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.  

  

      

Hot Rods and Jalopies take over the Carpinteria Thunderbowl in 1949 Part seven

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part seven – late 1949 

Hot Rods and Jalopies take over! 

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

With the cancellation of motorcycle racing and suspension of his midget racing franchise by the United Racing Association board of directors, Charlie Cake turned to a form of racing that had proven a failure in the track’s inaugural season – “hot rod” roadsters.

Jim Rigsby, a commercial fisherman from Lennox California was dominant in the first roadster race at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl held on Monday night August 22 which featured “one of the largest crowds at the speedway this year,” according to the Ventura County Star-Free Press. 

Although it is unclear whether this August 22nd race was a California Roadster Association (CRA) sanctioned event, Rigby arrived in Carpinteria on a hot streak, as in recent weeks he won the two previous CRA events held at Carell Speedway in Gardena.

Rigsby lost the trophy dash to Bob Scott, who like Rigsby, would later find fame in American Automobile Association (AAA) ‘big cars.’ Rigby rebounded and won his heat race, as did Bob Chaplain, Don Nicholson, and George Seeger. Seeger’s car broke an axle on final corner of the last lap of the heat race, but he had enough momentum and coasted across the finish line. George installed a new axle borrowed from a competitor in time to start the main event.

Future CRA president Walt James finished in the show position in the 15-lap semi-main, behind easy winner Rigsby and Ken Stansberry. Rigsby led the feature race at will, at times with a quarter-lap advantage over Stansberry and Scott, who tangled after their cars crossed the finish line, but neither driver received injuries.  Charlie Cake announced that future Carpinteria roadster races would start at 1 PM on Sunday afternoons.

Rigsby repeated his winning ways in the first Sunday afternoon CRA-sanctioned show on August 28, although the star of the show was Negro driver LeRoy Nooks. Leroy, the day’s fastest qualifier, won the trophy dash and his heat race. During time trials, Tom Francis’ car lost a wheel, hit the wall and Tom suffered a broken hand.

Ken Stansberry won the semi-main event ahead of Don Nicholson and North Dakota native C L “Puffy” Puffer. Rigsby finished the 30-lap feature in a respectable time of seven minutes and 40 seconds ahead of Stansberry and Nicholson. The CRA roadster regulars made their final 1949 Carpinteria appearance and headed east for a five-race series held in conjunction with the Utah State Fair in Salt Lake City.

To fill the void left by the roadsters, Charlie Cake introduced jalopy racing to the Thunderbowl on Thursday evening September 1. Advertisements promised that it was “the greatest show of its kind in the world,” and promised “Wrecks! Speed! Dangerous Action!”

The field of cars “which reportedly are not supposed to be worth more than $100,” was led by former midget pilot Mickey McCormick of Riverside, Paul Norman of El Monte, the current California Jalopy Association (CJA) points leader, and Bob Stanclift, the 1948 CJA champion.

Mark Clagg won the first Carpinteria jalopy program which the Ventura County Star- Free Press described as “one of the best and most interesting presented at the track in recent weeks.”  In addition to the Thunderbowl, the CJA also raced at the 1/5-mile Huntington Beach Stadium, the 1/3-mile Lakeland Stadium and the quarter-mile Culver City Stadium.

Prior to the following week’s races, CJA officials provided the Ventura County paper with additional information on the racers - “standard stock cars of the 1930-35 vintage with no gadgets added to boost their speed.” Track officials added that the only modification to the vintage cars allowed by the CJA was the use of a single downdraft carburetor on the Ford Model ‘A’ entries. 

In their second program at the track, on September 5, the jalopies entertained a “newly-acquired abundance of fans,” and produced four new track records. Paul Norman set the new one-lap standard at 18.98 seconds in qualifying, while Jackie Tate set a record for three laps as he won the four-car trophy dash.

Leo Breithaupt set a new 6-lap record of one minutes and 15 seconds in the fourth heat race, while the semi-main race, plagued by accidents, did not set a new record. Bo Jack Johnson won the 30-lap feature in nine minutes and 52 seconds, as he finished ahead of Norman and “Tiger” Nick Valenta.

