12 replies to this topic

[carl s]

Anyone in the area of Yale University that would be willing to go to their Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and photo scan this 1940 Scrabook for us?

http://beinecke.libr.../07/30/speedway

[Michael Ferner]

I very much support this idea!! The one newspaper scan on the linked site already helped me fill out the so far blank results section for the 1941 season opener (thank you, Carl! ), but I'm still missing full results for several races: June 9, 16 & 30, August 25, September 8 and October 6 in 1940, as well as July 20, August 17 and September 14 in 1941! HELP!!!

[Michael Ferner]

Picture of the spectacular Ev Saylor/Dave Randolph crash on July 28, 1940.

[Michael Ferner]

So, what about Thompson Speedway, then? Located in the Northeastern corner of Connecticut, close to the Massachusetts and Rhode Island statelines, and advertised as "The only banked Half Mile Asphalt Track in the East", it opened its first season of racing on May 26 in 1940 before a reputed crowd of 9,000, and with an ambitious plan to run AAA events at the track every other Sunday in an area that was so far most noted for a long tradition of independent Big Car and Midget racing. True, Bridgeport/CT's Newfield Park Midget track had been one of the first in the nation to stage regular AAA meets for the small cars back in 1938, but it was destined to close down before the end of 1940, and the emergence of the American Racing Drivers Club as a Midget sanctioning body earlier in that same month of May was about to have an enormous impact on racing not only in New England, but the whole of the Northeastern US in the coming decade. Blissfully unaware of these future developments, the Thompson Speedway management, led by the recently retired former AAA driver Don MacDonald from nearby Brockton (MA), was adamant to have only the best run at its shiny new venue, and many of the local stars from the hitherto dominant New England Big Car Racing Association had little choice but to take out AAA memberships in order to race at the new track, which was clearly going to be the centre of all Big Car racing activity in the area.

Not that the AAA had been lacking in racing tradition in New England, what with Narragansett Park in Cranston near Providence (RI), Hyde Park in Readville near Boston (MA) and Charter Oak Park in Hartford (CT), three of the earliest temples of speed in the entire nation, the road races in the Merrimac Valley near Lowell (MA), beach races at Old Orchard (ME) and the many hill climbs in the area, Shingle Hill at New Haven (CT), Sport Hill at Bridgeport, Worcester (MA) and Fairfield (CT), lots of fairground tracks, naturally, and last but certainly not least, the dramatic Rockingham Motor Speedway near Salem (NH), site of the now legendary 144 mph qualifying laps of Frank Lockhart and Leon Duray in 1927/8, unsurpassed on tracks of that size for many decades still to come even in 1940. But by the late thirties, only the fairs at Essex Junction and Rutland in Vermont, and Danbury in Connecticut had been left on the AAA roster, with even the dreaded IMCA looming as a potential threat in the area, thanks to its already traditional two-day stay at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield (MA), and the Brockton Fair races, only recently "converted" from the AAA. The NEBCRA, on the other hand, ran a vibrant circuit of races at fairgound tracks like Northampton, Weymouth, Marshfield and Topsfield in Massachusetts, Dover, Newmarket and Keene in New Hampshire or Windsor and Huntington in Connecticut. For the brand new Thompson Speedway to affiliate with the AAA looked a bit like a gamble at the time.

Of the local entries at the opening show, quite a few had dipped a toe or two into the AAA waters from time to time, including George Baxter and George "Boots" Bouley from Connecticut, Howard "Bumpy" Bumpus and Joe Sostilio from Massachusetts, and Fred Carlson, a NEBCRA regular from over in New York, but of those only the 25-years-old Sostilio had shown the form that suggested a competitive future in the premier league. Amongst the AAA rookies, Gene Trinque led the entries from Rhode Island, including Louis Giuliano and Nick Lombardi, while David "Dizzy" Vance headed the Massachusetts contingent, with Chet Cox, Earl Horne, Don King, Paul Lyons and John Wright in support. One of the AAA regulars also had a familiar face for the NEBCRA fans: under his real name, New Englander Dick Shuebruk had been racing on the AAA Hankinson circuit for the entire decade of the thirties, while he was also the reigning NEBCRA Champion under the alias of Bob Gardner!! No better indicator for the AAA's decline in the area is needed, than the fact that the Contest Board apparently never got wind of these shenanigans.

