The Pete Kreis story Part five 1932 to his death and beyond

 

The Pete Kreis story

Part five 

1932 to his death and beyond

The photo from the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection shows Pete Kreis, left shaking hands with Henry Ford in 1932

Following the 1931 Indianapolis 500-mile race, at Cliff Durant’s direction, Tommy Milton sold the ‘Detroit Special’ (last raced by Kreis in 1929) to Harry Hartz, who had metalsmith Phil Summers build a two-man body. Hartz installed a 182- cubic inch straight-8 Miller engine in the chassis and entered ‘Miller-Hartz 2’ in the 1932 International 500-Mile Sweepstakes.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Eddie Rickenbacker’s dream of automaker involvement under the “junk formula” came true in 1932 with the Studebaker factory’s five entries. A year earlier, prolific Indianapolis race car builder Herman Rigling built one car for Ab Jenkins and Studebaker chief engineer George Hunt that used a Studebaker Commander straight-eight engine, transmission and axles. 

Although it crashed out on lap 167, the car performed well enough in the 1931 ‘500,’ that the Studebaker Corporation hired Rigling to build four copies for the 1932 ‘500.’

The factory supplied the 336 cubic-inch, L-head, 8-cylinder Studebaker President engines, 3-speed manual transmissions,  front and rear axles, brakes and steering components. Rigling built the chassis and Pop Dreyer built the two-man bodies. 

Hunt designed an intake manifold fitted with four Studebaker single-throat carburetors, supplemented with an aftermarket exhaust manifold and magneto which boosted engine output from 110 to 175 horsepower. 

The driver lineup for the Studebaker team included Tony Gulotta, the 1931 driver, Luther Johnson, Zeke Myer, Cliff Bergere and Albert Jacob “Pete” Kreis. The cars were each painted in a different Studebaker President passenger car color – silver, black, blue, red and green. 

Even before the big track opened for practice, on Sunday May 1 the team ran a test led by manager and Chief Engineer George Hunt. Gulotta and Johnson drove a combined 660 miles in one of the team cars reportedly at an average speed of 102.6 MPH “exclusive of the pit stops” per the Indianapolis News. 

Peter Kreis is his Studebaker for the 1932 '500' at the right of this photo of the team courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

Four of the Studebaker team cars qualified on the first day of time trials, Saturday May 21 and Bergere led the team in qualifying as the #22 averaged 111.503 MPH to start tenth. Cliff just edged his teammate Luther Johnson’s four-lap run of 111.218 MPH which placed the #46 Studebaker eleventh.  Kreis in the #18 wound up seventeenth fastest at 110.270 MPH while Gulotta posted a 108.896 MPH average and would start twentieth. 

Zeke Meyer in the final Studebaker Corporation entry, qualified on the eighth and final day of times trials, on Saturday May 28th and ran ten laps at an average speed of 110.745 MPH to start 38th in the 40-car starting field.     

On Decoration Day Monday May 30 1932, it initially appeared that it would be another runaway by Billy Arnold and Matlock in ‘Miller-Hartz 1’ as they took the lead of lap 2 and proceeded to lap the field. 

However, in an eerie repeat of the previous year, Arnold and Matlock crashed in turn three on their 59th lap after the car slid in oil while they lapped Pete Kreis’ car and hit the wall injuring both driver and mechanic  for the second year in a row. This time Matlock suffered a broken pelvis while Arnold broke his collar bone, but Arnold never raced again, reportedly at the urging of his wife.  

After a mid-race 36-lap duel with Wilbur Shaw, Fred Frame in ‘Miller-Hartz 2’ took command on the 153rd lap and led the rest of the way.  Frame, with riding mechanic Jerry Houck  won the 1932 ‘500’ by a lap over Howdy Wilcox II with a new record average speed of 104.144 MPH despite the necessity for six pit stops to add water to the radiator for the overheated Miller engine. 

Three of the Studebaker entries finished the 1932 ‘500’. Bergere and his riding mechanic Vern Lake led the Studebaker team with a third place finish in the red #22 only four minutes behind winner Frame. 

Meyer (unrelated to fellow driver Louis)  and Walter Mitchell finished sixth in their green #37 with an average speed of 98.476 MPH, and Gulotta and his mechanic Carl Riscigno scored a 13th place finish in the silver #25 flagged with 184 laps completed; they were positioned for a good finish but lost considerable time when a tire blew in turn one late in the race. 

The two Studebaker entries that failed to finish were both the victims of crashes. On lap 164, Luther Johnson’s black #46 Studebaker with Billy Mallar alongside lost a wheel on the main straightaway. Kreis lost control of the blue Studebaker #18 on the main straightaway on lap 178 and crashed in turn one in front of the ‘E’ grandstand. Pete and his riding mechanic Aaron B. Vance, an Indianapolis resident, finished 15th, one spot better than Johnson.

Four nights later, all the Studebaker team members, including the pit crew, were honored in a testimonial dinner held in the Studebaker Corporation Administration Building in South Bend Indiana.  Prize monies were awarded and top Studebaker officials took turns praising the team. The South Bend Tribune reported the comments of Paul Hoffman vice president of sales “the biggest tribute I can pay them is to say that they performed even more credibly than expected.”

On June 22^nd, Kreis and Vance were back at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway “making an experimental run,” (Firestone tire tests) when a tire blew out and the car reportedly “went over the retaining wall” in the third turn.  Details were sketchy, just that Kreis’ injuries “are not serious,” as reported by the Knoxville News-Sentinel while the Indianapolis Star reported both men suffered broken ribs, cuts and bruises.

Later in the summer of 1932, Pete took part in the Studebaker traveling auto show that stopped at Studebaker dealerships across the state of Pennsylvania. Pete appeared with one of the Studebaker Indianapolis cars and gave a brief talk about his racing experiences. 

In one appearance in Altoona, newspaper advertisements claimed Pete would drive the race car through noon day traffic while he wore a blindfold and black hood.

One night after Christmas 1932, Pete had another close call when his Chrysler coupe plunged off Topside Road near Knoxville, caught fire and burned to the ground but Pete received no injuries. 

For the 1933 race, the AAA Contest Board instituted a new rule that limited fuel tanks to 15 gallons and a limit of six gallons of oil used during the race. 

Following his success in the 1932 ‘500,’ winning driver Fred Frame went on a spending spree. Frame bought the “Miller-Hartz 1” (crashed by Arnold in 1931 and 1932) and rechristened it as the “Frame-Miller.”

Frame also bought a four-cylinder Miller 220-cubic inch powered Duesenberg 122 chassis built in 1930 and entered in the 1933 Indianapolis ‘500,’ while he continued to drive “Miller-Hartz 2” for Harry Hartz in 1933.  

