The life of Don Herr

co-winner of the 1912 Indianapolis 500
part one 

Today we examine the racing career of an auto racing pioneer, Don Herr, the man who co-drove with Joe Dawson to win the second Indianapolis 500-mile race.

Donald Herbert Herr was born in the central Pennsylvania town of Salona on August 31, 1889. When he moved to Indianapolis in 1904, he worked for Carl Fisher’s automobile dealership as a mechanic, then by 1909 he worked as a mechanic for National racing team.  The team was based at the National Motor Vehicle Company factory on East 22^nd Street in Indianapolis Indiana, the manufacturing company co-founded by Arthur Newby, one of the four founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In auto racing’s early days, one pathway to become a race car driver at the top level of racing was to be buy your own race car, which even in the early days required an enormous sum of money. Don Herr did not have that kind of money, so he followed what we call the “the development track” for the factory-supported teams.   

A young man first began work as a pit mechanic, then if he dared, advanced to the role of the “mechanician” (riding mechanic), which could prove to be harrowing and oftentimes deadly. 

The next step up the ladders was to drive a race car in private practice sessions, then if that went well, a man might be selected to serve as a relief driver for long-distance racing events. 

Finally, if one survived and showed good results, the young man could become a full-time race car driver for the factory team, first in smaller shorter races, with the goal of racing in the Indianapolis 500-mile race.

1909 & 1910

In 1909, Don Herr served as a riding mechanic for National and took part in the first races automobile races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which were sanctioned by the American Automobile Association (AAA). These races were held over three days, from August 19 through the 21st, 1909 and each day featured several short races and a long-distance trophy race.

The finale for the Thursday August 19, 1909 slate of races was the 250-mile (100 lap) Prest-O-lite Trophy race for AAA Class 2 stripped chassis machines with engines sized from 301 to 450 cubic inches. The race was sponsored by the Prest-O-Lite Company, which was owned by Speedway co-founders Carl Fisher and James Allison and manufactured and sold cylinders filled with compressed acetylene gas used to power automotive headlights.

For the Prest-O-Lite Trophy race, the hometown National team entered two of their signature blue-painted machines – number 6 driven by Tom Kincaid with Don Herr as his riding mechanic and the other car, #7, driven by Charles Merz with riding mechanic Claude Kellum. Merz finished third in the 100-lap race behind winner Bob Burman as the National of Kincaid and Herr retired on the 99^th lap with a broken fuel line.  

At National, Don worked with another mechanic, Howard Samuel “Howdy” Wilcox, who hailed from Crawfordsville Indiana and was the same age as Herr.  Through the years, Wilcox and Herr became close friends as their honed their skills on the “development track.”

An article in the May 29, 1910 edition of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette stated “we are all familiar with the names of the intrepid drivers who guide the high-speed creations, but few of us know the names of the iron hearted mechanicians who sit beside the drivers and share their danger. “

Riding mechanics were not typically recognized by name in news articles, but in the case of the National “40” team, the Journal Gazette article noted that there were two emerging stars - Wilcox and Herr.  The article stated that “Aiken and Kincaid are ever so full of praise for the fearless youngsters who serve so faithfully at their seats and are coaching Herr and Wilcox for their debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”  

Wilcox was the first of the pair to make his debut as a driver at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as a few months after that article was written, he drove in the Remy Brassard Trophy Race on July 2, 1910 sponsored by the Remy Electric Company of Anderson Indiana which manufactured magnetos for automotive ignitions.  Interestingly, not all the cars in the race were equipped with Remy magnetos, for instance the National racers used C F Splitdorf magnetos. 

The Remy Brassard on display in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum 

Unfortunately, the 21-year old Wilcox crashed out his National in the third turn on the first lap of the 20-lap race.  The winner of the race, Bob Burman drove a Marquette-Buick, a car which had just been reinstated by the AAA the day before and received a bronze engraved arm band (arm shield) would receive a check for $75 a week until the next Remy race.

Two days later, on the Fourth of July holiday, in the Cobe Trophy race, Wilcox outpaced his two older National teammates, Aiken and Kincaid, and finished ninth, albeit 25 laps behind the apparent victor Bob Burman’s Marquette Buick (Buick 16). 

