Motor sport during WW2

Originally posted by Mal9444

Perhaps I'm reading too much into the reasons behind the thread. Maybe it's just about listing motor sport events worldwide between 3rd September 1939 and June 1945.

But whatever the reason for the thread - America was not at war during the first two-and-a-quaretr years of that period.

Again - forgive me if you have all already dealt with this issue.

Valid point, Mal.

But I think it's at least "convenient" to use those dates (subject to changing June for August 1945 ;) ) Some of the countries mentioned (Sweden, Ireland) were neutral throughout the war, others were initially neutral (Italy, Belgium, USA, Brazil) and still others - belligerents from the outset - saw little or no military action on their home soil (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa).

But there'd be a lot less point in recording only events after Dec 7th 1941 ....

Vitesse (post #68) mentions Indy.

This is slightly OT, but ISTR Firestone did some tire testing at IMS during the war. I remember seeing an old b&w photo of a "big car" running there with the driver well-insulated from the winter cold in a heavy jacket.

Originally posted by Lotus23
Vitesse (post #68) mentions Indy.

This is slightly OT, but ISTR Firestone did some tire testing at IMS during the war. I remember seeing an old b&w photo of a "big car" running there with the driver well-insulated from the winter cold in a heavy jacket.

I recall seeing that as well. It must've been early on though, as the track was in a state of disrepair by the end of the war. Ive seen photos of Indy during the war years, and the track and infield are choked with weeds. Unless, as usual, I'm thinking of a different photo!

-William

Thanks for picking up the point, guys.

And Tim - good to meet another Bogle fan.
Now, as you say - back to the topic

A quick google brought it all back. Firestone, with government approval, brought in three-time winner (37, 39, 40) Wilbur Shaw to run a 500-mile tire test at Indy. The date? Later than I'd thought: 29 Nov 44.

Turns out that day was pivotal in the Brickyard's history. Shaw ran the test, but was aghast at the dilapidated condition of the place, and began efforts to find some well-heeled businessman to rescue it from oblivion. Most of the locals figured the property would end up bulldozed into a housing development, but Shaw persisted. He of course finally found Tony Hulman and we know the rest of the story.

Originally posted by Lotus23
.....He of course finally found Tony Hulman and we know the rest of the story.

Shhhh!

You don't want to get Buford started again!

I wonder whether this thread inspired this book.

Ladies and gentlemen .... thanks to our good friend Vladimir (kvadrat) Kovalenko, here are two pictures of ......





THE WONG SILVER ARROW!

Looks nasty... I hope Chia survived this one?

"Desert Warriors. Australian P-40 pilots at war in the Middle East". Published by Banner Books. Author Russell Brown - Page 255: The South African Wing organised a "Grand Prix" of captured Axis vehicles and invited 203 wing to participate. 'Among the entries was an Opel, a Volkswagen, a Peugeot, a Fiat, a Citroen and an Auto Union troop carrier. To the delight of 450 squadron punters the race was won by the C.O., S/Ldr. Jack Bartle, in a Citroen.

Originally posted by David McKinney

He drove a Scuderia Ambrosiana 4C-1100 Maserati in the 1939 South African GP, but that car presumably went back to Europe.
The Camps Bay car is more likely to be the 2.8-litre car Chiappini had raced in 1937, and which he did buy from Dickie Oats. It had started life in 1931 as a 4-seater 8C-2500, but I think Oats, who raced it at Brooklands 1934-36, converted it to a 2-seater - or even a single-seater. This was the car that Ian Fraser-Jones would race a few times in 1948, and I believe a later owner bolted a Chevy Six into it.

There were two 8C-2500 Maseratis which went to South Africa. The one which had the American V8 (a Ford I believe) came back to England in the 1960s and after some detective work the remains of the other car (the chassis was being used for a climbing frame) together with both engines were also returned to England. One is still being rebuilt, the other is in glorious shape
http://farm2.static...._8b347fe224.jpg

Originally posted by sandy
"Desert Warriors. Australian P-40 pilots at war in the Middle East". Published by Banner Books. Author Russell Brown - Page 255: The South African Wing organised a "Grand Prix" of captured Axis vehicles and invited 203 wing to participate. 'Among the entries was an Opel, a Volkswagen, a Peugeot, a Fiat, a Citroen and an Auto Union troop carrier. To the delight of 450 squadron punters the race was won by the C.O., S/Ldr. Jack Bartle, in a Citroen.

