eddie Rickenbacker in 1928. 

Backed by a group of Detroit investors, Rickenbacker bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in November 1927, but the lack of entries and poor attendance at the 1928 International 500-mile Sweepstakes led to Rickenbacker’s demand for rule changes. 

Based on the success of the 1927 AAA stock car races, Rickenbacker believed the semi-stock formula would lead to larger ‘500’ starting fields and more paying spectators at the Speedway.

The new AAA rules package published in January 1929 allowed competitors to race with stripped down “semi-stock” passenger cars was designed to encourage more participation by automobile manufacturers but effectively killed  the nascent rebirth of stock car racing.  There were an increased number of entries received for the 1930 ‘500’ and all 38 entries made the starting field.  

LL “Slim” Corum was entered as the driver of a “semi-stock” Stutz owned by Milton Jones of Cleveland Ohio. Jones purchased the Stutz Vertical Eight Torpedo Speedster from Cleveland dealer Walter Weidley on March 15 1930 and it was prepared at the Stutz factory by vice-president of production and former racer Bert Dingley. 

The car powered by a 322-cubic inch straight eight engine was fitted with Firestone balloon racing tires, stiffer springs and a 42-gallon fuel tank with its windshield, top, fenders, and headlights removed for the race.

Corum and the riding mechanic, his car owner Milton Jones, qualified 27th for the 38-car starting field and finished the 500-mile grind in tenth place and made just one pit stop at the 250-mile point to add 30 gallons of gasoline. The “Jones Stutz Special” averaged 85.34 miles per hour (MPH) over the race distance with a reported average fuel consumption of 8.8 miles per gallon and won $1,400. 

On April 23 1931 Corum was named the driver of the Stutz Bearcat roadster entered for the ‘500’ by the Stutz Motor Car Company of America. Stutz President Edgar S. Gorrell stated in an interview published in the Circleville Herald newspaper that “we don’t expect to win the race, it is not reasonable with a stock car. We believe the public will appreciate the fact that if Stutz makes a good appearance in the race it can be attributed to the soundness of our engineering and construction principles.”

The car was powered by the new eight-cylinder 322 cubic inch Stutz DV-32 with four valves per hemispherical cylinder and double overhead camshafts. Gorrell added that the new engine construction “has resulted in increased horsepower which is reflected in higher speed with consequent acceleration in the touring ranges.”        

Despite the build-up, the semi-stock Stutz Bearcat while fast in a straight line, handled poorly and failed to make the 40-car starting field as Corum could only average 98.38 MPH for the ten-mile time trial run. Although his average was faster than the slowest car in the field, the Cummins Diesel Special driven by Dave Evans, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had issued a special exemption that guaranteed that a diesel-powered car would start the race provided it averaged over 80 MPH.

The Cummins entry, the first car to post a qualifying time posted an average of 96.871 MPH, fast enough to “lock” it into the field. Corum’s qualifying speed was insufficient to “crowd out” the second-slowest qualifier Harry Butcher, whose Butcher Brothers Buick semi-stock entry qualified at 99.343 MPH.  Stung by the failure, 1931 marked the final entry of a factory Stutz race car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

L.L “Slim” Corum was entered for the 1932 Indianapolis 500-mile race as the driver of a car powered by a Duesenberg Model ‘A’ engine fitted in a chassis and body built by Herman Ringling but failed to qualify for the 40-car starting field. With over 70 entries received for the race, three years into the “Junk Formula” and Eddie Rickenbacker was beginning to see the results of his rule change.

In 1933 Corum was a member of the five-car Studebaker racing team, along with Tony Gulotta, Zeke Meyer, Luther Johnson and Cliff Bergere. All his teammates returned from the 1932 Studebaker effort, and Corum replaced Peter Kreis, who left the team to drive Fred Frame’s Miller marine-powered entry in the 1933 ‘500.’

One of the 1933 streamlined Studebakers

Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

Mechanically the Studebakers were the same as the year before, but Studebaker hired Herman Ringling to build new streamlined bodies with higher cowls and enclosed cockpits for four of the five machines. 

In general the streamlining increased the Studebaker’s lap speeds during qualifying by two miles per hour, but turned the cockpits into ovens during the race. The Studebaker crews doused driver and mechanic with water on pit stops and eventually used a borrowed hatchet to chop holes in the aluminum bodies to allow the entry of cooling air.

 Tony Gulotta’s car which was unmodified from 1932 finished the 500-mile grind in seventh, 15 minutes behind winner Louis Meyer while the other four factory Studebaker entries finished in order from ninth through twelfth positions. 

Corum and his riding mechanic, hometown boy James “Jimmy” Lowden, soldiered on through the race and brought the #47 Studebaker home in 12th, just seven seconds behind teammate Cliff Bergere, who had received relief mid-race. Based on his 1924 experience, one can believe that it would have taken a tire iron to persuade Corum to allow a relief driver in his car.

