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NEWSLETTER 49 - March 12, 2008
Editor: Richard Parks

Click Image For Large View

Pix1--Unloading-the-car
Pix2--Out-of-the-trailer
Pix3--The-too-wide-trailer
Pix4--Ready-to-be-towed
Pix5- Eric Ahlstrom and driver
Pix6- Paula Murphy

President's Corner: By Jim Miller.
What a week this has been. A World Land Speed contender right in our own back yard. Steve Fossett's former Craig Breedlove car made an appearance at El Mirage dry lake on Wednesday afternoon. The sleek little car had its share of problems and didn't get to make any runs but a lot was learned. More on this later. Anyone who's ever run a race car knows that sometimes it's a bear to get to the track let alone putting in a hot lap. Consider this. Every year on the way to Bonneville there are a couple of places along the way that have gremlins built into them. Tires like to eat themselves up, usually at the Barstow turnoff and coming into or leaving Vegas. Then there's the problem of keeping the trailer attached to the tow vehicle and the motor alive through the high-desert valleys of Nevada. Another thing you have to keep an eye out for is 4-legged animals in White Horse Pass. The front end of your vehicle and horses don't get along to well. When you show up at the track you unpack and set up your pits. And guess what? You always forget something important like the jack, the car's log book or your driver's suit. Really stupid stuff but it happens all the time, but that's how you learn. This is kinda what happened to the jet car folks. The project's based in Nevada and that's where they've been working. When they got to the California border they couldn't cross it because the trailer was too wide. They had to get a chase vehicle with a wide load sign on it and drive at a snail's pace. To add insult to injury they could only transport it during the day. There were a lot of little things like this that kept popping up to to spoil their day at the lakes. Program Manager Eric Ahlstrom was upbeat as we talked about the car and the problems that they incurred, but that's why they came. You never stop learning. He thinks the car and the team have what it takes to bring the World Speed Record back to the States. Here are some shots of the happening.

Pix1 shows the car being unloaded from the trailer.

Pix2 shows the car before it was set on the ground.

Pix3 shows the too-wide trailer.

Pix4 shows the car hooked up and ready for a tow.

Pix5 shows Program Manager Eric Ahlstrom and the shoeless test driver.

Pix6 shows Paula Murphy, holder of many land speed records and an adviser for driver selection on the project.

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Correcting information. This obviously tracks with what you found in the old SCTA programs Jim. Jerry (editor's notes: referring to the following email from Don Baker)
Hi, I was wrong about the years, it was '48 and '49. I was there. I found this old trophy in my garage. It says 1949 Champs - Road Runners, B-Lakester-Reno-Baker, 6/11, 7/16, 9/24, 10/22, Times 137.82, 139.96, 139.96, 137.40. This probably isn't important but it gets years straight. Don Baker

Please add www.Autobooks-Aerobooks.com to the list of places posting the newsletter. Thanks, Tina Van Curen

We have permission to use the pictures. Will send you the link when I get the new "Back in the Day" page posted on the Road Runners website. Jerry "Hi Gerald, you have my permission to use the three photos. I also sent some photos to James Miller today and you have my permission to use any of those that you want to. Also I don't need any credit for any material I send you. best regards Donald Baker"
Readers: It's common courtesy to always get permission before publishing material or photos. Most people are happy to let you publish, but we should get their permission as a general and permanent rule. Also, return borrowed material promptly and in the condition that you received it.

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I'm attaching a picture of Doug Caruthers' #6 C&C Special. Is Wally behind the wheel in this picture? I have it in my mind that I was told it was Wally when I received this picture. If it is Wally, do you know the circumstances surounding the picture. Did he ever drive the car for Doug? Here is the link to the beginning of the "Back in the Day" page(s) I'm adding to the Road Runners

Website: http://www.ussarcherfish.com/roadrunners/Back%20in%20the%20Day/Back%20in%20the%20Day.htm It is a "work in progress" and I still have a lot to add. I will be adding to it over the next days and weeks. I suspect that along the line I will need to make some corrections and tweaks to the information also. What is posted is the best info I have to date. As I receive clarification, updates and enhancements, I will modify as necessary. I'm hoping folks with ties to the Road Runners will see this page and it will result in us receiving more information and pictures about old Road Runners and their race cars and hot rods. I picked up on the note regarding Mel Leighton in the last newsletter. Thanks for that. I am just going to add it to the "Back in the Day" page as an unknown. Hoping that folks will look at that picture and the others and come forth with information to help ID the people and cars. Jerry Cornelison
Jerry: It looks like my father. Ask Jim Miller if he has any records on this car. Dad very rarely talked about what cars he drove. It appears he didn't want to say what he did. He liked to appear completely impartial and a fair arbitrator. Many people let Dad drive their cars, not always for points though. Any dates on the photo? I've written twice on Mel Leighton. Check the back issues for those who we wrote about who are Road Runners. Mel was more important to the SCTA than people realize. There was a core group at the time that kept the SCTA going in a critical period of it's history. The SCTA was almost run out of existence during the wave of hysteria after WWII that was against illegal road racing. Guys like Thatcher Darwin, Bozzie Willis, Mel Leighton, Wally Parks, Ak Miller and his brothers, Randy Shinn and many more dedicated members kept land speed racing alive and thriving, turning over the reins to a younger generation in the 1950's. Mel was a close friend of our family.

