The following is the transcript of the episode! Thanks for reading.
Hi, welcome back to Ghosts of the Brickyard. So today we’re going to be talking about the riding mechanics of the 1911 Indy 500. I wanted to do this specifically because riding mechanics are rarely mentioned by the newspapers and if they are it’s usually because they’ve either gotten hurt or they’ve been killed.
I thought that it would be interesting to go through the list of riding mechanics for each Indy 500 that has them and see what kind of stories I could find.
At heart I am a genealogist and a lot of that involves putting these stories together using genealogical records and newspapers and that is my bread and butter. And I also hope that, by putting this information and these names out into the internet – that maybe I will be able to connect with the descendants of some of these riding mechanics and maybe they have more of the story and I think that that should be recorded if possible.
So I, as a starting point, used a booklet that I tracked down through eBay called “Riding Mechanics”, by John E Blazier and Tom Rollings. It was just a booklet. There’s a story from a riding mechanic who rode in a 1930s Indy 500. But other than that, it’s just names, and I do believe that the names, from at least the 1911 list, were taken from a Chicago Tribune article. It was the only one I could find really that named the mechanics in full or as full as they could.
And so I thought we would just go through the list. I also thought this would be a fun way to be able to kind of explain some of the research that I’m doing and how I am able to put together some of these stories and also some of the limitations that I have while I’m doing this. Unfortunately, I was not able to find concrete information or piece together full stories on most.
Ray Harroun did not have a riding mechanic. I guess though his riding mechanic technically was the rearview mirror. I would like to talk about that for a second actually now that I have brought it up.
I think, maybe, perhaps, people give Ray Harroun a little too much credit with the rearview mirror. That was absolutely a thing before. Maybe not on a car, but was absolutely on buggies, and I mean, Dorothy Levitt, had published something, I think it was in 1909, about using a compact mirror for a rear view mirror. Yes, it was probably the first on a race car. I just don’t think it was as impressive as people are making it out to be for the reason they’re making it out to be. I actually think it’s impressive for a different reason.
So what tipped me off to this is this article that was in the Champagne Daily Gazette, in part wrote, “Harroun will have the most unique mechanician in the race. This trusty helper is dumb, is always looking backward for a car coming behind, and it will always be on the job. Harroun has bolted a mirror directly in front of his face, and as he will ride alone, the men around the pits have dubbed the looking-glass the dumb mechanician. The idea of getting away from the atmospheric resistance is again considered and the mirror with its triangular case will act as a break to the wind and let Harroun ride without any discomfort in the long grind.”
Now, I think that’s even more genius. And this is what I wonder –, like… Ray had driven on the bricks in Indianapolis quite a bit. I just think that he would have known that an actual mirror would have essentially been useless on the bricks because I don’t know if you guys have ever driven over bricks before in a car, but I have and the bricks rattle my car and my mirror in my modern car with all of the modern shocks and stuff. So I imagine that it would shake the hell out of the Marmon Wasp.
I think it was kind of genius and not really because it was the first, but because, you know, this is a great example of drivers using anything they can think of to get a competitive advantage. And I mean, I guess I don’t know for sure that it gave him a competitive advantage beyond, you know, being the replacement of, you know, an actual human in that weight. But I would imagine that it probably did a decent job of keeping the wind out of his face at the very least.
Moving on, I actually had my first mystery right off the bat with Ralph Mulford’s riding mechanic, who according to my booklet is listed as Will Chambers. Now, interestingly, there was a Dr. William Henry Chambers and he entered a Lozier with Harold Van Gorder to drive and Van Gorder, ultimately crashed his car and it was not repaired. And I think that that’s okay. Van Gorder, likely embellished on his racing record and he didn’t have the experience and I think it was pretty evident.
I don’t know if the Will Chambers riding mechanic was the same as the Doctor Chambers who entered that Lozier. There was a Will Chambers who lived in Indianapolis. I found him in the 1920 Census and it listed the auto business as being the industry he worked in. But I was not able to find any definitive link between that Will Chambers and this riding mechanic, nor was I able to find any sort of confirmation that this doctor decided to be a riding mechanic.
