The Indianapolis 500, a History: Volume One: Resurrection and Blue Crowns

By Brian G. Boettcher

REVISED EDITION - First of five book series examining the history of the Indianapolis 500 from 1946 to 1969. Volume One: Resurrection and Blue Crowns includes the story of the Speedway’s catastrophic opening, its 1945 sale to Tony Hulman, and each race from 1946 through 1953, examining events and people who shaped the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing" and its legend.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian G. Boettcher
• Release date: Sep 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476037134

Brian G. Boettcher

Brian Boettcher developed his motorsports interest in the Milwaukee Mile’s south bleachers, and has a lifelong fascination with going fast, on two wheels or four. The History of the Indianapolis 500 series reflects his love of history and writing. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Brian graduated with a degree in Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His career has taken him to living in New Mexico, Germany, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

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The Indianapolis 500, a History - Volume One: Resurrection and Blue Crowns

Brian G. Boettcher

Published by Constant Velocity Publishing at Smashwords

8/8/2014

Copyright 2012, Brian G. Boettcher

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Thank you for downloading this ebook, which is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the author’s hard work.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter One: Weeds and Hope (1942-1946)

Chapter Two: The Blue Crown Dynasty (1947-1950)

Chapter Three: To Please a Lady (1950)

Chapter Four: Kurtis Roadsters and the Fresno Flash (1951-1953)

Preface

It is the greatest spectacle in racing. Sports, automotive progress, and history intersect with legend at Georgetown Road and 16th Street – The Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The annual 500-Mile International Sweepstakes is our nation’s premier motorsports event – since 1911.

I thought writing sports history was easy, that drivers and stats told the story. Wrong! I soon discovered each race wove a larger history, from the resurrection of the Sweepstakes in 1946, through the Novi versus Blue Crown era, the ascent of Frank Kurtis, George Salih, A.J. Watson and Colin Chapman as car builders, and technological innovations like layover engines, rear engine cars and turbines, and the continual search by Speedway owner and master promoter Tony Hulman for freshness to prime the gate. It all comprises an amazing tapestry.

I was also struck by the frequent sudden violent death or severe injury suffered by the game’s superstars: Ralph Hepburn, Rex Mays, Ted Horn, Lee Wallard, Bill Vukovich and Jimmy Bryan. Minor players came and went, too. Tragedy was integral to the show. Since the first recorded racing death, Frank Day at the Wisconsin State Fair track on September 12, 1903, more than 400 drivers, mechanicians and spectators were reported killed by racing accidents by the time the Speedway opened six years later. I was never famous until I went through the fence at St. Louis and killed two spectators, Barney Oldfield said. Promoters fell over one another to sign me up. Spectators were reported to cut bits of bloody clothing and hair from the victims lying trackside as ghoulish souvenirs. I’ve included descriptions of the carnage inflicted by the sport, all duly reported by the media of the day and publicized by race promoters. Some may consider that inappropriate; fair enough.

History is an oddly facetted thing – and racing history even more odd. It is not uncommon for records and accounts to disagree. Recollections often evolve into stories much different than the contemporary accounts provided by the same persons. My goal is to provide a fair account of the post-war Sweepstakes, and its evolution as the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. I’m reminded of the quote from a classic western movie: This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. Much of the published racing record is the legend. The actual stories are more compelling.

I consider the 23 years to 1969 the historical basis for the following decades to the current day. I’ve tried to wring the essential stories from various accounts, most contemporaneous, to avoid the muse of ghostwriters, flacks, promoters, and the expected rote recounting of certain events so often told. Many of the references surfaced fundamental disagreements that I traced back in the public record, generally newspapers. I recognize the peril in using contemporary accounts, accepting that the record is otherwise sparse. Participants were generally not known as men of letters.

I also steered as clear of nuts and bolts as possible. Except for impactful changes, there is little reference to the mechanical aspects of vehicles. For those wanting deeper details, I refer you to those more knowledgeable than I am.

BGB, Columbia, MD

Chapter One: Weeds and Hope (1942-1946)

Yes, the Big Race will come back to take its place among the nation's leading sporting events, when the peace comes...and as was the case at the conclusion of World War I, it will take on increased popularity. The men who go to make automobile racing one of the most thrilling sports in the world have definitely ‘gone to war’— and without too much hullabaloo...but they'll be back to recreate the Speedway Classic when they've completed their jobs...

