Minnesota is no longer a major venue for big time auto racing. This was not always so, however. The Twin Cities got somewhat of a late start in this sport. The first organized auto race in this country was in Chicago in 1895, and races during state fairs on the east coast go back to before 1900. Still, racing caught on in Minnesota, and in the years prior to World War I the Twin Cities saw world class auto racing. While many people know of the famous Twenty Four hour race held in Le Mans, France every June, few know that a Twenty Four hour race was held here in 1907. Again, few know that one of the first super speedways was built in the Fort Snelling area in 1915. The Twin Cities were caught up in the automobile craze, and the racing that was part of it, in the decade from 1905 to 1915. Lets look at a few of the major races that thrilled Minnesotans during the period. Much of this information was obtained from the pages of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Tribune.
While the first auto races in both the US and Europe were held on public roads, the paths of auto racing soon diverged between the US and the other side of the Atlantic. While the use of public roads continued in this country for a number of years, road racing diminished here, but remained the major form of racing in Europe. Here in the US the outspokenness of public opposition to the use of roads for racing by "rich playboys" had to be listened to by local politicians. Additionally, smart promoters soon realized that people would pay to see auto racing.
In Europe horse racing was the sport of the gentry, and the tracks used were few and far between. However, in the US horse racing, particularly in the rural areas, was a sport for the common man and many hundreds of tracks were in existence in the nascent years of the sport of auto racing, and promoters could easily find a dirt surfaced horse racing track to hold a motor race on. This availability of, and use of small dirt tracks, originally built for horse racing, for automobile racing continues to this day. For every long, banked concrete speedway there are many dozens of small quarter mile dirt tracks where minor league auto racing, the weekly stock car race, continues.
In the waning years of the last century the Twin Cities had a high caliber track at the Fair Grounds along Hamline Avenue. This was the home track of the famous Dan Patch. It was almost inevitable that the first major race in the area would be held at what was then referred to as the "Hamline Track."
The character of auto racing had been changing over its first ten years of existence, and those changes would be visible in the makeup of the events for the major auto race meet in Minnesota, in July of 1905. The first racing car drivers were the inventors and mechanics trying to show the worth of their creations. Many firms entered auto racing as a way to advertise their cars, often before they had orders for their first production vehicles. Once these vehicles were into production, however, a new kind of driver made the scene, the wealthy sportsman. This was probably inevitable. Only the wealthy could afford cars in their first decades of existence. And sportsmen were the buyers. The cars had not yet become really practical, and had little utility in those days. But what a great plaything!
There were often impromptu races between individuals. But these sportsmen automobile enthusiasts soon started to organize, and these organizations sponsored formalized races. The first automobile races were sponsored by newspapers, and by wealthy individuals, as an incentive to develop reliable automobiles. But now that the auto was into production, these prize donors were replaced by the racing clubs. And so it was with the first few races in Minnesota. The auto was changing fast, speeds were growing at an amazing rate, and the sportsman car owners soon found that they could not compete with the new specialists, the professional racing drivers. And these men, made famous in the press, were ones whom the public would pay to see.
While the first race was officially sponsored by the St. Paul Automobile Club, the Minneapolis club helped organize the affair, and "automobilists" of the Minneapolis club were eligible for the "club racing events." The cars of the mid decade were not yet reliable enough to run long distances at racing speeds, so race meets of the era consisted of a large number of events of relatively short duration. The races were relatively in length, with a typical race being three laps around the one mile course, with the longest being ten laps. There were three types of events. The fastest, which the public was most interested in seeing, were for professional drivers in thoroughbred racing cars. There were events for amateur drivers, in stock (or mostly stock) autos. And finally, there were the club races, members of the local auto clubs racing for a prestigious trophy, after the fashion of yacht races.
This first race meet was officially a two day affair, Saturday July 8 and Sunday, July 9. However, the arrival of celebrity drivers, and practice runs earlier in the week, were covered extensively by the local papers. The pre-race favorites were the popular Barney Oldfield in his Peerless "Green Dragon," Earl Kiser in the sixty horsepower Winton "Bullet," Webb Jay in his White Steamer, and Louis Chevrolet in a FIAT. While nominally of only twenty horsepower, the White steamer was fully competitive with the gasoline cars, some with up to ninety horsepower. In fact, at the time of the race Jay held the world's record for one mile on a one mile track at 48 3/5 seconds, a speed of over 75 miles per hour.