In 1937 the final year that riding mechanics were required at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jimmy Lowden had a close brush with death in a practice crash on Friday May 28. Driver Overton “Bunny” Phillips with Lowden alongside piloted the “Mannix Special” entered by James Kemp and James L Mannix at full speed down the front straightaway when the crankshaft broke in catastrophic fashion and punctured the car’s gasoline tank. Fully engulfed in flames, the Mannix Duesenberg careened out of control and crashed into the ‘Ray 8” Studebaker parked in the pit area and receiving service. Both cars burned and were destroyed.

The horrific aftermath of the Phillips 1937 crash

Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

The crash fatally injured one man, George Warford, who was pinned against the pit wall and severely burned, and Phillips, Lowden and three others - Otto C. Rohde, Anthony Caccia, and Walter King were seriously injured.  Rohde a vice-president and the chief engineer for the Champion Spark Plug Company, who was changing the spark plugs in the engine of the “Ray 8” received critical injuries when he was thrown over the pit wall.  

Warford, 42, was pronounced dead upon arrival at City Hospital, and Rohde, 60,  one of the originators of the Champion 100 MPH Club, died of his injuries at City Hospital six days later on June 2

King, a Cornell University medical student initially erroneously identified as Phillips’ riding mechanic, and Caccia, the brother of the late driver Joe Caccia were spectators seated on the pit wall next to Warford a former Indianapolis fireman who reportedly sought a mechanic’s job with the Ray Brady team when the accident unfolded.  

Practice was suspended for four hours while the injured men and the wreckage of the two destroyed cars were removed. When the track reopened for time trials Frank McGurk in Murrel Belanger’s straight eight Miller powered machine crashed and rolled over. McGurk was injured but his his experienced riding mechanic Albert Opalko died of his injuries.

On June 4 Caccia filed a a personal injury lawsuit against the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation in Marion County Superior Court #2 which asked for $100,000 ($1.7 million today) in damages. On June 8 Warford’s widow Adeline filed a $10,000 suit in the same court, which was withdrawn after she settled for an undisclosed amount on June 24 1937.  In November 1938, Caccia who suffered a broken pelvis and left leg accepted a $3,000 pre-trial settlement from the Speedway after a jury was seated.

The others injured apparently recovered from their injuries, though Jimmy Lowden never appeared at the Speedway again. Phillips entered a Bugatti chassis powered by a Miller engine which failed to qualify for the 1940 ‘500’ but was successful in 1941 and finished thirteenth. Phillips later became an expert restorer and acknowledged expert on Bugatti cars before he passed away in Southern California in 1999.  

 LL "Slim" Corum made a final appearance at the Speedway as a late addition to the hastily-assembled 10-car Miller-Ford team in 1935 which used Harry Miller-built front drive chassis powered by a reversed 220-cubic-inch Flathead Ford V-8 engine. The lack of preparation or testing severely hampered the Ford factory effort, the cars arrived late and only nine of the Miller-Fords were actually ready to run during the month of May 1935.

By the time Corum took his first laps behind the wheel of a Miller-Ford on May 24, two of the team’s original “big name” drivers, Peter DePaolo and Cliff Bergere had already quit the team due to the myriad of problems.  With the struggles with sorting out the handling of the 4-wheel independent suspension and a lack of horsepower, only four Miller-Fords made the 33-car starting field, while the qualifying runs of two cars – those of Billy Winn and Dave Evans were too slow. Three cars - rookie Johnny Rae in #47, Wesley Crawford in the cream-colored #48 and Corum in the blue-and-white #49 never attempted to qualify before the track closed for time trials.  

As bad as qualifying had been, Memorial Day turned into a public relations disaster for the Ford Motor Company.  As the red 1935 Ford V-8 Convertible Sedan led the field to the green flag, one of the Miller-Fords driven by George Bailey still sat in the pit area, though Bailey joined the race after the first lap was completed.  On the 47th lap Bob Sall retired his gold-colored #46 car followed on lap 65 by George Bailey. 

Seymour’s blue and silver #42 entry with relief driver George Barringer behind the wheel was out on lap 71 then finally Ted Horn’s black and white #43 dropped out on lap 123 after several long pit stops. All the Miller-Fords were eliminated in 1935 by frozen steering gears, because of a design flaw which placed the aluminum steering box too close to the flathead Ford engine exhaust manifold. 

L.L. Corum disappeared from the public eye for three years but resurfaced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in April 1938 “on the comeback” working for Harry A. Miller as a mechanic on Miller’s entry for Billy Winn. The construction of the pair of radical machines originally started by Miller for former driver Ira Vail was taken over by the Gulf Research Development Company in Harmarville Pennsylvania when Miller went to work for Gulf a longtime supplier of 80-octane No-Nox fuel and Gulfpride lubricants for race cars in February 1937.

