May 6 2011
                      Taking You Back !
                 Jack Hinkle- Sportsman
by
                                    
Kevin Triplett
Live Oak California
Contributor to OWR3
Mention the name ‘Jack Hinkle’ to auto racing historians and they will invariably remember him the owner of the Indianapolis cars driven by Jack McGrath from 1950 through 1955, but there is far more to the Jack Hinkle story.

Early car ownership
Jack was an only child born in 1913 in the Kansas oil fields. His father George started the Hinkle Oil Co, a gas and oil exploration firm in 1926. By 1947, Jack was a quite wealthy, so he and a partner bought a midget car that raced at Cejay Stadium dirt track (named after track owner/promoter Carl Johnson) in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas. Jack’s partner and the driver of the #30 C & H Air Service midget was Dean Case, as Jack’s father forbade him from race driving. One night, Case lost control and the car veered off track, through several barbed wire fences, finally coming to rest underneath the grandstand While Case recovered from the near decapitation, Hinkle hired experienced local midget pilot Bob McKim of Salina Kansas to drive the car. The team experienced better success, and Jack wanted to move up to the ‘big league:’ Indianapolis.

Championship car owner
At the end of 1949, Jack Hinkle offered McKim a ride with for the upcoming AAA (American Automobile Association) season in the 270 cubic inch Offenhauser-powered Kurtis-Kraft championship car being constructed in California. McKim told Hinkle that he would have to think it over, as he was not sure he wanted to be away from his family that much. While McKim was trying to make up his mind, Hinkle’s new mechanic, Jack Beckley, suggested California roadster veteran John James ‘Jack’ McGrath, who had driven four races for Beckley in 1949 in City of Tacoma car. McGrath, who had run the ‘500 twice before, quickly came to an agreement with the Kansas oilman/banker. Despite missing the champ car opportunity, McKim went on to have a long distinguished career racing with the international Motor Contest Association (IMCA) and UMCA (United Motor Contest Association), and was enshrined in the Belleville Kansas High Banks Hall of Fame in 2002.

Upon arrival at Indianapolis in May 1950 with the brand new maroon with silver trim # 49 Kurtis-Kraft 3000, the team became known in Gasoline Alley as the "Three Jacks," owing to the first names of the car owner, chief mechanic, and driver. Early in the month, the Hinkle Special established itself one of the fastest cars at the Speedway, with a best practice lap of 131 MPH. In qualifying, McGrath ran faster still, but wound up sixth, gridded on the outside of the second row. On Race Day, McGrath ran second just past the mid-point of the race when he pitted for tires and fuel. A slow pit stop dropped the Hinkle car back in the field. McGrath was caught by the sudden downpour on lap 131, spun into the outside wall in turn 3, and was credited with a 14th place finish. After Indianapolis, the Hinkle team experienced good success with the K-K 3000 during the rest of the 1950 AAA Championship trail, winning both the Langhorne 100 in June and the Syracuse 100 in September, and ended the season was three straight top ten finishes, and placed ninth in the season standings.

In 1951, the Hinkle team arrived at Indy with the same Kurtis-Kraft (K-K) 3000 now numbered #9, and McGrath placed the car on the outside of the front row for the start of the Memorial Day race, qualifying at an average speed of 134.303 MPH for the four lap run. In the ‘500,’ McGrath ran near the front of the field, all the while suffering with a severe right leg cramp caused by an awkward throttle pedal location. McGrath’s good friend Manny Ayulo relieved him at lap 100 and drove the Hinkle maroon #9 the rest of the distance, for a strong third place finish. During the month of May, the Hinkle team took delivery of their Kurtis-Kraft 4000 that they would use for the balance of the races in the 1951 season. McGrath placed the new Hinkle car on the pole at three races: Milwaukee, Langhorne and Bay Meadows, and recorded six top five finishes. The team’s consistent performance earned them a fourth place in the final season standings, albeit far behind the dominant Tony Bettenhausen.

Over the winter of 1951/52, Beckley and McGrath re-worked the Hinkle K-K 3000, equipping the car with expanded fuel and oil tanks in order to stay competitive at Indianapolis with the new-for 1952 Kurtis "roadsters".
Jacl McGrath indy 1952
                           

McGrath qualified at an average speed of 136. 664 MPH, which again placed the maroon Hinkle Special on the outside of the front row for the 1952 500-mile classic. McGrath led the first six laps before yielding to Bill Vukovich, and ran well for the first 100 miles before he fell back to eventually finish 11th. McGrath’s average speed of 121.428 earned him a place in the coveted Champion Spark Plug "100 Mile an Hour" club. For the rest of the season, McGrath placed the trusty Hinkle KK-4000 on the pole in three races in 1952, at Syracuse, San Jose, and Phoenix, and won the Syracuse 100 in dominant fashion. The Hinkle team recorded five other top ten finishes on their way to second place in the 1952 AAA National Championship

For the 1953 Indianapolis ‘500,’ the Hinkle team retired the K-K 3000 used for the previous three races and used the familiar K-K 4000 upright, now painted cream trimmed in red and black, numbered #5.
Jack McGrath indy 1953
                           

The first day of qualifications was rained out; on Sunday McGrath qualified third fastest again for the third straight year, behind the K-K 5000 roadsters of Vukovich and Agabashian. The race itself of course was all Vukovich; McGrath never threatened for the lead and finished fifth, and despite the brutal heat he made just two pit stops and was never relieved. McGrath and the Hinkle team won the race the following weekend at Milwaukee, and posted three other top five finishes through the rest of the season, including a fourth at the second Milwaukee race after winning the pole position. McGrath finished second in the AAA National Championship again behind Sam Hanks.

