The Pete Kreis story Part three 1927 & 1928 The Cooper years

 

The Pete Kreis story

Part three 1927 & 1928  

The Cooper years

Earl Cooper, the three-time American Automobile Association (AAA) national champion in 1913, 1915, and 1917, had a remarkable driving career both before and after World War One. Before the war, as a member of the powerful Stutz Racing Team, Cooper notched sixteen victories mostly on dirt tracks and early road courses before he retired in 1919.

Cooper, a close friend of Barney Oldfield since their early years, raced just once in the 1921 and 1922 season before he returned to full-time driving in 1923 at age 37. Earl proved to be an adept board track racer during the Miller 122-cubic inch era with a string of top five finishes and Cooper finished second in the AAA drivers’ standings in 1924 and fifth in 1925.

During the 1926 AAA season, Cooper drove the Miller supercharged 91-cubic inch front wheel drive chassis number #2605 and eventually bought the car.  Over the winter of 1926-7, funded by Buick Motor Company, Earl Cooper built three cars which were essentially Miller copies, with the full approval and assistance of Harry A. Miller.

The new Cooper cars were each equipped by supercharged 91 cubic-inch eight-cylinder Miller copies which reversed the intake and exhaust manifold locations and breathed through four Miller “Dual Throat Updraft’ carburetors that produced 167 horsepower and powered the front wheels.

The front drive assembly marked the major difference between a Miller and Cooper. Instead of the Miller jewel-like front drive, designed and engineered by Leo Gosssen, Cooper’s cars used patented Ruckstell planetary gearsets with two-speed Ruckstell axles to achieve four forward speeds.  

Left to Right

Eddie Pullen

Joe Thomas 

Glover Ruckstell

circa 1914

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Ruckstell components were designed and manufactured by retired pioneer racer Glover Ruckstell, born in San Francisco in 1891 and raised across the Bay in Oakland. After just two years of high school, Ruckstell dropped out of school and by age 20 became a partner in an automobile repair garage in Maricopa California.    

Ruckstell began automobile racing around Bakersfield in 1913 and by the following year became a member of the successful Mercer racing team and recorded two top finishes at Tacoma in July 1914. In 1915, after strong early finishes in races San Diego and Venice, the mighty Mercer team entered Glover for the Indianapolis 500-mile race along with drivers Eddie Pullen and Joe Nikrent.

The new Mercer cars arrived in Indianapolis late and only Ruckstell qualified his #20 Mercer for the 1915 Indianapolis ‘500’ starting field. The team withdrew the car after qualifications, as Mercer Chief Engineer Eric H. Deiling cited the lack of time to prepare for the race.

Later in July 1915, Ruckstell won the 250-mile Montamarathon Trophy Race on the two-mile board track in Tacoma Washington with his Mercer teammate Pullen third. Glover then finished fourth behind winner Pullen the following day in the 200-mile Golden Potlach Trophy Race on the same track.

After a fourth-place finish in the 1916 150-mile Championship Award Sweepstakes at the original one-mile Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles, Glover Ruckstell retired from race driving. In addition to his work with the Ruckstell Sales & Manufacturing Company, Glover became heavily involved in the aviation engine industry before during and after World War One.  

As Cooper built his three new front-drive machines, he appeared in advertising for Buick passenger cars as one of the “nine internationally famous AAA speedway racing stars that demonstrated their approval of the new Buick,” along with Peter DePaolo, Fred Comer, Bennett Hill, Frank Lockhart, Frank Elliott, Dave Lewis, Cliff Woodbury and Bob McDonogh. According to the advertising copy, these drivers “singled it out above all other cars for their personal use and for their families.”

Cooper built homely-looking grilles for his entries that mimicked the 1927 Buick passenger cars, but at the last minute, Buick withdrew its support of Earl Cooper’s program, so the official International 500-mile at Indianapolis entry list released on May 4 1927 contained three new front-drive cars entered by the Cooper Engineering Company. Cooper listed the three drivers as himself, Albert Jacob “Pete” Kreis, and Bob McDonogh, with the Miller entered by Earl Cooper personally with the driver to be named later. 

Cooper’s entries represented four of the eleven front-drive machines entered at Indianapolis in 1927, which included the former Peter Kreis front-drive Miller known as the ‘Detroit Special’ equipped with the two-stage supercharged straight-eight Miller engine for driver Cliff Durant.

