The Pete Kreis story Part one - background and his rookie year- 1925

 

The Pete Kreis story

Part one 

 Background and his rookie year- 1925  

Young Pete Kreis posed in his Duesenberg

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

Albert Jacob “Pete” Kreis is an intriguing figure to automobile racing historians; described as a “Southern gentleman sportsman” at the time, he competed purely for the love of sport.  After three seasons of board track racing, for the last six years of his career, Pete only drove in one race a year – the Indianapolis 500-mile race. Although he never won a race, Kreis’ career intersected with many of the great names of racing from the mid-nineteen twenties until his death in 1934  

Born into a generationally wealthy and prominent Knoxville Tennessee family on January 19 1900, Kreis grew up as a child of privilege. His grandfather, Harman Kreis, emigrated from Switzerland and fought in the American Civil War as a Union cavalryman since East Tennessee tended to be pro-union. After the war, Harmon worked as a timekeeper at the Knoxville Marble Company before he went into the quarry business for himself.

Harmon Kreis developed several quarries, and with a partner founded the Appalachian Marble Quarry Company which innovated by floating huge blocks of marble from their quarries on rafts down the Tennessee River to the mills in Knoxville known then as “Marble City.” Harmon later served two years as the reformist Sherriff of Knox County and died in 1937 at age 91.

Pete’s father, entrepreneur John Alva Kreis, owned one of the area's biggest dairy farms, the Riverside Dairy and Hatchery grew to become a farm with 215 registered Holsteins, 35 employees and 12 delivery trucks. The Riverside Hatchery housed 600,000 chicks and had an egg capacity of 300,000 per month.  As a young man Pete helped out on the farm; first he drove a horse-drawn delivery wagon, and later the farms’ first delivery truck.   

John Kreis also owned the eponymous national engineering and contracting company which specialized in large railroad, levee and bridge jobs, with customers that included the Southern, L&N and Missouri Pacific railroads. Pete would later work with his father and older brother in construction.   

Pete, who adopted his nickname as young man, attended Central High School in Knoxville and followed in the footsteps of grandfather and father to become a champion skeet shooter and won many tournaments around Knoxville. Some historians suggest that Kreis began racing on dirt tracks at local county fairs but nearly a hundred years later the author found no records of Kreis’ early automobile racing career, but he liked to drive fast.  

On February 22 1924, Pete had an accident while on a test drive which killed his passenger, 23-year old car salesman Carroll McCall. The roadster Kreis drove, reportedly “at a lively clip” according to witnesses, missed a curve and struck a bridge abutment, rolled over and pinned Kreis and McCall in the wreckage. Rescuers found McCall dead and the steering wheel had to be removed to free Kreis who went to the hospital with cuts and a shoulder injury.

Kreis and his father attended the inaugural race at the new wooden Charlotte Speedway oval in October 1924 won by Tommy Milton. Pete’s American Automobile Association (AAA) championship racing debut came at the new Culver City 1-1/4 mile high-banked (50 degrees) board track, a few weeks before Christmas in 1924 as a paying member of the four-car Duesenberg racing team.  In practice runs Bennett Hill and Harry Hartz ran laps at the astonishing speed of 134 miles per hour (MPH) in their supercharged Miller racers. 

While his three Duesenberg teammates – Wade Morton, Peter DePaolo, and Phil Shafer – all started the race, rookie Kreis is listed in AAA records as one of two drivers who did not qualify for the 16-car starting field.  More than 70,000 spectators saw Hill win the 250-mile race over Hartz in just one hour and 58 minutes with the phenomenal average speed of nearly 127 MPH.

Kreis returned to Culver City two months later, again as part of the Duesenberg team, behind the wheel of the #35 supercharged Duesenberg 122-cubic inch eight-cylinder machine. Kreis started at the rear of the twenty-car field and finished in fifth place behind winner Tommy Milton, who shaved 5-1/2 seconds off Hill’s December winning time.

This bizarre event started on February 22 but officials stopped the race after 25 laps due to treacherous oily track conditions created by the three-car crash of Frank Elliott, Dr. William Shattuc and Stuart Wilkinson. Stuart received severe back injuries which caused the end of his short automobile racing career. 

When the AAA officials completely restarted the race on Sunday March 1, drivers Elliott and Shattuc were in the field with their repaired cars, along with Kreis, whose car carried a new crankshaft but Wilkinson still hospitalized did not restart.  Kreis ran as high as fourth place in the race until he stopped on lap 120 for a tire change but Pete recovered to place fifth among the nine finishers due to the high attrition rate,.

Kreis did not appear on the entry list for the April 19 Culver City 25- and 50-mile sprint races which included ten veteran drivers as Harry Hartz established a new speed record for 50 miles of over 135 MPH. Pete skipped the next race on the 1-mile Fresno Speedway board track, and raced next on Monday May 11 on another 1-1/4-mile board track, the Charlotte Speedway in Pineville North Carolina, about ten miles south of the City of Charlotte North Carolina.   

The Charlotte Speedway featured 40-degree baked turns built with an estimated 4 million board feet of lumber by the Prince Construction Company of Oakland California.  Remarkably, the Charlotte Speedway which cost an estimated $450,000, received its charter from the State in May 1924 and hosted its first race AAA championship race in October, less than six months later.   

The promoters of the 1925 Confederate Memorial Day $25,000 250-mile race arranged with the Southern Railroad system to offer promotional Pullman fare packages from Raleigh, Durham and Goldsboro in North Carolina as well as from Selma Alabama and Chattanooga Tennessee. Reserved seats in the two grandstands sold for $3.50 or $5.00 each, while 8-seat boxes sold for $8 each. 

