96 replies to this topic

[HDonaldCapps]

I have to extend my deep appreciation to Mr. Printz for opening many eyes to this issue of no small importance in the automotive racing history community. Between what has been presented here in this forum and the rebuttals in ICR magazine, a clearer picture of how this probably came about is forming and it is really one that should make historians cringe. Last night I spent time piecing together the various bits and pieces that have some to light from both the contemporaneous and the ex post facto sources and laying out the various ways this problem may have come about.

The path always seems to lead back to Arthur Means.

It is very apparent that the Uniontown events were not part of the championship as it was run in 1920. While the reasons for their not being included might be debated and discussed ad infinitum, what cannot be debated is their absence from the championship.

That this entire issue is the result of "office politics" is almost too mundane to be true. As mentioned, when you examine the supposed championship records found on the Gordon White microfilm, you find that nearly all the information is uniformly presented and typed in the same way. This is a clear indication -- and blindingly obvious once you realize it -- that these records were created at the roughly same time.

The lack of any inclusion of the 1905 championship in these records is an indicator that it is not an unlikely scenario that many or most -- but certainly some -- of the early Contest Board records were either missing or incomplete. As pointed out, the initial beginning of the championship with 1911 rather than 1909 is an interesting indication that something is amiss. That Milton was quickly dropped as the 1920 "champion" -- his name is crossed through and Chevrolet's inserted on one document -- is reflected during the 1930s in the International Sweepstakes programs where Chevrolet is consistently listed as the 1920 champion. In 1952, this changes with Milton now being listed as the champion in the International Sweepstakes program, something that continues for literally decades and decades -- with some differences as to whom was the champion being found in the Contest Rules, for instance, which listed both Milton and Chevrolet as the 1920 champion within pages of each other.

And it is something of an irony that CART, despite the Printz/McMaken work appearing in material that was CART-centric, CART seems to have ignored the findings that correctly identified Chevrolet as the champion and list Milton as the champion is its media guides for year long after it was clear that this as incorrect. The same can be said for the IRL as well.

So, while there might be a significant body of evidence to clearly disprove the near-universal proclamation of Milton as the 1920 national champion -- as well as the non-existence of championships for the 1906-1915, 1917-1919, and the pre-1909 years (where, ironically, Oldfield is ignored and his title given to the Vanderbilt Cup winner, which is the apparent criteria for the championship), the same old problem remains -- how to "undo" errors that are now firmly embedded into the framework of the sport?

[ensign14]

Originally posted by HDonaldCapps
I have to extend my deep appreciation to Mr. Printz for opening many eyes to this issue of no small importance in the automotive racing history community.

The mind is boggling.

[john glenn printz]

MANY THANKS! Mr. Ken M. McMaken and myself wish to extend a warm thanks to ATLAS F1 BULETIN BOARD (whoever they may be) for allowing us to post such lengthy entries and for putting us back in circulation! We extend our special thanks to Hans Etzrodt and H. Donald Capps. And also to Agnis, Ray Bell, Boniver, Allen Brown, "cosworth bdg", Robert Dick, Gary D. Doyle, "ensign 14", Michael Ferner, Darren Galpin, John Humphries, "jimmyc", LaRascasse, "McLarenFormula1", Doug Nye, Alessandro Silva, M. Tanney, Jim Thurman, Frank Verplanken, and all others interested in preserving motor racing history. Actually I think automobile racing people (drivers, mechanics, car owners, officials, designers, etc.) are among the most interesting personages that have ever lived.

[john glenn printz]

Bob Russo (cont.-5) Another question I've had ever since January 1987... Russo states that Waldo Dean "Eddie" Edenburn (d. 21 Sept. 1934) sent a letter to Richard Kennerdell asking about the status of the 1920 AAA Championship points just before the running of 5 July 1920, Tacoma race.

Russo writes, "Edenburn never received a reply" (ICR, January 1987, page 44, middle of column 3).

I would like to know how Russo could possibly ascertain or establish with certainly, whether Edenburn (who died in late 1934) received a reply or not, to his AAA Contest Board inquiry made in late June 1920.

Although Bob's article is but three pages long, I believe it contains two (implicit?) contradictions. (1.) Russo writes, "So when the 1920 controversy erupted..." (page 44, bottom of the first column). What "1920 controversy" is Russo eluding to here? And when did it occur? Was this "1920 controversy" before or after Chevrolet got killed? It seems that Bob claims this "1920 controversy" was BEFORE the fatal Gaston Chevrolet's accident on 25 Nov. 1920.

But later Bob states that (page 45, bottom of second column) that, "Unfortunately, since all of this happened in December, after the season had ended, no one really thought about it any longer." In other words, if I understand Russo correctly, there was a "1920 points controversy" BEFORE Chevrolet got killed and BEFORE the AAA 1920 ten event point chart got altered on 26 Nov. 1920 down to just five races; but none AFTER, when Kennerdell actually did change the ten contest 1920 points chart to only five races on 26 Nov. 1920, thereby making Gaston Chevrolet the AAA Champion instead of Tommy Milton. This seems contradictory to me, illogical, and totally unlikely. I would have thought that the "1920 controversy" would have only occurred AFTER the quick switch to Chevrolet and the elimination of Milton as the 1920 AAA Champion, and again only AFTER the death of Chevrolet on 25 Nov. 1920; but certainly not BEFORE!

But let's assume that Russo is correct, that there was indeed a "1920 controversy" about the AAA point totals before 25 Nov. 1920; then all the more reason, I say, for a second and more violent "1920 controversy" after the Kennerdell switch of 26 Nov. 1920, in regard to the official AAA point reckonings. Or to repeat again, after all the big and violent arguments in the summer of 1920 about the official AAA points situation; there would now be all the more reason to begin a wholly new, second, and hotter debate over who had the most points, Milton with 2095 (10 races) or Chevrolet with 1030 (5 races), after the Kennerdell switch on the afternoon 26 Nov. 1920. But now, according to Russo, everyone was entirely mute. Even Milton himself, apparently, had nothing to say. I can make no sense of any of this. Is this a historically possible scenario? I, for one, don't think so.


(2.) Russo writes (page 44, bottom of first column), "Nine Championship races were on the original schedule for the 1920 season, beginning at the newly-completed Beverly Hills (Calif.) Speedway on Feb. 28 with a 250 miler won by Jimmy Murphy in a Duesenberg." Here Bob seems to know that the Beverly Hills 250 of 28 Feb. 1920 was the inaugural Beverly Hills event.

But later (page 45, bottom of the second column) Bob writes that Beverly Hills staged races in 1919.

Edited by john glenn printz, 12 October 2011 - 13:49.

[john glenn printz]

Bob Russo (cont.-6) PHILOLOGY. Hey, have you ever heard the Groucho Marx (1890-1977) gag of how the word "Sultan" originated? Well...a powerful King of Turkey had an unquenchable urge, when always riding in an elevator, to pinch the behinds of women and young girls. Being the King, no one was influential enough to ever stop him. But the ladies so pinched over the years, regarded this as highly insulting. And so after the passage of time, the king's female victims gave him both the disagreeable and dangerous sobriquet of, "the insultant".

Still later, the "in" part or syllable dropped off their nickname and the King was now known as "the sultant". After the further passage of time, the pronunciation changed also, to the now current use of "Sultan". This is a true story in the history of Turkish etymology.

There is another gem of the same type hidden away in Bob's January 1987 article (ICR page 45, top of first column). Russo, and Catlin also, maintained that after Gaston Chevrolet won the 1920 Indianapolis 500 he was known as "Chevrolet, the Indianapolis Champion". Eventually this was just shortened to "Chevrolet, the Champion", apparently in the middle and late months of the 1920 AAA season. Then confusion arose, for when people heard Chevrolet called or labeled just "Chevrolet, the Champion" they thought what was meant, was that Gaston was "Chevrolet, the 1920 AAA National Champion". It was all a case of incomplete, incorrect, and mistaken semantics. Simple.

And so the reporters working at LOS ANGELES TIMES got confused too, and thus when Gaston Chevrolet was killed on 25 Nov. 1920, knowing he was already the 1920 AAA National Champion, the newsmen hailed him as such, in their 26 Nov. 1920 dated newspapers. This was how whole trouble about who was the 1920 AAA National Champion initially arose or started, according to the Catlin and Russo thesis. It was all a mixup in linguistic meaning, and a lack of precise and accurate communication. Or as Russo puts it after the publication of the 26 Nov. 1920 LOS ANGELES TIMES newspapers hailing Gaston Chevrolet as the 1920 AAA Champion (ICR, page 45, bottom of first column), "Kennerdell had a problem, and knew it. To reverse public opinion at that point and deny Chevrolet the title might well place the prestige of the Contest Board in jeopardy and cast a shadow over all of racing."

And so Richard A. Kennerdell covered up this LOS ANGELES TIMES mistake and that of many others, for the ultimate betterment of U.S. "big-time" National Championship AAA racing. Kennerdell did his job so well here, that nobody in 1920 even knew about it except himself and Arthur H. Means, his secretary. Of course Kennerdell was greatly helped here by the curious fact that he had woefully neglected to release any AAA point standings in the second half of 1920. A lucky break buddy, a very lucky break. But let's give the always hitherto inept and clumsy Kennerdell his due here, he did a hell of a job. Richard also apparently destroyed, at the same time, all the existent and extant evidence of the previous 1920 ten race AAA season and all the copies of the ten race AAA 1920 points chart. What wonderful efficiency, for once, Mr. Kennerdell showed in all this! And driver Tommy Milton, as an unfortunate byproduct of all this chicanery and subterfuge got thereby, and quite unjustly, deprived of his legitimate 1920 AAA Driving Title- a real and genuine miscarriage of justice, if there ever was one.

The true facts were only discovered in 1926 by the very intelligent and high "IQ", Val Haresnape (from Mr. Means, of course), and then the old and original ten event 1920 AAA points chart had to be newly "reconstructed" by Arthur H. Means; as all the original 1920 copies were now missing and had been burnt or done away with by the overly efficient (on this one occasion only), Richard Kennerdell. It was in this manner that the authentic 1920 AAA point chart was saved for later researchers like Mr. Catlin, Mr. Russo, and posterity itself. We certainly owe Mr. Means (and Russ Catlin & Bob Russo too!) a great thanks, otherwise there would be nothing but complete confusion over these issues at present (i.e. May 2007), about the AAA doings in 1920. The 1920 ten race chart was thus 100% authentic, even if "reconstructed" by Mr. Means on November 26, 1926; and it was the true and original version of the 1920 Championship AAA season.

I believe, that the Catlin - Russo thesis, i.e. that the 1920 confusion is due partly or largely to a philological problem, is just as equal in value, just as ridiculous, and at the same par, AS FACTUAL HISTORY, as the Groucho Marx tale. As the late Jack Paar (1918-2004) would say, "I kid you not." The AAA (after 1951), USAC, and CART (except 1985) all went along with Catlin's wild, totally absurd, and preposterous story.

I assert that the whole construct above is the sole creation of Russ Catlin who loved and relished all yarns about scandals; of which said narrative Catlin invented and fabricated during the years 1949 to 1951, and is a totally mythological system or fable about American or U.S. motor racing history. And that later Russ Catlin passed on his whole "bogus" historical reconstruction of the past AAA years 1909 to 1926, to racing journalist and later PR man, Bob Russo, who remained totally faithful, even to his end in 1999, to his old mentor and master.

Edited by john glenn printz, 22 January 2013 - 14:20.

[HDonaldCapps]

In the Chapman Root Collection at the IMRRC, I found a book entitled "Championship Racing Thru the Years" by Charles C. Bolton, published in 1966. Among other things, it lists the usual six events for the 1946 season and a now familiar listing....

The National Champions
1902 -- Harry Harkness
1903 -- Barney Oldfield
1904 -- George Heath
1905 -- Vic Hemery
1906 -- Joe Tracy
1907 -- Ed Bald
1908 -- Lou Strang
1909 -- George Robertson, 1480
1910 -- Ray Harroun, 1310
1911 -- Ralph Mulford, 1355
1912 -- Ralph DePalma, 2000
1913 -- Earl Cooper, 2610
1914 -- Ralph DePalma, 2045
1915 -- Earl Cooper, 3780
1916 -- Dario Resta, 4100
1917 -- Earl Cooper, 1095
1918 -- Ralph Mulford, 500
1919 -- Howard Wilcox, 1110
1920 -- Tommy Milton, 2095

It is a paperback and one of the few I have found of its type from the period. The point here is that in about every source from this period, Milton has replaced Chevrolet in about a dozen years since the change by Catlin and 40 years later it is still listed by many sources as 1920 being Milton's championship.

[HDonaldCapps]

Official Bulletin Contest Board of the American Automobile Association
Washington, D.C.
Vol. IV No. 6 February 8, 1929

SPECIAL BULLETIN ON CHAMPION DRIVERS

We have just completed at headquarters a study of the racing record of each championship driver for the year he achieved the championship. It is attached as of undoubted interest to the many racing fans who receive this bulletin.

Careful study will disclose may interesting angles. You will be able to bring back the abandon and determination of DePalma in '12, or of Resta in '16, when each either finished first in every race or was forced out. You will catch again the high wave of success of Cooper in '17, Murphy in '22 and DePaolo in '25, all of whom won a majority of firsts out of their total starts. Against this can be contrasted the consistency disclosed in Hearne's winning in '23 and Hartz in '26.

This is but one of the educational and service studies that will be distributed by the Contest Board during the current year.

Val Haresnape
Secretary

Enclosure --
"Record of Champion Drivers - 1909 to 1928"

RECORD OF CHAMPION DRIVERS
1909 -- 1928 incl.

Year/A.A.A. Champion 	Starts	1st	2nd	3rd	4th/+	Unplaced

1909/ Bert Dingley	7	2	3	1	0	1

1910/ Ray Harroun	11	3	3	0	1	4

1911/ Ralph Mulford	5	1	2	0	1	1

1912/ Ralph De Palma	5	4	0	0	0	1

1913/ Earl Cooper	5	4	1	0	0	0

1914/ Ralph De Palma	8	3	0	0	3	2

1915/ Earl Cooper	14	6	3	0	2	3

1916/ Dario Resta	12	7	0	0	0	5

1917/ *Earl Cooper	6	4	0	1	1	0

1918/ *Ralph Mulford	11	3	1	3	4	1

1919/ **Howard Wilcox	2	1	1	0	0	0

1920/ Gaston Chevrolet	5	1	0	0	2	2

1921/ Tommy Milton	22	4	5	3	6	4

* These were war years with few races -- none of truly major character
** Points earned in Indianapolis victory were sufficient to hold leadership as racing activity was quiet due to post-war adjustment.



Please note the lack any points or a lisitng of events for each season.

[john glenn printz]

RUSS CATLIN'S CONTENTIONS. Russ Catlin's remarks in his 1982 AUTOMOBILE QUARTERLY (Vol. 20, No. 4, pages 393-417) article, about the AAA Contest Board doings from 1909 to 1920, are most peculiar. Here Russ claims (page 395) that the AAA National Championship was announced by Contest Board Chairman Frank B. Hower in 1909, and in addition a point system would be used to determine the U.S. National Driving Champion. Russ admits however that this new 1909 system, "did not go into effect until 1916." On page 405 it is proclaimed (again) that the Contest Board Point Award System was devised in 1909, but not actually adopted until the 1916 season. In other words the AAA point system, 1909-1915, was just an "in house" AAA annual exercise and the 1909 to 1915 seasonal "point totals" were not given out to the general public, although duly and yearly computed by the AAA Contest Board itself. This is, I think, a very odd and improbable theory just in and by itself.

Here again, in this strange manner, Catlin maintains that the 1909 to 1915 AAA point charts are thus contemporary with the season. What he believes about the 1917 to 1919 AAA point charts he doesn't say here, but elsewhere he certainly regards them as contemporary AAA reckonings. Probably, I would guess, "in house" AAA calculations once again for the years 1917-1919. But anyway in 1982, Russ is still asserting that the 1909 AAA chart dates from 1909, the 1910 AAA chart dates from 1910, etc., etc. In this rather improbable mode, Catlin still wants us to believe that the 1909 to 1915 AAA point charts are the "contemporary", "real", and "genuine" reckonings.

Whence then this strange hypothesis about the 1909 to 1915 AAA point charts being contemporary and genuine "in house" AAA productions, but not being released ever to the news media or the general public? Well... Catlin is now fully and finally aware (in 1982) of a very inconvenient fact, i.e., that there is no contemporary mention of an AAA National Championship Title in any 1909 to 1915 newspaper or U.S. motor journal; and he now is under constraint to explain how the 1909 to 1915 AAA point charts can STILL BE CONTEMPORARY for each 1909 to 1915 season, without any contemporary evidence or mention of them. Thus his new, novel, ingenious, but still totally preposterous "in house" theory, on the origin of these 1909-1915 AAA point race reckonings. Probably too, if hard pressed, Catlin would have had to advance the conjecture, that this was also the case a second time (!), i.e., for the 1917-1919 AAA point charts as well. And for the exact same reason, i.e., there is no mention of any official AAA National Championship Titles for the 1917 to 1919 seasons in any contemporary news or journal source material. The 1917 AAA National Championship Title, of course, was cancelled in May 1917 before any 1917 scheduled AAA Championship "point" events had actually been staged. The 30 May 1917 Indianapolis 500 was to have been the first AAA Championship points contest that year.

(Catlin, confused and misled by Means' 1917 AAA point chart, thinks that two AAA Championship point races (4 March 1917 Ascot 100 and 10 May 1917 Uniontown 112.5) were held before the AAA's stoppage of the 1917 National Championship Title in late May 1917. (SPEED AGE, HISTORY OF AAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, Chapter 9, The Coming of the War, August 1955, pages 37-48). On page 37 it is proclaimed, "Although AAA announced that the Championship would not be awarded, popular acclaim forced reversal." This is totally and absolutely untrue.)

Actually Catlin's "in house" theory for the years 1909 to 1915 seems a last and desperate effort to hold off the inevitable conclusion, which runs in a quite different and opposite temporal direction. That conclusion is that the 1909-1915, 1917-1919, and the 1920 ten contest AAA point reckonings were all the creation of the AAA Contest Board in 1926, 1927, and 1928, under Val Haresnape's direction. Catlin, in his last decade, may have been engaged in a deliberate case of obscurantism and obstructionism, as well as the manufacture of numerous "red herrings". For how was he going to keep the numerous Furies away, now beginning to snap at his very heels? And how was he going to maintain any creditability at all, if Arthur H. Means had made all the 1909-1915, 1917-1919, and the 1920 ten event, charts during the period 1926-1928?

With regard to the 1920 AAA season Catlin states (page 408-409), "Back at AAA headquarters Means knew better but was prevented by Kennerdell from releasing the point standings. Eventually a doctored version was issued, in which several championship races had been dropped to give Chevrolet a total of 1030 points to Milton's 930. It was years later that Mean's correct point standings were found,..." Notice that Catlin does not give a precise date as to when the, "doctored version was issued" or when "Mean's correct point standings were found." And further Russ does not state or even hint that it was HE HIMSELF who both found and reached the conclusion that the Mean's 1920 AAA point chart (i.e. the ten race reckoning) was the "correct" 1920 version.

