Big Car Races on the

Historic Half-mile Racetrack at the

Kansas State Fairgrounds

 Hutchinson, Kansas

Tuesday – September 17, 1946

 

 

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

Race Promoter – Frank R. Winkley

                                                                                                                                                  

Attendance:  “15,000 to 16,000”

 

 

 

 

Harry West

Larry Sullivan photo

Emory Collins

Wood collection

Bob Green

Wood collection

 

 

 

 

Posey Reeves

Don Radbruch collection

Loren Fondoble

Roy Eaton collection

Al Speth

Armin Krueger photo

 

 

  

Time Trials – 1 Lap

Place

Driver

From

Car

Sunday’s Time

Today’s Time

  1

Emory Collins

Le Mars, IA

Riverside Special Offy #7

24.91

 

  2

Chuck Frame

St. Joseph, MO

Wilson Offy #2

26.58

 

  3

Harry West*

San Jose, CA

Earl D. O. Dreyer #27

28.70

 

  4

Russ Lee

Minneapolis, MN

Greer Offy #6

NT

28.78

  5

Posey Reeves

Oklahoma City, OK

Bausch D. O.  Hal #7

29.95

 

  5

Loren Fondoble

Wichita, KS

Fondoble Riley #10

29.96

 

  7

Merle Brumm

Davenport, IA

Swart Brothers #9

 

30.34

  8

Al Speth**

Davenport, IA

Hal #8

30.35

 

  9

Lee Oldfield****

Washington, IA

#30 

 

31.09

10

Billy LaRue

Rock Island, IL

Ford #44 

31.42

 

10

C. H. “Sonny” Ebsen

Los Angeles, CA

Ebsen Cragar #57

31.42

 

12

Bill Guss

Davenport, IA

#3 

31.91

 

13

Bob Geeen

Oklahoma City, OK

#99 

32.60

 

14

Herb Eastman

Cleveland, OH

#C-9 

NT

32.86

15

Bill Fhinchum

Oklahoma City, OK

#23

33.72

 

16

Ray Lemon***

Oklahoma City, OK

#B-2

 

NT

17

Gordon Moore

 

#14

 

NT

Four drivers took time trials on this day while all the others stood on the times they had turned in on Sunday.  Lee, Brumm, and Eastman raced on Sunday but did not complete a time trial on that day.  Oldfield and Lemon had not raced on Sunday.

 

 

 

Salt City Dash – 5 Cars – 5 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Car

Time

1

Emory Collins

Le Mars, IA

Riverside Special Offy #7

2:37.56

2

Chuck Frame

Belleville, KS

Wilson Offy #2

 

3

Loren Fondoble

Wichita, KS

Fondoble Riley #10

 

4

Merle Brumm

Davenport, IA

Swart Brothers #9

 

5

Russ Lee

Minneapolis, MN

Greer Offy #6

DNF

 

 

 

Salt Hawk Dash – 6 Cars – 5 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Car

Time

1

Russ Lee

Minneapolis, MN

Greer Offy #6

2:25.50

2

Harry West*

San Jose, CA

Earl D. O. Dreyer #27

 

3

Merle Brumm

Davenport, IA

Swart Brothers #9

 

4

Al Speth**

Davenport, IA

Hal #8

 

5

Posey Reeves

Oklahoma City, OK

Bausch D. O. Hal #7

 

6

Lee Oldfield****

Washington, IA

#30 

 

 

 

 

Arkansas Valley Dash – 6 Cars – 5 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Car

Time

1

Al Speth**

Davenport, IA

#8

2:33.81

2

Posey Reeves

Oklahoma City, OK

Bausch D. O. Hal #7

 

3

Bill Guss

Cedar Rapids, IA

#3 

 

4

Lee Oldfield****

Washington, IA

#30 

 

5

C. H. “Sonny” Ebsen

Los Angeles, CA

Ebsen Cragar #57

 

6

Billy LaRue

Rock Island, IL

Ford #44 

 

 

 

 

Australian Pursuit Handicap – 9 Cars – 7 Laps       

Place

Driver

From

Car

Time

1

Russ Lee

Minneapolis, IN

Greer Offy #6

3:54.59

2

Billy LaRue

Rock Island, IL

Ford #44

DNF

3

Bill Fhinchum

Oklahoma City, OK

#23

DNF

4

Ray Lemon***

Oklahoma City, OK

#B-2

DNF

5

Lee Oldfield****

Washington, IA

#30

DNF

 

Bob Green

Oklahoma City, OK

#99

DNF

 

Herb Eastman

Cleveland, OH

#C-9

DNF

 

Sonny Ebsen

Los Angeles, CA

Ebsen Cragar #57

DNF

 

Gordon Moore

 

#14

DNF

 

 

 

Dash – 2 Cars – 3 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Car

Time

1

Emory Collins

Le Mars, IA

Riverside Special Offy #7

1:28.54

2

Chuck Frame

St. Joseph, MO

Wilson Offy #2

 

 

 

 

State Fair Championship Race – 9 Cars – 10 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Car

Time

1

Emory Collins

Le Mars, IA

Riverside Special Offy #7

4:50.30

2

Chuck Frame

St. Joseph, MO

Wilson Offy #2

 

3

Harry West*

San Jose, CA

Earl D. O. Dreyer #27

 

4

Loren Fondoble

Wichita, KS

Fondoble Riley #10

 

5

Al Speth**

Davenport, IA

Hal #8

 

6

Merle Brumm

Davenport, IA

Swart Brothers #9

 

7

Bill Guss

Cedar Rapids, IA

#3

 

8

Billy LaRue

Rock Island, IL

Ford #44

 

9

Russ Lee

Minneapolis, MN

Greer Offy #9

DNF

Frame, driving a blue Offenhauser powered car #2, finished only a few feet behind Collins in his red #7 Offenhauser.  Frame’s Offy was the same car that Gus 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, driving Murray Earl’s D.O. Dreyer #27, 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.

                Lee dropped out on the 5th lap.

 

 

 

 

.

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

 

 

 

 

* Harry West was from Joplin, Missouri whereas it was his car owner, Murray Earl, who was from San Jose, California 

 

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

 

*** An article in the Hutchinson News said Lemon’s first name was “Bill”.

 

**** Leonidas Wellington “Lee” Oldfield (1889-1978) was born at Newton, Kansas and was not related to Barney Oldfield.  In fact, Barney Oldfield claimed that race promoters would purchase old race cars that Barney Oldfield had driven and then have Lee Oldfield drive them while claiming to the assembled crowd that there was a family connection between the two when there was not.  Lee Oldfield is best known for crashing a green #11 Knox race car into a crowd of spectators at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, New York on September 16, 1911 killing eleven of those spectators.  President William Howard Taft had left those races just moments before the accident happened. The eleven fatalities in this race were the most anywhere to that date, and would remain the most in the United States until there were twelve fatalities at the Yellow River Dragstrip in Georgia on March 2, 1969.  Oldfield’s accident is said to have been the origin of the superstitions that it was bad luck to drove a green race car and that car numbers that read the same up-side-down as they did right-side-up (such as the number 11), were bad luck.  Lee Oldfield attempted to qualify for the 1912 and 1937 runnings of the Indianapolis 500 but his times were too slow for him to qualify for either race.  Lee Oldfield passed away at Cathedral City, California.

 

 

 

 

 

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