The racers in the Fresno race all arrived via special freight train, which included Bennett Hill, Earl Cooper, Frank Elliott, Harry Hartz, Leon Duray, Peter DePaolo, and last year’s Charlotte winner, Tommy Milton. Those stars were joined by eight others drivers that included Wade Morton, Earl Devore, Phil Shafer and Kreis.

An estimated crowd of 50,000 fans saw Tommy Milton jump into the lead in his Miller and hold on to the lead for the first 100 miles ahead of Cooper and Duray. Over the next 60 miles, the machines of challengers Hill, Elliott and Duray all retired and Harry Hartz moved into third place while Milton led the pack with an average speed of 122.7 MPH. 

As the leaders neared the 200-mile mark, Milton’s Miller engine developed a miss, and Cooper surged into the lead on the 156^th lap. On lap 174, the ignition on Kreis’ Duesenberg failed and he retired to be placed tenth.  Cooper held on to win over Hartz, Milton and Comer, with the highest placed Duesenberg driven by DePaolo in fifth. Cooper banked $10,000 for the win, while Hartz received a check for $5000 and Milton, $2750. The teams packed up to ship their cars by rail to Indianapolis, with the cars expected to arrive in the Hoosier capital by May 15^th. 

The Duesenberg brothers entered three cars and drivers for the 1925 International 500 Mile Sweepstakes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pete Kreis drove the #35 with the other cars assigned to Peter DePaolo and LL Corum – the fourth Duesenberg entry did not have a driver assigned initially, but on May 12, Fred Duesenberg named Frenchman Antoine Mourre, who finished ninth in his rookie ‘500’ appearance in 1924 behind the wheel of his own Miller.  

On May 26^th, 1925 Kreis qualified his #35 supercharged Duesenberg ninth fastest with an average speed of 106.338 MPH for his four-lap ten-mile run, while the team leader DePaolo briefly held the track record at 113.083 MPH Leon Duray’s run of 113.196 MPH edged DePaolo off the pole.  Mourre qualified for the middle of the sixth row, but as Decoration Day neared pronounced himself displeased with the handling of the #23 machine, withdrew, replaced by Wade Morton. 

With only a 22-car starting field in 1925, there were a number of driver substitutions before race day, as in addition to Mourre, there were six other drivers that chose to withdraw their original mounts.  Bennett Hill started the confusion when he withdrew his Miller front drive (one of two built for the late Jimmy Murphy) in favor of a conventional rear drive Miller originally qualified by Ray Cariens.

Dave Lewis replaced Cliff Durant, the son of General Motors founder William Crapo Durant as the driver of the second Miller front drive machine while Milton Jones replaced H.J. Skelly after he withdrew from the Frontenac-Ford.  Ira Vail replaced Reginald Johnson in a Miller and L.L. Corum, the 1924 ‘500’ co-winner stepped out the Duesenberg he qualified in favor of Phil “Red” Shafer. 

DePaolo dominated the early and late stages of the 1925 500-race, as he led 115 laps that included the final 27 circuits while Kreis is credited with an eighth place in the third-highest placed Duesenberg. The common denominator between DePaolo and Kreis was the essential driver of the day - Norm Batten.

Augie and Fred Duesenberg tabbed Norm who had debuted the previous season with the Duesenberg team at 31 years old at Syracuse, as the team’s designated relief driver at Indianapolis.   Batten relieved eventual race winner DePaolo for 22 laps mid-race, then jumped into the #35 machine in relief of Kreis on lap 136 and drove to the finish.   

The AAA championship cars and stars traveled next to Altoona Pennsylvania to compete in the 250-mile ‘Spring Classic’ at the fast high-banked board track which had already claimed the lives of two prominent racers – Howdy Wilcox I in the inaugural race in the fall of 1923, and  Joe Boyer the 1924 Indianapolis co-winner the previous fall. Kreis started 12^th in the 18-car field and finished sixth behind winner Peter DePaolo. 

Kreis’ next appearance came on July 11 1925 at the 1-1/8 mile 48 degree banked original ‘Baltimore-Washington Speedway’ board track in Laurel Maryland in the #35 Duesenberg. Another quickly built facility, the track’s parent corporation was formed in February 1925.

During the inaugural July 1925 race at Laurel, Kreis’ car spun on the wooden banking without incident and Pete continued on until something failed in the Duesenberg engine on lap 50.  With his own car eliminated, Kreis relieved Duesenberg teammate Phil Shafer until the #9 machine also experienced engine trouble and retired. 25-year old Bob McDonogh took the checkered flag, 3.68 seconds ahead of DePaolo, but Peter protested the finish. 

A check of the scoring records overnight found that the scorers missed one of DePaolo’s laps and the AAA officials declared Peter DePaolo as the race winner, for his fourth straight win, as he had won a July 4^th non-points race held on the 1-1/4 mile dirt Rockingham Park Speedway in Salem, New Hampshire.

The $600,000 facility, built on 360 acres, only hosted two races before the corporation went bankrupt.

A subsequent track operator staged occasional “outlaw” (non-AAA) races sanctioned by the National Motor Racing Association at the facility through 1926 until filing for bankruptcy the following year. After another failed resuscitation attempt crews dissembled the board track facility in 1928.

A ½-mile paved track built in 1965 in nearby Beltsville Maryland operated for the first year as the ‘Baltimore-Washington Speedway’ and hosted a National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Grand National late model stock car race won by Ned Jarrett. The following year the operators changed than track name to Beltsville Speedway, and it operated under various sanctions until 1978. 

23-year old Boston investment heir Harold L “Vic” Spooner, who drove several practice laps at the Laurel oval, appeared as the only representative of the Duesenberg team at the 250-mile “Autumn Classic” held September 7th at Altoona Speedway in Tyrone Pennsylvania. 

