Big Car Races on the

Historic Half-mile Racetrack at the

Kansas State Fairgrounds

 Hutchinson, Kansas

Thursday – September 19, 1946

 

 

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

Promotional company – Auto Racing Incorporated of Minneapolis, Minnesota

Race promoter – Frank R. Winkley of Minneapolis, Minnesota****

 

Attendance – 14,000

 

Track condition – “Extremely muddy”

 

 

 

  

 

  

Time Trials - 1 Lap

The racetrack was so muddy that Collins’ lap of 42.0 was the fastest that anyone could muster.

 

 

  

Salt Hawk Dash – 4 Cars - 4 Laps***

There is a big discrepancy between newspaper accounts of this race and official I.M.C.A. race results.  The official paperwork appears to have been filled out at a later date so the above are the newspaper results.  According to official I.M.C.A. records, the finishing order for this five-lap race were: (1) Emory Collins of Le Mars, IA driving the Riverside Special Offy #7; (2) Chuck Frame of Belleville, KS driving the Wilson Offy #2; and (3) Harry West of San Jose, CA driving the Earl D.O. Dreyer #27.  Other starters in this event were Al Speth of Davenport, IA driving a Hal #8; Loren Fondoble of Wichita, KS driving the Fondoble Riley #10; and Bob Green of Oklahoma City, OK driving #99.

 

 

Salt City Dash – 3 Cars - 4 Laps***

There is a big discrepancy between newspaper accounts of this race and official I.M.C.A. race results.  The official paperwork appears to have been filled out at a later date so the above are the newspaper results.  According to official I.M.C.A. records, the finishing order for this five-lap race was: (1) Loren Fondoble of Wichita, KS driving the Fondoble Riley #10; (2) Posey Reeves of Oklahoma City, OK driving the Reeves Hal #7; and (3) Al Speth of Davenport, IA driving a Hal #8.  Other starters in this event were Bob Green of Oklahoma City, OK driving #99; Merle Brumm of Davenport, IA driving #3; and Lee Oldfield driving #30.

 

 

 

Arkansas Valley Dash - 4 Laps***

Brumm and Oldfield were even until Brumm found some dryer dirt about 50 feet from the finish line and the better traction that gave him let him pull ahead by just enough to win.

There is a big discrepancy between newspaper accounts of this race and official I.M.C.A. race results.  The official paperwork appears to have been filled out at a later date so the above are the newspaper results.  According to official I.M.C.A. records, the finishing order for this five-lap race was: (1) Billy LaRue of Rock Island, IL driving #44; (2) C. H. “Sonny” Ebsen of Los Angeles, CA driving #57; and (3) Lee Oldfield of Washington, IA driving #30.  Other starters in this event were Merle Brumm of Davenport, IA driving #3; Bob Green of Oklahoma City, OK driving #99; and Eddie Carmichael of Oklahoma City, OK driving #5.

 

 

 

Heat Race – 5 Cars – 5 Laps

 

 

 

 Invitational Match Race – 2 Cars - 3 Laps       

The finish of this race was very close. 

 

 

Kansas State Sweepstakes – 8 Cars – 5 Laps

Collins ran away with this race and was awarded the Governor’s Trophy.

This race was scheduled for ten laps but was cut to five laps due to muddy track conditions.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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 resided at San Jose, California.

 

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

 

*** This race was shortened from its scheduled five laps to four laps due to muddy track conditions.  Several other cars were scheduled to start this race that did not, presumably due to those same muddy track conditions.

 

**** Al Sweeney signed the official paper work for I.M.C.A. as the race promoter but the official records also appear to have been filled out at a later date.

***** 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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