This is certainly somewhat analogous to the manner in which Russ first invented and presented the "1902 to 1908" AAA National Champions, back in 1952. (Compare with the 15 & 16 Oct. 2006 McMaken/Printz entries, on the thread "1905 Races".) Catlin does not even and/or ever, take proper credit for his alterations and additions but presents his changes as objective historical facts; a sort of total anonymity or effacement of himself. It also hides the true source of the "new" and hitherto "unknown" information now being supplied, by himself, and for the very first time.

And note again on page 413, Catlin gives the wrong date for the 1920 Beverly Hills sprints. He has 10 April 1920. Here originally, either Arthur H. Means or Russ Catlin, has confused the 1921 Beverly Hills sprints with those of 1920. For the 1921 Beverly Hills sprints were contested on 10 April 1921.

In fact it was Mr. Ken M. McMaken and myself who first published an accurate and complete listing of all the AAA National Driving Championship winners. It appeared on page 136 of the PPG 1981 INDY CAR WORLD SERIAL annual. The old AAA Contest Board itself couldn't do so, because it had long lost track of its own past. And USAC just repeated and passed on what they had inherited and got from the older 1927 to 1955, but invalid, AAA record keeping efforts. And later CART took it all over from USAC.

Edited by john glenn printz, 02 March 2012 - 13:58.

[john glenn printz]

Bob Russo (cont.-7) Bob Russo (ICR Jan. 1987, 2nd column bottom half, page 44) states that Gaston Chevrolet "won three straight races" in 1919. I'm not aware that Gaston actually did so. Gaston won the Uniontown 225 (September 1) with relief help from Joe Boyer and the Sheepshead Bay 150 (September 20) in 1919, i.e. two-in-a-row, but I see no three-in-a-row.

Perhaps (?) Russo has confused Louis Chevrolet for Gaston in the earlier part of the 1919 AAA season. Louis Chevrolet won the 60 and 80 mile events held at Tacoma on July 4; while Gaston won the Sheepshead Bay 100 on the same day, i.e. three-in-a-row for the two Chevrolets certainly, but nowhere do I find Gaston Chevrolet solo winning three-in-a-row in 1919.

Another Russo statement is (quote), "The 27-year old Gaston was in his third Championship season when he came to Indianapolis in 1920." Actually the year 1920 was the AAA's second National Championship season, as the only other year it had been contested was 1916. The AAA Contest Board wouldn't sanction any Championship "point" contests during the U.S.' participation in the World War and the AAA National Championship Title was withdrawn during 1917, 1918, and 1919, only to be revived in 1920. Bob believes that the AAA had a Championship Title for 1917, 1918, and 1919, as did the Russ Catlin. Here Russo is only following the doctrines of his confused teacher.

Russo also (3rd column, page 43) dates the beginning of U.S. National Championship racing back to 1909, writing that the AAA established a "National Circuit" (whatever that means) for 1909. This seems to be an echo of Russ Catlin's (AUTOMOBILE QUARTERLY, Vol. 20, No. 4, page 395) contention that in 1909 the AAA created a new series of races known as "Nationals". If Russo used this 1982 AQ article by Catlin then we can add this Catlin penned essay to the Russo list of non-contemporary sources, now up to four, which Bob utilized for his INDY CAR RACING refutation of the ideas put forth by McMaken and Printz in 1980 to 1985; about the AAA racing situation and seasons of 1909 to 1920. Compare with my comments on this thread put in, on 26 Sept. 2006.

The only 1920 contemporary PRINTED source Bob seems to have used (2nd column, page 45) for his article on 1920 is Eddie Edenburn's piece in the DETROIT NEWS on 5 Dec. 1920, (Sect. IV, p.1). Here Russo both misread and distorted completely what Edenburn had to say.

Bob quotes Eddie, "What disposition will be made of the title will be decided in New York this week at a meeting of the AAA Contest Board called by Chairman Richard Kennerdell who has returned from Los Angeles where he attended the season's last event."; i.e. as implying that Edenburn is writing about the 1920 season's alteration or malfeasance of the point standings in late November 1920, and the ultimate "disposition" about them. But this statement of Edenburn is clearly about the UPCOMING 1921 AAA season when read in context; - and is not at all about the PRESENT and/or PAST 1920 season!!! The death of Gaston Chevrolet posed a bit of a problem for the upcoming year of 1921. After all, the 1920 AAA National Driving Champion was now a corpse, and Gaston had won the 1920 AAA Driving Title on the very day he died while still in actual competition in an AAA National Championship contest. It was hardly wonderful material or great publicity for the, yet to be started, 1921 AAA racing season.

This is the situation or circumstance that Edenburn is talking about in the quote that Bob Russo uses. And further there is absolutely nothing in the Edenburn article, not even the slightest hint, that something was amiss about the final AAA 1920 National Point Standings given to the press by the Contest Board on the afternoon of 25 Nov. 1920, based on a 5 race schedule.

Edited by john glenn printz, 02 December 2011 - 15:34.

[john glenn printz]

Bob Russo (cont.-8) Russo wished to use the 5 Dec. 1920 DETROIT NEWS writeup of Edenburn as presenting some positive evidence for the Kennerdell swindle. There's nothing to that, but what Bob doesn't quote from Edenburn's essay is even more interesting, important, and pertinent, than what Bob does present. To wit, here's Eddie Edenburn's very first paragraph (quote);

"The second championship of the American speed world, conducted by the American Automobile Association Contest Board, has just closed. The first championship was that of the 1916 season. The initial competition was run in the heyday of the board speedway, with contests on nine courses while the 1920 title was decided on four raceways. Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Tacoma and Elgin, Ill. The first two are speedways and the latter a road course. In 1916 the title was decided in events on eight speedways, seven board ovals, and one road course, the one at Santa Monica, Calif."

As Edenburn, in the same article, affirms that Gaston Chevrolet was the 1920 AAA National Champion with 1030 points; followed by Milton with 930; and Jimmy Murphy with 885, the data here does not agree with the Catlin/Russo thesis that Milton was the 1920 AAA National Driving Champion with 2095 points. And further Edenburn's assertions that 1916 was the first year of the AAA Title, with no title staged during 1917, 1918, and 1919, and that the 1920 title was the second AAA title; does not agree with the Catlin/Russo contentions that 1909 was the first season for the AAA title and that AAA titles were awarded, as well, during 1917, 1918, and 1919. In fact what Edenburn states is totally in agreement with what McMaken and myself presented in 1981, further affirmed in 1982-85, and in our two rebuttle articles to the Catlin/Russo ideas, published in INDY CAR RACING in 1988.

Notice also that Eddie says that all the 1920 AAA Championship races were conducted at Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Tacoma, and Elgin. That would then exclude all 1920 AAA races staged at Uniontown and Fresno as AAA Championship ranked contests. How could Russo have missed all this in the very source he wants to use to support his and Catlin's case?

It was very late in the day in January 1987 when Russo published his article on the 1920 season in INDY CAR RACING and after seven years of argument, debate, and acrimony you would think that what Edenburn had written on 5 Dec. 1920 might give Russo some little pause, but apparently not. Such, unfortunately, is Bob's use of his only 1920 printed and contemporary historical source. In any case Edenburn's piece supports everything that McMaken/Printz said in 1981, 1984, and 1985; and nothing that Catlin (d. 1983) had ever said previously about these topics; and which Russo still wants to assert and maintain in 1987, about AAA history 1909 to 1920.

I had even talked to Bob by phone in late 1984, about the 1920 AAA season, when Russo had very heavily criticized the McMaken/Printz historical data, not yet printed, sent and submitted to Jan Shaffer for inclusion in the 1985 CART News Media Guide. On this occasion Russo kept asserting that the original 1920 AAA chart included ten events and that the five race reckoning was later and secondary. Russo's faith in what Russ Catlin told him was complete and quite unshakeable.

Actually Russo and myself had started debating about the past AAA and USAC history in 1978 and Bob's January 1987 ICR article was meant to be his final and scholarly coup de grace to the absurb ideas about the AAA Contest Board (1909-1920) put in print by McMaken and myself in the PPG INDY CAR WORLD SERIES ANNUALS: 1981, pages 124-136; 1983, pages 104-122; and 1984, pages 96-114; and in the 1985 CART NEWS MEDIA GUIDE, pages 223-292.

Edited by john glenn printz, 28 July 2009 - 12:20.

[john glenn printz]

Bob Russo (cont.-9) Another problem of Catlin's and Russo's method of presenting past events is to place personages in a historical context that never existed and to give them thoughts which they never had. This is to resort to pure fiction to strengthen and provide a better case for whatever is being generally asserted. This is known in German historical criticism as "Tendenz" writing. In Russo's article Edenburn, Haresnape, Kennerdell, Means, Milton, and even Catlin himself, are all put into pseudo-historical contexts.

Nobody, but nobody, knew anything or had even heard anything about a Kennerdell switch of AAA Championship points in late November or early December 1920 or before World War II (1939-1945). That was because the Kennerdell switch theory about 1920 was totally invented by Russ Catlin during the immediate post World War II period of 1948-1950.

Russo states, writing about the conclusion of the Beverly Hills 250 of 25 Nov. 1920, (bottom of column 1, page 45) quote, "Edenburn, for one, realized something was amiss, and he insisted on an official points tally from the chairman. After a quick exchange of correspondence, Kennerdell laid the bombshell on Edenburn. Not only had Milton outscored Chevrolet, but so had Murphy."

This whole narration is pure fiction. Eddie Edenburn could never have known or even heard of the Kennerdell's "bungle", as Bob calls it, because Eddie died in 1934. For the 1920 Catlin/Russo "bungle" had never occurrred for one, and for two, Edenburn had died way before the story of it had been invented by Catlin in 1948-1950. And what about "poor" Richard? Richard Kennerdell (d. 12 Dec. 1928) himself, the central figure in the Catlin/Russo 1920 conspiracy theory, never heard or knew anything about it either, for he like Edenburn, had died too early. Kennerdell's knowledge of his supposed 1920 doings, as maintained by Catlin and Russo, was thus absolute zero!


Bob, talking about Kennerdell's deletion of 1920 races and points, has this to say about Tommy Milton (top of column 2, page 45) quote, "This after the fact action was later confirmed by Milton, who never could understand why he received the medal for second place." Again this is total fiction. Milton never claimed, at any time before World War II, that he had been wrongly deprived from first place in the 1920 AAA National Championship and, of course, the supposed deletion of AAA points in late November 1920 had never occurred.

Milton did have a big beef with the AAA, but that occurred on 8 April 1922, when he was suspended from driving for a Chicago, Durant car dealer's (W. C. Auble Motor Company) false advertisement, about which ad Milton had known absolutely nothing. But in this case, William Schimpf was then the Chairman of the AAA Contest Board, not Richard Kennerdell.

And again Russo's detailed description (what precise knowledge Bob displays here!) of the maneuverings and vexations of the AAA Contest Board over Kennerdell's alteration of points (bottom of column 2, page 45) is of equal historical value, i.e., zero. If quote, "Kennerdell's decision to eliminate five events never held water with the board. In the first place, he didn't have the authority without a majority vote of the board." So why didn't the Contest Board vote him down and put a total halt to Richard's bizarre and unauthorized actions? But no explanation of this "inaction" by the Contest Board is ever given by Russo.


And Russ Catlin himself, commenting on the finish of the Beverly Hills 250 of 25 Nov. 1920 has (AUTOMOBILE QUARTERLY, Vol. 20, No. 4, pages 408-409) quote, "The press barely mentioned that Roscoe Sarles won the race, but detailed Chevrolet's death and biography and frequently referred to him as that year's champion. Back at AAA headquarters Means knew better but was prevented by Kennerdell from releasing the point standings. Eventually a doctored version was issued, in which several championship races had been dropped to give Chevrolet a total of 1030 points to Milton's 930."

Again this is complete fiction, with tinges of the absurb philological hypothesis (Consult above Bob Russo, cont. 6), about how and why Gaston Chevrolet became the "bogus" 1920 AAA Champion.

Just 31 years after the running of the Beverly Hills 250 of 25 Nov. 1920, Russ Catlin presented his evidence and findings of Kennerdell's gross juggling of the AAA points in late November 1920, before the AAA Contest Board. The Contest Board bought Russ' story, hook, line, and sinker. If Catlin was totally incompetent on this occasion, then the 1951 AAA Contest Board must have been also.

And how could this all take place? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) has part of the answer, quote; "There is no use knocking mediocrity, for it is everywhere in control."

Actually Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. (CART) committed a similar gaff during late 1984 and 1985 which was even worse (!), and again, ostensibly over the correct preservation of the American automobile racing heritage as the excuse. CART, in fact, never cared anything about the preservation of remote (i.e. pre-1979) U.S. racing records at all. CART's 1984/1985 gaff was not an instance of incompetence however, as had been the case of the AAA back in 1951. CART knew exactly what they were doing. It was really a gross instance of influence peddling, empire building, business dealings, and big money. It's the real and hidden story behind some major changes in the 1984, 1985, and 1986 issues of the CART NEWS MEDIA GUIDE.

In conclusion I would say that Bob Russo's attempt here to discredit the credibility, objectivity, and scholarship of McMaken/Printz fails completely. But, on the other hand, Bob can certainly take full credit for having penned the most inane, inaccurate, and inept article ever written on the history of AAA National Championship Racing.

Edited by john glenn printz, 16 April 2012 - 14:01.

[fines]

Thanks to John Printz , I have now been able to read the articles in question in full.

My overriding emotion is that we shouldn't treat Bob Russo too harsh - after all, we have a similar case going on here at TNF, of which I am constantly reminded when reading about the 1920 AAA Championship. It's simply too easy to come to false conclusions when researching topics such as these, and sometimes quite difficult to place the correct value on different documents from different times.

Based on false assumptions, Catlin and Russo had taken it on themselves to correct an "injustice" they clearly must have felt being done to Tommy Milton. Nothing wrong with the intention, but the net result is another "injustice", put simply! Apart from a misinterpretation of historical facts, which to my mind is more annoying, still.

I don't think neither Tommy Milton nor H. P. Müller need any artificial enhancement of their career achievements by bogus championship wins, but once these things get into printed matter, it gets quite difficult to overcome!

[ensign14]

ANY championship win is "bogus", IMO...it depends on total artificiality. Not least the artificiality of superior equipment restricted to some...

[fines]

Originally posted by ensign14
Not least the artificiality of superior equipment restricted to some...

Then every race result is bogus as well?;) So, why do we bother at all...

[ensign14]

Ah, the RESULT is not bogus, just whether that proves who the best DRIVER is. That proves the best combination of driver/team/whatever in those circumstances.

A Championship is doubly bogus, because it involves a determination of how much a second and fourth is worth compared to a first and sixth. Which is totally random and arbitrary.

And who is the best driver? People's opinions do not depend on Championship rankings...on a contemporary level some will say Hamilton is the best, others Raikkonen, others Alonso, others Gordon...but they won't have their opinions changed by a gearbox glitch not happening.

[fines]

Originally posted by ensign14
Ah, the RESULT is not bogus, just whether that proves who the best DRIVER is.

I never looked at it that way. Sure, a race is always won by the combination of team/driver/car, but it is no proof of superiority of any of those, just a common achievement. In the same vein, a championship is just an achievement, it doesn't prove a thing!

[HDonaldCapps]

Originally posted by ensign14
ANY championship win is "bogus", IMO...it depends on total artificiality. Not least the artificiality of superior equipment restricted to some...

Originally posted by ensign14
Ah, the RESULT is not bogus, just whether that proves who the best DRIVER is. That proves the best combination of driver/team/whatever in those circumstances.

A Championship is doubly bogus, because it involves a determination of how much a second and fourth is worth compared to a first and sixth. Which is totally random and arbitrary.

And who is the best driver? People's opinions do not depend on Championship rankings...on a contemporary level some will say Hamilton is the best, others Raikkonen, others Alonso, others Gordon...but they won't have their opinions changed by a gearbox glitch not happening.

This is all completely and utter irrelevant to the issue at hand.

First and foremost, this is an issue of historiography and not philosophy.

[HDonaldCapps]

It is interesting to see that the 1920 champion changed from Chevrolet in the 1950 AAA Yearbook to Milton in the 1951 AAA Yearbook without any explanation....

[john glenn printz]

MORE FUEL ON THE FIRE. It is to be noticed that Phil Harms on his 16 Oct. 2003 posting above has combined and mixed two separate and distinct theories as to why there exists two AAA 1920 Championship points charts. Russ Catlin's thesis (quote), "That the AAA gave the crown to Gaston Chevrolet as a sympathetic gesture after his fatal accident at Beverly Hills" is of course, a variant of Russ' conspiracy idea; while (quote again), "The point of contention was whether the AAA had been paid sanction fees for all the races; if they were, then Milton had the points." This is a variant of Al Bloemker's hypothesis, and has nothing to do at all with Mr. Catlin or Mr. Russo. Mr. McMaken and myself believe that both explanations here are entirely and totally erroneous. So much for history!

The mixup about the 1920 AAA season and the AAA Driver Championships of 1909 to 1915, and 1917 to 1919 are at least, 65% due to Catlin, and he has to bear that awesome and horrific responsibility. The leftover 35% I would divide between Haresnape/Means with 30%, and Russo with the remaining 5%, but whole trouble started initially with Val Haresnape and Arthur Means in 1926, 1927, and 1928. Here Means created point charts for ten years that did not have an AAA Championship Title and he also made a new point chart for the 1920 AAA Championship season. Haresnape and Means never explained what they were doing and what they had done, and all behind the AAA Contest Board's secret and closed doors at that.

It all led to other later and unexpected developments, but Haresnape and Means could hardly have anticipated the false misdating that Catlin, c. 1948-1950, would give to their newly created 1909-1915 and 1917-1920 point reckonings- all made in the late 1920's! Who could have? But give Russ Catlin his due, his reconstruction of the 1920 AAA National Championship season is a real and substantial contribution to American folklore.

Just four men, i.e. Haresnape. Means, Catlin, and Russo,...but the havoc they have wrought on the genuine and real history of AAA racing 1902 to 1955, is both inescapable and seemingly ineradicable.

And I believe that no AAA "National Circuit" was put forward by the AAA Contest Board in 1909, either with or without a "point" awarding format. It is a gross historical anachronism to say so. This idea or notion is nothing more than a residue or "ghost" trace left over from the Haresnape/Means/Catlin/Russo legend that a point awarding AAA National Championship Driving Title was established and inaugurated by the AAA Contest Board in early 1909. All that happened in early 1909 was that the newly instituted (on 2 Dec. 1908) AAA Contest Board agreed that with regard to their major 1909 race meets and sanctions, they would conform to the new Manufacturer's Contest Association's (MCA) rules and classifications. That's all. (See the thread AMERICAN RACING 1894 TO 1920, cont.-8).