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While I was working on my new "Back in the Day" webpage the other day I picked up on something interesting when posting the Jack Ratledge collection of pictures. One of the items included was a SCTA Inspection Slip for a meet a Rosamond Dry Lake in 1945. I suddenly realized that this is an earlier date than usually given as the "first" SCTA Meet following WWII. Given that realization, I added the note below, regarding the Inspection Slip and dates, to my new page: * The October 21, 1945, SCTA Inspection Slip is rather interesting - According to various books written about Dry Lakes Racing, a US Government Decree suspended all racing activities in the US during the War (due to gas, oil, rubber, etc., rationing and shortages).

 Following the War, the SCTA was reorganized on September 7, 1945. Wally Parks was elected President, Randy Shinn was elected Secretary and Mel Leighton was elected Treasurer (all were members of the Road Runners). The first post-War SCTA Meet was scheduled at El Mirage Dry Lake for April 4, 1946. A later reference says the date was April 28, 1946. (There is no explanation given why the dates are different. Very well could have been a rain out that caused the rescheduling.) It appears the Inspection Slip for the October 21, 1945, Meet at Rosamond Dry Lake was either a non-sanctioned Meet that was using old SCTA Inspection Slips or, it was a SCTA sanctioned event that pre-dates the meet at El Mirage in 1946, therefore providing possible evidence to "re-write the history books." Or ????? - who knows! If someone does have information about the "mystery," please contact us. Very interesting! Given the research and historical information you both have and have done, perhaps you can solve this "mystery!" Jerry Cornelison
Jerry: My memory is hazy and perhaps Jim Miller, Julian Doty or Thatcher Darwin can help us on this. The SCTA disbanded during the war and since most of the members were overseas, the Association had no official meetings that we know of. Bozzie Willis was the President prior to the war and he attempted to keep everybody together. I knew Bozzie as a young child and liked him. He was very well liked by a lot of other SCTA members and there were a few who were still around the area who wanted to get back to racing after Japan and Germany surrendered. There was also a tremendous pent-up demand among young men to go racing and they were doing so on the streets with horrific accidents and deaths. Bozzie set up some kind of meet for 1945, which I believe was for just one race, the one you are mentioning. What happened is uncertain, but Bozzie was critized and censored for it by a number of SCTA members who had just been discharged from the military service. My father never told me what happened so I don't know for sure. Thatcher Darwin might, as he went to Sacramento at this time to appear before the California Assembly or Senate to lobby against the Dills Bills that would have outlawed hot rodding, or tried to. Thatcher was also the secretary or recording secretary. My feeling is that the SCTA members who were not present in 1945 wanted to be there at the reorganization of the Association. Ed Adams had kept the receipts of the treasury and the funds and was upset that Bozzie had not gone through "procedures." Karl Orr, however, was a proponent of continual racing and anxious to start as early as possible. In fact Orr had raced throughout the war at clandestine locations, though not under the banner of the SCTA. Karl and Veda Orr had a great following among some of the SCTA and their opinions were strongly felt. Orr was also well-known for his speed shop and his wife, Veda, for sending out newsletters and letters to the SCTA members in the service during the war at her own expense. As far as I can tell, Karl did not have a well developed sense of humor. He was motivated to race, to win, to dominate and he really didn't like to be told no. The great fear was that something would happen to ruin the reputation of the SCTA, which the original clubs and members had worked so hard to cultivate. Then, as now, there were blocs within the SCTA that had differing opinions and objectives. The Throttlers had been one of the pre-eminent clubs before the war, but after the war it was the Road Runners that dominated the agenda for the next five years. In fact, the hey-day and Golden Age of the SCTA occurred from 1946 through 1950, just as in all other motorsports racing groups of the Era. There were other clubs, such as the Albata and Gophers who vied for the points lead and had huge memberships, but it was the Road Runners that led this renaissance. Chief among them were Wally Parks, Ak Miller and Randy Shinn. I think Mel Leighton may have belonged to several clubs, but you would have to put him in this leadership group. Finally, there was Eldon Snapp, Thatcher Darwin and Bozzie Willis. Eldon was a Road Runner, Thatcher was a Throttler and Bozzie was a San Diego Roadster Club member, I think. These men represented the SCTA in their goals to expand land speed racing. They revitalized the dry lakes time trials at El Mirage, procured the Bonneville Salt Flats from the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce and stopped the legislation against hot rodding and land speed time trials. They fought illegal street racing. Then the rise of drag racing changed the whole scene and by 1951 the Golden Era of land speed racing was faltering. The post-war leaders went on to other things and new leaders took over. Russetta and the other timing associations lost so many racers to drag racing that they folded and their remnants joined the SCTA. Over the years the SCTA has slowly grown to once again claim their rightful place as the pre-eminent land speed timing group. They represent 95%, or some such figure, of all land speed racing efforts. But there will never be a time when land speed racing and time trials where as large and impressive as the period from 1946 to 1950.

