1961 Midget 250 Mile Race at Trenton

On July 2, 1961 there was a 250 Mile Midget race at Trenton, won by Bobby Marshman and Jimmy Davies in a car owned by Bruce Homeyer. Does anyone have further information, e.g. was this a 2-heat affair, with Marshman doing the first and Davies the second heat? Or was it one long race with Davies relieving Marshman from driving duties? Other finishers?

One source I have gives another win to this rather odd combination, a 20-mile (!) race at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, OH on August 29, 1964; another source credits this win only to Marshman. Who's right?

This is from Crocky Wright's book, The History of Midget Auto Racing, Volume 3 1952-1968.

" Bobby Marshman and Jimmy Davies teamed up to win the 25 - mile National Championship at the Sam Nunis Trenton Speedway. [ It was a 250 mile race, not 25 miles]
Due to the intense heat at trackside, nine drivers required relief during the long grind.

Jim Davies, the 1960 USAC National Champion[midgets] set fast time for a new track record in the Howard Linne Offy, was forced out after nine laps with a blown engine. Jiggs Peters took over the lead in the Ken Brenn Offy but pitted with mechanical problems on the 127th lap. At this point, Bobby Marshman, the co-rookie of the Indy 500, took over for good. After building up a three-lap lead in the Bruce Homeyer Konstant - Hot Offy, Marshman pitted for relief. Davies took over, still retaining the lead and went to win.

Placing second was Bill Randall in the Bennet Brother's Fluid Chemical Offy and Tony Bondadies in the Frankenfeld car, placed third.

The race was sanctioned by USAC [ARDC was the other club who sanctioned this race] following negotiations betwen Dutch Schaefer and Henry Banks.....on race day, forty cars signed in with only six USAC registered cars"

Davies set fast time with a lap of 35.37, 101.781mph. The 250 miles was 2Hours 49minutes 57.32 seconds at a speed of 88.258 mph.

USAC had a midget show at Soldier Field in Chicago the night before the Trenton race and another race the night after at Cleveland, I'm guessing this is one reason for the low USAC car count at Trenton.

Thanks, Vukie! Any info on the 1964 Eldora race?

There were four midget marathons at Trenton from 1959 through 1962. Jiggs Peters won 250 milers in 59 and 62. Marshman won the 300 miler in 1960 and the 250 in 1961 with felief from Jimmie Davies. An interesting and frustrating fact about the 1962 race is that USAC had a falling out with ARDC over adding oil during the race. USAC stars such as Don Branson, Bob Tattersall, Bob Wente, Bobby Grim and Jimmie Davies were in the field (I know because my dad has pictures of them all that day) but all USAC drivers ore omitted from the published results of that race. Trying to identify some of the lesser known USAC racers from that event over 45 years ago is causing me much frustration. My dad has over 150 pictures from the 1960-1062 events