West Side Speedway 1/5 mile dirt racetrack that was located two blocks north of Douglas Street between Glenn Street and Vine Street at 1800 West Third Street in Wichita, Kansas   Midget Auto Races Sanctioned by Kansas Midget Racing (KMR)   Friday Night – July 31, 1942 Promoted by Frank Murphy Starter – Ted Davis Adult admission:  40¢ Children under 12:  10¢        The Federal Government originally ordered all auto racing in the United States to cease after June 30, 1942 for the duration of World War II to conserve resources for the war effort.  This order was postponed weekly until it finally went into effect at midnight on July 31, 1942.  Frank Murphy scheduled this race on the latest date possible as sort of a final hurrah.  Since many area racetracks had already shut down in anticipation of this order, a number of out-of-town competitors showed up at West Side Speedway for this event.   First Heat – 8 laps
PLACE:	DRIVER:	FROM:
1	Guy “Mac” McHenry	Wichita, Kansas
2	Eldon “Curly” Steerman	Salina, Kansas
3	Don Brown	Salina, Kansas
Second Heat – 8 laps
1	Ben Musick	Dallas, Texas
2	Clarence Merritt	Chelsea, Oklahoma
3	Bob McKim	Salina, Kansas
Third Heat – 8 laps
1	George Binnie	Kansas City, Missouri
2	Wayland “Bud” Camden	Wichita, Kansas
3	Clarence Brooks	Sioux City, Iowa
Fourth Heat – 8 laps
1	Red Taylor	Wichita, Kansas
2	Charley Hedges	Salina, Kansas
3	Bill Brown	Wichita, Kansas
Match Race – 4 cars – 4 laps
1	Clarence Merritt	Chelsea, Oklahoma
2	Eldon “Curly” Steerman	Salina, Kansas
3	Don Brown	Salina, Kansas
B Feature – 20 laps
1	George Binnie	Kansas City, Missouri
2	Wayland “Bud” Camden	Wichita, Kansas
3	Guy “Mac” McHenry	Wichita, Kansas
A Feature – 12 cars - 30 laps
1	Guy “Mac” McHenry	Wichita, Kansas
2	Clarence Merritt	Chelsea, Oklahoma
3	Eldon “Curly” Steerman	Salina, Kansas
By the time World War II ended, West Side Speedway was in a suburban neighborhood and it never did reopen for racing.  Today, the site is a softball complex known as the West Side Athletic Field.
Clarence Brooks
Red Taylor
Charley Hedges Vickey Cummings collection

Guy “Mac” McHenry Cindy Abbott collection

Eldon “Curly” Steerman Wichita Beacon photo

Don Brown

Clarence Merritt

Bob McKim

George Binnie

Wayland “Bud” Camden

Bill Brown Darrin McKim collection

 

 

This photo was taken on the racetrack in front of the bleachers on the front straight-away at West Side Speedway after the last race ever run there on July 31, 1942.  Sometime in the following three years, the bleachers were moved to the new Cejay Stadium in the southeast part of Wichita.  Pictured here are:

Back row, standing left to right:  Mike Applebee, Leslie A. “Les” Ward (1909-1986), Frank Chacon (1901-1990), Frank Dickerson (1920-1995), George Binnie (1917-1948), Timothy Clarence Merritt (1913-1983), Elmer Ray “Rabbit” Musick (1918-1962), Frank Murphy, and Theodore L. “Ted” Davis (1903-1990).

Front row, kneeling left to right:  Don Brown (1910-?), Bob McKim (1917-2005), Eldon C. “Curly” Steerman (c1914-1944), Charley Hedges, Wayland Victor “Bud” Camden (1908-1969), Guy J. “Mac” McHenry (1918-1964), Clarence Brooks (?-1949), Bill Brown, and Hershel Wagner (1919-2000).

Click your mouse on the photograph above to see a different photograph of this same group that was taken within seconds of the photograph above.

A newspaper account of these races identifies the winner of the second heat race as Benjamin Franklin “Ben” Musick, Sr. (1908-1966) but this photo shows Ben’s younger brother, Elmer Ray “Rabbit” Musick instead.

            Three weeks after this photo was taken, Eldon C. “Curly” Steerman joined the U. S. Army air corps where he became waist gunner on a B-17.  He was one of 44 airmen killed when his airplane was involved in a midair collision with two other bombers while flying through thick clouds and turbulent weather over the Mediation Sea on a bombing run from Italy to Greece during the Sicily Campaign on January 11, 1944.  Fourteen airmen survived the accident including a tail-gunner that had been on Curly’s aircraft.  Staff Sergeant Eldon C. “Curly” Steerman is buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery at St. Louis, Missouri.

            If you know any of the missing years of birth or death of the men above, please contact Bob Lawrence at: sprintguy @ cox.net

 

 

Unless otherwise noted, all of the photographs on this web page are from the book One Tough Circuit, Midget Racing in America’s Heartland by Bill Hill.  The photo that appears when you click your mouse on the photo above is from the Wasterhaus collection.

 

  

Return to the West Side Speedway home page