The short-lived Argonne Forest Speedway

Part 2 -1940 - the final season

When the 1940 racing season opened on in late April at Argonne Forest Speedway in Southwestern Dayton Ohio, the terms “jalopies” and “junk yard derby” were no longer used in promotions. The race cars were then referred to as “stock cars,” and the racing was described as “hazardous but not dangerous.” The figure-eight ½-mile layout was gone, as the track had been re-worked into a 3/5-mile oval with a lake in the infield. Harold “Red” Korn was named the track’s new promoter.

New challengers to 1939 favorite drivers Ashbaugh, McCabe, Epperly and LeRoy Nooks included Amer Smith, Fred Larkie, Al “Pappy” Aker all of Dayton and Ray Saunders from Middletown.

Orval Epperly a winner at Argonne Forest during 1939 now hailed from Fort Wayne Indiana won his heat race then won the 20-lap feature over Miamisburg’s Adam “Doc’ Eshbaugh. The May 19^th program apparently was rained out.   On Sunday May 26, 1940 during his qualifying attempt Dayton driver Roy Knight’s car skidded and went over the top of the track’s banking.

The 22-year-old Knight was thrown from his machine which then rolled over and crushed him. He was transported to St. Elizabeth Hospital where he died an hour later and left behind a widow and baby daughter. Later a hailstorm struck the area which forced the postponement of that day’s races.

Orval Epperly claimed his second 1940 season Argonne Speedway win on June 2, over Amer Smith after Orval won his 10-lap heat race earlier in the day. Jim McCabe and Charles Vale suffered less severe injuries when their machine hurtled the banking, and Russ Crowic lost control and his car wound up in the infield lake.

Eshbaugh captured the June 9 feature over Epperly and LeRoy Nooks while “Doc” Viock was seriously injured in a crash during the program and suffered a broken collarbone, ribs, and fractured pelvis. Amer Smith won his heat race, but lost control of his car during the feature and drove into the lake.

On the night of June 11, 1940 members of the Central States Stock Car Racing Association (CSSCRA) voted to rename their group the Argonne Forest Speedway Association (AFSA). The group also announced that beginning with the June 16^th program all cars entered at Argonne would race in the same division. Time trails were scheduled to commence at 11 AM with racing set to begin at 2:30 PM.

The AFSA announced that racing programs at Argonne would feature three eight-lap heat races, a consolation race and a 35-lap feature race, and on June 16, a pie-eating contest would be an added attraction. Drivers were scheduled to drive two laps around the track, then stop and eat a pie before continuing, with a stop scheduled to eat a pie each successive lap until five laps were completed.

The previous two weeks’ work on the track surface resulted in Ray Farquar setting a new track record in qualifying at 38-1/2 seconds, nearly a second fastest than the previous record. Unfortunately for the second straight week, the rains arrived just as the feature was being lined up and cut the program short.    

On June 23, 1940 LeRoy Nooks and Ray Krueger won their 8-lap heat races and 22-year Ray Everhard crashed and suffered a dislocated shoulder in an accident before racing was suspended for the third consecutive week in row by rain. On June 30, negro driver LeRoy Nooks won his heat race and then captured the 35-lap feature over Fred Larkie, Saunders and Aker. 

On July 4, 1940 Argonne Forest Speedway staged a standard racing program as a benefit to aid injured driver “Doc” Viock.  Nooks and Farquer battled all afternoon in their heat race and reportedly the finish of the feature was nearly a dead heat between the two Dayton drivers but Farquar took the win, his second of the season.  Ray Saunders crashed and suffered a deep laceration in his right leg.

On July 14, “Bus” Henderson was the fastest qualifier, but L.C. Smith from Dayton won his heat race and then won the 25-lap feature as he outdistanced E. Corrin by half a lap. “Pappy” Aker challenged Smith over the first 12 laps of the 35-lap feature but dropped out with a burnt rod bearing in his car’s engine.  “Bus” Henderson was the day’s quick qualifier and won the first heat race.

The pie-eating contest was rescheduled for the July 21 program, but we do not know the results of that contest or the day’s other races.

Due to races scheduled at other Dayton area tracks, Argonne Park Speedway was dark until August 11, 1940. ‘Doc’ Eshbaugh was the fast qualifier and won his heat race but he was eliminated during the feature when his car lost a wheel. The win was captured by Jimmy Springfield over heat race winner ‘Bus’ Henderson, Al Aker, and Howard Seither who had won the day’s third heat race. Eshbaugh also won the day’s novelty race a 15-lap “all-pleasure car race.”

Argonne did not host another race until September 1, as the drivers took part in big money races held at Frank Funk’s Dayton and Winchester Speedways. Orval Epperly claimed his third Argonne win of 1940 as he barely bested Dick Beard and the day’s fast qualifier Ray Kreuger.   

