The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part two - 1947 and 1948

At the end of our last installment of the story of Branch Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright, the rotund driver had just completed his 1946 midget auto racing season as he competed in a series of races held in Lubbock Texas during October 1946.

Little is known of the early part of ‘Tiny’s’ 1947 season, but the July 4th holiday found him entered for the races held on the 1/5-mile dirt track on the Tri-County Fairgrounds. Located in Mendota Illinois the races were sanctioned by legendary pioneer ‘big car’ racer turn promoter John Gerber’s Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA). An advance article in the Dixon Evening Telegraph listed Wainwright at a fairly a svelte (for him) 225 pounds but stated that he was so large that he required “an oversized cockpit to house his frame.”

The race, on the 1/5-mile dirt track built in 1941, featured a field of 20 competitors.  In addition to Wainwright, “the biggest driver in the business,” the drivers included 1946 Indianapolis ‘500’ competitor Danny Kladis, ‘Red’ Hoyle from Cedar Rapids Iowa, Harry Meeks and the appearance of Les Forrer in his front wheel drive midget powered by a Wisconsin four-cylinder air-cooled engine.

MMARA president Gerber noted in an interview for a newspaper article that the Tri-County 1/5-mile track was composed of distinct two types of soil – one end, the third and four turns, was comprised of sand while the other end of the track, turns one and two, was “regular dirt” and that the differing soil types required different driving techniques

The Friday July 4 afternoon race was unusual at Tri-County, which featured track lighting and seating for 5000 fans and typically held Thursday night races during the Summer months. The afternoon 20-lap feature was won by the previously unknown racer Vic Ellis from Rochelle Illinois.

Later in the 1947 season, race car owner Ray Tomaseski from nearby LaSalle Illinois took over the promotion of open competition midget auto racing at Tri-County under the sanction of the Chicago-based “Midwest Racing Association.” Midget racing apparently did not catch on in Mendota, as in subsequent years, the small flat track hosted only occasional AMA-sanctioned motorcycle races promoted by the local Rock River Riders Motorcycle Club.

Sunday July 13, 1947 found ‘Tiny’ in action with the MMARA midgets on the ½-mile Hawkeye Downs dirt track located in Council Bluffs Iowa. Originally built in 1925 as a rodeo grounds, the facility also featured a ¼-mile dirt track.  Wainwright was scheduled to drive the ‘Cotton Fasone Special,’ a Ford V-8 powered car from Kansas City which the Cedar Rapid Gazette identified as “specially designed to carry his 250-pound racing weight.”

Wainwright’s name did not appear as one of the top finishers in the day’s races at Council Bluffs, which were dominated by Danny Kladis from Chicago. Kladis set a new track record as he sped around the half-mile track in 28.44 seconds, and then he won the trophy dash and his five-lap heat race. Kladis started from the pole position for the twelve-car 10-lap feature race and led every lap to defeat a field of mostly local cars with Dick Hobel in second place and ‘Red” Hoyle third in the feature which was completed in five minutes and two seconds.

‘Tiny’ was listed as one of the entries for the midget races on Saturday afternoon August 2, 1947 held as part of the 93^rd Coles County Fair in Charleston Illinois. Other entries for the race promoted by the Parkes Brothers on the Coles County Speedway which had opened on Sunday April 27, 1947 included Frank Burany, Myron Fohr, Ray Knepper, Ben Chesney, and Rex Easton. The promoters promised that those drivers and “Tiny’ would drive Offenhauser powered cars on the 1/5-mile dirt clay oval managed by Indianapolis’ Orville Stiff who was identified as a pre-war midget auto racer.

‘Tiny’ Wainwright made a rare “big car” racing appearance in the 1948 first annual Memorial Day races on the Iowa State Fair track in Des Moines promoted by the Za-Ga-Zig Shrine temple of Altoona Iowa. In addition to ‘Tiny,’ whose hometown was listed as St. Louis, the “definite entry” list included “Pat Patterson from Wellman in a big McDowell race car,” Pat Cunningham from St Joseph Missouri and Kirk Washburn from St Paul Minnesota, with all four drivers described in the Associated Press wire story as “well known to midwestern auto race fans.” 

‘Tiny’ was entered in the notorious “Schrader car” the Offenhauser powered car owned by Virgil Campbell, so called because it was the car in which Gus Schrader was killed in Louisiana in October 1941 . Reportedly, ‘Tiny’ was replaced as the driver by ‘Rabbit’ Musick after time trials, but the Campbell car retired during the feature race.   

In front of a crowd of 7,500 fans, Wally Stokes, an up and coming ‘big car’ driver from Cleveland, Ohio, in his Offenhauser powered #2 grabbed three victories during the five-race program – his heat race, the trophy dash and the day’s 10-lap finale on the half-mile dirt track as he beat Herschel Buchanan to the finish line by 40 yards.  Sadly, Stokes would die a little over a year later in a traffic accident in August 1949, the day following his AAA championship car debut at Springfield Illinois, when the car driven by his wife left the road and hit a tree.

