Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Open Wheel Madness, Part 2 - Midget Racing (Stephen Bubb)

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Open Wheel Madness, Part 2 - Midget Racing (Stephen Bubb) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  BreakFix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
• 0:04
  by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
• 0:07
  Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
• 0:11
  Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
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  Well, my name is Kip Snyder.
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  For those who may not know, I'm the Visitor Services Outreach
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  Coordinator for the International Motor Racing Research Center.
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  And I want to welcome you all here.
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  Thank you for taking a little time out of your afternoon to come visit us.
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  As we talk about open wheel madness, before we get going, I have several
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  people I need to thank on this.
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  First of all, and foremost of all, our two speakers, Mr.
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  Herb and a store and Steven Bob, when we were considering.
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  Putting this program together, I emailed Lenny Sammons from Area Auto Racing News
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  and asked him what we were projecting to do and who might I get that would
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  be experts in their field and, and Mr.
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  Sammons immediately suggested Herb and Steve.
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  We are very happy and very honored to have them here today.
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  I am personally fascinated at both of the things they're going to talk about.
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  Stephen's going to talk about sprint car and open wheel racing in the 20s
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  and 30s and some guy named Al Capone.
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  And what he had to do with racing.
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  And that was the hook that got me psyched on his talk as well.
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  So I certainly want to thank both Herb and Stephen for coming here.
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  Yes.
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  Thank you again.
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  Uh, we've certainly enjoyed our presentation and I'm looking
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  forward to what Stephen has to say.
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  First off, it's going to be really tough to come up after Herb.
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  That was excellent.
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  My name's, uh, Stephen Bubb and it was really great to get back up in this area.
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  My high school years, I lived across the state line in Tawanda.
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  I worked for a gentleman who owned a number of tree farms,
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  including one in Dundee, New York.
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  So I'd have to come up here and spend some time in Dundee
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  working at his, uh, tree farm.
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  Unfortunate thing was on Fridays, I'd have to go home.
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  So I have to go right past Dundee Speedway as the race cars were going in.
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  Always tough to do, being a real true racing fan.
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  Little background, I am from the Harrisburg area.
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  I live Right across the river from Harrisburg.
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  Have a fortunate spot because we're right in the middle of
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  a racing hotbed down there.
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  From my house, the wind's blowing right.
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  You can hear Williams Grove Speedway running.
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  You can hear Susquehanna, which is now BAP Speedway.
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  You can hear that track running.
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  I am the, uh, librarian at the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing.
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  I've been retired from work for about a year.
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  I worked in Pennsylvania House of Representatives on staff, and
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  that is why I don't have any hair.
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  Because if you work with politicians for 30 years, you lose a lot of hair.
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  And I am really glad I got retired.
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  Did a lot of things in motorsports.
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  I was a corner flagman.
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  Assistant Flagman.
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  I've worked on pit crews, done scoring, been a head scorer, been
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  a publicity director at Williams Grove Speedway for a while when
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  they had the Saturday Night Series.
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  I've been very involved in racing, working with the Eastern Museum of
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  Motor Racing as a librarian, which has just been absolutely fascinating.
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  Any museum, like the museum you have here, is a treasure.
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  I hope everybody appreciates what you have here.
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  Each museum, they're priceless, and what we're doing to save racing
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  history, we have to do it, because so much racing history is being
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  lost every single day, and we have to preserve every little bit of it.
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  So, I'm gonna be talking about 1920s and 1930s racing.
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  The United States entered the 1920s, having just come out of World War I.
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  1920s, The American public was hungry for entertainment.
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  Leading the way in summer sports was naturally baseball.
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  Also attracting plenty of the public's attention was automobile racing.
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  Automobile competition was going through its growing pains as it ended the 1920s.
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  Tracks were plentiful as horse tracks dotted the countryside.
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  As 1920s racing began, there were two basic forms of dirt track competition.
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  There were the stock cars, the road cars of the day.
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  The second form was the engineered machines constructed for the speedway.
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  Now this is Speed Gardner's car.
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  This was from the 1920s, I believe it was 1928 that this photo.
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  The second form is of interest.
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  Today we call them sprint cars.
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  A look at the history of the sprint car shows the name
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  came about late 1950s, 1960.
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  Prior to that time, they were known as big cars.
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  This leads to an interesting discussion that was recently occurred.
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  Racing historians go with what I term the Chris Economacky rule.
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  Economacky, the dean of motorsports, said the term big car came with
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  the arrival of midget racing.
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  When midgets burst upon the scene in 1934 and 1935, promoters began referring to
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  the other racing cars This was shown to be true in advertising from the mid 1930s.
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  Racetrack promoters would often state in their advertisements that they were having
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  races featuring big cars, not midgets.
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  So what were the big cars prior to the arrival of midgets?
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  Often newspapers just announced automobile races with no distinction between stock
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  car and manufactured racing machines.
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  One term I found used in newspapers, and the term I use, is speedsters.
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  Another term I noticed was light cars.
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  There is one problem.
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  In 1920s newspapers, mainly in Philadelphia and Altoona, I found where
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  they referenced the cars as big cars.
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  This creates an issue with the Chrisikali Maki rule.
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  I brought up the concern with noted racing historian Tom Schmee.
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  It left both of us puzzled, and for those of you that know Tom Schmee,
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  uh, tell him I said don't get a big head because I mentioned him today.
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  Tom's a good friend of mine.
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  I decided to look into 1920s usage of big cars, and I came up with two theories.
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  The first is engine size.
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  At some of the races during the 1920s, they split the cars by engine size.
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  They had a class for cars using engines 450 cubic inches and less.
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  There was a second class using engines 320 cubic inches or less.
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  Big car may refer to the cars using the larger engines.
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  A second theory deals with a traveling racing group.
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  In the 1920s, there was a traveling racing group that staged exhibition races.
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  They featured cars called tiny cars.
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  I was fascinated about this form of racing and located a
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  newspaper photograph of a tiny car.
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  They were the forerunner of the midget.
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  They're about the same size as a midget.
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  This car has headlights on it.
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  But it is basically about the same size and they used an outboard
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  engine like the early midgets used.
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  Shanley Park, we have discovered, was the first track in Pennsylvania
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  to hold a automobile race.
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  We first thought it was in Philadelphia in 1899 and I was doing some research
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  on 1899 motorcycle racing and I found results and it said the winner won
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  a July 4th, 1899 motorcycle race.
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  At Shenley Park, and I thought, we have no history of that.
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  So I immediately dug into Pittsburgh newspapers and sure enough, there
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  was an automobile race July 4th, 1899 at Shenley Park in Pittsburgh.
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  That track is still there, it's now a running track.
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  So Shenley Park was actually the first track in Pennsylvania.
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  to hold an automobile race.
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  After discovering the tiny car group, the term big car was possibly used
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  to separate the two forms of cars.
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  For this discussion, I will use the term speedsters.
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  We have speedsters becoming big cars, and big cars eventually becoming a sprint car.
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  As racing entered the 1920s, competition was mainly on horse tracks.
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  There were a few raceways built exclusively for automobile racing,
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  However, the overwhelming number of races were on fairground horse tracks.
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  I do want to point out an interesting aspect to racing research.
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  My history research hero is Joanne Freeman.
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  Ms.
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  Freeman is one of our country's leading historic researchers.
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  Through studying Ms.
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  Freeman's research, I learned that too often we get locked
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  into the well traveled path.
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  To find missing history nuggets, one must veer off the well lit well
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  traveled path and instead venture into history's dark, unlit alleys.
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  By rooting through history's sometime unkept past, the gems
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  that were missed come to life.
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  Using this line of thought, I went to work on the existence
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  of 1920 racing facilities.
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  Almost every county had a fairground horse track, and automobile races
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  were prevalent at these facilities.
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  What too many researchers miss are the small town horse tracks.
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  At the time, many small towns still had some type of fairground.
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  By digging into small town newspapers, suddenly long lost automobile races
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  came to life at these small town tracks.
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  Racing was going strong in the 1920s, and stronger than many knew.
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  The small town horse tracks hosted horse racing events.
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  To increase attendance at their horse races, the small town ovals were
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  adding automobile and motorcycle races.
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  AAA was the main sanctioning body of the time.
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  To have a AAA sanction on your race was a badge of honor.
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  At first, AAA only sanctioned races on tracks a mile or larger.
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  I found an article where a Western Pennsylvania track was able to track AAA.
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  Their horse track was a half mile in size.
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  When they filled out the paperwork for AAA, they listed the track as a mile.
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  The AAA officials were unaware of the discrepancy until they
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  arrived the day of the race.
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  They allowed the race to be held with the AAA sanction, but following the
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  event, They permanently banned the track from staging another AAA race.
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  In the 1920s, AAA was the leading sanctioning body.
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  They did have some competition.
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  The International Motor Contest Association was one
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  of their leading competitors.
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  The American Automobile Racing Corporation was a strong group.
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  AAA and the American Automobile Racing Corporation co sanctioned
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  races at the Allentown Fairground.
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  Another group trying to make some ground in the racing
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  business was the International Automobile Racing Association.