It is true that in 1911, Arthur Rayner "A. R." Pardington, tried to set up a "Grand Circuit", or a "National Grand Circuit", or a "National Automobile Racing Circuit" for the major 1911 AAA events. However Mr. Pardington's scheme proved abortive by mid-1911 and was never implemented. And at no time was there any discussion or mention of possibly using a point system to rank the manufacturers or the drivers in Pardington's new 1911 proposals.

Pardington first broached his ideas at a MCA meeting in New York City on 14 Jan. 1911. On 9 Feb. 1911 the following paragraph appeared in the NEW YORK TIMES, on page 8.

"The main object of the Grand Circuit is to provide a logical sequence of speed contests in the different cities, the drivers, cars, and officials to be transported from city to city by special train. This will insure to each city on the circuit a full representation of the best cars and drivers and afford the public in each locality the certainty of keen competition and good sport. The proposed circuit will include road races, hill climbs, and speedway meetings. A minor circuit of dirt track meetings will also be arranged at dates which will fill in the intervals between Grand Circuit dates."

In another statement by Pardington, published on February 23 (Chicago Tribune, page 11), he is quoted as saying, "Few people realize the task involved in starting a national circuit and keeping it running. Plans for the circuit are coming along nicely and we have received such encouragement that I think it safe to say that it is an assured thing. Everybody will be benefited by it -- makers, association, drivers, and those who attend the races. The motoring public would be given the benefit of races in which most of the star drivers would compete. The plan is to start the circuit May 30 and continue it for five months. In that time, about 6,000 miles would be covered by the trains carrying the drivers and equipment. About nineteen cars would be required, including sleepers, and diners. It would be necessary to carry complete machine shops, with spare parts, tires, etc. Practically 100 people would make up the party on the train."

By 9 April 1911 the National Motor Contest Circuit had set up its offices at 437 5th Avenue, in New York City. But later on 5 May 1911, it was announced that, "Plans for the National automobile racing circuit have been considerably modified, and the spectacular part of the arrangement has been abandoned. There will be no long gayly painted special trains carrying motors, drivers, mechanicians, and accessories, but the other part of the programme will be followed as originally arranged." (Source: NEW YORK TIMES, 5 May 1911, page C8).

And then money problems arose also (quote), "The abandonment of the special train and the spectacular features of the National Grand Circuit resulted in the elimination of several projected meetings. There is, however, a condition that will make the promotors hesitate before holding a meeting. The National Circuit promoters insist that all race promotors shall pay the expenses of the American Automobile Association officials. This means that a charge of about $1,500 would be made for officials. In return the A.A.A. automobilists could not guarantee a single entry. Promoters asked the National Circuit officials what return they would get for their outlay. As no satisfactory reply was forthcoming, several prospective meets were dropped." (Source: NEW YORK TIMES, 4 June 1911, page C8).

In Russo's INDY CAR RACING article of January 1987, (page 43, top of column 3), Bob has this to say (quote), "The AAA Contest Board was the supreme authority for major racing in America. It had earned that position after the turn of the century and later in 1909, by establishing a prestigious series called the National Circuit which produces America's annual National Championship."

There was no AAA "National Circuit" set up in 1909. All the AAA did was sanction various diffuse contests and races. Bob's second statement seems to me to be highly misleading and quintessentially untrue. Here again Russo is only obsequiously copying and following his mentor and erroneous guide, Russ Catlin. Consult also the 25 June 2007 post "Bob Russo (cont.-7).

Edited by john glenn printz, 12 April 2012 - 16:50.

[john glenn printz]

MORE FUEL ON THE FIRE (cont.-1) RUSS CATLIN, BOB RUSSO, AND THE AMERICAN AUTO RACING WRITERS AND BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION, INC. (WOW!), AND/OR, THE FURTHER KILLING OF A DEAD HORSE.

It has recently come to my attention that the NEW YORK TIMES issue of 26 Nov. 1920, ON ITS VERY FRONT PAGE, gives the AAA 1920 Championship point totals based on the five race chart. This collaborated that of the Nov. 26, 1920 DETROIT FREE PRESS, pages 1-2, that also gives the same data and information. See "Bob Russo (cont.-4)" above. However there are other 26 Nov. 1920 newspapers that do so also. For example (1.) INDIANAPOLIS STAR, page 1; (2.) BRIDGEPORT TELEGRAM, page 2; (3.) NEVADA STATE JOURNAL, page 1; (4.) WATERLOO EVENING COURIER, page 18; and (5.) WATERLOO TIMES-TRIBUNE, page 1.

Both Catlin and Russo maintain that the 1920 five contest reckoning is a fake, phony, improvised, and hurried concoction of AAA Chairman, Richard Kennerdell; which cheated and swindled Tommy Milton out of his legitimate 1920 AAA Driving Title. But these seven newspaper notices, of Nov. 26, 1920, cause big, big problems.

For according to both Catlin and Russo, the trigger and/or "efficient cause" of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), for the creation and production of the bogus five event AAA 1920 chart was the sudden death of Gaston Chevrolet on the 147th circuit of the 250 mile, Nov. 25, 1920, Beverly Hills race. Catlin asserted, in one version of his story, that Kennerdell decided to award the 1920 AAA Driving Title to G. Chevrolet as an "sympathetic gesture", apparently on the race day afternoon of Nov. 25, 1920.

Catlin writes (AUTOMOBILE QUARTERLY, Vol. 20, pages 408-409, quote), "Eventually a doctored version was issued, in which several championship races had been dropped to give Chevrolet a total of 1030 points to Milton's 930." Actually the word "eventually" here is totally inappropriate. In its AUTOMOBILE QUARTERLY Catlin penned context it might mean "days" or even "weeks"; but unfortunately for Russ' case, the five race chart already existed on the afternoon of Nov. 25, 1920.

Certainly the Nov. 26, 1920 newspapers show that the annoucement of Gaston Chevrolet as the AAA Champion and the AAA five event reckoning of the 1920 AAA point standings were given out SIMULTANEOUSLY and AT THE SAME TIME. Substracting all other pre-race considerations from the Catlin-Russo thesis, it makes Kennerdell almost a genius. Far from being a boob, Kennerdell must have been a mathematical genius of sorts to have created a totally new AAA 1920 point chart, IMMEDIATELY DURING THE LATTER PART OF THE NOVEMBER 25, 1920 RACE and ON THE SPOT.

And Richard got away with it too! Only the sagacious eye of Russ Catlin saw through it all, while rummaging through the old AAA files, after World War II. It was the finding of Arthur H. Mean's Nov. 26, 1926, ten race 1920 reconstruction, that turned the trick. And Russ duly corrected the situation in 1951, on the "Q.T.", restoring the 1920 AAA National Championship Driving Title to its always rightful owner, Tommy Milton.

I have tried to visualized the scene on the morning of 25 Nov. 1920 at the Los Angeles Speedway. Everyone knew that the AAA had a National Driving Championship title for 1920, everyone knew that other 1920 AAA Championship races had been held, and everyone knew that the Nov. 25. 1920 Beverly Hills 250, was the last AAA Championship event for 1920. But according to Catlin and Russo, no newspaper reporters and no fans, drivers, car owners, etc., either before or on race day, inquired about the current AAA driver point standings, or what pilots if any, were still in contention for the AAA title. But as soon as the contest was over, Kennerdell proclaimed G. Chevrolet the winner of the 1920 AAA Driving Title using a quickly put together, bogus chart, and everyone accepted it, without any demurs whatsoever.

This is not a possible situation, even in the remotest sense. Nor was it. We know it to be completely untrue. For instance the DETROIT NEWS on (1.) Sept 26, Sect V, page 7; (2.) Oct. 24, Autos, page 7; and (3.) Nov. 21, Autos, page 1; the LOS ANGELES TIMES (4.) Sept. 12, part 6, page 1 (5.) Nov. 14, part 6, page 2; (6.) Nov. 18, part 3, page 1; and (7.) Nov. 21, part 6, pages 1-2; and the OAKLAND TRIBURE (8.) Nov. 12, Autos, page 1; had pre-race surveys of upcoming the Nov. 25, 1920 Los Angeles Speedway 250.

Four pilots still had a mathematical chance at the 1920 AAA Title, i.e (1.) Gaston Chevrolet (Frontenac) with 1030 points; (2.) Tommy Milton (Duesenberg/Miller) had 930; (3.) Jimmy Murphy (Duesenberg) 805; and (4.) Ralph DePalma (Ballot) 605. And furthermore the exact 1920 AAA point standings, after the four previous Championship events staged, was published in the 250 mile Beverly Hills Nov. 25, 1920 race day program itself, and in earlier pre-race daily newspapers. So the chaotic and unintelligible situation as portrayed by Catlin and Russo, never obtained at all.

There was never any precise or clear account of Catlin's Kennerdell conspiracy theory. It all circulated, if at all, as oral tradition, as much of Russ' lore did. In this Catlin was crafty, as it made any precise or systematic rebuttal very difficult. Bob Russo's 1987 version of the story differs somewhat from Catlin, but Russ' own account of the matter probably varied over the years.

Russo maintains that when Gaston Chevrolet was killed, the press and the fans, who wrongly thought that Gaston had already won the 1920 AAA Driving Title, quickly proclaimed him the 1920 AAA Champion on both Nov. 25 and Nov. 26, 1920. Thus it was the press and the general public who first made Gaston Chevrolet the AAA Titlist for 1920, not the AAA Contest Board chief, Richard Kennerdell. An incompetent and weak Kennerdell, under considerable pressure from the race fans and the Nov. 26, 1920 newspapers, gave in to the current but mistaken general sentiment, and acknowledged Gaston, the 1920 AAA Titlist on the afternoon of 26 Nov. 1920. It is Bob's contention then, that no AAA 1920 National Driving Champion had been announced on the afternoon of the day of the race, i.e. 25 Nov. 1920, by the AAA Contest Board. This is an impossible situation. Compare with "Bob Russo (cont.-6)" above.

Likewise Russo ducks the question of just when the fake five race AAA chart was actually produced and put together. Russo claims the AAA Contest Board had qualms about Kennerdell's substracting five contests, and cutting and altering the ten event chart down to just five selected races. When, I ask, did this all take place, if not on the afternoon of Nov. 25, 1920? But it is all Catlin and Russo produced fiction, in any case.

As I wrote in 1988 in INDY CAR RACING, January 29, 1988, page 14 (quote), "Never has there been a story so wild and so totally ridiculous as Catlin's Kennerdell conspiracy theory relating to late 1920. It is built on absolutely nothing. But what a story! Perhaps it is the greatest and the most fantastic yarn ever spun by Catlin."

I am quite unaware of any AAA Contest Board finagling of the Championship level point standings, including the years 1920, 1929, or 1946. But these three latter years are still very troublesome to some.

[HDonaldCapps]

John, take a look at the Catlin thread that Doug Nye has started. I think that you should have some comments to make to enlighten Doug. Don

[john glenn printz]

MORE FUEL ON THE FIRE (cont.-2) BOB RUSSO AND THE AMERICAN AUTO RACING WRITERS AND BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION, INC.'s POSTS CONTAINED IN THEIR "LEGENDS IN RACING".

One august, ponderous, prestigious, and pretentious group, the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association, Inc. (AARWBA) of Burbank, CA, still asserts and proclaims the silly Catlin-Russo 1920 Kennerdell conspiracy theory, as fact. See the AARWBA's database on the internet, and using the heading "LEGENDS IN RACING", under the posts "GASTON CHEVROLET" and "TOMMY MILTON".

The AARWBA's founding father, Mr. Bob Russo, was the AARWBA's top boy and its leading expert on AAA and early USAC National Championship history. Most of the postings about AAA and early USAC Championship level personages, contained in the LEGENDS IN RACING, were penned by Bob. They have been on line for years without any changes, corrections, or updates. Mr. Russo died on 17 September 1999, at age 71.

Russo was never able to free himself from the Means/Haresnape/Catlin pseudo-historical framework and its false conceptual scheme of the ten additional AAA Championship seasons, 1909 to 1915 and 1917 to 1919. Since 1927, this mythology has been imposed over the real, true, and neutral historical data, of which it can be said, that damn little knowledge of the latter existed in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The result is that Bob's postings for (1.) Jimmy Bryan; (2.) Louis Chevrolet; (3.) Earl Cooper; (4.) Ralph DePalma; (5.) Tommy Milton; (6.) Ralph Mulford; (7.) Dario Resta; (8.) Eddie Rickenbacker; (9.) George Roberson; and (10.) Mauri Rose, all contain misleading statements and gross historical errors. And Bob being Bob, put in other errors as well.

Go to the "GASTON CHEVROLET" and "TOMMY MILTON" posts. The AARWBA's "GASTON CHEVROLET" notice does not mention Gaston's 1920 AAA National Championship Title, a major omission. Of course, Mr. Russo believes in Catlin's Kennerdell conspiracy theory, which is a hallucinatory fantasy of Russ', so Russo hereby deprives Gaston of his rightful 1920 AAA Championship.

Actually Catlin's story of the AAA Contest Board's, Championship point manipulation in late November 1920, imploded in January 1988, more than two decades ago.

Under "TOMMY MILTON" we read (quote), "He earned more than 12,000 Championship points in his career, from 1916 through 1927, and was the 1920 and 1921 National Champion - the first driver to win that honor twice in a row. He won the first of 23 Championship race victories in 1917. He died in the late 1950s."

Milton didn't win the 1920 AAA Title, but placed only 2nd. Bob believes that Milton was the 1920 AAA Championship Title holder only because an ignorant, foolish, and ostentatious Russ Catlin in this instance, during 1951, got a naive AAA Contest Board to proclaim Milton the 1920 Titlist; and from then on the AAA (1951-1955) and later USAC (1956-1979), always listed Milton as such. Milton was not the first driver to win two consecutive AAA Driving Titles, but rather it was Louie Meyer who was the very first "two in a row" AAA Titlist, during 1928 and 1929. In actual fact, Tommy Milton never won two AAA Titles at all, but only one in 1921.

Milton did not win 23 AAA Championship events. His Championship wins were, 1 in 1920; 3 in 1921; 4 in 1922; 1 in 1923; 1 in 1924, and 2 in 1925, for a grand total of 12, not 23.

Milton didn't win any 1917 AAA Championship races, because the AAA didn't stage any in 1917, and didn't award a Championship driving title for the year 1917. Milton's Championship point totals are: 690 in 1916; 930 in 1920; 2230 in 1921; 1910 in 1922; 810 in 1923; 1101 in 1924; 1735 in 1925; none in 1926; and 16 in 1927. This adds up to 9,422, not "more than 12,000 points". And Tommy Milton didn't die in the late 1950's either, but was rather a suicide on July 10, 1962.

And under "JIMMY BRYAN" we read (quote), "He joins Earl Cooper, Ted Horn, and A.J. Foyt (all Hall of Famers) as the only drivers to win the National Championship three times."

As a matter of fact, Earl Cooper never won even one AAA National Title, (i.e. there were no AAA Titles for 1913, 1915, and 1917); Earl's best AAA Championship placements being 2nd in 1924, and 5ths in 1916 and 1925. But what happened to Louis Meyer? Louis was, in fact, the very first three time winner of the AAA Title, in 1928, 1929, and 1933. And Russo doesn't even mention him!

Under "RALPH DEPALMA" we read (quote), "At the conclusion of his career - in a 100-mile race at Detroit in 1929 - DePalma had earned a lifetime total of 11,871 points, 10th highest in history. He was...the National Champion in 1912 and 1915."

DePalma's last year in actual competition was 1934, a year he was put under AAA suspension because of his driving in some non-AAA sanctioned "outlaw" events. DePalma's last AAA National Championship race was the Syracuse 100 of 9 Sept. 1933, where he placed 9th, being flagged on his 97th lap. Ralph had failed to qualify at this Syracuse race, but at the special request of the other drivers, he was allowed to start. DePalma's car racing began in 1908 and his driving career lasted until 1934.

DePalma did not compile 11,871 AAA Championship points. His totals are 1790 in 1916; 605 in 1920; 355 in 1921; 160 in 1922; 190 in 1923; none in 1924; and 46 in 1925. This makes a grand total of only 3,146!

There was no AAA National Title during 1912 or 1915, but MOTOR AGE (U. S.) magazine nominated Ralph as the best American pilot for 1912 and 1914. Arthur H. Means assigned to Earl Cooper, not Ralph DePalma, the 1915 AAA Title. I've not seen DePalma listed anywhere as the 1915 AAA National Champion! It's a new one on me. Is it a typographical error or just another Russo mistake?

Like Earl Cooper, DePalma never won a genuine and legitimate AAA National Championship Driving Title. The closest Ralph came to it was 4th position, in both 1916 and 1920.

The creation of mythology has a history too. The first instance relating to AAA racing history, is (1.) Arthur H. Mean's computations and statistics of 1926, 1927, and 1928; then (2.) Russ Catlin's confused, faultly conclusions, and ruminations during 1948 to 1952, over Arthur Means' 1926-28 created AAA statistical data; and (3.) finally Bob Russo creating more legends in 1987, by claiming Catlin corrected the AAA National Championship records, in 1951, by righting Milton's wrongs, committed against Tommy by an inept Richard Kennerdell, in late November 1920. All Catlin had actually done in 1951, was to vitiate a valid 1920 listing (G. Chevrolet), and change it to an entirely incorrect one (Milton). Catlin built on Means, and Russo built on Catlin. Nobody suspected or noticed a thing, and that's how myth developes over lengthy spans of time, even in our own supposed literate times.

The whole irony of the entire situation is that all three of these myth makers worked for the duly recognized U. S. racing sanctioning body of their day (i.e. AAA and CART) to clean up, record, and preserve the past racing history and its statistical heritage (!!!). The dating of their activity as racing statisticians was (1) Arthur H. Means, AAA 1926-1928; (2.) Russ Catlin, AAA 1948-1952; and (3.) Bob Russo, CART 1985-1986. All three, in my estimation, failed miserably at their appointed and important assignments. But their huge and unending influence is due also to their having worked for the AAA (Means and Catlin) and CART (Russo). It was thus all "official" AAA, USAC, and CART information being handed out, which everyone just assumed was accurate and correct. It wasn't and isn't.

The AARWBA claims that (quote), "Corrections and additions are welcome." It will be interesting to see how quickly they will react, if at all, and make some needed and long overdue adjustments.

I say again, AAA racing history, 1902 to 1955, is a complete mess.

Edited by john glenn printz, 13 April 2012 - 14:52.

[HDonaldCapps]

From the AARWBA Web site
Editor's Note: These are the biographical sketches of the 134 members of the Hall of Honor, formerly the AARWBA Hall of Fame, as they appeared when they were enshrined. Some of the sketches have been updated for those members still active in the sport.

Each of these members deserves, and in many cases has received, a fuller life's chronicle in a book written by an AARWBA member. Corrections and additions are welcome. Please send them to rocky@spitfire4.com and they'll be added to this page after verification. Please include your name in your email message to assist in verification.

I have no problem in writing to whomever is at that email address and providing those corrections that John has pointed out.

However, what could and should be interesting is where it mentions that any corrections would be added after "verification." Hmmmmm, what if....?