Bob McDonogh won the Altoona race in Tommy Milton’s Miller which ran non-stop without a caution. After the race, Bob became the godfather of a nine-and-half pound baby boy born in the infield hospital prior to the race.  Spooner drove the car that his family purchased from Wade Morton to an eight place finish 17 laps behind the winner.

Meanwhile the regular Duesenberg AAA team drivers – Peter DePaolo, Tommy Milton and Kreis - were in Monza Italy for the 1925 Italian Grand Prix.  Milton and Kreis were teammates in 122 cubic inch Duesenbergs while DePaolo drove an Alfa Romeo P2.

In Italy, the officials set the starting field by car numbers, and all three of the American drivers started in the middle of the 25-car starting field that included 1913 Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Jules Goux.  

Kreis recorded the race’s fastest lap of 3 minutes 38 seconds on the opening 6.2–mile long lap but crashed on the second lap and placed last. Milton finished fourth in the marathon five and a half-hour long 496-mile race, and edged out DePaolo by a minute and a half at the finish.

The 1925 AAA championship cars and stars returned to action at the newly-built Rockingham Park Speedway board track in Salem New Hampshire in early October.  During practice runs on the 1-1/4 mile bowl on October 12, held in conjunction with the track’s grand opening, Peter DePaolo ran a lap at 128 MPH, a speed which other drivers including Spooner then took to the track to beat.  Due to the informal nature of the practice session, a group of race car mechanics gathered close to the track surface in a “dugout” to observe the action.

As Spooner’s car ran on the high side of the banking, above the machine of William “Doc” Shattuc, a steering knuckle pin broke on the Duesenberg’s front axle. The car wobbled then shot down the track as Dan Shaw, the car’s mechanic, inexplicably ran from the “dugout” towards the track. Spooner’s out of control Duesenberg pounded the inside rail and flipped high into the air.

The Duesenberg catapulted through the air with Spooner thrown out, and the careening car struck Shaw before it came to rest in flames which spread to the track surface. Officials pronounced the 24-year old Shaw dead at the scene while Spooner suffered a fractured skull. The young Bostonian survived but never raced again.

In Rockingham practice on October 14^th, Harry Hartz ran a lap timed at 135 MPH, then in qualifying on October 15^th DePaolo smashed all previous speed records as he circled the 1-1/4 board track in 32 3/5 seconds, for an astonishing lap speed of 138 MPH. Remarkable since it would be 26 years before a car reached such a lap speed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Milton, in his Duesenberg, timed in seventh fastest while Kreis qualified in thirteenth place. 

Rain initially postponed the inaugural Rockingham board track race scheduled for Saturday October 17^th until Monday the 19^th, but on Monday rain won again and organizers set the make-up date for October 31^st, as the AAA had a race already scheduled in Laurel Maryland on October 26^th.  

In the second race held during the 1925 season at the Baltimore-Washington Speedway, Kreis’ Duesenberg fell out with unspecified mechanical troubles after just 31 of the 222 laps as McDonogh won his second straight race, this time behind the wheel of Tommy Milton’s second Miller numbered 14 but not without trouble. Bob held a two-lap lead with twenty-five laps to go when the engine began to sour.  The Miller engine sputtered and backfired through the final laps as DePaolo closed but Bob held on and won the race by 24 seconds.

Back in Salem New Hampshire on October 31st, pole-sitter DePaolo raced into lead and led for the first ten laps until fellow front-row starter Bennett Hill surged into the lead which he held for the next 87 laps, until the clutch in his Miller failed. Hill’s retirement handed the lead to Earl Cooper.

Cooper’s Miller ‘Junior 8’ held the point for twenty laps, before DePaolo recaptured the lead and Peter led the remaining 83 laps and won by a lap over Ralph Hepburn, the pilot of the Miller owned by Cooper.  Earl Cooper finished a lap behind his own car in third place, and Pete Kreis’ Duesenberg in 11^th, the last car running, flagged with 160 laps completed.  

On November 11, Tommy Milton won the AAA championship circuit’s second visit to the Charlotte board track as engine failure eliminated front-runners DePaolo and Hill. Kreis closed out his 1925 season as he qualified twelfth and finished tenth, with 160 of the 200 laps completed.

With eight race appearances and a single top five finish scored in his first race at Culver City, Pete Kreis finished 14^th in the 1925 AAA driver standings, behind fellow rookies Ralph Hepburn in ninth and Norm Batten who finished eleventh overall in AAA points with just three 1925 race appearances.

In our next chapter, we will look at Pete Kreis’ 1926 AAA racing season.      

“No one ever regretted buying quality”

the Hinchman story

 

Hinchman Racing Uniforms started the race suit industry in 1925 when  Peter DePaolo wore the first Hinchman uniform as he drove the winning Duesenberg in the 1925 Indianapolis 500-mile race .

 

This photo from the author's collection shows

Peter DePaolo is his Hinchman suit



 

Over the following  90+ years, Hinchman innovations have included:

The wrap around buttoned collar, first used by Hinchman, was developed after Eddie Sachs complained that the wind made the collars flap. Later  buttons were replaced by Velcro®

In 1966 Hinchman became the first racing suit manufacturer to use Nomex® in their suits, and In 1999 Hinchman was the first company to use the new fire resistant material called Carbon-X®.

 In 2004 Hinchman introduced their new lining called “Comfort Tech” which creates a 3-layer suit that is lighter, thinner, comfortable and more protective than most 2-layer suits.

In 2011, a Hinchman Racing Suit that was worn by actor Steve McQueen in the classic racing film LeMans fetched $984,000 at auction.

In 2013, Hinchman introduced its new 'Hinchman Performance' liner in its new HTO line of racing uniforms, and included it in the new "HP Series" in 2015.

