‘Doc’ Williams at the Indianapolis '500'

Part three- from 1936 to 1940

Doc Williams poses in this photo from the author's personal collection

the year, photographer and location are all unknown

 

‘Doc’ Williams, the main subject of this article and the Cooper front-drive race cars intersected at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1936, as ‘Doc’ was paired with veteran ‘Dusty’ Fahrnow on the two-car Superior Trailer Team.   ‘Doc’ who had been employed at the Ford Motor Company in Detroit since 1933 reportedly resigned from Ford to take advantage of the Gauss/Goldberg opportunity.  

In just one year, conditions had changed dramatically at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In order to enhance the impact of the AAA “junk formula” rules and encourage the use of passenger car engines over pure racing engines, races teams were given a limited amount of fuel with which to qualify and then complete the 500-mile distance.

In 1935, the fuel limit for the race was 42 ½ gallons (11-3/4 miles per gallon average) and after the race, testing found that winner Kelly Petillo had two extra gallons, second place Wilbur Shaw had three leftover gallons, and fourth place finisher Floyd Roberts had five gallons in reserve, while only one car ran out of its entire allotment during the 1935 race. With those results in hand, for the 1936 ‘500’ the fuel allotment was reduced to just 37 ½ gallons, or a 13-1/3 miles per gallon average.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway facilities had been improved as the turns on the 2-1/2 mile oval were repaved with new asphalt, which improved the grip of the tires through the corners, although lap speeds did not increase. On the safety aspect, the concrete apron on the inside of the track’s corners had been widened, and a new outside reinforced concrete retaining wall built which was perpendicular to the racing surface.

One of the Race Car Corporation’s partners was Fred T. “Fritz” Holliday who had been involved at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1927, when he was one the owners of the ‘Jynx Special’ driven by rookie Wilbur Shaw.  The ‘Jynx Special’ was the supercharged Miller rear-drive in which Jimmy Murphy had been killed at the Syracuse “Moody Mile” in 1924. During the 1927 ‘500,’ Shaw became fatigued and Holliday suggested that young Louis Meyer relieve Shaw. Together the pair who would score six Indianapolis victories between them, brought the “Jynx Special” home in fourth place in 1927. 

Holliday was a 1920 graduate of Yale University, and a former vice-president at the family’s J.W. Holliday & Company steel company based in Chicago, although “Fritz” lived in Indianapolis. In 1935, “Fritz” and his brother started the Monarch Steel Company. As a partner in the Race Car Corporation of Indianapolis, Holliday continued to own the Cooper front-drive race car up until his death in July 1951, and was a long-time friend of Anton Hulman Junior, and was partner with Hulman in the ownership of the 98-foot, 103-ton yacht Marmot which was berthed in Michigan City Indiana.

After “Doc” qualified for the ‘500,’ the Franklin Evening Star newspaper proclaimed on May 25 1936 that “Doc Williams is back, with a new car, nerves of brass and silver dollars, and is ready for his fourth and by far his greatest assault on the 500.”  The article continued that “after four years of worry and work at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Doc has got the best combination money can buy. 'Doc' was quoted "I'm out for gold and glory, with the emphasis on the gold. The glory won't buy sandwiches."

 

The Evening Star article described his qualifying run: “Doc not only the smallest but the youngest driver on the track, and his riding mechanic, brother-in-law, Ray Short, both were so light that they bounced around on those rubber cushions like balls on a feather bed." The article noted that ‘Doc's’ father, Dr. Walter J. Williams, was at the Speedway to see his son qualify. Williams’ teammate ‘Dusty’ Fahrnow did not make the 33-car starting field with the #55 Cooper front-drive ‘Superior Trailer Special,’ but the details of 'Dusty’s' failure to qualify are unknown. 

During the race, on the 26th lap 'Doc’s' machine and Babe Stapp’s ‘Wheeler’s Special’ driven by Louis Tomei brushed together in one of the turns but both cars continued.  On lap 192, the ‘Superior Trailer Special’ Miller engine exhausted its fuel supply and the Cooper front drive machine coasted to a stop and was placed 16th. Clearly the AAA rule makers had gone too far in further reducing the fuel allotment for the 500-mile race, as six other entries ran out fuel during the last 20 laps.

