The early history of lap prizes for the Indianapolis 500-mile race Part One

 

The early history of lap prizes for the Indianapolis 500-mile race

Most television viewers of the 2020 Indianapolis 500-mile race were probably unaware that 2020 marked an important anniversary at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the 1920 race introduced the award of $100 per lap to the leader. 

The 2020 Indianapolis 500 Official Program included a brief article that touched on the history of the lap prize fund, but the author felt that racing historians might appreciate a more detailed history of the fund’s early struggles. 

1920 - The beginning

   

The 28-man Citizens of Indianapolis Lap Prize Committee, its membership equally divided among active and honorary members, began the first fund-raising effort in late March 1920. George M. Dickson, the President of the National Motor Vehicle Company, chaired the Citizen’s Lap Prize Committee, created by “Indianapolis Businessmen and Manufacturers to express appreciation of the value to Indianapolis of the annual International Sweepstakes, the world’s greatest race.”

Dickson started with National as its sales manager in 1907, rose to become the General Manager then became the company's President 1917.  George’s history with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and racing in general dated back to 1910, when as a member of the Manufacturers Contest Association, he wrote an article entitled “Speedways Develop Automobiles” which was published in newspapers across the nation.

Dickson later helped author the brochure that celebrated the victory by the National driven by Joe Dawson and Don Herr in the 1912 Indianapolis 500-mile race. In 1916, Dickson served as the starter of the International 300-mile Sweepstakes, the last race before the two-year Indianapolis race suspension due to America’s involvement in World War One.   

The first fund-raising effort was not without controversy. In early April 1920, committee member and local automobile dealer R. V. Law suggested in a meeting that in addition to the $100 lap prizes, certificates be awarded.

A debate broke out over how the committee could pay for the certificates until Theodore Myers, the General Manager of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, volunteered the Speedway to furnish the certificates,  so that all the money collected by the fund could be awarded to the competitors. The Speedway also provided the score card insert for the race day program which listed the names of the Citizen’s Lap Prize Committee members and the fund donors.

Initially, Dickson envisioned that donors would be assigned individual laps in the order that their donations were received, but eventually, the committee agreed that a drawing should be held to more fairly determine the order. 

On April 24 1920 A. H. Adams, the field manager for the committee, reported that with $7,000 already collected, the Indianapolis Merchants’ Association had officially endorsed the lap prize fund. 

Drivers Louis Chevrolet and Ralph DePalma both contributed to the lap prize fund before it closed on May 17, 1920, with the final donation, which meant the fund reached it's $20,000 goal, came from Indianapolis Motor Speedway co-founder James Allison’s Allison Experimental Company. The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the custodian of the fund, held the drawing for the sponsorship lap order at a luncheon on May 19 1920.  

The eighth annual International 500-mile Sweepstakes victory banquet, held on the evening of June 1 1920 in the Riley Ballroom at the plush Claypool Hotel, located at the corner of Illinois and Washington Streets in downtown Indianapolis. 

Barney Oldfield “the Master Driver,” served as the emcee, with five-time ‘500’ competitor with World War One flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker as the keynote speaker, but most attendees were there to collect their part of the total $93,550 race purse.

John Reynolds, secretary of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, awarded the lap prizes to Joe Boyer, who received $9,300, while Ralph DePalma collected $7,900.  The race winner, Gaston Chevrolet, picked up $1,400, Frenchman Rene Thomas received a $1,200 check, while Jean Chassagne and Art Klein each won $100.

The positive publicity created by the lap prize fund at Indianapolis led to a similar effort later in the year in Los Angeles, led by A. M. Young, for the 200-lap Thanksgiving Day race held at the high-speed 1-1/4 mile Los Angeles Motor Speedway board track in Beverley Hills.  Donors to the $5,000 Los Angles fund included the Beverley Hills Hotel, actors Wallace Reid and Tom Mix, retired racer Barney Oldfield, race car builder Harry A. Miller and the Gilmore Oil Company.

Jimmy Murphy got a check for $250 as he led the first lap of the Beverly Hills race, while Roscoe Sarles collected the balance of the fund as he led each of the race’s remaining 199 laps. Unfortunately, the Thanksgiving 1920 Beverly Hills race is remembered more because of the triple fatality.

The #6 Frontenac, driven by the reigning Indianapolis 500-mile race champion Gaston Chevrolet, tangled with the #9 Duesenberg driven by Eddie O'Donnell as they passed the slower car of Joe Thomas. Gaston, just 28 years old,  perished instantly in the accident, while 33-year old O’Donnell and his riding mechanic Lyall B. Jolls (given surname Headen) passed away the following day. The only survivor, John Bresnahan, Chevrolet’s mechanic, thrown from the car, slid down the banking to safety.

1921 - the ninth running

For 1921, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce pared the Citizen’s Committee down to ten members, and the donors from 1920 put on a “roll of honor” which gave them the opportunity to renew for 1921 before any new donors were approached. 

A. H. Adams served as the committee chairman with members that included Dickson and representatives of Indianapolis Power & Light, the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and the Willard Storage Battery Company.  

On May 3, 1921, Adams reported that subscriptions to the lap prize fund passed the half-way mark, but with the United States economy in a recession, progress on fund-raising apparently stalled after Adams’ announcement. To remedy that situation, the Committee and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway scheduled the first “Drivers’ Day” on Saturday May 21 with all the money collected earmarked to complete the lap prize fund.

On May 21^st, race fans that paid 50 cents admission each watched as Seth Cline (Klein) the Speedway’s “official announcer” introduce   the drivers entered for the ‘500.’ Klein, who ran a radiator service shop at 820 North Meridian Street, later became the 500-mile race assistant starter in 1923 and the chief starter from 1935 through 1954.  

5,294 fans saw Ralph DePalma and Tommy Milton stage a short “dash,” followed by Howdy Wilcox, Jean Chassagne, and Bennett Hill in a three-way “brush.”  

The program also included appearances by Arthur Chevrolet, 1911 ‘500’ winner Ray Harroun, Barney Oldfield, and “the fastest car in world,” the twin-engine sixteen-cylinder Duesenberg that Tommy Milton drove in April 1920 to the 156.046 mile per hour (MPH) land speed record on the Daytona Beach sands. The Indianapolis Star reported that a crew towed the record-setting Duesenberg past the grandstands but the car did not make a lap. 

Unfortunately, after expenses “Driver’s Day” only collected  $2,382 which brought the lap prize fund total to $16,700. When the fund-raising closed five days later on Thursday May 26^th, the fund’s account contained only $17,150. 

