Chance Kinsley- Hoosier hero

Part Five

The earliest news report uncovered for Chance Kinsley’s 1924 racing season did not appear until late in the summer; the reason is unclear, but later newspaper reports stated that Kinsley was “at the big track in Indianapolis,” although Chance’s name does not appear in Indianapolis Motor Speedway records as a driver.

 

 

Chance was entered to drive a Miller in the August 10 1924 50-mile race at Spencer Park in the north central town of Logansport Indiana. There was only one other Miller entry listed, a car driven by Chicago’s Mike Costello, but were a number of Frontenac-Fords entered with drivers that included Wilbert “Bill” Hunt, Louis Schneider, Ted Hartley, and Earl Warrick.

 

 

The Logansport entry list also included several other ex-Indianapolis ‘500’ cars with Chevrolet connections – Frank Swaggart and Ray McNutt both of Kokomo entered a pair of Monroe racers built by the Chevrolet brothers that raced to victory in the 1920 ‘500,’ the story of which in this site’s archives. Local driver R.D. Reddinger entered a Cornelian, believed to be the same tiny semi-moncoque chassis racer that Louis Chevrolet built and drove in the 1915 ‘500.’

 

Think the Cornelian race car was not light?

This photo from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

 in the IUPUI Univeristy Library Center for Digital Studies

shows Louis Chevrolet holding the 4-cylinder Corneilan engine

 

After Creviston had advertised heavily with newspaper advertisements the billed the entry list as “the largest ever received for local track,” and personally guaranteed the size and quality of the entered cars, on race day August 10 he had been stuck with an embarrassingly small field of ten cars which did not include Kinsley.  The “Interstate Championship” which was won by Charles “Dutch” Baumann in a Frontenac over Bill Hunt’s similar machine in a race that the next day’s Logansport Pharos-Tribune described as “a thriller.”

Chance was entered as the driver of the “HL Special” for the 100-mile race scheduled for Labor Day 1924 at the resurfaced Hoosier Motor Speedway which offered a total purse of $3000. JV Lines had left the financially beleaguered Hoosier Motor Speedway at the end of the 1923 season and the track was now managed by the Indianapolis firm Morton & Brett Products.

 

A photo from the Morton & Brett catalog

Owned by Elvin D. Morton and his partner, Jack Brett,  Morton & Brett was a major manufacturer and distributor of aftermarket Ford and Dodge speed parts and the patented “Speedway bodies” which they sold through regional distributors as well as their own “Blue Book of Speed” mail order catalog.

An interesting twist was the new Hoosier Motor Speedway management’s announcement that “the size of future purses will be determined by the Labor Day attendance,” and that “should receipts warrant, the purse for the May 29 1925 race will be $5,000.”  The track claimed that it had received “50 or more entries,” and “with the new surface as smooth as glass, record times are expected from the twenty starters.”  Some of the entries for the race listed in the Brazil Daily Times pre-race article included future Indianapolis ‘500’ competitors Cliff Woodbury, Louis Schneider, Prince de Cystria and Kinsley’s car owner L. Herbert “HL” Jones.

 

A Haag Drug suburban Indianapolis store in the 1950's

 

Born in 1903 Herbert Jones worked at the Haag Drug Company in Indianapolis at that time one of the largest drug store chains in the United States. One of Jones’ assignments was to chauffeur Miss Elnora Haag the 71year old unmarried sister of the chain’s founders. A retired school teacher, Elnora became the director of Haag Drug for a brief period after the deaths of her brothers Julius and Louis in 1923, only long enough for her two nephews to reach legal age and take over the firm.

The unlikely pair of wealthy spinster and young chauffer a struck up a friendship; then Ms. Haag provided young Mr. Jones enough money to quit his day job and go automobile racing.  Jones purchased a “former 500-mile Duesenberg” which he had modified for dirt track competition and entered it for the Labor Day race at Hoosier Motor Speedway as the “HL Special.”

The following day’s edition of the Indianapolis Star reported on the Labor Day grind at the Hoosier Motor Speedway that “for the first sixty odd laps, there was at least a thrill a lap.” From the newspaper report it seemed to have been an exciting event. In time trials Dempsey Chaney won the pole by turning a qualifying lap on the half-mile oval In 31.2 seconds while Davidson was second as he turned a lap at 31.4 seconds.

At the drop of the green flag, Wilbur Shaw, driving the ‘R K T Special’ sprang into the lead but action slowed on the third lap when George Lyons, driving a Lyons Special, turned over on the south turn. The driver was thrown out and his mount caught fire and but Lyons’ injuries were described as “slight.” Kinsley “went out on the fourth lap when his car skidded on the south turn” and was the second car to retire. After he had led all the laps up to that point, Shaw’s car was sidelined on the forty-fourth lap with clutch failure.

Indianapolis native Louis Schneider, who had been running second behind Shaw, then assumed the lead in his “Roof Special” and “was going strong” until his car blew a tire which then broke the axle. The Star reported that the wheel from Schneider’s car “hurtled straight down the stretch, climbed the embankment and smashed into the crowd, flooring one man, who was knocked unconscious but who regained his wind shortly afterward, none the worse.”

At the half-way mark of the race, with 100 laps down, Kinsley’s former teammate Arthur “Fuzzy” Davidson held the lead with Illinois’ Ben Shoaff in second. Davidson continued out front until the 141st lap when he reportedly stopped for spark plugs. William Brodbeck of South Bend  whose ‘A N Bailey Special’ had been running a lap behind Davidson in third “sprang to the front” as Davidson fell two laps in arrears as repairs were made to his Frontenac’s engine.  

Davidson returned to the fray and he quickly made up one lap of Brodbeck’s lead and by the 170th Davidson was back in the lead, where he remained until the finish. Behind the leader Benny Lawell (possibly spelled Lauwell) moved into third place behind his teammate Brodbeck until the penultimate lap when Brodbeck's car "skidded and stalled within an eighth of a mile of the finish.”

Lawell’s car roared into second place and the “1923 Michigan dirt track champion” crossed the finish line just a short distance ahead of his teammate Brodbeck who recovered to finish third.  A total of nine cars finished the 100-mile grind, with Davidson winning $1,000 of the promised $3,000 purse but the payout stopped at fifth place for which Ben Schoaff won $50. The other finishers Fred Harter, Bob Huff, Dempsey Chaney, and Fred Koehler received “consolation prizes.”

