The Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part nine – 1952-1955 The Tri-Counties Racing Association & Parnelli Jones

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part nine – 1952-1955  

The Tri-Counties Racing Association 

& 

Parnelli Jones 

Parnelli Jones in 1963

photo appears courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection  

Author’s note – This 12-part article highlights the brief 12-year history of one of Southern California’s least-documented   auto racing venues – the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl opened for the 1952 season with the California Jalopy Association (CJA) on Monday night April 14 with an eight-race program with thirty cars and drivers, many of whom spent the winter months racing at the Culver City Stadium clay track.

“Rip” Erickson came into Carpinteria as the points leader with several feature wins to his credit, along with defending two-time champion Fred Russell and Danny Letner.  Those top CJA racers were supplemented by Ventura County drivers that included Tony Nelson, Bob Ellsworth, Al Goelz, Lee Andrews and Eddie Deal.

It appears that the feature race length became 100 laps for several of the Monday night races; Paul Norman the current CJA points leader, won the June 2 event by a full lap over Ellsworth and Ken Ebert from Lompoc.   Eighteen cars started the feature but only five cars finished, the result of four separate accidents.

Two weeks later, it was announced that the CJA and the promoters of the Thunderbowl, Tony Coldeway and Bud Hines Junior, parted ways, with future races co-sanctioned by the Tri-Counties Racing Association (TCRA) and the Pacific Racing Association (PRA).  That decision meant that Paul Norman, the CJA points leader and winner of six of the nine 1952 Carpinteria features, would not return.

The absence of the CJA regulars opened the way to victory lane for the local drivers, as Tony Nelson of Oxnard won the June 23^rd feature trailed by Ellsworth and Buford Lane. The big holiday weekend 100-lap race with fireworks scheduled for July 5 had to be postponed to July 7th due to foggy conditions.

Local driver and Navy veteran Sonny Mars won the July 14^th feature, and Rip Erickson crashed on Sunday July 20^th at Culver City and broke his leg which put the Carpinteria favorite on the sidelines for the rest of the season.  

With “Rip” out of action, Tony Nelson out-dueled Mars on July 21 to win the 30-lap “Navy Night” feature. A week later, Mars won his heat race then followed it up with a main event win over Nelson. During the their heat race, drivers Bill Cherry and Paul Lang got into a wheel-banging feud that ended with Lang’s car upside down and Cherry’s car in the wall and neither able to continue.   

In early August the Thunderbowl went to the birds in a matter of speaking, as in back-to-back weeks the track hosted avian competitions along with the jalopies.   On August 11, “Hercules” a four-year old golden eagle was paired against “Major” a four-year old pelican in a scheduled ten-minute race. 

The event turned out to be a flop, as the eagle slipped his leash and left the pelican waiting at the starting gate. In the jalopy race, Nelson won over Bob Heffington.  This unusual promotion was followed the next week by scheduled  race between a pair of ostriches, “Whirlaway” and “Man O’ War” ridden by a pair of brave jalopy drivers selected by fan voting.     

Ventura resident Bob Ellsworth won the Labor Day 100-lap feature although he ran out of gas on the last lap. With a substantial lead he inherited after Lee Andrews and Buford Lane suffered blown tires, Ellsworth coasted across the finish line ahead of rookie driver Bill Torgeson. 

Over the final three weeks of the season, Nelson and Ellsworth battled for the TCRA title as they traded feature victories. At the conclusion of the Thunderbowl’s final 1952 race on October 13, Tony Nelson prevailed in the special 60-lap feature and won the title by nine points over Bob Ellsworth. 

  

Over the winter of 1952-1953, track owner James Slaybaugh took over promotional duties and requested that the Tri-Counties Racing Association assume the sole sanctioning duties at the Thunderbowl. In a truly unusual twist, Slaybaugh was not just the track owner and promoter, he also raced a jalopy in the weekly Carpinteria programs. 

In its annual meeting held on March 9 1952, the TCRA Board accepted Slaybaugh’s proposal and the organization elected retired driver Pat Deardorf as the club president. Deardorf named John Shaw as the starter, Don Larson the pit manager and Jack Moore to be in charge of timing and scoring at the Carpeinteria Thunderbowl.   

The TCRA set the opening day as April 20 with an open test date on April 12, but the opening night was rained out as was the scheduled make-up date of April 27^th.   The May 5^th opening brought “near perfect weather” and a “full house” according to the next day’s Ventura County Star-Free Press account. Rip Erickson recovered from last year’s broken leg  nearly scored a clean sweep, as he won the trophy dash and the feature but narrowly lost his heat race by a fender to Paul Lang.

Erickson repeated with a feature victory the following week in a racing program that included a trophy dash, three heat races, the semi-main event and the thirty-lap feature, all completed in an hour and 35 minutes. Over the following weeks, Erickson, the Santa Barbara speedster stretched his victory skein to five races before he split with his car owner. The split did not seem to effect Erickson who won 9 of 11 races by July 21 and successfully passed a post-race technical inspection by TCRA officials.

