The Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part six – another fatality and midget racing is suspended

 

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part six – another fatality    

Author’s note – This 12-part article highlights the brief 12-year history of one of Southern California’s least-documented auto racing venues – the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

On July 21, 1949 promoter Charlie Cake presented motorcycle racing for third time at the Thunderbowl. The program featured both ‘flat track’ racing on the 1/5-mile oval and ‘tourist trophy’ (TT) racing with both right- and left-hand turns as well as steeplechase-style jumps. Oscar Sherman won the flat track feature and ‘H Kimbel’ won the TT feature.

Cake, from Ventura, negotiated a deal with the new United Racing Association (URA) president Roy Morrison to bring the URA Red “B” Circuit (for rocker arm powered midgets) to Carpinteria, historically a “Blue circuit” (for overhead camshaft powered midgets) track. The URA earlier ran both the “Blue” and “Red” circuits, but Morrison created the “Red B” circuit, for slower flathead and motorcycle powered cars, as a lower-cost racing program for promoters designed to combat the inroads made by the “hot rod” roadsters.  

Johnny McFadden won the three-lap trophy dash for the two fastest qualifiers from time trials over Bill Martin to open the July 25^th racing program.  On lap 4 of the first 6-lap heat race, Don Keefe and Bob Saunders collided, which knocked both of their cars out of the race.

After the restart, on the final lap of the race, as Chris Christopher took the checkered flag, rookie Norman “Norm” Howton  who started from the tail of the field, attempted to pass Al Bridges, but misjudged and the right rear wheel of Howton’s machine hooked the left front wheel of Bridges’ car. Howton’s midget flipped and it landed upside down on top of the crash wall.

Howton, a 22-year old native of Santa Monica living in Venice, had joined the URA organization the previous Thursday and Carpinteria was his first race, Norm suffered a broken jaw and a fractured skull, with suspected brain injuries. An ambulance transported him to Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.   

The racing program continued after officials cleared away Howton’s damaged machine.  Bill LeRoy, Chuck Burness and Jackie Jordan won the remaining three heat races.  LeRoy won the fifteen-lap semi-main followed by future 3-time URA champion Lowell Sachs and Clay Robbins.  Jordan won the 30-lap feature race over Martin and McFadden with Johnny Coughlin in fourth place.

Norm Howton passed away at 6:30 AM the following day, and thus became the second driver to lose his life at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl in as many years. Norm, a veteran of the United States Navy, served in World War 2 as a seaman on board the destroyer escort USS Raymon W. Herndon in the assault on Okinawa. Survived by his father Glen, mother Irene, and older sister Lorraine, Norm is buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.  

Johnny McFadden from San Diego, led time trials for the next URA Red “B” program on Monday August 1^st with a best lap of 15.62 seconds, then he captured the trophy dash and his heat race. Other heat race winners included Bill LeRoy, Dwight Gunn and Bill Martin, who also won the semi-main 15-lap race. In the 30-lap feature, McFadden fell two positions short of a “clean sweep” as Bill Martin led Jackie Jordan to the finish line.

The following week, on August 8^th promoter Cake added a special appearance by the Southern California race track favorite ‘Charlie the Clown.’ Leo ‘Pop’ Faulkner, who starting racing in 1934 won the added Australian Pursuit race.   Bill LeRoy won the trophy dash while Johnny McFadden, Bob Allen, Clay Robbins and ‘big car’ racer Ken Crispin scored heat race victories. 

Norm Hall took the checkered flag for the 15-lap semi-main event. On the second lap of the feature, Robbins ran over the wheels of a stalled car and his midget flipped over the wall but he escaped injury. McFadden won the feature while on the penultimate lap Bill Martin and Jackie Jordan tangled as they battled for second place and both spun into the infield.

 ‘Charlie the Clown’ returned to Carpinteria on August 15^th but Jackie Jordan did not, as the URA suspended him for seven days for rough driving following the Carpinteria incident with Martin. Faulkner repeated his victory in the Australian Pursuit and Martin won the trophy dash and his heat race, as Crispin, LeRoy and Car Brown also scored 6-lap race wins.

On the opening lap of the semi-main, Johnny McFadden got squeezed into the outer wall and his midget took a series of side-over-side flips. When the car finally came to rest, Johnny climbed out of the wreckage with only a cut over his eye and badly skinned knuckles.

Bill LeRoy grabbed the early lead in the 30-lap feature then Charlie Miller challenged for the lead until Miller’s engine blew up, and Charlie suffered burns on his arms and legs as the car rolled into the infield. Bill Martin took up the chase after LeRoy, and as the laps wound down, Martin found the fast way around the top of the 1/5-mile oval. With just a few laps to go, Martin sped past LeRoy to take the victory with George Annis in third place.  

On August 18^th, the Ventura County Star-Free Press revealed that promoter Charlie Cake cancelled all Thursday night motorcycle races until track repairs could be made, but that the scheduled Monday night midget races would continue.  