As result of the late race attrition due to fuel starvation during the 1936 ‘500’, the fuel allotment rule was rescinded for 1937 and the #57 chassis for ‘Doc’ Williams was again powered by the Gauss U-16 “twin Miller” engine. The Race Car Corporation of Indianapolis was the official entrant for the second time and also entered a second Cooper chassis for mustachioed rookie driver Louis Webb which still carried a four-cylinder Miller engine. Both entries sported Superior Trailer Manufacturing sponsorship, and neither ‘Doc’ nor Webb made qualifying runs fast enough to make the 33-car starting field for the 1937 '500.'

Webb, a former Legion Ascot ‘big car’ mechanic and racer originally from Knoxville Tennessee who listed Beverly Hills as his home, had been around the Speedway since 1934 as a riding mechanic, but 1937 was his first time to drive on the big 2-1/2 mile brick oval.  

Louis Webb tried unsuccessfully to make the ‘500 field in 1939 in Walt Woestman’s McDowell powered machine and 1940 in Charles Voelker’s V-16 car  before he was killed at the Syracuse ‘Moody Mile’ on Labor Day 1940.  Webb’s Marks Offenhauser ran over the back of Cavino ‘Kelly’ Petillo’s machine and flipped end-over-end three times in front of the New York State Fair grandstand on the 18th lap of the 100-mile race.

1938 AAA engine displacement/weight sheet

For the 1938 ‘500,’ ‘Doc’ Williams’  entry, the 4-cylinder 248 cubic inch Offenhauser powered #46 ‘Ben Been Special’ was reportedly the only car on the grounds that still carried a riding mechanic, which was no longer required. The AAA “Junk Formula” rules package, in effect since 1930, had been scrapped in favor of the new international rules package which used a sliding scale of weight and engine displacement. Williams’ riding mechanic in the ‘Ben Been Special’ was again his brother-in-law Ray Short.

'Doc' Williams and Ray Short in the 'Ben Been Special'

photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

An article in the Logansport Press described the car as “a Miller type machine,” entered by first time entrant Ben Been who owned a LaSalle car dealer in the tiny Carroll County town of Burrows Indiana, although the author suspects Williams was the actual race car owner.  

The fastest laps ‘Doc’ ran all month were around 120 MPH, and he made his two unsuccessful attempts to qualify on May 25. During his third and final qualifying attempt on May 28, the ‘Ben Been Special’ spun as it exited turn two and into the infield. Williams and Short were uninjured in the incident, but they had run out of chances to make the 1938 ‘500’ starting field.  

For the 1939 ‘500,’ ‘Doc’ was again the driver of the "Miller type" front-drive machine now powered by a 270 cubic inch Offenhauser engine and sponsored by the Quillen Brothers Refrigerator Company of Indianapolis. On the final day of time trials May 28, there was drama as Billy Devore beat the clock to start his run then bumped out George Robson with a ten-mile run with an average speed just 2/10 of a mile per hour faster than Robson’s. When the final qualifying gun went off, Williams’ #36 was sitting second in line to make an attempt, so ‘Doc’ missed racing on Decoration Day for the second year in a row.    

‘Doc’ Williams’ sponsors, Carl L. and Clarence A. Quillen, started their commercial refrigerator business which sold units throughout the Midwest in September 1931 and had built their new factory building in 1936 at 1639 Lafayette Road just north of 16th Street on a lot which  backed up to the White River.  Their company slogan was "Our customers know that every Quillen product more than pays for itself."

'Doc' Williams in 1940

photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

By the 28th running of the International 500-mile Sweepstakes in 1940, the Cooper front-drive chassis had been narrowed and fitted with new bodywork that disguised its 1927 origins. ‘Doc’ qualified the red #36 ‘Quillen Brothers Special’ powered by 255-cubic Miller Marine engine into the starting field on May 26 with a four-lap average of 122.963 MPH for nineteenth starting position on the inside of the seventh row.

'Doc' Williams in 1940

photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

Williams was the only driver to qualify on the second weekend of time trials due to rain, which forced Speedway officials to stage qualifying runs on Monday and Tuesday in order to fill the 33-car field.  In a race marked with low attrition, the ‘Quillen Brothers Special’ finished 25th after the oil line broke on lap 61. For his second ‘500’ start in eight attempts ‘Doc’ earned $590.

