The Dean Lowe # 93 Kurtis Kraft Quarter Midget story by Dean Lowe & Doug Schiller
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The Dean Lowe # 93 Kurtis Kraft Quarter Midget story by Dean Lowe & Doug Schiller
 
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The following articles are a collaborative effort of Dean Lowe and Doug Schiller. It is a first hand account of how prolific race car builder, Frank Kurtis, became involved with the building of quarter midgets in the 1950’s. Dean and his dad, “Buzz” Lowe, successfully campaigned the first Kurtis Kraft quarter midget, “Buzz Bomb” during the early days of quarter midget racing.
Nearly 50 years later Doug Schiller was presented with the opportunity to create a replica of that first Kurtis Kraft quarter midget. With Dean providing key information and several original pieces from that car, Doug was able to build a very faithful replica of #93 - the “Buzz Bomb.”
THE ORIGINAL #93 by DEAN LOWE
The story of the Kurtis Kraft Quarter Midget begins with a family outing to the Pomona (California) Fair in October 1955. The Upland Quarter Midget Association was putting on races on a 1/20th dirt oval in the area that is now a children's petting zoo exhibit. Seeing that there were kids my age, 10 years old, racing these small midgets, got me very excited. My father, Buzz Lowe, had owned and driven Kurtis Kraft midgets following WWII and as we watched the show and he talked with some of the fathers, he became interested as well.
The next week I began collecting magazines which contained articles on quarter midgets, and cutting out the ads, and pictures, dreaming about racing one of these little cars. What I didn't know was that my Dad, had contacted his old friend Frank Kurtis, and discussed the idea of Kurtis Kraft building one of these small midgets. Frank was becoming disenchanted with the politics of Indy car building and racing. and had recently sold his KK midget tooling and rights to Johnny Paul. He was looking for a new project for his race car shop. He drafted plans for a revolutionary new quarter midget, with full torsion bar suspension and a lower center of gravity than the then current offerings of other manufacturers. Frank drew up a scaled-down version of one of his Indy Roadsters, a beautiful little car. The car featured a tubular frame, similar to his full midgets, and an aluminum skin over a wooden buck fashioned by an employee at the time, Art Ingles. Art later became "famous" as the creator of the “Go Kart” and did well selling his "Ingles Caretta.” The only problem with the prototype KK Quarter Midget was the fact that Frank had worked from specs for the wheelbase that were from an association that had not yet conformed to specs that were becoming nationally recognized as standard. The prototype was 4" too long in the wheelbase.
My Dad presented me with the car on Christmas morning, 1955. Frank and his employees had designed, and built the first KK Quarter Midget in less than two months! Imagine my disappointment when this "best Christmas present ever" had to be returned the next week for a chassis and body rework to conform to the length specs. It was only supposed to be back at Kurtis Kraft for a week, or two, but that turned into about six weeks when Frank decided to use the shortened aluminum skin as a mold for a fiberglass body. It seems that while my car was under construction, the word got out. Frank was so impressed in the interest that he decided to build a jig off my frame, and go into "limited" production of a KK Quarter Midget with a body of the then new medium of fiberglass. Frank felt that the 4 inch shortening of his original design ruined the sleek roadster look he envisioned, saying the result resembled a "jelly bean". Frank soon designed a new body for the KK Quarter Midget with a lower nose and a flared cowl. It's not known exactly how many of the "jelly bean" cars were built, but it was probably fewer than 30. By mid 1956 my younger brother, Jack, had received what was probably one of the last "jelly bean" production cars.
There were a few differences on the production version from the prototype. My car had a grill made from the same expanded metal that was used for the oil cooler scoop grill on the full sized Kurtis Indy roadsters, while the production cars had a grill stamped from an aluminum sheet. While the original front bumper on my car was simplified for production and the steering wheel on my car had a two spoke design, made from steel plate, the production steering wheels used a four spoke round rod design. Long time friend and quarter midget historian, Bob Sharp, recently gave me a copy of a very early Kurtis Kraft hand out that shows a "jelly bean' car that has the production grill and front bumper, but with the flat spoke wheel like mine. So, it would seem that some of the very early production cars got the flat spoke wheel before the design was changed.
One question I have never been asked is how my quarter midget became number 93. My Dad's last Kurtis Midget was assigned the number 93 in 1947 by the United Racing Association (URA). My years, up to the time of receiving the KK QM had been spent pouring over the detailed scrapbook that my mother kept of my Dad's racing adventures. When the time came, there was no question, my race car would be numbered 93, just like my Dad's!