McDonogh had the privilege of taking the first lap in one of the new Copper front-drive creations on Tuesday May 17, followed later that day by Peter Kreis and newly-named Cooper teammate Bennett Hill who replaced Cooper. Earl later named Memphis Tennessee’s Julian “Jules” Ellingboe to drive the fourth Cooper entry, the #18 Miller front drive.

Twenty-one cars qualified for the 1927 Indianapolis 500 starting field on Thursday May 26, with the existing track record broken four times, with defending winner Frank Lockhart with the pole position and new track record at over 120.1 miles per hour (MPH) for his ten-mile run. 

The three new Cooper Specials in 1927

Peter Kreis at the right

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

Pete Kreis found that the Copper handled better than his previous Miller front-drive but the cars were not particularly fast.  All four of Cooper’s cars qualified for the 1927 ‘500,’ led by McDonogh in the #14 Cooper at 113.175 MPH for the seventh position, the inside of the third row. Bennett Hill anchored the outside of the third row in the #4 Cooper front drive with his 112.013 MPH average for four laps.  Peter Kreis qualified the third new Cooper machine at 109.90 MPH, fast enough for the outside of the fourth row. 

After rain postponed time trials on Friday May 27 Ellingboe qualified the yellow and black Miller chassis on Saturday morning May 28 at 113.239 MPH. Originally slotted into 22^nd position, Jules move up to the outside of the seventh row after first day qualifier 1924 ‘500’ co-winner L.L. Corum withdrew his Duesenberg which qualified at just 94 MPH.

 Race Day 1927 at Indianapolis proved to be a disappointment for Earl Cooper and his Cooper Engineering team, as of his four entries, only McDonogh finished the race in sixth place, 24 minutes behind rookie winner George Souders. Ellingboe crashed the yellow and black Miller chassis into the north short chute wall on his 26^th laps. After it hit the wall, the car rolled over and Jules suffered a crushed chest and internal injuries.

Ellingboe, confined to Methodist Hospital until mid-July, retired from racing and died from pneumonia in Oregon in 1948. Cooper sold the badly wrecked Miller front-drive machine to Phil “Red” Shafer who rebuilt it and entered it in the 1928 ‘500’ for Elbert “Babe” Stapp and finished in fifth place. In 1929, Shafer sold the car to the French auto manufacturer Derby and as the “Derby-Miller” it subsequently set many closed course land speed records driven by Gwenda Stewart.   

Almost simultaneous with Ellingboe’s accident on the 1927 race’s 26^th lap, Bennett Hill brought his #4 Cooper to the pits with a broken rear spring shackle mount and retired credited with a 28^th place finish.  Peter Kreis made it to lap 101 before he pitted and Harry Hartz took over. Peter later received treatment at the Speedway infield hospital from Dr. Horace “Frank” Allen for burns on his leg.  Hartz drove the #9 Cooper entry for 22 laps until it retired with a broken front axle, placed 17^th and earned $470 in prize money.

The original nominated driver (and funder of the program) Cliff Durant, did not drive Kreis’ former car, the ‘Detroit Special’ in 1927, as he took ill, and rather than pick a new driver, Milton unretired and drove the car himself.  The 1921 National Champion and 1921 and 1923 “500’ champion’s previous race appearance came in February 1926 at the Fulford board track. In his first qualifying attempt for the 1927 ‘500’ on May 26^th, the “Detroit Special” burnt a piston and failed to complete the ten-mile dash.

Milton qualified on May 28^th at 108.78 MPH to start 25^th, his worse starting position since his rookie year in 1919.  Milton’s final ‘500’ driver appearance proved unremarkable as the ‘Detroit Special’ began to lose power around the 200-mile mark and Milton pitted and handed the car over to his partner Cornelius Van Ranst.

In his third ‘500’ appearance and second as a relief driver, Van Ranst completed 24 laps, and diagnosed the problem as a fuel system leak at speed. Van Ranst pitted and after five minutes of hurried repairs, turned the car over to Ralph Hepburn. The former motorcycle champion drove the “Detroit Special” over the final 93 laps but pitted several items to repair more fuel system leaks and finished eighth, crossing the finish line 45 minutes after winner George Souders.  