Hartz nominated 1932 AAA Pacific Southwest Big Car championship runner-up mustachioed rookie driver Lester “Les” Spangler for his second entry, a rear-drive four-cylinder Miller 255 cubic inch-powered Miller chassis. Hartz purchased this car, the 303-cubic inch DOHC Miller V-16 powered machine from Bill White, shortened the chassis and in place of the V-16 installed one of the first Miller 255 cubic inch engines.

When the official Indianapolis entry list closed on May 1, 1933 Frame had nominated Pete Kreis as the driver of the front-drive Frame-Miller, while Paul Bost would pilot the Duesenberg. On May 3 the Knoxville New-Sentinel reported that Pete Kreis left Knoxville for Indianapolis. 

As he departed Knoxville Kreis told the reporter “I believe I will have my best chance to win this time.” Upon arrival in Indianapolis Kreis found that his car had not arrived, and Pete, a scratch golfer wiled away his time with Bill Heinlein on the Speedway golf course according to the Indianapolis News.

On Saturday May 20 1933, Pete Kreis, on his second attempt, qualified the gray and blue trimmed #2 machine at an average speed 114.370 MPH for his 10-lap 25-mile time trial run which slotted him eleventh in the 42-car starting field on Decoration Day.  Pete had aborted his first attempt earlier in the day after nine laps were completed due to a tire problem.   

A driver protest delayed the start of the 1933 International 500-mile Sweepstakes. Speedway physician DR.  H R Allen disqualified sixth-fastest qualifier Howdy Wilcox II due his diabetic condition (reported as epilepsy). The other 41 drivers protested and refused to start the race and presented a petition signed by all 41 drivers that demanded that Wilcox be allowed to race.

Dr. Allen refused to allow Wilcox to compete, and the drivers remained unmoved even after AAA steward Eddie Edenburn’s impassioned speech.  Finally, after more than an hour’s delay, Speedway officials pushed Wilcox’s ‘Gilmore Special’ off the grid and Edenburn ordered Mauri Rose to start the car from the tail of the field.        

With the first thirty laps completed, Kreis with mechanic Charles Marant rode in seventh place in ‘Miller Hartz 1’, one lap behind leader Bill Cummings, but Pete retired on lap 63 with a broken universal joint in the left front wheel. 22 laps later, his car owner Frame joined Pete on the sidelines as his Miller-Hartz broke a timing gear.

On lap 132, the Hartz second car, the cream and red #14 tangled with Malcom Fox’s semi-stock Studebaker and rolled onto the wall in turn two. Several hours later both driver Spangler and riding mechanic Glenn "Monk" Jordan died of their injuries, the fifth and sixth victims of crashes at the Speedway in May 1933.  Louis Meyer led 71 laps to win his second Indianapolis 500-mile race.

Eighteen days later, on June 17^th 1933, Kreis and his friend and instructor Charles “Sonny” Rising took off from Island Airport near downtown Knoxville, but the engine in Kreis’ Waco biplane quit on takeoff. The plane stalled from a height of 300 feet, grazed a tree and crashed into the Tennessee River upside down.

Kreis, despite his injured right eye, arm and shoulder and the loss of the tip of the middle finger on his right hand, pulled the unconscious Rising from the wreckage and saved “Sonny” from drowning. After their rescue, both men were admitted to Howard-Henderson Hospital, with Pete released a week after the accident to convalesce at home.

After five deaths at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1933, for the 1934 International 500-mile Sweepstakes, the AAA instituted a limit of 45 gallons of fuel and six gallons of oil per car for the 500 miles to slow the cars down. The teams were allotted three gallons of gasoline to qualify, estimated at 12 laps for a time trial run; one lap to get up to speed, the ten timed laps and one cool-off lap.

Just before he left for Indianapolis, Pete took delivery of his new car, a 1934 Ford Model 40 (V8-powered) 3-window coupe from the Vester Motor Company located on Main Street in Knoxville.

Hartz entered his car number 14 without a driver named and when Harry and the front drive Miller- Hartz 2 (the 1932 ‘500’ winner) arrived at the Speedway on Sunday May 13 Indianapolis Star reporter W F Sturm quizzed Hartz as to possible drivers.  Hartz mentioned rumors of Billy Arnold, and Sturm reported that when asked about Pete’s desire to drive the car, Hartz stated that Kreis had not a said anything to him about it.

Three days later, Hartz had still not named a driver but on Wednesday May 23 Sturm reported that Kreis will “probably drive the Hartz car.” On Thursday May 24^th Hartz announced that Kreis would take his first laps on the morning Friday May 25 and qualify later that day. Lengthy practice would not be needed as the reader will recall that Pete a veteran at the Speedway, drove the ‘Miller-Hartz 2’ chassis in 1926 powered by a supercharged 91-cubic inch Miller-powered engine and in 1929 as the two-stage supercharged “Detroit Special.”

It was later reported that at 7:40 AM on Friday May 25, Kreis and fellow driver Cliff Bergere stopped at the corner of Michigan Street and White River Parkway while they were enroute to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and lent aid in a fatal passenger car accident until the ambulance arrived.  

Just after 9 AM, the 34-year veteran Tennessee racer headed onto the track to take his first practice laps for 1934. Reportedly, Kreis and his riding mechanic Bob Hahn turned several slow warm-up laps, then ran several laps at approximately 90 MPH before Pete picked up the throttle for a flat-out lap.  In the Garage Area, car owner Hartz supervised a photography session with Frame and no one in the pit area seemed to pay much attention until the #14 car did not appear.

Patrolman J R McCormick of the Indiana State Police, on duty on 16^th Street, later provided the only eyewitness report. McCormick stated that he heard the car hit the wall at the exit of turn one then he watched it slide along the wall for approximately 80 feet before the car climbed the 3-foot high wall and slid along the top of the short chute wall for approximately 75 feet.

This Indianapolis Star photo shows the damage to the Miller-Hartz 2 in Pete's fatal crash as the car is in the garage area the following day. 

The ‘Miller-Hartz 2’ fell off the south wall and tumbled down the 16-foot banking and hit a tree. After the car hit the tree it broke in half. The front of the car from the cowl forward including the engine and front drive traveled another 40 feet while the crushed tail of the car rested against the tree.

Officer McCormick rushed to the scene and removed Hahn from the wreckage of the car but he died before the ambulance arrived. McCormick reported Kreis’ body landed 20 feet from the wreckage and that Pete had been killed instantly.

Doctor John Slab, the Marion County deputy coroner who investigated reported that Kreis suffered a fractured skull, crushed chest and partial amputation trauma to both his legs. Hahn, the riding mechanic, suffered a fractured skull, broken leg and arm and crushed chest.  

The #14 Miller-Hartz reportedly struck the same tree George W. “Benny” Benefiel hit in the crash of the Jones & Maley Special in qualifying two years earlier that killed riding mechanic Harry Cox. Officials never determined the cause of the Kreis fatal accident but speculation focused on mechanical or tire failure.