I’m circling back. I recorded this part about Ralph Mulford and his riding mechanic a couple of weeks ago. I’m coming back because I have some developments. It seems that Will Chambers being listed as Ralph’s riding mechanic was definitely a mistake. I do believe that his riding mechanic for the Indy 500 was a man named William Chandler, or he went by Billy Chandler. He rode with Ralph in the Vanderbilt Cup and the American Grand Prize. And so I do believe he was the one that rode with Ralph in the Indy 500.
I’m leaving the part that I had already recorded about how it possibly could have been these other men because I think it’s important for people to know and understand that my research is always ongoing. I’m actively looking at other new material and so new information is always going to come to light. Sometimes I have enough time to get the information into the correct podcast episode. Other times I don’t. And other times I have to come back and record an extra. And it’s just kind of how it’s going to have to go.
We will talk more about Billy Chandler later on. He actually drives in a couple Indy 500, so we will see Billy a little later on.
David Bruce Brown, who finished in third. We’re skipping David Bruce and his riding mechanic because I will talk about him in the ‘Minor Hauntings’ David Bruce Brown episode. So that will be coming up.
Fourth finisher was Spencer Wishart. Now the booklet lists William Pfeiffer with a P as his riding mechanic. I could not find any information. Additionally, the Port Chester Journal in late April, 1911 named Danny Murphy of Port Chester as the riding mechanic. I also could not find any other information about Danny Murphy either, so that’s what I have for them.
Joe Dawson’s riding mechanic was Bruce Keen. A lot of times you will see his last name spelled as K-E-A-N-E. It was actually K-E-E-N.
Bruce, we actually have a decent amount of information about Bruce. Motorsportmemorial.org dug up a bunch of this. Bruce was born on October 22nd, 1875 in Hamilton, Indiana. He was an employee of the Nordyke and Marmon company of Indianapolis and he worked his way up. Keane drove one of the Marmon official cars in the first Glidden tour. And in August, 1909, he made his debut in the fatal Wheeler-Sheebler Trophy race in Indianapolis. He finished fifth.
The next year, Bruce became a riding mechanic for Joe Dawson, who was kind of like a wonder kid. And the pair finished second in the Vanderbilt Cup in 1910.
Bruce did get back into the driver’s seat after the Indianapolis 500 and he won the Jepson Trophy race in Santa Monica. And he also won a month later at the Savannah Challenge race in Georgia.
Unfortunately, his racing career seems to have ended when Marmon withdrew from racing. Bruce went on to Stutz and he remained there for 16 years and never raced again. I don’t know why. I mean, he might’ve been one of those Ray Harroun types where, you know, they raced to further themselves up the engineering ladder.
Bruce Keen passed away on Tuesday, October 13, 1964 in Indianapolis at the age of 88.
Note: Somehow most of the audio covering Charlie Merz’ riding mechanic disappeared. I cut out what was there because it was more confusing to leave it in. His riding mechanic was Leo Banks but I could not find any biographical information about him. There was a Leo Banks who drove in 1919 but I’m not 100% sure he was the same (likely though). Sorry about that – I am very much on a steep learning curve here.
I also could not find anything about Ralph De Palma’s riding mechanic, Charles Burry.
Eighth place finisher was W.H. Turner. His riding mechanic officially was listed as Emmett Ward. Emmett Ward was hurt in the wreck where Joe Horan’s leg was broken though Emmett was not seriously hurt. He was still kind of hurt though. Newspapers of the time said he was from Mishawaka. However, there were two Emmett Wards from that area about the same age. I could not positively identify who of those two may or may not have been this Emmett Ward. Both of them ended up living in the Indianapolis area. One died in 1941. The other died at age 100 in 1972. However, neither obituaries mentioned Indy 500 participation.