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  There were smaller racing groups such as the National Motor Racing Association
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  and the Tri State Racing Association.
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  The racing situation at the time was much the same as our present time.
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  If AAA sanctioned the event, usually a handful of AAA stars
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  would participate in the race.
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  The remainder of the racing field was filled out by local stars.
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  It was a situation that could be compared to our present day World
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  of Outlaws or All Star Circuit.
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  They bring in some of the star drivers and the remainder of the
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  field will be local competitors.
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  One star driver every track was hoping to draw was Ralph De Palma.
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  De Palma won the 1915 Indianapolis 500.
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  During his career, at some point he held every speed record from a
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  half mile to the Indianapolis track.
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  This taking place on track surfaces from dirt, board, and brick.
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  In an interview from the 1920s, DePalma talked about his views on racing.
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  Automobile racing is the cleanest and fairest of all, said DePalma.
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  Lots of people out there believe that every race is fixed before it starts.
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  That every accident is planned by the poor drivers just to give the fans a thrill.
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  They are wrong.
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  Every man who competes in automobile races believes that he is the best in the world.
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  Give a driver a large crowd for whom he can perform and he
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  will fairly eat up the track.
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  Hitting the curves with the gas feed down.
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  Roaring on the straight stretches like a demon.
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  The drivers are just too busy trying to reach the top to be
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  bothered by dirty and unfair topics.
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  Then two prizes to automobile racers are exceedingly small.
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  Good dirt track drivers make a living, but not much more.
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  Ralph De Palma in the interview had an interesting take on racing accidents.
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  He believed that having three crashes was almost like having a good luck charm.
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  Every driver suffers three mishaps, DePalma explained.
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  It's part of the game's tradition.
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  I've had my three crackups and have been laid up in the hospital for
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  as long as seven weeks at a time.
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  I'm not due for more than that sort of thing.
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  Three and that's all.
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  You think it's funny?
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  Well, we're all glad when the third smash up has been passed.
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  The third one puts a rabbit foot or some other lucky piece in your car for keeps.
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  So that's an interesting take.
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  He believed that three crashes and you were lucky then.
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  Not going to have any other serious wrecks.
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  Ralph De Palma toured the country towing his racing machine.
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  Starting in 1924, he began competing in a Miller Special.
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  The Michigan driver had Wesley Crawford and Reeve Stanley serving as mechanics.
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  De Palma's engine used a supercharger of his own design.
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  DePalma said his engine had a price tag of 10, 500.
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  That price tag should raise plenty of eyebrows.
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  When computed to inflation, Ralph DePalma's engine
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  today would cost 158, 262.
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  You could buy a lot of 410 engines today for that amount of money.
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  There were other drivers that were touring the nation.
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  Speed Gardner, who we saw in the earlier photo.
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  Ira Vail, IP and Nat Federman.
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  Zeke Myers, Jimmy Gleason, Russell Snowberger.
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  Frank Lockhart, Wilbur Shaw, Ernie Triplett are names of
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  drivers that were out on the road.
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  When they arrived at the local track, sometimes there would be stiff
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  competition from the local talent.
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  One such driver was named A.
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  B.
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  Litz, or better known as Deacon Litz.
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  Deacon Litz was from Du Bois, Pennsylvania, and ran a tavern
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  known as the Quiet Woman.
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  There's an interesting story on it, but I won't go into it.
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  Don't go into it because it would be called sexist as to
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  why he named it The Quiet Woman.
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  Had something to do with his wife.
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  The local paper referred to Litz as a consistent, non spectacular
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  speed artist at Du Bois.
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  I don't know if I want to be known as non spectacular, but
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  that's what he was called.
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  Litz in his early days built his own cars and towed to the regional tracks
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  to compete against the national stars.
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  Litz was defeating the big names and he began to accept better rides.
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  Litz eventually went from local driver to national driver.
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  He competed in 12 Indianapolis 500s.
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  A press release from an October 8, 1927 speedster race at the Bloomsburg
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  Fairground highlighted Deacon Litz.
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  On a day when the grandstands were sold out and people were
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  sitting in the aisles, the racing commenced with an invitational race.
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  Deacon Litz defeated the Field of Seven in a 10 lap race.
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  Then his day hit a major issue.
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  Deacon Litz, read the press release, owner of a 20, 000 Miller Special, while
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  in time trials, suffered heavy damage to his machine when a piston broke
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  and plunged through the engine block.
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  Automobile men estimated the damage at several thousand dollars.
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  Litz previously had won the Five Mile Invitational event, and there was every
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  indication he would lead the field in every race in which he participated.
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  Did you take notice in the price of his race car?
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  A 20, 000 race car at that time was a top line machine.
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  When adjusted for inflation today, that race car would be worth 285, 262.
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  That's for a dirt track car.
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  An interesting side story on Deacon Litz.
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  When Prohibition hit, Litz was arrested for violating the Prohibition laws.
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  His sentence was to come in May, the same month as the Indianapolis 500.
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  Litz made a deal whereby he pled guilty to violating the prohibition laws.
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  Judge A.
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  R.
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  Chase sentenced Litz to three months in county jail along with a fine of 400.
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  As part of the deal, the judge suspended the sentence until December
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  after all racing was completed.
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  Litz cut a real nice deal.
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  Another driver that would take the money from the National Stars
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  was named Lafayette Stallman, better known as Leif Stallman.
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  Stallman competed at tracks that were outside the AAA sanction.
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  AAA had a ban on their drivers competing on tracks outside AAA's sanction.
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  Some of the drivers did race at non sanctioned events.
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  Using an alias, which sometimes makes it difficult for racing
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  historians, some of the star AAA competitors raced in the outlaw races.
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  The Brookville, Pennsylvania driver traveled around to several
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  states and was quite successful competing in his 16 valve Dodge.
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  In 1924, he made the decision to retire from racing.
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  In the Jefferson Democrat newspaper, Leif Stallman placed an advertisement
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  listing his race car for sale.
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  The advertisement read, For sale.
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  Racing car.
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  Elegant condition.
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  Equipped with the best racing equipment money can buy.
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  Has record for half mile track of 29 seconds.
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  Has record for mile track of 52 seconds.
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  Is light and fast.
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  Will sell to the right quick buyer.
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  Reason for selling, am in business and cannot follow it up.
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  Another probable reason for his 1924 retirement came on August 9, 1924.
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  He was leading a race when a lapped car crowded him into the fencing.
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  His Dodge struck the fence and a 12 year old boy that was sitting on the
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  fencing, instantly killing the child.
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  Stallman's car went down an embankment and landed on a sand pile.
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  Stallman had several broken ribs, severe cuts, and a wrenched back.
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  Stallman's retirement was short, though.
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  He built a new car called a Frontenac Buick.
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  He took a Frontenac and a Buick, combining parts from both machines.
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  Stallman constructed a new, quick car.
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  Stallman became an outlaw driver long before the term outlaws became popular.
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  He sought out high paying races around the Middle Atlantic region.
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  In 1926, the new Kensington Half Mile track, located
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  north of Pittsburgh, opened.
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  The track, called the Million Dollar Speedway, due to the cost of
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  building the raceway, opened with a non sanctioned automobile race.
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  To attract attention, plus drivers and racing fans, The raceways of Management
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  decide to pay $1,000 to the winner today.
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  Many tracks pay $1,000 to the winner.
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  That money brought La Stallman.
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  Stallman won the race, taking the long route, noticing the
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  track was rough on the bottom.
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  Each lap Stallman was against the outside rail.
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  Stallman estimated he probably ran an extra quarter mile each
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  circuit of the 200 lap race.
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  Stillman's Outlaw style caught up to him.
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  In 1926, AA began to move into the tracks that dotted the
• 17:39
  Western section of Pennsylvania.
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  AAA made an ultimatum.
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  You have to join AA if you wanna compete in our races.
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  If you join aa, you can no longer race at tracks not sanctioned by aaa.
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  On July 24th, 1926, Stallman won AAA sanctioned race.
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  At the Dubois fairground.
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  A week later, he was competing in a race not sanctioned by Triple A.
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  Triple A's action was quick.
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  On August 4, Triple A announced Leif Stallman was disqualified from the
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  Dubois win because the July 31 race was a contest neither sanctioned
• 18:13
  nor supervised by the contest board.
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  Triple A also announced Stallman was permanently barred from
• 18:19
  any further AAA contest.
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  Stallman's excursion into non sanctioned field was a particularly flagrant
• 18:26
  violation of regulations, the AAA board statement said, coming as it did only
• 18:30
  a few days after the bars had been let down at his most urgent appeal to be
• 18:35
  permitted to enter sanctioned racing.
• 18:37
  When the tracks at Butler, Pennsylvania and Lawn City, Pennsylvania entered
• 18:41
  racing last May, all Western Pennsylvania drivers were given an opportunity to join.
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  Stallman was not among those who took advantage of the offer, and later, when
• 18:50
  he asked to come in, he was refused.
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  He pleaded, however, that he had not been offered the opportunity to enter in May.