- Frank Moran, The Lowell (MA) Sun, January 2, 1945

The World War still raged as 1944 drew to a close. America's motorsport tracks remained silent since July 4, 1942, when the Office of Defense Transportation banned racing to conserve tires and gasoline. To conserve the nation's mostly natural rubber civilian car and truck tire stocks, wartime road speeds were limited to 35 miles per hour to extend their usual 15,000 mile wear life. Replacements were tightly rationed. Indianapolis race drivers endorsed the national speed limit. Not one of us will step her up over 35 until the bells ring and whistles blow on The Big Day, promised Howdy Wilcox, President of the Champion Spark Plug 100-Mile per Hour Club.

Wilbur Shaw was America's auto racing champion – a three-time winner of the 500-Mile International Sweepstakes at Indianapolis, popularly known as the Indianapolis 500. A veteran pilot with the Army Air Corps Reserve, Shaw became an executive with Firestone Tire & Rubber Company to organize and run its new Aviation Division. Improved synthetic rubber was in the works to provide American and Allied warriors the tires needed to defeat the Axis. And Firestone was looking beyond the war effort to the post-war consumer market, where synthetic rubber would allow large scale tire production sooner than waiting while the world's depleted natural rubber stocks replenished.

Wilbur Shaw

Shaw arrived at the disused Speedway November 29, 1944, to showcase the durability of Firestone’s prototype synthetic Vitamic tires. A high-speed 500-mile run simulating 50,000 road miles would be a spectacular follow-up to the seventeen-hour speed test at the Speedway a year earlier, the first public show of synthetic rubber automobile tires. With government approval, Shaw arranged the demonstration, including timing by the American Automobile Association's (AAA) Contest Board, which sanctioned major auto races prior to the war.

Shaw and the Firestone crew fixed the Speedway’s surface and cut a driving groove through the weeds that had overtaken the place. I was appalled at the physical condition of the track, he recalled. There were big crevices in the pavement in the turns. These had to be repaired before we could even begin the test. Once underway, Shaw, veteran of 5,051 competitive Speedway miles, easily turned the 200 test laps in an old Miller Speedway racer. He maintained 90 miles per hour through the turns, and hit over 135 miles per hour on the straightaways – averaging almost exactly the planned 100 miles per hour. Underway, his thoughts turned to the historic Speedway and its future.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in 1909 as a showcase race course and test facility for America's growing automobile business, which was largely centered in Indianapolis. It was promoted as The Brooklands of America after Britain’s steeply banked, two-and-three-quarters-mile oval. The facility cost $400,000, with the New York Times observing, The new speedway has assuredly been built to afford comfort to the spectator, and it will be regrettable if it is not a big success.

Carl G. Fisher

Four Indianapolis businessmen backed the Speedway. The principal partner, Carl G. Fisher, was described as a man who never had a thousand dollars in those days but he had a place to spend twenty (thousand). A contemporary account ascribed inspiration for the track to a time when Fisher’s new car repeatedly broke down along the way. Repairing the machine at the roadside, he wondered aloud why there was no track to test cars out before the public gets ‘em. In December 1908 Fisher brought three other investors together during a race meet at Savannah, Georgia: Jim Allison of Allison Engineering, Arthur Newby of Diamond Chain and National Motor Vehicle Company, a fellow member of the Zig-Zag Cycling Club; Frank Wheeler, a partner in the Wheeler-Schebler Carburetor Company. Each bought $15,000 of stock in the venture, a two-mile, fifty foot wide, oval-shaped motor speedway three miles outside the city. Plans were announced on January 11, 1909.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Company formed on February 6, 1909, to furnish suitable track and road facilities for the driving and testing of—American cars and motorcycles for long distance or high speed contests, and to have a suitable track and road course where these tests and trials can be made at any time of the year. Among its goals was to have one international contest for the benefit of the west each year. Construction, with grandstand seating for 35,000, was to be completed by May 15, and the first public event held in June.

By April the plan changed to create a two-and-a-half mile rectangular Speedway with an inside road course that would lengthen the course to five miles, passing the grandstands three times per lap. The turns would be banked suitably for 100 miles per hour. The track, enthused Motorcycle Illustrated magazine, will be the safest high speed motor race course in the world. The plant featured garages, a machine shop, restaurant and grandstand seating for 25,000 spectators. The builder’s inability to get the needed machinery together and rain delayed work three weeks. Fisher made first complete lap around the unpaved outer course on May 20th, after which Speedway management announced that Fisher and Newby would initiate the five mile track with a 10,000 mile drive over ten days in a locally-produced National automobile. Instead, on June 5, 1909, the first event at the uncompleted Speedway matched six gas-filled balloons to a race – including Carl Fisher piloting his air vessel Indiana. He landed amid controversy after 48 hours near Tennessee City, TN..