Following the September 8 racing program, a group of four drivers were injured in a crash as they drove home following the races. The car driven by Thomas Rhodes, struck a passing car driven by Joseph Heller and overturned. Rhodes and Mr. Heller were uninjured while Ashbaugh and Ray Marang were treated at St. Elizabeth Hospital and released, but 18-year old James Larkin a high-school sophomore was seriously injured and was hospitalized for several months.

On Sunday September 22, in addition to the regular modified stock car feature, Argonne Speedway featured a special 15-lap “jalopy race” for cars older than 1931 models. Sadly, tragedy struck on the seventh lap of the day’s 25-lap feature.

Sophomore driver Amer Smith passed Doc Eshbuagh for second place as the pair passed under the flag, but as they entered turn one Smith’s car shot over the top of the nine-foot tall embankment and overturned. Smith 26 years old was thrown out and crushed by his race car owned by John Fry. Smith was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Elizabeth Hospital, and the races were halted with Orval Epperly in the lead.  

The Journal Herald newspaper reportedly the following that day that his family that included his wife, two children, mother, brother Ellery and married sister, Carrie Stowe,  attempted to talk Smith out of racing, but that as he left he told them “I only have one time to die.”  According to the Dayton Herald newspaper, at Amer’s funeral, held on September 25 at his mother, Nettie Nemyer’s home, she spoke to the dozen drivers that attended. The grieving mother asked the group not to race at Argonne again until the track was made safe, and she made a public appeal to investigate conditions at the Speedway.

The group of drivers gathered around Mrs. Nemyer and one-by-one, promised not to race. The drivers then presented her with a check for $4.25 that represented Amer Smith’s winnings from his last race. When Judge Hodapp was informed of the driver’s agreement, he told the Herald reporter that he didn’t care, as “the place has never made any money,” and “we can’t afford to fix it.” Hodapp said as far as he was concerned the track was closed forever.

The same day, the Herald published a scathing editorial entitled “Death Ends a Death Trap,” that read in part “three times young men have gone to that track to race and lost to death,” and that “three times is enough. There should be no more races there under present conditions.” The editorial closed by stating “The pity is that this death trap could not have been closed before another life was claimed.”     

Two days later, promoter Korn responded in an interview with the Herald in which he stated that racing at Argonne Forest Speedway was operated “more or less as a place for the boys to race as a hobby and not to make money.” Korn maintained that the track “is in fairly decent shape,” and that he had visited with Judge Hodapp, and if the boys want to race, it is okay with him, and the next scheduled race was October 13.

The racers held true to their promise to their fallen friend’s mother, there was never a race held at Argonne Park Speedway. Judge Null M. Hodapp died on January 5, 1945 at age 51, three days after he had been found in a coma on the floor of the kitchen at his home located on the Argonne Forest Park property.   After his death, his family steadily sold off portions of the park property, with most of the property, 300 acres, sold in 1966 to the Montgomery County Parks District, which renamed it the Possum Creek Reserve.

The clubhouse built in 1927 still stands, and visitors can glimpse the rotting remains of the Park structures as they hike the trail through the Argonne Forest section of the reserve, but the figure 8 racetrack is beneath the man-made Argonne Lake built by the parks department in 1979.  Visitors to the Possum Creek Reserve are likely unaware that three brave race drivers lost their lives at the park.                 

The short-lived 

Argonne Forest Park Speedway

Part one

Note - the author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of his friend and fellow racing historian Bob Lawrence, who provided information about Bowen & Onley and the results of the 1939 races referenced in this article. A link to Bob’s website is provided at the end of this article.

  

Growing up in the Linden Heights neighborhood of Dayton Ohio, Null M. Hodapp’s childhood best friend was his neighbor Ralph Clemens. The pair shared many adventures as young men, grew into adulthood, graduated college and became prominent men in Dayton in the nineteen-teens. 

Hodapp worked as an attorney with the firm of Burkhart, Heald and Pickrel, in downtown Dayton while Clemens was a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with the pioneering Dayton accounting firm of Louis G. Battelle.   

With the entry of the United States into the Great War in Europe, both men registered for the draft in June 1917 and were drafted into the United States Army in September 1917. Assigned the same unit, the 322^nd Field Artillery Unit, they reported to Camp Sherman near Chillicothe Ohio for training.




Clemens became a sergeant in Battery ‘A’ while Hodapp was assigned to the Headquarters Company. The 322^nd
shipped out of Camp Sherman on June 4, and then boarded the SS Canopic in Hoboken New Jersey on June 12, 1918 for their deployment overseas.

Upon the 322^nd Unit’s arrival in Europe, they were sent to the Western Front.  The 322^nd supported the US Army's 37^th Ohio Division in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest and bloodiest operation of World War I, which cost more than 26,000 American lives.  Sergeant Ralph Clemens was killed in action just hours before the Armistice went into effect at 11 AM on November 11, 1918 in the dense Forest of Argonne near Belgium.