So I’m not 100 % sure which Emmett Ward was the riding mechanic or neither of them could have been. Because Emmett was hurt, it sounds like he thought that he could power through and do the race. However, he realized pretty quickly that he could not do 500 miles in a car. So Edward Towers took over the riding mechanic responsibilities after the 16th
Edward Towers is thought to be the longest known surviving 1911 500 participant. He died in November 1985 at the age of 97.
After his time as a riding mechanic, Edward Towers was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army serving as artillery observation balloon pilot and he was stationed in the United States.
In 1916, he served during the Mexican border conflict. After the cessation of hostilities, he joined the New Jersey National Guard and was later the commander of the 112th and 165th Field Artillery. He was promoted to colonel before the outbreak of World War II and commanded a large ordnance depot near Paris. (Bonus: If you’re interested, Edward did a interview about his military service you can find here)
So Fred Belcher, riding mechanic was listed as William Jahn with an O.
My research shows it was actually William Jahn (I pronounced it wrong initially). I don’t know how you’re saying how it’s supposed to be said, but with an A-H-N. He was from Massachusetts.
In May 2011, a local journalist named Wayne Phaneuf wrote an article about Knox’s participation in the first Indy 500 and it mentioned that he had interviewed William in 1976 about his experience. So we actually have direct quotes from William. So it says, “it’s a little hard to describe what racing was like 65 years on, but I’ll try.
He explained that he joined the Knox Company, which was located at Winchester Square on Willebrom Road in 1907 as an apprentice and worked his way up. Jahn’s big break came as a result of a tragedy that occurred in Indianapolis in 1909.
It was in that year that Billy Bourque, and his mechanic who drove with him were killed in a spectacular crash of an Knox. Following the deaths of Bourque and Harry Holcomb, his mechanic, Bill Jahn and driver Fred Belcher teamed up as the Knox entry in races throughout the country.
The Knox from Springfield made a fine showing in the first Indianapolis 500. “ We received a prize for turning in the fastest lap. Jahn said the speed of that lap. Remember this is 1911 was an incredible 92 miles an hour. Jahn said the entire race took six and a half hours at an average speed of 74 and a half miles per hour.
“The only reason we didn’t do better in the Knox was that we had six blowouts in the right front wheels,” Jahn said. Following the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, Jahn and Belcher competed in several more events that year. And then the mechanic was transferred to Brazil where he became the chief mechanic for the Knox automobile company in South America. The sale of Knox cars began to slip in the European market because even in the early 1900s, the Europeans made a more economical car that gave better gas mileage.
Jahn left the Knox firm to start his own company in Detroit before the start of World War I. By that time, Henry Ford was making cheap cars and Knox was put out of business. But Jahn’s success was just beginning in his business called the Jahn Semi-Trailer Company, however, at the height of his business, Jahn received a letter from the draft board in Springfield instructing him to report to the Army in 30 days. Jahn sold his trailer business to a man named Augustus Fruehauf. Fruehauf is known as the father of the semi trailer.
I would like to say though that this is a really nice story. However, I could not find anything other than his obituary to confirm that he ever had a semi trailer company. I mean obituaries are nice for confirming things sometimes, but usually I need a little bit more, like a second source to kind of corroborate. Like Edward Towers, William Jahn served in both World War I and World War II, and he retired with a rank of lieutenant colonel. He died in 1985.
So next we have Harry Cobe, his riding mechanic was named Eddie Miller. I could not definitively locate Eddie Miller. That is an incredibly common name. Unless I find an obituary and then I can kind of use that obituary and the information from the obituary to backtrack, you know, I’m kind of stuck.
It’s notable that there was an Eddie Miller from Samanak who was a riding mechanic for Dusenberg and he even started in an Indy 500 in 1921.
It’s possible that these are the same person. However, the Eddie Miller who raced in 1921 would have been 15 in 1911 so, I mean, it’s possible, but I did not find anything that connected those two races with him being the same person.
