Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 May 1939 — Page 29
MONDAY, MAY 29, 1939 ;
DRE I cS : THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
~ RICH AND POOR—ROARING BRICKS LURE THEM AL
1. This is an annual scene
outside the Speedway gates
on W. 16th St, as speed fans from all corners of the country line up to await their chance to drive their cars into the infield. They are all here—rich men, poor men, farm
boys and perpetual drifters.
This is a scene—as are the
others on this page—from the 1938 race.
—
oy
Power Their Only Aim; That's Why Mo Motors Roar
oil soaked curves and roaring
‘A NIGHTMARE’
[its, the higher the compression the faster the engine will turn and the more power it will produce. Ordinary commercial fuels limit the compression ratio that may be employed in passenger cars. Because of the problems of noise and durability the passenger engine also is limited as to the nature of the de- Charles Merz, chief steward of vices that can be used to get a fuel {he American Automobile Associa-
charge into a cylinder. L650 b "“ ist # speed y Ss 'd, is st a ¢ None of these things is a factor ion conte: oard, isn't just a spee with race engines. Thus race en- theorist. gines can use more efficient valve, When the first 500-mile race was +} 3 » , mechanisms even though their life held in 1811 Merz faced the starting line behind the wheel of one
is shorter. Practically all race cars of the big lumbering monsters that
are of valve-in-head type, while only two passenger car models have were the top speed creations of that day.
this type motor, The average passenger car has “The 1911 race comes back A me he said. was
{only one cam which operates both | |the intake and exhaust val es, while like a nightmare,” racing engine has a cam shaft an innovation in racing Ti or us had experienced.
“The cars we had in those days
The race car engine was different from the motor of vour car when both were still in the blueprint stage, because the designers were faced with fundamentally different problems. Primary concern of the builder of passenger cars is to turn out a quiet motor that will operate efficiently on ordinary commercial gasolines and perform under all weather and altitude conditions. The motor must be durable. None of these things race car builder. He can build motors to operate on any sort of fuel. His cars aren't asked to run in unusual weather conditions, and if they break down, they can always be rebuilt Weight Saving Important
His chief task is to produce as a much power as possible for the weight of the motor, and this means [OF each and both are on top. | turning up the number of revelu-| Carburetors Much Alike 'were rough riding things. Once we
: { IRRES : ebreqbe Hon le Makes TE Very few passenger cars turnigot started there was nothing to engines, | more than 400 revolutions a minute, G0 but keep pounding along, bu! According to Bob Jackson, mech- while race engines go up as high I can remember that steering Shee! anician for the Boyle team, whol gg 7000 r. p. m. battling me like it was some live has helped prepare a Maserati and, |thing. It was a physical relief to two Offenhauser powered cars for Racing engines can have more pull into the pits for more fuel or this race, this problem of weight! efficient combustion chambers than !new tires.” saving is one of the chief tasks of | PASSenger cars, There isn't a great! He recalled that the event lasted | race car builders and mechanics. | 1eal of difference between the types for 6 hours and 42 minutes and the For this reason a race engine uses carburetors the two use, except wild shout that went up from oe exceptionally light materials such $ to detail of design. srowd when Ray Harroun won. as magnesium alloys in places where AS Mr. Jackson explained, any en-| “I can still hear that YO il] an ordinary commercial engine has, gineering job is a continual com- rumble of a shout,” he said. “Fran- | cast iron parts promise. The passenger car Qesipn tically I looked at my riding ey The steels employed in parts like ers have compromised one way chanie, L. E. Banks, hoping it was connecting rods, crankshafts, timing meet the demands made against true. I can't remember finishing pears. etc. are more nearly similar their product and the race car de- put they told me later I placed to those of passenger car engines. SIENers another way. seventh just behind Ralph De Palma.”
Whenever possible, however, a high- | g MAURI ROSE COOKS, TOO Mets (athe back and
er strength steel alloy is used in place of steel, but “this now is he- Mauri Rose is a good cook. He fourth in 1912. the vear ing done in the more expensive pas- says he can fix up a platter of spa- son triumphed in a National, | ghetti that anvbody would be proud he was third in a Stutz in
senger ears , ito © : Racers Expect Repairs bo claim i 1913 event. the
comparative mene nn JOOM.P.H. Club Is Called World's ‘Most Exclusive’
cylinder, Tether with a cubic inch piston displacement |
generates 200 horse power. The guishes the expert driver from the
average passenger car engine of the same piston displacement has less merely good pilot. The membership list of living drivers is:
than half that much power. Thus, if the same power to weight | ratio obtained, to secure the same] power from a passenger engine that is contained in ac:race engine, the passenger engine would have to be Ted Horn, Kelly Petillo, Mauri Rose, Lou Meyer, Fred Frame, Howdy Wilcox II, George Connor,|" Floyd Roberts, George Barringer, Cliff Bergere, Louis Tomei, Wilbur Shaw, Lou Moore, Zeke Meyer, Rus-
almost twice as big. All passenger engines are desell Snowberger, Chet Miller, Billy Arnold and Dave Evans.