The years following their 1940 Indianapolis ‘500’ race car sponsorship did not go well for the Quillen brothers. On January 21 1944, less than six weeks after the death of “Doc’ Williams’ original sponsor Clarence O. Warnock, Carl Quillen was killed when he lost control of his car as he drove through the north side of Indianapolis on his way home to Zionsville.  Carl’s car swerved across the centerline and struck a tree on the opposite side of the road. The car was demolished, and Quillen was thrown into the road where his lifeless body was found by Marion County Sheriff Deputies Glyndon Macy and Meritt Smith. Carl Quillen, survived by his wife and two sons is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.

Clarence Quillen's patent drawing for a refrigerated 

display case patent number 2513675

Clarence continued to run the Quillen Brothers Company which profited handsomely from selling refrigerators to the military during the Second World War, and on December 9 1945 announced plans for a 5000-square foot plant expansion. Quillen planned to install $75,000 worth of new equipment for the manufacture of two sizes of home freezer units and several sizes of Clarence’s patented design of display cases for national distribution.

Unfortunately less than three years later in April 1948 the firm filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy in Southern District Federal Court, a situation which Clarence blamed on the steel shortage which caused the 17-year-old company to “run out of cash." Quillen's petition showed that the firm had only $1 cash on hand, $51,513 in bank deposits versus $231,818 in debts. The plant and equipment of the Quillen Brothers Refrigerator Company valued at $230,000 were sold at a private sale on July 14 1948.

Our next installment will trace ‘Doc’ Miller's ongoing attempts to qualify the Cooper front drive machine at Indianapolis in 1941, 1946 and 1948 and his big shot at glory in 1947.

‘Doc’ Williams at the Indianapolis '500'

Part two - the Cooper front drive cars

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

 

‘Doc’ Williams returned for his third attempt at Indianapolis glory in 1936 assigned to drive the ‘Superior Trailer Special,’ a Miller-powered front wheel drive car originally built in 1927 by Earl Cooper. Before we continue with the ‘Doc’ Williams story, today we feature this sidebar on the history of the Cooper front drive cars from 1927 through 1935.

Construction and racing by Cooper

Earl Cooper in 1924

Earl Cooper, the three-time American Automobile Association (AAA) national champion in 1913, 1915, and 1917, had a remarkable driving career both before and after World War One. Before the war, as a member of the powerful Stutz Racing Team, Cooper notched sixteen victories mostly on dirt tracks and early road courses. Cooper a close friend of Barney Oldfield’s returned to race driving in 1922 at age 36 and proved to be an adept board track racer during the Miller 122 and 91 cubic inch eras with a string of top five finishes.   

During the 1926 AAA season, Cooper bought the Miller supercharged 91-cubic inch chassis number #2605 and over the winter of 1926-7, he built three copies, funded by Buick Motors with the approval and assistance of Harry A. Miller. Each of the three cars were powered by a supercharged 91 cubic-inch eight-cylinder Miller engine breathing through four Miller Dual Throat Updraft carburetors that produced 167 horsepower and powered the front wheels.

The three new Cooper Front Drive cars in 1927

The major difference between a Miller and Cooper was the front drive assembly. Instead of the Miller jewel-like front drive, with the design assistance of Leo Gosssen, Copper’s cars used a Ruckstell planetary gearset with two-speed Ruckstell axle to achieve four forward speeds powered by Miller supercharged engines.

Buick withdrew its support and all four of Earl Cooper’s cars were entered by Cooper Engineering for veterans Peter Kreis, Bennett Hill, and Jules Ellingboe.  All three new cars qualified for the 1927 ‘500,’ but Kreis’s and Hill’s cars had mechanical failure and Ellingboe crashed so only McDonough finished coming in with a sixth place finish.

Peter Kreis in the Marmon Special in 1928

By the time of the 1928 ‘500,’ Earl Cooper had sold his original Miller chassis and landed Nordyke & Marmon Company sponsorship for two of his three cars. All three Cooper-owned cars driven by Kreis, Russell Snowberger, and Johnny Seymour qualified for the starting field, but none finished the race, with two of three cars retired with supercharger failure while Kreis’ car lost a rod bearing.

