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The mud-spattered 1939 Chevy jalopy had completed
only two laps of the race, but it suddenly skidded to a stop.
Its 16-year-old driver leaped from the car and ran toward the
refreshment stand. A smiling lady behind the counter
held out a wiener in a bun, slathered with ketchup and onions, and
a cup of ice-cold Pepsi. The boy grabbed the hot dog from
her hand, stuffed it into his mouth and began chewing furiously.
He snatched the Pepsi, threw his head back and guzzled the entire
drink in huge swallows. Throwing the empty cup aside,
he sprinted back to the jalopy and leaped behind the wheel of The
Hellcat. He slammed the transmission into gear and
jammed the accelerator to the floor. Rear wheels spun, mud
flew, and the Chevy roared back onto the track. The Hellcat
rumbled around the rugged hilly track for three more laps and
roared across the finish line. |
This photograph,
courtesy of Jack "Bud" Purcell of Brownsville, shows the
Thornton Field race track around 1949.
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"The winner of today's Hot Dog Race," blared the loudspeaker on
Thornton race track's refreshment stand, "is Charles Knox of Thompson
#2!"
The victorious teen
grinned widely. There was no prize involved, but his unbeaten record
was still intact. Having entertained the crowd, he would now
return to his familiar role of mechanic for his big brother Harry, who
drove The Hellcat in the feature races.
Fifty years later, after
reading an article I wrote about the Thornton race track, the champ of the
Hot Dog Races gave me a call.
"We owned a race car
called Hellcat Number One," said Charles Knox, now of New Salem.
"It was a black 1939 Chevy three-speed with a big round scoop on the
front of it. I was in my mid-teens at that time. That's when I
used to drive in the Hot Dog Race."
"What exactly was
the Hot Dog Race?" I asked.
"It happened during
the half hour intermission before the feature race," Charles
explained. "The mechanics, rather than the better drivers,
would drive the cars. We'd run two laps around, stop, get out of the
car, go get a hot dog, eat it and drink a pop, then get back in and run
three more laps! You had to finish the hot dog and the drink before
you could get back into the car."
Charles laughed,
"I was young and could eat fast and drink fast. I never lost
once!"
He especially recalled
the day that The Hellcat defeated one of the track's more determined
competitors in the feature race.
"One day,"
Charles said, "Gus Hasson's car broke down, so Gus drove our
car."
"Why would you and
Harry let Gus drive your car?" I wondered.
"Well, my brother
was out late the night before," Charles chuckled, "and he had a
terrific headache. Gus blew the engine in his car, so he drove
our car and won the race. One of the drivers he beat was named
Robert Ganoe. Robert's dad was so mad, he was jumping up and down
and cussin' his boy for letting Gus lap him."
"Why was he so
angry?"
"Ed Ganoe, Robert's
father, would take his motors into Uniontown and have them machined,
drilled out and everything. He'd spend hundreds of dollars.
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In this photo taken
around 1952, Bill Kelly Sr., a frequent winner at Thornton race
track, introduces his son Bill Jr. to some race car basics. Photo
courtesy of Bill Kelly Jr. of Brownsville.
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"We couldn't
afford that, so we would just go get a junk motor and put it in
our car, which was purely stock. Anyway, driving our car,
Gus lapped the whole field including the Ganoe car. Boy was
Ed mad!" Charles laughed, "I think we got 37
dollars for winning the feature race."
"Did you
have to pay to race?"
"You paid a
dollar to get into the track, and that was it. We didn't
have to pay anything for entering the car. They had four or
five heat races, then they had a per cent race. The fastest
one would start in the back."
"With such a
narrow track, was it hard to maneuver around the other cars?"
"Oh, there
were often six, eight, sometimes as many as twelve cars in a race.
Going into number three curve out of that gulley, you'd fly right
through the air. If there was a slower car ahead of
you, you could land right on top of it! The first two curves
weren't bad, but that number three curve wasn't banked at all.
"Yes,
Thornton track was an obstacle course. After it closed for
good, we went to McClellandtown to race, but I still clearly
remember the Thornton track. Bill Kelly and Gus Hasson were
the top drivers there."