Logansport race promoter Ray Creviston a former motorcycle racer required each of the entrants to post an entry fee for his race scheduled for September 7th 1924. This was after his previous race promotion at Spencer Park a month earlier suffered from a large number of “no show” entries.  

Chance Kinsley was entered for the three-race program as the driver of the ‘Jones Special’ (believed to be the same car as the ‘HL Special’) along with Lawell, who had won a race at Logansport in June, Jack Conder, ‘Dutch’ Baumann, Frank Sweigert, Russell Field, George Heller and Ted Hartley. 

The entry list boasted 32 cars but this time the success of Creviston’s promotion was doomed by a small crowd which led him to cancel the races. There were six cars still left on the grounds (three of which were owned by Ray Butcher from Indianapolis) and the drivers persuaded Creviston to run a “winner takes all” 20-mile race for $80. 

On the 35th lap Ray Butcher while running in third place crashed through the outer guardrail and his Laurel race car (a Ford block fitted with a Laurel Motor Company cylinder head designed by Robert Roof) veered up the embankment and struck a group of people. Butcher a 27 year old racer from Indianapolis who had won $300 just the day before for his victory in the 50-mile feature at Bloomington Indiana was killed instantly.  

Ray Sampson identified as a farmer was reportedly pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital from his injuries but the Logansport Pharos-Tribune reported two days later on September 9 that Sampson was recovering from critical injuries at St. Joseph’s hospital, and was expected to recover fully, barring complications.  Two other spectators, a father and son named Bowyer from Bunker Hill Indiana were also injured when the out-of-control Laurel racer struck their family sedan. The father, John, suffered a broken leg while his 11-year old son Earl was seriously burned. The accident led to the cancellation of the rest of the race with leader John Souder declared the winner.

On September 24, Doctor JJ Stanton the Cass County Coroner declared that Butcher died of a fractured skull in the accident which was caused by a broken steering knuckle on Butcher’s race car. Later court filings presented a different picture of the crash and the victims’ injuries than what had been reported in the local newspaper.

In January 1925, Raymond Sampson filed suit against the Cass County Fair Association for $15,000 (over $200,000 today) over the Fair’s alleged negligence as the track was “not shaped for extreme speed” and was not properly equipped to protect passersby. Sampson’s suit filed by local attorneys Gamble and Bradfield maintained that he was not a spectator at the races, as had been reportedly; rather he was walking past on a nearby street when Butcher’s race car “traveling 75 miles per hour” hurtled an eight-foot fence and struck Sampson. The impact broke his left wrist and elbow both of which were stiffened and caused a permanent disability.

In March 1925, John R Bowyer, represented by the local law firm of Lairy and Howell, filed suit against the Fair Association for $1,200. Like Sampson, Bowyer’s suit alleged negligence on the part of the Fair Association and pointed out that the racing event on the leased track had been held on Sunday in defiance of local law. Bowyer’s filing stated that he, his wife and son were not watching the race from their car as earlier reported.

Bowyer’s suit claimed their car was caught in a traffic jam on George Street when Butcher’s out of control race car left the track struck their car. The collision allegedly injured all three members of the Bowyer family which required the family to remain in Logansport at the home of friends for several hours while their injuries were treated.

The Logansport law firm of Long, Yarlott, Kistler, Kistler, and Hale were named to represent the Fair Association in both suits. Both the Sampson and Bowyer suits were dismissed by Circuit Court Judge John B Smith on October 28 1927 for “lack of prosecution” which meant that there had been no court filings within a specified period of time, so the court presumed that the parties no longer wished to pursue their cases.

Chance Kinsley’s final 1924 race appearances came very late in the year on the West Coast although he raced under the nom de guerre "Kingsley" on the West Coast, an alias he had previously used in Indiana races at times during the 1923 and 1924 seasons. Kinsley and at least two other Indiana drivers, Ralph Ormsby and “Fuzzy” Davidson were “imported” by Ascot Speedway promoter George Bentel to challenge the home-grown regulars on the oiled dirt 5/8-mile track.

Ascot’s reigning star at the time Frank Lockhart had married on Thursday October 30, and after he encountered problems during the Ascot program on Sunday November 2 the sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times made light of the situation as he wrote “Frank….stepped into the matrimonial harness and yesterday encountered a lot of tough sledding. The newlywed drove in two races and swallowed a lot of dust in both. It is to be hoped that Frank's ship of matrimony is running in smoother waters.”

“The eastern drivers” made their debut before crowd of “approximately 12,000 and gave the fans plenty for their money.” Ormsby, Kingsley, Iowa racer Al Waters, Canadian Jack Petticord and local driver “Curly” Young split the honors.

Ralph Ormsby won the ten-lap Babe Ruth Sweepstakes over Lockhart, then Lockhart experienced engine trouble and was forced out of the Italian Victory Crown, “busting a piston rod or something equally as necessary,” according to the Times article. Lockhart's retirement which handed the win to Petticord trailed by Ormsby.
 
Chance  “Kingsley” won the fifteen-lap Walter Johnson Handicap trailed by Ormsby as Lockhart finished third. The car Chance drove owned by Harry Heinle had originally been qualified by Jack Petticord.
 

Kinsley, Ormsby and “Fuzzy” Davidson were entered for the December 25 1924 “Santa Claus Sweepstakes” held at the Southern California Fairgrounds in Riverside California. Other prominent drivers among the fifteen entries were future Indianapolis ‘500’ competitors Cliff Bergere, Floyd Roberts, Fred Lecklider, Les Allen and William “Shorty” (then known as “Speed”) Cantlon. Bergere was entered as the driver of a “little Duesenberg” while Kinsley, Ormsby and Davidson all were scheduled to drive Frontenacs. 

Lecklider who would later race in the 1926, 1927 and 1930 Indianapolis 500-mile races, was the race’s featured star, as he drove one of the former Miller-built chassis “Junior Specials” powered by a 181-cubic inch double overhead camshaft straight six engine which had competed twice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
Lecklider had obtained the pair of cars (one was dissembled) following the tragic death of the cars’ owner Kansas City oil magnate George Wade in a bizarre accident prior to the running of the 250-mile 1923 Thanksgiving Day race at the Beverley Hills Motor Speedway after Wade was struck by the car driven by Harry Hartz.

