The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part one - 1946 racing season

Since its beginnings at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento California on June 4, 1933 there have been some nefarious characters Involved the sport of midget auto racing, such as Diego ‘Dee’ Toran, but none the author is familiar with came close to approaching the level of criminal activities conducted by racer Branch Milton “Tiny” Wainwright.

Wainwright, born August 31, 1912 in the small town of Delmar Maryland, came of age in the Kansas City area as a stout young man of less than average height - feet five inches tall.  His nickname of “Tiny” was ironic, as he weighed at least 250 pounds though period press reports varied; some articles stated that he weighed 275 pounds, while some pieces listed his weight as high as 300 pounds.  

When Wainwright enlisted in the United States Army at Fort Leavenworth Kansas on March 24, 1944 he claimed that he was married and listed his occupation as an “actor.” Military records reviewed by the author have not provided any answers as to Wainwright’s duties in the Army or the length of his service.

Fellow historian Bob Lawrence found the earliest record of Tiny Wainwright’s racing career via a photograph that showed him as the driver of Carl Oliver’s #3 Ford V8-60 powered rail-frame midget at CeJay Stadium in Wichita, Kansas on Sunday September 16, 1945. That date was less than a month after the Office of Defense Transportation lifted the wartime ban on automobile racing. CeJay, which took its name from the initials of the track promoter Carl Johnson, was a 1/4-mile dirt oval track that was located on the southeast side of Wichita that operated until 1949.

‘Tiny” was not related to the famed Texas pioneer midget racer and later Texas-Oklahoma Racing Association business agent and promoter Mel Wainwright but both competed in some of the same events in early 1946.  In a promotional article prior to that start of racing San Antonio Texas Pan American Midget Speedway, ‘Tiny’ was billed in the San Antonio Light newspaper with “a weight of 275 pounds, the biggest midget race car driver in the world.”

Wainwright is credited with a second-place finish in the February 24 “B” feature ahead of ‘Dee’ Toran, then he earned a fourth-place finish in the “B” feature on Sunday March 10 in a program that also featured California drivers Jerry Piper, Cal Niday, and Bill Vukovich.

The following week, in the Sunday afternoon show on March 17 on Pan American’s 1/5-mile clay surface, ‘Tiny’ scored another third-place finish in the ‘B’ feature. On March 31, which was the final scheduled Sunday program for the 1946 racing season, “hard luck” Wainwright was unable to compete due to what the San Antonio Light reported as “a lack of parts for his red midget.”

In the debut of Friday night racing under the lights at Pan American on April 5, 1946, ‘Tiny’ was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 16.36 seconds but his car “threw a shoe” in the third heat, and the San Antonio Light reported that “his masterful driving brought cheers from the crowd as he steered into the pits on three wheels without injury to himself or other drivers in the race.”  After the incident, Wainwright’s car was done for the night, so he did not appear in the evening’s 20-lap feature which was won by Californian Johnnie Parsons in an elapsed time of five minutes and six seconds.

While there is a bit of confusion as some reports of his early racing exploits identified him as ‘Tony,” a week later, on April 12, at Pan-American Speedway, Wainwright finished sixth in the ‘A’ feature as Parsons won again. During the April 19 racing program ‘Tiny’ ran into trouble twice in the same evening.  Just after the start of the consolation race, ‘Tiny’s’ car tangled with those of Jimmy Hicks and ‘Red’ Dowdy.

All three cars restarted after their spins and ‘Tiny’ transferred to the night’s feature race. On the ninth lap of the feature, Dowdy spun in front of ‘Tiny’ and 'Tiny's' car crashed into Dowdy’s then rolled over, with both drivers taken to the hospital where they were checked and released.

Tiny was listed as a competitor in the Sunday afternoon midget racing programs on May 12 and the Tuesday night races on May 14 held on the 1/4-mile clay oval Wichita Falls (Texas) Speedrome along with ‘Red’ Dowdy, Emmett ‘Buzz’ Barton, Dick Sharp, Elmer ‘Rabbit’ Musick (one of five Texas racing brothers), Ted Parker and a pair of local brothers, Tommy and Dale Mendenhall.  

‘Tiny’ also was entered in the AAA (American Automobile Association) sanctioned midget auto races held at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds track in West Allis. These races were held on the big one-mile flat dirt track, not the smaller track in the infield that was used for weekly midget races. A series of AAA races on the Milwaukee Mile were held as part of the ‘Milwaukee Centurama’ celebration, a thirty-day event that marked the city’s centennial which ran from July 12 to August 12, 1946.

Wainwright, described in a pre-race article in the Hammond Times as a “newcomer“ and “a Kansas City star” joined such legendary midget racers as Tony Bettenhausen, Dennis ‘Duke’ Nalon, Frank Burany, and Henry Banks in a two-day program that saw time trials and heat races completed on Saturday and the 100-mile feature on Sunday June 23, 1946 which was won by two-time pre-war badger Midget Auto Racing Association (BMARA) champion Ray Richards.

