(One of the racers at the Galveston Beach Auto Races - Tommie Alley)
"Everybody...start your engines!" When one thinks of auto racing today images of cars traveling a zooming 165 plus miles an hour come to the forefront. In the early 1900's, auto racing was a way to garner new people into different towns and communities. It epitomized what the decade was about: the spread of the automobile and the Good Roads Movement, which sought greater financial aid in repairing or improving roads. One facet of the Movement were the automobile clubs.
These civic boosters wanted new roads to be built so more people can pass through their towns. One way clubs attracted attention was through races. Throughout the country, various races took place across the land including the Elgin National Stock Championship in Elgin, Illinois and Vanderbilt Cup Race in Long Island, New York. While many events took place in the North, for the most part however, races became popular in the South where overtime it became NASCAR and other auto organizations. One such place was off Galveston Beach in Texas.
While the War Between the States ended decades earlier, cotton was still king. A devastating hurricane hit the island in 1900 and people were looking to restore businesses and bring back people, especially planters and the cotton industry. In 1909, leaders of the Cotton Exchange, the Business League and other business organizations created the Cotton Festival. Among the plethora of activities were a series of six automobile meets. The Galveston Daily News describes the importance of the event, "the coming races will make the Galveston beach as famous as any the world now knows...." Considering mother nature's destruction of the island a few years earlier, "the civic stakes for racing in somewhat-beleaguered Galveston were greater than in most cities." (1)
The first cotton carnival in Galveston in 1909 included a parade of local cars driven by their owners on the day before the races began. Only the well-to-do could afford cars, and they took advantage of the parade to reinforce images of a society that placed them at the top. The carnival organizers chose an agricultural motif of green and white as thematic colors to represent cotton, and the car owners decorated their machinery while mixing in patriotic red, white, and blue accents.
Under the sanction of AAA (American Automobile Association), there were two races featuring automobiles and motorcycles. Beginning one thousand yards to the east of Denver Beach, the first race was to be a fifty mile free-for-all, while the other, which took place afterwards, was a special mile course laid out for the "establishment of a Galveston beach record." (2) Interestingly, races ran at different intervals: five miles, two and a half or one mile and in many cases ten-mile races went over the two and a half mile track. Why was the course laid out in this fashion? Promoters of the event wanted spectators to catch a glimpse of each turn, not just the start and finish lines.The winner of the fifty mile free-for-all received a silver cup and $75, while second place received $50 and third $25.
The first day attracted 15,000 spectators.The atmosphere was electrifying. "Summer costumes or motoring attires were affected by the majority of the vast assemblage...Automobiles, polished and shining, were filled with handsome women as handsomely groomed." However, unlike today's sporting events, the first set of races did not have good crowd control. "On race day, organizers confronted the security problems that plagued courses on the East Coast, as three policemen faced fifteen thousand eager spectators who ignored rope boundaries and 'crowded upon the track so that it seemed impossible to run at all.' " Moreover, "the track was spread with black spectators, who barely pressed back enough to permit autos and motorcycles going a mile a minute and faster to brush by them." (3)
Despite the crowd issue, the race was considered an extreme success. The Daily News gave an enthusiastic description of the fifty mile race. "The greatest event of the day, the fifty mile race, was won by the Knox roadster, which came direct from the factory to Galveston for these races. It was driven by [Fred] Belcher of New York who accompanied the car upon the Mallery line. The time for the fifty miles was 51:54:50, a record which stands for something when it is remembered that time was lost at each turn of the ten five-mile laps." (4)
While the event featured non-state residents such as Belcher, mainly Texans put their hat in the ring. One these men included 19-year old San Antonio native, Tobin Dehemel. Prior to the Galveston race, he broke the record for a three quarter track at Waco. In his first race in Galveston, he completed 21 miles in 22:05:50, while driving the same Stoddard-Dayton Model 14 he used in Waco.
Dehemel talked about what it was like during the race. "The wind blows so hard when you're going a mile a minute or more that once open you can't close your mouth...You just watch the road and the engine and once in a while, maybe, take a swift glance back to see how close they are to you, and you don't have time to get scared." As for the course itself, it is the "swellest track I ever saw." (5)
A year later, Dehemel won the ten mile race in 8 minutes and 9.85 seconds and finished second behind teammate Len Zengel in the one mile contest at 41.85 seconds.
The Alamo Automobile Company, via the August 5th, 1910 edition of the Galveston Daily News, advertised the results of the one mile race.
Mile Trial on Galveston Speedway
Stoddard/Dayton, 60 horsepower,. De Hymel driving, time 41 4/5 seconds*
Chadwick, 120 horsepower, Zengle driving, 40 3/5 seconds. Chadwick,
120 horsepower, Johnson driving, 42 3/5 seconds, Marquette/Buick,
Dewitt driving, 44 1/5 seconds, National 40, Munn driving, 45 seconds,
NOTE—We are beaten by 11-5 seconds, a little over one mile an hour, by a
special prepared factory facing car in the hands of their acknowledged expert,shipped, tuned and groomed for this one event, and also that (as is usual) we defeated all except the highest priced power and type of racing cars, with a good old road car in the hands of a mere boy.
