As any student of history knows, 1936 saw the world preparing for World War II, although no one really knew that in those days. Hitler was equipping Germany to conquer Europe and Japan was wreaking havoc in China. But, in the City of Daytona, plans were underway to present a strictly stock car race there on March 8, 1936. The sanctioning body, AAA, was scrambling to get entries and the City of Daytona was preparing a track consisting of part highway, part beach sand, connected by sharp turns which would prove to be more of a challenge for the cars and drivers. Daytona spared no expense in getting the word out that Daytona Beach would remain "The Birthplace of Speed".
The event was drawing closer and the cars and drivers were practicing on the track. Suddenly, with little surprise to some, local folks started hassling the politicians about the race pointing out that crowd control for the stock car race would be an entirely different problem than the Speed Trials of the past. As Politicians are quick to do, a new rule was established for the event, not by the AAA, but by the City of Daytona. The new rule stated "Any spectator touching any of the cars entered in ther ace will automatically disqualify that entry". That could have presented an interesting situation is a spectator came to help and was punched out by the driver to prevent disqualification. Daytona went further by calling in the National Guard, the City Police, and the County Sheriff's Department for crowd control.
Crowd control problems solved, at least on paper, test runs continued. Almost immediately, a young driver from New Jersey, Bob Sall, flipped his Ford convertible on the beach and went for a tumbling ride into the ocean.Bob was ejected from the car and was rendered unconscious. He was taken by ambulance to the local hospital where it was determined he was not seriously injured and he stated from the hospital bed that he would race Sunday.
The next problem to cause issues was the tight turns from the beach to highway and back from the highway to the beach. Some cars dug deep ruts in the sand while others simply got stuck in the sand and could not move.
When qualifying got underway on March 1st, "Hick" Jenkins, from Jacksonville, Florida, in a Ford was first to go out. His qualifying speed was 67.95 mph which would turn out to be third fastest of the 27 cars that qualified. Good run, you think? Well, in this qualifying format, the field would be reversed with the slowest cars starting in the front and faster cars to the read.
Doc McKenzie actually ended up "surfing" the waves on his first run. His comment afterward was "The guy who uses his head more than his foot is the man who's going to win". That statement caused some of those "in the know" to suspect some of the Florida drivers would have an advantage earned by having run such a whisky, gin, and rum up the beach, over the dunes, to supply the drinkers of Daytona with their intoxicants. Ten of the 27 entries were Florida drivers.
Only one driver qualified over 70 mph. That driver was "Wild Bill" Cummings who drove an Auburn. His speed was 70.39. That earned him the last starting position, a position upon which he would not improve except by one. True to his word, Bob Sall left his hospital bed to qualify at 61.51 in the car which his crew had rebuilt for him. A young service station owner, Bill France, qualified his Ford at 62.99 mph for the 18th fastest time.
Russ Moyer (remember him?) was the publicity director for the race and he obviously did an awesome job as enough tickets were sold prior to the race to cover the posted purse. Then enter the politicians again, this time as two opposing options. One group confiscated all the prize money. Another group took all the printed tickets to the event just hours before race time. The in-fighting almost caused the event to be canceled but thanks to an AAA Official rounding up all the news reporters in Daytona to cover the race and confronted the politicians in City Hall. Faced with adverse publicity, the bickering politicians released the prize money and the tickets to AAA. However, by that time, hundreds of fans had obtained viewing positions at the track for free.
The start time was set for 1:00 p.m. to obtain the best advantage with the low tide. By 1:00 p.m., the stands were full to capacity and every available vantage point for standing along the course was at least three spectators deep. It is estimated 20,000 folks were on hand for that Sunday afternoon speed fest.
Come starting time, the AAA had determined that due to the difference in qualifying speed, they would stagger the start. In other words, the front starters, the slowest qualifiers would be waved off at intervals to prevent the faster cars from running over the slower cars causing a massive crash in turn one. This thinking was also to allow a close finish at the end. There were no provisions for "debris cautions" in 1936.