Rip’s streak of success ended August 4 after he sold his Ford to fellow competitor Bob Heffington and he ran into delays building his new Chevrolet entry.   Erickson led Paul Lang by only 12 points when he returned to action on August 31 as he drove one of only three Chevrolets in the program.  On September 7^th, Rip returned to victory lane at Carpinteria, as he inherited the win when the leaders tangled on lap 45 of the 50-lap feature.

As the 1953 season entered its final weeks, Lang closed the gap on Erickson with a win on September 14 but Erickson salvaged a second place finish to cling to a 14 point lead. In the final points-paying race, Buford Lane won the feature while neither Erickson nor Lang scored any points, so Rip was the 1953 Tri-County Racing Association champion with 85 tallies to Lang’s 71 while Lane was third with 59 points.

For 1954, Jim Slaybaugh and the Tri-Counties Racing Association (TCRA) moved the racing schedule at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl to Friday nights. Rip Erickson continued he winning ways on opening night May 14. Two weeks later Bill Heffington of Santa Barbara drove Erickson’s former machine and won the ‘Poor Man’s Indianapolis” 50-lap feature. At age 65, Slaybaugh continued to race his jalopy and in early June, he took part in a special “old timers” match race against the fathers of Lee Andrews and Rip Erickson.

The July 16th program saw a drivers’ revolt after Jim Slaybaugh announced that he was shifting the program to Monday nights. The drivers immediately protested and refused to race.  Jim Shepherd led the drivers who claimed that their contract with the Thunderbowl specified Friday night race dates and that the drivers were not consulted before the announcement.   

After peace was restored, Lee Andrews won the feature but then a protest was filed, but after his car was torn down it was found to be legal. During August, Slaybaugh introduced motorcycle races on alternate Saturday nights, and as the jalopy season ended on September 10, Andrews from Ventura won the TCRA 1954 championship by 20 points over Buford Lane.

In 1955, another future Indianapolis ‘500’ winner Parnelli Jones arrived  the Carpinteria Thunderbowl. 

 For the 1955 season at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl, track owner and promoter Jim Slaybaugh continued the track’s sanction with the Tri-Counties Racing Association and the jalopy racing schedule shifted back to Monday nights set to open on May 2.

The season opened in a predictable way as Rip Erickson won his heat race, the Australian Pursuit race and the 30-lap feature then he followed it up with another feature win on May 9th, as the Thunderbowl pits were jammed with 35 cars.  Erickson made it three in row on May 16^th as he passed leader Bob Ellsworth on lap 28 of the 30-lap feature. 

 

The runner-up in the May 16^th trophy dash was a 21-year old racer from Torrance named “Parnellie” Jones, who first raced a jalopy as a 17-year old in 1950 at Carrell Speedway in Gardena. Little would fans present that night at Carpinteria know that Parnelli Jones (he would soon drop the “e”) would became the 1960 United States Auto Club (USAC) Midwest sprint car champion, then share Rookie of The Year honors in the Indianapolis ‘500’ with Bobby Marshman and repeat as the USAC sprint car titlist in 1961. 

In 1955, no one could predict that in 1962 Parnelli would be the first man break the magical 150 miles per hour (MPH) barrier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and win the 1963 Indianapolis ‘500.’

On May 16, 1956 Parnelli followed up his solid finish in the trophy dash with a solid second-place feature finish behind four-time winner Erickson after the original runner-up Fred Tomlinson was disqualified when his car owner refused to allow the car to be inspected.

56 jalopies were on hand for the annual 50-lap “Poor Man’s Indianapolis” on May 30 although after time trials and the preliminary races, only 18 cars started the feature on the 1/5-mile oval.  Rip Erickson won his fifth Carpinteria feature in a row and the lion’s share of the $500 guaranteed purse from the Santa Barbara Merchants Association. It wasn’t easy however as Rip started dead last but he took the lead on the 30^th lap and led the rest of the way as Heffington finished second and Jones third. 

Surprisingly, after that win, Rip announced that he would not race at Carpinteria any more in 1955, as “the prize money didn’t pay his way” from his home in Culver City. Erickson’s absence on June 6^th opened the door for Chuck Gibson of Ventura to win the feature.

The following week June 13, Parnelli Jones won the trophy dash as he beat fast qualifier Frank Kephart with a new track record of 17.28 seconds. In what the Ventura County Star-Free Press described as “one of the wildest seen at the bowl this year,” early leader Glen Wallen lost a wheel and hit the wall then second place “R. Spencer” (a nom de guerre for a local schoolteacher, Spencer Blickenstaff) ran into Wallen’s stalled machine.  New race leader Sonny Mars flipped twice on lap 13, then Ellsworth held the lead until his tire blew on lap 25.  Buford Lane led the final five laps and took the checkered flag ahead of Parnelli and Kephart. 

On August 1 Parnelli took part in a match race against famous local lady race Hila Paulson. Before the event, Jones told reporters “No girl is going to walk off and leave me too far behind if I can help it.” However, as reported in the Ventura County Star-Free Press, Hila used some “very unladylike tactics” to beat Parnelli as she “shoved Jones’ car into the wall coming around the final turn and came out in front.”

At some point Rip Erickson returned to Carpinteria and on August 15 he was leading the feature when he tangled with the lap car of Ventura’s Jim Jennings and dropped to fourth place. At the end of the evening, Buford Lane led the TCRA points with 69, Parnelli jones was second with 47, while Erickson was fourth with 31 markers.   

