The Rajo Jack story coming soon 

In his upcoming book due out May 5 entitled The Brown Bullet: Rajo Jack's Drive to Integrate Auto Racing, journalist Bill Poehler explores the often overlooked life and career of an African-American sports pioneer. Rajo Jack’s passion and talent fueled his ascent in early auto racing in the first half of the 20th Century.  

Jack faced challenges on and off the track throughout his career, overcoming prejudice to earn the respect of white competitors and become one of the most popular athletes on the west coast.  

The powers-that-be in 1920s auto racing, namely the American Automobile Association’s Contest Board, barred everyone who wasn’t a white male from the sport. But Dewey Gatson, a black man who went by the name Rajo Jack, drove into the center of “outlaw” auto racing in California, refusing to let the pervasive racism of his day stop him from competing against entire fields of white drivers.

In The Brown Bullet, journalist Bill Poehler uncovers the life of a long-forgotten trailblazer and the great lengths he took to even get on the track, showing ultimately how Rajo Jack proved to a generation that a black man could compete with some of the greatest white drivers of his era, winning some of the biggest races of the day.

 “Poehler has done a fine job of researching the life of Rajo Jack, relating his determination and poise in the face of discrimination.” – Library Journal

2008 Porsche RS Spyder

While touring "The Porsche Effect" exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum several years ago, the author's first reaction upon seeing this car was that it is "a modern race car," until one realizes that it was ten years old and therefore historical.

In 2005, Porsche and their long-time partner, Penske Racing entered into an agreement to race the Porsche-designed RS Spyder in the LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype Class 2) class of the North American American LeMans Series (ALMS). The Penske/Porsche RS Spyder competed for three full ALMS seasons – 2006, 2007, and 2008 - and dominated with 24 wins and nine championships.

The RS used a mid-engine longitudinally mounted carbon fiber moncoque chassis with double wishbone torsion bar pushrod suspension anti-roll bars and carbon fiber brakes at all four corners. 

The RS powerplant, the Porsche MR6, engine was a 207 cubic inch 90 degree DOHC double overhead camshaft V-8 with four valves per cylinder that developed 478 horsepower. The power was fed through to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox that like the engine was used as a stressed member.         

In the ten-race 2006 ALMS season, Penske Racing with their twin Porsche RS Spyders sponsored by the international package handling service DHL scored seven class wins and one overall win at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and claimed the LMP2 team and manufacturer championships. Sascha Maassen, the German driver of the #6 RS Spyder won the driver’s championship with Lucas Lohr, driver of Penske #7 RS Spyder the runner-up.

For the 2007 ALMS season all competitors raced with 10% E10 ethanol enrichment in their fuel tanks. The yellow and red DHL-sponsored Penske Porsche RS Spyders dominated the series, as in twelve races, they scored eight overall wins and three class wins. Penske repeated as the LMP2 team champion, Porsche again won the Chassis Manufacturers' and Automobile Manufacturers' Championship and Frenchman Romain Dumas won the drivers’ championship, as the Penske drivers captured the first four positions.

For 2008, Porsche added direct fuel injection and the output of the MR6 engine increased to 503 horsepower, although the ALMS required the LMP2 class cars to carry 55 pounds more weight than previous years. 

This car shown at “the Porsche Effect” exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum won the 12 hours of Sebring overall to mark Porsche’s 18th overall win and first overall win at Sebring since 1988 on the 20th anniversary since its last win. The first three cars all finished on the same lap, as this car - chassis #802 - driven by German Timo Bernhard, Dumas and fellow Frenchman Emmanuel Collard finished with a winning margin of one minute and two seconds.  

The Penske team also claimed an overall 2008 victory at Miller Motorsports Park, to go along with class wins at St. Petersburg Mid-Ohio and Road Atlanta. Team Penske won the team LMP2 championship for the third consecutive year, as did Porsche with the manufacturer championship as Bernhard and Dumas shared the driver’s title. 

With the announcement of the 2009 ALMS requirement of restrictor plates on the Porsche at the end of the 2008 season, Penske Racing Inc. withdrew from ALMS competition with a total of 24 class wins and eleven overall race wins. The car shown at the Petersen exhibit remains part of the Team Penske collection.       

All photographs by the author

Tony Stewart’s 1995 Silver Crown championship winner

As part of the 2018 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show in Indianapolis the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum presented the “Hoosier Thunder: Indiana’s Short Track Heritage” exhibit which featured Tony Stewart's 1995 United States Auto Club (USAC) championship winning Silver Crown championship dirt car.

In 1995, Tony Stewart became the first driver to win the USAC “Triple Crown”- as won championships in the National Sprint Car, National Midget and the Silver Crown series - all in the same season. 