Postscript: Done. Emailed

[fines]

... speaking of Louie Meyer, I find him a particularly under-documented yet thoroughly interesting motorsports figure! For example, just recently I learned that he, apparently, kept a very distinguished German accent in his speaking, refering to the IMS as "der Shpeedway" for example!

Also, I often wondered about his early days as a racer, only to find out recently that he didn't have any, so to speak! Unlike Frank Lockhart and George Souders, who were really well known as dirt track racers amongst the racing fraternity, Meyer really did come virtually out of nowhere to win the Indy 500! He never even competed in his homestate California until 1931, except for his acting as a riding mechanic to his brother in the early days of Ascot Speedway, and a disastrous test session in his brother's car at the same track in early '29, ending in an accident!

Somehow, he seems to have attracted the attention of veteran racer Frank Elliott, who let him drive his back-up car on a couple of occasions - incidentally, the very same car that Lockhart had used in his board track debut, and the racer in which Jimmy Murphy had been killed! Unfortunately, Elliott found a buyer for the car just before the 1927 '500', but at least Louie got in a few miles as a relief driver - for Wilbur Shaw, as fate would have it! Oh, and by the way, if you look closely at the official qualifying pictures of Elliott and his front-drive Miller that year, you'll see Louie Meyer in the background, along with his father!

http://www.indy500.c...polis_500/47346

Speaking of Eddie (sen.) Meyer, he was omnipresent in Lou's early days, showing that at least the family knew about where the prodigious talent lay, which leaves the question about how Eddie (jun.) took it all - maybe the huge difference in age made it easier, and by that time the elder sibling was anyway concentrating more on his owner and builder talents?

Louie's peers took some convincing, too, what with him "only lucking in" on the Indy win - until Meyer began winning on the boards. "But he's no dirt track driver!" - until he ran with the best on soil. "He's good on the miles, but he'll be butchered at Ascot" - until he took the lap record on his very first race appearance there, and with a big 8-cylinder against all the nimble fours to boot! He was probably the only ever person to win a (match) race at Ascot in its heyday with an eight!

No doubt, Louie was tops in the driving compartment, just why did he race so seldom? Perhaps because he had other fish to fry? Without doubt, his contributions to American racing history are enormous, going on with his own racing team in the thirties, through Meyer-Drake Engineering in the post-WW2 years and his involvement with the Ford DOHC programme into the seventies. Any "Hall of Fame" forgetting about his achievements isn't worth its name...

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by fines
... speaking of Louie Meyer, I find him a particularly under-documented yet thoroughly interesting motorsports figure! For example, just recently I learned that he, apparently, kept a very distinguished German accent in his speaking, refering to the IMS as "der Shpeedway" for example!

Also, I often wondered about his early days as a racer, only to find out recently that he didn't have any, so to speak! Unlike Frank Lockhart and George Souders, who were really well known as dirt track racers amongst the racing fraternity, Meyer really did come virtually out of nowhere to win the Indy 500! He never even competed in his homestate California until 1931, except for his acting as a riding mechanic to his brother in the early days of Ascot Speedway, and a disastrous test session in his brother's car at the same track in early '29, ending in an accident!

Michael, by "never even competed in his homestate California until 1931", do you mean in AAA events?;)

The unsanctioned track at Banning is a possibility. I know brother Eddie raced there.

I also wonder a bit about the German accent. Sounds a bit hyperbolic to me. I certainly never picked it up from interviews I heard.

[fines]

Eddie raced all through the twenties, but I never found any mention of Louie, and in 1931 a big deal was made of the "fact" that he raced for the first time in So. Cal., and it was made clear that that wasn't restricted to AAA - there were anyway pretty slim pickings for AAA in California prior to 1929! By the way, Banning wasn't really an "unsanctioned track", they held sanctioned races as well there: AAA and CARA, for example.

The bit about the German accent came from Donald Davidson, no less! If you heard him speak, that of course puts it in perspective! :

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by fines
Eddie raced all through the twenties, but I never found any mention of Louie, and in 1931 a big deal was made of the "fact" that he raced for the first time in So. Cal., and it was made clear that that wasn't restricted to AAA - there were anyway pretty slim pickings for AAA in California prior to 1929! By the way, Banning wasn't really an "unsanctioned track", they held sanctioned races as well there: AAA and CARA, for example.

The bit about the German accent came from Donald Davidson, no less! If you heard him speak, that of course puts it in perspective! :

Yes, not much in the way of AAA events (other than the boards) in the 20's.

If I might ask, who was it that made the big deal of Louie not racing in So. Cal before?

If Donald Davidson said it, I would put stock in it, perhaps in his younger days as I did not hear a lot from that time period. To my ears, I didn't hear any accent on TV interviews when he was older.

You have definitely done more research on pre-WWII racing in California than I have

Have you run across any mention of a dirt oval at Redlands in the 1930's? (none of this really appropriate to this thread).

[fines]

The "big deal" was made by the papers of the time, mostly L.A. Times - will have to look up the actual quotes.

Do not recall any mention of racing in Redlands, closest would be Banning but that was already defunct by the thirties, I believe. There were, however, a couple of drivers from Redlands other than Eddie Meyer: Harry Jacques, and Al Gordon originally!

[john glenn printz]

LOUIE MEYER. I knew Louie Meyer quite well and had several lengthy conversations with him. I'll tell you about three incidents with Meyer that stick in my mind.

(1.) I and a friend of mine were eating, after a hot day at the track, in the RED LOBSTER restaurant located on 38th street in Indianapolis. When we were half way through eating, who walks in but Louis Meyer and his wife. I knew them both. So I got up and walked over to the table where they sat down, just to say hello. When the waiter later brought us our bill, Mr. Meyer jumped up, grapped it, and paid for both our dinners!

(2.) One time I was talking to Mr. Meyer in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's "Old Timer's Trailer" and I asked Louie a peculiar question. I had seen many years before a late 1930's RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT cartoon where it was stated that Louie Meyer won his races because he had a "heavy foot", i.e. that Louis had been born with six toes on his right foot. So I asked Louis if that was true.

To my complete astonishment Mr. Meyer, saying nothing, immediately started untieing his right shoe, took it off, and peeled off the sock. I didn't expect all that! Well, I saw his right foot all right and it had six toes!

(3.) Another time Mr. Meyer was up to the Michigan International Speedway and I decided to ask him why the Indianapolis Motor Speedway adopted the "Junk Formula" in 1930.

Louie replied, "Well times were tough, there was little money around due to the Depression, and the AAA was trying to introduce cheaper equipment."

I said, "But Mr. Meyer, the crash didn't occur until October 1929 and nobody expected it to last long. And it would have taken some months to draw up new rules. And therefore it would have impossible to have built new cars for the May 1930 race, for there wasn't enough time. I don't think the crash had anything to do with it."

Mr. Meyer eyed me intensely for about five or six seconds and said, "You know young man, I think you may be right!" That's exactly what he said.

I don't remember Mr. Meyer having any accent. A couple of persons told me, that Louie used to feign being hard of hearing, if someone was talking to him, he didn't like. I think I observed this once or twice, but he never pulled that on me. Mr. Meyer was always perfectly frank and candid (amazingly so!) in his talks with me.

I don't remember how or when I first met Louie. Perhaps Art Sparks introduced us, but I knew what a lot of old racing personages looked like, and sometimes I just walked up to them and introduced myself. That's how I met Charles Lytle, of Sharon, PA, for instance. I talked to a lot racing people but among the "old timers", the three smartest I thought, were Louie Meyer, Art Sparks, and Mauri Rose. I got a lot of information from Mr. Meyer - all good.

I wrote a lengthy article on Louis Meyer which was published in both the 1982 CART Michigan 500 (July 18) and Pocono 500 (Aug. 15) programs. It was with a deal of trepidation that I did so, because this was the very first time that I had written on a still living personage. However Mr. Meyer and his daughter Kay (who was married to the great mechanic George Bignotti) both liked it. Indeed Louie told me, "I can't believe you got so much right."

If either Mr. Capps, Mr. Ferner or Mr. Thurman are interested in it, I will start typing it here, online. However I think we need a new thread "Louis Meyer", as I deem it incorrect to post Louis Meyer material on a thread devoted mostly to the past mistakes of Russ Catlin and Bob Russo.

Sincerely, John Glenn Printz

[fines]

Originally posted by john glenn printz
If either Mr. Capps, Mr. Ferner or Mr. Thurman are interested in it, I will start typing it here, online. However I think we need a new thread "Louis Meyer", as I deem it incorrect to post Louis Meyer material on a thread devoted mostly to the past mistakes of Russ Catlin and Bob Russo.

Interested? Of course we are! I guess I don't need to ask the others for permission to use the plural instead of singular here?

You're right about this thread not being the right place, I'll start a new one pronto!

[fines]

A surprise find...



Sorry for the size, but I wanted to keep it 'authentic' - the interesting bit is right at the end!

[john glenn printz]

THE VEXING 1920 AAA SEASON: DID THE UNIONTOWN 225 of SEPTEMBER 6, 1920 CONTRIBUTE POINTS TO THE 1920 AAA DRIVING TITLE OR NOT?

The anonymous DES MOINES CAPITAL essay of Oct. 31, 1920 asserts that 1. the Uniontown 225 run on September 6, 1920 was an AAA "points contributing" event towards the 1920 AAA National Driving Title, and 2. by winning this race, Tommy Milton thereby took over the lead in the 1920 AAA National Champion standings. It is to be noticed that no point total for Milton is given and no driver ranking for any other pilot besides Milton himself, is presented. The only real question here is whether the Uniontown 255 of Sept. 6, 1920 gave or contributed Championship AAA points in 1920 or not.

THE DETROIT NEWS (Sept. 15, 1920, Autos, page 4) has something similar (quote), "By finishing first in the Uniontown race on Labor Day Tommy Milton will be in first place in the 1920 A.A.A. contest board's driving championship."

However...in an article penned by Eddie Edenburn (THE DETROIT NEWS, Sept. 26, 1920, Sect. V, page 2) the following is contained (quote), "Due to the fact that Chairman Richard Kennerdell, of the A.A.A. Contest Board, did not award Uniontown a championship race on Labor Day, the national speed honors will be settled at Los Angeles, Nov. 25. The drivers are in the same positions they held after the Elgin road race and the 250-mile event over the board speedway at Beverly Hills on Thanksgiving Day, with 580 points to the winner, will be the deciding factor."

Likewise the LOS ANGELES EXAMINER (Sept. 12, 1920, Auto Section, page 9) records the following (quote), "The four leading drivers of the United States are thickly clustered around first place in the race for the Speedway Championship for 1920. A letter received from Chairman Kennerdell of the Contest Board of the A.A.A. yesterday gives the standings right down to date. They will remain unchanged until the final event of the racing season, the 250-mile race on Thanksgiving Day at the Los Angeles Speedway, this being the only remaining event of the 1920 season for which championship points are awarded. The present standings are: Gaston Chevrolet...1030, Tommy Milton...930, Jimmy Murphy...805, Ralph DePalma...605, Rene Thomas...520, Ralph Mulford...350, Joe Thomas...296, Eddie Hearne...205, Ira Vail...140."

From the point standings listed here on September 12 by the LOS ANGELES EXAMINER, there is no reckoning at all, of points obtained from the Uniontown 225 held on September 6, 1920.

Of all the postings of the 1920 AAA National Championship point rankings and totals, printed between September 6, 1920 and November 25, 1920, of which I am currently aware, there are no points given or obtained from the September 6 Uniontown contest. I have already cited eight separate and different instances, i.e. consult my April 27, 2007 post above. I just recently came across a ninth example, i.e. THE FRESNO MORNING REPUBLICAN, October 2, 1920, page 8. It gives the same AAA Championship point totals for all six pilots it mentions as the other eight citations. In all the 1920 AAA Championship final standings published between November 25, 1920 (the day of the running of the Bevery Hills 250) and 1927, there are no points listed anywhere, obtained from the results of the September 6, 1920 Uniontown 225.

I therefore conclude that the anonymous scribe, who wrote the October 31, 1920 DES MOINES CAPITAL article, was in total error when (1.) he states the Uniontown 225 was an AAA National Championship Race which gave points toward the 1920 AAA Title and (2.) that Tommy Milton had taken over the leadership in the 1920 AAA Title chase due to his win at Uniontown on September 6. Nor have my former remarks and statements on this thread or my recent posting (October 28, 2008) on the thread "AMERICAN RACING 1894 TO 1920" been in anyway or manner vitiated by the declarations contained in the DES MOINES CAPITAL of October 31, 1920.

Sincerely.

[fines]

Which wasn't my intention anyway, sorry if it looked that way!

It just occured to me that there was, apparently, a good deal of confusion over the issue already at the time. Today, research is just a mouse click away, but twenty years ago that was very different! Unless anyone was a full-blooded researcher with your talent and determination, it was all too easy to get confused by findings such as these. Kudos to you for leading us in the darkness!!!

[john glenn printz]

THE VEXING 1920 AAA SEASON (cont.-1) WAS THERE EVER A NINE OR TEN OFFICIAL AAA CHAMPIONSHIP RACE SCHEDULE IN 1920 ITSELF?

I'm sorry if I sounded harsh, but my statements were not directed towards anyone in particular. I was merely trying to stop further false inferences. I felt here that the best defense was a quick offense! There is simply nothing wrong or offensive in posting contemporary evidence! We are historians, after all, or suppose to be.

I have more comments however on the Oct. 31, 1920 DES MOINES CAPITAL article, and the 1920 AAA Championship season.

On the basis of the four prior and genuine AAA 1920 Championship races held (i.e. 1. Beverly Hills 250; 2. Indianapolis 500; 3. Tacoma 225; and 4. the Elgin 251) before the September 6 Uniontown 225; Tommy Milton would indeed have moved into the top position in the 1920 driver standings, if the Labor Day Uniontown 225 had counted. Going into the September Uniontown event, the top three totalists were Gaston Chevrolet with 1030, Milton with 930, and Murphy had 805. After Uniontown, if counted, the totals would been Milton with 1330, G. Chevrolet with 1070, and Murphy with 1015. Milton would have added 400 for 1st, Murphy 210 for 2nd, and G. Chevrolet 40 for 5th.

It should be pointed out that the October 31 notice here does not in any way or manner, countenance the idea that an AAA Championship nine or ten race schedule or point reckoning in 1920 existed or was then in formation, as the season evolved. For here Milton would have ALREADY have been the leader in the 1920 AAA point totals, BEFORE the September 6 Uniontown race. The point totals given on the ten race point chart using the seven events all staged before the Labor Day Uniontown contest were; Milton 1535, Murphy 1065, and G. Chevrolet 1030. But the DES MOINES CAPITAL chronicler states that Milton, by winning at Uniontown on Labor Day 1920, MOVED INTO THE AAA POINT LEAD! So I would guess that the said Oct. 31 chronicler thought the September 6 Uniontown event was the 5th Championship race staged in the 1920 AAA season, rather than the 8th. The previous seven on the ten event calendar were: 1. Beverly Hills 250; 2. Beverly Hills 50, heat I won by Art Klein; 3. Beverly Hills 50, final; 4. Indianapolis 500; 5. Uniontown 225; 6. Tacoma 225; and 7. Elgin 251. The Beverly Hills heat II won by Jimmy Murphy, is inexplicitly missing on the extant AAA nine or ten event expanded listing.

The expanded 1920 AAA Championship season is variously numbered at nine, ten, or even eleven events. Means and Russo regarded the three 50 mile sprint races staged at Beverly Hills on March 28, 1920 as just one contest, i.e. nine events total for the year. The extant expanded 1920 chart uses only two of these however, but thereby makes the count actually ten. Further, there is no reason why the 50 mile sprint won by Murphy, should not have been included: it is an oversight of some sort. But if we include Murphy's win as well, it makes eleven contests total, for the 1920 AAA season. Note however the Beverly Hills 50 mile sprint II does not figure in either of the two variant and extant AAA 1920 point charts.

Indeed I can find no contemporary evidence in the year 1920 itself, of the presence of a nine or ten caliber or ranked official AAA Championship race schedule or reckoning. The first printed evidence of the actual existence of the expanded computation, that I'm currently aware of, is MOTOR AGE, Oct. 27, 1927, pages 17 & 20. But the actual presence of the enlarged 1920 nine or ten reckoning during 1920 itself, is a necessary element or concomitant in the Catlin-Russo "Kennerdell conspiracy" story, as according to them a "new", "false", and "contrived" five event AAA Championship chart made by Kennerdell in late November or December 1920, replaced the previously used nine or ten race reckoning.

And too the DES MOINES CAPITAL notice here, has very little no bearing on the Kennerdell "switch" of Nov. 25. 1920. For according to both Catlin and Russo, the 1920 five race totals or chart came into existence only after the death of Gaston Chevrolet on Nov. 25, 1920. But the evidence for the existence of an AAA five event 1920 Championship schedule, before Nov. 25, 1920, is simply overwhelming!!!

Obviously then Mr. Catlin and Mr. Russo were both totally confused and ignorant about the actual doings of the 1920 AAA Contest Board: its point totals, and driver standings; both during the entire course of the 1920 National Championship season and even at its close on November 25, 1920. (Consult the thread "Indianapolis 'Junk Formula' ", posting of January 20, 2008, particularly the paragraph that begins with, "Bob had no use for false information".)

According to Mr. Russo (INDY CAR RACING, January 1987, page 44, bottom and top of columns 1 & 2), (quote), "Nine Championship races were on the original schedule for the 1920 season, beginning at the newly-completed Beverly Hills (Calif.) Speedway on Feb. 28..." I have never been able to verify this statement and regard it again as yet another example of Bob's "Tendenz" style of presentation. In a phone call I made to Russo in late 1984, Bob said he had in his possession early 1920 AAA Contest Board Bulletins which listed the nine or ten forthcoming 1920 Championship races. However when I asked Bob to xerox a few pages of that material and send it to me, he replied he could not. Compare with my Oct. 28, 2008 post on the thread "AMERICAN RACING 1894 TO 1920".

In any case a 1920 pre-season AAA listing of coming events, would not have had the inaugural Los Angeles 250 as occurring on February 28 either, because the inaugural 250 was to be staged on Washington's birthday, i.e. February 22. The Beverly Hills 250 was held on February 28, after being postponed by rain on February 22. Consult the Oct. 28, 2008 posting on the thread "AMERICAN RACING 1894 TO 1920" again, first paragraph, where I mention the Washington birthday dating.

The fact also that the expanded 1920 point chart does not include the 50 mile heat race won by Jimmy Murphy on March 28, 1920, has always seemed to me to be evidence that the existing nine or ten race chart could not have been compiled or used in 1920 itself. But rather the absence of Murphy's win here is probably just another instance of Arthur H. Mean's sloppy statistical workmanship at the AAA Contest Board offices, in November 1926. Both Catlin and Russo too seem ultimately to have viewed the extant nine race 1920 chart as having been a "reconstruction" by Means in Nov. 1926; i.e. of what had once existed and been in use by the 1920 Contest Board until November 25, 1920! Mr. Means could not have used any 1920 daily newspapers or motor journals to help him reconstruct the original 1920's points in late 1926, according to Catlin's and Russo's story, because they both asserted that Kennerdell had not released any AAA Championship point totals after the mid-season for 1920!!! Compare with the April 25, 2007 posting above. Thus late official 1920 AAA point totals certainly exist in late 1920 source materials, i.e. newspapers, motor journals, and race programs; but they only support the five race reckoning!!!

