The author's ride for "The Week of Indy"

 

The author is proud to announce that for the second year in a row he has been invited  to ride as the co-pilot in the GMC pickup pace truck for the "Week of Indy" - three United States Auto Club (USAC) races promoted by Track Enterprises Inc. Driving duties for the pace truck at all three events will be handled by Tom Johnson, "the Racer's Insurance Guy" at Shepherd Insurance.  

May 24 2017 - "The Hulman Classic" at the legendary Terre Haute Action Track in Terre Haute Indiana for the USAC AMSOIL National sprint cars and the Scott's Custom Colors UMP Modifieds

May 25 2017 - "The Hoosier Hundred" at the historic Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis for the USAC Silver Crown Series and the Mid-American Stock Car Series 

May 26 2017 - the "Carb Night Classic...The Race Before the 500” at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg Indiana for the USAC  Silver Crown Series and the Mid-American Stock Car Series 

Tickets for the individual races can be purchased through the promoter's website at

http://trackenterprises.com/

Fans can purchase a three-day special Superticket for the full week of races around Indy including the “Tony Hulman Classic” at the Terre Haute Action Track, the “Hoosier Hundred” at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and the “Carb Night Classic” at Lucas Oil Raceway at

https://usacracing.ticketspice.com/2017-week-of-indy.

Additional details are available on Shepherd Insurance's Motorsports Insurance program at 

http://www.shepherdins.com/commercial-insurance/services/5/Niche-Markets/service/27/Motorsports

A confusing 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible

 

photo by the author

Recently the author toured the Pack Automatable Museum owned by Dallas Texas mega-car dealer Sam H. Pack  The museum contained many beautiful cars that included sports cars, hot rods, customs, muscle car race cars, and cars of the fifties. There was one car which left the author puzzled - this black 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible that sported replica Indianapolis '500' Pace Car graphics- except it is black.

The car was purchased by Mr. Pack at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction in 2011, and the information card with the cars stated “this tribute car was commissioned by the Indianapolis 500 Festival Race Committee to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the small block Chevrolet V8. The car was restored to exact specification of the track-ready cars built in 1955 with one great exception, the track cars were painted two-tone cream and red whereas this car is painted black and is stunning.”

 

 

Charles Keating and Anton 'Tony' Hulman in a posed shot with the pace car.

Note the unique Firestone "500" tires

photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

 in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

 

The Chevrolet Pace Car heads the field before the start of the 1955 '500'

photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection

 in the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies

 

The original “track cars” were not cream and red but were painted Gypsy Red and India Ivory, For years the author has heard stories of an original turquoise and white 1955 ‘500’ Pace Car but this is the first time he has seen one in black.  It appeared to be a very nicely restored car, with the “Official Pace Car” graphics on the rear quarter panel changed from black to white and the lower slogan “500 mile race” in red. Pack’s car also sported rear fender skirts which with the pace car driven by Chevrolet Sales Manager, Thomas Keating, was not equipped.

The author has been unable to confirm that this car was, as claimed, commissioned by the ‘500’ Festival Inc. in 2005 - can any readers clear up this mystery?

Tony Hulman’s Beechcraft 18 airplane

While researching the recent “500” Platolene gasoline story, the author found an interesting letter written in February 1972 by the company’s general manager, J.W. Connelly, to the chairman of the Carmi Illinois airport expansion committee. Originally based in Hulman’s hometown of Terre Haute Indiana, at the time Platolene 500 headquarters was based in Carmi a small Illinois town 125 miles southeast Terre Haute.

Platolene 500 Inc. was one of many local businesses that supported the long-overdue extension of the city’s airport runway to 4,000 feet. Mr. Connelly’s comment was “two of our partners in this company, Henry Smith and Tony Hulman of Terre Haute Indiana, each have Beechcraft 18 airplanes. In the past they have used our present runway but they are very reluctant to do so because of only 2,700 feet of pavement.” It is worth noting that the recommended ground roll landing distance for a Beechcraft 18 was 2,800 feet. So what is the story behind Tony Hulman’s airplane?

The Beechcraft 18

The Beech Aircraft Company of Wichita Kansas began to produce the Beechcraft Model 18 in 1937, a “tail-dragger” design all-metal semi-monocoque construction and twin tail fins similar in appearance to the larger Lockheed Electra powered by that used twin radial engines.

Beech advertised to businessmen

Intended for use as a small airliner or as an executive aircraft, sales were slow and at the time of the United States’ entry into World War II in December 1941, only 39 Model 18's had been sold. As part of the war effort, more than 4,500 military versions of the Beechcraft 18 were built during WW II. Some sources state that over 90% of United States Army Air Force (USAAF) bombardiers and navigators during World War II were trained in Beech 18-type aircraft.

Tony Hulman’s plane

A typical Beech D18S cabin

Tony Hulman’s plane was a Beechcraft Model D18S, the first post-World War II version that debuted in October 1945 and featured seating for two pilots and six passengers with 5 feet of headroom in the cabin. The plane was powered by twin Pratt & Whitney 985 “Wasp Junior” nine-cylinder radial engines with gear-driven single-speed centrifugal type superchargers. The engines were rated at 450 horsepower each and used 99-inch constant speed propellers. The Beechcraft Model 18 typically cruised at 170 MPH, with a ceiling of 20,000 feet and a range of over 500 miles.