The Hinkle team opened the 1954 AAA season at Indianapolis with Jack McGrath driving a new #2 Kurtis-Kraft 500C roadster. Jack Beckley had left the Hinkle team, so McGrath was both driver and mechanic, assisted by Jack Hinkle and Chet Johnson. In qualifying, Jack McGrath set the Hinkle car on the pole with a new four lap qualifying record average of 141.033 MPH, breaking Chet Miller's 1952 record of 139.034. On race day, McGrath led the first 44 laps until he stopped for tires and fuel. On lap 89, McGrath retook the lead for two circuits, and ran second when he made his second stop just past the halfway point of the race. The car stalled and had to be restarted, dropping the #2 Hinkle Special to sixth. With Vukovich again dominating, McGrath battled back to finish third, a scant ten seconds behind Jimmy Bryan. At the newly paved Milwaukee race the next weekend, McGrath finished fourth after starting 21st and took the lead in the AAA championship. On June 16, the Hinkle KK-500 Special took part in a special ‘match race’ marking the dedication of the Chrysler Chelsea Michigan proving grounds, and set the world’s closed course speed record at 179 MPH, a record that stood until 1961. Unfortunately, a few days later at Langhorne, the aged Hinkle KK-4000 did not qualify which was followed by a dismal series of finishes broken when McGrath qualified on the pole at Sacramento and finished second in the race. The 1954 season ended with the Hinkle Special missing the field at Phoenix. Despite all the troubles, McGrath finished third in 1954 AAA championship.

Over the winter, McGrath meticulously prepared the two Hinkle Kurtis racers for the 1955 season, and the hard work paid off with new one- and four-lap qualifying records, but because it was recorded on the second day of time trials, McGrath was third on the starting grid for the fourth time in five years. The new speed record was even more remarkable considering that McGrath’s good friend Manny Ayulo had been killed the previous afternoon. At the drop of the green flag, McGrath and two-time and defending champion Bill Vukovich staged an unforgettable duel for the first 26 laps, until Vukovich took the lead on a daring move entering turn one. Interviewed later, McGrath said, "if he wanted to lead it that bad I thought I better let him go." The cream-colored Hinkle Special began trailing smoke, and fell out of the race on the 54th lap, variously reported as to due to a broken oil line or a bad magneto. McGrath remarked to a radio interviewer that he had the "lousiest chief mechanic in the business- he can’t keep a motor running", an ironic comment on his own mechanical skills. The 26th place Indianapolis finish was a harbinger of things to come in 1955 for the Hinkle team; the team suffered with poor qualifying efforts and finishes, with a second at DuQuoin on Labor Day the team’s best finish.

Coming into the final race of the 1955, the 100-miler at Phoenix Fairgrounds dirt oval, McGrath announced that it would be his last dirt race. McGrath had built a new front axle for the KK-4000, but when he learned that Jack Hinkle made a deal with George Bignotti to buy the car after the race, McGrath decided to use the old one. After leading in the early going, McGrath was battling for second on the 86th, the front axle broke entering turn three; during the four sickening flips that followed, McGrath’s new style helmet flew off and he was killed instantly. Bignotti cancelled the deal with Hinkle and the fatal car was rebuilt and sold to R. D. Whittington Sr. The ex-Hinkle K-K4000 was entered by Whittington in three races in 1957 and 1958, but was failed to qualify. The Hinkle K-K 500C Speedway car was sold to H.H. Johnson, and raced in the 1956 and 1957 ‘500’s’ as the "Helse Special". When Jack Hinkle ended his involvement in professional auto racing, he had complied an enviable record. In six seasons as a Championship car owner, Hinkle’s cars started on the front at Indy five straight times, recorded three top five finishes at Indy, four championship victories, and finished in top five in points five times.

Amateur racer
In 1954, Jack Hinkle visited the Offutt National Sports Car Races in Omaha Nebraska with friends from Wichita and had remarked that he "didn’t believe in racing for trophies." After McGrath’s tragic death, Jack’s attitude towards professional racing changed radically. Jack joined the Wichita region of the SCCA early in 1956 to compete in SCCA F Modified racing in his Kurtis 500C sports car that he had purchased from Frank Kurtis. The 500X was a modified version of the K-K500C Indy car, designed to be fitted with an assortment of American V-8 engines, but in early 1955, Hinkle had Jack McGrath fit the car with a modified 88 CI Offenhauser engine. Jack’s first sports car race with the K-K Offy came at a regional event at Dodge City Kansas, five months after McGrath’s tragic death. The debut was inauspicious; after Jack won his class in the preliminary race, the little Offy engine broke a piston in the 100-mile feature. Jack won his first race in the Kurtis a month later at Smartt Field in St. Louis. Jack finished the 1956 season when he won a race in Coffeyville Kansas driving his Ferrari 750 Monza. In 1957, Jack scored two victories with the Kurtis-Offy before he retired it and purchased and raced a series of Maserati’s over the next two years- a 300S, a 200S and 250S, winning four events.
                                                Typical Birdcage Maserati Tipo 61
                           