Russ and Bob contend that Kennerdell switched and replaced the true figures, i.e. the nine or ten event computations, with his own phony and quickly concocted five contest chart during late November or December 1920. Mr. Russo and Mr. Catlin therefore claim Mean's 1926 chart was an attempt to restore what had been the "real" AAA points reckonings down to late November 1920. This leads however to the highly improbable absurdities I have already mentioned in my May 7, 2007 posting above. Begin with the paragraph, "And so Richard Kennerdell covered up this LOS ANGELES TIMES mistake and that of many others, for the ultimate betterment of U.S. "big-time" National Championship AAA racing."; and its following paragraph.

I hope all this is informative and intelligible. To conclude, I don't think there ever existed a nine or ten official AAA Championship race reckoning during the year 1920 itself. The whole 1920 AAA issue is just a detective story or problem; but I believe Mr. Ken McMaken and myself solved this tangled case back in 1988. The ''untangling" took over 30 years, i.e. 1955 to 1988.

Certainly the 1920 AAA season, just by itself and alone, was a mess!

"It ain't what you know that makes you stupid, but what you know, that ain't so."

"He who keeps an open mind, will find it filled with garbage." TWO OLD ANONYMOUS ADAGES

Sincerely

[fines]

Well spotted!

In fact, the article is another nail in the coffin of the Catlin/Russo theory!

[john glenn printz]

THE VEXING 1920 AAA SEASON. (cont.-2) MORE ADDITIONAL DATA AND/OR FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

A short three paragraph article under the heading "UNIONTOWN WILL HAVE TWO RACES" by Eddie Edenburn (DETROIT NEWS, March 28, 1920, Autos, page 4) provides some interesting comments on the U.S. 1920 racing season. I reproduce only its last two paragraphs (quote);

"As the Uniontown race will follow the Indianapolis 500-mile by slightly less than three weeks, it is also for cars of less than 183 cu. in. piston displacement and it is hoped by the management that the majority of the foreign drivers will ship to its track after the Hoosier classic. Whether the June or fall meeting will be Uniontown's event in the A.A.A. championship has not been decided by Richard Kennerdell, chairman of the A.A.A. contest board."

"In addition to the Uniontown events and the Indianapolis 500-mile on May 31; only two speedway races have been announced. These are the annual events of the Tacoma and Cincinnati tracks. Tacoma will have a July 4 date, as usual, while Cincinnati has reserved Labor Day, clashing with Uniontown."

From Edenburn's remarks I think we can safely infer that (1.) no full 1920 AAA Championship event schedule had been released before March 28, 1920 and (2.) that early in 1920 it was thought that one of the two 1920 Uniontown contests would count towards the AAA Championship Driving Title. As it turned out neither the June 19 or the September 6 Uniontown 225's of 1920, ever actually counted.

To sum up the whole 1920 AAA problem or problems: there currently exists three theories or hypotheses, on why there exists two different and divergent 1920 AAA Championion National Championship point reckonings.

1. The Russ Catlin - Bob Russo thesis. (Actual date of origin, c. 1948-1951 by Catlin.) Here the ten race chart is the original and genuine survey used during the 1920 season, until displaced by Richard A. Kennerdell's quickly concocted five-event chart in November or December 1920. Both of the 1920 AAA variant charts, figures, or sums therefore date from late 1920. Catlin was in charge of the AAA Contest Board's News Bureau after World War II, i.e. c. 1946-52.

2. The Al Bloemker theory. (Actual date of origin, 1961 by Bloemker.) Al states that the difference between the two variant reckonings is whether the two 1920 Uniontown 225's counted for the AAA title or not. It was all a question of whether the Uniontown management had paid the proper Championship level sanctioning fees. It was proved in late 1920 that Uniontown had paid the proper fees and so the enlarged ten race summary is the true, genuine, official 1920 AAA reckoning. Both AAA charts were in existence in late 1920. Al Bloemker (1906-1996) was a long time Public Relations Director of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I use to get my Speedway credentials directly from him.

3. The Ken M. McMaken - John G. Printz reconstruction. (Actual date of origin, 1980-1988 by McMaken-Printz.) We maintain that the 1920 five race Championship ranking is the original and was in fact the only AAA official listing used during the entire 1920 season itself. It evolved gradually in 1920 from February 28 to November 25. The ten race chart was first compiled by Arthur M. Means on November 26, 1926 and had no existence before that date. Arthur's new point chart is therefore not historical, and does not correspond to the actual 1920 situation, or to the AAA point counts assigned or occurring during that season. The ten race reckoning is therefore bogus. Mr. Means was the assistant Secretary of the AAA Contest Board during 1926 to 1928.

And further, according to the McMaken/Printz historical reconstruction, the history of the 1920 AAA National Championship works out, over the years 1920 to the present, as follows;

1. Nov 25, 1920 to late 1926. Gaston Chevrolet listed by the AAA as the 1920 Champion. AAA official. Everything here is quite O.K.

2. Late 1926 to 1928. Tommy Milton listed by the AAA Contest Board as the 1920 Champion. AAA official. This change is the result of Means' new Nov. 26, 1926 alterations and figures for the 1920 AAA season. Here the water is muddied for the first time.

3. 1929 to 1950. Gaston Chevrolet listed by the AAA as the 1920 Champion. AAA official. We do not know who, why, or what circumstances made the AAA Contest Board to switch back to Gaston Chevrolet from Tommy Milton, in the year 1929. But everything is quite correct once again, until 1951.

4. 1951 to 1984. Tommy Milton now listed as the 1920 AAA Champion. AAA, USAC, and CART official. The change was made by the AAA Contest Board itself due to Russ Catlin's claim and insistence in 1950/1951 that Milton had been cheated out his quite AAA legitimate title by the machinations of an incompetent and inept Contest Board Chairman, i.e. Richard A. Kennerdell, in late November 1920. Catlin's contention that Kennerdell substituted a "fake" five event chart for the "true" ten event reckoning is complelely incorrect however, and this instance shows clearly the investigative powers and/or the historical reconstructive skills possessed by Russ. But in 1951, Catlin's ideas about the 1920 AAA season became AAA official (!!!), and remained so. This third switch, in 1951, was made behind closed doors and no explanation was ever given for this change by the AAA Contest Board. Here the water is muddied for a second time and now in a much more permanent mode and manner. It's still with us.

5. 1981 to present. Gaston Chevrolet now posted by McMaken and myself, originally in 1981 to 1985, as the 1920 AAA Champ. The conclusion was based on independent research and an exclusive use of 1920 contemporary source material. Our result never had the official O.K. from the AAA, USAC, CART, or IRL sanctioning bodies. ChampCar at some point did adopt our conclusions. Our posting of Gaston Chevrolet as the 1920 AAA Champion appeared in the 1985 CART media guide by mistake and was an unexpected accident. All our submitted historical material for the 1985 CART media guide had been rejected on high by the members of the CART board of directors in late 1984 or early 1985 and its inclusion in the forthcoming 1985 CART guide had been completely cancelled.

This was due to Mr. Bob Russo's insistence and his many criticisms of our submitted manuscript. Actually however our data did get fully printed (!!!) in the 1985 CART media guide on pages 223 to 292, and in an entirely UNCHANGED STATE, as originally submitted. This was due to the CART media guide's editor Jan Shaffer, deliberately disobeying strict orders from his superiors not to include any of the McMaken/Printz materials in the 1985 guide. But now it was too late for Russo and his forceful pal to do anything about the situation, for the damage had already been done. The books were already printed!!! However our listing of Gaston Chevrolet as the 1920 AAA Driving Champion was never ever AAA (after 1950), USAC, CART, or IRL "official".

I myself knew nothing about these back room maueuvers and the order to cancel the inclusion and publication of our data, until after the CART 1985 media guide had been already published in April 1985. Russo and his influential CART money man were outraged when they received the 1985 CART media guide, because they thought they had made a solid arrangement with CART in late 1984/early 1985 that the McMaken/Printz data would not be included or printed in it, in any form whatsoever. However this was one of the luckiest breaks that could have ever happened to Ken and myself, because all our data was now in print and with our names on it; i.e. there could not now ever be any doubt where all the information originally came from, who had actually collected and compiled it, and when it existed. The 1985 CART media guide editor Shaffer was fired in June or July 1985 for his insubordination here and was replaced by John Evenson.

6. 1986. Milton again listed as the 1920 Champ by CART. The change was done in late 1985 by Bob Russo (1928-1999) who was now given the job by the CART organisation, of correcting and editing all the McMaken/Printz material originally printed in the 1985 media guide. We had no further input. Bob was acting here under the heavy influence of (1.) the data created by Val Haresnape and Arthur Means in 1926-1928 and (2.) the myths coined and originated by Russ Catlin during 1948-1951. This 1986 alteration back to Milton may still have been AAA, USAC, and CART "official", but it is certainly not historically correct. Some later CART publications did acknowledge that there were two variant AAA Champions for 1920.

7. 1987. Russo publishes his article "The 1920 Championship" in INDY CAR RACING, January 1987, pages 43-45, to refute the McMaken - Printz contentions expressed in the 1985 CART media guide and elsewhere. This is the very Bob Russo article that is the subject of this thread.

8. 1988. My reply to Russo's January 1987 article, i.e. "A Second Look At The 1920 Championship", is printed in the January 15 and 29, 1988 issues of INDY CAR RACING. This is a major statement of the McMaken - Printz position and/or view of the entire AAA 1920 problem. Here I poke fun at Russ Catlin's ideas about the 1920 AAA season and his contention that an AAA Driving Title existed during the years 1909 to 1915 and 1917 to 1919. Russo made no reply to my article and, after two decades, I see nothing to alter or retract in it. Oddly enough, this January 1988 article also got published in INDY CAR RACING largely by accident, as had all our 1985 CART media guide data, statistics, and information! Russ Catlin (1908-1983) himself died in either Oct. or Nov. 1983.

9. The Present...??? As far as I can tell from the various internet postings, listing the past AAA National Driving Champions, just about everyone (except the immovable AARWBA of course), states, and now acknowledge that Gaston Chevrolet, is the true and genuine 1920 AAA Driving Title winner. I notice however that the internet sites "AARWBA" and "RUMBLEDROME" still list Milton as the 1920 AAA National Champion.

That's just the way it all figures, I think, i.e. Gaston Chevrolet as the 1920 AAA Champion. A complete and detailed McMaken/Printz survey of the entire 1920 AAA National Championship season is now available on the thread "AMERICAN RACING 1894 TO 1920", beginning with the post "U.S. Racing 1894 to 1920 (cont.-65)" of October 28, 2008.

In any case, Mr. McMaken and myself had raised a lot of historical problems and formerly neglected questions, during 1981 to 1988, about the 1920 AAA National Championship season.

"History never repeats itself, but historians do." OLD ADAGE

Sincerely

Edited by john glenn printz, 08 May 2012 - 17:48.

[john glenn printz]

MORE BOB RUSSO CONFUSION: I. E., ON THE AAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DRIVING TITLES FOR 1909-1915 AND 1917-1919. The (1.) reality of the Russ Catlin/Bob Russo reconstruction of the 1920 AAA Championship season and the (2.) reality of the AAA National Champions for the years 1909-1915 and 1917-1919 are two entirely separate questions. However as it turns out, they are ultimately and intimately related because Arthur Means during 1926-1928, made both (1.) the revised ten race 1920 AAA point chart, and (2.) all the AAA points charts for the years 1909-1915 and 1917-1919.

Neither Russ Catlin or Bob Russo have much to say about the origin of the 1909-1915 or 1917-1919 AAA Championships or their corresponding point charts except that they are real and contemporary with each year. In Russo's essay on the 1920 AAA season there are some rather odd and unusual allusions to the 1909-1915 and 1917-1919 AAA Championships ( INDY CAR RACING January 1987, page 45, 3rd column). I quote Russo:

"A stickler for detail, the former civil engineer put his staff to work reconstructing all championship seasons and points up to that time. Much of the work was done by Arthur Means who, together with Haresnape, provided what authentic ties we presently have with racing's early history."

(The "civil engineer" alluded to is Val Haresnape and the time context is 1926.) And again quote:

"The 1926 AAA Contest Board approved Haresnape's recommendations to accept the refigured standings, and also to recognize champions for each year back to 1909 when the so-called National Circuit was founded."

(The "refigured standings" here refers to Means' ten race 1920 AAA point chart.)

Let it be noted that it is only from Russo here, that we hear that the AAA Contest Board "in 1926", voted to make the Haresnape-Means 1909-1915 and 1917-1919 point chart leaders, the official AAA National Champions for those seasons. Here again I think Bob shows his total confusion and complete ineptness because Russo now admits or certainly implies that the AAA Championship for 1909-1915 and 1917-1919 were just all recently created by Haresnape and Means!!!

Also I must ask why was it necessary for Val Haresnape and Arthur Means "in 1926" to reconstruct all the AAA's past Driving Titlists back to 1909. Didn't the AAA Contest Board in 1926 even know who all their past Champions were? That is highly unlikely! And why would the AAA Contest Board in 1926 first "recognize champions for each year back to 1909" when all the 1909-1915 and 1917-1919 AAA Championships had been real and had actually taken place, as Caltin and Russo always maintained? This act, supposing it had actually taken place, would have been both entirely redundant and quite superfluous.

Nor do I agree that Haresnape and Means (quote), "provided what authentic ties we presently have with racing's early history." I assert they provided no "authentic ties" whatsoever, but rather messed everything up and confused the historical record. With the added and important help of historian Russ Catlin, of course.

I may add that I don't see any evidence that the AAA Contest Board, either in the late 1920's or in 1951/1952, ever officially legitimatized the 1926-1928 created Haresnape/Means' 1909-1915 and 1917-1919 point charts and reckonings. Anyone have any dissenting evidence here?

Edited by john glenn printz, 14 April 2010 - 18:19.

[ensign14]

Who bothered with the championship at the time? Did anyone outside racing care that much, or was it somewhat self-regarding? And given the promotional activities of the Sloans of this world, did anyone believe who the champion was? Or was it like nowadays - largely Indianapolis?

[Michael Ferner]

Ensign raises a valid point here: having finally started to research IMCA races, I can attest to a certain negligence on the part of the race promoters, to the degree that in one single month of promotion for various events "in the heartland", Gus Schrader was declared to have been "World Champion" for any number of times between five and eight! The striking thing is, all those promotional blurbs, making these dramatically different statements, emanated from one single source, effectively, since John Sloan's Racing Corp. of America was (nominally at least) the promoter for all of these events!! There is, of course, another reason for this, on which I will expand in another (more appropriate) place here, but the tenor is all the same: nobody REALLY cared that much.

To a degree, AAA was the only sanctioning body that did it right, publishing results and point standings in regular order, and I can't help but being ever so slightly puzzled by John's (and other's) statements à la "US racing history is a mess" - compare that to the situation in Europe, where there's been confusion about the European Championship (the forerunner of our day's F1WC) ever since it was created - to say nothing about the Manufacturers World Championship of the twenties! The question as to WHY it was that nobody really cared is another one, and one that might throw up some interesting sidelights, but the bare facts remain: the general public paid scant attention to any statements made in connection with racing achievements, and once the "big" manufacturers got out of the sport in the teens, there was no controlling authority left other than the sanctioning bodies themselves - with vastly differing views amongst them about the purpose of racing in general!

Apparently, AAA wasn't much into navel gazing, and the promoters of AAA events were left largely alone when making statements about past achievements of drivers, with the usual BS surfacing in large quantities. No surprise there, since in an open market they had to compete with the IMCA promoter(s) who showed no inhibitions AT ALL when it came to producing BS! The fans (even the "numbers-minded") were left to figure it out themselves, and most probably simply gave in to the inevitable: lack of and (even more so) confusion about information. That only changed after WW2, when Floyd Clymer produced his "Indianapolis 500-Mile Race History", and from there others like Donald Davidson, Jack Fox and Phil Harms were able to pick up the ball. It is only a relatively recent phenomenon that (racing) organisations care about their history, and produce yearbooks with information about seasons past - many of them still getting pretty basic things wrong, mind you! The biggest problem with US racing history is, well... it's HUGE! As a European, I never cease to be amazed at the sheer scope of racing in the US, and that wasn't any different before WW2: hundreds over hundreds of races every year! Add to that the political wrangles and confusions between the various sanctioning bodies, and you have a veritable mine field. A mess? Well, yes, kind of, but then again that's understandable given the territory!

Edited by Michael Ferner, 15 April 2010 - 12:03.

[john glenn printz]

RUMINATIONS ON THE U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (OPEN WHEEL) DRIVING TITLE. If one wishes to obtain knowledge about the entire history of AAA National Championship racing it surely is necessary to know what years the AAA had a Championship and what specific races for each given season, counted. In 1975 I believe the only person who had such information in a complete form was Ken M. McMaken of Piqua, OH. Since 1981, when Ken and I published a complete listing of each, there has been 40 years of debate about what years the AAA had an actual Championship and what AAA races actually counted. I'm not sure it has been "settled" yet. However I still maintain our 1981 published information is definitive and correct on both these two questions.

When Richard Kennerdell introduced the AAA National Championship format in 1916, I believe that there was some real interest and genuine enthusiasm for it, by most of those that paid any attention to automobiles at all. However the three year hiatus or suspension of the AAA Title in 1917, 1918, and 1919, because of World War I, didn't do the AAA National Title any good. When Kennerdell revived the AAA Driving Title in 1920, there wasn't as much attention or concern about it, as there had been in 1916. Certainly during the early and mid 1920s, the AAA National Championship was a semi-important distinction, but by 1928 and 1929, because of the few AAA Championship events actually held, the overall prestige of the National Title greatly and quickly plummeted. The rapid decline of most of the major motor racing facilities (i.e. the board speedways) in the U.S in the late 1920s, didn't help an already deteriorating situation, with regard to the general public interest.

Then came the Great Depression (1929-1939). The AAA National Title in the 1930's gradually dribbled down to almost zero in significance. Nor was the AAA able to enlist any real interest in it after World War II (1939-1945). For instance, for every 100,000 individuals who could tell you that Johnnie Parsons won the 1950 event at Indianapolis, there was perhaps only one who knew that Henry Banks had won the 1950 AAA National Championship Driving Title. It was the same when Chuck Stevenson won the 1952 AAA Title. A lot of people knew Troy Ruttman won at Indy in 1952 but who had ever heard of Henry Banks or Chuck Stevenson? From the late 1920s onward, except for the Indianapolis 500, the U.S. Championship circuit languished largely in the doldrums.

Late in the year 1965, after Mario Andretti had won the 1965 USAC Championship division title, he appeared on a late night TV talk show. Andretti was quite proud of his winning the 1965 USAC National Championship but nobody cared about that. Mario was introduced to the audiance as a new rookie that had taken 3rd place at Indianapolis in 1965. However later, in October 1968, even Andretti himself stated (quote), "I would trade three National Championship wins for a 500 win." Even in the 1960s, when the crowds and enthusiasms about the Indianapolis 500 were very great, few cared much about the rest of the USAC Championship circuit or schedule.