The rest of the AAA veterans was mostly composed of New Jersey drivers: Joe "Lucky" Budner, Johnnie Matera, Newt Meyer, Joe Sanco and Johnny Ulesky, plus Jeri May of New York and Bud Lee, Joe Sudick and Bud Tatro from Connecticut. Not really a high-class field, although former independent star Ulesky was the reigning Class B Champion of the AAA and track champion at Union Speedway in New Jersey, while Sanco, Matera and Meyer were considered to be amongst the best of the "support act" for the real high flyers of the circuit, like Joie Chitwood, Tony Willman, Tommy Hinnershitz, Ted Horn or Duke Nalon, all of them busy preparing for the Indy 500 during May. And so it was that AAA rookie Dizzy Vance, driving a local car from over in Massachusetts, the Louis d'Amore/Riley, established the first track record at Thompson Speedway in qualifying, 26.4" or 68 mph, far below the figures envisaged by Contest Board president Eddie Rickenbacker on his visit in the week leading up to the event. Joe Sanco (27.0") and Bud Tatro (27.4") followed, and those three also dominated the fast heat over five miles, with Sanco coming home first in 4'34.0" (65 mph) from Vance, Tatro, John Wright, Gene Trinque and Earl Horne. Trinque took the second heat in 4'43.4" (63 mph) from Horne, Wright, Louis Giuliano, Paul Lyons and Joe Sudick, then Joe Sostilio made up for his modest qualifying effort by taking the third heat in 4'41.0" (64 mph), with Giuliano, George Baxter, Bud Lee and Lyons following. Bumpy Bumpus took the consy in 4'46.4" (62 mph) from Lee, Nick Lombardi, George Bouley, Jeri May and Lyons - Ulesky, Shuebruk, Meyer, Matera and Budner, almost all of the top names, apparently didn't even show up!

Before the feature proper, there was also a "New England Classic" event for local drivers and cars over five laps, won by Trinque in the slow time of 2'27.4" (61 mph), with Lee and Lombardi again filling the runner-up and show positions, from May, Bouley and Baxter. In the main event over 30 laps, or fifteen miles, Dizzy Vance became a first-time-out winner in his AAA debut, taking 14'06.4" (63 mph) to complete the course, but the highlight was Sostilio's drive from 7th into 2nd place at the finish, beating Sanco, Tatro, Horne and Wright to the line. Giuliano's crash in the main was the only one all day, thankfully without injury to the driver, and the crowd was probably happy about the home winner, despite the missing name drivers and the slow times due to a "green" track. The big question was: would the Thompson management be able to attract better fields, or was this going to be NEBCRA under a different name? That there was no shortage of drivers and cars in AAA was amply demonstrated only four days later, when the Altamont Fairgrounds in New York and Altoona Speedway in Pennsylvania both attracted about two dozen entries on the same day that the Indy 500 bound the nation's superstars with its close to $100,000 purse. And names like Bob Sall, Vic Nauman, Lee Wallard, Everett Saylor, Hank Rogers and Dave Randolph (at Altamont), or Bill Holland, Ottis Stine, Buddie Rusch, Mark Light, Walt Brown and Buster Warke (at Altoona) were still good enough to attract five-digit crowds for both venues! But, would they be willing to tow their racing cars far north, into Connecticut?

Edited by Michael Ferner, 01 March 2013 - 21:43.

[David McKinney]

Thompson was also used by the fledgling SCCA from as early as 1945, usually for ¼-mile and ½-mile sprints but occasionally for races

[Michael Ferner]

Thompson Speedway (2)

The answer was a resounding "Yes!", and: all of them (with the possible exception of Bus Warke)! Unfortunately, I have very little information about the races in June, which saw the regular bi-weekly schedule broken up, probably to avoid a clash with the popular Williams Grove Speedway in Pennsylvania which also ran every other Sunday, and attracted all of the names in the East on June 9, so that another AAA rookie took the second Thompson main event: Eddie Casterline from Massachusetts, a successful NEBCRA regular for most of the thirties. He was helped to his victory quite a bit by a blow-up of Newt Meyer's engine, which coated the asphalt surface with oil, and led to several spins by leading drivers, and the retirements of Joe Sanco and Dave Randolph, who must have fancied their chances against the locals.