Tony drove this USAC Silver Crown championship dirt car owned by Edinburgh Indiana engine builder Glen Neibel  powered by one of Neibel’s potent V-6 engines with sponsorship from the Willie Boles Chevrolet dealership in Pendleton Indiana. As they were competing against cars equipped with 358-cubic-inch V-8 engines, the V-6 powered car was given a weight break.

Stewart never won a USAC Silver Crown race during the 1995 season but strung together a consistent series of finishes. In a ten-race season, Tony scored five top-5 finishes and three top-ten finishes. 

As he entered the final race of the season at the Cal Expo Fairgrounds in Sacramento California, Tony was in third place in the points. As the race progressed the two drivers ahead of him in points, Dave Darland and Jack Hewitt experienced troubles during the 100-mile race,  Stewart scored his second consecutive and third overall runner-up finish and won the 1995 USAC Silver Crown title by just two points.   

Stewart moved into the NASCAR "cup" series and won three driver championships (2002, 2005 and 2011) to go along with his four USAC driver championships. With his 1997 IRL championship, Tony is the only man to win both an IndyCar and NASCAR  championship. Stewart was elected into the USAC Hall of Fame in 2016 and the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2019. 

All photos by the author        

Alfa Romeo 308

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum featured this Alfa Romeo 308 in a special “From the Vault” exhibit at the 2019 PRI (Performance Racing Industry) show in Indianapolis Indiana,  an unusual car with a colorful history. 

This car, one of four built in the Milan factory, is powered by a supercharged 2.99 liter (182 cubic inch) eight-cylinder inline engine was designed by Gioacchino Colombo built for the 1938 Grand Prix season.  

After the season ended the 308 was sold to French racer Raymond Sommer. Sommer, who had raced in the United States in the 1936 George Vanderbilt Cup race, used this 308 to win several hill climbs and a street race in 1939 before he sold the car to a pair of Americans in early 1940 as he enlisted as a private in the French army.

The car was brought to the United States via the Italian liner the SS Rex by its new owners, Richard T Wharton and Thomas W Dewart, who were described as “young wealthy New York sportsmen” and officers with the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), an amateur sports car racing club. Wharton’s mother was a Standard Oil heiress, while Dewart’s father was the publisher of the New York Sun newspaper.

This historic photo shows Deacon Litz in the Richard Wharton Maserati  

on the inside of the last row on the pace lap before the start of the 1939 Indy 500 

courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

The previous year, Wharton had entered one of three  Maserati V8RI racers (a total of four were built) entered at Indianapolis in 1939.  Wharton’s silver car that carried number 52 was driven by veteran Pennsylvania driver Artha “Deacon” Litz in the 1939 International 500-Mile Sweepstakes.

“Deacon,” who weighed a plump 225 pounds, qualified with a four-lap average of 117.979 MPH (miles per hour) for his twelfth consecutive ‘500’ start.  Litz qualified for the 31st position and he shared the final row with Harry McQuinn and Billy DeVore. Unfortunately, only seven laps after the start of the 1939 Decoration Day classic, the Maserati, chassis number 4502, was forced into pits with mechanical troubles.

The crew worked over the Maserati V-8 engine for fifteen minutes until the car was retired with “valve trouble,” and placed last. After repairs, Wharton reportedly later drove the Maserati in ARCA events, including a race that was held in conjunction with the 1940 New York World’s Fair.  

Wharton and Dewart initially pursued Tazio Nuvolari to reunite with the Alfa-Romeo 308 for the 1940 Indianapolis 500-mile race, but in early May they hired veteran driver Clarence “Chet” Miller who had raced in ten consecutive 500-mile races at Indianapolis since 1930. Miller left the Boyle team to drive for the new team with their Italian machine.

Miller who had driven the last four 500-miles races in front-wheel drive machines for Mike Boyle, told an interviewer “I have driven front drives for the past four years and become accustomed to the handling. Going into a rear-drive of conventional American racing design, while I felt I could go fast with it, I would be under a strain throughout and would be dog-tired if I got into the latter stages of the race.”  It sounded like Miller was counting on the Alfa’s four-wheel independent suspension to smooth out the bumpy brick surface and help to conserve his energy. 

      

The 38-year old Miller assured his interviewer that he was completely recovered from his injuries sustained in the 1938 Indianapolis ‘500’ three-car crash that took the life of Floyd Roberts. Miller was hailed as a hero after he crashed into the wooden infield fence to avoid Bob Swanson who was prone on the track after he had been thrown from his crashing machine. Chet sustained a broken shoulder after his car flipped - he spent eight weeks in the hospital and was out of racing for six months.

This photo shows Chet Miller weighing our featured car in 1940

courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

Chet practiced the Alfa at 124 MPH, but the scheduled qualifying sessions in 1940 were plagued by rain and gusty winds and Miller did not get on track for his ten-mile run until Monday May 27.  Miller posted an average speed of 121.392 MPH, good enough for the 27^th starting position on the outside of the ninth row.