Hinchman believes customer support after the sale is vital and is committed to customer satisfaction, just ask any racer wearing a Hinchman driving suit.

For more details visit their website at http://www.hinchmanracewear.com

 

Information for this article provided by Hinchman

George Souders- the story of the 1927 ‘500’ winner

Part three

George Souders portrait

courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 

In 1927 George Souders born near Battle Ground Indiana was a full-time resident of Abilene Texas and worked as a “service man and expert mechanic” at Roberts & St John Motor Company the local Chrysler-Plymouth dealer located at the corner of Fifth and Pine Streets in downtown Abilene.

George was one of fourteen drivers who appeared at the one-mile Albuquerque Fairgrounds track on New Year’s Day 1927.  The five-race program which began at 2 PM featured the “Rocky Mountain States premier drivers” the Gardner brothers, Raymond and Chester, each driving a "Rajo Special." “Rajo” was a brand of racing overhead valve cylinder heads designed for Ford Model T engines.

Built and sold by Joe Jagersberger of Racine Wisconsin, he used the first two letters of his hometown and combined it with the first two letters of his first name to create “Rajo.”  Chuck Anderson “the favorite of the Southwest,” also drove a Rajo while  H. Peterson “who holds the fastest record on the Douglas Arizona track” was entered in a Duesenberg.

Roy Miller from Albuquerque was entered in a Frontenac (another brand of Ford cylinder head built and sold by the Chevrolet brothers) along with Jimmy Randolph described as the Arizona State champion and “Slim” Harper in the John Mais “Dodge Special.” Two previously unknown drivers came from Colorado both described as Pike’s Peak masters - BS Burgeman and Fred Schultz. Souders, “who furnished thrills the last two races here,” Fred Frame “of Ascot Speedway fame” and San Antonio’s Harry Milburn were all entered in Millers.   

The day’s first race was a 10-mile “free for all” while the second 10-mile and third 15-mile race were reserved for “modified stock cars” (non-Millers). The auto racing program was capped by a 25-mile “free for all,” with the final event was a 10-mile motorcycle race during which the promoters claimed “the riders travel like greased lightning.” 

In time trials, Souders set new “local track record” of 44 seconds for the one mile course then swept the two “free for all” races. Chet Gardner in his ‘Rajo Special’ finished second in the first 10-mile heat, won the second and third ten-mile heat races and finished third in the 25-mile finale behind Souders and Milburn. Souders provided a thrilling finish as according to the next day’s Albuquerque Daily Reporter his Miller engine “burned a bearing then threw a connecting rod and he coasted the last ¼ lap to victory.”

On May 6 the day the entries closed for the 15th annual International 500-mile Sweepstakes Souders was listed as the driver for William S. White’s Duesenberg.  An article in his adopted hometown Abilene Journal newspaper described Souders as “equally fearless as Frank Lockhart although probably not as steady or careful.”   There were a total of 41 entries for the ‘500’  the largest list since 1919, with eleven front wheel drive entries, this only two years after the first Miller front drive machine debuted at the Speedway.

 

Fernic FT-10 drawing

 

There was only one foreign driver entered in 1927 Indianapolis 500-mile race Romanian George Fernic who entered his own Bugatti. Fernic, an accomplished pilot dating back to World War One, also designed and built aircraft.  Although Fernic’s Bugatti broke a connecting rod on May 24 and did not qualify for the 33-car starting field, he drove 182 laps during the 1927 ‘500’ in relief for Fred Frame.

Frame started the car but yielded to Fernic as Fernic had purchased the car started by Frame after his won Bugatti was withdrawn. Fernic later was killed in a plane crash during the 1930 Chicago National Air Races as he was demonstrating his radical twin-engine canard-wing plane with tricycle landing gear the Fernic FT-10 Corsair.       

A 1981 Indianapolis Star article recounted that few experts thought George Souders could even make the starting field as one recalled him as "the darkest of dark horses."  According to the 1981 article, the older 90 ½ cubic-inch supercharged Duesenberg owned by Hollywood millionaire William S. White was beset by many mechanical problems during the month. In an interview nearly fifty years later Souders recalled that he "lost count of the number of times that that ‘Duesy’ was taken apart and put together during Speedway practice."

The chief mechanic on the White-owned Duesenberg was 31-year old Frenchman Jean Marcenac who had first appeared at Indianapolis in 1920 a crew member with the three-car Ballot team. A World War One veteran Marcenac served in both the French Navy and the Air Service before he went to work in the Paris-based Ballot automobile factory.

Jean helped to build the four Ballot race cars completed in just 101 days that participated in the 1919 Liberty 500-mile Sweepstakes, and in 1920 came with the team to the United States. In addition to his mechanic duties on the low-slung  311-cubic inch  inline eight-cylinder entries  Marcenac who weighed just 150 pounds and stood 5 feet 6 inches tall served as the riding mechanic with Jean Chassagne, and together the pair finished the 1920 ‘500’ in seventh place.

Marcenac returned to Indianapolis in 1921 to work on Ralph DePalma’s new 183 cubic inch straight eight double overhead camshaft Ballot and then stayed in the United States working with DePalma. Jean rode with DePalma in the 1922 Indianapolis ‘500’ the last year riding mechanics were required.  The pair started from the third position and finished fourth behind a Ballot entered by 1913 ‘500’ winner Jules Goux and driven by Eddie Hearne. Goux at 37 years old drove the other Ballot entry but retired on lap 25 with a broken rear axle. Marcenac worked with DePalma and his nephew Peter DePaolo through the mid-nineteen twenties and started the 1927 season as DePaolo’s mechanic.  