Do you please perhaps have more detailed information on this event? Where and when? Do they mention the names of any of the South African chaps?

The GOLDEN CITY OPEN HANDICAP RACES were held on 1 Jan. 1940 at the Lord Howe Circuit near Johannesburg. Joe Sarkis won. This was the race that killed probably the best South African pre-WW2 driver, Dennis Woodhead.

The Bluff Grand Prix of 1940 in Durban was banned due to due a city council decision on road safety.

Originally posted by sandy
"Desert Warriors. Australian P-40 pilots at war in the Middle East". Published by Banner Books. Author Russell Brown - Page 255: The South African Wing organised a "Grand Prix" of captured Axis vehicles and invited 203 wing to participate. 'Among the entries was an Opel, a Volkswagen, a Peugeot, a Fiat, a Citroen and an Auto Union troop carrier. To the delight of 450 squadron punters the race was won by the C.O., S/Ldr. Jack Bartle, in a Citroen.

What an interesting proposition... especially when you align it with this:

http://forums.autosp...=&postid=188005

Originally posted by Hieronymus


Do you please perhaps have more detailed information on this event? Where and when? Do they mention the names of any of the South African chaps?

The GOLDEN CITY OPEN HANDICAP RACES were held on 1 Jan. 1940 at the Lord Howe Circuit near Johannesburg. Joe Sarkis won. This was the race that killed probably the best South African pre-WW2 driver, Dennis Woodhead.

The Bluff Grand Prix of 1940 in Durban was banned due to due a city council decision on road safety.

The best I can do is advise of details of the book which mainly describes the Australian P-40 squadrons but there is much mention of other units including South Africans.

"DESERT WARRIORS Australian P-40 pilots at war in the Middle East and North Africa. 1941-1943."
Published by Banner Books. 122 Walker Street. Maryborough. Queensland. Australia.
ISBN 1 875593 22 5. Author - Russell Brown. 320 pages. Just about every 2nd page has a BXW illustration.

Additional to the previous post - presumably the Volkswagen mentioned is a captured Kubelwagen several examples of which are shown in illustrations.

[i]

AUSTRALIA
Full 1939/40 speedway season
1940 - Bathurst Easter meeting
- Pingelly (Western Australia)
- Applecross (Western Australia)
- Lobethal (South Australia)
1940/41/42? - last few meetings at
Penrith 1 mile oval in western Sydney
1944? - Unconfirmed reports of a speedcar
race at the Henson Park football ground
in the inner Sydney suburb of Newtown.

[/B]

27 January 1941: Great Southern Speed Classic, Pingelly, Western Australia. (The Australia Day long weekend)

A 5-race programme:

5 lap handicap for racing cars
10 lap handicap for solo motorcycles
5 lap South Western Championship scratch race for racing cars
10 lap handicap for motorcycle sidecars
10 lap Great Southern Speed Classic handicap for racing cars


The Great Southern Speed Classic would normally have been over 20 laps (50 miles) but fuel rationing was in force.

There was also a 3-lap match race not listed in the pre-event press, between Clem Dwyer in his Plymouth Spl and Barry Ranford in his similar Ranford Spl. Dwyer won.

My impression had been that the ODT ban on autoracing in the USoA was only lifted for about two weeks in November of 1944, so I was suitably surprised when I found the following articles, all in the Altamont Enterprise:

September 8, 1944:

ALTAMONT FAIR TO OBSERVE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY DURING ITS WEEK-LONG EXPOSITION WHICH OPENS SEPTEMBER 11
(...)
A feature of the golden jubilee will be the usual agricultural and farm exhibits. There will be four days of harness races. Every night George Hamid will present the Paramount Revue with George Ventre's Stetson band. Saturday, will be ''Thrill Day,'' with stock car races featuring Joie Chitwood, Bob Sall, Ted Horn, Frankie Bailey, Dee Toran, and many others.

Ibid.