Later that evening, Chet was elected President of the Champion Spark Plug 100-mile per hour club succeeding Zeke Meyer, who gained membership with his 1936 Indianapolis ninth-place finish. Miller had earned his membership in the exclusive club because of his 1935 fifth-place finish in which he averaged 100.474 MPH for the 500 miles.

Chet Miller's 1940 IMS qualifying photo 

courtesy of the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection 

The 1940 Indianapolis ‘500’ proved to be a disappointment for many drivers, as the last fifty laps of the race was run under the caution flag due to persistent rain showers which froze the field in position, Despite his hopes that the Alfa would preserve his energy, Miller had stopped on lap 148, just before the caution flag came out and been replaced by Englishman Henry Banks. 

With the Alfa Romeo in seventeenth place, all the cars were flagged off the track after Wilbur Shaw and the first three finishers took the checkered flag. The Alfa Romeo 308 #34 finished with 189 laps completed and the Wharton-Dewart Motor Racing Team won $605 compared to winning car owner Mike Boyle who collected $31,675. In addition to a new Studebaker Champion, race winner Shaw also won an electric refrigerator.  

Wharton and Dewart did not enter the Alfa-Romeo 308 for the 1941 Indianapolis 500-mile race, and it and the Maserati V8RI were later sold to Milt Marion in 1944, while both Wharton and Dewart were serving in the US Navy in World War 2. 

Marion ran the Long island-based Marion Engineering & Machine Company and had started racing as a driver on the New York dirt tracks in the mid-nineteen twenties before he tried his hand at Indianapolis in 1931. Marion tried but failed to qualify at Indianapolis as a driver on six occasions, with his last attempt in 1937.

The highlight of Marion’s driving career came on March 8, 1936 when he won a AAA “strictly stock car” race held on a 1.5-mile course on Daytona Beach. Driving a 1936 Ford V8 convertible sponsored by Permatex Form-A-Gasket, Milt won the race which was shortened by nine miles from its planned 250-mile distance when the tide came in, at an average speed of 52 MPH. Another competitor in that day’s race was a local service station owner named William France who years later founded his own stock car racing association that held races on the beach.  

  

With the defeat of Japan and Germany, automobile racing resumed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 1946, albeit with pre-war equipment. Milt Marion entered both his Italian-built machines in March but did not name the drivers.

Once the track opened, Eastern AAA ‘big car’ ace Tommy Hinnershitz, a veteran of the 1941 ‘500,’ was tabbed to drive the Maserati, while midget racer Louis Durant (who birth name was Durant Lewis), was assigned the Alfa-Romeo 308. Durant a Kansas native who lived in Los Angeles, in addition to driving, acted as a race promoter for several pre-war races in his native state.

Durant had initially qualified for the 1941 Indianapolis ‘500,’ but was ‘bumped out’ on the final day of time trials by Al Putnam and the G & S Special became the first alternate. Durant unsuccessfully attempted to bump back into the field with an unidentified car owned by Milt Marion.

Sam Hanks crashed in pre-race practice on May 29 and his damaged car could not be repaired in time, but Chief Steward Ted Doescher stated that the rules called for the “the fastest 33 cars” and would not allow Durant’s car to be substituted.   

The short field due to the lack of Hank’s 7 UP sponsored entry was compounded when on race morning, the garage area fire claimed George Berringer’s rear-engine Gulf-Miller, as well as Marion’s unidentified car, and so the 1941 ‘500’ starting field was comprised of 31 starters.  Louis Durant did manage to compete in the 1941 500’ as he had two stints as a relief driver that covered 84 laps.

Durant, qualified the Alfa-Romeo for the 1946 International 500-mile race in the sixth starting position on the first day of time trials, though he posted the day’s slowest speed average of 118.973 MPH for his ten-mile run. 

Hinnershitz made a qualifying attempt on the final day of time trials on May 28, 1946, but the aged Maserati’s speed was not enough to bump out Al Putman’s qualified machine. Marion later sold the Maserati to the Granatelli brothers who replaced the engine with an Offenhauser.

In the first 500-mile race run at the Speedway in five years, Durant had a steady if not spectacular day as he finished in sixth position crossing the line more than 36 minutes after George Robson took the checkered flag and was the last car to complete the entire race distance. As he averaged 105 MPH for the 500 miles without relief, Durant earned membership into the Champion Spark Plug 100 MPH club.  

 

In 1947, Milt Marion entered his Alfa-Romeo and was allied with Speedway management, rather than siding with the upstart ASPAR (American Society of Professional Auto Racers) organization which was campaigning for a higher purse and threatened to boycott the race.

