Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Second to One: Forgotten Legends of the Indy 500
Transcript
- 0:00Brake Fix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
- 0:04by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
- 0:07Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
- 0:11Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
- 0:16Second to One by Joe Freeman Joseph Freeman is an automotive
- 0:19historian, writer, publisher, vintage racer, and racing car collector.
- 0:24Well known in the racing world for his expertise on automotive subjects, and as
- 0:28an owner of the award winning publishing house Racemaker Press of Boston, his
- 0:32talk will cover the history of some of the earlier champion race drivers
- 0:36who, but for a stroke of bad luck, an unfortunate last minute mistake, or just
- 0:40the intervention of fate, were never able to win America's greatest race.
- 0:44The Indianapolis 500.
- 0:46Mr.
- 0:46Freeman's reflections are based on his recent book, Second
- 0:49to One, All but for Indy.
- 0:53Alright, our next topic, presentation, Second to None, by Joe Freeman.
- 0:59Hello everyone, good afternoon.
- 1:01I always enjoy coming back to Watkins None for a couple of reasons.
- 1:05At least two of them are.
- 1:06One, I won my first Formula Ford race here against 25 or 28 other
- 1:10guys, which was pretty exciting.
- 1:12It was also the first Formula Ford race that was held on the new long track.
- 1:16So I was pretty pleased about that.
- 1:18Went home smiling, thinking, of course, I was going to be a Grand
- 1:20Prix champion, which I was not.
- 1:22The second was, uh, When I came, uh, for a, uh, IMSA race that they had for Formula
- 1:27Fords, I had my first comprehensive wreck.
- 1:31Uh, I got the red mist and drove over the guy in front of me, uh, who was holding
- 1:35me up and, uh, ended up in the guardrail and, uh, came out with a very bent car.
- 1:39And, uh, luckily not too many injuries, but.
- 1:42And a bash to sense of competition.
- 1:46The red mist does work.
- 1:48The talk I'm giving today is based on a book, which you'll see back there.
- 1:52You can look through.
- 1:52It's called Second to One.
- 1:54It's an idea that I had several years ago about knowing that there were so many
- 1:59really interesting drivers who had taken second in Indianapolis and then were
- 2:05champions and whatnot and never got any recognition and nobody knew about them.
- 2:09Or at least if they knew about them they didn't think So I felt, let's
- 2:14do a book on that, and it really came out, I think, quite well.
- 2:17In this case, I've changed the name because I've chosen three of
- 2:21these drivers who were really major contributors to American racing.
- 2:25And so it's second to none, because these guys really were In some ways, not just
- 2:31second to one, but second to none in the sense of their contribution to American
- 2:35Racing and to the Indianapolis 500.
- 2:38The first is a man by the name of Earl Cooper.
- 2:41I'm not sure if this name is familiar to you, a lot, a lot of you.
- 2:44He was a As you can see, a three time national champion, 1913, 1915, 1916.
- 2:50And that era literally went from everything from racing on open roads
- 2:55through, uh, parts of California where he, he, uh, and other, uh, road races,
- 3:00uh, on the west coast, uh, in Tacoma and whatnot, through the first major board
- 3:05tracks, one of which was in Chicago.
- 3:07Another of which was, uh, in Sheepshead Bay, New York.
- 3:11And I hope all of you are familiar with the fact that there was an era
- 3:14in which all the major championship racing was done on high banked
- 3:19board tracks, board speedways.
- 3:21If not, come see me later.
- 3:23Earl was, uh, Second in India in 1924, but he was also a constructor and an entrant.
- 3:29This photo is of when he first joined Stutts.
- 3:33Harry Stutts was a tough guy to work for, but Earl really did, he knew how to do it.
- 3:38He had started out in Maxwell, but he really, he was a superb racer.
- 3:42And as a result, he won, I think it was something like 23
- 3:46national championship races.
- 3:48And he teamed up with a mechanic by the name of Reeves Dutton.
- 3:52And the two of them were practically unbeatable.
- 3:54This is driving in big, open, studs, Bearcats, basically.
- 3:58A mixture of your sports and racing car.
- 4:01Again, in all over the country.
- 4:03He was a remarkable driver.