These two radical front engine-rear wheel drive cars featured new “aviation style” Miller 255-cubic inch double overhead camshaft 4-cylinder engines designed to produce 235 horsepower connected to a four-speed transaxles that used Cord 810 gear sets.  The engines used Coffman cartridge style starters typical on aircraft with an exploding blank shell which drove a piston that engaged a screw thread to turn over the engine   

The 95-inch wheelbase chassis was a wonder of engineering with features that included streamlined four-wheel independent suspension, driver-adjustable hydraulic shock absorbers, and 360-degree (not spot) hydraulic disc brakes. When shown to the press in April 1937, Miller predicted lap speeds of 126 MPH more than two miles per hour faster than the standing Speedway one-lap track record.

The most striking features of the cars drafted by Everett Stevenson were visible at a glance; instead of a radiator, the cars featured a series of externally mounted chrome plated copper tubes wrapped around the nose and the car carried mid-mounted shaped “pontoon” fuel tanks shaped like inverted wings. 

In early tests conducted at Langhorne Speedway the engines overheated then the brittle tubing broke, so when the cars arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the tubing had been replaced by small square conventional radiators mounted on either side of the car mounted parallel to the wind stream.    

The Associated Press’ Harold Harrison in an article written during mid-April testing wrote that “Slim doesn’t look much a race driver anymore,” as his brown hair had “thinned considerably” and he wore horn-rimmed glasses.  Described as the “forgotten race winner,” Corum told Harrison “maybe I’ll drive again. I’m not so old, only 39, and it’s possible I can pick up where I left off. Racing has changed a lot since my best days but I’d like to drive the 500 miles again –just once.”

Corum recounted his version of his career after the 1924 ‘500’ win to sportswriter Bill Braucher of the Central Press Association wire service “I cracked up at Indianapolis in 1925 and never could do much after that. I joined up with the engineering department of an automotive firm (Stutz) and tried a comeback in 1933 but got no better than twelfth place.”  Stutz Motor Car Company was declared insolvent on April 3 1937, but as Corum described it “last November, the slump hit the mechanical end of the automotive business and I hooked up with Harry Miller to speed up the new cars he’s building.” 

During early Speedway tests, Billy Winn barely escaped injury on April 21 when he stopped the car in the pit area after the engine caught fire. Winn leaped out and mechanics put out the fire with extinguishers. Early in May, Winn, described as a “dirt track demon,” was listed as an early favorite to win the Indianapolis ‘500’ along with Wilbur Shaw, Louis Meyer and Bill Cummings.

Winn tried both of the Miller entries and made two qualifying attempts on the last day of time trials in the #24 Miller, but abandoned both of the ten-lap runs due to the lack of speed. Tragically, Winn who always raced in red shirt lost his life three months later in a crash during the “Governor’s Sweepstakes” at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

While the Vail cars were indeed radical Gulf and Miller launched another program in early 1938 to design and construct cars which would be suitable for both Grand Prix and Indianapolis competition. This car, with design features years ahead of its time, was powered by a 180-cubic inch six-cylinder, supercharged engine mounted in the middle of the car behind the driver in a chassis that used both four-wheel-drive and four-wheel independent suspension. The extremely complex car was rushed to completion arrived late at Indianapolis, and Ralph Hepburn was on track warming up the rear-engine Miller when the 4 PM deadline came on May 28 1938.

Gulf press photo of the re-worked 1939 Gulf/Vail cars

The Gulf/Vail Miller cars remain among the least documented of all the Millers built perhaps since they were overshadowed by the mid-engine Miller creations. After failing to qualify for the 1938 ‘500’ both cars were extensively reworked. The pontoon-style gasoline tanks were removed and replaced with a single spherical gas tank mounted high in the tail of the car. The noses of the cars were rebuilt with conventional radiators but after testing at the Altoona Pennsylvania dirt track the cars did not appear for the 1939 Indianapolis 500.

Later Gulf sold the “Vail” cars, which never raced, to Preston Tucker who removed the engines for their use in a failed high-speed landing craft project. Years later the rolling chassis were reportedly found in a Chicago basement and after multiple sales and trades, one of the cars was rebuilt with a Miller ML-510 engine a development of the original 255 cubic inch engine.

The Miller mid-engine four-wheel drive cars although ground-breaking technologically, were also failures. Three Gulf-Miller cars appeared at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1939 but only one, driven by George Bailey, made the race and retired after just 47 laps. Bailey died in a fiery practice crash at the Speedway in May 1939 and the other two Gulf entries were withdrawn.

