Young racing great Frank Lockhart died in a dramatic crash on the beach April 25, 1928.
Racers trying to break the speed record on the hard-packed sands of Daytona Beach established the city as a world racing center. But a dramatic crash 90 years ago this week proved the sand here could be a treacherous surface as car speeds began to exceed 200 mph.
Frank Lockhart, a 25-year-old driver who had already won an Indianapolis 500 in 1926 and earned pole position the next year, died in a dramatic crash on the beach at 8 a.m., April 25, 1928.
Lockhart already had one close call that year. Driving under iffy conditions on Feb. 22, he hit a sand ridge, lost control of his car, skidded nearly a half mile, and spun into the ocean.
Trapped in his car as waves poured over him, Lockhart was rescued by onlookers who ran into the surf to extract him. He was taken to Halifax Hospital where he was treated for cuts and bruises. Organizers sent a trophy filled with roses to his room.
That time, he was trying to break the record that Malcolm Campbell set only three days earlier. The dashing English racer had reached 206.956 mph in the first of his Bluebird racers before cheering crowds on the beach.
But Campbell and Lockhart were not the only racers on the beach. After several frustrating tries, Ray Keech would break Campbell’s new record on April 22, 1928, reaching 207.55 mph in his monster of a car, the three-engine, 36-cylinder, four-ton Triplex.
Lockhart employed a much different philosophy when he designed his white-and-silver Stutz Black Hawk Special. It was more aerodynamic (“like a projectile,” said News-Journal reporter Fred Booth). And unlike the Triplex, this was no heavy, brute-force design. It was a smaller, lighter and certainly more elegant car with only 16 pistons (they were “the size of a silver dollar,” Booth said).
In fact, the racer was so light Campbell reportedly voiced doubts about its stability on a sometimes treacherous sand course. An observation that proved all too true.
A newsreel photographer from British Pathé caught the whole horrifying scene on film.
“Daytona Beach. A tragedy of speed. Graphic pictures of Frank Lockhart’s fatal bid for speed record,” the opening title announces.
The silent black-and-white short shows Lockhart’s car rocketing northward on the beach. You see a rooster-tail of sand behind the car just before the rear wheels leave the ground. The car bounces sideways and lands again, almost crashing into a crowd of spectators. (Miraculously, only one person watching was injured, Hans Orte, a local photographer, who was hit by a car fragment.)
The car goes airborne again, then hits the sand, ejecting Lockhart before landing upside down. Lockhart was found 51 feet from the car.
Lockhart’s wife, screaming in horror, was among the first to reach him. He was taken to Halifax Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival with a broken neck and broken back.
Later investigation revealed the culprit was a rear tire that had already started to shred as it made its southward lap. Sticky red sand may have hidden the damage when mechanics inspected the wheels before the car started northward again, reaching almost 200 mph.
“The death of Lockhart has thrown a mantle of sorrow over the … racing camps in the city,” The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. Mayor Ed Armstrong announced two days of citywide morning with flags at half-staff. Lockhart Street would be named for him.
“Frank Lockhart was one of those geniuses whose lifeblood is the thrill of achievement,” The News-Journal editorial intoned. “He realized the danger, as the public is reading today, yet he drove on into the jaws of death.”
Still, the city and other drivers shook off the deadly crash surprisingly fast.
Even as a collection was being taken to pay for transporting Lockhart’s body out of town, Wilbur Shaw was on the beach chasing the four-cylinder record, reaching 134 mph. And as the racing teams decamped, no fewer than six drivers told The News-Journal they planned to return the next spring.
And sure enough, the next year, on March 11, Henry Segrave would break the land speed record at Daytona Beach, reaching an astounding 231.44 mph. Lee Bible would die trying two days later. And racing here only moved faster.