The Sensational Hurricane Hot Rods of Chicago
Andy Granatelli’s Hurricane Hot Rods raced at Soldier Field, a path to careers at Indianapolis
CHICAGO — At the corner of Foster and Western in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood is a Car-X Tire & Auto shop. Inside, manager Robert Malek stands behind the counter.
Does he follow racing?
“Racing? No,” says Malek.
What about the Indy 500, the largest single-day sporting event in the world?
With a headshake he replies, “no.”
Malek has worked at this shop for 34 years. He has no idea that every day when he comes to work, he visits the location of Chicago’s most important contribution to the world of motorsport. 5150 N Western Ave. The former location of Grancor Automotive.
“I know it was a gas station a while ago,” says Malek of his auto shop.
That gas station was Andy Granatelli’s launch point. Nicknamed “Mr. 500” for the years he spent in Indianapolis, Granatelli would become one of the most important non-drivers in American motorsport. Hundreds, you could say even thousands of lives, changed because of that gas station.
Andy Granatelli, along with brothers Joe and Vince, operated Grancor Automotive in Chicago. This local service station turned into the place to go for parts to build your hot rod.
“These three brothers had this repair business on the north side of Chicago, and they started a speed shop business, Grancor,” said Stan Kalwasinski. Kalwasinski, a retired photographer, is dedicating his free time to his passions of racing photography and the sport’s history.
“After the war, racing really broke out,” said Kalwasinski.
In this late-40s boom, the Granatelli brothers capitalized. Their gas station turned into a hot rod supply shop. As more Chicagoans built their hot rods out of old and cheap 1930s cars with souped-up parts, there was a demand for their racing to become more organized.
“Hot rods were inexpensive racing machines,” said Kalwasinski. “After World War II, [hot rods] were raced on streets and roads and finally on oval tracks.”
In this same post-war era, tracks like Raceway Park, O’Hare Stadium, and even Soldier Field were examples of facilities in the Chicago area putting on what is known as weekly midget races.
Midget racing consisted of competitions between smaller, open cockpit, and high-powered race cars. Midget racing is still extremely popular today. Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Chili Bowl Nationals attracts top American racing talent from NASCAR and IndyCar. But in the late 1940s, the fans in Chicago were eager for a new style of racing. More than what the midgets were providing.
“Midget racing had become more of a parade, the cars were pretty even,” Kalwasinski said. The hot rods were an entirely different animal.
So, while the Bears had just wrapped up their 25th NFL season in early 1947, 24-year-old Andy Granatelli was planning for the summer to organize Chicago hot rod racing. Art Folz, the promoter of racing at Soldier Field, was ready to listen.
The Hurricane Hot Rod Association ran their first race on July 30, 1947. Just three races were run that summer but, Folz and Granatelli found success with hot rods. The American Hot Rod Foundation said that Granatelli once drew 90,000 people to watch a hot rod race at Soldier Field, the largest crowd recorded for their quarter-mile track.
The success of these three 1947 races at Soldier Field allowed the Hurricane Hot Rods to become a weekly staple across the region during the summer of 1948.
The 1948 season at Soldier Field integrated the hot rods into the weekly schedule. While the midget racing would still hold Saturday nights, hot rods ran races on Wednesday nights through the summer.
For the ’48 campaign, California talents, Pat Flaherty, Don Freeland, Andy Linden, Jack McGrath, Jim Rathmann, and Troy Ruttman moved from the west coast to Chicago for a shot in Granatelli’s big money Hot Rod circuit.
The Association migrated beyond Soldier Field in this 1948 season. Races were held at Rockford Speedway and on a quarter-mile dirt track near Milwaukee. Rockford Speedway is still an active track to this day, running NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series events. 2022 is their 75th season celebration. The Hurricane Hot Rods were some of the first to run on their track.
For 1949, the hot rods completed the take over from the midget racing at Soldier Field. The Hurricane Hot Rods were moved to run on Sundays while the midget racing became the mid-week regulars.
Granatelli was a showman, as many traditional race promoters were. Race fans that know their history will tell you all about the lost art.
Granatelli had his Hot Rod main events running with inverted starting positions. The fastest car would start 12th, the 2nd fastest car starting 11th, all the way down to the slowest qualifying car starting the feature race from pole position. By starting the “fastest” car in the back, passing and battles on the track were guaranteed.
These inversions, along with rumors of Granatelli paying drivers to flip their cars or fight each other, made Hurricane Hot Rod racing much more exciting than the midget racing that came before it.
Unfortunately for the Hurricane Hot Rods, stock cars started running at Soldier Field in ’49. Some of Granatelli’s top talent California recruits ended up running the stock cars.
Kalwasinski described the stock cars of this era as, “pretty much stock, no modifications to them, automobiles off the street.”
Since these cars were largely street legal, they were safer and had fenders around the tires… That only meant one thing. Drivers were going to push limits like never before.
Fenders around the wheels with closed cockpits allowed for beating and banging impossible with midgets or hot rods. As the old saying goes, “rubbin’s racin’!” The stock cars were able to put on a show to a level beyond the Hurricane Hot Rods.
“Stock cars provided a lot more excitement and thrills,” said Kalwasinski. “Especially on the little tracks, short tracks, quarter miles, [the constant tight action and contact]’s what made it kind of exciting.”
In 1950, Soldier Field had all but moved on from the Hot Rod racing. Stock cars were running there twice a week, and midget races were still running. Weekly short track racing was here to stay, just without Granatelli’s Hurricane Hot Rods.
The brief four-year Association wasn’t a failure for Granatelli. In fact, it was just an early example of many ways Andy Granatelli left an impact on the racing world.
An April 2020 piece from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway called Granatelli, “one of the most dominant and iconic personalities” in their history. Continuing, “an innovator, a tireless promoter, and a public relations genius.”
In 1946, in the first post-war 500, and the year before starting the Hurricane Hot Rods, Grancor entered its first car in the Indianapolis 500 to promote the business in Chicago.
Remember the West Coast imports Granatelli brought to Chicago to race? They turned out alright. Troy Ruttman won the 1952 Indy 500. Jack McGrath won pole and earned his second Indy 500 podium finish in 1954. Pat Flaherty won the 1956 Indy 500. In that same year, Don Freeland finished third. Andy Linden finished the Indy 500 in the top 5 twice across his seven starts. Jim Rathmann won the 1960 edition and finished second three times.
That adds up to four Indianapolis 500 champions and a dozen podiums from veterans of the Hurricane Hot Rod Association.
As his next big project, Granatelli had taken over the Chemical Compounds company as their president and turned their “scientifically treated petroleum” product into iconic racing brand STP.
As an example of Granatelli’s showmanship, Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s biography page mentioned a 1968 effort at Indianapolis. Granatelli entered 11 different STP brand cars for the 500, “not with the intent of running anywhere near that many,” but for the low entry fee of $1,000 each. This meant that a dozen of his STP brands would appear on the printed and published entry lists, making nearly a third of those entry lists just an ad for Granatelli’s company.
Even non-racing fans will recognize the name Mario Andretti as a motorsport great. The Andretti family’s lone Indy 500 win came in 1969 when Mario was driving for Andy Granatelli and STP.
Granatelli also took STP to Richard Petty in NASCAR. That partnership between STP and NASCAR’s all-time winningest driver still exists today, more than 50 years later.
Then again success with STP in Indianapolis during 1973. Granatelli and STP were partners of Pat Patrick for Gordon Johncock’s 500 win to end a tumultuous Month of May of in ‘73.
Granatelli retired from STP when the company was sold in 1974, ending nearly three decades of annually having an entry at the Indy 500. IMS said he, “continued to maintain a major presence each May” after his retirement.
Even after his death in 2013, Granatelli is still mentioned at every drivers meeting for the 500. The Andy Granatelli Unsung Hero Award is presented annually to someone in the sport who is helping to advance racing.