The “Santa Claus Sweepstakes” was postponed by rain until December 28 and one of the original drivers entered, George Beck withdrew due to injuries and officiated the race assisted by Riverside businessmen J F Backstrand, Axel Nelson, and Roy Helgeson. In time trials, Kinsley and his Frontenac powered machine set quick time as he toured the ½-mile dirt oval in 30.4 seconds.  

A crowd of 4,000 fans watched as the days’ first event, the five-lap “Orange Belt Invitational,” was won by local driver Ed Bermuda with Chicagoan Floyd Shawhan second.  The four fastest qualified cars, those of Les Allen, Shawhan, Cantlon and Kinsley were entered in the next event the handicap Australian pursuit race.

In "pursuit" events of this type, the slowest car started first, followed in order by progressively faster cars at set intervals until the fastest car started last. Over the course of the event, as a later-starting (faster) car passed an earlier-starting (slower) car, the slower car was eliminated. This procedure continued until only the fastest car is left and declared the winner. On December 28 the pursuit race went 13 laps around the half-mile and was won by Chance Kinsley.

Ralph Ormsby won the 10-lap “San Bernardino Handicap” over Bergere, and then came the day’s featured 15-lap race, the “Santa Claus Sweepstakes.” John Vickers led the first two laps before future 1938 Indianapolis ‘500’ race winner Floyd Roberts who lived in Van Nuys took the lead and led the last 13 laps of the race which was completed in 7 minutes and 55 seconds. Roberts was followed across the finish line by Ormsby (who drove the feature in place of Shawhan) with Kinsley in third place. Les Allen finished fourth with Cliff Bergere in fifth as Bermuda and Vickers rounded out the seven finishers.

In our next and final installment of the story of Chance Kinsley, we will review his 1925 season.  

 

 

 

Douglas Hawkes at Indianapolis 

We are back after a week in Indianapolis and today we share the story of an obscure British racer who participated in two Indianapolis 500-mile races four years apart.

Part one – 1922

On April 28 1922, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway received an overseas cable from Wallace Douglas Hawkes with his formal entry for the 10th International 500-mile sweepstakes scheduled for May 30.  Hawkes who was an  engineer at the Bentley Motors Limited North London factory entered a 1922 3-liter Bentley, the first and only entry of the marque in the Indianapolis  ‘500.’  

At the time Bentley Motors was still a very young company as the first Bentley rolling chassis was delivered in September 1921.  Prior to the outbreak of World War One in August 1914, the founder of the company, Walter Owen “WO” Bentley and his brother Horace Millner Bentley sold the French-built DFP  (Doriot, Flandrin & Parant) automobile from their showroom in London.

When hostilities in Europe ended that business, WO Bentley felt his knowledge of engine technology could help the war effort - he suggested the use of aluminum pistons in aircraft engines. Bentley’s experience dated to 1912, after D.F.P. introduced side-valve engines for their 2-liter 4-cylinder 15-horsepower cars, ‘W O’ raced a DFP he built with aluminum alloy pistons on the famed Brooklands oval track. Convinced of their viability, the DFP factory used used aluminum pistons in the 1914 6-cylinder 40-horsepower production cars.

Lieutenant Bentley was assigned to the experimental department at Rolls-Royce and later Humber Limited where he designed the Bentley Radial 1 (BR1) nine-cylinder 150 horsepower radial engine with aluminum pistons a derivative of the Clerget design.  This engine originally known as the AR1 (Admiralty Radial 1) was used in the Sopwith Camel fighter plane later made famous by the Peanuts cartoon character ‘Snoopy.’  Later ‘W O’ designed a more powerful, nine-cylinder 230-horsepower engine, the BR2 which was used in the Sopwith Snipe and Salmander fighter planes.  WO founded Bentley Motors in early 1919 with the money he had earned from his two aircraft engine designs.

The 3 liter (183 cubic inch) 4-cylinder engine used in the first Bentley automobile borrowed many design features from a pre-war Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft  (DMG) (translated as Daimler Motors Corporation)  engine.  The 4 ½ liter DMG M93654 four-cylinder engine used in the Mercedes 1914 Grand Prix cars featured a bevel-gear driven single overhead camshaft with a four-valve hemispherical cylinder head design. The engine used individual steel cylinders, steel connecting rods, and steel crankshaft with an aluminum crankcase. The long-stroke engine with two spark plugs per cylinder produced 105 horsepower at 3000 revolutions per minute (RPM).  

Lautenschlager at speed during the 1914 French GP

Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

in the Center for Digital Studies at the IUPUI University Library

DMG built six cars powered by the M93654 engine and five were entered in the 1914 French Grand Prix. In a shocking result, Mercedes cars swept the podium, led by Christian Lautenschlager who would later compete with a Mercedes in the 1923 Indianapolis 500-mile race. Frenchman Louis Wagner who would appear in the 1919 Liberty ‘500’ finished second in the French Grand Prix while Otto Salzer finished third in the car later driven by Ralph DePalma to victory in the 1915 Indianapolis ‘500.’

The sixth Mercedes Grand Prix car was later placed on display in the central London showroom of Daimler Motor Company Limited, also known as British Mercedes Motor Limited. The car was still on display on August 4 1914 when the United Kingdom of Great Britain declared war on The German Empire. The car was confiscated by the British government in early 1915 reportedly at the suggestion of W.O. Bentley and was dismantled at Rolls-Royce under Bentley’s supervision.  With the knowledge he gained, “WO” later “reverse engineered” the M93654 technology for the new Bentley 3-liter engine.

The long-stroke Bentley engine used two spark plugs per cylinder, and pent-roof hemispherical 4-valve combustion chambers.  The Bentley 3-liter engine was one of the first production car engines to feature dry-sump lubrication a shaft-driven overhead camshaft and when fitted with twin SU carburetors produced 70 horsepower.

The entrant and driver of the 1922 Indianapolis ‘500’ entry Bentley, Wallace Douglas Hawkes described in the United States newspapers as “a London Engineer.”  Hawkes was born on September 11 1893 and started racing as an amateur in 1914 with small displacement sports cars principally at the Brooklands course. Like many others, Hawkes’ racing career was interrupted by World War One during which he served as a Captain in the Royal Air Force.  After the war “little Doug” Hawkes, so-called because of his slight build, resumed racing and was fairly successful.