Lasted 6 Hours and 42 Minutes, but Merz Can't Remember Finish.
worries a
finished Joe Dawand the
The phrase “the world's most exclusive club” is used variously to refer to the U. S. Senate, to a British naval officers’ organization (and to golf clubs on three continents. But race drivers regard all of the above mentioned organizations as having simple entrance requirements as compared with the organization they claim is the most exclusive. They mean the 100-Mile-an-Hour | Bill Cummings, Bob Carey, Club composed of 24 men, living Gardner, Stubby Stubblefield and dead, who have driven the full Doc MacKenzie. 500 miles on the Indianapolis Speedway without relief at an aver- is age of 100 miles an hour or better.
signed so that there will be a minimum of wear on moving parts, while this is not a factor with a race car builder. Race car wear is compensated for by more frequent repairs, | There is considerable difference in| compression ratio between the two types of engines. Compression ratio refers to the relation between the space the piston travels through the stroke of the engine and the space remaining at the top of the
Chet
the retiring president. Zeke Meyer has been elected to succeed Next to winning the race itself. him. No new members were added cylinder. no honor is so coveted by the en- as a result of last vear's race. since The less space there is at the top| trants as securing a place on the those who finished at the required | of the cylinder the higher the com- | mémbership roster of this club. It average al
pression @nd within reasonable lim- is the one factor which distin- previous Memorial Day races.
2. From the tops of their hours to watch the speed gladiators risk their necks on
Deceased members are Ray Pixley, and |
Wilbur Shaw, winner here in 1937. !
cars the crowd stands for
stretches. This is the por-
“Hot-foot” Jimmy Snyder, who has been tagged the “Chicago milkbut says he did a lot of other in a varied career,
man” things longer
| broke all records as he qualified this
year for the 500-mile race,
He did the four laps at an average
130.138 miles an hour and a lap record of 130.757 miles an That's Jimmy, for you, who started three races and has
Wf set nour. nas
| dinished none,
He has been spectacularly unlucky in his Memorial Day races. In 1936 a fouied pump took him out of the race after 50 miles. buretor caught up with him after 67 mjles and caused him to ge to the pits. Got Goggles First
Last year he looked like a certain winner. He traveled 375 miles, 150 laps, those laps. Then trouble overtook him again, this time in the form of burned valves and the supercharger. In each instance he was leading the field when trouble forced him out. This year he has high hopes again and the pole position.
In 1937 his car- |
or | and led the field 91 of!
tion of the track just north of the press pagoda on the
home straightaway. Tired, dirty
that he couldn't hear, Floyd Roberts, airplane factory employee, had his car wheeled into the victor’s pen after he captured last year's former driver, who owned
heside him is Lou Moore,
the car.
4. In even rows three abreast the field follows the pace car through the southwest curve in the 1938 race.
1ST RACE IN '11 You Can Usually Find Myr. Snyder Up There First—as Long as Car Lasts DRIVER HIMSELF
Illinois football player, former Chicago milkman, former lifeguard and racing enthusiast extraordinary. How did he get to be a driver? He simply bought himself a pair goggles and a crash helmet “I'd never driven a racer.” Jimmy says, “but I'd seen them run up at Crown Point. And I decided 1 wanted to own one. I'd seen one in
race
{of |
a garage window. The tag on it said |
1 had about $350 and tried to make a deal. So I hought a pair of goggles and a helmet and went out to the Crown Point track.
| Andres Helped Him “T made friends with Emil Andres and in a couple of weeks I was driving regularly. That was in 1932 and | [I've been a driver ever since.” Jimmy tells his friends that he]
|sees racing as a step into a permanent and responsible position in the automotive field. He was born in
2500
| Chicago and spent his boyhood on|
lan Indiana farm. He then moved back to Chicago,
and took a couple of years of pre-|
{medical work at the University of °
and so deafened by his motor’s roar
| Chicago.