The two much-revised mid-engine cars returned for the 1941 Indianapolis ‘500’ and both qualified, but the car qualified by George Barringer was destroyed in the Race Day morning garage fire, and the remaining car, driven by Al Miller, was out after 22 laps. In 1946 and 1947 the remaining car now known as the “Tucker Torpedo Special” dropped out early each year and failed to qualify in 1948.

LL Corum worked for the Studebaker Corporation during 1939, but his later history remains unknown. Lora of course was too old for service in World War Two, but his son Robert enlisted in the US Army and rose to become a Sargent in the 147^th Combat Engineers Brigade. Unfortunately, while stationed in England he contracted rheumatic fever and was hospitalized in February 1944.

Robert returned stateside in May 1944 and remained hospitalized at Billings General Hospital on the grounds of Fort Benjamin Harrison northeast of Indianapolis. It was there that Robert passed away on March 23 1945 at age 21, and he was interred at Memorial Park Cemetery on Indianapolis’ east side. 

Lora was despondent over the death of his son, and frequently left home for days at a time. On Monday March 7, 1949 his mother Margaret found Lora hanging in the garage behind the family home at 33 North Keeling Avenue. Marion County Deputy Coroner Joseph Hewett determined that Lora had likely hung himself on Friday night while his parents and wife were away. Lora was buried in the family plot near his son and was later joined there by his father who passed away in 1950 and his wife and mother, who both died in 1973.     

LL “Slim” Corum never received the credit he was properly due for his accomplishments at the Indianapolis Speedway; he qualified for nine starting fields but he only started six, and in those six races Corum has an enviable record as he went the full distance three times unassisted. 

Corum drove the first 111 laps of the 1925 ‘500’ and was running in third place when he was relieved. In the history of auto racing at Indianapolis there is only one other driver who accomplishments sadly remain as overlooked as those of LL Corum- the 1941 ‘500’ co-winner Floyd Davis.

‘Doc’ Williams at the Indianapolis ‘500’

Part four- from 1941 to 1949

Doc's 1941 qualifying photo

In early 1941, Merrill ‘Doc’ Williams was nominated as the driver of the Race Car Corporation of Indianapolis’  Offenhauser-powered Cooper front-wheel drive machine entry for the 29th edition of the International 500-mile Sweepstakes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the ‘Indiana Fur Special.’

Joseph Davidson founded the Indiana Fur Company in downtown Indianapolis during the eighteen nineties and after his death the company was operated by his widow before she turned over the operation of the business to her two surviving sons Herbert and Fred. The Indiana Fur Company first sponsored a car at the Indianapolis in 1938 with car owner Paul Weirick and driver Frank Wearne. In 1939, Indiana Fur sponsored a car scheduled for Louis Tomei which never arrived, and in 1940, sponsored the car owned and driven by 1935 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Cavino “Kelly” Petillo.

On the windy first day of time trials May 17 1941, “Doc’s” red #36 was the first car to make a qualifying attempt and he shocked the railbirds by posting an average qualifying speed of 124.014 miles per hour (MPH) in a car that debuted at the Speedway thirteen years earlier. With a strong wind blowing north to south, many veterans elected to wait to make their timed run, and only twelve cars qualified the first day.  Williams’ time held up as the day’s fifth fastest, and ninth overall, so on Decoration Day 1941, the ‘Indiana Fur Special’ started the ‘500’ from the middle of the second row.    

In an informal poll conducted during the annual Champion Spark Plugs 100 MPH Club banquet, attended by 16 of the 21 surviving members,  ‘Doc’ was not mentioned as potential ‘500’ winner, as six members selected Mauri Rose, while two each selected Rex Mays and Wilbur Shaw to win the 1941 500-mile race. In a nationwide newspaper article published on the eve of the ‘500,’ famed United Press International sports editor Harry Ferguson picked Shaw as the 5-to-1 favorite, Mays 6-to-1, Rose 10-to-1, while Ferguson gave ‘Doc’ 15-to-1 odds of winning.

Williams’ 1941 500-mile race was disappointing as the crew fought to fix a leaking radiator before the car was retired with just 68 laps completed. The 100 MPH club odds makers were partially correct as Rose won the 1941 ‘500,’ but not in the car he started, as he had replaced Floyd Davis in the “Noc-Out Hose Clamp Special” on lap 72 after his original entry retired.  At the driver’s party held the next night after the race, “Doc” who had won $620, requested Speedway management increase the minimum award for race starters from $500 to $1000. “Doc’s” demand was supported by race co-winner Floyd Davis and Frank Wearne, but the Speedway paid no additional money.  

On December 7 1941, the Japanese military attacked United States forces on Pearl Harbor, and 22 days later, under pressure from local labor unions due to sabotage concerns, Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner and President Eddie Rickenbacker canceled the 1942 running of the ‘500.’ Racing at the big oval would remain suspended for the duration due to the consumption of rubber and gasoline.    

