The history of Alamo Downs the short-lived Texas pre-war midget racing venue

The history of Alamo Downs  

the short-lived Texas pre-war

midget auto racing venue

Wes Saegesser 

On September 1 1933, the State of Texas legalized pari-mutuel wagering on thoroughbred racing. Shortly thereafter,  businessman Raymond Russell built the Alamo Downs one-mile horse racing facility on Culebra Road northwest of downtown San Antonio.  Alamo Downs opened its first racing meet on April 23 1934 with 14,000 fans in attendance which included Texas Governor Miriam A. Ferguson.

Horse racing at Alamo Downs ended on September 24 1937 after the Texas legislature again outlawed pari-mutuel thoroughbred wagering after several scandals. There were still horses boarded and trained on the Alamo Downs property but the facility sat largely unused until late 1940.

Famed automobile racing promoters O.D Lavely and his son Ray, through their company,  Lavely Racing Promotions Enterprises, signed a five-year lease in August 1940 to present midget racing at Alamo Downs. Lavely Promotions built the 1/5-mile banked oiled clay dirt track which measured 40 feet wide through the corners and 30 feet wide on the straightaways in front of the existing grandstands.  

The track construction included an innovative 36-inch high outer crash wall and an inner “hub rail.” Rather than locate the pit area in the infield, officials located the work area for the race cars underneath the grandstands in the paddock area.   

The Texas Oklahoma Racing Association (TORA) which sanctioned the Alamo Downs races, also presented races at the 1/5-mile Fair Park Speedway on the grounds of the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas, the Lavely’s 1/5-mile Houston Speedbowl and the ¼-mile Gold Mine Race Bowl in Dallas. TORA race tracks included Jefferson-Davis Speedway in Fort Worth, the original dirt Pan-American Speedway in San Antonio and the Panhandle-South Plains Speedway in Lubbock. TORA also raced in Texas at the Reaser Park track in Victoria as well as the Lions Field Speedway, a track which the author has been unable to locate.   

Admission to the first midget race at Alamo Downs on Sunday afternoon October 6 cost race fans 40 cents plus tax with free parking. Due to the late season opening, many midget drivers from the Midwest came to San Antonio to race against that local drivers that included Al Slaughter, Dick Word and the one-armed wonder, Wes Saegesser.

Other Texas entries came from Doster ‘Doc’ Cossey (AJ Foyt’s first racing hero), the 1939 Texas midget racing champion Mel Wainwright and Elmer “Rabbit” Musick, the youngest of five racing brothers from the Dallas area - his brothers were named Ben, Morris, Lyn and Leland.

 Al Slaughter won the very first Alamo Downs race, the 2-lap helmet dash over Abilene’s Cleo Glaze who set quick time in time trials at 17.31 seconds. Dale Burt, Word and Wainwright each won one of the eight-lap heat races, and Cossey won the second 10-lap semi-main event from eighth starting position.

During that second semi-main race, Denver driver Warren Hamilton took what the San Antonio Light article described as “a spectacular spill” on the first lap after he tangled with the car of JD Parks and Hamilton's car rolled over into the infield.

Slaughter took the race lead into the first turn of the 25-lap feature pursued by ‘Doc’ Cossey. ‘Doc’ pressed Slaughter hard until his car fell out on the ninth lap with electrical trouble, and Slaughter easily won by a half a lap over Glaze.     

The following Sunday, October the 13^th, the 1/5-mile track was much faster.  Jim Ward set quick time at 16.75 seconds, for a new lap record, while ‘Doc’ Cossey won the two-lap Helmet Dash in  34.88 seconds, then Al Slaughter won his eight-lap heat race with a new record time of 2 minutes, 19.26 seconds.

Cossey captured the 25-lap feature win over Ward in a record time of seven minutes, 37.76 seconds to score his second feature win in four nights, to go along with his Thursday night win at the Houston Speedbowl. Cossey’s Alamo Downs win on the 13^th marked his tenth midget feature win of the 1940 season.

Late in feature on the 13^th, three of the top cars driven by Dick Word, Lou Turberville and Earl Simmons tangled in front of the grandstands after Word’s car blew its water hose, and Word and Turberville both suffered facial cuts in the accident.  

Cossey became the first Alamo Downs repeat winner as he won on October 20^th in a program that extended the heat races to ten laps in length, and stretched the feature to 30 laps.  

The field on October 27^th featured new entries from Charlie Miller, the 1940 American Automobile Association (AAA) eastern midget series champion and the AAA Eastern midget runner-up George Fonder.

Al Slaughter scored his second Alamo win in the 14-car “Fall Championship” 30-lap race on October 27th, as he again went wire-to-wire to beat the $3000 'Jackson Special,' an Offenhauser powered car driven by Dallas’ “King of the Midgets” William Ben ‘Red’ Hodges.  

On November 3^rd, Slaughter won his heat race then powered to his third Alamo feature win over the helmet dash winner Miller. Car counts at Alamo Downs continued to increase such that on the 3^rd, the 10-lap Class ‘B’ feature featured an eighteen-car starting field.

