Tacoma Speedway,

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Emory Ramsey
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Demonos Monthly Rag Jun 2010 Paul K., Joe S., Jerry H., Ken T., Larry H., and Bill W.

cars. The Demonos should be able to beat that next year if we try hard enough.

Godfathers started on May 12, Tower Lanes started on May 14, Covington started on May 14,

1 Demonos Monthly Rag Jun 2010 Paul K., Joe S., Jerry H., Ken T., Larry H., and Bill W., attended the Clover Park Technical College Open House Car Show on Thursday May 13. Lots of cars. The Kingsmen Car Club took the club with most cars award for the third year in a row with 13 cars. The Demonos should be able to beat that next year if we try hard enough. The cruise season has started. Godfathers started on May 12, Tower Lanes started on May 14, Covington started on May 14, Sunrise Village started on May 15, Lacey cruise started on May 14, and I don t know if Mrs. Turners has started yet. June will be a busy month getting ready for Bridgeport Daze, June 5-6 in Bridgeport Washington. Our Fireworks Tent will go up towards the end of June, with unload day of June 25 or 26, sales starting the afternoon of June 28. We will need volunteers to cut the grass and prepare the grounds before the tent goes up. Jim Walden would like to have a meeting at Godfathers on Wednesday June 23 at 5:30pm to discuss any updates. Mark your calendars. Lets get fired up like we did last year and make this a banner sales year for the club.

Tacoma Speedway, 1912-1922 During its years of operation between 1912 and 1922, the Tacoma Speedway, located in Lakewood, hosted some of the big names of racing, rivaling the best in the world.

The grandstands closed in 1922, and the site is now (2004) home to Clover Park Technical College. Lakewood is a suburb of Tacoma.

Tacoma Speedway for the past 25 years for a book he is writing about the track's notable history.

" The track was built by a group of Tacoma businessmen led by Arthur Pitchard, president of the Tacoma Automobile Association.

2 Tacoma Speedway, During its years of operation between 1912 and 1922, the Tacoma Speedway, located in Lakewood, hosted some of the big names of racing, rivaling the best in the world. The Who s Who" of races -- "Terrible" Teddy Tetzlaff, Earl Cooper, Barney Oldfield, among others -- left rubber on that track. Others left their lives. The grandstands closed in 1922, and the site is now (2004) home to Clover Park Technical College. Lakewood is a suburb of Tacoma. Lakewood's Claim to Fame "It was the most nationally known thing to happen to Lakewood and now no one knows about it," said speedway historian Wayne Herstad, who has collected items relating to Tacoma Speedway for the past 25 years for a book he is writing about the track's notable history. He has binders of photos and programs organized by year just waiting for someone to ask about his collection. "It was a great track. Everyone got into the act." The track was built by a group of Tacoma businessmen led by Arthur Pitchard, president of the Tacoma Automobile Association. They collected backers and built a five-mile, all-dirt track, which opened in The track ran around what is now Lakeview Avenue, where the grandstands stood, to Steilacoom Boulevard to Gravelly Lake Drive to 112th Street. The first races were held on July 5 and 6, Winners and Splinters Famed racer Earl Cooper won at Tacoma Speedway in 1913 and He came in second in Had he won that year, he would have been able to keep the revolving Mountamarathon trophy that had Mount Tacoma (Mount Rainier) with race cars etched into its side. But after his 1915 win, he was obligated to give it back for use in the next race. (Cooper later got to keep that Mount Tacoma trophy anyway, when he returned to Tacoma in 1929 for a promotional event long after his retirement. The organizers of the now-defunct race track had the trophy in storage and honored him with it during a banquet dinner. That trophy now sits in the Racing Museum in Indianapolis, to which Cooper donated it in 1955.) The grandstand shifted to Steilacoom Boulevard in A split board track replaced the dirt in The two-by-four planking was placed end-to-end -- not flat on the ground -- and the gaps between each board were stuffed with gravel to save on lumber. The track used 15 tons of 20-penny nails and took two million board feet. Track corners were banked 18 feet to provide for faster turns. But the track had constant problems with splinters and gravel shooting into cars behind the lead car and popping tires. "There was a saying that all board tracks were awful, and then there was Tacoma," Herstad said.

The Races of 1916 There were three races in 1916. The first was on June 4.

3 The Races of 1916 There were three races in The first was on June 4. Seattle Stutz dealer and noted race car driver Jim Parson had just bought Earl Cooper's famed car, the Stutz #8, the most winningest car in racing. For Parson, however, the car wasn't so lucky. He later suffered a cracked piston in that winning car, when he drove it in Tacoma during an Independence Day race against the son of machinist and business owner J. E. Aubry of Aubry Wagon and Auto Works. Ulysses Aubry won the race in his custom-built Tacoma Special. Later that day the car raced raced an airplane in an exhibition event. Also on the race card in Tacoma that July was a fat man race, in which men over 200 pounds ran a 100-yard dash then sped around the track in cars; a women s race, and a well-publicized grudge match between Tacoma and Seattle involving trains. For the grudge match, race organizers laid a mile of railroad track on the inside of the course. Two train engines covered the track in opposite directions, crashing when they met. The Seattle train stayed on the track and was deemed the winner. But that crash wasn t what people had come to see. Many spectators wanted their money back because they had come to see racers not trains. Race organizer Garrett Fisher quickly scheduled a rematch between Parsons and Aubry for August. That race was not to be. Ulysses Aubry died later that month during a race in Rose City, Oregon. Famed driver Eddie Rickenbacker dodged around cars in his Maxwell car during a race in Tacoma on August 5, 1916, with a crowd of some 7,000 spectators. It was a disappointing turn-out since the grandstands were built to handle three times that number. The race spanned 300 miles, and Rickenbacker won. Rickenbacker then vacationed, along with some 30 of his closest friends, at Oregon s plush Crown Point Chalet to rest after the race and to celebrate his victory. He later became known as the "the Ace of Aces," for shooting down 25 German planes in World War I. After the war, Rickenbacker would return to the Tacoma track to serve as a referee in 1919 and The track went patriotic during the war years of 1918 and The famous Indianapolis race track shut down because of World War I patriotism, but the Tacoma course stayed open and ran "Liberty sweepstakes," with cars flying all the flags of the united forces against Germany.

