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Subject: Auto Racing at the Fairgrounds
Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 23:42:01 -0500
From: "Bob Lawrence" <sprintguy@kscable.com>
To: <bbott@ausbcomp.com>
Hi Bill,
I now believe I have pin-pointed when that photograph was taken of the auto
race on your web site. An expert on
those old race cars told me to check 1915-1916 newspapers as they raced
cars like that just prior to World War I. I
did today and found that there was a race run at Winfield on Thursday afternoon,
May 13, 1915 and it appears to have
been the only race run at Winfield during those two years. The feature
event that day was 40 laps and was won by
Sigfried Hangdahl driving a Mercer. I'll put together the whole story and
have it up on my web site in a few days.
Bob Lawrence's 1935 Race Day Page
Subject: auto race at fairgrounds
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 12:55:02 -0600
From: "Bob Lawrence" <sprintguy@kscable.com>
To: <bbott@ausbcomp.com>
Hi,
I saw your photo taken of the automobile race at the Cowley Co. fairgrounds
c1915 and also saw that you were interested in comments about it. You might
be interested in a story told to me by Kenny Becker (1914-1984), former
Winfield postmaster. He said that, when he was a boy, a promoter brought
about a half dozen race cars to the Winfield fairgrounds along with about
four drivers. He staged a race and offered to let local men sign up to drive
the remaining cars. He would even allow the locals to start in the front
of the race. Only a couple of local men volunteered and one of those had
an eye muscle condition that caused his eyes to always look down and to
the left. Thus, to see straight ahead, this man had to raise his head up
and turn it to the right. Driving the race car that way, it appeared as
though this man was star gazing or staring up into the grandstand as he
raced by. The touring race drivers, not aware of his condition, thought
the man was showing off or, at the very least, wasn't paying attention to
his driving and were afraid to pull along side, let along race with him,
and this guy won the race.
1915 would have been before Kenny was old enough to remember any races and
I don't see any of these drivers staring off into space. On the other hand,
judging from all of the automobiles in the infield of the track, I'm wondering
if that race might not have been run in the early 1920s instead. Before
WWI, I believe that the infield would have been mostly buggies and wagons.
There aren't a half dozen cars either but they might have run more than
one race that day too. I don't know. It's just an interesting observation.
I made a link to that picture on a couple of other auto racing web sites
so you might be hearing from some people who might be able to tell you more
about it.
Bob Lawrence
Subject: Re: auto race at fairgrounds
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 16:40:16 -0600
From: "Bob Lawrence" <sprintguy@kscable.com>
To: <bbott@ausbcomp.com>
References: 1 , 2
Bill,
No. I don't mind your posting my story and comments about the picture. I
did see a couple of 'typos' that you might want to correct though, since
it is going to be on the web page.
Incidentally, I drove in a stock car race on that track myself in 1967. Then Wayne Wilt and myself promoted two stock car races there on behalf of the Winfield V.F.W. in 1970 and 1971.
Your web site about Winfield is simply Awesome! Excellent work. I have long been interested in Winfield and its history. That 1878 'bird's eye view' of Winfield is one of my all time favorite pictures and I have admired it in the historical museum on a number of occasions.
In 1997, I published the 690 page hard bound book,
"Births and Deaths of Cowley County, Kansas as Abstracted from the
Winfield Daily Courier and Other Sources 1875-1969" containing genealogical
abstracts from 7,729 birth announcements and 17,903 obituaries published
in the Winfield Courier during
those years. I also included the location of each of the 129 known cemeteries
in Cowley county as well as each of the names that each cemetery has been
known by over the years.. There are 7,021 different surnames in the index.
Although that book is out of print now, there are copies in a number of
libraries around the country including both the Winfield and Arkansas City
public libraries. Then, just last month, I published the second edition
of that book. It's virtually the same book as the first edition (except
for a few spelling corrections) but this one is only available on CD-ROM.
Should you run across anyone who might be interested in obtaining one,
they are $50 each, postage paid in the U.S., and can be ordered directly
from me at 264 S. Willo-Esque, Wichita, KS 67209.
Bob Lawrence
Birds eye view of Fairgrounds
Cowley County Transportation Index
bbott's home page