On January 6 1942, Speedway vice president and general manager Theodore E. “Pop” Myers resigned his position as he told the Associated Press that he “had no more active duties with the Speedway.” Eddies’ brother, Al, took over Myer’s management duties. Eddie Rickenbacker, a former fighter pilot reportedly offered the 1,025 acre Speedway grounds to the government for use as an aircraft testing grounds as it had been used in the First World War. The offer was not accepted, likely because the Speedway’s infield was not large enough to accommodate a runway longer enough for the larger and faster aircraft then being used.  

The Speedway remained padlocked and an Associated Press article published over Memorial Day weekend in 1943 described the Speedway as “a ghost area,” as “grass grows in the track and the grandstands show the effects of two years of disuse.” On August 29 1943 Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company used the Speedway to conduct a 500-mile test at a maximum speed of 35 MPH of experimental Celanese passenger car tires.

In February 1944 the Speedway was used to record the first 5000 miles of a test of tires recapped with synthetic rubber as part of an overall 25,000 mile test that was mostly conducted on public roads in a fleet of three well-marked passenger cars. In August 1944 Howard Chown, chief of the Indianapolis American Legion voiture #145 announced that his group had an obtained an option to buy the Speedway and its assets, and that a post-war committee would be formed to discuss financing, but nothing ever came of this proposal.

On November 29 1944 Wilbur Shaw ran a 500-mile test in the former Boyle Valve Miller front-drive two-man car in order to test new synthetic rubber Firestone tires. During the test, Shaw noticed the alarmingly bad condition of the Speedway and grounds and after talking to Rickenbacker, Shaw began his search for buyers of the Speedway. 

Shaw realized his dream to save the Speedway when on Wednesday, November 14, 1945, in Parlor D at the Indianapolis Athletic Club, Terre Haute Indiana grocery executive Anton Hulman Junior signed papers which completed the purchase of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Rickenbacker.  “Pop” Myers, now over 70 years old, immediately rejoined the Speedway Corporation as vice-President and General Manager and in that role, reopened the Speedway’s office at 444 North Capitol Avenue on November 19 1945.

In the run-up to the first post-war Indianapolis 500-mile race, the April 1946 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine mentioned “Doc” Williams as the “tentative driver” of the supercharged 500 horsepower overhead valve V-8 race car that was being developed by W.C. “Bud” Winfield and Leo Goossen to be known as the “Novi Governor Special.”   Apparently based on this speculation, the Race Car Corporation of Indianapolis entrusted the Copper front-drive machine to Clarence “Chet” Miller for the 1946 ‘500,’ with Merrill Williams listed as the entrant.  

Chet Miller in the Cooper FD in 1946

However, at the May 1 filing deadline, “Bud” Winfield entered the “Novi Governor Special” with no driver listed, with “Doc” entered as the driver of a “four-cylinder Offenhauser” powered car owned by the Hughes brothers of Denver Colorado who had entered a Miller front drive for Louis Tomei in the  1941 ‘500’ as H-3 Racing.  “Doc” did not make the 1946 starting field, but Ralph Hepburn set new one and four-lap qualifying records in the “Novi Governor Special” and Chet Miler made the field in 17th position in the Offenhauser-powered Cooper front-drive. Neither car finished the race; Hepburn stalled in the pits on lap 121, while Chet retired with a broken oil line on lap 64.

For the 1947 ‘500,’ Merrill “Doc” Williams got the opportunity of a lifetime as result of the American Society of Professional Auto Racers (ASPAR) controversy. Before the May 1 deadline for ‘500’ entries was reached, a “drivers’ union” had been formed, led by car owner Joseph Lencki with veteran Ralph Hepburn as the group’s nominal president. ASPAR demanded that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway double the 500-mile race’s total purse to $150,000, a demand which Wilbur Shaw, as President of the Speedway Corporation flatly refused. The entry deadline passed with ASPAR claiming to hold 35 entries. When the Speedway opened for practice neither Lencki nor Shaw had changed their original positions. 

As the first weekend of qualifications approached “Novi” car owner Lew Welch, who had promised Tony Hulman that his popular pair of cars would appear, replaced his drivers. Ralph Hepburn and Sam Hanks were replaced by veteran Cliff Bergere and “Doc” Williams. 

This was an ironic turn of events, since “Doc” had voiced complaint about his share of the purse in 1941, and now he became the beneficiary of the ASPAR driver walkout over the low purse.  Welch probably would have preferred someone besides “Doc” but many veterans such as Chet Miller were ASPAR supporters, and “Doc” did have extensive experience at the Speedway with front wheel drive race cars.   

