We tend to think of "treasure" as riches hidden centuries ago or vintage race cars discovered after decades under wraps. Ed Justice, Jr. of Justice Brothers Oil Products brought no less a treasure to our attention than Earl Mansell: "Mansell may be the last surviving driver to compete at Legion Ascot in the '20s," says Justice." Ed should know; his father, Ed Sr., has amassed an extensive collection of priceless Champ Cars, midgets, and Sprint Cars at his museum in Duarte, California.
Earl Mansell not only manhandled those magnificent open-wheel machines with Wilbur Shaw and Rex Mays before the Great Depression, he fashioned a new dimension in racing. It's been reported that Gilmore Oil Company sponsored the first organized meet at Muroc, March 25, 1931. Not so-it was Mansell, October 9, 1927, and he revealed a yellowed entry blank to prove it. There was a curious correlation between tracks like Ascot and Muroc: If Earl Mansell's close friend, Ed Winfield, was here today, he would tell us the connection was testing.
We wanted to learn more about Mr. Mansell and his involvement in an obscure dry lake during the '20s, called Muroc. We called his home in Santa Maria, California, where he resides with his wife, Virginia, to arrange an interview. He answered the phone in a clear, strong voice; the conversation was brisk: "Wally Parks asked me when I started going to Muroc. Well, it was after I started Sprint Car racing-probably 1922. Wally said, 'you were there 10 years before us.' Come on up," invited Earl, "and we'll talk about it!"
Earl Mansell was born November 9, 1908, in Pasadena, California. His love affair with mechanics began as a boy when he came across a one-cylinder Excelsior motorcycle abandoned in a vacant field. The engine had seized. He took it home, repaired it, found the owner, and was given the bike for his honesty. Says Earl, "Of course I thanked him, but this affected my whole life. Since that day I have never been away from wheels-machinery, motorcycles, or race cars."
Earl worked at a small airfield in Pasadena cleaning the planes, but nothing was mundane in the Roaring Twenties: "It had a taxi lane around the perimeter, which I used for a racetrack. To attract the public to learn to fly, an air show was held every Sunday, and they pressed me into service when the wing walker failed to show. It was easy...it was a biplane which had struts and wires to hang onto," laughed Mansell.
Street Racing Is Nothing NewMansell became a serious street racer at 15: "I became kind of a terror around Pasadena in my roadster. I had a hopped-up Model T with a four-valve Rajo head and Winfield carburetor on it, but we didn't have any kind of speed equipment like they have today. I still had the stock wheels and some of the body stripped off...that was it.
"I attended several street races at night in San Fernando. One night while the racers had the street blocked off, the police came, and everyone there received a ticket. I appeared with the others in court at Van Nuys. It cost me two dollars.
"I got pinched two or three times a week, but the judge was a pretty good friend of mine, and he made it all right. My father was a motorcycle cop, and every time I got pinched it kind of hurt him a little. The police cars were Buick touring cars, and they couldn't catch me...I'd run away from them, but then they'd get a warrant and come after me. My car was easy to identify with the twin pipes."
After attending a race as a spectator and working for Cecil Ballinger who owned a Rajo dirt car, the mold was set: "I was 17 when I first raced; I got into Sprint Car racing because there was money in it-at the lakes there was nothing. The first race I ran, I got $60 and I thought I was a millionaire. I decided right then and there, race car driving was for me." Earl purchased a chassis from Marvin Mann who had quit racing; Mansell took the engine out of his roadster, borrowed some wheels and a larger carburetor, and headed for the track.