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From Motor, The Automotive Business Magazine, June 1933.
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ouis Meyer in his Tydol Special won the 500 mile race on Decoration Day in the fast time of 4:48:00.55, averaging 104.162 miles |
| per hour. Thereby breaking Frame's record ofhour. Thereby breaking Frame's record of 104.144 miles per hour made last year. |
Louis Meyer also won the 500-mile race in 1928. Tommy Milton is the only other man who has won this race twice.
Louis Meyer's car is a Miller eight rear drive with a bore and stroke of 2.3125 by 3.750 and a piston displacement of 258 cubic inches.
Wilbur Shaw in Leon Duray's Mallory Special took second place by finishing three laps behind the winner. His speed was 101.795 miles per hour. Third place went to the four-cylinder Foreman Axle Special with Lou Moore driving. Speed 101.182.
The other 11 finishers are their speeds are: Fourth, Chet Gardner, Sampson Radio Special, 101.087. Fifth, H. W. Stubblefield, Shafer Special, 100.762. Sixth, Dave Evans, Art Rose Special, 100.355. Seventh, Tony Gulotta, Studebaker Special, 99.071. Eighth, Russel Snowberger, Russel Eight Special, 99.011. Ninth, Zeke Meyer, Studebaker Special, 98.122. Tenth, Luther Johnson, Studebaker Special, 97.393. Eleventh, Cliff Bergere, Studebaker Special, 97.286. Twelfth, Lora Corum, Studebaker Special, 95.458. Thirteenth, W. Prentice, Jack-C-Carr Special, 93.595. Fourteenth, Rignati, Golden Seal Special, 93.244.
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The first four to finish had Miller engines while most of the other finishers had stock engines, including the five Studebakers. Snowberger and Evans also used Studebaker engines. The latter had it in a front-wheel drive, Cooper chassis. Rignati's car had a Chrysler engine.
The race was regrettable in that three men were killed, while two died, while attempting to qualify the preceding Sunday. This in spite of the fact that the rules were changed this year to make the race safer.
On his seventy-nith lap, Mark Billman in the Kemp-Mannix Special skidded on the southeast turn, hit the outside wall and finally came to rest with the car astride the wall. He was pinned between the left front wheel and the wall and it took 20 minutes to get him out. His left arm was torn off, both legs were broken and he was internally injured. In spite of blood transfusions, he died an hour later.
His mechanic, Elmer Lombard, was thrown fifty feet outside the wall. He suffered painful burns, lacerations of the legs and possible internal injuries. Just about the time excitement had died down over this mishap the driver of one of the front-drive cars, for some reason, had to lift his foot from the accelerator just as he was entering the southwest turn. Malcolm Fox was right behind in the Universal Service Special and in trying to avoid him
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| he swung outward thus blocking Spangler who was directly behind Fox. Spangler's Miller Special hit one of Fox's rear wheels, jumped over Fox and landed on the outside wall. Spangler and his mechanic, G. L. Jordan, were so badly crashed and mangled that their friends had some difficulty in telling which was which.
Fox tried to keep control of his car but failed. He spun several times and finally climbed up on the outer retaining wall. Fox and Bert Cook, his mechanic had only minor injuries.
The two men killed during qualification were Bill Denver, driver, and Hugh (Bob) Hurst, mechanic. Their car jumped the wall on the northeast turn and landed on the ground 20 feet below.
Wild Bill Cummings in his Boyle Products Special took the lead at the start of the race setting the hot pace of 115.238 miles per hour for the first 25 miles while Louis Meyer was seventh. At 75 miles Cummings was still in front with an average of 113.549 while Louis Meyer had moved up into fourth place. About this time Bill Cummings had to come in to repair a leaky radiator cap and leaky top tank. He came in again and again to tincker with it, losing so much time that he soon was not even among the first ten. He was ruled out of the race on his 136th lap.
Cummings' trouble put Fred Frame in the lead at 100 miles in the Miller-Hartz Special, and moved Louis Meyer up the third place. Frame had the lead at 125 miles. A broken valve put
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him out at 84 laps (a lap is 2 1/2 miles).
