by Michael Ferner

 

Before we get to the nitty-gritty (i.e. the gorgeous ‘122′), it will be well to recall Harry Miller’s first eight-cylinder job, which was built in three distinctly different versions. The common link, its 3-litre engine, was also built in two versions, and a number of those engines ended up in non-Miller chassis, which will not be discussed in detail, but it may be useful to follow up the history of some of these engines, as there were probably no more than twelve, and they play quite a role in the story of the ‘122′, too.

To start with, I will try to tell the history of these cars up to Thanksgiving in 1923, a date which plays a pivotal role in the story of the Miller ‘122′. I will then try to pick up the story of the ‘183′ when we have laid out the scene in the ‘122′ article, which I will approach in a slightly different fashion, I guess… Well, let’s just wait and see how things will develop!

‘2103′

the 1921 Leach/Vail #3 car

The owner of this car is mostly given as Ira Vail, but I think the story here is slightly more complex. Vail drove this car only once, at its debut at Indy in 1921, and else continued to run his Philbrin/Duesenberg on dirt tracks all over the USofA. I would guess that he was just looking for a competitive Indy entry, and figured as a sort of sponsor for the new Miller. He had driven a ‘works’ Duesenberg once or twice, but must have realised that his chances of success were slim against team mates like Jimmy Murphy or Roscoe Sarles, who were well settled within the team, and/or almost as experienced as he himself.

Thus, his best option seemed to lay elsewhere, but why Miller is difficult to explain. Perhaps we shouldn’t underestimate Harry Miller’s considerable charmes when it came to dealing with racing people, as every so often one finds him taking advantage of seemingly hopeless situations – he may even have approached Vail, instead of vice versa!

Whatever the case, Vail appears to have been only one piece of the jigsaw puzzle, one other being Frank Elliott, a driver well entangled with Miller’s affairs over the last four or five years. Elliott’s brother Clarence was on Miller’s engineering staff, and Frank had driven Barney Oldfield’s Miller-engined Delage S as well as a Miller-engined Special of his own. Early press preview photographs of the car show him posing with Miller and Vail, and it was Elliott who would drive the car in all but a few races, so we can safely assume he had a stake in the car as well.

The rest of the finance was provided by the short-lived Leach-Biltwell Motor Car Co., a rare L.A.-based car manufacturer to which Harry Miller had been contracted for some engineering work. The car was exclusively known as the “Leach Special”, or “Leach 999 Special”, never a Miller - it was one of those strange sponsorship deals where one car manufacturer claims a car built by another, cases of which abounded in those days!

As already related, following Ira Vail on its debut, the car was driven almost exclusively by Frank Elliott, but also by Art Klein, Roscoe Sarles and Pete de Paolo. It was heavily damaged in a December 1921 accident when its crankshaft broke, but apparently rebuilt around its original components, including the engine! On August 6 in 1922, it took the historic first win for a Miller chassis in a AAA National Championship event, which initiated a run of thirteen consecutive Miller victories, only ending in Duesenberg’s supercharged Indy win twenty-two months later.

The next Miller 183 engine replaced the Duesenberg unit in Tommy Milton’s “Durant Special” (‘2001′), which originally was also built at the Miller shop, but to a customer’s specifications. Beginning with this engine, the exhaust porting and manifolding was changed from a 4-in-2 to an 8-in-1 layout, but the detachable cylinder head was, reputedly at least, retained, the same as on the next engine which went into Tommy Milton’s 1922 “Leach Special” (‘2208′, another Special built at the Miller shop).

After that, Miller introduced his famous integral head design, which was to be carried over as a salient feature of his “engine dynasty” up to the days of the turbocharged Drake-Offenhauser, where it proved especially attractive! At the same time, perhaps coincidentally, he switched the exhaust over from the left side (a Peugeot legacy?) to the right, where most American engines of the time exhausted to. It may well be that this change was at least partly inspired by Miller’s latest customer, Jimmy Murphy, who wanted the fourth Miller 183 engine to go with his Grand Prix winning Duesenberg (‘2108-Z’).

This new combination proved an immediate success, winning four races (including the all-important Indy 500) in succession, after which the rout continued with Elliott’s win in the 1921 car and the dozen following wins for Miller chassis. The dazzling truth is, that with the introduction of this “second generation” Miller 183 engine no normally aspirated engine other than a Miller won any AAA National Championship race for almost exactly 100 months, i.e. more than eight years!

