SOCIETY OF LAND SPEED RACING HISTORIANS
NEWSLETTER 110 - May 7, 2009
Editor: Richard Parks [email protected]
President's Corner: By Jim Miller (1-818-846-5139)

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Some Names To Look For In This Newsletter:
 President's Corner, Editorials, You probably already heard, but Wes Potter called to tell me that Bob Pierson passed away Wednesday morning, On the passing of Chet Herbert written by Sara Fensterer, “Deuce Of Spades” - Resurrecting a fifties El Mirage dry lake SCTA meet - An impossible dream by Faith Granger, Will Scott is not doing well, we have arranged with Tina Van Curen at Autobooks in Burbank to have a hot rod discussion / book signing day at her store - Roger Harrell, I am trying to get one of my freelance writer friends in here to tell Bill "Willie" Davis' Stoy, I am writing a book on the quest for the land speed record in the 1960s with the rivalry between Craig Breedlove and Art Arfons being the primary focus, This is Thomas "Pork Pie" Graf the land speed historian and photogra�her from Germany I got a question which is your current email address....mparks1 or Rnparks1, A response to an email received in last week's newsletter, The Champion Speed Shop is back in South City from the Rod and Kulture Dragfest with a best yet 5.96-second elapsed time and 235 miles per hour run, 20th Anniversary of the Stater Brothers Route 66 Rendezvous will take place on May 10 - Thanks for your support - Stan Goldstein is in contact with me, On April 12 2009 Staci and I (Kenny Lyon) were on the Dave Stall radio show 1170 AM KCBQ, Do you know Richard Phethean?, Autobooks/Aerobooks will have a book signing by David Newhardt on Saturday May 16, Lenny Schaeffer owns Chop Shop Customs in Woburn Massachusetts, AMA Pro Racing - California Bike Week and Gene Romero's West Coast Flat Track Series is adding an event to the 2009 AMA Pro Flat Track schedule, Random Pictures

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President's Corner:  
   With the first El Mirage race of the season around the corner it's time to reflect a little. A couple of weeks ago we had the annual inspectors meeting to get up to speed on rule changes. This last weekend the Coupe and Sedan and GT/Mod Sports guys got together. As you know progress never rests, but it also causes a lot of problems. Our big problem these days is car classification. It was easy way back when to say this was a coupe and sedan and this was a GT car. Nowadays it's not so easy. The lines are so blurred. Cars like a Corvette are real GT's but what about a Honda Insite or CRX. These cars aren't really GT cars but they're not sedans either. The small coupes are causing the problems. It used to be if Miler Mike Stewart wouldn't fit in the back seat of a car it was a GT. We got to sit in the back of a new Hyundai not too long ago that had four real seats, but if you were over 5'2" your head was in the hatchback glass. Our rules talk about continuous adult occupancy and this car would kill you after about 10 minutes. We've been wrestling with this problem for a couple of years now and think we're getting close to a solution. We will be making some recommendations that will be presented for rule changes to help us solve this dilemma. Now if we can only figure out if a SUV is a truck, a station wagon or a pregnant sedan.
   As a weirdo for years, I've kept all the junk that a sane person would toss in the trash. I pulled some of it out the other day and realized that this collected junk isn't really junk but remnants of our history; S.C.T.A. and BNI membership cards, member stickers, patches, hats, t-shirts and the list goes on and on. All this stuff tells our story. One look at a couple of shelves in the closet reveals two hundred plus T-shirts, most still in their original plastic bags. I call that unhealthy. The coolest ones are from Bonneville twenty plus years ago that showed the way to the salt through Nevada. Called out were the locations of houses of ill repute. It was something that you would expect from racers. There is also a flat-file filled with posters that go back quite far in time. The cars, type and layouts all reflect the tastes of the day. The one I like best is the 40th Annual from 1988 that shows 40 profiles of land speed cars. You tend to forget what you save so it's a treat to rediscover them. One drawer was filled with entry buttons, inspection stickers, meal tickets and dash plaques. All cool stuff. My favorite is the Timing Tag from Muroc in 2000 and here's a story to go with it.
   We had busted our butts getting the car ready for the event. We were also looking to set a record as the Muroc events were a year to year deal and who knew how long they would last. When it was time for a run I was dragged away from the inspection area and jumped in the car. Everything was fine until the top of second gear when the car got a little sideways. I lifted then got back into it and cleared the lights at a disappointing 180+. The team was so bummed we didn't go 200 that we shined on going to impound to get certificated and collect the record. Naturally some beverages were consumed and we were going to try again the next morning. We were up with the sun and ready to rock and roll only there was a little problem. The burst plate on the blower had worked too well the day before and had a big hole in it. Not having one on hand presented a problem so we did the next best thing and improvised. Some of the beverages consumed the previous night were in aluminum cans so we cut a few of the uncrushed ones and fitted them where the original burst plate had lived. Great idea but it didn't work. Oh well, at least we have a Muroc story and if we were a little wiser we would have had the record, even though it wasn't a 200 MPH one. On a couple of shelves in the bookcase are some cardboard magazine holders filled with Bonneville programs. The stories in them are full of info that gives one insight into the past. The '58 cover is an all-time classic in that the Kenz & Leslie streamliner is shown eight times on just this cover. All the stories that go with our sport are priceless. That's why Richard and I are collecting them. We urge you to add your story to them.