A later unidentified witness described as a track guard by the Indidapolis News claimed that he saw the #14 car’s wheels shimmying before it hit the wall. Based on that observation, experts surmised that either a steering knuckle or tie rod connection broke.

The afternoon of the Kreis/Hahn fatality, Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Eddie Rickenbacker gave what in retrospect seems to be a rather callous statement to the Indianapolis News “a serious accident happened at the race track this forenoon and I deeply regret it. However, it is a thing that happens in every walk of life. Men are willing to take a chance in pioneering for progress and glory.” 

21-year-old riding mechanic Williams Robert “Bob” or “Howdy” Hahn, raised on a turkey ranch in Chino (often erroneously reported as Chico) California had raced on the West Coast in some CARA (California Auto Racing Association) dirt track events in 1932.

Hahn raced “back east” in 1933 at tracks in Lewistown Pennsylvania, Woodbridge and Flemington New Jersey and the Harford County fairground in Maryland.  In 1934 he returned to California, lived in Manhattan Beach and worked as a mechanic for Harry Hartz. Bob, divorced with a son William Hahn Junior was buried May 29 1934 in Forest Park Cemetery in Glendale California.

With Pete’s mother at home convalescing after an appendectomy, Kreis family friend Dr. Herbert Craig and Pete’s brother-in-law Herbert Clark left Knoxville on Friday for Indianapolis to retrieve and return Pete’s remains to Knoxville, with his funeral held on Sunday afternoon May 27.

Several hundred people attended the ceremony at Mann’s Chapel with more than a hundred floral offerings that included a 12-foot diameter floral steering wheel. The funeral procession to Asbury Cemetery in Knox County included more than 100 cars where Pete Kreis, a bachelor survived by grandparents, parents, 2 brothers and 3 married sisters was interred.  

One brother, John, died in a car accident two years later and the other, Roy, with whom Pete worked with at the construction firm, died of a heart attack in 1937. His mother died in 1938 at age 65 and his father fell to his death in a barn on his turkey farm at age 72 in 1945.     

After being torn in half in the crash Louis “Curly” Wetteroth rebuilt the ‘Miller Hartz 2’ for Harry Hartz who entered the car at Indianapolis in 1936.  Sophomore driver Eylard Theodore ‘Ted’ Horn started eleventh, led 16 laps and finished in second place at Indianapolis in 1936.

Horn returned in the same car the following year, fitted with a supercharger, and finished in third place in the 1937 Indianapolis 500-mile race. In 1938, after the end of the “junk formula” rules package, fitted with a new body and rear suspension, Horn qualified sixth and finished fourth in the ‘Miller-Hartz 2’

After Ted Horn left Hartz for the Boyle Valve racing team for 1939, veteran Herb Ardinger drove the Miller-Hartz in 1939 followed by midget racer Mel Hansen in 1940. Hartz did not enter the car for the 1941 running of the 500-mile race. 

After the war, new car owner Robert J McManus entered it for rookie Tony Bettenhausen in 1946 and Tony made his first '500' start in the machine and finished 20th.  In 1947, motorcycle racer  Roland Free returned after a 17-year absence and finsihed 17th after he spun out on lap 87. 

Acquired by Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Anton “Tony” Hulman after its racing days, today the ‘Miller-Hartz 2’ is part of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum collection restored and displayed as the 1932 ‘500’ winner.  

Author's photos of the restored Miller-Hartz 2 at the

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum

author's photo

Albert Jacob “Pete” Kreis’ cemetery monument, erected in September 1935, measures 11 feet wide and 5 feet high and weighs an estimated eight tons including the concrete foundation. On the face of the monument is a replica of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway race track, complete with a detailed marble replica of the #14 Miller-Hartz car jumping the wall at the location of Pete’s fatal crash. The inscription on the monument reads “The Last Lap.” 

author's photo

The center of the marble monument is a detailed relief portrait of Pete in his racing helmet while the left side of the monument shows the outline of a race starter that strongly resembles AAA steward Eddie Edenburn as he displays the checkered flag.

The huge block of grey Tennessee marble came from the Kreis family’s Appalachian Marble Quarry Company.  The sculptor of the monument, Italian emigre Albert Milani of the Day Marble & Granite Company, worked non-stop for nine weeks to complete the monument placed in the Asbury cemetery located two miles from Pete’s childhood home.  Readers of The New York Times Magazine recognized Milani’s work on the Pete Kreis monument as the most outstanding of 1935.    

In July 1948, the new Broadway Speedway in Fountain City, north of Knoxville presented “The Pete Kreis Memorial” midget racing program on its ¼-mile dirt oval sanctioned by the short-lived Indiana-based Consolidated Midget Auto Racing Association.

The CMARA racers mainly drove V8-60 Ford powered midgets, but boasted two stars in Offenhauser-powered midgets – Woody Campbell and Gene Force, but Walter “Leadfoot” Geis won the race and received the trophy from Hazen Kreis, Pete’s first cousin. Although the track existed through the 1958 season it never repeated the “Pete Kreis Memorial Race.”

A sportsman that competed purely for the love of sport, Pete Kreis never won any AAA races but his driving skills were highly regarded by fellow competitors (and later car owners) Harry Hartz, Earl Cooper, and Tommy Milton. Kreis competed in a very dangerous era of automobile racing with cloth helmets wound up giving his life for the sport, and his sacrifice is honored with a magnificent monument. 

 

 

The Pete Kreis story Part three 1927 & 1928 The Cooper years

 

The Pete Kreis story

Part three 1927 & 1928  

The Cooper years

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 before he retired in 1919.

Cooper, a close friend of Barney Oldfield since their early years, raced just once in the 1921 and 1922 season before he returned to full-time driving in 1923 at age 37. Earl proved to be an adept board track racer during the Miller 122-cubic inch era with a string of top five finishes and Cooper finished second in the AAA drivers’ standings in 1924 and fifth in 1925.

During the 1926 AAA season, Cooper drove the Miller supercharged 91-cubic inch front wheel drive chassis number #2605 and eventually bought the car.  Over the winter of 1926-7, funded by Buick Motor Company, Earl Cooper built three cars which were essentially Miller copies, with the full approval and assistance of Harry A. Miller.

The new Cooper cars were each equipped by supercharged 91 cubic-inch eight-cylinder Miller copies which reversed the intake and exhaust manifold locations and breathed through four Miller “Dual Throat Updraft’ carburetors that produced 167 horsepower and powered the front wheels.

The front drive assembly marked the major difference between a Miller and Cooper. Instead of the Miller jewel-like front drive, designed and engineered by Leo Gosssen, Cooper’s cars used patented Ruckstell planetary gearsets with two-speed Ruckstell axles to achieve four forward speeds.  