Racing Cars At Fair Will Not Use Rubber Or Gas
For the first time in racing history on the Altamont Fairgrounds race track, stock car automobile races will be presented on Saturday, Sept. 16, the closing day of the Albany-Schenectady County exposition.
Regular stock cars will race around the fast oval on iron wheels, powered by profane canned cooking gas.
Piloted by such drivers at Ted Horn, Indianapolis star; Bobbie Sall, Joie Chitwood, Frankie Bailey, Chet Gibbons, and Dee Toran. the racing cars will provide a sensational program. There will be two qualifying heats and the main event.
Along with the racing program, the Hollywood Hell Drivers, which is a combiantion of the late Lucky Teter show and stars of the Jimmy Lynch show, will present 20 sensational thrill events.
Stock car racing proved very successful at Langhorne, Pa., Speedaay, and has since been a feature attraction at many prominent race tracks.
At Herrington, Delaware, the Fair stock car racing proved to be the outstanding attraction and a crowd of over 15.000 spectators were- thrilled with the keen competition and daring drivirig(...)

powered by profane canned cooking gas

September 22, 1944:

STOCK CAR AUTO RACES, THRILL DAY PROGRAM END FAIR
Nearly 5,000 Witness Closing Event Of Altamont's Golden Jubilee Exposition
Stock car auto races and the Hell Drivers show featured the closing day of the Albany-Schenectady county fair at Altamont Saturday afternoon, and the events were witnessed by a crowd estimated at close to 5,000 persons. Rained out most of the week, fair weather at last gave the golden jubilee exposition the opportunity to carry a big program of harness races on Friday, and the stock car races and thrill program Saturday.
Chet Gibbons took the first heat of three laps in the auto races, with Joie Chitwood a close second, followed
in oder by Ted Horn and Bill Bourdeaux. Gibbon's time was 2:44. Chitwood came back to take the second event after another hair-raisinig battle with Gibbons, Don Faulkner, an area driver, was third. Chitwood was timed 2:41.5.
Although the races were a far-cry from the regular auto races staged at the-half mile Altamont oval prior to the war, the drivers provided plenty of thrills for the spectators. They used regular stock sedans, but ran ob
iron wheels and used Protane gas, a cooking gas in used in rural area., a special attachment to the carburetor enabled the cars to use this synthetic gas. Despite the fact they were riding on iron wheels, the drivers attained a speed as high as 45 miles an hour on the straightaway.
Following the races, the Hell Drivers went into action and each act brought additional thrills. Chet Gibbons, billed as the world's champlon motorcycle stunt man, piloted his cycle through a pane of glass, a tunnel of fire about 40 feet in length and through two flaming board walls.
Chitwood, who holds the Altamont track record of 0:26:2 for the regular racing cars, thrilled the fans by driving a car up and then turning over with it. He also drove a car up the ramp and went flying through two flaming board walls placed about 15 feet apart.
The closing act was the "dive bomber" crash in which Chliwood and Gibbons each drove a car up the ramp
and crashed head-on into two cars placed about 30 feet away.
The drivers emerged unscratched after each performance.

Originally posted by Geoff E

Well, to be honest, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open, while trying to correct text like this:
Stock-'car auto race's:.antlithe.'Hell
Drivers show featured 'the closing, day.
bf.: t h e . . Albany-Schehectady "county
I f air; at.' Altambrit .Saturday'. .'af terrip'on. '
:arid, t h e events, .were'/witnessed b y ' a.
'Qrowd'estimated'at'clpse.'to.5,i000-.per-•
'' •'--'•" - - ' " ' Sons;'' Ra'ined/but most of the week,-
fair.weather at last gave 'the golden'
Jubilee. expositibij-.t'he '.pp'p.p.rtupity "to. :
carry- a .big1 program; .of: harness races
etc. etc. etc.

I think it's time for my afternoon/evening nap...;)

Whilst this is not racing as such...... I was talking to a chap who as a schoolboy during the war lived near an American airbase in Norfolk. He and his mates would leave an empty two gallon can with a ‘two bob bit’ (ten pence) on the cap near the perimeter fence. The next day they would collect the full can and use the petrol in their old motor bikes and cars to tear around the fields!

I don't know where/if anyone will find a directive prohibiting motor racing in the US for its war years.

The simpler reality is that by tyhe second quarter of 1942, less than 5 months after Pearl Harbour, rationing in the US had tqaken over everyone's lives. Food of all kinds were rationed as were gasoline and tires.

I strongly remember the shortage of meat products; we ate so much macaroni and cheese during the war years that I still won't touch the stuff! Another strong memory was the absence of butter. Its place was taken by oleo, a white greqasy "substitute" that came in a squeezable bag with a yellow colouring inside that needed to be kneaded through the stuff to make it a more palatable looking yellow color. (How is that for mixing the spelling habits of the various forms of English)?