Paul Norman lowered the one-lap qualifying record to 18.54 seconds and won the 30-lap feature on Monday September 12, 1949 as he started in last place after he broke an axle in the trophy dash. Paul took the lead on the 16^th lap “before a good-sized crowd.” Norman repeated his win on September 20 in a photo-finish over Bob Stanclift.  

 As the Carpinteria racing season progressed, it became clear that the jalopies were a hit with both fans and racers, as the Ventura paper reported average crowds nearing 2,000 with nearly 30 cars entered for the weekly program.  The large fields led promoter Cake to increase the feature starting field to 16 cars and lengthen the feature to 35 laps.

In early November, the Joe Chitwood World Champion Auto Daredevils touring show visited Carpinteria. A stop on the 1949 “Hell on Wheels” tour, it featured “27 thrilling stunts performed by 30 supermen.” Fans watched as “$100,000 worth of 1949 Fords performed stunts, raced and jumped,” highlighted by a brand-new stock 1949 Ford sedan that jumped from ramp-to-ramp as another brand new 1949 Ford raced underneath.      

Jalopy racing continued weekly until December 12, and Stanclift became a two-time winner while Norman scored two more victories to increase his 1949 Carpinteria win total to four, while 24-year old future two-time Indianapolis 500-mile race starter Joe James scored a memorable win.

We will continue to trace the Thunderbowl’s history as jalopy racing takes hold in 1950.

   

The short-lived Argonne Forest Speedway

Part 2 -1940 - the final season

When the 1940 racing season opened on in late April at Argonne Forest Speedway in Southwestern Dayton Ohio, the terms “jalopies” and “junk yard derby” were no longer used in promotions. The race cars were then referred to as “stock cars,” and the racing was described as “hazardous but not dangerous.” The figure-eight ½-mile layout was gone, as the track had been re-worked into a 3/5-mile oval with a lake in the infield. Harold “Red” Korn was named the track’s new promoter.

New challengers to 1939 favorite drivers Ashbaugh, McCabe, Epperly and LeRoy Nooks included Amer Smith, Fred Larkie, Al “Pappy” Aker all of Dayton and Ray Saunders from Middletown.

Orval Epperly a winner at Argonne Forest during 1939 now hailed from Fort Wayne Indiana won his heat race then won the 20-lap feature over Miamisburg’s Adam “Doc’ Eshbaugh. The May 19^th program apparently was rained out.   On Sunday May 26, 1940 during his qualifying attempt Dayton driver Roy Knight’s car skidded and went over the top of the track’s banking.

The 22-year-old Knight was thrown from his machine which then rolled over and crushed him. He was transported to St. Elizabeth Hospital where he died an hour later and left behind a widow and baby daughter. Later a hailstorm struck the area which forced the postponement of that day’s races.

Orval Epperly claimed his second 1940 season Argonne Speedway win on June 2, over Amer Smith after Orval won his 10-lap heat race earlier in the day. Jim McCabe and Charles Vale suffered less severe injuries when their machine hurtled the banking, and Russ Crowic lost control and his car wound up in the infield lake.

Eshbaugh captured the June 9 feature over Epperly and LeRoy Nooks while “Doc” Viock was seriously injured in a crash during the program and suffered a broken collarbone, ribs, and fractured pelvis. Amer Smith won his heat race, but lost control of his car during the feature and drove into the lake.

On the night of June 11, 1940 members of the Central States Stock Car Racing Association (CSSCRA) voted to rename their group the Argonne Forest Speedway Association (AFSA). The group also announced that beginning with the June 16^th program all cars entered at Argonne would race in the same division. Time trails were scheduled to commence at 11 AM with racing set to begin at 2:30 PM.

The AFSA announced that racing programs at Argonne would feature three eight-lap heat races, a consolation race and a 35-lap feature race, and on June 16, a pie-eating contest would be an added attraction. Drivers were scheduled to drive two laps around the track, then stop and eat a pie before continuing, with a stop scheduled to eat a pie each successive lap until five laps were completed.

The previous two weeks’ work on the track surface resulted in Ray Farquar setting a new track record in qualifying at 38-1/2 seconds, nearly a second fastest than the previous record. Unfortunately for the second straight week, the rains arrived just as the feature was being lined up and cut the program short.    