Webb Jay and his White Steamer. Photo by R.A. Gray. Courtesy Minnesota Historical society.
Earl Kiser in his 60 HP Winton Bullet. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society
A crowd of 25,000 spectators witnessed Saturday's events. The first heat, an amateur event for a trophy, was interesting in that of the five brands of cars participating, all five are long gone in the pages of history. The event was won by a Peerless. The second heat was a race between members of Minneapolis and St. Paul clubs, for the Twin Cities trophy, and was won by Earl Kiser in his Winton, racing for the St. Paul club. This was immediately protested by the Minneapolis drivers, but the St. Paul club claimed that Mister Kiser had indeed been a member of the club for several months. Following the first two races, Barney Oldfield made a special record attempt run to attempt to set a world's record for the mile. He took nearly 57 seconds, however, far wide of the world record. It was a record, of course, for the Hamline track.
This was followed by a special event, a championship challenge among the three cities of New York, Chicago, and St. Paul. Entrant cars were limited to those who had just finished a tour from Chicago to St. Paul. The first of two heats of this "Tri-city championship" saw Kiser represent St. Paul, Webb Jay Chicago, and Louis Chevrolet New York. Chevrolet's FIAT suffered mechanical difficulties early in the ten lap event, but a good race between Kiser and Webb thrilled the crowd, with Kiser just ten seconds ahead at the finish.
After several races of professional racing for stock cars, the climax of the day was the first two heats of the "big race," for the 2500 dollar feature event. The first of these two heats saw Barney Oldfield paired off against Earl Kiser, but Kiser kept the Winton continually ahead of Oldfield's Peerless racing machine. The second heat of this main event saw Webb Jay paired against Louis Chevrolet. The steamer handily beat the sour running FIAT. The only mishap of the day actually happened before the first race when a spectator, crossing the track to find a good vantage point in the infield was struck by one of the cars warming up on the track. Fortunately the car was not up to full speed, and the spectator suffered only some bad bruises.
The Sunday events saw a smaller crowd, estimated at 15,000. The first race was for woman drivers in stock cars. Four women participated, and the event was won by Mrs. F. Josewich in a Columbia. The second heat of the Tri-City Championship saw Earl Kiser again victorious, wining the championship for St. Paul. On the first lap of that race Charles Myers in a FIAT was apparently blinded by extreme dust, and crashed through the fence in the first turn. The car leaped a thirty foot ditch, and bounced another ten feet before coming to a stop. The car tore down twenty feet of the board fence, but the driver luckily escaped injury. In a later event, Mr. M. A. Clark was not so fortunate. The track had been sprinkled by a watering cart in an attempt to make the track less dusty, but apparently too much water was applied, turning the track slippery. Mr. Clark spun his Rambler in the same, first turn, hitting the inside fence and overturning the car. Clark suffered a broken rib and a badly bruised arm.
The track alternated between dusty and slippery for the rest of the afternoon. The final heat for the $2500 prize saw Barney Oldfield, Earl Kiser, and Webb Jay square off again. Oldfield briefly held the lead during the first lap, but he was soon passed by Jay and Kiser, and was never again in contention. Kiser and Webb fought a tight race for the first three of the five laps, with the lead changing several times. But at the end of the third lap difficulties with the White steamer caused Webb, in the words of the Pioneer Press, "to run out of steam." Webb was forced out of the race, handing second place over to Oldfield. Following the race proper, both Kiser and Oldfield made separate one lap runs for a record, and Oldfield finally achieved success. His run of 55 seconds, while far from a world's record, did establish a new mark for the Hamline track. And Twin City spectators had been treated to their first exposure to big time auto racing.
