SOCIETY OF LAND SPEED RACING HISTORIANS
NEWSLETTER 85 - November 12, 2008
Editor: Richard Parks RnParks1@juno.com
President's Corner: By Jim Miller (1-818-846-5139)

Click On All Images For Larger View

Some Names To Look For In This Newsletter:
Some Class I records, Eric Rickman, “Racers at Rest” Book Signing, K.S. Pittman, Need Johnny Ronnow and Glen Roth Drag Race Results

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President's Corner:  
   When one thinks of land speed records, we think of the big guys like Al Teague, Vesco, the Nish's and the Burkland's. These boys go fast with big engines. Their records are pretty well documented but the smaller displacement cars are usually left out of the mix. If you look closer you'll see that there are cars with smaller engines that go really fast too, so I think it's time we look at the wee motor sized cars. Guys like Goldie Gardner drove small displacement cars and set lots of records and look at what the Poteet & Main (390 mph) and Costella-Yacoucci (348 mph) teams have done in recent years. Small motored cars are actually more challenging than the big motors. In the 1950's, Class breakdowns were - Class D 2001cc to 3000, Class E 1501cc to 2000cc, Class F 1101cc to 1500cc, Class G 751cc to 1100 cc. The really small displacement classes were established in 1925 for National and International records. They were Class H 501cc to 750cc, Class I 351cc to 500cc, and Class J up to 350cc. If you look closely the lower end of the displacement chain is different than what it is today, especially at Bonneville. That makes our task as historians even harder.
   A 1952 book listed the class I record for the kilo at 74.7 mph and the mile at 85.9 mph. For Class J the kilo was 63.3 and the mile at 73.0 mph. These were all standing start records. For flying times Class I was 162.6 mph in the kilo and 158.0 mph in the mile. The Class J kilo was 77.52 mph and the mile was 77.52 mph. At the end of 1956, I standing start records were upped to 78.930 mph for the kilo and 89.043 for the mile. Tracing the history of the Class I record is frustrating in that they only list speeds in kilos for the flying start but it's a start. Here's 1926 to 1951.
1926 Kay Don       65.75 mph
1928 R. Rovin       84.58 mph
1935 Johnny Lurani  100.76 mph
1939 Johnny Lurani  106.70 mph
1947 Goldie Gardner 118.016 mph
1949 Goldie Gardner 154.991 mph
1951 Freddi Lehder  163.10 mph
   I went to the FIA site to check on the current records and yet another problem arises. They break records into seven different classes for each engine size. The ones we are interested in are with a normal old engine so that leaves us two groups. Normally aspirated and supercharged. Using the powers of deduction, I know Gardner's cars were blown so let's look at what they call Group 1 Class II. The charts are hard to read so here's what I think is right.
1965 William Herz  164.5 mph
1991 Mark Lingua  222.520 mph
   The SCTA records show Mark still holds the mile record from 1991 at 223.071 mph. That's mighty fast for a 30" machine. He still shows up at Bonneville with the car and runs over 300 mph with it in a different engine class. As a challenge, every reader should pick a class he or she is interested in and do a documented history on it like above and send it in. We'll all benefit. What's even more challenging is doing the same on the driver. Have fun.