all photos from the Kevin Triplett collection  
In 1960, Hinkle purchased the car with which is most associated- a 1960 Tipo 61 Birdcage Maserati. Over the next 3 seasons with his Birdcage, Jack Hinkle recorded 9 victories, 5 second place finishes, four third place finishes, and only 2 DNF’s, racing at tracks in Texas, Kansas, Arizona, Missouri and New Mexico. Nearly fifty years later, in 2010, Jack’s restored Birdcage sold for over $3.5 million dollars.

With the tragedy he had experienced as an AAA car owner, when Jack became the SCCA chairman in 1960 and 1961, he fiercely defended the SCCA’s amateur status against those that wanted the club to turn pro. "The SCCA," Jack said in a 1961 interview with Sports Illustrated, "is, simply, a gentleman’s racing club." In 1962, the SCCA awarded Jack the prestigious Woolf Barnato Award for his outstanding long-term contributions to the SCCA.

                                         In 1962, Jack purchased a Cooper Monaco


Then purchasing a Brabham BT8 and racing it with the same 2.7-liter engine he had used in the Cooper. As with most of Jack Hinkle’s personal race cars, the Brabham was painted red, and numbered #61. During the time he raced it, Hinkle won 38 races in the Brabham. After a crash destroyed the Brabham, Hinkle bought a new Porsche 906, which he later sold as he felt it was not fast enough. Hinkle moved up to race and win throughout the 1970’s in the wild A/Sports Racing class in several McLaren ex-Can Am cars, 

   Then settling on a Lola T165 with a big-block Chevrolet power plant.


In 1972, at the age of 59, when most racers are long since retired, Jack Hinkle the racer was the subject of a feature article in Road & Track magazine. A few years later when the SCCA enacted a rule limiting all cars to five-liter engines, Jack switched to a Lola S2000. Jack Hinkle retired from race driving in 1983 at age 71, having notched 71 SCCA overall victories in his long driving career. Throughout his entire racing career, he had just worked with the same full-time mechanic, his old friend Chet Johnson, who passed away in 2001. Jack Hinkle passed away on January 31, 2003.

Whether as a car owner, a driver, or racing official, Jack Hinkle truly epitomized the term "sportsman."

Apr 22 2011
                             Taking You Back !
                             Portrait of a racer - Chuck Stapleton
by
                                    
Kevin Triplett
Live Oak California
Contributor to OWR3
Two years ago, I found and bought this old black and white photograph on the online auction site EBay - a photo of auto racer Chuck Stapleton with a stamp on the back that reads "Dayton Pleasure Car Club, Inc."


I have been steadily researching the story behind this photo, and I finally have compiled enough information to relate the Chuck Stapleton story satisfactorily.

Charles "Chuck" Harold Stapleton, Jr. was born to Charles and Hazel Stapleton on November 15, 1928, and grew up with two brothers and two sisters in the village of Englewood, Ohio approximately 10 miles northwest of Dayton. After high school Chuck married his wife Shirley in 1947, and that same year, Chuck attended the Indianapolis ‘500,’ and was bitten by the racing bug. Chuck and his brother-in-law John Hufford regularly attended the roadster races held at Dayton Speedway. After a few years of spectating, Chuck decided that he was ready to race, so in 1950, he and John built a 1939 Ford stock car numbered #60 to race on local tracks. Chuck’s regular job was as a mechanic at Peffley Ford in Dayton, which was right next door to Frankie’s Forest Park Amusement Park, which held weekly races on a 1/5-mile dirt track located east of the park’s main attraction, the Comet roller coaster. The Dayton Pleasure Car Club, Inc. (DPCC) sanctioned the stock car races at Forest Park. Other notable members of the DPCC included Dayton area racing legends Ray Teague, Dick Dunlevy, Chick Hale, and Neal Sceva. In addition to Saturday night races at Forest Park, DPCC sanctioned Friday night races at the 3/10-mile Shady Bowl Speedway in nearby Degraff, Ohio, and Sunday afternoon races at Blevin’s Speedway in Middletown, Ohio, with occasional events at Powell Speedway in Columbus Ohio. His first night out at Forest Park in his still-unpainted new car, Chuck won his heat race and finished sixth in the feature. The second week, after painting the car, Chuck sheared an axle key at Forest Park and the ensuing crash tore all four fenders off his new racer. At the end of that first season, as a rookie, Chuck finished 11th in the DPCC season standings.

