Delbert George Ging

1897 – 1993

 

 

 

Both of these photographs of Delbert Ging in a bobtail racer are believed to have been taken at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson, Kansas. 

 

 

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Delbert Ging was born on August 27, 1897 in Kansas, one of twelve children born to Charles Karl King (1854-1943) and his wife, Caroline Morey (Vay) Ging (1857-1950).  The Ging family soon moved to Northwestern Oklahoma where Delbert grew to adulthood.  By 1920, Ging had moved to Hutchinson, Kansas where he lived with a sister and found work as a mechanic at Rose Motors in Hutchinson.  Later, he also worked as a mechanic for the Kinsley Wagner Company in Hutchinson.  He then finished out his working years with the Morton Salt Company in Hutchinson.

 

According to his son, Robert C. Ging, Delbert was a quiet man, not given to bragging and did not talk much about his auto racing experiences.  Following is his incomplete racing record:

 

July 4, 1922 – ½ mile dirt oval – Kansas State Fairgrounds at Hutchinson, Kansas

           Promoters:  Ray Hockaday & Charles Stewart

Car:  Essex special #4 owned by Fred Mills

Attendance:  5,000

Total purse:  $2,000

Finish:  Ging ran the 7th fastest 2-lap time trial in 1:17.0 which was slower than the times turned in by Bill Crow of Hutchinson in an Essex; Bill Bryant of Hutchinson in a Hudson special; James Watkins of Ellinwood, Kansas in a Studebaker #17; James Irving “Toots” Higgins of Newton, Kansas in an Essex #7; Fred Lentz of Hutchinson in an Essex special #1 and Merle Warren of Newton, Kansas in an Essex #2.

   Ging competed in the 1st 7-car, 10-lap heat race but did not finish in any of the 1st four positions which were the only positions listed in the published race results.  That heat race was won by Bill Bryant of Hutchinson in a Hudson special.

               Ging received only a few slight bruises when he crashed through the south fence around the racetrack on the 2nd lap of the 13-car, 20-lap “Free-for-All” race.  That race was won by Fred Lentz of Hutchinson in his own Essex special #1.

           Feature race winner:  Fred Lentz of Hutchinson, Kansas in his own Essex special #1.

 

September 4, 19221 mile dirt oval – Kenwood Park Speedway at Salina, Kansas

           Promoter:  Elfrieda (Hellmann)Mais of Salina, Kansas

Car:  Essex special

Attendance:  4,000

Finish:  Ging’s name does not appear in the published results of these races.

           Feature race winner:  Harold Roller of Abilene, Kansas in his own Dodge special.

 

July 4, 1924 – ½ mile dirt oval – Kansas State Fairgrounds at Hutchinson, Kansas

Promoters:  William Minor “Bill” Bryant & Charley C. Crow, both of Hutchinson, Kansas

Car:  Dodge special

Attendance:  1,500

Finish:  Ging’s name does not appear in the published results of these races.

           Feature race winner:  Charles “Butch” Lebsack of Otis, Kansas who was driving a Kerbs special owned by Leonard Kerbs who was also from Otis, Kansas.

 

September 11, 1924 – ½ mile dirt oval – Brown County Fairgrounds at Hiawatha, Kansas

Car:  Dodge special

Finish:  Ging finished 2nd in the 5-mile Class “A” heat race to collect $50 from the posted purse.

             Ging finished 3rd in the 3-mile final race behind Harley Wells of St. Joseph, Missouri and Rex Edmonds of Houston, Texas.

           Feature race winner:  Harley Wells of St. Joseph, Missouri who was driving a Durant special.

 

September 19, 1924 – ½ mile dirt oval – Kansas State Fairgrounds at Hutchinson, Kansas – Sanctioned by the International Motor Contest Association (I.M.C.A.)

Promoter:  Verne Soules of Chicago, Illinois

Car:  Dodge special

Attendance:  5,000

Finish:  Ging won the 6-lap “Light Car race” in 3:50.0.  Finishing in 2nd place was Al Jones of Topeka, Kansas who was driving a Ford Frontenac.

   Ging finished 3rd in the 8-lap “Free-for-All” race behind Clarence “Curley” Young of Salina, Kansas driving a Ford Frontenac and Al Jones of Topeka, Kansas who was driving a Ford Frontenac.