My father had a wartime critical occupation so he got something like 8 or 10 gallons a week of fuel. The non-critical, (which would include car racing), would have had 3 or 4 gallons per week. How many laps would that get you after doing the towing? Of course only registered vehicles got ration stamps. So much for motor racing!

But even more critical was the absence of rubber for tires. Back then most of the rubber for tires in the US came from SE Asia, either under Japanese control or at least subject to transport by sea past the enemy subs. Simply put, there was no rubber for public tires; it all went to the miltary. Another strong memory was the night I awoke bolt upright in bed hearing the clang-clanging of a car coming closer to home from a great distance away. After a while it, the clanging, pulled into the drive way. My father coming home late at night suffered a flat tire and put on the spare. Not long after he had a second flat. Not wanting to destroy a tire carcass he used things at hand, de-mounted the tire from the rim, put the rim back on the car and drove home. (Car rims could still be had a t junk yards). I am sure that he was heavily in his cups as no sober man could get a tire off a rim in the middle of the night with only the things at hand in ones car!

One must read the story of Joie Chitwood appearing at the Albany-Schenectady County Fair in this light. Hence the propane gas and iron rims. The Joie Chitwood "show" was really a driving exhibition and hardly qualified as racing despite the enthusiasm of the reporter at the time. I am sure he was caught up in the need to find "good" news to report back in those days. The papers were full of what happened in air raids, and who made how many yards on war fronts or what island or hill had been invaded.

Chitwood would have gonne to any lengths to maintain his show back then, hence the lengths he went to. After all that was his living. Just lucky he wasn't drafted and at the front.

Regards

Yeeeeees... and no! At this time, Joie Chitwood was still a racing driver, and was probably only just getting involved in the stunt driving business. Before the war, the two biggest shows had been Lucky Teter's and the Jimmy Lynch Hell Drivers, both of which apparently merged into the Chitwood show. Someone with the Chitwood bio would be better placed to make that call, but I believe this may be the very first show Chitwood ever participated in. Also, note that the "races" and the "show" are two seperate items on the bill of the fair.

There's no doubt that these races were mainly "war time entertainment", but then again: the lines between sport and entertainment have always been rather blurred with autoracing, and no more so than in US short track racing which, in effect, has always been a "fairground attraction" in the truest sense of the word!

As for a formal ban on motor racing in the US vs. effects of rationing, from what I have read there appears to have been a directive from the Office of Defense Transportation, effective as of August 1 in 1942. The following online article may shed some light on this, for anyone interested (I haven't read it so far): http://findarticles....ag=artBody;col1. But, of course, you are also right in that the rationing would have precluded any racing activity sooner or later anyway.

We covered the US situation earlier in this very thread:

http://forums.autosp...2204#post582204

Originally posted by fines

As for a formal ban on motor racing in the US vs. effects of rationing, from what I have read there appears to have been a directive from the Office of Defense Transportation, effective as of August 1 in 1942.

The effective date may have been August 1 (which ties in with Jim's earlier posting), but the ban seems to have been announced in early July, possibly on the 3rd. For some unfathomable reason The Times chose to report it on July 4th 1942, quoting Associated Press.

Originally posted by Vitesse2


Judgeford Hillclimb, Wellington, New Zealand, January 4th 1945. Only four entries, due to fuel shortages! There is also a reference to the previous running of the event in February 1943. Also on the 1945 event Motor Sport says: "A very comprehensive film of the event was taken by Government Film Studio representatives and has been shown at all the leading theatres in the Dominion" - Motor Sport May 1945 p102

I've found further details of this film in the NZ National Archives. It's part of a weekly newsreel called "Weekly Review", specifically number 178 in the series:

http://audiovisual.a..._REVIEW_No._178

Unfortunately, it's not available for web viewing at present, but seems to at least have been preserved.

Another wartime propaganda/newsreel film which seems to have some sort of (probably very brief) motor racing interest is "Our Russian Allies", made by Herbert Marshall in 1941, in conjunction with the Soviet Central Newsreel Studios and with a commentary by no less a figure than JB Priestley. The Times reported on this film in October 1941 that one of the themes was the transformation of sporting prowess into military expertise: "... a cross-country race transformed into an advance of infantry, javelin-throwing into the throwing of a hand grenade, motor racing into the driving of armoured cars and tanks ...."