Hodapp, heartbroken at the loss of his life-long friend, returned to Dayton after his wartime service. Nell continued his career in the law, in partnership with his brother, married, had two children and was elected a municipal court judge in Dayton in 1926.


That same year he bought land southwest of Dayton along Germantown Pike on the banks of Possum Creek. On the site Hodapp created the Argonne Forest Park in memory of his childhood friend and the place where he had fallen, to provide a place for veterans and their families to enjoy the outdoors.  

The clubhouse for veterans was the first building constructed on site and was dedicated on October 15, 1927 along with a reenactment of the Meuse-Argonne engagement. Later Hodapp and a group of investors incorporated as Argonne Forest Park, Inc. and through the years added an 80-foot by 40-foot dance pavilion, a carnival midway, a horse race track and stables, a gasoline filling station and a football field.


The Park also featured a baseball diamond with bleachers, a shooting range and a swimming hole with a diving platform. Later after his divorce from his wife, the noted soprano LoRean Hodapp in 1932, Hodapp built a home on the Park site.

Argonne Park became a popular destination for family picnics and group gatherings, and the hall hosted dining and dancing on Wednesday and Saturday nights and the occasional boxing match.  For many years on his birthday, July 4, Hodapp and members of the 322^nd Field Artillery Association would reenact the artillery battle of the Forest of Argonne.  Through the years thousands of Daytonians attended the reenactments which always closed with a huge fireworks display.

The deepening Great Depression caused attendance at the park to decline so additional activities were added which included auto races known as “junk yard derbies” on a new figure-eight dirt track in the Summer of 1939. These races were promoted by Don C. Onley, onetime partner with his brother, W. W. Bowen in the Bowen & Onley racing promotions company from 1926 to 1931 until Bowen retired. In addition to auto races, Onley Amusements & Sports Promotion promoted events from Ohio to California that included automotive and motorcycle stunt shows and boxing matches.

“Junk yard derbies” were popular in the late nineteen thirties in the Midwest with events held in dozens of cities in the state of Ohio. Oftentimes, these events were not held on established race tracks, but instead on roughly-hewn tracks in a farmer’s field and generally attracted several hundred spectators that paid 25 or 30 cents each for admission.

Many of these tracks had no names, but others used colorful names with references to Lucifer, such as “Satan’s Merry Go Round” which was located one mile north of Piqua Ohio and was also known as the “Devil’s Bowl.”  Early in 1939, the ½-mile figure-eight track at the Argonne Forest Park was promoted as the “Devil’s Race Bowl”, then became known as the “Argonne Forest Speedway.”   

The vehicles entered in these “junk yard derbies” could scarcely be called race cars, as the only rules were that the driver had to 21 years of age and the car had to be stock and worth $100 or less. Safety was of little concern and these type of “junk yard” races sadly had a high fatality rate, with many of the driver deaths recorded as traffic accidents.  As many as seven “junk yard” racers died in Ohio during the Summer of 1939, including one man who left behind a widow and ten children. 

It appears that the first automobile race at the Argonne Forest “Devil’s Race Bowl” was held Sunday July 30, 1939 on what was described in advance promotional articles as “the world’s most hazardous auto race course,” and the “famous hair-raising figure eight track.” Despite the threat of rain, a reported 4,000 fans attended – children were admitted for 10 cents while adults paid 40 cents each, except for “blonde ladies and plump ladies over 200 pounds,” who were admitted free. 

The inaugural fifty-lap feature race, with all the cars carrying a driver and a rider, was described the following day in the Dayton Herald as a “comic novel event with chills and thrills,” was won by “Doc” Ashbaugh of Miamisburg, Ohio but not without some controversy, as other racers filed post-race protests. 

The other racers claimed that the #22B 1929 Ford driven by Ashbaugh, appearing in his first race, was equipped with a “full-fledged race motor.” Although “Doc” kept the victory, officials would not accept his entry for the next week’s race unless he agreed to race with a different motor.

Despite the early controversy, Ashbaugh proved to be a solid competitor in jalopy racing at Argonne and moved up the ladder and became a favorite in modified stock car racing across the state of Ohio. “Doc” later raced track roadsters with the Mutual Racing Association after the World War II with fellow Daytonian and Argonne alumni, negro racer Leroy Nooks, and participated successfully in a series of midget races held in Pomeroy Ohio in 1948 and 1949.   

The next race at Argonne Forest on Sunday August 6 introduced a novel idea - the Gold Cup Trophy. Each week’s top six qualifiers were eligible to compete in a 10-lap dash, and the first man to win three of these weekly dashes would win the permanent trophy, a 24-inch tall gold cup filled with silver dollars.  

