166 replies to this topic

[oldiedowop]

Does anyone have any Info,photos etc. on Johnnie. He was my uncle.

Larry Wright

[D-Type]

In what country?

In what type of racing?

Approximately when?

[oldiedowop]

In USA.
midgets,bigcars,and at Indy.
late 1930's to early 1960's

Larry Wright

[raoul leDuke]

Johnny Tolan was born in Victor, Colorado on 22 / 10 / 1918.

In 1946 and 1947 he won the RMMRA Championship.

In 1950 he won both the AAA Chicago-Mississippi Valley Midget Championship (Asphalt Tracks) and the AAA Mid-West Midget Championship. He also appeared in the film To Please a Lady that year as driver 'Red Hot Wheels'.

In 1952 he won the AAA National Midget Championship, and went on to race in the Indianapolis 500.

Tolan attempted to qualify 8 times for the Indy 500 between 1951 to 1960, making the grid on 3 occasions. In 1956 he finished 21st, in 1957 he finished 20th and in 1958 his best finish, 13th.

Best known for racing the Kenz/Leslie Kurtis Offy #62 midget locally, he travelled as far afield as Australia racing at the Royal Agricultural Showgrounds, Moore Park, Sydney in January 1964.

He died 6 / 6 / 1986


www.historicracing.com

[ReWind]

AFAIK in fact he was born in 1917. Perhaps Larry can clarify this.

There is a lot of stuff about Johnnie Tolan on the internet which is not so difficult to find just by googling.

For instance here and there.

[oldiedowop]

Thanks for the Info. I don't know anything about the defiance in his birth day?

larry Wright

[Jerry Entin]

Johnnie Tolan in midget
This information is by way of the 1957 Indianapolis Yearbook:
Johnnie Tolan is probably one of the best-liked drivers around today. And the reason is simple. He is a great guy with an ever ready smile and a collection of anecdotes for every situation. For a guy who started out to become a plumber, Johnnie has made quite a splash for himself in the racing business. A native of Colorado, Johnnie has been racing since 1939 and ranks with the best midget drivers of all time. National Midget Champion in 1952, he has been at Indianapolis since 1951 but never qualified for the race until last year. This year, he qualified well and was running a good race when clutch trouble placed his mount on the sidelines. Although he campaigns the big cars at every opportunity, Johnnie still sticks to his first love...midgets, and is a regular campaigner of the little cars throghout the country. He was Rocky Mountain midget champ in 1946-47, MidWest midget champ in 1950 and 1952, and of course, National midget champ in 1952. He is 38 years old and was born in the gold mining town of Victor, Colorado. He stands 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds. He is married and has a 15 year old stepson, Tommy. His wife's name is Jerry and they make their home in Norwalk. California.
all research Willem Oosthoek
above photo posted for Larry Wright

[oldiedowop]

Jerry

Thanks for the info. His wife Jerry was my aunt. She died in 1976. At that time I only lived three block from were they lived. They lived in my grandmother's house in Norwalk, Ca. I used to go over there all the time to see them and my grandmother. I can remember Tommy and I playing in some of his race cars like we were race car drivers too when he was not at home! I remember my aunt Jerry telling us don't break anything! I sat and played in all of the cars that he took to Indy. What a thrill it was for me to do this as I was only 12 years old in 1957.

I have a few photos of Johnnie sitting in some of the cars that he raced. I also have a few of his AAA race drivers pins and 3 Indy silver pit badges 2 from 1955 and one from 1953. I also have two of the trophies that he won; the first one is the trophy that he was give for winning the night-before-Indy midget race at the 16th Street Speedway in Indy in 1953. it is a clock trophy that still works! The second one is the trophy that he was given for winning the 1958 midget road race at Riverside, Ca. in 1958.


Thanks again

Larry Wright

[Buford]

I have his autograph in my autograph book. http://forums.autosp...ight=autographs

[oldiedowop]

Buford

I have two photos of Johnnie with autographs on them. Do you have any photos of him?
If so can you scan them for me. I can scan the two autographed photos and sent them to you as a trade. I also have a few more photos of him without autographs on them.