Left to Right

Eddie Pullen

Joe Thomas 

Glover Ruckstell

circa 1914

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Ruckstell components were designed and manufactured by retired pioneer racer Glover Ruckstell, born in San Francisco in 1891 and raised across the Bay in Oakland. After just two years of high school, Ruckstell dropped out of school and by age 20 became a partner in an automobile repair garage in Maricopa California.    

Ruckstell began automobile racing around Bakersfield in 1913 and by the following year became a member of the successful Mercer racing team and recorded two top finishes at Tacoma in July 1914. In 1915, after strong early finishes in races San Diego and Venice, the mighty Mercer team entered Glover for the Indianapolis 500-mile race along with drivers Eddie Pullen and Joe Nikrent.

The new Mercer cars arrived in Indianapolis late and only Ruckstell qualified his #20 Mercer for the 1915 Indianapolis ‘500’ starting field. The team withdrew the car after qualifications, as Mercer Chief Engineer Eric H. Deiling cited the lack of time to prepare for the race.

Later in July 1915, Ruckstell won the 250-mile Montamarathon Trophy Race on the two-mile board track in Tacoma Washington with his Mercer teammate Pullen third. Glover then finished fourth behind winner Pullen the following day in the 200-mile Golden Potlach Trophy Race on the same track.

After a fourth-place finish in the 1916 150-mile Championship Award Sweepstakes at the original one-mile Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles, Glover Ruckstell retired from race driving. In addition to his work with the Ruckstell Sales & Manufacturing Company, Glover became heavily involved in the aviation engine industry before during and after World War One.  

As Cooper built his three new front-drive machines, he appeared in advertising for Buick passenger cars as one of the “nine internationally famous AAA speedway racing stars that demonstrated their approval of the new Buick,” along with Peter DePaolo, Fred Comer, Bennett Hill, Frank Lockhart, Frank Elliott, Dave Lewis, Cliff Woodbury and Bob McDonogh. According to the advertising copy, these drivers “singled it out above all other cars for their personal use and for their families.”

Cooper built homely-looking grilles for his entries that mimicked the 1927 Buick passenger cars, but at the last minute, Buick withdrew its support of Earl Cooper’s program, so the official International 500-mile at Indianapolis entry list released on May 4 1927 contained three new front-drive cars entered by the Cooper Engineering Company. Cooper listed the three drivers as himself, Albert Jacob “Pete” Kreis, and Bob McDonogh, with the Miller entered by Earl Cooper personally with the driver to be named later. 

Cooper’s entries represented four of the eleven front-drive machines entered at Indianapolis in 1927, which included the former Peter Kreis front-drive Miller known as the ‘Detroit Special’ equipped with the two-stage supercharged straight-eight Miller engine for driver Cliff Durant.

McDonogh had the privilege of taking the first lap in one of the new Copper front-drive creations on Tuesday May 17, followed later that day by Peter Kreis and newly-named Cooper teammate Bennett Hill who replaced Cooper. Earl later named Memphis Tennessee’s Julian “Jules” Ellingboe to drive the fourth Cooper entry, the #18 Miller front drive.

Twenty-one cars qualified for the 1927 Indianapolis 500 starting field on Thursday May 26, with the existing track record broken four times, with defending winner Frank Lockhart with the pole position and new track record at over 120.1 miles per hour (MPH) for his ten-mile run. 

The three new Cooper Specials in 1927

Peter Kreis at the right

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

Pete Kreis found that the Copper handled better than his previous Miller front-drive but the cars were not particularly fast.  All four of Cooper’s cars qualified for the 1927 ‘500,’ led by McDonogh in the #14 Cooper at 113.175 MPH for the seventh position, the inside of the third row. Bennett Hill anchored the outside of the third row in the #4 Cooper front drive with his 112.013 MPH average for four laps.  Peter Kreis qualified the third new Cooper machine at 109.90 MPH, fast enough for the outside of the fourth row. 

After rain postponed time trials on Friday May 27 Ellingboe qualified the yellow and black Miller chassis on Saturday morning May 28 at 113.239 MPH. Originally slotted into 22^nd position, Jules move up to the outside of the seventh row after first day qualifier 1924 ‘500’ co-winner L.L. Corum withdrew his Duesenberg which qualified at just 94 MPH.

 Race Day 1927 at Indianapolis proved to be a disappointment for Earl Cooper and his Cooper Engineering team, as of his four entries, only McDonogh finished the race in sixth place, 24 minutes behind rookie winner George Souders. Ellingboe crashed the yellow and black Miller chassis into the north short chute wall on his 26^th laps. After it hit the wall, the car rolled over and Jules suffered a crushed chest and internal injuries.

Ellingboe, confined to Methodist Hospital until mid-July, retired from racing and died from pneumonia in Oregon in 1948. Cooper sold the badly wrecked Miller front-drive machine to Phil “Red” Shafer who rebuilt it and entered it in the 1928 ‘500’ for Elbert “Babe” Stapp and finished in fifth place. In 1929, Shafer sold the car to the French auto manufacturer Derby and as the “Derby-Miller” it subsequently set many closed course land speed records driven by Gwenda Stewart.   

Almost simultaneous with Ellingboe’s accident on the 1927 race’s 26^th lap, Bennett Hill brought his #4 Cooper to the pits with a broken rear spring shackle mount and retired credited with a 28^th place finish.  Peter Kreis made it to lap 101 before he pitted and Harry Hartz took over. Peter later received treatment at the Speedway infield hospital from Dr. Horace “Frank” Allen for burns on his leg.  Hartz drove the #9 Cooper entry for 22 laps until it retired with a broken front axle, placed 17^th and earned $470 in prize money.

The original nominated driver (and funder of the program) Cliff Durant, did not drive Kreis’ former car, the ‘Detroit Special’ in 1927, as he took ill, and rather than pick a new driver, Milton unretired and drove the car himself.  The 1921 National Champion and 1921 and 1923 “500’ champion’s previous race appearance came in February 1926 at the Fulford board track. In his first qualifying attempt for the 1927 ‘500’ on May 26^th, the “Detroit Special” burnt a piston and failed to complete the ten-mile dash.

Milton qualified on May 28^th at 108.78 MPH to start 25^th, his worse starting position since his rookie year in 1919.  Milton’s final ‘500’ driver appearance proved unremarkable as the ‘Detroit Special’ began to lose power around the 200-mile mark and Milton pitted and handed the car over to his partner Cornelius Van Ranst.

In his third ‘500’ appearance and second as a relief driver, Van Ranst completed 24 laps, and diagnosed the problem as a fuel system leak at speed. Van Ranst pitted and after five minutes of hurried repairs, turned the car over to Ralph Hepburn. The former motorcycle champion drove the “Detroit Special” over the final 93 laps but pitted several items to repair more fuel system leaks and finished eighth, crossing the finish line 45 minutes after winner George Souders.  