  

"Doc" in his trademark red helmet receives 

instructions form the Novi crew

The pair of ‘Novi Governor Mobil Specials’ were among the seven cars that qualified on May 17 the first day of time trials but not without some drama. Bergere spun in the morning practice session and wound up in the turn one creek, and then after repairs, qualified with an average speed for the ten mile run of 124.957 MPH. That speed was fast enough to start from the middle of the front row, but was 2 MPH off Ted Horn’s pole speed in the former Boyle Maserati.

Before he took the green flag to qualify, "Doc" spun into a drainage ditch 

“Doc” spun out during his warmup laps and the #54 ‘Novi Governor Mobil Special’ wound up with its nose partially into the drainage ditch at the north end of the track. The car was not damaged, and after a quick cleanup, “Doc” qualified for fourth starting position at 120.733 MPH. 

Car owner Welch was angry with both drivers, as he claimed the “Novi” was capable of laps that averaged 140 MPH, a speed which would not be recorded at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for seven years.  Welch tried to wave off “Doc” on the final 2 laps of his 4-lap qualifying run, but ‘Doc” claimed not to have seen Welch and completed his time trial.  Legend has it that Welch fired “Doc” on the spot after qualifying, but the legend is not true.

The May 20 1947 issue of the Rushville Republican newspaper reported that the day following his spin, “Doc” complained of severe pain in his side. On Monday May 19, “Doc” Williams gave the American Automobile Association (AAA) stewards a written statement that was he “convinced I am not in shape to drive such a fast car.” AAA officials accepted his resignation in “the interest of safety,” and authorized Welch to nominate a new driver. Unfortunately, many newspapers nationwide reported only that Williams said he was quitting the race because the car was "too fast." 69 years later, it remains open to speculation whether “Doc” made the decision to quit or was coerced by Welch.

After Marv Jenkins was considered and rejected as a replacement, Jimmy Jackson and Herb Ardinger each tested the ‘Novi Governor Mobil Special’ and Ardinger had a front tire come apart on the front stretch at speed. Welch selected Ardinger who had driven Welch’s supercharged Offenhauser powered ‘Chicago Rawhide Special’ in the 1937 and 1938  500-mile races   Ardinger with Chief Steward Jack Mehan's approval was allowed to keep the car’s original fourth place starting position (nowadays he would have to go to the back of the field). Meanwhile, on May 21 the ASPAR standoff ended, but because of the delay an additional qualifying period was held on May 29 which added two car and brought the starting field to thirty cars.

At the drop of the green flag on race day, Bergere shot in the lead with the new #18 Kurtis-chassis ‘Novi Governor Mobil Special’ and led the first 23 circuits until he had to pit for new front tires, but eventually retired on lap 63 with a burned piston. 

Ardinger in the meantime, was too conservative for Welch, who called him in on lap 69 with the #54 ‘Novi Governor Mobil Special’ nine laps behind the leaders and put Bergere in the car. Cliff drove the last 130 laps and finished in fourth place, seven minutes behind second-time winner Mauri Rose.

"Doc" poses with a monkey in the garage area

it was not reported whether the  monkey made any suggestions

For the 1948 Indianapolis ‘500,’ “Doc” Williams was back behind the wheel of the familiar Race Car Corporation of Indianapolis Cooper front-drive chassis that carried the #47 and was entered as the “Ford Moyer Special.” Car owner “Fritz” Holliday had apparently entered the car with Moyer’s name to honor a long-time Speedway personality who had been ill at home for over a year. 

Ford Moyer born in Findlay Ohio in 1897, started as a racer on the rough-and-tumble Hoosier dirt-track circuit in the nineteen twenties at tracks that included Hoosier Motor Speedway on what is now Pendleton Pike in Indianapolis and Funk’s Speedway near Winchester Indiana. In a 1950 interview with United Press International, Wilbur Shaw related that “when I broke in, my hero was a guy named Ford Moyer. He was a big handsome guy and it surprised me when later on he became my mechanic.”

In February 1931 Ford was one of three men along with Clessie Cummins and Indianapolis racer Dave Evans who drove the first diesel-powered transcontinental truck run.  The trio drove a Reo retrofitted with a Cummins diesel engine in shifts non-stop from Lansing Michigan to New York City a distance of 959 miles in the first diesel truck to make a long-distance service run.  

Working with Shaw, Moyer helped build the Shaw/Gilmore entry that won the 1937 Indianapolis ’500;’ Al Bloemker's 500 Miles to Go book related that “He (Wilbur) toiled side by side with Ford Moyer on body and chassis for many weeks.”  When Shaw joined the Boyle Racing Team, Moyer went along. In the 1950 UPI interview, Shaw related a timeless story "Moyer was my mechanic in 1940 when I went after my third Indianapolis victory. But a week before the race the old shoes of mine turned up missing. I'm not superstitious, but it jarred me. The day of the race, I went into the garage and there on a shelf was an exact duplicate of the pair of shoes that I had lost. Moyer had even rubbed grease and aluminum paint into that brand new pair of shoes to make them look like an exact replica of the shoes which had been stolen—or mislaid.”