On November 17th, Kansas City’s Vito Calia captured his 8-lap heat race in a new record time of 2 minutes 16.84 seconds, then finished  close second place behind Jim Ward in the first semi-main. Slaughter took the point for the first three laps of the 25-lap feature until Calia took over the lead and went on to set a new track record as he won with a time of seven minutes and 7.43 seconds.

Rain cancelled the races scheduled for November 25^th and before the next race on December 1, ‘Doc’ Cossey bought a new Elto outboard-powered midget and installed Mel Wainwright as the driver.  

Many of the Alamo Downs racers took part in the Thanksgiving night 100-lap “Southern Grand Prix” race in Houston won by ‘Red’ Hodges, and as a result only 20 cars signed in at Alamo Downs on December 1. To compound the low car count, only about 1400 fans showed up to watch the program won by ‘Red’ Hodges in the Jackson Offenhauser powered midget. 

The afternoon of December 8^th marked the final scheduled race at Alamo Downs for the 1940 season as the Lavely clan planned to head to the Pacific Coast to sign up more drivers for the 1941 Alamo Downs season set to open in February.  The 50-lap Class A championship race topped the December 8th program supplemented by the 15-lap Class B championship race.

The midget track on the other side of San Antonio on Seguin Highway also scheduled a race on that Sunday afternoon which diluted the field of entries at Alamo Downs to just 25 cars. ‘Red’ Hodges captured the 50-lap Class A feature but fell short of winning the 1940 track championship by six points, as Slaughter passed “Rabbit” Musik on the last lap to claim second place and secure enough points to win the championship. 

The Lavely’s ambitious plans for the 1941 Alamo Downs midget racing season never materialized and there is no evidence of another race held there. In January 1942 a fire swept through a stable on the Alamo Downs grounds and killed five race horses, then in September 1947 another fire partially destroyed the wood, concrete and steel paddock and grandstand. The area once occupied by the Alamo Downs track is now part of the Alamo Downs Business Park.

 

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 Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part six – another fatality and midget racing is suspended

 

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part six – another fatality    

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.

On July 21, 1949 promoter Charlie Cake presented motorcycle racing for third time at the Thunderbowl. The program featured both ‘flat track’ racing on the 1/5-mile oval and ‘tourist trophy’ (TT) racing with both right- and left-hand turns as well as steeplechase-style jumps. Oscar Sherman won the flat track feature and ‘H Kimbel’ won the TT feature.

Cake, from Ventura, negotiated a deal with the new United Racing Association (URA) president Roy Morrison to bring the URA Red “B” Circuit (for rocker arm powered midgets) to Carpinteria, historically a “Blue circuit” (for overhead camshaft powered midgets) track. The URA earlier ran both the “Blue” and “Red” circuits, but Morrison created the “Red B” circuit, for slower flathead and motorcycle powered cars, as a lower-cost racing program for promoters designed to combat the inroads made by the “hot rod” roadsters.  

Johnny McFadden won the three-lap trophy dash for the two fastest qualifiers from time trials over Bill Martin to open the July 25^th racing program.  On lap 4 of the first 6-lap heat race, Don Keefe and Bob Saunders collided, which knocked both of their cars out of the race.

After the restart, on the final lap of the race, as Chris Christopher took the checkered flag, rookie Norman “Norm” Howton  who started from the tail of the field, attempted to pass Al Bridges, but misjudged and the right rear wheel of Howton’s machine hooked the left front wheel of Bridges’ car. Howton’s midget flipped and it landed upside down on top of the crash wall.

Howton, a 22-year old native of Santa Monica living in Venice, had joined the URA organization the previous Thursday and Carpinteria was his first race, Norm suffered a broken jaw and a fractured skull, with suspected brain injuries. An ambulance transported him to Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.   

The racing program continued after officials cleared away Howton’s damaged machine.  Bill LeRoy, Chuck Burness and Jackie Jordan won the remaining three heat races.  LeRoy won the fifteen-lap semi-main followed by future 3-time URA champion Lowell Sachs and Clay Robbins.  Jordan won the 30-lap feature race over Martin and McFadden with Johnny Coughlin in fourth place.

Norm Howton passed away at 6:30 AM the following day, and thus became the second driver to lose his life at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl in as many years. Norm, a veteran of the United States Navy, served in World War 2 as a seaman on board the destroyer escort USS Raymon W. Herndon in the assault on Okinawa. Survived by his father Glen, mother Irene, and older sister Lorraine, Norm is buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.  

Johnny McFadden from San Diego, led time trials for the next URA Red “B” program on Monday August 1^st with a best lap of 15.62 seconds, then he captured the trophy dash and his heat race. Other heat race winners included Bill LeRoy, Dwight Gunn and Bill Martin, who also won the semi-main 15-lap race. In the 30-lap feature, McFadden fell two positions short of a “clean sweep” as Bill Martin led Jackie Jordan to the finish line.