Marion had signed sponsorship for the Alfa-Romeo from the New York-based Permafuse Corporation, which manufactured and marketed a new system of relining brakes. Instead of the use of rivets, the installer used a strip of patented Permafuse tape to attach the new shoe to the lining. With the assembly clamped together, it was heated in the Permafuse electric oven. When completed, the manufacturer claimed that their system doubled the life of brake linings as the shoe and new lining were “virtually fused together.”

As Louis Durant had allied himself with the ASPAR group, Marion selected Indianapolis rookie Walt Brown from Massapequa New York, an Eastern AAA ‘big car’ racer who was the current track record holder at the one-mile track in Trenton New Jersey as his driver. 

Brown had appeared in several pre-war championship races and had been entered by Marion in six races held in late 1946. Walt was not at the Speedway full-time in the early part of the month of May 1947, as he was a regular on the AAA Eastern big car circuit and ran several big car races in early May, then passed his Indianapolis drivers test on May 22.

 Brown qualified the Alfa-Romeo on May 26 at a speed of 118.355, which placed it fifteenth in the field of 30 starters, and as the fastest non-ASPAR qualifier of the day received a check for $500. 

On Race Day, Walt steadily moved up through the field, largely by attrition as the machines of Ken Fowler, Russ Snowberger, Cliff Bergere and Shorty Cantlon were eliminated by mechanical failure or in the case of Cantlon a fatal crash.

Brown at age 35, wound up as the second-highest finishing rookie in seventh place as fellow rookie 39-year-old Bill Holland finished second. Walt was the last driver to complete the full 500 miles, flagged off a full 37 minutes after winner Mauri Rose took the checkered flag. 

         

Milt Marion entered the Alfa-Romeo for the 1948 Indianapolis 500-mile race but despite its record of two top ten finishes in the last two races, it did attract the interest of any drivers. Late in the month, Colorado driver Johnny Mauro struck a deal and bought the car from Milt Marion.

Mauro reportedly raced for several years in the pre-war period using the nom de guerre “Jack Morris,” although the author has been unable to find any results to confirm this story. Mauro entered a car under his own name in the 1940 22^nd annual Labor Day race up Colorado’s Pikes Peak, and finished either third, fourth or fifth, depending on which newspaper article one chooses to believe. 

In 1947 Mauro became an unwitting player in the ASPAR dispute with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In early 1947 Mauro reached an agreement with Babe Stapp to act as his crew chief for his inaugural entry at Indianapolis and he sent his entry form to Stapp’s home in Los Angeles. Stapp mailed the form onto the Indianapolis Motor Speedway office marked “in care of Ralph Hepburn,” as Hepburn was the original president of the ASPAR group.

The entry form arrived at the Speedway office at 444 North Capitol Avenue before the April 15 deadline, but Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Wilbur Shaw would not open the envelope, as Hepburn the addressee was not associated with the Speedway. Shaw instructed a secretary to place the envelope in the office safe. In early May, Mauro arrived in Indianapolis with his race car and was shocked to learn that he and his car, an older small displacement eight-cylinder supercharged Miller, was not entered. 

Mauro tracked down the paperwork, and the envelope with Stapp’s return address was retrieved from the safe, but Stapp initially refused to allow Shaw to open it. Finally, on May 15 in the presence of several reporters, Shaw opened the envelope which contained the completed entry form and Mauro’s check inside. Shaw allowed Mauro’s entry, which carried sponsorship from the local Phil Kraft Southside bakery chain. Mauro passed his required physical and practiced but was unable to complete his drivers test.  

Mauro, who worked as an accountant when not racing, returned with the supercharged Miller in 1948 but was not competitive in the car which press reports indicated had the smallest engine on the grounds, which leads the author to suspect it was a 91-cubic inch powered Miller. Mauro saw the unused Alfa Romeo 308 in the Garage Area and struck a deal with Milt Marion to buy the car and transferred the Phil Kraft sponsorship to his new ride.    

On May 25, 1948 the day following the finalization of his purchase of the Alfa Romeo 308, Mauro took the car out on track for practice and promptly spun in turn two, but he managed to collect the car without hitting anything and returned to the pit area with a bent wheel. Two days later May 27, Mauro was the slowest of the seven qualifiers with a four-lap average of 121.790 MPH, to start from the 27^th position.

Once again in 1948 in the 32^nd International 500-mile Sweepstakes, Mauro and his Alfa proved the old adage that the best finishes do not necessarily go to the swiftest, as the trusty 308 posted its third consecutive top ten finish when Mauro crossed the line in ninth place with 198 laps completed when he was flagged off the track forty minutes after winner Mauri Rose took the checkered flag. 

To complete the race, Mauro relied on the relief efforts of Louis Durant, the 1946 Alfa driver, who drove the car from lap 112 to lap 140. The day following the race, race officials announced that a recheck of the scoring tape revealed that Mauro had finished in eighth place and for his efforts, Mauro the car owner earned $4115.     