As far as I can fathom, major motor racing reached its heights in interest for the general U. S. public during 1904-1916 and the 1960s. The rear engine car revolution at Indy during 1961-1966 provoked much attention. The English car constructors of Cooper, Ferguson, Lola, and Lotus built cars for Indianapolis and the Formula I stars such as Brabham, Clark, Gregory, Gurney, Hill, Hulme, Revson, Rindt, and Stewart made the Indy lineup as starting drivers. And just when the rear engine revolution ended in 1966, there appeared the Granatelli STP turbines for 1967 and 1968, for extra added and renewed excitement! McLaren cars first appeared at Indy in 1970.

Lawrence "Larry" H. LoPatin, a Detroit real estate man, with two associates Leslie Share and George Kawamoto formed American Raceways, Inc. (ARI), to put up large and modern oval speedways, all across America, and two 2-mile tracks were actually constructed, i.e. the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) at Brooklyn, MI in 1968 and the Texas International Speedway at College Station, TX. in 1969. The Michigan track cost 4.5 million. Using the MIS as collaterial, the ARI invested $1,000,000 into the 1 1/2 mile Atlanta Motor Speedway in December 1968 and bought 48% of the Riverside International Speedway on May 19, 1969. There was also talk at this time of ARI builting a new speedway in New Jersey.

However by August 1, 1970 LoPatin's enterprize, empire, and venture went bust. ARI failed to make a June 1970 interest payment of $100,000 on some 6 million dollar, 20 year notes. Forced out by the creditors were LoPatin, the executive vice president, Share, and the secretary-treasurer Kawamoto, all of whom had been the original founders of ARI. Leslie "Les" Alan Richter (1930-2010) was named the new president and chief operations officer of the ARI, succeeding LoPatin.

Two other projects of the early 1970s, made perhaps with even more optimism, were the construction of two 2 1/2 mile ovals, i.e. the Ontario Motor Speedway (Ontario, CA) in 1970 and the Pocono Motor Speedway in 1972. The Ontario track was a duplicate of Indianapolis, but in a more modernized format and it cost 25.5 million dollars to build. Both Ontario and Pocono were primarily and originally fashioned to run an annual USAC 500 mile Championship event. It then being thought by USAC that each race would easily draw a crowd upwards of 200,000 annually. It proved to be not true. There existed for a short time (i.e. 1972-1980) a yearly "triple crown series" of Indy car 500 milers, i.e. Indianapolis, Pocono, and Ontario. Al Unser, Sr., accomplished what was long deemed almost impossible, by winning all three of these 500 milers, in a single season, i.e. 1978!

These developments i.e. LoPatin, Ontario, & Pocono, were directly caused by the rapidly growing and increasing interest in the Indianapolis race during the entire 1960s, which resulted in many thinking that in the 1970s, Indy car racing proper would establish itself as a major factor in the sports entertainment area, among the general U.S. public. I too was part of this false euphoria and I thought Indy Car racing would greatly increase its audience during the 1970s. But this perspective and optimism proved to be all wrong and totally incorrect. All the 1970s aspirations, hopes, and efforts of the moneyed entrepreurs, business men, and USAC to fashion Championship racing into a major and national U.S. sport were seemingly wrought in vain.

Among other growing problems of the 1970s were the many disgruntled car owners who didn't like the way USAC ran things. They all thought that they could do much better themselves and on their own. This led to many influential and important car owners (Penske, Patrick, Gurney, etc.) boycotting USAC in toto except for Indianapolis and forming their own sanctioning racing organization, i.e. Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in late 1978. CART too, begun with high hopes, but became a story of gradual decline and diminishing returns.

As it turned out, the 1960s decade ITSELF WAS THE PEAK and everything ran slowly downhill after 1970. USAC and later CART, just couldn't compete with the good old NASCAR boys, even though stock car racing was an inferior and lower species of motor racing. NASCAR did become a major national U.S sport. National Championship racing or the Indy car circuit did not. The Ontario track quickly fell behind in its annual mortage payments, said to be $1,000,000 a year, and the whole Ontario facility was razed in late 1980. Pocono survived, but primarily as a NASCAR track. CART always suffered greatly from the fact that the Indianapolis 500 remained a USAC sanctioned event. The Speedway always elected to use the USAC organization as a buffer zone between itself and the CART car owners and entourage. However CART continued on his way during 1979-1994, seemingly unable to arouse any ecstasy or new interest among the U.S. public about their open wheel series.

The women's liberation movement also had an influence on USAC's Championship level racing activity in the 1970s. The AAA and USAC organizations never allowed women to drive Championship cars (it was unthinkable!), and excluded them totally also from the pits and garage areas at Indy, during the entire month of May, until the race was officially over. One female sports reporter (Mary McCloskey from WOMEN'S WEAR DAILY) sued the Speedway over this matter of sex discrimination in 1971. The Speedway did not contest the case, as it felt it had little chance of winning it in court. So on May 28, 1971 a gal (Jane Maso) was admitted into the pits and garage areas, the first female to enter these "male only" restricted areas since the daredevil aviatrix, Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), had done so in 1935 when she was the honorary referee. As fate would have it, the woman's husband, i.e. Akira Maso a photographer from Tokyo, Japan was included among those hit and injured by the runaway pace car driven by Eldon Palmer on May 29, immediately after the start of the 1971 "500"!

A U.S. court order during 1974 made it illegal for the racing sanctioning bodies to exclude women pilots from racing, solely due to their sex. Women had been totally banned from all AAA races by the newly established AAA Contest Board in early 1909. At that time the most prominent woman motorist in the U.S. was Mrs. Joan Newton Cuneo, who had raced in some minor events during 1907 and 1908. She had also participated in past Glidden tours. On February 20, 1909 she raced at New Orleans in the so-called Mardi Gras contests but then had to retire from racing due to the new AAA ban.

The first ladies to enter the lists to drive in the USAC Championship division were Arlene Hiss (age 35) and Janet Guthrie (b. 1938) in early 1976. Both gals aspired to run in the upcoming 1976 Indianapolis 500. Neither had any open wheel experience but had driven in SCCA sports car contests only. Hiss started in the Phoenix 150 of March 14, 1976 in Offenhauser/Eagle and made history. Her qualification speed was 128.92 mph, i.e. 21st of the 22 starters. Arlene had 13 years of part-time racing experience and had pre-tested her assigned Offenhauser/Eagle at both the Ontario Motor Speedway and here at Phoenix. Arlene's tryout and experiment at Phoenix did not go well and was unsuccessful, but Arlene had kept going and placed 14th, 22 laps behind the winner Bobby Unser in another Offenhausen/Eagle.

Hiss had lost 5 laps however when she had been blacked flagged for running too slow. After a brief consultation however she was allowed to return to the track. After the race Hiss commented, "I'm not the least bit tired." Another male competitor quickly commented, "No wonder she's not tired. She wasn't going fast enough to be tired." Another driver stated, "It doesn't matter if she's a woman or not, or maybe it does politically, but no one should be allowed on the track driving that slow. If it had been a guy, they'd have waved him off." Gary Bettenhausen said, "She didn't measure up." The universal verdict was that Hiss was not ready to race USAC Championship cars and Phoenix was her very first and last Championship try. Hiss' project of entering the Indy 500 was promptly dropped.

Miss Janet Guthrie was of a quite different ilk and had much more significant and better credentials than Arlene Hiss. Rolla Vollstedt, a Portland OR lumber magnate, wanted to be the first car owner to sponsor a woman at Indy and had taken a close look at all the possible female candidates. The name of Janet Guthrie kept popping up and so Rolla made contact with her in December 1974. Janet began racing in 1962 and Guthrie had raced in the Watkin Glen 6 hour, the Sebring 12 hour, and the Daytona 24 hour endurance events, although always in the lower car classifications. Nevertheless she had made a name for herself but still the sudden jump into to the USAC Championship cars would be a large one.

Janet first piloted an USAC champ car at Ontario in tests with the Vollstedt team during February 1976. Here Vollstedt's number 1 driver Dick Simon (b. 1933) acted as an adviser, helper, and consultant. The test went well and so Guthrie was officially entered in the upcoming Indianapolis 500 on March 9, 1976, the first woman ever officially to do so, where she was listed as the number 2 driver, on the two car Indy Vollstedt team, with Simon as the number 1. And Guthrie was also entered to race at the Trenton 200 to be staged on April 25. The race was rained out but Guthrie had been able to run some practice laps without any trouble, before the Trenton 200 was rescheduled for May 2.

It was on May 2 at Trenton that Guthrie made her first USAC Championship start. She qualified 14th among the 28 entries with a speed of 156.886 mph. Guthrie was running 11th at 79 laps when her Offenhauser/Vollstedt retired with a broken transmission. Janet was generally given high marks for her performance. The race winner, Johnny Rutherford said (quote), "The best lady race driver there is. I thought Janet did very well today. This is her first race in these cars, for hecks sakes. As she gets a little more experience, she'll be right there. My thoughts as I was racing her on the track were 'It's a shame she doesn't have a better race car'!" Gordon Johncock stated, "I could find nothing really to criticize her about." Dick King, the executive director of USAC, said, "She looked fine. I think she ran as strong as any other rookie has done. I watched her pretty close." Others remained unconvinced. Wally Dallenbach said, "I don't really think a woman's built for this job." The next day (May 3) Thomas Wyatt Binford (1924-1999), the chief steward of the 500, and USAC gave Janet official approval to practice and take the rookie driver test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Bobby Unser (b. 1934) had been the most vocal critic on the advent of woman into the National Championship ranks in early 1976 and had called the Hiss and Guthrie entries into USAC "publicity stunts just because of this women's lib kick we're in" and said they couldn't "hack it". In turn Janet Guthrie called Unser "a male chauvinist pig." At Indianapolis, outside of Unser's assigned garage, was posted a sign with a pig on it, proclaiming that "Male chauvinist pigs need love, too."

At the Speedway Dick Simon again acted as Janet's mentor and repeatedly took out her Offenhauser/Vollstedt for shake down runs and tests. The Speedway opened for practice on May 8 with the qualifications slated for May 15-16 and May 22-23. The plan had been to have Janet pass the rookie test before May 15, but because of a balking car, Guthrie did not take to the track until May 10 and here she ran only six slow laps before a piston let go. Because of both rain and a troublesome car Guthrie did not pass the rookie test until May 17, which was indeed a very major step. But now came the more serious work of moving up and into to the speeds needed to actually qualify. The minimum required would be in the 181 mph range.

It quickly became obvious that Janet's Offenhauser/Vollstedt was basically a junker, the Vollstedt operation very low budget, and Rolla's mechanics, sub-par. By May 22 Guthrie's best practice lap was just 173.611 mph, eight mph slower than what she was going to need to qualify. Even the veteran Simon could make the car go only 174.284. However late on May 22 wild rumors started that Janet would be permitted early Sunday morning (May 23) to take A. J. Foyt's backup car out! In fact, on May 22, Janet was already in Foyt's garage being measured for the cockpit!

It was said that Foyt at the request of Tony Hulman (1901-1977) himself, owner of the Speedway, had allowed Guthrie to pilot his backup machine. Within a few minutes after climbing into the cockpit Janet recorded a circuit at 177.2 mph and within minutes was up to 180.796 mph. With a little more practice A.J. thought she could start making laps at 183 mph and 184 mph, more than enough to easily make the race. For four suspenseful hours everyone wondered if Guthrie would be allowed to qualify Foyt's 2nd car. But Foyt decided against it. As A. J. explained, "Everyone here was bad mouthing her all week. I thought she looked O.K. and I wanted to see what she could do. But the disadvantages of running two cars on race day are great and I hope that's deeply considered. We never planned a two car operation. The main thing is to win the race here myself." Foyt, searching for a 4th win, didn't want to weaken his effort by helping Guthrie on such a very short notice. Janet said, "I was hoping up to the gun that A.J. might change his mind."

Shortly after 1 p.m. on May 23 Vollstedt said that Guthrie's No. 27 had been withdrawn from the race. So with no car to drive or qualify, Janet's attempt to make the 1976 Indianapolis 500 had gone completely bust, but she had suddenly in the last two weeks become famous. After her Vollstedt car was withdrawn Guthrie stated, "I want to thank A.J. There never was any deal to qualify his car. There were some people who wanted to see it happen, including me. But I just appreciated the chance to drive this car this morning. It felt like a million dollars and that's probably what it's worth." And later she added, "Disappointed? I can't say what a disappointment it is. But at the same time, I would have to say it's been the most thrilling experience of my life."

The Vollstedt-Guthrie doings at the Speedway in 1976 had gathered national notice and had generated large amounts of publicity for Janet. After failing to qualify for the 500, Guthrie was immediately offered a ride in the NASCAR World Charlotte 600, which would be held on the same day as Indy, May 30. She grapped this new invitation and opportunity, qualified at Charlotte at 152.797 mph on May 27, and started 27th in the 40 car field. Everyone expected that she would need relief and a driver was lined up waiting in the pits. But Janet drove the entire race, to place 15th overall. So Guthrie now added some NASCAR stock car experience to her career. Ralph Moody (1917-2004), who headed her pit crew, after the race stated, "She did a lot more than a lot of people thought she would do. When she sat down in the race car, I knew she could drive. She was smart enough to know what she could do in traffic and stayed out of trouble."

After her Memorial Day adventure at Charlotte, Guthrie ran in further USAC and NASCAR contests for 1976. Janet's first drive in a 500 mile Championship event was at Pocono PA on June 26, the second race of USAC's 500 mile Triple Crown series. The time trials were largely rained out, so everyone lined up by the luck of the draw. 31 pilots were divided into two groups, i.e. class A and class B. The first 14 positions were reserved for the class A category, while the remaining 17 starting positions were for the B pilots. Guthrie drew the 22nd postion. The actual race was a disaster for Janet as she had to pit nine times for an overheatring motor, fuel leaks, and finally was out with a broken gearbox at 89 laps, placing 24th.

On March 11, 1994 Anton Hulman "Tony" George (b. 1959), Tony Hulman's grandson, announced the formation of a new Indy car sanctioning body, which would be in direct rivalry with the CART series. Tony George had become the President and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on January 8, 1990, after the death of Joseph "Joe" R. Cloutier on December 11, 1989 at age 81. Cloutier had been connected with the IMS since Tony Human's (1901-1977) purchase of the track on November 14, 1945. Cloutier had then been a legal adviser, consultant, and even an negotiator, when Hulman had bought the Speedway from Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973) in 1945. George indicated that he didn't like the direction Indy car racing was going, under CART's current leadership. Tony George, as it later developed, had three main ideological gripes which the new IRL was going to rectify.

1. A return to the U.S.'s old tradition of oval track racing proper was called for, as CART, more and more, were staging mostly street and road races.

2. CART's road races put America's oval track midget and sprint drivers largely out of the running, as foreign pilots tended to perform much better on road circuits and even at the Speedway itself. This needed correction.

3. A new car-engine formula should be devised, which would cut costs, so the "little man" could compete and be effective.

Despite these high stated ideals most interested observers thought it all just a power grab by the Speedway owners, i.e. Tony George and his mother, Mari Hulman George (b. 1934), to take over all major league oval open wheel motor racing in the U.S. By July 8, 1994 it was reveiled that five member board of governors had been set up for what was now called the Indy Racing League (IRL). It was proposed that's its first season of actual operation would be 1996. By mid-May 1995, projected 1996 IRL events were to take place at Orlando, FL; Phoenix, AZ, Indianapolis, IN, and Las Vegas, NV. The CART team owners said that they would run at Indianapolis, but not the rest of the IRL schedule. After all, CART had its own long established series, which eventually numbered 16 contests for 1996.

In early July 1995, Tony George unveiled a new Indianapolis 500 qualifying procedure for the 1996 race, whereby 25 of the 33 starting positions were reserved for IRL drivers only. Once the 25 IRL cars were duly qualified, they could not be bumped from the starting lineup, even if non-IRL cars qualified at a faster speeds, after the field was full at 33 starters! That left just 8 starting positions maximum for the non-IRL participants. CART, in turn, finally decided to boycott the Indianapolis 500 entirely in December 1995, and run another and rival 500 miler of their own at the Michigan International Speedway on the same day (May 26, 1996) as Indy. CART and MIS had already been staging 500 mile races annually beginning in 1982.

Beginning with the 1996 season therefore, CART and the IRL were two entirely separate operations and remained deadly rivals. For a number of subsequent years, CART had the better cars, drivers, and teams but no longer ran at the Speedway. The IRL on the other hand, had as their center piece the Indianapolis 500, but its general makeup consisted of 2nd and 3rd rank pilots, vehicles, and team owners. For the year 1996 IRL staged 6 contests while the CART season consisted of 16 races. The fact that the CART drivers didn't compete in the Indianapolis 500 after 1995 probably cost Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy, and Alex Zanardi, a win at Indianapolis.

The IRL's 1996 Indianapolis 500 thus witnessed 17 new rookies in the starting lineup, with perhaps only Roberto Guerrero and Arie Luyendyk as former Indy Car "name" drivers in the field. They however didn't win as Buddy Lazier was the victor. But, without question, Tony George had debased and degraded the 500. For the year 1996 CART and the IRL used the same basic regulations for the chassis and engines but for the 1997 IRL season George (added insult to injury) by totally requiring new chassis and engines based on a new formula. The new IRL rules or formula required motors with a 244 cubic inch limit, and had to be non-turbocharged V8s, using a stock block as the basis. By August 1995 George and the IRL had talked with BMW, Ford, GM, and Nissan about possibly supplying the new engines. Both the Oldsmobile division of GM on January 4, 1996 and Nissan on February 14, 1996 affirmed that they would build the needed motors. Nissan however never got their IRL engine program in proper order, so the Oldsmobile make during the 1997-2002 seasons won all but two races.

The IRL enlisted and authorized only three firms to construct the newly needed chassis, i.e. Dallara (Parma, Italy), G-Force (South Wessex, England), and Riley & Scott (Charlotte, NC). This was an overt cost saving measure for the IRL teams and an attempt to make IRL chassis construction profitable to the chassis makers themselves. The Riley & Scott IRL chassis did not appear until August 1997 and very few were made. Their best finish at Indianapolis was 12th in 1999 and they recorded a just a single IRL win at the Phoenix 200 (3/19/00) with Buddy Lazier. The end result was that, beginning in 1997, the CART and IRL rules and vehicles were totally incompatible with each other. If a CART owner now wanted to run at the Speedway, he would have to purchase a completely new chassis and engine.

And so a permanent split existed during the years 1996 to 1999 between CART and the IRL. The IRL ran a sub-par series with the Indianapolis 500 as its centerpiece; while the CART cars, drivers, and teams could no longer claim that they ran, drove, or used "Indy" cars. Gradually CART slowly lost their team sponsorsorships because (1) they no longer ran at the Speedway and (2) their TV ratings, which were never great, sagged dramatically. CART thus underwent a slow, but steady and gradual decline, and proved to be unprofitable.

