History Auto racing 1894-1942

Point Breeze must have one heck of a track! I just stole this off a Google search. QCMC please give us a history lesson on the track.

 

For extra credit that would be P.D.Folwell, correct?

 

My father talked about going there, but I think that he was talking about motorcycle races

Herb

 

Thanks.

It's difficult to get a handle on the way the races were run at Brooklands.

I remember reading something about the Dunfee brothers some time ago so i went on a search to find it. Unfortunately it couldn't be found but i came across an interesting read about the case of the Bentley Speed Six driven by Dunfee in the Empire Trophy race. This was a court case that took place 20 years ago.

Go here... www.gomog.com/articles/no1judgement.html

 

Welcome QCMC.

I've read about the Quaker City Motor Club in the Michael J. Seneca book. Very enjoyable.
I look forward to learning more about the club and your grandfather.

BTW, do you have any link to the forthcoming QCMC site?

 

Herb,

Thanks for the Pop Shunk cam drawings. Much appreciated.

K...

 

Well, I had posted on this thread a while ago about auto racing at the Marshfield Fair in Massachusetts... I found out it did happen, mostly before 1937, and actually appeared in the Guiness book for some reason that had to do with a cars owner being killed by the driver in turn one when the car lost control pinning the owner(not driver), who was watching, against a tree! I am still on the hunt for some photos and other stuff. I have some good leads and will post my results soon I hope.
While doing my "research" I came across these photos (I searched and hope these aren't duplicates) from a little later at Readville Park,(Readville,MA) which has been mentioned earlier.
The driver of the wreck, Al Frazier, was killed in the fire...

 

Thank you Willy, There is a softcover book on the Readville track, they started racing there before 1910 I believe. Sad photos of that Model A Ford wreck. The first two show cars that should be ID'd.

 

I believe thats the source where I got the photos...It was linked with the Boston Public Library site however this magic box works!

 

Trust me, your photos are far better quality than the ones in the book.

 

Riight again! You should be the one giving the history lesson on Point Breeze!

My information on this track is quite limited. For some reason I think the Fairmount Park races received a lot more publicity and became better known than the Point Breeze races. Perhaps the fact that the Fairmount Park races were initially an attempt to steal the thunder from the famous Vanderbilt Cup races had something to do with it.

 

A little something ..........















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A nice 'original' T51














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The only hard and fast rule is that there is no hard and fast rule! To really understand it you need both Bill Boddy's "Brooklands" and Tony Hutchings' "The Administration of Motor Racing at Brooklands" plus access to original reports. The two books will cost you the thick end of 150 of your Aussie dollars

 

Nice photos Keith, not to be picky, but that is a twin cam Type 51.

 

No worries,


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T6,

I check my results folder as i sometimes do when a photo has been posted to learn about the particular race but the race at the Concord track on the 3rd of July 1908 was not listed. In fact there were no races on that date.

BTW, i've never seen a photo of this track. I honestly thought it was better than what is shown in the photo.

 

Here's a picture of the restored car in its '41 livery (from page 1 of the Sprint Car thread).

 

Those pictures are from September 5 (Labor Day) in 1932. The Al Fraser wreck (that's the spelling I have, no idea which one is right) happened in a support race for "Light Cars", apparently "Modifieds" in an early form. The first two pictures are from the "Big Car" (Sprint Car) race, a 50-miler won by Mauri Rose, the second of his three big wins that year (also Langhorne 50 on Aug 13 and Detroit 100 on Sep 10).

There are a couple of interesting Indy Cars in the field: #61 in the first picture is the 1931 (Louie) Meyer/Miller, 4th at Indy in both 1931 and '32 - I don't know who drove it that day. The car in the centre of the second picture (with the boys standing around it) is the 1930 Romthe/Studebaker - "Romthe" was an acronym of six Studebaker engineers who dipped a toe into the Indy water for the South Bend manufacturer. It's possible that the car was driven by Malcolm Fox, who finished second in the race.

EDIT: also in the second picture, #47 is the GNH (George N. Howie)/Chrysler, a 1931 Indy Car.

 

Michael, is the #5 car the one Chuck Davis restored years ago? If so I have this car confused with the other top IMCA car, the drivers name escapes me right now.

 

Yes, I believe that's the Chuck Davis car. Were you thinking of Emory Collins?

 

QCMC.... Glad you have finally been able to post..... Please share more of your treasure trove with us. I hope the you have had the two seater out. I just got back from Bean town from an event with Sam and Peter's old bucket of bolts. Looking forward to seeing more of you photos. T-H

 

In the foreword to his CRA book (Vol. 1), Buzz Rose mentions that he bought this car from Louie Senter in the fall of 1955, and sold it to Harry Abajian later. No other info except that it had a DO Cragar back then, and I have no idea if there is any truth to it!

 

This is not strictly under the topic of racing, but is probably not going to be appreciated by any group more than loyal followers of this thread. Back on post 1356, I include a photo of the 1904 Packard model L that crashed in the first 1000 mile endurance run. A friend just acquired these photos, which I do not believe have been published in any book. The 1000 mile run was well covered and there are many photos but none that we recall showing the grandstand. The track was not illuminated, so the published statements about Schmidt and Boyd losing lights before the crash was in reference to the acetylene lamps on the car. In the second run, August 6 - 8, 1904, Charles Schmidt and E F Roberts drove to completion without stopping except for tires. Trouble developed with the trembler for the #1 cylinder, and this was repaired while in motion. If you look at the closeup, you'll see a third person in the car, and it appears to be the repairman. My apologies for less than perfect photos. These are photos of photos.

 

And for those who require documentation to be satisfied, here are the affidavits of the drivers and "mechanicians."

 

This action packed photo was posted on the Model T Ford racing thread on the Ford barn. The inside car is a T and the other appears to be an Essex in a barrel race. They both seem to want to be in the same spot at once which lead to this photo. Follow this link to see the thread.

http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3723

 

T6,
I find it remarkable what these cars were capable of. There is also a strong argument that the auto's from yesteryear are more efficient than today's digitized gas guzzlers.

I did a some delving into this 'race' but i'm not so sure if the information is 100% correct.
First, the date i have is 7-8th August 1904. The driver's listed are Charles Schmidt, Ed Roberts and S.D. Waldon and the car is described as a Peerless "Grey Wolf" designed by Schmidt.
Second, the record run was completed in 29 hours, 53 minutes and 37 seconds. During the run, Schmidt was relieved by Roberts for 238 laps and Waldon completed 253 laps. Jack Boyd is not mentioned.

There was also an event that took place at this track on the 26-27th August with a couple of Handicap and 'Open' races. Schmidt competed in a 10 Mile Open race on the 27th, crashing after 4 laps. The car he was driving was the Packard "Grey Wolf".

 

I found this photo of the 1904 Packard Model L record car but there is a question about the radiator belonging to a 1905 Model N. ????
I'll leave it to the experts to explain this.