- 4:05He was not a big man, and yet he would do these literally
- 4:08300 mile and 400 mile races.
- 4:10I don't know how he did it, but he was really good at it.
- 4:13And Reeves Dutton could take apart and put back anything, anytime,
- 4:17and was a huge help to him.
- 4:19So as a team, that's one of the reasons why they won three national championships.
- 4:24I, by the way, I have to preface that with a little asterisk by
- 4:27saying that in 1913 and 1915, there was no national championship.
- 4:34It was only later on that the AAA established a national
- 4:37tram tip in 1916, first.
- 4:40As a result, it was magazines of the day, the Motor, Motor, Motor Age,
- 4:44Horseless Age, that declared someone was a champion, and they declared
- 4:48Earl Cooper as, as being a champion.
- 4:51Under any circumstances, he really was a major driver at his time.
- 4:56In 1919, having won all those championships and having been a
- 5:00really superb and well known sports figure, I mean a Honus Wagner or
- 5:04a Kai Cobb in some ways in his own day, uh, he decided to retire.
- 5:10Kind of fun shot I put in.
- 5:11He's, this is taken in Tacoma, Washington.
- 5:14That's a big Stutz touring car.
- 5:15He's going fishing and he's going to relax for life.
- 5:19But then, uh, In 1921, a guy by the name of Joe Thomas who was driving
- 5:24for Dusenberg, was riding a horse, fell off the horse, broke his leg,
- 5:29and Cooper was there and they said, well, why don't you drive his car?
- 5:33Not only did he drive the car on the Fresno board track,
- 5:36he won the race, by the way.
- 5:38It's the only time he ever drove Eisenberg.
- 5:39But the fact was he was able to literally, after three years of.
- 5:44Total time off, beat the best, I mean, Jimmy Murphy and, uh, uh, well, Jimmy
- 5:49Murphy wasn't really in full blast at that time, but Tommy Milton and a whole
- 5:53series of other really great drivers.
- 5:55So, uh, that's, by the way, a fellow by the name of Alan Nielsen.
- 5:58Beside him, one of the Duesenberg mechanics who accompanied him on that win.
- 6:03Here he is.
- 6:05In his, it's labeled a big Studebaker, but it's not, as I think most
- 6:09of you will know, it's a Miller.
- 6:10It's a Miller 122, not a 91.
- 6:14And you can see at the bottom of there, those are the updraft
- 6:17carburetors underneath the frame.
- 6:19It was, uh, prior to the time that they had supercharging for these Millers.
- 6:24Uh, this was very much the same as the car that won the race, which
- 6:28was Tommy Milton's Miller that looked almost exactly the same.
- 6:32But, uh, Earl was pretty good at selling sponsorships, so he got, uh,
- 6:36initially a sponsor, uh, Studebaker and then, uh, eventually, uh, a
- 6:40Studebaker dealer in San Francisco to sponsor him, uh, called Weaver.
- 6:45But he continued racing.
- 6:47And, uh, continued winning races, uh, major races, 250 milers, generally on
- 6:51these board tracks, that's what they ran.
- 6:53And at the same time, he could drive almost anything that you put him in.
- 6:57This is one of, uh, Miller's early front drive cars, that
- 7:01initially were developed in 1924.
- 7:04And, by the way, the car that nearly beat him in, in, in, or nearly won the race
- 7:09in, in 1924 was a front drive Miller.
- 7:12These were incredible machines.
- 7:14They had some weaknesses, but overall they were really fast.
- 7:18He put this on the pole in Indianapolis that year as it happens, but he also
- 7:23wrecked it, but not in the race.
- 7:25He didn't finish the race.
- 7:26The gearbox broke as they did quite regularly on, on the Miller front drives.
- 7:30That was a weakness, but then he did decide to retire again and when he
- 7:34retired, but he didn't retire altogether.
- 7:37He made a deal with Dutton.
- 7:39He and Dutton got some money from Buick, which is why there's this odd
- 7:43radiator shell there, and they built their own front drive that they thought
- 7:48was maybe better than the the Millers.
- 7:50The Cooper front drives, I think they built three or possibly four of them.
- 7:54This is one of them that entered the 500.
- 7:59This is another one.
- 8:00It's a little hard to see.