I am particularly proud of a milestone in QM history that I was able to accomplish driving the number 93 KK QM. The first National Championship for quarter midgets was held during the last week of December 1957 at the brand new Blakley Stadium in Phoenix Arizona. It was a 3 day event with the best drivers from all over the country competing in various classes. I was able to win the AA Fuel Class Championship for 12 to 16 year old drivers, which, at the time, was the pinnacle of quarter midget classes. I still have the trophy. My younger brother, Jack won the class B championship and had the winning ticket for a raffle grand prize, a brand new Cherokee quarter midget! The Lowe family really cleaned up that weekend!
By the end of 1958, the family was burned out on quarter midget racing. The effort involved in running two completive cars, 3 to 4 times a week, had taken its toll on all of us. The cars were parked in back of the family machine shop and were sold in 1960 to Bill Scott Sr. of San Bernardino, along with the Kurtis built double deck trailer, for $600. "Scotty's" son, Billy, raced my car for a while under the banner of "Scotty's Muffler Service", and when he moved on to drag racing, we lost track of the two KK quarter midgets. My Dad, years later, ask Scotty who had bought the two cars, and all he could remember was that it was “some fellow” in Northern California. Sure would like to find the original number 93 jelly bean some day! There are a lot of great memories of my Dad, and those summers in the fifties associated with that little car. I am especially grateful and honored by the recreation of my number 93 KK quarter midget by Doug Schiller. His attention to every detail makes it a perfect tribute to a piece of quarter midget racing history.
Here is Dean Lowe driving his original #93 Kurtis-Kraft "Buzz Bomb" Quarter Midget at a track in Kansas during the 1950's.
THE REPLICA #93 by DOUG SCHILLER
Almost 50 years after Dean churned up the dirt of quarter midget tracks across America I was fortunate to find a very rare Kurtis-Kraft “Jellybean” quarter midget just like his original race car. My local newspaper had run a tiny classified ad for an early Kurtis quarter midget. I called the phone number and within an hour I was staring at what I soon realized was a 1955 “Jellybean” Kurtis. It was hidden beneath carpet and a jumble of dinette chairs. After pulling it out, I was pleased to see that the body was complete and in reasonably good shape considering its age. A few mechanical pieces were missing, but nothing that couldn’t be reproduced. It took me six months of negotiating before I was able to actually purchase it from its owner.
Many months were to pass before I found a special publication under the Christmas tree. The book, from my wife, was Gordon Eliot White’s biography of Frank Kurtis: Kurtis-Kraft: Masterworks of Speed and Style. In it I found a small section on quarter midgets and karts that the Kurtis-Kraft Company built for several years. Included in the photos illustrating that section was one of a “jellybean” Kurtis driven by Dean Lowe. The caption said the picture was taken while Dean’s family was visiting the Kansas 1/4 Midget Racing Association in Wichita, KS. One look at the car in the picture and I was hooked. I just had to take my recently acquired “jellybean” and turn it into the one shown in the photo. The only problem was I didn’t have any details about the car in the picture. The photo was in black and white and there were few clues as to how to accurately reproduce the car.
Suffice to say, it took me months of research before I was able to find anyone to help me fill in the missing details. The person I ultimately found was the driver of that 1955 car, Dean Lowe. With little success using the phone book in search of the correct Dean Lowe, I took a stab at using the company name painted on the side of the car body. The words “L&L Screw Machine Products” and “El Monte, Calif.” were my last attempt to find someone who knew something about the car. I did a “Yellow Page” Internet search and to my surprise up popped L&L Screw Machine. It still existed in El Monte. I phoned them at once and took a chance asking for Dean Lowe. To my shock, the person on the phone replied, “speaking.”
In the weeks that followed, Dean and I had several phone conversations which helped me fill in many of the details of the #93 “Buzz Bomb” Kurtis-Kraft quarter midget that was in the picture. I learned from Dean facts that included car color, color of lettering and color of upholstery. Through these conversations, additional, lesser known details emerged. The fact that the front axle and other steering components were cadmium plated, not chromed and only the outer halves of the two piece wheels were chrome plated while the inner halves were painted black were the kind of details that would help me in creating a near perfect reproduction. Our phone calls ultimately led to a face to face meeting. In person, Dean regaled me with stories about his father, his brother Jack who also raced quarter midgets and, of course, Frank Kurtis. He was also kind enough to provide me with some original pieces, including several of those wheel halves that were on that first car. Dean also found an axle sprocket which had been “Swiss cheesed” with holes by his father to lighten it.
