History Bring Out Yer Board Track Pics!

There was a board track in Pottstown , PA back in the early twenties.

 

You guys keep it up. I'll beat up anyone that thinks this is OT!!

 

I sent Ira Vail two letters and he replied to both on his really neat stationary. Maybe he was old and didn't want to write much, but the main body of the letter was about sending enough stamps to cover the postage on his letter. We should compile a list of the race cars he had, he was famous for racing a car and selling it as soon as something better came along. I think he had a lot of repete customers, the Carpenter sales I mentioned and a Duesenberg 8 and a Miller 183 to the local Dodge dealer.

 

There sure was.
Altoona Speedway was a 1.25 mile oval. It ran from 1923 to 1931 and was destroted by a fire in 1936.
Today ball parks and a parking lot sits on the former site.

 

Excellent idea.

 

The Charlotte Speedway board track was a Jack Prince 1.25 mile track. It was conceived when Otto Barringer, a Charlotte hotel magnate and Lee A. Folger, a Charlotte Buick dealer traveled to Indy together in 1923 and wanted to offer the Carolinas a modern race track. They gathered a group of investers and purchased land next to railroad tracks just 10 miles from downtown Charlotte. After grading the land the track was built in just 40 days. Carpenters worked 18 hour days until completed. Over 4,000,000 feet of Carolina Pine were used. Barringer was elected general manager and immedialely started making deals with the top drivers to be there for the first race. He signed 14 including Pete Depaolo, Jimmy Murphy, Tommy Milton, Benny Hill, Earl Cooper, Harry Hartz, and Frank Lockhart. Unfortunately, 3 were killed before the October 25th 1924 inaugural race including National Champion Jimmy Murphy who was killed at Syracuse on September 15th. On October 16th, just 9 days before the inaugural race during a practice session at Charlotte Ernie Ansterburg was fatally injured. During qualifying Tommy Milton flirted with the world record with a lap of 125.7 miles per hour. All 11 drivers qualified at over 100 mph. Spectators started arriving by car and train days in advance. Attendance was over 30,000. Tommy Milton won averaging an astounding 115.3 mph for the 250 miles. Earl Cooper finished second.

Earl Cooper won the first Charlotte race in 1925, this time with an average speed of 121.6 in front of 55,000 fans, one of the largest in history. His winnings were $35,000.00. Tommy Milton won for the second time in Charlotte by winning the second race there in 1925 with an average of 124 mph but attendance fell to 35,000.

In 1926 Earl Devore won the first race with an average speed of less than Milton's 124 mph record. For the second race Frank Lockhart set a qualifying record of 132.4 mph and won the race.

1927 would be the last year of racing at the Charlotte Board Track. The boards were starting to deteriorate and needed massive repairs. Lockhart won the last race. The track stood abandoned for the next dozen years but was dismantaled during WW11 to help the war effort. The Allison family would build a new dirt track In Charlotte right after WW11 and that track would host NASCAR's first race in 1949. In 1960 the Charlotte Motor Speedway superspeedway would open to host the new wave of Muscle Cars out of Detroit. But the qualifying speed would not be but a few miles an hour faster than the 132 mph set by Frank Lockhart in a relic on a wooden track 30 years prior. Now that is impressive!

Pete Depaolo came back to Charlotte in the 50s to manage Ford's Stock Car racing program. He hired Ralph Moody to drive one of the team cars and John Holman to help manage the team. When Ford joined the ban on racing Pete retired and the racing team became HOLMAN-MOODY.

 

Bob,
You posted this pic previously. This is the Miller 183 that Ira Vail raced on the dirt in 1924-25 before selling it to the gentleman who owned the Dodge dealership.
Upon looking closely it's hard to believe this car is a Miller although the 183 engine is visible. The chassis has no resemblance to a Miller and he {Miller} never built a 2 seater that i know of so it makes me wonder whether this car was specifically built by Vail to be raced on the dirt.
I know a short tail Miller was built and raced at one time although i doubt if this could be the one.

 

Ira Vail in the Philbrin and Reeves Dutton in a Stutz getting all tangled up at Ascot.

 

ooooooohhhh .. OUCH !! darn i hope they were ok ............... steve

 

Kurtis I appreciate your posts and knowledge and I realize we all have a fleeting moment once in awhile but prior to the 1923 cars that Miller built for Durant virtually all of his cars were two seaters.

The design of this car has a somewhat truncated back end and I would not award it any design trophies but it does resemble Miller in other respects I thought.-Jim

 

Jim, you are correct. The years 1924-25 confused me into thinking this car was built by Miller at the time of the single seater 2 liter formula of 1923. I have not read many articles about Ira Vail apart from his involvement with Harry Miller, the Leach Spl. Miller and obviously his dirt track career but Vail did have a history of building his own cars from others parts, the Philbrin Duesenberg being one example so I'm starting to think if this car is one of the 'older' Durant cars, although it does not match any of the chassis built for him. All we can do is speculate at this time until better info comes our way.
Thanks again for the correction.

Kurtis.

 

There is speculation by some experts who believe the Philbrin Duesy of Ira Vail is the wrecked Duesenberg driven by Arthur Thurman in the 1919 '500. Vail first drove the Philbrin at Ascot in November of the same year.

 

Kurtis that is correct that the opinion seems to be that the Philbrin is the Thurman 19 Indy car resurrected. At Indy it was reported that the car had some of Thurman's own designs although they were not specific.