If the plan was to get more of the stars to Thompson, the choice of June 16 as the next date was more than just unlucky, as Langhorne Speedway was staging a 100-miler that same day! The busy fair season was still a couple of months away, but already Thompson Speedway was looking like a victim of the crowded AAA schedule in the East, and indications are that the second June event was simply cancelled, as I couldn't find anything about it in the news. Yet even more trouble was on the horizon, as the Virginia State Fairgrounds in Richmond had secured a date for June 29, the Saturday before Sunday's next Thompson show - with 500-plus miles distance between venues, it was nigh impossible for anyone to make both meetings. In the event, a bit of lobbying seems to have taken care of the problem, as the Richmond races were first postponed, then cancelled altogether, citing "scheduling problems". Evidently, the assessment of the AAA was that a new stronghold in New England was more important and valuable than another still date in the South, a view that in retrospect may look foolish, indeed, but in 1940 there was no NASCAR yet, and "stock car" races were still more of a curiosity than a threat to the traditional form of racing.

And so, on June 30, Thompson Speedway - finally! - got its first exclusive date on the AAA schedule, and it showed with entries coming in from most of the Eastern Circuit regulars, including the reigning Champion Joie Chitwood, and Indy 500 vets like Ted Horn or Emil Andres! Unfortunately, yet again, I have very little concrete info about the actual races, but it seems that both Casterline and Sostilio beat most of the "invaders", and that Horn in particular had a rather poor day, adding very little to his current lead in the points chase, courtesy of wins at Langhorne and Williams Grove earlier in the season. The overall win, however, went to one of the drivers from the "second rank" of AAA regulars - not yet one of the "super stars" (i.e. no IMS experience, so far), but already a frequent winner on the fairgrounds circuit: Bill Holland.

A very successful skater (of both the ice and roller variety) in his youth, the son of a former baseball star had turned to auto racing relatively late in 1936, when he was already 28 years old, starting to appear in independent Big Car events in his homestate Pennsylvania and neighbouring New Jersey, New York and Delaware. Holland soon found out that he was very good at it, too, and by 1937 he was a regular winner with the Central Pennsy and Garden State Racing Associations, finishing third in points with the latter club. He also made several AAA starts with a temporary permit, and usually qualified effortlessly for the main events, finishing an impressive 7th at his debut in Bedford (PA) on September 5 in 1936 in what was likely one of his very first race meetings at all. During the first half of 1938, he continued his winning ways with the independents until linking up with New York car owner Ralph Malamud in July. Malamud, a decently successful driver himself back in the twenties, had been in and out of AAA with various drivers and limited success for about the last five years, most recently with a DO Hal-powered vehicle - the engine of choice for the 1936 Eastern Champion Frankie Bailey, no less. Both Holland and Malamud wanted to break into AAA competition for good, and the driver even moved to New York for that purpose - the team certainly meant business!

Part of the plan was to run the weekly races at the Crossbay Speedway in Ozone Park on Long Island, a track which had just switched its allegiance to AAA in that same month of July, something which must've been more than just incidental for their future plans. Then a tour of the major fairs in New York, like Middletown, Altamont, Hamburg, Syracuse and Mineola, maybe a few of the lesser ones at Norwich, Afton and Fonda, down south for a look at the action on the Penn-Jersey tracks, and let's just see how this thing works out, perhaps into the deep South in the fall as well. Oh, and before we forget, there's also this still date at the Mineola Fairgrounds, now in its third year and colloquially known as "the police race" - an outgrowth of something that could be called the promoter wars of the time! The races on this particular Long Island fairgrounds track went back to at least 1922, when it was part of the Horace P. Murphy circuit, the premier AAA promoter in the entire Northeast at the time. When Murphy died of pneumonia in January of 1927, most of the "pieces" of his circuit had been picked up by Ralph Hankinson, then in the process of switching over from the "showbiz" IMCA to proper auto racing in AAA, and it is probably more than just idle speculation to think that the AAA used the already well established Murphy circuit as a sort of "bait" for the outlaw promoter.

At the same time, Ira Vail began winding down his career as a racing driver, and sought to set himself up in the promotional business. Being a New Yorker, like the deceased (and very much unlike that upstart "carpetbagger" from Kansas!), he had little trouble in taking over the most prestigious and lucrative piece of the Murphy "cake", the New York State Fair at Syracuse, and with that he drove a thorn into Hankinson's side that, even many years after his own death, still drove his successor, Sam Nunis, nuts! (which would, eventually, lead to ramifications also involving Bill Holland, by the way!) Meantime, the Nassau County Fair at Mineola, always a "money cow" for Murphy, did rather poorly during Hankinson's aegis for one reason or another, and Ira Vail was there to pick it up when "Pappy" began looking at other venues, like Woodbridge or Langhorne. Rather coincidentally, dirt track racing was just then experiencing the "depression boom", and suddenly Mineola drew crowds in excess of 30,000 regularly, much to the chagrin of the old master promoter! And so, when the Nassau County Police Department hit upon the happy idea to organize auto races at the fairgrounds to augment their benefit fund for widows and orphans, Hankinson seized the opportunity to get his foot back in the door, and from 1936 onwards Mineola had two promoters: Vail for the fair in September, and Hankinson for the police race in summer!

