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”
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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