Even more astonishing: after this one defeat, and including all variations of the “engine dynasty”, this streak went on for another three decades and more, only ending under USAC sanction with Jim Clark’s win in a Lotus/Ford at Milwaukee in 1963, more than forty years after it began! Pedants will point out that a few Ford-based engines won Sprint Car races in 1946, or that a Lincoln won the 1955 Pikes Peak hill climb – all this in events that, for one reason or another, happened to carry points for the National Championship, but the purist in us has to concede the singularity of this achievement, especially when juxtaposed with the three wins of Tommy Milton’s Durant/Miller of the older type.

‘2203-Y’

the 1922 Miller/Hill #3 car

This car retained the left-hand steering of the 1921 car, but the exhaust was now permanently moved to the right, and so it conformed to the most popular pattern for American racing cars, but strangely it would be the only Miller to do so until 1930, after which it became a universal feature! Otherwise, the car had a much tidied-up appearance, and originally at least disc wheels, a fad of the time, but these were soon replaced. Occasionally, the car was entered as the McDonald Special, named after a sponsor who bowed out after a divorce in early 1923.

It was driven with good success by Bennie Hill, and for Indy in 1923 it was modified with a new crankshaft and block (or, possibly, linered down) to conform with the new rules. Hill qualified the car, and the Argentinian playboy and amateur driver Martin de Alzaga Unzue drove relief for a few laps before the new crankshaft broke. Hill then left to drive a Duesenberg for the rest of the year, while the car apparently remained idle until the Thanksgiving meet. De Alzaga will re-enter the story anon.

Harry Hartz got the sixth Miller ‘183′ engine to go with his Grand Prix Duesenberg chassis (‘2116-Z’) in September of 1922, and this marked the halfway point in production figures. The halfway point? Sixteen months after its first race, and a mere seven months before the formula was due to expire? Yes, this is an odd scenario, and it deserves some “ink”.

After building one example each of the first and second generation ‘183’s, Miller turned out no less than six cars in its final specification, i.e. both exhaust and steering on the right, and a few detail changes, mostly apparent in the stylish front frame horns, a Miller feature for the next eight years or so. All six went to one customer only, Russell Clifford Durant, son of the industry leader William Crapo Durant. Six cars for an estimated price of at least $10,000 each, eligible for only three more races with an aggregate total purse of $65,000? Does not compute!

Various theories have been offered to explain this madcap acquisition, and for years I accepted the one put forward by Mark Dees in The Miller Dynasty as the most authoritative, if not exactly the most convincing: citing a source “close to Durant at the time”, Dees explained that the millionaire playboy “felt himself to posess such influence with Carl Fisher, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, that Fisher would hold back the implementation of the 122 CID formula”. Recently, I found a number of sources contradicting such a scenario, and I reconstruct the genesis of the legendary Durant team differently.

First of all, we should remember that the new 2-litre formula was effective in Grand Prix racing already for 1922, even if some of the major events of that year (like the Tourist Trophy in Britain, and the American races) still ran to the old 3-litre formula. But I don’t think there was ever any question about the Indy 500 following the International rules, even if one year late, and the new rules were known to be for certain by the beginning of 1922, the latest! I have found several articles from January of that year stating exactly that, and to my surpise they also carried information about weight advantages for 2000 cc and even 1500 cc cars running in the 1922 Indianapolis race, obviously to stimulate development! So, any theories about Durant and Miller getting caught out by the formula change are thus invalid.

Another article in an Oakland paper from January of 1923 puts paid to the Dees theory of Durant gambling on a postponement of the formula change. The local son is quoted therein as saying that “these new racing cars will be as fast as the present 183 inch cars, and it is only a matter of time until the limit will be dropped to 91 cubic inches” – not exactly words of defiance! The same article mentions Durant entering two new 122 CID racers, and shortly afterwards articles appear that have him enter four new Miller single-seaters, and all six of his present cars, modified to meet the new limit.

Thus, we may assume that Harry Miller’s charme was at work again, with him apparently luring Durant into a grandiose scheme that promised immediate success for both of them, with an apparent “option” for a sort of “reimbursement” at a later stage. In fact, it will soon become clear that the resale of the cars to aspiring young drivers must’ve been part of the plan from the start! We will eventually see that over the next three or four years, Durant would be buying and selling more than fifteen brand new Miller racing cars, with some of the transactions going back and forth between him, Miller and/or third parties – Cliff Durant for sure was the greatest patron of US Racing for his, and possibly any time!