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Editorial:
Some members have written in to say that they are confused about some of our terminology. They tell me that their emails to me are confidential and yet they appeared in the newsletter. Except that they didn't use the words "confidential or personal." They thought that I should know their minds and read their thoughts. Surprisingly, I can read most of your thoughts or you would all be up in arms by now and looking for my hiding place. I take pride in getting your intentions right about 95% of the time without any help from you. It is that 5% that I need you to tell me what to do. There is no use for the readers to send me emails that give lots of details, history and facts, if they don't want me to share it. I don't do "personal" very well. What am I going to do with tons of letters, phone calls, emails and packages with information, "For your eyes only." I can keep secrets, but frankly it is a waste of my time. I'm an editor, not a priest and I don't do confessions. That's another line of work and Jim Miller and I are not in that field. We are historians and editors and our job is to print, publish and write. So if you need to tell me something that is personal and confidential, then write plainly on your email or letter the following words, PERSONAL or CONFIDENTIAL. You can also say, "If you print this I will track you down and rearrange your looks," or words to that effect. Just as long as you tell me what your intentions are.
Now sometimes I feel that your emails could be personal, but I would like to use it in the newsletter, so I will edit it, add my comments and send it back to you with words like, "The following will appear in the next issue of the newsletter." That means it's going to be published and to let me know if you don't want it in print. Or I might say, "Please check the following for errors," and that also means that I want you to respond. If you don't respond, your letter goes in "as is." The job of editor and President of the Society are non-paid and very time consuming. I spend hours typing away every day, seven days a week and Jim doubles that easily. We get grouchy when you say you're going to do something and you forget or come back late on something we've asked you to do. Here's a common response, "But you said that you wanted me to check it before you published it and here it is in print." That's right, but I sent that to you six months ago. If I ask you, DO it and do it quick. If I ever get reincarnated as a Western gunslinger, don't expect me to say 'DRAW,' and don't nod off, because when I pull that pistol from the holster the gunfight at the OK Corral is over. If you're doing a story, do it and get it in. We have deadlines and I hold you to those deadlines.
It's implied what I mean. That is, figure it out and don't ask me to explain it to you. Would you go up to Mickey Thompson and ask him for a Mulligan? Or ask Bob Petersen for an extra day to get your story done? If I ask for it Friday, it's due on Thursday. Or better yet, on Wednesday. The words LATE and HATE mean the same to me. There are the hot rodders who get the job done and the ones who simply talk about it. Excuses, boy do we get excuses. If you see, "Rumpel Stiltskin is on vacation (or assignment)," that means that I've given up calling, emailing and threatening that person for their story. If you see the phrase, "working on it," or "in the process," you will know that all forms of hot rodder's special curse words have failed to motivate the truly lazy procrastinator to finish their research and type out their report. If you see an error, correct it. Send me an email and address the issue, then the correction to the error. If you don't correct an error that you see, then the error is YOURS, as well as Jim's and mine. This is a shared newsletter, meaning that the Board of Directors is each and every one of you and you are all responsible for the content. If you don't know that an error has been made, then that's one thing. But if you do know and fail to tell us, then you are partly at fault.
If you have a history or a story, but refuse to tell it, then as a member you haven't kept your part of the promise that membership entails. If you haven't captioned your photographs, then you have let yourself and the rest of us down, for an uncaptioned photo is a worthless one. Have you made a survey of your possessions so that one day your heirs will know what to do with all your treasures and what they truly mean to you? This is a working newsletter. We aren't going to chase away the couch potatoes who simply want to sit and do nothing. But that isn't the reason we formed this group and created this newsletter. We did this project because we truly want to save hot rodding history for the next generation and we have no other purpose in mind. That means that we expect that you will do your bios, caption your photos and do a little research and get it to Jim and I, on time and well done. Some have said that we are fussy and expect too much. I have an answer for that - YES! If you write 1500 words, I am going to ask you to give me 500 more. If you have captioned 100 photographs, I am going to ask that you triple that. Editors are grumpy people. They are never pleased. They expect too much and they demand more than people want to give. They are drill sergeants of the written word. So when you see, "The following will appear," that means, "you're late, do it now." Other than that, Jim and I are simply delightful people.

