Automobile Races

On the Historic Half-mile Racetrack at the

Kansas State Fairgrounds

 Hutchinson, Kansas

Monday, September 16, 1929

 

 

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

 Promoter – Al L. Sponsler

 

Attendance – 15,000

 

 

 

            The Hagenbeck – Wallace circus performed on the grounds before the auto races and that show ran too long so fair officials shortened the racing program to only four races.

 

 

 

Emory Collins Roy Eaton collection

Percy Ford Tony De Seta collection

Jimmy Trainor Harold Osmer collection

 

 

 

 

 

First Heat Race – 6 Cars - 7 Laps – Time:  3:48.5

                All six starting cars finished this race. 

 

 

 

Second Heat Race – 5 Cars - 7 Laps – Time:  3:46.75

                Challender was running in second place and crowding Collins for the lead when he crashed into the fence in northeast turn on the second lap receiving minor injuries.  When the race resumed, Fitzgerald challenged Collins for the front spot to the end.

 

 

 

Consolation Race – 5 Cars - 7 Laps – Time:  3:00.75

                This race was for the cars that did not place in either of the first two races.  Fitzgerald and Hess exchanged the lead in this race several times as they pulled away to a comfortable lead over the other three competitors.  Hess regained the lead on the last lap and held it until the final 100 yards when Fitzgerald passed him to win the race by inches.

It is much more likely that this race was run for 6 laps rather than 7 laps as reported the next day in both the Hutchinson Herald and the Hutchinson News.  For 3:00.75 to have been the correct time for 7 laps, Fitzgerald would have had to have turned an average of 25.81 seconds per lap.  Such a feat on the state fair racetrack would have been virtually impossible given the tires and other equipment available in 1929.

 

 

 

Final – 6 Cars – 9 Laps – Time:  4:54.0

                Collins lead from the beginning with Trainor following closely in second place and the others trailing far behind.  The cars ran in that order until Flood crashed in the south turn slightly injuring himself and eliminating one other competitor.  When the race resumed, Trainor continued to press until the eighth lap when his engine went sour and he dropped out of the race leaving an easy victory to Collins.  Only three cars completed the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*The #5 – 55 B & B Special driven by Spec Heminger was owned by Roy Luther O’Laughlin (1896-1930) of Hutchinson, Kansas.

 

**Ray Hess was fatally injured in a racing accident at Little Rock, Arkansas just 25 days after he competed in these races at Hutchinson.

 

***The Hollywood Special driven by Percy Ford (1888-1962) was blue in color.  Ford had finished third in the Indianapolis “500” in 1921.

 

 

 

  

 

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