Fall 1946 found ‘Tiny’ Wainwright in Lubbock Texas for the Southwest Racing Championship races held on the 1/5-mile dirt Panhandle-South Plans Fairgrounds track along with Dowdy, Parker, Kansas’ Leonard ‘Cotton’ Musick (who was not related to the Texas Musick brothers), Oklahoman Jay Booth and Amarillo’s Lloyd Ruby.

The series of midget auto races, promoted by local garage owner JT Wolfe and sanctioned by the Texas-Oklahoma Racing Association, were slated to start on July 18 but it was July 27 before the first seven-race program began on Saturday night with Parker the red-headed driver from Dallas the initial winner.

Parker repeated with a second victory on August 3, then scored his third win in a row on August 10 in an evening in which he also won the helmet dash before 2,500 fans. Bud Camden won the 25-lap feature on August 17^th and Jay Booth won on August 24.  Parker claimed his fourth series feature victory on August 31, which was the final Saturday night program, after which the races were switched to Thursday nights to avoid conflicts with football games (even in those days in Texas, football was King).  

Wainwright was not listed as one of the original drivers announced for the Southwest Racing Championship series, but he was mentioned in press reports as an entrant prior to the September 5 races. That evening Clarence Brooks of Dallas won the 8-lap “Championship race,” then finished second in the first 10-lap semi-main to transfer to feature which he won over Kansan Bud Camden and Tulsa’s Junior Howerton. On the morning of September 12 race promoter Wolfe announced via an article published in the Lubbock Morning Avalanche newspaper that that night’s races were cancelled for unspecified reasons.

The next week’s midget auto racing program, scheduled for the evening of September 19^th was postponed due to rain.  When racing resumed on Thursday September 26, Corky Benson won the feature, and ‘Tiny’ won his heat race.  The following week was packed with racing, with the midgets scheduled to race four consecutive days during the six-day run of the Panhandle-South Plans Fair which was being held for the first time since 1941.

On Tuesday afternoon October 8, ‘Tiny’ Wainwright led the feature with Benson in second when their cars tangled and they both spun out. Third place driver “Count” Walter Von Tilius of Denver Colorado in the Frank Hingley owned Kurtis-Kraft Offenhauser powered midget avoided the melee and went on to win the feature as ‘Red’ Dowdy finished in second place. The race program the following day, Wednesday the 9^th was rained out, rescheduled for Sunday afternoon, the final day of the fair.  

The Panhandle-South Plains Fairgrounds 1/5-mile dirt track dried sufficiently for the midget races to resume on Thursday October 10, with Eddie Carmichael of Oklahoma City was declared the feature winner as his midget crossed the finish line in a near “dead heat” with the machine of Corky Benson with ‘Tiny’ Wainwright in fourth place.  

On Friday afternoon October 11, Texans swept 3 of the top 4 finishing spots as 18-year-old Lloyd Ruby won the feature, followed by Houston’s Bill Marshall in second place, and local driver Corky Benson in fourth place.

The Sunday afternoon midget finale, the make-up date from the 9^th, was a barn-burner. Corky Benson set quick time in time trials, then spun out on the second lap of the feature and had to restart from the tail of the field. Benson carved his way up through the field in dramatic fashion and claimed his second series feature victory.

In our next installment we will trace ‘Tiny’ Wainwright’s exploits through the 1947 and 1948 racing seasons.  

       

The historic1967 LeMans winner

 

Deservedly the centerpiece of the Ford Motor Company exhibit  at the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show was the 1967 24 Heures du Mans (24 hours of LeMans) winning Ford GT40 Mark IV chassis  number J-5.

 

 

This car represented the ultimate development of the Ford GT40 series which first appeared at LeMans in 1964, as Henry Ford II was driven to beat the Italian Ferrari team. The initial Ford Advanced Vehicles Limited effort with British built chassis originally designed by Lola Cars powered by Ford’s 260 cubic inch V-8 engines managed by John Wyer did not perform well, and for 1965 management of the program moved to Carrol Shelby’s Shelby American Racing Team.

In 1965 Shelby American was still pushing its Cobra Daytona coupe program and after a difficult 1965 LeMans appearance in which both the Mark IIs entered retired with transmission failure, in 1966 the Shelby American GT40 Mark IIs powered by Ford 427 engines dominated at LeMans. 

The 1966 finish was botched as Ford tried to stage the 1-2-3 finish and the team of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon were declared the winners of race over the team of Ken Miles and Denis Hulme.  The next iteration of the GT40 known as the “J-car” (chassis J-2) was destroyed in testing and killed Ken Miles and Ford dropped its development.  GT40 Mark III were cars built for road use.