- 8:02Earl behind there, but he is there along with Reeves Dutton.
- 8:05They didn't finish the race, but what was important about these is he
- 8:09was one of the very few People who actually decided to build and enter
- 8:14cars at Indianapolis, as well as be a driver after you'd finished driving.
- 8:20They were successful enough so that these chassis continued on.
- 8:24I think that there's still, well, I know there's still at least one around,
- 8:28and I think they continued racing at Indianapolis after the Second World War.
- 8:32They were modified in all sorts of different ways.
- 8:35But the Coopers were just known.
- 8:37You can see his engine configuration was a little different.
- 8:40He was a straight eight.
- 8:41Double overhead camshaft, engine, exhaust system, and trying to get
- 8:45the car as low as possible was one of the things that he was attempting
- 8:49to do with this particular design.
- 8:52After he finished with that project, why, uh, became a car dealer for Marmon.
- 8:58At the same time, kept his, uh, involvement with racing
- 9:01throughout his career.
- 9:02He worked for the Union Oil Company and developed a number
- 9:05of different products for them.
- 9:07He was also, by the way, one of the earliest people to use ethyl lead
- 9:11for, uh, his engines in the 500.
- 9:13He and Tommy Milton were there.
- 9:15And he stuck around Indianapolis.
- 9:17Here he is in his latter years with Pete DiPaolo.
- 9:21Remained an official until his death.
- 9:23What's, uh Again, extremely well known American sports figure who
- 9:28was, uh, very much appreciated.
- 9:30Earl the Pearl, they called him.
- 9:32Also, the California Comet.
- 9:34He had a lot of different names, but a really quick guy.
- 9:38The next person I've chosen is Harry Hartz.
- 9:41Harry Hartz was a really interesting fellow.
- 9:44So his rundown was a national champion in 1926.
- 9:48He won seven major board track championship wins.
- 9:51Second in India three times 1922.
- 9:5423, 26.
- 9:55IndyCar entrant from 1930 to 1940 and winds as an owner in 1930.
- 10:01In 1932 at Indianapolis.
- 10:03So no small hitter.
- 10:05He started out nice portrait of him, the Chevrolet, as a reference to his
- 10:10time when he was being a mechanic for Billy Durant's son, cliff Durant, who
- 10:15was promoting Chevrolets at the time.
- 10:17And they were racing together.
- 10:19So he, that's why he has that.
- 10:20Chevrolet badge on, but he started out as a kid racing these small
- 10:25race cars that were basically motorcycle engined creatures.
- 10:30There were actually quite a few of them.
- 10:32A few have survived, and they had races on board tracks the same
- 10:35way, and also on road courses.
- 10:37I think they raced in Santa Monica, etc.
- 10:39And he got his first name.
- 10:41through those and he called himself the junior racing champion of the world.
- 10:46Maybe he was, I'm not sure.
- 10:47I don't know how many kids were doing that at the time, but as he grew older,
- 10:51he associated himself with various folks, including a very well known
- 10:55driver by the name of Eddie Hearn.
- 10:57Hearn, uh, had one of the 1915 championship winning Stutz's,
- 11:02remarkable cars, believe it or not.
- 11:05They built four, two are still in existence.
- 11:08One in the United States, in Los Angeles, in the Los Angeles County
- 11:11Museum, and the other in New Zealand.
- 11:13They were hugely successful.
- 11:15Harry Stutz used them as a promotion, but then, when they won the 1915 championship,
- 11:20he said, I'm done with racing.
- 11:22I don't want it anymore.
- 11:23And he sold his cars, and at least Some of them, maybe all of them went to Cooper,
- 11:29but eventually ended up in the hands of Cliff Durant, who was racing them.
- 11:33And this is Harry working on the engine.
- 11:35By the way, you can see it's a single overhead cam engine with
- 11:38the exposed valves and whatnot.
- 11:40But in the day, they were light, fast, and could win on road courses, on board
- 11:45tracks, uh, and, uh, on sand, just about anywhere they wanted to race.
- 11:50This is a picture of his first win at, uh, Indianapolis.
- 11:54Sorry, it's not a The best quality of picture that I have.
- 11:58It's a Duesenberg.
- 11:59It was a Duesenberg that actually is, we believe, if it's correct, yes.