Ten days after the 1927 ‘500,’ Kreis and the #9 Cooper front drive appeared in Tyrone, Pennsylvania on the Altoona Speedway 1-1/4 mile board track along with his teammates Bob McDonogh and Bennett Hill.  The entry list at Altoona included 45 cars - 22 championship cars and 23 semi-stock cars that were set for the preliminary 50-mile race.     

McDonogh’s entry burned a piston in practice and did not start the 160-lap 200-mile race. Leon Duray won the pole position with a lap of 136.3 MPH, while Kreis qualified ninth and Hill fourteenth.  Peter completed just 22 laps before the Miller engine in his machine burnt a piston. On the race’s 47^th lap, the machines of Frank Elliott and Ralph Hepburn tangled as they lapped Earl Devore and all three cars were eliminated.

Hill pitted on lap 84 and McDonogh took over the #4 Cooper front drive. On lap 105, Dave Lewis destroyed his car after he drifted high hit the upper guardrail and the Miller somersaulted down the banking. On lap 123, Bob coasted into the pit and retired with a burned piston. Peter DePaolo dominated in his Miller front-drive and won the race by two full laps over Harry Hartz. 

Kreis joined the AAA competitors in Salem New Hampshire at the Rockingham Park Raceway for the July 4^th Independence Day 300-mile race. While DePaolo romped to another victory and averaged 124 MPH, the Cooper Engineering team had another forgettable day. Earl Cooper dropped out on lap 4 and Kreis on lap 22, both with broken valves in their engines, and McDonogh retired on lap 75 with a broken exhaust manifold.

Pete Kreis, Earl Cooper and two of the Cooper Engineering Company machines traveled to Monza Italy to take part in the 1927 Gran Premio d'Italia (Italian Grand Prix), the last race on the Continent for which the 91-1/2 cubic inch (1-1/2 liter) engines would be legal in the Automobile World Championship.

Kreis drew the pole position but a rod broke in the engine and exited the crankcase on the first lap of the 50-lap race held on September 4 in a downpour. Kreis returned to the pits and took over for Earl Cooper and battled back to finish third albeit more than half an hour behind winner Robert Benoist’s Delage.

Kreis and the Cooper team returned to the United States and Rockingham Park Speedway for a scheduled 200-mile race on Columbus Day Wednesday October 12. Throughout the early part of the event, leader Frank Lockhart, who qualified at 144 MPH, battled wheel to wheel with Harry Hartz until lap 51 when Hartz’ car crashed and caught fire.  Harry broke his right leg and received critical burns. Officials stopped the race with 52 laps completed and Kreis in tenth place, four laps behind the leaders. 

AAA referee A.T. Hart ruled the race complete at 65 miles, with a second race of 60 laps (75 miles) set to start after crews cleared the Hartz crash and serviced the remaining cars.  Earl Cooper chose to not start the second race (he never raced again), and Kreis’ Cooper front drive fell out of the second race with a broken valve on lap 15. Lockhart won the second race by a quarter lap over Babe Stapp.    

Harry Hartz remained hospitalized in a Lawrence Massachusetts hospital for months and in February 1928 he announced his retirement from his hospital bed. Hartz’ doctors allowed him a temporary reprieve to attend the 1928 Indianapolis 500-mile race. 

Following the 1927 season, as board track racing began to decline, and under pressure from his family Pete Kreis cut back on racing. Pete became a licensed pilot and devoted himself eleven months of the year to his career with his family’s contracting firm, the John A. Kreis Construction Company. Despite his family’s wishes, Pete he still took off the month of May to race on the big Indianapolis 2-1/2-mile brick oval.    

When the Speedway opened in early May 1928, racers were still coming to grips with the death of Frank Lockhart the 1926 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner and 1927 ‘500’ pole-sitter who led 110 laps in 1927 before a connecting rod broke. Lockhart, known as the “the Boy Wonder” died on April 28 1928 in Daytona Beach Florida in the crash of his Stutz Blackhawk land speed record machine.     

For the 1928 ‘500,’ car owner Earl Cooper had landed hometown Nordyke & Marmon Company   sponsorship for two of his three cars driven by Pete Kreis in #32 (the same number carried by 1911 ‘500’ winning Marmon Wasp) and rookie Johnny Seymour in #33. Marmon’s sponsorship highlighted the manufacturer’s new Model 68, a smaller model powered by a 202-cubic inch straight eight engine.  Instead of the original grille, the new grilles on the Cooper Engineering entries mimicked the Marmon 68 grille design.

Just as the Indianapolis entry list closed for 1928 Cooper Engineering Company entered the unsponsored third car which carried #34, with rookie Russell Snowberger the nominated driver.

Peter Kreis in his 1928 Marmon

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

All three Cooper-owned cars qualified for the 29-car starting field, with former motorcycle racer Seymour in eleventh at 111.671 MPH, Kreis, the fastest second day qualifier at 112.906 MPH, started nineteenth and rookie Russell Snowberger in 22^nd starting position at 111.618 MPH. Cliff Durant finally got to drive his Detroit Special and qualified 18^th the slowest first day qualifier at 99.99 MPH.

None of the Cooper Front Drives finished the 1928 ‘500-mile race. Snowberger’s car headed to the sidelines on lap four with supercharger failure, then on lap 73 Pete Kreis’ car retired with a failed rod bearing, leaving just Seymour who retired on lap 171 also with supercharger failure. 

Durant’s ‘Detroit Special’ with relief driver Bob McDonogh (Milton’s protégé) at the wheel dropped out four laps later when its two-stage supercharger failed.  Louis Meyer led the final 19 laps and became the third rookie driver in a row to win the Indianapolis ‘500’ in a Miller purchased by Alden Sampson from Phil Shafer just days before time trials. 

With his retirement from the 1928 ‘500,’ Pete Kreis returned to the family business where he worked on a Missouri Pacific railroad tunnel project near Gray Summit Missouri and waited for 1929.

 

    

 

 

 

The Pete Kreis story Part two - 1926 season

 

The Pete Kreis story

Part two - 1926 season

For the 1926 racing season, the AAA (American Automobile Association) Championship cars would lower the displacement limit from 122 cubic inches (two liters) to 91-1/2 cubic inches (1/12 liters) beginning in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Albert Jacob “Pete” Kreis sold his supercharged Duesenberg to Ben “the Mississippi Kid” Jones and obtained a 122-cubic inch supercharged rear-drive race car from Harry A Miller from Tommy Milton. The car that Kreis bought had its damaged fuel tank, hood, and cowling repaired from Ray Carrien's fatal crash in November 1925 at the Culver City Speedway and re-numbered #15 for the 1926 season.  