Please add me to your list to save the history of hot rodding and lakes racing. Dave Brant
Dave: Greetings. Go to www.landspeedracing.com and it will ask you to add your email address to the list. Then it will send you the newsletter when it comes out weekly. You can also go to that website or other websites carrying the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians Newsletter and read the back issues. Welcome aboard.

I just read Landspeed Louise's column in the April, 2008 Goodguys Gazette. Please add my name to the membership list. I am in the process of finalizing my lakester this winter (paint and detailing) and look forward to the 2008 season with a great deal of anticipation. I drove the car to my 'B' license at last October's ECTA/Maxton, NC event...and no doubt will achieve an 'A' license this spring. We're planning a trip west to run El Mirage on September 12th and the USFRA/Bonneville event the following week; we'll run at Maxton at least three time this year and accumulate seat time at a local drag strip. My goal is simple... run over 200mph at the three U.S. land speed venues. There'd be four but I just can't get my schedule to line up with the Texas Mile's! I've read and dreamed about land speed racing for more than 50 years and have enjoyed seeing the land speed cars housed at the Petersen and Wally Park's Museums during frequent visits...one of the recent highlights was visiting SoCal and having the opportunity for an up close and personal look at Alex's iconic tank. I'm very pleased to say that multiple 200MPH Club member Jack Kelly has become a friend and mentor to my project. There's so much more I could say but overall, land speed racing has been a very positive, wonderful experience! My wife is very supportive but continues to think I'm a bit crazy... The big question is... why did I wait 'til age 64 to get started? Good luck with the SLSRH... I look forward to helping as I can. Ron Richardson # 105 B/FL
Ron: Go to www.landspeedracing.com and register your email address with them. This site is owned by www.hotrodhotline.com and they support our efforts. Once you see the newsletters, both sent to you and archived from past issues, you will see what we are doing and you can cross link with other websites who also carry our newsletter and who have additional topics of interest. Welcome aboard.

