Jack was one sharp dude, and was put in charge of Studebaker’s Economy run team for 1953-’55. And, he figured out two ways to gain an advantage while staying within the Economy run rules. First was tire pressure. The Triple A guys aired up the tires based on the information in the car’s owner’s manual. Jack came up with a trick that the competition never caught on to. Studebaker printed the owner’s manual printed with an asterisk next to the recommended tire pressure. The related footnote said that the tire pressure should be increased by 2 psi when carrying loads of more than 700 lbs.
All the cars in the Economy Run were required to carry a load of 750 lbs. The difference was made up with lead weights. While the Studebaker tire pressure footnote had been added especially for the Economy Run, it made good sense for normal driving. So Studebaker gained a 2 psi tire pressure advantage over the competition.
The next stunt was even better. Everyone received the route information two weeks in advance of the run, in the 10 a.m. mail. In that timeframe, you had to do all your prep work—survey the road, time all the lights, etc. You had to practice-run the same time of day as the actual run, because the timing of the traffic lights differed depending on the time of day or night. And, you wanted to set your speed to hit the lights without having to stop. Now, if two weeks seems like a lot of time, remember, this was a 3-day event. Which means the time goes by fast running back and forth from LA to Sun Valley. If a team could get an extra day, it would be a tremendous advantage.
Nowhere in the rules did it way what your official address had to be. The car manufacturers filled out an entry form, stating the name of the company, address, phone number, cars they intended to enter, etc. But the rules didn’t specify that the address had to be the same as any physical building that was occupied by the company.
Smith learned the post office location where the AAA mailed out the route information. He bought a PO box at the location, and listed the box number as the address in Studebaker’s entry form. He made friends with one of the postal employees at that location—a friendship that the employee found to be very profitable. The Triple A mailed the route info, and everyone received it in the next morning’s mail. The Economy run always started at midnight.
On the evening that the routing envelopes was mailed, Studebaker had their route plotting team and cars comfortably ensconced at a nice hotel in downtown LA. The team was all ready to go, even though they didn’t know where they were going—yet. At 10 pm, the postal employee put the route instructions in Jack Smith’s box. ‘Course Jack was right there to open the box, and take the envelope out of the hand that was holding it. That gave the Stude boys two hours to finish their plans and get to their plotting cars. And, they had a whole day’s jump on the competition—without breaking any of the Mobilgas Economy run rules.
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