               Ging dropped out after 2 laps of the 7-car, 15-lap “Free-for-All” race and was credited with a 6th place finish behind Al Waters of Chicago, Illinois in the Golden Oldfield special #2; Clarence “Curley” Young of Salina, Kansas in a Ford Frontenac; Al Jones of Topeka, Kansas in a Ford Frontenac; Barney McKenna of Independence, Kansas in a Miller special and Eddie McCormick of Kansas City, Missouri in a Templar.

           Feature race winner:  Arlo Lyle “Al” Waters of Chicago, Illinois who was driving the Golden Oldfield special #2.

 

October 3, 1924 – ½ mile dirt oval – Barton County Fairgrounds at Great Bend, Kansas

Attendance:  5,000

Finish:  The start of time trials was delayed 45 minutes when Delbert Ging complained that some wet spots on the racetrack were dangerous and were going to get someone hurt.  Then, when Ging finally ran his time trial, his car hit one of those wet spots, skidded sideways, threw a tire and hit a ditch in the southwest turn on his 1st lap.  His car rolled completely over and landed on time of him causing a severe laceration to his hip and other severe bruising.

           Feature race winner:  Leonard Kerbs of Otis, Kansas who was driving a Ford special.

 

July 4, 1925 – ½ mile dirt oval – Kansas State Fairgrounds at Hutchinson, Kansas

           Promoters:  Murl Wilson & William Minor “Bill” Bryant, both of Hutchinson, Kansas

Car:  Fronty Ford special

Attendance:  3,000

Finish:  Ging won the 1st 5-car, 6-lap heat race in 3 minutes flat which was a new track record for that distance, breaking the previous record set by Julian Arthur “Jules” Ellingboe of Crookston, Minnesota by 27.4 seconds.  Ging’s new track record stood until it was broken by Ben Musick a.k.a. “Bill Morris” of Denver, Colorado in a Briscoe on September 21, 1937.  Ging took the lead and held it for the entire race, finishing ahead of Fred Lentz of Hutchinson in Dodge Brothers’ special.

   Ging won the 2nd 10-lap heat race taking the lead at the start and finishing ahead of Fred Lentz of Hutchinson in Dodge Brothers’ special.

               Ging led the 30-lap “Classic” race until the 10th lap when he was passed by Fred Lentz of Hutchinson in Dodge Brothers’ special.  Lentz won the race while Ging finished in 2nd place.

           Feature race winner:  Fred Lentz of Hutchinson, Kansas in Dodge Brothers’ special.

 

July 5, 1926 – ½ mile dirt oval – Kansas State Fairgrounds at Hutchinson, Kansas

           Promoters:  William Minor “Bill” Bryant & Charley C. Crow, both of Hutchinson, Kansas

Car:  Fronty Ford special

Attendance:  3,000

Finish:  Ging ran the fastest 1-lap time trials with a time of 33.6 seconds.  Charles “Butch” Lebsack of Great Bend, Kansas was 2nd fastest in time trials driving a Kerbs special owned by Leonard Kerbs of Otis, Kansas.

   Ging finished a distant 2nd in the 5-car, 10-lap Free-for-All race behind Charles “Butch” Lebsack of Great Bend, Kansas who was driving a Kerbs special owned by Leonard Kerbs of Otis, Kansas.

               The Fronty Ford that Ging was driving, was the only car still able to run when the competitors for the 30-lap Kansas Sweepstakes were called out for this race so the race was canceled and he was declared to be the victor by default.

           Feature race winner:  Delbert Ging of Hutchinson, Kansas as the Fronty Ford.

 

September 24, 1926 – ½ mile dirt oval – Kansas State Fairgrounds at Hutchinson, Kansas

           Promoter:  Daniel Jasper Fair, Jr. of Sterling, Kansas

Car:  Fronty Ford special owned by Roy O’Laughlin of Hutchinson, Kansas *

Attendance:  10,000

Total purse:  $1,320

Finish:  Ging ran the 7th fastest 1-lap time in time trials of the 16 cars that took time trials that day, with a time of 32.4 seconds.  That was only slower than the laps run by Charles “Butch” Lebsack of Otis, Kansas in a Kerbs special owned by Leonard Kerbs also of Otis, Kansas; Leonard Kerbs in his own Kerbs special #1; Vic Felt of Deer Trail, Colorado in his own Ford Frontenac #99; Lawrence O. “Hughie” Hughes of Wichita, Kansas in his own Hughes special; John Gerber of Meriden, Kansas in his own Gerber special #15 and Clyde Gilbert of Longmont, Colorado in the Fisher special Dual Overhead Cam Ford Dreyer owned by Lloyd Fisher who was also from Longmont, Colorado.