Six (6) GT40 Mark IV chassis were built at Kar Kraft Inc. in Detroit powered by the mighty 427 Ford V-8 engine with cast iron block and aluminum cylinder heads fed by a pair of Holley four barrel carburetors that developed an estimated 530 horsepower and carried the Mark IV to terminal speeds of 212 miles per hour on the 3-1/2 mile long Mulsanne Straight. Lessons learned from the deaths of Walter Hangsen and Ken Miles meant the Mark IVs were more stoutly built with a steel roll cage.

 

 

 

Four Mark IV chassis were entered for the 1967 LeMans 24 hour race, two cars by Shelby American on Goodyear tires consisted of the driver team of three-time Indianapolis 500-race winner AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney in the red #1 car and the other team of 1966 LeMans winner Bruce McLaren and Mark Donohue in the yellow #2 car.

The other two Ford GT 40 Mark IVs were entered by the Holman Moody team shod with Firestone tires driven by teams of Lucien Bianchi and Mario Andretti in the bronze #3 car and the other by Denis Hulme and Lloyd Ruby in the dark blue #4 car.  The red #1 car chassis J-5 was visually different from the other entries because of the “Gurney Bubble” over the driver’s seat to accommodate Dan Gurney’s 6-foot-3 inch height.

The car #2 of Donohue and McLaren finished fourth while the #3 car assigned to Bianchi and Andretti and the #4 car of Hulme and Ruby were both eliminated in accidents during the 19th hour.   Foyt and Gurney in the #1 car led the race for the last 23 ½ hours and completed 388 laps (3251 miles) at a record breaking average of 135.48 miles per hours and won by four laps over the Ferrari 330 P4 driven by Ludovico Scarfiotti and Michael Parks.

 

The car that crossed the finish line on June 11 1967 was truly “all American”- car built in Detroit powered by an American-built Ford engine riding on American Goodyear tires driven by a pair American drivers.  This car chassis J-5 only ran one race and today the conserved car is part of the collection of the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Michigan.

To learn more about Ford Motor Company’s racing program at LeMans in 1967 and view historic photographs visit https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/expert-sets/101482

Get your tickets now for

the 2017 Racers Reunion

 

 

There are many exciting events on tap for the 2017 edition of Bart Stevens’ Racers Reunion to be held in Irving Texas on November 11.  In addition to the special tribute to our nation’s veterans for Veterans Day, the banquet will feature as a special guest, three-time Indianapolis 500-mile race winner, the legendary Bobby Unser who will share stories of his many racing victories and times as a racing commentator for ABC Sports. 

Also scheduled for the eighth annual Racers Reunion are programs that will examine the first 50 years of the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) and the life of pioneering Hall of Fame drag racer, Bobby Langley, the USAC Hall of Fame induction of the legendary Texas racer Lloyd Ruby and the presentation of the inaugural Brady Bacon Baton Award to one of racing's future stars.

Join the editor and writer of this website at the Racers Reunion - tickets for the eighth annual Racers Reunion Banquet, which in addition to the feature presentations includes an afternoon guest speaker, autograph session and an afternoon of bench racing with a large collection of vintage race cars and memorabilia are available at http://www.radiusnation.net

Lloyd Ruby’s 1966 airplane crash

The author has a long-standing interest in race car drivers and their fascination with airplanes and flying, and recently found a reference to Lloyd Ruby’s short-lived flying career. This article adds another chapter to the author's series of articles on racers and airplanes.

A Beech Bonanza similar to Lloyd Ruby's

During 1966, Lloyd Ruby purchased a Beech B35 Bonanza tail number N5201C from fellow USAC (United States Auto Club) championship racer Bobby Unser, who had purchased a twin-engine Beech 95 Travel Air.  On the morning of June 4, 1966, Ruby and his three passengers departed in the Bonanza from the Speedway Airport, a small airfield located northeast of the intersection of West 21st Street & Griswold Road South of I-74 near the town of Avon, Indiana. The passengers on board with Ruby that day were Ruby’s chief mechanic Dave Laycock, fellow USAC driver Bill Cheesbourg, and Harold ‘Tex’ McCullough, identified in press reports as a friend of Ruby’s from Hondo, Texas.

Lloyd Ruby waits patiently on pit lane during practice for the 1966 Indianapolis 500 as Dave Laycock makes adjustments to the Ford engine. Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection of the IUPUI University Library center for Digital Studies.  

Just five days earlier, Ruby, a 38-year old veteran racer from Wichita Falls Texas led the first laps in his seven years of competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ruby led the 1966 Indianapolis 500-mile race on three occasions for a total of 68 laps, before his Bardahl Eagle had retired with a broken camshaft stud in the 255 cubic inch quad-cam Ford engine.

Ruby and the Ford GT40 in action at the 1966 Daytona 24 hour race. Photo from author's files.