On March 16, 1998 CART started selling stock to newcomers, a tip-off that CART was not self sufficent, could not sustain itself financially, and needed a huge influx of cold, hard cash to keep going. It all smacked of a modern and unsavory scheme, but the stock sold to the tune of $100,000,000. The suckers had lined up. Roger Penske's name, was then inexorably connected with CART, probably quelled any of the investor's doubts about the viabilty of the CART's stock worth. The idea for CART to go public is usually attributed to CART's President and CEO, Andrew Craig. Craig had been a marketing executive from England and had been hired by CART on January 7, 1994. He was eventually "forced out" of CART in mid-June 2000.

However, beginning in 1999, the CART story and organization was in a very deep and irreversible decline. It was car owner Floyd "Chip" Ganassi (b. 1958) who, in the year 2000, broke entirely from the CART boycott and entered the IRL's Indianapolis 500. With his sponsor "Target" financing him, Chip spend over $2,000,000, and purchased two Oldsmobile/G Force chassis ($290,000 each) and two Oldsmobile "Aurora" racing engines ($96,000 each). Chip's two pilots were Jimmy Vasser (b. 1963) and the Juan Pablo Montoya (b. 1978) from Columbia. Vasser had been in four Indianapolis 500s, but Montoya would be a complete rookie at the Speedway. The 2000 Indianapolis 500 was completely dominated by the Ganassi team as the rookie Montoya led 167 laps and was the victor. Vasser also had led the event, but dropped back after a late pit stop, to place 7th. Ganassi's foray and team didn't make the IRL's regular troops look particularly good. And that was just the beginning.

Roger Penske (b. 1937), not to be upstaged or outdone by Ganassi, returned to Indianapolis in 2001 with two pilots from Brazil, i.e. Helio Castroneves (b. 1975) and Gil De Ferran (b. 1967). Helio was a rookie at the Speedway in 2001, while De Ferran had qualified for the 1995 race but had run only a single lap in the race itself to place 29th. Roger's newly purchased machines for Indy were Oldsmobile/Dallaras. The race itself proved to be a complete rout of the IRL contingent as the top six finishing positions were taken by the CART teams. The Penske cars finished one-two (Castroneves and De Ferran) while Michael Andretti was 3rd. Ganassi's entries were 4th (Vasser), 5th (Junqueira), and 6th (Stewart).

It was obvious that CART had had the better drivers and teams all along during the split, i.e. 1997-2000; and that the big money teams were now back at Indy, as well as the more successful and talented foreign drivers. So two of the original 1994 IRL goals of Tony George, i.e. competitive lower cost teams and more American drivers, had gone by the wayside. The situation in 2001 had returned to what it had been back in 1995 and things were largely back to "normal" again.

On December 6, 2001 came the shocking and stunning news from the Penske headquarters located at Reading, PA that Roger Penske was totally abandoning CART and was moving full time into the IRL. Roger said the switch from CART to the IRL was ordered by his sponsor Phillip Morris (i.e. Marlboro) and was strictly a business decision. Thus beginning in 2002 the IRL series would be the most significant sanctioning body, with CART now clearly running in 2nd place. IRL's control of the Indianapolis 500 proved to be ultimately the decisive factor and CART's attempt to buck it during 1996-1999, had failed. Mr. Penske had now abandoned totally an organization to which he had help found in late 1978. Penske had sold all his CART stock by October 2001 and so too, did many other CART teams. It was good time to bail out as obviously the stock would soon go into a nose dive.

Penske entries won at Indianapolis three times in a row, beginning in 2001. Castroneves won again in 2002 and Helio became the first driver ever to win two Indianapolis 500's, in just two starts, both consecutive! De Ferran won for Roger in 2003. Helio's 2002 Indianapolis win was very lucky. Castroneves could not have finished without a pit stop for fuel, if the race had continued under green. However on lap 199 Buddy Lazier and Lauent Redon tangled and the yellow light came on. Near the same exact instant as the yellow, Paul Tracy had passed Helio in turn 3 seemingly for the win, as Tracy had all the fuel he needed. However the Speedway ruled that Tracy hadn't gotten quite by Castroneves under the green and Paul was ordered to move back to 2nd behind Castroneves for lap 200. The race ended, still under the yellow, with Castroneves in 1st but out of fuel.

Tracy was driving for "Team Green' (i.e. Barry Green) and they officially protested the finish on June 3, maintaining that Tracy was the actual leader when the yellow came on. Tracy and Green, except for Indianapolis, were from the CART circuit or series. Tony George alone, had the sole and exclusive IRL legal right to make the final decision, and on July 3 he gave the win to Penske and Castroneves. Roger Penske in late 2001 had completely gone over to the IRL 100%, and now seemingly in mid-2002 Tony George in return, supported Penske's claims of an Indy victory in 2002, 100%.

For 2003 both Honda and Toyota began building engines for the IRL circuit, which added some additional competition, prestige and honors to the IRL. GM was at the time phasing out their Oldsmobile passenger car division and the IRL Oldsmobile motor, with some modifications, now became the IRL "Chevrolet". The Oldsmobile marque had been the oldest line of surviving passenger car makes in the U.S., having begun back in 1897.

Meanwhile CART, in 2002 and 2003, was in its final death throes. Christopher "Chris" R. Pook (b. 1941) took over as CART's President and CEO on December, 19, 2001 replacing Joseph "Joe" F. Heitzler. Chris Pook was born in England, was raised in Spain, and was a travel agent by trade. He first came to Long Beach, CA in 1967. Pook had been the original organizer of the successful Long Beach Grand Prix, first run in 1975. The 1975 race was Formula 5000 event. During 1976-1983 it was a genuine Formula I Grand Prix contest and then became a CART race in 1984. But at CART Pook took over an impossible "Catch-22" situation. Another ominous move was Michael Andretti switching his new team from CART to the IRL in late September 2002.

In order to keep CART afloat, alive, and running in 2002-2003, Pook had to (1.) purchase all its TV coverage and air time, (2.) subsidize teams to insure full starting fields, and (3.) to promote and stage races; while losing money without any relief or cessation; and so CART's remaining monetary assets were being thrown down a large and bottomless sink hole. It totalled over 80 million dollars in 2003, just by itself. Another disaster for CART's overall prestige, becoming effective in 2003, was both Honda and Toyota defecting to the rival IRL, probably because both of these Japanese firms wanted to run at and win the Indianapolis 500. This left the Ford-Cosworth motor as the sole powerplant for CART. For the 2003 season CART called itself the "Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford".

The value of CART stock went from $33 a share in 1998 down to $2.98 by June 17, 2003, at which time CART put itself up for sale.The Wall Street investment house of Bear, Stearns, and Company, Inc. was to handle any transaction here. In mid-2003 the three CART team owners of Gerald "Gerry" R. Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi (b. 1950), and Kevin Kalkhoven (b. 1944) along with Dan Pettit, formed a new holding company called Open Wheel Racing Series. In September 2003 Open Wheel Racing offered to purchase all the outstanding CART stock at 56 cents a share. In toto this would amount to about 7.4 million dollars. Pook himself said at the time (quote), "As we have previously disclosed, this past year had been incredibly difficult for Championship. We believe this transaction provides the best value available to stockholders while at the same time making it possible for our series to continue in the future. We realize that the price is disappointing compared to recent trading prices for our stock. Management and the board energetically pursued other alternatives, but we believe that there is not any better alternative for our stockholders." The New York Stock Exchange suspended all trading of CART stock on October 6, 2003 because its value, per share, had been under $1.00 for over a month. Later, on December 16, 2003 CART filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in U.S. Federal Court located in Indianapolis. Things were moving fast. Bear Stearns itself also later collapsed in the catastrophic 2008 Wall Street meltdown.

Without any consideration for the CART investor's interests, Pook during the 2003 season seemed intent on spending every remaining dollar in the CART kitty, so that at the end of the year, not a single dime would remain. A few pugnacious fans surmized that it was all a deliberate scheme to bankrupt CART so that a few wealthy individuals could then buy CART's remaining assets for just peanuts. Among the interested buyers was Tony George. George's motive here was basicially both sound and acute. Tony wished to (1.) to rid himself of a rival major league American open wheel sanctioning body, and (2.) to grap all of of CART's more lucrative contests and races, such as the Long Beach Grand Prix. The clear implication was now that the IRL was ready to add street races to its previously all oval track schedules (i.e. 1996-2004).

A day after CART filed for Chapter 11, the Open Wheel Racing Series (i.e. Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi, and Kevin Kalkhoven) presented a reorganization plan that would put the previously publicly traded CART organization under private ownership. Open Wheel offered 1.6 million dollars to buy CART's assets, along with assuming all of CART's indebtedness, which would make the total purchase price add up to about 3 million dollars. At the last minute (January 27, 2004), i.e. less than 24 hours before the bidding date expired, the IRL (i.e. Tony George) made a bid of 3.2 million dollars for CART, thereby doubling the amount originally bid by the Open Wheel people. IRL and Open Wheel were, it should be mentioned, the only bidders on the remaining assets of CART.

After George's 3.2 million dollar bid, Open Wheel also upped their offer to 3.2 million also. Then, with an obvious intention of delivering the final knockout blow, George bid 13.5 million! The final decision would be made on January 28 by U.S. District Court Judge Frank J. Otte. Otte ruled in favour of Open Wheel. His reasoning was that if IRL bought CART, all the CART races would be cancelled for 2004, which would lead to payouts of between 10 and 30 million dollars to settle expected promotor claims over the canceled contracts. So Tony George lost big here and the two series rivalry would continue. Richard "Dick" P. Eidswick was named as the CEO and President of what was called the Champ Car World Series in December 2003. So CART was officially dead and buried. The titular heads of CART from 1979 to 2003 consisted of 1. Jim Melvin; 2. John Frasco, 3. John Caponigro, 4. Johnny Capels, 5. Bill Spokkan, 6. Andrew Craig, 7. Bobby Rahal, 8. Joe Heitzler, 9. and 10. Chris Pook.

It was not likely that Open Wheel or Champ Car (CC) would succeed where CART had already failed financially twice (i.e. 1997 and 2003), but the series (now called the Champ Car World Series) survived for four full seasons (2004-2007) before folding in early 2008. The Paul Leonard Newman (1925-2008)/Carl A. Haas (b. 1930) team, formed in 1983, won all four of the Champ Car Titles with a French pilot named Sebastion Olivier Bourdais (b. 1979). The Champ Car series however was obviously playing second fiddle now to the much more important IRL title.

Probably there was a trace of what economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) called "conspicious consumption", i.e. just spending large chucks of money to little actual import as a means of status, among Forsythe, Gentilozzi, and Kalkhoven, with their purchase of CART. Kalkhoven and his partners may have been willing to underwrite and finance ChampCar for a few years, but it is unlikely they would continue to do so forever. The only motor used in ChampCar was the turbocharged V8, 161.7 cubic inch, 750 horsepower Ford-Cosworth. On November 15, 2004 Forsythe and Kalkhoven purchased the Cosworth firm, in part, to ensure that no interruptions would occur to the supply of racing engines needed to run the ChampCar series.

Kalkhoven had made his fortune in industrial lasers and fiber optic components while Gentilozzi was a real estate man. Forsythe was the owner of Indeck Energy Service, Inc. which was a power-energy generation business which was involved with biofuels, natural gas, steam power, fossil fuels, electric generators, etc. The company had been formed in 1985 and is currently located in Buffalo Grove, IL. Gerry Forsythe began his involvement with Indy Car racing in 1981 with driver Scott Brayton (1959-1996). In 1982 a Forsythe owned Cosworth/March 82C, with Hector Rebaque at the wheel, won the CART Elkhart Lake 200 on September 19., which was the first Indy Car win for the Forsythe team.

For 2003 Honda and Toyota had joined the IRL as engine suppliers. Now, for the first time, the hitherto dominant Chevrolet faced a new, real, and powerful threat to its headship. Toyota, during the 2003 IRL season won 11 of the 16 IRL races, while Chevrolet won 3, and Honda 2. The Toyota and Honda motors also routed everyone at Indianapolis in 2003, taking the first 10 positions! Toyotas took 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th, while the Hondas finished 3rd, 8th, and 10th. The year 2004 saw Honda gain a clear advantage and ascendancy. Of the 16 IRL 2004 contests Honda won 14 and Toyota 2. At Indianapolis Honda propelled vehicles took the first 7 places, with Toyota in 8th and 9th. The best Chevrolet was 12th. The Honda V8 IRL engine was and is designed, manufactured, and supplied by the Ilmor Engineering Incorported, located in Plymouth, MI. The Honda-Ilmor alliance here was announced on May 24, 2002.

2005 witnessed the IRL departing from their all oval track racing stance and standpoint. That year they held events both at St. Petersburg , FL (April 3), a street race, and at Watkins Glen (September 25), a road course. Non-oval IRL contests increased to 3 in 2006, 5 in 2007, and 7 in 2008. Once again street circuits and road racing were an integral part of the Indy Car circuit and format. The exclusion of road events, like the other two principals upon which the IRL had been founded in 1994 (see above), had also proved to be just a temporary measure. All three of George's reforms, had in fact, been complete hooey even in 1994. If Tony George had actually believed in his three ideological differences or "beefs" about CART back in 1994, when he establish the IRL, he had been certainly a very naive boy.

The IRL Chevrolet motor became obsolete in 2004, and as GM was then having acute financial problems, GM decided to drop its IRL engine program rather than upgrade their motor, with an announcement in mid-2005 that they were getting out. Toyota also had had a poor 2004 season and in June 2005 stated that they would ceased to suppy motors after the year 2006. These actions by GM and Toyota reduced both the IRL and CC each, to a one engine make series. IRL had Honda and the CC had the Ford-Cosworth.

The IRL chassis war (i.e. 1997-2008) was between Dallara and the G-Force. G-Force was sold to Elan Motorsport Technologies in 2002 and beginning in 2003 the G-Force became named the Panoz. The G-Force chassis were now manufactured by the Panoz Motor Sports firm located in Braselton, GA. This company had been formed in 1997 by Donald E. Panoz (b. 1935) and his son Daniel E. Panoz (b. 1962). Donald Panoz had made his name in the pharmaceutical business and had not been involved with motor racing until the 1990's. The former G-Force manufacture of racing chassis was moved entirely from England to Brasekton GA by 2004.

The G-Force won at Indianapolis in 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2004, while the Dallara was the victor at Indy in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2005-2010. Gradually the Dallara obtained the upper hand in the performance results, and as it was also cheaper to purchase, it gained a complete monopoly in the IRL while at the time the Panoz cars completely disappeared, beginning in mid-2008. The last Panoz victory in the IRL was Scott Dixion's victory at Watkins Glen on June 4, 2006. The last Panoz win occurred at Long Beach on April 20, 2008 with Will Power in what was really a CC contest and was in fact the very last CC contest held, but the IRL allowed it to count in points for IRL title as a conciliatory gesture. So the IRL became, with Panoz gone, a single engine/car make series using only the Honda/Dallara configuration. Such has remained the case for 2009, 2010, and 2011. This was not necessarily a bad thing as it both made the competition keener and helped keep the costs down.

Beginning in 2006 Panoz put little effort into their IRL cars but was busy designing and constructing a new chassis (i.e. model DP-01) for the Champ Car series, to replace the Lolas. The first 10 of the new DP-01 Panozs were delivered to the CC teams in December 2006. For 2007 CC used exclusively a single engine/chassis vehicle, i.e. all were Ford-Cosworth/Panoz DP-01s. During its first season (2004) Champ Car had two chassis makes, Lola and Reynard, but by 2005 only the Lola remained. Reynard Motorsports, a British firm, however had been bankrupted in February 2002. The older Reynards used in the CC races for 2004 proved to be totally uncompetitive. A Reynard chassis (Michael Andretti) had won in its very first Indy Car debut, at Surfers Paradise, Australia on March 20, 1994. A Reynard was also victorious at Indianaoolis in both 1995 and 1996.

Champ Car linked its ancestry, origin, and lineage directly as AAA/USAC/CART/CHAMPCAR and promoted the idea that Bourdais was the first man to win the U.S. Driving Title four times in a row, surpassing Ted Horn (1910-1948) who was the only driver previously to win three U.S. National Driving Titles in a row (1946, 1947, 1948). A few major league U.S. open wheel fans have engaged in a dispute about whether CART-CHAMPCAR or the IRL was the true heir to the past AAA and USAC racing heritage or history, but this was meaningless. From 1996 on the old U.S. National Driving Title had been cut in two, between CART-CHAMPCAR and the IRL. What a mess.

Tony George's creation of the IRL in 1994 did not start or cause the general U.S.'s public apathy to Indy Car racing, as the sport had been in a steady decline since 1970. However George's actions didn't help the situation and made everything worst. I can find no positive results from George's interference and his IRL initiatives at all. Everything is currently just as it had been in 1995, 1. the big money teams are back, 2. drivers from the non-U.S. nations are generally superior to our own indigenous individuals, and 3. the IRL circuit now contains both ovals tracks and street races.

As to George's three reforms I view them as follows. 1. Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 14:7 and Matthew 26:11) stated in c. 28 A.D. (quote), "For you always have the poor with you." How was George going to negate a basic condition of all human life and history? As Ernest Hemingway (1901-1961) said, "Rich people are different than you and I, they have more money." The wealthier teams always have the general advantage because they have better cars, drivers, personnel, mechanics, and sponsors. There can never be any real equality. That's just life. And that's just racing! All George did was keep the better teams, cars, and drivers away from the Speedway during 1996-2001, which dishonored and disgraced the 500.

2. The Indianapolis 500 promotes itself as an international event open to all. If the American drivers are being squeezed out, because they can't go fast enought to make the starting lineups, whose fault is that? George's only option here, as I see it, was to totally ban from the 500 all pilots who were not full citizens of the United States! It's the only logical solution that I can think of. And 3. Anyone who knows the history of major league open wheel automobile racing in the U.S. or Europe knows that the roads, tracks, and venues that have been raced on, have greatly varied over the years. In certain decades the basic format has been greatly different from other eras. Where are all the great "town to town" races now? Where are all the 100 mile Championship dirt track events today? To say that everything should be run on ovals only is, and was, absolute nonsense. In sum, I think the ultimate historical verdict will be, that the sport never needed a Tony George. He proved to be a unmitigated disaster.

If CART-CHAMP CAR had its continuing economic woes, so too did George's IRL. It was reckoned that during the years 1996 to 2007, Tony had had to add $300,000,000 (some authorities maintained it was closer to $600,000,000!) to the IRL funds, to keep the IRL alive. Here the outside money came from the profits and revenues acquired from the running of the Indianapolis 500, the Brickyard 400, the U.S Grand Prix, and the overseeing overall organization of Hulman and Company. This was all mostly spectulation however as the outside world was not really privy to the exact financial maneuvers of George and his close associates.