Since George didn't qualify for the starting field until his third attempt, he started the 1927 ‘500’ from the 22nd position on the inside of the eighth row.  Lockhart dominated as the other pre-race favorites - Harry Hartz, Bennett Hill, Peter DePaolo and Leon Duray dropped by the wayside before the first 100 miles were completed. Lockhart’s intercooled Miller engine broke a connecting rod and retired with 119 laps completed.

 

 

George Souders official 1927 Speedway photo

courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 

In 1932 car owner William White commented that Souders was “a great little driver with good form. I was tired of bringing veterans here –they know how hard it is to win. George didn’t know how really tough it is to win this race.”  Souders steadily moved up and was scored ninth after 75 miles, sixth at 50 laps and third at 275 miles. At the 300-mile mark he was second behind Pete DePaolo who was driving relief for Bob McDonogh in the supercharged Miller powered Cooper front drive machine. Souders took control at lap 150 and with the lead  with 100 miles to go George stopped for gas and three new tires and still won the race by more than twelve minutes over Earl Devore.

In a 1976 interview Souder remembered that the crew tried to talk him into letting Frank Lockhart finish the race but George declined. "The track was pretty slick and I knew how to handle the car," he said. "Someone else might have had trouble with it." In Victory Lane a shy George gave the credit for winning to his mechanic Jean Marcenac. Reportedly when Speedway officials asked George who they should notify by telegram, he replied, "There's nobody but Mother - I’ll send it myself pretty soon." One reporter claimed that George told him that he planned "to return to Purdue and resume my studies.”

 

A 1960 trading card issued by the Hawes Wax Co Ltd.

showing the 1927 '500 winner 

 

Statistically, Souders’ win marked the second and last time a yellow #32 race car won the Indianapolis ‘500,’ George was fifth winning driver to use Champion spark plugs and the fifth winning driver to use Firestone tires. Souders was the fifth “rookie” driver to win the ‘500’ in the first fifteen races, but the great Indianapolis 500–mile race was run thirty-five more times before a “rookie” Graham Hill won again in 1966.  The 90 ½ cubic inch Duesenberg power plant remains the smallest displacement engine ever to win the 500-mile sweepstakes.  

George returned home to Lafayette the day after the race and soon after the city was decorated with bunting news reel films of the race were shown in the theaters and a parade was held in Souders’ honor led by the Purdue marching band. At a banquet that evening, the mayors of Lafayette and West Lafayette each gave speeches honoring Souders and Purdue President Edward C. Elliott gave George a Purdue varsity letter. "I want to tell you how glad I am to be received in this way by my own," George Souders told the crowd. "It means more than winning the race."

Souders and the White Duesenberg appeared at the next race on the 1927 AAA (American Automobile Association) schedule a 200-miler on the 1-1/4 high banked Altoona board track but the supercharged engine broke a piston in practice. Despite not starting any other points races during the season, Souders finished the 1927 AAA season third in points behind Peter DePaolo and Frank Lockhart (who won ten of the remaining eleven 1927 races between them) based upon the 1000 points earned from his Indianapolis win.

Jean Marcenac after the 1927 ‘500’ win

Sometime after the 1927 ‘500’ victory, Jean Marcenac accepted Frank Lockhart’s offer the replace Ernie Olson as one of the mechanics on Lockhart’s team. During the winter of 1927-28, as a member of Lockhart’s team Marcenac helped build the radical U-16 powered “Stutz Black Hawk” Land Speed Record Car funded by Stutz president Fred Moscovics. Marcenac appears with the Black Hawk in photographs taken at Daytona Beach during February 1928, but it is unclear if Jean was present on April 25 1928 when Lockhart was fatally injured in the crash of the Black Hawk.

After one of the Lockhart Millers was sold his estate to Philadelphia real estate developer Edward C.Yagle, Marcenac went along with the car and won the 1929 Indianapolis 500-mile race with Yagle’s wife, Maude listed as the car owner. During the winter of 1929-1930 Marcenac worked with Harry Hartz and Phil Summers to build a new car to meet the new AAA “junk formula” rules. The new Hartz entry driven by Richard William “Billy” Arnold dominated the 1930 Indianapolis 500 as Arnold led 198 laps which gave Jean Marcenac his third “500’ win in four years. Arnold led the first 155 laps of the 1931 ‘500’ in the same machine and built up a six-lap lead until he crashed.  

 

Jean Marenac's official 1956 Speedway photo

courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 

Arnold returned in the repaired front-drive Hartz machine in 1932 and led the first 58 laps and then crashed out for the second year in a row. Teammate Fred Frame took the new Miller-Hartz Wetteroth entry into the lead, led the final 58 laps, and Jean won his fourth Indianapolis ‘500’ as a chief mechanic in a six year period.  Marcenac joined forces with Harry Miller during the mid-nineteen thirties for the Four Wheel Driver Company entry and then around 1940 joined the efforts of William “Bud” Winfield’s supercharged V-8 racing engine, later known as the “Novi.” Marcenac worked for eccentric “Novi” car owners Lew Welch and later Andy Granatelli until his death on Valentine’s Day 1965.

In our next installment we will review George Souders’ life as the 1927 Indianapolis champion.           

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

Part two -  stock car racer

1924 Indianapolis ‘500’ co-winner L.L. “Slim” Corum failed to qualify a Duesenberg for the 1927 ‘500’ starting field, through that year Corum made a name for himself in the world of American Automobile Association (AAA) sanctioned stock car racing.

After he joined the Stutz Motors “experimental department” in 1926 Corum, along with race car drivers Ralph Mulford, Tom Rooney, Bert Dingley, and Gil Andersen competed in races with factory-entered Blackhawk Vertical Eight Speedsters. Frederick E. Moskovics the Stutz president, understood the publicity value of automobile racing, having been involved in the management of the 1910 Los Angeles Motordrome board track in Playa del Rey California.