Despite the Indianapolis disappointment (the first of many to come) Ruby was having a spectacular 1966 season, as he and his English teammate Ken Miles had won the 24-hour sport car races at Daytona International Speedway driving a 427-cubic inch powered Ford GT 40 Mark II and the 12 hours of Sebring in a similarly powered GT40 X-1 roadster. Hopes were high for a victory at the 24-hour race at LeMans France on June 19, so that the team of Ruby, Miles and Ford could claim a historic same-year sweep of the three major sports car endurance races.      

Bill Cheesbourg, long-time friend of Ruby’s had first come to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a rookie in 1956 but only started six Indianapolis 500-mile races in his career, the last being in 1965.  During the month of May 1966, Bill had driven two entries, neither of which had any legitimate chance of making the starting field - the Jack Adams Special, an Epperly lay-down roadster fitted with a gas turbine engine, and former Northern California midget racer Al Stein’s Valvoline-sponsored twin-engine powered creation, which had a modified Porsche 911 engine at each of the car to provide power to each axle.

Dave Laycock, at age 27, USAC’s youngest chief mechanic had started in USAC championship racing in 1957 right out of high school as a helper to “Horsepower” Herb Porter on the supercharged Offenhauser powered Roger Wolcott-owned entry. By 1960, Laycock was a chief mechanic in his own right with the team owned by Marion Indiana glass heir Bill Forbes, and first met Ruby when Lloyd drove for the Forbes team in 1964;  the pair had worked together ever since.

Bob Laycock in his office in 1974. 

Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection of the IUPUI University Library center for Digital Studies.  

Laycock came from a racing family, as his grandfather, C.P. Laycock worked as a mechanic for the Stutz racing team at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the early days. Dave’s father, James Robert, known as “Bob” attended the 1915 Indianapolis 500-mile race as an infant, and as of 1966 Bob had not missed attending a single 500-mile race, a string that would continue unbroken until 1993.  Bob, whose regular career was with the US postal service, worked during the month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a variety of roles beginning in 1949 that included timing and scoring, registration and finally the press office.

Gaylord "Snappy" Ford in 1939

Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection of the IUPUI University Library center for Digital Studies.  

Much of Bob Laycock’s early career at the Speedway was spent as an assistant to Gaylord ‘Snappy’ Ford, known around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as “the man without a title.” ‘Snappy’ born in 1889, first worked at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as an assistant to the Chief Starter for the 1920 race and simply never left –Ford did whatever task around the Speedway that was asked of him.

In the late nineteen thirties ‘Snappy’ became the track’s chief scorer and served in that role until the outbreak World War 2 forced the Speedway to close.  

‘Snappy’ Ford spent the war years in charge of the Marmon-Herrington Company tank proving grounds, then he returned to work at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1949 at Wilbur Shaw’s request and was in charge of the press office until his death. Legend has it that instead of downplaying the dangers of the Speedway, Ford took novice newsmen on a pace car tour of the 2- ½ mile brick surfaced track and pointed out the gouges in the walls from past fatal crashes. 

After ‘Snappy’s’ death in January 1953, Laycock assumed Ford’s duties in the press office also served as the editor of the Indianapolis ‘500’ record book and the USAC rule book, and during the winter worked as a publicist for the ABA (American Basketball Association) Indianapolis Pacers.  After Bob retired from the post office in 1969, he joined the Indianapolis Motor Speedway full time as its historian and served in that position until 1993.  Bob had two sons in racing besides Dave – Dan, also known as “D.O.” and Bobby who worked as a scorer for USAC.      

The Ruby group’s destination from the Speedway Airport on Saturday June 4 1966 was the General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The group then planned to travel the short distance by car to arrive at the Wisconsin State Fair Park one-mile oval in time for the start of practice for the USAC Rex Mays 100-mile race to be run the following day. At approximately 8:30 AM on that Saturday Bobby Unser in his Beech Travel Air took off in the downwind direction, rather than into the wind as is typical. Pilot witnesses on the ground later reported to Indiana State Police troopers that seconds after take-off, the Travel Air wobbled, but Unser, a pilot since 1958, applied more power, the twin-engine plane recovered and climbed away from the airport.

Just after Unser took off, Ruby rolled down the runway for his take-off, also in the downwind direction. Ruby’s V-tailed single engine Beech Bonanza reached approximately 100 to 200 feet in altitude, and then fell into Irene Timmons’ freshly planted corn field approximately ¼ mile northwest of the airport. Eyewitnesses that included Henry Goebel an architect and experienced pilot, and flight instructors Stan Leonard and William Lewis stated that the Bonanza had stalled. When rescuers arrived at the crash scene a few moments later, they found all four men outside of the severely damaged Beechcraft.

Lloyd Ruby suffered the most severe inquires, with compression vertebrae fractures and multiple cuts on his face which took a plastic surgeon 48 stitches to close. Laycock also suffered vertebrae fractures, while Cheesbourg suffered cuts to his scalp, arm and leg. The fourth passenger, ‘Tex’ McCullough who complained of a bruised chest and abdomen was treated and released while the other three men were admitted to the Methodist Hospital under the care of Indianapolis Motor Speedway track physician, Dr. Thomas Hanna. Ruby and Laycock remained hospitalized for two weeks before they were released to complete their recoveries at home.