Before we get to the car-by-car histories, which I’m afraid will remain a bit vague, let’s take a look at the chronology of events: starting with the Cotati championship race in August, where four of the five then existing cars with 8-cylinder Miller engines finished in the first four positions, and the best non-Miller was at least seven laps down at the end of an 80-lap race – total domination, in other words.

Shortly thereafter, the first articles appeared mentioning the formation of a “superteam” of four Durant Specials, built by Harry Miller, and drivers to be Jimmy Murphy, Roscoe Sarles, Eddie Hearne and Ralph Mulford. From this perspective, the whole scheme doesn’t look quite that lunatic: the only Miller not making any money at Cotati had been Durant’s own, out in practice with engine maladies – to increase the number of one’s entries seemed to simply better the odds for a monetary return. Also, four new cars is not quite as radical as six – we will soon see how Durant got caught in a certain dynamic of events.

The next championship event was the grand opening of the new Kansas City Speedway in September, an event that would go down in racing lore as “the Kansas City bloodbath”! Another Miller 1-2-3 rout, marred by the fatal accident of Roscoe Sarles and injuries to nearly a dozen other drivers and mechanics, it also claimed several racing cars that were wrecked beyond help.

Besides Sarles, Ralph Mulford also drove in his last ever race, but he wasn’t as much as scratched – in fact, he finished the race as the leading non-Miller driver in fourth. But there is something strange in his performance: Mulford was famous for his refusal to drive on Sundays, owing to his religious beliefs, yet the KC race was postponed from the Saturday on account of rain, and run the following day! In over 100 race appearances over a span of more than fifteen years, it is only his second event on a Sunday in my records.

Amongst the disabled cars was also Jimmy Murphy’s Duesenberg, which precipitated a mad rush to get the first of the new Durant Specials ready in time for the next championship event at Fresno a fortnight later. Durant also appears to have bought one of the Duesenberg works cars for Eddie Hearne to race, whose own Duesenberg had also bitten the dust in KC. In October articles about the “superteam”, Earl Cooper and Cliff Durant himself were named as replacements for Sarles and Mulford, with Cooper’s former riding mechanic Reeves Dutton named as technical director.

After two unsuccessful test runs by Murphy, the team finally appeared in full bloom at the Thanksgiving meet. Possibly as a consequence of an engine becoming available courtesy of the Murphy wreck at KC, the team had now grown to five cars, with another veteran driver (Art Klein) added. At this point perhaps it should be added that, during later parts of the twenties, both Jack Petticord and Gus Duray would be reported as driving the “ex-Murphy Miller” in West coast events, while Art Barthold got credited with driving the “ex-Murphy Duesenberg” on the East coast.

Notwithstanding the fact that Murphy drove more than one example of both makes, it would appear that those remarks indicate a partition of chassis and engine of the Duesenberg/Miller Murphy Special, the famous 1922 Indy winner, as it is easily obvious from pictures of the car after its KC accident that the engine was much less (if at all!) damaged than the chassis, and drivers of the era were usually fond of their engines and the development work they put into them! Alas, whether it would have been easier forMiller to crank out a new chassis without building a new engine, is a question I cannot answer.

When Dario Resta announced his return to racing in early 1923, Durant was quick to sign him for his team of stars, and put in another order with Miller. About the same time he announced commencement of “construction” of two one-man cars for the 2-litre formula, with Miller seperately announcing his plans to supply new cars for Tommy Milton and Bennie Hill to drive.

Pretty soon both enterprises were mentioned in the same breath, with Miller to produce six new cars, four of which were to go to the Durant team to supplement the six two-man cars, for which Cliff was now seeking young drivers. Frank Elliott and Leon Duray were drafted to replace Resta and Klein, while Harry Hartz was nominated to drive one of the single-seaters. Milton was already testing and racing his new car, while the sixth was now “open” for whoever came up with the money!?

At this point, it will be necessary to take a look “behind the curtains”, as quite obviously some of the deals didn’t go through the papers, and unfortunately the historian is thus forced to resort to speculation.  Remember the playboy from the Argentine?