Larry Wright

[Buford]

Unfortunately you can see from the thread at the time I was being encouraged to turn the photo collection over to the International Motor Sports Research Museum in Watkins Glen. That was subsequently done where it resides today on loan. Therefore I cannot check. Any photos we would have had would have been from Indianapolis and if he was out there I am sure my dad shot him. But the photos and scrapbooks are in New York. If you ever get out there, ask them to show you the collection. I do intend to get it back one of these days so they better get their butts in gear making copies.

[oldiedowop]

Buford

He was at Indy from 1951 to 1960.


Larry Wright

[Buford]

Oh - well our first year was 1961 so we would not have him in the photo collection I am afraid. I got his autograph somewhere. Maybe at a midget race. We did not photograph those.

[Jerry Entin]

Here is a great photo of Johnnie Tolan at Indy in 1952.

Johnnie Tolan in the midget he used to win the 1947 Rocky Mountain series with.
above photos posted for Larry Wright

[Jerry Entin]

Larry's uncle Johnnie at Indy in 1956.

Johnnie at Indy in 1958.
above photos posted for Larry Wright

[Jerry Entin]

Johnnie Tolan sure looks like a very nice guy.

Pushing the car in the pits ready to qualify in 1952.
above photos posted for Larry Wright

[eldougo]

Originally posted by Jerry Dentin


Pushing the car in the pits ready to qualify in 1952.
above photos posted for Larry [/B]

That is a cigarette? in his mouth....

[Buford]

Many drivers drove smoking cigarettes when I was a kid in the 1950s. My families stock car driver always did. Jimmy Bryan had a pouch holder in his Indy Cars to hold his cigars. The drivers had lighters and would light up on the yellow flag laps. And why not, it was healthy. I was looking at 1940s magazines while in a waiting room awhile back and was amazed to see the advertisements in Life Magazine depicting doctors saying stuff like, "9 out of ten doctors agree Camels Cigarettes (the non-filter ones) aid digestion if smoked soon after meals" etc. And obviously 1950's racing car drivers were concerned about their health.

[eldougo]

Buford..........And obviously 1950's racing car drivers were concerned about their health......Good one

[ensign14]

This is all good stuff. Many thanks! We are too keen to forget those who were around and about in the past...the guys who tend to slip through the cracks, like (say) Scarlatti or Larry Frank.

[oldiedowop]

I can remember one time going to one of the tracks here in L.A. in 1955 in Johnnie’s new 1955 white Caddy. I sat in the back seat with Tommy. There were no seat belts at that time. He drove just as fast on the streets here in L.A as he did at the race track! I can remember that he went in and out of the traffic to pass cars and went through red lights when he had to. Boy did I love it!

At the time I was only 10 years old. When I got home I told my mom & dad what had happened and they told me that I would never go to the races with Johnnie again! After that I went to the races with my mom & dad - much safer.

Larry Wright

[RA Historian]

Originally posted by Buford
[BI was looking at 1940s magazines while in a waiting room awhile back . [/B]

You must go to my doctor................his waiting room is equally up to date!

[Buford]

Actually it was a lawyers office lol.

[Jerry Entin]

This picture is for Twinny- This is drifting before it was popular.

Buford if you think smoking could be dangerous how about this 150 mph drifting. This isn't for the faint of heart. This isn't your sissy boy drifting like you see today at 50mph. The venue here is Indy in 1956 and Larry Wright's, Uncle Johnnie Tolan seems to have her in a pretty strong drift.
above photo posted for Larry Wright.

[Buford]

Yeah that's serious business long before sex and violence and rock and roll.

[oldiedowop]

I also can remember that Johnnie used to park his 1955 caddy on the next street behind my grandmothers house. I wondered why? I was in my aunt Jerrys & Johnnies room one time and their top dresser drawer was open an I saw a pile of traffic tickets in it. I asked my aunt Jerry what the tickets were for and she told me that they were Johnnie speeding tickets! So one night I was over my grandmothers house and me an my aunt Jerry an my grandmother were in the living room Johnnie was in their bedroom with the door open. And then there was a knock at the front door my aunt Jerry went to the door and when she opened it there was the COPS! They told her that they had a warrant for his arrest. Johnnie heard this and jumped out of the bedroom window ran to the back fence and jumped over it and got in his caddy and drove away! He called back to the house later an my aunt told him that it was safe to come home. That's when I knew why he parked his caddy on the next street. I don't remember what ever happened with the speeding tickets.