Ruby’s injuries meant that he wouldn’t be able to race at LeMans, and officials at the Ford Motor Company received more bad news later that day, after A.J. Foyt crashed his #82 Sheraton-Thompson Lotus-Ford in practice at Milwaukee and suffered second and third degree burns on his hands, face and neck. 

Jackie Stewart's 1966 rookie Speedway portrait.

Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection of the IUPUI University Library center for Digital Studies.  

The news got worse for Ford just a week before LeMans when another scheduled Ford GT40 team driver, Jackie Stewart, who nearly won the 1966 Indianapolis ‘500’ as rookie, crashed his BRM entry during the rain-soaked Formula 1 race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium and suffered a broken shoulder, broken ribs and gasoline contact skin burns.

Ford hurriedly called up three replacements for Ruby, Foyt, and Stewart.  NASCAR Ford stock car driver Dick Hutcherson as the substitute for Foyt in one of the Holman-Moody GT40s was paired with sports car and Formula 1 driver Ronnie Bucknum, who had practiced but did not attempt to qualify for the 1966 Indianapolis ‘500’ in George Reeves’ Chevrolet V8-powered Lola T80.   Australian touring car racer Brian Muir replaced Stewart, paired with Graham Hill in one of Alan Mann GT40s, and Kiwi Formula 1 driver Denis Hulme teamed with Ken Miles in the Sebring and Daytona winning Shelby-American prepared GT40 Mark II. 

The finish of the 1966 24 hours of LeMans. Instead of the intended 'dead heat,' GT40 #2 on the left was declared the winner. AP photo.

The fleet of Ford GT40 Mark IIs of course dominated the later stages of the 1966 LeMans 24-hour race and in an ill-advised publicity stunt, Ford team managers ordered the two front-running GT40s, scored on the same lap to cross the finish line together. Ford racing officials believed this would result in a dead heat, but as the Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon driven machine had started further back in the starting field, it technically had traveled further and was declared the winner, which thus cheated Ruby’s friend Ken Miles out his hoped-for 1966 endurance three-race “clean sweep.”  

In addition to the races at Milwaukee and LeMans, Lloyd Ruby missed two other USAC championship short-oval races held at Langhorne Pennsylvania and Atlanta Georgia while he recovered from his injuries. Lloyd returned just fifty days after his aircraft accident to race the All American Racers’ Lotus 38 - Ford in the 150-mile Hoosier Grand Prix held on the Indianapolis Raceway Park 1.875- mile road course.  Ruby started from the pole position, but never led a lap and spun out the race on lap 43.  

Lloyd Ruby told FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) accident investigators that on take-off the Beechcraft Bonanza “just wobbled and started to dive,” while the flight instructor witness Lewis stated that in his opinion the “race drivers were in a hurry.” As aviation safety expert Max Trescott told the author “the same approaches that bring them success in the racing world are not the best practices for safe flying.” 

John Lingle's biography of Lloyd Ruby is highly reccomended

The subsequent FAA preliminary accident report faulted Ruby who only had a total of 55 hours of flight time for three mistakes – inadequate pre-flight preparation, improper and over-loading of the aircraft, and selection of the wrong runway relative to the existing wind, all of which resulted in the aircraft’s failure to obtain flying speed. The FAA suspended Lloyd’s pilot’s license for six months, but it really didn’t matter, as Ruby had taken his last flight as a pilot. As he told author John Lingle for his excellent book Hard Luck Lloyd “I didn’t want to fly anymore anyway,” and Ruby told Lingle he sold the Beech Bonanza for $12,500, which brought a close to this little-known part of Lloyd Ruby’s life.

         

THE TANGERINE TOURNAMENT 

More than thirty years before the inception of Indiana Sprint Week, the United States Auto Club (USAC) staged a multi-race series for midget racers in Florida during the months of February and March in 1957. Known as the “Tangerine Tournament” it featured the top midget cars and drivers from around the country. 

After months of planning, the schedule for the Tangerine Tournament was announced on January 6 1957 by Ashley T. Wright, chairman of the organizing committee the membership of which included driver Tony Bettenhausen who served as the Chief Steward of the series. Wright, from Orland Park Illinois, best known as the owner of the series of immaculate ‘Hardwood Door’ midgets, also served as the USAC Midwest zone supervisor during the middle fifties.

The initial schedule for the Tangerine Tournament was described in the press as Florida’s first “big time racing circuit” although the American Race Drivers Club (ARDC) had hosted a series of races at four tracks in 1948. The thirteen all-Offenhauser engine USAC midget racing programs featured a core group of 15 USAC cars and drivers which were scheduled to appear twice at six race tracks.  