Wainwright was listed as one of the members of the Tri-State Midget Auto Racing (TSMAR) traveling circuit promoted by Glen and Lloyd Bauman prior its inaugural visit to Huron South Dakota on June 4, 1948. ‘Tiny,’ who was said to weigh 300 pounds, was described as the “showman of the troupe,” as the article in the Huron Hurronite said that the other drivers claimed that “Mr. Five-by-Five carries his machine around the track instead of the usual run of these things.”  Wainwright drove a Ford V-8 powered machine, while other featured drivers - George Binnie, Jay Booth, Buddy Rackley, and Charlie Taggert, all raced in Offenhauser powered midgets.

Promoter Lloyd Bauman, a South Dakotan, explained to the Hurronite writer that the Tri-State circuit included race tracks in five cities – Huron, Riverview Park in Sioux City Iowa, Playland Park in Council Bluffs Iowa, a ½-mile track in Canby Minnesota and a ¼-mile track in Luverne Minnesota. The Tri-State racing schedule started in Riverview Park on Sunday, moved to Playland Park Tuesday night, then headed north to Luverne on Wednesday night, on to Canby for Thursday night before the racers headed west and wound up their week in Huron South Dakota. Bauman said with an estimated 20,500 fans expected to attend the races weekly, that translated to a weekly guaranteed pot of $4,250 in prize money for the racers.    

After morning rain showers, Kansas City’s George Binnie was out-qualified by Buddy Rackley from Houston Texas by .06 seconds with a best lap of 18.43 seconds on a wet track. As the track dried, Binnie rebounded to win four of the evening’s racing events. Binnie’s near clean sweep included wins in the three-lap trophy dash, his eight-lap heat race, the eight-lap handicap race and the 15-lap ‘A’ feature. “The big, good-natured” ‘Tiny’ drove the black #3 Van Winkle Ford powered midget and finished as the runner-up to Binnie in both their heat race and the ‘A’ feature. 

Even though the drivers billed it the best track on the circuit, and the one that featured the best seating, midget auto racing at Huron South Dakota was short-lived. After the third Friday night event on June 18, the promoters moved the racing program to Saturday nights. After the June 26^th race, the races scheduled for July 3^rd and 10 were cancelled due to conflicts with the other fairgrounds events.

On July 15, 1948 the Hurronite newspaper carried the news of the cancellation of further midget races “for the remainder of the season” because the promoters judged that “the 1/5-mile track was not in shape.” TSMAR events at the two tracks in Minnesota never drew decent crowds and apparently the circuit collapsed midway through the 1948 season, as for the rest of the season ‘Tiny’ raced with John Gerber’s Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA)

Sunday afternoon July 11, 1948 Wainwright returned to the 1/5-mile clay surface at the Ce-Mar Bowl located on the grounds of the Ce-Mar Acres amusement park in Cedar Rapids Iowa for races promoted by MMARA. ‘Tiny’ who had debuted at Ce-Mar three weeks earlier was teamed with Jay Booth in a pair of potent Ford powered Kurtis-Kraft midgets owned by Lloyd Van Winkle of Lincoln Nebraska. The pair along with the familiar names of Danny Kladis, Johnny Hobel and ‘Red’ Hoyle were joined by Cliff Nalon the brother of the famed “Duke” Nalon and newcomers Dick Ritchie and Bud Koehler who also piloted a Kurtis-Kraft midget.   

5,423 fans turned out for the races which were dominated by local Cedar Rapids drivers. ‘Red’ Hoyle won the first heat race followed by ‘Tiny’ Wainwright, with the second heat also won by a local driver Dick Hobel.   Johnny Hobel, Dick’s brother, won the 14-lap handicap race, then led the first ten laps of the feature until he spun out. Johnny’s spin handed the lead to ‘Red’ Hoyle who won over Danny Kladis as ‘Tiny’ dropped out of the race with engine trouble.

Tragedy struck the MMARA circuit on Friday night August 13^th during the third heat race on Gerber’s 3/10-mile track at the Mississippi Valley fairgrounds in Davenport Iowa.  On the third lap of the race, Glenn Cromwell of Erie Illinois in the Paul Kaminsky’s #4 midget hit a rut in the second turn and the car spun to a stop. Clyde Skinner steered his midget to the upper groove of the track but could not avoid Cromwell’s machine. The impact turned Cromwell’s car over; Glenn suffered critical head and chest injuries, and the injured driver was transported to Mercy Hospital in Davenport. 

Cromwell had survived an earlier crash in May in a different midget at the ¼-mile Jefferson Iowa track when his car rolled twice and came to rest upside down with Glenn trapped underneath.  Cromwell had escaped the May crash without serious injuries but he did not survive the August crash. Glenn passed away at 1:20 AM on Saturday morning, August 14^th as he left behind Lois his wife of just eleven months, who was at the track when the accident occurred. Wainwright’s car had again suffered engine trouble during the Davenport program, and his car was not fixed in time for him to compete in the August 15 race at the Ce-Mar Bowl.

When the MMARA midgets appeared at Ce-mar on August 22, ‘Tiny’ had a new teammate on the Van Winkle team for this race – young Clyde Skinner who had been involved in the Cromwell tragedy substituted for Jay Booth.  The MMARA teams ran a Sunday afternoon show at Davenport, then drove northwest to race at Cedar Rapids for a Sunday night race. The Ce-Mar Bowl which had seen growing crowds over the past three weeks had enlarged the parking lot and added bleachers which could accommodate up to 7,500 fans. The track had also added a new safety feature – red, green and yellow “safety lights” were installed in the corners to alert drivers of the conditions on the track.