Weeks later, in a ruling announced on July 28 1910, the AAA Contest Board ruled that the Buick factory had failed to uphold their end of a pre-race agreement regarding the advertisement of the victory by the “Marquette-Buick” and the Buick 16  racers were retroactively banned from AAA competition until December 31 1910 with the Cobe trophy awarded to Dawson’s Marmon.

At the next racing meet held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, two months later, on September 3, 1910, Howdy Wilcox won the 40-lap (100-mile) Remy Grand Trophy race.  Dawson, who drove a Marmon, started in the fourth position and led the first lap, then yielded to 46-year old W. Fred “Jap” Clemons in the Dayton-built Speedwell before Wilcox, who started third, took the lead on the fourth lap.

Wilcox held the lead until Dawson took the point again on lap 13. Dawson held the lead until lap 18 when the Marmon began to fade and eventually retired on the 25^th lap. “Handsome” Howdy Wilcox led the rest of the way for a total of 32 laps and took the win nine seconds ahead of his teammate Charles Merz. 

1911

While Wilcox had won the 1910 Remy Grand Trophy race as a driver, Don Herr remained a National mechanic until 1911. Herr was identified as the team’s lead mechanic and a reserve driver for the three-car National team for a series of races held at the one-mile Los Angles Motordrome board track originally scheduled for January 14 and 15, 1911.  The circular Motordrome was wide and high-banked and fast- with laps speeds averaging over 100 MPH.

The National team barely arrived on the Coast in time for the races on Saturday the 14^th and Merz won both the 10-mile and 25-mile stripped chassis races, and Nationals finished second and third in the 5- and 10- mile “free for all races.”  

The races scheduled for the next day January 15^th were postponed until the 22^nd presumably by weather and the National team took four first place finishes, three second place and two third place finishes in the Sunday program. Herr was not specifically named as a driver or riding mechanic in the articles about the races.   

After the Los Angeles races, the National team traveled north for the races scheduled for February 22nd on the temporary Portola Road Course located south of Oakland California. The 10.9-mile course was set up on closed public roads in hilly Alameda County between the cities Hayward and San Leandro. 

With a crowd reported at over 100,000, Merz in his National won the “heavy car” 152-mile race at an average speed of 66 MPH (miles per hour) and finished second in the 163-mile “free-for-all” race, as he finished five minutes behind winner Bert Dingley’s Pope-Hartford. Once again, reports of the Portola race do not mention Herr as either a driver or riding mechanic.           

On July 4, Herr and the National team participated in a series of nine races held at the Brighton Beach New York track and Herr scored two wins. Herr’s first win as a driver came in the fifth event of the day, a ten-mile race for non-stock cars with a maximum engine of displacement of 600 cubic inches and a minimum weight of 2100 pounds, and the writer of the New York Tribune article commented that “Herr handled the car beautifully.”

Herr also won the 23-mile Australian Pursuit Free-for-all race, in which cars were eliminated as they were passed until only one car remained. Herr started fifth and by lap 8 several of the cars ahead of him on the track, the other two Nationals and a Simplex, were eliminated and left Louis Disbrow’s Pope-Hartford in the lead. Herr slowly closed the gap, then on the 23^rd lap, the Pope-Hartford blew a rear tire, slowed and was passed by Herr who took the win. In the day’s longest event, a fifty-mile race, Herr led from the start until lap 27, when the National’s engine broke a valve and retired which left the victory to Disbrow.      

Herr scored his first major AAA win in the Illinois Trophy race held on the Elgin Illinois road course in August 25, 1911, paired with Harry Martin as the riding mechanic behind the wheel of a stock chassis 4-cylinder 446-cubic inch National.  There were only four starters listed for this race for cars with piston displacement between 301 and 450 cubic inches. The Illinois, Aurora, and Kane County trophy races for three separate classes of cars were all run simultaneously on the same course.  

The race started as the competitors receiving the signal from AAA starter Wagner on 30-second intervals; Herr, the first car off, finished his first 8-1/2-mile lap in 7 minutes and 37 seconds which he lowered to 7:15 for the second lap. On the fourth lap, Merz took over the race lead which he held until the 15^th lap. Herr and Martin led the final eight circuits and finished with an average speed of 65.6 MPH only nine seconds ahead of their teammate Merz.   