   

On Labor Day 1948, Mauro drove his Alfa Romeo 308 in the 12.42-mile AAA-sanctioned Pikes Peak Hill Climb and finished third with a time of 16 minutes and 55 seconds, one minute and six seconds slower than the winner Al Rogers who drove an Offenhauser-powered machine to victory. Mauro’s finish was celebrated in a nationwide advertisement for Mobil Oil that appeared in newspapers just days after the event.

Johnny Mauro entered the now eleven-year-old Alfa Romeo, for the 1949 Indianapolis ‘500,’ but technology had caught up as the “railbirds” opined that it would take an average qualifying speed of better than 126 MPH to make the 33-car starting field. Mauro himself never presented the car for qualifying, but Tony Bettenhausen gave it a try on May 28^th after his original entry was bumped.

Tony and his Flavell Special powered by a Sparks “little six” 183-cubic inch supercharged six-cylinder engine was bumped from the starting field. Robert Flavell from Los Angeles purchased the car in late 1946 from the original owner, Joel Thorne, after Joel got himself into one of his periodic legal jams and needed some fast cash. The Flavell/Sparks car had easily qualified for the 1947 and 1948 editions of the ‘500,’ but like the Alfa, it had reached the limit of its speed at 125.754 MPH and was bumped.

Tony could not find the speed in the Alfa Romeo 308 in a desperate attempt to bump back into the field, so the Mauro Alfa Romeo 308 missed the big show at Indianapolis in 1949.

Mauro qualified the Alfa 308 fourth overall for the annual Labor Day 1949 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, but on race day, crowd control was lax and errant spectators caught several drivers out. Mauro was within sight of the finish line when he had to swerve to avoid two women with cameras who had wandered into the racing line. Though he avoided a tragedy, Mauro crashed the Alfa Romeo into a parked car and did not finish.

On March 23, 1950 it was announced by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that it had received Johnny Mauro’s entry of the Alfa-Romeo along with two others for Jack McGrath and Cecil Green. Headed into the final weekend of time trials, the 308’s engine threw a rod and the damage was not repaired in time to make a qualifying attempt. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway would not see another Alfa-Romeo entry until 1990.    

In 1952, Mauro entered a Ferrari 375 Grand Prix car at Indianapolis with sponsorship from the locally-based Kennedy Tank company. Mauro probably used his family connections to obtain the 4.5-liter V-12 powered machine as his brother owned an exotic car dealership in Denver. Unfortunately, the white with blue trim Kennedy Tank Ferrari 375 never approached qualifying speeds.    

Mauro raced the Ferrari 375 at Pikes Peak through 1956, and in 1958 Mauro founded the United States Truck Driving School, Inc. (USTDS) to train professional truck drivers. Mauro donated the Alfa Romeo 308 to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1969, and in 2003, Mauro  was killed in a traffic accident in his hometown of Denver when he was 92 years old.

Color photographs by the author 

The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part four – his sad final years

Former midget auto racer Branch Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright lost 85 pounds he was while incarcerated in the Missouri State Penitentiary.  When he was released from prison on the morning of December 5, 1951, ‘Tiny’ had served just over thirteen months, with time credited for good behavior which included blood donations earmarked for the military. 

Wainwright left the Jefferson City prison angry because he had recently learned that his former girlfriend had gotten married.  ‘Tiny’ headed west for Kansas City and stopped along the way to purchase a knife with a 5-inch long blade. Once in Kansas City, ‘Tiny’ went directly to his former girlfriend’s residence with her new husband, a man named Harold McCroskey and pushed his way into their apartment.

As fate would have it three police officers were already in the apartment, questioning Mr. and Mrs. McCroskey about five stolen ladies’ coats, including Mrs. McCroskey’s fur coat. Once inside the apartment, the enraged ‘Tiny’ blindly charged at McCroskey, kicked him and swung his knife.  Police Lieutenant Lester Haupt lunged to grab the knife and was stabbed.

According to a report published in the Daily Capitol News, Wainwright then exclaimed “Hell, Lester I didn’t know you were in here. I’m sorry.” While Haupt went to the hospital to get eight stitches in his wounded hand, the other police officers arrested McCroskey on an outstanding robbery arrest warrant from Beverly Hills California and also took ‘Tiny’ to headquarters for further investigation.      

One would assume that with an assault on a police officer, ‘Tiny’ Wainwright had assured himself a quick return trip to the penitentiary, but somehow, he was not charged in the bizarre incident. 

Weeks later in early 1952, Wainwright was hired as the assistant business agent of the Greene County Teamsters Local 245 union with offices at Springfield, Missouri. By 1954, Wainwright had risen through the ranks to become the union local 245 president and  in that role, was questioned by Joplin Missouri police officers about violence that occurred during the Teamsters union’s attempt to unionize workers at a local Coca Cola bottling plant.