Ten days after the 1927 ‘500,’ Kreis and the #9 Cooper front drive appeared in Tyrone, Pennsylvania on the Altoona Speedway 1-1/4 mile board track along with his teammates Bob McDonogh and Bennett Hill.  The entry list at Altoona included 45 cars - 22 championship cars and 23 semi-stock cars that were set for the preliminary 50-mile race.     

McDonogh’s entry burned a piston in practice and did not start the 160-lap 200-mile race. Leon Duray won the pole position with a lap of 136.3 MPH, while Kreis qualified ninth and Hill fourteenth.  Peter completed just 22 laps before the Miller engine in his machine burnt a piston. On the race’s 47^th lap, the machines of Frank Elliott and Ralph Hepburn tangled as they lapped Earl Devore and all three cars were eliminated.

Hill pitted on lap 84 and McDonogh took over the #4 Cooper front drive. On lap 105, Dave Lewis destroyed his car after he drifted high hit the upper guardrail and the Miller somersaulted down the banking. On lap 123, Bob coasted into the pit and retired with a burned piston. Peter DePaolo dominated in his Miller front-drive and won the race by two full laps over Harry Hartz. 

Kreis joined the AAA competitors in Salem New Hampshire at the Rockingham Park Raceway for the July 4^th Independence Day 300-mile race. While DePaolo romped to another victory and averaged 124 MPH, the Cooper Engineering team had another forgettable day. Earl Cooper dropped out on lap 4 and Kreis on lap 22, both with broken valves in their engines, and McDonogh retired on lap 75 with a broken exhaust manifold.

Pete Kreis, Earl Cooper and two of the Cooper Engineering Company machines traveled to Monza Italy to take part in the 1927 Gran Premio d'Italia (Italian Grand Prix), the last race on the Continent for which the 91-1/2 cubic inch (1-1/2 liter) engines would be legal in the Automobile World Championship.

Kreis drew the pole position but a rod broke in the engine and exited the crankcase on the first lap of the 50-lap race held on September 4 in a downpour. Kreis returned to the pits and took over for Earl Cooper and battled back to finish third albeit more than half an hour behind winner Robert Benoist’s Delage.

Kreis and the Cooper team returned to the United States and Rockingham Park Speedway for a scheduled 200-mile race on Columbus Day Wednesday October 12. Throughout the early part of the event, leader Frank Lockhart, who qualified at 144 MPH, battled wheel to wheel with Harry Hartz until lap 51 when Hartz’ car crashed and caught fire.  Harry broke his right leg and received critical burns. Officials stopped the race with 52 laps completed and Kreis in tenth place, four laps behind the leaders. 

AAA referee A.T. Hart ruled the race complete at 65 miles, with a second race of 60 laps (75 miles) set to start after crews cleared the Hartz crash and serviced the remaining cars.  Earl Cooper chose to not start the second race (he never raced again), and Kreis’ Cooper front drive fell out of the second race with a broken valve on lap 15. Lockhart won the second race by a quarter lap over Babe Stapp.    

Harry Hartz remained hospitalized in a Lawrence Massachusetts hospital for months and in February 1928 he announced his retirement from his hospital bed. Hartz’ doctors allowed him a temporary reprieve to attend the 1928 Indianapolis 500-mile race. 

Following the 1927 season, as board track racing began to decline, and under pressure from his family Pete Kreis cut back on racing. Pete became a licensed pilot and devoted himself eleven months of the year to his career with his family’s contracting firm, the John A. Kreis Construction Company. Despite his family’s wishes, Pete he still took off the month of May to race on the big Indianapolis 2-1/2-mile brick oval.    

When the Speedway opened in early May 1928, racers were still coming to grips with the death of Frank Lockhart the 1926 Indianapolis ‘500’ winner and 1927 ‘500’ pole-sitter who led 110 laps in 1927 before a connecting rod broke. Lockhart, known as the “the Boy Wonder” died on April 28 1928 in Daytona Beach Florida in the crash of his Stutz Blackhawk land speed record machine.     