Fulford-Miami Auto Speedway in North Miami Beach Florida was the site of the 1926 American Automobile Association (AAA) season opener. Construction of the 1-1/4 mile wooden speedway partially funded by Miami Beach developer Carl Fisher, one of the four founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, began in the fall of 1925.

Fisher had a partner in the Miami track, Merle Tebbetts, a finance company president and the developer of the Fulford-by-the Sea subdivision in the area known since 1931 as North Miami Beach.  The track built on pilings featured a boardwalk promenade and a mounded infield with 50 degree banked turns.  Years later, the track’s exact location is undetermined.    

Tebbetts and Fisher hired the 1911 International 500-mile race co-winner Ray Harroun to oversee the track construction by the Prince Construction Company then manage and promote the facility after its targeted completion of January 1 1926.  

The Fulford-Miami Speedway initially advertised the inaugural race date as January 30 1926, but there were material delays during construction and the race date switched with the previous Culver City California date. When the AAA Contest Board published the 1926 schedule, the inaugural race at Miami, for the ‘Carl G. Fisher Cup’ date would be held on Washington’s Birthday February 22^nd.

Time trials were scheduled for Wednesday February 17 to be followed by a gala dance and reception at the Fulford Casino that evening to “give Miamians an opportunity to meet these men who have become famous because of their daring exploits on the pine boards across the country.”    

Ralph Hepburn in the Boyle Valve Miller won the pole position with a lap speed of 141.199 miles per hour (MPH), the only car to break the 140 MPH barrier. Leon Duray qualified second fastest at 138.9 MPH with Dave Lewis in the former Jimmy Murphy front-drive Miller third fastest and National Champion Peter DePaolo seventh. 

Only the fastest twelve cars in practice qualified on Wednesday afternoon so Pete Kreis qualified on Thursday afternoon and started the race from fourteenth in the 18-car starting field in his white #15 Miller.

Local radio station WGBU broadcast live updates on the race scheduled for 240 laps or 300 miles with a $30,000 purse. Gates opened at 8:30 AM on that Monday morning for a program that featured bands and daylight fireworks. Infield General Admission tickets sold for $3.00, while grandstands seats were $6 or $8 with box seats priced from $10 to $15. 

A crowd of 25,000 fans watched as Hepburn led the first three circuits before he had a tire problem and Dave Lewis took the point until lap 24. Duray led the next 125 laps while Kreis’ car retired on lap 90 and placed eleventh. Earl Devore in the shiny #17 ‘Nickel Plate’ Miller took the lead from Duray on lap 150, and Leon remained in close pursuit until the magneto on his car failed on lap 180.   

On lap 200, Devore pitted to add fuel, which opened the door for DePaolo in his Duesenberg to take control and Peter led the final 40 circuits. The next four finishers – Harry Hartz, Bob McDonogh, Frank Elliott and Bennett Hill – all drove supercharged 122-cubic inch Millers, as did Devore who recovered from his late pit stop to finish fifth.  DePaolo ran a conservative pace to save his Duesenberg but still set a new record of 129.29 MPH as he covered the unusual race distance of 300 miles in two hours and nineteen seconds.

The AAA racers never visited Fulford-Miami Auto Speedway’s 50-degree banked turns again due to two incidents. The first came in late August when United States authorities arrested track owner Merle Tebbetts on mail fraud charges associated with stock sales in the Fulford-by-the Sea finance company.   

Then on September 18, the “Great Miami Hurricane” struck south Florida and the winds over a caused widespread damage and the new wooden Miami Speedway was destroyed. Tebbetts never consider rebuilding the track as he battled the fraud charges in court until in 1930, when he pled guilty and received a fine of $1,000 and two-year suspended prison sentence.

In California during practice on the re-surfaced Culver City Speedway, Leon Duray posted a lap of 138 MPH then on March 18 1926 in time trials, Pete Kreis surprised observers as he qualified second fastest behind Bob McDonogh’s blindingly fast 143.3 MPH lap, which broke Earl Cooper’s previous record of 141 MPH. Many “experts” predicted that this record would stand for years, given the upcoming AAA engine size reduction to 91-1/2 cubic inches. Dave Lewis in the front-drive Miller qualified third as Bennett Hill and Duray rounded out the top five starters.

The 40,000 fans on hand for the Culver City race on March 21^st saw a torrid battle among the fastest five cars, and Pete Kreis led his first laps in AAA championship competition as he headed the field for two laps before Hill passed Pete and led the final 102 laps to win in a record time of one hour and 51 minutes at an average speed of 130.59 MPH for the 250 miles. Hill led DePaolo by 28 seconds at the finish with Hartz in third. Pete Kreis finished 11^th, five laps behind Hill.

The 122-cubic-inch race cars christened the new one-and-a-half mile long wooden Atlantic City Speedway track on May 1 1926. Alternately known as Amotal Raceway, due to its location on the site of the World War I ammunition plant, the track site was roughly equidistant from Atlantic City and Philadelphia, south of the New Jersey town of Hammonton.  Designed by Art Pillsbury and built by Jack Prince, with the construction largely financed by Charles M. Schwab, the chairman of Bethlehem Steel and a major investor in Stutz and a member of the board of directors.   

The Prince Construction Company completed construction of the track on April 17 which featured 1780-foot long straightaways and a dedicated Pennsylvania Railroad station adjacent to the main grandstand. Advance reserve grandstand tickets sold for $4.40, $5.50 and $7.70, while box seat prices ranged from $7.70 to $15.40. General admission to the infield cost $2.20 with those ducats only available on race day. 

A breathless newspaper article in the Philadelphia Inquirer days before practice opened predicted 100,000 fans and Gordon Mackay wrote that “they would not be surprised if 300,000 spectators jammed their way into the wooden amphitheater.” 

Atlantic City set the total purse at $30,000 with $12,000 to the winner with second prize $6,000, and the remaining $12,000 divided and paid down to the tenth place finisher. Interesting entries came from Ralph DePalma, the 44-year winner of the 1915 Indianapolis ‘500,’ and two imported Bugatti race cars entered by Philadelphia’s Charles M. Ward for Russian driver Baron Vladimir de Rachewsky and French driver Count Jean Richard André de Marguenat.

With 21 cars entered the track opened for practice on April 20, with qualifications set for Wednesday April 28, when cars demonstrated that they could run the minimum lap speed of 130 MPH. It rained that morning and Fred Wagner postponed time trials to Thursday April 29^th.

Later in the day however skies cleared, the track dried and AAA officials opened the track for practice with the official timing clocks set up. Bennett Hill blazed around the Atlantic City oval at 143.6 MPH which was recognized as having officially eclipsed Bob McDonogh’s Culver City record-setting lap. The Philadelphia Inquirer article reported that after his record run, Hill remarked to it observers that “with no wind and the weather conditions right, we could shoot them along at 150 MPH on this track.”    