On Thursday June 25, 1958 Wainwright made a disastrous appearance in Washington DC before the United Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field (known to generally to the public as the “McClellan Rackets Committee”). 

The purpose of the hearing that day according to Committee chairman Arkansas Senator John McClellan was that “we shall inquire into the effect that the type of leadership in this international union now being provided by Mr. Hoffa and a number of disreputable and questionable characters who are his associates is having on the membership of the union.”

After he was sworn in, ‘Tiny’ who was accompanied by the Teamster union's Washington attorney H. Clifford Allder, was asked several basic innocuous questions by Senator McClellan. The questions included what he did for a living, and the name of his employer, but for each of McClellan’s questions, Wainwright invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination as he stated, “I respectfully decline to answer because I honestly believe my answer might tend to incriminate me.”

McClellan was incredulous at ‘Tiny’s’ responses to such basic questions, then he turned the questioning over to Robert Kennedy, the Committee Chief Counsel. Kennedy asked ‘Tiny’ to confirm his criminal conviction history which included a previous publicly unknown one-year probation for a 1934 burglary and payment of a fine for a burglary conviction in 1948. Wainwright again cited his Fifth Amendment rights.

Kennedy then read verbatim testimony given in 1956, to a United States House of Representatives committee, wherein Mr. Ray L. Smith, owner of Ray L. Smith & Son, stated that “he had to pay $650.80 for the period from September 7 to September 28, 1952, as an extortion payment to Mr. Branch Wainwright.”

‘Tiny’ was asked by Committee Chairman Senator McClellan “Do you want to deny the testimony that Mr. Ray L. Smith gave against you as to your extorting money from him?” 

Once again, Wainwright invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, a common tactic used by Allder’s clients. Kennedy then asked if the Missouri-Kansas Conference of Teamsters, headed by Harold Gibbons had hired him in 1952 just a few days after being released from prison. After ‘Tiny’ again refused to answer Kennedy’s last question, the Committee members dismissed him.   

With the bad local publicity generated by his Senate testimony, ‘Tiny’s’ days with the union were numbered and on July 30, 1959 Teamsters Union President James R. Hoffa announced that “Branch Wainwright is no longer with the local union," he said, “I immediately notified the local union officials to remove him from the payroll and from any authority in the local."

In September 1961, Wainwright whose weight had ballooned back up to 250 pounds as he lived in Independence Missouri, was arrested again and charged with the theft of $972 worth of women’s clothing after a Shawnee Kansas couple, the Georges, were arrested with stolen clothing which they claimed that “Tiny” had sold them.  

Before the start of his clothing theft trial, ‘Tiny’ and another man Ernest “Ernie” Anderson were charged with the theft of $5,000 worth of furniture from a display home in Overland Park Kansas. Anderson, a former Teamsters official, was the salesman for the builder and allegedly gave ‘Tiny’ the key to the home. “Tiny’ was also charged with the bombing of a $37,500 home under construction in Leawood Kansas that was being built with non-union labor. 

Both his daughter and his former wife were among seven witnesses who testified against ‘Tiny’ in the trial on the charge of grand larceny that began on March 28, 1962 in the Johnson County District Court in Olathe Kansas, but the key witness for the state was Doyle Howard Mace, of Springfield Missouri.

Mace, described as “a former friend of Wainwright,” was brought to the court in Olathe from the jail in Springfield Missouri to testify. Mace testified that he and Wainwright, stole the clothing from an Oldsmobile station wagon owned by salesman J. Gordon Campbell while it was parked in front of Campbell’s home at 7634 Nall Avenue in Prairie Village Kansas. 

Mace testified that on May 4, 1961 he and the ‘Tiny’ each took two bags of the stolen clothing and went to Mace’s home and the clothing was stored in his basement. The net day Mace said that several people, including Mrs. George, whom ‘Tiny’ introduced to Mace as his ex-wife, came to his home to look at the clothing.  

Mrs. George bought $175 worth of the clothing, which she paid for by check, and after Tiny cashed the check, he split the money with Mace. Mrs. George and ‘Tiny’s’ daughter both testified that he told them that Mace was a salesman for the women’s clothing company.

With his cross-examination, ‘Tiny’s’ lawyer attacked Mace’s credibility and claimed that Mace was angry with the ‘Tiny’ and had agreed to testify against him just to get even. Mace admitted that he was upset that Tiny failed to pay him $1,000 that Mace claimed he was owed for his part in Wainwright’s fraudulent $4,500 fire insurance claim for which ‘Tiny’ had already been charged. 

Mace also testified that he had been short changed after other robberies that the pair had allegedly committed, which included the safe robbery at a candy store, theft of two adding machines and a typewriter from an office, and the theft of a $650 refrigerator-freezer from an Overland Park Kansas home.  

