Saturday - July 28, 1928

 

 

 

Winfield Daily Courier
Saturday, July 28, 1928, Front Page:

Winfield Driver Wins
Mack McAnally Is First in First Race at Fairgrounds

            Mack McAnally of Winfield, driving a Superior, finished first in the first automobile race this afternoon at the fairgrounds.  A large crowd saw the races and the track was in good shape.  A total of six races make up today’s auto race program.

  

 

Winfield Daily Courier
Monday, July 30, 1928, Page 8:

Local Driver Is Winner
In Auto Races Saturday
Big Crowd Sees Last of Six-Day Program at Fairgrounds

Six auto racing events on the half-mile dirt track here Saturday afternoon completed six days of the greatest racing meet ever held in the history of Winfield.  There were 14 entries in the auto races.

 

 

  

Arkansas City Daily Traveler
Monday, July 30, 1928 - Page 8:

A. C. Drivers Are Winners At Winfield

     Arkansas City race drivers added another list of victories to their string this summer when they placed more often than anyone else at Winfield Saturday.
     Ira McIntire, driving for Joe Hutchinson, won first in the big sweepstakes and also grabbed another first and a second.  Russell Hill took one third and “Blackie” O’Bannon took a third and a fourth.

     Note that this newspaper article bears little resemblance to how the races were reported in the Winfield Daily Courier (and reprinted above). It is possible that Ira McIntire replaced James F. Pickens in Joe Hutchinson’s Ford.  It is also possible that Russell Hill drove Dwight Moody’s Chevrolet as there is no record that anyone named “A. R. Bobs” ever resided at Arkansas City, Kansas.  It is also possible that Forest “Blackie” O’Bannon drove Joe Hutchinson’s Hutch Special as there is no record that anyone named R. F. Dutton ever resided at Arkansas City, Kansas.  These possible driver changes could have taken place after the official racing program was printed and that the reporter for the Winfield Daily Courier simply used the names in his story as they were published in the racing program.  That is probably the best explanation as to why the Arkansas City Daily Traveler would have published an account that differed so greatly from that which appeared in the Winfield Daily Courier.

 

 

¹ James Floyd "Jim" Pickens (1895-1968) is buried in the Riverview Cemetery on the north edge of Arkansas City, Kansas.  The Ford Special he drove on this day belonged to Joe Hutchinson (1894-1958) who was to become fire chief of Arkansas City, Kansas.

² Wendell Arthur Sparling, owner of the "Superior Special", was born on February 8, 1896 at Chillicothe, Missouri and moved to Winfield c1927.  He purchased the Superior Garage (606 N. Main St. in Winfield) shortly thereafter.  The car sported a dual ignition Hisso engine built by Hispano-Suiza.  Witnesses who saw it in competition, remember it as being the largest car on the racetrack and very fast.  Sparling sold the Superior Garage and moved to Gladewater, Texas c1930.  A few years later, he moved on to California where he worked as a mechanic and operated a 500-acre dairy in Stanislaus Co., California.  He died on July 4, 1954 at Ceres, California and is buried at Pomona, California.

³ The “Nelson Special” was owned by August "Gus" Brunke (1890-1968) and powered by one-half of a 719 cu. in. V-8 Hispano-Suiza (Hisso) engine.  Driver Abe Deering Scruggs (1900-1962) was an employee of A. Brunke & Sons Wrecking Co., Excelsior Springs, Missouri.  They included the races at Winfield on their schedule as the Brunke's had relatives in the Winfield area.

⁴ Rea Bray was fatally injured during a 500-mile race at Oakland Speedway, Oakland, California in 1941.

⁵ Forest Shipman "Blackie" O'Bannon (1903-1929) died of typhoid fever and is buried in Riverview Cemetery, Arkansas City, Kansas.

⁶ Marvin Wesley "Mack" McAnally (1902-1989) went on to become an auto racing promoter before moving to Texas to open a garage.  He passed away in Aurora, Colorado and is buried in the Ft. Logan National Cemetery at Denver, Colorado.

 

⁷ Robert Mervin “Bob” Maze (1906-1978) was a life long resident of Topeka, Kansas although he often listed his hometown as Milwaukee, Wisconsin when entering races so it would appear the race was drawing entries from far off places.

 

⁸ James D. “Dusty” Deines and Albert “Al” Koepke’s names were published in the official racing program but they were probably no shows.  One source spelled Deines’ surname as “Dienes”.

 

 

SOME OF THE DRIVERS WHO PARTICIPATED IN THESE RACES:

 

 

To see a copy of the racing program that was sold to spectators at this race at Winfield in 1928.

 

 

 

Return to page one of the History of Auto Racing at Winfield website.

 

Phineas Comador Harrier

Duclay Scott