My desire to accurately recreate this historically significant quarter midget took about six months of planning and work. As I do in all my restorations, I took a series of pictures from every angle both with and without the body. These always provide a good reference when it comes time for reassembly. As mentioned earlier, the body was in good shape and needed only minor fiberglass repair before painting. Most of the sheet metal was badly rusted and had to be replaced. The front and rear bumpers, as well as the side nerf bars, had to be fabricated from scratch. Again, that photo in Gordon White’s book came in very handy. I made new torsion bars and fitted them both front and rear. I found an old three spoke “hot rod” steering wheel and cut the spokes out of it and created a duplicate to the one in Dean’s #93. The engine bay of this car had been damaged and altered over the years, so it required some heavy duty fabricating and welding. Once the chassis was restored and body fitted with new Dzus fasteners and screws, it was ready for the paint booth. I couldn’t have accomplished this restoration project alone. I had lots of help along the way.
Among those who helped was Arlen Kurtis, Frank Kurtis’ son, who provided me with the very same expanded metal his father used in the grille of that first Kurtis quarter midget. Arlen also provided me with the “Kurtis 500” logo which adorned most of Kurtis’ quarter midget race cars. The engine mods were donated by friend and fellow vintage quarter midget collector, Steve LeGras of Visalia, CA. Because I wanted the car to be as authentic as possible, I approached my long time friend Ron Blanchard of Blanchard Signs in Riverside to do the gold leaf lettering and numbers. We used the original photos from Dean’s scrapbook to guide us in the correct positioning and size of lettering. His final brush strokes proved to be the finishing touches on the project. After all the lettering was done, Ron said he was donating his many hours of work to this project!
Although the car used to create the replica of Buzz and Dean Lowe’s #93 “Buzz Bomb” was not the original, it certainly proved to be a good foundation upon which to build. My involvement in this restoration was truly a labor of love. I thoroughly enjoyed recreating this very special car and meeting some wonderful people along the way. The fact that I found its original driver and used some of the original parts from that actual car made it that much more special. The car currently resides in the Justice Brothers Racing Museum in Duarte, CA. It sits right beside Buzz Lowe’s full size black #93 Kurtis-Kraft midget. If you find yourself in Southern California, take a moment and drop by for a look!
Here is The "Jelly Bean" Kurtis-Kraft from which the #93 replica was created by Doug Schiller.
Here is Doug Schiller's replica of the original "Buzz Bomb". It was created from a "Jelly Bean" Kurtis-Kraft Quarter Midget found in Bloomington, California.
Here is a rear view of the #93 replica built by Doug Schiller. Many of the race car's details were provided by Dean Lowe
Dean Lowe Kneels beside the replica of his original race winning Kurtis-Kraft Quarter Midget. His helmet from the 1950's sits perched on the hood.
Doug Schiller's 5 year old grandson Jacob "Jake" Mead sits aboard the "Buzz Bomb" where it is displayed at the Justice Brother's Racing Museum in Duarte, California.
The 1957 Quarter Midget Nationals in Phoenix, Arizona , December 28th & 29th
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Re: The Dean Lowe # 93 Kurtis Kraft Quarter Midget story by Dean Lowe & Doug Schiller
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RE: The Dean Lowe # 93 Kurtis Kraft Quarter Midget story by Dean Lowe & Doug Schiller
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Dean, It was my pleasure. It is a great story and I was happy to put it on the website. I just wish the website forum didn’t bunch the words together. It doesn’t let you make paragraphs so it didn’t look like the way you guys wrote it. You and family are a big part in Midget and Quarter racing history and now it’s out there for people to see. Ed Justice stopped by last week and I plan on visiting his museum on my next trip to California next summer. I will take some pictures of your cars when I am there and add them to the website. Regards, Brian _______________________________ Brian Caruso Micar Fabrication & Design Company Inc. 5166 S. Arville St. Las Vegas, NV 89118 (702) 871-4300 P. (702) 220-8603 F. http://www.micarfabrication.com http://www.carusomidgetracing.com
From: Dean Lowe [via Caruso Racing Museum Forum] [mailto:[hidden email]] Brian, I am honored to have my story included with all the Caruso family history on this site. It was a great pleasure to work with Doug on his recreation of the first Kurtis Kraft 1/4 midget. This car needs to be seen in person to fully appreciate Doug's tremendous attention to detail. it was a great thrill for me when Doug let me place the car in the Justice Brother's museum along side my Dad's 2 Kurtis midgets. If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below: To unsubscribe from The Dean Lowe # 93 Kurtis Kraft Quarter Midget story by Dean Lowe & Doug Schiller, click here. |
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