For his victory, Herr won $400 cash and the following day W D “Eddie“  Edenburn, in an article written for the Indianapolis Star, reported that “the boy driver” (Don was days away from his 22^nd birthday) had scored an upset in a race that was dominated by the two Nationals. Edenburn’s article quoted the taciturn Herr after the race - “I have nothing to say but that I am a glad I won, that the National finished first and that I hail from Indianapolis.” 

A post-race newspaper advertisement trumpeted the fact that Nationals had accomplished a one-two finish without either car needing to make a pit stop. The ad noted that consumers could buy a similar National ‘40’ Speedway Roadster for $2500 ($65,000 today).

On September 9, 1911 Don Herr represented National at the Port Jefferson Hill Climb on Long Island New York. The 2000-foot climb over an oiled gravel surface with an average grade of 10 percent and a maximum grade of 15 per cent was capped by a banked curve near the top.  The climb was considered a “very fair test of the power of an engine,” with light cars allowed a starting run of 800 feet, while the heavier cars, like the National, got a 400-foot flying start.

The event promoted by WJ Fallon was scheduled for 16 events, with entries divided by vehicle price, engine displacement, and was open to both amateurs and professionals. Herr in the National swept the day, as he won all five professional events in which he was entered.

Herr’s first win of the day came in the fifth event for gasoline cars priced from $1201 to $3000, and the National’s time up the hill of 24.45 seconds was nearly a second faster than second place Hugh Hughes’ Mercer. The National next won the “Free for all” event which included entries from Mercer, Knox, Mercedes, Fiat and the 389-cubic inch four-cylinder Pope “Hummer” with a time of 21.31 seconds.

Herr’s time though slower than Ralph DePalma’s winning time of 20.48 seconds set the previous year in a 200 horsepower Fiat, was set on a course on which conditions were “far from ideal” according to the New York Times with the weather described as “rainy and dismal.”  For his “free for all” win, Herr won the Ardencraig Trophy, sponsored by a local inn, and a $150 cash prize.

Herr and the National also won the class for cars with engines from 301 to 450 cubic inches in a time of 23.19 seconds beating Louis Disbrow’s Pope Hartford by over a second and scored the Belle Terre Cup and $50 cash.  Herr returned to win another $50 as he captured the win in the 451 to 600 cubic inch engine class with a time of 21.37 seconds.

Herr and Martin in action in the National in Philadelphia in 1911

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library 

Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection  

Next up for Herr and Martin was the “Philadelphia race” in their #6 National “40” for cars in division 4C with displacements from 301 to 450 cubic inches held on the famed 8-mile Fairmount road course in Philadelphia. The initial race date was postponed from Saturday to Monday due to rainy conditions. Herr finished the 25-lap, 202-mile race in third place - 12 minutes behind the winner, his National teammate Louis Disbrow.   

On December 15, 1911, in an under-reported event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Wilcox and Herr presented a match race in their Nationals for a group of distinguished visitors that included six visiting state governors from the states of Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, Ohio and Nevada.   Wilcox won the five-mile contest at an average speed reported in the Indianapolis Star of 92 MPH by a few yards over Herr.

After the 1911 racing season was over, Herr and Wilcox shared an experience that garnered national attention and shaped their future lives. In early December it was reported that the pair hailed a taxi after a social event in Indianapolis cab and during the ride the driver considered it his opportunity to demonstrate his prowess behind the wheel.

When the driver dropped off Wilcox at his home, ‘Howdy’ told the driver to give his buddy Herr a real thrill ride. The prank backfired as the driver’s dangerous driving enraged Herr, who reportedly pounded on the separating glass to no avail, and the driver only stopped after Don kicked out the glass.

In our next installment we'll examine Herr's breakout performance in the 1912 Indianapolis 500-mile race.

  

1909 Buick racer 

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum featured four cars from the Speedway’s history in a special “From the Vault” exhibit at the 2019 PRI (Performance Racing Industry) show. 

One car in the exhibit, the 1909 Buick, is of interest since to racing historians as it participated in the earliest automobile races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in August 1909 and won the second race held at the track.  