Larry Wright

[Jerry Entin]

Johnnie Tolan leading 1958 Riverside Midget race
Johnnie Tolan won this event



above photo: Bill Bean

lent site Frank S collection

Edited by Jerry Entin, 18 December 2009 - 21:09.

[oldiedowop]

Jerry

I have the trophy from this race.

Larry Wright

[stevewf1]

Originally posted by Jerry Entin

This picture is for Twinny- This is drifting before it was popular.

Buford if you think smoking could be dangerous how about this 150 mph drifting. This isn't for the faint of heart. This isn't your sissy boy drifting like you see today at 50mph. The venue here is Indy in 1956 and Larry Wright's, Uncle Johnnie Tolan seems to have her in a pretty strong drift.
above photo posted for Larry Wright.

Hmmmm... I wouldn't call that "drifting"...

That looks like an actual spin... Maybe he saved it, but drivers at Indianapolis didn't drive thru the turns quite like that...

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by Jerry Entin

Johnnie Tolan leading 1958 Riverside Midget race. He won this event
above photo Bill Bean-lent site Frank S collection

Nice photo, but that is Willow Springs!

Jerry, as always, thanks for posting these wonderful photos

[Frank S]

Willow Springs? Nuh-uh.

http://home.san.rr.c...ff/rirmidg2.htm

[oldiedowop]

Originally posted by stevewf1


Hmmmm... I wouldn't call that "drifting"...

That looks like an actual spin... Maybe he saved it, but drivers at Indianapolis didn't drive thru the turns quite like that...

Steve

This photo was shot during qualifying. He did save it and then went on to qualify for the race.
When he got home I saw the photo and asked him about it and he said I took the turn to fast.


Larry Wright

[oldiedowop]

Bill Vukovich and my uncle Johnnie were good friends back in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
I can remember going to the races as a little boy to watch Johnnie race and remember that I didn't
like Bill at that time as I knew he was the guy that Johnnie had to beat to win the race. Kind of funny now don't you think.


Larry Wright

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by Frank S
Willow Springs? Nuh-uh.

http://home.san.rr.c...ff/rirmidg2.htm

Yes, the other photos clearly are Riverside.

By any chance (probably not) is there more to the top of the photo in question clarifying the mountains?

What turn was this photo taken at?

Granted, it's fuzzy, but the sand looks different, not to mention the mountains

[Jerry Entin]

Jim: Frank S has told me this picture was taken at turn 8. The area by the race track called the Moreno Valley was kind of rolling green hills not mountains.

[Frank S]

In the top two pictures on this page, there is a baby tumbleweed:
http://home.san.rr.c...ff/rirmidg3.htm

The weed is escaping from the right edge of the right photo, and is well within the left side of the left photo. I presented the slides in their machine-numbered numbered order; it's clear to me that Bill Bean turned his camera slightly up-track (our left) to capture the three cars as they entered the short right and long left of Turn Eight at the end of the back straight.


In the (now) right photo (15 of 62 in the album), you can see the 6-8 straight, the (unused at this event) 6-7 straight, and the grandstand outside Turn Six.

Here's the album with all the pictures and crops, including the one in which the two top photos are overlapped with the tumbleweed in a common spot.
http://www.fototime....C07B1B435ACABE3

In the left photo the half-buried tire at the extreme left is at the "inside" edge of the infield at Turn Eight, near the "ankle" if Eight looks a little like a boot (Eight is "7" on the midget program map).


Here is a head-on view of cars in a similar location, nearly three years later, traveling in the opposite direction:


The versions of Bill's pictures that appear on the page are cropped only enough to eliminate the rounded corners of the slide mount, but you can see part of Box Springs "Mountain" in number 3 of 62 on the album page.


All that seems obvious to me, since I have had it incorporated into my internal landscape for the several years since I first worked it out. It's easy to forget others don't have that picture, and make assumptions not warranted.

Sorry.

--
Frank S
"I can't sing,
but I know how to,
which is quite different."
-- Noel Coward

[Jerry Entin]

Jerry Tolan with her first husband Tommy Krisztin
Tommy was also a race driver.