For the 1927 season the AAA Contest Board, led by Eddie Rickenbacker created a stock car racing renaissance that harkened back to the earliest racing days of the early twentieth century. Unlike the modern-day NASCAR silhouette “stock car” races, the 1927 AAA races were open to strictly stock cars that displaced 300 cubic inches or less, and to ensure the stock nature of the cars, the AAA Contest Board reserved the right to select the cars at random and supervise their preparation.

Cars raced less the windshield, fenders, running boards and tops with the only mechanical adjustments allowed limited to “valve grinding, cylinder honing, relieving bearing clearances, and fine tuning.”  The races were scheduled, often in conjunction with AAA championship races on two East Coast board tracks - the Rockingham Speedway in New Hampshire and Atlantic City Speedway in New Jersey.

The “Eastern Stock Car Championship” for the "Atlantic City Trophy" 75-mile race was held on May 7 1927 at Atlantic City prior to the running of AAA 200-mile championship car race.  The one and half mile long year-old  wooden New Jersey track alternately known as Amotal Raceway due to its location on the site of the World War I ammunition plant, was roughly equidistant from Atlantic City and Philadelphia south of the town Hammonton.

Designed by Art Pillsbury and built by Jack Prince the construction was financed largely by Charles M. Schwab chairman of Bethlehem Steel and also a major investor in Stutz and a member of the Stutz board.   

Tom Rooney in a Stutz Vertical Eight 2-seat roadster won the May race at an average speed of 86.50 MPH in a time of 52 minutes and 10.54 seconds as the top three finishers could have been covered by a blanket. Wade Morton’s Auburn finished just a fender length behind Rooney in second place and Zeke Meyer’s Paige trailed just a few feet back in third place. 

Eddie Miller finished fourth in another Auburn roadster ahead of fellow Indianapolis veteran Fred Winnai who drove a Duesenberg Model A roadster to a fifth place finish. For an appreciation of just how fast the steeply banked board tracks were, Dave Lewis won the featured 200-mile race in a 91 ½ cubic inch supercharged Miller front drive at average speed of 130 MPH.

There were only six entries for the 100-mile preliminary stock car race held on July 4 1927 at the 1-1/4 mile wooden Rockingham Park Speedway, a venue opened in 1925 but which was already in financial trouble, Two days before the race, at the request of a group of investors United States District Court Judge George F. Morris in Concord placed the track in receivership and named Exeter attorney William Sleeper as the receiver.    
  

Frank Lockhart led the first 65 laps of the race in a Mercedes, but a blown tire forced him into the pits and he lost more than a lap to former AAA championship regular Wade Morton behind the wheel of 8-88 Auburn.  Once underway, Lockhart’s car suffered another blown tire which cost him another five laps to repair. Morton claimed the victory over Lockhart and Ralph Hepburn is a similar Auburn and posted a new United States stock car record as he averaged 89.17 mph over the 100-mile distance.  

Like all the board tracks, weather and the pounding of the cars took their toll on the Rockingham board track. The 1926 AAA champion Harry Hartz was severely injured and burned in a crash at Rockingham in October 1927 which left him in out of hospitals for two years and ended his racing career. 

The scheduled 200-mile International Motor Classic in October 1928 was halted after 50 laps due to the deteriorating track conditions led to the three crashes which included Fred Comer’s fatal crash on lap 25. 

The finish of the race was initially postponed for two weeks to allow time for planned repairs but was eventually cancelled. In the fall of 1929 the Lowell Building Wrecking Company razed the 1-1/4 mile facility and more than 3 million board feet of well-seasoned 2x3, 2x4, 2x6, 2x10, and 2x12 wood planking was salvaged and sold as scrap.

On September 5 1927 the AAA sanctioned a series of stock car races at Atlantic City which included a special preliminary event that offered a purse of $250 for the “oldest car capable of navigating the banked track.” Entries in the special race included an 1897 AutoCar, a 1900 Winton, and 1901 curved dash Oldsmobile.

In the days leading up to the race, there was some controversy as several teams alleged sabotage, and according to the Chester Times in Chester Pennsylvania “officials brought in huge flood lights to illuminate the long rows of garages and guards with bayoneted rifles patrol the section about the garages day and night to prevent anyone from approaching except those with official credentials.”

This AP photo shows Earl Vance with his trophy

The day’s first AAA-sanctioned race was a 25-mile or 20 lap event for 4-cylinder cars, won by Earl Vance of Philadelphia in a Dodge Sport Roadster entered by the Atlantic City Speedway Association. The 1928 Dodge Series 124 ‘Fast Four’ Sports Roadster powered by a  212-cubic inches L-head engine had been purchased by the Association ten days before the race to increase the size of the field,  averaged 67.35 MPH.  

The second race of the day, a 75-mile, 60 lap event for 6-cylinder cars priced below $2000 was won by 1919, 1921 and 1922 national motorcycle champion  and three-time Indianapolis ‘500’ starter Ralph Hepburn behind the wheel of a factory-entered Studebaker Commander Roadster. His Studebaker teammate Eddie Hearne finished second ahead of a Chrysler ‘70’ roadster, one of four entered by the Speedway Association, in third place. A Buick Master Six roadster and a Star Six built by Durant Motors rounded out the top five finishers. 

The third and final stock car race held at Atlantic City on Labor Day, the 120-lap 150-mile “Free-for-All” featured six factory Stutz entries – four roadsters and two sedans all which had been driven to New Jersey from Indianapolis  by the drivers which included Gil Andersen, Bruce Keen. Tom Rooney. and “Slim” Corum to “break them in.” There were a total of 14 cars entered, all either six- or eight-cylinder powered machines, including Hepburn’s, and the race was run at torrid pace with lap speeds that neared 100 MPH.