After the purchase of the 328-acre Pressley Farm property in December 1908 by four partners – Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby – construction on the track started in March 1909. The racing surface of the 2-1/2-mile oval was created by the placement of layers of gravel and limestone mixed with tar and oil of varying thickness topped with crushed stone chips.

The first motorized racing event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a series of motorcycle races, held on August 14, 1909, did not go well due to failure of the track surface and the planned second day of racing was cancelled by Indiana Motorcycle Club officials.  

The first three-day automobile racing meet, sanctioned by the American Automobile Association (AAA), was scheduled for August 19 through the 21^st, 1909 with each day to feature several short races and a long-distance trophy race. Anticipation for these events ran high as many automobile manufacturers entered cars for the Indianapolis races.   

David Buick started his eponymous automobile company in 1903 with a majority partner Benjamin Briscoe, who soon sold his shares in the company to James H. Whiting, who moved the company to Flint Michigan. The following year, Whitting lost control of the company to William Durant, and in 1906 David Buick sold his shares and left the company. Durant soon built Buick into one of the top-selling car brands in America. 

Buick factory photo and specifications of the 1909 Buick 16B roadster 

Durant believed in the promotion of Buick sales through automobile racing, and Buick publicized their racing success through press releases. Durant built a successful team in 1909 led by Swiss emigre Louis Chevrolet, teamed with George DeWitt, Lewis Strang and Bob Burman. The team primarily drove Buick model 16B racers with a 112-inch wheelbase roadster chassis powered by the proven Buick four-cylinder engine.

The Buick 16B racers, stripped of their fenders, running boards and lights made extensive use of wood for the floorboards and firewall with the seats mounted directly to the floorboards and the car rides on 34-inch diameter wood spoke wheels with mechanical brakes on the two rear wheels only.  

Louis Chevrolet and the Buick 16B photographed 

at the 1909 Ira Cobe Trophy race

Photograph appears courtesy of IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection  

The Buick factory team arrived Indianapolis “in a big express rail car” with a level of optimism on the strength of the victory by Chevrolet at the previous AAA race held the Crown Point Indiana road course - the 395-mile Ira Cobe Trophy Race held two months earlier. Chevrolet led the final four 23 ¼- mile laps at Crown Point to win with an elapsed time of just over eight hours even though the Buick only ran on three cylinders for much of the event.  

On Tuesday August 17 on the way to the Speedway for practice, Cliff Litterall, a mechanic with the Stoddard-Dayton team which was headquartered in a shop near downtown, jumped (or fell) from the race car in which he was riding and was run over by a following team car. The 28-year old Litterall (alternately spelled Littrell) suffered a crushed chest and the father of two died in Methodist Hospital on Thursday morning. 

The opening slate of five races began at noon before a crowd of 12,000 spectators on Thursday August 19.  The first event was a five-mile race for stripped chassis AAA class 4 machines with engines that displaced from 161 to 230 cubic inches.

The Buick entry that competed in the first event was a Buick Model 10 powered by a four-cylinder engine that displaced 165 cubic inches with George DeWitt behind the wheel, and DeWitt finished third behind a pair of Stoddard-Dayton machines. After the first event, drivers already complained about the track surface and the extreme danger posed by the open drainage ditches adjacent to the racing surface.

The day’s second event, a ten-mile race for stripped chassis AAA class 3 cars with engines that displaced 231 to 300 cubic inches, featured three Buick 16B racers, all equipped with a 298-cubic four-cylinder engine, which fitted with a single Schebler carburetor developed 32 horsepower.  

Louis Chevrolet led the 4-lap race wire-to-wire from the standing start in our featured car followed by teammates Strang and Burman. Chevrolet’s winning time of eight minutes and 56 4/5 seconds was a new world record for the ten-mile distance that eclipsed the old record set at the Empire City one-mile horse track in New York in October 1908 by a remarkable 15 seconds. Unfortunately the identity of the Buick's riding mechanic is not known. 

The third race of the day was a five-mile race for stripped chassis AAA class 2 machines with engines sized from 301 to 450 cubic inches and again, Chevrolet, Strang and Burman were entered in Buicks, these were probably equipped with 318 cubic inch engines. Burman finished second and Chevrolet third behind William Bourque in a Knox. The fourth race was a “free-for-all” 10-mile handicap race won by Harry Stillman in a local entry, the Marmon.          