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Editorial:
   Today's editorial is based on the passing of Dorothy Cissna. Not many people remember who she is or what she did and that's exactly why our biography project is so important. If we had been collecting histories and stories from old land speed and drag racers for the last 50 years, can't you see how fantastic the treasure trove of facts and stories we would have by now? Not all is lost, for many good writers and photographers have researched and recorded the past in many fine books, but that represents only a fraction of what we have lost. I have said this before and I will say it again, often the best history is not told by the famous racer, but by the friends, family and spectators who observed the great racers compete. We can find fantastic stories and history from some of the quietest and least intrusive people. Everyone has a story to tell, but they often refuse to tell their stories because they think they weren't important. How wrong they are and if I have to use the editorial column to remind you of this and to badger you if I have to, I won't stop until you have all recounted your life's stories. If all that you do is leave your biography for your family and caption your photographs, Jim Miller and I will be happy. But if you add to it and share your life with us, then we shall feel that our efforts have been rewarded. Miller and I aren't young anymore, but we are trying to save the history of men and women who are 10, 20 and 30 years older than our ages and time is running out on all of us. And time is running out on you as well. If I sound like a scold, then yes, if that's what it takes, I'll scold you until you leave your history for your family and for the racing community. 
   I got after my father to write his history. I wasn't the only one. Many people coaxed him to write and for good reason. He was there right in the beginning and he was part of the racing scene for 75 years. His mind was sharp and clear right up to his passing. He didn't know that he would fall and end up in the hospital, or that a staph infection would take his life in an instant. None of us know when that horrible stroke will rob us of our memories, or a heart attack or cancer will take our lives. Our history is fragile and it can be lost through ill health, fire, flood or decay. Every day we lose far too much in the way of friends, history and stories. We lose artifacts and photographs as well. Valuable possessions that we cherish and that tell a memorable story of the past are lost through neglect, crime and disasters, but the worst losses are our friends and their memories. That's why Jim and I do this and why we are always looking to back up what we find by putting our research on-line, where it can be stored and shared by all the readers. Someday we will be gone and the only thing that will last is the very essence of what we were and what people remember of us. Our possessions will be divided and given away, but our memories will be recorded for all to see and read. The funny thing is that most of you have thought about sharing your life stories, but shied away from doing so for a variety of reasons. You know that your stories and knowledge have interest and you love to tell your close friends, who also tell you their stories in return. I know that you enjoy relating these events, because I have watched many of you and have seen the joy you get in bench racing and reliving the past, a long-ago memory when the hot rodding world was young and you were the creators of this new world.
   Why then aren't you recording the past? The reasons are many, but the results are tragic, for without your memories we have only a few books and magazines to fill in the gaps of our knowledge. I just barely remember Dorothy Cissna. I spoke to her only a few times, but what she must have witnessed during the middle years and the rapid growth of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). The same thing can be said for my other dear friends; Ron and Marilyn Lachman, Shirley Bunce, Alex and Helen Xydias, Lynn and Chic Saffell, Dick Wells, Wayne and Ruth McMurtry, Mari Palash, Dallas and Sandie Gardner and many other wonderful friends. How about those who have passed on before Jim or I had the opportunity to really find out about their lives? Men and women like; CJ Hart, Karl and Veda Orr, Ed Winfield, Ak Miller and his two brothers, Lawrence "Old Dad" and Zeke Miller. The list of old friends who I can't talk to is growing every year and there are questions that will never be asked and never answered. It is too late to interview them and do their story if they haven't done it already. It is not too late to have you write your biography. Jim and I will help you edit what you write and we won't publish it until you are happy with the results. We also want you to caption your photographs. Buy some peel off adhesive labels that are used on folders and have a "caption party," with friends and family. Have the best printer in your group write on the adhesive labels the what, when, why, who and where and then peel off the stickers and put them on the back of the photos. Make it a caption party, bring out the food and have a few laughs as you remember the past with your buddies and family. Leave them a special treat to remember you by, a treasure that is better than anything else that you can give them

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Dorothy Cissna (I think you knew her... she handled all the insurance at NHRA for 25 years) passed away today. If you are interested, I will give you more details... I wasn't sure you knew her.  Marilyn Lachman
   Marilyn: Please send me all the details and biography on Dorothy that you can. I do remember her and she was always so helpful to us. The biography project is for everyone and I'm sure we can learn a great deal from Dorothy's life. Our condolences to the family.

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This is the latest information about Eric Rickman from his son Mike. Bud Evans
"He (Rick) is now in the Lakewood medical center awaiting surgery Monday morning at 7 am. The doctor says it normally takes five hours so I will let you know how it went when I get home that evening. Until the unknown news is good news." Mike Rickman
Bud and Mike: I tried to open the attachment, but my computer couldn't comply or read it. I will post this to www.landspeedracing.com and to www.hotrodhotline.com, so that the racing community can keep a great man in their prayers and thoughts. I will be waiting to hear from you on Eric's condition. All the very best to him and to his family and friends.

