By Tom Avenengo
Note: Some of this information, below, was taken
from the book – Langhorne! No Man’s Land, by L. Spencer Riggs, Motorsports.com
–
http://www.motorsport.com/stats/champ/ldrivers.asp and my own memories of the
three events that appear, below.
Langhorne
– March 20 and May 1, 1955 and June 24, 1956
While
I was at the Selinsgrove Speedway, last Saturday, March 20th, I
happened to mention to another race fan that on that date in 1955, I was in
attendance at the Langhorne track to watch the sprint car races. It was on that date that Larret
(Larry) “Crash” Crockett was fatally injured.
“Iron” Mike Nazaruk won that day, and a short
six weeks later, he too, would suffer the same fate as Crockett.
March
20, 1955:
The
AAA was in town for a day of racing with the sprint cars. I was there, but really can’t remember what the
weather was actually like. Warm or cold – no idea.
Reading in the book about Langhorne, by L. Spencer Riggs, it’s said that
snow was in the forecast.
Langhorne
usually drew quite a few cars from the mid-west. March 20, 1955, was no exception. Jerry Hoyt, Duane Carter, Larry Crockett, Bob
Sweikert and Pat O’Connor were on hand, along with
IMCA stars, Bob Slater and Bobby Grim.
Teamates, Johnny Thomson and Al Keller had the fastest times during time
trials, with clockings of 33.06 and 33.45.
Heat
winners were Al Herman, Mike Nazaruk and Charlie Musselman. In the third heat, strange as it seems, all three of the Sam Traylor cars were entered –
Thomson, Keller and Musselman. Thomson got out of shape in what could be
called turn four, and Keller had no place to go, hitting Thomson’s car, then
barrel rolling along the low wooden fence.
Reports I had read said he lost part of a thumb, along with a glove, and
a year later, it was returned to him, the thumb part still in the glove. However, the Langhorne book says that the
thumb had to be amputated in the hospital.
So?
There
was a consolation race and Crockett won that, with O’Connor and “Jiggs” Peters following him.
The
line up for the 25 lap – 25 mile feature was:
Pat
O’Connor, Jerry Hoyt, Mike Magill, Duane Carter, Charlie Musselman,
Bob Sweikert, Bobby Grim, Larry Crockett, Fred “Jiggs” Peters, Hank Rogers, Ernie McCoy, Mike Nazaruk, Al Herman, Russ Klar,
Joe Mattera, Dick Mealy, Harold Bechtol
and Johnny Matera.
Some
tremendous racing took place around the circular, oiled down, big dirt mile
track that day, as the racing usually was at the ‘horne. And tragedy also. Crockett’s car owner, Charlie Engle, thought
that Crockett was driving over his head, and as Crockett went past the pits on
his 11th lap, Engle wrote down the letters “E-Z” on his blackboard,
and headed towards the track to show it to him on his next lap. Crockett never made that next lap, having
lost control of his car, with the car going through the fence and then into a
vicious series of end over end flips, with Crockett being thrown out of the car
on one of those flips – with Crockett being found about 300 feet from where the
car had stopped.
Nazaruk ended up winning on that fateful day.
He was followed by Magill, Hoyt, Carter,
It
took 14:39.05 to go the 25 miles, and the average speed was 102.383 MPH
Here
is a photo of Larry “Crash” Crockett in the Engle-Stanko
# 31, the car that he drove at Langhorne on March 20, 1955. Photographer is unknown.
And a photo, taken by Walt Imlay, of Mike Nazaruk
in the Nyquist # 29, also from March 20, 1955.
May
1, 1955:
I’ve
often wondered – what would have happened had Mike Nazaruk
either stayed home due to some illness that he had that day, or if he had
ventured out to
Another
AAA sprint car show was held on May 1, 1955, at the big, circular oiled dirt
mile track at Langhorne. This time the
feature race would be over a distance of 30 laps – 30 miles.
The
AAA also had a sprint car race scheduled for out in the mid-west, at
The
track was oh, so fast, on May 1st.
In time trials, Johnny Thomson turned a record breaking lap in the time
of 32.909, for an average speed of 109.392 MPH.
His teammate, Charlie Musselman was next with
a time of 32.941. Next came Nazaruk – 33.202, Joe Sostilio – 33.233, Mike Magill – 33.329 and Tommy Hinnershitz – 33.671.
Keep in mind – all these cars were powered by 220 cubic inch Ofenhauser engines, back then, and they ran on skinny
tires, too, as can be seen in the photos.
Heat
winners were Nick Fornoro, Fred “Jiggs”
Peters, and Nazaruk.
Nazaruk set a new record for the 6 miles with
a time of 3:22.33 and an average speed of 106.930 MPH.
The
consolation race was won by Musselman, and he was
pretty quick, too, with him doing the 6 laps in a time of 3:23.57.
The
first two rows of the feature consisted of Musselman
and Thomson in the first row, followed by Magill and Sostilio.
At
the start, Mussleman and Thomson were one and two,
but Nazaruk pretty quickly disposed of Thomson, and
went after Musselman.