On Thursday night August 26 the MMARA circuit appeared at the ¼-mile oval at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Indianola Iowa.  ‘Tiny’ in the “improved” Van Winkle Ford set the quick time for the night as he ran a best lap of 17.36 seconds in time trials. Ray Hall of Kansas City won the feature followed by Dick Hobel with Paul Newkirk third and ‘Tiny’ in fourth place.

A record crowd of 5,963 fans turned out at Ce-Mar on Sunday night September 5, 1948 as ‘Tiny’ and the Van Winkle team arrived at the track late.  He posted the second fastest qualifying time, then won the 15-lap semi-main over his teammate Jay Booth, but neither driver emerged as the   finishers in the evening’s feature race.

On Wednesday night September 22, the MMARA teams visited a new venue, a 1/5-mile track at the Northwest Missouri State Fairgrounds in Bethany Missouri, but the program was plagued by three accidents. Early in the evening, an errant machine ran over MMARA pit steward Truman “Shorty” Berryhill of Cedar Rapids and injured his leg.

Later during the handicap race, George Miller of Cedar Rapids spun and his car was hit by Ray Hill, the evening’s fast qualifier in Paul Kaminsky’s #11 midget, with Hall’s car damaged badly enough that it scratched for the rest of the night. In the evening’s feature Dick Ritchie spun out and Miller’s car climbed over Ritchie’s and rolled over – George was unhurt but his car was badly damaged. ‘Tiny’ won his heat race and finished second in the feature behind Walter Raines of Alta Iowa.

Two nights later, Wainwright won the semi-main event at Davenport as Danny Kladis won the feature which was marred by a seven-car accident that eliminated five cars from the race. Two days later, the MMARA cars were back in Cedar Rapids for the first afternoon show at Ce-Mar Bowl. There was more mechanical carnage in the 20-lap main at Ce-Mar as seven cars crashed and the race had to be restarted three times on a slick slow track. ‘Tiny’ started on the pole position and led the first eight laps then yielded to Kladis as only four cars finished the feature which was witnessed by a small crowd of less than 3,000 on a cold wet and windy day.

In October 1948 Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright was identified as a member of five-man criminal gang that was responsible for a string of nineteen safe burglaries in restaurants, drugstores, and other small retail establishments during the Summer and Fall of 1948. Two members of the gang were jailed in the Boone County Missouri jail, while another, Roy Rees, was in the Bethany Missouri City Jail, with another conspirator jailed in Lexington Kentucky. ‘Tiny’ was the only gang member free at the time, and was rumored to be at the time in Los Angeles California. On November 15, 1948, ‘Tiny,’ identified as a local taxi cab driver, surrendered to police in Kansas City and was charged with participation in the March 25, 1948 safe burglary at the Columbia Fruit Company in Columbia Missouri.     

Look for our next installment which reviews 1949 and 1950 as ‘Tiny’s’ previously unknown life of crime interfered with his midget auto racing career.  

        

Fred Agabashian

from the Bay Area to Indianapolis glory

Part three -1958 and a busy retirement 

 

Fred's 1958 IMS portrait in his

Champion Spark Plug 100 MPH club leather jacket

courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

Bignotti-Bowes Racing Associates entered their pair of Kurtis-Kraft 500G chassis for the 1958 Indianapolis '500' with Fred Agabashian and Johnnie Parsons set to return as the drivers, but in early April, they had to quickly find a driver. Agabashian resigned from the Bowes team in mid-April and accepted a large retainer from trucking magnate Pat Clancy to drive the "City of Memphis Special" another Kurtis Kraft 500G with Danny Quella as chief mechanic.  As Agabashian’s replacement Bowes and Bignotti chose his teammate from the 1956 Federal Engineering team, Bob Veith.

Agabashian came to Indianapolis in May 1958 fully expecting to start his 12th consecutive Indianapolis ‘500’ but the month proved to be a painful experience. Fred made an aborted qualifying attempt on May 17 the first day of qualifying. During a “test hop” in the “Helse Special” during practice on Wednesday May 21 he turned a lap at 143.9 MPH then spun and crashed in turn two.

This accident marked the first time in his twelve-year career that the 44-year old Agabashian crashed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fred suffered minor injuries to his left leg and hand in the crash and he also complained of pain in his mid-section. Fred took a private car, not an ambulance, to Methodist Hospital where he stayed overnight. 

The new Helse Kuzma chassis was one of three built for 1958 with independent front suspension and was originally assigned to second-year team driver Jimmy Daywalt who left the team in frustration after suitable speed could not be found.  Apparently the handling problems were not traced to the front suspension, but rather the new one-piece fuel tank design. In retrospect, it appears as though the frame was too flexible.  

An article in the May 21 1958 issue of the Indianapolis Star revealed that “just about everything has been tried by builder Eddie Kuzma and the mechanics, even stuffing inner tubes in the fuel tanks and inflating them to keep the fuel from swishing around too much and finally even cutting off some of the fuel tanks,” In addition to cutting off the fuel tank, prior to Agajanian’s crash crew chief Bruce Crower and his crew “rebuilt the Helse car virtually from the ground up” according to the Star. 

