After filing an appeal with the officials, it was discovered that there had been some confusion in scoring and that Webb‘s laps had actually averaged over 125 mph. As a result of the error, and despite qualifying having officially ended, race officials allowed Webb to make two more qualifying laps in the Brommes‘ car. His speed on those two laps averaged 125.545 mph, placing him in the grid for race day.
As was expected, Spider‘s mobile bar was servicing fellow-partiers well into the following morning. Also in typical fashion, instead of resting up for the 500, which was to take place on Monday, Webb headed to Winchester and claimed another win in the sprint car. In his 10 consecutive starts on the Hills, he had claimed eight wins and two second-place finishes.
At the start of the 500, the Bromme mount suffered mechanical difficulties almost immediately, and a broken oil line on lap 27 ended the day for good. Nonetheless, Webb continued to drive for the Brommes throughout the season, posting several top-five qualifying runs, but the car was plagued by mechanical difficulties turning strong runs into DNF‘s.
In Vance‘s sprint car, he won again at Salem, and earned another at Ft. Wayne. Despite missing some dates to compete in the Champ Car events, he secured the AAA Midwest sprint car championship, with Walt Ader Sr., Erling Barbo, Tony Bettenhausen and Hal Cole rounding out the top-five point battle.
Webb‘s close friend Shackleford had driven as a relief driver for Joie Chitwood in the 500 and, despite a fuel leak ending the run on the 139th lap, the Chitwood/Paul Russo/Shackleford combo of drivers posted a 17th-place finish. Just 14 days later, Shackleford lost control of his Iddings Offenhauser on the third lap of a race at Dayton and took out 30 feet of catch fence before dropping 40 feet off the outside of the banking. The accident was fatal. The series‘ defending champion was dead.
Although Webb lost several friends to accidents in race cars throughout his driving career, the effects of the death of his close friend Johnny was long-lasting, and devastating.
In 1949, he briefly left the Vance team to compete in a car he had purchased with Pete Wales, and won at Dayton in May, but by mid-summer was back behind the wheel of Vance‘s sprinter. He put the Brommes‘ Grancor Special on the grid for the 500, but just prior to the race the team discovered that the transmission was irreparably damaged. Webb never took the green and was credited with a 33rd-place finish.
That summer, promoter Sam Nunis ponied up appearance money for Webb to compete in his events on the Eastern circuit in a car owned by Ralph Malamud.
While out east, Spider attended the Syracuse Champ Car race on a Saturday, intending simply to spectate. He arrived just minutes before the start of qualifying, but on his way through the pits was approached to drive the Bowes Seal Fast Special. The car‘s usual driver, Mel Hansen, had suffered a tragic midget accident in Detroit two days earlier that ultimately left him permanently paralyzed.
Webb took up the offer, hopped in the car and moments later set a new track record while qualifying on the pole. He finished third behind Johnnie Parsons and Paul Russo in the
100-lapper.
The Bowes team was thrilled. Though it seems to make little sense, for several years AAA‘s schedule called for the race in Syracuse, New York to be run on a Saturday and a race in Detroit to take place the very next day. Mechanic Pete Clark asked Webb to pilot the car again in Detroit and Webb headed out on the grueling 12-hour drive.
He qualified second behind Duke Dinsmore at Detroit, then took the lead from Dinsmore on lap five and built up a commanding lead. But a rock found his goggles, destroying them. Webb powered on for laps, refusing to give up the lead, but struggling to see. His crew realized his predicament and held up a fresh pair of goggles for him to see. Several laps later, Spider lifted the throttle slightly and tore down pit road. A crewman held out the goggles and Webb grabbed them as he blew by, and powered back out onto the track.
The move allowed Tony Bettenhausen to take over the lead, but Webb only lost the one position and stayed in the hunt, ultimately finishing in the runner-up spot in his second 100-miler in as many days.
Webb earned another top-10 finish in the car at Springfield but was then replaced by a teenaged Troy Ruttman in a move engineered by one of the car‘s previous drivers, Rex Mays. Thus another feud was born; this time between Webb and Mays.
Competing in Nunis‘ Eastern events and in the Champ Car for the Bowes team forced Webb to miss some of the AAA Midwest races, which allowed Jackie Holmes to earn the 1949 championship with Troy Ruttman second. Webb was third in points.
The majority of the 1950 season saw Webb struggling in the sprint car and suffering in the point battle as a result. Once again, he put himself in the show at Indy. And, although mechanical difficulties didn‘t end his day, he was still unable to complete a full 500 miles at the Brickyard. After starting 14th in the Fadely-Anderson Offy-powered Maserati, he was running 20th when rain halted the event with 138 laps on the board.