On June 23, 1940 LeRoy Nooks and Ray Krueger won their 8-lap heat races and 22-year Ray Everhard crashed and suffered a dislocated shoulder in an accident before racing was suspended for the third consecutive week in row by rain. On June 30, negro driver LeRoy Nooks won his heat race and then captured the 35-lap feature over Fred Larkie, Saunders and Aker. 

On July 4, 1940 Argonne Forest Speedway staged a standard racing program as a benefit to aid injured driver “Doc” Viock.  Nooks and Farquer battled all afternoon in their heat race and reportedly the finish of the feature was nearly a dead heat between the two Dayton drivers but Farquar took the win, his second of the season.  Ray Saunders crashed and suffered a deep laceration in his right leg.

On July 14, “Bus” Henderson was the fastest qualifier, but L.C. Smith from Dayton won his heat race and then won the 25-lap feature as he outdistanced E. Corrin by half a lap. “Pappy” Aker challenged Smith over the first 12 laps of the 35-lap feature but dropped out with a burnt rod bearing in his car’s engine.  “Bus” Henderson was the day’s quick qualifier and won the first heat race.

The pie-eating contest was rescheduled for the July 21 program, but we do not know the results of that contest or the day’s other races.

Due to races scheduled at other Dayton area tracks, Argonne Park Speedway was dark until August 11, 1940. ‘Doc’ Eshbaugh was the fast qualifier and won his heat race but he was eliminated during the feature when his car lost a wheel. The win was captured by Jimmy Springfield over heat race winner ‘Bus’ Henderson, Al Aker, and Howard Seither who had won the day’s third heat race. Eshbaugh also won the day’s novelty race a 15-lap “all-pleasure car race.”

Argonne did not host another race until September 1, as the drivers took part in big money races held at Frank Funk’s Dayton and Winchester Speedways. Orval Epperly claimed his third Argonne win of 1940 as he barely bested Dick Beard and the day’s fast qualifier Ray Kreuger.   

Following the September 8 racing program, a group of four drivers were injured in a crash as they drove home following the races. The car driven by Thomas Rhodes, struck a passing car driven by Joseph Heller and overturned. Rhodes and Mr. Heller were uninjured while Ashbaugh and Ray Marang were treated at St. Elizabeth Hospital and released, but 18-year old James Larkin a high-school sophomore was seriously injured and was hospitalized for several months.

On Sunday September 22, in addition to the regular modified stock car feature, Argonne Speedway featured a special 15-lap “jalopy race” for cars older than 1931 models. Sadly, tragedy struck on the seventh lap of the day’s 25-lap feature.

Sophomore driver Amer Smith passed Doc Eshbuagh for second place as the pair passed under the flag, but as they entered turn one Smith’s car shot over the top of the nine-foot tall embankment and overturned. Smith 26 years old was thrown out and crushed by his race car owned by John Fry. Smith was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Elizabeth Hospital, and the races were halted with Orval Epperly in the lead.  

The Journal Herald newspaper reportedly the following that day that his family that included his wife, two children, mother, brother Ellery and married sister, Carrie Stowe,  attempted to talk Smith out of racing, but that as he left he told them “I only have one time to die.”  According to the Dayton Herald newspaper, at Amer’s funeral, held on September 25 at his mother, Nettie Nemyer’s home, she spoke to the dozen drivers that attended. The grieving mother asked the group not to race at Argonne again until the track was made safe, and she made a public appeal to investigate conditions at the Speedway.

The group of drivers gathered around Mrs. Nemyer and one-by-one, promised not to race. The drivers then presented her with a check for $4.25 that represented Amer Smith’s winnings from his last race. When Judge Hodapp was informed of the driver’s agreement, he told the Herald reporter that he didn’t care, as “the place has never made any money,” and “we can’t afford to fix it.” Hodapp said as far as he was concerned the track was closed forever.

The same day, the Herald published a scathing editorial entitled “Death Ends a Death Trap,” that read in part “three times young men have gone to that track to race and lost to death,” and that “three times is enough. There should be no more races there under present conditions.” The editorial closed by stating “The pity is that this death trap could not have been closed before another life was claimed.”     

