Roscoe Turner’s 1929 Packard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Center for Digital Scholarship

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

parked in the IMS infield in 1934.

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

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

This photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Center for Digital Scholarship

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection shows left to right

Roscoe Turner, Madonna Turner, Mary Fendrich Hulman

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

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

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

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

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

             

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Library Digital Media Repository shows an interview in 1961

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

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

Eddie Rickebacker and Ray Harroun on the right.

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

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

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

All color photos by the author

        

Tony Hulman’s Beechcraft 18 airplane

While researching the recent “500” Platolene gasoline story, the author found an interesting letter written in February 1972 by the company’s general manager, J.W. Connelly, to the chairman of the Carmi Illinois airport expansion committee. Originally based in Hulman’s hometown of Terre Haute Indiana, at the time Platolene 500 headquarters was based in Carmi a small Illinois town 125 miles southeast Terre Haute.

Platolene 500 Inc. was one of many local businesses that supported the long-overdue extension of the city’s airport runway to 4,000 feet. Mr. Connelly’s comment was “two of our partners in this company, Henry Smith and Tony Hulman of Terre Haute Indiana, each have Beechcraft 18 airplanes. In the past they have used our present runway but they are very reluctant to do so because of only 2,700 feet of pavement.” It is worth noting that the recommended ground roll landing distance for a Beechcraft 18 was 2,800 feet. So what is the story behind Tony Hulman’s airplane?

The Beechcraft 18

The Beech Aircraft Company of Wichita Kansas began to produce the Beechcraft Model 18 in 1937, a “tail-dragger” design all-metal semi-monocoque construction and twin tail fins similar in appearance to the larger Lockheed Electra powered by that used twin radial engines.

Beech advertised to businessmen

Intended for use as a small airliner or as an executive aircraft, sales were slow and at the time of the United States’ entry into World War II in December 1941, only 39 Model 18's had been sold. As part of the war effort, more than 4,500 military versions of the Beechcraft 18 were built during WW II. Some sources state that over 90% of United States Army Air Force (USAAF) bombardiers and navigators during World War II were trained in Beech 18-type aircraft.

Tony Hulman’s plane

A typical Beech D18S cabin

Tony Hulman’s plane was a Beechcraft Model D18S, the first post-World War II version that debuted in October 1945 and featured seating for two pilots and six passengers with 5 feet of headroom in the cabin. The plane was powered by twin Pratt & Whitney 985 “Wasp Junior” nine-cylinder radial engines with gear-driven single-speed centrifugal type superchargers. The engines were rated at 450 horsepower each and used 99-inch constant speed propellers. The Beechcraft Model 18 typically cruised at 170 MPH, with a ceiling of 20,000 feet and a range of over 500 miles.

A Pratt & Whitney 985 in a Beech 18

A Pratt & Whitney 985 data plate

There were 1,035 Beech D18S planes built; the plane which would become Hulman’s was serial number A-223 completed on May 29 1946, the day before the first Indianapolis 500-mile race under Tony Hulman’s ownership of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The mirror-like polished aluminum bodied plane was sold through dealer Interstate Airmotive to the Trailmobile Company of Cincinnati Ohio.  The company which built over-the-road semi-truck trailers since 1915 kept the Beechcraft in the company’s hangar at Cincinnati’s historic Lunken Field until 1954.  

During July 1954 the Beech 18 A-223 was sold to the Electric Auto-Lite division of Willys Corporation which manufactured 400 different automotive parts, including generators, lamps, horns, hubcaps, wiring, and seat adjustors. Electric Auto-Lite based in Toledo, Ohio the largest independent manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment was purchased by Ford Motor Company in 1961 after which Ford changed the division name to simply “Autolite.”