Because of the shortfall, the fund paid the leader of each lap $100 up to lap 150, after which the fund paid $100 to the leader of alternating laps over the final 50 laps or 125 miles.  

Ralph DePalma led 108 laps in the '500' before his French Ballot broke a connecting rod, which handed the lead and the victory to Tommy Milton in a Frontenac, designed by his friend Cornelius "CW" Van Ranst and built by the Chevrolet brothers.  

At the Victory banquet, DePalma received $10,650 in lap prizes, while Milton won $6,300 and Joe Boyer, the leader at lap 2, and Roscoe Sarles, the leader at lap 6, each won $100. The firms and individuals that donated $100 each and the one $50 donor, the WB Burford Printing Company, were all identified in an article in the May 31 1921 edition of the Indianapolis Star newspaper.

1922 

After the 1921 lap prize fund shortfall, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce reduced the total lap prize fund to $10,000, to pay the leader $50 per lap during the 1922 International 500-mile Sweepstakes. 

The 1922 Committee members included Wallace O. Lee, the Vice-President of the Indianapolis Power & Light Company, Spanish-American War veteran Captain Harry M. Franklin and Carl H. Wallerich, an Indianapolis Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge dealer.

Born in Iowa in 1883, Carl came to Indianapolis in 1900 and in 1903 joined the new Overland Automobile Company (which later became Willys-Overland). Wallerich served as a “Clerk of the Course” and managed various aspects of track operations during the 1912 International 500-mile Sweepstakes.  

Several companies reportedly donated the same $100 amount as in previous years and claimed two laps. Committee chairman A.H. Adams announced on April 7 1922 that the fund already contained “about $3,000.” The Committee held its first meeting on Saturday May 13 and in his report Adams described the fund as “about half subscribed.” 

The Citizen’s Committee staged another “Drivers’ Day” on Saturday May 20 1922 but it appears that in the recession economy, the lap prize fund again fell short of the goal with a total of $8,375 collected. 

The race winner, Jimmy Murphy, led 153 laps from the pole position and received a payment of $6,300. Harry Hartz led 42 laps and received $1,825 and a $100 radio set, while Peter DePaolo led three laps and got $100, and Leon Duray led two laps and got $50, according to the report in the Indianapolis Star.      

1923

For 1923 the prize was back to a $100 a lap and on May 17 the Citizen’s Committee new chairman, Harold Hampton, kicked off the $20,000 lap prize fund subscription period with the “Drivers’ Day” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway scheduled for Friday May 25^th.

In his Indianapolis Star column “Speedway Appetizers” on Thursday May 24^th William Sturm claimed that “businessmen have contributed $10,000.”  The newspaper advertisement for the 1923 “Drivers’ Day” promised thrills with “exhibition races,” and suggested attendance as a civic duty to support the fund. 

     

Once again, the 1923 lap prize fundraising fell short of the goal of $20,000, so the prizes were only awarded for the first 125 laps. The fund distributed $12,100 among five drivers, per the United Press International report. The race’s first two-time winner, Tommy Milton, led 128 laps and banked $8,500 in lap prizes, a small amount as many of his leading laps came late in the race including the final 50 laps.

Milton’s HCS Motor Company teammate, Howdy Wilcox, led 51 laps and received $2,000. Third place finisher Jimmy Murphy, the 1922 race winner, led eleven laps early in the race and got $1,100.  Russell “Cliff” Durant, earned $400 for four laps led, although Cliff scarcely needed the money since he was a multi-millionaire and owned eight of the cars entered in the 1923 race.  Harry Hartz, the second place finisher in a Durant entry, led twice for a total of six laps, but only got paid $100 for leading one of those laps.

1924

The May 14 1924 edition of the Indianapolis Star reported that the committee members were selected at a noontime Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Harold Hampton, the Chamber of Commerce athletic committee chairman, announced that for 1924, the prize would be $50 a lap and the article stated that Hampton “expressed belief that contributions this year would make this easily possible.”

Solicitations began immediately and after a follow-up meeting two days later, the Committee chairman, insurance agent Austin J. Edwards, told the Indianapolis Star  that the AAA and the local Yellow Cab Company each stepped up to sponsor two laps, while the Indiana Bell Telephone Company, the accounting firm Ernst & Ernst, and the Indianapolis Indians baseball club each sponsored one lap.

On Monday May 19, the Indianapolis Star printed an appeal from A. L. Block, the President of the prestigious L. Strauss & Company department store, which read in part “Indianapolis people cannot do too much toward helping the daring drivers whose feats have made the city internationally known.”  Block’s statement closed by saying that “my greatest hope is that each lap will have its award that the drivers may not think us ungrateful for their efforts.”       

Indianapolis Star sports editor W. Blaine Patton reported in his “Observed from the Speedway Pits” column in the May 21^st edition of the that the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, Polk Sanitary Milk Company, the L. S. Ayres & Company department store chain, Nordyke & Marmon and the Indianapolis Star newspaper all donated $100 to the fund.     

The Speedway held the annual “Drivers’ Day” on Tuesday afternoon May 27 1924 with 3,500 reported attendees which added $1,600 to the fund after expenses. The Indianapolis News reported that race car builder Harry A. Miller wrote a check for $200, which brought the fund total up to $5,900. Apparently, the 1924 fund topped out at $6,250 which paid the leader of each the race’s first 125 laps.

Austin J. Edwards the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce’s representative, distributed the lap prizes at the 1924 ‘500’ victory banquet, which was held in the Rainbow ballroom at the Casino Gardens clubhouse. Formerly known as the Indianapolis Canoe Club, the building still stands two miles east of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the west bank of the White River. 

Earl Cooper, the second place finisher, received $3,400, and third place finisher Jimmy Murphy received $2,800, while co-winner Joe Boyer (with L.L. Corum) got $50 as he led the first lap from his fourth place starting position.   

We will examine the fundraising and distribution for years 1925 and beyond in future installments.     

For fans interested in viewing the individual 500-mile race programs covers, the National Indy 500 Collector Club has an excellent website at  https://www.ni500cc.com

The early history of

Indianapolis Raceway Park

 

 



This article originally appeared in the Classic Racing Times (CRT), and is offered for those who do not subscribe to CRT. The author encourages readers to visit the CRT website at http://www.theclassicracingtimes.com/ and consider subscribing to CRT.

