Automobile Races
On the Historic Half-mile Racetrack at the
Kansas State Fairgrounds
Hutchinson, Kansas
Friday, September 21, 1928
Promoter – W. W. Bowen of San Antonio, Texas
Starter / Flagman – Don C. Onley of San Antonio, Texas
Attendance – “An overflow crowd”
Total Purse – $1,475
Dad Harrier David Harrier collection |
Toots Campo Mike Cline collection |
George Barringer Bill Barringer collection |
Entry List
Driver |
From |
Car Number |
Automobile |
Max Ryan |
Mankato, Kansas |
99 |
Whippet Special |
Speck Heminger |
Grand Island, Nebraska |
7 |
Rajo |
Jim Deines1 |
Topeka, Kansas |
15 |
Hudson Special |
F. J. McFadden |
Hutchinson, Kansas |
16 |
Rajo |
Hutchinson, Kansas |
1434 |
Superior Special (Hisso) |
|
Topeka, Kansas |
5 |
Frontenac |
|
Andy Smith |
Los Angeles, California |
29 |
Frontenac |
Barney Oman7 |
Los Angeles, California |
101 |
Miller Special |
Hutchinson, Kansas |
6 |
Dodge Special |
|
Roy O'Laughlin3 |
Hutchinson, Kansas |
7-11 |
Frontenac |
Denver, Colorado4 |
70 |
Chrysler Special |
|
Milan, Italy |
38-2 |
||
Topeka, Kansas |
8 |
Frontenac Special |
|
Rex Edmonds |
Houston, Texas |
77 |
Chevrolet Special |
C. E. Wright |
Shawnee, Oklahoma |
88 |
Chevrolet Special |
Dallas, Texas |
11 |
Boyle Valve Special |
|
Wichita Falls, Texas |
21 |
Barringer Special (Frontenac) |
|
Grant E. Ashby |
Kansas City, Missouri |
3 |
Ashby Special |
Kid Lewis |
Kansas City, Missouri |
2 |
Nelson Special (Hisso) |
Dick Richardson |
Kansas City, Missouri |
|
Frontenac |
Joe Taylor |
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma |
88 |
Frontenac Special |
J. E. “Jim” White |
Sharon Springs, Kansas |
28 |
White Special (Frontenac) |
Class “A” Heat – 6 Cars - 10 Laps – Time: 5:31.0 – Purse: $200
Place |
Driver |
From |
Car Number |
Automobile |
Purse |
1 |
Jim White |
Sharon Springs, Kansas |
28 |
White Special (Frontenac) |
$125 |
2 |
Andy Smith |
Los Angeles, California |
29 |
Frontenac |
|
3 |
St. Joseph, Missouri |
7-11 |
Frontenac3 |
|
|
4 |
Denver, Colorado |
70 |
Chrysler Special |
|
|
|
Milan, Italy |
38-2 |
|
This race was open to the six fastest cars from time trials. Campo led the first seven laps before engine problems forced him to the pits. White then took over the lead and roared to the finish.
Kansas Championship Dash – 4 Cars - 6 Laps – Time: 3:34.0 – Purse: $150
Place |
Driver |
From |
Car Number |
Automobile |
Purse |
1 |
Topeka, Kansas |
8 |
Frontenac Special |
$150 |
|
2 |
St. Joseph, Missouri |
7-11 |
Frontenac3 |
|
|
3 |
Topeka, Kansas |
5 |
Frontenac |
|
This race was only open to drivers who were residents of Kansas. Cunningham was determined to be eligible to compete since he was driving a local car owned by Roy O'Laughlin. Koepke and Cunningham fought it out in a spirited race that ended in a “neck-and-neck” finish.
Midwest Championship Dash – 6 Cars - 6 Laps – Time: 3:38.4 – Purse: $250
Place |
Driver |
From |
Car Number |
Automobile |
Purse |
1 |
Rex Edmonds |
Houston, Texas |
77 |
Chevrolet Special |
$250 |
2 |
St. Joseph, Missouri |
7-11 |
Frontenac3 |
|
|
3 |
Barney Oman |
Los Angeles, California |
101 |
Miller Special |
|
Two different newspaper reports gave two different accounts of what took place in this race. Here are both accounts:
Edmonds was running in sixth position at the start of the last lap. He started passing cars on the back stretch and pulled even with leader Cunningham on the final turn. Edmonds’ mount careened wildly but righted itself without turning over and beat Cunningham to the finish line by a fraction of a foot – The Hutchinson Herald
Edmonds and Cunningham put on a “pretty” race at the finish of this race. Cunningham could close up behind Edmonds in the corners but the latter had too much speed for him on the straightaways – The Hutchinson News
Straw Hat Derby – 6 Cars - 6 Laps – Time: 3:49.2 – Purse: $125
Place |
Driver |
From |
Car Number |
Automobile |
Purse |
1 |
Topeka, Kansas |
5 |
Frontenac |
$75 |
|
2 |
Jim White |
Sharon Springs, Kansas |
28 |
White Special (Frontenac) |
50 |
|
Barney Oman7 |
Los Angeles, California |
101 |
Miller Special |
|
Oman lead this race until he lost his hat on the final straightaway and was disqualified handing the victory to Harrier.