The first dash was won by Ashbaugh, the days’ fastest qualifier at 50 second flat, while the feature was won by Jim McCabe of Dayton driving a 1929 Ford. Two racers were injured in a grinding crash at the figure 8 intersection – driver Glen Tyler sustained a compound leg fracture and his rider Henry Vrining suffered a fractured spine. Several of the drivers had equipped their car with “safety hoops” and officials encouraged this addition for safety but did not yet require their use.

For the August 13th race at the “Devils Race Bowl” in the Argonne Forest Park, officials eliminated the requirement for cars to carry a rider, trumpeted as a safety measure. The racing program opened with “Doc” Ashbaugh of Miamisburg as the winner of the 10-lap dash, to complete his second leg in pursuit of the Gold Cup Trophy.  The day’s feature race was marred by a serious accident in which Daytonian Robert Dulinsky’s car tangled with the machine of John Eaton also of Dayton and left the 21-year old Dulinsky with a fractured skull.

With Dulinsky transported to St. Elizabeth Hospital in grave condition, the race was called complete at 30 laps following the accident. The leader at the time Jim Edwards of Franklin Ohio a small community about a dozen miles south of the racetrack was declared the winner with Bud Cider second and Bates Lewis scored third in a 1929 Ford.

Dulinsky lingered in the hospital for nearly a week then died at 9:20 AM on Saturday August 19, survived by his parents with whom he lived, and two married sisters. The next day’s race at the “Devil’s Bowl” became a benefit race for injured drivers that also featured automotive and motorcycle daredevil stunts interspersed into the racing program. In addition to the money raised through gate receipts, fans donated $70 for Dulinsky’s family during the program.

In qualifying Jim Edwards set quick time, a new track record of 47 seconds, then in the feature ran down the early leader Ashbaugh, passed him on lap four then led the rest of the distance. Ashbaugh finished second as he edged 20-year old driver Ray Kruger, younger than the track’s 21-year old age limit, but who raced with the permission of his mother, Etta, who was in attendance.  

On Sunday afternoon August 27, the track debuted its new oiled surface designed to control dust, and brunettes were admitted free of charge. After his car lost a wheel during a special four-car 15-lap match race, Ashbaugh came back and again visited victory lane in his 1929 Ford.  During the week before the next race held the day before the Labor Day holiday, Ashbaugh spilt with the owner of the successful #22B 1929 Ford but come Sunday, in a new car, Ashbaugh smashed the track record by three seconds. Jim Edwards won the feature.

On September 10, the program featured a special 10-lap race for women drivers won by 23-year-old Margaret Quire in a time of 9 minutes and 47 seconds. Jim Edwards swept the race of the program as he won the 10-lap heat race, the 15-lap match race and the 20-lap feature over Ashbaugh and Ray Kruger.

Ashbaugh, a crowd favorite who drove in house slippers, claimed three wins on September 17 – the “slow” feature, the “fast” feature and the 10-lap heat race, while John Turner finished second in all three races. Ms. Quire won the 10-lap ladies’ race and lowered her winning time to nine minutes flat. 

On September 24, the Argonne Forest course was quiet, as many of the track’s stars, including Ashbaugh, Krueger, McCabe, and Edwards were all scheduled to take part in the modified stock car races at Frank Funk’s high-banked ½-mile oiled dirt Dayton Speedway.

Argonne Speedway officials put the off week to good use as they added a ¼-mile track for midget car racing and graded and resurfaced the ½-mile figure-eight track which had seen more accidents since the oiled surface was adopted. 

Argonne officials cancelled the scheduled October 1 event early due to predicted rainy weather and many of the track’s top drivers raced instead at Funk’s Dayton Speedway modified stock car event. Ashbaugh led the first 35 laps at Dayton Speedway before his car experienced mechanical troubles; Ashbaugh’s retirement handed the lead to Jim Roberts of Springfield, Ohio who led the rest of the way to victory.

The October 8 feature victory which featured 20 cars was copped by 21-year old Orval (alternately spelled “Orville”) Epperly of Dayton, who went on from his start racing at Argonne to have a growing career in post-World War II American Automobile Association (AAA) “big car” racing until he lost his left leg in a gruesome heat race accident at Winchester (Indiana) Speedway on July 25, 1948. 

The 50-lap 1939 Argonne season finale on October 15 was captured by Russ Cowic also of Dayton in a time of 36 minutes flat. Russ Cowic raced for many years until he was seriously burned in an accident at Eldora Speedway in 1971.  It appears that no driver was able to win a total of three “Gold Cup Trophy” dashes and claim the permanent trophy. 

Don Onley’s promotional efforts at Argonne Forest Speedway ended at the close of the 1939 racing season with the promotion and sanction taken over by the Central States Stock Car Racing Association.

We will continue with the history of the Argonne Forest Speedway by looking at the 1940 season in the next installment.

Visit Bob Lawrence's websites: http://winfield.50megs.com/