By 1938, the police race had become a well established event with crowds that rivalled the fair races proper, and the resulting purses attracting all the top guns of the East. Rain on the original date of July 23 meant a postponement, and a clash with the traditional opener of the fair season in Delaware, but the Hankinson promotional machine still spat out two dozen names to advertize the race, (almost) properly arranged in order of importance: Rex Mays! Billy Winn! Chet Gardner! George Connor! Ted Horn! Tony Willman! Frank Beeder! Bob Sall! Duke Nalon! Bill Schindler! Milt Marion, Frank Wearne, Chuck Tabor, Walt Ader, Honey Purick, Ora Bean, Frankie Bailey, Mike Bailey, Jack Moon, Paul Young, Henry Guerand, Don MacDonald, Charley Breslin, Ernie Gesell - an excellent field, by any standards! And remember, at the time only ten were allowed to start the feature on a half-mile track, and at least five of the 24 were destined to pack up after time trials!! In the event, Bean, Young, Guerand, MacDonald and Breslin chose to evade that possible fate by going to Delaware instead, and between them took three of the top four finishing spots there, including first and second - which goes quite a long way towards illustrating the quality of the field at Mineola! Too many big guns to even think about that newcomer from Philadelphia...

The guys from lower down on the totem pole got another respite when Bob Sall, Mineola lap record holder and three-time winner of the fair races, managed to get on his head during a Midget race on Long Island, whiling away the time of the postponement! His injuries were not life-threatening, but the season was now over for the 1933 Eastern Champion, and a "certain" starter removed from the field - who would take his place? 25,000 souls were in the stands when the cars lined up for the first heat, putting a smile on "Pappy" Hankinson's face, and those running their fingers down the list of qualifying times, trying to figure out the odds, found a bevy of familiar names at the top: 31-years-old Tony Willman of Wisconsin would be on the pole, with a new track record (27.39"/65.7 mph), taking eleven hundredths off the absent Sall's target time! Lining up next to him, Chet Gardner (27.96"), the "Old Man from the Mountains" in Colorado, was enjoying his best season for years at forty years of age. The second row was pure California Gold, with Ted Horn (28.03") and Rex Mays (28.08"), two of the youngest and hottest drivers in the premier league at 28 and 25, respectively. Even younger, but already a past Champion of the Eastern Circuit, and the winner of the inaugural police races in 1936, Frankie Bailey (28.47") of New Jersey was ready to line up on the outside of row 3, next to... Bill Holland?!? "Who he?" must've been on most pundits' minds, but few were likely to have spent more than a passing thought for the 30-year-old in the white #29, for one-lap wonders in dirt track racing were usually apt to come down to earth within minutes of the start - maybe he'd survive to qualify in a later heat, and that would be a heck of a job in a field like this. His own personal day in the sun perhaps, something to tell his grandchildren about - good on him!

Six cars over the ten-lap route on a half-mile track, with three to qualify, that was the standard procedure at the time, and 4 minutes 46.83 seconds after the first green flag of the afternoon the spectators were in for their next big surprise: the finishing order of the fast heat was a triumph of age over youth, with the three oldest drivers transfering to the main in descending order of age: Gardner, Willman... and Holland! Rex Mays, the whizz-kid of the speedways, was only sixth and last - boy, what a surprise! Together with Bailey and Horn, he eventually made good in the second heat, but withdrew before the start of the feature for unknown reasons, as did Billy Winn after needing the consy to qualify! Another name driver to disappear quietly was Duke Nalon, who retired after only a single lap in heat 3, leaving only half of the top dozen names to qualify for the feature, along with two from the second dozen and two no-names, one of them on the inside of the second row! But it was the outside man in this same row, Frankie Bailey, who rocketed into the lead around the two veterans in the front tier. Gardner and Willman took up the pursuit, swopping places at least a couple of times in the first ten of fifty scheduled laps. Gripping stuff! All the while, Holland's white Malamud/Hal had been keeping up, unnoticed at first, but on lap 10 he was suddenly second! As if offended by the newcomer's burst of speed, Willman soon retired to the pits, his engine shot, while Gardner tried in vain to retake second place, and Bailey struggled to keep in front - then, on lap 22, it happened: without apparent effort, Holland sailed past the leader, and began drawing away! For more than twenty laps, Gardner tried to emulate that move, but the New Jersey lad resisted until lap 45 by which time it was too late to catch the leader. Holland ran out an easy winner, albeit in slow time, but a winner no less, from Gardner, Bailey, Beeder, Connor, Wearne and Horn. A rookie winner in one of the best fields of the year - pandemonium!