The following week, on August 8^th promoter Cake added a special appearance by the Southern California race track favorite ‘Charlie the Clown.’ Leo ‘Pop’ Faulkner, who starting racing in 1934 won the added Australian Pursuit race.   Bill LeRoy won the trophy dash while Johnny McFadden, Bob Allen, Clay Robbins and ‘big car’ racer Ken Crispin scored heat race victories. 

Norm Hall took the checkered flag for the 15-lap semi-main event. On the second lap of the feature, Robbins ran over the wheels of a stalled car and his midget flipped over the wall but he escaped injury. McFadden won the feature while on the penultimate lap Bill Martin and Jackie Jordan tangled as they battled for second place and both spun into the infield.

 ‘Charlie the Clown’ returned to Carpinteria on August 15^th but Jackie Jordan did not, as the URA suspended him for seven days for rough driving following the Carpinteria incident with Martin. Faulkner repeated his victory in the Australian Pursuit and Martin won the trophy dash and his heat race, as Crispin, LeRoy and Car Brown also scored 6-lap race wins.

On the opening lap of the semi-main, Johnny McFadden got squeezed into the outer wall and his midget took a series of side-over-side flips. When the car finally came to rest, Johnny climbed out of the wreckage with only a cut over his eye and badly skinned knuckles.

Bill LeRoy grabbed the early lead in the 30-lap feature then Charlie Miller challenged for the lead until Miller’s engine blew up, and Charlie suffered burns on his arms and legs as the car rolled into the infield. Bill Martin took up the chase after LeRoy, and as the laps wound down, Martin found the fast way around the top of the 1/5-mile oval. With just a few laps to go, Martin sped past LeRoy to take the victory with George Annis in third place.  

On August 18^th, the Ventura County Star-Free Press revealed that promoter Charlie Cake cancelled all Thursday night motorcycle races until track repairs could be made, but that the scheduled Monday night midget races would continue.  

The following day, the Ventura newspaper reported the cancellation of the remainder of the 1949 URA midget racing schedule at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl. According to promoter Charlie Cake, “hot rod” racing would replace the midgets on Monday nights, following the same program line-up as the midgets featuring a trophy dash, four heat races, a 15-lap semi-main and a 30-lap feature.  

On Saturday August 20, the Ventura County Star-Free Press carried an article about the Thunderbowl for the third day in a row.  The newspaper reported that in a telephone interview, Roy Morrison, the URA president revealed that on Friday, the URA board cancelled Charlie Cake’s franchise for URA midget racing at the Thunderbowl.

Morrison cited “non-payment of purses and officials fees,” as the reason for the cancellation, and noted that Cake had an outstanding debt of $781. Morrison added that URA’s Los Angeles attorney, J. Frank Armstrong would draw up papers and file suit in Santa Barbara “in the next ten days.”  In the meantime, Morrison said that the URA board would “strongly consider” a bid to hold races on the Ventura track.

Morrison claimed during his interview that Cake “held up the purse three times and gave the association nothing but trouble since he took over management of the track.”  Roy recalled that dealings with Bradley McLure the original 1949 franchisee were “very satisfactory.” Because of Cake’s actions Morrison claimed “the URA is operating at a loss at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.”

Cake, contacted by the Ventura County Star-Free Press, admitted that he held up purses “hoping to get more cars the following week,” and would continue to hold purse monies pending the outcome of a $5,000 breach of contract suit to be drawn up by his Ventura attorney Bernard J “Barney” Loughman. “The URA did not send the number of racers called for in the contract,” according to Cake.   

In the next installment, we will trace the rest of the 1949 season as new types of racing took over at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl.

The author is looking for any private vintage photographs of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl that readers may have. Please reach out to kevracerhistory@aol.com .  We can’t pay for use, we’re just looking to share images for those who never saw the track.     

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part five - the first half of the 1949 season

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part five - the first half  of the 1949 season

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 began its third season of operation on Friday evening May 6th, 1949 as it hosted the ‘Ken Baker Circus of Thrills’ auto thrill show. The show starred the ‘Streamline Death-Defying Hell Drivers’ with precision driving by Dave Arnold and Earl McComb, the “ice crash” in which Bob “Jumpin’ Jack” Niles crashed a sedan into  20-ton wall of ice, rollover crashes by “Reckless” Dick Getty, a head-on crash by Getty and McComb, and closed with a fireworks finale.

Carpinteria was the inaugural show for Ken and Dottie Baker’s troupe, based in North Hollywood that used the advertising phrase “Smoke and Flame - we earn the name.” Later Baker tour stops included Lakeland Park Ranch & Stadium (also known as El Monte Speedway) in El Monte, Balboa Stadium in San Diego, San Fernando’s Valley Fiesta and Contra Costa Stadium in Walnut Creek.  

The Saturday May 14^th edition of the Ventura County Star Free Press featured an article that revealed that the Carpinteria Thunderbowl 1949 midget auto racing season would start on Monday evening May 16th.  The article revealed that “the track will be under the management of Bradley and Wanda McLure,” a couple that lived at 155 East Vince Street in Ventura. 