A Pratt & Whitney 985 in a Beech 18

A Pratt & Whitney 985 data plate

There were 1,035 Beech D18S planes built; the plane which would become Hulman’s was serial number A-223 completed on May 29 1946, the day before the first Indianapolis 500-mile race under Tony Hulman’s ownership of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The mirror-like polished aluminum bodied plane was sold through dealer Interstate Airmotive to the Trailmobile Company of Cincinnati Ohio.  The company which built over-the-road semi-truck trailers since 1915 kept the Beechcraft in the company’s hangar at Cincinnati’s historic Lunken Field until 1954.  

During July 1954 the Beech 18 A-223 was sold to the Electric Auto-Lite division of Willys Corporation which manufactured 400 different automotive parts, including generators, lamps, horns, hubcaps, wiring, and seat adjustors. Electric Auto-Lite based in Toledo, Ohio the largest independent manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment was purchased by Ford Motor Company in 1961 after which Ford changed the division name to simply “Autolite.”

Under Ford’s ownership, the Autolite division expanded into auto racing particularly with spark plugs.  Lloyd Ruby drove Lindsey Hopkins’ “Autolite Special” Offenhauser powered Epperly laydown roadster to an eighth place finish in the 1961 Indianapolis ‘500.’  In 1962, Autolite spark plugs won the Daytona GT Continental, the Daytona ‘500,’ and then swept the top three finishing positions in the Indianapolis ‘500’ as Rodger Ward and Len Sutton finished one-two for Bob Wilke with Eddie Sachs in third place in Al Dean’s ‘Autolite Special.’

Tony's plane restored

The Willys Electric Auto-Lite division sold Beechcraft D18S tail number N80242 to the Mead Corporation of Dayton Ohio in October 1954. Pilot Lloyd Fuller went along with the plane, just as he had with the previous owner as he had flown Beech A-223 since it was completed in 1946 at the Wichita factory. During Mead’s ownership, Tony Hulman flew on the plane, although according to an article in the October 1971 issue of Flying magazine, Fuller said Hulman “really didn’t care for flying.”  

The tail of Tony's plane

In December 1963 the Mead Corporation sold the plane to Hulman & Company, pilot Fuller relocated to Terre Haute, and Hulman & Company built a new hangar on Hunt Road adjacent to Hulman Field (now known as Terre Haute International Airport). Under Hulman’s ownership, the tail number of the Beech was changed to N500 which remained until 1973 when it was predesignated N5QQ. Hulman & Company sold the highly-polished Beech D18S with blue trim in the fall of 1989. The plane’s current owner keeps the restored plane in Henderson Nevada.  

“500” Platolene gasoline

 

Recently on an episode of the History Channel "reality" program 'American Pickers,' during a visit to Southern Indiana, one of the two protagonists bought a large old porcelain service station sign that read “500 Platolene” which used a checkered flag  The owner of the sign mumbled something about the people that ran the Indianapolis ‘500’ had owned this service station chain. Hearing that, the author had a new research project, namely where did that name come from?

Anton “Tony” Hulman Junior, who bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Eddie Rickenbacker in 1945, was born in Terre Haute Indiana the only child of grocery magnate Anton Hulman and his second wife Ada Grace Smith Hulman.  Ada’s family owned the Princeton Mining Company and the Deep-Vein Coal Company both bituminous coal mining operation as well as Princeton Farms all in the vicinity of Princeton Indiana about 80 miles due south of Terre Haute.

Henry P. Smith Junior operated those businesses after the death of his father as well as the RJ Oil and Refining Company which in addition to its refinery RJ operated 100 service stations in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Henry’s cousin, Tony Hulman was a partner in RJ Oil and Henry’s son, Donald Smith (later a Hall of Fame racing promoter) was RJ Oil’s sales manager.

In 1953 RJ Oil undertook a one million dollar expansion of its refinery that was completed in August 1953. The refinery was the first such plant in the area that used a new process developed by Universal Oil Products of Des Plaines Illinois known as “platforming”

In an article published in the Terre Haute Tribune,  Smith promised motorists that the company '500' service stations  will have “the most powerful, cleanest burning, most economical gasoline that has even been refined” because of “the specially developed catalyst in this secret new process.” The process used “precious platinum, a metal more costly than gold;” in 1953 an ounce of platinum cost $70 compared to $40 for an ounce of gold.  The name of the new gasoline was “Platolene” - the “gasoline made with platinum.” The name and logo ‘500 Platolene’ was trademarked in 1953.   

 

A matchbook from the author's collection combines two

Tony Hulman businesses - 500 Platolene and the

Meadows Shopping Center (Terre Haute's first mall)

 

 

Today the Smith and Hulman family business interests remained intertwined. Tony George, Tony Hulman's only grandson, recently re-installed as chairman of Hulman & Company currently sits on the board of directors of First Financial Bank N.A. (once run by Don Smith), Deep Vein Coal Company, Princeton Mining Company, and R.J. Oil Company.  

Postscript

 

 

 

There is one final racing connection to this story. In the early nineteen seventies Universal Oil Products (UOP) developed a new process known as ‘CCR platforming’ that allowed refineries to produce high-octane lead-free gasoline. To help promote their new process, in August 1971, UOP signed a sponsorship deal with Don Nichols’ Advanced Vehicle Systems.

The series of sinister black race cars in the SCCA Can-Am and Formula One series were known as “UOP Shadows.” The UOP Shadow DN4A driven by Jackie Oliver and powered by a 494-cubic inch Chevrolet engine powered by lead-free gasoline won the 1974 SCCA Can-Am championship.   

Postscript 2

Tony Hulman became a partner with RJ Smith in the Princeton Farms the primary product of which was popcorn. Around 1940 Smith and Hulman hired the former Vigo County Farm Bureau extension agent to run the Princeton Farms. The agent who ran the Farms for 12 years later became world-famous for marketing his own brand of popcorn: Orville Redenbacher.