Two days later, promoter Korn responded in an interview with the Herald in which he stated that racing at Argonne Forest Speedway was operated “more or less as a place for the boys to race as a hobby and not to make money.” Korn maintained that the track “is in fairly decent shape,” and that he had visited with Judge Hodapp, and if the boys want to race, it is okay with him, and the next scheduled race was October 13.

The racers held true to their promise to their fallen friend’s mother, there was never a race held at Argonne Park Speedway. Judge Null M. Hodapp died on January 5, 1945 at age 51, three days after he had been found in a coma on the floor of the kitchen at his home located on the Argonne Forest Park property.   After his death, his family steadily sold off portions of the park property, with most of the property, 300 acres, sold in 1966 to the Montgomery County Parks District, which renamed it the Possum Creek Reserve.

The clubhouse built in 1927 still stands, and visitors can glimpse the rotting remains of the Park structures as they hike the trail through the Argonne Forest section of the reserve, but the figure 8 racetrack is beneath the man-made Argonne Lake built by the parks department in 1979.  Visitors to the Possum Creek Reserve are likely unaware that three brave race drivers lost their lives at the park.                 

The short-lived 

Argonne Forest Park Speedway

Part one

Note - the author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of his friend and fellow racing historian Bob Lawrence, who provided information about Bowen & Onley and the results of the 1939 races referenced in this article. A link to Bob’s website is provided at the end of this article.

  

Growing up in the Linden Heights neighborhood of Dayton Ohio, Null M. Hodapp’s childhood best friend was his neighbor Ralph Clemens. The pair shared many adventures as young men, grew into adulthood, graduated college and became prominent men in Dayton in the nineteen-teens. 

Hodapp worked as an attorney with the firm of Burkhart, Heald and Pickrel, in downtown Dayton while Clemens was a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with the pioneering Dayton accounting firm of Louis G. Battelle.   

With the entry of the United States into the Great War in Europe, both men registered for the draft in June 1917 and were drafted into the United States Army in September 1917. Assigned the same unit, the 322^nd Field Artillery Unit, they reported to Camp Sherman near Chillicothe Ohio for training.




Clemens became a sergeant in Battery ‘A’ while Hodapp was assigned to the Headquarters Company. The 322^nd
shipped out of Camp Sherman on June 4, and then boarded the SS Canopic in Hoboken New Jersey on June 12, 1918 for their deployment overseas.

Upon the 322^nd Unit’s arrival in Europe, they were sent to the Western Front.  The 322^nd supported the US Army's 37^th Ohio Division in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest and bloodiest operation of World War I, which cost more than 26,000 American lives.  Sergeant Ralph Clemens was killed in action just hours before the Armistice went into effect at 11 AM on November 11, 1918 in the dense Forest of Argonne near Belgium.

Hodapp, heartbroken at the loss of his life-long friend, returned to Dayton after his wartime service. Nell continued his career in the law, in partnership with his brother, married, had two children and was elected a municipal court judge in Dayton in 1926.


That same year he bought land southwest of Dayton along Germantown Pike on the banks of Possum Creek. On the site Hodapp created the Argonne Forest Park in memory of his childhood friend and the place where he had fallen, to provide a place for veterans and their families to enjoy the outdoors.  

The clubhouse for veterans was the first building constructed on site and was dedicated on October 15, 1927 along with a reenactment of the Meuse-Argonne engagement. Later Hodapp and a group of investors incorporated as Argonne Forest Park, Inc. and through the years added an 80-foot by 40-foot dance pavilion, a carnival midway, a horse race track and stables, a gasoline filling station and a football field.


The Park also featured a baseball diamond with bleachers, a shooting range and a swimming hole with a diving platform. Later after his divorce from his wife, the noted soprano LoRean Hodapp in 1932, Hodapp built a home on the Park site.

Argonne Park became a popular destination for family picnics and group gatherings, and the hall hosted dining and dancing on Wednesday and Saturday nights and the occasional boxing match.  For many years on his birthday, July 4, Hodapp and members of the 322^nd Field Artillery Association would reenact the artillery battle of the Forest of Argonne.  Through the years thousands of Daytonians attended the reenactments which always closed with a huge fireworks display.