- 12:04This is the actual car that is still in existence.
- 12:08It's in Fred Simeon's collection.
- 12:10I'm sorry, it's not that car.
- 12:12But it's one of the three cars that were taken to France in
- 12:15the 1921 French Grand Prix.
- 12:17Jenny Murphy won with his, driven by Joe Boyer, another driver.
- 12:22It was brought back, Harry Hartz bought it, and that's it.
- 12:25That car is still in existence, and, and, and very, very original.
- 12:30It's amazing that it survived all the years through its racing.
- 12:33It raced in California, it raced in the East, but they tried it in
- 12:38Indianapolis later on, didn't work.
- 12:40Fred Simeon's father bought it from a family by the name of
- 12:42Bergert, who owned it at the time.
- 12:44Kept it.
- 12:45I had to convince Fred that he had one of the most important
- 12:48racing cars in the United States.
- 12:50He, he wanted to stay, keep it the way it was.
- 12:52It had been for 1930, but when I sent him a lengthy article I'd written about it,
- 12:57he, he called me up and said, Joe, I had no idea you knew that much about this car.
- 13:01I'm going to restore this and restore it as a real racing Nusenberg.
- 13:05So if you go to Philadelphia and you, and you look at that.
- 13:08Car is there.
- 13:08It's, it's one of Fred's really remarkable machines.
- 13:12He continued, by the way, with that, uh, car he raced in 22 was a full
- 13:17deusenberg with a Deusenberg engine.
- 13:19But by 1923, uh, Jimmy Murphy had, uh, bought a Miller double over Red Kim
- 13:25engine, which seemed to work better than the single of red Kim Berg's.
- 13:29Uh, the 180 3 cars that were, uh, 183 Cub cubic inch cars.
- 13:33And as a result, Murphy bought a.
- 13:36A Miller and put it in in his Deusenberg chassis and called it the Miller Special.
- 13:40He won the Indianapolis 500 with it.
- 13:43Seeing that, uh, Hart's not to be left behind, got his own Miller engine and
- 13:48put a Miller nose on the Duesenberg and this is him on a board track racing that
- 13:53in the latter part of 1922 and in 1923.
- 13:58By the time, uh, that, uh, Indianapolis rolled around in 1923, the Millers had
- 14:03become basically almost ubiquitous, sponsored by the first real big, you
- 14:09might say, uh, swatch of them, I think four or five, were built with money
- 14:14from, again, if you can see the side there, his sponsor, Cliff Durant.
- 14:17Cliff Durant actually is an unknown figure in, in a lot of American racing.
- 14:22He was the son of Billy Durant who founded General Motors.
- 14:25His money Paid basically for a lot of innovation, including the, for
- 14:30example, the front drives that really transformed American championship racing,
- 14:35particularly during this board track era.
- 14:37Finally, the third, uh, second place was, uh, in, uh, 1926.
- 14:43That's the year that Frank Lockhart won in the rain, but you can
- 14:46imagine here's, uh, Harry again.
- 14:48I gotta say, he must have been enormously frustrated by the fact
- 14:51that he'd taken second three times, coming within inches of, of winning
- 14:56the big race, but never did.
- 14:59He continued his career until 1927.
- 15:01He got one of the front drives, uh, and made a national
- 15:05championship in that year in 1926.
- 15:08He also set several close course world records, including one at a board
- 15:12track speedway in Amatol, New Jersey.
- 15:15It was a, uh, track named after a, uh, an emissions factory that was built there.
- 15:21He set a world record for a 300 mile distance.
- 15:23I've forgotten what it was, but these were, uh, 1, 500cc engines, and I,
- 15:27and I believe it was the average for the race was over 130 miles an hour.
- 15:32If you can imagine that.
- 15:33Double armored camshaft, small pistons.
- 15:36Uh, Gordon White here had brought along one of the little 91 pistons.
- 15:40It's amazing to see.
- 15:42But these cars were, uh, incredibly fast for their size.
- 15:45By the way, they were also all supercharged, uh, at the time.
- 15:48Uh, and, uh, that technology had, uh, been, uh, pretty well developed.
- 15:52And they'd also improved on lubricants and fuels along with tires.