Fred's 1958 '500' qualifying photo

Author's collection

 

Three days after the crash on May 24 the third day of time trials Fred spun in the southeast turn on the second lap of his second qualifying attempt and brushed the wall which damaged the car’s front axle. After repairs Fred qualified the ‘City of Memphis’ Kurtis Kraft 500G at a relatively slow 142.135 MPH which bumped Dempsey Wilson from the field and placed Fred at the tail of the field.

On the windy final day of time trials, Wilson climbed into the ‘Sorenson Special’ and bumped Agabashian from the starting field.  Fred completed a four-lap run into the Racing Associates “D-A Lubricants Special” Kuzma backup car but his four-lap average was not fast enough to bump back in and Agabashian’s string of consecutive Indianapolis ‘500’ starts ended at eleven.  

Agabashian and the "City of Memphis Special" wound up as the 34th fastest qualifier and won $500 from the Speedway as the first alternate. In the third turn of the first lap of the 1958 ‘500’ Ed Elisian and Jim Rathmann tangled as they foolishly fought to lead the first lap.

Bob Veith who had replaced Agabashian in the second Bowes KK 500G was run over by Pat O’Connor’s 'Sumar Special' which flipped and O’Connor was killed instantly. In reaction to this accident, for the 1959 season USAC required that all cars have roll bars behind the driver.  In an interview after the race, Freddie told news reporters that "he wasn't too upset to have been bumped" as he had had a premonition of disaster. 

Fred never officially announced his retirement as a race car driver, he simply moved on to the phase of his life for which he had preparing for years.  According to automobile racing historian Chris Economkai, “Agabashian was one of the first racers to realize the value of public relations” and Fred began making public speeches about racing around 1950.

Fred's image appeared in Champion Spark Plug ads like this one for years

 early in his racing career Fred worked in sales at Bob Phillipi’s Lincoln Mercury dealership in Oakland but at the time of his retirement from driving in 1958, Fred was the senior member of the Champion Spark Plug Highway Safety Team, a group of 100 MPH club members who toured the country to speak to high school students about driving safety.  Fred worked for the Champion Spark Plug Company until he retired 1978 and was succeeded by Jerry Grant.  

In 1959, Fred joined the Indianapolis Motor Speedway radio network as the driver expert on the annual 500-mile race broadcast hosted by Sid Collins, and Agabashian’s gravelly voice was heard nationwide providing expert insight on the Memorial Day broadcast through 1965, and again from 1973 to 1977.

Agabashian worked as an USAC observer and later the chief steward of the Mobilgas Economy Run in 1967 and 1968. In the final  Run held in 1968, Fred dropped the checkered flag on contestants as they crossed the finish line at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after the original finish in New York City was abandoned after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.  

Fred remained active and regularly visited local Bay Area tracks and was an annual visitor to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway until he passed away in October 1989 at his home in Alamo California.  His daughter reportedly still lives in the home and his office  remains just as it was when Fred was alive.  
 

For his career accomplishments Fred Agabashian is an inductee into the Bay Cities Racing  Association (BCRA) Hall of Fame, the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) Hall of Fame and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Auto Racing Hall of Fame. 

 

Fred Agabashian

from the Bay Area to Indianapolis glory

Part two from 1952 to 1957 

Fred with his wife Mabel daughter Joanne and son Fred Junior posed in front of the 1949 Indianapolis 500 pace car. Photo appears courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

In 1952, Fred Agabashian took on his ultimate “research and development” project as his drove the “Cummins Diesel Special.”  Rumors about the car began in November 1951 as news reports claimed that the Cummins Engine Company had invested over $150,000 (nearly $1-1/2 million today) on their entry which some reporters predicted “could revolutionize racing.” Don Cummins formally announced the entry in a press conference at company headquarters in Columbus Indiana on January 19. Later in the month, photographs emerged which showed Agabashian seated in the cockpit of the still-unpainted low-slung Kurtis chassis that was less than two feet high at the cowl.

Cummins press photo from the authors' collection

The Cummins entry powered by an Elliott turbocharged fuel-injected 6-cylinder 400-cubic inch ‘JBS’ diesel engine that was laid on its right side 5 degrees off horizontal in the chassis made its first practice laps at the Speedway on April 19 1952. While the ground-breaking engine configuration lowered the car’s center of gravity and provided less drag through the air, even with extensive use of aluminum and magnesium the car was heavy at over 2100 pounds, but with a factory claimed 380 horsepower on tap it proved fast. The Cummins machine featured dual shock absorbers and two brakes per wheel.

Agabashian admitted later that he “sandbagged” during practice runs early in the month of May, and on Pole Day, May 17, Fred shocked the crowd with a one–lap track record of 139.104 MPH and a four-lap average speed of 138.01 MPH.  Agabashian and the Cummins Diesel grabbed the pole position and the track record away from Andy Linden who had set a new four-lap record of 137.002 MPH earlier in the day.

