What it took to sponsor the 1950 Indy 500 winner
It's no secret that today's auto racing is expensive no matter what series type you may be talking about; Formula 1, NASCAR, IRL, Champ Car, ALMS, NHRA, Grand Am, SCORE off-road, etc. Pick up a number of the current magazines, ROAD & TRACK included and you'll find articles about the cost of today's racing.
With that in mind,I'm going to talk about what it took to win the Indy 500 in 1950 as the main sponsor, a experience that my family lived first hand.
In December of 1949 Frank Kurtis wrote a letter to my uncle Lawrence 'Zeke' Justice presenting the opportunity for the Justice Brothers to sponsor his main car driven by Johnnie Parsons for the 1950 Indy car season, including the Indy 500. Johnnie and Frank were the reigning series champions for 1950, earning the coveted No. 1 during the 1949 season. While the letter is pictured in the photo above, it's too small to read so I'll quote it verbatim here:
Dear Zeke:
I'm very sorry that I did not see you before I left. I have a deal on for several cars in Mexico.
In regards to a sponsor, we have several companies interested, but would much prefer to have Wynn's, inasmuch as we are spending a great deal of money in advertising our Sport Car, and having two cars for next season, we can tie in the whole combination and I'm sure the results should be gratifying.
We have set a price of $5,000.00 for the season, which might appear high, however, considering the potential results you will find that it is not out of reason.
I will send you more information on the Sport Car very shortly and hope you all have a very prosperous New Year.
Sincerely,
Kurtis-Kraft, Inc.
Frank Kurtis
This letter was sent December 29, 1949. To fill in some of the blanks and history of how this came to this point, I'll start by giving the background of my uncle Zeke's and my dad Ed's relationship with Frank Kurtis. Zeke went to work for Joel Thorne (a multi-millionaire before the age of 11, he was an heir to Chase Manhattan Bank/Pullman Railroad fortunes) before World War II. It was at Joel's shop that he met Frank Kurtis. Frank rented an upstairs space in Joel's shop, where he did his work.
When the war was over and Frank had decided to start Kurtis-Kraft he asked Zeke to be his first employee. When my dad Ed came home from his military service in Europe after WWII, Frank offered him a job at Kurtis-Kraft also. They both worked there with the other (now legendary, Emil Diedt, Quinn Epperly and others) members of the Kurtis-Kraft race shop, fabricating bodywork out of aluminum sheet, fabricating headers and all of the related types of racecar parts. In addition my dad ended up painting quite a few of the Kurtis-Kraft midgets coming out of the shop, including one for Sam Hanks (the 1957 Indy 500 winner).
Because my dad and Zeke had a close relationship with Frank Kurtis, when my dad and uncles decided to go into the oil business, Frank was very open and helpful about it. (Many years later in the 1960's and 70's he would stop by our offices on a regular basis to say hello and to check on his former employees. I got to spend a great bit of time with him, a true racing legend.) This was not your typical employer/employee relationship. So when Zeke called to talk with Frank to find out what might be able to be put together for the 1950 season, Frank responded. Zeke had also mentioned to Frank that things were very tough in selling their new product and they needed to get the product name better known.
Down South, where the Justice Brothers lived at the time, they had every major stock car driver using the product and running decals on their cars. And because of this they became the first contingency sponsor in NASCAR history. But they still needed more; they needed a major presence at the biggest race in the word, the Indy 500. The previous 4 years my dad and uncles had sponsored cars at Indy, starting with Bayliss Levrett in 1946, but none that would equal the national champion and favored team of Kurtis-Kraft.
After receiving the above letter, Zeke let Frank know that no matter what they had to do, they would come up with the $5,000.00 for the sponsorship. It's obvious that $5000.00 was a sizeable amount of money in 1950. They scraped the money together and Frank did indeed throw in a second car with Freddie Agabashian as its driver. Freddie was a very well known and respected driver from Central California and a contemporary of the legendary Indy 500 winner, Bill Vukovich.
The end of the story is that Johnnie Parsons did win the race in Frank Kurtis's car and the Justice Brothers celebrated their first win as sponsors. As hoped, the win did bring the needed recognition to the products and the rest as they say is history. They would also pick up a second 2 years later in 1952 with the sponsorship of Jim Rathmann driving the Granatelli Brothers entry.
An interesting side note to this story is that Frank had sold the racecar that Johnnie won in before the race to Marshall Robbins. So when Marshall took delivery of the car it was now the 1950 Indy 500 winner. He entered it in next years 500 and it finished 2nd with the same motor (obviously rebuilt). The car had finished 2nd in 1949 also.
Copyright MMVIII Ed Justice, Jr.
by Neal Thompson. This is one of the most comprehensively researched tomes on this subject matter you'll ever find. The author, Neal Thompson, did his homework and did not cut corners. There are at least 29 pages of notes referencing his sources, interviews, etc. and actually might lead you to some other books you might like to add to your collection. DRIVING WITH THE DEVIL is a book that needed to be written in the overhyped and big money world of today's NASCAR.