Under Ford’s ownership, the Autolite division expanded into auto racing particularly with spark plugs.  Lloyd Ruby drove Lindsey Hopkins’ “Autolite Special” Offenhauser powered Epperly laydown roadster to an eighth place finish in the 1961 Indianapolis ‘500.’  In 1962, Autolite spark plugs won the Daytona GT Continental, the Daytona ‘500,’ and then swept the top three finishing positions in the Indianapolis ‘500’ as Rodger Ward and Len Sutton finished one-two for Bob Wilke with Eddie Sachs in third place in Al Dean’s ‘Autolite Special.’

Tony's plane restored

The Willys Electric Auto-Lite division sold Beechcraft D18S tail number N80242 to the Mead Corporation of Dayton Ohio in October 1954. Pilot Lloyd Fuller went along with the plane, just as he had with the previous owner as he had flown Beech A-223 since it was completed in 1946 at the Wichita factory. During Mead’s ownership, Tony Hulman flew on the plane, although according to an article in the October 1971 issue of Flying magazine, Fuller said Hulman “really didn’t care for flying.”  

The tail of Tony's plane

In December 1963 the Mead Corporation sold the plane to Hulman & Company, pilot Fuller relocated to Terre Haute, and Hulman & Company built a new hangar on Hunt Road adjacent to Hulman Field (now known as Terre Haute International Airport). Under Hulman’s ownership, the tail number of the Beech was changed to N500 which remained until 1973 when it was predesignated N5QQ. Hulman & Company sold the highly-polished Beech D18S with blue trim in the fall of 1989. The plane’s current owner keeps the restored plane in Henderson Nevada.  

“500” Platolene gasoline

 

Several  years ago an episode of the History Channel "reality" television program 'American Pickers,' made a visit to Southern Indiana. At one site, one of the show's two protagonists bought a large old porcelain service station sign that read “500 Platolene” which used a checkered flag. The owner of the sign mumbled something about the people that ran the Indianapolis ‘500’ had owned this service station chain. Was this truth or reality show fiction?
 

Anton “Tony” Hulman Junior, who bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Eddie Rickenbacker in 1945, was born in Terre Haute Indiana the only child of grocery magnate Anton Hulman and his second wife Ada Grace Smith Hulman.  Ada’s family owned the Princeton Mining Company and the Deep-Vein Coal Company both bituminous coal mining operation as well as Princeton Farms all in the vicinity of Princeton Indiana about 80 miles due south of Terre Haute.

Henry P. Smith Junior operated those businesses after the death of his father as well as the RJ Oil and Refining Company which in addition to its refinery RJ operated 100 service stations in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Henry’s cousin, Tony Hulman was a partner in RJ Oil and Henry’s son, Donald Smith (later a Hall of Fame racing promoter) was RJ Oil’s sales manager.

In 1953 RJ Oil undertook a one million dollar expansion of its refinery that was completed in August 1953. The refinery was the first such plant in the area that used a new process developed by Universal Oil Products of Des Plaines Illinois known as “platforming”

In an article published in the Terre Haute Tribune,  Smith promised motorists that the company '500' service stations  will have “the most powerful, cleanest burning, most economical gasoline that has even been refined” because of “the specially developed catalyst in this secret new process.” The process used “precious platinum, a metal more costly than gold;” in 1953 an ounce of platinum cost $70 compared to $40 for an ounce of gold.  The name of the new gasoline was “Platolene” - the “gasoline made with platinum.” The name and logo ‘500 Platolene’ was trademarked in 1953.   

 

A matchbook from the author's collection combines two

Tony Hulman businesses - 500 Platolene and the

Meadows Shopping Center (Terre Haute's first mall)

 

 

Today the Smith and Hulman family business interests remained intertwined. Tony George, Tony Hulman's only grandson, recently re-installed as chairman of Hulman & Company currently sits on the board of directors of First Financial Bank N.A. (once run by the late Don Smith), Deep Vein Coal Company, Princeton Mining Company, and R.J. Oil Company.  