I wanted to also mention Harry Cobe in regards to riding mechanics because I found this article from 1910 in the Philadelphia Inquirer that read in part,
“Harry Cobe, driver of the Jackson car was out bright and early. With him was Mrs. Cobe, an enthusiastic motorist and a great admirer of her husband’s prowess.” Further down in the article, Harry said this about his wife, “I regret that the racing rules of the American Automobile Association forbid the presence of a woman as a mechanic on a racing car during a race, for I should have loved to have had my wife assist me as a mechanic. She has perfect knowledge of the car and the fact of her presence would give me confidence and tend to make me more cautious. Many a sure winner has lost a race through recklessness or carelessness arising from overconfidence.
Mrs. Cobe was named Irene Mannheimer. And despite the recommendation of her husband, I could not find any mention of Irene doing anything racing or car related. She actually divorced Harry in 1911, but I wanted to bring her up because like I said, in the episode about American Auto Racing up till 1910, that it’s important to me to mention that, you know, we were there and interested and knowledgeable.
Now, Gil Anderson’s riding mechanic was named Frank Agan. He was nicknamed Shorty. So he died in January 1961 at the age of 80, which 1961 is also the 50th anniversary of the first Indy 500. And so the Indianapolis News wrote an obituary type article about him in May of 1961. They interviewed his brother and his brother gave a lot of good information about Frank. So this is what he said.
“Frank was always interested in speed. His first efforts were bicycle races, many of which were held in Washington, Vincennes, Petersburg, and other southern Indiana places. When automobiles were still in their infancy, he took employment in Indianapolis with the Marion Motor Car Company.
In the latter part of 1910 and early 1911, he, with Gil Anderson and Harry Stutz, who was an engineer, built the first Stutz car, a racing machine which Anderson drove and in which Frank was a riding mechanic. It finished in 11th place. Frank then weighed 118 pounds. In order to pass certain weight tests, he concealed several pounds of wrenches in his coveralls. In those days, so-called road races were held each year in Elgin, Illinois, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one or two other cities I can’t recall.
Stutz was well represented by Anderson and Agan and another Stutz racing team whose driver and mechanic I can’t recall.
In 1913, the Frenchman Jules Goux won the race, but Anderson and Agan were overtaking in the last 50 miles and had closed the gap to almost assure them of a win. However, pit manager Stutz flagged them at 487.5 miles for one tire. The idling car dropped a cotter pin from the camshaft assembly and it was the end of the race for them.
In June of 1913, Frank was injured in a crash that happened at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was a riding mechanic for Harry Martin, who was testing out a new Stutz car. Harry died of his injuries while Frank suffered a skull fracture and numerous cuts and lacerations. Frank’s brother recalled how the force of the crash tore Frank’s high-top button shoes from both of his feet without even unbuttoning a single button. He said a two-by-four ran through the car from the radiator to the back and it narrowly missed hitting Frank. Frank was unconscious and hospitalized for months. He came out a changed man. He was still a race fan, however, his racing career was over.
Frank entered government service in 1918 as an aviation engine builder and mechanic. He retired at 65 and spent practically the remainder of his life in Washington, Indiana which I think is where he was born.
Hughie Hughes’ riding mechanic was listed as L.P. Fuhrmann. There was the mayor of Buffalo at the time with the same name. I don’t think it was him. I could not find any other information on him. I also could not find any information on Lee Frayer’s riding mechanic, John Reider. R-E-I-D-E-R. It’s possible that his name was misspelled.
I also could not locate any information about Howdy Wilcox’s riding mechanic. His name was J.P. Walker.
Now Charles Bigelow’s riding mechanic’s name was Charles Illingsworth.
Okay, so when I’m researching, and I have a name – First, this is very rudimentary, but first I search that name in the newspapers.com search bar and then I read what I’ve got. Usually when I’m doing somebody involved in racing, I start a couple years before the first article I found and kind of go through and see what I can find. The thing that I had on my side for this was that his last name was fairly distinct.