For the 1928 ‘500,’ car owner Earl Cooper had landed hometown Nordyke & Marmon Company   sponsorship for two of his three cars driven by Pete Kreis in #32 (the same number carried by 1911 ‘500’ winning Marmon Wasp) and rookie Johnny Seymour in #33. Marmon’s sponsorship highlighted the manufacturer’s new Model 68, a smaller model powered by a 202-cubic inch straight eight engine.  Instead of the original grille, the new grilles on the Cooper Engineering entries mimicked the Marmon 68 grille design.

Just as the Indianapolis entry list closed for 1928 Cooper Engineering Company entered the unsponsored third car which carried #34, with rookie Russell Snowberger the nominated driver.

Peter Kreis in his 1928 Marmon

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

All three Cooper-owned cars qualified for the 29-car starting field, with former motorcycle racer Seymour in eleventh at 111.671 MPH, Kreis, the fastest second day qualifier at 112.906 MPH, started nineteenth and rookie Russell Snowberger in 22^nd starting position at 111.618 MPH. Cliff Durant finally got to drive his Detroit Special and qualified 18^th the slowest first day qualifier at 99.99 MPH.

None of the Cooper Front Drives finished the 1928 ‘500-mile race. Snowberger’s car headed to the sidelines on lap four with supercharger failure, then on lap 73 Pete Kreis’ car retired with a failed rod bearing, leaving just Seymour who retired on lap 171 also with supercharger failure. 

Durant’s ‘Detroit Special’ with relief driver Bob McDonogh (Milton’s protégé) at the wheel dropped out four laps later when its two-stage supercharger failed.  Louis Meyer led the final 19 laps and became the third rookie driver in a row to win the Indianapolis ‘500’ in a Miller purchased by Alden Sampson from Phil Shafer just days before time trials. 

With his retirement from the 1928 ‘500,’ Pete Kreis returned to the family business where he worked on a Missouri Pacific railroad tunnel project near Gray Summit Missouri and waited for 1929.

 

    

 

 

 

‘Doc’ Williams at the Indianapolis '500'

Part two - the Cooper front drive cars

All photos with this article appear courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies.

 

‘Doc’ Williams returned for his third attempt at Indianapolis glory in 1936 assigned to drive the ‘Superior Trailer Special,’ a Miller-powered front wheel drive car originally built in 1927 by Earl Cooper. Before we continue with the ‘Doc’ Williams story, today we feature this sidebar on the history of the Cooper front drive cars from 1927 through 1935.

Construction and racing by Cooper

Earl Cooper in 1924

Earl Cooper, the three-time American Automobile Association (AAA) national champion in 1913, 1915, and 1917, had a remarkable driving career both before and after World War One. Before the war, as a member of the powerful Stutz Racing Team, Cooper notched sixteen victories mostly on dirt tracks and early road courses. Cooper a close friend of Barney Oldfield’s returned to race driving in 1922 at age 36 and proved to be an adept board track racer during the Miller 122 and 91 cubic inch eras with a string of top five finishes.   

During the 1926 AAA season, Cooper bought the Miller supercharged 91-cubic inch chassis number #2605 and over the winter of 1926-7, he built three copies, funded by Buick Motors with the approval and assistance of Harry A. Miller. Each of the three cars were powered by a supercharged 91 cubic-inch eight-cylinder Miller engine breathing through four Miller Dual Throat Updraft carburetors that produced 167 horsepower and powered the front wheels.

The three new Cooper Front Drive cars in 1927

The major difference between a Miller and Cooper was the front drive assembly. Instead of the Miller jewel-like front drive, with the design assistance of Leo Gosssen, Copper’s cars used a Ruckstell planetary gearset with two-speed Ruckstell axle to achieve four forward speeds powered by Miller supercharged engines.

Buick withdrew its support and all four of Earl Cooper’s cars were entered by Cooper Engineering for veterans Peter Kreis, Bennett Hill, and Jules Ellingboe.  All three new cars qualified for the 1927 ‘500,’ but Kreis’s and Hill’s cars had mechanical failure and Ellingboe crashed so only McDonough finished coming in with a sixth place finish.

Peter Kreis in the Marmon Special in 1928

By the time of the 1928 ‘500,’ Earl Cooper had sold his original Miller chassis and landed Nordyke & Marmon Company sponsorship for two of his three cars. All three Cooper-owned cars driven by Kreis, Russell Snowberger, and Johnny Seymour qualified for the starting field, but none finished the race, with two of three cars retired with supercharger failure while Kreis’ car lost a rod bearing.