Once he caught him, they battled it out for about 15 laps, at a torrid
pace. Eventually, Nazaruk
got the lead and pulled away slowly. I
remember, quite well, his last lap as he raced his way to disaster. I was sitting in the stands in what I guess
you could say was in the fourth turn area.
As he came past, he reached up and wiped some of the oiled dirt off of
his goggles. The next time I saw him, he
was cartwheeling through the air, out of the car. – having
been thrown out after one or two barrel rolls. He was found about 150 yards from where the
car had gone through the fence, minus his helmet and most of his clothing. The car, upside down, and burning, was about
300 yards from that hole in the fence.
It was all over for Nazaruk, in an almost
instant fashion, with him receiving a broken neck and a severed jugular vein.
The
race continued after a spell, and Musselman had the
lead over teammate Thomson and third place running Sostilio. Mike Magill was coming, and he went past
Magill and Thomson, and was challenging Musselman for
the win, but fell about a car length short.
Following those two were:
Thomson,
Peters, Hank Rogers, Hinnershitz, Bill Brown, Ernie
McCoy, Johnny Kay, Nick Fornoro, Al Herman, Joe Mattera, Harold Bechtol and Steve
Yanigan. Just
before the race ended, Sostilio dropped out.
I
don’t think that there was a worse year than 1955 as far as deaths in auto
racing goes. Some of those that perished
were:
Crockett,
Nazaruk, Manuel Ayulo, Bill
Vukovich, Bob Slater, Jerry Hoyt, Charlie Miller,
Jack McGrath and Pierre Levegh, who’s
accident at LeMans has to be the worst ever, with
almost 100 fatalities, after his Mercedes went into the crowd, opposite the pit
area. Race driver Phil Walters (Ted Tappett) was racing at LeMans
that day, for Briggs Cunningham, in a D-Jaguar, and he had been signed to drive
for Ferrari, both in sports/racing cars and also in Grand Prix cars, after LeMans. Walters
retired from competition during the LeMans race, right
after the Levegh accident. The press, and
others had really started beating the drum about banning auto racing, to the
extent that the AAA decided that it would no longer be a sanctioning body, and
left after the 1955 racing season.
Here’s
a photo of Mike Nazaruk, supposedly on his last lap
at Langhorne, on May 1, 1955. The photo
was taken by Walt Imlay.
June
24, 1956:
I
was a member of the graduating class of 1956 from the Pearl River,
On
most every occasion when I went to Langhorne, I sat in the stands in what you
could say was the fourth turn area. The
track at Langhorne was higher at that end, and quite a bit lower in what you
could call the turn one area. The stands
were built level, so in the first turn area, the stands were quite a lot higher
up, from the racing surface, and if some one was “rim-riding”, chances are that
he’d be out of sight, with the stands blocking the view of the track,
below. On this day, we sat in the first
turn area.
A
fast but rough track greeted the drivers and fans on June 24th. Billy Garrett, who had
never been to Langhorne previous to this day, and was making his initial run in
a “Champ” car, ended up as the fastest qualifier with a time of 32,871. Next to him, for the start was Bob Veith. The rest of
the field lined up like this:
Jimmy
Reece and Pat Flaherty in row 2, Jimmy Bryan and George Amick
in row 3, Gene Hartley and Andy Linden in row 4, Johnny Thomson and Al Keller
in row 5, Don Freeland and Mike Magill in row 6, Eddie Russo and Jack Turner in
row 7, Ed Elisian and Jim McWithey
in row 8 and Dick Rathmann and Elmer George in row 9,
the last row.
Failing
to make the show were Rodger Ward, Bill Cheesbourgh,
Dick Frazier, Al Herman, Charlie Musselman, Pat
O’Connor, Ken Gottschalk and Elmer George.
George didn’t qualify his normal ride, the HOW Offy,
but did get in the race in the Leitenberger # 76.
The
rough track played havoc with both drivers and machines. Even with them wearing gloves, a lot of
drivers had blistered and bleeding hands.
Various parts on some cars failed due to the beating the cars took. Thomson, Russo, McWithey
and Ratjmann were out before 60 miles had been
run.
The
race, so it seemed, was gong to be a third straight win at Langhorne, for Jimmy
Bryan. On lap 43, Veith
and Garrett, running second and third, were lapped by
Little
George Amick took over the lead, and he was followed
by Hartley, with
Little
Geoge Amick held on for the
victory – something he couldn’t do in 1955, when he had to ask for relief after
only 40 laps. Following Amick across the finish line were Hartley, Keller, Elisian and Magill – the only ones to go the full 100
miles. Next, with 99 laps was
Bob
Veith led the first 16 laps, with
It
took Amick 1:03:01.463 to go 100 miles. His average speed was 95.212 MPH. The payoff was a record setting, whopping
$18,500.00. That’s TOTAL pay off, folks,
not what Amick won!
Here’s
a photo, again, one taken by Walt Imlay, of the start of the 1956 100-mile race
at Langhorne. That view was basically
what my brother and I saw, on that day, from where we sat.