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You probably already heard, but Wes Potter called to tell me that Bob Pierson passed away Wednesday morning.  David Parks
   David: I called Dick Pierson and he confirmed that his brother, Bob, did pass away on April 29, 2009 early in the morning. Bob was a co-owner of the Pierson Brother's Coupe, now owned by Bruce Meyer and on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Bob was born October 9, 1926 and passed away on April 29, 2009 at the age of 82. According to Dick Pierson, Bob's widow Sandra plans on having a private memorial and requests that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Save The Salt, which was dear to Bob's heart. Contact Mike Cook for instructions on how to honor Bob's name with a Save The Salt gift. If anyone has a biography, story, remembrance or obituary for Bob, please send it in to the newsletter.

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On the passing of Chet Herbert, written by Sara Fensterer. Villa Park, California, April 23, 2009.
Drag racing pioneer and innovator Chester "Chet" Herbert died on April 23, 2009. Herbert, born on March 4, 1928, overcame huge personal challenges and went on to develop some of auto racing's most significant speed components. Growing up in Southern California's early hot rod scene, the teenaged Herbert had a reputation for building and racing fast cars and motorcycles. When he was 20 years old, though, he was stricken with polio and lived the rest of his life in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the chest down. "My grandmother told me he was so wild about racing, that if he didn't have polio to slow him down, he probably would have died," said son Doug Herbert, 41, who followed his father into professional drag racing. "When my dad was 12, my grandma bought him a trumpet and hoped he'd learn to play. But he traded the trumpet for a Cushman motor scooter and it was life in the fast lane ever since." Lying in a hospital iron-lung for six months in 1948, Herbert developed ideas for manufacturing racing parts in his head. When he was released, he developed the first roller camshafts for race cars and was among the first to try nitromethane fuel in a dragster after reading how the German army had used it to power torpedoes during World War II.
Although he never personally raced again, Herbert fielded scores of dragsters, drag motorcycles and land speed-record streamliners for other
drivers. His racing Harley-Davidson, nicknamed "The Beast," was the fastest quarter-mile dragster in its day, having achieved a then record-shattering 129 mph, faster than any car in 1950. Herbert also developed the zoomie-type exhaust header, which blew the smoke away from a dragster's rear tires in order to achieve better traction, helping them break the 200 mph record. Herbert was one of the first to establish a successful speed shop and parts mail-order business. According to hot rod historian Greg Sharp of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, Herbert was probably the first racing parts retailer to utilize advertising in national magazines to reach consumers. His chopped 1932 Ford sedan was a rolling billboard for his business. He built it with a Hydromatic transmission so he could drive it using hand controls. It was featured in the March, 1952, issue of Hot Rod Magazine and in 2007, was voted one of the most significant 1932 Ford hot rods in history.
Herbert was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1993.
"My dad was my hero. He taught me so much about how to be a strong and determined person. Despite the fact that he had polio and was in a wheelchair for much of his life, he never let that stop him from doing anything. He proved to everyone that he could accomplish whatever he set his mind to; which taught me that, no matter how tough something may seem, if you fight hard enough, you can overcome it. I always looked up to him. I'm glad I had the opportunity to follow in his footsteps and be involved in a sport that he helped to invent. Some of my best memories with my dad were made over the past year. We had grown much closer since my boys, Jon and James, died in a car accident in early 2008. I will miss my dad very much. I am lucky to have many wonderful memories of him that I will always cherish," Doug Herbert added. Chet Herbert is survived by his wife, Leanne; three children: Doug; daughter Heather Herbert-Binetti and daughter Tracey Drage; and his sister Doris, who as editor of Drag News, was also inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1993. Herbert was preceded in death by his sister, Fay Trout, and by grandsons, Jon and James Herbert. To overcome the sorrow of his grandsons' death in 2008, Herbert and son Doug were in the process of building a Bonneville streamliner with which they hoped to achieve 500 MPH, breaking the world speed record for piston-powered, wheel-driven cars. Son Doug is still determined to accomplish that dream. A memorial celebration of Herbert's life will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, May 2, at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1855 Orange Olive Road, Orange, CA 92865. A private, graveside family service will be held that afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Fair Haven Memorial Park in Santa Ana. From Sara Fensterer, Public Relations, Doug Herbert Racing and B.R.A.K.E.S. (sent in by Mike Carson)