And that was years and years ago. |
field off to 4 flying start. the Van Nuys, Cal.
race. Standing ship.
toast in milk and lemonade.
RICK’ WAS RACE |
where ere he
University, Atlanta, Ga was about to make the team, but quit instead. His first job was as a milkman in
War Ace Now row Ling Between The Past, the Present And the Future.
about that,” he says, “I a few months,
“Funny was a milkman for And yet I'm always the ‘former Chi-
cago milkman.’
Capt. Edward V. Rickenbacker
Owns Chicago Tavern
“Why I was a lifeguard for eight Speedway Corp., sort of one-
vears, and yet I'm never known as yay connecting link between the the ‘former lifeguard.” . Despite the fact he has never Past, the present and the finished a race, Jimmy is rated as of rapid transportabion, one of the top drivers in the in-| The smiling Eddie's dustry. He is assigned this year to memories date back to those preone of the Thorne entries. jwar years when he used to be a He owns a racing car race driver himself. has entered with Emil Andres, the, Those were the man who gave him his start. He (also owns a tavern in Chicago,!
1S a
which he days
rumbling around the track in {bought out of his racing winnings.| Stutzes and Ray Harroun led them His family consists of Mrs. Jimmy, | all home in the 1911 race. Two Grace Louise, 11; Jimmy Jr, ,! beardless youths, Joe Dawson and | and Louis Ann, 16 months. | Howdy Wilcox, were just gaining He says Mrs. Jimmy won't admit | | reputation as speed merchants and] that his driving frightens her. “But she can't fool me,” he ANE hw» in their prime, ‘She's not quite 28 and has gray Eddie Finished 10th
Snyder is a former University of! Illinois. Then he went to Oglethorpe hair already.’
SPEEOSTERS OFTEN EAT ON TOM'S CUFF’
Tom Beall is one of the Speedwav's real veterans. You've never heard of him winning a 500-mile race but when dusk sets on the two and one-half mile oval tomorrow, it's an odds-on bet that “Old Tom" has something to do with the victory. Tom {is the proprietor of Beall's Speedway Restaurant and the expression “On Tom's Cuff” is known wherever race drivers get together. He is 67 years old and started his restaurant under two umbrellas when Carl Fisher built the famous race course back in 1909. When Tom was 12 he worked as a pan greaser in a bakery in Bowl- | ing Green, Ky. He saw a Barnum & Bailey Circus and noticed that one
the
lof the peddlers was coining money
selling pink lemonade. So he decided to go into the business. Prior to race day, drivers, mechanics and sometimes owners, are a bit short of cash so Tom feeds | ‘em and puts it “on the cuff.” The|
{genial veteran claims he has never
lost a nickel.
TRACK NOT LIABLE
In signing 500-mile entry blanks. | owners free the]
drivers and car Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the American Automobile Association from all liability “for injuries to person, property or reputation
dy had qualified in | suffered * ‘during the race. The words the An
"are printed on the blanks,
3
HENNING’S TERRIER A POPULAR FELLOW
H. C. “Cotton” Henning has a los. haired terrior which is probably as well known to automobile racing fans as any of the drivers.
Henning is chief mechanician for |
Mike Bovle of Chicago and it was while acting in that capacity he purchased this dog following a race in Cleveland years ago. | “Speedy” is his name and 7 vears old. Since Henning purchased the pup it has traveled in
the neighborhood of 100,006 miles,
according to his owner. It has made eight trips to New York and four to the West Coast. “Cotton”
(Pioeed oh in the way of “being useful,” “Cotton” put it, it has done just BS observation. F'rinstance| “Speedy” will pick up the key at| the hotel desk and carry it up for [Feaning
LOU MOORE'S LUCK ‘NEVER OF THE BEST’
Lou Moore, who has entered tie joining garages.
car Floyd Roberts is to drive in this race, used to be a driver himself but his luck never was of the best. In the 1929 race here Moore was running second and apparently had the position clinched when his car threw g connecting rod as it tered 199th lap, one lap from It cost Lou more than $10,000 in second prize money alone.