From a base established in the former Indian River/Frank B Smith Lincoln-Mercury dealership at 720 South 4^th Street in Fort Pierce overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, races were scheduled at tracks that spanned the state of Florida from Pensacola in the north to Miami in the south and Tampa on the Gulf Coast.  Trios of races were scheduled in the same geographic area on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, with the first event set for Pensacola on February 17.

Florida was virgin territory for USAC midgets, held at race tracks that typically hosted weekly hardtop or jalopy races, so Mr. Wright devoted a lot of time and energy to promote the series. Newspaper articles introduced readers to the midget cars as “little bundles of dynamite” powered by Offenhauser engines, the “power plant instrumental in winning national titles for many years, considered the finest power unit of its type in the world.” Drivers from all parts of the country that included Indianapolis 500 veterans Al Keller, Chuck Weyant, and 1953 midget champion Leroy Warriner were among those entered to handle the “little gems of mechanical perfection.”

In advance of the start of the Tournament, on February 7, Len Sutton billed as the first man to “turn upside at 140 MPH and live through it” (a reference to his 1956 practice crash in the Wolcott Special) spoke to the Fort Pierce Lions Club and showed a short film on the 1956 Indianapolis ‘500.’ 

Two nights later as part of the regular hardtop racing program at Fort Pierce Speedway, Sutton and Bob Gregg staged a match race in the two Ashley Wright midgets.Gregg was behind the wheel of the new “Kay Special” a Kurtis-Kraft roadster midget named after Wright’s wife Kathryn, while Sutton drove the conventional “Hardwood Door” Kurtis-Kraft midget. After the races, Ashley showed the interested fans a 25-minute film that recapped the 1956 Indianapolis ‘500.’

Another effort to interest fans in the series was the nomination of cars and drivers to represent cities throughout Florida; for instance Jimmy Knight represented the City of Tampa, Sonny McDaniel the town of Fort Pierce, Al Keller, West Palm Beach, Rex Easton the city of Winter Park and Len Duncan the city of Jacksonville.  This effort was so convincing that some newspaper articles actually listed those cities as the drivers’ hometown in race results. 

The 1957 USAC midget racing season had already held four races before the inaugural Tangerine event at Pensacola – two races indoors at the Allen County Coliseum in Fort Wayne, one race at the ¼-mile South Mountain Speedway in Phoenix and one at the paved 1/3-mile at San Jose California. 

The winners of those four earlier races- Rex Easton, Warriner, Clark ‘Shorty’ Templeman, and Gene Hartley all were entered at Five Flags Speedway on Sunday February 17. The $2000 dollar nightly purses indeed attracted drivers from all over the country including two young racers from Texas destined for great results later in their careers named Lloyd Ruby and A.J. Foyt.    

The USAC midgets raced on a paved ¼-mile oval inside the larger ½-mile paved oval Five Flags Speedway located in Northwest Pensacola, The track owned and promoted by Alf Knight and Ted Chester opened on Memorial Day 1953. Knight would later move on to serve as track superintendent of the Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1959, while Chester was owner of the Hudson Hornet driven by 1952 NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) Grand National champion Tim Flock. Chester gained notoriety as the owner of “Jocko” the monkey that rode with Flock in a pair of the 1953 NASCAR races. 

Details of the opening afternoon midget race are sketchy; the entry list included Johnnie Tolan and Chuck Rodee (real name Rodeghier) the 1956 USAC midget championship runner-up, Len Duncan, and Andy Linden. Hank Nykaza a 12-year racing veteran former United Midget racing Association champion from East Chicago set quick time and then won the trophy dash, his heat race and the 12-lap semi-main. Victory in the 30-lap feature was captured by Chicago’s Jimmy Knight over Linden, Hartley, and Templeman.

News reports indicated that Knight started the day behind the wheel of a roadster midget but after problems switched to a conventional midget for the feature. Despite Knight’s victory, Andy Linden tallied the most points in the opening night’s event.  Knight, whose real name was James Randerson, started his racing career in 1948 in his own black ‘Lite-Knight’ midget. In 1953, Jimmy, a railroad worker when not racing finished second in both AAA (American Automobile Association) Midwest and National midget points.  

Five days later on the night February 22 the USAC midgets appeared at H.B. Highsmith’s Fort Pierce Speedway located three miles south of town on Orange Avenue.  Highsmith a hardtop racer, quit the Florida Highway Patrol after years in 1956 to open the ¼-mile Speedway, the first paved track located in St Lucie County.  Highsmith would sell his interest in Fort Pierce Speedway Inc. in December 1957 and returned to the Highway Patrol from which he would retire as a lieutenant in 1970.

The entries at Fort Pierce included Bob Wente, Andy Furci, Buzz Barton, Jim McWithey, Don Branson, and Tony Bonadies in the race which was part of town’s ‘Sandy Shoes Festival.’ Thanks to the extensive coverage provided by the Fort Pierce News Tribune, we have a much clearer historical picture of the Friday night Fort Pierce races.