I was able to figure out that he had gotten hurt in a race later in the 1911 racing season, and it noted that he was with another driver. This driver was named Harris Hanshue, I don’t think he ever appears at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but he was active on the West Coast during this time.
One of the strategies when I’m trying to locate a riding mechanic is searching the driver because oftentimes, they will not name the mechanic. They’ll just call him, you know Harris Hanshue and his mechanician or they’ll spell it wrong – which then he won’t come up in any of my searches anyway. Through that I was able to figure out that sometimes he was called Charlie, not Charles, Illingsworth. Charl-EY and Charl-IE and so I put those into the search engine. And it was the CharlEY that gave me the information that I ultimately would need to kind of crack this.
It noted a few things. One, that he was hurt in a separate incident from Harris Hanshue which was not immediately clear to me. Harris was hurt in a crash and Charles Illingsworth was hurt in the race before. He was trying to start the car and had like kickback or something and broke his wrist. He did not seek proper medical attention for this wrist and he became septic. And ultimately, the only way to treat that was amputation at this point. And so he had his arm amputated below the elbow.
It also noted that he lived in Los Angeles and he was working in the auto industry. at a dealership. This was 1911. So that kind of, to me meant that, he likely had been working there in 1910, which would pick him up in the 1910 census.
So we go to ancestry.com and we search the 1910 census for Charles Illingsworth, location is Los Angeles, I can put a keyword. I just put auto. That’s nice and broad and generally will kind of pull it up. And I was able to find a Charles Illingsworth that was about the right age. He had been born in Minnesota. It was a little interesting because he was listed as widowed. However, he was listed, his relationship to the head of the household was listed as son-in-law. So I thought that was interesting. Ancestry has this really fun feature that I have learned to use where you can see other people’s trees. And that can expedite my research.
I was able to find a tree that had this Charles, his middle name was Percival at this point. I was able to find a tree that had him in it with some additional records. And one of them was the World War I draft registration and on that registration, it noted that he had his right arm amputated below the elbow. And so that’s how I knew for sure that we were talking about the same Charles Illingsworth.
He was born on May 9th, 1880 in Minnesota to Cyrus G. and Julia Illingsworth. He had left home by 1900. I think his mother had died and I don’t know what happened after that, but in 1902, he married Caroline Nichols in Michigan. It seems like her family went west, Caroline and Charles went too. Caroline died in 1908 of shock after having an operation. Charles never remarries and he is living with his in-laws in the 1910 census. Notably, after his racing career, he changes his middle name to Peter and he drops the S in Illingworth. So he’s just Charles Illingworth.
I don’t find him in the 1920 census. However, I do find him in the 1930 census and he was listed as a bookkeeper for a photo engraver. By 1940, he was listed as a patient at Rancho Los Amigos, which had started in the Los Angeles area as a county poor farm. However, by this point, it had already started to transition to a medical facility, place for people with disabilities, before he had arrived in this facility.
Rancho’s Los Amigos is actually still in existence today. seems like it’s a skilled nursing facility, type campus. He was there in the 1950 census as well, and he likely died at the facility on March 6th, 1956.
I do want to point out because I feel really strongly about getting people to understand that motorsport, it was dangerous. People did die, but also people got hurt and they were oftentimes disabled for the rest of their lives because of motorsport. I just think that’s something that is not acknowledged as often as it could be. It was this injury that was sustained in a racing accident that he likely spent 26 years at this Ranchos Los Amigos because of it. Those two things are directly connected. I think that it’s important when we’re talking about and researching these drivers and the other people that were involved that they carried these injuries and they absolutely did change and affect the rest of their lives and the quality of their lives. And so I think that’s important to keep in mind.
Harry Endicott, his riding mechanic, was Ed Madden. We’re going to be talking about them with the 1913 Indy 500.