When five Bugattis were entered for the 1923 Indy 500, the American public took that as a token for international interest in the race, but those in the know couldn’t be fooled. Today, the impression is that Bugatti was a famous and successful racing marque, but the truth is that the cars were hopeless midfielders that got lucky when virtually everybody else withdrew from racing, and in 1923 it would’ve been flattery to even call them midfielders – they were more like an ancient equivalent of the Minardi team, around for aeons but always at the back. In keeping with this tradition, the specially prepared Indy Bugattis were entrusted to a bunch of wealthy amateurs, who probably regarded the American expedition as a sort of adventure. It is interesting to note that the two drivers with the closest links to the factory drove the two slowest cars in qualifying, probably de-tuned for endurance, and only the slowest (barely faster than the modified Model T Ford of Slim Corum) survived the 500 miles, finishing about one hour after the winner, and more than twenty minutes behind the Tin Lizzy…

The two fastest Bugattis were driven by a couple of Argentinians, and were out of the race within minutes of the start. It is often said or written that Martin de Alzaga, one of the two drivers and, apparently, the main money man behind the whole operation, was as much impressed by the performance of the Millers as disappointed with the performance of his own car(s), so that he subsequently placed an order with Miller for two cars to be built to Grand Prix specifications, meaning two seats and two litres – remember, the “old” Miller 183 was a 3-litre two-seater, while the new Miller 122 had the right capacity, but only one seat for the driver!

A third such “Grand Prix Miller” was to be built for Englishman (of Polish-American descent) Louis Zborowski, and reports vary as to the question whether it was ordered before or after de Alzaga’s. Zborowski’s order was reported in the papers, a week before the 500 mile race, but no mention was made at the time of a similar order by de Alzaga, or any other customer for that matter, leading most historians to assume that the Argentinian came second. However, again I reconstruct events differently!

As already mentioned, de Alzaga was a rich playboy, and thus it will be well to forget about the sports pages for a moment, and delve into the gossip of the society papers instead: there, we learn that de Alzaga, who was generally known by his nickname “Macoco”, was dating a married American lady at the time, and thus had ample reason and opportunity to be aware of Harry Miller’s fabulous speed creations.

What, then, was he doing with the Bugatti at Indy? Well, having been partly educated in Europe, his racing ambitions in all probability lay on that side of the Atlantic, and in light of this his Indy foray may be seen as sort of a “business trip”, with the main aim being the acquisition of a racing car – for the Grand Prix!

Some will also have noticed that, for some as of yet unspecified reasons, the Indianapolis entry of Cliff Durant had been whittled down from a proposed ten cars in January to a “mere” eight eventually, when the entry fees had to be paid in April. What had happened in the wee months of the year 1923? “Big Spender” Durant suddenly getting thrifty??? There’s more chance of snow in hell, actually!

My theory is that “Macoco” had already approached Harry Miller in early spring, and that Harry had arranged for Cliff to sell the cars, furnishing a couple of new engines as well since his own reputation as a manufacturer could well profit from success in the Old World = everyone’s happy!

It would also serve as an explanation for the third “Grand Prix Miller”, and the extra Miller ‘122′ chassis which appeared at Indy in addition to the six already mentioned new cars: Zborowski may have become aware of the Alzaga deal during early days of the Bugatti Indy operation, and fancied a car for himself. Thus, Miller may have rushed through another single seater in exchange for another two-seater from Durant, hence the out-of-sequence Indy starting number of the Earl Cooper car!

By the way, the starting numbers of the Durant cars do emphatically not hint at any pecking order within the team: newspaper reports before the event claim that the drivers drew the numbers (already assigned to the team by the IMS) out of a hat! In addition to that, the initially assigned numbers (in order of entry, most likely) were later changed by the Speedway management, so that Cliff himself, who had originally drawn (and already painted on his car) #4, would eventually drive with #8!

So, finally we now come to the individual histories of the six 1922 “Durant Specials”. As already mentioned, tracking them individually is somewhat difficult due to the changes made to the cars, but we have help through contemporary photographs, thankfully! Two of the cars were photographed at Indy in 1923 still sporting their “old” numbers, and these are also faintly visible under a new coat of paint later in the month, namely Leon Duray’s #28 (which was #6) and Frank Elliott’s #31 (which was #4). Pictures of Harlan Fengler’s #26 before the repaint do possibly not exist, but the #5 is barely visible under the new number on a couple of photographs, and also on a close-up picture of the engine bay with the bonnet folded up, so we can safely assume that those three cars were the ones driven by Hearne, Cooper and Klein in the earlier races.