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“DEUCE OF SPADES” - Resurrecting a fifties El Mirage dry lake SCTA meet - An impossible dream, by Faith Granger.
I think that one of the things that drew me most about '32 roadsters was the role they played, for many years, on the dry lakes. I fell in love with them from the moment I laid eyes on them, dusty, stripped down to their bare and purest form, white numbers gracing their flanks. I was instantly fascinated by the whole thing, and especially the gorgeous lunar like setting. So when I wrote the script of DEUCE OF SPADES I knew I wanted to somehow, incorporate all of this into the story and bring it all back to life. What seemed like an impossible task was made possible with a little luck and a lot of perseverance on my part. Finding period correct cars that were reliable enough to be driven all the way up to El Mirage was a real challenge, especially since I had no budget to work with. I found that I was one of very few nostalgia '32 roadsters to attend the SCTA meets and one of the few owners who didn't shy at driving for two hours to get there. In fact, I had done it so many times it now felt like no big deal at all. However, other car owners did not feel the same way. They worried about overheating and breaking down, possibly for good reasons. But I refused to give up and in the end was able to pull it off with the help of Providence, which once again seemed to provide me with just what I needed, just when I needed it.
   After watching many hours of home filmed footage of SCTA 1950's meets, I had a good idea of what I wanted to depict. I set out on a real hunt for some of the rare articles I would need to really bring the scene to life: Such as the SCTA timing tower, the SCTA black board, and of course the famous "Crocker Timer" machine. Believe me when I say this: Finding the latter was no picnic. The SCTA itself didn't have any left and neither did any of the museums I was referred to. But by a miracle of God, I did finally locate one. Complete, with all three clocks! So imagine the surprise and excitement when I showed up at the SCTA meet last fall, hauling a Crocker Machine in the back of my truck! Everybody wanted to "gander" at it! Another item was the SCTA timing tower. I got lucky on that one, since it turned out that one of my closest SCTA friends still had one of the two towers sitting in his backyard! My task was to then film it in such a way that it could be later inserted into the scene. The Tower actually never left the backyard as it was not moveable. Another item was the timing board. This one we built from scratch to match the original SCTA timing board down to the smallest details. Special thanks to Jerry Mull for volunteering to build it. Special thanks to Jim Miller for then helping me fill it with accurate information. Although the shot only lasts a mere few seconds, if you were to pause it and really looked at all the classes and times recorded on it that day, you would find that they were derived from the SCTA book of records for that year. It was very important to me that all the information on that board be 100% accurate. I took the scene very seriously. We bumped Johnny's time up a bit, cause he is after all the hero and legend!
   Finding cars to stage the scene was extremely difficult. We had only a very limited number. Special Thanks to the L.A Reelers for lending their car club nostalgia roadsters for the scene and to all the other impromptu participants who joined the shoot at the very last minute. You guys saved the day! The music I picked as well the way I shot the scene give you a "you were right there, amidst them" feel that I absolutely love. You will feel like you are back in the fifties, amidst the young hotrodders, waking up next to their fast machines and then getting up to get their cars ready to do their run, as the sun rises over the dry lake. You will see them push roadsters and also see Johnny do a quick run across the lake, and pass the Crocker Timer Machine, breaking his own record. His time is then recorded on the black board. The scene ends with a very cool Coca Cola moment. Getting special clearance from Coca Cola is a very difficult thing as they are very picky about who they associate their names with, and for the little no-budget indie filmmaker it is usually impossible. They requested a lot of material to be submitted, including the entire script for their review! 