In the season’s penultimate race on September 29, after he won his heat race Parnelli breezed to an easy win in the 30-lap feature over Pete Gallagher of Ventura. Parnelli wound up second with 61 points as Buford Lane, the club president and 1955 champion scored 89 points and received his trophy at the Tri-Counties Racing Association banquet on October 22 at the American Legion Hall in Ventura. 

 

Parnelli closed out his successful 1955 season as he debuted at Gardena Stadium on Christmas Day before 960 fans. He nearly swept the program – he won the trophy dash, his heat race, the handicap dash and finished second in the feature behind Oscar Tolstein after he started dead last.  

  

      

The Marchbanks Speedway – Hanford California

Part two of the history of the first superspeedway west of the Mississippi

For the 1960 racing season Kings County California farmer Bircha Lewis “B.L”. Marchbanks expanded his 160-acre stadium automobile racing venue southeast of Hanford with the construction of a new 1-3/8-mile long paved oval with three corners that incorporated the sharp 22-degree banked first turn shared with the existing ½-mile paved oval track.

The new track, reportedly designed by Marchbanks himself, also featured a lake in the infield, created when the material removed was used to the build the banking for the new tri-oval layout.  Marchbanks reportedly spent $200,000 (later listed as $700,000 then as much as $1 million) on the improvements which included a new 7,000-seat grandstand located on the front straightaway near the entry of the first turn.  

The first event at the new Marchbanks Stadium were boat drag races on the lake held the weekend of February 13 & 14 1960 sanctioned by the National Boat Timing Association of Bakersfield which had originated the sport several years earlier.  Fans paid an admission charge of $1.00 each to watch 15 classes of racing in time trials and eliminations and Harold Kindsvater of Fresno won Top Eliminator honors with a run of 100.1 miles per hour (MPH).

That same week, Mr. Marchbanks traveled to Daytona Beach Florida site of the Daytona ‘500’ to drum up interest for the upcoming ‘California 250’ NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) race scheduled for June on his new speedway.  Rex White related his initial impression of Marchbanks in his autobiography Gold Thunder. “While at Daytona I met this character from California named Marchbanks - everywhere he went he wore a cowboy hat and boots. He had come from California to get drivers to run his new track in Hanford - Joe Weatherly and I agreed, making plans to go in June.”  

Rex White and Joe Weatherly were not yet “big names” in NASCAR although White had won five Grand National races in 1959 in his own gold and white #4 Chevrolet Impala and Weatherly had notched 12 wins in four seasons in the NASCAR convertible division as a factory-backed Ford Thunderbird driver.

The June 11^th and 12^th weekend races were advertised as “the biggest race west of the Mississippi” with a hardtop race scheduled for the half-mile track on Saturday night prior to the Sunday afternoon main event. Pre-race newspaper articles falsely stated that the ‘California 250’ “would attract the nation’s leading late model drivers among them Lee and Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Bobby Johns, Buck Baker and Fireball Roberts.”    

A majority of the 33-car starting field for the ‘California 250’ were California drivers with a sprinkling of other drivers from Western states - White and Weatherly were the only Southeastern NASCAR drivers to make the trip to California. White recalled in his autobiography, Gold Thunder that “many of the drivers decided not to go to California as the money was too little to warrant the trip. I’d promised Marchbanks I’d be in his inaugural race and signed the registration. Since he’d advertised my entry and Bill France was flying me out and back I was committed to go.” Rather than his regular 1960 Chevrolet wrenched by Louis Clements, White was scheduled to drive a 1959 Ford owned by legendary West Coast racer Scotty Cain, while Weatherly was entered in a 1960 Ford owned and sponsored by Torrance California car dealer Vel Miletich.

With a total posted purse of $18,425 (including $4,875 in contingency money) NASCAR President Bill France, on hand for the race, proclaimed it to be “the biggest stock car race on the west coast since the Gilmore Gold trophy race at Mines Field in 1934” and that “this little town will be the hub of auto racing west of the Rockies.”  

some of the drivers labeled the first turn “dangerous” after pre-race practice on Friday, but in Saturday afternoon qualifying, Frank Secrist of nearby Oildale won the coveted pole position at a reported average speed of 94 MPH trailed by Colorado’s John Rostek, Lloyd Dane and Cain with Fritz Wilson rounding out the top five.  

According to newspaper reports, Secrist’s 1960 Ford Starliner “hit 137 MPH on the straights.” White who had won earlier in April and was in third place in Grand National points qualified ninth while Weatherly, tenth in points, and the hottest driver on the NASCAR circuit with three wins so far in 1960, started 32^nd.   

After qualifying and prior to the start of the hardtop race the track hosted a “cowboy barbeque” for fans at the cost of $1.00 a plate. Rex White remembered that “Marchbanks perhaps should have opened a restaurant. He got a front-end loader, dug a hole in ground, added an air tunnel, built a fire in the hole and put timbers over the fire. He let it burn down to coals and added mesquite. Then he lowered a dead skinned cow into the timbers and covered the whole thing over with dirt. It cooked for 24 hours. When he took that cow out, he cut away dirty part of the meat and served it to fans. I ate some myself and I’ll tell you it was good.” 