Postscript

 

 

 

There is one final racing connection to this story. In the early nineteen seventies Universal Oil Products (UOP) developed a new process known as ‘CCR platforming’ that allowed refineries to produce high-octane lead-free gasoline. To help promote their new process, in August 1971, UOP signed a sponsorship deal with Don Nichols’ Advanced Vehicle Systems.

The series of sinister black race cars in the SCCA Can-Am and Formula One series were known as “UOP Shadows.” The UOP Shadow DN4A driven by Jackie Oliver and powered by a 494-cubic inch Chevrolet engine powered by lead-free gasoline won the 1974 SCCA Can-Am championship.   

Postscript 2

Tony Hulman became a partner with RJ Smith in the Princeton Farms the primary product of which was popcorn. Around 1940 Smith and Hulman hired the former Vigo County Farm Bureau extension agent to run the Princeton Farms. The agent who ran the Farms for 12 years later became world-famous for marketing his own brand of popcorn: Orville Redenbacher.

The early history of

Indianapolis Raceway Park

 

 



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

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

 

This 1911 newspaper drawing shows the

intended IMS layout with infield road course

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

This is the layout of IRP

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

The 1970 Shriner’s Indianapolis race

 

 

1970's IMS logo

For many years, from 1919 until 1994, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted just one race each year, the International 500-mile Sweepstakes. Today when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosts multiple races and events during the calendar year, it is hard to imagine that the great track sat idle for eleven months out of the year except for testing sessions.  The exception is an all-but-forgotten exhibition race held at the Speedway in mid-July 1970.

The 1970 Shriner's Convention

During the third week of July 1970 from the 13th to the 17th the City of Indianapolis Indiana hosted the 96th annual convention of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, an organization commonly known as the Shriners. 1970 marked the third time the city played host to the Shriner’s Convention with the previous conventions held in 1919 and 1940. Unlike the 2013 Indianapolis Shriners convention which hosted 15,000 members, in 1970 the convention hosted an estimated 40,000 Shriners as articles in the local press described local hotels as “jammed.”

With the convention held in the hometown of the first native Hoosier Imperial Potentate J. Worth Baker, the principal theme was automobiles and automobile racing so many of the meeting venues used a black and white checkered flag motif.  The highlight of the week, at least for racing fans, was what was described as “a shortened version of the Indianapolis 500” held on Wednesday afternoon July 15 between sessions of the Shriners Convention. The Superintendent of the Speedway grounds since 1948, Clarence Cagle, himself a Shriner was the driving force behind the special event. 

The United Press International (UPI) reported that the 10-lap exhibition race would be contested by seven drivers but listed eleven drivers as probable entrants; Johnny Rutherford, Roger McCluskey, Art Pollard, Rick Muther, Bruce Walkup, Jim Malloy, Mike Mosley, Bob Harkey, Joe Leonard, Bentley Warren and Mel Kenyon. During the 25-mile race, drivers and the teams would be required to complete one demonstration pit stop complete with a tire change.

In addition to the estimated 10,000 Shriners on hand, there were several distinguished guests Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Anton “Tony” Hulman Junior was joined the Imperial Potentate Worth, the 43rd Governor of the State Indiana Edgar Whitcomb, and Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar.

There were long-standing connections between the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the local Shriners Murat Temple, as Captain Eddie Rickenbaker the owner of the Speedway from 1927 to 1945 was a member. The traditional Pole Position Mechanic and the Indianapolis ‘500’ Victory banquets were both held in the huge Egyptian Room at the downtown Murat Temple until 1972 when the Victory banquet moved to the newly-opened Indiana Convention Center.

The Shriners’ national leader in 1970, J Worth Baker, then the local potentate was one of four men who founded the “500 Festival Associates in 1957 along with then Mayor Alex Clark, Joseph Quinn, Safety Director for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Howard S. Wilcox, promotions director for the Indianapolis Star and son of the 1919 Indianapolis ‘500’ race winner.


The 1922 Shriner's Day race

1970 was not the first time that an automobile race had been staged in connection with a Shriner’s Convention. On June 14, 1922, as part of the 40th annual meeting of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine Imperial Council, the Aahmes Temple in Oakland California sponsored a “Shriner’s Day” non-championship AAA-sanctioned 150-mile race at the Greater San Francisco Speedway, a 1-1/4 mile board track actually located adjacent to an airfield 25 miles south of San Francisco on the peninsula town of in San Carlos.

The race which was held as part of a day-long celebration was preceded by a parade, picnic and an aviation and automobile thrill show. Following a 25-mile “semi-stock Ford race”  the day's featured race was won by Joe Thomas in a factory Duesenberg over his teammate Roscoe Sarles.

Less than a week after the Shriners Race, on June 18 1922, about half of the San Carlos track and 3/4 of the grandstands were consumed by flames carried by a strong wind. Initially blamed on “hobos,” (a quaint term for homeless men) the cause of the fire was later traced to a pile of oil-soaked wood scraps and shavings left under one of the turns after the track’s construction. 

Jack Prince who built the San Carlos facility in partnership with engineer Art Pillsbury traveled west from Kansas City where he was supervising the building the pair’s next board track and estimated it would cost $200,000 to rebuild the facility as 1-1/2 mile track.  Despite and immediate pronouncement by Speedway association president Fred Morton that the loss was entirely covered by insurance and general manager Bill Pickens’ mid-July 1922 announcement of a scheduled 250-mile championship race on October 15, the seven-month old San Carlos track which hosted three automobile and two motorcycle races in its time was never rebuilt.

The outcome of the 1970 Shriner's race

With the last previous race on the 1970 United States Auto Club (USAC) National Championship Trail schedule the 'Michigan Twin 200s' held on July 4, many teams were in Indianapolis to prepare for the ‘Indy 150,’ scheduled for July 26 at the nearby Indianapolis Raceway Park road course. Prior to the start of the exhibition race, 25 members of the Indianapolis ‘500’ Shrine Club drove their modified Volkswagens mini-Indy cars on a ceremonial parade lap around the historic 2-1/2 mile Speedway.  

Johnny Rutherford won the 25-mile race

 

Texan Johnny Rutherford won the July 15 exhibition race reportedly by a mere five feet over Mike Mosley as he averaged 142.787 miles per hour (MPH) for the 25 miles. While the car that Rutherford drove was only identified in news articles as being powered by a turbocharged Ford, research can identify the likely car. 1970 marked the third year that Johnny drove an updated 1967 AAR “Patrick Petroleum” Eagle for Michigan car owner Walt Michner which at various times during the 1970 USAC season was powered by a turbocharged Ford engine. Mosley was behind the wheel of the Ralph Wilke owned “G C Murphy Special” turbocharged Offenhauser-powered Watson originally built new for the 1969 USAC season.  

Jim Malloy finished third

 

Third place fell to Jim Malloy in the Federal Engineering owned Gerhardt turbocharged Offenhauser “Stearns Transi-Tread Special.” This was the car sponsored by the manufacturer of rubber conveyor belts used in airport baggage handling carousels that Malloy had qualified in the ninth position for the 1970 Indianapolis ‘500’ but crashed in turn four during the pace laps after a heim joint in the Gerhardt’s right rear radius rod broke.

Art Pollard finished in fourth place in the Shriners exhibition race as he drove Jim Hayhoe’s Clint Brawner built Scorpion powered by a turbocharged Ford engine which was driven by Roger McCluskey during the 1970 USAC season with sponsorship from Quickick, an “isotonic action drink” and “sports gum” from sports medicine supplier Cramer Products.



Art Pollard's 1970 USAC season

Pollard was between rides after the dissolution of his Art Pollard Car Wash/Race-Go Incorporated racing team at the end of June.  