   Coca Cola remains one of the two largest brands and hardest to get as far as films go. Well, another miracle happened and they must have fallen in love with the script and the concept of “DEUCE OF SPADES” because they did sign the release and allowed me to use their brand name and depict their product! This was really a big deal. Let's face it, it is not a fifties movie if it doesn't have Coca Cola in it! I was able to then show my hotrodders drinking Coca Cola at the end of a hot day of racing, which made for a lovely closing shot. All in all one of my favorite car scenes in the film. I was truly honored to be able to resurrect the good ol' days of dry lake racing and hope that the scene and the film might inspire many to return to the dry lakes with their nostalgia cars and attend the SCTA monthly meets. I look forward to seeing you there! For more information on my hot rod film “DEUCE OF SPADES”, visit the official website at www.deuceofspadesmovie.com. Please help me finish
this film by making a small donation. Contributors will receive a special thank you credit at the end of the film. We are grateful for your support
and help.  Faith Granger

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Will Scott is not doing well. He is having problems with diabetes of which evolved from his gall bladder operation. I thought you'd like to know. He has spent two weeks in the hospital as of this Saturday. Evelyn Roth
   Evelyn: Thank you for the update and we will let the racing community know. Will Scott bought my brother's record setting dry lakes and Bonneville Camaro. Will is a member of the Gold Coast Roadster and Racing Club located in the Buellton, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria areas. He has volunteered and worked on the Gas-Up Parties and Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame executive committees. Will is a long-time friend of Jack and Mark Mendenhall and assists with their Mendenhall Gas Pump Museum, located on Zaca Street in Buellton, California. I served with Will, Jack and Evelyn at Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada in the summer of 1997 on the security detail as Craig Breedlove, Richard Noble and Andy Green attempted to set the world's unlimited speed limit. I was there for 7 weeks and Will for about 12 weeks. We send along our best wishes for a speedy recovery so that Will can get the old Camaro running and break my brother's records and earn that red hat that he deserves so much to have.

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I wanted to let you know that we have arranged with Tina Van Curen at Autobooks in Burbank to have a hot rod discussion / book signing day at her store. There's no presentation by us, people just dropping in to talk with us and themselves between 10am and 2pm on Saturday, May 30, 2009. It will be a casual get together of interested people who want to talk about hot rods from the 1930s through the '50s, or any other decade. Of course, we hope some of the discussions will center on our book: Harrell Engines & Racing Equipment; Jim (White) Harrell & Nick Harrell (as described in www.HarrellEnginesHotRodding.com), but that's not necessary for a good get together. Rich, Alec, and I will be there, and we hope your schedules will allow you to join us. AUTOBOOKS-AEROBOOKS, 3524 W. Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, California 91505. 818-845-0707, www.Autobooks-Aerobooks.com. Hope to see you there, Roger Harrell