The morning of the race, 400 Autolite parts distributors from various locations throughout Northern California arrived in eight chartered Greyhound busses to join the sold-out crowd. Secrist, Cain, Dane and Las Vegas’ Mel Larson each took turns in the lead before Marvin Porter from Redlands California, the 1959 NASCAR Short Track National Champion led the final 50 laps to claim the victory, with his teammate for this race, Weatherly, 46 seconds behind him.

Rex White finished the ‘California 250’ in eighth place, which gained him valuable points on his way to the 1960 NASCAR Grand National championship.  Although White misidentified the track surface incorrectly in his autobiography, Gold Thunder as he recalled that “the track was good considering it was dirt but there was little hope of its survival. They had a few grandstands, outhouse toilets and unbearable heat - race day it was 104 degrees.”

In July 1960, the banked half-mile track hosted the Formula Racing Association two-day event which featured Formula Juniors and sports cars including lady racer Odette Bigler with a Lotus 18, that competed for cash prizes. This professional sport car race was repeated in 1961 with an event that attracted many prestigious West Coast racers including Jack McAfee and Bruce Eglinton.      

On September 11, 1960, the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) motorcycles raced in a scheduled 100-mile race that was race shortened to 75 miles due to the heat. Though it is undetermined which of the three tracks hosted the event, three-time AMA champion Joe Leonard held a two-lap lead when his machine broke a valve, and Don Smith took the victory. 

A week later Marchbanks Stadium hosted a two-day event for the California Sports Car Club along with “grand prix motorcycles” on the 1.8-mile road course which used portions of the 1.4-mile tri-oval, the 1/3-mile oval and the ½-mile oval. With the cars and cycles racing on what was described as the “Monza-style banking” lap speeds of over 100 MPH were optimistically predicted in pre-race news articles.

Perhaps due to concerns about heat, the date for the 1961 NASCAR ‘California 250’ was moved to March 12 and featured a larger purse of $14,075 with $2,600 earmarked for the race winner. Rex White returned, this time joined by fellow Southerners Edwin ‘Banjo’ Matthews and Glen ‘Fireball’ Roberts. Roberts, in a 1961 Pontiac owned by Arizona’s JD Braswell, started on the outside of the front row, led every one of the 179 laps, and he won by more than two laps over second place Eddie Gray’s 1961 Ford.   

Throughout the summer and fall of 1961 for 22 consecutive Saturday nights beginning May 6, the Marchbanks Stadium half-mile track hosted a modified and claimer car racing program, with 1960 track champion Frank Secrist the headliner for the modified program along with Bud Dyson, Al Pombo and Johnny Mello, with the claimer field led by Bob Knight and Eddie ‘Bad Boy’ Bradshaw.  Marchbanks with the umbrella company, Marchbanks Sports Clubs Inc., continued as the promoter at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale. 

In early November 1961, perhaps based on the success of the Formula racing events, B.L. Marchbanks promoted “the greatest road show race on the West Coast,” a 125-mile race with the 75 fastest “stock cars, late models, modified and claimer drivers and cars on the West Coast.” Dubbed the ‘Pacific Coast Championship Road Race,’ sanctioned by NASCAR to be held on the nine-turn 1.8-mile road course, the race attracted the entry of headliner Al Pombo, who was billed as “the best driver to come out of Fresno since Bill Vukovich.”  Pombo was the 1961 California state hardtop racing champion as well as the Kearney Bowl and Clovis Speedway track champion.    

For the 1962 season, Mr. Marchbanks was no longer the promoter of Bakersfield Speedway, replaced by boxing promoter Ed York’s Racing Associates Inc. In early 1962 Marchbanks Speedway advertised that they would hold NHRA sanctioned drag races the third Sunday of every month but it is unknown what if any other weekly racing programs were held during the 1962 season.

On Sunday April 8, the track hosted a NASCAR sanctioned 100-mile “new stock car race” for Pacific Coast Late Models on the 1.4-mile tri-oval.  Entries included Pombo in a 1961 Oldsmobile, Scotty Cain in a 1962 Ford along with Lloyd Dane, Louie Unser in a 1962 Pontiac, and 1951 Marchbanks NASCAR winner Danny Weinberg all competing for a $4,200 purse.  

Downey’s Danny Letner, the 1955 NASCAR Pacific Coast champion, won the pole position in a 1961 Ford with Eddie Gray alongside to lead the 30-car starting field to the green flag. Only 4500 fans turned out to watch Letner lead the 72-lap race wire-to-wire in what was apparently the last NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model event held at Marchbanks.

With an announcement of an agreement in late April, the 1963 Marchbanks Stadium racing season opened on May 17 with the track operated by Racing Associates Inc. Initially Marchbanks Stadium ran a jalopy and sportsmen racing program on Friday nights with Bakersfield Speedway holding a similar program on Saturday nights along with periodic boxing matches at the facility.

Mid-way through the 1963 season, a figure-eight layout was added to the 1/2-mile Marchbanks oval for the new ‘Crazy 8’ racing program to cash in on a short-lived fad. These races were open to sportsmen, jalopies or modified cars, with the race stopped only if a car was upside down, on fire or if the driver was “obviously injured”- a track blockage did not necessitate any action by the flagman. Although the races were open to different types of cars, there was claimer rule in place such that the engine in a winning car could be claimed by a fellow competitor for $149.