Howard Hall, who drove for Velie, his riding mechanic, was unknown. I could find three likely options for riding mechanics for Howard Hall. JJ McCoy and Harry Reir R-E-I-R, were both listed as Velie riding mechanics in newspapers before the Indy 500. It was never specified though, who was riding with who. JJ McCoy does go on to compete in the 1919 Indy 500 so we will talk about him then. Harry Reir could not find any concrete information about him. ChampCarsStats.com lists Gus Overbeck as the riding mechanic. I have no idea what the source is from ChampCarsStats.com is, however that’s what they said.
I also could not identify the riding mechanics for William Knipper or Bob Burman
Ralph Beardsley, his riding mechanic, was George Scott. I could not locate any identifying information about him. However, I did find this interesting tidbit from The Journal and Courier from May 31st, 1911 that I did not see in my initial research on the first Indy 500. It says, “The last accident of the day occurred near the finish of the race. Ralph Beardsley in the Simplex was rounding the north turn when a steering knuckle broke. His mechanician, George Scott, escaped uninjured, but Beardsley fell from his car and beneath the wheels. The car ran over him and he suffered internal injuries, not serious, and a cut on his left arm. The mechanician stopped the car.
Eddie Hearne who finished 21st, his riding mechanic was Louis Lindenstruth. Louis also drove relief in the race. I also could not definitively identify him. I think that he was possibly Louis Emil Lindenstruth from New York. Louis Emil was a mechanic for his entire adult life. However, his obituary didn’t mention his Indy 500 participation. It also appears that Louis Lindenstruth did not appear in any motorsport events after this. I wish that I could figure out how he ended up in this car with Eddie Hearne, but he died a bachelor and had no known living children.
And so, unless I have the totally wrong guy and there are Louis Lindenstruth descendants out there who happen to be listening and maybe would like to share, unfortunately, that’s probably all we’ll know about him.
22nd was Frank Fox. His riding mechanic was Culla Scott. Culla also drove relief.
Culla was born on June 23rd, 1886. He died April 28th, 1962. I do believe that he was involved in motorsports for a while after the first one. Just off the top of my head, don’t quote me on that. Per his obituary though, it did note that he was a mechanic in the Allison division of General Motors. And before that, he was employed by Stutz Motor Company. So he was one of those riding mechanics that maybe didn’t participate in motorsports heavily or didn’t become a well-known motorsport name, he did spend his entire career in the automobile industry. And I think that’s really neat.
23rd finisher was Ernest Delany. Fun fact, thing I learned while doing research for this episode. Normally his last name is spelled with an E-Y at the end. There’s actually not supposed to be an E. I could not find a concrete name for who his riding mechanic was. I do know that his relief was J.D. McNay. Culla Scott and Louis Lindenstruth they both also drove relief. So there’s a chance that maybe J.D. McNay also was the riding mechanic. I don’t know. That’s just my best guess. We will talk about J.D. McNay later on in the 1911 AAA episode.
So the 24th finisher was Jack Tower. His riding mechanic was Bob Evans, not related to the restaurant. He actually participated in the 1913 Indy 500. So we will see and talk about him then.
But when I research, it’s interesting to see conflicting stories that are reported and Bob Evans was one of those. There were two stories about what happened with him during the 1911 Indy 500 – some sources say that in a fit of dementia or, he lost his nerve, which is a really common saying in this period of motorsport. Bob Evans reportedly jumped from the car. Others, though, say that he was driving and he crashed the car and broke his ankle. Either way, it does seem that he was injured in the first Indy 500. He and Jack Tower were friends.
The 25th finisher was Mel Marquette and his riding mechanic was Al or Albert Adams. I could not find any biographical information about Albert. The only real mention I could find of him in contemporary sources was from Motorsport Memorial and they talk about how he had originally been entered as the driver for this race. However, he failed to meet the contest board requirements. I could not find any primary sources talking about this, so I’m not sure what he didn’t meet.
But they did not allow him and Mel Marquette was then appointed driver and Al Adams became the riding mechanic. And that’s all I can tell you about him.
The 26th finisher was Bill Endicott. His riding mechanic was John Schatz. I could not locate any information about him, unfortunately. Again, if you happen to know anything about him, I would love to know.