On Friday March 31, 1962 the jury convicted Wainwright of grand larceny for the theft of the $972 worth of women’s clothing samples and in accordance with the terms of the Kansas Habitual Criminal Act, ‘Tiny’ was sentenced to a term not to exceed 10 years of hard labor at the Kansas State Penitentiary located in Lansing Kansas. 

With Wainwright free on bond, less than a month later, Wainwright’s attorney filed an appeal of the conviction on several grounds, among them the fact that a juror in the trial was not a resident of the county. 

On December 8, 1962, the Kansas Supreme Court released a ruling that rejected all three points of ‘Tiny’s’ appeal. When it came time to surrender to begin his prison term, on February 8, 1963, 49-year old ‘Tiny’ failed to appear and he forfeited his $8,000 bond.

Six months later he was arrested by FBI agents in Kansas City, Kansas on August 9, 1963 after the agents were tipped that Wainwright would be walking on Minnesota Avenue at 7 AM. Four armed agents surrounded the rotund former race driver and he was whisked to Olathe Kansas where Judge Clayton Brenner imposed sentence and ‘Tiny’ was confined at the Kansas State Penitentiary the following day. 

After serving only 2-1/2 years of his ten-year term, ‘Tiny’ was paroled in March 1966 but he was soon arrested for petty larceny in April 1966 after a patrolman saw him stuff $7.79 worth of steaks in his pockets in a supermarket.  

‘Tiny’ returned to prison on August 11, 1967 after another alleged parole violation in St Louis and he died in prison at 12:15 AM on September 12, 1967, at the age of 55, on the eve of his parole revocation hearing before the Kansas State Parole Board. 

Warden Sherman Crouse said that ‘Tiny,’ aged 55, suffered a fatal heart attack in the prison hospital where he had been confined for several days. The brief obituary in the Kansas City Times noted that “before his conviction for assault in 1949, Wainwright was a well-known midget racing car driver.” 

Branch Milton ‘Tiny’ Wainwright, a decent midget auto racer but a lousy criminal, is interred in Green Lawn Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.

The notorious ‘Tiny’ Wainwright

Part three – 1949 and 1950

Branch ‘Tiny’ Wainwright raced for most of the 1948 season with the Midwest Midget Auto Racing Association (MMARA) a group run by John Gerber as he drove the black #2 Ford V-8 60 powered Kurtis-Kraft midget owned by Lloyd Van Winkle of Lincoln Nebraska. After the racing season ended, ‘Tiny’ was implicated as a member of a 5-man criminal gang that committed nineteen robberies.   

Free on bond awaiting trial, Wainwright was without a ride for the second midget auto race of the 1949 season at the Ce-Mar Bowl in Cedar Rapids Iowa, although it was reported that he had contacted car owner Paul Van Zee and asked to drive the #63 midget. The defending MMARA series champion Danny Kladis driver of the #39 midget, was in Indianapolis in an unsuccessful attempt to qualify the ‘Speedway Cocktail Special’ for the 500-mile race, but his midget car owner Eric Lund stated that he would not put any other driver into his car in Kladis’ absence.  

The featured attraction at Ce-Mar on Sunday afternoon May 22 was the appearance of the “Marvel Man” Don Haynes who had had himself welded inside a 1949 Kaiser Deluxe 4-door sedan. Haynes from Ashland Oregon claimed that he intended to live inside the car for 14 months to win a $25,000 bet with a local farmer.  Haynes was a 39-year-old truck driver and an ex-Merchant Marine so his stunt was also known as the “Seaman of the Sealed Car.’  

Haynes was welded inside his car on February 19, 1949 with chrome bars installed over the windows along with an exercise machine, chemical toilet, folding bathtub, electric shaver, typewriter, radio and a record player. There was no need for a bed, as the Kaiser already featured a rear seat that folded down into a bed. Haynes sponsored by Richard Reinan, the owner of an Ashland lumber mill planned to visit the major cities in all 48 states with visits at Kaiser-Frazer dealerships. Haynes, stopped at Ce-Mar in support of Dan Hunter the local Kaiser-Frazer distributor while enroute to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indianapolis 500-mile race.  

Haynes eventually lost his bet (which after all that time appeared to be a fabrication) when he had the car doors cut open and he exited the car after being inside thirteen months and eighteen days. Haynes had drove a reportedly 110,000 miles, but ended his ordeal because public interest in his stunt waned and no more paid appearances were booked.  Haynes and his wife tried a similar stunt in 1958 as they were welded into a 1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser station wagon but it met with much less success then his earlier publicity stunt.

Tiny drove the John Spach #7 at the Ce-Mar Bowl on May 22, and at Playland Park on May 24 where he finished second in the trophy dash. At Indianola Iowa on June 14 ‘Tiny’ finished seventh in the 20-lap feature, and when the MMARA series visited Davenport on Friday June 17, 1949, Wainwright did not have a ride, but he was scheduled to drive the John Spach #7 midget at Ce-Mar on Sunday June 19. That did not occur because ‘Tiny’ was arrested on Saturday in Columbia Missouri and he was transported by Missouri State Highway Patrolmen to the Cole County jail in Jefferson City Missouri.    