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  For that reason, he was admitted on July 23, the day before the Dubois
• 19:02
  race, upon the express stipulation that should he ever backslide,
• 19:06
  he would be permanently out.
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  Yet in the face of that agreement, he refused.
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  He raced outside the following week.
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  Neither this board nor the triple a has any quarrel with any promoters,
• 19:16
  car owners, and drivers outside its sanction, but it does have a
• 19:20
  standard, which is not often equal.
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  It desires that this standard shall be set an example that nothing shall
• 19:26
  dim its present and well defined leadership that the attempt it has
• 19:30
  made to make racing clean and Gert was safety shall not be undermined.
• 19:35
  Unless AAA drivers live up to these standards, they cannot be maintained, and
• 19:40
  no driver can live up to them by racing today on a track sanctioned by AAA and
• 19:45
  tomorrow on one that does not qualify.
• 19:48
  Did that deter Stallman?
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  Not in the least.
• 19:51
  He continued his outlaw style, working around AAA sanctioned tracks.
• 19:55
  Continued racing into the early 1930s.
• 19:58
  The ban by AAA did keep him from making the big next step up the racing ladder.
• 20:03
  There is one driver from this era that time has forgotten, but he deserves
• 20:06
  his place in automobile racing fame.
• 20:09
  His name is Andy Crumshaw.
• 20:11
  Andy Crumshaw was not a known feature winner, but he was a fascinating
• 20:15
  story of racing determination.
• 20:17
  Crumshaw was from Alliance, Ohio.
• 20:20
  Due to an issue at birth, Crumshaw lost both of his legs at the hip.
• 20:24
  He also had part of his right arm amputated.
• 20:27
  Despite the inflictions, Crumshaw went after life with a gusto.
• 20:31
  Andy Crumshaw was well known in Alliance.
• 20:33
  He owned and operated the largest newsstand and retail
• 20:36
  business on the east end of town.
• 20:38
  Crumshaw never considered himself crippled.
• 20:40
  One of his great projects was building a car of his own design.
• 20:44
  Taking several different cars, Crumshaw constructed a luxury
• 20:47
  car, one that he drove across the country and across southern Canada.
• 20:51
  Crumshaw loved racing.
• 20:52
  He took a Frontenac and rebuilt it.
• 20:54
  He would steer the car with his left arm.
• 20:56
  Crumshaw made an extension he placed on his right arm.
• 20:59
  Using that extension, he could operate the gas and the brake.
• 21:03
  Andy Crumshaw toured around the country, although the majority of
• 21:06
  his racing was from Ohio and East.
• 21:08
  Many of the tracks would advertise his upcoming races, stating the
• 21:12
  invalid driver would be competing.
• 21:14
  Andy Crumshaw was anything but an invalid.
• 21:16
  He was a competitive racer.
• 21:18
  And often finished in the top five.
• 21:20
  He won a feature at the Evensburg Fairground.
• 21:23
  One fascinating thing I find about this is his mechanic has an arm and a sling.
• 21:27
  And I take it that somewhere along the line the two of
• 21:30
  them had quite an adventure.
• 21:32
  Crumshaw's racing did hit a major obstacle in 1927.
• 21:35
  While racing at Lisbon, Ohio, the leader suddenly slowed and
• 21:39
  Crumshaw's car made heavy contact.
• 21:41
  Andy Crumshaw was transported to the hospital and received the bad news.
• 21:45
  He had broken his left arm, the good arm, placing him on the sidelines for a while.
• 21:49
  Just before I came up here, I did find another story on Andy.
• 21:52
  He has apparently a good sense of humor because When he broke that arm, he
• 21:56
  came back to the track while the races were still going on, went over to the
• 22:00
  judges stand, held up the arm in the sling and said, look, it's the good arm.
• 22:03
  So apparently he had a very good sense of humor.
• 22:06
  Racing popularity was strong.
• 22:08
  This is a young driver just making his start and it's a driver that
• 22:13
  anybody that follows racing will know.
• 22:15
  This is Lenny Duncan, and this is at Deer Park, New York.
• 22:19
  We think this is probably about 1925, 1926, somewhere in there.
• 22:25
  We received at Eastern Museum many of Lenny's photos, and this
• 22:29
  was at the bottom of the box.
• 22:30
  And one day I was rooting through, and I thought, Oh, this is,
• 22:33
  this is absolutely tremendous.
• 22:34
  That's an amazing photo.
• 22:35
  In going through newspaper accounts of races, both AAA and non sanctioned,
• 22:39
  the announced crowds were amazing.
• 22:41
  Often the attendance at half mile races would be around
• 22:44
  20, 000, sometimes grating.
• 22:46
  Racing was profitable, and this money brought the seedier
• 22:49
  underside into the sport.
• 22:51
  There were reports of promoters taking the money and running.
• 22:54
  The sport also attracted the attention of organized crime.
• 22:57
  I found two interesting stories about organized crime in the 1920s.
• 23:01
  The first came in 1922.
• 23:02
  It's actually not a dirt track.
• 23:04
  This is the Uniontown Speedway.
• 23:06
  It was one of the leading raceways in the country.
• 23:08
  The criminal element saw an opportunity and began sending individuals into
• 23:12
  the track to open a betting line.
• 23:14
  A lot of money was exchanging hands as bets were being placed not only
• 23:17
  on the outcome of the race, but on other elements of the event.
• 23:21
  In 1922, the tracks management learned of the activity and alerted the police.
• 23:25
  The Speedways Management issued a press release stating that no gambling will
• 23:29
  be allowed inside the track's gates.
• 23:32
  The press release read, A number of sportily inclined gentlemen have been
• 23:36
  attempting to make books on the big event, and it is to block the plans of these men.
• 23:40
  Anyone detected making a bet at the track on Saturday will
• 23:44
  be ejected without ceremony.
• 23:46
  There will be a number of police officers in plainclothes stationed throughout
• 23:49
  the grandstand and infield on Saturday with orders to place anyone under arrest
• 23:54
  who violates the rules of this respect.
• 23:56
  The Uniontown newspaper decided to investigate the betting situation.
• 24:00
  While the Uniontown Speedway management could control the betting
• 24:03
  inside the track's gates, they had no control outside the raceway.
• 24:07
  The newspaper found bookies had set up betting.
• 24:09
  Some of the wagers were what the newspaper called a freakish nature.
• 24:14
  Some of the wagers discovered by the paper included odds of 2 to 1 that an
• 24:18
  accident will occur on Death Curve, where several spills took place.
• 24:22
  There was even money that none of the cars would change a front tire.
• 24:26
  Due to one was offered that none of the drivers will go the
• 24:28
  entire 225 miles without a stop.
• 24:32
  There was even money that 1, 000 automobiles will be
• 24:35
  parked inside the speedway.
• 24:37
  I wonder who had the chore of going in and counting 1, 000
• 24:40
  automobiles inside the speedway.
• 24:41
  There was 3 to 1 that rain will not interfere with the event, and 4 to 1 that
• 24:46
  no one will be killed during the race.
• 24:48
  It was 6 to 1 that the winner will not lead all the laps, and even
• 24:52
  money that engine trouble will put at least two cars out of the race.
• 24:56
  Other strange wagers were, the winning car will have an odd number,
• 25:00
  and another bet was on whether the feature winner will be a married man.
• 25:04
  Racing caught the interest of one of crime's most notable individuals.
• 25:08
  Mr.
• 25:08
  Al Capone became involved in stage what might be one of
• 25:12
  our sport's greatest races.
• 25:13
  From 1920 through 1933, prohibition was in full force.
• 25:18
  Al Capone and some of his criminal element were gaining large amounts of
• 25:22
  money by supplying bootleg alcohol.
• 25:24
  Capone needed some way to hide and move money.
• 25:27
  One way was through automobile racing.
• 25:29
  After Capone was sentenced and on his way to prison, Johnny Black,
• 25:33
  the former personal and publicity director for driver Barney Oldfield
• 25:37
  came forward about Capone and racing.
• 25:40
  In a newspaper interview, Black talked about Capone and his
• 25:43
  bootleg buddies using racing.
• 25:45
  Al Capone was as strewed in racing as he was in business.
• 25:48
  To hide some of the money he was making through bootleg alcohol,
• 25:51
  Capone began to purchase race cars.
• 25:54
  He bought good cars, often ones that raced at Indianapolis and other big speedways.
• 25:59
  He made the purchases through a third party.
• 26:01
  Keeping his name out of the deal.
• 26:03
  The same was true when hiring drivers.
• 26:05
  It was handled through a third party.
• 26:07
  The drivers would learn of the car's real owner after the competitors made
• 26:11
  the final agreement to drive the car.
• 26:13
  Capone's dealing and racing caught the attention of other
• 26:16
  operators in the criminal world.
• 26:19
  Al Capone and some of his principal lieutenants suggested a way to
• 26:22
  settle differences between factions.
• 26:24
  Tiring of using tommy guns to settle differences, they suggested
• 26:28
  staging an automobile race.
• 26:30
  When the big Chicago 10 mile race was announced, Johnny Black
• 26:33
  said, the gangsters entered them under assumed names.