The article stated that Mr. McClure, who had 20 years’ experience as a superintendent at the Saticoy Rock Company in Ventura County, would “handle the track arrangements, while Mrs. McClure will attend to the concession stand.”

On Monday May 16 the Ventura County Star Free Press featured a Carpinteria Thunderbowl advertisement on page eight but on page nine, an article headlined “Rain Threat cancels Carpinteria Races,” noted that the Thunderbowl had scheduled a program “which featured an All-star card of top-notch drivers was lined up” until “Mrs. Bradley McLure cancelled due a threat of rain this morning and deferred until a week from tonight.”  

On May 20 the Ventura County newspaper carried a follow-up article in which Bradley McLure announced the cancellation of the races scheduled for May 23 and May 30 due to unfavorable weather conditions with the 1949 grand opening of the Thunderbowl postponed to June 6.

 The United Racing Association (URA) “Blue Circuit” drivers scheduled to headline the opening Carpinteria racing program included Danny Oakes, Johnny Garrett, Walt Faulkner, Dominic “Pee Wee” Distarce, “King Karl” Young and Rodger Ward. For the 1949 season, two drivers who jumped from the URA to the American Automobile Association (AAA) during the late summer of 1948, Norm Holtkamp and Cal Niday, returned to the URA fold along with their respective car owners, Roscoe Hogan and Arnold Krause.

On June 6^th, Faulkner defeated Ward in the Trophy Dash, with heat races wins to Garrett, Eddie Anderson, Jimmy Bryan and Bob Kelsey. Bryan beat Distarce to the checkered flag in the 15-lap semi-main which featured a crash that involved Bob Shimp and Al Sherman that required a red flag stoppage. Heath won the feature over Billy Cantrell in a comparatively slow time of 8 minutes and 18 seconds for the thirty laps.

The following week, June 13^th, Doug Groves set quick time in time trials at 11.95 seconds, but was edged out in the Trophy Dash by Billy Cantrell. ‘Skee’ Redican, Rodger Ward, Cliff Epp, and Bill Homeier recorded victories in their 6-lap heat races. Ward won the 15-lap semi-main event, then Bob Barker won the feature after both Jimmy Bryan and Cantrell spun themselves out of contention.   

Allen Heath won the June 20 URA “Blue Circuit” feature in the Lyle Greenman owned Offenhauser and Frank “Satan” Brewer won on June 27 in his own Ford V8-60 powered midget. In the meantime, the McLure family was negotiating to get out of their lease.

On July 1, a new promoter, Charlie Cake, signed the Carpinteria track lease with owner Jim Slaybaugh. In an appearance days later at the Ventura Police Boys’ Club, Cake announced his intention to also promote weekly motorcycle races at Carpinteria, which would begin with an exhibition during the scheduled July 4 URA “Blue Circuit” event.

The July 5^th race report in the Ventura County Star-Free Press noted that the 1/5-mile clay oval “appeared in better shape last night than since midget auto racing began two years ago.” The program started off with a bang when Walt Faulkner set a new track record in qualifying with a lap of 14.66 seconds. Faulkner whipped URA point leader Billy Cantrell in the trophy dash, then easily won his heat race. 

Howard Gardner, who flipped during the semi-main race on June 27^th, reversed his fortunes and snagged the semi-main win.  Faulkner, with chance for a “clean sweep” started the feature from seventh place, passed his teammate Len Faas for the lead on lap five, and romped to victory ahead of Faas, Chet Fink, Danny Oakes and Doug Groves.

A preview written before the first Thunderbowl weekly motorcycle race promised “at least 30 top-notch drivers from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties” that included Cal Cline, the operator of a local motorcycle shop, who took part in the July 4 exhibition. The scheduled motorcycle program included a four-lap trophy dash, eight lap heat races, a 15-lap semi and a 30-lap feature race. 

On July 7th brothers Glenn and Bob Mullaney of Santa Barbara “threaded their two-wheeled broncos through the pack to win first and second place” according to the July 8^th Ventura County Star-Free Press report, which noted that many in the average-sized crowd went away disappointed.

 

The article explained that “most of the blame…can be passed off to the track which was little more than a soft lumpy dirt road by the time three heat races were turned, and even worse when it came time for the consolation race and the main event.” Cal Cline, the local hero, flipped in the mushy dirt midway through the feature, but reportedly received "only friction burns on his hands and arms."

  

In the next URA midget program on Monday night July 11, Doug Groves of Van Nuys set quick time at 14.99 seconds then beat Bill Zaring in the Trophy Dash.  The evening’s heat race victories went to Bill LeRoy, Jim Bryan, Hal Minyard and Rodger Ward. The semi-main race win went to Bryan who set a new 15-lap record of 4 minutes and 64/100 seconds ahead of Kenny Morrison.