Early in the race, Keen lost control crashed his Stutz into the outer fence and was injured.  Two laps from the end of the Atlantic City race Hepburn’s second-place 353-cubic inch side-valve 85-horsepower Studebaker blew a tire, and the finish it was a 1-2-3 Stutz sweep. 

Rooney claimed the win and set a new world’s record as he finished in one hour 33 minutes with an average speed of 96.30 MPH. Corum finished second, two minutes and fifteen seconds in arrears with Andersen in third place, four seconds behind Corum while Hepburn recovered to finish fourth.  

In the fall of 1929, the 500-acre Atlantic City Speedway site was sold to the General Aero Corporation which announced plans to level the track and build an international airport, but the venture collapsed and the track remained intact.  At the end of May 1932 the assets of the Atlantic City Speedway Association were auctioned off to satisfy a legal claim.  The following year, the great Atlantic City board track was demolished and the lumber sold for its scrap value  

Stutz wins the Stevens Trophy

The Stevens Cup in 1927

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In April 1927 Corum was a member of the Stutz team that set out to win the Stevens Perpetual Challenge Trophy, a traveling award established by Samuel Barron Stevens a wealthy stock broker banker and early automobile racer from Rome New York. Stevens had established a number of speed records on Ormond Beach in Florida in the original AAA stock car racing period from 1903 to 1908.

After his retirement from driving Stevens stayed involved in auto racing as he briefly served on the 10-member AAA Contest Board which developed and printed rules, registered cars drivers and mechanics, licensed tracks, issued sanctions, provided officiating staff and maintained records.  In 1916, Stevens was a member of the team that drove a stock six-cylinder Marmon 34 roadster cross country from New York to San Francisco a distance of 3,390 miles in five days 11 hours and forty minutes which beat Erwin “Cannonball” Baker’s existing record by 41 hours.   

The requirements to win possession of the Stevens Trophy spelled out in the deed of gift were simple - a totally stock closed production car had to average 60 MPH or better for 24 consecutive hours at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway as witnessed by officials of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and AAA. The 100% stock condition of the car had to be attested to by a three-man committee of the SAE and the AAA furnished the supplies of fuel and oil.

Stevens’ challenge required the endurance run be conducted at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as opposed to a smooth board track because according to Stevens “it more closely replicates real road conditions to measure what the consumer finds in regards to performance, stamina and durability when he buys an automobile.”

Stutz Motor Company was the first automaker to accept the Stevens challenge in April 1927. The Stutz drivers for the attempt included Corum, Rooney, Andersen, and early Speedway drivers John Jenkins, Charles Merz, and Bruce Keen. There were three cars used, all equipped with the Stutz Vertical Eight overhead camshaft engine - stripped-down Stutz Blackhawk Speedster as the “pacemaker,” and the actual Stevens challenge machines, a five-passenger sedan and a Weymann-bodied five-passenger sedan.

Weymann bodies, made of painted synthetic leather fabric stretched over a wooden frame, were very popular during the latter part of the decade of the nineteen twenties. This patented system was less expensive and lighter in weight than a full custom steel body and its method of construction led to a quieter ride free of the squeaking typical in metal-bodied automobiles.

Invented and patented by Charles Weymann who held dual US-French citizenship but lived in Paris, the company established an American facility in Indianapolis in the old National Automobile plant on East 22nd Street with Stutz as its number one United States client. The Weymann American Body Company’s fortunes rose and fell in concert with those of Stutz, and by the end of the decade of the nineteen thirties, new Weymann bodies had all but disappeared from the American automotive landscape.   

The Stevens Challenge run began at 4 PM on April 21 1927 recorded by the Speedway’s head of timing and scoring Chester S Ricker with his assistant Odis A Porter and observed by officials from the AAA with JT Little of Marmon who represented the SAE.  A few hours after the run started rain, sleet, and snow began to fall but the Stutz team pressed on as the storm continued.

During the driver exchanges scheduled for every two hours, mechanics filled the cars’ gas tanks and radiators, made a safety check of the car and made tire changes or adjustments as needed.  The Stutz’ were equipped with standard Mason ‘Hylastic’ balloon tires and a total of three tires of were replaced during the 24 hours with two tires replaced on the standard sedan during the night as a precaution.    

On April 22 1927 after twenty-four hours, the five-passenger steel-bodied Stutz sedan took possession of the Stevens trophy having covered 1642 miles or 657 laps around the 2-1/2 mile oval at an average speed of 68.44 MPH. The Weyman fabric bodied sedan completed its 24-hour run at an average speed of 67.176 MPH having covered twelve fewer laps or 30 fewer miles. Though not eligible for the record, the Stutz “pacemaker” averaged 71.352 MPH.

The Match Race

After Stutz had won the 1927 AAA stock car championship and the Stevens Trophy, during his October 1927 visit to Paris, Stutz president Moskovics bragged to his friend Charles Weymann that the Stutz was not only the fastest car in America but perhaps in the world. Weymann was a fan of the French/Spanish Hispano-Suiza, considered at the time the fastest car on the European continent and the pair settled on a friendly wager of $25,000 (nearly $350,000 today) about which car was the fastest over 24 hours around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

After several days of practice the match race began at 1 PM on April 18 1928 before a crowd of 2,500 interested spectators. The Hispano-Suiza HC6 Boulogne powered by a six-cylinder 488-cubic inch engine rated at 144 horsepower was matched against the 125-horsepower 305-cubic inch straight-eight powered Stutz Blackhawk.  