 

1922 Bentley IndyCar

author photos

 

The machine Hawkes entered for the 1922 International 500-mile Sweepstakes was simply a Bentley production car minus the fenders, windshield and headlights with a new streamlined aluminum tail section behind the cockpit.  The 108-inch wheelbase chassis utilized a front beam axle, semi-elliptical leaf spring suspension, rear live axle and four-wheel drum brakes. Instead of English brand tires, the car was fitted with wire wheels designed to accept the typical straight-sided Firestone tires. The American press was so unfamiliar with the marque that it was frequently misspelled “Bently.”

Hawkes accompanied by Bentley factory mechanics Leonard Ford and Herbert. S. “Bertie” Browning (both formers aviators) sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Liverpool to New York on the White Star Lines HMS Cedric and arrived in Indianapolis on May 19.  Browning who had received his pilot’s wings two weeks after the end of World War was nominated as the Bentley’s riding mechanic.

After the British visitors spent their first day spent looking over the track and facilities, the Indianapolis Star newspaper reported the following day that a search of local railroad yards “had not turned up the Bentley as yet.” The car was located the following day which provided Hawkes ample time to become familiar with the nearly 2-ton car’s handling on the big, flat 2-1/2 brick oval. Hawkes qualified on the first day of time trials, Thursday May 25 as the silver #22 Bentley completed its four-lap ten-mile timed run with an average speed of 81.9 miles per hour (MPH), just a few ticks above the Speedway’s 80 MPH minimum.    

Though Hawkes, Browning and the Bentley started the ‘500’ from 19th position on the inside of the seventh row, it was the slowest car of the 26 cars that qualified for the starting field, over 18 MPH slower than pole-sitter Jimmy Murphy’s Miller-powered Duesenberg hybrid. In 1922, the Speedway was faced with a short starting field, so qualifying was extended beyond the originally scheduled three days. Two cars, Howdy Wilcox and Art Klein qualified on Monday May 28 and three more cars were allowed the opportunity to make timed runs on the eve of the race.

None of last three cars qualified. William Gardner’s Benz broke down in warmups, and the rotary valve engine in Frank Davidson’s rotary valve D’Wehr Special blew up during his run.  Tommy Mulligan the designated relief driver of the #18 Frontenac-Ford crashed while warming up before qualifying.  After qualifying closed, Automobile Association of America (AAA) contest board officials huddled and announced that since the #18 car had shown speed in excess of the 80 MPH minimum in practice run it could start the race.

The #18 Frontenac-Ford one of two cars entered by the Chevrolet brothers was powered by a four-cylinder Model T Ford engine fitted with a Frontenac “R” cylinder head which used one intake port and three exhaust ports, a racing carburetor and exhaust manifold.  After repairs, the car’s original driver Jack Curtner from Greenville Ohio tagged the back of the field in 27th place to race “for official standing only” and was not eligible for prize money. The prize money would have been a moot point to the Chevrolet brothers anyway, as their primary interest was the promotion of their speed parts through participation in the biggest race in the world. 

The cover of the 1922 Indianapolis 500 Official Program

Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

in the Center for Digital Studies at the IUPUI University Library

During the 1922 Decoration Day 500-mile race, the speed of Hawkes’ Bentley proved no match for the speed of the pure racing machines, but at least it was steady. Hawkes and Browning made only one pit stop for gasoline and oil on lap 154. In their post-race report, the Indianapolis Star reported that during the stop Hawkes asked his crew for a stick of chewing gum, then “bathed his face with cold water and resumed the race.” 

The Bentley completed the full 500 mile distance more than one and twenty-three minutes after the winner, Jimmy Murphy, with an elapsed time of six hours and 40 minutes, and average of 74.95 MPH. The Automotive Journal commented in its June 1922 race report that “the pluck of Hawkes won the admiration of the crowd. Outclassed by many miles in speed the British machine nevertheless showed remarkable endurance” and finished thirteenth.    

The day following the ‘500,’ Hawkes, Browning and Leonard Ford departed Indianapolis for their long trip home to England. Hawkes and Browning arrived home in time to drive a Bentley 3-liter car to a fifth place finish in the 1922 Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy race held June 20 on the Isle of Man. Bentley 3-liter cars proved successful at the Circuit de la Sarthe as it won the 1924 and 1924 24 hour endurance races.

Two years later Wallace Douglas Hawkes returned to race on the bricks of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in another unique entry, the Eldridge Special. We will share the details in the next installment of the Hawkes story. 

Luxor Goggles

All the poster photos appear

courtesy of EB Meyrowitz

 

While safety protection of racers in the early days of automotive competition were rudimentary with no seat belts and the use of cloth helmets, from the start racers recognized the importance of protecting their vision from dust. The brand of choice for many early racers was a pair of Luxor Goggles manufactured by Meyrowitz Manufacturing Company which sold by E.B. Meyrowitz Incorporated from its eleven stores in five cities - New York City  (seven stores), Minneapolis and Saint Paul Minnesota and two subsidiaries in Paris and  London and many local distributors nationwide

Emil Bruno (E.B.) Meyrowitz was born in 1852 in the city of Danzig, then part of the Prussian Empire, today known as the Polish city of Gdansk.  Emil graduated from optical college in Russia, and after he served his apprenticeship, he immigrated to America in 1872. In New York City He worked for Benjamin Pike & Sons opticians but also tinkered in his spare time in a workshop in his basement.

Emil and his two younger brothers Oscar and Paul started the Meyrowitz Brothers Company in Albany New York in 1875 before Emil became a naturalized United States citizen in 1878. By 1886 he and his brothers had opened E.B. Meyrowitz Incorporated at 104 East 23rd Street in New York City and later would establish their flagship store at 520 Fifth Avenue.  

EB Meyrowitz Incorporated optician stores in New York City, Paris, London, and Minnesota specialized in custom hand-made eyewear with the last King of France, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, painter Claude Monet (whose glasses were tinted blue) and Winston Churchill all mentioned as past customers. The stores also sold precision vision-related instruments such as microscopes and binoculars along with a line of cameras and offered film processing.