The original plans for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), announced in February 1909, called for an outer 2-mile banked 50-foot wide track and an inner 3-mile road 25-foot wide course which when connected would result in a five-mile course. In March 1909 after the purchase of additional property along Crawfordsville Pike the plans changed to a 2-1/2 mile long oval with an inner 2-1/2 mile long road course.  

 

This 1911 newspaper drawing shows the

intended IMS layout with infield road course

 

Construction crews rushed to complete the facility in time for the inaugural racing events, a motorcycle meet on August 13 and 14 followed by the first automobile races held between  August 19 and 21 1909. During those disastrous first races the track surface treated with 235,000 gallons of coal oil mixed with gravel failed badly, and the planned construction of the inner 2-1/2 mile road course was superseded by the necessity to re-surface the oval track with bricks. 

The IMS infield was used as an aircraft repair and training facility during World War One and then in August 1929 the Speedway’s second owner, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker opened a 9-hole infield golf course designed by native Hoosier course architect William Diddel. In the latter 1990’s an infield road course was built at IMS to allow the track to host the 2000 United States Formula One Grand Prix. 

Anton ‘Tony’ Hulman who bought and rehabilitated the once-dilapidated Indianapolis Motor Speedway after World War Two, dreamed of transforming the Speedway into a multi-use racing facility but at that time he viewed that the construction of a road course inside the big oval was not feasible.  Instead Hulman assembled a group to build Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) east of the town of Clermont, a six-mile drive from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Crawfordsville Pike.

IRP’s articles of incorporation were signed at the downtown Indianapolis Athletic Club and filed at noon on November 9 1959. In addition to Hulman, who was the IRP Inc. Chairman, the group was comprised by fourteen businessmen who each invested at least $5,000 up to a maximum of $25,000.

The incorporators included United States Auto Club (USAC) President Thomas Binford who was named IRP’s President, two-time Indianapolis ‘500’ champion Rodger Ward, broadcaster Charlie Brockman as secretary, car owner and promoter extraordinaire J.C. Agajanian, car builder A.J. Watson and New Bremen (Ohio) Speedway owner and promoter Frank Dicke as vice-president.  

The roster of the remaining investors who were all board members was comprised of engineer and USAC official Rhiman Rotz, Connersville physician Dr. Gerald Watterson, Howard Fieber, an Indianapolis insurance executive, construction executive Lee R Ford, former steel executives John H. Holliday and  Charles Harvey Bradley Jr., attorney Robert D Morgan, and James H. Coover.   

The centerpiece of the site located in Lincoln Township in Hendricks County was to be a ½-mile oval track, which the group initially was unsure would be dirt or paved. Other IRP features included a 10,000 seat grandstands, a 4,300-foot drag strip and a 2-1/2 mile road course. In an interview with the Indianapolis Star, Binford explained the plan called for the oval track to be banked a maximum of 12 degrees on the turns and be at least 60 feet wide.  Binford added “that all the most modern safety precautions will be made a part of the plant including super-strong guard rails at least four feet high.”

“We’re not seeking the fastest auto racing track in the United States," Binford emphasized, "Instead, we want to have the safest and most competitive," and said that plans were for an oval with long straightaways and relatively tight turns. "We don’t want them to be able to run flat-out all the way around like they can on some tracks," Binford said "we want a multiple groove race track-we want them to have to accelerate and decelerate so that driving skill will play a greater part."

Binford said that construction would start as soon as zoning clearance was obtained from Hendricks County authorities with the target date for the opening racing program in mid-June of 1960 or July 1 at the latest. However before the $780,000 construction project could begin the group had to settle a lawsuit filed in Hendricks County Superior Court by Alvin and Henryetta Haverkamp owners of a trailer camp on an adjoining 130 acre parcel. On April 8 1960 the Haverkamp suit was withdrawn after IRP officials promised that there would be no night racing.

On April 15 1960 the group closed on the final 140 acres of property and Binford stated in an Indianapolis Star interview  that construction at Raceway Park was due to start in 30 days on the now 5/8-mile flat oval track and the dragstrip. Binford clarified that the new plan was to eventually build grandstands to accommodate 40,000 fans, but to start with a 12,000 seat grandstand and parking for 10,000 spectator cars.

During the winter of 1960-61 IRP Incorporated made flurry of announcements. First, IRP would also promote races at the ½-mile dirt oval New Bremen Speedway with Frank Dicke named to manage both tracks. In November 1960 IRP vice-president Lee Ford signed an agreement with Wally Parks of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) which made IRP the permanent home for the NHRA U.S. Nationals beginning with Labor Day weekend 1961. Finally, Joseph L. Quinn Jr. the IMS Safety Director was named the director of racing and Robert H. Humphrey was named the superintendent of grounds and the drag strip manager.

 

This is the layout of IRP

 

Indianapolis Raceway Park’s first event, a Sports Car Club of America Indianapolis regional race, held on Sunday April 17 1961 was less than successful. The sports car racers were greeted by a snowstorm with 40 mile per hour (MPH) winds which delayed the start of racing for four hours while the track crew cleared ice and snow from the course. On the fifth lap of the first 10-lap race of the day, Andrew Barnes flipped his Turner sports car on the main straightaway (the drag strip) but was unhurt.

Two laps later an errant Alfa Romeo racer spun in the pit area and crashed into a parked Corvette. At that point Chief Steward Duke Knowlton called the day’s racing program complete and declared Bill Andrews the winner in his Morgan. Knowlton told reporters "we hated to have to cancel it, but we didn't want to press our luck.  It got so bad the drivers couldn't see in front of them even when it wasn't snowing because the muddy water from other cars was coming up in their faces.”

The new facility scheduled its grand opening known as the “Pre-500 Speed-O-Rama” from May 27 to May 29 1961. Advance advertising promised fans the chance to see “Drivers . . . Champions . . . Record-Breakers!”   

First up on Saturday May 27 were drag races held on the 7000-foot dragstrip with entries that included Ralph and Bob Musick’s “Musicmaker” 290-cubic inch non supercharged dragster which held the NHRA B/Dragster record at 145.16 MPH, as well as Ray Goodman’s 170 MPH supercharged Chrysler- powered ‘Tennessee Boll Weevil,’ and Mickey Thompson’s “Attempt,’ a four-cylinder supercharged Pontiac Tempest-powered dragster. Making a special static appearance was Dr. Nathan Ostich’s “Flying Caduceus,” the world's first jet propelled land speed car. 

