Big Car Races on the

Historic Half-mile Racetrack at the

Kansas State Fairgrounds

 Hutchinson, Kansas

Tuesday – July 4, 1933

 

 

Promoter – Joseph F. Ziobro of Wichita, Kansas

 

 

Verne Ellis

Larry Sullivan photo

Lew Irwin

Irwin family collection

C. J. “Crash” Waller

Wood collection

 

 

 

Time Trials – 1 Lap

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Lew Irwin*

Iola, Kansas

30.5

2

Verne Ellis**

Ft. Worth, Texas

 

 

 

 

First Heat Race - 5 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Lew Irwin*

Iola, Kansas

2:33.0

2

Rea Bray

Hutchinson, Kansas

 

3

Gordon Bracken***

Kansas City, Missouri

 

            

 

Second Heat Race - 5 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Verne Ellis**

Ft. Worth, Texas

2:43.0

2

C. J. “Crash” Waller***

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

 

3

E. Gordon

Los Angeles, California

 

 

 

Consolation Race – 3 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

M. Seigle

Wichita, Kansas

1:05.0

2

H. Anguish

Dallas, Texas

 

3

H. VanDiver

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

 

It is much more likely that this race was run for 2 laps rather than 3 laps as reported in both the Hutchinson Herald and the Hutchinson News on July 5, 1933.  For this to have been the correct time for 3 laps, Seigle would have had to have run an average of 21.67 seconds per lap.  Such a feat on the state fair racetrack would have been virtually impossible given the tires and other equipment available in 1933.

 

 

Handicap Race – 5 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Lew Irwin*

Iola, Kansas

2:43.0

2

Rea Bray

Hutchinson, Kansas

 

3

Verne Ellis**

Ft. Worth, Texas

 

 

 

Exhibition – 1 Lap

Art Challender, a stunt driver from Dallas, Texas, circled the track once to gain momentum before crashing his car through a high board fence scattering boards everywhere much to the delight of the spectators.

.

 

Sweepstakes Race – 15 Laps

Place

Driver

From

Time

1

Lew Irwin*

Iola, Kansas

8:00.0

2

Rea Bray

Hutchinson, Kansas

 

3

L. Goff***

Topeka, Kansas

 

 

 

 

 

* Louis Julius “Lew” Irwin (1904-1987), driving the Lawhon Special #X3, won every race that he competed in on this day by a comfortable margin.

 

** Audy Verne Ellis (1899-1934) was fatally injured in a racing accident at Memphis, Tennessee.

 

*** Gordon Bracken first shows up as G. E. Bracken from Macon, Georgia having won some races at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia in 1924.  Later, he raced all over the eastern half of the U.S. under the name of Gordon W. “Gordy” Bracken, Jr. from Bainbridge, Georgia.  Gordon was not his real first name.  He was dubbed that by a press agent who had once served at Camp Gordon, Georgia.  Bracken was known in the sport by several nicknames including “King of the Canebrakes”, “Peck’s Bad Boy of Speed”, and “Three-Fingered Bracken”.  Touring with Bracken around the country was another driver named Charlie Jackson “Crash” Waller (1887-1959) from Blakely, Georgia who appears to have gotten his nickname from his days as a firefighter.  In 1934, Bracken, Waller, and a driver known as Shirley “Speedy” Goff (the L. Goff above?) were all racing with the American Automobile Association (A.A.A.) back at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta.  Bracken is probably the same Gordon Bracken from Barnesville, Georgia who drove NASCAR Grand National stock cars in 1953.

 

 

 

Lew Irwin

Irwin family collection

Rea Bray

Don Radbruch collection

Veren Ellis

Charles Pauley collection

“Crash” Waller

National Auto Racing News

 

 

 

 

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