1930s Big Car wreck, Beeder/Lucky Teter, Paterson (NJ)

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1930s Big Car wreck, Beeder/Lucky Teter, Paterson (NJ)

#1

Post by Motorsportrace »

Here:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ ... 3917542432

There's this photo:
Image

This was found by Jesper. I'll report here what he wrote me:
Driver Beeder (possibly Frankie) in #1 Lucky Teter Spl. "Big Car", which is to say, the term for sprintcar, back in the day. This is what the auction said, and what I can see in the photo.

Note the tow truck, which says Paterson, N.J. That place is not that far away from Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Beeder's fatal accident occurred, in 1938.

http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus ... =ct&n=6509

Beeder's stats with ultimateracinghistory ends just before this race: http://www.ultimateracinghistory.com/ra ... iqid=26559 , so no help there.

Lucky Teter was a famous stunt driver, who was killed in 1942. Maybe the car is in fact the one Teter entered in the 1936 Indy 500, but which did not appear, so I cannot compare it with anything. But that would make it a champcar wreck, instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Teter

The forum should still be able to solve this, on the basis of the available info. It could be Beeder's fatal wreck.
What do you think? I really don't know what to do (I'm not really interested in this kind of crashes, especially from ovals/dirt tracks/etc.).
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#2

Post by Michael Ferner »

Yes, Frankie Beeder definitely drove this car, but I'm not sure it's the car he crashed in fatally - different sources mention different cars, but it's possible.

It's not the 1936 Indy entry of Teter, though, and so not a "champcar wreck". Also, Paterson/NJ is a good 100-mile drive from Allentown/PA, so that means nothing. Teter's team was very likely HQed in Paterson's famous "Gasoline Alley", though, along with many other famous Sprint car teams of the time (Ted Horn, Bob Sall, Fred Peters etc.) so that's probably the reason for the wrecker location.

I will look into this.
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#3

Post by Motorsportrace »

Michael Ferner wrote: 1 year ago Yes, Frankie Beeder definitely drove this car, but I'm not sure it's the car he crashed in fatally - different sources mention different cars, but it's possible.

It's not the 1936 Indy entry of Teter, though, and so not a "champcar wreck". Also, Paterson/NJ is a good 100-mile drive from Allentown/PA, so that means nothing. Teter's team was very likely HQed in Paterson's famous "Gasoline Alley", though, along with many other famous Sprint car teams of the time (Ted Horn, Bob Sall, Fred Peters etc.) so that's probably the reason for the wrecker location.

I will look into this.
Thank you.
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#4

Post by Michael Ferner »

Okay, I think I can now be positive that it's not the final Beeder wreck. The Allentown Morning Call of September 28, 1938, printed a lengthy article about "Beeder (...) who was injured in the automobile races at the Allentown Fair on Saturday (and) died at the Allentown hospital at 5:20 o'clock yesterday morning" (my bolding - this is a source very near to where it all happened, so especially trustworthy). The article goes on to mention "Beeder's speedy racing car, owned by Ted Nyquist of Reading" - this was a very well known car from a local team (Reading is about an hour's drive from Allentown), the former John Bagley/McDowell, and trust me, it looked very different from the car in the pictures. But hang on, the article also mentions that Beeder "had been one of the two racing drivers signed by 'Lucky' Teter earlier in the year, but at the time of the accident was not connected with that well-known daredevil". I think this knocks it firmly into the long grass, doesn't it?
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#5

Post by Motorsportrace »

Michael Ferner wrote: 1 year ago Okay, I think I can now be positive that it's not the final Beeder wreck. The Allentown Morning Call of September 28, 1938, printed a lengthy article about "Beeder (...) who was injured in the automobile races at the Allentown Fair on Saturday (and) died at the Allentown hospital at 5:20 o'clock yesterday morning" (my bolding - this is a source very near to where it all happened, so especially trustworthy). The article goes on to mention "Beeder's speedy racing car, owned by Ted Nyquist of Reading" - this was a very well known car from a local team (Reading is about an hour's drive from Allentown), the former John Bagley/McDowell, and trust me, it looked very different from the car in the pictures. But hang on, the article also mentions that Beeder "had been one of the two racing drivers signed by 'Lucky' Teter earlier in the year, but at the time of the accident was not connected with that well-known daredevil". I think this knocks it firmly into the long grass, doesn't it?
Great, thanks for everything.
So it's very probably not his fatal crash (as you've already said), but can be one he had the same year (since the article says "[he] had been [...] signed by 'Lucky' Teter early in the year")?
I don't think I'll be able to find anything else about this accident (and the fatal one) though, as this is not really "my" area (but I'll try anyway).
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