It should be mentioned that Wagner authored a book published in 1938 called THE SAGA OF THE ROARING ROAD, which was reprinted by Floyd Clymer in 1949. It was based on some articles that Wagner had had printed in the official AAA magazine in the late 1920s. The book however is badly written and contains little real information. Fred originally started out as flag man for bicycle racing, which was very popular in the 1890s and at the turn of the century. He was first enlisted in 1899 to start an automobile race because of his past bicycle experience and it became a career.
Fred flagged and started the first two Indianapolis 500s (1911 and 1912), but because of a dispute he had with Carl Fisher he was never the flag man or starter at Indy ever again.
Just before the running of the November 29, 1925 Culver City 250 a surprized Wagner was given a new Buick sedan. It was a gift from drivers Cooper, Comer, DePalma, DePaolo, Duray, Elliott, Fengler, Hartz, Hearne, Hepburn, Hill, Kreis, McDonogh, Milton, and Wonderlich to show their appreciation of his services.
Fred, in addition, penned some race reports for the NEW YORK TIMES before World War I (1914-1918). DePaolo's book WALL SMACKER (1935) and Wagner's "SAGA" (1938) are the first two books published in the U.S. about automobile racing proper. DePaolo's book is the better of the two but is also poorly put together. Obviously neither DePaolo or Wagner were college men.
Russ Catlin's LIFE OF TED HORN (1949) is the third volume published in the U.S on "big-time" automobile racing unless one includes Ray F. Kuns' (b. 1887) earlier AUTOMOBILE RACING volumes which first appeared in 1932. The last edition of the Kuns' book was in 1947. They all contained reports on the Indianapolis 500 and were a sort of "how to" book for amateurs, on how to construct a race car.
Printz
Edited by john glenn printz, 16 February 2012 - 18:22.