Originally posted by Vitesse2
It appears there may have been at least one rally over the winter of 1939/40 in Ireland. The list of Hewison Trophy winners (now awarded for autotests, but originally for rallies) shows Paddy Le Fanu for 1940.

http://www.motorspor...cument/AppY.pdf

Of course, it might have been awarded for points gathered before September 1939, but that would require research in Irish press reports, methinks.

.... which I have now done. The Hewison Trophy was actually for trials and the season ran right through until November 1940. In 1940 Irish petrol rationing was roughly twice as generous as in the UK, but in January 1941 it was suddenly cut from one and a half gallons per unit to one-third of a gallon per unit, which effectively kyboshed private motoring in the Free State, let alone motor sport.

Motorcycle trials had continued through 1940 (both north and south of the border) and there were at least two motorcycle road races: the Dublin 100 in Phoenix Park and the Munster Trophy in Cork. The MCU even issued a 1941 calendar including over 30 events!

The Donabate Speed Trials have already been mentioned, but I've also been able to confirm that there was definitely a 1940 running of the Ballinascorney hill climb. The Leinster Trophy was cancelled very late, along with the associated Leinster 100 bike race: there had been great determination earlier in the year that they should be run, but when it became clear that the worsening situation in Europe and Britain would preclude foreign entries, it was finally called off on July 15th, just 12 days before the scheduled date.

Soviet Russia - 22 September 1940 - attempt (successful) of beating of the Russian record of speed.
Driver A. Nikolaev on car GAZ L1 (with 6 cyl. engine 3485 ccm, 100 HP) established new record - 161,87 km/h.

Last night at a vintage speedway club meeting I watched a DVD called "The Fast and The Famous", which had fabulous footage of speedcars and "big cars" in the US from the early 1930's up to the late 1960's.

There was footage of a speedcar race at the Reading Fairgrounds in Reading, Pennsylvania which took place on the 17th of May, 1942. Apparently this was the last speedcar meeting at the Fairgrounds during World War 2. Were there any meetings prior to the May 17th meeting?

Just to button up the American situation, the AAA Contest Board announced the abandonment of the Indy 500 "for the duration" on December 23rd 1941. After consulting their membership, they made a further announcement on February 23rd 1942 that all other AAA-sanctioned events would cease.

Graham: there were races at Reading and Langhorne (at least) even after the AAA withdrew.

Graham: there were races at Reading and Langhorne (at least) even after the AAA withdrew.

I thought we've done this before, but apart from AAA, most (if not all) "feeder" series ran a full schedule for the first five or six months of 1942, until racing was finally banned altogether.

I thought we've done this before, but apart from AAA, most (if not all) "feeder" series ran a full schedule for the first five or six months of 1942, until racing was finally banned altogether.

As further evidence of this, I have found point standings for both the CSRA and Hankinson Circuit Championships from April 1942, indicating a "business as usual" mentality. Both championships began with the April 19 Reading Inaugural meeting, and since I have (almost) full results for that event I was able to figure out the scoring method for the CSRA title at the very least - Hankinson points were a bit more complex, I'm afraid...

The two articles detailing the points tables also included previews of the following races for each championship, so that the following list of qualifying rounds can be established:

CSRA
1. Reading (PA), Apr 19, 10 m, 1st Joie Chitwood (Peters=Cunningham/Offenhauser), 2nd Bob Sall (Judson=Gardner/Miller), 3rd Buster Warke (Kreiser/Hal), etc.
2. Williams Grove (PA), May 3, 10 m, 1st Ted Horn (Horn/Offenhauser), 2nd Bill Holland (Malamud/Miller), 3rd Walt Ader (?/McDowell)
3. Greenville (OH), May 10 pp 17, ?, 1st Mike Salay
etc.

Hankinson
1. Reading (PA), Apr 19, 10 m, 1st Joie Chitwood (Peters=Cunningham/Offenhauser), 2nd Bob Sall (Judson=Gardner/Miller), 3rd Buster Warke (Kreiser/Hal), etc.
2. Reading (PA), May 17, 10 m, 1st Joie Chitwood (Musick=O'Day/Offenhauser), 2nd Ted Horn (Horn/Offenhauser), 3rd Tommy Hinnershitz (Horn=Garnant/Offenhauser)
3. Springfield (MA), May 30, ?, ?
4. Milwaukee (WI), Jun 14 rs May 30, 20 m, 1st Joie Chitwood (Musick=O'Day/Offenhauser), 2nd Dave Randolph (Horn=Schrader/Miller), 3rd Eddie Nicholson (Nicholson=Schrader/Offenhauser)
etc.