The finale for Thursday was the 250-mile (100 lap) Prest-O-lite Trophy race for Class 2 machines with three 318-cubic inch displacement Buicks entered for Chevrolet, Burman and Strang. The Prest-O-Lite Company, owned by Fisher and Allison, manufactured and sold cylinders filled with compressed acetylene gas used to power headlights.

Strang retired early from the race after his Buick caught fire, while Chevrolet led the first 14 laps before he yielded to Burman and later made a pit stop. On the 58^th lap, the Knox, driven by Bourque with his riding mechanic Harry Holcomb, hit a rut, left the track, veered into the drainage ditch and flipped. The crushed car came to rest upside down against a fence and both men suffered fatal skull fractures in the accident, thus they became the first fatalities recorded at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Press reports indicated that the Buick driven by Louis Chevrolet was directly behind the Knox and that it was only through Louis’ “superior driving skills” that he avoided colliding with the crashing Knox. Chevrolet retired from the race immediately, reportedly he was blinded after his goggles were smashed and Louis withdrew. 

Late in the race it came down to a duel between Fred Ellis in the Jackson and Burman in the Buick – Ellis led from lap 82 to lap 88, then faded as Burman led the rest of the distance to claim the Prest-O-lite Trophy and the $1,000 prize.   

On Saturday August 21, the scheduled 300-mile Wheeler-Schebler Trophy race, the grand finale of the Indianapolis meet, was cut short due to deteriorating track conditions which had resulted in several crashes and the fatalities of Claude Kellum, a riding mechanic, and two spectators.

Kellum was originally assigned by National Motor Vehicle Company to ride with Johnny Aitken, whose #8 National dropped out on lap 40.  Later during the race, the #10 National’s original riding mechanic, Robert Lyne fainted, and Kellum replaced Lyne. On lap 70, the right front tire burst on the National driven by Charles Merz (later the Chief Steward at the Speedway) crashed through a fence and Kellum and two spectators were killed.     

Research for this article also uncovered two lawsuits that occurred in the aftermath of the 1909 Wheeler-Schebler Trophy race that may be of interest to racing historians.

When the race was stopped at 94 laps or 235 miles, due to ruts in the surface and clouds of dust, referee S B Stevens declared the race as “abandoned,” in effect the AAA stated that there was no race and thus no winner. Accordingly, the Speedway declined to award the Wheeler-Schebler trophy which was valued at $10,000 and announced that the race for the trophy would be run as the first race of the 1910 season.  

A copy of the Jackson advertisement in the Indianapolis Star 

that led to the AAA banning Jackson from racing for a time 

The Jackson Automobile Company of Jackson Michigan owner of the car driven by Leigh Lynch that was leading the race when it was stopped, sued the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 26^th to obtain the trophy, and Jackson published newspaper advertisements after the race in the Indianapolis Star newspaper that announced that its car had won the race. After a hearing, the AAA Contest Board announced on October 12, 1919 that the Jackson Automobile Company was banned from AAA competition until January 1, 1910. 

Another legal case related to the 1909 Wheeler-Schebler Trophy race was filed in April 1910, when Carrie Kellum the widow of the mechanic killed in the crash of the National sued both the National Motor Vehicle Company and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for negligence and asked for $10,000 in damages. The case was heard in Hancock (County) Circuit Court in December 1912 and the jury awarded Ms. Kellum $7,000 in damages. After an appeal by the Speedway, the award was affirmed by the Indiana Supreme Court in June 1915.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum acquired the Buick Model 16B in 1964 and it has been painstakingly restored to its appearance on August 19, 1909 when it won the second automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

All color photographs by the author 

Roscoe Turner’s 1929 Packard

While the author was in Indianapolis for the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show, he saw that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum had placed a 1929 Packard Custom Eight 6-40 Dual-Cowl Phaeton on display at the Indianapolis International Airport to promote its special “From the Vault” exhibition, While it is a beautifully finished example of a spectacular era of automobile manufacturing, what is most fascinating about the Packard is its original owner - the famed aviator Colonel Roscoe Turner.  