For 1964, operations at the Marchbanks Stadium facility were about to take another turn with a new promoter which will be discussed in part three of our story.  

The Marchbanks Speedway

Hanford California

Part One- the early history of the first superspeedway west of the Mississippi River


This article previously appeared in the Classic Racing Times - subscribe at http://theclassicracingtimes.com/subscribe

Bircha Lewis “B.L”. Marchbanks was born in 1895 and grew up to become a cattle rancher in Lamb County in the southern part of the Texas panhandle until he went bankrupt in 1924 and lost his ranch. Marchbanks arrived in California nearly penniless and settled in Kings County in the Central Valley near the small town of Hanford.  

Through years of hard work he and his two sons-in law built a large cotton and corn farm southeast of Hanford, and in 1950 Marchbanks decided to devote 160 acres to the construction of a new stadium venue located at the corner of the Central Valley Highway (also known as 8th street in Hanford) and Idaho Avenue.

Marchbanks Stadium included a rodeo grounds and a half-mile dirt track with a quarter-mile long straightaway that would also be used for quarter-horse racing. The first rodeo took place during 1950, but B.L.’s hopes of pari-mutuel gambling never materialized, and automobile racing debuted with jalopy races on May 12, 1951.  

One of the more unusual features of the new facility was the building that was used primarily for the driver’s meetings – B. L. Marchbanks bought the old one-room  King Schoolhouse building and had it moved to the race track site which was just north and east of his ranch home at 6888 Idaho Avenue.  

Later that year, the fledgling National Association of Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) group staged five Grand National races in California; three at the half-mile dirt Carrell Speedway in Gardena, one at the 5/8-mile high-banked oil-dirt Oakland Stadium, and on October 28 1951, a 200-lapper at the new Marchbanks Stadium.  

Admission to the race promoted by Johnny Mantz, the winner of the inaugural NASCAR ‘Southern 500’ the previous year, offered grandstand seats for $2.40 each while box seats were priced at $3.60 apiece.

The fans that arrived early to watch qualifying which began at 2:30 PM saw Danny Letner of Downey emerge as the fastest qualifier of the 31 cars with a best lap of 29.92 seconds. Other entries that aimed for their portion of the $3,550 total purse included North Carolina’s Marvin Panch, Oregon racer Herschel McGriff, sprint car and midget standout Allen Heath, and Indianapolis 500-mile race veterans Harold “Hal” Cole and James “Dick” Rathman.    

Herb Thomas, on his way to capturing the 1951 NASCAR championship with six wins already that season, led the first 34 laps in a 1951 Hudson owned by Marshall Teague until he was involved in a crash which handed the lead to second place starter Truman ‘Fonty’ Flock. ‘Fonty’  held the point until lap 74 when his ‘Red Devil’ 1951 Oldsmobile dropped out of the race on the same lap that the day’s fast qualifier Letner crashed out in spectacular fashion as barrel-rolled his 1951 Hudson three times.

Denny (sometimes stated as Danny) Weinberg in a 1951 Studebaker Commander V-8 owned by Tony Sampo of Downey picked up the lead on lap 75. Weinberg led the rest of the way and local newspapers reported that Weinberg “outlasted the nation’s point leaders to win” with only five cars reportedly running when Weinberg took the checkered flag.

Weinberg was a member of the family that owned and operated the Coastal Grain Company in Norwalk California a firm that processed and stored dairy feed and made loans to its customers to finance their farm and livestock operations. Robert Weinberg, a vice-president of Coastal Grain fielded entries for three years on the AAA Championship circuit from 1950 to 1952 for former Southern California track roadster standout Manny Auyolo.

During the 1952 racing season, B.L. Marchbanks staged a weekly slate of race that featured jalopies, hardtops and roadsters under the sanction of the Valley Jalopy Racing Association (VJRA).  On Friday Memorial Day 1952 Marchbanks Stadium held a 100-lap VJRA jalopy race that proved to have high a level of attrition as many cars failed to finish due to broken axles, tire blowouts and crashes into the retaining wall.

The VJRA, run by Ed Spellman, appears to have been a short-lived organization that sanctioned races only during the 1952 season at Marchbanks, and nearby Central Valley tracks in Visalia and Selma.   

An aerial photograph of the Marchbanks facility taken during 1953 showed off the addition of some new features - a one-third mile oval (oiled dirt) within the half-mile oval and a new short infield section that created a five-eighth mile road course. In addition to the newly constructed permanent parking facilities, the half-mile track had been paved with asphalt, and the facility opened on Mother’s Day May 9 1954 with a heavily-advertised race on the half-mile paved track for the URA “sprint cars.” Driver Bud Richmond suffered a concussion when his car crashed during warm-up laps.

For the 1954 racing season NASCAR had expanded to the West Coast under the direction of former champion midget driver turned race promoter Bob Barkheimer. The NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model circuit presented a nine-race schedule at venues throughout California with   Marchbanks Stadium’s 100-lap race scheduled for Saturday June 26.