   Ging dropped out after the 2nd lap with engine trouble.  The race was won by Charles “Butch” Lebsack of Otis, Kansas who was driving a Kerbs special #4 owned by Leonard Kerbs who was also from Otis, Kansas.

           Feature race winner:  Charles “Butch” Lebsack of Otis, Kansas who was driving a Kerbs special #4 owned by Leonard Kerbs who was also from Otis, Kansas.

 

September 25, 1926 – ½ mile dirt oval – Kansas State Fairgrounds at Hutchinson, Kansas

           Promoter:  Daniel Jasper Fair, Jr. of Sterling, Kansas

Car:  Fronty Ford special owned by Roy O’Laughlin of Hutchinson, Kansas *

Attendance: “Only a handful of spectators” due to very cold weather.

Total purse:  $1,270

Finish:  Ging’s name does not appear in the published results of these races.

           Feature race winner:  Vic Felt of Deer Trail, Colorado in his own Ford Frontenac #99.

 

October 8, 1926 – ½ mile dirt oval – Barton County Fairgrounds at Great Bend, Kansas

           Car:  Fronty Ford special owned by Roy O’Laughlin of Hutchinson, Kansas *

Attendance: “The grandstand and bleachers were filled.”

Total purse:  $737.50

Finish:  Ging finished 5th in the 10-lap heat race behind Leonard Kerbs of Otis, Kansas who was driving his own Fronty Ford special; Charles “Butch” Lebsack who was also from Otis, Kansas who was also driving a Fronty Ford special owned by Leonard Kerbs; A. J. Walker of Denver, Colorado and Albert “Al” Koepke of Topeka, Kansas who was driving his own Ford Frontenac #15.

   Ging collected $37.50 from the purse for finishing in 2nd place in the 10-lap consolation race behind _____ Kejr of St. Joseph, Missouri.

           Feature race winner:  Charles “Butch” Lebsack of Otis, Kansas who was driving a Fronty Ford special owned by Leonard Kerbs who was also from Otis.

 

Delbert Ging was married in December of 1927 in Hutchinson to Elsie “Maude” (Wyman) Ging (1902-1995) and they had five children.  In 1942, Ging was serving as the Sunday school superintendent of the Union Valley Community Church in Kings Garden on the east edge of Hutchinson.

 

Delbert Ging passed away on December 30, 1993 at Hutchinson, Kansas.  His body was cremated and his remains were scattered over his daughter’s farm east of Hutchinson, Kansas.

 

 

 

Autograph signed in 1918

 

 

 

All photographs on this web page are from the Robert C. Ging collection

 

 

 

 

 

* On September 1, 1927, Roy Luther O’Laughlin (1896-1930) of Hutchinson, Kansas qualified his car 9th fastest in time trials for the races that day at the North Central Kansas Fairgrounds in Belleville, Kansas.  He then turned his car over to an unidentified drover for the races.  After that driver had lined up for the 20-lap Free-for-All race and O’Laughlin was standing on the racetrack behind his car, a car driven by Ted Howe of Beatrice, Nebraska, struck O’Laughlin, breaking of his legs in several places and causing internal injuries.  O’Laughlin was hospitalized but, after a few days, infection set in his leg had to be amputated.  O’Laughlin sued the Republic County Fair board for $28,500 but the jury sided with the defendants instead.  While still recovering from his injuries, O’Laughlin became addicted to the pain medication and he passed away during treatment for that addition.

   There is a good chance that the driver O’Laughlin turned his car over to for those races, was one of his former drivers, Delbert Ging, but that has yet to be satisfactorily established.  We do know that the driver withdrew the Fronty Ford from the races that afternoon after O’Laughlin’s accident.  The driver of O’Laughlin’s car did compete with it the races on September 2, 1927 at Belleville finishing 2nd in the 10-lap consolation race.  If you know anything more about Delbert Ging, or his involvement in auto racing, please contact Bob Lawrence at: sprintguy @ cox.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you:

Robert C. Ging