For the 1929 ‘500’ all three cars were entered as ‘Cooper Engineering Specials,’ for Fred Frame  Johnny Seymour, and Snowberger but again only one driven by Fred Frame finished the race in tenth place seven laps behind race winner Ray Keech’s Miller. Snowberger was eliminated early for the second year in a row by supercharger failure and Seymour’s car broke a rear axle.  During the winter of 1920-1930, perhaps in anticipation of the coming AAA “Junk Formula,” Cooper sold all three front-drive cars to Herman N. Gauss, who ran a garage and welding shop at 916 East Washington Street in Indianapolis.

Herman Gauss’ ownership of the Cooper Front Drive Cars

Herman Gauss had just emerged from a nasty legal scrape. On October 3 1927, a car driven by Herman with his brother George as passenger collided head-on with another car at the intersection of Fifty-Fourth Street and Kessler Boulevard in Indianapolis.  While the Gauss brothers were just slightly injured, the couple in the other Mr. and Mrs.  Manthey of Brownsburg, were killed.

Witnesses claimed that Herman Gauss’ car was traveling over 60 MPH, and the Marion County Grand Jury charged Gauss with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Over two years passed before Herman’s trial was held on November 29 1929, and Marion County Criminal court Judge Robert Dalton declared that he was unable to determine who was responsible for the accident from the evidence and testimony and found Gauss not guilty. 

After purchasing the cars from Earl Cooper, Gauss, a sometime race car driver, widened the rear of the chassis, revised the engines, and built new bodies on two of the Copper chassis to comply with the new-two man cockpit rules in the 1930 AAA “Junk Formula.”  Gauss sold the third car without the engine to car builder Floyd A. Smith of Long Island New York.  

Johnny Seymour in 1929

Herman Gauss entered his pair of cars powered by 100 cubic inch displacement unsupercharged eight-cylinder Miller engines for the 1930 ‘500’ as the “Gauss Front Drive Specials” for young rookie Hoosier dirt track driver Joe Huff and former Legion Ascot motorcycle racer Johnny Seymour. The Gauss entries easily qualified but neither one finished the 1930 ‘500.  Seymour crashed on lap 21, one of nine cars eliminated in turn two crashes over a period of ten laps.

Huff drove  just eight laps and had to be relieved by two drivers - first it was Ted Chamberlain from Olean New York, who drove 20 laps before he was replaced by William "Speed" Gardner. With Gardner at the wheel  a valve broke in the engine on lap 48 and sidelined the Gauss FD

Floyd Smith entered the third Cooper similarly modified like the Gauss cars but powered with a 215 cubic inch Miller straight eight engine for the 1931 ‘500’as the #3 ‘Empire State Gas Motors Special’ for driver “Wild Bill” Cummings. The two Gauss entries, number #69 and #71, used the same of pair of drivers as the previous year with sponsorship from the Goldberg brothers and their Highway Truck Parts Corporation which sold used trucks and part from their location at 1125 East Georgia Street.

The five Goldberg brothers – the oldest brother Irving, then Max, Samuel, Charles (an attorney), and Manning, were all born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants. The Goldberg family arrived in Indianapolis during the mid-teens and built up a complex group of interconnected companies. 

Goldberg companies included Irving’s Indianapolis Auto Parts & Tire Co. at 518 North Capitol Avenue, Max’s Superior Trailer Manufacturing at 2100 Fletcher Avenue,  Samuel’s Highway Truck Parts Corporation 1125 East Georgia Street, and Manning’s Rex Trailer Company, which built and sold circus trailers and portable electric power plants next door at 1127 East Georgia Street, During the nineteen fifties the Goldberg family bought a number of multi-unit properties that included the Wyndham on North Delaware Street and the Hotel Continental at 410 North Meridian Street. 