27th finisher was Johnny Aitken. His riding mechanic was W.F. Kepner I could not locate any information besides champcarsstats.com has his first name listed as Walter. So I could not find a Walter Kepner that I could concretely tie to this.
The 28th finisher was Will Jones. His riding mechanic was Fred Pfister with P-F-I-S-T-E-R. He was born September 26th, 1887. The 1910 census has Fred in Racine, Wisconsin as a tester for who I would assume to be Case, that’s where they were headquartered. Fred was involved in an accident in late October 1911 in Philadelphia when he was thrown from a car. He reportedly had serious injuries, but he did recover. It seems like maybe his motorsport career was done after that. He went on to serve in World War I in the Army.
He was still working in the auto industry in the 1920 census. The 1930 census has him listed as working as a serviceman in a fire shop. And the 1940 census has him listed as an attendant.
Fred died in 1946. It does not appear that he ever married or had children. So that’s what I know about Fred.
The 29th finisher was Lewis Strang. His riding mechanic was W.R. Everett and I could not locate anything about him.
The 30th finisher was Harry Knight. His riding mechanic was John T. Glover. If you remember, Harry Knight was the one who swerved out of the way, hitting Herb Lytle’s car instead of the riding mechanic.
John Glover was from Bedford, Indiana and the Bedford Daily Mail reported that in the accident when Harry Knight hit Herb Lytle’s car, John suffered four broken ribs. His hip was not broken. However, it was severely bruised, and he had a painful wound on his forehead.
John Glover went on to operate a Studebaker agency and he lived a long life, dying in January 1957.
The 31st finisher was Joe Jagersberger and his riding mechanic was Charles Anderson. Charles was the riding mechanic who ended up outside of Joe’s car after the steering knuckle, and he ended up out of the car and fell to the bricks. Harry Knight had to swerve and miss Charles Anderson. And that was when he hit Herb Lytle’s car and cleared out the judge’s stand and created chaos.
I could not find any information about Charles Anderson other than there was an article in the Richmond Item that said he was 25 and he was from Cleveland, Ohio.
There’s a little contention about whether he jumped or fell out of the car, landing on the bricks, causing all of this chaos. Charles said he fell. However, spectators said he jumped. So what actually happened is who knows.
I could not find any other information though about him.
Herbert Lytle finished 32nd. His riding mechanic was W. W. Clifton, who might have went by Billy. I could not find any information about him.
The 33rd finisher was Harry Grant and his riding mechanic was Frank Lee. Frank Lee had been born on August 17th 1875 in Glastonbury, Connecticut. He fought in Cuba and the Philippines during the Spanish-American War at the end of the 1890s. He became Henry Grant’s riding mechanic and he was the riding mechanic that was with Harry when Harry won both the 1909 and 1910 Vanderbilt Cup.
It appears that Frank was set to be promoted to racing driver for the 1912 season. But Alco, who Frank Lee was going to race for, announced that they were withdrawing from racing and that ended his racing career. After that, Frank was a machinist in the Navy Yard. He died in December 1950, leaving behind a wife and a son.
The 34th finisher was Charles Basle. His riding mechanic was Joseph Demand. I could not find any information.
The 35th finisher was Louis Disbrow. His riding mechanic was Richard Ulbricht. He went by Heine. He went on to have a brief racing career, racing in mostly state fairs. On his FindAGrave there is an article that is not labeled but it talks about his racing career and I’m going to read because it’s better than me just trying to sum it up –
“In the repair shop of the Parker Motor Sales Company on Greenwich Street is a mechanic who 18 years ago was a racing driver and mechanic of note. This man is Richard Ulbricht. Back in 1903, Heine, as he was known in automobile row, started his career. And when he stopped driving in 1915, he was known the world over as one of the greatest of his time.
Driving and riding with Louis A. Disbrow of Jamaica, Ulbricht won many races and took part in all of the big events. He has ridden in the Indianapolis 500 mile race, 24 hour races, the Santa Monica road race, the Vanderbilt Cup races on Long Island and at Savannah, Georgia, and others too numerous to mention.