The Original Speedway Surface, F.A.M. convention, 1909

In August the Speedway served as terminus for a national motorcycle endurance run from Cleveland as part of the three-day Federation of American Motorcyclists convention. The Federation's slate of one, five, and ten mile motorcycle races from the 12th through the 14th were the first track contests. Arthur G. Chapple, captain of the New York Motorcycle Club, won the Speedway’s first race on his five horsepower Indian, overcoming a 41 second delayed start in the five mile amateur handicap for private owners. Fred Huyck of Chicago, also riding an Indian, won three events that first day before 5,000 spectators. There were numerous spills caused by ruts and sharp stones puncturing tires, with the final day of racing canceled out of safety concerns. Motorcycle Magazine headlined its coverage, Speedway Races Failure, reporting that The huge track, the immensity of which one must prove by personal visit in order to appreciate, was not in condition for motorcycle racing. As an exhibition Wilfred Billy Bourque turned one lap at 64 miles per hour in his Knox racing automobile.

Arthur Chapple, winner of the Speedway’s first race, 1909

Twelve thousand spectators came Thursday, August 19, 1909, to witness the Speedway's first competitive automobile events featuring the fastest cars and most daring drivers. Admission to the grandstand was one dollar, and fifty cents to the grounds. Contest Director Ernest Moross plumped, You have but a slight idea of what a contest will be witnessed on this track. A total purse of $25,000 attracted over 100 entries to the American Automobile Association (AAA) sanctioned races. The Overland Automobile Company provided a gold-plated Model 38 roadster to be awarded to the driver making the fastest mile on the new track during 1909.

Before the races, AAA officials toured the track before confirming the association’s sanction, ordering the infield drainage ditch covered and a few other changes. Two-and-a-half inches of bituminous macadam, rolled flat by 15-ton steam rollers, surfaced the track. It was a widely used surface on public roads that mixed crushed stone chips and larger stones with asphaltum oil. P.T. Andrews, engineer in charge, tested the surface before concluding the top dressing just needed traffic to smooth it down, saying by the second meet it ought to be lightning fast. Some predicted the big cars would tear up the surface.

The Speedway’s first auto race involved five stripped chassis cars of Class No. 4 with engines between 161 to 230 cubic inches. These machines, whose bodywork and fenders were removed to decrease weight and increase speeds, competed over two laps, or five miles, around the great white stone course. Louis Schwitzer, driving a Stoddard-Dayton, won in five minutes, thirteen seconds. Drivers and mechanicians reported peltings by stones thrown up soon after racing began as the new surface deteriorated exposing the track's crushed limestone foundation.

The day’s fifth event was the 250-mile race for the Prest-O-Lite Trophy, engraved with the now-familiar Speedway wheel-and-wing logo. Louis Chevrolet quit on lap 53 after a flying stone shattered his goggles, putting glass slivers in his eye. Five laps later Billy Bourque, winner of the day’s third race, crashed when his Knox race car lost a rear wheel coming down the homestretch. The machine swerved left into the shallow tiled drainage ditch just before the main grandstand and flipped twice. His riding mechanician Harry Holcomb was ejected, fatally injured when his head hit a fence post holing his skull. Bourque died, skull crushed, pinned under the twisted car. Lurid newspaper bulletins recounted how Billy drowned in his own blood, being unable to breathe on account of the blood pouring down his throat.

Newspaper headlines the next morning proclaimed, Indianapolis Motor Track Dedicated with the Blood of Two Victims. AAA officials issued a public demand that the track be freed from the many and dangerous ruts, which are said to be unavoidable in a new track, and that every inch of it be thoroughly oiled and tarred. Speedway officials complied, satisfying AAA officials that the crews did all in their power to make the course safe, allowing the speedway to keep its race meet sanction. The name of the Indianapolis speedway was made more effectively then it could have been in any other way, when Billy Bourque and his mechanic thundered from it into an open ditch on the opening day, Barney Oldfield wrote. The speedway leaped into instant fame. Proving Oldfield’s assertion, the crowd grew to 22,000 for the Friday racing, anticipating another frenzied carnival of speed. The track held up well enough through a day of new world records and thrilling races.

On the meet's final day, a hot and humid Saturday, the crowd swelled to nearly 30,000 fans to view its main event, a 300-mile race for the Tiffany-crafted, seven-foot Wheeler & Schebler trophy, its silver reportedly worth $10,000. AAA President Lewis.R. Speare attempted to have the race reduced to 100 miles, but it was run as scheduled. Johnny Aitken, an Indianapolis boy driving a National automobile, dropped out