Cummings started Floyd Smith’s ‘Empire State Gas Motors Special’ from the middle of the front row with a 112.563 MPH qualifying average speed, while Joe Huff in the ‘Goldberg Brothers Special’ #69 “crowded” or bumped his way into the field at 102.386 MPH and started last in the 1931 ‘500’ 40-car field, but Johnny Seymour in the #71 ‘Highway Truck Parts Special’ was too slow.  Cummings led four laps in the early going of the race, but was out on lap 70 with a broken oil line and won $710.   Huff, a tortoise in comparison to Cummings, finished the 500-mile grind in sixteenth place, 20 laps behind winner Louis Schneider and won $375.

Joe Huff later raced the ‘Highway Truck Parts Special’ on July 4 1931 at the board track at Altoona, Pennsylvania but the car was much changed from Indianapolis. Gauss had combined two of his straight eight Miller engines in a “U” configuration to create a 16-cylinder engine. Huff started fourth but the car crashed and overturned on lap 36 of 80. The Smith/Empire car also appeared at Altoona and finished second.  Surprisingly for a front drive car, the Empire entry was also competitive on the dirt tracks during 1931 and finished third at Detroit and Syracuse.

Paul Bost drove Smith’s ‘Empire State Gas Motors Special’  at Indianapolis in 1932 and qualified eighth while Huff qualified the 8-cylinder 100-cubic inch Miller powered #53 ‘Goldberg Special’ in the 15th starting position for the 1932 Indianapolis ‘500.  Unfortunately Huff’s teammate, rookie Herbert ‘Dusty’ Fahrnow crashed the U-16 powered ‘Highway Truck Parts Special’ in turn two during practice on the final day of time trials May 28, but was uninjured. Huff, with relief from Fahrnow, finished the 1932 ‘500’ in tenth place and completed the full distance 54 minutes after winner Fred Frame. Bost’s car broke a crankshaft on lap 18 and Smith’s Cooper front drive chassis subsequently dropped out of sight until 1934.

Gauss and the Goldberg brothers lined up a pair of veterans to drive their entries in the 1933 ‘500;’ six-race veteran Ralph Hepburn drove the 16-cylinder 190-cubic inch “twin Miler” powered  ‘Highway Truck Parts Special and six-race veteran Bennett Hill took the wheel of the 16-cylinder all-aluminum 330-cubic inch Marmon Series 16 powered  ‘Goldberg Special.’ Hill qualified nineteenth, while Hepburn bumped into the field in 41st position. Neither car finished as both retired with broken connecting rods, Hepburn’s on lap 33 and Hill’s on lap 158.

 In 1934 Herman Gauss entered both 16-cylinder powered Cooper front drive chassis for the ‘500.’ ‘Dusty’ Fahrnow returned as the driver of the #42 car with sponsorship from the Superior Trailer Manufacturing, a company Max Goldberg had started in 1929. As mentioned earlier, ‘Doc’ Williams was nominated as the drivers of the other Gauss entry the #38 ‘Highway Truck Parts Special’ but the AAA rejected ‘Doc’ as a driver and the #38 car sat for the month of May 1934.  

Fahrnow qualified the ‘Superior Trailer special’ in 24th position with the fastest time posted on Sunday May 28 at 113.070 MPH and then finished 24th after the 16-cylinder 330-cubic inch Marmon engine burned a rod bearing on lap 28. The Floyd Smith-owned Cooper front drive car meantime reappeared powered with a 250-cubic inch Studebaker President eight-cylinder engine driven by Studebaker engineer Tony Gulotta, who qualified seventh but retired with a broken connecting rod on lap 94 before the Smith car again dropped from sight again before it resurfaced in 1936 owned by Chicago union organizer Mike Boyle.

In 1935 #53 ‘Superior Trailer Special’ was practiced during the month by “Dusty” Fahrnow but he was too slow in his only qualifying attempt.  Chicago midget racer Jimmy Snyder then jumped in and posted a time fast enough to make the field, but the ‘Superior Trailer Special’ was disqualified from the starting field after qualifying when an inspection found that the car had used more the allowed amount of fuel (2 gallons and one pint) to complete the ten-lap run.  Rookie Snyder then jumped into Joel Thorne’s 336-cubic inch eight-cylinder Studebaker powered “Blue Prelude Special” and qualified for the starting field but retired from the ‘500’ early with a broken rear spring.

In our next installment, we will return to the story of ‘Doc’ Williams in 1936 at Indianapolis, behind the wheel of the Cooper front wheel drive machine that he would become associated with for most of the next dozen years.