Notes:
Five time Indianapolis 500 veteran Jimmy Snyder was killed in a midget race at the Cahokia track, a quartermile dirt oval five miles south of East St. Louis, Illinois.

Coming out of the south turn, he edged too close to the fence and rolled his car which came to rest on top of its driver in midtrack. Three cars roared past the inert Snyder and then a car driven by Paul Armbruster of St. Louis, waving and out of control, smashed into the still form. Snyder was rushed to St. Mary's hospital, where he was pronounced dead of a broken neck.

Five thousand persons witnessed the tragedy and saw Les Adair,surviving another terrible accident when his car burst suddenly into flames on one of the turns, causing the driver bad burns.

Jimmy Snyder was from Chicago. A thirty-year-old former milkman married and father of three children, he was among the nation's best known drivers and finished second to Wilbur Shaw in the Indianapolis 500 one month earlier. Snyder had taken part in the race at Cahokia, a minor event for a driver of his importance, just to help out the promoter.

Jimmy Snyder had begun his career as a speedster in 1932 when he bought a car for $350 and entered a race at Crown Point, Indiana. In 1937 he established an unofficial one-lap record of 130.492 mile an hour while qualifying for the "500" at Indianapolis. He won several races in the world's championship board track midget races and the first Chicago Indoor Championship. Snyder raced mostly midgets in the Midwest to stay near to his family.

After his death the Cahokia Midget Speedway was renamed Snyder Memorial Speedway.

Jimmy Snyder was survived by his wife; two daughters, Grace Louise, 11 years old and Lois Ann 18 months; a son, Jimmy,Jr., 4 years old; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Snyder; a brother, Leroy; and a sister, Mrs. Beatrice Larsen.

• Book "The Tribute Project", edited by Ed Watson, 1997, page 37.
• Newspaper The Hammond Times (Hammond, IN, United States), issue of 30 June 1939, page 20, article "Jimmy Snyder Dies In Midget Crash". [M]
• Newspaper Oshkosh Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, WI, United States), issue of 30 June 1939, page 20, article "Midget Auto Race Accident Causes Death Of Snyder".
• Newspaper Southtown Economist (Chicago, IL, United States), issue of 2 July 1939, page 1, article "Set Last Rites For Snyder".
• Website Old Racing Cars, chapter "The Indy 500 drivers - Where are they now?", by Richie Jenkins, page http://www.oldracingcars.com/bydriver/watn.asp?letter=S&Category=Indy500starts [year of birth: 1907]
• Website Stlracing.com, page http://stlouisracing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47040
• Website Find A Grave, page http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=snyder&GSfn=james&GSbyrel=all&GSdy=1939&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=2927&pt=James%20L.%20Snyder&
• E-mail by Hans Fohr, dated 07 October 2005.
• E-mail by Jim Michels, dated 26 October 2005.
• E-mail by Jim Michels, dated 3 February 2006, citing [M].