The following day, Sunday May 28 the 5/8-mile oval which was still a dirt surface, opened with a United States Auto Club (USAC) 30-lap ‘big car’ race that featured such stars as Elmer George, Leon Clum and Bob Wente racing for a $5700 purse.  A total  of 30 drivers which included Indianapolis 500-mile race starters AJ Foyt, Roger McCluskey and AJ Shepherd signed in for time trials along with such established big car stars as Chuck Hulse, Alvin 'Cotton' Farmer, Johnny White and Rex Easton.

The program nearly spelled disaster for two of the ‘500’ drivers that day. McCluskey a 30-year Indianapolis rookie set quick time in qualifying with a best lap of 27.57 seconds but during the second 8-lap heat race McCluskey lost control in turn three hit the outside wall and the car rolled over twice. Roger escaped with bumps and bruises but the H-O-W #4 car was finished for the day.

On the first lap of the feature AJ Shepherd, scheduled to start 14th in the Memorial Day Classic, crashed the Sterling Plumbing #55 car but escaped injury. Two days later at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Shepherd and McCluskey were both involved in the spectacular six-car chain-reaction crash on the main straightaway that wound up with Jack Turner flipping his roadster high in the air.

A.J. Foyt, whose car carried the number 1 as the 1960 USAC Eastern 'big car' series champion, led 29 laps of the feature and won $819 as he finished ahead of Hulse and Bob Cleberg who drove in place of Jim Hurtubise.

On Monday May 29 the USAC stock car division invaded the IRP 5/8-mile dirt oval for a 90-lap contest. The defending USAC stock car champion, Paul Goldsmith, was on the grounds but not in action as he was qualified for the Indianapolis ‘500.’  

Likewise, ‘500’ starter Bill Cheesbourg chose not to drive his 1959 Ford, and entrusted it to 1956 500-mile race winner Pat Flaherty. USAC stock car regular Don White won $623 as he led 69 laps in his 1961 Ford ahead of Ernie Derr’s 1961 Pontiac. Shortly after the completion “Pre-500 Speed-O-Rama” races, the oval received its now-familiar covering of bituminous asphalt. 

The 15-turn 2-1/2 mile IRP road course hosted its first professional race a month later for the Hoosier Grand Prix USAC Road Racing Championship which was run in twin 100-mile heat races. The entry list included road racers Augie Pabst, Ken Miles, Bob Holbert and Bill Krause as well as such 500-mile race stars as Rodger Ward, Lloyd Ruby, Ebb Rose, Jimmy Daywalt, and Len Sutton.

Ruby who drove Frank Harrison’s Maserati 450S won the first heat over Miles and Pabst, and then Pabst in the Scarab Mark II won the second heat ahead of Ruby and Pabst was declared the Hoosier Grand Prix overall winner based on the lowest elapsed time.

The first few years for IRP Inc. were financially difficult; the company lost $54,000 before depreciation and interest in 1961 followed by a loss of $16,000 in 1962. In 1963, IRP turned the financial corner with a net profit of $46,000 before deductions for depreciation and interest.  

IRP Inc. continued to operate the facility and added appearances by the USAC championship cars and midgets until the facility was sold to the NHRA in 1979.  Under NHRA’s ownership there has been tremendous investment the addition of NASCAR racing and the facility’s annexation by the town of Brownsburg in the facility now known as Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.  

 

Racing at Indiana’s Lake Manitou Fairgrounds

 

 

Allen Brown’s comprehensive reference book The History of America's Speedways: Past and Present lists two ½-mile dirt oval tracks from the past located in the vicinity of the north central town Indiana town of Rochester.  

The Rochester Fairgrounds ½-mile track which operated during 1922 was the track where Hall of Fame racer Ira Hall began his racing career, according to an interview with Hall published in the May 21 1958 edition of the Terre Haute Star newspaper.   The second entry in the Brown book is the Rochester Speedway which operated from July 4 1927 to September 9 1934 and was the site of Ted Hartley’s first victory in a ‘big car’ in the inaugural race.

After conducting research which included the use of the resources of the Fulton County (Indiana) Library, specifically the Fulton County Handbook written by Wendell and John Tombaugh, the author is convinced that these two speedways listed in Brown’s book were in fact the same race track operated at different times by different promoters.   

The track was featured part of the eponymous fairgrounds built on the northwestern shore of Lake Manitou, a man-made lake created from three smaller spring-fed lakes with the construction of a dam.  The low dam was built in the eighteen twenties by the United States government to fulfill a treaty with the Potowatomi (alternately spelled Pottawatomie) tribe to build a corn grist mill near the lake outlet.

Local legend holds that the Potowatomi called the one of smaller original lakes “Man-I-Toe” translated as “Lake of Great Spirits” due to the tribe’s belief that a supernatural  serpent monster named ‘Meshekenabek’ lived in the lake.  The basis of the legend may have been uncovered when workers who surveyed the 55-foot deep lake prior to the construction of the grist mill reported their sighting of a 30-foot dark-colored monster fish with a long neck and a horse-like head.   

 

A historic post card shows the Lake Manitou dam

 

 

After the mill was abandoned around the turn of the twentieth century, in the decade of the nineteen twenties, Lake Manitou became a vacation destination. The area featured a number of resort hotels and the Long Beach Amusement Park and billed itself as “Indiana’s Summer Playground.”

In 1924 the Fulton County Agricultural and Mechanical Society, operators of the original fairgrounds encountered some unknown financial setbacks after nearly 50 years of operation and entered receivership.  A January 1925 auction of the rights to the property failed to garner a bid sufficient to “liquidate the indebtedness of the Association.” In February 1925 a group of 98 citizens of Rochester each put up $100 apiece to purchase shares in a new corporation known as the Manitou Fair and Athletic Club which was incorporated later in 1925.

The new corporation paid off the previous debts and took control of the Fairgrounds located on 35 acres of Tim Baker’s farm on the northwest side of the lake.  In April 1925, it was announced that a committee headed by Norman Stoner and Howard DuBois was in charge of construction of a new half-mile race track.

 

Days later, it was revealed that a second committee led by John McClung and Frank McCarter had been appointed to oversee the construction of a new 1,500 seat grandstand “with concrete steps.”  In July 1922 with the cost of building the track and structures estimated to total $16,000, the Rochester Sentinel reported that “it is expected the race track grandstand and fences will be erected as soon as possible.”

The Fulton County Fair first used the new race track which the Sentinel described as “magnificent” in August 1923, not for automobile racing but for horse harness racing which was sanctioned by the Rochester Driving Club.  During October 1924 Lady Patch, a local yearling brown filly who was the daughter of the famed Dan Patch, set a new American Trotting Association 1- mile record of 2 minutes at 18 ¼ seconds on the Rochester half-mile course.   The Lake Manitou Fairgrounds track was unusual in that was a “true” half-mile track which actually measured 2,640 feet when measured at a distance of four feet from the outer guardrail.