Born in Corinth Mississippi in 1895, Turner worked at various jobs until he enlisted for World War One. Roscoe first served first in the balloon corps then later as a fighter pilot.  Upon his return to the United States, the mustachioed Turner used his wartime pay to buy and airplane and became a dashing barnstormer and stunt pilot.

A consummate self-promoter, Turner was a pioneer in what we today call “personal branding.”  In public, Roscoe always wore a custom uniform the consisted of a military-style tunic, jodhpurs, and highly polished riding boots. He accessorized the outfit with an officer’s cap embroidered with a winged insignia with the monogram "RT" and the matching logo on a pin on his chest and on his large brass belt buckle.

In 1928, young film maker Howard Hughes purchased Turner’s huge Sikorsky S-29-A twin-engine biplane airliner for air-to-air filming of his epic film Hell’s Angels. Roscoe flew the airliner and worked as a stunt pilot until towards the end of filming, in March 1929, when Hughes asked Turner to undertake a dangerous “spin” stunt in the Sikorsky which Roscoe thought too dangerous.

With Turner’s refusal, Hughes fired him and enlisted another crew to fly the stunt. The Sikorsky, disguised as a World War I German Gotha bomber, crashed and one member of the crew was killed. Turner continued to work in Hollywood for several years as a stunt pilot and appeared in several films as an actor.  

In early 1929, Turner and his first wife, Carline, used the proceeds from his Hughes movie work to purchase this Packard from Douglas M. Longyear’s dealership Hollywood Motors Inc.  The car is identified as a ‘6-40’ which identifies it as the sixth series of Packard production built on a 140-inch wheelbase chassis. The car is fitted with a catalog #341 dual-cowl phaeton five-passenger body which means the car features no side windows but has a second cowl and windshield for rear seat passengers that was built by the Holbrook Company of New York.   

The Turner’s Custom Eight Packard was the mid-range of the 1929 Packard automobile line - Packard offered the Standard Eight, the Custom Eight and the Deluxe Eight, as well as the ultra-rare two-seat Speedster. The heavily optioned 6-40 is equipped with the dual side-mounts (spare tires with covers) and wire wheels, powered by the Packard L-head straight eight engine that displaces 384 cubic inches and develops 105 horsepower.

One of the major selling points for the new-for-1929 Packard was the new Packard Shock Absorbing System that features double-acting hydraulic shock absorbers on all four wheels for a smoother ride to complement the smooth slow-revving Packard straight-eight engine that features a crankshaft with nine main bearings.  

This photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Center for Digital Scholarship

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection shows Roscoe Turner's Packard 6-40

parked in the IMS infield in 1934.

Roscoe Turner continued his aviation career by forming with partners Nevada Airlines that flew a fleet of new Lockheed Vega 5B airplanes between Los Angeles, Reno and Las Vegas, with Turner as the operations manager and chief pilot. In 1929, the Governors of the states of Mississippi, Nevada and California all bestowed Turner with the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel as a member of their personal staffs and thus for the rest of his life, he was known as “Colonel Roscoe Turner.”  

Nevada Airlines was promoted by Turner as “The Fastest Airline in the United States," and he used the Vegas as his springboard to enter the emerging sport of air racing and record-setting with moderate success. Turner later persuaded oil tycoon Earl Gilmore to purchase a pair of racing airplanes- a Wedell-Williams Model 44 and a Lockheed Model 3 Air Express which used a parasol wing design fitted with wheel pants for streamlining that was primarily used in cross-country events.   

This photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Center for Digital Scholarship

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection shows left to right

Roscoe Turner, Madonna Turner, Mary Fendrich Hulman

and Anton "Tony" Hulman gathered around the stuffed lion "Gilmore"

For several years, Turner toured the country in the Air Express flying with his pet lion cub, another promotional idea, as a stylized lion’s head was the symbol of his sponsor, the Gilmore Oil Company. Eventually the lion grew too large to handle and went to a private zoo, but after the lion “Gilmore” died in 1952, Roscoe had it stuffed and kept it in his home. 

