Bessie Lee Paoli was the third female car owner to enter the Indianapolis 500 and was the most successful. Like Maude Yagle, who entered the 1929 Indianapolis 500 with Ray Keech at the wheel for an eighth-place finish, Bessie was not permitted in the pits. She had to hand notes to her chief mechanic through the fence. Lucy O’Reilly Schell entered two cars in the 1940 Indianapolis 500 but one car failed to qualify and the second car finished tenth. Had she gone to Indianapolis from France, she would have also been banned from the pits.
Bessie Lee Paoli’s passion for auto racing began before World War II. Growing up in Springfield, Illinois, she would go to the Illinois State Fairgrounds to watch Billy Winn, Tony Willman and Emil Andres race. After the war, she frequently worked as a scorer at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee, the Illinois State Fair and at races in Du Quoin, Illinois.
Through her scoring work at the Wisconsin State Fair, she became friends with Carl and Salvatore “Tudy” Marchese, brothers of Milwaukee promoter Tom Marchese. The Marcheses had been involved in championship racing for many years. In 1951, they hired Chuck Stevenson who finished 14th in the championship car drivers’ title. After the season ended, the Marchese brothers decided not to continue in auto racing.
This opened the door for Bessie to get into racing as a car owner rather than as a sponsor. Her husband was opposed to the idea, but hesitantly acquiesced after Bessie agreed to own the car for only two years. She contacted Frank Kurtis to build the Springfield Welding car and equipped it with a 270 hp Offenhauser. Stevenson persuaded Clay Smith, the chief mechanic for the Agajanian team, to also work on Bessie’s car.
With Stevenson as the pilot, the Springfield Welding car finished eighteenth in the 1952 Indianapolis 500. It went on to win the championship car title after Stevenson drove the car to victories at the Milwaukee 200 and a 100-mile race at Du Quoin, Illinois, placed second at the Denver 100 and third at the Detroit 100. After the close of the season, despite his success with the Springfield Welding team, Stevenson decided to join the Agajanian team.
Bessie hired Jimmy Reece, the 1952 AAA Rookie of the year, for the 1953 season. After he failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, Bessie hired Art Cross despite his not having previously driven in the AAA championship series. After starting from the eighth position, Cross finished second in the race behind Billy Vukovich. His performance earned him being named the first Indy 500 Rookie of the Year. Cross did not remain with the Springfield Welding team for the remainder of the year because he didn’t want to run on dirt tracks. Bessie then hired Jimmy Bryan, a Southern California midget driver. They won the race at Sacramento and Paoli finished second in the owners’ championship. Later in his career, Bryan won the 1958 Indianapolis 500 and three national championships.
Bessie found a buyer for the car after the second season but the check bounced. When she couldn’t find another buyer, Bessie hired a series of drivers for the 1954 season including Troy Ruttman, Art Cross, Al Keller, Ed Elisian, Tom Hinnershitz, and Rex Easton but the results were disappointing. In 1955, she campaigned the car in only one race with Jiggs Peters who finished 5th at Springfield, Illinois.
She then sold the car to the HOW group composed of Tony Hulman, George Ober, and Roger Wolcott. Ober was a magistrate in Speedway, Indiana, and Wolcott, a close Hulman family friend who owned Indy cars. The story goes that Mari Hulman, Tony’s daughter, wanted to purchase a racing car for her boyfriend to drive. The problem was that she was underage. Wolcott negotiated the purchase of the car, Ober provided the legal work, and Tony Hulman provided the financing. The car was raced by Tony Bettenhausen, Don Branson, Eddie Sachs, and Elmer George.
After the car retired from racing in 1961, it had a succession of owners. It was restored by Glenn Smith of Rockwall, Texas in 2000 and was unveiled at the Indianapolis 500. In 2008, owners Jeffry and Anne Boston entered the car at the Masterpiece Concours d’Elegance in Milwaukee where it won the race car class.
Bessie Lee Paoli and her husband, Guerino “Reno” Paoli, started Springfield Welding in their backyard. She was active in the business and did estimating work on damaged cars and trucks. She and Guerino had eight children.