The Stutz before the match race

the driver is unidentified in the IUPUI University photo part of the

Indidnapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the Center for Digital Studies

The Stutz driver lineup featured Tom Rooney and Gil Anderson with L.L. Corum as the reserve driver, while Weymann himself chose to drive the Hispano-Suiza paired with the 1926 24 hours of LeMans race winner Frenchman Robert Bloch. Both cars equipped with Mason balloon tires had their front fenders removed, and Weymann oddly chose to carry a spare wheel and tire.

As reported in the Indianapolis Star at the end of the first lap the Hispano-Suiza was eight seconds ahead, and over the first ten laps the Hispano-Suiza average 83.4 MPH to the Stutz’ 81.3 MPH. On its 57th lap, the Stutz pitted with a rough running engine diagnosed with the problem traced to a broken retainer on one of the engine’s thirty-two valves.  

By the rules mechanics led by Stutz machine shop foreman Michael Kirk could not use new parts and the Stutz sat motionless for one hour and 11 minutes before repairs were completed. Back underway, the Stutz completed just 11 laps before the problem resurfaced and additional repairs delayed the Blackhawk another 35 minutes.

With 147 laps completed, the Stutz broke a connecting rod in the straight eight engines and three hours were lost over to repairs (how the mechanics replaced a broken connecting rod without a new part in unclear to the author). The only saving grace for the Stutz team was that around ten o’clock a rainstorm moved across Indianapolis and the Hispano-Suiza stopped for 16 minutes. The Stutz returned to the track at 11:27 PM but at midnight stopped again with an oil leak.  At that point the Stutz was more than 300 miles behind the Hispano-Suiza having lost five of the eleven hours of running time.

At 7:56 AM on April 19 another connecting rod broke on the Stutz and 25 minutes later the Stutz camp conceded. The official record showed that the Hispano-Suiza completed 1357.5 miles to the Stutz’ 732.5 miles. Having won his $25,000 bet, Weymann suggested another match race against a similar Stutz. Run from 9:30 AM to 1 PM, the Stutz won with an average speed of 75.71 MPH to the Hispano-Suiza’s 73.57 MPH.

Despite the problems, Charles Weymann was sufficiently impressed by the Stutz Blackhawk’s performance that he bought one to race in the 1928 24 hours of LeMans. Driven by Edward Brisson and Bloch, the Stutz finished second just one lap behind the winning Bentley.

Stevens Trophy later history

a 1933 Marmon 16  "close coupled" sedan

 

The Stutz Motor Company held the perpetual Stevens Trophy until October 1931 when Marmon Model Sixteen five-passenger standard Sedan powered by an all-aluminum 16-cylinder 200 horsepower engine completed 1834 miles in 24 hours at a speed average of 76.425 MPH.  A second Marmon a LeBaron-bodied five-passenger close-coupled sedan completed its simultaneous run of 1800 miles at an average speed of 75 MPH. The driver’s identities were not revealed in the little-publicized 1931 effort which was a wasted effort as Marmon ceased auto manufacture after its 1933 reorganization.

The Marmon effort did however break the long-standing United States stock car record held by Ralph Mulford since May 1916. Mulford who finished second in the first Indianapolis 500-mile race completed his unassisted 24-hour run of 1819 miles on Harry Harkness’ wooden Sheepshead Bay Speedway in New York. The Hudson Super Six sedan made twelve pit stops during the run none of which took longer than 4-1/2 minutes. 

Samuel Stevens passed away at age 61 from a heart attack in a Greenville Texas hotel room in November 1935 during an auto trip from California to his home in Rome New York. Stevens’ will bequeathed his family home, a massive 4-turret Victorian mansion to the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post and deeded the future administration of the Stevens Challenge trophy to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation.

In June 1937 Bonneville speed and endurance champion  D. Abbott “Ab” Jenkins  and dirt track racing superstar James ‘Billy’ Winn led a group of drivers that won the Stevens Trophy for the Cord Corporation in a 1937 Cord 812 supercharged Beverley sedan. The wisdom of the entry of two cars was confirmed when during the night with Jenkins at the wheel one of the front wheel drive Cords broke a hub and lost the wheel.  

The run continued with the second Cord sedan which completed the 24 hours with 764 laps or 1910 miles completed at a speed of 79.577 MPH. The significance of the achievement was lost when the Cord Corporation filed for bankruptcy approximately six months later and the trophy was returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for safekeeping. The crème colored Cord 812 Stevens Trophy winner is presently on display in the National Auto Museum in Reno Nevada.

This 1951 photo of the Stevens Trophy Cup is from

 the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

Sixteen years passed before the Chrysler Corporation captured the Stevens Trophy in October 1953 with a superstar driver lineup that included 1951 AAA National champion Tony Bettenhausen, 1953 AAA ‘big car’ champion Pat O’Connor and California ‘big car’ racer and 1949 ‘Rounds Rocket’ pilot Bill Taylor.

This 1949 photo of Bill Taylor is from

 the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

The trio drove a 1954 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe Coupe powered by the optional 331-cubic inch 235-horsepower Firepower “Hemi” V-8 with a ‘Powerflite’ fully automatic transmission that completed 2157 ½ miles or 863 laps in 24 hours. Unlike previous record holders, the Chrysler Corporation trumpeted its achievement across the country in ½-page newspaper advertisements which called the Stevens Challenge Trophy “the greatest stock car test in the world.”

On Tuesday December 11 1962, Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Anton ‘Tony’ Hulman announced that the Stevens Challenge Trophy would be retired due to safety concerns, as the original rules laid out by Samuel Stevens banned the use of roll bars, heavy duty suspension and racing type tires. On December 17 1962 a luncheon was held and officials of the Chrysler Corporation returned the trophy to the Speedway and it remains on display in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

In our next installment of the Lora L Corum story, we’ll return to complete a look at his career at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and his tragic death.