- 15:56There, there were a lot of board track innovations that came
- 15:59along as, uh, racing matured.
- 16:02Competition between first Louis Chevrolet, the Duesenberg brothers, Fred and
- 16:06Augie, of course, Harry Miller, who, uh, who Gordon will talk about later.
- 16:10He then, Harry had a really serious accident in New Hampshire at the
- 16:16board track there, nearly killed him.
- 16:18He was very badly injured, but it was burned, you know, broke ribs, broke arms.
- 16:23Whatnot, and basically, I think, probably damaged his brain enough
- 16:27so he was never able to race again.
- 16:28But he stuck around, and, lo and behold, he started to enter
- 16:33his own cars at Indianapolis.
- 16:35And this is one of them, I believe it's the car from
- 16:371932, which was, um, a winner.
- 16:41That huge trophy, by the way, if you don't recognize it, is one of the
- 16:45crown jewels of the collection of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
- 16:50It was made by Tiffany.
- 16:52It's called the Wheeler Shiebler Trophy.
- 16:54And it's given to the car that's leading at 400 miles.
- 16:59Well, it's, it's an amazing trophy.
- 17:00I've seen it in person.
- 17:02They had it at the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston for a Tiffany exhibit.
- 17:06It's just incredible.
- 17:07If you get there, again, they don't put it on display.
- 17:10I don't quite understand why.
- 17:13Here we have, again, some of the old timers from left to right.
- 17:16Babe Stapp, who was a regular racer at the time, but had retired by this time.
- 17:22Earl Cooper, uh, this is an Indianapolis, of course.
- 17:24Tommy Milton, who was the chief steward at that time.
- 17:27You can see, uh, On his AAA car, and Harry Hart's to the right.
- 17:32These guys were, they were the old timers around Indianapolis,
- 17:35but they were very well respected.
- 17:37They were all, uh, served as various, uh, shall we say officials, and, uh,
- 17:41sort of advisors to Rickenbacker, and then after the track was sold to the
- 17:47people who owned it after Rickenbacker.
- 17:49Here's another group of, uh, interesting people.
- 17:52Left to right, again, Peter DiPaolo, who was, of course, a winner several times.
- 17:56Eddie Hearn, behind him, who'd been a mechanic for.
- 18:00And the infamous Mike Boyle, in the middle.
- 18:03Umbrella Mike, if you haven't read that story or know that, again,
- 18:07come around and ask me about it.
- 18:09He was quite a character.
- 18:10And Harry Hartz.
- 18:11So, they were, again, hanging around Indianapolis at the
- 18:14time, getting ready for the 500.
- 18:16Again, this is the sort of final picture of Harry.
- 18:19He was, uh, basically got very old.
- 18:22I think he died.
- 18:23This was taken in 1971.
- 18:24He died in 74.
- 18:26But again, sadly, an unknown figure, a man who really contributed to
- 18:30the race in a lot of different ways and drove a lot of different cars.
- 18:34He, uh, he drove cars on the salt.
- 18:36He drove cars, uh, he drove a car backwards across the
- 18:39United States and set a record.
- 18:40So it's quite an interesting character.
- 18:43All these guys work.
- 18:45I'm picking these because they're kind of fun and interesting.
- 18:48Finally, we got Lou Moore.
- 18:49Lou was not as much of a standout racer, although he certainly did well.
- 18:54He started in very competitive racing in California at, um, A track called Ascott.
- 19:01Uh, not the Ascot, you know, nowadays, but it was a very, very popular
- 19:04track during the, the thirties.
- 19:06Very competitive, whole number of major drivers came outta there, including,
- 19:11uh, say Rex Mays and, uh, oh gosh, the names would go on and on, who were
- 19:16racing at, and who developed their skills at, at Ascott, which was not by
- 19:20way, it was a, it was a packed dirt.
- 19:22race track.
- 19:23I think about, I want to say it was a little longer than a half mile.
- 19:27I think it was a maybe about three quarters of a mile.
- 19:30I can see he was second in India in 1928, but kept racing during the so
- 19:34called junk formula era when Indy cars had gone back to riding mechanics and
- 19:40supposedly to get manufacturers involved.
- 19:43At the same time, he finished third in 1933 and 1934.
- 19:49Then he himself turned to be an indie entrant.
- 19:52There's a good shot of him as a driver and one early shot of him.
- 19:56This is the number 28 car, is the one he took second in.
- 20:01A copy of that car called the Majestic Miller, bright green by the way.
- 20:05Green was not allowed in Annapolis for a long time.
- 20:08They thought it was a hoodoo, but it was green anyway.
- 20:11In this particular case, that was, it was before it was the Majestic
- 20:14Miller, it was that next year.
- 20:16Uh, here he is in one of the two man cars again.
- 20:19There's Mike Boyle's name coming up, and I think this is one of
- 20:22the cars he finished third in.
- 20:24But he himself felt he should retire.
- 20:26He wasn't doing well enough.
- 20:28And so as a result, he himself Turned to being an entrant.
- 20:31He, uh, encouraged a car builder by the name of Curly Wetteroth to build a very,
- 20:36uh, by the way, by this time in 1937, or 38, had returned to one man chassis.
- 20:44And in 1939, Lou Moore entered this, uh, Wetteroth chassis with,
- 20:49I believe that's Floyd Davis.
- 20:51And, uh, Floyd, uh, won the race for him.
- 20:53First race he's won on an entrant.
- 20:55Then, Floyd was killed in the next, uh, Indy 500.
- 20:59Sadly, the next year, 1941, I believe, he hired Murray Rose, who was an up
- 21:07and coming young driver at the time, and Rose, along with another driver,
- 21:11took his car, again, that Wetteroth, and won the India a second time.
- 21:16So, he was a two time winner by that time.
- 21:19Of course, took time off during the war, but then, following the war, It
- 21:23was sort of a mixture in 1946 of cars that had just been sampled together,
- 21:27but Lou Moore said, no, I want to build something really original.
- 21:31And so he embarked on building these very radical front drive
- 21:36cars made by a man named Amel Deet.
- 21:39They were very successful.
- 21:40They had a low sense of gravity.
- 21:43As a result, Murray Rose was able to dominate the Indianapolis 500
- 21:47for two years running in 1947 and 1948, winning the race there.
- 21:52So.
- 21:53Two more wins for, for Lou.
- 21:54Finally, uh, Rose's partner, Bill Holland was not too pleased, particularly in the
- 22:00second time around about being beaten by, by Rose, but Rose broke in 49.
- 22:06And as a result, Holland, uh, won his race.
- 22:09So Lou Moore was truly a magnificent and interesting character in not only
- 22:14in terms of the innovation he brought to the track, but, but also the success.
- 22:18for the Indy 500.
- 22:20Here's the final entry that he had, the final entry that actually made the
- 22:23race, in 1952 with, again, one of his front drive cars, Tony Bettenhausen,
- 22:28who drove for him for three years.
- 22:30By that time, the cars were out of, uh, competition, they weren't competitive.
- 22:35In any case, all of this information I've gone through come out of
- 22:39the book that I've done here.
- 22:40Second to one.
- 22:41It was an idea that occurred to me, as I say, I, because I
- 22:44felt it was really important.
- 22:45There are about 40 drivers in here who were, and their names in there,
- 22:49like, again, like these folks, but Rex Mays, and, of course, probably
- 22:54the most famous would be Michael Andretti, who wrote the Ford before us.
- 22:58It was incredible how many times he came close to winning the race and didn't.
- 23:02The, the, the Andretti curse really covered his, his career.
- 23:06So, that's about it.
- 23:08Other than to say that, uh, I'm delighted to be here, I'm delighted to take us
- 23:12back to some of the history of American racing when it was really successful
- 23:16in major sport in the United States.
- 23:18Sadly, now where I bet I could ask people in the room how many people would know
- 23:23who the national champion was, who won the national championship this year.
- 23:26Can anybody tell me who won the national championship this year?
- 23:30Nobody?
- 23:31Who won the national championship of American racing, of IndyCar racing?
- 23:34Yeah, that shows how, unfortunately, sadly, American racing, particularly open
- 23:40wheel racing, but all American racing, has been just, the television ratings
- 23:46are zero, the interest is going away, even for NASCAR, as well as others.
- 23:51So, that's a whole other topic, but, but I thank you, and uh, I hope you've
- 23:55enjoyed my Kind of race through a couple of, uh, three, three guys who are really
- 23:59kind of interesting early drivers.
- 24:09Thank you, Joe.
- 24:10Thank you.
- 24:11We'll see if you have any questions.
- 24:13For any of you who don't know, Joe has become a publisher and he's
- 24:18published, uh, one of my books as well as, as a number of other, what
- 24:23I think are important racing books.
- 24:26Just a question on Louis Chevrolet.
- 24:28His little history on He's racing at Indy.
- 24:32Louie, I'm trying to remember how many times he raced at Indy, and I don't recall
- 24:37right off hand, but he initially came to the United States, actually to Canada as
- 24:42a chauffeur, then was hired in New York.
- 24:45The first major race he did was on the Maynardville Cup, and I want to say
- 24:48As I say, I think it was 1904, 1905 was his first race on Long Island.
- 24:54He drove a car for a guy, a big fiat, had a wreck, nearly killed himself.
- 25:01He continued racing on and off, but primarily he wanted to build his own
- 25:05car, and he went to Billy Durant and said, I want to build a Chevrolet.
- 25:09Well, Billy Durant said, fine.
- 25:12What Chevrolet had in mind, what Louis Chevrolet had in mind, was a quality car.
- 25:16What Billy Durant had in mind was something to compete with a Model T Ford.
- 25:20Durant won.
- 25:21I came out, uh, basically turning a car that was called the Little at the
- 25:25time into the first two Chevrolets, the Royal Mail, and I I tend to
- 25:29forget the name of the second.
- 25:31And so, Louis was totally desistive.
- 25:35He had built his own racing cars called Frontenacs that competed with the
- 25:41Duesenbergs and eventually Harry Miller's.
- 25:43Then, subsequently, he and, well, one of his brothers, he had three
- 25:47brothers who came to the States.
- 25:49One was killed, sadly, in 1920 at a race in Los Angeles.
- 25:54Uh, on one of the board tracks.
- 25:56Uh, then, um, he and his other brother started a company called
- 26:00Frontenac, and they made spade equipment for Model T Fords.
- 26:04Uh, hot up systems to, uh, improve the, uh, the, the engine, but, you know,
- 26:09uh, primarily to, uh, heighten its fuel consumption, but then eventually
- 26:13went to overhead valve systems.
- 26:15The first one called single stick, and the second one then called a DO.
- 26:20Those are very rare.
- 26:21I think they only built about three or four of them, but they were
- 26:23very successful well into the 30s.
- 26:26So he had a full career in racing and around racing, but as a driver he,
- 26:31again, he competed at Indianapolis, but I'm sorry, I can't remember exactly
- 26:36which years and what cars he drove.
- 26:38I should know, but I'm a little blank on that.
- 26:41I'll look it up.
- 26:42By the way, one Just tool that some of you might want to learn to use,
- 26:46which I've found hugely valuable.
- 26:48It's called champcarstats.
- 26:49com.
- 26:49www.
- 26:52champcarstats.
- 26:53com If you go on there, it's got all the drivers, a lot of the car
- 26:58makes, all the races for different years, and extremely full statistics.
- 27:05So if you need to hunt up something, you can do it very quickly on that site.
- 27:10There are a few mistakes here and there, but believe me, for a
- 27:14person who's researching racing or wanting to know about drivers or in
- 27:18their careers, that's where to go.
- 27:20It's a, it's a really useful site.
- 27:22I'm glad we have it.
- 27:23Any other questions?
- 27:24Who was the driver that won that race?
- 27:27That won the The one you were talking about, the big race.
- 27:31Indy 500?
- 27:32Yeah, the one that you were talking about.
- 27:34Oh, the IndyCar?
- 27:36Oh, yes, it was willpower.
- 27:39Driving for Roger Penske.
- 27:42You're quite welcome.
- 27:44Sorry, I should have said that.
- 27:47Again, the year before, very few people would remember.
- 27:50We're not anywhere near where we should be.
- 27:52But thanks again, I appreciate it.
- 27:56I always enjoy coming here.
- 28:01Thank you, Joe.
- 28:01Thank you.
- 28:04This episode is brought to you in part by the International
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