The following day, April 29^th, the top four qualifiers – Hill, McDonogh, Pete Kreis, and Harry Hartz all reportedly ran 142.9 MPH, with McDonogh awarded the pole position followed by Hartz, Hill, and Kreis. Cliff Woodbury rounded out the top twelve cars in speed.

The Thursday non-qualifiers included Jerry Wonderlich, who decided to retire, while Dave Evans, DePalma, Frank Farmer and the pair of mysterious Bugatti cars were too slow and had to return to run again on Friday to attempt to set their place in the starting field. The Miller engine in Zeke Meyers’ car broke a wrist pin and was unlikely to be repaired in time.

Before the race on Saturday, the Stutz passenger car that carried Charles Schwab, Stutz President Fred Moskowics and four other men on an official inspection of the track broke through a “defective plank” in the track and suddenly lurched to a stop. All of the occupants of the Stutz suffered cuts and bruises, but no serious injuries. 

The field of 16 cars that included Ben Jones’ Duesenberg (formerly owned by Kreis), the Millers of Evans and Norm Batten, and Count de Rachewsky in Ward’s Bugatti answered Wagner’s flag at 2 PM Saturday for 200 laps or 300 miles. The reported 80,000 fans saw McDonogh dominate the race as he led the first 165 laps until he experienced tire troubles and had to pit.

Bob’s misfortune handed the lead to DePaolo who led for 28 laps in the Duesenberg until a problem forced DePaolo to momentarily slow.  Harry Hartz took the lead on lap 194 and led the final seven circuits to win the $12,000 purse. 

Hartz, who never made a pit stop, finished one second ahead of DePaolo in two hours and fourteen minutes to establish a new standard for 300 miles of 134.091 MPH, which eclipsed DePaolo’s earlier Miami record by over four miles per hour.  McDonogh finished third, a lap behind the leaders, 35 seconds ahead of Kreis in fourth. Ralph Hepburn came home in fifth place, eight minutes behind Kreis.  

For the final tune-up before Indianapolis, Kreis drove the first Miller front drive built, originally commissioned by the late Jimmy Murphy, in the May 10^th Confederate Memorial Day race on the 1-1/4 mile wooden oval in Charlotte North Carolina. Kreis started and finished in seventh place, 17 laps behind the winner Earl Devore in the ‘Nickel Plate’ Miller as the top eight finishers all drove cars powered by 122-cubic inch Miller engines.  

Kreis' Miller '122' was sold to Illinois garage owner Henry Kohlert who entered the former Milton Miller 122 at the “Elgin Piston Pin Special” for Legion Ascot Speedway veteran Fred Lecklider at Indianapolis in 1927, and then crashed the car during the race himself while driving in relief. The following year, Kohlert entered the “Elgin Piston Pin Special” for a young rookie, future 1935 ‘500’ winner Kelly Petillo who crashed the car in practice.

Despite the reported crowd of 40,000 fans, Charlotte officials announced that this would be the final long-distance race at the track – future events were to be a series of “sprint” events of 25, 50 or 100 miles each held on the same day.

Reporting on the race, Kreis’ hometown newspaper, the Knoxville News-Sentinel, noted that Pete’s finish was “not bad considering that the 16 of the best drivers in the United States started the race.” The article noted that “Pete has been running close in all the big races,” and opined that “he’ll come out a winner one of these days.”

Early press reports at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway erroneously listed Kreis as the driver of a new Miller 91-1/2 cubic inch Miller front-drive machine, as he had taken delivery of his new white #15 91-1/2 cubic inch supercharged Miller rear-drive at the brick oval.  Pete got in few, if any, practice laps before he was hospitalized with influenza which set in motion one of the most astonishing “rookie driver” stories in Speedway history.

Young racer Frank Lockhart had experienced good success as he drove a Miller 183 to several important dirt track victories, but he had an embarrassing start to his AAA championship career with his appearance at the Culver City Speedway board track on the afternoon of February 19 1925.

Lockhart made four warm-up laps on the Culver track’s concrete apron at approximately 60 MPH, then he tried to move the car (which Jimmy Murphy drove to his death) up the banking, but lost control spun and hit the inside railing nose first.

AAA starter Fred Wagner determined that the 21-year old “Boy Wonder” lacked experience but to save him embarrassment in the press, officials allowed Lockhart to withdraw. Frank Elliott replaced Lockhart as the driver. Ironically, the race on February 22^nd had to be red-flagged with 25 laps completed after Elliott crashed with Stuart Wilkinson and William Shattuc.

Lockhart returned to terrorize the dirt tracks in a Miller 183-cubic inch powered car until he arrived at Indianapolis in 1926, tabbed as a relief driver for the Miller factory-supported entries. Mid-way through the month, Lockhart took a “test hop” in Bennett Hill’s new #16 Miller and amazed bystanders when he posted lap speeds two MPH faster than Hill.

As the critical time trials approached, Pete Kreis contracted influenza and had to be hospitalized which left the seat in his brand-new white #15 Miller open. After consultation with his friend Tommy Milton, Kreis turned the new Miller over to Frank Lockhart for the race. In time trials on Thursday May 27^th Lockhart was a sensation and broke Peter DePaolo’s one-lap record with his first lap of 114.752 MPH, then bettered that with his second lap speed of 115.488 MPH.

Unfortunately, Frank could not complete the four-lap ten-mile run as a tire failed on the third lap. After repairs, Frank made another attempt later on Thursday, but a valve broke in the Miller engine and cut that run short.

Released from Methodist Hospital on Friday, Kreis went to the Speedway the following day to watch his car qualify. Lockhart, on his third and final qualifying attempt on Saturday May 29^th, posted a safe four-lap average of 95.78 MPH, good enough to start the 1926 ‘500’ from 20^th starting position. 

The official 1926 Indianapolis Motor Speedway

qualifying photo of Frank Lockhart in Pete Kreis' Miller

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection 

On race day, May 30, 1926 it took “the Boy Wonder” just 60 laps to work his way through the field and take over the lead from Dave Lewis. Lockhart led when the race stopped for the first time due to rain with 70 laps completed. The race, halted for an hour, resumed as AAA officials used the results on the  timing tape to restart the race with the cars released from a standing start in intervals to have the same relative positions as when the rains came.  

As the race neared the halfway point, dark clouds gathered again and Harry Hartz pushed past Lockhart into the lead but after just five laps in the lead, Hartz pitted on lap 98. Lockhart resumed the lead and built up a two-lap advantage over Hartz when the rains returned with the race stopped for good with 160 laps completed. A high attrition rate perhaps due to the newness of the 91-1/2 cubic inch cars, meant only 13 cars finished the 400 miles with the final finisher driven by Thane Houser, flagged 58 laps behind the rookie winner.

