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

Rea Bray

Hutchinson, Kansas

1434

Superior Special  (Hisso)

P. C. “Dad” Harrier

Topeka, Kansas

5

Frontenac

Andy Smith

Los Angeles, California

29

Frontenac

Barney Oman7

Los Angeles, California

101

Miller Special

Thomas Murie2

Hutchinson, Kansas

6

Dodge Special

Roy O'Laughlin3

Hutchinson, Kansas

7-11

Frontenac

Tom Holden

Denver, Colorado4

70

Chrysler Special

Toots Campo5

Milan, Italy

38-2

Deschano Special

Al Koepke

Topeka, Kansas

8

Frontenac Special

Rex Edmonds

Houston, Texas

77

Chevrolet Special

C. E. Wright

Shawnee, Oklahoma

88

Chevrolet Special

Oscar Coleman8

Dallas, Texas

11

Boyle Valve Special

George Barringer6

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

Pat Cunningham

St. Joseph, Missouri

7-11

Frontenac3

 

4

Tom Holden

Denver, Colorado

70

Chrysler Special

 

 

Toots Campo5

Milan, Italy

38-2

Deschano Special

 

                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

Al Koepke

Topeka, Kansas

8

Frontenac Special

$150

2

Pat Cunningham

St. Joseph, Missouri

7-11

Frontenac3

 

3

Dad Harrier

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

Pat Cunningham

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

Dad Harrier

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

Rocco Binaggio

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

Al Koepke

Topeka, Kansas

8

Frontenac Special

 

3

Tom Holden

Denver, Colorado

70

Chrysler Special

 

4

George Barringer6

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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