Emil had a curious mind and during his life invented and patented many instruments used in the optical trade. In April 1893 Emil received US patent number 495506A for a perimeter, an instrument used to measure the extent of a patient’s visual field with moving targets. Emil’s invention combined the principles of the existing Landolt and Priestley-Smith perimeters along with “certain novel features peculiar to the improved instrument itself.”

Emil followed his first invention with two more devices for the support of optical testing instruments which received US patent protection in 1897 and in 1898. Also in 1898 Emil received a patent for “a saddle for spectacles” designed “to give the wearers of spectacles relief from the pressure upon the nose due to the weight of the lenses and their frames with a novel device with a pair of pads rest upon the face at the sides of the nose attached to the bridge of any make of spectacles.”

 

 

Emil Meyrowitz’ two major inventions were patented during the first decade of the twentieth century; in 1902 he patented an ophthalmoscope which allowed the optician to see inside the eye and in 1907 an ophthalmometer an instrument to measure the curvature of the surface of the cornea.

To manufacture Emil’s many inventions, the brothers set up a factory known as the Meyrowitz Surgical Manufacturing Company in New Jersey, and the three brothers prospered until tragedy struck on Wednesday January 8, 1902.  In a snowstorm as an inbound express train from Connecticut, stopped in the Yorkville tunnel is it waited to enter the overcrowded Grand Central Depot, a second train inbound from White Plains plowed into the waiting express and destroyed its two rear passenger cars.

Oscar Meyrowitz, 47 years old, who had gotten on the express train in New Rochelle, was among the fifteen people killed (two more died later of their injuries). Oscar’s widow filed a $150,000 suit against the railroad (equivalent to $4 million today) but a jury later awarded her just $20,000. The public outcry after the accident led to the construction of the larger Grand Central Terminal and the replacement of steam locomotives with electric units on city routes.     

Two years later, it was discovered that a night watchman at the Meyrowitz flagship store had surreptitiously looted the store and attempted to sell through an auction the $20,000 in stolen merchandise (mainly eyeglass frames) under an assumed name. His crime was discovered when John Schwenger an employee of the firm inspected the goods at the auction and found the ‘EBM’ trademark on the frames. Why the watchman William Cooper did not melt down the gold and sell it instead of trying to auction the frames was never explained.     

Meyrowitz had first advertised goggles in their catalog in 1905 which included a water-roof mask and nose piece for ‘rainy day’ driving but Meyrowitz’ place in racing history was cemented with the issuance on November 11 1907 of United States patent 871762A for “improved construction of goggles, goggles or protecting glasses for the use of motorists and other persons, for preventing dust and particles from entering the eyes particularly to render them more easily applied and removed in use.”  

Over the next 26 years Meyrowitz was issued nine more patents for improvements to his original goggle design.  Through the years, Emil (and in one case an employee) patented different bridge designs, various cushion styles  and methods to attach the cushion to the eye cups, ventilating inlets to prevent fogging, and even a moveable shutter so the wearer could adjust the amount of opening.

 

 

 

 

Truly, E B Meyrowitz Inc.’s Luxor brand of goggles became the standard of the industry and was sold at air fields, opticians, and sporting goods stores. A 1933 Luxor advertisement modestly proclaimed “there has been hardly a flight of consequence since aviation first began when Luxor Goggles were not worn. This is also true in important motor and speed-boat races. There must be a reason why the leaders of air and track races prefer Luxor.”

 

 

All the most experienced Hollywood stunt pilots of their day including Frank Clarke, Roscoe Turner, Al Wilson, Frank Tomick, Elmer Dyer and Garland Lincoln took part in the two years’ filming of Howard Hughes' epic motion picture Hells Angels and all wore Luxor goggles.

Colonel Charles Lindbergh and Art Goebel Jr. both appeared in Luxor print advertisements and Royal Air Force Lt. Sidney Webster wore Luxor goggles when he won the 1927 Schneider Cup air race at 281 miles per hour (MPH). Most famously, aviatrix Amelia Earhart wore Luxor #6 goggles fitted with hand-ground curved lenses, and a pair of her Luxor goggles with a cracked left lens sold at auction in 2011 for nearly $20,000.

The mention of Earhart’s goggles brings up the point that the standard lenses in Luxor goggles, whether flat or curved, while precision ground were not shatter-proof, although “non-shatterable” glass was an option on the model 8 which doubled the standard $18.00 list price. Buyers could also opt for meniscus, or convex-concave, lenses which had the effect of magnification.

Clear or “white” lenses were standard but amber, green or smoked lenses were also available and on special order, EB Meyrowitz Inc. could grind the goggle lenses to match a prescription. Whatever model was purchased, Luxor goggles always came furnished in a metal case engraved the Meyrowitz’ signature which remain a relatively inexpensive collector’s item today; cases usually sell for $50, while the goggles themselves often fetch more than $400.   

Tommy Milton in 1923 wore Luxor goggles with clear (white) flat lenses

Ralph DePalma in 1923 wore Luxor goggles with clear (white) flat lenses

Peter DePaolo in 1926 seated in the Marmon Wasp

wore Luxor goggles with curved lenses that appear tinted

 

In the world of automobile racing, Meyrowitz boasted a powerful line-up of customers which included the first two-time Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Tommy Milton, the 1924 ‘500’ co-winner LL ‘Slim’ Corum, the 1915 ‘500 winner Ralph DePalma and his nephew Peter DePaolo, who signed a photograph to Emil after this 1925 Indianapolis victory which read in part “Luxor goggles have been with me in all my victories” which was reproduced in advertisements.

 

Harry Hartz in 1923 wore Luxor goggles with white flat lenses

 

 

According to other print advertisements other noted racers such as Harry Hartz, the 1926 AAA (American Automobile Association) national champion, the 1920 AAA national champion Louis Chevrolet, and Cliff Durant also wore Luxor goggles in competition.  

There were of course competitors for Luxor Goggles such as General Optical Co. Inc.’s “Gogglette #3” which were used by drivers that included  the legendary barnstormer Berna Eli “Barney” Oldfield, the inaugural  Indianapolis 500’ winning relief driver Cyrus Patschke, 1916 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Dario Resta and the 1919 Liberty ‘500’ winner Howard Wilcox.  EB Meyrowitz advertising warned discerning customers to make sure their goggles “have the new red rubber cushions bearing the word Luxor.”