An interesting side story about the 1926 ‘500’ for racing historians is that of the Duesenberg that Kreis drove in 1925 and sold to Ben Jones.  Fred Duesenberg fitted the chassis with an experimental supercharged two-cycle engine but with no time for development and testing, the ground-breaking two-cycle engine arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway untried.

Old-timers recalled that the two-cycle Duesenberg engine had the loudest exhaust on the track, which the Indianapolis News described as a “pleasing crack”. The team had considerable trouble starting the car each day, and it was not fast. Jones, a 23-year old rookie, posted a best lap speed of around 80 MPH before Peter DePaolo took some practice laps in the Duesenberg two-cycle and edged the speed up to 94 MPH. After veteran Ralph Mulford squeezed out a 95 MPH lap, Ben Jones qualified on May 28^th with a four-lap average speed of 92.142 MPH to start from the 18^th starting position.  

During the race, Jones’ car suddenly swerved and brushed the wall on lap 54. Subsequent investigation found one axle broken and the engine locked with one cylinder full of water. The Duesenberg factory in the midst of designing and developing the Model “J” abandoned further development of the two-cycle engine

After the bittersweet 500-mile race, as he watched another driver win the prestigious ‘500’ in his new car, Kreis traveled to Baltimore, picked up his ill mother from John Hopkins Hospital and returned her home in Knoxville.

By winning the 1926 International 500-mile Sweepstakes, the 23-year old Lockhart became a famous and wealthy man, as the winner’s share of the purse with lap prizes totaled $40,000 (equivalent to over half a million dollars in 2020).  Lockhart, Miller and Kreis worked out a deal for Frank to purchase the ‘500’ winning car for Lockhart to race in the next AAA championship race on the boards, the ‘Flag Day Classic’ at Altoona Pennsylvania on June 12.

Unfortunately the engine in Lockhart’s Indianapolis-winning machine suffered catastrophic failure in Altoona practice and Frank did not race. Pete Kreis appeared at the Altoona race with no intention to drive and the Altoona Tribune reporter described that Kreis appeared “a little pale despite his six feet in stature.”

Frank Lockhart entered the July 5^th ‘Independence Day Classic’ at Rockingham Park in New Hampshire but controversy erupted when D H Jefferies the promoter of the AAA dirt track race at the West Texas Fair Speedway in Abilene Texas scheduled the same day stepped forward. Prior to the Indianapolis ‘500,’ Harry Miller entered Lockhart for the Abilene race in a new Miller 183 dirt car. “Lockhart’s first taste of fame,” the promoter claimed “made him forget the dirt track contests.”  

Lockhart claimed that he sent a 30-day notice letter of cancellation to the Abilene promoter, and after considerable back and forth, on June 27^th the AAA Contest Board threatened to suspend Lockhart from AAA events if he failed to meet his Abilene obligation. Besides Lockhart the other “foremost racing stars” entered at Abilene included George Souders, Fred Lecklider, and Texans Elbert ‘Babe’ Stapp and Harry Milburn. Lockhart complied and a huge crowd of 10,000 fans saw Lockhart in the new Miller easily win both the Abilene races he entered, the 20- and 30-mile dashes.   

Kreis sat out much of the summer of 1926 as Harry Miller completed Kreis’ new 91-1/2 cubic inch front-drive machine, and thus Kreis missed the AAA races at Rockingham, Atlantic City and Charlotte. During this time, Pete regained his strength and took a more active role in his family’s engineering and construction company.

Kreis’ new cream and red car, the fifth front-drive Miller built, designated by the Miller factory as ‘2615-Y’ debuted in September at the Altoona Pennsylvania board track. Pete started 15^th in the 18-car starting field while Lockhart started fifth and moved into the lead at the 50-mile mark of the 250-mile grind and beat Kreis to the finish line by a minute and 21 seconds for his fourth win of the season, while Pete scored his best-ever AAA finish.  

After middle of the pack finishes in the pair of short 25-mile preliminary “sprint” races on October 12 at the 1-1/4 mile Rockingham Speedway in New Hampshire, Kreis and his front-drive Miller #15 finished two laps behind winner Harry Hartz in the 160-lap (200 mile) feature, as he edged Leon Duray in a similar machine by 3/100 of a second at the finish line. 

Hartz dominated the first 100 miles, then inherited the lead after the leader Frank Lockhart’s Miller engine broke a connecting rod on lap 142.  With his win, Hartz clinched the 1926 AAA driver’s championship.

The 1926 AAA season closed on November 11 at Charlotte which used the preliminary and feature racing format. Kreis finished a distant fourth place in his 25-mile “heat race,” then in the “semi” Kreis’ day ended early with a broken supercharger after he started tenth in the 12-car field.  

At the end of the 1926 season, after he drove it in just three races, Kreis sold his front-drive Miller to Tommy Milton, who dissembled the machine and with the assistance of his friend and engineering partner, Cornelius Van Ranst, rebuilt it as the ‘Detroit Special’ for the 1927 Indianapolis 500-mile race in a program funded by General Motor heir and race driver Russell “Cliff” Durant.  Van Ranst, an engine engineering genius had designed winning race cars for the Frontenac and Duesenberg. The ‘Detroit Special’ built over the winter in a basement laboratory of the 1-million square foot General Motors Building in Detroit which gave the car its name.  

The ‘Detroit Special’ featured the world’s first two-stage supercharger invented by Dr. Sanford Moss of General Electric. Gases from the first stage of the front-mounted supercharger made a long loop, then after the second stage entered a long pipe that crossed over the hood to cool the charge air before it entered the intake manifold. The Detroit power plant with 6-to-1 compression and a massive 42 foot pounds of supercharged boost boasted over 300 horsepower.

The car’s other innovation, courtesy of Van Ranst, was the two-speed inline planetary transmission which transmitted power more smoothly than the Miller front-drives, and Van Ranst’s design allowed easy changes of the ring and pinion gears for gearing adjustments.  Automaker E L Cord was so impressed by Van Ranst and Milton’s work on the ‘Detroit Special’ transmission that he hired them as consultants on the Cord passenger car front-drive system.   

Similar to the later ‘NOVI’ race cars, the ‘Detroit Special’ achieved blinding straightaway speed, but despite 60% of the weight on the front axle experienced high tire wear, and as we shall see, the ‘Detroit Special’ was star-crossed like the ‘NOVI.’    

In a 1926 season shortened by illness and the delays waiting for the delivery of his new Miller front drive car, Pete Kreis still managed to finish ninth in the AAA championship with four top five finishes in ten race appearances.  As we shall see in future installments after 1926, Pete Kreis concentrated on the family business and began to curtail his number of racing appearances.   

 

 

   

 

 

 

   

 

     

 

        

 

 

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.