Don Basile who had previously managed Carrell and Clovis Speedways, told local newspaper reporters that NASCAR and the track planned for a 24-car field with at least eight different makes and models, but after qualifying was completed, only 22 cars representing six different makes started the race.

The field included entries from a pair of competitors that had participated in the 1951 NASCAR Marchbanks race, Danny Letner and Marvin Panch, but the 1951 winner Denny Weinberg had retired from racing. In addition to the race with a $2,500 guaranteed purse, the night’s admission price included a “free full half-hour” of fireworks.

The fast qualifier was John Soares who posted a lap at 29.264 seconds, almost 6/10 of a second faster than the 1951 pole position time. Soares led the first two circuits in his 1954 Dodge until he yielded to Panch’s similar machine, and Panch led the rest of the race to win $450 with Soares second and eventual inaugural NASCAR Pacific Coast series champion Lloyd Dane in eighth position.

NASCAR established a strong position and served as the regular sanctioning body for Marchbanks Stadium. After the 1955 season when it co-sanctioned the jalopies, modified hard tops and claiming races (for amateurs) with the Valley Stock Car Racing Association (VSCRA), NASCAR became the track’s sanctioning body for many years.

   

On July 23 1954 the Northern California-based Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) and the Southern California based United Racing Association (URA) staged an unusual mid-season jointly sanctioned 100-lap midget race on the Marchbanks Stadium 1/3 mile oiled dirt track which was won by BCRA two-time defending Johnny Baldwin.

Nearly a month later, on August 21 1954, BCRA and URA co-sanctioned another 100-lapper won by the URA points leader Billy Garrett with Baldwin second trailed by BCRA regulars Earl Motter and Norm Rapp in third and fourth places respectively. The midgets returned to the Marchbanks 1/3-mile track one more time during the 1955 season with the August 27 BCRA sanctioned race won by Johnny Baldwin.

 On Sunday October 10th 1954 Marchbanks Stadium hosted a $1,000 purse jalopy and modified hardtop race on the “speedy half-mile paved track” that featured such emerging Central Valley racing stars Frank Secrist and Johnny Mello. In late July 1955 regular competitor Ronald McLane was critically injured when he inexplicably walked across the track during a yellow caution flag period of the 500-lap race. Struck by a passing race car, the impact broke both of McLane’s legs and his pelvis and he was reportedly off work for a year.

Marchbanks Stadium hosted a “Little Indianapolis” 500-lap race for jalopies and hardtops during the Memorial Day holiday in both 1956 and 1957 but the events were marred by tragedy. During the May 29 1956 running of the race, Arlen Smith a 22-year old mechanic for the car of ‘Chick’ Connery was struck in the back and shoulder by a wheel that had left the race car driven by Fred Dudley of San Jose.

Smith a resident of Las Vegas suffered a concussion when his head hit the ground after he was knocked down and he unfortunately died at the Hanford Community Hospital two hours after the accident.

One year and a day later, during the 1957 “Little Indianapolis” race, Ernest “Ernie” Cornelson, a successful Central Valley area jalopy and modified racer perished when his “Beacon Propane Special” rolled over several times, slammed into the retaining wall and burst into flames. Newspapers reported that the 30-year old Cornelson was mercifully killed instantly in the crash, and the race which had just completed its 148th lap was stopped for over an hour as the wreckage was cleared.

During the 1958 season the Marchbanks Sports Club Inc. appeared as the sponsor of the amateur claiming jalopy races sanctioned by NASCAR held every Saturday night during the season.  On Saturday September 20 the Marchbanks Stadium featured California Racing Association-sanctioned "big car" races, and the Marchbanks 1958 season closed with a visit from the NASCAR modified and sportsman series which drew entries from both the southern and northern California series.

For the 1959 season, B. L. Marchbanks under the guise of his company Marchbanks Sports Club Inc. became the promoter of the Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale California, and he made dramatic changes to the facility that included paving the racing surface with asphalt. The renovated facility opened on May 30 1959 with a double-header program of claimer jalopies and modified stock cars with the jalopy feature won by Ron McLane and the modified feature won by Johnny Mello who scored a bonus of 100 silver dollars from promoter B. L. Marchbanks.     

Marchbanks Stadium meantime had opened its 1959 season on May 10 and in early June Marchbanks’ two paved tracks featured back-to-back Saturday and Sunday night URA midget programs. The Marchbanks Stadium 1959 racing season closed in October with the “Valley Championships” for the modified hardtops and jalopies.   Big changes were on the horizon for the 1960 season at Marchbanks Stadium which will be detailed in the second and final installment of the history of the Hanford superspeedway.

Indoor hardtop racing in San Francisco

Part three

Following the success of the North California Indoor Hardtop Championship (NCIHTC) races indoors at the Cow Palace, the Oakland Racing Association (ORA) scheduled a second series of races, the Cow Palace Stock Hardtop Championship, set to begin May 7, 1955 and run through the month of May for four weeks.

The outdoor racing season had already opened in Northern California, so the Saturday night indoor races were paired with Sunday afternoon outdoor races on the ¼-mile dirt Vallejo Speedway. In an interesting promotion, the indoor races were scheduled head-to-head against the NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) hard tops which raced Saturday nights at San Jose Speedway.