As for the others, we will have to revert to guesswork, with the appropriate disclaimers! Murphy may be assumed to have driven the same car at Monza as at Fresno, Cotati and Beverly Hills, if only for the simple reason that he may have requested it due to his experience with same car. “Loverboy” Macoco may have chosen Resta’s car, as it was the “newest” of the lot, and the only one driven by a driver with European credentials? Which would leave Durant’s personal 183 for Zborowski – well, at least that would be a reasonable explanation, no? So, up until Thanksgiving in 1923, we have the following histories:

‘2201-Z’

the 1922 Durant/Murphy #1 car

Debuted by Jimmy Murphy on September 30 at Fresno, finishing 8th and last. A month later at Cotati again last (4th), then three wins in succession in Championship events at Beverly Hills (twice) and Fresno. Subsequently fitted with a new Miller 122 engine and sold, likely to Martin de Alzaga (but see ‘2207-Z’ and ‘2302-X’!) for Murphy to drive at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza in September (3rd as #5), then entered (#3) for the Spanish Grand Prix in October, but shipped back to the US instead for the Thanksgiving Race at Beverly Hills.

‘2204-Z’

the 1922 Durant/Hearne #4 car

New for Eddie Hearne at Beverly Hills in December (finished 10th), then again in February (4th) and at Fresno in April (2nd). Engine rebuilt to conform with 2-litre formula, and car sold to Frank Elliott who drove it with some success during the rest of the year on the Championship trail and in dirt track events as #31 (Indy) and #4.

‘2205-Z’

the 1922 Durant/Cooper #5 car

New for Earl Cooper in December at Beverly Hills (2nd), then in February (retired) and at Fresno (4th). Engine rebuilt like #4, and car sold to Bill White for Harlan Fengler (3rd at Kansas City = best result for the rebuilt type), Ora Haibe, (possibly) Slim Corum, Al Melcher and Wes Crawford to drive in Championship and dirt track events as #26.

‘2206-Z’

the 1922 Durant/Klein #6 car

New for Art Klein in December (6th) and February (retired), for Leon Duray at Fresno (accident). Rebuilt to same standard as #4 and #5, and sold to Duray who drove it with little success for the rest of the year on the Championship trail and in dirt track events as #28 (Indy) and #9.

‘2207-Z’

the 1922 Durant/Durant #7 car

New for Cliff Durant at Beverly Hills in December (retired), in February (9th) and at Fresno (retired). Subsequently fitted with a new Miller 122 engine and sold, possibly to Martin de Alzaga (but see ‘2201-Z’ and ‘2302-X’!) who drove it at Monza as #16 (6th), and entered it for the Spanish Grand Prix as #2, but instead returned with it to the US.

‘2302-X’

the 1923 Durant/Resta #2 car

New for Dario Resta at Beverly Hills in February (8th), and for Frank Elliott at Fresno (5th). Subsequently fitted with new Miller 122 engine and sold, possibly to Louis Zborowski (but see ‘2201-Z’ and ‘2207-Z’!) who entered it at Monza in September as #11 (retired) and Sitges in October as #1, though pictures show it to be #9 (2nd), then in August of 1924 at Lyon as #6 (retired). After Zborowski’s death two months later, the car was sold and raced for a time in local events in Britain, thence via New Zealand (Bert Shorter/ca. 1927, Elliot [Keith?] Cutten/ca. 1927-1933, Gerry Mathieson/1934-1936, Eric Morgan/ca. 1936-1938), Australia (Paul Haverland?, etc., incl a spell with road registration 1947-1952!), the USA again (?/ca. 1985-1992), to Germany (Eckart Berg/ca. 1992-1996), Switzerland (Karl Blöchle/ca. 1997-2005) and back to Germany (Stephan Rettenmaier/ca. 2006), where it is still today, occasionally to be seen in Historic Racing, and surprisingly authentic, it seems, although the engine has reportedly been enlarged to 2.7 litres. Reputedly carries chassis number ‘HM8′.

When we pick up the story of these cars for the Beverly Hills race in November of 1923, it will be useful to have a simple inventory of all Miller 183 cars and engines, and their current whereabouts:

‘2103′ possibly still owned by Leach-Biltwell Motor Car Co./Harry Miller and/or Frank Elliott, unraced (?) since April (Pete de Paolo), and quite possibly purchased by the latter (?)
Engine Nr. 1: ditto (?)

‘2001′ (1920 Durant/Miller): wrecked September 1922 in Missouri (Sarles fatal), but since apparently rebuilt and wrecked again July 1923 in California, resulting in death of driver Frank Rollins – subsequent history unknown, and quite possibly scrapped, BUT John Raimey and Ray Slocum/Roy Huston each entered a “Durant Special” in September for races in Ohio and Texas, respectively (perhaps modified Durant Touring Cars?)
Engine Nr. 2: ditto (?)

