History Auto racing 1894-1942

An article from San Fran Call of April 21, 1912
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19120421.1.73&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN------
"Case Cars Take Most of Honors in Oakland Meet; Stutz A**** Winners"
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91981316@N06/15560806725/in/set-72157632565836705

 

Is the driver recognizable to anyone?

 

Yes.

 

Thank you Michael, is is safe to think this traveling racing circus was packed into train cars and moved from track to track? I've only seen one photo of the Ira Vail 1919 INDY Hudson rolling out of a train car, but there must have been many. Bob

 

Yes, that was the usual form of transport in those days. You can find the occasional reference in press reports, but not very much on that subject. It seems that big teams like Case/Sloan, Maxwell/Moross and so on had their own boxcars, and regularly performed maintenance work while "on the rails"...

Come on, Don, quit teasing us!

 

Perhaps Don is seeking a reward!

I can't offer any prizes but extra points are on offer if the name of the race and when it took place is mentioned. I'll throw in some extras in the goodie bag if the ch***is make/year and engine make/year are correct.

 

Sorry this contribution is so out of date; but I, like many, have had difficulty navigating this new format. And too, many of you may think it is OT. It's been my belief that current PreWar racing in the US has been on the wane. Some of you attended the SVRA's 1st Brickyard Vintage Automobile Races last June. There was a modi*** of PreWar cars in Group that was so designated. But, like many events, the grid for the Group had to be "fleshed out" with later model cars. I didn't do myself any favors by showing up with worn-out tires. In the enclosed YouTube link, that's me mowing some of Indy's gr***. To my point: Because of lack of participation of actual PreWar cars, as clearly was the case in this event, and the inclusion of later dated cars: some of the driving of the later year cars was aggressive and sometimes erratic. This situation, in turn causes owners of PreWar race cars to keep them in their storage; or, as they say: their collection.

 

When we started old car racing it was with an Alloy 250 SWB Ferrari. Ex NART EX LeMans car
Things have really changed. Cars are like SCCA racers of the 80's.

 

Indeed! And they drive'um like they stole'um!

If one takes a look at some other YouTube videos of the Brickyard Vintage Race you'll see things like a Porsche 356 crunching the wall, while driving over a little Formula car. Some of the driving was like the old "hooligan" race at the Sunday afternoon "Jalopy Derby" races in SoCal back in the '50s..

 

Wouldn't you rather drive a Buick?

 

I was just reading about Burman and chevrolet competing in the Cobe cup races of 1909 and 10 in their buicks.

 

Can anyone identify this block??

 

I'll have a tentative go at the engine make... Ford?

 

Your knowledge of auto racing is astonishing Michael.

 

Here's another question for the m***es.

Can anyone identify the 'driver' in this photo that was recently posted on The Old Motor. The image comes from the Los Angeles Library Archives and is captioned : Al poses behind the wheel of his racer at the Corona auto race.



http://theoldmotor.com/?p=130484

 

The city that doubled as a race track!

 

It's still there too.

 

Just happened upon this movie short produced by Fatty Arbuckle.
Part of it was filmed sept 9 1913 at the first Corona road race.

 

There was a track just like the above, cut into a pasture in San Luis Obispo California. The track was only in operation from 1923 to 1925. One big factor led to it's financial demise. Those spectators and their cars across from the stands, along the back straight, paid no admission. They were on an adjacent property. Remnants of the North turn are still there.

 

This has to be about the earliest streamliner (1904) and it was electric!

 

Excellent footage, many thanks for posting!

I was trying to identify the event last night and ran into some difficulties. The only car I can identify with some degree of certainty is the #7 Frontenac of local star Fred Luelling, a serial winner at the Obispo track. The depicted event certainly looks like a main event with that many starters, and Luelling appears to have started from pole in both the Memorial Day and Labor Day races in 1923, each time accompanied by Harold Fredriksen (Fredrikson?) on the front row which looks about right, but trying to match up other details proved to be inconclusive.

Then I had the bright idea of going back to the original newspaper reports in trying to find answers, perhaps mention of the depicted pit stop to remove the belly pan on one of the cars. What I found instead was a story I had forgotten in the meantime, namely the presence of a Hollywood film crew at the Labor Day events! The production was called "There He Goes" at the time, and it took just a minute of googling to find out that it hit the theatres as "Sporting Youth" in early 1924 (Universal, dir. Harry Pollard). That, of course, explains the presence of the cameras in the first place, and it's also an explanation for the faux names on the pit boards which threw me initially.

The 1923 Labor Day meeting was the fifth of a total of ten meets held at SLO, as far as I can make out, and the main event of 60 miles was won by Luelling at a record 47'58.0" (75 mph) - this record still stands as of today, if you will, because it was the penultimate race of that distance and Steve Elmore won at 49'05.0" the following Memorial Day. Fredriksen was second at 48'54.6", followed by Freddie Lyons, John Fields, C. D. "Pop" Evans and Albert Hetzel, all of them driving Ford specials of one sort or another, except for Lyons whose "Miller Special" was actually a Chevrolet - it was owned by one George Miller from Fresno, hence the name.

Most of the "star" entries didn't even make the main event, with Fred Frame in the "****** Special" and Eddie Meyer (Lou's brother) in the "Redlands Special" conking out with engine failures during the first heat and hot laps, respectively, while Lou Wilson crashed his Speedway Duesenberg (driven by Eddie Miller, Jimmy Murphy, Joe Thomas, Wade Morton and Pete de Paolo at Indy) in the second heat, slightly injuring the driver and several spectators - no wonder, really, when you look at that footage with cars parked on the edge of the track, and people wandering nonchalantly about the place!

 

The film of the footage of the SLO race was found at an estate sale of Caspar "Cap" Weir. Weir had been a starter at the Exposition Park track. The two men who found the film were Howard Caccia and Gerard Parsons. Parsons first had the film transfered to VHS. It then has been put on DVR. None of these formats are commercially available. Caccia a longtime friend of mine gave me a DVR. I don't know who posted it on YouTube. Howard, who p***ed away two years ago, used to tell wonderful stories about, as a young boy, hanging out at local gas stations and garages during the events at the track, looking at the race cars and listening to the mechanics and drivers. Howard went on to build, what some of his friends described as, the fastest cars in San Luis Obispo County.

 

The image in question was not 1904. Please forgive.
Give me points for at least posting the answer...............

 

This is a photo taken of a grid at San Luis Obispo's Exposition Park Race Track. The photo is from the Robert Kennedy Library Archives of the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) at San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly has a number of photos taken at the track; but, I just found that this is the only one that I could access. I have some other sources that I'm going to try.

 

From one of our past discussions of this racetrack and event and film clips used in the ensuing movie:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/auto-racing-1894-1944.380814/page-177
post 5286

and,
See comments below photo:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91981316@N06/15341923015/in/set-72157633528002567

 

DARN! I just noted that the above photo is not complete. It cut off the pole sitting car. It's a number "6" car. Incidentally, Fred Luelling was a local SLO boy. I think he was the grandfather of the wife of a very good friend of mine. I've not thought of asking her if she has any photos of her grand dad and his cars. I shall do that.. I'm also going to have lunch with a friend today who I believe may have some photos of the track. Hopefully...More to come.

 

Thanks Carl,
That Flicker link has all the photos of the Cal Poly archives that are of the race track at Exposition Park