Babe Stapp in the Boyle Products Special held first place all the way frpm the 150 mile post to the 300 mile mark. Louis Meyer was second at 225 and 250 miles, and dropped to thrid at 275 miles, was second at 300 miles and first from 325 miles to the finish.
Nearly all the dopesters were surprised to see a racing car win for the reason that hardly anybody believed that a racing car could run the distance on only 6 gallons of oil. The usual racing car engine is not as stiffly built as a passenger car engine with the result that it weaves at the joints and oil leaks out.
Six gallons of oil of course are all that the car is allowed and it must be in the car before the race starts. Tests before the race showed that the semi-stock engines would run 500 miles on much less than 6 gallons.
Cliff Bergere's Studebaker last year used only 2 quarts while a Studebaker made a 600-mile test run last year at better than 100 miles per hour with a consumption of only one quart.
The oil limit was adopted principally as a safety measure -- to keep the oil leakers off the track and this reduce slipperiness. Limiting the gasoline tank capacity to 15 gallons (where 40 gallons were customary last year) also assists safety. First because this makes two stops necessary (the cars average about 10 miles per gallon) which provides two opportunities instead of one for inspection of tires and other
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| things, or for tire changes. Second the smaller capacity does not upset car balance. Heretofore a driver would begin the race with about 40 gallons of gasoline weighting about 280 pounds. As the race progressed and the fuel was consumed the consequent change in weight was so gradual that he could adjust himself to it. However, whe the supply was about used up, he would come in for a second filling and frequently this sudden increase in weight would soon cause him to wreck. With the 15-gallon tank these troubles are avoided.
However, in spite of these excellent changes to improve safety, the spills and the resulting deaths were disconcertingly high, and the conslusion is that the cars are too fast for reasonable safety, but what can be done to slow them down is a problem.
No. 22, Edelweiss Special, driven by Louis Schneider, stalled on the first lap.
No. 24, Frame-Miller-Duesenberg, driven by Paul Bost, went out with oil trouble on the fourteenth lap.
No. 59, G. & D. Special, driven by Ray Campbell was stopped by magneto trouble on the twenty-third lap.
No. 23, Highway Parts Special, driven by Ralph Hepburn, broke a connecting rod on the twenty-ninth lap.
No. 10, Denny Duesenberg Special, driven by Ira Hall, hit the wall on the thirty-seventh lap.
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No. 58, F.W.D. Special, driven by Frank Brisco, was out with oil trouble on the forty-fifth lap.
No. 3, Gilmore Special, Art Rose driving, stopped with mechanical trouble on the forty-eighth lap.
No. 25, Sullivan-O'Brien Special, "Shorty" Cantlon driving, burned out a rod on the forty-ninth lap.
No. 16, Floating Power Special, driven by Ernie Triplett, went out with engine trouble on the sixty-first lap.
No. 2, Frame-Miller Special, driven by Peter Kreis, went out with engine trouble on the sixty-second lap.
No. 64, Kemp-Mannix Special, driven by Mark Billman, crashed on southwest turn on seventy-ninth lap. Driver was killed.
No. 12, Miller-Hartz Special, Fred Frame driving, broke a valve in the eighty-fourth lap.
No. 57, Universal Service Garage Special, droven by Malcolm Fox, one his one hundred and nineteenth lap was hit by Spangler. The Fox car spun out of control and wrecked, but driver and mechanic were not seriously injured.
No. 15, Miller Special, Lester Spangler driving, tangled with Malcolm Fox, on his one hundred and thirty-first lap and wrecked on southwest turn. Driver and mechanic were killed.
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No. 5, Boyle Products Special, driven by Bill Cummings went out of the race on the one hundred and thirty-fifth lap with a leaky radiator cap.
No. 32, Boyle Valve Special, Wesley Crawford driving, on lap one hundred and forty-six, had a wheel come off, wrecking the car but with the men unhurt.
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No. 45, Boyle Products Special, driven by Babe Stapp, ran out of gasoline on the one hundred and fifty-sixth lap.
No.27, Sacks Brothers Special, driven by Kelly Petillo spun on the north turn on the one hundred and sixty-seventh lap and could not be restarted.
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