Many people who are not otherwise followers of the sport of auto racing are still aware of the famous twenty-four hour race held in LeMans, France every June. But the famous race, held almost continuously now for nearly three quarters of a century, was far from the first twenty-four hour race. In fact, the increasing reliability of the automobile created a craze for twenty-four hour races in 1907. Minnesota was not to be left out of this craze, and in June of that year the St. Paul club held a "carnival" of automobile racing that included a twenty-four hour endurance race.
As was the case in 1905, they held the meet at the Hamline track. The meet featured a series of preliminary races of the same sort as those run in 1905. These were to be finished by five o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, June 28, when the endurance race would begin, finishing at the same time on Sunday afternoon. While the preliminary heats did feature some highly modified cars, the main endurance race was contested, for the most part, by only moderately modified, striped stock cars, the pure racing machines of the era still not up to an endurance race of many hours duration. Somewhat due to this fact, the entry list for the Twin Cities event, like most of the events in the country, was not dominated by the famous professional racing drivers such as Oldfield, Chevrolet, Winton, and others. The endurance races were contested for the most part of serious amateurs and gentleman sportsman drivers.
Only four cars were entered in the race, a Locomobile with Mongini and Zach driving, Bald and Winston in an Oldsmobile, Zerbies and Friend in a Mitchell, and the Frayer-Miller of Johnson and Thornton. Crashes took a toll of the racing, and although the cars were frequently repaired after the mishaps, the time for these repairs lowered the resulting average speeds. Indeed, all four cars suffered either from serious mechanical problems, or crashes. The Frayer-Miller was the first out of the race, early Friday evening, with unrepairable mechanical failure.
At eight o'clock Friday evening, Ed Zerbies lost control of the Mitchell when a tire blew, and the car rolled over. Zerbies suffered a broken nose and numerous bruises, but both driver and car eventually returned to the race. Then, in the early morning hours of Saturday, Bald crashed the Oldsmobile heavily, requiring five hours for repairs. Although there was little hope of winning the event, the pair did not give up, and returned to the race. In fact, while attempting to make up for lost time, Eddie Bald set the fastest hour of the event, lapping 54 miles in an hour.
The next setback to the team occurred when Winston was so blinded by dust that he felt unable to continue, and relief driver Andy Peterson took the car over. He then blew a tire, overturning the Oldsmobile, and suffering a deep gash on the forehead. Again, the car required lengthy repairs. With the early retirement of the Frayer-Miller and the mishaps to the Oldsmobile, the race became one between the Locomobile and the Mitchell.
Now it was the Locomobile's turn, when Mongini misjudged a turn, and hooked the car into the inner fence. This ripped out an estimated twenty-five feet of fence and threw the car into the infield. This was followed shortly by Eddie Bald spinning into the infield in the same gap, and tearing down another thirty feet of fence. The Oldsmobile suffered more than the Locomobile, and required another five hours for repair.
The rock hard track had been extremely dusty, affecting the drivers, while the abrasiveness and hardness of the surface took a heavy toll on tires. But Saturday morning the elements conspired further against the race, with a thunderstorm. A heavy downpour now turned the track slippery.
Finally, a 5:40 PM Saturday afternoon the race was over, and the Locomobile of Mongini and Zach had covered 1,037 miles to beat the Mitchell of Zorbies and Friend, who turned an even 1,000 miles. The dauntless Oldsmobile, in spite of all its mishaps, still managed 445 miles. The local press declared the race a new world record for the 24 hours, which in fact it was not. It seemed that each separate sanctioning body (this race was sanctioned by the United States Motor Racing Association) did not recognize records of other organization, in the era there were many. So it was a record only for races run by the USMRA. In fact, the Pioneer Press, on the same page that reported the race, told of a Britisher turning 1,581 miles in 24 hours on the new Brooklands concrete superspeedway.
While two major auto races had been held in the Twin Cities prior to September of 1907, these races were not run in conjunction with the State Fair. Elsewhere, state fairs, and even some county fairs, were beginning to feature auto races. Wisconsin beat Minnesota, by starting its fair racing in 1906, on a track at the fairgrounds that today is still a major venue in big time auto racing. But 1907 was a year in which the automobile was taking the Twin Cities by storm.