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He (Eric 'Rick' Rickman) was scheduled for open-heart surgery this morning. He needs a triple bypass plus a new heart valve. However the insurance company would not pay for a doctor they have chosen so it was canceled. They have sent him to one of their approved surgeons for retesting. During the process they found he has a blood clot in a main artery in his leg. They are giving him medication to dissolve the clot before they can even think of surgery. In the meantime he is very weak and has great difficulty getting around, his condition worsens day by day. Mike Rickman

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Monday, November the 10th, Rick went into surgery at 8 a.m. Due to his frail condition and complications a five-hour surgery turned into nine hours. The good news is they were able to perform all necessary procedures. He is now in intensive care on full life support and listed in very grave condition. Doctors say it will be several days and depending on his condition before they can attempt to remove any of the support systems. Before surgery I was able to convey to him that all his friends had him in their hearts and prayers, he gave me a big smile. You may not hear from me until later in the week, but keep in mind, at this point no news is good news! I would like to also thank you for all your support. Michael Rickman
   Mike: We will keep him in our thoughts and prayers and wait for further word. Eric 'Rick' Rickman is one of hot rodding's all time best photographer and our good friend.

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NHRA just announced that Eric Rickman has undergone open heart surgery and is recovering in ICU. There is a article on www.nhra.com just posted. Glen Barrett
NHRA Drag Safari pioneer Rickman recovering from heart surgery, by Phil Burgess. See http://www.nhra.com/content/news/33940.htm.
Eric "Rick" Rickman, a member of the original NHRA Drag Safari that toured the nation from 1954 through 1956 setting up events and spreading the word about our sport, is recovering from heart surgery November 10 in Lakewood, California. Rickman was a Hot Rod magazine photographer assigned to the team by NHRA founder and Hot Rod Editor Wally Parks to chronicle the team's adventures. Rickman underwent a bypass and an arterial transplant at Lakewood Regional Medical Center according to his wife, Virginia. Rickman, who will turn 90 this month, remains in the hospital's Critical Care Unit. Rickman, who has photographed everything from drag racing to salt lakes and midget racing, came by his life's calling card quite by accident. After serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Rickman was working in an auto-parts store helping to build engines and took a night job at a photo studio developing film and making prints. By 1947, he had learned enough of the craft to start out on his own, focusing on his love for cars at local speedways, and soon was selling photos to drivers and having them published in local newspapers and programs.
After meeting Robert Petersen, who had just printed his first edition of Hot Rod, Rickman joined the small staff as a photographer. Rickman, along with team leader Bud Coons, Chic Cannon (tech inspection), Bud Evans (announcer), and a host of other fill-ins, toured the country for three years, setting up races on airport runways and whatever chunk of safe area they could find, which led to the establishment of the first NHRA regional events and, of course, later the first Nationals, which paved the course for today's successful national event series. Rickman's historic images of those early days provide a time capsule of the sport's birth and growth, and it was his keen eye and sharp trigger finger that captured those images for all time. "I learned to do that from Russ Reid, staff photographer for the Oakland Tribune," Rickman recalled recently for Hot Rod. "Russ would let me ride around the city with him at night, with four shortwave radios going all at once. You want a course in photography? Ha! There was none of this 'Hold-still-I-need-a-shot' type of thing; it had to be in focus, the right exposure, and right now -- in one shot. That's what they nicknamed me at Petersen: 'One-Shot Rick.' " Well-wishes can be sent to Rickman at Lakewood Regional Medical Center, 3700 E. South Street, Lakewood, CA 90712.