The deepening Great Depression caused attendance at the park to decline so additional activities were added which included auto races known as “junk yard derbies” on a new figure-eight dirt track in the Summer of 1939. These races were promoted by Don C. Onley, onetime partner with his brother, W. W. Bowen in the Bowen & Onley racing promotions company from 1926 to 1931 until Bowen retired. In addition to auto races, Onley Amusements & Sports Promotion promoted events from Ohio to California that included automotive and motorcycle stunt shows and boxing matches.

“Junk yard derbies” were popular in the late nineteen thirties in the Midwest with events held in dozens of cities in the state of Ohio. Oftentimes, these events were not held on established race tracks, but instead on roughly-hewn tracks in a farmer’s field and generally attracted several hundred spectators that paid 25 or 30 cents each for admission.

Many of these tracks had no names, but others used colorful names with references to Lucifer, such as “Satan’s Merry Go Round” which was located one mile north of Piqua Ohio and was also known as the “Devil’s Bowl.”  Early in 1939, the ½-mile figure-eight track at the Argonne Forest Park was promoted as the “Devil’s Race Bowl”, then became known as the “Argonne Forest Speedway.”   

The vehicles entered in these “junk yard derbies” could scarcely be called race cars, as the only rules were that the driver had to 21 years of age and the car had to be stock and worth $100 or less. Safety was of little concern and these type of “junk yard” races sadly had a high fatality rate, with many of the driver deaths recorded as traffic accidents.  As many as seven “junk yard” racers died in Ohio during the Summer of 1939, including one man who left behind a widow and ten children. 

It appears that the first automobile race at the Argonne Forest “Devil’s Race Bowl” was held Sunday July 30, 1939 on what was described in advance promotional articles as “the world’s most hazardous auto race course,” and the “famous hair-raising figure eight track.” Despite the threat of rain, a reported 4,000 fans attended – children were admitted for 10 cents while adults paid 40 cents each, except for “blonde ladies and plump ladies over 200 pounds,” who were admitted free. 

The inaugural fifty-lap feature race, with all the cars carrying a driver and a rider, was described the following day in the Dayton Herald as a “comic novel event with chills and thrills,” was won by “Doc” Ashbaugh of Miamisburg, Ohio but not without some controversy, as other racers filed post-race protests. 

The other racers claimed that the #22B 1929 Ford driven by Ashbaugh, appearing in his first race, was equipped with a “full-fledged race motor.” Although “Doc” kept the victory, officials would not accept his entry for the next week’s race unless he agreed to race with a different motor.

Despite the early controversy, Ashbaugh proved to be a solid competitor in jalopy racing at Argonne and moved up the ladder and became a favorite in modified stock car racing across the state of Ohio. “Doc” later raced track roadsters with the Mutual Racing Association after the World War II with fellow Daytonian and Argonne alumni, negro racer Leroy Nooks, and participated successfully in a series of midget races held in Pomeroy Ohio in 1948 and 1949.   

The next race at Argonne Forest on Sunday August 6 introduced a novel idea - the Gold Cup Trophy. Each week’s top six qualifiers were eligible to compete in a 10-lap dash, and the first man to win three of these weekly dashes would win the permanent trophy, a 24-inch tall gold cup filled with silver dollars.  

The first dash was won by Ashbaugh, the days’ fastest qualifier at 50 second flat, while the feature was won by Jim McCabe of Dayton driving a 1929 Ford. Two racers were injured in a grinding crash at the figure 8 intersection – driver Glen Tyler sustained a compound leg fracture and his rider Henry Vrining suffered a fractured spine. Several of the drivers had equipped their car with “safety hoops” and officials encouraged this addition for safety but did not yet require their use.

For the August 13th race at the “Devils Race Bowl” in the Argonne Forest Park, officials eliminated the requirement for cars to carry a rider, trumpeted as a safety measure. The racing program opened with “Doc” Ashbaugh of Miamisburg as the winner of the 10-lap dash, to complete his second leg in pursuit of the Gold Cup Trophy.  The day’s feature race was marred by a serious accident in which Daytonian Robert Dulinsky’s car tangled with the machine of John Eaton also of Dayton and left the 21-year old Dulinsky with a fractured skull.