Before the races could begin, the Cow Palace hosted the Grand National Junior Livestock Exposition from April 2nd to the 6^th, then the 10-round non-title boxing match between world middleweight champion Carl “Bobo” Olson and middleweight Joey Maxim. In a match that was broadcasted nationally on television and radio on April 13, Olson was awarded the unanimous decision.

In early May, ORA General Manager Marc Mott and Race Director Jack Smith announced a partial list of competitors for the Spring series; the winter indoor champion Henry “Cowboy” Alves would defend his crown, while runner-up Max McCord entered with his sights set to win the title this time.

Other winter indoor racers who filed their entries included Chet “Johnny Comet” Thomson, Walt Moniz, George Hanson and Lou Phillips who was scheduled to race a new Hudson coupe. Alves and Thomson competitors on the track were partners in an Oakland used auto sales lot, “Chet & Cowboy’s Car Corral,” on East 14^th Street.  

Also on the Cow Palace entry list were names which were familiar to many Bay Area racing fans - Bob Anderson and Carmel Fernandez, both Junior and Senior joined by ex-Oakland traffic officer Dick Marcell, Joe Guisti from Stockton, veteran Jack Perrin from San Leandro and Phillip Wong, a racer from Oakland billed as the “only Chinese driver on the West Coast” whose 1954 racing season at Oakland Speedway featured four flips and four destroyed race cars.     

Dick Seyler, who hailed from San Carlos, won the first night’s 20-lap main event on May 7^th which was interrupted by the crash of Max McCord’s car, with McCord, who won two races in the Winter indoor series, transported to Kaiser Hospital in South San Francisco. McCord’s injuries were variously described as “minor” and “not serious” and he was released after several hours.  

The following day a group of Bay Area high schoolers took part in the Junior Chamber of Commerce “Road-E-O” in the Cow Palace parking lot. All the young drivers drove identical 1955 Chevrolets in four events set up in the parking lot: parallel parking, a serpentine course, a smooth stopping test and a straight-line course.

Stephen Reiden from San Mateo High School scored 250 points out of a possible 300, won a trophy and the opportunity to compete in the state finals in June in Fresno with a chance to advance to the third annual national contest to compete for a $1500 college scholarship. 

Before action got started for the Cow Palace indoor race on the evening of May 14, Jerry Hoyt shocked the world as he won the pole position for the 1955 Indianapolis 500-mile race. On a windy Hoosier day, Hoyt in the Jim Robbins Special edged out Tony Bettenhausen in the only other car to make a qualifying attempt. That evening on the 1/5-mile track inside the cavernous Cow Palace, Phillip Wong beat Fernandez Sr to win the trophy dash for the four fastest qualifiers then also won his heat race.

Other May 14 heat race winners included Fernandez Sr, Oakland’s Joe Ratto, and Dick Selen, while McCord, recovered from his previous week’s accident, won the 8-lap semi-main event over Joe Nelson. Joe Diaz, who earlier in the evening had lowered the track record to 11.33 seconds during qualifying, won the 20-lap main event over Johnny Comet with Fernandez Sr in third place.

The following day, May 15, the ORA regulars were in action on the ¼-mile dirt Vallejo Speedway as George Tietjen, a tow truck driver during the week took the honors over Henry Alves and Johnny Comet. Midweek before the next race, Tietjen and the May 15 Vallejo trophy dash winner Chuck Minshell announced their entries for the May 21 Cow Palace races under the flag of starter Charles “Chuck” Ray.

Prior to the May 21 Cow Place event, Alves led the ORA points over Chet Thomson and Walt Moniz with Minshell and McCord tied for fourth place.  Chet Thomson won the May 21 trophy dash and his heat race, with other heat race victories to Bob Abaddie, Smokey Slocum and Joe Diaz. Alves won the semi-main event trailed by Bob Anderson and Jack Perrin, but “Cowboy” had to settle for third place in the 25-lap main event behind winner Joe Diaz and runner-up Walt Moniz. 

The next day at Vallejo Speedway, Thomson set a new track record of 22.24 seconds for one lap in qualifying, with the heat race wins grabbed by Abaddie, Diaz, Don Berrins Jack Perrin and Dick Atkins. Tietjen won the semi-main by a hair over “Cowboy” Alves, while Lou Phillips won the 30-lap feature over Perrin and Diaz. 

The finale of the Spring indoor series was set for Saturday May 28^th with qualifying at 7:15 PM followed with races at 8:15 PM with Alves leading the points chase trailed by Diaz on the strength of his two victories.  However, that is where the mystery begins, as the Saturday pre-race newspaper article is the last mention in the local press that the author has found for the Cow Palace indoor races or the Oakland Racing Association for that matter. The Oakland Racing Association, formed in late 1953 to sanction racing at the Oakland Speedway (Stadium) appeared to have simply disappeared early in the 1955 season.

The author welcomes any additional information or photographs of the indoor stock car racing held during 1955 in the Cow Palace near San Francisco from our dedicated readers.  

  

Indoor hardtop racing
in San Francisco

Part one

 

The Cow Palace shown during the nineteen fifties 

on a postcard from the author's collection

 

 

In early January 1955, multiple newspapers in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area began to publish articles about an upcoming series of indoor full-size stock automobile races to be held in the Cow Palace in San Francisco.  