By the end of the time trial run the Cummins’ overheated Firestone tires were beginning to shred their tread, which raised concerns about the race, but Fred’s startling record run and pole starting position made him and the Cummins Diesel nationally recognized names overnight. The following weekend, first Bill Vukovich in Howard Keck’s new Kurtis 500A roadster and then veteran Chet Miller in the front-wheel drive Novi supercharged V-8 eclipsed the Cummins’ record speed, as Miller finally set the new one-lap standard of 139.6 MPH.

The mighty Cummins Diesel on display inside the company museum

Author's photo

On race day, the slow pace of the start allowed the field to get away from Agabashian before the diesel’s turbocharger built up boost pressure to allow maximum power. While running in fifth place the car began to trail black smoke, and a couple of long pit stops, the Cummins was retired with 71 laps completed without explanation, but company officials later claimed the car suffered a clogged turbocharger inlet which caused the engine to overheat. The following day Cummins officials announced that the car would not return for the 1953 ‘500’ but the attendant publicity paid dividends, as Cummins introduced the diesel fuel injection system tested on the race car in production models on July 1, 1954.  

Although the Cummins Diesel Special only held the Speedway track record for a week, and had a less-than stellar race performance in its only race, the unlikely story of a diesel engine car that won the pole at Indianapolis made the car (and its driver) an iconic part of Speedway history.   In January 1953, Fred Agabashian now nearly 40 years old was named by Chicago speed shop owner Anthony “Andy” Granatelli as the drive of a “special new” $25,000 Kurtis-Kraft 500B chassis.

Granatelli, one of Fred’s 1951 AAA season car owners, went the conventional route, as  the car sponsored by Martin Skok’s Elgin Piston Pin Company of Elgin Illinois was powered by a 270-cubic inch Offenhauser engine. The blue and red-trimmed #59 roadster was one of the fastest cars on track during practice early in the month, and Fred posted the second fastest average speed in qualifying, 137.546 MPH, and earned his third straight front row start in the Memorial Day Classic.   

The 1953 Indianapolis 500-mile race is frequently remembered for its intense heat, with the air temperature that reached 91 degrees Fahrenheit (at the time it tied with 1919 as the second hottest race on record) and the track temperature which reportedly topped 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The intense heat and humidity caused many drivers to request a relief driver. Six drivers required medical treatment but driver Carl Scarborough waited too long, collapsed after he climbed out of the ‘McNamara Special’ on lap 70 and later died in the infield hospital.

Fred Agabashian led his first lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when leader Bill Vukovich pitted on lap 49, but Vukovich retook the lead when Fred pitted the next lap. Agabashian requested relief during his pit stop on lap 105 and veteran midget driver Paul Russo whose own entry fell out earlier drove the #59 entry the rest of the way to the finish.  

At the drop of the checkered flag, the Elgin/Grancor Special was initially reported to have finished in second place behind winner Vukovich one of only two drivers who finished the race without relief. Reporter Harold McClelland wrote that late in the race the Granatelli crew believed their car was a lap ahead of Art Cross and ordered Russo to slow. The team later realized that Cross’ “Springfield Welding Special” was on the same lap as Russo apparently finished just a car length ahead of Cross.

Initial news reports stated that the Agabashian/Russo combination completed the 500-mile distance in 3:56:32.25 at an average speed of 126.830 MPH while Art Cross finished with an elapsed time of 3:56:32.56 to average 126.827 MPH. When the official results were posted by AAA officials the next day, after a “electric time recheck” by Clifford Rigsbee the director of timing and scoring the Elgin/Grancor Special dropped to fourth behind Cross and Sam Hanks.  Granatelli immediately protested the finish and this initial protest was denied.

The two-position change cost car owner Granatelli $14,350 who continued to contend that his car finished second, and he was granted an appeal hearing by “500-mile motor speedway officials” on June 11 with “a decision to announced later” according to a United Press (UP) wire report.   There was “no indication when a final decision would be reached” according to a report from the Associated Press (AP) which noted that “the mix-up resulted from the complicated system used in checking the number of laps made by each car.  During the 200 turns of the 2-1/2 mile track, a lap is sometimes missed by the checkers.” The author did not find any follow-up stories on the Granatelli protest, and the AAA historical records list Agabashian and Russo as the fourth place finishers.   

In the meantime Agabashian took part in a ten-week tour with the “Irish Horan Hell Drivers” automobile thrill show which began June 2. Fred performed primarily public relations work, although he also reportedly put on several “precision driving exhibitions.” 

For the 1954 Indianapolis ‘500’ Agabashian was nominated to drive the ‘Merz Engineering Special’ a brand new Kurtis Kraft 500C roadster with 270-cubic inches of Offenhauser power that was “tilted 36 degrees.” The car was owned by Indianapolis businessman and Democratic Party political boss Miklos Sperling. Several years earlier, Sperling purchased Merz Engineering from founder Fred Merz who drove at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the earliest day including four of the first six International 500-mile sweepstakes races.  The new maroon and white car arrived at Indianapolis late, only a few days before the first weekend of time trials, but while he waited Fred test-drove the Chinetti Ferrari V-12 assigned to Danny Oakes.

The Kurtis cars assigned to Fred and defending ‘500’ champion Bill Vukovich were not ready to qualify the first weekend, and after it arrived Agabashian called and asked his friend and former car owner George Bignotti to come to Indianapolis and help out the short-handed Sperling crew. This marked the beginning of Bignotti’s magical 29-year career at the Speedway that earned him seven ‘500’ wins.