For 1951, Chuck parked his #60 car and concentrating on just driving; this move paid off, as Stapleton finished second in the 1951 DPCC season points. For 1952, Chuck built a new car, a 1951 Ford, but his DPCC results for that year have been lost to history. During the winter of 1952-1953, Chuck competed in the modified Crosley Stock Car races held indoors at the Cincinnati Gardens (1/10-mile track) and won the track championship. During this period, modified Crosley racing was popular in the Midwest, with races also held indoors in arenas in Louisville and Indianapolis. In February 1953, Chuck traveled to Florida to race on the 4.2-mile Daytona Beach course in his 1939 Ford modified stock car renumbered #160. Stapleton started 108th out of 136 cars, the largest NASCAR field ever. Chuck was running twelfth on the last lap of the 100-mile grind when his engine lost all oil pressure. Chuck’s car limped across the finish line in 33rd place, and he won $25.00. During the 1953 season, Chuck continued to race his 1951 Ford stock car, finishing seventh in a 100-mile ARCA stock car race held in May at Dayton Speedway.

For 1954, Chuck signed to race the AAA Midwest sprint car circuit driving Bill Cowgill’s red and white Offenhauser powered sprint car. The Leitenberger Brothers of Pennsylvania had formerly owned the car now known as the "Bill’s Service Center Special" #45. The 1954 season opener was held April 11 on the steeply banked Dayton Speedway; fragmented AAA sprint car records only list the top five finishers in the race won by Mike Nazurak, with no mention of Stapleton. The AAA Midwest Sprint cars next race was at the similarly high-banked 5/8-mile Fort Wayne Speedway, one of four similar tracks built by Frank Funk (the other three being Winchester, Salem and Dayton.) After being idle for several years, the Fort Wayne track had re-opened for 1954, operated by famed Eastern promoter Sam Nunis. 1954 marked the first and last time that races at all four of "the Hills" were on the AAA Midwest sprint car circuit schedule. As with the Dayton race, there are no AAA results available for Chuck Stapleton’s performance at this event, which won by Eddie Sachs in 18-year old car owner Mari Hulman’s H-O-W Special.

Winchester Speedway was the third stop on the 1954 Midwest AAA Sprint car schedule on May 2. Several days prior to the race, Chuck told brother-in-law John Hufford that he just not comfortable driving the Cowgill sprint car, and that he would step out of the car after Winchester. As events turned out, Chuck should have quit earlier. At the conclusion of the ten-lap consolation race in which he finished fourth, Chuck’s car continued at full speed and tangled with the car of Anderson, Indiana’s Curly Boyd in turn one. Chuck’s car spun, slid backwards up the banking, hit the fence, and slowly rolled over the top of the embankment, coming to rest upside down outside the track below. Rescuers up-righted the car, removed the gravely injured Stapleton from the wreckage, and loaded him into the Fraze Ambulance. Stapleton died en route to Randolph County Hospital in Winchester of severe head injuries. News reports the next day reported that race officials, citing in his inexperience in sprint cars, suspected that Chuck had not seen the checkered flag, but with four years of racing experience, this explanation seems unlikely. Stapleton’s death marked the first fatality at Winchester since the events of ‘Black Sunday’, July 29, 1951 in which Cecil Green and Bill Mackey had died on successive qualifying attempts.

Chuck Stapleton, age 25, was buried at Dayton Memorial Park a few days later, and left behind a pregnant wife and two children.

The author thanks John Hufford for his sharing his memories of Chuck Stapleton, and Rick Patterson for his research assistance.

Apr 3 2011
From Carl Schulz of The WRA   BREAKING NEWS  4/1/2011

  We are sorry to report the Bob Munier passed away at 2:30 AM,     April 1, 2011. As many of you know, Bob had cancer and his wife died last month. He took a turn for the worse and passed peacefully. Memorial Services are pending. Check back for info.

 VAN BLARGEN UP DATE 4/1/2011

 Kenny is doing better and is in Rehab. He would appreciate  cards from our members. Please mail to:

Kenny Van Blargen C/O Kentfield Rehab Hospital

1125 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Kentfield, CA 94904-1455

 PLEASE HELP OUR FRIEND IN NEED 3/15/11

Kenny Van Blargen went upside down at Havasu Speedway

and is in the hospital. He needs your help. Donations:

   F.B.O. Kenny Van Blargon

   Santa Lucia Bank P.O. Box 1947 Paso Robles, CA 93447

Please send what you can.Thank you!



Feb 22 2011
An edit for the story below on the 20th
We got this e-mail from Les Stark shedding some light on the Gilmore facilities. Thanks for triggering the old memory banks.
aXe
Hi,
Gilmore Stadium and Gilmore Field were two separate buildings. They
were both on the same property then called Gilmore Island. The
property owned by Earl Gilmore was not part of Los Angeles. It was
surrounded by Los Angeles. Gilmore field was a baseball park and
Gilmore Stadium was a race track and Football Stadium.
Best regards, Les
From this picture below You can see the Stadium in the foreground and the Field back further


     Gilmore Stadium then named Gilmore Field( not so as they were two seperate facilities see above) as they played stick and ball games there, this photo below was an editor error

All photos from the Kevin Triplett collection



Feb 22 2011
                              Taking You Back!
                          The (Short) McLaglen Stadium Story
by
                                    
Kevin Triplett
Live Oak California
Contributor to OWR3

Included among the collection of news clippings I inherited from Don Radbruch, was a small article entitled 
“Thirteen midget men face trial”  


This article provided an update on the story of 13 midget racer drivers, announcers and officials whom had been arrested several weeks  earlier, in the article, jury selection had begun.  The men were charged with disturbing the peace, conducting a nuisance and failure to obtain a fire permit.  So what was the real story?
As I had mentioned in a previous article ( see it belowabout Bill Betteridge, in 1936, a sanctioning dispute had broken out between, Earl Gilmore, owner of  Gilmore Stadium and the N.M.A. (National Midget Racing Association). 