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I just ran across your article about Ken Walkey and was sitting here reading it with Bill 'Willie' Davis of Hill / Davis Streamliner fame. Willie is still vertical, most days, and we sit and talk about his Bonneville days almost every day. He recently brought out a stack of SCTA and RTA timing tags that include names of some of the people in the article. We have been threatening for a couple of years to resurrect the streamliner and make a return to Bonneville even if only for show. Willie was back on the salt in 2005 after many years away. He is not getting any younger and I am trying to get one of my freelance writer friends in here to tell his story.  Dave Thomas
   Dave and Bill: Our group is called the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians and we are located on www.landspeedracing.com. Sign up for the free newsletter and read more of the stories sent in. Our goal is to save the history of land speed racing, hot rodding and pre-1960 drag racing. Below is a guideline that we use to get people to start on their biographies. It's simple, just answer as quickly as you can the questions and send it back to me to edit. We would love to know more about the Hill/Davis streamliner and only Bill is able to tell us what he faced in overcoming the obstacles in his path. The newsletter is shared, that means everyone is welcome to add to it. Thanks for letting us know and write in often.

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I am writing a book on the quest for the land speed record in the 1960s, with the rivalry between Craig Breedlove and Art Arfons being the primary focus. The title is “Speed Duel”. I have read with interest your two articles at Hotrod Hotline on George Callaway and Kay Kimes, and was wondering if you could put me in touch with them so I could interview them over the phone about their experiences with Art Arfons. To give you some idea of the project, I am including (below) the book description from the proposal my agent is shopping around. With kind regards,
Sam Hawley, Ontario, Canada. Telephone: 613-767-6076. e-mail: [email protected]
Book Description:
The first cars were built in the 1880s. Within a decade men had started to race them. Some raced against each other, sputtering down lanes in head-to-head contests that would evolve into Le Mans, Indianapolis, Formula One. Others raced against the clock, striving to set what would come to be called the World Land Speed Record. Throughout the 1920s, '30s and '40s the record was held by British gentleman-racers, LSR giants Malcolm Campbell, Henry Segrave, George Eyston, and John Cobb. Then, in the 1950s, the energy that would drive the record upward shifted to the US, to a new breed of speed aficionados who called themselves hot rodders and drag racers. These back-yard builders had been souping up cars for years to see what they could do on nearby runways and dry lakebeds. Now they started eying the land speed record. What had previously seemed unattainable, the preserve of wealthy aristocrats with national industrial backing, began to loom large for an intrepid few as the ultimate challenge. And so they started building their own racers to go for the record. Some went the traditional route, using car engines, or surplus piston engines from WWII aircraft. Others wanted even more power and turned to jets, the thrust monsters that pushed fighter planes to mach two and beyond. The contest really got underway in the summer of 1960, with five men contending for the record on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. Some of them would die in horrific crashes. Others would come close and prudently choose to retire. By the middle of the decade only two men would be left standing, Akron mechanic Art Arfons and LA fireman Craig Breedlove, locked in a duel from which neither would back down. They would build the most powerful cars in the world and push the record up through 400, 500 and 600 mph in the space of only three years. They would pour their souls into their machines and risk their lives driving them fast on the salt, experiencing some of the most spectacular crashes in motor sport history. They would do it for glory, to make history, to make money-and because they loved speed.
“Speed Duel” is the story of the quest for the land speed record in the 1960s and the epic rivalry that developed between Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove, arguably the most exciting episode in LSR history. It would be a work of literary nonfiction, focusing primarily on the human drama of the story. It is a quintessential American tale in the tradition of The “Right Stuff” - except that it's not about hand-picked, highly trained men doing great things in a huge government program. It's about ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things in their own their backyards and garages and out on the salt flats. It's about regular guys playing the most dangerous game in the world.
Sam: I'm going to leave in your telephone number and email address so that our readers can contact you if they want. I will talk to George and Kay today. I will also send this to our President, Jim Miller and you can call him as his phone number is listed in the newsletter's masthead and he prefers phone calls over emails. