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Brief Look At Indy Car Racing At The Milwaukee Mile
by Steve Zautke
Over the years the Milwaukee Mile and its fans have been blessed to enjoy 100
plus years and over 250 races of open wheel racing tradition. The
‘Mile started its motorsports life on September 11, 1903 when William Jones
of Racine, WI won a five-mile event held on the one-mile dirt oval.
Located within the approximately 200 acres, which make Wisconsin State Fair
Park the track is actually surrounded by the city of West Allis, WI and was
originally completed in 1891 and was originally intended for horse
racing. During the pre-World War I era, racing was quite different from
today’s 100, 200 or 500-mile races we see throughout the country. This
was a time of five, ten or twenty-five mile-timed runs, or match racing as the
automobile was still in its infancy. As the cars became more dependable,
manufacturers and automobile dealers used endurance races to promote their
product. Thus, in 1907 and 1908, 24-hour endurance tests were held at
the Wisconsin oval.
The venerable track has seen many colorful characters over the years.
One of the first was Barney Oldfield. Oldfield a racing pioneer was seen
in a variety of cars at the track. Oldfield first appeared at the track
in 1905 in the Peerless Green Dragon, later the man known for a having an
unlit cigar in his mouth while racing was seen in a French-built Darraq, the
legendary Blitzen Benz and additionally the famous Golden Submarine built by
famed race car designer, Harry A. Miller a native of Menomonie, WI. Bob
Burman and Ralph DePalma were some of the “big names” to appear at the
track.
The track today as a whole looks similar as it has in the past. The
biggest change is the open modern grandstands with improved sightlines and
amenities. The three previous grandstands were all covered, and varied
slightly to the untrained eye. In 1914, the original grandstand burned
to the ground.
The first 100-mile race wasn’t seen until 1915 when Louis Disbrow drove the
“Jay-Eye-See” Special to Victory. The J.I. Case Co. of nearby
Racine, WI financed the vehicle, which was built by Lewis Strang.
Shortly after World War I, the board track era took off. The clean,
beautiful semi-banked speed palaces were the fad of the roaring twenties as
the fairgrounds fell out of favor to the national sanctioning bodies.
However, J. Alex Sloan’s IMCA group was frequent visitors to the track in
addition to promoters such as, Huff Dorward, Ernie Moross and Ward Beam.
It was during this time in the 1920’s that many local drivers stepped up to
the forefront and became the drivers to beat. Drivers such as Artie
Brach, Frank Brisko, Carl and Tudy Marchese, Stag Nowicki, Johnny Sawyer,
Porter Short, and George Young were some of the headliners.
In 1929, Tom Marchese promoted his first race at the track with the invitation
of Fair Park President Ralph Ammon. Mr. Ammon was hoping that Tom’s
brother Carl (who finished forth in the Indianapolis 500 that year) would
race, in return some of the other nationally known drivers would appear.
Dirt track star Gus Schrader of Cedar Rapids, IA won the 50-Mile event.
Driving the #3 Duray Miller, Wilbur Shaw won a 100-mile car event on a Monday
on July 17, 1933 after the race scheduled for Sunday was postponed by
rain. Shaw, among other drivers, talked Mr. Marchese into running the
race the following day due to many of the drivers not wanting to tow their
cars back to Milwaukee the following weekend. So, as Milwaukee area
families were sitting down for their Monday dinner, Wilbur Shaw and the boys
were racing. There is also an interesting twist. The Milwaukee race was
sanctioned by the AAA (race sanction #2906) but they did not pay the
additional fee to make it a national championship race. It was
considered a regular ‘big car’ race. The promoter was required to pay an
additional amount – maybe $100 or so – to receive the championship
designation and most figured with the depression going on full bore, they
didn’t need the extra expense. Therefore, the first AAA-sanctioned
race was held on August 17, 1939 when Babe Stapp driving the Boyle-Offy won
the 100-mile race over George Barringer.
Milwaukee favorite Rex Mays was the first to break the 90-mph barrier in 1934
with a lap of 39.47 seconds (91.21 mph). A 100-mile race in 1937 was
scheduled for 100 miles and Mays took the checkered flag on what everyone
thought was the completion of the 100th lap. But a review of manual
scoring records showed that a scorer's error caused the race to end
prematurely after the 96th lap.