The grounds suffered severe damage from a tornado that struck on the afternoon of March 10 1925 as the storm leveled several stock barns and sheds, destroyed long expanses of fencing and left “the chairs in the big grandstand shattered and plied up.”  Later in March it was announced that during 1925 season the Lake Manitou Fair and Athletic Grounds would host a series of Sunday automobile races. The auto races were just one of several new additions to the 1925 schedule which also included rodeos, gun contests and greyhound races as the Association tried to recoup the storm repair losses.

The Interstate Racing Association (IRA) a group led by racer Herbert Marrow of South Bend Indiana had leased the grounds for the 1925 season of motorcycle and automobile racing programs at a cost of $1,200.   The IRA which reportedly had operated a track in Benton Harbor Michigan the previous season and claimed to operate tracks at LaPorte, Elkhart and Valparaiso Indiana installed ‘Doc’ Essex as the Rochester track manager.

The IRA’s first scheduled race on the Manitou Fairgrounds track was set to begin at noon on Sunday May 17, 1925 with time trials followed by three races - a three-mile race, a ten- mile race and the 25-mile feature.  A week before the races, noted Hoosier dirt track racer Chauncey “Chance” Kinsley visited the facility and after he saw the “high-banked “ half-mile track Kinsley the track record holder at Hoosier Motor Speedway boldly predicted to the Logansport Morning Press that he would establish a new record with his Frontenac racer. 

Besides Kinsley, the May 17 entry list which IRA promised would top twenty cars included entries from Indianapolis based racers Arthur “Fuzzy” Davidson and future Indianapolis 500-miles race competitors  Joe Huff and Charles “Dutch” Bauman. The City of Chicago was represented by drivers Harry Nichols and Jay Brook, while Harold ‘Hal’ Morine, Bill Platner and Charles Valenski came from South Bend. Defending the honor of Rochester was local garage man Harold “Bill” Masterson with his race car powered by a Ford engine fitted with a Frontenac head.

Race day May 17th dawned chilly and breezy, but the 2,000 hardy fans that showed up watched as Kinsley partially back up his published boast as he posted the fastest qualifying time of the 14 entries but his fastest lap was completed in 32 seconds flat, far off the existing half-mile track record.  The day’s first racing event was the three-car three-mile “match race” for the three fastest cars driven by Kinsley, second qualifier Howard Wilcox (II) who had timed in at 32.1 seconds and Wilbur Shaw, whose qualifying time was recorded at 32.3 seconds. Wilcox won the short six-lap race trailed by Shaw and Kinsley as the three Frontenacs finished the three-mile dash in just over three a half minutes. 

In the day’s second racing event, the 10-mile race for the nine fastest cars, Wilcox again emerged victorious, this time winning over Charles “Dutch” Baumann with Kinsley in third place, after Shaw failed to finish after spun out as he tried to pass Wilcox for the lead. Wilcox then swept the racing program with his victory in the 25-mile (50 laps) finale which featured fourteen starters with Kinsley in second place as once again Shaw spun himself out of contention when he tried to pass Wilcox for the lead.

The next scheduled race at the Lake Manitou Fairgrounds was held June 14, 1925, with featured entries from Floyd Shawhan and Clarence ‘Curley’ Young, as well as Wilcox, Shaw, Platner, Davidson, and Huff.  We do not yet know the results of the three races which were 5, 10 and 20 miles in length, but an article indicated that ‘Howdy’ Wilcox set the new track record at 30 and 2/5 seconds in time trials.  More significantly this event was touched by two fatalities unrelated to the racing program. 

Harlan Thompson, a Rochester stationary engine fireman reportedly felt ill for a few days prior but he still attended the races with a group of six friends. The group parked their automobile on the north side of the race track and used the car as their vantage point for the races. At approximately 5:30 PM just before the start of the last race of the afternoon, the 20-mile feature, Thompson suddenly collapsed. 

 

His friends administered first aid while they sped towards the Woodlawn Hospital in Rochester where doctors attempted to revive Thompson “with a hypodermic,” but were unsuccessful. Following an autopsy Thompson’s official cause of death was listed as “sudden and acute dilation of the heart brought about by the dust and heat.”

The grand finale of the day’s program, held after the last race of the day was a double parachute drop from a balloon which was tethered at an altitude of 2,200 feet above the fairgrounds. After the men set off bombs to preface their exciting leap, at around 6:30 PM the first parachutist, Jack Trumbell from South Bend left the basket and began his descent trailing smoke.

Perhaps three seconds later, the second jumper James M Stewart leapt from his perch, also trailing smoke, but his parachute failed to open. Stewart a 26-year old World War I veteran with 19 months of service overseas had previously performed similar jumps at the Long Beach Amusement Park, plummeted past his partner at a dizzying speed and struck the ground while Trumbell was still an estimated  200 feet aloft.

Many in the crowd appeared unaware of the tragedy, as they perhaps believed that the second jumper’s fast plunge was a part of the act but of course this was not the case.  Stewart’s father was the first rescuer to reach the stricken man who was found lying on his back deep in the mud at the edge of Lake Manitou. A group of men dragged Stewart’s body out of the mud and loaded him into an automobile which rushed towards Woodlawn Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.  

 

In the parking lot of the hospital, Stewart’s distraught youngest brother, Arthur, drew a pistol and threatened suicide before the other surviving Stewart brother, Fred, disarmed him.   In a post mortem examination the Cass County Coroner C B Hiatt found the right side of James Stewart’s chest crushed and that he had suffered a shattered left leg and broken neck.

 

The car and driver shown in the photo with

 this advertisement is Chance Kinsley

photographed during May 1925.

Unfortunately when this ad appeared,

Kinsley had been killed in an accident

at Roby Speedway June 7 1925

 

Prior the races scheduled for Saturday July 4 and Sunday July 5 promoter Herbert Marrow predicted to a local newspaper that records would fall as he had received entries from “Speed” Crouch, Shaw, Wilcox and Valenski as well as two entries from Green Engineering of Dayton, Ohio one of which was supercharged. Interestingly the article in the July 3 edition of the Kokomo Tribune noted that “to insure the minimum of dust workmen have been employed to heavily coat the surface with salt before the sprinkling process.”

 

 

A 100-mile race with a massive $2,500 purse scheduled for the Lake Manitou fairgrounds track on Sunday August 9 1925 was cancelled on August 3 by Horace Reed, President of the Lake Manitou Fairgrounds Association.   This action came after Indiana Governor Edward L. Jackson stopped Sunday auto racing at Winchester and Kokomo after he received petitions from citizens of those communities and Reed learned of a similar drive in Rochester.  At the time, the Indiana “blue law” prohibited the staging of professional sporting events on Sunday, but the law had been frequently overlooked as far as automobile racing was concerned.  Reed stated that in the future racing at the Lake Manitou Fairgrounds would only be held on holidays through the week.  

Advance publicity for the next on race Labor Day Monday September 7 1925 touted the appearance of ‘Howdy’ Wilcox and the promotor’s invitation to Indiana Governor Edward Jackson to act as the race’s honorary referee. The race itself was a fiasco, as the following day’s Peru Tribune described the event as “a farce which was advertised as an auto race.”  The Huntington Herald reported that “Edward Speer of Roanoke who paid $2 Monday to see ‘forty-four sporting automobiles for 100 miles’ actually saw four alleged speed machines take the track was so disgusted that he has filed charges of obtaining money under false pretenses against Herbert Marrow promoter of the races.”  

The track’s new promoter for the 1926 season Harold “Hal” Morine from South Bend Indiana scheduled the first of a series of races sponsored by the Fair Association for Monday May 31 with twenty-five “guaranteed” cars entered according to Morine. Two of the featured entries listed in the article in the Logansport Morning Press included Morine himself, who it was (falsely) reported “raced Stutz cars at Indianapolis five years ago” and Bill Broadbeck, reported as “fully recovered from a broken neck suffered last season.”  The article noted that among the five events was “a five-lap dual event, each car taking opposite courses on the track. In this event, each car passes the other twice a lap.” 

Both the 10- and 50-mile 1926 July 5th holiday races promoted by the Lake Manitou Fair Association were captured by racer “Happy” Edwards from the tiny town of Windfall Indiana near Kokomo. Edwards won $460 of the overall $1000 purse posted for the nine-car program. Edwards finished the 10 mile distance in twelve minutes and two seconds (just less than 50 miles per hour (MPH) average speed), and took the checkered flag for the fifty mile race at an average speed just short of 45 MPH.  The program with an admission price of $1.10 also featured a musical performance by Martin’s Pirates from the Colonial Terrace Gardens Hotel.

“Happy,” the son of Windfall Buick garage owner Thomas Edwards had raced previously but he became much more successful after he purchased the Orr & Wolford Chevrolet Special in late May 1926 after the car’s regular driver Guy Orr was injured in a crash at Kokomo on May 10 and briefly retired. Edwards followed up his Rochester successes with wins in five and fifteen-mile races at Fairmount Speedway on Labor Day 1926. Edwards closed the 1926 season in October as one of five cars at his hometown Kleyla Speedway but blew up the engine during the feature which apparently ended his racing career.  Edwards whom newspaper later reported as “resembling a stratosphere balloon,” briefly owned a Ford ‘V-8 60’ midget race car but sold it at an auction during 1946.

The annual Lake Manitou (Fulton County) Fair held annually in August continued to be a “losing proposition” and the Manitou Fair and Athletic Club Incorporated was unable to recover from the losses incurred from the 1925 tornado damage.  In May 1927, Tim Baker, the owner of the fair property claimed the group was two years in arrears on rent.  Through the years the Fair group had invested over $30,000 in improvements which included over 100 stables, pig and poultry sheds, and wells and pumps in addition to race track, judges stand, grandstand and 1,000 seat bleachers.  Baker offered to sell the group the property for $7,000 but when that deal failed to materialize, he leased the property for 1927 to a “South Bend man” (Hal Morine) for automobile races.

“Square Shooting” Hal Morine promoted the races at the Rochester oval during the 1927 season under the banner of his Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan Racing Association (NISMRA).  A newspaper advertisement in the Kokomo Tribune prior to the Sunday July 31 1927 race stated that a “Morine promoted race means satisfaction,” and challenged readers to “ask those who saw events at Manitou July 3 and 4.” The ad also stated “Track is oiled- no more dust” and that “Morine cut admission to 75 cents with autos parked free.” 

After he had presented a single race at the Lake Manitou Fairgrounds in September 1927 Harry Bricker of Fort Wayne Indiana who operated the Bricker Auto Racing Association Inc. leased the grounds for the 1928 season. Bricker who ran the company together with his wife and son Harry Junior promised to present “at least” five racing programs during the summer which was kicked off by a race scheduled for June 10 1928.  

There were published reports of races at Rochester held on Decoration Day in May 1929 and 1930, but thus far the author has been unable to uncover the entry lists or the results of those races, the identity of the promoter or the schedule for those seasons.  

In the spring of 1931, Harry Bricker purchased the fairgrounds property outright from Baker and named it the Lake Manitou Speedway. Bricker’s first race as the owner was scheduled for July 19 1931 after “men and tractors reconditioned the track” and “several thousand gallons of oil” was placed on the track surface.  Bricker relocated to Rochester where he was “well and favorably known for the past five year, having had supervision of racing at the local speedway for the past five years except for the two years when his services were centered on the management of racing at Fort Wayne. “

The five-race season 1931 opener on May 17 featured wins recorded by Emil Andres, Beuford ‘Doc’ Shanebrook and Sherman ‘Red’ Campbell, while four drivers were injured in crashes – Charles William, Fred Little, and Wesley Gail were slightly hurt, but Ed Lewis a driver from Indianapolis reportedly received critical injuries after his race car hit the fence and overturned in front of the grandstand. Research revealed that the May 24 1931 program drew 2000 fans, and that Bricker staged at least five other races during the 1931 season which included Sunday events on July 19, August 23, September 6 and October 25.

The Manitou Speedway 1932 season opened under new management by American Speedway Attractions on Sunday May 15 with a “banner event” run on an elimination format. Time trials were scheduled for 10 AM with cars that timed slower than 33 seconds for a lap around the half-mile track eliminated. The program consisted of five preliminary races to further pare down the field for the 25-mile feature race.  As later reported in the Culver (Indiana) Citizen, it was a “sensational meet that ended with five bad accidents.”  The “National Dirt Track Auto Championship” race at the Manitou Speedway was scheduled for Sunday May 29 and Monday May 30 1932 with two days of “auto and air races” which included parachute jumps with the tragic event of seven years earlier apparently forgotten. 