Fred qualified the “Merz Engineering Special” on Sunday May 23rd with the fourth slowest average speed of 137.746 MPH and started from the 24th positon. Fred drove a smart race on Memorial Day and finished in sixth position, completing the 500 miles distance three and half minutes behind repeat winner Bill Vukovich. As he completed the entire 500-mile distance without relief with an average speed of 128.771 MPH, Fred Agabashian earned his membership in the exclusive Champion Spark Plug Company 100-MPH hour club and its treasured leather jacket.   After the race, mechanic Frankie DelRoy found the Kurtis chassis cracked in two places.

Once again the Indianapolis Motor Speedway suffered timing and scoring problems during the 500-mile race.  At the Victory banquet the night following the race Tony Hulman was unable to present the check for $500 to the driver with the fastest lap during the race because the “timing crew had not figured that one out in time.”

A Champion Spark Plug matchbook from the author's collection

shows Agabashian's 1955 entry

Agabashian drove in the 1955 and 1956 Indianapolis 500-mile races for car owner Dan Levine of Detroit in the ‘Federal Engineering Special’ named after the Levine family’s Detroit-based fixture and die-making company. The team was managed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway legend Russell Snowberger who been at the Speedway since 1927 as a driver, car builder, and mechanic, assisted by veteran mechanic and car builder Francis “Frank” Bardazon.

In 1955 Agabashian was the replacement for Larry “Crash” Crockett was killed in an AAA Eastern Division ‘big car’ crash in March 1955 at Langhorne Pennsylvania.  Agabashian was assigned to drive the team’s new Kurtis 500D chassis while rookie Chuck Weyant drew the Kurtis 3000 upright chassis which had been driven to Stark-Wetzel Rookie-of-the-Year honors the previous year by former track roadster racer Crockett. At Snowberger’s direction, Kurtis-Kraft Inc. had built the 500D with a wheelbase four inches longer in the cockpit area to accommodate Crockett’s height.

On the second day of the 1955 time trials, Agabashian put the #14 yellow with blue trim Kurtis into the starting field on the inside of the second row. 1955 was the year that “Pole Day” was windy and the drivers allegedly agreed that no one would make a qualifying run, until Jerry Hoyt went out near closing time in the “Jim Robbins Special.” Tony Bettenhausen was the only other driver to complete his timed run on the first day.

With his own car in the field Fred turned to help his teammate. Fred was helpful to rookie drivers, as remembered by Rodger Ward in 1989. "He wouldn't force things on you, but if you asked him, he would always help you. His philosophy was: If you make a mistake on the race track, I might be behind you. He recognized it was a dangerous sport, and there was quite a transition in those days between what we normally raced and going to Indianapolis."

Rookie Weyant made his first qualifying attempt in the yellow and blue #41 on the third day of time trials and the second-year 32-year old rookie spun in the fourth turn on his fourth and final lap. The car spun several times but did not hit anything and came to a stop pointed the right direction, so Weyant drove into the pits, the crew changed the tires and he want back out and qualified 25th.  On Race Day 1955, Freddie spun two full revolutions and into the infield off the two turn in the oil dropped by the surprise pole siting car, the “Jim Robbins Special.” 

Fred's 1956 '500 qualifying photo  appears courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

In 1956, the environment was different at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the AAA Contest Board announced it would quit sanctioning races in August 1955 and had been replaced by a new organization, the United States Auto Club (USAC). Agabashian was joined on the 1956 Federal Engineering team by a driver he knew well; Speedway rookie and future BCRA champion Bob Veith, who had committed to drive the entire season for Federal Engineering and thus was assigned Levine’s newest car, a Kurtis 500E, the only one ever built by Kurtis-Kraft.

Fred easily qualified for the 1956 ‘500’ and started from the seventh position. Qualifying the first day freed Agabashian’s time so he could help Snowberger and Veith sort out the handling problems with the new car and Veith eventually qualified 23rd.  Freddie was in eighth place when he had to pit for the first time on lap 15, and he continued to make a number of pit stops for various mechanical problems and Agabashian lost four laps and he finished the 1956 ‘500 in twelfth place.     

For the 1957 Indianapolis 500-mile race Agabashian was reunited with his old midget car owner and friend George Bignotti with fellow Californian Johnny Boyd in a pair of new Kurtis-Kraft 500G models powered by 270-cubic inch Offenhauser engines sponsored by the Bowes Seal Fast Company of Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway facility much changed from the 1956 running of the ‘500,’ with a new concrete pit lane separated from the racing surface by a concrete wall, a new eight-story control tower that replaced the ancient Pagoda, and new grandstands. The track was completed paved with asphalt except for 650 yards of the main straightaway. With this new configuration the cars could be lighter as they did not have to be built as ruggedly as years past to withstand the pounding of the uneven track surfaces.

There was a new car at the Speedway in 1957 the Belond Exhaust Special built and owned by long-time crew chiefs George Salih and Howard Gilbert, who gambled everything they had on their new car, as they mortgaged their homes to get the money to complete the car and pay Quinn Epperly to build the aluminum body. Their new car used a design concept with which Agabashian was intimately familiar - its four-cylinder Offenhauser engine was laid nearly on its side only 18 degrees from horizontal.

