If you recall, in Part I, I basically covered the year 1946.  Now, in this and future parts, I will bring us up to this current year.  I will attempt to have you recall more names, and not just drivers.  We can’t forget those that were able to afford the machines that the drivers have driven, can we?

The year, 1947, was another stupendous year for midget racing.  Not only here in the Northeast, but nationwide.  Here in the Northeast, the ARDC had another banner year.  Surprisingly, Bill Schindler won 53 main events.  More surprisingly, he was not the ARDC champion!  Another driver, George Rice, had one great season.  Sorry, but here I have to “cheat” a little.  Have to refer to a few other gentlemen.  Walter Stebbins and Derek Lewin.  Mr. Lewin quotes from Walter Stebbins’ Scrapbook, the season that Rice had, driving for Ed Bourgnon.  “Competing in 81 straight nights of ARDC competition, Rice made all 81 main events.  Total 1947 ARDC statistics for Rice, include:  39 wins, 24 seconds, 10 thirds, 5 fourths, and 3 fifths”.  Unbelievably, he won the championship by over 1000 points.  Finishing behind Rice were: Schindler, Mike Nazaruk, Johnny Ringger, Dutch Schaefer, Chet Gibbons, Steve McGrath, Ted Tappet and Art Cross.  And, I was fortunate to go to many of these events with my dad and brother.

Some more names to be added to those mentioned in Part I are:  Gesell, Holmes, Redmond and McCoy.  Peters, Furci, Walasek and Claren.  Sloane, Records, Bloomer, Carpenter and Volk.  Erwin, Fanelli, Jackson, Shanebrook and Shurter.  Fine drivers – all.

As mentioned above, the drivers would not have been so successful, if not for the owners.  Some of them had “deep pockets”.  Some did not.  Some owners had more than one car.  I can’t imagine the work they had to do, what with all the traveling they had to do, and that was without the benefit of an Interstate Highway system.  I can remember going through many small and many larger towns and cities, to get to the various speedways.  Some of the owners, and I will unfortunately, only name some, were:  Caruso, Curtis, Hickey and Hough.  Van Nostrand, Cressbaugh, Gordon and allen.  Wheeler, Willets, Plakstis and Stevens.  Schloeder, Gertler, Eckert and Hull.  Fray, Sperling, Kennedy and Caccia.  And there were some drivers that owned their own cars.  Men like Ritter, Barzda, Land & DiMarco.  Toran, Frick and Shanebrook.  Yes, we always can remember the drivers of years past, but we have to remember the men that made it possible, the owners, for their untiring efforts also.

 The year of 1948 was a championship season for Bill Schindler.  Again, he managed to win 53 main events.  Unfortunately, the “novelty” of midget racing had reached its highest points late in ’47 through most of ’48.  The midget scene started to dwindle down.  In a way, I was fortunate.  My parents decided to divorce, and being only ten or eleven years old, I stayed with my mother and younger sister.  Mom re-married, and we moved south.  WAY south.  Down by Miami.  After about a year, we ended up in North Carolina.  It was while in Carolina, that I started watching different types of racing, other than midgets.  My father and brother, who had stayed back in New Jersey, after the divorce,  had come to visit.  Or so I thought.  I know we all know of Darlington, South Carolina – and the speedway that is there.  Well, we went to watch the “Indy” cars.  My brother says it was on July 4^th, and I guess he is correct.  I only remember a few things about that Darlington event.  I remember Schindler was there.  So was Walt Faulkner.  And, I think Bill Vukovich was also there.  Funny, but I can only distinctly remember only one car from that race.  A blue number 79.  Believe it was owned by Hart Fullerton.  It was driven by Johnny McDowell.  What made this car stand out?  It was “water injected”, and it had a very distinct sound.  To the best of my memories, that was the only water injected car that I can remember seeing.  Eventually, we ended up back “north”, in New York State.  Just across the Jersey border.  Hey, I was back in my “glory”.  I would be able to go with dad and brother again to more races! 

In an up-coming volume of “memories”, I will be taking you into the ‘50’s.  I was getting bigger, and so were the cars.  Sprint cars.  Yes, more memories are coming!

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the "Open Wheel Racing" website. TVR would like to express our thanks and gratitude to John LeVan, the editor of OWR. Check out the latest open wheel racing news at www.openwheelracing.com.
-DZ

Who were your favorites? If you'd like information on how 
to contribute stories and/or photos to TVR, click here!
   

Top of Page    Back    Part I    Part III    Part IV    Part V   Part VI   Part VII