• 26:37
  They then commenced to select the drivers.
• 26:39
  The mob heads wanted the best.
• 26:41
  They were willing to pay the price.
• 26:43
  They got the best pilots money can buy.
• 26:45
  Exactly 45 kingpins of speed swayed by money and orders of the bootleg
• 26:50
  kings were on hand to qualify.
• 26:52
  On race day, there were 45 cars and drivers, all owned by
• 26:56
  some member of organized crime.
• 26:58
  A few minutes before the race, the field increased to 47.
• 27:02
  Drivers Bill Chittum and William Wolfe heard about the race and decided to enter.
• 27:06
  They did so not knowing the circumstance of the race.
• 27:09
  The race organizers were quite willing to take their entry money.
• 27:12
  One problem occurred prior to the race.
• 27:14
  The race starter, the head flagman, Apparently being tipped off,
• 27:18
  took flight and sought safety.
• 27:20
  Johnny Black had flagging experience and accepted the position.
• 27:23
  There were 47 cars on hand, only 18 were going to make the starting field.
• 27:28
  Johnny Black said that, tersely told that they must earn their stipends from
• 27:32
  their bootlegger bosses, And that if they laid down and lived after the race, they
• 27:37
  might look forward to a ride after it.
• 27:39
  In this atmosphere of death, the pilots threw everything they and their
• 27:43
  cars had into the speed activities.
• 27:45
  To the speed kings, it looked as if the old Grim Reaper was handling
• 27:49
  the flags himself that day, with a fateful fate in prospect for the racing
• 27:52
  pilots, if they did not win, and a potential death facing them if they did.
• 27:57
  Narrowing the 47 cars down to 18 presented some of the most
• 28:01
  intense racing ever witnessed.
• 28:03
  By the end of qualifying, the drivers had smashed the smithereens
• 28:06
  more than 1, 000 feet of fencing.
• 28:09
  Drivers went through holes in the fencing made earlier by other drivers.
• 28:12
  William Wolfe, the outsider that entered the race at the last second,
• 28:16
  could not believe what he was watching.
• 28:18
  Unaware of the situation, Wolf commented in an interview about the
• 28:21
  almost insane racing he was incurring.
• 28:24
  If you took your foot off the accelerator for a second, Wolf said, not one, but
• 28:28
  about a dozen cars flashed by you.
• 28:31
  And those boys were driving.
• 28:32
  I want to tell you, they were maniacs.
• 28:34
  I did not understand until afterwards.
• 28:37
  The best made plans by the gangsters failed on this day.
• 28:40
  The two outsiders, Wolf and Chittum, finished first and second in the feature.
• 28:44
  Bill Chittum won, and William Wolf a close second.
• 28:47
  Upon reporting to the pits, Chittum and Wolf were informed
• 28:50
  of the race's circumstances.
• 28:51
  Two quickly gathered their winnings and made a hasty exit of the track.
• 28:55
  They were not the only ones to make a quick exit of the track.
• 28:58
  Following the race, flagman Johnny Black received the same information.
• 29:02
  When I learned after the race that the racketeers had taken this way
• 29:05
  to settle their disputes instead of with machine guns and fear for lest
• 29:09
  I might be blamed for the loss of their cars later, I did not waste
• 29:13
  much time in Chicago, Black said.
• 29:15
  The sport of automobile racing had a strong and healthy run through the 1920s.
• 29:19
  As it entered the 1930s, I noticed something odd.
• 29:22
  I developed a spreadsheet that I could document Pennsylvania's races from
• 29:25
  the first one in 1899 to the present.
• 29:28
  As I looked over the spreadsheet, I noticed a drop in races.
• 29:31
  From 1930 through 1934.
• 29:33
  At first I thought maybe I did less research on the time frame.
• 29:37
  I went back and did research on the races through the years and noticed
• 29:40
  there was indeed a drop in the races.
• 29:42
  Then the historian kicked in.
• 29:44
  The Great Depression.
• 29:45
  It began in late 1929 and went through much of the 1930s.
• 29:49
  The 1930s are one of the more fascinating decades in racing.
• 29:53
  There was a depression in what it did to the sport.
• 29:55
  Racing received a new breath of life when midget racing swept
• 29:58
  the sport in the mid 1930s.
• 30:00
  But then there was the dark side.
• 30:02
  Racing became a deadly sport during this era to the point I often
• 30:05
  call the decade the bloody 1930s.
• 30:08
  First, the Great Depression.
• 30:09
  It did have an effect on racing.
• 30:11
  The number of races dropped.
• 30:13
  There were fewer races held at the small town fairground ovals.
• 30:16
  The majority of races were at the established fairground tracks, usually
• 30:19
  a city track or a county fairground.
• 30:22
  Although the number of races dropped, the crowds did not.
• 30:24
  The newspaper accounts continued to report large crowds.
• 30:27
  Look at baseball attendance during the same time frame.
• 30:31
  The stronger baseball teams were reporting record crowds while the
• 30:34
  smaller baseball clubs were struggling.
• 30:36
  Although money was tight, people still wanted to be entertained.
• 30:39
  I did notice one trend with racing events.
• 30:41
  There were mentions about the number of people watching the races for free.
• 30:45
  People were finding hillsides, trees, anything they could use outside
• 30:49
  to track rounds to see the races.
• 30:51
  A race at Arden's Downs is a great example of the hard times.
• 30:55
  The article mentioned that 27 people were arrested trying to
• 30:58
  crash the gate at the track.
• 30:59
  The 27 were taken to Justice of the Peace James Stouffer on charges of trespassing.
• 31:04
  All 27 were fined 1 plus costs.
• 31:08
  Showing how hard it was at the time, 25 of the 27 Cannot afford the 1 plus costs
• 31:14
  and were committed to the county jail.
• 31:16
  A day later, family members paid the fines and all but one were released.
• 31:20
  Times were hard for people and times were about to become hard for racing.
• 31:24
  There was a problem brewing and by the middle of the 1930s,
• 31:27
  it had become a serious issue.
• 31:29
  When racing began, the horse tracks were fine for automobile racing.
• 31:33
  As racing entered the 1930s, the cars were becoming much quicker.
• 31:37
  As racing went through the decade of the 1930s, racing was
• 31:40
  outgrowing the horse tracks.
• 31:41
  The fairground horse tracks had safety features that were fine
• 31:44
  for horses, not for automobiles.
• 31:46
  The single board wood fence could not contain the speedy cars.
• 31:50
  The fairground complex allowed fans to watch races from almost
• 31:53
  every inch around the track.
• 31:55
  The lack of fencing and the spread out spectators led to deadly results.
• 31:59
  Frankly, and I have to really say this, there are times I wonder how
• 32:02
  racing ever survived the 1930s.
• 32:05
  Week after week, there were newspaper reports of drivers losing their lives.
• 32:09
  There were numerous reports of fans being killed when cars went through fencing.
• 32:13
  One of racing's greatest stars, by 1933, became one of
• 32:17
  its more outspoken opponents.
• 32:19
  Barney Oldfield, A member of AAA's contest board suddenly could
• 32:23
  no longer see a future for the sport, mostly due to the carnage.
• 32:27
  The San Francisco Examiner newspaper was the perfect place for Oldfield to make a
• 32:31
  statement about automobile competition.
• 32:33
  The Examiner was a quite anti automobile racing paper during the 1930s.
• 32:38
  Automobile racing has outlived its usefulness, Oldfield
• 32:41
  said in his interview.
• 32:43
  It has ceased to be racing and has become merely a morbid and brutal spectacle.
• 32:47
  The science of speed has reached a point where any manufacturer can produce a
• 32:51
  car which will satisfy any sane buyer.
• 32:54
  Few of your average automobile race fans know or care anything about the
• 32:58
  finer points of the cars of the racers.
• 33:00
  They watch without interest the most skillful and delicate driver, but
• 33:04
  let a tire burst, a wheel skid, a car break for the fence, and they
• 33:08
  are out of their seats in a flash.
• 33:10
  A soft spot on the track, a piece of broken metal, a
• 33:13
  speck of dirt in an oil feed.
• 33:15
  These things and not engines, experience, or skill are the things
• 33:19
  which win automobile races now.
• 33:21
  Racing cars are now too fast for the tracks, and I doubt safe tracks can
• 33:25
  ever be constructed, especially with the demand for more speed and more hazards.
• 33:29
  As for the proposal to require promoters to post bonds to provide
• 33:33
  for the dependence of those killed or permanently injured, Henry Ford took
• 33:37
  out insurance on every driver and mechanic as a personal gift to them.
• 33:42
  I quit racing for two reasons.
• 33:44
  First, there is no money or future in it for the driver.
• 33:47
  Second, because of the ever increasing dangers with the demand of speed
• 33:51
  and more speed and more risks.
• 33:53
  I knew I would get mine someday if I continued on, and I doubt if
• 33:57
  any kind of examination can ensure that the drivers in a race are
• 34:01
  physically or mentally fit to enter.
• 34:03
  Why, Tommy Milton, one of the greatest of racers, drove for
• 34:06
  years and he was blind in one eye.
• 34:08
  Bill Denver, who raced at Indianapolis, had an arm he couldn't even bend.
• 34:12
  If there must be automobile racing, I favor a return to strictly stock car
• 34:16
  racing and the elimination of specially built racers constructed for speed alone.
• 34:21
  These frail, highly powered cars built for racing are a danger
• 34:25
  to the driver and themselves.
• 34:26
  When there is a crash, they crumble like tin.
• 34:29
  Although the government, for the most part, remained out of racing, some local
• 34:33
  government stepped in to increase safety.
• 34:35
  In August of 1937, the government of South Bend, Indiana decided to
• 34:39
  pass a bill regarding the safety at the Playland Park racetrack.
• 34:43
  The editorial staff of the South Bend Tribune supported the bill.
• 34:47
  The members of the city council have shown sound judgment in making a bill to protect
• 34:52
  spectators when automobile races are held at Playland Park, the editorial read.
• 34:56
  The new ordinance requires that a promoter of such races must pay a license fee
• 35:00
  of 100, be insured to the amount of 5, 000 a person, and 100, 000 in accident.
• 35:06
  The insurance must be with a company listed at no less than a million
• 35:09
  dollars, and that a retaining wall must be erected to protect spectators.
• 35:14
  This ordinance will be regarded by automobile race promoters as
• 35:17
  exceedingly severe, but it will be endorsed by spectators and thoughtful
• 35:21
  persons who have the good sense to appreciate why it was created.
• 35:25
  Thank you.
• 35:25
  There was one major safety issue, and that was dust.
• 35:29
  In researching racing during the 1930s, so many articles mentioned the dust.
• 35:34
  Dirt horse tracks, paired with the increasing power and speed of the
• 35:37
  cars, brought billowing, blinding dust.
• 35:40
  The dust dramatically increased the danger factor of automobile races.
• 35:44
  I found two interesting stories that highlight the dust dilemma.
• 35:47
  The first was at the Bloomsburg Fairground.
• 35:49
  The main event began at the Bloomsburg Fairground and immediately
• 35:53
  dust rose from the racing action.
• 35:55
  In the early laps, a car crashed into the fencing entering the third turn.
• 35:59
  The impact sent the driver hurtling out of the car, his body landing on the track.
• 36:03
  The accident occurred in front of the ambulance crew.
• 36:06
  With the heavy dust, the race officials were unaware a crash
• 36:10
  occurred in the third turn.
• 36:11
  The ambulance crew bravely went over the fence and pulled the
• 36:14
  injured driver from the track.
• 36:15
  They placed him in the ambulance and quickly left for the hospital.
• 36:18
  When the driver arrived at the hospital, the hospital staff wanted
• 36:21
  more information on their patient.
• 36:23
  They called the track asking for information on the driver
• 36:26
  injured during the race.
• 36:27
  Track officials, still unaware a crash occurred, told the hospital staff
• 36:31
  person there must be some mistake, no one was injured during the race.
• 36:35
  The staff person replied, we have a driver here, he is injured,
• 36:39
  he was injured at your track.
• 36:40
  The track official replied, they were mistaken and hung up.
• 36:43
  After the race was completed, the dust dissipated, and to the surprise of the
• 36:47
  track officials, there was a wrecked car against the third turn fence.
• 36:51
  The second story comes from the Monongahela City track.
• 36:54
  Their big race was well underway.
• 36:56
  During the race, two cars crashed exiting the second turn.
• 36:59
  With what was described as blinding dust, other cars
• 37:02
  crashed into the accident scene.
• 37:04
  The head flagman, not able to see much at all due to the
• 37:07
  dust, was unaware of the wreck.
• 37:08
  The accident continued to grow as more cars became involved.
• 37:12
  The head flagman became aware of the fact that there were less and less
• 37:15
  cars coming by the starting line, so he signaled for a stoppage to the race.
• 37:19
  This worked for everyone except the leader.
• 37:21
  The driver in the lead car refused to stop, fearing he could possibly be passed.
• 37:26
  He continued circling the track despite frantic efforts to halt him.
• 37:29
  Finally, a Pennsylvania State Policeman had enough.
• 37:32
  The officer walked out onto the track and drew his pistol.
• 37:35
  He stood waiting, and as soon as the leader appeared out of the dust, the
• 37:38
  officer took aim at the radiator.
• 37:40
  The car's driver, suddenly spotting an officer aiming a gun at his car,
• 37:44
  quickly brought his machine to a halt.
• 37:46
  The sad part of the story is a driver did die in the crash.
• 37:49
  The majority of the field was eliminated in the wreck, most not
• 37:53
  being able to see due to the dust.
• 37:55
  Racetrack owners and promoters were experimenting with calcium
• 37:58
  as a way to control the dust.
• 38:00
  Adding crude oil to the surface was another way to hamper the dust.
• 38:03
  Earlier I mentioned the New Kensington track.
• 38:05
  There's a popular story told about an inventive way they
• 38:08
  handled their dust issue.
• 38:10
  The track was located close to a paint factory.
• 38:13
  The story told is that the promoter went to the paint factory and purchased
• 38:16
  their unused and unwanted paint.
• 38:18
  He then applied the paint to the track surface for a midget race.
• 38:22
  The paint was not popular with the drivers.
• 38:24
  It did hinder the dust, but it also adhered to the cars and the drivers.
• 38:28
  One driver actually said his car changed colors during the race.
• 38:31
  He had a dark colored car and it was silver when he came out of the race.
• 38:35
  For a racing historian, parts of the 1930s were not fun to research.
• 38:39
  The crashes were brutal and the newspaper writers described them
• 38:42
  with a flair not found today.
• 38:44
  Herb mentioned that about the one rider.
• 38:46
  Back then, writers really described the crashes.
• 38:50
  I was researching a July 4th, 1936 race at Jenner's Speedway
• 38:55
  that had a double fatality.
• 38:56
  The writer from a small town newspaper described the accident with such
• 39:00
  detail that it was absolutely, I guess the best word would be, horrific.
• 39:04
  That is when I began to wonder how racing survived the 1930s.
• 39:08
  When you read Chris Economacky's tremendous book, Let Them All Go, and if
• 39:11
  you haven't read it, Definitely read it.
• 39:13
  You begin to understand the decade and the racing.
• 39:16
  Death was accepted as a risk with the sport.
• 39:18
  As Khan and Mackey pointed out, if a driver perished in a
• 39:21
  crash, they cleared the accident scene and went back to racing.
• 39:24
  This occurred with the Jenner's crash.
• 39:26
  As horrendous as the crash was, they cleared the incident
• 39:29
  and went right back to racing.
• 39:30
  AAA continued to be the leader of race sanctioning.
• 39:33
  AAA took a firm control of any rough riding during their events.
• 39:37
  They started to crack down because of the accidents.
• 39:40
  This is the actual AAA transcripts that we have at the Eastern Museum.
• 39:44
  And this is an incident that occurred on November 11th, 1934
• 39:49
  at Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles.
• 39:51
  This is the original transcript, and it's quite long.
• 39:54
  Floyd Roberts and Kelly Petillo were fighting for a lead on the
• 39:58
  last lap when Roberts was accused of forcing Petillo off the track.
• 40:01
  The AAA hearing board held a hearing to decide if punishment was due.
• 40:05
  That's what this whole document is.
• 40:07
  This is the hearing.
• 40:08
  At the end of the hearing, the members were told the punishment
• 40:11
  that could be handed down if needed.
• 40:13
  The rules governing are contained in the rules book, page 101, section 293,
• 40:18
  particularly part C, which says foul driving either in a contest or practice
• 40:23
  shall be deemed a breach of these rules and shall be punished by exclusion
• 40:27
  from all events of the meeting and the offender may be fined or suspended
• 40:32
  for such time as the contest board may determine, read the document.
• 40:36
  Penalties may be inflicted as follows fines, exclusions,
• 40:39
  suspensions, disqualifications.
• 40:43
  If you find Roberts guilty of this offense, you can recommend a fine,
• 40:47
  or you can bar him from any future races for a future length of time.
• 40:51
  You can recommend suspensions for a given length of time, or you can recommend
• 40:55
  disqualifications to the contest board.
• 40:58
  If you find Roberts guilty, you can exercise what might be in
• 41:02
  your judgment a just penalty.
• 41:04
  Or you can take the alternative and follow your recommendations with the board in
• 41:07
  order that the prize money be impounded.
• 41:10
  In other words, I see no other way if he is guilty where you can arbitrarily say
• 41:15
  he can be penalized from 1st to 32nd.
• 41:18
  He won the races without penalty being inflicted during the course of the event.
• 41:22
  And we as a board have no power to rerun the race.
• 41:25
  If you feel he is not entitled to 1st place in this event, I think
• 41:29
  it would be proper then for you to refer the matter to the board.
• 41:32
  In the end, the board decided that Roberts committed no foul.
• 41:36
  When you read this, it got quite heated during that board meeting.
• 41:39
  Although AAA was the leading sanctioning body, another
• 41:42
  organization was making a challenge.