Roscoe with the Packard 6-40 and the three major US aviation trophies

 that he won in his career. On the left the Thompson Trophy,

the center is the Harmon Trophy and at right is the Bendix Trophy

             

Turner won the 1933 cross-country Vincent Bendix Trophy race from New York to Los Angeles with the time of 11 hours and thirty minutes in the Gilmore Wedell-Williams. In 1934, Turner won his first Charles Thompson Trophy race, known as the “Indianapolis of the Sky,” and he covered the 150 miles on the ten-mile closed course above Cleveland at an average speed of 248 miles per hour (MPH) in Wedell-Williams.

In 1935, Turner lost the cross-country Burbank-to-Cleveland Bendix Trophy race by a mere 23 ½ seconds. Turner won the Thompson Trophy race again in 1938 and 1939 as he piloted the ‘Meteor,’ a plane of his own design. Roscoe won the 1939 300-mile race with an average speed of 282 MPH and became the only racer to win the Thompson Trophy three times.

During his career, Turner also was awarded the Clifford Harmon Trophy for the United States twice in 1932 and 1938 as the outstanding aviator in the United States. Roscoe also won the Clifford Henderson Award of Merit three times in 1933, 1938 and 1939 as the United States’ fastest air racing pilot. In 1939 and 1940, Turner also starred in the CBS Network weekly radio drama Sky Blazers that was supported by a mail-order model plane and comic book series.

The Gilmore-sponsored Lockheed Air Express powered by a Pratt & Whitney Hornet 525 horsepower nine-cylinder radial engine was capable of 175 MPH, but it did not have the same racing success as the Wedell-Williams plane. Turner bought the Lockheed Air Express from Gilmore in 1932 and flew it until 1938. During his ownership of the Air Express, Roscoe commissioned a custom-made hood ornament for the Packard that was a detailed miniature of the plane complete down to a working propeller that spun in the wind.       

Turner was involved with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for many years beginning with when the facility was owned by his friend the World War I ace and four-time “500’ starter Eddie Rickebacker. Roscoe served as the starter for the 1933 Indianapolis 500-mile race, which was the last year the starter’s role was ceremonial. Turner served as the race’s honorary referee in 1940, and he greeted the 1939 and 1940 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Wilbur Shaw in Victory Lane as the Champion Spark Plug representative.   

Turner moved to Indianapolis in 1940 and formed the Roscoe Turner Aeronautical Corporation based at the Indianapolis Weir Cook Municipal Airport to teach students the skills of aircraft mechanics and provided flight training. Roscoe and his wife bought a three-story 5,500 square foot four-bedroom four-bathroom home located at 6800 West 10th Street in Indianapolis. The 1929 Packard was kept in a special enclosed section of the large detached Turner garage.

Turner attempted to enlist for service in World War 2, but was rejected due to his age, and he spent the war touring war materiel plants and giving speeches. In 1945 Turner was divorced by Carline, from whom he had been separated since 1938, and in late 1946 he married a Hoosier woman 20 years his junior. With the dawning of the jet age, air racing and the name Roscoe Turner faded from the headlines and he stopped wearing his military-style uniform.

This photo courtesy of the Ray Satterlee collection at the Ball State University

Library Digital Media Repository shows an interview in 1961

conducted prior to the start of the Indianapolis 500-mile race.

At left Earl Cooper, announcer Jim Phillippi, Roscoe Turner,

Eddie Rickebacker and Ray Harroun on the right.

Roscoe forged a strong friendship with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s new owner, Anton “Tony” Hulman who was an aviation enthusiast. Turner was included in a group of “old timers” along with Ray Harroun, Earl Cooper and Rickenbacker. that piloted antique race cars around the oval before the start of the Golden Anniversary 1961 Indianapolis ‘500.

Given his friendship with Hulman, it is not a surprise that the 1929 Packard 6-40 was donated to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum several years after Roscoe’s death in June 1970 by his widow Madonna, while the rest of Roscoe’s trophies, airplanes (including the Wedell-Williams and the “Meteor”) and memorabilia (included the stuffed pet lion) were donated to the Smithsonian Institute.

At the time of the donation, the car was painted two-tone silver and gray and even though it had accumulated many miles, it was in excellent condition. The author recalls seeing the Turner Packard 6-40 on display in the “new” Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum around 1976, and since that time, the Packard 6-40 has been beautifully restored by the Museum staff in its two-tone brown livery.

All color photos by the author