During the running of the 300 mile race at Pablo Beach, Jacksonville, Florida in 1911, Ulbricht rode with Disbrow in a Pope Hummer, which won the event. The time was 233 minutes and Disbrow, in a statement to the press, said that it was the wonderful work of Ulbricht that brought them home in front.
Ulbricht finished fourth in the Vanderbilt race, which was run on what is now the Motor Parkway. The race was held in 1910 and he drove a National. In 1908, he finished second in the Massapica sweepstakes.
1912 was a blue ribbon year for Ulbricht. He won the Galveston Texas 10-mile race driving a Case car and also several other events. In one of the races at St. Paul, Minnesota at the State Fair held at the Hamlin track, he finished two yards behind Tommy Milton in the first race that Milton ever drove. Later, Milton joined the racing team of which Ulbricht was a member.
One of the greatest races driven by Ulbrich took place that year, and it was also at St. Paul. Ulbrich’s opponent was Barney Oldfield of the Golden Submarine fame. It was a match race at 10 miles, and it ended in a dead heat, the only dead heat on record. At one time, Ulbrich drove for Mrs. Joan Newton Cueno in which they defeated Oldfield, Lewis Strang, and eight other drivers. The race took place in New Orleans. Today, Ulbricht still sticks to the automotive game and you can see him anytime tinkering with a motor at the Dodge workshop. “
I would like to say I do not know how much of that article is actually true.I know for sure that Louis Disbrow was a riding mechanic for Joan Newton Cuneo I know that. I do not remember his name coming up when I was researching. It doesn’t mean it’s not true.
I think, and this is something that I will talk about over and over and over again. One of the things is it was very easy to lie. There wa s no accessible databases that were, anybody could say they did anything. And so it’s always important to just be a little skeptical when reading articles.
If you have the time and can access newspaper databases, it is fairly easy to go through and see if they were where they said they were. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they’re not. That’s okay.
Anyway, Richard Ulbricht died in 1953, aged 61.
The 36th finisher was Arthur Chevrolet. His riding mechanic was Albert Seraye. I could not find any further information about him.
The 37th finisher was Caleb Bragg. His riding mechanic was William Pozzo. Pozzo P-O-Z-Z-O. he was born in Italy. He became a mechanic at Mack Trucks and he founded the oldest Mack Truck dealership in the United States and in 2017 they celebrated their 95th anniversary. I cannot find any confirmation that it’s still in operation though so I think it might have been absorbed by a different dealership.
But it was Pozzo Truck Center in Gary, Indiana. So if you know anything about that, let me know. I would love to have the most accurate information.
The 38th finisher was Fred Ellis. His riding mechanic had previously been unknown. However, I do believe that it was a man named Clint Williamson. Clint was mentioned as Fred’s riding mechanic in a newspaper article that was local to Battle Creek, which is where they were from. And this is supported by a mention in his obituary. Clint Williamson lived, it seems, his entire life in the Battle Creek, Michigan area. And it does not appear that Clint participated in motorsports after the 1911 Indy 500. However, he was a mechanic for the rest of his or for most of his adult working life. So I am very proud to have given his name back to the record book.
The 39th finisher was Teddy Tetzlaff His riding mechanic was Dave Lewis. He suffered a broken leg and an arm in the crash. However, we will get to know Dave Lewis better in later Indy 500s because he comes back and he drives.
40th finisher is Arthur Greiner. His riding mechanic was Sam Dickson. Sam Dickson was the fatality. He was the first fatality of the Indy 500 and the only fatality this year. We will talk about Sam’s life and death in The Minor Haunting with Arthur Greiner.
Those were all of the riding mechanics. If you have any information on anybody that I discussed that I did not include in this episode, please let me know. I have an email address on my website. The website is linked in the show notes.
If you’re reading this and you have information about a riding mechanic discussed in this episode, you can send me an email here. Any information/photographs/etc is appreciated!