‘2208′ (1922 Milton/Miller): apparently still owned by Tommy Milton, and unraced (?) since April (Ralph Hepburn/Tommy Milton)
Engine Nr. 3: still owned by Tommy Milton

‘2108-Z’ (1921 Duesenberg/Miller): wrecked September 1922 in Missouri, apparently rebuilt and possibly still in California, although Art Barthold reportedly drove an ex-Murphy Duesenberg in August in New York
Engine Nr. 4: ditto (?), but possibly recycled for use in ‘2201-Z’ (i.e. instead of engine Nr. 7!?)

‘2203-Y’ apparently still owned by Harry Miller, and unraced (?) since May (Bennie Hill/Martín de Alzaga)
Engine Nr. 5: rebuilt to 2 litres, still with car

‘2116-Z’ (1921 Duesenberg/Miller): possibly still owned by Harry Hartz, and unraced (?) since April (Harry Hartz)
Engine Nr. 6: ditto (?)

‘2201-Z’ still owned by Martín de Alzaga
Engine Nr. 7 (possibly Nr. 4, in fact – see ‘2108-Z’): still with car (as a spare)

‘2204-Z’ still owned by Frank Elliott
Engine Nr. 8: rebuilt to 2 litres, still with car

‘2205-Z’ still owned by Bill White
Engine Nr. 9: rebuilt to 2 litres, still with car

‘2206-Z’ apparently sold by Leon Duray to unknown customer
Engine Nr. 10: rebuilt to 2 litres, still with car (?)

‘2207-Z’ still owned by Martín de Alzaga
Engine Nr. 11: possibly still with Harry Miller

‘2302-X’ still owned by Louis Zborowski, subsequent history as related above – no further part in US racing
Engine Nr. 12: allegedly still with car (as a spare)

Subsequent research has revealed that Cliff Durant had originally planned to go to Monza with a three-car team and the drivers Jimmy Murphy, Eddie Hearne and Harry Hartz. With Zborowski stepping forward to purchase a “Grand Prix Miller” on May 22, Durant was forced to abandon that plan, and by the last day of the month de Alzaga had stepped in to finance the Grand Prix adventure. Zborowski’s car shipped on July 5, arriving in Europe twenty days later, with the other two cars following early in August, together with Murphy, Ernie Olson and Riley Brett.

***

Mystery Cars

‘2405-P’

the 1924 Milton/Milton red & blue #5 “convertible” car

Presumably a ‘183′, rebuilt as a single seater, new for Tommy Milton for Class D record attempts at Muroc Dry Lake (from late March to Apr 4 – 23.8″/151 mph for the flying mile) with wide frame, slightly oversize 1924 bodywork but wire mesh radiator, neither front nor rear wheel brakes but with transmission brake, ‘183′ type engine with left-hand exhaust (presumably from the 1922 “Leach Special” Milton/Miller) and right-hand steering gear; termed the “183 Convertible” by Mark Dees and others, this moniker may, in fact, be erroneous because there was never reason for the car to be fitted with a ‘122′ engine, and there’s no evidence whatsoever that such an engine with a left-hand exhaust ever existed, maybe it was actually marked “conv.” for the conversion job of the steering gear (hypothesis!); used in practice at Ascot Speedway by Ralph de Palma in April, otherwise idle until driven by Norm Batten in dirt track events (1925); sold to Fisher & Jacobs in Pennsylvania (?) in late 1925 or early 1926 for Jimmy Gleason in NMRA events (#1), then AAA in 1927 (#11) and probably later, also for Al Aspen and possibly others; subsequent history unclear.

‘2402-I’

the 1924 Duray/Duray #2 car

Presumably a ‘183′, rebuilt as a single seater, new for Leon Duray at Ascot Speedway (Jun 8)

‘2401-P’

the 1924 Hearne/Hearne #1 car

Presumably a ‘183′, rebuilt as a single seater (very probably the ex-Hearne/Elliott car), new for Eddie Hearne at Culvery City dirt track (Aug 17); possibly via Marchese brothers of Wisconsin (1928) to Sig Haugdahl (September 1929), and raced by him (amongst other cars) in IMCA events for at least a couple of years; subsequent history unclear.

*****

© 2011 Michael Ferner