When the track known as ‘Rochester Speedway’ closed after the September 9 1934 race won by local driver Don Donaldson, ownership of the property eventually reverted back to its original owner.  Farmer Tim Baker later converted the grandstand into a barn to store hay for his livestock until it was destroyed by an arson fire several years later. Baker sold the property south of Indiana Highway 14 west of Lake Manitou to a contractor/developer in 1945 and today the site of the former Lake Manitou race track site is a residential housing tract known as Manitou Heights.  

The author encourages any readers who have additional information regarding early automobile racing on the Lake Manitou Fairgrounds half-mile track to contact him at kevracerhistory@aol.com

Bill Cummings

An Indianapolis hero- part two

Bill Cummings and Earl Unvershaw shown here in 1931

won the 1934 "500' from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

in IUPUI University Center for Digital Studies

In February 1935, 1934 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Bill Cummings traveled to Daytona Beach Florida where he drove Clessie Cummins’ 364-cubic inch supercharged six-cylinder two-stroke diesel powered 1934 Indianapolis ‘500’ entry in record attempts on the beach while fellow Indianapolis driver Dave Evans piloted the competing Waukesha ‘Silver Comet’ diesel powered machine. Evans first set a new record of 125.065 miles per hour (MPH), which Cummings eclipsed on March 1 with a two-way run that averaged 133.023 MPH. Before he left the beach the next day, Cummings set a mark of 137.195 MPH.

In May 1935, defending Indianapolis ‘500’ champions Cummings and his friend and riding mechanic Earl Unversaw qualified the 1934 Boyle front-drive Miller fifth in the starting field and were considered the favorites to repeat their victory in the Decoration Day race. The pair never led a lap and finished third, four minutes behind the Offenhauser-powered car driven by the winner Cavino “Kelly” Petillo who broke Cumming’s 500-mile speed record by over one mile per hour.

Later in the 1935 American Automobile Association (AAA) racing season, Cummings finished second to Petillo at the Minnesota State fairgrounds in St. Paul then finished second again behind Billy Winn at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. Cummings closed out the season with a sixth place finish on the new Altoona mile and an eighth dirt track located in Tipton Pennsylvania. Cummings the defending champion skipped two races on the schedule and finished as the runner-up in the 1935 AAA National Championship behind Petillo. 

According to Bill Neely’s book Daytona USA on March 8 1936 the AAA sanctioned a “strictly stock car” 250-mile race on a 3-mile combination road and beach course at Daytona Beach Florida. With a $5,000 purse, entries came from open wheel racers Bill Cummings, Milt Marion, Bob Sall, as well as George ‘Doc’ MacKenzie in a Buick and Bill Schnidler prior to the loss of his left leg in the race’s lone Dodge. Cummings, the fastest qualifier at over 70 MPH in Michael J Boyle’s supercharged Auburn 851 Speedster, started last in the fully-inverted 27-car field that went off in one–minute intervals in a handicap start.

The Schweitzer supercharged straight-8 Lycoming engine in Cummings’ Auburn failed after 16 laps and he finished 26th. The race was stopped at 241 miles with Milt Marion in the lead in a 1936 Ford V-8 when the tide came in and blocked the course.  The fifth place finisher in a 1935 Ford was a local service station owner named William “Big Bill” France, who later formed his own stock car racing sanctioning body twelve years later. Bill France told author Neely that due to the large number of fans who watched the race with buying a ticket, race promoter (and former IMCA big car champion) “Sig” Haugdahl allegedly lost $22,000 (equivalent to $380,000 today).

For unknown reasons at the 1936 Indianapolis ‘500,’ the team of Bill Cummings and riding mechanic Earl Unversaw separated after they had run the five previous races together. Reportedly the two were such close friends that Cummings named his only daughter, Earlene, after Unversaw, although this appears to be wishful thinking as Earlene was born in 1928. Earl who rode with Mauri Rose in 1936 and 1937 died in 1990 in Whiteland Indiana at age 95.

The 1936 ‘500’ was an embarrassing defeat for Cummings and mechanic Henning – after he qualified thirteenth, on Decoration Day, the clutch in the Boyle Miller front drive machine overheated on the grid. When the Packard 120 pace car with Tommy Milton behind the wheel pulled away, Cummings’ car did not join the field and he finished dead last. News reports of the day stated that Cummings was the first driver in Indianapolis ‘500’ history that lined up on the grid but did not make the start of the race.

After the ‘500,’ Cummings’ faithful Miller front-drive chassis was fitted with a 255 cubic inch four cylinder Offenhauser engine and the results were forgettable in the three remaining AAA points-paying races all of which were held in New York State. Bill started and finished eleventh in the ‘Goshen 100’ race held at the Good Times Park thoroughbred track in southern New York, and then was involved in a three-car crash with Shaw and Gardner in turn one on the first lap at Syracuse. Cummings finished seventh in the Vanderbilt Cup on the twisting Roosevelt Raceway road course in the wholly unsuitable Boyle Miller front drive machine.

In January 1937, Cummings returned to his roots and was one of 98 riders in the first Daytona 200 race for motorcycles held on a two-mile beach/asphalt loop at Daytona Beach Florida. For the 1937 Indianapolis ‘500,’ Cummings was paired with a new riding mechanic Frankie DelRoy, who would later become a Speedway chief mechanic and was the chair of the technical committee for the United States Auto Club when he and six other officials perished in the 1978 USAC plane crash.  In time trials the 255 cubic inch Offenhauser powered Boyle #16 set a new one-lap speed record of 125.19 MPH and Cummings started for the pole position at Indianapolis for the second time in his career.

At the drop of the green flag, Herb Ardinger in Lew Welch’s supercharged Offenhauser powered car shot into the lead from the outside of the front row. The fuel limitations of the last four races were gone, so the race pace was faster. Cummings finished sixth behind first time winner Wilbur Shaw who drove a car that Shaw owned and had built with the assistance of Ford Moyer.  Cummings made just one other AAA appearance during 1937, in the Vanderbilt Cup race at the much-revised Roosevelt Raceway, and repeated his previous result with a seventh place finish.

A candid 1938 photograph of Cummings

 from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

in IUPUI University Center for Digital Studies

For the 1938 Indianapolis ‘500,’ Cummings drove the same eleven-year old Boyle front-drive entry as in previous years but with a narrowed chassis and new body powered by a 268 cubic inch engine as the AAA "junk formula" era had ended.  The 1938 Boyle entry carried sponsorship from the labor union with which car owner Boyle was associated, the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers (IBEW). 

