Fred Clemons

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Fred "Skinny" Clemons (14 February 1889) was an American race car driver and designer. He was one of the first entrants at the Indianapolis 500. He designed and built his own cars, engines and built his own Independent wheel suspension which he patented in 1934. Lou Meyer, Joe Russo, Wilber Shaw and many other race drivers drove his cars.

Early life

Clemons was the son of Anna L. Clemons. He attended the Emmerich manual training school Greensburg Indiana. Both his father and grandfather bred and trained race horses.

Auto racing

Clemons built two cars for the McFarland motor company in 1910 in his workshop/garage, which was at the site of the present ‘World War’ memorial in Indianapolis.

The first race car designed and built by Clemons was driven in competition by Wilber Shaw.

Reported in the ‘Automotive Racing Records’ of the September 2nd to 5th 1910 race meet, Clemons' car No. 24, entered by the National McFarland carriage company, finished 5th in the 200 mile Labour Day race.

In 1911 Clemons entered the International 500-Mile Sweepstakes as part of a two-driver team for the McFarland car No 22, but they did not qualify that year. Clemons was also the co-driver of car No 6 with Frank Fox. This car was a Pope/Hartford, and it finished 22nd after 162 laps.

Clemons worked for the Chevrolet brothers, and they used his model ‘T’ automobile to test the first eight valve Fronty head’ engine. In 1921, while Clemons was shop foreman for Frontenac, the first Fronty-Ford cylinder head was installed in a ‘Skinny’ Clemons car, which was the fastest Ford racer at the time,. Although the car overturned at high speed during the test of the engine conversion, the new head proved successful and subsequently went into production.

Clemons built both sprint and board track cars, using chassis which he designed and chain drive overhead cam Clemons-designed 4 cylinder engines.

The first Clemons chassis was slender with front cart springs. A photo of this car can be seen in Wilbur Shaw's autobiography, Gentlemen, start your engines. In 1925/1926 Lou Schneider and Wilbur Shaw both drove for Clemons.

Clemons' later four cylinder chassis included deep-sectioned side rails with an unusual raised section over the front axle, which carried the oil tank. The rear section was deep-skirted. The front and rear cross-members were tubular with transverse leaf springs and ‘Hartford’ type shock absorbers fitted length wise along the chassis.

The chassis frame and alloy bodies for the 4 cylinder cars in the 1920’s were built by Dreyer of Indianapolis to the Clemons design. According to Dreyer records, six bodies were ordered, but all may not have been completed.

Clemons opened and managed the Rushville Motor Speedway on August 1st 1925. That year the Clemons car won nine of ten races entered, including the Hoosier motor speedway race. It also averaged 82 mph on the Fort Miami track in Toledo.

An identification letter 'C’ or ‘Cm ' usually appears in front of the race Numbers on Clemons' cars. The Indianapolis Records that are available show that Clemons cars entered for the Indianapolis 500 were both 4 and 8 cylinder powered cars, including cars in 1927 and 1931 entered as ‘Hoosier Pete’ specials. The 1931 cars used the Clemons independent rear suspension One of these, entered as ‘The Wonderbread Special’, also had a Clemons engine. This car has survived and has been restored.

A group of Indianapolis businessmen in the early 1930’s commissioned 'Skinny' Clemons, assisted by Augie Duesenburg, to build a single seater 8 cylinder 4.4 litre Clemons powered car for the Indianapolis 500. That car was bought in 1933 by Count Trossi, the president of Scuderia Ferrari, who drove the car in the Monza Grand Prix of 1933. Whitney Straight also ran it at Brooklands, lapping at 138.34 mph, with two Winfield carburetors and a three-speed gearbox. Jack Duller later bought it and raced it at Brooklands. Paul Emery later used the engine in his Emeryson single seater race car. The car and engine were later re-united and are now at the Brooklands museum in the U.K.

Later life

Clemons spent the last eight years of his life in Indianapolis running a restaurant called ‘Grandmothers Kitchen’. He died at the family home in Indianapolis, after suffering a heart attack, aged 55 on February 10, 1945.

Patents held by Fred Clemons at the United States patent office

Registration Date. Reg No. Title .

• 1. 11th August 1934 21142. Independent wheel suspension.
• 2. 11th August 1934 2104736. Independent wheel suspension.
• 3. 19th August 1921 1463574. Vehicle suspension.
• 4. 10th January 1938 2216907. Independent wheel suspension.
• 5. 10th January 1927 1839832. Internal combustion engine.
• 6. 15th June 1931 2062778. Independent wheel suspension.

References

Books

• Floyd Clymer (1946). Indianapolis 500-mile Race History. Floyd Clymer.
• Fox, Jack. The Indianapolis 500
• Griffith Borgeson (1998). The Golden Age of the American Racing Car. SAE International. ISBN 978-0-7680-0023-8.
• Gerber, John. The outlaw sprint car racer
• Sheldon, Bob. Speedway Photos
• Jenkinson, Denis. The Batsford guide to Racing Cars
• Wallen, D. Board track Guts, Gold & Glory
• Dreyer, Mike. The Pop Dreyer story
• Seymour, Miranda. The Bugatti Queen
• White, Gordon. Offenhauser:
• Paulsen, Ken. M.V.A.R.A
• Riggs, L. Spencer. Automobile quarterly, V29 No 4
• Riggs, L. Spencer. Automobile quarterly, V30 No 4
• Riggs, L. Spencer. Langhorne. No Mans Land.

Articles

• Old car illustrated. Vol 4 & 5
• National speedway weekly. 5 Dec 1934
• Cavalcade of auto racing. Oct 1977
• Vintage Oval Racing The Strubes: A Peoria Racing Dynasty. by Ken Paulsen
• A record of motorsport U.S Racing 1919-1949 by Darren Galpin

News reports

• The Indianapolis News › 26 May 1931 › Page 18 – Newspapers.com