• 41:44
  The Central States Racing Association, also called Consolidated States Racing
• 41:49
  Association, was taking aim at AAA.
• 41:51
  At the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing, we have the CSRA paperwork.
• 41:56
  In reading the correspondence, CSRA was looking to take
• 41:59
  AAA off its lofty position.
• 42:01
  CSRA began to move into AAA areas, and more tracks switched over to CSRA.
• 42:06
  Racing was still going through some growing pains.
• 42:09
  The early part of the 1930s found the majority of races
• 42:12
  still being held on horse tracks.
• 42:14
  By the second half of the decade, racing began moving away from
• 42:18
  the horse tracks to new raceways.
• 42:20
  Some of these tracks had interesting stories.
• 42:22
  One was the Landisville Speedway.
• 42:24
  The Landisville Speedway was actually a football stadium
• 42:27
  for a semi pro football team.
• 42:29
  As automobile racing interest increased, the owner of the facility and the
• 42:32
  football team saw an opportunity.
• 42:34
  He decided to race the Speedsters around the football field during
• 42:38
  the football game intermissions.
• 42:40
  Now fans could receive twice the entertainment for the money.
• 42:43
  A football game with an automobile race at intermission.
• 42:46
  The cars raced on a track built around the football field.
• 42:49
  His great plan hit a major snag one day.
• 42:52
  During the intermission race, one car veered off the track and crashed
• 42:55
  into the goalpost, sending the goalpost toppling to the ground.
• 42:58
  For the second half, all extra points and field goals had to be
• 43:01
  kicked on one end of the field.
• 43:03
  There were two saviors of the sport.
• 43:05
  The first was the realization of the need to build racing facilities
• 43:09
  exclusively for automobile racing.
• 43:11
  By the mid 1930s, the move away from the horse tracks began.
• 43:14
  The new tracks were constructed with banking in the turns, better
• 43:17
  suited for automobile speed.
• 43:19
  The fencing was built at a height to better contain automobiles.
• 43:23
  One of the strongest improvements, the grandstand seating, was such that
• 43:26
  it contained the crowd in one area.
• 43:29
  No longer were spectators spread out around the track.
• 43:31
  Now fans could be confined to a grandstand along a straightaway.
• 43:35
  The sudden construction of new speedways led to an interesting
• 43:38
  situation in my home area.
• 43:40
  In 1939, construction began on two speedways.
• 43:43
  Oddly enough, both were being built into amusement parks.
• 43:46
  The first was at an unincorporated area known as Hershey.
• 43:50
  The second was at a small railroad hamlet known as Williams Grove.
• 43:54
  Roy Richwine was leading the construction of the new Williams Grove track, while
• 43:58
  Milton Hershey, of Hershey Chocolate fame, was heading up the Hershey project.
• 44:02
  Many do not realize Milton Hershey was a racing enthusiast.
• 44:06
  Around 1920, he bought a large amount of land outside of the Hershey area.
• 44:11
  Milton Hershey bought it with a vision of constructing a large road racing course.
• 44:15
  That plan never came to life.
• 44:17
  Milton Hershey and Roy Richwine suddenly realized they had a problem.
• 44:20
  Both of their new tracks were going to open the same week.
• 44:23
  The two agreed to have a meeting.
• 44:25
  At the end of the meeting, they came to agreement.
• 44:27
  The Hershey Speedway would open on Thursday and Williams
• 44:30
  Grove would open on Sunday.
• 44:31
  The second savior of the sport came, according to racing historian Crocky
• 44:36
  Wright, on June 4, 1933, at the Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, California.
• 44:41
  On that day, a new form of racing came to life.
• 44:44
  Midget racing was born, and would soon be sweeping eastward.
• 44:47
  On June 10, 1934, promoter Bill Putnam staged the first Eastern midget race.
• 44:54
  This held at Olympic Park in Irvington, New Jersey.
• 44:56
  Malcolm McKenzie is listed as winning the first Eastern midget race.
• 45:01
  As 1934 progressed, midget racing spread through New Jersey and New York.
• 45:05
  At first, the cars were crude, but the sport attracted the
• 45:08
  attention of speedster stars.
• 45:10
  Soon, Bill Holmes, Bill Morrissey, Bill Schindler, Doc McKenzie, and
• 45:14
  a young driver known as Len Duncan were competing in the midgets.
• 45:18
  By 1935, the sport had grown enough that the East Midgets had their first
• 45:22
  driver's group with the formation of the Eastern Auto Racing Association.
• 45:27
  Soon, the Interstate Racing Association, the Keystone Racing Association, and
• 45:31
  the American Midget Racing Association were a part of the 1935 racing scene.
• 45:37
  Promoter Bill Heiserman introduced a new form of lining up the cars
• 45:41
  called handicapping, or reverse start.
• 45:43
  It met with resistance at first, but by the end of 1935, it became accepted.
• 45:48
  Midget racing captured the fascination of the American public.
• 45:51
  The small racing machines could race in new forms of racing venues.
• 45:55
  The high school stadiums became a popular racing facility as the small machines
• 46:00
  battled on the high school tracks.
• 46:02
  Stadiums of all types, be it football or baseball, were now
• 46:05
  new venues for the midgets.
• 46:07
  The popularity of the midgets cannot be understated.
• 46:10
  Promoter Bill Heisman stated that he paid out 192, 018.
• 46:16
  50 in midget purses in just 1934 and 1935.
• 46:20
  Using the inflation calculator today, that would be 3, 555, 078
• 46:27
  for midget racing in two years.
• 46:29
  One driver had a quick jump on midget competition.
• 46:32
  Bill Betterman of Los Angeles, California became a quick
• 46:35
  start in midget competition.
• 46:37
  Betteridge was a part of the earlier mentioned tiny car group.
• 46:41
  Betteridge was a 1934 West Coast midget champion.
• 46:44
  By 1934, the midgets had a number of venues around Los Angeles area.
• 46:49
  Tracks such as Moto Stadium, Gilmore Stadium, Loyola Stadium, Pershing Park,
• 46:54
  and Seaside Park were midget havens.
• 46:56
  of those tracks.
• 46:57
  Only one remains.
• 46:58
  Seaside Park today is Ventura Speedway.
• 47:01
  Gilmore Stadium is actually the CBS Studios in Los Angeles.
• 47:04
  A 1934 press release captured the popularity of West Coast midget racing and
• 47:09
  the popularity of driver Bill Betteridge.
• 47:12
  The number one topic on West Coast these days is the birth of the exciting sport of
• 47:16
  midget auto racing, which has been playing before banner crowds, stated the release.
• 47:21
  Most of that excitement has been produced by a smiling young teenager named Billy
• 47:26
  Betteridge, who has just been proclaimed the 1934 West Coast Midget Champion.
• 47:31
  This clean cut Los Angeles youngster built a so called experimental midget back in
• 47:36
  1932 and ran a few exhibitions with it.
• 47:39
  When Ken Brenneman and Hap Woodman decided to join forces and get others
• 47:43
  interested in the small cars, Billy Ridge was attracted to this group and it wasn't
• 47:48
  long until he was in the thick of things.
• 47:50
  Billy Ridge had fooled around with the Marine outboards for a couple
• 47:54
  of years and felt that the Kaley outboard engine would be suitable
• 47:58
  to mount in his homemade chassis.
• 48:00
  Little did he realize the eventual success that was about to come his way
• 48:04
  Better Ridge was lauded by many who witnessed the little car in action.
• 48:08
  Betteridge and his Kelly with a combination and after four promising
• 48:12
  outings in 1933 at Loyola Stadium, he came into his own during the past season.
• 48:17
  He racked up a phenomenal record of 30 midget wins and with eight straight at
• 48:22
  Gilmore Stadium and six out of eight starts at Moto Stadium in Long Beach.
• 48:26
  Billy finds enough time out of a busy schedule to teach Sunday school class.
• 48:30
  It focuses on clean living, mentally and physically prepared,
• 48:33
  and will and determination to win.
• 48:36
  That's what he has done.
• 48:37
  He's just made to order for the mantle of a champion and displays the humility
• 48:41
  of one of racing's finest personality.
• 48:44
  Betteridge's story comes to an unfortunate end.
• 48:47
  On June 8th, 1937, he was fatally injured.
• 48:50
  In a wreck on the opening lap of a feature at Atlantic Stadium, Billy Betteridge,
• 48:55
  a point champion at Moto Stadium and the National Midget Circuit of California
• 49:00
  champion left an impression on West Coast fans as per this press release note.
• 49:05
  The greatest tribute ever paid a driver, stated the release was given.
• 49:09
  Betteridge went 6000 fans to a man remained for over an
• 49:13
  hour, patiently waiting for an announcement as to his condition.
• 49:16
  When the announcement finally came, they were told that their
• 49:18
  beloved idol had passed on.
• 49:20
  They filed out in silence on the East Coast Midget Racing opened the
• 49:24
  sports door for many aspiring drivers.
• 49:27
  One was Joe Pacino from Woodside, Long Island.
• 49:31
  He started his driving career with the Speedsters, but struggled.