There was no Indianapolis 500 in 1942 due to the outbreak of War World
II. However, the fairgrounds held the “Victory Sweepstakes” on
Memorial Day, which was won by Joie Chitwood. However by July 31, all
racing had ceased in support of the war effort. No racing was held at
the track form 1943-1945. In 1946, Tom Marchese and Wisconsin Auto
Racing, Inc. won exclusive promoting rights to the track.
The one-mile oval was one of many fairgrounds tracks in the early
1950’s. The “big cars” would be seen at DuQuoin, Springfield,
Syracuse and the Indiana Fairgrounds in Indianapolis. In 1954, the track
separated itself by paving the track. At the time only the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway in South Carolina were the only paved
tracks holding nationally sanctioned races. An interesting note is Chuck
Stevenson of Garden Grove, CA won the last championship car race held on the
dirt and won the inaugural race on the newly paved track.
In 1956, the United States Auto Club (USAC) filled the void left with the
departure of the American Automobile Association (AAA) as a national
sanctioning body. With formation of USAC, the growth of auto racing
started to increase as the decade of the 1950’s ended. As the 1960’s
began, thus started which is considered the modern golden age of racing.
The sport increased in popularity and that was certainly the case at the
Milwaukee Mile. Attendance boomed in the 1960’s. Drivers such as
Rodger Ward, Tony Bettenhausen and later, A.J. Foyt and Parnelli Jones became
household names. These drivers were seen at the Milwaukee Mile whether
in an Indy car, stock car, sprint car or midget.
Winning drivers such as Rodger Ward (most wins with 7) Tony Bettenhausen,
Johnny Thomson, A.J. Foyt, Lloyd Ruby, Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, Al Unser,
Joe Leonard, Gordon Johncock, Mike Mosley, Johnny Rutherford, Tom Sneva, Rick
Mears and Michael Andretti are just some of the drivers to have won Indy car
races three or more times at the historic Milwaukee Mile. Until 1983,
the Milwaukee Mile held two Indy car races. In August a 200-mile race
was typically held on the final day of Fair week. After Tony
Bettenhausen was killed at Indianapolis on May 12, 1961, the August Indy car
race was named in his honor. Interesting August Indy car races include
the 1955 event in which Pat Flaherty won a 250-mile version of the race in the
dusk after a rain-delay in the Dunn Engineering car. Jimmy Clark of
Duns, Scotland won the 1963 Bettenhausen race in Colin Chapman’s
groundbreaking Lotus-29. It was the first Indy car win for a rear-engine
car. One of the most famous races held at Milwaukee occurred in 1965
when A.J. Foyt won the pole in his Meskowski dirt car after his Lotus was
unavailable. Foyt lead the early part of the race however Gordon
Johncock in his rear-engine Gerhardt won the historic event with Foyt coming
in second.
Colorful characters were also prevalent during the 1950’s and 1960’s such
as Johnny Boyd, Jimmy Bryan, Jim Hurtubise, Eddie Sachs, one-legged Bill
Schindler, and Myron Fohr of Milwaukee were just some of the crowd favorites
to participate at The ‘Mile. Chicago area drivers such as the
“Tinley Park Express” Tony Bettenhausen, Paul Russo, Indy 500 winner Pat
Flaherty and Emil Andres also thrilled the Milwaukee Mile partisans.
The drivers that have competed at the track is an ultimate “who’s who in
auto racing.” From it’s first fifty years of history, Barney
Oldfield, Ralph DePalma, Wilbur Shaw, Rex Mays, Frank Brisko, Tony Willman,
Mauri Rose, Ted Horn, Johnnie Parsons, Bettenhausen and Sam Hanks. Over
the last fisty years drivers such as, Michael Andretti, Jimmy Bryan, A.J. Foyt,
Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford, Rodger Ward, the
Unser family including: Jerry, Bobby, Al Unser and Al Unser, Jr. World
Champion drivers such as Jimmy Clark, the aforementioned Mario Andretti,
Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell and Jacques Villeneuve have challenged the
oval. The variety of famous race cars is also impressive, from Harry
Miller’s Golden Submarine, the Blitzen-Benz, Poison Lil, beautiful Kurtis
and Watson roadsters, exquisite Lotus 29’s, the STP Lotus-Turbines, the
Coyotes, McLarens and Eagles of the 1970’s and too many others to
mention.
The ABC Supply / A.J. Foyt 225 presented by Time-Warner Cable returns to its
traditional date on June 2-3. For ticket information click onto www.milwaukeemile.com
for details.
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