1952 – Iowan Sets Mark to Win Stock Car Race

 

Ernie Derr (6) leads the pack in the 25-lap stock car race at the Iowa State Fair. Behind Derr is Bob McIlrath of Waterloo and Don White of Keokuk.

Des Moines, Iowa (August 23, 1952) – Iowa stock car drivers monopolized honors in the opening race program at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday.

Ernie Derr of Fort Madison captured the 25-lap feature event, over the half-mile dirt track in record time before a crowd of 11,500 fans in the grandstands.

Derr, a big winner in the 125-miler here a year ago last spring, but a dust eater at the State Fair last August, wheeled his 1952 Oldsmobile at the head of the field for the entire 12.5-mile distance in 14 minutes and 44.19 seconds.

The original track mark set a year ago by Chris Skadal of Des Moines was 15 minutes and 7.16 seconds in a race interrupted twice because of accidents.

On Saturday, Skadal, one of the pre-race favorites, lost a wheel on the 10th lap and was forced from the race, one of six casualties in the original list of 20 starters.

Second place went to Don White, the Army sergeant from Keokuk, Iowa, on leave from Camp McCoy, Wis., with Bob McIlrath of Waterloo taking third. White was on Derr’s rear bumper the entire way.

The 10-lap mark set a year ago by Skadal was broken twice, the first time by Marvin Copple of Lincoln, Neb., the 23-year-old bank executive who was clocked in 5 minutes and 40.39 seconds, well under the 6 minute and 17.22 second mark set by Skadal.

In the next 10-lap preliminary, White, driving a 1950 Olds, shaved the new mark with a time of 5 minutes and 35.11 seconds for the 5-mile distance.

McIlrath led a field of 30 cars attempting to qualify with a time of 32.94 seconds which was slightly over Derr’s 1951 time of 32.63 seconds. Derr was second fastest with a time of 32.99 seconds.

Absent from the program was Herschel Buchanan, the International Motor Contest Association’s defending champion, who failed to show up. An added starter who arrived under the entry wire was Eddie Anderson, the popular Grinnell driver who showed up at the last minute with a Mercury, which he drove to an impressive seventh-place finish.

Between races, Al Sweeney, co-owner of National Speedways, and sponsors of the program, was served with damage suit papers in connection with a fatal accident in a race a year ago.

Wanda Haynie and her daughter, Patricia, filed notice of suit to recover a total of $11,000 in damages as a result of injuries suffered when several cars involved in an accident careened into a fence.

The accident took the life of Dick Cramer, a Texas driver.

Results –

1. Ernie Derr, Fort Madison
2. Don White, Keokuk
3. Bob McIlrath, Waterloo
4. Fred South, Salina, Kan.
5. Bob Nabor, Cedar Rapids
6. Marvin Copple, Lincoln, Neb.
7. Eddie Anderson, Grinnell
8. Bill Hobbs, Newton
9. Sonny Gross, Quincy, Ill.
10.Delmar Donaldson, Burlington
11.Floyd Houseberger, Kellogg
12.Bob Parker, Harlan
13.Wally Champion, Waukesha, Wis.
14.Harold Hobbs, Newton
15.Larry Shackleton, Minneapolis