• 49:34
  The Midgets offered a new opportunity and Bocchino took advantage of the new sport.
• 49:39
  Although not a known feature winner, Bocchino was on top of
• 49:42
  his game in qualifying, winning a number of heats and semifinals.
• 49:46
  Joe Bocchino is still typical of quite a number of struggling young men in
• 49:50
  the sport of auto racing read a press release who have been following a dream.
• 49:54
  Joe's early schooling goes back to 1934 when he broke in with the Garden State
• 49:59
  Association in attempt to make it.
• 50:01
  He encountered the same problems as those who preceded him,
• 50:04
  the lack of good equipment.
• 50:05
  But there was a ray of hope during the initial season that In which he
• 50:08
  placed in the top five in a race meet staged at Woodbridge, New Jersey.
• 50:12
  This was enough to keep him focused.
• 50:14
  He sat out the 35 season due to the lack of a decent ride.
• 50:18
  But in 1936, we find him taking part in 19 midget races, namely Bridgeport,
• 50:24
  Philadelphia, West Haven, and Freeport.
• 50:26
  He tried his hand with a marine type power plant known as the Van Blurck, but
• 50:31
  has since shifted his attention to the Ford 60, which has proven to provide that
• 50:35
  necessary step to move his career along.
• 50:38
  Born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Joe now makes his home on Long Island,
• 50:42
  which puts him in close proximity with the tracks that make up the Heisman Circuit.
• 50:46
  Midget racing became so popular, it was almost possible for a driver and
• 50:50
  race team to compete every night.
• 50:52
  This book, this was compiled by Carl Swigert, highlights the
• 50:56
  yearly racing of star drivers.
• 50:58
  And this is each race that they did, and this whole book is different drivers.
• 51:03
  And it is every single race.
• 51:05
  The first one is Billy Betteridge, who's up here.
• 51:07
  The yellow on here is actually all of Billy's feature wins.
• 51:09
  At the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing, we have a number of books
• 51:12
  by Carl Swigert and Joe Heisler.
• 51:14
  And it documents every single one of these midget stars, where they
• 51:18
  traveled, how they did, In qualifying and features and there's an interesting
• 51:22
  aspect to this and that is travel.
• 51:24
  We have to remember that this was prior to the freeways travel was not easy during
• 51:29
  this time race teams went great distances.
• 51:32
  It was not unusual to see a note of a driver competing in the Midwest
• 51:36
  on one night and a day or two later he was racing on the East Coast.
• 51:39
  There were no modern hotels, no fancy racing rigs, no chain
• 51:43
  restaurants, no fast food.
• 51:45
  These competitors were true racers putting up with hardships of the road.
• 51:48
  And it is amazing when you look through here to see they race night after night.
• 51:53
  One night they could be in Pennsylvania, the next night in
• 51:55
  New England, the following night they could be in New Jersey.
• 51:57
  These guys really, really traveled.
• 51:59
  Midget Racing went through its growing pains.
• 52:02
  With the cars available to race at so many venues, There was going to be some
• 52:05
  problems, even a new facility as Hershey Stadium with a strong money backing
• 52:10
  and a strong sanctioning body and C.
• 52:12
  S.
• 52:12
  R.
• 52:12
  A.
• 52:12
  Had issues the day following the opening midget race at Hershey.
• 52:16
  Jack Conlon, the sports editor of the Harrisburg Patriot News, had
• 52:19
  an interesting look at the racing.
• 52:22
  The other evening at Hershey wrote Conlon.
• 52:24
  When the Midget Auto Races were inaugurated, more than
• 52:27
  11, 000 fans turned out.
• 52:28
  At least a half a dozen times during the evening, the announcer
• 52:32
  called upon the audience to applaud.
• 52:34
  The announcer who begs for applause insults the intelligence of the public
• 52:38
  just as much, if not more, than the public speaker who says, Do you see what I mean?
• 52:42
  Many persons who attend auto race for the thrills expect to see But the majority
• 52:48
  attend because they love the sport and that is their favorite diversion.
• 52:51
  Perhaps we're different.
• 52:52
  We would have come away from the track the other evening thoroughly enjoyed
• 52:56
  with the program if it wasn't for the fact that they were continually
• 52:58
  reminding us that it was time to applaud.
• 53:01
  It was really humorous for a while.
• 53:03
  Things are not usually done that way in Hershey.
• 53:05
  Here's hoping that those in charge of the midget races fall in line real soon.
• 53:09
  If you had not become disgusted with the announcer and were willing to endure
• 53:12
  more, all you had to do was try and get some refreshments during intermission.
• 53:16
  Picture the greater party of 11, 000 fans trying to get service with only
• 53:20
  two persons selling tickets and then less than a half dozen attendants
• 53:24
  endeavoring to serve the huge throng.
• 53:26
  Talk about a day at the races.
• 53:27
  You ain't seen nothing until you've gone through what we did the other night.
• 53:31
  However, we must admit it was the first race, and many of these conditions
• 53:34
  are likely to be remedied before long.
• 53:36
  On a side note, Hershey almost came to an explosive end that first year.
• 53:40
  They were scheduled to have a large fireworks display with the races.
• 53:43
  The races and the fireworks were rained out, so Milton Hershey instructed the
• 53:47
  workers to store the fireworks under the front straightaway grandstands.
• 53:50
  During the week, a worker tossed a cigarette and it landed in the fireworks.
• 53:54
  This created a large explosive scene under the grandstands.
• 53:58
  Thankfully, the grandstands were made of concrete and were
• 54:01
  able to withstand the explosion.
• 54:03
  Hewstead Field is a prime example of the growing pains of midget racing.
• 54:07
  Hewstead Field was a multiple purpose sports facility.
• 54:10
  The complex included a football field and running track.
• 54:12
  The midgets were scheduled to race on the running track.
• 54:15
  The event was a qualifier for a race to be held at Madison Square Garden in New York.
• 54:19
  The local newspaper added some pre life excitement to the event.
• 54:22
  And once again, this is what I said about writers at the time having a flair.
• 54:26
  The newspaper article read, Life and limb will be endangered Saturday
• 54:30
  afternoon at Husted Field when the cream of the daredevil drivers will whirl
• 54:34
  around the fifth mile of the track at speeds faster than a mile a minute.
• 54:38
  The midget automobiles to participate have carried several drivers
• 54:41
  to their deaths and have sent numerous drivers to the hospital.
• 54:44
  Due to the nature of the local track, accidents seem imminent.
• 54:47
  A large crowd is certain to turn out for the large races.
• 54:50
  The cars are not playthings by any means.
• 54:53
  Doctors and nurses will be on hand in case of emergency.
• 54:56
  Lovely way to sum up the, you know, races that are coming.
• 54:59
  On race day, a total of eight midgets were at the track.
• 55:01
  The Husted Brothers, who owned the facility, had other concerns.
• 55:05
  They suspected a large crowd was not there, so the Husted Brothers began
• 55:08
  taking into account of the spectators.
• 55:10
  As the practice session began, the Husted Brothers asked the promoter
• 55:14
  how much he was paying in insurance.
• 55:15
  The promoter replied he had no insurance on the race.
• 55:18
  They then asked if he had enough money to pay the drivers.
• 55:21
  The promoter stated that with eight cars, he believed he had
• 55:24
  enough money to pay the drivers.
• 55:26
  At the end of practice, the Husted Brothers made the announcement that
• 55:28
  They were canceling the races and all patrons would receive a refund.
• 55:32
  By 1938, midget racing was booming.
• 55:35
  Eastern Midget Racing Alliance was formed as a way to protect the drivers.
• 55:39
  The Alliance was there to make sure the drivers received a fair purse.
• 55:42
  This group quickly ran into opposition.
• 55:45
  AAA wanted to be part of the East's midget scene.
• 55:48
  In March, AAA met with the National Midget Auto Racing Circuit.
• 55:52
  AAA took over the circuit's schedule, and now AAA was firmly in place in the East.
• 55:57
  To show the strength of AAA, this was their weekly East midget schedule.
• 56:01
  Sunday nights, they had racing at Nutley Velodrome and the Coney Island Velodrome.
• 56:05
  On Monday, they sanctioned races at Cedarhurst and Bridgeport.
• 56:09
  Tuesday night, they were at Yellowjacket and the Bronx Castle Hill.
• 56:13
  Wednesday night, they were back at Nutley and Coney Island.
• 56:16
  Thursday, they returned to Cedarhurst and West Haven.
• 56:19
  Friday nights were for Yellowjacket and Bronx Castle Hill.
• 56:22
  And they finished the week on Saturday at Long Branch.
• 56:25
  That is 14 races in one week for AAA.
• 56:28
  And that was all season long.
• 56:29
  There is one track on that list that needs mentioning.
• 56:33
  The Nutley Velodrome.
• 56:34
  The Nutley Velodrome was a bicycle track located in Nutley, New Jersey.
• 56:38
  And Herb mentioned about this earlier.
• 56:39
  Track was a six mile in distance, 45 degree banking in the turns.
• 56:44
  People thought promoter Jack Kochman was crazy when he suggested
• 56:47
  racing midgets at the velodrome.