Art Pollard's 1970 Indy 500 photo

courtesy INDYCAR

 

The March 14 1970 edition of the Indianapolis Star carried the story that Art Pollard had signed to drive a new Grant King built 750 horsepower turbocharged Offenhauser semi-monocoque entry for Race-Go Incorporated. The unique part of the deal was that the car one of three entered by the new team would be called the “Art Pollard’s Car Wash Systems Special,” which made Pollard one of the few racers ever to be his own sponsor. 

The Star article said Race-Go Inc. “was organized two months ago by John F Newcomer and Allan Warne of Indianapolis to sell car wash systems” and that “a second driver will be named to the team after Pollard qualified for the ‘500.’” Grant King, like Pollard a veteran of the Northwest CAMRA racing circuit was identified as the team’s chief mechanic; King and Pollard had worked together the previous season with STP Oil Treatment sponsorship.

Contrary to the claim in the Star, Art Pollard Car Wash Systems Inc. filed for its Indiana State business license on July 21, 1970, with three principals: Newcomer, Warne and Roger R Isch of Bluffton Indiana. Newcomer, Race-Go’s Chairman of the Board, had relocated his family to Indianapolis in early 1970 after he worked as an area manager for a grocery store chain and a homebuilder in Tucson. Newcomer told the Star that “auto racing will go down as the sports of the 70’s,” and that his company was getting in on the ground floor.

Allan Warne was a vice-president of Acme Building Materials Incorporated a well-known Indianapolis building material firm and local manufacturer of Precision Homes, prefabricated homes sold in five Midwestern states. Nothing is known of Isch or Marley Mangold who was identified as the President and General Manager of Art Pollard Car Wash Systems Inc., but it suffices to say that none of the four men had been involved in the racing industry prior to the formation of Race-Go Inc.

Nearly 50 years later, Pollard’s role in Race-Go Inc. is confusing to say the least. At different times it was stated in various Indianapolis Star articles that “Pollard signed a contract to drive,” “Pollard got into the car wash business,” and at one point the Star reported that the company named Pollard President. Pollard was quoted “they even gave me an office. The other day I sat in on a board meeting and they even let me say something once in a while.” Later, Pollard told the Associated Press (AP) auto racing editor reporter Bloys Britt that “his investment for the year” would exceed $400,000. Depending on which statement you chose to believe, Pollard was a contract driver, employee, investor, car owner or some combination of the four.  

 

Greg Weld's 1970 IMS photo

Courtesy INDYCAR

 

Pollard drove the #93 turbocharged Offenhauser powered 1969 Gerhardt chassis at the 1970 USAC season opener at Phoenix, and was running in fourth place when he spun. Pollard then drove the new #10 King chassis at Trenton New Jersey with the Gerhardt driven by Greg Weld. At Indianapolis Art Pollard qualified the #10 at 168.595 miles per hour to start the ‘500’ from sixth position on the outside of the second row.  

Car owner Newcomer told the Star “the whole thing is very exciting, of course, but it is also great for promoting our car wash business. This is the best advertising in the world."  After he crashed on the first day of time trials, Greg Weld qualified the #93 Gerhardt chassis at 166.121 MPH on the third day of time trials to start from 28th position as the fastest rookie driver in the starting field.    

In an article published in the Anderson Herald on May 30 the day of the ‘500,’ Grant King related “there is no such thing as a car being completely ready. You keep tearing them down and putting them back together. You never know what you’re going to find after even a practice run of a lap or two.” “After Art qualified we discovered missing tooth in the rear end so we replaced the entire rear end with a new unit,” said King.  Prior to the race, King decided he wanted to re-size the rods and shipped them to Los Angeles. On return flight, the plane carrying the rods was delayed eight hours in St. Louis so the team worked all night to get the car completed in time for tests on Carburation Day.  

 

The end of Pollard's 1970 Indy 500

courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

IUPUI University LibraryCenter for Digital Studies

 

In a pre-race poll of four unidentified veteran observers Bloys Britt quoted the following odds: Al Unser at 2-1 was ranked as “tough to beat if he doesn’t break.”  Pollard was ranked as “could finish well up with 15-1 odds, while Weld went off at 30-1 odds with the comments “if it was only a sprint race.”