The roots of the N.M.A. stretched back several years to the establishment of midget auto racing in the Los Angeles basin, when insurance agent D.W. “Doc” Moffat invested in the formation of the forerunner to N.M.A., the Midget Auto Racing Association (M.A.R.A.).  There had been a dispute concerning the finish of the 1935 Turkey Night Grand Prix with the apparent winner Ted Sizemore first disqualified, and then reinstated, for corner cutting.  Earl Gilmore blamed the N.M.A. officials for their lack of race control, which resulted in Gilmore Stadium’s prized turf infield being damaged nearly every week.  In addition, Gilmore disliked the loud smoky outboard powered midgets and announced his intention to require mufflers at Gilmore Stadium. When “Doc” Moffat pressed his N.M.A. racers’ concerns regarding the mufflers, he was told by Gilmore Stadium officials that they had formed their own sanctioning body, the American Midget Association (A.M.A), and the 1936 Midget Sanctioning War was on. 
Moffat responding by requesting N.M.A. racers boycott the Gilmore season opening race on April 2, 1936;, when race time arrived, Gilmore had only 8 cars in the pits and a full grandstand of fans wanting to see a full program. Gilmore’s Director of Racing Operations, Dave Koetzla capitulated on the muffler issue, and the N.M.A. racers miraculously materialized. The N.M.A. had won the first round of the War. However, the subsequent program featured wholesale corner cutting and left the infield a mess. 
Gilmore officials had a surprise for the NMA racers the next week, announcing in the April 9 1936 issue of the LA Times that “there will be no more corner cutting at the Gilmore Stadium midget auto races.”  This directive was enforced by placement of burlap wrapped straw bales placed in each of the turns, with the ends flush against the inside rail. Another new addition was a sound meter, which resulted in several (mostly outboard powered) cars being disqualified after hot laps for being too loud. Round two of the War went to Gilmore.
Ted Sizemore’s  muffler equipped outboard powered midget won the following week at Gilmore, which silenced the muffler complaints, but the hay bales still caused grumbling among the N.M. A. competitors.  In the meantime, ‘Doc” Moffat announced that the N.M.A. would soon visit two new venues; Santa Monica Municipal Stadium and Victor McLaglen Stadium near Glendale. The Gilmore straw bale issue came to head on May 28, 1936 - at the end of the first heat race, drivers  and crews rushed onto to the track and dragged the bales into the infield and lit some of them on fire, while NMA officials stood by and the crowd roared its’ approval.  Earl Gilmore was outraged and announced that midget auto racing would no longer be held at the Stadium. The outcome of round three of the sanctioning war would have to be called a draw. 


The initial race at Santa Monica was held the Sunday three days following the last race at Gilmore ; this first Santa Monica race was a disaster, with dusty, rutted track conditions (although racing continued there until the end of the1938 season.)  Come Monday following the Santa Monica event,  Earl Gilmore had evidently changed his mind about never hosting racing there again, announcing the Gilmore Stadium track would be closed briefly while the track was expanded to a full ¼-mile distance. The edge had to go to Gilmore for this round. 
The initial N.M.A. midget auto race for McLaglen Stadium was scheduled for June 17, 1936. Officially known as the Victor McLaglen’s Sports Center.

The facility owned by actor and sports enthusiast Victor McLaglen.  

                                          All photos from the Kevin Triplett collection

McLaglen was originally born in England, but had rose to fame as a bare knuckles boxer in Canada, including a 1909 bout in Vancouver with Jack Johnson which resulted in a “no decision.”   After serving for Britain in World War 1, McLaglen moved to Hollywood in 1920 and became a leading Hollywood character actor, winning the Academy Award in 1935. McLaglen Stadium, located at the intersection of Los Feliz Boulevard & Riverside Drive near Griffith Park adjacent to the Los Angeles River, was the site of many rugby, football and soccer matches throughout the 1930’s.  During 1935, McLaglen Stadium had been used as a location for filming of the world’s first midget racing move, “Ten Laps to Go,” starring cowboy actors Rex Lease and Duncan Renaldo, which perhaps opened the door for Moffat and promoter Bob McGinty to stage regular races there. 
Conditions at the initial McLaglen event on June 17th was even worse that the first event at Santa Monica; those cars that didn’t break from the rough track suffered from the excessive dust.  By the following week, the track had received a lot of fixes; according to a L.A. Times article, “the track has been rebuilt, the start/finish line moved to the west side, and other improvements too numerous to mention.”  The June 24th 40-lap feature saw Victor McLaglen himself working in the pits, much to the delight of the capacity crowd of 6000. Weekly racing on Wednesday nights at McLaglen Stadium was a hit with fans, but trouble was brewing. In the week following the June 24 eventt, a neighbor on Valleybrink Road in Glendale (just across the Los Angeles River from the Stadium) complained to the City Council about the noise from the midget race cars and requested that “the nuisance be abated.”  Four weeks later, on July 29, 1936 the Stadium was raided by more than a dozen police officers following the completion of the 40-lap feature won by Bill Betteridge.  In the chaos that followed, the police arrested five N.M.A. officials: Promoter McGinty,  N.M.A. President Moffatt, announcer Wally Strait, referee Earl Hasekell,  and starter Everett Balmer.