The following day, the Ventura newspaper reported the cancellation of the remainder of the 1949 URA midget racing schedule at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl. According to promoter Charlie Cake, “hot rod” racing would replace the midgets on Monday nights, following the same program line-up as the midgets featuring a trophy dash, four heat races, a 15-lap semi-main and a 30-lap feature.  

On Saturday August 20, the Ventura County Star-Free Press carried an article about the Thunderbowl for the third day in a row.  The newspaper reported that in a telephone interview, Roy Morrison, the URA president revealed that on Friday, the URA board cancelled Charlie Cake’s franchise for URA midget racing at the Thunderbowl.

Morrison cited “non-payment of purses and officials fees,” as the reason for the cancellation, and noted that Cake had an outstanding debt of $781. Morrison added that URA’s Los Angeles attorney, J. Frank Armstrong would draw up papers and file suit in Santa Barbara “in the next ten days.”  In the meantime, Morrison said that the URA board would “strongly consider” a bid to hold races on the Ventura track.

Morrison claimed during his interview that Cake “held up the purse three times and gave the association nothing but trouble since he took over management of the track.”  Roy recalled that dealings with Bradley McLure the original 1949 franchisee were “very satisfactory.” Because of Cake’s actions Morrison claimed “the URA is operating at a loss at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.”

Cake, contacted by the Ventura County Star-Free Press, admitted that he held up purses “hoping to get more cars the following week,” and would continue to hold purse monies pending the outcome of a $5,000 breach of contract suit to be drawn up by his Ventura attorney Bernard J “Barney” Loughman. “The URA did not send the number of racers called for in the contract,” according to Cake.   

In the next installment, we will trace the rest of the 1949 season as new types of racing took over at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

The author is looking for any private vintage photographs of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl that readers may have. Please reach out to kevracerhistory@aol.com .  We can’t pay for use, we’re just looking to share images for those who never saw the track.     

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part five - the first half of the 1949 season

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part five - the first half  of the 1949 season

Author’s note – This 12-part article highlights the brief 12-year history of one of Southern California’s least-documented auto racing venues – the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl began its third season of operation on Friday evening May 6th, 1949 as it hosted the ‘Ken Baker Circus of Thrills’ auto thrill show. The show starred the ‘Streamline Death-Defying Hell Drivers’ with precision driving by Dave Arnold and Earl McComb, the “ice crash” in which Bob “Jumpin’ Jack” Niles crashed a sedan into  20-ton wall of ice, rollover crashes by “Reckless” Dick Getty, a head-on crash by Getty and McComb, and closed with a fireworks finale.

Carpinteria was the inaugural show for Ken and Dottie Baker’s troupe, based in North Hollywood that used the advertising phrase “Smoke and Flame - we earn the name.” Later Baker tour stops included Lakeland Park Ranch & Stadium (also known as El Monte Speedway) in El Monte, Balboa Stadium in San Diego, San Fernando’s Valley Fiesta and Contra Costa Stadium in Walnut Creek.  

The Saturday May 14^th edition of the Ventura County Star Free Press featured an article that revealed that the Carpinteria Thunderbowl 1949 midget auto racing season would start on Monday evening May 16th.  The article revealed that “the track will be under the management of Bradley and Wanda McLure,” a couple that lived at 155 East Vince Street in Ventura. 

The article stated that Mr. McClure, who had 20 years’ experience as a superintendent at the Saticoy Rock Company in Ventura County, would “handle the track arrangements, while Mrs. McClure will attend to the concession stand.”

On Monday May 16 the Ventura County Star Free Press featured a Carpinteria Thunderbowl advertisement on page eight but on page nine, an article headlined “Rain Threat cancels Carpinteria Races,” noted that the Thunderbowl had scheduled a program “which featured an All-star card of top-notch drivers was lined up” until “Mrs. Bradley McLure cancelled due a threat of rain this morning and deferred until a week from tonight.”  

On May 20 the Ventura County newspaper carried a follow-up article in which Bradley McLure announced the cancellation of the races scheduled for May 23 and May 30 due to unfavorable weather conditions with the 1949 grand opening of the Thunderbowl postponed to June 6.

 The United Racing Association (URA) “Blue Circuit” drivers scheduled to headline the opening Carpinteria racing program included Danny Oakes, Johnny Garrett, Walt Faulkner, Dominic “Pee Wee” Distarce, “King Karl” Young and Rodger Ward. For the 1949 season, two drivers who jumped from the URA to the American Automobile Association (AAA) during the late summer of 1948, Norm Holtkamp and Cal Niday, returned to the URA fold along with their respective car owners, Roscoe Hogan and Arnold Krause.

On June 6^th, Faulkner defeated Ward in the Trophy Dash, with heat races wins to Garrett, Eddie Anderson, Jimmy Bryan and Bob Kelsey. Bryan beat Distarce to the checkered flag in the 15-lap semi-main which featured a crash that involved Bob Shimp and Al Sherman that required a red flag stoppage. Heath won the feature over Billy Cantrell in a comparatively slow time of 8 minutes and 18 seconds for the thirty laps.

