Big Car Races on the

Historic Half-mile Racetrack at the

Kansas State Fairgrounds

 Hutchinson, Kansas

Friday – September 22, 1939

 

 

Sanctioned by – International Motor Contest Association (I.M.C.A.)

Official Starter / I.M.C.A. Official – Al Sweeney of Chicago, Illinois

State Fair Secretary / I. M. C. A. Official – Sam M. Mitchell

Advertised purse – $500

 

 

 

Waldo Barnett

L. A. Ward photo

Shorty Burns

Larry Sullivan photo

Al Rogers

Marjorie Meyer collection

 

 

 

 

Swan Peterson

Don Radbruch collection

 

C. J. “Crash” Waller7

Wood collection

Bud Bardi

Roy Pulver collection

 

 

 

Entry List

Driver

From

Automobile

Herschel Buchanan

Shreveport, Louisiana

Hal Special

Bert Hellmueller

Charlotte, North Carolina

Miller Special

Revialo Rex

Des Moines, Iowa

 

Cotton Grable

Houston, Texas

 

Swan Peterson

Galesburg, Illinois

Hal Special

Tommy Kristin

Cincinnati, Ohio

 

C. J. “Crash” Waller7

Blakely, Georgia

 

Harry West

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Fisher Dreyer #27

Harry Boling

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Bob Deitrich

Joliet, Illinois

 

George Brier

Kirkwood, Missouri

 

Wes Johnson1

Kansas City, Kansas

Gillette Special #6

Pop Lewis

Indianapolis, Indiana

 

Al Rogers4

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Coniff Special #9

Bud Bardi2

Gary, Indiana

Swart Brothers Special #9

Posey Reeves

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

 

Waldo Barnett3

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Grenard Special Cragar #6

Ralph Pratt

Kansas City, Missouri

Turco Special #1

Lyle Christie

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Miller Special

Bill Rhea

Moline, Illinois

 

Shorty Burns5

St. Louis, Missouri

 

Ace Owens

Tulsa, Oklahoma

 

            Waldo Barnett, driving the Grenard Special owned by Morris Grenard of Oklahoma City; and Ralph Pratt, driving the Turco Special owned by Joe Turco of Omaha, Nebraska; were barred from racing in these races by I.M.C.A. official Al Sweeney for leading a “strike” at Tulsa, Oklahoma a week earlier.  I.M.C.A. head John A. Sloan promised to meet with the drivers the following week in Oklahoma City to “straighten out the mess.”

 

 

  

Time Trials – 1 Lap

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Shorty Burns5

St. Louis, Missouri

28.44

 

Swan Peterson

Galesburg, Illinois

 

 

Ace Owens

Tulsa, Oklahoma

 

 

Al Rogers4

Colorado Springs, Colorado

 

 

Bob Deitrich

Joliet, Illinois

 

 

Harold Shaw

Indianapolis, Indiana

 

 

Pop Lewis

Indianapolis, Indiana

 

 

Bert Hellmueller6

Charlotte, North Carolina

 

 

 

 

First Heat Race – 5 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Shorty Burns5

St. Louis, Missouri

2:29.91

2

Bert Hellmueller6

Charlotte, North Carolina

 

3

Al Rogers4

Colorado Springs, Colorado

 

 

 

 

Second Heat Race – 5 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Swan Peterson

Galesburg, Illinois

2:32.24

 

 

 

Southwest Derby

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Ace Owens

Tulsa, Oklahoma

 

 

 

 

Special Event with an Ascot Start – 4 Cars - 5 Laps          

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Al Rogers4

Colorado Springs, Colorado

2:24.48

2

Shorty Burns5

St. Louis, Missouri

 

3

Bert Hellmueller6

Charlotte, North Carolina

 

4

Swan Peterson

Galesburg, Illinois

 

            Burns caused three false starts trying to pass cars before the start of the race.  After Burns got a lecture from starter Al Sweeney, the race got underway with Burns taking “advantage of a dangerous cross-track maneuver” in the first turn to make up three-quarters of the distance between himself and the lead car but wound up several car lengths behind Rogers at the finish.

 

 

 

Australian Pursuit Handicap – 8 Cars - 8 Laps       

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Bob Deitrich

Joliet, Illinois

 

2

Pop Lewis

Indianapolis, Indiana

 

            Pop Lewis dropped out of this race with engine trouble on the eighth lap leaving the victory to Deitrich.

 

 

 

State Fair Championship Race - 10 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Pop Lewis

Indianapolis, Indiana

4:23.21

2

Harold Shaw

Indianapolis, Indiana

 

3

Bert Hellmueller6

Charlotte, North Carolina

 

 

Ace Owens

Tulsa, Oklahoma

 

 

Shorty Burns5

St. Louis, Missouri

 

            Burns spun his car into the outside fence on the north curve on the second lap but escaped injury.  During the caution period that followed, Owens got a little too close to the inside railing and crashing through it.  He received serious injuries when a board from the railing crushed his chest.  Owens narrowly missed Burns who had sought refuge just inside that railing from his own accident.  Burns was treated for burns at a Hutchinson hospital from his brush with Owens’ car.  Due to Owens’ accident, the caution period was extended to the end of the race with Pop Lewis being awarded the victory.

            With eight of the ten laps in this race being run under caution, it is highly unlikely that the announced time of 4:23.21 is correct.

 

 

 

  

 

Harry West

Larry Sullivan photo

Tommy Kristin

Larry Sullivan photo

Posey Reeves

Don Radbruch collection

 

 

 

Cotton Grable

Roy Eaton collection

Ralph Pratt

Bob Stolze collection

Herschel Bachanan

Roy Eaton collection

 

 

 

 

Bert Hellmueller

Bob Stolze collection

Pop Lewis

Don Radbruch collection

Wes Johnson

Charles Pauley photo

 

 

 

1 Wes Johnson was known by the nickname “Feather Foot”.

 

2 Bud Bardi is believed to have been an alias used by Bud Bardowski (1914-2000) who was also from Indiana.

 

3 Charles Waldo Burnett (1905-1947) was fatally injured in a racing accident at Ord, Nebraska in 1947 and is buried at Terrel, Oklahoma.

 

4 Al Rogers received a total of $26.75 for finishing 4th in time trials, 3rd in the 1st heat race, 4th in the International Australian Pursuit, and 4th in championship race.

 

5 Shorty Burns was an alias used by Thomas F. Scheck.

 

6 Engelbert H. “Bert” Hellmueller, Jr. (1906-1985) listed his home as a number of different places but his family home was in Louisville, Kentucky and that is where he retired to.

 

7 Gordon Bracken first shows up as G. E. Bracken from Macon, Georgia having won some races at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia in 1924.  Later, he raced all over the eastern half of the U.S. under the name of Gordon W. “Gordy” Bracken, Jr. from Bainbridge, Georgia.  Gordon was not his real first name.  He was dubbed that by a press agent who had once served at Camp Gordon, Georgia.  Bracken was known in the sport by several nicknames including “King of the Canebrakes”, “Peck’s Bad Boy of Speed”, and “Three-Fingered Bracken”.  Touring with Bracken around the country was another driver named Charlie Jackson “Crash” Waller (1887-1959) from Blakely, Georgia who appears to have gotten his nickname from his days as a firefighter.  In 1934, Bracken, Waller, and a driver known as Shirley “Speedy” Goff were all racing with the American Automobile Association (A.A.A.) back at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta.  Bracken is probably the same Gordon Bracken from Barnesville, Georgia who drove NASCAR Grand National stock cars in 1953.

 

 

 

 

 

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