George had introduced NASCAR to the Speedway in 1994 with the inaugural "Brickyard 400" held on August 8. A World Championship Formula I Grand Prix was first held at the Speedway on September 24, 2000. The Grand Prix was an overwhelming success in its first two runnings (2000 & 2001), but then the attendance starting dropping off. A six car starting field in 2005 largely killed the event off, so far as the Indianapolis track was concerned, and the last U.S. Grand Prix at the Speedway was the 2007 contest. The Brickyard 400 was able to sustain itself and has always ranked 2nd in the array of NASCAR races, paying deference only to the Daytona 500, which has to rank 1st. George's break with a long tradition, i.e. of using the Speedway for the Indianapolis 500 only and his adding both NASCAR and Formula I events to the Speedway's annual schedule, were probably the right moves to make.

By the end of the 2007 season Champ Car was at the end of its tether. In late 2007 Tony George made an offer to the CC teams that if they would switch over to the ILR for the full season 2007, he would supply free Honda/Dallara cars and $1.2 million support money to each during the year. Tony's offer proved to be the solvent which finally dissolved Champ Car. Back in April-June 2006 George and Kevin Kalkhoven had had talks about a possible unification but they had stopped by August. Nothing had been settled and the CC by purchasing the new DP-01 Panoz chassis using the Ford-Cosworth motor, cancelled any possibility of an immediate IRL/CC merger during 2007.

In early 2008 Champ Car maintained that they had full season of 14 races on tap and were ready to go. A 14 car CC test session was held at the Sebring International Speedway in early February. 2008 CC drivers lined up included Robert Doombos, Bruno Junqueira, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Graham Rahal, Oriel Servia, Alex Tagliani, Paul Tracy, and Justin Wilson. Bourdais, the four time CC Champion, however left CC for a go in the Formula I ranks and had joined the Italian Toro Rossi Grand Prix team.

George and Kalkhoven had talks about the unification of the CC and IRL in early February 2008 and on February 22 reached and made an agreement. It actually was more a closure of CC rather than a real merger. Most of the upcoming CC race schedule was cancelled but the Long Beach Grand Prix was held as a CC event when staged on April 20. After that the Ford Cosworth/Panoz cars would run no longer and all the former CC teams would have to switch over to the Honda/Dallara vehicles. Two other former CC races, those at Edmonton (Canada) and Surfers Paradise (Australia) were staged in 2008 but had now become IRL events proper. Champ Car filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 6, 2008 in Indianapolis. The Champ Car board had made the decision to file for bankruptcy on February 14. And so after twelve years of civil war (1996-2007), major U.S. open wheel motor racing was again united under a single sanctioning body.

Many however were very uneasy as Tony George, who had started the whole rift in 1994/1995, was still the official and nominal head of the IRL. Nothing whatever had been accomplished by the IRL-CART/CC split of 1996-2007. The only major or significant alteration that had taken place by the extinction of CC in early 2008, was that now the major U. S. open wheel sanctionary body was Hulman and Company, rather than a few wealthy car or team owners. And if the IRL, as a whole lost money, what even had been the real gain for Hulman and Company?

The Champ Car teams that had decided to join the IRL after the demise of the CC had their problems. Most of the CC contests had been held on either street circuits or road courses. Of the total of 56 events CC held during its entire existence (2004-2008) only 5 had been staged on ovals, i.e. 2 in 2004, 2 in 2005, 1 in 2006 and none in 2007 or 2008. Now both the CC drivers and the machanics would have to adapt to the IRL ovals, as well as making use of the Dallara chassis and the unturbocharged Honda motor with which they were unfamiliar. Likewise there was little time to prepare as the first four 2008 IRL events scheduled were at Homestead FL (March 29), St. Petersburg, FL (April 6), Motegi, Japan (April 20), and Kansas City (April 27). The Motegi contest, of course, saw the first historic victory in major open wheel racing (either U.S. or Grand Prix) for a woman, going all the way back to the sport's origin in France on July 22, 1894.

Five CC teams crossed over to the IRL. The three most important were 1. Newman-Haas, 2. KV Technologies, and 3. Dale Coyne. Gerald Forsythe's organization did not, as apparently Mr. Forsythe had a very hard aversion to both the IRL and Mr. Tony George. It left Forsythe's regular chauffeur Paul Tracy, high and dry, and without a ride for the IRL.

Tony George finally got his "comeuppance", but for most of the interested observers it came a full decade too late. On May 27, 2009 expert racing columnist and reporter, Robin Miller, stated that George had been removed from being the CEO at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And on May 30 Miller went further and reported that George was out as the head of the IRL as well. It seems that these changes were due to a long running Hulman family feud. Millers's assertions were not however officially confirmed until June 30, 2009, but they proved true enough. It was surmised by almost everyone that Tony's mother, Mari Hulman George, and his three sisters, Josie, Kathi, and Nancy, all on the Hulman & Company's Board of Directors, had at last lost their patience with Tony's vast expenditures, all to failed aims and no real purpose, and now gave him the axe. Tony George's immediate replacement at IMS was Jeffrey G. Belskus and at Hulman & Company, Curt Brighton.

On February 3, 2010 Randy Bernard, age 43, was named the CEO of the Indy Racing League to take over the former duties of Tony George. Bernard was given a five year contract to turn things around. It was Josie George who first made the contact with Bernard in December 2009. Mr. Bernard had been the working as the CEO of the Professional Bull Riders Inc. since August 1995. Bernard's reign there had been an outstanding success but he began to tire of it and was looking for a new and novel opportunity. After talking to Josie, Mr. Bernard did some investigations of IRL on his own and got in communication with IZOD. IZOD (i.e. Phillips-Van Heusen) had become the IRL's overall sponsor since November 2009. Bernard liked what he both saw and heard, and when offered the headship of the IRL, he accepted it. At the time, Bernard had never ever seen or attended a IRL race, and knew almost nothing about motor racing, which was both an advantage and a hindrance, but Randy was a fast learner. Thus Bernard walked into a very complex sport, unique in its history, problems, excitement, and danger.

The two major geographical areas for automobile racing have always been Europe and the U.S., with their separate and distinct "open wheel" traditions. From 1950 to 1979 there existed side by side, the World Driving Title (Grand Prix) and the U.S. National Driving Championship (AAA or USAC). However the new CART organization did not promote the idea of a U.S. National Champion, which went back officially to 1916, but rather called and morphed their activity as the "Indy Car World Series". By 1996-1997 the public view was that U.S. open wheel motor racing had reduced itself largely to two highly squabbling sanctimonius sanctioning bodies, CART-CHAMPCAR and IRL. The U.S. National Championship Driving Title was thereby discarded, languished, and no longer in open sight.

So currently for 2011 we have an united Indy Car series using Honda/Dallara vehicles exclusively, under the stewardship of Randy Bernard, with a projected 17 event race schedule. Despite a very dire and tough U.S. economy, Indy Car racing under Mr. Bernard's direction, seems to be looking up. But the basic problem remains. Championship level open wheel motor racing is no major sport in the U.S. and the general public has absolutely no interest in it. Even today the only IRL "name drivers", known to the public at large probably are Helios Castroneves and Danica Patrick. How Mr. Randy Bernard is going to make the Indy Racing League's doings into a major national sport in the U.S. is beyond me. I haven't a clue as to what he should do.

I have had no contact with anyone in racing since c. 1985, so I don't know anything about later CART, CC, or IRL publications and their historical listings. I've never seen anything published or put out by the CC or IRL. However such inclusion of "historical" information in Media Guides, be it noted, started with Jan Shaffer in 1985 with that year's CART Media Guide.

Edited by john glenn printz, 17 February 2012 - 16:24.

[Michael Ferner]

I have had no contact with anyone in racing since c. 1985, so I don't know anything about later CART, CC, or IRL publications and their historical listings. I've never seen anything published or put out by the CC or IRL. However such inclusion of "historical" information in Media Guides, be it noted, started with Jan Shaffer in 1985 with that year's CART Media Guide.

I respectfully disagree! I have a "USAC Media Guide and Record Manual" of 1971, and it includes a list of former champions in all divisions, plus a few short articles about these divisions and how they came about. Granted, no individual race listings, but rankings of drivers and chief mechanics with the number of wins, points etc., driver profiles with short bios and Indy 500 results over the years (similar to those in the Hungness Indy yearbooks), also a history of Land Speed Records. I also have a pocket size booklet very similar to this, from 1966 I think (I just cannot find it at the mo - someone explain the meaning of the word "order" to me ), very handy and WITH individual races listed, at least for the USAC era! There WERE heroes in Greece before Agamemnon...

[Michael Ferner]

... ah! Found it!!! "USAC Official Facts - Championship Racing Thru the Years - 1966 Edition" ($1.25 ) Including "Results of all National Championship Races since 1946", a "Listing of winners and fast qualifiers at each track", "National Champions" with points 1902 to 1965, "Sprint Champions" 1933 to '65, Stock Car and Midget Champions, and the biggest part: over 100 pages of "Individual Drivers' Records" of drivers active in 1966, listing every Championship appearance going back to the AAA years, and the number of races, finishes in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th, points and purse winnings every year in Sprints, Stocks and Midgets. As I said: very handy!

[john glenn printz]

Dear Michael;

I have never seen or was aware of your two USAC publications of 1966 or 1971. I myself got a surprize last year when I came across a stray copy of "THE FABULOUS "500" RECORD BOOK. EVERY CAR, EVERY DRIVER, EVERY RACE, 1911 THROUGH 1953", 144 pages, published by RACING RECORDS, BOX 6374, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A. It appeared in 1954. I hadn't known of it before.

Edited by john glenn printz, 16 April 2010 - 12:28.

[john glenn printz]

OF MICE AND MEN. Many of the threads on the Nostalgia Forum go off on tangents that have little or nothing to do with the original title or topic. Such is the case with "Bob Russo and the 1920 AAA Championship". New posts by "Ensign 14" (April 14, 2010) and Michael Ferner (April 15, 2010) have moved this thread into entirely new areas. Some of the threads on the Nostalgia Forum are way too generalized, as is for example "USAC, CART and Champ Car history" with its 2100 posts. Probably every USAC and CART season or year should have its own thread, so one can find easily what one is looking for. The thread "Happy Birthday" is entirely irrational. It is one of the most useful and informative sources on the Nostalgis Forum but the names are arranged by astrology or the signs of the zodiac. Why was the easy and rational method of using a pure alphabetical arrangement not used? As it is, it is almost impossible to find what one is looking for. And if one doesn't find it, is it really there somewhere or not. One can never be quite sure.

Anyway I decided to recount on my April 15, 2010 posting "Ruminations on the U.S. National Champion (Open Wheel) Driving Title" above, just what my views are on major open wheel U.S. racing since c. 1970. It is hard to say whether the essay is real history, only opinion, a commentary, or just idle spectulation. Probably all four. Anyway it is my attempt to put my thoughts together on this period of time (1970-2011) in a more precise order. Some of it is just from memory surely but I have researched this era as well, while putting it together. As I was not directly involved in any way, nor in contact with anyone in CART after 1985 or with IRL or CC ever, it may not have much authority, but it still represents my understanding of the recent past and my real views. There has obviously been a lot of U. S. racing history manufactured during 1970 to 2011!!!

Hope you enjoy it. Sincerely, J.G. Printz

Edited by john glenn printz, 30 April 2011 - 18:34.

[john glenn printz]

BACK TO CATLIN AND RUSSO 1920. In Kennerdell's plot or ploy to alter the ten race 1920 Championship chart so that G. Chevrolet rather than Milton would be the 1920 Titlist, Bob has rather odd things to say. Bob relates that Kennerdell wanted to eliminate all the hitherto Championship contests run below 250 miles in distance. That would have reduced the number of 1920 Championship level contests from ten to just four events (!), i.e. 1. Beverly Hills 250 (Febuary 28); 2. Indianapolis 500 (May 31); 3. Elgin 251 (August 28) and 4. Beverly Hills 250 (Nov. 25). The resulting final point totals would have been:

1. G. Chevrolet 1015

2. Murphy 860

3. DePalma 605

4. Milton 530

5. Rene Thomas 520

6. Sarles 500

So this would have produced the desired trick, so to speak, without any problem. However Russo states that Kennerdell had a problem. Let Bob explain it himself (quote). "The fly in the ointment, however, was Tacoma at 223.077 miles. It had to be included as a Championship race in Kenderdell's final resume since he had publicly announced it was such in July."

I don't understand that. Wouldn't the Uniontown 225 (September 6) and the Fresno 200 (October 2) have been in a similar situation. Were not these two events, Uniontown and Fresno, run as AAA Championship races? Catlin and Russo always maintained that they were genuine Championship races without question. And wouldn't someone have remembered that the Uniontown 225 of June 19 and the two 50 milers at Beverly Hills (March 28) were run as Championship events? What's particular then about the Tacoma July 5 race because it was "announced as such in July."? I don't get it.

The REAL "fly in the ointment" is that both Catlin and Russo say they were not run as such, the reason being Kennerdell's inexplicable silence! They claim, by implication, that when the Uniontown 225 and Fresno 200 were run, nobody knew whether they were Championship races or not. Now the sponsors of these two events must have known, because they had paid the AAA Championship fees, and AAA Contest Board must have known. So why didn't anyone else know? The reason, given by Catlin and Russo then, why no newspapers in late 1920 listed them as Championship contests, is because of Kennerdell's gross managerial incompetence! What a theory!

However the REAL REASON why, of course, they were not listed as AAA National Championship races is quite different indeed. It is simply because they were not Championship contests, but this idea or concept is much too subtle for Bob or Russ. So, if we adopt the Catlin/Russo thesis, not only did no-one know what the point standings were in late 1920, but when the actual races were staged, nobody (seemingly) knew whether they were Championship contests or not either!

And if no-one in late 1920 knew what the 1920 AAA Championship schedule was, how does Arthur Means know it precisely in November 1926, or Catlin in 1951, or Russo himself in January 1987?

Edited by john glenn printz, 06 December 2011 - 13:40.

[john glenn printz]

In the most recent issue of AUTOWEEK (October 15, 2012) there appears a six page ad (i.e. 66-71) for seven Motorsports attorneys. Among the seven listed is Cary Agajanian, a son of J.C. Agajanian, the well known promotor and winning car owner at Indianapolis in 1952 with Troy Ruttman and in 1963 with Parnelli Jones. I got to talk to J.C. Agajanian at Indianapolis a couple of times and he was completely frank and open with me. Since he didn't know me at all, I always wondered about it. Perhaps someone like Art Sparks told him it was O.K. to talk to me.

For instance, I asked Aggie about his relations with Troy Ruttman. Agajanian said that he was once approached by a prominent California Cadillac car dealer, who said he would give both Ruttman and Walt Faulkner new Cadillacs, totally free of charge, if they would drive and use them as a sort of ad or promotional gimmick when at the races. A deal was arranged and both Ruttman and Faulkner took possession of their new cars.

But about two weeks later Ruttman sold his Cadillac for cold cash, and not much later, Faulkner did the same thing. Agajanian said what was he to do (?), as they had put me in a difficult spot. Aggie said he had to get rid of both drivers because he didn't want it to be said justly that (quote) "he couldn't control his own drivers." I figure this must have taken place in 1951.

Bob Russo and his very prominent sidekick back in 1985 threatened to sue me for libel in two separate suits. The attorney that Bob hired was Gary Agajanian. I always thought that if the old man had known about it, he would have told his son to drop the case. I still have Gary's letter that he sent about a possible lawsuit on Bob Russo's behalf. Russo's pal also threatened me with a second lawsuit, over the phone, in a call to me direct from California.

After Russo had altered the McMaken-Printz historical data which appeared in the 1984 CART Media Guide to "Means-Haresnape-Catlin" AAA orthodoxy in the 1985 CART guide, I told everyone that Bob and his friend didn't know what they were talking about. The dispute was over the "historical" status of the AAA Championships of 1909-1915, and 1917-1919; as well as the 1920 question (G. Chevroler or Milton), and Catlin's switch of George Robertson over Bert Dingley for 1909. I felt I could not win these two impeding lawsuits as only about six people thought we were correct, so I had to shut up. How was I going to win against the combined might of USAC, CART, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Miller High Lite, Pennsoil, and Roger Penske? The new CART Director of Communications told me in late 1985 that Donald Davidson and Chris Economaki (1920-2012) didn't agree with me either, but here I didn't quite believe him.

Then all was quiet, as I totally shut up, until Russo published his article on the 1920 AAA season, in the January 1987 issue of INDY CAR RACING. Here I sort of broke my vow and wrote a rebuttal of it. After all the acrimony between Bob and myself I couldn't believe that Russo still believed in Catlin's ridiculous tall tale about the 1920 AAA season. Bob researched nothing here and still didn't suspect that anything was amiss!

Edited by john glenn printz, 21 October 2012 - 18:50.

[DCapps]

Thanks to someone with the right sort of credentials I recently obtained a copy of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series Media Guide & Record Book.

Apparently, it is available only in digital form these days, scarcely a surprise, of course, explaining my complete inability to obtain a copy.

 

Well, flipping through the record book section that lists the winners of the races fro each season -- even if they actually weren't years that the AAA held a championship, but, hey, Alternate Facts and all that... -- I noticed something that almost had me fall out of my chair...!

 

It has the following for 1920:

 

1920: 11 Races (Series Champion -- Tommy Milton)

1/28/1920, Beverly Hills, 200 (miles), Jimmy Murphy, Duesenberg

3/28/1920*, Beverly Hills,50, Art Klein, Peugeot

3/28/1920*, Beverly Hills, 50, Jimmy Murphy, Duesenberg

3/28/1920*, Beverly Hills, 50, Tommy Milton, Duesenberg

5/31/1920, Indianapolis, 500, Gaston Chevrolet, Frontenac

6/19/1920*, Uniontown, 225, Tommy Milton, Duesenberg

7/5/1920, Tacoma, 225, Tommy Milton, Duesenberg

8/26/1920, Elgin, Ralph DePalma, Ballot

9/6/1920*, Uniontown, Tommy Milton, Duesenberg

10/2/1920*, Fresno, Jimmy Murphy, Duesenberg

11/25/1920, Beverly Hills, Roscoe Sarles, Duesenberg

 

Note: The 1920 championship was for five races and won by Gaston Chevrolet. These results were considered official by AAA from 1920-1926 and 1928-51. An 11-race championship was first recognized in 1926 with Tommy Milton as champion and was considered official for 1927 and from 1952 to 1955, the final year AAA sanctioned auto racing.The races marked with with the asterisk (*) did not count in the 1920 championship until the 1926 recalculations were made.

 

To add to this, the notes made on the page for the "All-Time Season Champions 1909-2022" are the exact same ones from the 2011 and 2012 editions of the INDYCAR historical record book. The wimpy changes made in the 2013 edition seem to have vanished.

 

A bit of cognitive dissonance? Maybe simply laziness and incompetence? Although that I should no longer be surprised by such nonsense on the part of the INDYCAR crew, this is incredible!

On the "All-Time Winners" page, guess who is listed as the 1920 champion? GASTON CHEVROLET. 

That Chevrolet is listed as the 1920 champion on that page is why I did not see that Milton was listed as the 1920 champion in the season winners section. 

Even for the INDYCAR crew, this is pretty awful.

Edited by DCapps, 08 September 2023 - 19:00.