the SF GP from 1915...again...for an encore...the last picture is the last incarnation of the Simplex Zip. Finally got around to digging out some of my back up disks, years of digging on there.
Kurtis, I never looked at it as a rip off by Burman but quite the opposite. As I have understood the rule"no more than three cars of any one make may start in any race". Burman had actually two Peugeots, one had an engine that you could argue was very similar to the original and the other had interchangeable cylinders and was very different and only a fool could claim it was like the original. If you look at the Fox's book for instance one of Burman's Peugeots made the show and the other did not. I cannot swear which was which but Burman came to Indy calling his cars "Burman specials". If you were to look at the rules they specifically required "all racing cars shall be designated in the official program and in all advertising as 'special'." Burman I believe since he recast new engine blocks and redesigned the engines in certain respects (and in the interchangeable liner engine in many respects) that his cars were now of a different make. The Peugeot Import Co. showed up with three Peugeots, Subeam showed up with 4 Sunbeams and Maxwell showed up with three Maxwells. When Harroun now the head Maxwell engineer in charge of the Maxwell racing program saw Burman and three Peugeots he added a fourth Maxwell and called it a Harroun Special. This then got the pot stirred enough that AAA said don't pay any attention to the call your car "special" anymore and said we are insisting Burman change the name of his car to Burman Peugeot. Well then Peugeot Import Company filed a protest and insisted Burman's car not be considered a Peugeot since he made so many changes. Final result was that only the three fastest of each make made the field so only three Maxwells, three Sunbeams and three Peugeots (two died in the wool Peugeot and one of Burman's). Right after the race Motor Age reported that the 3 car rule was now amended to 5 cars (3 by the factory and 2 others). It appears they knew Burman and Peugeot Import Co. had a point but apparently they had to show who was boss at the time. Plus long story, they had egg on ther face anyway from another rule they had to change just prior to the race (about changing front axles 2 days before the race-to now just steering arms and spindles, since this was considered oppressive to the foreign makes. As to the Delage (Oldfield's Miller powered that ran in AAA) and Durant's Stutz powered were different situations in a sense. They never attempted to deceive anyone including AAA. They were a Miller and a Stutz I believe and I cannot remember any conflict with the 3 car rule (and then the 5 car rule). Durant calling his car a Chevrolet was no different than calling any car any name. Alley's Miller was called the Pan American. Pan American was a Illinois car manufacturer but it was a Miller. Pan American or Chevrolet was just a name (be it a sponsor name). I do not believe AAA cared who built the Delage chassis under Oldfield's MIller anymore than they cared who built Alley's chassis under his Miller. AAA knew it took money to run these cars, most of these guys had sponsors and big wallets behind them-they were fooling very few and certainly not AAA. All of this made for good theater though which helped the buzz and brushed away a bit of the ordinary that might make things boring-Jim
Ascot Speedway, January 26 in 1919. The driver is Eddie O'Donnell (with his arm on the steering wheel), I do not recognize any other persons, although the riding mechanic (with goggles) looks familiar.
Jim, it's time to put this out of the world: I have researched many period documents and articles, and Burman definitely had only one car entered at Indy in 1915! Apparently, Fox became confused due to the name change. Burman may very well have owned two Peugeots later on (though I still can't be sure), but at this time he had only the one, highly modified by himself at Miller's shop, and thus entered as a Burman. At some point AAA decided it was really a Peugeot (essentially, a correct decision) and ordered the name change, which was not merely cosmetic due to the 3-car rule. It was a difficult time for AAA, as manufacturers were pulling out of the sport, and special builders taking their place. Prerequisites changed with every year. You simply cannot compare decisions from 1915 with those from 1920. There were many issues involved with all those "naming decisions", and they are not easy to follow, they never were.
As for the Stutz 300 inch cars, I believe there were only four in total: the three works cars and de Palma's. Earl Cooper appears to have managed the sale to individual owners in late 1915/early 1916, and may have driven more than one under his own name. All four appeared at Santa Monica in early 1919: the one owned by Cooper at the time, the Newman (apparently then owned by Roscoe Sarles) and the two Durant cars, one bought in early 1917 and one in early 1919 (from Walter M. Brown, who earlier figured as an entrant for Cooper). Durant had also raced an earlier Stutz under the Chevrolet name until late 1916, confusing the issue. The car he bought in 1919 was refered to as the "Anderson #5" at the time.
It was actually the very first Miller '122' built, and originally entered as a "Miller Special". Harry Stutz entered into a sponsorship deal a couple of weeks before the event after a courtesy visit by Earl Cooper. Cooper was under contract for Durant, and could not be freed from his obligations until after Indy, so Howdy Wilcox drove the other car.
The driver doesn't look like Mike Moosie to me, but I may be wrong. Moosie was very active in the North Californian racing scene for a couple of decades, and he may have owned this car for a while. One of the Stutz '300' racers ended up in the Northwest, and it may have gone there via Moosie. I will have to look into this once more.
Joe Cooper was not related to Earl Cooper. Earl was born in Nebraska, but grew up in Northern California, Joe was from Eastern Ohio. I do not know of any brother of Earl Cooper, certainly not in connection with racing.
I am pretty sure this is the Baltimore-Washington Speedway at Laurel, Md. Probably practice for the inaugural event, July 11 in 1925. That is Pop Wagner on the flag stand, but I cannot ID the cars.
I cannot find the relevant post now, but someone expressed surprise at seeing Ralph de Palma driving a car for Barney Oldfield. You shouldn't be, since the "famous" animosity between these two was just promotional hype, like any number of other racing driver feuds. Basically, all racing drivers appear to have been close friends off track, at the very least they were buddies helping each other out whenever they could. As late as 1917, Ralph de Palma drove Barney Oldfield's spare car in a match race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, so they simply cannot have been that cross with each other, neither then nor earlier or later. It was all ballyhoo! The same with Tommy Milton and de Palma, everyone will tell you they didn't get along. Yet in Griff Borgeson's Golden Age book, there's a pic of de Palma sitting in Milton's 151 mph LSR Miller, and lately I found out that Milton loaned the car to de Palma when Ralph was having his match races against Sig Haugdahl at Ascot in 1924. De Palma tried the car prior to the April 27 races, but elected to run his standard 2-litre car against Sig's 3-litre Miller, and still won. Given equal machinery, Haugdahl wasn't that hot, pretty much like Gus Schrader later on. IMCA always made sure they had the best equipment, apart from predetermining the finishing order on occasions.
Yes, it's Petillo at Oakland in 1932, but he was already a AAA driver since 1928, and a regular winner on the West Coast. The Duray car was fitted with a Miller '220' engine by this time, Leon having given up on the 2-stroke 16-cylinder. Actually, the second car was built for Cliff Durant in 1931, and had the same engine at the beginning, but also a Miller '220' by 1935.
I believe this hasn't been addressed yet: I don't know who the man in the original picture is, but it's certainly not Eddie Pullen, and not Hughes or Wishart either.
1932, of course, a typo I guess. Left to right, the drivers are Tony Gulotta, Cliff Bergere, Zeke Meyer in the slightly different 1931 car, Luther Johnson and Pete Kreis.
It's Kansas City, July 4. On the pole is Jimmy Murphy, although he had qualified only 6th fastest - in those days, starting orders were still drawn from a hat (except for Indy).
The car is the famous "Haskell Miller", originally the Blauvelt/Miller in 1932. Four years later, it would become Ted Horn's first Miller racing car.
There was no racing at Ascot on March 1 in 1924, a race scheduled for the next day was rained off. Haugdahl first appeared at Ascot on Feb 24, and did 30.6" in the Wisconsin, then 30.0" on March 9. However, de Palma equalled that time on March 30, with the diminutive 2-litre Miller. The Wisconsin was what, 13.7 litres I believe?!!! Haugdahl couldn't beat de Palma with his 10-litre Fiat, either, then went on to order a 3-litre Miller to finally achieve his aim.
Picture #6 is Ed Winfield in his 1926 "Winfield Special", presumably at Ascot. He raced that car for several years. Picture #7 is the famous Ulesky/Hal, built and raced by Johnny Ulesky from Newark (NJ) in the thirties. After WW2, Johnnie Matera raced it in East Coast events well into the fifties. The track is Trenton, I'm sure, but it's difficult to date since the car had #16 for many, many years, and was driven by a number of drivers. I do not recognize the face, could be Lee Wallard. EDIT: the Ulesky/Hal may have actually started life as the Lysek/Hal, built by Paul "Chick" Lysek from Carteret (NJ).
It's actually "Poison Lil", the famous 1932 Sparks-Weirick Big Car, perhaps the most "winningest" car in the history of the sport. It won countless AAA races and championships, and even started at Indy in 1948, just before being "pensioned off". You could write a whole book about this car alone!
Hardly. In 1923, the 2-litre Miller '122' was probably producing some 120 bhp, which was already considered a sensational output, since it basically matched the power of the 3-litre cars of the previous years! Later, with the superchargers added the power rose almost indefinitely. If you were prepared to wreck the engine, a peak output of well over 200 bhp was certainly possible. Had development continued past 1926, a reliable 300 bhp figure could probably have been reached. This is a brilliant thread, thank you all for posting! Please continue to do so!!!
Thankyou Jim & Michael for the explanation in regards to the Burman car and the rules at the time. I clearly remember something about the 3 to 5 car rules but wasn't so sure. It might be time to invest in a book. In regards to Burman and the question of whether he did or did not have two Peugeots, i always thought he ran two cars at Indy in 1915 but after this i'm not so sure although his rebuilt car {Burman Spl} he ran at Oklahoma City and later Chicago sure does look a whole lot different to his 1916 car. The first photo is the rebuilt car at Oklahoma City 1915, 2nd pic is listed as Ascot March 16, 1916, a race i have been unable to find in the records and the last photo is mechanic Eric Schroeder at the ill fated Corona race of '16. I believe he had the 344ci engine in all three races.
Nope, not surprised at all. I've read enough newspaper clippings of the day to realise the promotional B/S stirred up by the track managers of the day. I just wonder whether the incident De Palma had with Oldfield at the former's debut with the Allen-Kingston was the beginning of their so called rivalry. That is, if the incident took place at all. Yeah, that was a late night i guess. Thanks for the correction.
Michael, welcome to the thread. You may be right on the deal with Fox but I thought maybe I missed something in my research on that race. I will have to go over my notes when I have more time but I believe he did have two Peugeots, the one that is in Dees book and the one with the interchangeable liners which I believe is a real stretch to call a Peugeot motor (plus there seems to be some recollection I have where he took both Peugeots to one race-will have to dig thru my notes). The interchangeable liner engine had both 347 ci or 294.2 ci. I guess I assumed he had the intechangeable liner car at Indy, as in February he said he was not going to race his Peugeot again until Indy due to problems with his cylinders. I assumed and maybe incorrectly that he may have had two at Indy due to ??? on the cylinder issue. If he had the interchangeable liner powered car at Indy then I would have to disagree that it is Peugeot based; half the damn OHC cars built would be Peugeot based on that principle. To be honest I have never openly voiced my opinion much on Burman/Miller for fear of sticking my foot in my mouth as that is one mystery I have yet to solve. -Jim
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