Lower priced cars were now becoming available, bringing the auto within reach of the middle class. The newspapers were becoming filled with ads not only for the automobile itself, but accessories and even motorist clothing. With two major races already run at the Hamline track, the fair committee approved the running of an auto race during the fair, beginning a tradition that is still with us today.
By 1907 the Automobile Club of America (AAA) was becoming a national sanctioning body for automobile racing (a role it would continue into the second half of the century, then abandon when a number of serious accidents around the world caused much public criticism of auto racing). Consequently, the 1907 State Fair race was officially under the auspices of the Auto Club of Minnesota, the local agent of AAA. This sanctioning, plus the fact that the events were not endurance events, caused the return of nationally known drivers to the Twin Cities scene.
The Pioneer Press in midweek ran a feature on Walter Christie, who designed and built a unique racing machine, and was campaigning it very successfully in 1907. The all out racing machine featured front wheel drive. Other nationally known drivers expected for the meet included C. V. Rogers and Fred Harn. The meet included thirteen events, basically in three groups, events restricted to local club drivers and local dealers, stock car races, and the all out racing car events for professional drivers.
The weather cooperated, with plenty of sun shining on a fair that had seen a number of days of wet and cloudy weather. The first event was a three mile (three lap) event for small engined cars. Fred Harn in a Mason, manufactured in Iowa, was an easy winner, but the next three places went to Ford cars, with a Mitchell fifth and a Kato finishing sixth.
One of the earlier races was the Twin City club championship, a race with a single representative of each club after eliminations, in the manner of yacht racing. A Mr. Buffum represented St. Paul while Victor Stromquist drove for Minneapolis, both in Packards. Stromquist moved to an early lead but was eventually passed by Buffum, giving the cup to St. Paul.
One of the most exciting races of the day, in terms of a close finish, was a fifteen mile event restricted to entries from Twin Cities automobile dealers. At the finish Harn again in a Mason took the flag first, but only fifteen feet ahead of a Locomobile driven by Mich. The Mason cars did quite well in general at the meet, another winning a meet in a medium size class event, and several Masons finishing well.
A five mile event for the larger engined cars showed the rapid changes in fortune of auto racing manufacturers of the day. The event was won by a Pierce-Arrow, followed by a Stearns, and then a Winton, the best finish of the day for the Winton. That finish was a far cry from the event two years earlier when Winton dominated the competition. Not all the races were for automobiles.
One of the races was a motorcycle event, won by R. W. Yates on a Harley Davidson, in what was apparently the first major motorcycle race in the Twin Cities area. He was followed by Walter Taylor on an Indian, and O. N. Leykman on another Harley.
The climax of the afternoon was the open event for professional drivers, a five mile event. Christie's machine was the only pure racing machine to reach the starting line, the field filled out by several modified production cars. Walter Christie in his machine completely outclassed these, and the win was an easy one that did not appear to stress the machine, with a winning average speed well below sixty miles per hour.
Following that race, Christie made a record attempt, trying to better his standing 52 second world record for the closed course mile. His run did not set a new record when the watches again registered exactly 52 seconds, but it was a new record for the Hamline track. Following this, C. V. Broad, whose Stanley Steamer was unable to make the open event, also attempted a run at the mile record, but his time was two full seconds beyond that of Christie.
Walter Christie, in spite of his success as a driver, designer, and builder of novel racing cars, was never able to make his mark in producing consumer automobiles. Leaving this field, however, he later became instrumental in the development of tracked vehicles, and was one of the founders of the modern tank, and tracked tractors such as the Caterpillar.
This photo shows Walter Christie, who ran the 1907 race, with Ralph DePalma and J.A. Clark, just before the 1908 Races. Photo St. Paul Dispatch. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society.
Just a few years after the first races in Minnesota, the fans were becoming jaded to just seeing automobiles racing. They wanted to see speed, and name drivers. The AAA was able to provide the name drivers and the pure racing car. After the 1907 event, the fair races became events for professional drivers with thoroughbred racing cars, and the "club" and sportsman events faded into history.