Alamo Automobile Co.
San Antonio Texas. Dallas, Texas.
In addition, Dehemel, took part in an extremely difficult 200-mile straightaway course. The Daily News described the challenges that drivers like Dehemel faced. "The driver must send his car on, ever on, and never falter in his stride. Two hundred miles is a great distance in which to hold the steering gear just right, to feed the engine with the proper regard and to keep aright all parts of the mechanism, to say nothing of knowing the fine points of the game, it was a race for blood, so to speak, for every manufacturer, agent and driver wanted the honor of establishing a world's record for 200 miles." (6) Dehemel survived and set a world record at 3 Hours 2 Minutes 22 Seconds. As a result of the hard work invested in winning the race, Dehemel received $1,000.
Not only did drivers participate, but the head of the event also took his crack at winning. Captain J.W. Munn, President of the Galveston Automobile Club not only helped bring the event together, but participated in some of the races and even won a couple. In 1910, for instance, he won the twenty-mile race and the ten-mile event in 8 Minutes and 9.85 Seconds.
Over the course of the next few years, the event took off like a speeding bullet. Races extended to three hundred miles and as many as ten thousand spectators attended the event. In 1912, in an attempt to bring more people, the racing circuit was cut in half, thereby augmenting the speed of racecars as they past the fans. The event became so successful that it was competing with the likes of Indianapolis and Daytona. As for the participants, there was a diverse set of racers ranging from team sponsored drivers to those who used "cars with stock chassis [,which]gave local drivers and car owners a chance to compete." (7) Among those who took their talents to Galveston Beach include the who's who of the automobile industry. Examples include: dare devil and businessman Barney Oldfield, sportsman Armour Ferguson, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Harry Endicott, race car owner F.S. Duesenberg and one of his drivers, Eddie Rickenbacker, who later made his name as a fighter pilot in World War I.
Here are the results of the final fifty-mile race as they appeared in the August 4th 1914 edition of the Daily News.
THE FIFTY-MILE RACE AT A GLANCE
They ran to form in the fifty mile race, the feature event of the last day's speedway racing, which is to say that Ralph Mulford with his Penegot led the field for the $600 prize stakes M for the third successive time. Tommie Alley piloted his Deusenberg Special into second place by a much reduced margin from the other two half century races. The Mercer No. 15 showed better form yesterday than at any other time during the meet, but it went out of the fifty-mile race on the second lap. The speed of the Penegot on the final day was the wonder of those who had seen it perform with such ease on the other starts. Mulford finished the first half of the fifty-mile race in 47 minutes 28 8-5 seconds. He made the entire fifty miles in 47 minutes 29 8-5 seconds. On the fourteenth round he gained a full lap on Tommie Alley in the Deusenberg No. 12 and.two full laps on the Baby Chevrolet No. 3, driven by Jack Le Cain. Only eight cars entered and only two finished. Starter Wagner waved the Chevrolet off the course with three laps to go and no other car on the course. The lineup and the time of the winners, with the detailed account of the race, follows:
No. 7. Pengeot, Ralph Mulford, first. Time 47:29 8-5.
No. 12, Deusenberg Special, Tommie Alley, second. Time 50:28 4-5.
No. 4, Deusenberg Special, Eddie Richenbacher.
No. 9, National, Joe Horan.
No. 1. Kid Kindred.
No. 3, Chevrolet, Jack Le Cata.
No. 15, Mercer, James Olenbush. *
No. 18, Studebaker, Joe Melaun.
The automobile beach races at the Cotton Carnival helped bring many people to Galveston, which helped resurrect the ashes created by the devastating hurricane of 1900. In addition, the races signified the importance of Henry Ford and Charles Duryea's invention in the community and state alike. As a result, automobile clubs from all over the nation proliferated, which helped light a fuse that eventually led to the creation of the US highway system. Over the course of the next couple of decades, the automobile took over the United States and helped create a new American pastime.
Sources:
1."Before NASCAR: the corporate and civic promotion of automobile racing in the American South, 1903-1927" Hall, L. Randal. Journal of Southern History. August 1. 2002.
2."The First Annual Cotton Carnival" Galveston Daily News 1 August 1 1909: 16
3."Today is the Day for Auto Race." Galveston Daily News 5 August 1909: 5 and Hall.
4. "Fifteen Thousand Viewed Auto Races." Galveston Daily News 6 August 1909: 1
5."Twice As Many People For Next Races Here" Galveston Daily News 6 August 1909: 4
6."World's Record Broken Two Hundred Mile Race" Galveston Daily News 6 August 1910: 1
7.Hall
8.Galveston Daily News 4 August 1914: 6
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