DataGrange Motorsport

Ford Number 2 (Model T, Bert Scott, Charles Smith) Arrives First at Seattle After a Breathtaking Sprint Across the Great Undeveloped West.

M. Robert Guggenheim and his charges lay down the framework for the proposed Great Transcontinental Race; the entrants will begin the trek on June 2 at Gotham’s City Hall and follow a pacesetter vehicle (a Ford Model T) in procession style through the states of New York (waypoints Poughkeepsie, Syracuse, Buffalo), Pennsylvania (Erie), Ohio (Toledo), and Illinois (Chicago) before a final cruise to the Mississippi River crossing at St. Louis. After the river crossing, the vehicles will then set off upon an unencumbered challenge dash across undeveloped terrain to the Great Northwest. The rules permit each entry a primary driver and relief, as well as onroad and overnight repairs with the exception of engine or axle replacement.

The race gets off to an inauspicious start when only four makes line up at Gotham’s City Hall for the start; the 20 horsepower Ford (two spartan-clad entries), the 50 horsepower Acme, the 40 horsepower Shawmut, and the 45 horsepower Itala. The other major automobile manufacturers, clearly reluctant to put their model offerings to the test through the rough country west of St. Louis, instead choose to side with the MCA and oppose the event on the specious grounds that the race (1), will encourage violation of speed laws (ignoring the fact that the cars will follow a pacesetter through St. Louis and thereafter pass through territory in overwhelming part not subject to driving regulations), and (2), will only serve as a test of driver rather than vehicle endurance. Guggenheim simply scoffs at the empty excuses proferred by the MCA and proceeds with his race plans.

After POTUS William H. Taft starts the race from his office in Washington in coordination with the start of Seattle’s Yukon-Alaska Pacific Exposition, the five cars, following the pacesetter and pursued by a long queue of private car owners, proceeds en train north through New York State before turning west for Chicago. The Fords (driven by quartet of Frank Kulick, H.B. Harper, Bert Scott, and Charles Smith) and the Shawmut, arrive at St. Louis on June 7 in good working order, while mechanicals and illness delay the Acme and Itala entries. A Stearns Motor entry starts the race a day late and desperately dashes west to catch the procession, yet mechanicals prevent the same from reaching the Mississippi.

Once in the West, the race rules release the drivers to their own devices and the rugged terrain swiftly trims the event down to a two-marque matchup between the highly prepared Fords and the surprise Shawmut, a once suspect entry that remarkably manages to handle the rough roads, ford the streams, and execute its waypoint overhauls all without factory support. Ford Number 1 (Kulick, Harper) wins the waypoints at Kansas City and Manhattan, Kansas (the halfway point), yet mechanicals force the lead entry to cede the point to the upstart Shawmut through Limon, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming. The race’s first controversy strikes at the Platte River crossing just east of Rawlings, Wyoming, where the Union Pacific Railroad demands a permit to cross its span. The Fords, already prepared for such a hitch, present their permit and leave the furiously empty handed Shawmut on the eastern bank. The race appears decided as the Shawmut awaits permit approval by wire from Omaha, yet in a twist of fortune, both Fords haplessly break down just west of Rawlings and allow the delayed Shawmut to again move to the lead.

The Fords again overtake the Shawmut as the cars enter Eastern Idaho, yet misfortune again plague the leaders when Ford-1 gets hopelessly lost on the high intermountain plateau. All seems in alignment for a surprise Shawmut upset until the indefatigable Ford-2 entry (Scott, Smith) unleashes a burst of speed that earns the same waypoint honors at both Boise and Baker City, Oregon. Pressing its advantage, Ford-2 opens an eight hour lead over the Shawmut through Walla Walla, Washington on up to the Cascades. After crossing Keechelus, a Cascades’ mountain lake, by ferry and navigating the still snowbound Snoqualmie Pass, Ford-2 coasts downhill into Seattle on June 23 for a wide margin yet still dramatic race victory. The transcontinental journey takes a tad over twenty-two days from start to finish.

The Shawmut arrives in the Emerald City on the following day and immediately files a protest against the Ford victory, alleging (1), that the winners received preferential treatment at the Fort Steele-Platte River train crossing in Wyoming, (2), that the Ford factory planted an experienced mountain driver from Seattle at the Snoqualmie Pass in order to navigate Ford-2 through the snowdrifts, and (3), that Ford-2 replaced its front axle at Rawlings, Wyoming. After investigating the charges, Guggenheim disallows the protest on June 30 for want of evidence and FoMoCo promptly celebrates a fabulous endurance victory. After averaging 230 miles per day during the event, the winning Ford-2 undertakes a leisurely victory tour overland back to New York City.

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Paul Goldsmith (3) and his Quick Hands Eke Out a Narrow Victory on NASCAR's Final Run Over the Daytona Sand.

NASCAR’s final run over the venerable 4.1 Beach-Road course proves among the most memorable in February 1958 as series president Big Bill France announces during SpeedWeeks his recent ground breaking of a modern high speed 2.5 mile hardtop super oval facility just outside the city limits.  France surprises most observers by declaring that his new ’superspeedway’ will host the 1959 Daytona event.

The 35,000 spectators in attendance enjoy SpeedWeeks in its full glory as France runs several events over the extended period, including a modified race that in unprecedented fashion includes foreign makes, and the ever popular convertible special on February 22, the day before the points-paying Big Show. Packaged along with the festivities, France arranges for the United States Air Force Thunderbirds stunt team and their speedy F-100 Super Sabres to put on a show that even impresses the intrepid racers, who swiftly adopt the term ‘turn on the burners’ for their own brand of racing after watching the remarkable aerial performances overhead.