The 1908 event brought the return of Chevrolet and Oldfield, and the new rising stars such as DePalma. It also brought the famed racing cars of Europe such as the giant Fiats and the rapid Mercedes. Such drivers and all-out race cars were able to hold the interest of fans, and attendance figures remained high. But if speed was really what the public wanted, many promoters and investors believed the best way to provide this was the superspeedway. The primitive suspension of even the best racing cars of the era slowed the cars on the turns of mile and half mile tracks. By making longer tracks, and even banking the turns high, much higher speeds would be possible. Further, paved surfaces would allow the high speeds to be sustained.
Such tracks were expensive, and the higher attendance would indeed have to show up to pay off such an investment. The prototype for all these high speed oval speedways was Brooklands, in the United Kingdom. Built in 1907, this concrete speedway featured high banks and resulting high speeds3. It was also the first track where attempts at streamlining featured special-built racing cars with only a single seat, with no riding mechanic. While riding mechanics continued for many years in other venues, eventually the single seat racing car would become the standard for out-and-out racing cars.
So the super speedways (oval tracks of two miles or so, or extremely high banked mile tracks) began to sprout up all over the country. They were of three types of construction; asphalt, wood, and concrete. Wood tracks had been successfully used for bicycle tracks, and the designers and builders of those tracks were contacted and given contracts to build the longer, larger tracks for automobiles. A group of investors in the Twin Cities elected to go with the concrete track, believing falsely that it would be the most durable construction. A two mile course was built in 1915 just northwest of Fort Snelling, and the first event was held in early September of that year. The track had high banked turns with a wider radius than Indianapolis, still the best known superspeedway in America, and it was expected that speeds would exceed those at Indianapolis.
Indeed this was true for most of the superspeedways being built after 1909. The inaugural race would be a major 500 mile event, with a guaranteed purse of $50,000. Indeed, that large of a purse did draw the famous professional drivers to the Twin Cities. The track was open throughout the week before the Saturday event. By Wednesday the major newspapers were featuring large ads. The St. Paul Pioneer Press featured an ad reminding fans that only two days were left to secure reserved seats for the event. The ad boasted that drivers Tuesday had circled the track at over one hundred miles per hour.
The track was open for spectators of these time trials and practices, with admission of fifty cents. The starting field was a "who's who" of American auto racing greats. Dario Resta and his Peugeot sat on the pole. Beside him was the Stutz of Gil Anderson. Next was his Stutz team-mate, the great Earl Cooper. The white Stutz team was a favorite of many of the spectators. Harry Stutz was making his reputation on the showings his car made in competition. Some people accused Stutz of only entering lessor events to be able to claim so many wins and high finishers, but the field at the Twin Cities in September of 1915 belies that. The Stutzes were nestled between a Peugeot and a Mercedes, the number four starter with Ralph DePalma, and another Peugeot of Bob Burman, who had left the Buick team when that manufacturer pulled out of racing5.
Further down the starting grid, and not making an impressive showing yet was the Duesenberg team, with three drivers, two of which would become great, even legends, in later years, Eddie O'Donnell and Ralph Mulford. Further back yet was the DeLage of Barney Oldfield. Oldfield had not been able to qualify for the race at the necessary speed of 80 mph. But the promoters, recognizing the large following he still commanded among the fans, decided to let him start. They explained that qualification had been originally required to limit the race to 32 entrants in any race, but there were only sixteen total entrants. So Oldfield and two others were allowed to start.
An indication of the importance of the event in the national AAA schedule was the fact that the "starter" for the race, the official in charge, would be the famous Fred Wagner. Wagner officiated only the top AAA races, the national events. The papers interviewed several of the drivers, and the Pioneer Press was particularly delighted with Ralph DePalma and his wife. They came across as the standard American family, and DePalma gained much publicity from his wife's activities. Governor Hammond was expected to entertain a group in his box at the event, including former Governor Eberhart and his wife, along with a number of important politicians.
The event was expected to be a battle between the Stutz cars, the Peugeots, and DePalma's Mercedes, with many wanting to see an American car defeat the best of the European racing cars. They were not disappointed. Burman in his Peugeot took an early lead, but his engine failed with a broken valve only 32 miles into the race. This was to foreshadow the withdrawal of foreign car after foreign car. Dario Resta, the pole sitter, dropped out with a broken oil pump at 102 miles. DePalma, probably the favorite of most of the crowd, went out with his Mercedes at 190 miles.