 

 

Eventually center-hinged “tank style” goggles which had Triplex laminated flat clear glass and provided a wider field of vision grew in popularity and eventually replaced Luxor goggles. Company founder Emil Meyrowitz passed away at age 85 in 1937 after a two-month illness and the control of EB Meyrowitz Incorporated and its subsidiaries passed to his two sons, Ernest DuPont and Russell Alexander. Paul the youngest of the three original Meyrowitz brothers retired from the firm in 1943 and passed away at age 82 in 1946 in his apartment in New York’s swank Hotel Seymour.

Emil’s son eldest son Ernest also passed away in 1946 at the age of 61 in New Jersey while his brother, Russell born in 1890, died in 1965 in New Rochelle New York. Although no longer owned by family members, the EB Meyrowitz brand still exists; although the three locations in New York City, Paris and London are each owned by separate owners, they all sell a line of custom hand-made eyeglasses and frames. You can visit the three EB Meyrowitz stores websites by clicking the following links

http://www.midtownoptician.com/index.html

http://www.ebmeyrowitz.co.uk/

http://www.meyrowitz.com/en/

 

All the black and white driver photographs with Luxor goggles appear courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

 

The forgotten ‘500’ winner - L.L. Corum

Part two -  stock car racer

1924 Indianapolis ‘500’ co-winner L.L. “Slim” Corum failed to qualify a Duesenberg for the 1927 ‘500’ starting field, through that year Corum made a name for himself in the world of American Automobile Association (AAA) sanctioned stock car racing.

After he joined the Stutz Motors “experimental department” in 1926 Corum, along with race car drivers Ralph Mulford, Tom Rooney, Bert Dingley, and Gil Andersen competed in races with factory-entered Blackhawk Vertical Eight Speedsters. Frederick E. Moskovics the Stutz president, understood the publicity value of automobile racing, having been involved in the management of the 1910 Los Angeles Motordrome board track in Playa del Rey California.

For the 1927 season the AAA Contest Board, led by Eddie Rickenbacker created a stock car racing renaissance that harkened back to the earliest racing days of the early twentieth century. Unlike the modern-day NASCAR silhouette “stock car” races, the 1927 AAA races were open to strictly stock cars that displaced 300 cubic inches or less, and to ensure the stock nature of the cars, the AAA Contest Board reserved the right to select the cars at random and supervise their preparation.

Cars raced less the windshield, fenders, running boards and tops with the only mechanical adjustments allowed limited to “valve grinding, cylinder honing, relieving bearing clearances, and fine tuning.”  The races were scheduled, often in conjunction with AAA championship races on two East Coast board tracks - the Rockingham Speedway in New Hampshire and Atlantic City Speedway in New Jersey.

The “Eastern Stock Car Championship” for the "Atlantic City Trophy" 75-mile race was held on May 7 1927 at Atlantic City prior to the running of AAA 200-mile championship car race.  The one and half mile long year-old  wooden New Jersey track alternately known as Amotal Raceway due to its location on the site of the World War I ammunition plant, was roughly equidistant from Atlantic City and Philadelphia south of the town Hammonton.

Designed by Art Pillsbury and built by Jack Prince the construction was financed largely by Charles M. Schwab chairman of Bethlehem Steel and also a major investor in Stutz and a member of the Stutz board.   

Tom Rooney in a Stutz Vertical Eight 2-seat roadster won the May race at an average speed of 86.50 MPH in a time of 52 minutes and 10.54 seconds as the top three finishers could have been covered by a blanket. Wade Morton’s Auburn finished just a fender length behind Rooney in second place and Zeke Meyer’s Paige trailed just a few feet back in third place. 

Eddie Miller finished fourth in another Auburn roadster ahead of fellow Indianapolis veteran Fred Winnai who drove a Duesenberg Model A roadster to a fifth place finish. For an appreciation of just how fast the steeply banked board tracks were, Dave Lewis won the featured 200-mile race in a 91 ½ cubic inch supercharged Miller front drive at average speed of 130 MPH.

There were only six entries for the 100-mile preliminary stock car race held on July 4 1927 at the 1-1/4 mile wooden Rockingham Park Speedway, a venue opened in 1925 but which was already in financial trouble, Two days before the race, at the request of a group of investors United States District Court Judge George F. Morris in Concord placed the track in receivership and named Exeter attorney William Sleeper as the receiver.    
  

Frank Lockhart led the first 65 laps of the race in a Mercedes, but a blown tire forced him into the pits and he lost more than a lap to former AAA championship regular Wade Morton behind the wheel of 8-88 Auburn.  Once underway, Lockhart’s car suffered another blown tire which cost him another five laps to repair. Morton claimed the victory over Lockhart and Ralph Hepburn is a similar Auburn and posted a new United States stock car record as he averaged 89.17 mph over the 100-mile distance.  

Like all the board tracks, weather and the pounding of the cars took their toll on the Rockingham board track. The 1926 AAA champion Harry Hartz was severely injured and burned in a crash at Rockingham in October 1927 which left him in out of hospitals for two years and ended his racing career. 

The scheduled 200-mile International Motor Classic in October 1928 was halted after 50 laps due to the deteriorating track conditions led to the three crashes which included Fred Comer’s fatal crash on lap 25. 

The finish of the race was initially postponed for two weeks to allow time for planned repairs but was eventually cancelled. In the fall of 1929 the Lowell Building Wrecking Company razed the 1-1/4 mile facility and more than 3 million board feet of well-seasoned 2x3, 2x4, 2x6, 2x10, and 2x12 wood planking was salvaged and sold as scrap.

On September 5 1927 the AAA sanctioned a series of stock car races at Atlantic City which included a special preliminary event that offered a purse of $250 for the “oldest car capable of navigating the banked track.” Entries in the special race included an 1897 AutoCar, a 1900 Winton, and 1901 curved dash Oldsmobile.

In the days leading up to the race, there was some controversy as several teams alleged sabotage, and according to the Chester Times in Chester Pennsylvania “officials brought in huge flood lights to illuminate the long rows of garages and guards with bayoneted rifles patrol the section about the garages day and night to prevent anyone from approaching except those with official credentials.”