Joe Heninger, an older bachelor farmer who lived in rural Russellville Missouri, alleged that on the evening of Thursday June 16, Wainwright and an unknown accomplice acted as though they had experienced car trouble in front of Heninger’s farmhouse. When Heninger came to investigate, the pair drew guns on him and forced him back inside his home. The pair then used adhesive tape to bind the farmer to a chair and proceeded to ransack his home, while they repeatedly shouted, “where do you keep your money?” When the robbers found no money after several hours, they left bound and Heninger worked himself free from his bonds early Friday morning and called police.

Once ‘Tiny’ was in jail in Jefferson City, police found that he was already under indictment in Moberly Missouri for his participation in an earlier burglary with $315 taken from a food market in Columbia Missouri on March 25, 1948.  Wainwright made his first appearance before Magistrate Foster S Wheatley in Jefferson City at 3 PM on Monday June 20, 1949 and his bail was set at $10,000.  On July 6 a hearing was held in Moberly without ‘Tiny’ who was still in jail in Jefferson City, regarding the 1948 burglary and it was discovered that in addition to his $5000 bond for that case, Wainwright was also out on a $3000 bond on a charge of safe burglary in Dallas Texas.

On July 27, 1949 ‘Tiny’ was released from the Jefferson City jail on a $10,000 bond posted by two Kansas City women, Stella Parke Beatty and Glady Parke Kline. In his next court appearance before Judge Sam Blair on October 3, ‘Tiny’ entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of assault with intent to rob. Two weeks later, his accomplice, William DeWayne Brown, a parolee from Leavenworth who had served 11 years of a 25-year sentence for theft of US mail was identified, arrested and charged.

During his March 1950 assault trial, Wainwright testified that he had driven home to Kansas City from Davenport Iowa, and arrived home in the early hours of June 20, 1949. He said he slept until the afternoon, ate dinner at the Golden West Bar and Grill and then attended a Catholic church carnival until 10 PM. His local attorney, HP Lauf, called ten witnesses that supported ‘Tiny’s’ account, but on March 14, 1950 the jury returned a guilty verdict and recommended Wainwright receive a two-year prison sentence.  

Judge Sam Blair postponed sentencing to allow time for appeal and on April 12 another of ‘Tiny’s’ attorneys, Ed C Orr, requested a new trial on the basis that the entire testimony was not recorded while the trial was in progress and that the prosecution testimony was weak, ambiguous and incomplete. A month later Judge Blair held the appeal hearing and on May 17 ‘Tiny’ was granted new trial over the objections of Prosecutor James T Riley.

While out on bond and awaiting his new trial date, ‘Tiny’ raced Bruce Bromme’s Offenhauser powered ‘big car’ at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in De Moines in August 1950. ‘Tiny’ qualified 14^th fastest in a field of 27 cars with a time of 28.80 seconds.  During the “B” feature, due to rough track conditions the front suspension of the Bromme car collapsed and the car flipped end-over-end as it cartwheeled along and through the inner wooden guardrail. ‘Tiny’ reportedly was thrown free and suffered only facial cuts and bruises.      

On September 7 Wainwright drove the repaired Bromme #77 in the two-day IMCA ‘big car’ program at the half-mile track at the South Dakota State Fairgrounds in Huron, ‘Tiny’ timed in eleventh fastest in time trials with a lap of 29.20 seconds compared to Deb Snyder’s fast time of 24.85 seconds. Wainwiright finished third in his heat race and advanced to compete in the feature race where he finished eighth behind winner by Frank Luptow.

Wainwright’s second trial on the felonious assault charges against Joe Heninger was held October 4, 1950 again before Judge Blair. On October 5, after 2-1/2 hours of deliberation, the second jury found ‘Tiny’ guilty and recommended a two-year sentence in the Missouri State Penitentiary. On October 31 ‘Tiny’s’ attorney Ed Orr filed paperwork that requested a new trial, but in open court on November 6, 1950 Orr asked that Judge Blair overrule his appeal of ‘Tiny’s’ second conviction, as his client was out of money and unable to continue the legal battle.

Judge Blair immediately sentenced Wainwright to two years in prison and he was assigned prisoner number 64186 in the Missouri State Penitentiary also located in Jefferson City.  His accomplice in the Heninger assault, William DeWayne Brown, was tried in Howard County on October 26 and the jury deadlocked but in his second trial held on January 18, 1951, Brown was convicted and given a two-year prison term.  

“Tiny’s’ racing career was on hold while he was incarcerated for assault – in the next and final installment we will share the direction Wainwright’s life took after 1951.