————————— ]
SAFETY HELPED BY
that |
| battleship he's |
will tell you he hasn't | taught the dog a thing. What it has | Smoking"
en- nosed. That is a pretty poor meta- |
Rickenbacker finished 10th in a | Duesenberg in the 1914 race, and | | while he was always in there try-
ing, he never could place higher in the field. His record at oth ad tracks was better, | Drum and bugle music called me [eountry’s vouth off to war in 1917. | and Rickenbacker enlisted. Be- | cause of his reputation as a race pilot, he was asked to chauffeur the car of Gen, John J. Pershing, a job he held until his transfer into the flving corps. Every school boy knows of his war record and how he became the great American ace. Since the war he has been interested in the | development of better automobiles and has become connected |with the commercial aviation dustry. Like a mother hen clucking over “ a brood, his biggest worry on race All of the garages have No | day is that someone will get hurt. signs which contain the py. wonts the boys to go fast, but | additional somber warning “If this] lto do it safely. place burns today where will you : : work tomorrow?” There are plenty Drivers Fear Skid Most lof violations of these signs, although | 1 : |the members of the crew are careful] He didn’t always show this re not to drop cigarets on the floor. Arranging the garages is an an-
SPOTLESS GARAGES
Garage floors at the Speedway are Kept spotlessly clean. Mechanics always peint out that grime can cover up defects and defects can cause wrecks. That is why the garages are as spic and span as turrets and why loose parts never are scattered around the floor. Spectators can look at the cars from the doorways, but race drivers do not like to have people touching | lor leaning on their machines.
he was driving the country’s tracks nual problem to the Speedway man-| 2nd speedways. Drivers fear mos} an unmanageable skid, yet Rick-| agement. Some drivers believe that | had pd notion that | if their car isn’t placed in a certain | tnbacker once ha ¢ notion Lia garage section it won't run well. la well regulated skid was just the| Usually the teams having more than | I OF lone car entered like to have ad- He contrived a means for casting a thin spray of oil under the right front wheel where the tread of the tire made contact with the B track. Speedway officials were so Sports writers in that Tower of curious about the antics of this Babel, the Speedway press pagoda, | | particular car that it was flagged used to refer to the cars as bullet- in for inspection. Only by standing against the fod’ fronts of most | front wheel and simulating. ndigna1 something like | tion was he able to divert :ttention from his strange qevies,
BULLETS TO FISH
'phor now sine of the cars catfish
This lap doesn't count in the race
5. Journey's end for Floyd Roberts. with a record-breaking average of 117.2 miles an hour and then went on fo capture tiie national driving champion-
[president of the Indianapolis Motor
fawre)
happiest
when | Charlie Merz and Len Zengel were |
Ralph DePalma and Bert Dingley |
mn-|
pulling out of turns a
and merely gets the
He won the race
6. Roberts (left) and his partner, Moore, drink
This same partnership com-
bination has two cars entered in tomorrow’s race. Roberts is to drive one and Frank Wearne the other.
Slanguage Tires Are Jockeys Driving on Big Bull Ring.
Skins to
Race drivers and mechanics have a language all their own, A casual { visitor to the Speedway would be confused no end to hear a driver say “That iron threw a galloping rod and a skin when it went into that Gilhooley on the Big Bull Ring.” Translated, it means: . “That car threw a connecting rod” land a tire when it went into that spin on the Speedway.” Racing jargon~—a small portion of it—goes like this: A turn is a lap. An old clunk or old goat is an old car. Buckets are pistons. Gates are valves. | Cut a fast one means making a particularly fast lap. | Jockey or chauffeur is a driver, Grease monkey is a mechanic. Pouring coke to it or standing on it means the driver is going at a real fast clip while in the turn at { the ends of the track. Small bull ring is a dirt is a dirt rack,
1ST OR WRECK IT --AND 1ST IT WAS!
Joe Boyer Raced oie From Fourth to Victory.
took over a car L. Corum in the flipped his goggles eyes and remarked
When Joe Bover being driven by L 1924 race, he down over his to his pit crew: “I'll either push her out in front {or hang her on that telephone pole.” | Corum had moved his car up from ninth to fourth place, and when Boyer took over as his relief driver he began pouring on everything the car had. He brought the car home first, | and was listed with Corum as a co- | winner F Of the the race.
MACQUINN SEES BIG FUTURE FOR MIDGETS
Harry MacQuinn of Milwaukee {drives for the Marchese Brothers the year around. Tomorrow he'll pilot a car owned by the Milwaukee boys. The rest of the year Harry guides midget autos to victory for the Milwaukee car builders, MacQuinn predicts that midgets will go faster each year. However, |he qualifies his remarks by saying the midget models will be slightly heavier than the current models. | Macquinn finished seventh last year,
|gard for caution in the days when |
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