Just after Bill Cantrell took the checkered flag for the feature win, chaos erupted behind him. Hal Minyard hit the front stretch wall and his midget spun to stop, facing the approaching field. Doug Groves in third place, with nowhere to go, hit the Minyard car and his car flipped. Groves’ car came to rest upside down, with Doug who was unconscious, pinned inside for many minutes until he could be freed.  

Minyard miraculously escaped unhurt, but once Doug was removed from his midget, an ambulance rushed him to the Lying-In Osteopathic Hospital in Oxnard where the 33-year old driver was admitted with broken left leg and severe bruises on his chest.

The following week’s URA program on July 18^th was a benefit for Groves, with Doug brought to the track from the Oxnard hospital by Jay Ryan’s Ventura County ambulance service. Faulkner edged Garrett in the trophy dash, while Ward, Minyard, Cantrell and Bob Shimp scored heat races wins. Shimp led the semi-main until the Lea-Francis engine in his midget failed. which handed the win to Frank Brewer in his own Ford V8-60 powered car.

The 91-cubic inch Lea-Francis engine, purpose built in England for midget auto racing, featured dry-sump oiling, gear-driven double camshafts, four SU carburetors, with  a high compression ratio to run on alcohol.  Record-setting British driver Dudley Froy, Lea-Francis designer Ken Rose and chief engineer Albert Ludgate made trips to the United States in 1948 and 1949 to show and sell examples of the engine.

Besides Shimp, several US midget racers (including Woody Brown in Northern California) used the four-cylinder “LeaF” engine but it never became popular (less than a dozen were built), given that its 120 horsepower could not match the power of the Offenhauser four-cylinder engine and it sometimes put connecting rods through the side of the aluminum block.

  

The Ventura County Star-Free Press newspaper report called the July 18^th midget feature race “one of the most spectacular races ever at the Thunderbowl” as Cantrell, in the Casale Offenhauser, finished in seven minutes and 45.02 seconds, ahead of Bob Barker, who hounded Cantrell for all thirty laps, with Johnny Garrett the third place finisher.

The author is looking for any private vintage photographs of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl that readers may have. Please reach out to kevracerhistory@aol.com .  We can’t pay for use, we’re just looking to share images for those who never saw the track.     

The last half of the 1948 season at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl - chapter four

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part four - second half of the 1948 season

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

The Fourth of July fell on a Sunday in 1948 and for the holiday, a 50-lap feature event capped the Carpinteria Thunderbowl URA “Blue Circuit” midget racing program. The evening featured “lots of spills and thrills” as Bob Shimp lost control and hit the north wall during his heat race, while the machines of Johnny McFadden, Carl Brown, and Monty Kline all suffered broken axles and lost wheels during the night’s races. 

In winning the feature race over Johnny Garrett, Rod Simms, who earlier won the trophy dash, established a new track record for 10 miles as he took the checkered flag in 10 minutes and 18.1 seconds.

Gordon Reid won the July 11 feature, but the track’s first fatality overshadowed this result.  During a reported three-car “exhibition race,” James Joseph “Jimmy” McMahon died in an incident in the north turn. McMahon’s self-owned #161 midget suddenly swerved out of control, hit the wall, flipped and came to rest atop the crash wall upside down on the tail tank.

The track physician, Dr. Joseph E Whitlow of Ventura, pronounced McMahon dead at the accident scene and stated later to reporters that Jimmy died “almost instantly.” Track co-promoter Pete Truhitte, noted in a later newspaper interview with the Oxnard Press-Courier sportswriter Hal Totten that McMahon’s accident marked the first time that the track ambulance had been out of the infield that season.

McMahon’s death brought a close to a sad chapter of Australian midget auto racing.  A child movie star is his home country, as a young adult Jimmy McMahon raced motorcycles before he used his engineering skills and built his own pre-war midgets (called a speedcar in Australia) and engines.  In May 1947, Jimmy and his friend Dinny Patterson, the 1939 Australian speedcar champion, left Australia to race in the United States.

They traveled to the States with one-legged American racer Cal Niday, who spent the summer racing “down under.” Tragically, days after the pair’s arrival on United States soil, Patterson, 36 died after a time trial accident in his first race in the United States, the season opening race on the ¼ mile dirt track inside Balboa Stadium held May 30, 1947.  

The out-of-control midget Dinny drove crashed through the wooden outer fence and slammed into a concrete pillar. Newspapers reported that Dinny, admitted in fair condition to the nearby Quintard Hospital, suffered a broken collarbone, nose, and ribs but Patterson died on Tuesday, June 3rd.  Following instructions in a cable received from his wife Anita in Australia, officials cremated Dinny’s body and returned his ashes home.

An eight-cylinder engine of McMahon’s own creation powered the Kurtis-Kraft chassis that Jimmy drove that fateful July night in 1948 at Carpinteria. The engine used four Triumph 3T motorcycle vertical twin-cylinder barrels with the pushrods connected to a Ford V8-60 crankshaft located inside a fabricated sheet metal engine block. The innovative engine used three chain-operated camshafts – the inner chain controlled the intake valves and the two outer chains operated the exhaust valves

The oil pump and magneto drive mounted to the front of the chain case of the block, topped by a hand fabricated Intake manifold outfitted with a pair of Stromberg Model 97 carburetors.  Beyond these basics there are no details of the internal operation and the displacement of the one-of-a-kind McMahon midget engine.  