The Last Races After that, the grand days of the track were short lived. The stands burned down in 1920. The fire was ruled an arson. The track had no insurance.

4 The Last Races After that, the grand days of the track were short lived. The stands burned down in The fire was ruled an arson. The track had no insurance. It was the only Class A track besides the one in Indianapolis, and its grandstands were now cinders. "They thought that was the end of the races," Herstad said. "But they some how pulled together enough money and started again." The new grandstands partially covered the seats following a $100,000 fundraiser, but the track was still losing money. Its last year of racing was On May 30 and 31, 1922, Wells Bennet set a new 24-hour endurance record on a motorcycle during a publicity event at the track. He rode 1, miles, averaging 65.1 m.p.h. on a stock Henderson DeLuxe, stopping only for fuel, oil checks, and brief rest. The last car race at the track was held July 4. The first multiple Indy race winner, Tommy Milton, had won on Tacoma s track in 1920 and 1921 and came in second in 1922 to Jimmy Murphy. Milton did pretty good for a man with only one eye. He had been blind in one eye since childhood. The waving of the checkered flag that day marked the end of racing at the track. The track officially shut down at the end of the year, a victim of falling gate receipts. From Race Cars to Airplanes to Education Aviators found that the grassy oval inside the racetrack made a great landing field. The massive 4 x 10 posts used to frame the grandstands were later incorporated into a barn in Pierce County. Tacoma Speedway researcher Wayne Herstad also has sections of them in his basement. They are easily identifiable as being from the grandstand because the V- shaped notches on their ends match perfectly the V-shaped notches shown in photos of the grandstands. The flat grassland eventually was built out as part of the Mueller-Harkins Airport. A letter signing over the Tacoma Speedway site to the airport backer calls for a $250 down payment. The City of Tacoma used the airstrip as Tacoma Municipal Airport for a time, and national air shows were held there until World War II. The federal government then seized the property for use in the war effort. The seizure dispute wasn t settled until The site served as the U.S. Navy s Pacific Naval Advance Base before shifting over to the state for use as an industrial park. The land was approved for use as a technical school in Part of the track land around what is now the corner of Lakewood Drive and Steilacoom Boulevard became part of the hangar for an airfield that was used as an airplane test strip for Clover Park Technical College.

5 10/17/2008 Next Club Meeting Jun 3 rd, :00 pm 9712 Waller Road East Tacoma, WA Spanaway Come join club members for breakfast at the Wagon Wheel on Pacific Avenue, Saturday mornings at 8:30 am, have fun, drink coffee, eat breakfast if you wish and when you can. Upcoming Events: May 7 - Covington Cruise-In Starts 4-8pm May 12 - Godfathers Cruise-In Starts May 14 - Tower Lanes Friday Night Cruise-In and Cruise May 15 - Sunrise Village Cruise-In June 4 - Leave for Bridgeport Washington June 5 - Meridian Collision Larry Hanson June 12 - Emerald Downs Horsepower Car Show June 19 - Kingsmen 500 Poker Run June 20 - Fathers Day Show Graham June 26 - Greenwood Car Show June BilletProof Chehalis Washington June 26 - Man Cave Show Puyallup June 26 - Car Show & Swap Meet Yelm Middle School $10 June 26 - Rod Knockers Show Eatonville June 27 - Dacca Park Family Affair Fife Washington $15 Swap Meets: Graham Swap Meet June 19 Editors Note: It s a new year coming in 2010 and it would be really cool if I could get some historical pictures from the folks who have been in the club since the beginning. Any pictures from the reunions would also be great. Remember this publication and the web site belongs to the members, and it s a great way to show everyone our history as well as our current events.

6 Demonos Car Club Merchandise: Black Hooded Sweatshirts XXL/XXXL $25.00 Black T-Shirts Car Plaques 50 th Reunion (Aluminum) $20.00 Car Plaques 50 th Reunion (Brass) $30.00 Car Plaques Original w/coupe $20.00 Three Piece Jacket Patches $50.00 The Demonos Monthly Rag will be a free monthly publication. Articles, stories, technical tips, pictures and related materials solicited for inclusion should be mailed to the editor and received by the third Friday of each month. The club meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month unless otherwise notified. The meetings begin at 6:00 pm but we encourage everyone to come early for hot dogs, chips and bull. It is the responsibility of the sponsors of new member applicants to notify those individuals of the meetings and any changes that may occur. Remember the next club meeting is Jun 3 rd, 2010 at 6:00pm Your officers are: President Tony Holdren Vice-President Bob MacConnell Club Historian Joe Shanks Treasurer Fred Dillion Sergeant-At-Arms Harold Peterson Newsletter Editor Joe Shanks S 57 th Street, Tacoma WA Jsh @aol.com Demonos Web Site: 10/17/2008

Demonos Monthly Rag September 2008

Demonos Monthly Rag September 2008 Welcome to the newest addition of the Demonos Newsletter. I hope this provides the members with up to date status of club events and activities. As with any newsletter,