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From Dusty Brandel: Could you spread the news that 3 of the 4 authors of the new book: “Racers at Rest”, Buzz Rose, Fred Chaparro and Jeff Sharpe will be signing at Autobooks, 3524 W. Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, California on Saturday, November 29th from 10 am to 2 pm.  Resent by Dr David Scully

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I may soon be in a position to offer for sale several aircraft under wing fuel tanks. These particular units are not of the configuration usually referred to as "Belly Tanks," although they serve the same purpose. The exception is that the modern units were designed for use on super sonic fighter aircraft. For a little history. The "Belly Tanks" were steel, or aluminum, stampings easily identified by the flange that surrounds the unit. The two identical stampings were joined at the flanged area and suspended from either the belly of the fighter or from the underside of the wings. The down side to the design was that it required a new die to increase the fuel capacity of the unit. This became a primary problem as the targets chosen were much further than the bomber bases, and the development of Axis RADAR systems increased the number of fighters to support the bomb runs. Late in WW2 it was decided to manufacture these tanks using the techniques for the manufacture airplane fuselages. This system is described as a monocoque structure which is a very lightweight, but extremely strong structure. A "Monocoque" is composed of a series of very strong circumferential members (bulkheads or form frames) attached to each other by a sheet metal skin riveted or bonded to the bulkheads. Using this design method the fuel quantity could be increased by adjusting the length of the connecting skin. This tube was then joined with an aerodynamic nose and tail section to result in a fuel tank that could withstand the forces in the flight characteristics of modern supersonic jet fighter aircraft. If you would like I will send you a draft of my vision for a Dry Lakes Streamliner along with many of the details in these modern, high G, fuel tanks. Bob Falcon
   Bob: Yes, please send along all photographs, diagrams and proposals that you would like to run in the newsletter and I'm sure that there is interest among our readers. If nothing else, at least we are learning more about the origins of the Belly Tanks.

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We just raced the 1959 Max and Ina Balchowsky Old Yeller II Buick Special at the Goodwood Revival Meeting Races in September and the Old Yeller II is just arriving by sea cargo into Sydney for the Tasman Revival Meeting Races, November 28-30. The Tasman group was shipping some great and famous "Tasman" Formula race cars from England so they included the Old Yeller II with the shipment. Lucky for us as they will also ship the car back to Los Angeles. We raced the Tasman two years ago and this is the 2nd Tasman Revival Meeting race. The Goodwood Revival Meeting races has the most incredible grids of cars and it is pure fender to fender racing with some of the best drivers, with such a "valuable" grid most of the drivers are "hired guns" and great drivers. It is always an honor to be invited and this was our 4th Revival race.  Ernie Nagamatsu

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When you get the chance, check out http://benchrace.com/html/3.i.html (page 28). They contacted me to write a story about K.S. Pittman and the tribute car we did in his honor. Hope you enjoy. Rocky Pirrone
http://community.webshots.com/user/BossHydro
http://nitrogeezers.com/joe_pirrone.htm
Rocky and LaVaun: Thank you for sharing the links to the websites and I will post them all to the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians Newsletter, which is on www.landspeedracing.com, and www.hotrodhotline.com. K.S. is a very special man and a pioneer in drag racing. Our journal covers the early days of land speed racing as it grew and evolved into other forms of straight-line racing, or drag racing in the 1950's and '60's. My father often used to tell us about K.S. and the Gasser wars. You have a fine website and we commend you for your work to keep the history and heritage of drag racing alive and for the restoration of the car. I would like to ask that all of you spend a little time and write your biographies and include your stories of the past and of racing that you have witnessed. We are collecting biographies and stories on our site and are sharing them with the public and other racing sites like the American Hot Rod Foundation. We would also like to ask that you caption your photographs by using those adhesive stickers that you can write on and then peel off and put on the back of your photographs. An uncaptioned photograph becomes almost worthless over time and history is lost. Keep up the good work and let's keep our past alive for the future.

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Editor's notes: In a recent email the following names have been mentioned: Art Arfons, Craig Breedlove, Steve Fossett, Rosco McGlashen, Ky Michaelson, the NAE team, Kenny Lyons, Ron Pruett, Richard Noble and Ron Ayers. Arfons, Breedlove, Fossett, Michaelson and Noble have been written about briefly, way too briefly and the others have little or nothing said about them. I would like the members to write in and tell us what you know about these modern land speed designers and racers. We need more research, text and photographs to expand on what we have already done.