I am pretty sure that all the Hankinson rounds also qualified for the CSRA Championship, and also the following races:

Langhorne (PA), May 10, 20 m, 1st Jimmie Wilburn (Wilburn=Morgan/Offenhauser), 2nd Ted Horn (Horn/Offenhauser), 3rd Rex Records (?/Miller)
Williams Grove (PA), May 10, 10 m, 1st Bill Holland (Malamud/Miller), 2nd Walt Ader (?/McDowell)
Hammond (IN), May 24, 12½ m, 1st Eddie Nicholson (Nicholson=Schrader/Offenhauser)
Urbana (IL), May 30, ?, ?
Davenport (IA), Jun 14, 10 m, 1st ?, 2nd Tommy Hinnershitz (Horn=Garnant/Offenhauser)
Fort Wayne (IN), Jun 14, ?, 1st Tony Bettenhausen (Iddings/Hal), 2nd Bus Wilbert (Dreyer?), 3rd Elbert Booker (Jewell/Hal), etc.
Danville (IL), Jun 28, ?, ?
Birmingham (AL), Jul 4, 10 m, 1st Joie Chitwood (Musick=O'Day/Offenhauser), 2nd Bill Holland (Malamud/Miller), 3rd Tommy Hinnershitz (Horn=Garnant/Offenhauser), etc.

Not sure about those ones:

Tampa (FL), Feb 3, ?, ? - almost certainly IMCA
Jungle Park (IN), May 10, ?, 1st Tony Bettenhausen (Iddings/Hal) - possibly MDTRA
Dayton (OH), May 24?, ?, 1st Tony Bettenhausen (Iddings/Hal), 2nd? Duke Nalon (Weirick=Sparks/Offenhauser), 3rd Jimmie Wilburn (Wilburn=Morgan/Offenhauser)
Cape Girardeau (MO), May 31, ?, 1st Joie Chitwood (Musick=O'Day/Offenhauser) - possibly IMCA
Winchester (IN), May 30 (pp 31?), 7½ m, 1st Jimmie Wilburn (Wilburn=Morgan/Offenhauser)
Hammond (IN), Jun 7, ?, ?
Grand Forks (ND), Jun 28, ?, 1st Eddie Nicholson (Nicholson=Schrader/Offenhauser) - probably IMCA
Jungle Park (IN), Jul 26, ?, 1st Bus Wilbert (Dreyer?) - possibly MDTRA


I'm sure there must've been more races, as I've seen Chitwood credited with 14 wins for 1942! Anyway, he won the CSRA title with 274 points, which should equal roughly six wins, from Hinnershitz with either 202 or 208, depending on source. Alas, I have no info on whether Hankinson ever published a final point tabulation for the year - as will be recalled, he died in August of 1942. Apparently, IMCA didn't publish a final points table, either, but Chitwood is occasionally mentioned as the 1942 IMCA "king".

Edited by Michael Ferner, 16 January 2010 - 10:09.

At Mount Tarrengower Hillclimb some months back, Grant Cowie had a photo of the ex Tim Joshua Frazer Nash Ford V8 in a queue of cars for a 1944? sprint meeting in Victoria Australia. The photo was given to him by Earl Davey Milne who appears in the photo as a young man

John, could that possibly be that grass-track event from which I scanned photos out of the Campbell McLaren album?

Ron Edgerton was there in a Bugatti...

Ray, I think Grant did tell me a precise date, now forgotten

I think the surface was tar, not grass

US racing historian Joe Heisler has kindly send me some excerpts of a yearbook that was done by Williams Grove PR man Carl Sweigart in the forties, including a few driver profiles detailing (almost) every race appearance in each given year. For Dave Randolph, Sweigart lists no fewer than 34 (!) race meetings in 1942, running from January to July - yep, business as usual.

At Phillip Island last weekend Grant Cowie displayed the pic mentioned above, showing Stan Dentler in Frazer Nash Ford V8, dated 1943

Did he say where the photo was taken?

David, yes he did , but I dont recall......!!