Photo from the race. The white car passing by is not identified. Photo from the Russ Bond collection.
A view of the Stutz pits. Photo from the Russ Bond collection.
None of the pre-race favorites driving imported machines lasted to the halfway point. The white Stutzes of Cooper and Anderson just kept on the pace, and eventually inherited the first two positions. With the demise of the hotter foreign machinery, the Duesenberg of Eddie O'Donnell moved up into third place. This pleased many in the crowd, especially those from the St. Paul area, as the engines for the racing Duesenbergs were made in St. Paul.
Eventually, at the finish, American cars swept the first seven places. Bill Haupt had brought his Duesenberg up to a sixth place finish, so the Stutz and Duesenberg teams did very well for themselves. The finish was actually very close and exciting, as Cooper led his team-mate across the line by a mere three seconds. And although he was never able to obtain enough speed to be a serious contender, Barney Oldfield at least kept his DeLage running, to finish in eighth position.
Actually Barney traded driving choirs frequently with his relief driver, a man who would obtain his own fame in a few years over the skies of France, Eddie Rickenbacker. Other relief drivers included Johny Aitkin for Cooper and Tom Rooney for Gil Anderson. Eddie O'Donnell was the only driver to drive the whole 500 miles without relief. Even the winning Cooper took over five hours and forty-five minutes to drive the distance.
The St. Paul paper commented on the deterioration of the track during the event, and blamed that on the small size of the finishing field. Yet it was clear that most of the significant cars that were forced out were victims of engine problems. Racing car engines in this era usually had a hard time standing up to five hundred miles of fast racing. One victim of the rough track, however, was the third place Duesenberg. Starter Wagner noticed a broken differential brace, and flagged the car into the pits where repairs were made. Since there was almost forty minutes separating the finish time of O'Donnell from second place Anderson, it is unlikely that results would have changed had the repairs not been needed. Still, race crowds were seeing the speeds of the Duesenbergs that would lead, in another five years, to the epic duels between Duesenberg and the cars of Harry Miller. No other cars were contenders to these two teams throughout the twenties.
The Future Portents to the future could be seen in these races. The breakup of concrete and the high cost of upkeep caused the Snelling superspeedway to be a failure, as were so many others. The concrete tracks and the one asphalt track (Indianapolis) were the first to go. The board tracks lasted for quite a few years before they started to deteriorate. But the high cost of repairs forced them to be abandoned eventually also. The concrete speedways were all gone by the twenties, and the boards disappeared during that decade. Only Indianapolis remained.
When the asphalt pavement there deteriorated, the speedway owners showed they were in the racing business for the long haul, and invested considerable money in paving the track with brick. By the thirties the brick was too rough for the faster speeds of the day, but considerable advances had been made in the science of asphalt paving, and the track remains to this day the premier track of American auto racing.
Eventually similar advances in concrete construction led to the superspeedways of the sixties and seventies, like Daytona and Darlington. After the demise of the Twin City speedway, the premier track in Minnesota was the Fairgrounds track. On this dirt mile track the tradition had been established for the annual State Fair race.
Dissatisfaction with the AAA, who could indeed bring in the top names in racing, but at too high a cost to fairground promoters in the Midwest, led to the development of the International Motorsports Competition Association (IMCA). The IMCA bred its own famous drivers, and the Hamline track would see many of the duels between Gus Schrader and Emory Collins. This pair, driving their big Offies, dominated racing in the Midwest, while the AAA circuits ran both coasts.
And the crowds showed clearly that they loved the speed of the open wheeled thoroughbred racing cars. The stock cars, after the races in 1905 through 1907, were to disappear from Minnesota for over half a century. The open wheel cars are gone now, with stock cars putting on the annual race at the fair. The dirt track has been paved over with asphalt. But there are still a few old timers around who remember when the Duesenbergs and Stutzes, and greats like DePalma, Chevrolet, O'Donnell and Oldfield churned the dirt into dust in races in the Twin Cities.
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