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I haven't forgotten you. I have not completed my WLSR project and thus don't have anything to offer the Landspeed crowd. Paul T. Glessner, M.S.
Paul: Those eligible to write their biographies must have one important credential; they must have been alive at some point. It isn't important as some people have said, "to have been famous." We are not looking for famous people, but ordinary ones who have witnessed or participated in land speed and early transitional drag racing. Our goal is to document everything that people know about this sport and present it to the next generation of historians so that they will have source material on which to write their histories. Our goal is also to get all of our members, in fact everyone who has any photographs, to caption their pictures and make sure there is a place where they can go after we are gone. Whatever you know or have witnessed is important to us. I'm including the guideline that we use. It's simple, just answer the questions as you would on a high school essay test and send it back to me to edit. I will put it into a chronological format and send it back for corrections, additions or subtractions. When the finished product is acceptable to the writer, only then will I send it on to www.hotrodhotline.com to post on-line. Thank you for your participation and if you haven't signed up to receive the newsletter at www.landspeedracing.com, it's very easy and quick and we are a free society, no dues or duties required.

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I have not been made aware of this project...Thank you, Ron Burton
Ron: The Society of Land Speed Racing Historians was created as a forum to save the history and heritage of land speed, dry lakes, straightline, hot rodding and early drag racing. One of our goals is to find museums who will save artifacts from destruction. Another project is to have everyone caption their photographs, for uncaptioned photos are almost worthless to historians and to our families. We are also trying to get people in racing, and it doesn't matter what kind of motorized racing that it is, to write their biographies. The more information that we can preserve and conserve for the future, the better. Even those who have never raced, but who have witnessed racing, have important stories and histories to leave behind to their family and friends. Below is a guideline that we send out and when you send it back I will edit it and resend it to you for any additions or corrections that you wish to make. When it is done and you are satisfied, then I will send the story and about five or six captioned photographs to www.hotrodhotline.com to be archived there for the public to read. There are several of us involved in this project and it's kind of an assembly line approach to preserving history. If you go to www.landspeedracing.com and sign in, you will receive the free newsletter, which is sent out about once a week. Finally, we welcome reports and emails from our members. We have no ads and we encourage those who are photographers, racers, car builders, designers, model makers, owners, crew, fans, historians, writers, artists, etc, to write in and tell us about what they do and what kinds of projects they are working on, in the past, present or future. Although our main interest lies in straightline racing, there is a great deal of crossover from oval, drags, road course, land speed and other types of racing and we touch on all of them. Ron, let us know what you are doing.
a) Where did your family come from; your parents and grandparents and what did they do for a living?
b) Where were you born and where did you grow up? What elementary, junior high and high school did you attend?
c) Did you take any shop classes, while you were in school? Name your friends, especially those interested in racing.
d) Did you join any car clubs or work on or own a car, or a race car, or work as a crewman on a race car while in school?
e) What kind of jobs did you have as a young person while growing up? What kinds of hobbies and interests did you have?
f) What did you do after graduation? Did you join the military? Were you drafted? Did you fight in the war?
g) What kind of racing did you get involved in? Did you own a racecar, drive a racecar or work as a crewman?
h) Who were some of your friends that were involved in racing with you? Name and describe them.
i) Tell us about your family, your wife and children. Were they involved in racing?
j) What kind of work did you find after you left school? Was it racing related employment?
k) Are you retired from racing? What are you doing today?

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Send the outline. Dick Keller
Dick: Thank you for your interest. You can see more of what we are doing at www.hotrodhotline.com and www.landspeedracing.com. When you send me the bio I will edit it and return it to you and when you are satisfied, send the revised bio back with half a dozen captioned photos and then we will post it on-line. Also, tell us what kind of racing you have done for the newsletter, or what you have witnessed. We are mostly involved in straightline racing, but there is a great deal of crossover from one form to another form of racing, so we cover most kinds of racing.

