1933 National Air Races
 By Bill Meixner

The 1933 National Air Races moved back to Los Angeles CA at Mines Field, home of the 1928 races. Cliff Henderson, managing director trimmed the event down to four days by eliminating the Derbies and ATC races. The Bendix transcontinental would fly from East to West for the first departing from Floyd Bennett Field NY

The Bendix Race attracted no less than ten entries including two women pilots, Amelia Earhart and Ruth Nichols. The only bi-plane entered was the Laird Solution which had been  highly modified. Two new aircraft, the Vance Flying Wing and the Seversky SEV-3 were on the aircraft entry list. 


       
Vance flying wing


Seversky Sev-3  
           

Modified Laird Solution


Roscoe Turner #2


Jimmy Wedell #44

Bendix Trophy Race

  Place         Pilot   Race No        Aircraft    Time
      1 Roscoe Turner           2     Wedell Williams       11.30
      2 Jimmy Wedell          44     Wedell Williams       11.58
      3 Russ Bordman          11       GeeBee R-1          1.
      4 Russ Thaw            7       GeeBee R-2          2.
      5. Amelia Earhart           88   Lockheed Vega             3.
      6. Ruth Nichols          112   Lockheed Orion          4.
      7. Lee Gehlbach           92   Wedell Williams          5.
      8. Arthur Knapp           77   Laird Solution          5.
      9. Claire Vance        ------ Vance Flying Wing          5.
     10. Alex de Seversky        ------ Seversky SEV-3          5.

1. Fatal crash in Indianapolis IN
2. Ground looped in Indianapolis IN  
3.Out at Wichita KS                      
4. Forced landing New Bethal IN
5. Did not start

Shell 3-Kilometer Speed Dash

           Men's Trophy             Women's Trophy
          Roscoe Turner               No entries

 Aerol Trophy

 

Aerol Trophy Race

Place           Pilot Race No        Aircraft Av.Speed
   1      Mae Haizlip       92     Wedell-Williams      168.2
   2    Marty Bowman       54     Gee Bee Y       161.7
   3   Gladys O'Donnell                Waco       134.0
   4     H Summer           TravelAir      129.9

 

Thompson Trophy Race

Place       Pilot   Race No        Aircraft   Av.Speed
    1   Jimmy Wedell        44    Wedell Williams      237.9
   2     Lee Gehlbach         92    Wedell Williams      224.9
   3     Roy Minor        38 Howard Special          199.8
    4   George Hague           1   Keith-Rider R-2        183.2
    5      Z D Granville       154 Gee Bee Model Y      173.0
    6     Roscoe Turner         2   Wedell Williams   Disqualified

Roscoe Turner actually won the race at a speed of 241.0 and was awarded the Trophy when a race official declared he was disqualified. Turner had gone  inside of pylon #2 but kept going for safety reasons (heavy traffic at the pylon) however he re-circled pylon #2 on the next lap and regained the lead. The Trophy was awarded to Jimmy Wedell.


Jimmy Wedell