In the victory lane “bull pen” in 1940 over the nationwide radio broadcast,  Shaw extended a "thanks-much" greeting to his crew: Cotton Henning, chief of the Boyle Valve racing team staff,  Bob Jackson,  Ross Hadley, “Pern” Cornelius and Ford Moyer, who did the behind-the-scene work in the pits. The Indianapolis Star said that his competitors described Ford Moyer as “a talented, skillful mechanic, an unsung hero behind the scenes in aiding many successful drivers always ready with sound mechanical advice,” and that “Moyer's practice was to wrap each disassembled engine part individually.”

During the period he worked with Shaw, he owned and ran the Ford Moyer Garage at 409 North Talbott Street in Indianapolis near the Indianapolis Star office at 307 North Pennsylvania Street. The Indianapolis Star article described Moyer’s shop as “a popular hang-out for big-time race drivers, and it was there that Moyer tinkered on Shaw's car for many long hours.” Before he became too ill to work, Moyer had last worked for the Century Tire Company on 933 North Capitol Avenue.

“Doc” Williams qualified the 21-year old ‘Ford Moyer Special’ for the 1948 ‘500’ on Saturday May 15 with a four-lap average of 124.151 MPH to start from the sixth position.  Sadly, four days later, Ford Moyer died in his home at 5995 East 30th Street never having a chance to see “his car” in the race.

In the Star's Moyer obituary article, Shaw, a close friend for many years, paid tribute to Moyer as "one of the grandest men I ever knew and among the finest mechanics in the racing business who was noted for the meticulous care with which he nursed racing cars.” Moyer was survived by his wife and was interred in Washington Park East Cemetery.

"Doc" poses with his sponsors from Clarke Auto Company 

Before the 1948 ‘500,’the Race Car Corporation of Indianapolis # 74 Cooper gained a sponsor and started the race as the ‘Clarke Auto Company Special,’ with sponsorship from the two-year old company owned by Ed Clarke with a sales lot at 921 East Washington Street in Indianapolis.  Unfortunately, the ‘Clarke Auto Company Special’s’ day ended early when either the clutch or the ignition (sources vary) on the car failed on lap 19. At the driver’s banquet, “Doc” Williams got a check for $1300 for his 29th place finish.  This marked the end of the Cooper front-drive chassis at the Indianapolis; after 21 years it was not entered again.

"Doc" with Tom Saraffof

For the 1949 ‘500’ Williams drove Tom Sarafoff’ s  255-cubic inch Offenhauser-powered Miller front-drive car originally built in 1928 for Cliff Woodbury.  With a history similar to the “Fritz” Holliday Cooper, the car had been widened in 1930 for the AAA “Junk Formula” rules by “Cotton” Henning to create the successful Boyle two-man car.

In 1938, Henning narrowed the chassis and enclosed it in new bodywork and it was raced by the Boyle team through the 1941 season.  During the war, Mike Boyle sold the car to Jimmy Jackson, who raced it in 1946 and 1947 before he sold the car to Sarafoff.  Unlike the Holliday Cooper, the car was quite successful in its later career following its conversion back to a single cockpit car - in five appearances in the ‘500’ from 1939 to 1947, it never finished out of the top six.

Sarafoff born in 1893, described as “of Middle Eastern descent” built a chain of “greasy spoon” diners near defense factories in the Terre Haute area during World War Two, but by 1948 there were just two “Tom’s Diners” located at  1900 Maple Avenue  and  638 Cherry Street in Terre Haute.  In 1948, Sarafoff entered the white #10 eponymous car for veteran Louis Tomei crewed by his friend Bill Watts and his brother-in-law Steve Nyers, but it failed to qualify.

In 1949, “Doc” Williams was one of 15 qualifiers on the first day of time trials, May 14, and posted a four-lap average speed of 125.161 MPH.  Everything seemed to be on track until practice on May 21st. Veteran Chet Miller had originally been named in March as one of three drivers along with Leland “Lee” Wallard and Harold “Hal” Robson to drive for the three-car Indianapolis Race Cars Incorporated (IRC) a partnership of local men formed to buy the assets of the Boyle Racing Team after the death of Harry C “Cotton” Henning in December 1948. 

Chet Miller was slated to drive the “biggest money-winning car ever at the speedway” the ex-Boyle Maserati that Shaw won with in 1939 and 40 then Ted Horn had compiled a post-war record of two third place finishes and  a fourth place in three races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. IRC named journeyman and former riding mechanic Ed Metzler as the chief mechanic but after numerous problems with all three cars, Metzler was fired and replaced by Peter DePaolo and Art Sparks after the first weekend of time trials in which none of the IRC entries participated.     