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Jack Underwood suggested that I contact you. I am researching a car that drag raced at Pomona in the first half of the 1950's. A photo of the car is attached. The car was raced by Johnny Ronnow and Glen Roth. Do you (or anyone else) have Pomona drag race results? Thanks, Mark Brinker, mark@mbrinker.com

Don's books are mostly pictorial and he doesn't provide an index of those listed in his books, but they are priceless for research on early California racing history for the dry lakes and for hot rodding in general. Montgomery's books are first class and average 500 photos each. He knows who has the racing photographic collections and his mind is as sharp as anyone out there and that's important, because so many of us have forgotten much of the past. Bob Frey, the NHRA TV announcer, has been collecting stats of early drag racing tracks and he might have some information for you. Check out this website for Bob to see if you can find out more about his articles and how to contact him; http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4078/is_200501/ai_n9469051. The early clubs that ran Pomona from the early 1950's might be able to tell you something. I run into them at the Museum Twi-light cruises and if you ask some of the Cal-Rods, like John Duran, Big John or Vic Cunnyngham, they might be able to tell you where these old timers are. You can never go wrong hanging around the museum and the cruises are usually on the first Wednesday's of the month, beginning in April and going through December. Don't forget the internet. Try googling the names of the two men. Also, join the blog sites listed on the internet for early drag racing. Leslie Long might have some data, which he turns over to Jim Miller to put on the American Hot Rod Foundation. Miller is listed at our www.landspeedracing.com site and newsletter. Finally, sign up and join the Standard 1320 Club, an on-line drag racing site, which has a fanatical interest in the sport. Their prime dates of interest are from 1957 to 1971, but you will run into guys like Lee Schelin, John Ewald and others who live and breathe drag racing. This site is at http://www.standard1320.com/. They post something like 200 blogs a day, so there is a lot of chatter going through their group. You've already put a post on H.A.M.B. and they come up with some great research. Some of the early photographers and officials are gone, but Eric Rickman, Lee Blaisdell and Gordon Browning are still with us. Check some of my articles on them at www.hotrodhotline.com, guest columnist, Richard's corner. Also, check the articles on the museum cruises, because I mention several of the old club members that ran the drags at Pomona prior to the Pomona Valley Timing Association. When you have done all of this and investigated hundreds of on-line sites to leave your request and posting, the real work begins. Have the picture blown up and mount it on a poster board with all the textual material that you can find, displayed as a caption, then head for the car shows and post the picture on an easel so that people can see it and let you know what they know. Find out all that you know about the two men, where they came from, what they did for a living, where they went to school and start calling people. The funny thing about a phone tree is that it's too successful. When you call someone and they tell you that they don't know anyone, ask them if they know of four or five people who might know something. As you call you are aware that most will not know anything, but you are banking on the fact that they are pointing you in directions that will lead to a clue, a family member or good friend. Once you find the link, you will find family and friends of the two men and your sources will multiply beyond your wildest dreams. That's how I developed the boat racers reunion and had a mailing list of 2000 people within about 12 months and it could have gone higher if I had the time to spend on that project.