Grant lurks here, so he may help us out.

It does't really matter. I just wondered if it was a well-known venue, but if it was you would have remembered

Edited by David McKinney, 22 March 2010 - 09:59.

It could well have been an event like this one, David:



The dates seem to say this took place in 1941. And here are some of the cars, the 'track' is obviously grass:



Ron Edgerton here is up against someone with no front brakes.



Does anyone know who it might be in the Alvis? And in the speedcar... one of the Wylies, perhaps?



And in the Alta?

We do know who's in this one, however, or at least in the crowded special:



The irrepressible duo of McLaren and Halliday. They built the car together after school and shared the drive. When one wasn't driving they were 'riding mechanic.'

And thanks to Campbell McLaren for the pics.

Ted Gray in the Alta, maybe?

And isn't the Alvis a Frazer Nash?

The speedcar's not the one Arthur Wylie raced in NZ just before the war, which I guess doesn't mean anything. How about a Beasley?

Edited by David McKinney, 22 March 2010 - 13:07.

Stud Beasley is a possibility, I guess... I don't know enough about this era to go into it too deeply...

You could well be right about the 'Alvis' too. As for the Alvis, maybe not Ted as he was in faraway Wangaratta and quite likely wouldn't have travelled to Melbourne for such an event.

Then again, in competition starved wartime, maybe he did?

From memory, Campbell wasn't very clear on some of these things when I scanned these five or six years ago. I feel sure that at some time I posted pics from the Mitcham Hillclimb, maybe I should do that again as it was during the war and it was cancelled when the police came along and pointed out that fact.

In wartime where did Australia's oil come from. It was primarily to conserve oil stocks that other countries, including the relatively oil-rich USA, placed bans on racing.

Middle East and the USA, no doubt...

There were no major oil finds in Australia until the sixties.

No, that wasnt the venue named on the Grant Cowie display

I wont at the moment hazard a guess at the various cars, except for...

Austin 7 Special, registration 1. 998 Nigel Pugh b Sydney 12 April 1921 enlisted RAAF WW2 5 Dec 1941 d 29 May 1944

If this has been mentioned before, I apologize, but I just ran across this interesting tidbit in the current (Dec 2010) issue of the U.S. magazine Rod & Custom.

Danny Sakai was a well-known California nisei hot-rodder who set a number of records on the Harper and Muroc dry lakes prior to Oct 41.
On 28 Sep 41, he ran 126.58 mph at the SCTA meet at Muroc; it was the fastest he'd gone in the car, an open-wheeled modified-class racer powered by the ubiquitous flathead Ford V8. 19 days later, Danny died in a motorcycle accident.

As described in the article: "What exactly happened to Danny's car remains a bit of a mystery. He reportedly worked on the car at the Cadillac agency owned by Tommy Lee,a claim that seems plausible as Lee basically assumed ownership of Danny's race car after his [Danny's] death...during the war, Lee ran it at private lakes meets, and in 1943 Danny's old car ran an unofficial 125.52 mph with Bobby Strahlmann at the helm." (Italics added.)

Tommy Lee died in early 1950 and no further details on the 1943 event are in the article.

Edited by Lotus23, 30 September 2010 - 21:57.

A bit OT, but was that the same Bobby Strahlmann who later went on to fame as a spark plug guru? (I read somewhere that he could eyeball the plugs and tell what the driver had eaten for breakfast...)

Born in 1920, he would've been the right age to be running the lakes in '43.

There was a rumour of a meeting held at Prescott during the war.Someone told the local police but by the time they arrived the half dozen or more "competitors " had vanished.

There have been some confirmed races held during a brief repeal of the ban. One I'm aware of was a race at the Indianapolis Speedrome on November 18, 1944.
Jim Thurman

Jim,

I came across a reference to Wilbur Shaw running a 500 mile trial at the speedway on the 29th of November, 1944. Is this a different event from the November 18 event you mentioned?

What car did Shaw drive, and what condition was the track in? I have read contemporary reports that the whole track was covered in grass during the war.

While strictly not motor sport, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was used on the 20th of August, 1943 for the first public demonstration of the new butiadene synthetic tyres that were being manufactured. A gruelling 17-hour test in which a car travelled 500 miles at an average speed of 35 mph. The demonstration started at 2.00 am and finished at 7.00 pm. The car was driven continously, with the only stops being for driver changes.