Chet Miller climbs out of the burnt Saraffof Special

On the 21st, Chet Miller took the already qualified #66 “Tom Sarafoff Special” out for a carburetor test, the engine caught fire and damaged the car, but the 46-year old Chet escaped unharmed.  Chet did not drive in the 1947 ‘500’ due to his ASPAR membership, then in 1948 had quit the Lew Welch  “Novi Grooved Piston Special” along with teammate Cliff Bergere over handling concerns created by the Novi’s new huge fuel tanks. 1949 was not shaping up so well for Chet either, and on May 25 he resigned the IRC Maserati ride and was replaced by California midget champion Fred Agabashian.

The volunteer crew worked long hours to repair the fire damage to the “Tom Sarafoff Special” but in the end it didn’t matter. On May 29 the last day of time trials for the 1949 ‘500,’ Emil Andres in the “Tuffy’s Offy” Kurtis 200 owned by Chicago crime figure George “Babe” Tuffanelli, was one of five drivers, along with Agabashian, to “bump” their way into the 33-car starting field.  Emil’s run of 126.042 MPH knocked “Doc” Williams from the ‘500’ field

Tom Sarafoff entered his ancient Miller front drive chassis twice more at the Speedway. In 1950 rookie Cliff Griffith passed his rookie test in the car but never attempted to qualify and then in 1951 Norm Houser son of Thane Houser 1926 ‘500’ competitor failed to qualify.   Sarafoff bought the Agajanian “featherweight” Kurtis 2000 chassis which had started from the pole position in 1950 and entered it in the 1952 ‘500’ with Cliff Griffith and finished  ninth.

In 1953, Sarafoff entered the Kurtis for Bob Sweikert, but Bob quit the team before the Speedway opened and drove for Al Dean during the 1953 AAA season.   Dayton Ohio’s J. Carlyle “Duke” Dinsmore then tried the car but was too slow to make the field. In 1954, Cliff Griffith one the comeback from serious burns suffered in a 1953 Indianapolis practice crash, tried but on quit on May 12 as he explained “one hand doesn’t fully work and there’s no use kidding myself I don’t feel comfortable above 124 MPH.” After George Tichneor failed to make the 33-car starting field, Sarafoff sold off all his racing cars and equipment.

"Doc" poses with his wife Esther and their daughter

1949 would prove to be “Doc” Williams’ final appearance at the Speedway as a driver. Williams’ son Johannes reported in a 1994 interview with the Franklin Daily Journal that “he moved his family to Michigan where he worked as a test track driver and later purchased a motel in the Detroit metropolitan area.” 

Historical research shows however, the “Doc” Williams had a number of legal scrapes after his racing career ended. The first came in January 1950, as Williams and two other men were arrested in Michigan and charged with breaking and entering, larceny, and possessing stolen property after the theft of $4000 from a suburban Detroit area drug store the day before.

The outcome of that 1950 burglary charge is unknown but in May 1955, “Doc” was in Federal Court in Detroit, this time charged with concealing over $23,000 in assets during bankruptcy proceedings.  Williams’ estranged from his wife Esther, filed for bankruptcy in January 1955 and claimed $18,000 in debts and no assets. After filing, Williams disappeared and later the bankruptcy referee learned that his wife had sold a motel they owned and that he received $23,453 as his part of the proceeds on January 27. 

“Doc” was then indicted in March on fraud charges but did not appear. During the May 11 hearing, “Doc” explained to Judge Ralph Freeman that he had gone to Germany for his health and was unaware of the charges against him. Williams again claimed he had no assets and related that he had lost $4000 in “one fling at the gaming tables in Reno Nevada.”

Again, we do not know how the fraud case turned out, but “Doc” was indicted again for perjury in Federal Court in Detroit a year later. This charge resulted after an inventory of a safe deposit box in his name in a bank in Marion Ohio which he testified under oath contained nothing of value was found to contain $2000 in $500 bills.  Williams pled guilty to the perjury charge on August 14 1956 in front of Judge Frank A. Picard. 

Williams faced five years in prison and a $50,000 fine but on October 16 Judge Picard sentenced “Doc” to two years in a federal penitentiary.  In 1970, Williams returned to his home state of Indiana and operated a motel near Centerville, Indiana his death in nearby Richmond on April 28, 1982 at the age of 69.

Merrill “Doc” Williams stands as a shining example of persistence as a driver at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Consider that he entered the race thirteen times, qualified for the ‘500’starting field five times but only started four races. In those four races, all behind the wheel of the same Cooper front-drive car, he only completed a total of 340 laps in his Speedway career with his highest finish coming in his first race appearance in 1936.

All the photos that accompanied this article appear courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies.