W. W. Brown

27/2/1886 - 14/6/1958

Record updated 27-Feb-07

W. W. Brown was a noted car owner and engine builder as well as a driver. Later he worked on the AAA technical committee and owned the W.W.Brown Machine Works on Grand Ave. in Kansas City, Missouri.

W. W. Brown
William Wayne Brown was nicknamed "Cockeyed" Brown although he most commonly went by his initials "W. W. Brown". He was a noted car owner and engine builder as well as being a driver. Later he worked on the AAA technical committee and owned the W.W.Brown Machine Works on Grand Ave. in Kansas City, Missouri.

Brown won the Buick Trophy in 1912, he was the last of the four recipients of the award, driving his own Buick 10 to victory in this race on June 15. He claimed to have purchased the car for $150 after it had been burned in a garage fire. Brown lapped the second place finisher, defending champion Jack McLean (or McClain) who was driving a Velie.

The Buick Trophy was awarded by R. H. Collins, manager of a Kansas City Buick dealership, to the owner of the winning car in a five-mile race for privately owned entries that was contested annually at the Elm Ridge race course in Kansas City, Missouri from 1909 through 1912. Collins went on to become a vice-president of General Motors.

In 1913 he finished second in a road race that finished at the Cowley County Fairgrounds in Winfield to celebrate the 4th of July. He crossed the line on Thursday at noon. He left Kansas City at 9:00 A.M. Wednesday and made the trip in about twenty-four hours. He made the trip on eleven and a half gallons of fuel which was very economical. Brown drove the same car that he had used the previous year in the races. This was a 1910 Model 10 Buick "Bear Cat" racer which had a 92 inch wheelbase and a 165 cu. in. 4 cylinder engine that developed 22½ horsepower, sold new for $1,000. One new feature on his car for 1913 was the use of wire wheels.

On July 17, just 13 days after competing in this race, Brown drove his "Bear Cat" racer to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. After reaching the summit of Pikes Peak without the aid of horses to pull him, W. W. Brown proceeded to drive up the steps of the Summit House to get his car to the highest point on the mountain that he possibly could.

He attempted to qualify a Du Chesneau for the Indianapolis "500" in 1915 but failed to make the race. He returned to Indianapolis in 1919, qualified 17th but in the race lasted only 17 laps before a connecting rod broke.  In later years, he served on the technical committee at AAA racing events and was owner of

He drove in the first ever race at the Kansas City Speedway in September 1922. Tommy Milton took the win. The track, which consisted of one million feet of 2 by 4 boards laid on edge, was built at a cost of $500,000. However it only lasted until 1924 as it had been built using untreated timber on swamp land. The last race had to be cut short, with workers positioned under the banking sticking red flags through the holes that were opening up to warn drivers of the broken areas. The land was then occupied by the Pratt & Whittney aircraft engine plant during WWII and later by Westinghouse, Bendix and Allied Signal, the IRS and GSA.



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