Barn finds usually mean a rusty Mustang and an optimistic asking price. Ed Welburn’s was the car Charlie Wiggins built from junk parts and raced to four Gold & Glory titles, missing for nine decades.
LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, opened For Gold & Glory on September 19. The exhibition is built around Charlie Wiggins, the Black driver, mechanic and builder who dominated a racing world most fans have never heard of. Its centerpiece is the Wiggins Special, the one-off car he built himself and drove to four Gold & Glory Sweepstakes titles. Three months before opening day, nobody knew where it was.
Junk parts, no Indy entry
Wiggins was born in Evansville, Indiana, in 1897. According to his historical marker, he became the city’s first African American mechanic in 1917, moved to Indianapolis in 1922, and built his first race car from junk parts. The same marker notes that top white drivers, including 1934 Indy 500 winner Bill Cummings, regularly came to him for mechanical help. Indy’s top drivers would take his wrenching. Indy wouldn’t let him race.
Shut out of Indy, Black racers built their own championship. The Gold & Glory Sweepstakes ran on the Indiana State Fairgrounds oval from 1924 to 1936, drawing crowds of up to 10,000 spectators, according to Indiana’s historic preservation office. Wiggins lost a leg in a multi-car wreck at the final running in 1936 and never raced again…