Salih and Gilbert had closely studied the 1952 Cummins Diesel Special and together they worked out a way to get the oil to properly circulate in the Offenhauser engine in the nearly flat positon. Like the Cummins Diesel, the “laydown” engine lowered the car’s center of gravity and allowed a smaller profile to face the wind, but unlike the diesel, the “Belond sidewinder” was lightweight. 

After practically ruling the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the middle of the decade of the nineteen fifties, by 1957 Frank Kurtis’ latest designs faced competition from new lighter cars built by AJ Watson. The 500G was designed by Frank Kurtis as a “dual purpose” roadster that could be raced on the 2-1/2-mile oval in Indianapolis as well as the shorter one-mile paved and dirt ovals. As with most compromise designs the Kurtis 500G fell short of expectations. With the opening of practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the design proved to be handful to drive and worse yet, not immediately fast. 

The Bowes Seal Fast team worked together and solved the Kurtis 500G’s handling quirks in time to qualify well on the first day of time trials   Freddie qualified fourth with a four-lap average of 142.557 MPH, while Johnny Boyd was just a tick slower at 142.102 MPH to start alongside Agabashian in the second row of the eleven rows of three.

On race day, apparently in an effort to focus attention on the new pit lane, the field started single file from pit lane, which created chaos. In the confusion, as Elmer George, the track owner’s son-in-law maneuvered through the field to reach his ninth starting sport, he rear-ended Eddie Russo’s car and knocked both cars from the race before the green flag flew. Once the race started, both the “Bowes Seal Fast Specials” ran near the front of the field until they both suffered problems in the pit area. 

Johnny Boyd ran in third place as he made his first pit stop, but the stop took over two minutes, which dropped him far back in the running order, although he was able to recover to sixth place by the time the checkered flag fell.  Freddie Agabashian likewise was scored in third place when he made a pit stop on lap 100 and a fire erupted.

The fire was extinguished, but the fuel tank had split from the sudden internal pressure and Fred’s car was eventually retired on lap 107. Veteran Sam Hanks in the radical “Belond Exhaust Special” took the race lead the first time on lap 36 and led a total of 136 laps including the last 65 to win the 1957 ‘500’ in dominant fashion.

Coming up in the final installment we will take a look at the last year of Fred Agabashian’s Indianapolis career and his busy retirement.

Jerry Unser’s contributions to safety 

part one

 

 

Jeremy Michael “Jerry” Unser Junior was the first member of the Unser family to compete at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1958.  Jerry had a younger (by ten minutes) twin brother Louie, who worked as Jerry’s crew chief and brothers Al and Bobby who would be rookies at the Speedway in 1963 and 1965 respectively. Though his two younger brothers would score seven Indianapolis ‘500’ wins between them, Jerry contributed to the safety of future race drivers.

Jerry was born in Colorado in 1932 the son of a race car driver and grew up Albuquerque New Mexico but in 1958 lived in Lakewood California. After he won the 1956 stock car race on the family’s playground, the Pike’s Peak Hill Climb, he joined Peter DePaolo Engineering’s United States Auto Club (USAC) stock car racing team. In 1957 driving a factory supplied Ford Unser won the USAC stock car championship.  

The bespectacled 25-year rookie had anything but an easy time to make the 1958 Indianapolis 500-mile race starting field, as the car that Jerry finally qualified, the “McKay Special” Kurtis Kraft 500 G was his third car of the month. Jerry was originally nominated as the driver for Southern California building contractor Harry V Duncan Junior’s  Kurtis Kraft 500 A. In an era when Indianapolis was  dominated by the four-cylinder Offenhauser engine the Duncan entry was powered by a DeSoto stock block hemispherical (hemi) head V-8 engine built by dry lakes racer Tony Capanna.  

Capanna who with his partner, Guy “Red” Wilson ran Wilcap a machine and engine shop in Los Angeles built several Dodge and DeSoto engines with Duncan’s financial support used to set records at Bonneville in 1954. Tony focused on Indianapolis in 1955 and built a 270-cubic inch Dodge Red Ram “hemi” engine that was fitted into Al Dean’s Kuzma upright which had won the 1954 American Automobile Association (AAA) season title.

Encouraged by Jimmy Bryan’s practice laps timed at over 140 miles per hour, the team put rookie Bob “Caveman” Christie in the car to make a qualifying attempt on May 22 the last day of time trials. As Christie headed the backstretch on his last warm-up lap, the Dodge engine’s crankshaft broke and the Kuzma crashed.

For 1958, Capanna and Duncan bought a Kurtis Kraft 500A, built in 1953 specifically to use a Chrysler “hemi” V-8 stock block engine. There is some dispute whether this car was originally built for Roger Wolcott or Murrell Belanger. Both of those cars were tested extensively at the Speedway during 1953 powered by Chrysler factory built 335 cubic inch engine that reputedly produced 400 horsepower.

After a United States Auto Club (USAC) rule change reduced the allowable displacement of “stock block” engines to only 271 cubic inches both teams found the car uncompetitive and later sold to other car owners. Wilcap employee Dean Murray modified the KK 500A chassis so that the DeSoto engine was mounted so far to the left side of the #51 Duncan Special chassis that the left cylinder head actually extended past the Kurtis’ left side frame rail.