Stock Car Race – 4 Cars - 8 Laps – Time: 5:38.4
Place |
Driver |
From |
Car Number |
Automobile |
|
1 |
Kansas City, Missouri |
|
Model A Ford Coupe |
|
|
2 |
F. J. McFadden |
Hutchinson, Kansas |
|
Whippet |
|
3 |
Eddie Bascue |
Hutchinson, Kansas |
|
Chevrolet |
|
4 |
Henry Williams |
Wichita Falls, Texas |
|
Whippet |
|
Binaggio “hooked fenders” with one of the Whippets in the first turn but then ran away with this race in his “new model A Ford coupe” easily beating the other three entries. The Whippet that finished in last place was reported to be the holder of the “world’s second gear endurance record”. Williams claimed sabotaged though saying that someone had removed a wire from the Whippet’s ignition.
Grand Sweepstakes – 25 Laps – 12 Cars - Time: 14:06.4 – Purse: $750
Place |
Driver |
From |
Car Number |
Automobile |
Purse |
1 |
Jim White |
Sharon Springs, Kansas |
28 |
White Special (Frontenac) |
$400 |
2 |
Topeka, Kansas |
8 |
Frontenac Special |
|
|
3 |
Denver, Colorado |
70 |
Chrysler Special |
|
|
4 |
Wichita Falls, Texas |
21 |
Barringer Special |
|
|
|
Barney Oman |
Los Angeles, California |
101 |
Miller Special |
|
Eleven of the twelve cars that started this race finished it. White lead the entire distance and was never pressed for the lead. He did cross the finish line one hundred yards ahead of second place and side-by-side with Oman but White was just lapping the Miller Special. Cunningham, driving Roy O'Laughlin’s Frontenac, challenged Koepke for second place for the first eighteen laps but then he started falling behind. Holden was slowly gaining on the leaders during the final stages of the race and just noised out Barringer to finish only one car length in back of Koepke as those three cars completed the distance nose-to-tail.
There were also motorcycle races on this program but those were canceled after the fourth lap as the entrants were just riding around the racetrack at a crawl apparently in a dispute over the purse.
Race Officials
Don C. Olney |
Los Angeles, California |
- |
Co-promoter, Starter, Flagman, Referee |
W. W. Bowen |
San Antonio, Texas |
- |
Co-promoter, Director of the Course |
Tom Holden Carolyn (Felt) Junod collection |
Tom Murie Al Murie collection |
Jim White Oakley Graphic photo |
Oscar Coleman Don Racdbruch collection |
1 James C. “Dusty” Deines (1898-1967)
2 Thomas Clarence “Tom” Murie 91891-1967) was the father of future driver Allen Leon “Big Al” Murie (1930-2015).
3 Roy O'Laughlin lost a leg in a racing accident a year earlier at Belleville, Kansas so he enlisted Pat Cunningham to drive his #7-11 Frontenac in these races.
4 Tom Holden (1906-1987) usually listed his home as being Denver, Colorado but he was actually from WaKeeney, Kansas.
5 Toots Campo may originally have been from Milan, Italy but he was making his home in Kansas City, Missouri at the time.
6 George Barringer claimed Wichita Falls, Texas as home although he lived for a time in Parsons, Kansas. For a race at the Kansas State Fair run just four days earlier, the entry list showed his home as Vancouver, B. C., Canada which was undoubted incorrect. George had built the Barringer Special himself. He went on to compete in the Indianapolis “500” six times before being fatally injured in a racing accident at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia in 1946.
7 Barney Oman’s surname is spelled “Uman” in some sources.
8 Oscar Lloyd Coleman (1905-1938) was fatally injured while attempting to qualify a midget for a race in Dallas, Texas.
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