The 1949 'Night Before the 500' Midget car races

Midget car racing is not everybody's cup of tea, not mine really, but for the sake of historical accuracy could someone clear up a discrepancy.

The 1949 Night Before the 500 was held at the 16th Street stadium in Indianapolis and the headline in NSSN states "O'Halloran Two Time Winner, Haddad once". There were three winners because three separate events were held during the day. Each event consisted of heats etc culminating in a "feature" race. The first event started in the morning, the next in the afternoon and finally the last one in the evening. It was a long day for all concerned !

The first feature result was 1 O'Halloran 2 Haddad 3 Hansen 4 Ayulo 5 Goacher 6 Reid.

The second feature was 1 Haddad 2 Andrews 3 Eaton 4 O'Halloran 5 Klingbiel 6 Ludington

The third feature was listed in the results as identical to the 2nd event. This must be wrong if the headlines are correct. I suspect that a rather tired reporter accidentally copied the second feature results again when typing his report or there was a slip up by the printing compositor.

Is there anybody with a reliable source who can confirm the third event results?

Thanks in advance.

John

John. you could try posting the same question over on Trackforum. Some of the folk there are very knowledgeable.

For what it's worth, I have Haddad winning the first two features, and O'Halloran the evening card, but my info comes from secondary sources. I have never found contemporary accounts of the races.

John. you could try posting the same question over on Trackforum. Some of the folk there are very knowledgeable.

Possibly get a response from someone who was there by asking at Yahoo Racing History Group

Michael - The NSSN report is in the 15 June issue.

As you will be aware the all day programme was ambitious in the extreme. For each show an entry of around 60 (?) Midgets had to go through a timed qualifying trial to sort out the fastest 48. Then there were four 10 lap heats, a 10 lap handicap event, a 20 lap Australian Pursuit race, and finally the 30 lap feature race. Little wonder the whole programme of 3 shows did not finish until the "wee hours".

The NSSN scribe, Christy, wrote " The third show again found 38 (sic) cars qualifying for the events to come and Kenny Eaton again set the fastest time of the night. This was the last of the 3 scheduled shows and in this time everyone was becoming very weary and Henry Heald who had been on the mike all during the other two shows was beginning to show the strain of fatigue. Everyone was a bundle of nerves including each and everyone of the drivers with many complaining that they did not make the program". Obviously Christy was equally shattered and there was no resume of the various races held during the night show. Instead he referred the reader to the box results.

Frank, Rollo - I have applied to join the Yahoo Racing History Group, which appears to concentrate on the less well-known races rather than the AAA/USAC National Championships which have been researched by various American historians.

Cheers, John

Edited by humphries, 05 December 2011 - 21:48.

Having applied to join the Yahoo Racing History Group I was advised that I would have to wait until the application was approved by the group leader. After a two months wait I'm wondering if I have not followed the correct procedure. If there is a TNF member who is also in the YRHG I'd appreciate an enquiry from within.

Cheers

John

Having applied to join the Yahoo Racing History Group I was advised that I would have to wait until the application was approved by the group leader. After a two months wait I'm wondering if I have not followed the correct procedure. If there is a TNF member who is also in the YRHG I'd appreciate an enquiry from within.

Cheers

John

You're on the members' list, John. The Yahoo Groups software seems to be on the fritz recently though. Perhaps something went astray?

Have you tried to post there? (Just remember to abide by their "Len Sutton Rule" and always give your real name and home town at the end of the message!)

Finally managed to post on RacingHistory. If I have any joy I'll pass on the information about this event.

John