• 56:49
  Even Kochman had some doubts when he enlisted drivers Bill Scarnace and
• 56:53
  Red Redman to take some practice laps.
• 56:55
  Following that session, Kochman believed midgets could race
• 56:58
  on the velodrome surface.
• 56:59
  Cotchman had an open practice and the first driver on the track,
• 57:02
  Ernie Gessel, turned a lap in 8.
• 57:05
  4 seconds at a speed of 72 miles per hour.
• 57:07
  That's 72 miles per hour on a six mile track.
• 57:10
  By the second practice session, they had lap times under eight seconds.
• 57:14
  Racing great Tommy Henderson once talked about racing at Nutley.
• 57:18
  With the track's small size and steep banking, Hinnerschitz said you would
• 57:21
  lose all perspective when on the track.
• 57:24
  Cars would circle the track so quickly that you would lose track of which
• 57:27
  straightaway or which turn you were in.
• 57:29
  He said you would go up, you would go down, you would go up, go down constantly.
• 57:33
  You had no idea where you were on the track.
• 57:35
  Driver Henry Banks supported Hinnerschitz's claim.
• 57:37
  Banks, in an interview, said, Driving the steeply banked track was
• 57:41
  an experience without comparison.
• 57:43
  Because of the blinding speeds, a driver never knew just where he was on the banks.
• 57:48
  The track was doomed from its opening day.
• 57:50
  Ken Fowler's crash into the outside railing injured 13 spectators.
• 57:54
  The local residents were unhappy over the massive traffic jams, and
• 57:57
  they considered the track a nuisance.
• 57:59
  A group of citizens asked for a revocation of the racing permit,
• 58:03
  but Town Mayor Frederick Young allowed racing to continue.
• 58:06
  What was interesting about Nutley opening was the Tri City Speedway
• 58:10
  opened the same night, and the two tracks were only a few miles apart.
• 58:13
  Tri City had 41 cars, while Nutley had just over 20.
• 58:17
  However, Nutley had a sellout crowd, whereas Tri City had a slim turnout.
• 58:21
  Nutley's lifespan was just over one year.
• 58:24
  On August 8, 1939, Carl Hottel was killed in an accident.
• 58:28
  He was the third fatality in 60 races at the Velodrome.
• 58:31
  The town of Nutley had enough, and racing was banned from the Velodrome.
• 58:35
  In March 1942, the Notley Velodrome was torn down and today it's a park.
• 58:40
  With midget racing booming and big car competition
• 58:42
  continuing, a good problem arose.
• 58:44
  There were too many races.
• 58:46
  Drivers and cars were being stretched thin.
• 58:48
  Promoters began to complain as the racing schedule filled drastically.
• 58:52
  The problem became pronounced in the fall when the county
• 58:54
  fairs were at their height.
• 58:56
  In central Pennsylvania, there was the Lebanon Fairground
• 58:58
  with its weekly big car races.
• 59:00
  A half mile north of the fairground was the Pleasant Hill Gun Club Midget Track.
• 59:05
  Both raced on Sundays.
• 59:06
  Adding to the confusion, just outside of Lancaster was the Central Speedway
• 59:10
  and their weekly big car events.
• 59:12
  Lebanon promoter Mark Light, who is also a noted race car driver,
• 59:16
  knew this was not going to work.
• 59:18
  Light held a meeting with the other promoters and they
• 59:20
  came up with a solution.
• 59:21
  Lebanon and Central would alternate weeks with their big car races.
• 59:25
  Pleasant Hill held midget races on the Sundays when Lebanon was not racing.
• 59:29
  As the 1930s came to an end, another form of racing was gaining
• 59:33
  ground in sections of the country.
• 59:35
  Jalopy racing was making a hit.
• 59:37
  The crude racing machines, often stripped down to the frames, could
• 59:40
  race almost anywhere, often in open fields, on autocross style tracks.
• 59:45
  This very cheap form of racing became a sudden moneymaker proposition.
• 59:49
  Fire companies and other local organizations staged
• 59:52
  jalopy races as fundraisers.
• 59:54
  All of this great racing was about to come to an end as the
• 59:57
  war in Europe was increasing.
• 59:58
  By 1942, the government shut down automobile racing in its entirety.
• 1:00:02
  Well, almost, because we did find some articles.
• 1:00:05
  There was some kind of what we, I guess, could call outlaw racing
• 1:00:08
  during the ban that did go on.
• 1:00:10
  The tracks became idle until late 1945.
• 1:00:13
  The momentum racing gained in the 1920s and 1930s was lost due to the war effort.
• 1:00:19
  And I want to close out with this article that we found at the
• 1:00:22
  museum in the bottom of a box.
• 1:00:24
  It was from Mr.
• 1:00:25
  Ray Sherman, who's the Associate Chairman of the Contest Board of
• 1:00:28
  the American Automobile Association.
• 1:00:30
  It's entitled, The Racing Driver's Gift to All of Us Who Drive.
• 1:00:34
  This is from May of 1929.
• 1:00:37
  It's a kind of just a very interesting read.
• 1:00:39
  This summer, as in many summers past, racing cars will roar over the bricks and
• 1:00:44
  the boards and through the dust of the dirt tracks while crowds thrill and cheer.
• 1:00:49
  To them, it will be a spectacle of sport staged for their amusement.
• 1:00:53
  To most of the drivers, it will be a competition for cash rewards,
• 1:00:56
  but to the car owners of the world, it will be more than that.
• 1:01:00
  Had it not been for the races of the days gone by, the world would be not
• 1:01:04
  so far along the path of progress.
• 1:01:07
  Our civilization would be a different thing.
• 1:01:10
  Our people would have less enjoyment of life than they would have today.
• 1:01:13
  America seems to have leaped from the mud of 30 years ago to the concrete
• 1:01:17
  of today and all that goes with it.
• 1:01:19
  It did leap, and much of the impetus that made the leap of so long came from the
• 1:01:25
  roaring mortals of the tracks and from the sweaty, grimy hands that held to
• 1:01:30
  the wheels and from the thick shod feet that pressed hot pedals to the boards.
• 1:01:34
  Time was when a tire was a treacherous, uncertain thing.
• 1:01:38
  It was a creature of hope or despair.
• 1:01:41
  According to whether it had or had not played the tricks upon its owner.
• 1:01:45
  Better tires?
• 1:01:46
  Maybe someday.
• 1:01:48
  Then the racer went out upon the tracks and burned them up and torn them apart
• 1:01:52
  till the fame of the uh, Goodyears and all the rest of them began to dim.
• 1:01:56
  And then came better tires that brought back Lester to the old trade names.
• 1:02:00
  Under hard pounding on the bricks and the rough usage on dangerous
• 1:02:04
  turns, steering knuckles, the soul of the driving safety cracked.
• 1:02:08
  Each crack brought its penalty to some men.
• 1:02:10
  And then engineers went back to laboratories and shops and
• 1:02:14
  came forth again with steering knuckles that would not break.
• 1:02:17
  And every part of a car went through a grind.
• 1:02:20
  Without much, cars of today would not be what they are.
• 1:02:23
  In the great scheme of things, a contribution's to
• 1:02:26
  the welfare of the world.
• 1:02:28
  And back of each test, behind each motor, had to be the hands
• 1:02:32
  of a man, a racing driver.
• 1:02:34
  This summer, 20 million of America's families will roll
• 1:02:37
  over the roads in automobiles.
• 1:02:39
  Fathers, mothers, children will sail at fast speeds on tires that make for safety.
• 1:02:44
  Cars with human freight will be pushed up frightful grades and
• 1:02:48
  gears and axles will not break.
• 1:02:50
  Steep descents, sudden stops, all in safety.
• 1:02:53
  A rambling tour through Sylvan Scenes is far removed from the roar and
• 1:02:57
  risk of the tracks, but no one could have been made without the other.
• 1:03:01
  The no man's land of science has always lured the few, and the many
• 1:03:05
  have always reaped the real rewards.
• 1:03:07
  Perhaps someday a public place may hold a monument to the real racing driver, the
• 1:03:12
  man who brought safety to all who drive.
• 1:03:14
  I thank everybody for being here today.
• 1:03:17
  Thank you.
• 1:03:18
  Thank you.
• 1:03:23
  This episode is brought to you in part by the International
• 1:03:25
  Motor Racing Research Center.
• 1:03:27
  Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history
• 1:03:30
  of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series.
• 1:03:33
  The center's collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie
• 1:03:37
  of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world.
• 1:03:40
  The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of
• 1:03:44
  race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and
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  brought to life through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events.
• 1:03:53
  To learn more about the Center, visit www.
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  org.
• 1:03:58
  This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians.
• 1:04:02
  They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history.
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  The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers.
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  Organizational records, print ephemera and images to safeguard, as well as to broaden
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  and deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through
• 1:04:18
  the modern age and into the future.
• 1:04:20
  For more information about the SAH, visit www.
• 1:04:24
  autohistory.
• 1:04:25
  org.
• 1:04:30
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  to you by Grand Touring Motorsports.
• 1:04:36
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