The Cow Palace (known officially as the California State Livestock Pavilion), located seven miles south of downtown San Francisco in the Bayshore District, was first proposed based on success of the livestock pavilion at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition (World’s Fair).




After many years of planning, the final site near the San Francisco and San Mateo county boundary was selected and purchased in 1935. Construction began in the summer 1936 with funding from San Francisco and San Mateo counties supplemented with federal Public Works Administration (New Deal) funding.   

 

Photo of the interior of the Cow Palace shortly after completion from the book Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration by C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. Photo appears courtesy of the Living New Deal program in the Department of Geography at the University of California.

 

The main structure, the Livestock Exhibition Building, was a reinforced concrete arena with a 6-acre steel arched truss roof designed by San Francisco architect Wilbur Peugh. With permanent seating for 12,000 visitors, construction of the arena was completed in February 1938 at a cost of $700,000. However, the complex, with a final project cost to $2.5 million, was not completed for several years and the first event in the Cow Palace, the Western Classic Holstein Show was held in the new arena on April 20th and 21st 1941.  

The Cow Palace complex was formally dedicated by Governor Culbert Olson during the opening ceremonies for the first Grand National Livestock Exposition on November 15 1941. The initial Grand National exposition was a huge success, with over 142,000 attendees, but three weeks later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States government requisitioned the Cow Palace.

Beginning in January 1942, for a rental cost of $1.00 a year, the Army used the Cow Palace as a processing center for troops prior to their deployment to the Pacific Theatre. Later in the war the Ordnance Corps used the facility as a vehicle repair center through 1946, with the second Grand National Livestock Exposition held in November 1946.

 

The Cow Palace arena shortly after completion in 1938 from the book Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration by C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown.

 

Photo appears courtesy of the Living New Deal  Program in the Department of Geography at the University of California.

 

The Cow Palace, owned and managed by the 1-A District Agricultural Association, a California State agency regularly held rodeos, horse and livestock shows, concerts, consumer shows and sporting events such as roller derbies, basketball games and boxing and wrestling matches.


The idea of indoor hardtop, or stock car, races was novel, and public interest was piqued on January 13 1955 when several Bay Area newspapers carried the announcement of the North California Indoor Hardtop Championships.

The races were scheduled be held every Saturday night for two months beginning February 12 1955 -  each night would feature qualifying and the 11-race program, scheduled for 50 cars each night, was sponsored by the Crown American Racing Club of San Francisco.


On February 2 1955 an article in the Oakland Tribune newspaper reported that an all-steel guardrail was being erected inside the Cow Palace “to afford greater safety for spectators” during the upcoming races, and noted that “more than 200 drivers have applied for entry for the national debut of indoor stock car racing.”

As the college basketball regular season wound down (the University of San Francisco used the Cow Palace as a home court for its biggest opponents), on Sunday February 6, the Oakland Tribune published an interview with Jack Smith managing director of the Oakland Racing Association (ORA), the group that would sanction the races. ORA appeared to have started during the 1954 season to sanction "stock hard top" racing. 

Smith revealed the roster of officials for the Cow Palace races, which was headed by Hillary Govia of Hayward as the referee, with Frank Vogel as the starter and the legendary BCRA Jack Carmedy the public address announcer while Mack (Mac) McGrete of Concord worked the timing clocks.


In the pit area, George Sweeney was the technical inspector with Bob Moss the pit marshal assisted by Steward Manuel Picanco and course clerks Harry Schilling, Tim Ahern and Bill Evans.  McGrete and Schilling had served of co-promoters of Oakland Speedway located near San Leandro during the 1954 season.

The article in the February 6th edition of the Oakland Tribune claimed that the 1/5-mile Cow Palace oval would be “the world’s fastest indoor paved speedway” and that “tests are being run to ascertain the best type of asphalt that will be applied in special areas on the paved speedway.”  The field of over 200 entries received would be winnowed “down to the fastest 50 cars" after a rigid screening and qualifying process by the Oakland Racing Association (ORA) board.”
 

During the week before the February 12 1955 inaugural race, the ORA released a partial list of entrants for the first night of the Cow Palace hardtop races. The list was topped by Ben Gregory of Crockett California whose given name was Gordon Campbell, raced under a nom de guerre to hide his racing activities from his employer, the California Highway Patrol.

 

In 1952, Gregory won $2,500 (equivalent to $23,000 today) for his victory in the 250-mile stock car race held on the Bay Meadows one-mile thoroughbred race track.  Gregory the day’s fastest qualifier took the lead with three laps to go in his 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 coupe.

Other entries for the first Cow Palace race included noted sports car racer Jack Flaherty of San Francisco, Joe Roletto, the 1954 American Racing Association (ARA) ‘big car’ champion, veteran San Jose Speedway hardtop racer Carmel Fernandez, and hot rod roadster racer George “Blonde” Pacheco, as well as drivers Dan Regan of Palo Alto, Joe Cairate from San Bruno, Glen Jensen of Menlo Park and Ted Hanning, Orval Rose, and Dave Davies, all of San Francisco.  

 

In our next installment we will reveal the results of the 1955 wintertime races in the Cow Palace.