This AP photo shows Earl Vance with his trophy

The day’s first AAA-sanctioned race was a 25-mile or 20 lap event for 4-cylinder cars, won by Earl Vance of Philadelphia in a Dodge Sport Roadster entered by the Atlantic City Speedway Association. The 1928 Dodge Series 124 ‘Fast Four’ Sports Roadster powered by a  212-cubic inches L-head engine had been purchased by the Association ten days before the race to increase the size of the field,  averaged 67.35 MPH.  

The second race of the day, a 75-mile, 60 lap event for 6-cylinder cars priced below $2000 was won by 1919, 1921 and 1922 national motorcycle champion  and three-time Indianapolis ‘500’ starter Ralph Hepburn behind the wheel of a factory-entered Studebaker Commander Roadster. His Studebaker teammate Eddie Hearne finished second ahead of a Chrysler ‘70’ roadster, one of four entered by the Speedway Association, in third place. A Buick Master Six roadster and a Star Six built by Durant Motors rounded out the top five finishers. 

The third and final stock car race held at Atlantic City on Labor Day, the 120-lap 150-mile “Free-for-All” featured six factory Stutz entries – four roadsters and two sedans all which had been driven to New Jersey from Indianapolis  by the drivers which included Gil Andersen, Bruce Keen. Tom Rooney. and “Slim” Corum to “break them in.” There were a total of 14 cars entered, all either six- or eight-cylinder powered machines, including Hepburn’s, and the race was run at torrid pace with lap speeds that neared 100 MPH.

Early in the race, Keen lost control crashed his Stutz into the outer fence and was injured.  Two laps from the end of the Atlantic City race Hepburn’s second-place 353-cubic inch side-valve 85-horsepower Studebaker blew a tire, and the finish it was a 1-2-3 Stutz sweep. 

Rooney claimed the win and set a new world’s record as he finished in one hour 33 minutes with an average speed of 96.30 MPH. Corum finished second, two minutes and fifteen seconds in arrears with Andersen in third place, four seconds behind Corum while Hepburn recovered to finish fourth.  

In the fall of 1929, the 500-acre Atlantic City Speedway site was sold to the General Aero Corporation which announced plans to level the track and build an international airport, but the venture collapsed and the track remained intact.  At the end of May 1932 the assets of the Atlantic City Speedway Association were auctioned off to satisfy a legal claim.  The following year, the great Atlantic City board track was demolished and the lumber sold for its scrap value  

Stutz wins the Stevens Trophy

The Stevens Cup in 1927

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In April 1927 Corum was a member of the Stutz team that set out to win the Stevens Perpetual Challenge Trophy, a traveling award established by Samuel Barron Stevens a wealthy stock broker banker and early automobile racer from Rome New York. Stevens had established a number of speed records on Ormond Beach in Florida in the original AAA stock car racing period from 1903 to 1908.

After his retirement from driving Stevens stayed involved in auto racing as he briefly served on the 10-member AAA Contest Board which developed and printed rules, registered cars drivers and mechanics, licensed tracks, issued sanctions, provided officiating staff and maintained records.  In 1916, Stevens was a member of the team that drove a stock six-cylinder Marmon 34 roadster cross country from New York to San Francisco a distance of 3,390 miles in five days 11 hours and forty minutes which beat Erwin “Cannonball” Baker’s existing record by 41 hours.   

The requirements to win possession of the Stevens Trophy spelled out in the deed of gift were simple - a totally stock closed production car had to average 60 MPH or better for 24 consecutive hours at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway as witnessed by officials of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and AAA. The 100% stock condition of the car had to be attested to by a three-man committee of the SAE and the AAA furnished the supplies of fuel and oil.

Stevens’ challenge required the endurance run be conducted at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as opposed to a smooth board track because according to Stevens “it more closely replicates real road conditions to measure what the consumer finds in regards to performance, stamina and durability when he buys an automobile.”

Stutz Motor Company was the first automaker to accept the Stevens challenge in April 1927. The Stutz drivers for the attempt included Corum, Rooney, Andersen, and early Speedway drivers John Jenkins, Charles Merz, and Bruce Keen. There were three cars used, all equipped with the Stutz Vertical Eight overhead camshaft engine - stripped-down Stutz Blackhawk Speedster as the “pacemaker,” and the actual Stevens challenge machines, a five-passenger sedan and a Weymann-bodied five-passenger sedan.

Weymann bodies, made of painted synthetic leather fabric stretched over a wooden frame, were very popular during the latter part of the decade of the nineteen twenties. This patented system was less expensive and lighter in weight than a full custom steel body and its method of construction led to a quieter ride free of the squeaking typical in metal-bodied automobiles.

Invented and patented by Charles Weymann who held dual US-French citizenship but lived in Paris, the company established an American facility in Indianapolis in the old National Automobile plant on East 22nd Street with Stutz as its number one United States client. The Weymann American Body Company’s fortunes rose and fell in concert with those of Stutz, and by the end of the decade of the nineteen thirties, new Weymann bodies had all but disappeared from the American automotive landscape.   

The Stevens Challenge run began at 4 PM on April 21 1927 recorded by the Speedway’s head of timing and scoring Chester S Ricker with his assistant Odis A Porter and observed by officials from the AAA with JT Little of Marmon who represented the SAE.  A few hours after the run started rain, sleet, and snow began to fall but the Stutz team pressed on as the storm continued.

During the driver exchanges scheduled for every two hours, mechanics filled the cars’ gas tanks and radiators, made a safety check of the car and made tire changes or adjustments as needed.  The Stutz’ were equipped with standard Mason ‘Hylastic’ balloon tires and a total of three tires of were replaced during the 24 hours with two tires replaced on the standard sedan during the night as a precaution.    

On April 22 1927 after twenty-four hours, the five-passenger steel-bodied Stutz sedan took possession of the Stevens trophy having covered 1642 miles or 657 laps around the 2-1/2 mile oval at an average speed of 68.44 MPH. The Weyman fabric bodied sedan completed its 24-hour run at an average speed of 67.176 MPH having covered twelve fewer laps or 30 fewer miles. Though not eligible for the record, the Stutz “pacemaker” averaged 71.352 MPH.