As some of the star drivers bolt hardtops onto their already race-tested convertible cars for the main event, the garage talk centers upon the driver showdown between the wealthy Curtis Turner (26 Holman-Moody Ford), backed by motor specialist John Holman, and Paul Goldsmith (3 Yunick Pontiac), the popular former national motorcycle champion who providently catches his engine tuning from local Daytona personality Smokey Yunick and his ‘Best Damn Garage’ operation. As the race gets underway and the fans enjoy their annual treat of watching the wide-tail transitions from road asphalt onto the long two mile beach sprint, Goldsmith benefits from early service by Turner and other racers to build up a leading margin of over a minute. Goldsmith finally comes in for service on Lap 25 of 39, and the determined Turner immediately slashes the margin down to six seconds.

The 1958 drama unfolds in grand style at the onset of the final lap when the hard charging Turner, desperate to run down the over cautious Goldsmith, who suffers from visibility problems through his dirty windshield, presses too hard in the transition turn from the beach sand back to the state highway asphalt. Turner breaks loose into a spin before making a swift recovery, yet the race seemingly breaks in favor of Goldsmith, who opens up a twelve second margin due to the mishap. Misfortune still lurks out on the Daytona sands, and Goldsmith confronts his own moment with destiny on the long run north when his dirty windshield prevents him from spotting a deep sand rut on the racing surface before him. Goldsmith hits the rut, breaks loose, and swerves high off the line into true peril before finally breaking loose into a spin. Utilizing a quick head and even swifter hands, Goldsmith rights his car in mere seconds and guns the accelerator over the final closing distance to edge out the manic Turner at the finish line by a mere two car lengths.  The beloved Daytona Beach-Road course fittingly provides its fans a dramatic finish for its final NASCAR run.

Tragedy Dominates the 1957 Racing Season

With the racing world still reeling from the horror at Le Mans’ Maison Blanche tribune two years’ prior, the 1957 racing season offered no respite from the dangers offered by motorsport.

14 spectator souls departed after an errant car left the road during an Italian road race during the spring, 17 fans suffered injuries at Martinsville after Buddy Myers’ car jumped the fence and soared into a grassy observation area, and two children lost their lives when a flying tire veered into the crowd at Pennsylvania Speedway on May 30. The spectator losses were tough to swallow, yet no less than seven drivers loss their lives on American soil during the same haunted season, including NASCAR’s own Buddy Myers’ tragic departure during the Southern 500 at Darlington on Labor Day.

The horrific carnage forced the American Automobile Association to back away from high speed auto racing, and the car manufacturers, ever nervous about the negative publicity surrounding the danger of attending race events, gingerly followed suit shortly thereafter.

Catastrophe Awaits Both the Starting Field and NASCAR as the 1957 Virginia 500 Gets Under Way.

Storm clouds boil up over  the one-mile oval Martinsville Speedway prior to the 1957 Grand National May meeting in a myriad of ways as spectators prepare for the Virginia 500. Chevrolet and Mercury battle at the sharp end for the entire event behind the driving personas of Buck Baker (87 Hugh Babb Chevrolet) and Billy Myers (14 Bill Stroppe Mercury), while millionaire racer Curtis Turner (Ford), and Baker teammate Tom Pistone gamely fight to maintain contact.

The drivers begin their final pit service on Lap 435 of 500, yet catastrophe suddenly strikes five laps later as the lead pack of Myers, Turner, and Baker pull up alongside the slower Pistone, who just finished up his own service, on the Turn 2 exit. Pistone fights to join the leaders by drifting up into the slipstream along the backstretch, but careless driving leads to rough side panel contact between Pistone and pack leader Myers. Both cars break loose on impact, yet as Pistone collects his wheel to continue, Myers instead enters a full spin, suffers tire hop, and then shockingly catches air before hurtling the outside retaining barrier.  Myers’ auto continues on through a cyclone fence and then perilously careens into a grassy area filled with race fans taking in the event on their feet.

As emergency workers tend to spectators struck by flying debris thrown off by Myers’ car and the cyclone fence (no other serious injuries), the dark clouds above finally open with rain, sparing NASCAR the ugly decision as whether to continue the event after such a horrific mishap. Race Control awards the event to Baker, who along with Turner slips past the shunt as the same unfolds, and places Pistone and Myers at P3 and P4.  NASCAR looses a tightly held breath with thanks over the fact that Myers did not soar into a filled grandstand (a la Le Mans), yet a heavy shoe still remains to drop.

Investigators swarm over the race incident in a desperate search for blame, and after a loose wheel kills two children during an unaffiliated race event at Pennsylvania Speedway twelve days later, the American Automobile Association announces its refusal to sanction NASCAR racing due to the lack of safety standards at its tracks.  In an even more vicious swipe at the racing series, the influential AAA also issues a resolution requesting that the major automobile manufacturers also withdraw from all motor racing that emphasizes speed, a resonant consumer clarion call that the makes simply could not ignore without consequences. Disappointed in the notion that one race at Martinsville could utterly wipe away their well-heeled marketing strategy of ‘race on Sunday, sell on Monday’, the reluctant manufacturers withdraw their financial support from the NASCAR teams … yet keep their toes in the water by providing the top-shelf drivers with free equipment.