Jimmy’s wife, Betty, in the stands at Carpinteria that night, reportedly planned to take his body home to Sydney Australia, but on July 20 he was interred in the Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood.   

After Jimmy’s fatal crash, his one of a kind engine disappeared for many years. Found in a scrap yard, eventually it made its way into the hands of historian “Speedy Bill” Smith who restored it for display in the Museum of American Speed in Lincoln Nebraska, a tribute to a fallen racer.  

As part of the July 18^th Carpinteria racing program, two restored Ford Model T racers made exhibition runs while Johnny Garrett won the 30-lap feature in the Charlie Shaw owned Offenhauser. Days after the July 18 program, Pete Truhitte a barber who lived in Carpinteria, and ran a motel, told the Oxnard Press-Courier newspaper that he and co-promoter Harwood changed the midget racing program to Saturday nights effective immediately through the planned season conclusion on October 2, 1948.

On Saturday July 24 heat races victories went to Johnny Garrett, Joe DeHart, Jackie Jordan, and Don Cameron, and “King” Karl Young won the trophy dash.  During the 15-lap semi-main the cars of Jordan, DeHart, Bob Thomas and Johnny McFadden tangled and blocked the track, which brought out  the red flag to stop the race.

 

Once action resumed, Jordan, Bob Garrett, and Carl Brown finished in a virtual dead heat with Jordan awarded the semi-main win by inches.  In the feature, Bill Taylor grabbed the lead, fought off repeated challenges from Johnny Garrett and Bob Barker and held on for the win trailed by Barker and Garrett with “King” Karl fourth.

We do not have any details on the July 31^st racing program at Carpinteria beyond that Allen Heath won the feature in the AJ Walker owned #111.  Heath, with his first name often misspelled “Allan“ and described in the press as “the colorful playboy from the Northwest,” battled Troy Ruttman for supremacy at the beachfront Culver City Speedway. After Allen’s August 3^rd victory at Culver City, he and Ruttman were tied with three victories apiece.

In early August, Bob Harwood the Carpinteria co-promoter with Pete Truhitte, gave up the promotion of the Bakersfield Thunderbowl in Oildale that he ran with partners Dick Springston and Bob Murphy.  The change occurred within days following the death of local midget racer Jesse Romero at the Oildale oval.  Murphy, the third promoter at Bakersfield in three seasons, continued to promote Murphy’s Thunderbowl near Tulare.

Romero a 45-year-old father of three, died in an accident which began on the second lap of the July 30 consolation race. Jesse’s midget struck something in the infield, and out of control, bounced off Ed Spellman’s car then overturned.  Marty Mazeman, unable to avoid Jesse’s overturned car, struck it and it caught fire. Romero suffered a fractured skull and passed away on the way to the hospital.  

The new Bakersfield track promoters, brothers Bob and Howard Hawk, local contractors and racers, immediately re-named the track Bakersfield Speedway and presented a benefit race for Romero’s family as their first event. The night’s proceeds aided Jesse’s family - his wife, two sons and a daughter as he reportedly died without insurance  

Harwood and Truhitte apparently were struggling financially at Carpinteria. In late summer 1948, the midget racing scene in Southern California featured two sanctioning bodies, the American Automobile Association (AAA) and United Racing Association (URA), with three different promoters at the largest seating capacity, and thus highest purse, race tracks.

The URA held the exclusive sanctioning rights with promoter Gene Doyle at the popular Gilmore Stadium, which averaged 10,000 fans for its weekly midget racing program. At the massive Los Angeles Coliseum, promoter Bill White held an exclusive sanction agreement with the AAA, as did Alex Thompson and Bert Freidlob, the co-promoters of the Rose Bowl board track, which averaged 8,000 fans on race nights.

Southern California midget race drivers were in a tough spot, as they were forced to choose, and remain loyal to, one sanctioning body. To help offset the penalty for the URA drivers shut out of races at the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl, some URA track promoters offered added bonuses - $100 to the feature winner and $50 to the semi-main winner, which was a lot of money for drivers that averaged $400 a week in prize earnings which of course were spilt with their car owner. 

Carpinteria, as a small venue, only paid URA $1,000 for a program or 40% if the gates receipts exceeded $2,500 (over 2000 fans) from which the racers were paid.  On a typical night with 4500 fans which meant $2,250 in sanctioning fees for the URA.  This was a far cry from the average $4500 purse paid Gilmore Stadium.  

   

Bill Taylor won the August 7^th Carpinteria feature in the blue-and-white Ernie Casale Offenhauser midget, and on August 14 the winner was Danny Oakes who also scored four 1949 Gilmore Stadium midget features. The 1948 Carpinteria Thunderbowl season suddenly ended   after the September 4^th 50-lap feature which Rodger Ward won at the wheel of the Lyle Greenman Offenhauser #35 midget. 