Also caught in the dragnet were eight drivers:  Dick Holmes, Charlie Vondera,   Frank Haitman, Louis Ulbrich, Robert Ware,” PeeWee” Darstice, Eddie Davis and Danny “Poison” Oaks.
 

All 13 men were arraigned, plead not guilty and released on the own recognizance pending their upcoming jury trials.  After several trials, only promoter Bob McGinty was convicted of the misdemeanor charge of failing to obtain a fire permit, but midget auto racing at McLaglen Stadium was finished after only seven events.    There has been a persistent story that the raid was the result of the feud between Gilmore and the N.M.A, and that Gilmore had used his powerful connections to eliminate his competition.  Perhaps it was just coincidence that Gilmore Stadium re-opened for midget racing the night following the raid, thus ending the 1936 Sanctioning War.
In the end, as is typical, it really didn’t matter who won the War. In early March 1938, after heavy rains for days, the east side grandstand foundation of Victor McLaglen Stadium was swept away by the massive flooding of the Los Angeles River.  The Stadium  site is now occupied by Interstate 5.   Victor McLaglen continued to work as an actor in Hollywood until in his death in 1959; he is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, just over two miles from his Stadium. 
The author welcomes the members of the openwheelracers3.com readership to come forward with any McLaglen Stadium stories, photos or memorabilia in his efforts to flesh out the McLaglen Stadium Story.

Feb 13 2011
Legends of San Jose, Kearney Bowl aka, "Airport" spdwys 2011

Vintage San Jose & Fresnos Kearney Bowl supers are running this year !
Come see Pombo, Sargent, Rescino cars and about 20 other old supers from their era still running.
schedule. 
Madera April 2nd,
Tulare april 16th,
Tulare April 30th after the Jim Perry Kearney Bowl reunion,
Madera May 7th ,
Tulare May 14th Tulare Pombo/Sargent Classic, Madera June 11th Vukovich classic,
Watsonville July 1st Howard kaeding Classic
Santa Maria July 23rd,
Watsonville Johnny Key Classic Aug 27th , Roseville Sept. 23, 24,
Hanford Oct. 15th Hanford Cotton Classic,  Willow Springs Raceway Walt James Classic Nov. 26th, 27th
check with the track before going as Races are subject to changes


Feb 6 2011
         Bill Betteridge – the first midget racing superstar
Takeing you Back
by
                                    
