Big Car Races on the

Historic Half-mile Racetrack at the

Kansas State Fairgrounds

 Hutchinson, Kansas

Sunday – September 15, 1946

 

 

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

Promotional company – National Speedways Incorporated

Race Promoter – Al Sweeney of Chicago, Illinois

Public Address Announcer – Ed “Twenty Grand” Steinback

 

Attendance – “more than 15,000”

 

 

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Harry West, driving Murray Earl’s D. O. Dreyer #27, navigating the northwest turn on the Kansas State Fair racetrack in 1946 – Swart collection

 

  

Time Trials – 15 Cars - 1 Lap

 

 

 

First Heat Race – 6 Cars - 5 Laps

Collins just “nipped” Frame to the finish line in this race. 

 

 

 

Second Heat Race – 6 Cars - 5 Laps

 

 

 

Consolation Derby – 8 Cars - 5 Laps

Coming from his 4^th place starting spot, Fondoble took over the lead in less than 2 laps.  Flinchum slid wide coming out of the south turn onto the back straight-away and brushed against the outside fence.  His car “zigged and zagged” a bit but continued on.

 

 

 

Handicap Match Race – 2 Cars - 3 Laps          

Collins had to give Frame a 50-yard head start as a handicap in this race but made up half of that distance in the first corner.  After that, he slowly closed in on Frame only getting beat by a few inches at the finish.

 

 

 

Australian Pursuit Handicap – 8 Laps       

                                     

 

 

State Fair Championship Race - 10 Laps

Frame in the blue Wilson Offy #2 finished only a few feet behind Collins in his red Offenhauser #7.  The Wilson Offy had been built by Gus Schrader and is the same car that Schrader drove in the races at the Kansas State Fair in 1941.  The car carried the #5 on it when Schrader was driving it.  Harry West finished several yards behind Frame.  West was much slower than the front two cars but made up a ground on them in the turns only to loose it again on the straight-aways.

 

 

 

This photo was taken on this day at the I.M.C.A. races at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson.  The only six cars identified to date in this photo are the rocket powered car at far right that made an exhibition run driven by Andy Granatelli as “Antonio the Great” (that is Granatelli seated in car); the Riverside Tire Special #7, second from right, driven by Emory Collins who can be seen seated on the right rear tire of the car in this photo; The Wilson Offy #2 third from right, driven by Chuck Frame; the yellow #7 car fourth from right that was driven by Posey Reeves; Murray Earl’s Dreyer #27, fifth from right with the chrome radiator shell, that was driven by Harry West, and Loren Fondoble’s black Riley #10 car sixth from right.

“The Rocket car, driven by Antonio Granatelli, made the half-mile in 31.30 (seconds).  Granatelli fired all the rockets in one big blast but matched the speed of the smaller racers for only about a quarter-lap after he had fired the rockets.” – Hutchinson News-Herald

Granatelli mentioned the incident in his book; They Call Me Mister 500 published in 1970 in which he stated that the rockets were so loud at Hutchinson that pigeon droppings fell from the rafters of the grandstand onto the spectators.  Others who were there have related that they don’t remember the pigeon droppings but do remember that the rocket car, although loud, “was much more show than go.”

Of course, Granatelli would go on to have a stellar future in the sport and the rocket car survives today as well.  Click your mouse on the photo above to see a close-up photo of Andy Granatelli in his rocket car – Photographs from the Don Radbruch collection

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Alvin L. “Al” Speth (1913-1953) was fatally injured in a racing accident at Des Moines, Iowa.

 

 

 

 

 

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