Money Racer
Story by Richard Parks, photographic consultant Roger Rohrdanz
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Danny Oakes
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I had never heard of the term ‘money racer’ until I met Danny Oakes. Possibly the term existed for as long as racers of any sort congregated together. Maybe even before that, when men raced horses or competed in competition against each other. Oakes came from another time and another era when the term meant something special. He began racing automobiles in the 1930’s during the Great Depression, when a hamburger, fries and milk shake would set you back a whole quarter. Two bits, twenty five cents, five nickels, and a few other names of the time, and to that generation, a quarter was a lot of money. Today a quarter is a nuisance, falling into thesofa chair or jingling around in one’s pocket.
Newspaper boys would collect a pocket full of nickels during the Depression, and avoid hobos and street thieves who were desperate for a meal. Jim Lindsley used to tell the story about how he would defend himself on the street. Those nickels that he earned selling newspapers on frigid street corners would come in handy. He would put them in a sock and tie the top of the sock to his wrist. When the hoodlums flashed a knife and demanded money he would swing the sock full of nickels at the knife and knock it from the hands of the would-be robber.
According to Oakes, a “money racer” is someone who cautiously and carefully follows a plan on the racetrack, or in life. “Car racers in my day,” said Oakes, “raced nearly every day of the week, Monday’s through Sunday’s, wherever there was a race and a purse.” If they were successful they owned their own car, or had working relationships with garage owners to race their cars. Oakes, Rodger Ward, and other racers of that era knew the value of keeping their car prepared and ready to run. Sponsorships were rare and often only covered parts, fuel, tires and oil. Purses were small compared to today’s racetrack winnings. But if a driver, owner and crew were good at what they were doing they could make a good living on the tracks. The key, Oakes would say, was keeping your car in good running condition. “A money driver gets to know his opposition, the condition of the track and how the cars are running. I was known as a balloon foot for the soft touch I had on the gas pedal. There were a lot of leadfoots out there on the track in a hurry to kill themselves and smash up their machines.” Oakes went on to explain how it was important to feel the race and how things were going. He said that if your car was dialed in properly and the conditions were favorable, then the next most important ability for the driver was patience, to wait for the right spot, and to be in the right spot. “A lot of talent is luck, and a lot of luck is that which you make from your past experience.”
Danny won a lot of races as a sprint and midget driver, but he always used to shrug and say that he’d give up a trophy for a purse any day. “We raced for the money, not for a trophy and a kiss from the beauty queen.” Coming in second, third or fourth pleased Oakes just as much as winning a race. He was aiming for prize money and not glory. “Glory takes care of itself someday, but the purse goes right in your pocket as soon as you get out of your car.” Oakes would say that there was no sense in winning a race if you wrecked your car. “Without a car you can’t compete the next day or the day after that. You take care of your ride, and your ride will take care of you.” Not only did Oakes take care of his racecar, but he also took care of his health and stamina. He was a committed dancer and was on the dance floor up into his nineties. The dancing helped his stamina and kept him thin. He could race in those heats, then in the main events and a 100-lap race was just a sprint to him. Oakes would taunt his more portly competitors and tell them, “I was just getting started, let’s go another 50 laps.” The dancing also led to 5 marriages and innumerable friendships. Many times the ladies sponsored his cars, or talked their husbands into sponsoring him. Oakes always said that you cultivate friendships on the racecourses as you would any business arrangements. He always said that you divorced your ego from the goal that was most important. That goal never wavered in his mind. It was to place yourself in position to win some of that prize money, and Danny was a money racer.
In 1946 he teamed up with co-driver Duke Nalon in the Bill Krech owned Inglewood Tire Company Special to win a quarter of a million dollars. That’s a lot of quarters in any era, but if you consider the fact that a good house cost $2500 in those days, then $250,000 would have bought you 100 homes. One hundred homes today could cost you up to 60 million dollars in the right area, for the same homes. “A man could make a good living at racing in those days. We had to race every night, but we’d pick up some prize money in one town, then head for another city, and another. It wasn’t unusual to make a couple hundred bucks a week in those days.” Taxes were almost non-existent and a dollar went a long way, so Danny and the other money racers did all right. A factory worker might make $17 a week, rent was $25 a month, and a new car sold for about $500-1000. A good used car could be bought for less than a hundred, and if you were mechanically inclined, one could buy a running car from a junk yard for twenty or thirty dollars. Oakes was not only an outstanding race car driver, but he was even better as a mechanic. He could hear a motor sing and know the song it was humming. He could diagnose an engine while driving on the freeways of his native California, and he was never wrong. A good money driver knows his motors as much as he knows himself and his rivals. He also knew when they gave him a crew or a car that wasn’t going to give him a chance at the prize money. He also knew how to coax a bad car into the last spot for prize money.
Today the races pay out millions of dollars in prizes, purses and sponsorship money. On top of that there are endorsements, ads and commercial ventures. Somewhere, lost in this new era of big money is that meal that only cost two bits. Lost also is the excitement at pocketing a few bucks for that last spot in the prize list. Most races today pay off down to the last spot, even for the guy that leadfooted it into the turn and crashed out of the race on the first lap. That would never happen to Danny. He crashed once, and it wasn’t his fault. His record for bringing his car home safely, and in the money was exceptional. Oakes was never accorded the title as the ‘best’ race car driver, or the most ‘talented.’ He always used to say that Rodger Ward and Parnelli Jones deserved those titles. I suppose a claim could be made for hundreds of other race car drivers as being the best and most talented. Somewhere there needs to be a category for ‘best money’ driver, and Danny Oakes would have to be up there in the top ten.
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Parnelli Jones
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Rodger Ward
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