Kevin Triplett
Live Oak California
Contributor to OWR3


photo courtesy of the NMARHOF

I recently reviewed a set of  early midget newspaper clippings complied by the late Don Radbruch, a truly great racing historian, and found a number of Los Angeles newspapers with front page banner headlines announcing the death of Billy Betteridge.  I must profess that I knew little about this pioneering midget racer, so I started researching the life of Bill Betteridge., the details which I am pleased to share with the Openwheelracers3.com readers.
William T. “Bill” Betteridge was born April 8, 1914 in Fresno, California, and as a young man he moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale. In 1933 proving his natural mechanical abilities, built his own midget race car, powered at first by a Henderson twin-cylinder motorcycle engine; after a few 8-car exhibition races (the world’s first midget races) he replaced the Henderson with a more powerful Kaley outboard engine. He then tested his creation at the Muroc dry lake and hit a top speed of just over 100 MPH; it was with this car he entered his first midget race in 1933 at the 1/5-mile track at Loyola High School Stadium on Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles, run under the Midget Auto Racing Association (M.A.R.A.) sanction.  Bill struggled in those first few races, but later in the season, he installed an Elto 4-60 engine in his “Little Red Racer” and became a front runner. The Elto produced by Ole Evinrude was a 4-cyclinder opposed outboard motor which displaced 60 cubic inches.  Towards the end of the 1933 season, Billy set fast time at several races and won some trophy dashes, but a main event win eluded him in 1933.
Bill Betteridge was a publicist’s dream, a religious young man who lived with his parents and sister at 3001 Division Street in Glendale; his parents attended most all of his races. Betteridge did not drink, smoke, or swear, and always seemed to have a smile on his face. During the short break between the 1933 and 1934 seasons, Billy redoubled his efforts to make his car competitive and it paid off handsomely. Many sources state Betteridge won the feature on  February 1, 1934 at Loyola, but a period newspaper article credits him with winning the trophy dash, and finishing the feature in second place behind Bill Smilie.  This was the last race ever run at Loyola, as the Jesuits had received too many complaints from the neighbors and chose to not extend MARA’s lease. With the loss of Loyola, M.A.R.A. now concentrated its races at Moto Speedway in Long Beach and the Santa Ana Municipal Bowl, both 1/5 mile dirt ovals.  
In the next few months, Billy and his red #7 “Power-Lube Special” continued to excel, racking up 10 feature race wins. In the meantime, the soon to be famous Gilmore Stadium was being built, and opened for  its first race on May 31, 1934. That race and the next four Gilmore races were won by Curly Mills in his Elto-powered midget, while Bill suffered a string of mechanical problems.  On August 5th Betteridge got back to his winning ways in an unusual event staged at the Greenwich Village housing development in Girard California (now known as Woodland Hills). The 75-lap race was staged on a one-mile course laid out on the unpaved streets to promote sales in the new development. Bill Betteridge won by a lap over second place Don Welch, averaging just less than 48 MPH for the grueling event. 
By the end of September 1934, Betteridge had won seventeen more feature races, including six in a row at Gilmore Stadium and had built up a commanding lead in the M.A.R.A. season points.  At the end of September however, two new cars debuted, powered by four cylinder, eight valve, double overhead camshaft Offenhauser engines. Bob Swanson and Curly Mills in their new cars dominated for the balance of the season, with Swanson winning the first ever “Midget Grand Prix” held on Thanksgiving night 1934. Nonetheless, Billy Betteridge held onto his points lead and was crowned the 1934 M.A.R.A. Midget National Champion, and is credited with close to 50 feature wins in the 1934 season.  
Before the  1935 season, in an attempt to keep up with the Offenhauser engines  Betteridge using his mechanical abilities and enlarged the Elto engine in his Little Red Racer to 100 cubic inches displacement, but he struggled with the reliability. On the sanctioning front, M.A.R.A.  re-organized as the National Midget Association (N.M.A.) and expanded to begin racing at the ¼ - mile D-shaped Atlantic Boulevard Stadium in Commerce and Sports Field Stadium in San Diego.  In October, Betteridge and twelve other N.M.A. midgets make the trek to race at the Utah State Fair   Bob Swanson continued his previous season’s  dominance in his Offenhauser midget and was crowned the 1935 N.M.A.champion.
In 1936, a sanctioning dispute broke out between Earl Gilmore at Gilmore Stadium and the N.M.A., which resulted in Gilmore starting the American Midget Association (A.M.A.), later reorganized and called the Owners and Drivers Association (O.D.A.) (the ‘Offenhauser circuit)’ which Betteridge declined to join, knowing that his Elto was not reliably competitive against the Offenhausers.  Later in the season, Gilmore Stadium closed while the track was expanded to a ¼-mile in length, which left Atlantic as the only regular midget racing venue. Betteridge dominated the weak N.M.A. schedule, composed of mostly Class ‘B’ cars, and was crowned the 1936 N.M.A. champion.
By 1937, the power struggle for the control of Southern California midget racing had ended, and O.D.A. and N.M.A.  merged to become the American Midget Association (A.M.A.).  Earl Gilmore, never a fan of the noisy, smoky outboard powered engines, banned them from the re-opened Gilmore stadium, leaving Bill Betteridge to race his ‘Little Red Racer’ only at Atlantic Stadium. 
Tragedy struck on June 8, 1937, on the second lap of the scheduled 60-lap feature racing for fourth place, when the left front wheel of Bill’s car and the right rear wheel of Pat Cummingham’s car became locked.  Bill’s car swerved into the outside guardrail was struck by the car of Gil Guthrie, and rolled end over end three times, throwing Bill onto the track nearly thirty feet away. Betteridge was placed in a private car and rushed to nearby Maywood Hospital where he was pronounced dead of a fractured skull. Informed of his death, A.M.A. officials huddled and cancelled the balance of the event, declaring young Sam Hanks who was leading, as the winner.  
Bill Betteridge died two months after his 23rd birthday.
He was laid to rest in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. 

News article from the Kevin Triplett collection

An article written by Los Angeles Evening News columnist Gene Coughlin in the week following Betteridge’s death compared him to Charles Lindbergh and Wilbur Shaw, and called Bill “a right guy. He was utterly different than the average pilot who slides into a cockpit. He was God-fearing and unselfish. Like Lindbergh, he was quiet, soft-spoken and well-mannered. “  Coughlin wrote “If his career hadn’t been cut short, he might someday have done what Wilbur Shaw did this year at Indianapolis.”  (Wilbur Shaw won the first of three Indianapolis ‘500s’ in 1937).
Bill Betteridge was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2002.



Feb 3 2011
                     A Norman Girtz story
                                                       by
                                                                        
Kevin Triplett
                               Live Oak California
Contributor to OWR3

Several weeks ago, I was given the privilege to assist the
National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame
by performing some basic research on one of the 2011 inductees, 
Norm Girtz
At Balboa Stadium in the #11 Petruzzi Drake
                                                                                        
photo from the Triplett collection
    You might wonder as I did how it was that the Hall of Fame didn’t know much about one of their inductees. Several years ago, the Hall of Fame convened a small committee of great auto racing history minds to put together a list of people who participated prior to 1956, the “Historical Era,” thus preserving this group for future inductions, as the following generations would never include them, never having knowledge of their accomplishments. In this case, it was Gordon Betz who put Norm Girtz on the list for induction. With his long distinguished career, starting when he was just 17 years old as an AAA and later USAC official, Gordon Betz was certainly qualified to tell us who should be enshrined in the  National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.  
Now several years have passed, and some of those on the original committee including Betz have passed on leaving us without any background information.  I was honored that the Hall of Fame asked me to help them with this research.  Unfortunately, space was limited in the program, so most of what I uncovered about Norm Girtz was verbally presented to the attendees of Induction ceremony by host   Jim Tretow. For those who were unable to attend the ceremony, here is the Norm Girtz story that I have uncovered.  Hopefully, some of our knowledgeable OpenWheelRacers3.com readers can help me fill in the missing portions of the Norman Girtz  story.