If you look at the Elgin 1919 race records you will see that Milton and Mulford in their Duesenbergs had 16 valves in head with one overhead shaft while the Roamers had 16 valves horizontal with dual shafts. On the other hand if the Philbrin (with Vail) had the regular old Duesey stuff why do the stats show 16 vlaves in head with dual shafts? I don't know the answer myself and have never researched it. Maybe someof the Duesey experts can chime in-Jim

 

HUH.
What are you reading Jim? It seems we have two different reports.
Elgin 300mile race on 23 August 1919.

1st. #9 Tom Milton....Duesenberg.
2nd. #8 Rosco Sarles....Roamer.
..
4th. #4 Ira Vail....Philbrin Hudson.[Ralph Mumford stopped on lap 22 in the #10 Duesenberg, relieving Ira Vail.]
5th. #12 Kurt Hitke....Roamer.

It seems the Duesy's had the 8cyl. engine while the Roamer's were using the 4cyl. units. As for the Philbrin, my notes show the first race with the Duesy was 3 months later.
Having said that, personally i don't take too much notice as far as final race results,car numbers,who drove what and for whom,etc..
Auto racing in that period was flawed in so many ways that it's hard to keep up with everything that really happened. {Eg. Who really won the first Indy?}. As each year passes new info comes to light leaving the poor old book writers of a decade or two earlier scratching their heads in disbelief.

 

Kurtis, Griffith Borgeson had said that the Philbrin was the resurrected Dues of Thurman which may be the case although I have never researched it in any depth. Borgeson has been known to have been wrong on occasion but I am making an assumption that it "may" be Duesenberg, maybe with some modifications. Thurman appears to have run a Duesenberg 4 at Indy in 1919.

I place very little confidence in any modern day reports though and would much rather rely on the press reports of the day. I understand the reports can be in error but I believe more often than not they are correct.

Here are the stats of the cars that ran at Elgin. Some have said that there must be a mistake which is fine if you want to believe it. I believe it is correct until I can research it myself to show that it truly is in error. The guys that wrote these stats knew there were several Duesenbergs and they chose to show the differences. Of course the stats do not specifically say Duesenberg next to Philbrin, so my assumption may be out in left field if the truth be told.

If the reports in May of 1919 in Motor Age are correct(I believe although I would have to sift through my notes to be sure it is not The Automobile) that Thurman's car had "some of Thurman's own designs" then there may be a reason that the Philbrin had different stats than the "standard" walking beam and the "new" Duesenbergs.

As I said I have not researched it so my assumptions may have as much value as ouija board.-Jim

 

I need some info, who was Philbrin? Was this #4 car the HUDSON that Vail had raced at INDY in 1919?

 

Bob Vails car at Indy in 1919 was a Hudson Super Six. If you look at the stats for Elgin and look at Thurmans car at Indy both were 4 cylinder cars. If you look, the bore and stroke matched the Roamers, the difference at least according to the stats was the valve location.-Jim

 

Philbrin was an ignition company i think. Same sponser on the factory NASCAR Hudsons years later.

 

Thanks! Why was HUDSON in upper case letters on your earlier Elgin post?

 

Jim had mentioned the Philbrin was Duesy powered but my notes classify it as an Hudson. It was just to highlight it.

On another side note. The Vail and Dutton coming together is also another confusing one. Reports say both cars were destroyed but Reeves was back racing a 1915 Stutz only weeks later. A French website reports him as fatally killed. As for the Philbrin it also was reported racing later in November that same year.

 

Can anyone tell me what this car is?

 

Looks like a Model T Ford speedster to me. Most likely has a commercialy made body, or it was built by a talented owner.

 

or someone's canoe is missing!

 

Does that grille on the #10 Fronty look like the one someone is seeking info on? It's been doing the rounds lately i think. I thought it concluded with the Chevrolet Frontenac, not sure.

 

That #10 is a Duesenberg that had been mis-identified as a Frontenac.

From Tacoma 1922-Joe Thomas

<table width="100%"><tbody><tr style="height: 18pt;" height="24"><td class="xl25" style="width: 5%; height: 12.75pt;" valign="top" width="33">
</td> <td style="width: 20%; height: 12.75pt;" valign="top">Joe Thomas</td> <td class="xl25" style="width: 5%; height: 12.75pt;" valign="top" width="26">10</td> <td class="xl26" style="width: 25%; height: 12.75pt;" valign="top" width="61">Duesenberg</td> <td class="xl26" style="width: 10%; height: 12.75pt;" valign="top" width="61">Duesenberg</td> <td class="xl26" style="width: 10%; height: 12.75pt;" valign="top" width="54">Duesenberg</td> <td class="xl25" style="width: 5%; height: 12.75pt;" valign="top" width="33">114</td> <td class="xl26" style="width: 10%; height: 12.75pt;" valign="top" width="54">Flagged</td></tr></tbody></table>

 

I'd love to know more about the what (Stutz?), when, where and who of this one?!

 

Steve,
That is at the Rod Shafer car at Chicago Speedway Park{i think}. I did have more info on this but i can't find it at this time. I'll get back to you when i do.

 

One of the things that amazes me the most in these wonderful pictures, are the crowds that showed up to view these races. The stands almost always seem to be full. It must have been quite a spectacle to watch these early yet primitive race cars rolling around the splintered wooden tracks of the United States. Just from looking at the 100's of pictures here, I would have setup on the inside of one of the track at the bottom of high degree banked turns. Lots of crazy action there.