Thank you for including my letter of inquiry with newsletter #44. To answer your question about where I live and teach, Tehachapi is the name of the town. It is in the hills above Mojave. I teach fourth grade. You asked for me to send any articles I have that I wrote for Hop Up. Because of problems with our computer I only have one of them in a format to be sent online. Here it is! Eric Loe
History of a Cover Roadster, by Eric Loe
In 1925 Hi Halfhill was a young teenager. He was not yet old enough to drive, but he was old enough to know what he liked, and he liked hopped up cars. Hi looked forward to any time he could catch a glimpse of a lowered, cut down, roadster, or walk past Sterling's Garage, near his home in Los Angeles, where Doug Sterling ran the premier shop at the time for modifying Model Ts. He would peer through the open doors and admire the transformations in progress. His curiosity was therefore peaked when an older boy in his neighborhood (A fella Halfhill described as a "dandy," he always wore nice clothes and had money to spend) went to the local Ford dealership, bought a new '25 T roadster, and delivered it to Sterling's shop the next day.
Soon the dandy was cruising the streets of L.A. in his new roadster. The lowered car featured an axle dropped at Sterling's shop and reworked springs, chopped windshield and top, Buffalo wire wheels, and a Frontenac overhead valve conversion. For the next few years the hot "T" was a fixture of the neighborhood, often proudly sporting a coat of Muroc dust. But when the restyled 1930 Model A Fords came out the dandy lost interest in the "T" and sold it to buy a new model.
The new owner of the roadster was a friend of Halfhill's, Frank Pommer. Pommer was interested in machine work and was putting together an impressive machine shop in his parents' garage. He removed the body from the chassis and began to rebuild the roadster using Star frame rails and Model A running gear. The work he did was beautiful, but soon the project stalled and the partially built car languished behind the garage.
In the meantime Hi Halfhill had worked through his first car, another "T", and had then moved on to a nice, mildly modified '29 roadster. The Model A was good daily transportation, but Hi, along with his buddy, Claude Neal, wanted to go racing at the dry lakes and they wanted to do it more seriously than the '29 permitted. They approached Pommer to see about purchasing the unfinished '25. He agreed to the sale and the pair began to prepare their new race car.
Claude and Hi began by completing the installation of the Model A running gear, and attaching a Model A front suspension to the Ford front crossmember Pommer had spliced between the Star rails. They had the axle dropped at a local blacksmith shop. Next the pair bought a used 2 Port Riley head, and Winfield cam and carburators to get the motor ready. Finally they mounted a hand pressure pump on the driver's "door" to deliver gas from the remote tank and cut down the back of the body to reduce wind resistance (a popular modification at the time) and were ready to start racing.
The roadster was a consistant performer through the 1932 and 1933 racing seasons. Neal and Halfhill, with help from Pommer, continuously made improvements to the car and were rewarded with ever increasing speeds at the dry lake. Halfhill recalled that the roadster's highest recorded speed was 114.65 mph. on September 17, 1933.
The roadster was purely a race car during this period and was not used on the streets. It was one of the only full bodied roadsters at the time to be towed to and from the time trials. The only time Halfhill could recall the racer being driven any great distance during this period was a humorous episode that reveals what the atmosphere at the early lakes meets was like.
The Muroc Racing Association did not allow the consumption of alcohol at their meets. Participants and spectators alike were prevented from participation if they were found to be under the influence, but this did not keep people from drinking. Halfhill always brought two gas cans to the lakes, one filled with gasoline, the other with liquor. On one particular day the trio had already made one run during the morning, but were unhappy with the result so had made some adjustments to the motor. Halfhill and Pommer stood back as Neal hopped in the roadster to take it on a test run across the lakebed. As they stood watching they were surprised to see the roadster turn toward one of the dirt paths leading off the lake and disappear! It turned out that Claude had partaken liberally of the "gas" can and had forgotten why he was driving the roadster. He was halfway back to Los Angeles before he realized what was going on and decided to just keep going. There was no more racing that day.
Keeping the roadster competitive was a time consuming job. The 1933 season saw the introduction of George Riley's new four port head. The Neal/Halfhill team did not have spare cash to buy one of the new $80.00 conversions so they decided to take drastic measures in an effort to keep up. They ported their head to its absolute limits. This step did contribute to their highest speeds and helped keep them competitive (In the June 25, 1933 Muroc program they challenged any other single spark Riley, except four ports, to race for a side bet. There were no takers). It also created alot of extra work. The metal separating the water jackets from the ports was so thin that they were constantly springing leaks. The pair had to remove the head after every meet to weld up holes that had formed during their runs.
The dominance of Riley's new heads sparked Frank Pommer's interest. He turned his design and machine shop skills toward building his own four port head. As work progressed and Frank's enthusiasm increased for the new project Hi and Claude were becoming tired of the time and effort required in keeping the "T" ready to race. Pommer offered to buy the car back. He wanted to use the new motor he was building in his old roadster. The pair agreed to sell.
Pommer had big plans for the roadster. For the motor he not only designed and built the four port head, but also created the exhaust header, intake manifold, engine mounts, finned side plate and aluminum timing cover with mounts to accomodate the Mallory dual coil ignition and Miller supercharger. He designed and cast an aluminum transmission case to enclose the Ford V8 gears and cast a finned, aluminum center section for the rearend. Pommer designed and built the 4140 chromemoly tubing front axle along with the kingpins, spring perches, tie rod, drag link, tie rod ends, drag link ends, radius rods, pitman arm, and aluminum steering box housing Franklin gears. The kingpins mounted mechanical brakes with snapring wire wheels. He built the steering wheel of spring steel and mahogany and cast the horn button in bronze. The column drop was crafted from a Miller 91 connecting rod.