A crowd estimated at 1200 fans watched Andy Linden set quick time of 16.52 seconds in Lee Elkin’s midget in qualifying before the first of three 8-lap heat races. Wente form St. Louis won the first heat over Elmer George and Dutch Schaefer, and then Nykaza won the second heat over Foyt and Easton. Pensacola winner Jimmy Knight won the third heat over Jim McWithey, who led the 12-lap semi-main from start to finish trailed by Nykaza. 

Feature race front row starter veteran Dutch Schafer jumped into the lead at the drop of the green flag and held the lead for the 21 circuits trailed by pole-sitter Sonny McDaniel from Houston. On lap 21, Schafer’s car blew a tire, and the valve stem flew into the grandstands and struck an Air Force lieutenant in the arm. McDaniel drove the ‘Texas Racing Club Special’ past as ‘Dutch’ pulled into the infield and Sonny held on over the final nine laps to claim the win over Len Duncan and Rex Easton.

After the races, McDaniel received his trophy from ‘Miss Citrus Queen’ Frances Layton a 21-year old from Callahan Florida, while his car owner Tommy Thompson received his trophy from Barbara Vickers “Miss St. Lucie.”  H.B. Highsmith promised fans that for the next race, he would purchase more rosin to scatter in the corners to give the slick tires on the powerful midgets more ‘bite’ on the worn asphalt surface and create more side-by-side racing. 

The teams traveled 120 miles northwest for the Saturday night race at the ¼-mile paved Sunbrock Speedway in Orlando named after its owner, the notorious promoter Larry Sunbrock. Sunbrock had a checkered history that dated back to the nineteen thirties when he was president of the National Roller Skating Association of America, which promoted long distance roller skating races on an indoor oval which advertised 'up to' $5000 in prizes.

After several arrests and lawsuits regarding his roller skating promotions, Larry  organized a touring “Wild West Rodeo and Hollywood Thrill Show” that earned him the nickname “Never a Dull Moment” Sunbrock in Variety and Billboard entertainment trade magazines. In 1949,  after more legal problems, Sunbrock bought property near Ferguson Drive and Old Wintergarden Road in Orlando and formed Florida Racing Inc. to stage jalopy races at his new Speedway. Sunbrock lost control of the racing facility in 1957 because of tax and divorce problems that stemmed from his multiple bank accounts opened under various aliases.  

In the USAC race in Orlando on the night of February 23, Al Keller set quick time in qualifying with a lap of 15.3 seconds, but for some reason his “City of West Palm Beach Special” was forced to start scratch on the field for the 30-lap feature. While Andy Linden won the race over Gene Hartley and Shorty Templeman to extend his Tangerine Tournament points lead, Keller recovered with a brilliant fourth place finish. 

After the Saturday night races ended, the teams had to hustle 85 miles southwest for the Sunday afternoon show on the half-mile dirt track at Plant Field in Tampa which earlier in the month hosted its annual series of South Florida Fair ‘big car’ races sanctioned by the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA). Plant Field built in 1899 as a multi-use entertainment venue to draw visitors to the Tampa Bay Hotel resort first hosted automobile races beginning in 1921 and racing lasted there until the mid-nineteen seventies.

USAC regular Don Branson set quick time in Elbert ‘Al’ Willey’s “Al’s Paint and Body Special” Kurtis-Kraft midget from Moline Illinois with a best lap of 26.72 seconds.  Andy Linden started seventh for the 20-lap feature but quickly moved to the lead and comfortably won his second straight Tangerine Tournament feature over Len Duncan, Chuck Rodee, and Len Sutton. 

The teams returned to their base in Fort Pierce for four days to repair and refresh their mounts in preparation of the upcoming Friday night show in Hialeah with six preliminary races advertised on a card topped by a 30-lap feature race.  One of the new entries listed for Hialeah was Forrest Parker a cabinet maker from Covington Indiana who had won the debut 100-lap USAC outdoor midget race at Bill Lipke’s Kokomo Speedway in 1956. 

Hialeah Speedway, a 1/3-mile paved track west of Miami was built by the Greater Miami Racing Association on farmland close to the Palmetto Expressway a bypass around the city of Miami and had opened in July 1954. Details on the Hialeah USAC event promoted by Tony Bettenhausen are slim but Al Keller was the winner in Carl Evans’ midget trailed by Linden, Hartley and Templeman. Despite not winning the race, the ex-Marine boxer Linden padded his Tournament points lead with another solid finish.

The teams traveled 235 miles north to make a return visit to Sunbrock Speedway for a 30-lap feature on Saturday night, March 2, which was captured by Linden for his third Tangerine Tournament victory. Hartley remained close in the points tally as he recorded a second place finish. 

The USAC cars and stars were scheduled to race on Sunday afternoon March 3 on the ½-mile Jacksonville Speedway Park located west of town but persistent drizzle caused a cancellation, and teams returned to Fort Pierce to rest and prepare for the next weekend’s races.

The Tangerine Tournament returned to action on Friday March 8 at the ¼-mile Silver Dollar Speedway located on Highway 92 west of the central Florida city of Lakeland. The track had opened in 1955 and would have a short life, as it was replaced by a mobile home park after the 1959 season.  

Chicago midget racer Al Alpern captured the Lakeland 30-lap feature with Andy Linden in second place followed by Hartley and Templeman. This marked Alpern’s second USAC midget win, his first came at the Crystal Motor Speedway in Crystal Michigan in June 1956.

On Saturday night March 9, the USAC midgets returned to Orlando for the eighth round of the series with predictable results as Andy Linden captured his fourth tour victory over Hartley and Templeman. On Sunday afternoon, the tour made its first visit to Southland Speedway a 5000-seat facility located adjacent the South Florida Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach. This track, which replaced a return visit to Tampa, was the site in 1956 of the first USAC sprint car race ever held. 2000 spectators paid to watch Al Keller set the standard in qualifying as the Carl Evans midget toured the high-banked half-mile paved oval in 20.12 seconds.

Keller started 14^th in the 18-car feature starting field but at the end of 20 laps grabbed the win over Warriner, Lloyd Ruby, and Don Branson in the Willey roadster midget. With a sixth place finish after a blown tire on the final lap, Linden lost ground in the points but continued to hold the lead with three races scheduled to run. Prior to the blown tire, Linden had dueled with Keller for the win.  The track later known as Palm Beach Speedway after the purchase of the facility by the fair board continued to operate until 1983. 

The tournament round scheduled for Friday March 15 at Hialeah Speedway fell victim to local thunderstorms, which meant the teams returned to the base of operations at Fort Pierce on Saturday night. The top three in points were Linden, Templeman, and Branson, though the top 12 drivers were still mathematically in contention for the championship.  

The additional rosin on the track surface promised by Highsmith paid off as fast qualifier Forrest Parker toured the oval in 16.05 seconds nearly half a second faster than Linden’s previous track record.  Leroy Warriner drove Bob Higman’s midget to victory in the 30-lap feature with Linden second, and Branson fourth, while Templeman finished eleventh.

Andy Linden- Tangerine Tournament champion

Teams packed up and headed north to the Jacksonville Speedway Park for the final Tangerine Tournament race on the half-mile dirt oval. During the feature, Templeman was involved in an accident on the rough rutted track surface which dropped him from the championship hunt. With his second place finish in the feature behind Len Duncan, Linden guaranteed himself the USAC 'Florida region' championship over Branson.  In the eleven Florida races held, the ‘McNamara Special” won four races, with five second place finishes, one sixth place and one seventh place.  

 Immediately following the end of the series, there was discussion of the second annual Tangerine Tournament in 1958, but it remains forever a unique one-year only event, although USAC staged a “junior version” in 2005 at four tracks with USAC Ford Focus midgets. Although it only happened one year, thanks to Ashley Wright’s vision, the Tangerine Tournament blazed a trail for the USAC ‘midget week’ and ‘sprint week’ tournaments we are familiar with today.

POSTSCRIPT 

Open-wheel racing was a dangerous business in the nineteen fifties, but it is still shocking to consider the tragedies that befell three of the Tangerine Tournament midget racers before the 1957 season ended. 

On June 20, less than three weeks after he claimed his third career USAC midget win, Al Alpern racing in the third heat race of the USAC race at the ¼-mile paved Grand Rapids Michigan Speedrome when his midget ran over the wheel Jimmy Knight’s midget and flipped over the top the four-foot high guardrail. Al ages 30 died shortly after his arrival at Butterworth Hospital.

On August 24 1957 as Hank Nykaza raced in the 100-lap USAC midget race on the Milwaukee Mile, as he completed his 68^th lap, the rear wheels of his midget locked up and the car spun violently. The force of the spin apparently caused the hasp of his seat belt to release and Hank was thrown to the pavement without his helmet. Following drivers somehow avoided Nykaza as he laid on the track, but Hank died enroute to the hospital.

1957 seemed to be Andy Linden’s year, as he drove for Lee Elkins in all three USAC divisions. That year, he finished fifth in the Indianapolis ‘500,’ wound up sixth in USAC championship points, won two more midget races and three sprint car races at three of the toughest tracks – Dayton, Winchester, and the Terre Haute action track. On November 3, Andy appeared at a special JC Agajanian USAC midget program at the Clovis (California) Speedway. 

During the Clovis race, Linden’s car hooked a rut, bounced high in the air, and landed on the guardrail. Andy’s head struck the guardrail and he suffered severe head injuries, which Andy left in a wheelchair for the remaining 30 years of his life. In an amazing testament to strength of the human will, Andy eventually recovered his memory and motor skills and learned to drive a passenger car.