With that one race, Holland had made his stance, and he cemented it by finishing second in his heat during his maiden appearance at Langhorne the very next day, and by winning the AAA Atlantic States Championship Midget race on Long Island another 24 hours later. By the end of the year, he was 7th in Eastern points, and established as a driver of the aforementioned "second rank", yet his ambition was by no means curbed. But how to advance from here? Eastern dirt track stars traditionally had a hard time making it to Indy, as evidenced by the examples of Champions like Johnny Hannon, Frankie Bailey or Frank Beeder, and other hot shots like Ben Shaw, Vern Orenduff or Johnny Duncan, all of them major players for years on end without ever making it at Indianapolis. It was easy to get stuck in the muddy dirt of the fairgrounds, figuratively speaking (and literally, too! ), and one needed a clear vision and lots of success to break free!

Edited by Michael Ferner, 05 March 2013 - 20:23.

[carl s]

You have now written here more New England Racing History for this period and genre than I've ever seen assembled.

Thank you.

Re: The 1940 Thompson Scrapbook
I have never heard back from the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Several folks at The Racing History site vowed to go to the library.
I did get a note from Joe Freeman who is a Yale Alumni and expressed a desire to investigate this potential resource.

[carl s]

Just received this email from Beinecke Library

"Dear Mr. Schultz – Thank you for your interest in the Thompson Speedway photograph album – GEN MSS 848. The album consists of 4 parts.



1. Actual album which consists of about 52 images.

2. 2 broadsheet newspapers, Wooden Speedway, no date, & National Auto Racing News, Nov. 19, 1972 – about 24 images

3. 2 folders of loose photographs – about 42 images

4. Newspaper clipping – 2 images



The entire collection would be about 120 images or perhaps more. We normally charge $2 per image for JPGs. There are, however, some 2 other folks interested in obtaining copies of the Album. I am going to ask my supervisor if it would be OK to break the cost up between the 3 of you. I estimate the cost to you would be around $100 or less.



When the scanning if complete, I will send a link to a secure payment website. When payment is received, I’ll send out a link to a file transfer site.



The Beinecke Library does not require patron to seek permission from the library to publish materials for which Yale University is not the copyright holder, nor does the Library charge permission fees. We consider it to be the patron’s responsibility to determine if there is a copyright holder and obtain permission from that person or agency. See our complete policies on permissions and copyright here: http://www.library.y.../copyright.html



Let me know what you would like to do.



Sincerely,

Mary Ellen



Mary Ellen Budney

Public Services Assistant

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

PO Box 208240

New Haven, CT 06520-8240

203-436-9133"

[Michael Ferner]

Carl, I would be happy to help in ponying up the money! You have my email address.

[carl s]

No se preoccupe
Will take care of it and make sure you get a copy - my contribution to your research that benefits us all.
Plus I just got off the phone with a fellow enthusiast back East who will be doing the same on another recent discovery of 1930s era New England bigcar photos.
Carl

Carl, I would be happy to help in ponying up the money! You have my email address.

[carl s]

I was able to purchase a digital copy of the Scrapbook and download to my flickr account - Thompson Speedway Scrapbook 1940 Album. I've set it up so that the public may view and download what they want - if you do so please give credit to: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - Yale University

If you can help provide info to the photos it would be appreciated.

The Photographers - Thompson Speedway c.1940: Any help identifying?
(click to enlarge-high resolution)
http://farm9.staticf...c56d404a3_o.jpg



Link to my Thompson Speedway Scrapbook 1940 photo album:
http://www.flickr.co...57632992837539/

[Michael Ferner]

Carl, any reason why I can't post any comments on that site?

[carl s]

Carl, any reason why I can't post any comments on that site?

Michael,
I got this answer: "If non-members are allowed to post comments, you'll get every sort of direct marketing spam there is, along with offensive comments, and any amount of other crap - and no way to stop it!"

So it appears with flickr only members are allowed to post comments.
Would be nice if we could chose to let certain people comment.

Carl

Now that I remember, I did begin to get spammed in the comments section in my Photobucket Account