Capanna built up the 255 cubic inch DeSoto “hemi” engine in 1958 with a number of custom made parts made at Wilcap. Capanna machined his own 3-inch stroke crankshaft from a billet of 4340 steel, while the connecting rods were crafted from 6145 steel. The engine used needle bearings for the camshaft and rocker arms, and Forgedtrue pistons supplied by 1946 Indianapolis ‘500’ winning crew chief Art Sparks.

The DeSoto heads were fitted with larger valves and re-worked achieve a 14:1 compression ratio. In dynamometer testing with straight methanol run through the Hilborn ram-air injectors, Capanna reported 340 horsepower at 6500 revolutions per minute (RPM) as compared to the typical Offenhauser engine that developed at 360 horsepower at 6000 RPM on straight methanol.

Jerry arrived at the Speedway recovered from a broken collar bone that he suffered in January after his midget flipped on the eighth lap of the race at Riverside International Raceway. Unser was one of nine raw rookies entered for the 42nd annual 500-mile race, a list that included AJ Foyt, Paul Goldsmith, 51 year-old local sports car dealer Jack Ensley, Carroll Shelby, and Len Sutton. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened on Thursday May 1 and by May 10 the Long Beach Independent Telegraph reported that Unser who lived in nearby Lakewood California was “working on the final phase of his driving test.”

On Sunday May 19 while Jerry practiced on the Indianapolis 2-1/2 mile oval the DeSoto engine broke a connecting rod, and the catastrophic damage sidelined the Duncan entry for the rest of the month. Tony Capanna never returned to Indianapolis and according to Richard Parks, Tony would later remark that it was too costly a proposition to do that kind of racing.

On Monday, Jerry was one of several drivers along with Eddie Sachs and Dick Rathmann that changed rides. Sachs moved into the seat of Peter Schmidt’s bright red Kuzma creation, while Rathmann moved into Lee Elkins’ newly purchased “McNamara Motor Freight” Watson chassis. Jerry became the third driver for Chapman Root’s Sumar Racing team assigned to the team’s backup #48 Kurtis Kraft 500C chassis. The Sumar KK 500 C had made the ‘500’ four straight years

However, Unser did not find the speed needed in the Sumar entry and after the Offenhauser engine had problems, he moved to Youngstown Ohio building contractor Roy H McKay’s Kurtis Kraft 500G2. The McKay KK500G2 was the car in which California standout Don Edmunds had driven to 1957 ‘500’ Rookie of the Year of the honors then crashed in practice earlier in the month in 1959. Unser qualified the repaired #92 “McKay Special” for the 1958 ‘500’ starting field on Saturday May 24 at 142.775 MPH to start 24th in the 33-car field.  Unser was one of eight rookies to make the field along with Foyt, Goldsmith, Sutton Jud Larson, Art Bisch, George Amick, and Dempsey Wilson who bumped his way into the field on Sunday May 25.

The start of the 1958 ‘500’ was a mess. Instead of starting from the main straightaway, for the second year in a row officials decided to start the cars in single file from the new concrete pit lane and for the second year the start was a disaster. In 1957, as Elmer George (track owner Tony Hulman’s son-in-law)  tried to cut through the field to reach his ninth starting spot on the pace lap he rammed into the tail of Eddie Russo’s Sclavi & Amos entry and knocked both cars from the race.

In the confusion of the 1958 start, the three front row starters Dick Rathmann, Ed Elisian, and Jimmy Reece let pit lane early and were half a lap ahead of the Mercury pace car driven by 1957 ‘500’ winner Sam Hanks. An extra pace lap was required to straighten the order as the three front row starters caught the tail of the field and then sliced through traffic and reached the head of the field as the field rolled through the fourth turn. The start was ragged with the front row single file and cars four abreast further back.     

 

 

Jerry Unser took flight over the turn three wall

 

At the drop of the green flag, pole sitter Rathmann took the lead with Elisian in close pursuit. After they raced through the second turn nose to tail, Elisian dove low to take the lead as he entered turn three but he was traveling far too fast. Ed’s Zink #5 spun and collected Rathmann and both cars hit the outside retaining wall. Behind them thirteen other cars became involved in the crash, among them Unser. Jerry’s #92 McKay Special ran over the tail of Paul Goldsmith’s 16th place starter and used Goldsmith as a ramp, as the “McKay Special” flew over the third turn retaining wall.

 

The McKay KK 500G2 after the first lap crash

Notice the shoulder harnesses

 

While Pat O’Connor lost his life in the crash, Unser was fortunate in that there were no vehicles parked below turn three outside the track. Reportedly the McKay Special flipped end over end eight times and the Kurtis 500G chassis was seriously bent, but Jerry Unser suffered only a dislocated shoulder which was popped into joint at the infield Medical Center. Certainly Unser could credit his lack of serious injury to his use of a relatively new innovation in 1958, shoulder harnesses in addition to his seat belt.

In August 1958 Jerry attempted to qualify the Sumar Blough-built chassis entry for the one-mile dirt races at Springfield and DuQuoin Illinois and Milwaukee without success.    

All the photographs that accompany this article appear courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies