Tommy Hinnershitz didn’t look like a hero race car driver. He more resembled the farmer he was, and the farmer’s coveralls he raced in enhanced that bucolic image. He possessed a laid-back, humble, aw-shucks demeanor until he buckled into a race car.
Then he became a terror. He was spectacular on the half-mile dirt tracks, with a forte for running high, plowing a storm cloud of dirt to the heavens.
Traveling from his Oley, Pa., farm to race on weekends, the “Flyin’ Farmer” won a combined 103 AAA and USAC sprint car features. He captured four consecutive AAA East Coast Sprint Car Championships from 1949-1952 and another in 1955.
When USAC assumed the sanctioning chores in 1956, he didn’t miss a beat, taking USAC crowns in 1956 and 1959.
A.J. Foyt ranked him among the toughest he raced against.
“Of all the drivers on dirt, Tommy Hinnershitz stands out in my mind as one of the best,” stated Foyt. “When it got dry slick, if there was anything up against the fence, Tommy found it and would blow you off. He was unbelievable.
“He’d have that car up on two wheels, one wheel, on its side, whatever it took. And as he went by, you’d hear the throttle wide open, and still he wasn’t in trouble. It always amazed me how he could balance a car.
“I remember one time at Terre Haute,” Foyt continues. “It was so slick, nobody could get around. But there he was, running on the wall. I mean, he was flying. He blew everybody off.”
Renowned for his dirt track exploits in sprint cars, Hinnershitz was actually as comfortable on other surfaces and in a diversity of cars. He won in midgets on the boards of the Nutley Velodrome. He ran sprint cars on the Midwest’s “Hills,” winning the first three features at the newly opened Salem Speedway in 1947. He raced late models at Richmond and competed in the Indianapolis 500 three times, with two top-10 finishes.
Born in 1912, within 10 miles of Reading Speedway, Hinnershitz saw his first race there as a youngster, and then raced and won for the first time on that storied half-mile in the fall of 1930.
His mount for that undertaking was a Ford Model-T he’d bought from a neighbor for $25. When he received $75 for his feature win, he was ecstatic.
“Boy, I was really rich,” Hinnershitz marveled. “That was the best investment I ever made in a race car.”
From that time forward, Hinnershitz most often drove and maintained his own cars. However, he did drive for his hero, Ted Horn for a spell. And, at another stretch, handled the highly-respected Pfrommer Offy.
But his rides of choice were his Offy-powered Hillegass cars, sometimes nicknamed “Bluebird,” for their light blue paint jobs, then later, there was his famous Miracle-Power sponsored sprinter.
During Hinnershitz’s last few years, arthritic hands hindered his driving. Fellow driver, Cotton Farmer, noticed he experienced so much pain that late in a race, he’d drive with both hands at the top of the steering wheel for relief.
He’d considered retiring off and on for some time, and then a tragedy at Allentown, Pa., on Sept. 24, 1960, pushed him to a decision. His close friend, Johnny Thomson, died.
“I was staying at their farm after that race,” Cotton Farmer told Terry Reed. “He didn’t say anything that night. He was real quiet. The next morning at breakfast, he told his wife Betty, ‘I ran my last race yesterday.’”
While he’d quit driving, Hinnershitz didn’t quit racing. He took charge of Lee Glessner’s Windmill Truckstop Special, preparing it for a succession of drivers, including an up-and-comer at Langhorne in 1964.
Mario Andretti recalls that Championship race, his first, “I was just a young kid, trying to impress people from home. When it came time to qualify, Tommy pointed at a white post, and said, ‘No matter what, when you get to that post, back off.’ I guarantee you I wouldn’t have done that. He not only made me look good, but he potentially saved my life. With his help, I finished eighth. I was as proud of that as I ever was about winning a race.”
Andretti remained a lifelong friend of his fellow Pennsylvanian. And upon Hinnershitz’s death, August 1, 1999, perhaps summarized Tommy’s life best.
“He was a great man who lived a rich life and had the admiration of all his peers and the affection of a lot of fans. He will be missed.”