  

1949 at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl would see many changes in track operations as the season progressed.    

The author is looking for any private vintage photographs of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl that readers may have. Please reach out to kevracerhistory@aol.com.  We can’t pay for use, we’re just looking to share images for those who never saw the track.     

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl Part three

The Carpinteria Thunderbowl

Part three - first half of the 1948 season

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.

For the 1948 season, the original Carpinteria promoter Jack Harwood had a new partner-  Pete Truhitte, a barber in Carpinteria. Before the 1948 season opened Harwood & Truhitte instituted a new format. According to Harwood, the program would start with four 10-lap heat races with the starting positions set by a blind draw.

The first six finishers in each heat (24 cars in total) then took a single time trial lap (instead of the previous three laps). The fastest 12 qualifiers then advanced to the 30-lap feature with a full invert. The top finishers in the 20-lap semi-main event which followed time trials would complete the feature starting field, with the three-lap trophy dash for the two top fastest qualifiers presented just before the feature. 

The opening daytime program at Carpinteria on Sunday May 2 saw light attendance with just 2500 fans and three Offenhauser cars supplemented by a field filled with Drakes and V-8 60s.  Walt Faulkner in an Offenhauser, Bob Barker in the Ray Gardner #4, Al Ward and Clarence Brock claimed the preliminary heat race wins.

In time trials, Barker set the day’s fast time at 17.22 seconds ahead of Harry Stockman who recorded a lap of 17.29 seconds. Rod Simms claimed the semi-main win, and Barker trounced Stockman in the trophy dash.  

The three Offenhauser powered midgets easily distanced themselves from the rest of the field in the feature, as Simms triumphed over Faulkner and Johnny Garrett, who had just returned to racing on April 30 at Orange Show following his burns suffered late in the 1947 season at the ARMS Rose Bowl event.  After the races, Harwood promised the crowd a complete field of URA “Blue Circuit” cars the following Sunday afternoon.

After that first week, the format reverted to its original order with time trials opening the racing program, albeit each car got only one flying lap to speed up the program. On the afternoon of May 9, the Thunderbowl delivered an exciting program, with the finish of three of four heat races reported as virtual dead heats.

The former P-38 pilot Rodger Ward was the day’s fast qualifier and beat Bob Barker in the trophy dash. In the first heat, Ward and 18-year-old Troy Ruttman in the AJ Walker Offenhauser midget battled over the entire 6-lap distance and Ward edged out the win by a nose. In the second heat race, Bill Taylor squeezed ahead of Barker at the finish line, while George Vevic edged out Frank Gilbert in the 20-lap semi-main.  

 “Roarin” Rod Simms won his second Carpinteria feature in a row in the red-and-white George Beavis #10 Kurtis-Kraft Offenhauser powered car. During the program, promoter Harwood informed the crowd that the Sunday program at Carpinteria would move to a 7:30 PM starting time the following Sunday.  

Simms could not defend his at Carpinteria crown on Sunday night May 16 as he recovered from injuries received in a single car crash at Gilmore Stadium on May 14.  Simms flipped and was knocked out but he later regained consciousness at Parkview Hospital as he received treatment for three broken ribs and facial lacerations. 

While Simms recovered from his injuries, Australian native George Beavis selected 43- year old “King” Karl Young to drive his repaired #10 midget.  Young started his racing career in “big cars“ in 1934 and began racing midgets in 1935. Karl quickly became one of midget auto racing’s early stars, along with Billy Betteridge, Fred Friday, Bob Swanson and Curly Mills, and won the 1936 Pacific Coast midget title.  

A new star, Troy Ruttman, emerged at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl on May 16^th. The fast qualifier Johnny Garrett was beaten in the trophy dash by Bill Taylor and Al Sherman held off Rodger Ward in the 15-lap semi-main. Troy Ruttman and Allen Heath battled throughout the 30-lap feature but as the pair sped out of turn four on the final lap, Heath’s mount lost its right rear wheel.

Heath somehow managed to keep his careening # 7 midget upright, but Billy Cantrell and three other cars passed Heath before his car skidded across the finish line in fifth place. The victorious Ruttman in the #111 midget had lowered the track record for 30 laps to 7 minutes and 52.65 seconds.

Ruttman won again on May 23rd to make it two victories in a row at Carpinteria as he lowered the 30-lap track record to 7 minutes and 50.32 seconds   Ruttman’s victory overshadowed the earlier record-setting exploits of pre-war racer Rodney “Corky” Benson in the #999 Ford V8-60 powered midget.

In time trials, Corky set a new one-lap track record of 14.65 seconds, then Benson thrilled the crowd with another record-setting victory in the trophy dash as he set a new three-lap record of 44.82 seconds. Corky set a new standard for 15 laps as he won the semi-main in 4 minutes and 13.38 seconds.