Larry Wright will tell about Tommy Krisztin soon. Larry has also told me his aunt's name on her social security card read Geraldine Krisztin.



photo posted for Larry Wright

Edited by Jerry Entin, 18 December 2009 - 21:13.

[Jerry Entin]

Here is Tommy Krisztin in 1940. This car was called a Hisso.
photo posted for Larry Wright- Larry Sullivan photo

[oldiedowop]

This photo of Tommy Krisztin and my aunt Jerry was taken in the late 1930s or early 1940s in Ohio were he lived. He was a bombardier killed in WWII in an airplane crash in England. I never knew him as he died before I was born.

Larry Wright

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by Frank S



In the (now) right photo (15 of 62 in the album), you can see the 6-8 straight, the (unused at this event) 6-7 straight, and the grandstand outside Turn Six.

All that seems obvious to me, since I have had it incorporated into my internal landscape for the several years since I first worked it out. It's easy to forget others don't have that picture, and make assumptions not warranted.

Sorry.

It very clearly is Riverside. No reason to be sorry. It truly was the tightness and fuzziness of the cropped portion that, hard as it might be to believe, really looks like coming down through the left hander down the hill at Willow Springs (I should have written: "it appears to be Willow Springs")

Had I seen even the lower portion of the right section (even without the turn 6 stands), or the uncropped photo, I would have correctly thought Riverside.

Between your messages, I was thinking "If that's Riverside, then it would have to have been at..."

and you explained it being exactly where I thought. Interesting position and not an angle I've seen many shots from, usually the position in 8 was facing the other direction...well, for obvious reasons

As always, thanks for the photos Frank and thanks for a good explanation of the reversed circuit. Even though I knew they ran the Midget race the opposite direction, the cropped photo truly looks like the downhill left hander at Willow Springs.

I was looking for Box Springs Mountain for RIR or...whatever the mountain is behind Willow Springs (Silver Queen?).

Very rare that I misidentify California dirt

[Jerry Entin]

Here is young Tommy Krisztin on his dad's race car. Also in the picture is his grandfather. Young Tommy was raised by his mother Jerry and step father Johnnie Tolan. Jerry took the Z out of his last name to make it easier when he went to school. His last name throughout school was Kristin.
photo posted for Larry Wright.

[275 GTB-4]

I have this vague memory that Johnnie raced in Australia??? Have a look here to maybe find more info http://www.vintagespeedway.com/

Cheers, Mick

[Jerry Entin]

Jerry Tolan's first husband Tommy Krisztin with Ralph Helm owner of the car he was running.
posted for Larry Wright- photo from Roby Helm collection.

[Jerry Entin]

Tommy Krisztin in Miller race car.
photo posted for Larry Wright

[Jerry Entin]

Johnnie Tolan in 1950. This race was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum and was called the Winter race. In the picture are Cal Niday, Roy Sherman, Tommy Rice and Johnnie Tolan in the car.
photo posted for Larry Wright- photo from Roy Lillard collection.

[Jerry Entin]

Here is a nice picture of Jerry Tolan. As Larry Wright says: "You can see why Johnnie and Tommy went after her!"
photo posted for Larry Wright.

[Jerry Entin]

Tommy Krisztin's Hisso being worked on in the day.

A better look at the engine they used.
above photo's posted for Larry Wright.

[Jerry Entin]

Johnnie Tolan from the early 60's in Australia.


Another nice photo of Johnnie Tolan in Australia. While racing in Australia in 1964 Johnnie suffered career ending back injuries at the Sydney Showgrounds.
above photos posted for Larry Wright-photos from Bill Swaine collection.

[Jerry Entin]

Johnnie and Jerry Tolan, at a park in downtown area of Los Angeles in the late 40's.



Here is Connie Wright. She was Jerry Tolan's mother. On the table behind her are two pictures of her grandkids. They are young Tommy Krisztin and Larry Wright. The trophy with the clock in it behind her is the one Johnnie Tolan won in 1953 for the midget race "The night before Indy".
Larry Wright has this trophy and the clock still runs. Johnnie and Jerry Tolan lived with grandmother Wright at her house in Norwalk
above photos posted for Larry Wright.

[ensign14]

Those Aussie shots are redolent of a particular era and mood...