For the 1929 ‘500’ all three cars were entered as ‘Cooper Engineering Specials,’ for Fred Frame  Johnny Seymour, and Snowberger but again only one driven by Fred Frame finished the race in tenth place seven laps behind race winner Ray Keech’s Miller. Snowberger was eliminated early for the second year in a row by supercharger failure and Seymour’s car broke a rear axle.  During the winter of 1920-1930, perhaps in anticipation of the coming AAA “Junk Formula,” Cooper sold all three front-drive cars to Herman N. Gauss, who ran a garage and welding shop at 916 East Washington Street in Indianapolis.

Herman Gauss’ ownership of the Cooper Front Drive Cars

Herman Gauss had just emerged from a nasty legal scrape. On October 3 1927, a car driven by Herman with his brother George as passenger collided head-on with another car at the intersection of Fifty-Fourth Street and Kessler Boulevard in Indianapolis.  While the Gauss brothers were just slightly injured, the couple in the other Mr. and Mrs.  Manthey of Brownsburg, were killed.

Witnesses claimed that Herman Gauss’ car was traveling over 60 MPH, and the Marion County Grand Jury charged Gauss with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Over two years passed before Herman’s trial was held on November 29 1929, and Marion County Criminal court Judge Robert Dalton declared that he was unable to determine who was responsible for the accident from the evidence and testimony and found Gauss not guilty. 

After purchasing the cars from Earl Cooper, Gauss, a sometime race car driver, widened the rear of the chassis, revised the engines, and built new bodies on two of the Copper chassis to comply with the new-two man cockpit rules in the 1930 AAA “Junk Formula.”  Gauss sold the third car without the engine to car builder Floyd A. Smith of Long Island New York.  

Johnny Seymour in 1929

Herman Gauss entered his pair of cars powered by 100 cubic inch displacement unsupercharged eight-cylinder Miller engines for the 1930 ‘500’ as the “Gauss Front Drive Specials” for young rookie Hoosier dirt track driver Joe Huff and former Legion Ascot motorcycle racer Johnny Seymour. The Gauss entries easily qualified but neither one finished the 1930 ‘500.  Seymour crashed on lap 21, one of nine cars eliminated in turn two crashes over a period of ten laps.

Huff drove  just eight laps and had to be relieved by two drivers - first it was Ted Chamberlain from Olean New York, who drove 20 laps before he was replaced by William "Speed" Gardner. With Gardner at the wheel  a valve broke in the engine on lap 48 and sidelined the Gauss FD

Floyd Smith entered the third Cooper similarly modified like the Gauss cars but powered with a 215 cubic inch Miller straight eight engine for the 1931 ‘500’as the #3 ‘Empire State Gas Motors Special’ for driver “Wild Bill” Cummings. The two Gauss entries, number #69 and #71, used the same of pair of drivers as the previous year with sponsorship from the Goldberg brothers and their Highway Truck Parts Corporation which sold used trucks and part from their location at 1125 East Georgia Street.

The five Goldberg brothers – the oldest brother Irving, then Max, Samuel, Charles (an attorney), and Manning, were all born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants. The Goldberg family arrived in Indianapolis during the mid-teens and built up a complex group of interconnected companies. 

Goldberg companies included Irving’s Indianapolis Auto Parts & Tire Co. at 518 North Capitol Avenue, Max’s Superior Trailer Manufacturing at 2100 Fletcher Avenue,  Samuel’s Highway Truck Parts Corporation 1125 East Georgia Street, and Manning’s Rex Trailer Company, which built and sold circus trailers and portable electric power plants next door at 1127 East Georgia Street, During the nineteen fifties the Goldberg family bought a number of multi-unit properties that included the Wyndham on North Delaware Street and the Hotel Continental at 410 North Meridian Street. 

Cummings started Floyd Smith’s ‘Empire State Gas Motors Special’ from the middle of the front row with a 112.563 MPH qualifying average speed, while Joe Huff in the ‘Goldberg Brothers Special’ #69 “crowded” or bumped his way into the field at 102.386 MPH and started last in the 1931 ‘500’ 40-car field, but Johnny Seymour in the #71 ‘Highway Truck Parts Special’ was too slow.  Cummings led four laps in the early going of the race, but was out on lap 70 with a broken oil line and won $710.   Huff, a tortoise in comparison to Cummings, finished the 500-mile grind in sixteenth place, 20 laps behind winner Louis Schneider and won $375.

