WOLF LAKE SPEEDWAY
WOLF LAKE MIDGET
SPEEDWAY
Just north of intersection
of Calumet and Sheffield Avenues on the west side of U.S
Route 41
Hammond , Indiana
The one-mile, sand surface,
Wolf Lake Speedway opened on Sunday afternoon, July 16,
1933 and was described as “the World’s Most Unique
Automobile Race Course” and was part of the $1 million
Wolf Lake development. The track was described as being
surrounded completely by water ( Wolf Lake ) and built
on man—made land with no fences or guardrails. The track
was located west of the small island that still exists
today at about 122nd Street. An ad in the Hammond
Times newspaper in 1933 called it the only auto
race track in the world where you can wear white clothes
and have them stay white – Clean, Cool, Comfortable! No
Dust, No Dirt! Louis Brown of Champaign , Ill. won the
15-mile race car event with Emil Andres of Chicago
capturing the five-mile event for race cars on that July
afternoon. Charlie Engle of Dayton , Ohio was the winner
of both the five-mile and 15-mile races for stock cars.
Approximately 5,000 people attended the inaugural event,
which also featured speed boat races. As reported in the
Hammond Times newspaper, Engle came back
on August 6 and won a 100-mile stock car race, defeating
Forest Hart, Bob Slazek, Les Crippen and “Cowboy”
O’Rourke.
Very little, if any, racing
activity can be documented regarding the one-mile track
for the balance of 1933 and years after.
In the May 16, 1935 edition
of the National Auto Racing News Edition of The
Bergen Herald, H.B. Overstreet wrote, “C.L.
Worthington of Hammond has leased a portion of Wolf Lake
, which is located in Hammond , to a syndicate for the
construction of a 1/5 of a mile midget track. Work will
start immediately under the supervision of Bill Both.”
The new midget speedway was located northwest of the
intersection of Calumet Ave. and Sheffield Ave. , east
of where the old one-mile track was and on property that
made up the shoreline of Wolf Lake at the time. The
track was described as an oiled surface with long
straightaways and narrow turns. The midget track was
located in the vicinity of the Wolf Lake Festival
Pavilion, which was built in 2010, and the pier area,
southeast of the existing small island.
Jimmy Snyder of Chicago won
the inaugural 25-lap midget feature race on Sunday
night, June 9, 1935, defeating Milwaukee drivers Tudy
Marchese and Tony Willman before an estimated crowd of
3,000 people. Pat Warren ( Los Angeles ), Harold Shaw (
Indianapolis ), Marshall Lewis ( Los Angeles ), Gale
Lower ( Fort Wayne ), Curly Mills ( Los Angeles ), Jimmy
Rogers (Melrose Park) and Fred Barney ( Chicago ) also
were in competition. In addition to Snyder and Marchese,
Wally Mitchell, Ronnie Householder, Duke Nalon, Wally
Zale and Ted Tetterton were documented feature winners
during the ’35 season.
With Worthington handling
the managerial duties and American Legion Posts 16 and
168 of Hammond and
266 in
East Chicago sponsoring the races, the fifth of a
mile track reopened for competition in June of 1936 with
fans paying a 50 cent general admission charge. Chuck
Neisel and Wally Zale were among the winners in June,
but the track was closed after Zale swept four out of
six races on June 28. The reconstruction of the track
was the reason given for the interruption of the season
with 100 loads of clay being brought in to work into the
turns.
With the west portion of
the track rebuilt, the first of six 100 lappers was
scheduled for the “season reopener” on July 19, but a
small field of cars appeared and the feature was reduced
to 25 laps with Tony Willman defeating Jimmy Snyder and
Emil Andres. Snyder won on July 24 and won twin 25-lap
features on July 26 with the afternoon of racing being
referred to as the “Pot of Gold Sweepstakes” or
“American Legion Sweepstakes.”
Thirty-year-old Johnny
Wasem was seriously injured in a crash on July 26 and
passed away on July 30 at St. Margaret’s Hospital in
Hammond – becoming the Chicago area’s first midget
racing fatality. A resident of the southside of Chicago
, Wasem had been racing for only about a year and was
given the nickname “The Professor” as he wore
eyeglasses. On July 31, the Hammond Times
newspaper reported that the track was closed till
September, citing hot weather and poor attendance.
After the July 26 event,
there is no record of any additional race programs at
the Wolf Lake site. Local racing writer Art Zuiker
mentioned in his column in the June 24, 1937 issue of
the National Auto Racing News newspaper
that the half-mile track might start up again.
END