   The first records I’ve uncovered of Norm Girtz competing dates back to April 1938 at the 1/5-mile Neptune Beach Speedway, located at the Neptune Beach Amusement Park in Alameda California; that Tuesday night Girtz placed third in Short Track Auto Racing Association (S.T.A.R.) Class B feature. Girtz’ name appears throughout the 1938 and 1939 seasons as a regular competitor at Neptune along with fellow Fresno racers Jackie Sayers and brothers Bill and Eli Vukovich. 
Neptune Speedway was demolished along with the rest of the amusement park in November 1939.   In 1940, Norm Girtz continued to compete regularly with the Short Track Auto Racing Association, driving LW Bennett’s #33 Drake powered midget as a teammate to Andy Guthrie.    Bennett, in addition to being a car owner was also the manager of the Sportland Park race track in Bakersfield California.  In 1940, S.T.A.R. presented races in San Francisco, Oakland, Stockton, and Fresno, in addition to Sportland Park in Bakersfield.  In  1941, Norm Girtz placed eighth in the S.T.A.R.  season-ending points standings.

   In 1942, Norm Girtz piloted a red #8 Drake powered midget to two victories in a shortened racing season at Sportland Park. On May 30, 1942, Girtz finished second to Paul Swedberg in the feature at Sportland, crossing the finish line while standing up in the seat to avoid the flames after his engine caught fire on the final lap. Two weeks later, Girtz started eleventh in the 12-car feature, and was running second after only five laps. Girtz and Frank Brewer proceeded to duel for the next 15 laps, before Girtz surged ahead for the victory. 

Norman Girtz holds the peculiar distinction of being the last driver to win a US automobile race before the World War 2 racing ban stopped racing for three long years. The Office of Defense Transportation had initially commanded that all auto racing must cease at midnight on July 10, 1942, but the date was later moved to midnight on July 31, 1942. Girtz won the 30-lap midget feature at Sportland Park in Bakersfield held July 31, with the feature ending at 11:20 PM local time. This marked the end for Sportland Park as the board fencing, grandstands and buildings were torn down and used as lumber to aid the war effort. 
West Coast Midget car racing exploded following World War 2, with the United Racing Association running two circuits, the ‘blue’ circuit reserved for Offenhauser powered cars, and the ‘red’ for V8-60 and motorcycle engine powered racers.  Norm Girtz was a regular on the tough URA ‘red’ circuit which raced seven nights a week. A typical week for the U.R.A. would start at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento on Monday, move to Modesto 99 Speedway on Tuesday, Balboa Stadium in San Diego on Wednesday, Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles on Thursday, then onto San Bernardino’s Orange Show Stadium on Friday, to Tulare Fairgrounds Speedway on Saturday, and Bakersfield on Sunday.   
Girtz’ contemporaries on the URA ‘red’ circuit included Bill Vukovich, Bill Zaring and Billy Cantrell, all who are enshrined in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.
In the short three-month long 1945 season, Girtz finished 11th in points, notching one victory at Balboa driving the Petruzzi #51 Drake.  In 1946, in an eight-month outdoor season, Norm scored twelve victories in the Petruzzi Drake (now numbered 11), including two victories in a row at Bakersfield during the month of June, and finished 3rd for the season in points.  For 1947, Girtz won 6 features in four different cars, with three victories in the Ken Smith owned V8-60, claiming seventh place in the point standings.  In 1948, Norm Girtz finished a close second to Bill Zaring in points, notching 6 feature wins, including two in a row at both Bakersfield and Tulare, driving the Messer V8-60. Girtz also won a special 62-lap “team race” between Southern California and Fresno drivers held at his hometown Fresno Airport Speedway Memorial Day weekend in 1948.   In 1949, Norm Girtz won five feature races, all in the Messer V8-60 #3 and all at Bakersfield. In April 1949, the URA board created a “unified” title combining the ‘red’ and ‘blue’ circuit points, and using that scoring system, Girtz was awarded eleventh place in the combined final standings.  After 1949, Norman Girtz’ name does not appear in any URA race results or points standings.  A public records search indicates that Norman Girtz passed away in 1974. 

Norman Girtz post-war URA statistics, 31 wins in four seasons.
Hughes Stadium- 3 wins; Balboa Stadium-3 wins;
Fresno Airport Speedway – 8 wins; Bakersfield Speedbowl – 12 wins; Tulare Fairgrounds-4 wins; and one win at Stockton Speedway.