With Dulinsky transported to St. Elizabeth Hospital in grave condition, the race was called complete at 30 laps following the accident. The leader at the time Jim Edwards of Franklin Ohio a small community about a dozen miles south of the racetrack was declared the winner with Bud Cider second and Bates Lewis scored third in a 1929 Ford.

Dulinsky lingered in the hospital for nearly a week then died at 9:20 AM on Saturday August 19, survived by his parents with whom he lived, and two married sisters. The next day’s race at the “Devil’s Bowl” became a benefit race for injured drivers that also featured automotive and motorcycle daredevil stunts interspersed into the racing program. In addition to the money raised through gate receipts, fans donated $70 for Dulinsky’s family during the program.

In qualifying Jim Edwards set quick time, a new track record of 47 seconds, then in the feature ran down the early leader Ashbaugh, passed him on lap four then led the rest of the distance. Ashbaugh finished second as he edged 20-year old driver Ray Kruger, younger than the track’s 21-year old age limit, but who raced with the permission of his mother, Etta, who was in attendance.  

On Sunday afternoon August 27, the track debuted its new oiled surface designed to control dust, and brunettes were admitted free of charge. After his car lost a wheel during a special four-car 15-lap match race, Ashbaugh came back and again visited victory lane in his 1929 Ford.  During the week before the next race held the day before the Labor Day holiday, Ashbaugh spilt with the owner of the successful #22B 1929 Ford but come Sunday, in a new car, Ashbaugh smashed the track record by three seconds. Jim Edwards won the feature.

On September 10, the program featured a special 10-lap race for women drivers won by 23-year-old Margaret Quire in a time of 9 minutes and 47 seconds. Jim Edwards swept the race of the program as he won the 10-lap heat race, the 15-lap match race and the 20-lap feature over Ashbaugh and Ray Kruger.

Ashbaugh, a crowd favorite who drove in house slippers, claimed three wins on September 17 – the “slow” feature, the “fast” feature and the 10-lap heat race, while John Turner finished second in all three races. Ms. Quire won the 10-lap ladies’ race and lowered her winning time to nine minutes flat. 

On September 24, the Argonne Forest course was quiet, as many of the track’s stars, including Ashbaugh, Krueger, McCabe, and Edwards were all scheduled to take part in the modified stock car races at Frank Funk’s high-banked ½-mile oiled dirt Dayton Speedway.

Argonne Speedway officials put the off week to good use as they added a ¼-mile track for midget car racing and graded and resurfaced the ½-mile figure-eight track which had seen more accidents since the oiled surface was adopted. 

Argonne officials cancelled the scheduled October 1 event early due to predicted rainy weather and many of the track’s top drivers raced instead at Funk’s Dayton Speedway modified stock car event. Ashbaugh led the first 35 laps at Dayton Speedway before his car experienced mechanical troubles; Ashbaugh’s retirement handed the lead to Jim Roberts of Springfield, Ohio who led the rest of the way to victory.

The October 8 feature victory which featured 20 cars was copped by 21-year old Orval (alternately spelled “Orville”) Epperly of Dayton, who went on from his start racing at Argonne to have a growing career in post-World War II American Automobile Association (AAA) “big car” racing until he lost his left leg in a gruesome heat race accident at Winchester (Indiana) Speedway on July 25, 1948. 

The 50-lap 1939 Argonne season finale on October 15 was captured by Russ Cowic also of Dayton in a time of 36 minutes flat. Russ Cowic raced for many years until he was seriously burned in an accident at Eldora Speedway in 1971.  It appears that no driver was able to win a total of three “Gold Cup Trophy” dashes and claim the permanent trophy. 

Don Onley’s promotional efforts at Argonne Forest Speedway ended at the close of the 1939 racing season with the promotion and sanction taken over by the Central States Stock Car Racing Association.

We will continue with the history of the Argonne Forest Speedway by looking at the 1940 season in the next installment.

Visit Bob Lawrence's websites: http://winfield.50megs.com/

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.