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I agree, this was a very good picture (The World's Fastest Indian), and Hopkins did a great job of capturing the workings of a racer's mind. As you know, I have spent my lifetime in the profession...from local dirt fairground tracks, with my dad in the early 30's...through the local "bullrings" as a contestant and even at the early drag races and did some dry lakes stuff. One of my female companions and I went to a local movie house to see this picture. At some point in the story, at which point I was mesmerized by Hopkin's portrayal of a "Racer," that I turned to my companion and said, "My God! He's doing my life!" Her being "Pasadena Junior League," she did not understand the comment. Later I purchased the DVD and enjoyed it again....then my son borrowed the disk. He told me that when he showed it to his small children, they wondered if the movie was about "Papa"! Many SCTA loyalists will not understand Burt's problems with the officialdom, but I can tell you since I have competed with many racing organizations there were times when I was baffled at the dry lakes by the lack of professional racing wisdom of the SCTA rule book. Bob Falcon
Bob: Many readers said the very same thing that you have said. When Jack Mendenhall and I were at Black Rock Desert in 1997 we had many experiences that resembled Burt Munro's. Mendenhall, always looking to "put one over on the naive amongst us," tried to trick me into a house of ill repute and you have never seen a man (me) run so fast to escape. Yes, the guys played lots of tricks on each other and some of them would make a great story someday. For the readers, your story is published on line at www.hotrodhotline.com, guest columnist, Richard's Corner, along with many other fine land speed and hot rodding biographies. But we didn't get ALL of your stories it appears. You overlooked a few and so please send us your experiences at the dry lakes or Bonneville. Tell us more about the inspectors and your rule book problems. As a side note, let me explain my views on the rule book. They are applied in a draconian manner by often stubborn inspectors and they are a byzantine maze to try and figure out. They're that way for a purpose. My father and many others felt that hot rodding and dry lakes racing in the 1930's was on dangerous ground, with state officials trying to outlaw the sport and so they decreed that safety would always come first. They meant it, even if they had to take a club and pound it into the racers' heads. Any accident was viewed with trepidation and fear that the media would blow it all out of proportion and state officials would outlaw their hobby. SCTA inspectors were given ULTIMATE power. The gallows humor joke was that "above God, were the SCTA inspectors." Once a man came to my father and angrily demanded to know why he had failed inspection. My dad told him that he would ask the inspector. At this time dad was the President of the SCTA and this was in 1946. He walked over to Ak Miller, who was the chief inspector and said, "Ak, this man says you failed him, is this true." Ak said, "Damn right it's true." Dad turned to the man and said in as polite and tactful voice as he was always known to have, "You're right, Ak says he failed you, I guess you're failed." In those days there was no one who would overturn a race director or inspector and they were told to lay down the law. Today the inspectors don't seem to feel the same pressures, that is, the sport isn't going to be outlawed if they make a mistake. If the inspectors know your work they will often pass you on. But if they mistrust your work or past conduct, they have a heritage of toughness bequeathed to them by the sports finest.

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Can a sound file be embedded as well? I just did an interview about a key role player, Mark Donohue?  Thanks.  Paul Glessner
  Paul: We haven't gotten to that stage yet where we can accommodate anything more than photos and text, but you can send sound videos to Jim Miller and he can send them to the American Hot Rod Foundation. It's possible we can learn though and until some of the readers push us past our comfort zones, we won't learn. So try it and we'll see. Having video is an improvement and we should try. 

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Land Speed Racing Websites:
www.hotrodhotline.com, www.landspeedracing.com

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Members:

Jonathan Amo, Brett Arena, Henry Astor, Gale Banks, Glen Barrett, Mike Bastian, Lee Blaisdell, Jim Bremner, Warren Bullis, Burly Burlile, George Callaway, Gary Carmichael, John Backus, John Chambard, Jerry Cornelison, G. Thatcher Darwin, Jack Dolan, Ugo Fadini, Bob Falcon, Rich Fox, Glenn Freudenberger, Don Garlits, Bruce Geisler, Stan Goldstein, Andy Granatelli, Walt James, Wendy Jeffries, Ken Kelley, Mike Kelly, Bret Kepner, Kay Kimes, Jim Lattin, Mary Ann and Jack Lawford, Fred Lobello, Eric Loe, Dick Martin, Ron Martinez, Tom McIntyre, Don McMeekin, Bob McMillian, Tom Medley, Jim Miller, Don Montgomery, Bob Morton, Mark Morton, Paula Murphy, Landspeed Louise Ann Noeth, Frank Oddo, David Parks, Richard Parks, Wally Parks (in memoriam), Eric Rickman, Willard Ritchie, Roger Rohrdanz, Evelyn Roth, Ed Safarik, Frank Salzberg, Dave Seely, Charles Shaffer, Mike Stanton, David Steele, Doug Stokes, Bob Storck, Zach Suhr, Maggie Summers, Gary Svoboda, Pat Swanson, Al Teague, JD Tone, Jim Travis, Randy Travis, Jack Underwood and Tina Van Curen, Richard Venza.

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