The body also underwent great changes. Pommer hired Frank Kurtis at a rate of $.50 per hour to build aluminum nose, hood and belly pans for the car. He also had Kutris rework the entire cowl section to eliminate the body line and redo the back of the body where Neal/Halfhill had previously cut it down. The discarded section was still behind Halfhill's garage and was retrieved so Kurtis could section and then reattach it to the body to give a more "graceful" line. Pommer built the windshield frame, engine turned dash and trim molding to run around the top of the cockpit. He had the interior upholstered in red and black cowhide and goatskin. The body was painted black. The gas tank was mounted behind the rear axle.
Pommer never finished the project. By 1938 he had begun to design an overhead cam head for the motor and was working on mounting the supercharger when he sold the roadster for unknown reasons. Jim Donahue acquired the unfinished project but made little progress before passing it along to Chuck Schultz, a member of the Bungholers club, around 1940.
Schultz got the car back on the road, first with a 2 Port Riley, then with a 21 stud V8. It appears that Schultz also discarded the snapring wheels in favor of Kelsey Hayes wires, and perhaps re-placed the gas tank inside the turtledeck, had a rear rolled pan made and replaced the mechanical brakes with hydraulics before selling the roadster in the late '40's to Ray Bowles.
Ray began by personalizing the car. He added a distinctive front nerf bar featuring his name. The nerf attached low to the front of the frame where the headlights had been mounted necessitating the repositioning of the lights up higher on new mounts protruding through the sides of the hood. He then began to enter shows and events with the roadster.
The roadster got a lot of use during Ray's ownership. In December of 1949 he participated in the Pasadena Roadster Club Reliability Run with the roadster. The January, 1950 Hot Rod Magazine featured the roadster on the cover in front of the Rose Bowl with an explanation that the car had won the Hot Rod Magazine, Best Appearing Car award at the event. That same month the roadster was entered in the National Roadster Show in Oakland and later that year was also in the Autorama held at the Shrine Auditorium. Bowles later drove the roadster to the east coast and back hauling a house trailer.
Ray Bowles sold the roadster to George Hadjis and George Williams in 1952. The pair bought the car because it was so nice. Even after nearly two decades the interior, paint and chrome were in very good condition. The car was still such a standout that it was featured in the January, 1953 issue of Hop Up Magazine, with a very detailed article written by Dean Bachelor, before Hadjis sold the roadster to Tom Pryor while Williams was serving in the military.
Tom Pryor only owned the rod for a short time. Not long after buying the roadster he ran it into the back of a stopped delivery truck. The front axle was bent and the Frank Kurtis nose and hood were destroyed.
Skip Hedrich bought the remains of the roadster from Pryor and began to rebuild. He straightened the custom front axle and installed chromed Ford disc wheels. He replaced the old '36 Ford V8 with a newer 24 stud model and substituted a Model T radiator and shell for the ruined nose to get it back on the road. He also repainted the roadster bright red and had a top made for it by Sorensen's Top Shop in Pasadena.
Once the car was back in working order Skip began to replicate the nose. Kurtis' original aluminum work was beyond repair, but Hedrich pounded it out as best he could and then smoothed it with bondo until it was good enough to use as a form. Then, with the help of one of his brother's buddies, he created a replica of the nose in fiberglass and had a new grill and hood made for the car. After the new front end was finished the car was featured in the August, 1955 issue of Car Craft Magazine.
Not long after the Car Craft article came out Skip was in a local Pasadena drive-in with the roadster when he was approached by a man in an Air Force uniform. The flyer was on leave from Moffit Air Force Base in Northern California and wanted to buy the roadster. Skip wasn't interested in selling until the man pulled a big bundle of bills from his pocket. It was more money than Skip could refuse and the transaction was made then and there. Skip went home with the cash and the new owner took the car, but they agreed to meet at the drive-in again the next evening.
While Skip was showing the Air Force pilot the car he had noticed that one of the fuel lines was leaking. He told the new owner he would replace it the next night. He arrived at the appointed meeting place with the new line and tools, but the new owner never arrived. The following evening the airman was at the drive-in and showed Hedrich that he had made repairs himself. He had replaced the leaking hose with one he had taken off his grandmother's old gas heater. Skip was dismayed to find that the spongy replacement would sweat out gasoline when he squeezed it between his fingers! Hedrich had not brought his replacement that night, so arranged another meeting for the next morning.
The Airman stood up Skip again the next morning. He decided to forego the proper fuel line and headed back to his base in Northern California. He didn't get far. While driving over the Grapevine the inadequate hose failed and sprayed the hot motor with fuel. The owner escaped injury, but the roadster burned to the ground.
The warped and melted wreckage that was delivered to the scrap metal yard after the fire contained little of the original Model T that Hi Halfhill had seen delivered to Sterling's Garage over three decades before. Only parts of the much modified body remained. But those bits of sheetmetal had made a long and unique journey through the formative years of hot rodding. They had formed the backbone for one of rodding's great roadsters.
Editor's notes: Eric, Thank you for a great story.

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