The Match Race

After Stutz had won the 1927 AAA stock car championship and the Stevens Trophy, during his October 1927 visit to Paris, Stutz president Moskovics bragged to his friend Charles Weymann that the Stutz was not only the fastest car in America but perhaps in the world. Weymann was a fan of the French/Spanish Hispano-Suiza, considered at the time the fastest car on the European continent and the pair settled on a friendly wager of $25,000 (nearly $350,000 today) about which car was the fastest over 24 hours around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

After several days of practice the match race began at 1 PM on April 18 1928 before a crowd of 2,500 interested spectators. The Hispano-Suiza HC6 Boulogne powered by a six-cylinder 488-cubic inch engine rated at 144 horsepower was matched against the 125-horsepower 305-cubic inch straight-eight powered Stutz Blackhawk.  

The Stutz before the match race

the driver is unidentified in the IUPUI University photo part of the

Indidnapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the Center for Digital Studies

The Stutz driver lineup featured Tom Rooney and Gil Anderson with L.L. Corum as the reserve driver, while Weymann himself chose to drive the Hispano-Suiza paired with the 1926 24 hours of LeMans race winner Frenchman Robert Bloch. Both cars equipped with Mason balloon tires had their front fenders removed, and Weymann oddly chose to carry a spare wheel and tire.

As reported in the Indianapolis Star at the end of the first lap the Hispano-Suiza was eight seconds ahead, and over the first ten laps the Hispano-Suiza average 83.4 MPH to the Stutz’ 81.3 MPH. On its 57th lap, the Stutz pitted with a rough running engine diagnosed with the problem traced to a broken retainer on one of the engine’s thirty-two valves.  

By the rules mechanics led by Stutz machine shop foreman Michael Kirk could not use new parts and the Stutz sat motionless for one hour and 11 minutes before repairs were completed. Back underway, the Stutz completed just 11 laps before the problem resurfaced and additional repairs delayed the Blackhawk another 35 minutes.

With 147 laps completed, the Stutz broke a connecting rod in the straight eight engines and three hours were lost over to repairs (how the mechanics replaced a broken connecting rod without a new part in unclear to the author). The only saving grace for the Stutz team was that around ten o’clock a rainstorm moved across Indianapolis and the Hispano-Suiza stopped for 16 minutes. The Stutz returned to the track at 11:27 PM but at midnight stopped again with an oil leak.  At that point the Stutz was more than 300 miles behind the Hispano-Suiza having lost five of the eleven hours of running time.

At 7:56 AM on April 19 another connecting rod broke on the Stutz and 25 minutes later the Stutz camp conceded. The official record showed that the Hispano-Suiza completed 1357.5 miles to the Stutz’ 732.5 miles. Having won his $25,000 bet, Weymann suggested another match race against a similar Stutz. Run from 9:30 AM to 1 PM, the Stutz won with an average speed of 75.71 MPH to the Hispano-Suiza’s 73.57 MPH.

Despite the problems, Charles Weymann was sufficiently impressed by the Stutz Blackhawk’s performance that he bought one to race in the 1928 24 hours of LeMans. Driven by Edward Brisson and Bloch, the Stutz finished second just one lap behind the winning Bentley.

Stevens Trophy later history

a 1933 Marmon 16  "close coupled" sedan

 

The Stutz Motor Company held the perpetual Stevens Trophy until October 1931 when Marmon Model Sixteen five-passenger standard Sedan powered by an all-aluminum 16-cylinder 200 horsepower engine completed 1834 miles in 24 hours at a speed average of 76.425 MPH.  A second Marmon a LeBaron-bodied five-passenger close-coupled sedan completed its simultaneous run of 1800 miles at an average speed of 75 MPH. The driver’s identities were not revealed in the little-publicized 1931 effort which was a wasted effort as Marmon ceased auto manufacture after its 1933 reorganization.

The Marmon effort did however break the long-standing United States stock car record held by Ralph Mulford since May 1916. Mulford who finished second in the first Indianapolis 500-mile race completed his unassisted 24-hour run of 1819 miles on Harry Harkness’ wooden Sheepshead Bay Speedway in New York. The Hudson Super Six sedan made twelve pit stops during the run none of which took longer than 4-1/2 minutes. 

Samuel Stevens passed away at age 61 from a heart attack in a Greenville Texas hotel room in November 1935 during an auto trip from California to his home in Rome New York. Stevens’ will bequeathed his family home, a massive 4-turret Victorian mansion to the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post and deeded the future administration of the Stevens Challenge trophy to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation.

In June 1937 Bonneville speed and endurance champion  D. Abbott “Ab” Jenkins  and dirt track racing superstar James ‘Billy’ Winn led a group of drivers that won the Stevens Trophy for the Cord Corporation in a 1937 Cord 812 supercharged Beverley sedan. The wisdom of the entry of two cars was confirmed when during the night with Jenkins at the wheel one of the front wheel drive Cords broke a hub and lost the wheel.  

The run continued with the second Cord sedan which completed the 24 hours with 764 laps or 1910 miles completed at a speed of 79.577 MPH. The significance of the achievement was lost when the Cord Corporation filed for bankruptcy approximately six months later and the trophy was returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for safekeeping. The crème colored Cord 812 Stevens Trophy winner is presently on display in the National Auto Museum in Reno Nevada.

This 1951 photo of the Stevens Trophy Cup is from

 the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

Sixteen years passed before the Chrysler Corporation captured the Stevens Trophy in October 1953 with a superstar driver lineup that included 1951 AAA National champion Tony Bettenhausen, 1953 AAA ‘big car’ champion Pat O’Connor and California ‘big car’ racer and 1949 ‘Rounds Rocket’ pilot Bill Taylor.

This 1949 photo of Bill Taylor is from

 the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

 in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

The trio drove a 1954 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe Coupe powered by the optional 331-cubic inch 235-horsepower Firepower “Hemi” V-8 with a ‘Powerflite’ fully automatic transmission that completed 2157 ½ miles or 863 laps in 24 hours. Unlike previous record holders, the Chrysler Corporation trumpeted its achievement across the country in ½-page newspaper advertisements which called the Stevens Challenge Trophy “the greatest stock car test in the world.”

On Tuesday December 11 1962, Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Anton ‘Tony’ Hulman announced that the Stevens Challenge Trophy would be retired due to safety concerns, as the original rules laid out by Samuel Stevens banned the use of roll bars, heavy duty suspension and racing type tires. On December 17 1962 a luncheon was held and officials of the Chrysler Corporation returned the trophy to the Speedway and it remains on display in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

In our next installment of the Lora L Corum story, we’ll return to complete a look at his career at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and his tragic death.