Alas both the “Art Pollard Car Wash Systems Specials” were eliminated very early in the race both with burnt pistons. Weld retired on lap 12 and Pollard brought out the race’s first caution flag on lap 28 to finish 32nd and 30th respectively. Pollard appeared in the #10 car in the Rex Mays Classic and fell out on lap 119 with an oil leak. Pollard was entered at Langhorne on June 14 but the car did not appear.

In his “Speaking of Speed” column in the June 21 1970 edition of the Indianapolis Star, George Moore’s revealed that Race-Go had fired Grant King. Moore reported that ”financial remuneration-or the lack of it” was the root cause but also that “there were some personality differences.” Moore wrote that “the team is reorganizing personnel and moving its base of operations to Atlanta.”

Newcomer admitted that “Atlanta doesn’t sound like the best location for running a championship car, but then we may not be there permanently.” The new chief mechanic was Jim Ruggles backed up by JD Roberts. As the team decided to switch to Ford engines, “Ruggles is slated to spend some time at the Foyt engine plant in Houston to pick up some points on the power plant.”

Ruggles earlier in his career was a shop foreman at Nichels Engineering and would later build the Buick V-6 engines which powered Rich Vogler to the 1989 USAC national sprint car championship. Art Pollard told Moore that he “had worked with Grant King for a long time but there were factors involved which just made it advisable for the people involved to pursue another course.”

Pollard appeared at the ‘Rocky Mountain 150’ at Continental Divide Raceway on June 29 and drove the #21 “Art Pollard Car Wash Systems” entry a turbo-charged Ford powered 1967 Vollstedt chassis rented from Rolla Vollstedt. John Cannon had failed to qualify the #21 Vollstedt chassis at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pollard retired after just two laps due to overheating, and this was the last time the Art Pollard name appeared on a car as a sponsor. In four months, Pollard went from sponsoring his own car to hunting for a new ride mid-season.  

Pollard picked up a ride for the “Michigan Twin 200s” at Michigan International Speedway in Dayton industrialist George Walther’s Morris Marauder chassis powered by a turbocharged Ford engine. The entry built by former Halibrand employee George Morris known as “Walther’s Tyrone” carried sponsorship from a Volkswagen dealership located on Tyrone Boulevard in St. Petersburg Florida that Walther co-owned with Ted Meuche.

Pollard would later drive a sister Scorpion to the car he drove in the “Shriner’s Race” to a second place finish at the Ontario Motor Speedway in the inaugural ‘California 500.’  Pollard initially lodged a protest that he won by a lap but withdrew after he reviewed the scoring tapes. Based primarily on his finish in the California 500, Pollard wound up third on the USAC winnings list with earnings of $102,155 for the 1970 season.

The final finishers in the Shriner's Race

Rick Muther grabbed fifth place

Fifth place in the Shriner's Race went to Rick Muther in the Two Jacks Racing tube frame Brawner-Hawk which had sat on the pole for the 1965 Indianapolis 500. Of the seven exhibition racers, only Muther had finished the 1970 ‘500’ as he recorded an eight place finish.

Bill Vukovich Junior crossed the finish line in sixth as he drove Don Gerhardt’s Thermo-King Gerhardt Offenhauser in place of Gary Bettenhausen the USAC trail’s most recent winner at Michigan International Speedway.

Bruce Walkup finished seventh in the seven-car exhibition as he drove a car only identified as a “car that did not qualify for the Indianapolis 500.” Walkup had qualified for the ‘500’ only three months earlier in JC Agajanian’s “Wynn’s Special” the only car fitted with a roll cage to qualify for the ‘500.’

After the completion of the Shriners exhibition race the Indianapolis Motor Speedway remained mostly silent for over nine months until May 1 1971 when it opened for practice for the 55th 500 Mile International Sweepstakes.

All images appear courtesy of INDYCAR except as noted