The following week, June 13^th, Doug Groves set quick time in time trials at 11.95 seconds, but was edged out in the Trophy Dash by Billy Cantrell. ‘Skee’ Redican, Rodger Ward, Cliff Epp, and Bill Homeier recorded victories in their 6-lap heat races. Ward won the 15-lap semi-main event, then Bob Barker won the feature after both Jimmy Bryan and Cantrell spun themselves out of contention.   

Allen Heath won the June 20 URA “Blue Circuit” feature in the Lyle Greenman owned Offenhauser and Frank “Satan” Brewer won on June 27 in his own Ford V8-60 powered midget. In the meantime, the McLure family was negotiating to get out of their lease.

On July 1, a new promoter, Charlie Cake, signed the Carpinteria track lease with owner Jim Slaybaugh. In an appearance days later at the Ventura Police Boys’ Club, Cake announced his intention to also promote weekly motorcycle races at Carpinteria, which would begin with an exhibition during the scheduled July 4 URA “Blue Circuit” event.

The July 5^th race report in the Ventura County Star-Free Press noted that the 1/5-mile clay oval “appeared in better shape last night than since midget auto racing began two years ago.” The program started off with a bang when Walt Faulkner set a new track record in qualifying with a lap of 14.66 seconds. Faulkner whipped URA point leader Billy Cantrell in the trophy dash, then easily won his heat race. 

Howard Gardner, who flipped during the semi-main race on June 27^th, reversed his fortunes and snagged the semi-main win.  Faulkner, with chance for a “clean sweep” started the feature from seventh place, passed his teammate Len Faas for the lead on lap five, and romped to victory ahead of Faas, Chet Fink, Danny Oakes and Doug Groves.

A preview written before the first Thunderbowl weekly motorcycle race promised “at least 30 top-notch drivers from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties” that included Cal Cline, the operator of a local motorcycle shop, who took part in the July 4 exhibition. The scheduled motorcycle program included a four-lap trophy dash, eight lap heat races, a 15-lap semi and a 30-lap feature race. 

On July 7th brothers Glenn and Bob Mullaney of Santa Barbara “threaded their two-wheeled broncos through the pack to win first and second place” according to the July 8^th Ventura County Star-Free Press report, which noted that many in the average-sized crowd went away disappointed.

 

The article explained that “most of the blame…can be passed off to the track which was little more than a soft lumpy dirt road by the time three heat races were turned, and even worse when it came time for the consolation race and the main event.” Cal Cline, the local hero, flipped in the mushy dirt midway through the feature, but reportedly received "only friction burns on his hands and arms."

  

In the next URA midget program on Monday night July 11, Doug Groves of Van Nuys set quick time at 14.99 seconds then beat Bill Zaring in the Trophy Dash.  The evening’s heat race victories went to Bill LeRoy, Jim Bryan, Hal Minyard and Rodger Ward. The semi-main race win went to Bryan who set a new 15-lap record of 4 minutes and 64/100 seconds ahead of Kenny Morrison.

Just after Bill Cantrell took the checkered flag for the feature win, chaos erupted behind him. Hal Minyard hit the front stretch wall and his midget spun to stop, facing the approaching field. Doug Groves in third place, with nowhere to go, hit the Minyard car and his car flipped. Groves’ car came to rest upside down, with Doug who was unconscious, pinned inside for many minutes until he could be freed.  

Minyard miraculously escaped unhurt, but once Doug was removed from his midget, an ambulance rushed him to the Lying-In Osteopathic Hospital in Oxnard where the 33-year old driver was admitted with broken left leg and severe bruises on his chest.

The following week’s URA program on July 18^th was a benefit for Groves, with Doug brought to the track from the Oxnard hospital by Jay Ryan’s Ventura County ambulance service. Faulkner edged Garrett in the trophy dash, while Ward, Minyard, Cantrell and Bob Shimp scored heat races wins. Shimp led the semi-main until the Lea-Francis engine in his midget failed. which handed the win to Frank Brewer in his own Ford V8-60 powered car.

The 91-cubic inch Lea-Francis engine, purpose built in England for midget auto racing, featured dry-sump oiling, gear-driven double camshafts, four SU carburetors, with  a high compression ratio to run on alcohol.  Record-setting British driver Dudley Froy, Lea-Francis designer Ken Rose and chief engineer Albert Ludgate made trips to the United States in 1948 and 1949 to show and sell examples of the engine.

Besides Shimp, several US midget racers (including Woody Brown in Northern California) used the four-cylinder “LeaF” engine but it never became popular (less than a dozen were built), given that its 120 horsepower could not match the power of the Offenhauser four-cylinder engine and it sometimes put connecting rods through the side of the aluminum block.

  

The Ventura County Star-Free Press newspaper report called the July 18^th midget feature race “one of the most spectacular races ever at the Thunderbowl” as Cantrell, in the Casale Offenhauser, finished in seven minutes and 45.02 seconds, ahead of Bob Barker, who hounded Cantrell for all thirty laps, with Johnny Garrett the third place finisher.

The author is looking for any private vintage photographs of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl that readers may have. Please reach out to kevracerhistory@aol.com .  We can’t pay for use, we’re just looking to share images for those who never saw the track.