Cummings qualified a disappointing 16th and dropped out of the ‘500’ on lap 72 with a radiator leak. Cummings attempted to qualify an unidentified Maserati at for the race at the Springfield Illinois state fairgrounds and then finished eighth at Syracuse in Russell Snowberger’s “Loop Café Special’ (the old Boyle front-drive Miller) after mid-race relief from his car owner to close out his 1938 racing season.

On Monday night February 6, 1939, as he drove his passenger automobile along State Route 29, now known as Southeastern Avenue, Cummings dropped the car’s right front wheel onto the soft shoulder. The car veered, plunged through the wooden guardrail on the bridge approach near Adina Boulevard and traveled an estimated 50 feet into the waters of Lick Creek below. Passing motorists who witnessed the accident found Cummings beside the wreckage of the car face lying down in approximately 18 inches of water.

The March 1930 issue of Motor Age 

contained these two photos of Cummings accident

Three men pulled the unconscious Cummings from the water and saved him from drowning; when he arrived at Methodist Hospital ten miles away he was admitted in critical condition with a concussion. The next day, doctors performed emergency surgery to relieve the pressure on Bill’s brain but later that night, Cummings began to slip away.

The Indianapolis Star newspaper reported that “doctors injected insulin into his blood and his heart rallied for several hours but he died at 6 o'clock in the morning.” Cummings never regained consciousness after the accident before he died on Wednesday morning February 8 at age 32 survived by his widow Leota and 10 year old daughter Earlene.

700 people attended services held on Saturday afternoon February 11 at the Royster & Askln Mortuary located at 1902 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis presided over by evangelist Raymond G. Hoekstra.  Among the guests who attended the service were Harry A. Miller, Roscoe Dunning, (mechanic and car builder), driver Louis ‘Billy’ Devore, riding mechanic Lawson Harris (who would die later that year in a crash with Babe Stapp during a tire test at the Speedway), and Earl Twining of the Champion Spark Plug Company.

Other attendees at Cumming’s funeral service included car owner Bill White, Fred Lockwood of the Borg-Warner Corporation, former driver and AAA official Charles Merz, and a pair of Bill’s former dirt track competitors from the early days Howard ‘Howdy’ Wilcox II and Frank Sweigert. Indianapolis Motor Speedway General Manager Theodore E “Pop” Myers, Mauri Rose, and Peter DePaolo also attended.

At the conclusion of the service, Cummings’ casket was carried down the mortuary steps to the waiting hearse by the six of his fellow racing drivers; Wilbur Shaw, ‘Shorty’ Cantlon, Deacon Lltz, Lou Moore, Chet Miller, and Russell Snowberger. The hearse carried Bill Cummings’ remains east on Washington Street to the Memorial Park Cemetery for the graveside service. As Cummings’ casket was lowered into the grave an airplane piloted by Lawrence “Gene” Genaro a test pilot for the Civil Aeronautics Administration circled overhead and dropped flowers. Genaro pioneered the aerial filming of the Indianapolis ‘500’ and helped Cummings earn his pilot’s license in 1932. 

A widely circulated article headlined Cummings planned a comeback was written after his death by Bob Consodine of Randolph Hearst’s International News Service. The article inaccurately stated that Cummings “won about $50,000” for winning the 1934 Indianapolis ‘500’ as it was actually $29,725 some of which had of course gone to car owner Michael Boyle. 

Consodine wrote of Cummings “he cashed in on his new fame. Big car companies signed him up to extoll the merits of their cars, the accessory companies paid him for his stamp of approval, and the jerk-town tracks that once paid him off in hot dogs gave him good guarantees just to appear.”

A brochure drawings of a 1935 Chevrolet master Deluxe Sedan

the model that Cummings drove

Like many other top drivers Cummings endorsed the use of Richfield gasoline, Champion Spark Plugs, and Pyroil oil additive. The author also found a 1935 newspaper advertisement that stated “’Wild Bill’ Cummings, National AAA racing champion, recently took delivery of his second Chevrolet - a new 1935 Master Deluxe sedan with which he is pictured. Cummings became a Chevrolet owner following his victory at Indianapolis last Decoration Day.”

A 1936 advertisement in Popular Science magazine for the “turret-top” 1936 Chevrolet contained a photo of Cummings and famed British land speed and boat racer Kaye Don as they examined the all-steel roof of a new Chevrolet which was advertised as being both safer and cooler than a fabric insert.

Notice that Cummings is wearing a helmet

 in his official 1934 IMS photo he wore a cloth helmet.

This style helmet was required at Indianapolis in 1935

Research also uncovered Cummings’ June 1934 nationwide endorsement of Camel cigarettes, complete with headshots of Bill in a hard-shell helmet and text that quoted the 1934 Indianapolis 500 winner “I felt pretty well played out at the end of the race. My mechanic and I turned to Camels for that first luxurious smoke that chases that tired feeling away.” 

Consodine’s article continued “with the coming of that dough he got soft - the hungrier more desperate men became to pass him even on the turns. The glamour peeled off him and in a little while he was broke again and for the first time he knew doubt. When at last he hit bottom, he started back and his reflexes dulled by success became razor sharp again.”

Mr. Consodine’s claim that Cummings became ‘soft’ after his Indianapolis victory and subsequent rebound is just not supported by the facts. Cummings was the fastest qualifier in two 1934 races after his ‘500’ win and Bill made a strong defense of his Indianapolis win and AAA national championship title in 1935. While the results of his disappointing 1936 season marred by a crash and mechanical failures was certainly sub-par, Cummings had another successful season in 1937 before his puzzling poor last season in 1938.

To characterize Cummings as “broke” at one point is probably a case of journalistic embellishment. Cummings bought a tavern in Indianapolis and built a home in the Five Points suburb of Indianapolis, though at the time of his death, Cummings reportedly worked between races during the offseason as a car salesman.   

The mention of a “comeback” is odd, as Cummings was just 32 years old, and no racing historians are aware of any Cummings retirement announcement. The article mentioned that Boyle mechanic ‘Cotton’ Henning was headed to Italy to pick up an Alfa Romeo which Cummings hoped would return him to the top, but that statement is erroneous.

Henning did travel to Italy not to buy an Alfa Romeo, but the Maserati 8CTF which Wilbur Shaw drove to back to back wins for Boyle Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1939 and 1940. If he had not crashed into Lick Creek that February night, could that have been Bill Cummings behind the wheel of the Boyle Maserati in 1939? 

For his accomplishments, William C Cummings Junior was inducted in 1970 as a member of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Auto Racing Hall of Fame.