Sam Collier took the green flag first in his Willys 77 which he had qualified at 58.60 mph. Sam would go on to pioneer sports car road racing in the U.S. in later years. He roared off into history at 1:00 p.m. on that March 8th afternoon. Two minutes and 29 seconds later, Langdon Quinby got the green flag in his Willys. Eight minutes and 19 seconds after the first car took the green flag, the 10th place starter was waived off. That would be Bill France. Thirty Minutes and 40 seconds after the first wave of the green flag, the fastest qualifier, Bill Cummings in the Auburn was waved on his way. To date, this is the only auto race in history that took more than 30 minutes for 27 starters to be given the green flag.
As you would expect, even if you aren't good at math, scoring his event was a disaster. Wild Bill and his Auburn were by far the quickest on the track literally running circles around the others, but he was continually getting stuck in the sand in the heavy car. Trying to make sense of the scoring is a job for which my old mind is incapable. For instance, Cummings completed 48 lapsbut was scored in 26th position, THREE positions behind the driver completing only 26 laps. The 10th place finisher completed 44 laps while the 11th place finisher completed 60 laps.
Obviously, as had been expected by some, the turns were the problem, Cars were getting stuck and becoming nothing more than obstacles to other cars. The lighter cars, the Fords in particular, were better at getting through the sand. Bill France was moving up in his Ford but it was Tommy Elmore in a Ford convertible who was making the time as he floated his lighter car through the bogs of sand and field of stuck cars.
The scheduled distance was almost reached when the officials called an end to theevent impossible to score. Elmore believe he had. AAA officials, however, gave the win to Milt Marion claiming he had completed 75 laps and was one minute and seven seconds ahead of Ben Shaw who had completed 74 laps. Ah, but problem number one in that equation was that qualifying laps had taken 3 minutes. How could that be? Elmore filed an official protest but was told no protest were being accepted. Bill France finished 5th (as could best be decided) and returned to his service station $400.00 richer.
Only 10 cars managed to finish the almost 5 hour event. The "official" average speed is recorded as 47.8 mph but was later increased to 48.94 mph. Later, a much more accomplished mathematician figured the average speed to be 48.863.
Remember Doc McKenzie? The immensely popular driver who provide so many fine quotes to the press leading up to the race? Doc ran the Indy 500 later in the year and finished third. On August 23, 1936, he was attempting to qualify for the AAA Open Wheel race at the Milwaukee Mile and was killed.
Another interesting note here is that the City of Daytona Beach claims it lost $22,000.00 by agreeing to stage that event. The "official" statement was made that Daytona Beach was not interested in any future stock car races. We don't need to wonder how that worked for them.
I am listing the official finishing order here. How many names do you recognize? How about car makes? Remember the Auburn? The Willys? Ok, here we go:
1. Milt Marion in a Ford
2. Ben Shaw in a Ford
3. Tommy Elmore in a Ford
4. Sam Purvis in a Ford
5. Bill France in a Ford
6. Hick Jenkins in a Ford
7. Sam Collier in a Willys 77
8. Al Cusick in a Ford
9. Al Wheatley in a Ford
10. Ed Eng in a Ford
11. Virgil Mathis in a Ford
12. Danny Murphy in a Ford
13. Ken Schroeder in an Oldsmobile
14. Jack Holly in a Ford
15. Major Goldie Gardner in a Lincoln Zephyr
16. Bill Lawrence in a Ford
17. Langdon Quinby in a Willys 77
18.Bill Schindler in a Dodge
19. Al Pierson in a Ford
20. Gil Farrell in a Ford
21. Walter Johnson in a Ford
22. Lou Campbell in a Ford
23. Jack Rutherford in an Auburn
24. Doc McKenzie in a Ford
25. Bob Sall in a Ford
26. Wild Bill Cummings in an Auburn
27. B. J. Gibson in a Chevrolet
My sincere appreciation to Greg Fielden for the research and in writing his book "High Speed at Low Tide" from which most of the information for this "Minute" was obtained. Also, thank you to my good friend and RacersReunion.com member, Bill McPeek, for loaning his copy of the book to me. More "Minutes" will be forthcoming as my time permits, which will cover the life of racing on the beach before stock car racing moved to the high banks of Daytona International Speedway.
Honor the past, embrace the present, and dream for the future!!!!
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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