Gus Hasson, whose
real name was Lloyd, was a frequent winner at Thornton half a
century ago. I picked up the phone to take a call recently
and got a surprise. |
A man's voice said, "My boy sent me an article about the race track
at Thornton. I'm not sure why I called you; just to reminisce, I
guess."
"What's your name,
sir?" I asked.
"Lloyd Hasson,"
he replied.
"Lloyd Hasson?
One of the drivers at the Thornton race track?"
"No," he
replied, "that was my uncle. His nickname was Gus."
"Where are you
calling me from, Mr. Hasson?"
"Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
My son sent me the article you wrote about the race track and wondered if
I would remember the track. I told him sure I do. In
fact," he laughed, "I recognized that old truck in the picture
you published!"
Lloyd straightened out a
mixup on the nicknames of his father and his uncle.
"One fellow in the
article mentioned that Gus Hasson's nickname was ‘Doggie.'
Actually it was my dad, Edgar Hasson, who was called Doggie. He was
Big Doggie and I was Little Doggie. In fact I've inherited that
nickname.
"My dad was killed
back in 1954. He and I used to go watch uncle Gus in the
races. Gus drove The Ghost, and he also drove a car called Little
White Cloud.
"You know,"
Lloyd said, "I'm 57 years old, and I've been out here in Cedar Rapids
for a long time, but I've still got Grindstone and Route 40 in my
blood!"
On the subject of
nicknames, I also received a call from John Gribble.
"The driver that
someone in your original article called Doug Jones?" John said.
"His nickname was ‘Dub' Jones."
"Dub?" I
repeated. "Is he still living?"
"No," said
John, "but his 85-year-old widow is. She recognized him in your
article, and I'm calling on her behalf."
After the original article about the Thornton track was published,
Jack (Bud) Purcell located some photos of the track and of Lew
Rose and Joe Nutt, both of whom built cars that raced at Thornton.
I visited Bud at his home, where he elaborated on the people in
the photos.
"Joe Nutt
built a lot of the cars that raced at Thornton," said Bud.
"He owned the garage that I had on the old National Pike
previous to my owning it. He was the most intelligent guy I
ever knew in regards to engineering, automobiles, and so forth.
"All of
these car races were outlawed, you know. That means they are
not sanctioned by anybody. Anybody who wants to drive and
shows up with a car gets to drive, no insurance, no nothing. |
Lew Rose and his Car
14, taken around 1949, courtesy of Jack "Bud" Purcell of
Brownsville.
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"Lew Rose built race cars too. We -- I say "we"
because I was always with them -- ran a car at Williams Grove Track
at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and at Langhorne. This was back when
NASCAR first started. We were up against the Petty brothers,
Bradshaw, Cannonball Baker, and all those famous NASCAR racers. Lew
was the owner of the car, but Lew was getting kind of old, so he didn't
drive out there. Jack Hodgson was his driver. That was big
time racing. That is where the original Lee Petty started to drive
and they formed NASCAR.
"We never could win,
of course, because they overwhelmed us with six cars, and we went with
this old Plymouth. But they paid fifty bucks for traveling expenses
if you showed up, so we worked on the car all night then went and raced
against the Pettys. You know you're gonna lose, but we were very
involved in racing back then."
The name Lew Rose stirred
a memory for Virginia Regal Nemetz of West Brownsville. She wondered
whether any reader would remember motorcycle hill climbs at Braznell,
possibly in the late 1940's.
"I'm
pretty sure that Lew Rose was one of the fellows who raced there. I
was a young child at the time," she explained. "My brother
Andy Regal, who had Regal Motor Company on the Pike, used to take me down
to Braznell.
"They had a steep
hill down there, not on the main road. I remember they had a
loudspeaker announcing the races, and it was exciting. The racers
would start at the bottom, and they would try to get up to the top and go
over. Most of them didn't make it. They'd have to jump off
their motorcycle and the motorcycle would topple down the hill. I'm
not sure exactly where the hill was because I was so young then.
Please ask your readers if they remember anything about those motorcycle
hill climbs."
How about it readers?
Motorcycle hill climbs at Braznell?
Editor's
Note: This article originally appeared in the Glenn Tunney's website in
which he has many articles on the history of Brownsville, PA. TVR would like to express our thanks and gratitude
to Glenn for allowing us to share his articles on the Thornton race track
with our viewers. For more information, check out his website at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~glenntunneycolumn/
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