The May 29^th edition of the Ventura County Star-Free Press newspaper contained a promotional article in which Jack Harwood promised a “full card of lead foots” with “the best pilots in the southern section of the URA” for the Memorial Day Sunday evening show scheduled to start at 8 PM. However, there is no record in Dick Wallen’s book Distant Thunder for a URA “Blue Circuit” race held at Carpinteria on May 30, 1948, nor are there any contemporary newspaper reports.

Over seventy years later, the author’s assumption is that the May 30 race was not held, perhaps due to low car count, as the URA had trouble providing enough cars for shows in outlying areas away from Los Angeles during May 1948 for several reasons. First, two URA star drivers Simms (broken ribs) and Walt Faulkner (broken shoulder and fractured skull) were both out with injuries.

Secondly, many URA drivers and cars were in England for the disastrous midget racing tour promoted by Hollywood producer Bert Friedlob, the husband of movie star Eleanor Parker, and tinplate heir Henry J “Bob” Topping, who had recently married screen siren Lana Turner.

A third factor in the low URA car counts was that several of the URA stars were in Indianapolis to try their hand at the big 2-1/2-mile oval for the big 500-mile payday. Mack Hellings and Johnny Mantz, two stalwarts at Carpinteria, made their first ‘500’ race appearances.

Mack drove Southern California car dealer and radio broadcasting heir Tommy Lee’s ‘Don Lee Special’ Kurtis 2000 to a fifth-place finish after he started 21^st, while Mantz drove the similar #98 ‘City of San Pedro Special’ to a 13th place finish with 185 laps completed after he started in the 8th position.  

1948 IMS qualifying photo of Johnny Mantz

Author's Collection 

Mantz almost did not get his chance, as the American Automobile Association (AAA) the governing body of championship car racing, ruled that racing promoter Joshua “JC” Agajanian could not enter the #98 car at Indianapolis. 

The AAA barred Agajanian because he was the president of an “outlaw” racing organization, the Western Racing Association (WRA), which sanctioned “big car” races in California.   To bypass the AAA edict, Mantz’ car was officially entered by Agajanian’s two mechanics, Clay Smith and Danny Jones.

In qualifying that started the June 6 Carpinteria Thunderbowl program, Troy Ruttman set a new one-lap track record of 14.44 seconds, but he lost the trophy dash to Norm Holtkamp who drove the red-and-yellow #34 midget. 

In the second heat race, Rocky Ferrell hooked a rut hit the north turn outer wall and suffered a facial cut that took six stitches for track medics to close   Pedro “Pee Wee” Distarce won the semi-main event with a new record time 4 minutes and 8.34 seconds ahead of Johnny McFadden and Joe DeHart.  Ruttman found victory lane at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl in as many attempts.  

  

The June 13, 1948 Carpinteria race marked Rod Simms’ return after recovery from the injuries he suffered May 14 at Gilmore Stadium.  Simms set quick time, then defeated Bill Taylor in the 3-lap trophy dash. Troy Ruttman, Al Long, Bob Barker and Johnny McFadden won their respective 6-lap heat races and Bob Rhodes won the Semi-main race.

 

In the feature, Ruttman dominated until the 11th lap when he climbed the crash wall in the north turn. Simms grabbed the lead after starting tenth, but he later bobbled in traffic and Bob Barker beat him to the finish line in a photo finish.

On Sunday night, June 20, Al Long, Allen Heath, Kiwi star Frankie “Satan” Brewer and Bill Taylor won the four heat races while Bob Sellers captured the trophy and kiss from the trophy queen in the dash. Bob Barker led the feature early but dropped out with mechanical problems which handed the lead to Dean Metzler in the Krouse #7.

Metzler doggedly held on as his main pursuers, Gordon Reid and Johnny Garrett, touched wheels and spun out on the 18th lap, then Metzler lost the lead when he spun out on lap 21.  Tommy Elliott in the Joe Petruzzi #8 Offenhauser inherited the lead and held on to win over Rod Simms, while Reid recovered from his earlier spin to finish in third place.

During the week before the June 27 race at Carpinteria, Troy Ruttman switched rides, as he moved from the #111 to the Murphy Motors #47, and Allen Heath replaced Ruttman in the seat of the #111 owned by AJ Walker.  The Carpinteria program opened as Johnny Garrett beat Billy Cantrell in the trophy dash.  

The 1/5-mile track proved to be lightning fast this night as Art George, just back from England, reset the six-lap track record in his #16 Offenhauser as he blazed to the win in the 6-lap heat race in one minute and 30.97 seconds. Pee Wee Distarce and Al Long also posted heat race wins.

In the semi-main, Hal Minyard in Vern Boone’s V8-60 powered midget destroyed the old track record as he finished the 15 laps in 4 minutes and 6.01 seconds. In the main, Heath proved that car owner AJ Walker made the right decision as he won in a new record time of 7 minutes and 44.46 seconds ahead of “Roarin” Rod Simms and Garrett. 

The author is looking for any private vintage photographs of the Carpinteria Thunderbowl that readers may have. Please reach out to kevracerhistory@aol.com.  We can’t pay for use, we’re just looking to share images for those who never saw the track.