Joe Huff later raced the ‘Highway Truck Parts Special’ on July 4 1931 at the board track at Altoona, Pennsylvania but the car was much changed from Indianapolis. Gauss had combined two of his straight eight Miller engines in a “U” configuration to create a 16-cylinder engine. Huff started fourth but the car crashed and overturned on lap 36 of 80. The Smith/Empire car also appeared at Altoona and finished second.  Surprisingly for a front drive car, the Empire entry was also competitive on the dirt tracks during 1931 and finished third at Detroit and Syracuse.

Paul Bost drove Smith’s ‘Empire State Gas Motors Special’  at Indianapolis in 1932 and qualified eighth while Huff qualified the 8-cylinder 100-cubic inch Miller powered #53 ‘Goldberg Special’ in the 15th starting position for the 1932 Indianapolis ‘500.  Unfortunately Huff’s teammate, rookie Herbert ‘Dusty’ Fahrnow crashed the U-16 powered ‘Highway Truck Parts Special’ in turn two during practice on the final day of time trials May 28, but was uninjured. Huff, with relief from Fahrnow, finished the 1932 ‘500’ in tenth place and completed the full distance 54 minutes after winner Fred Frame. Bost’s car broke a crankshaft on lap 18 and Smith’s Cooper front drive chassis subsequently dropped out of sight until 1934.

Gauss and the Goldberg brothers lined up a pair of veterans to drive their entries in the 1933 ‘500;’ six-race veteran Ralph Hepburn drove the 16-cylinder 190-cubic inch “twin Miler” powered  ‘Highway Truck Parts Special and six-race veteran Bennett Hill took the wheel of the 16-cylinder all-aluminum 330-cubic inch Marmon Series 16 powered  ‘Goldberg Special.’ Hill qualified nineteenth, while Hepburn bumped into the field in 41st position. Neither car finished as both retired with broken connecting rods, Hepburn’s on lap 33 and Hill’s on lap 158.

 In 1934 Herman Gauss entered both 16-cylinder powered Cooper front drive chassis for the ‘500.’ ‘Dusty’ Fahrnow returned as the driver of the #42 car with sponsorship from the Superior Trailer Manufacturing, a company Max Goldberg had started in 1929. As mentioned earlier, ‘Doc’ Williams was nominated as the drivers of the other Gauss entry the #38 ‘Highway Truck Parts Special’ but the AAA rejected ‘Doc’ as a driver and the #38 car sat for the month of May 1934.  

Fahrnow qualified the ‘Superior Trailer special’ in 24th position with the fastest time posted on Sunday May 28 at 113.070 MPH and then finished 24th after the 16-cylinder 330-cubic inch Marmon engine burned a rod bearing on lap 28. The Floyd Smith-owned Cooper front drive car meantime reappeared powered with a 250-cubic inch Studebaker President eight-cylinder engine driven by Studebaker engineer Tony Gulotta, who qualified seventh but retired with a broken connecting rod on lap 94 before the Smith car again dropped from sight again before it resurfaced in 1936 owned by Chicago union organizer Mike Boyle.

In 1935 #53 ‘Superior Trailer Special’ was practiced during the month by “Dusty” Fahrnow but he was too slow in his only qualifying attempt.  Chicago midget racer Jimmy Snyder then jumped in and posted a time fast enough to make the field, but the ‘Superior Trailer Special’ was disqualified from the starting field after qualifying when an inspection found that the car had used more the allowed amount of fuel (2 gallons and one pint) to complete the ten-lap run.  Rookie Snyder then jumped into Joel Thorne’s 336-cubic inch eight-cylinder Studebaker powered “Blue Prelude Special” and qualified for the starting field but retired from the ‘500’ early with a broken rear spring.

In our next installment, we will return to the story of ‘Doc’ Williams in 1936 at Indianapolis, behind the wheel of the Cooper front wheel drive machine that he would become associated with for most of the next dozen years.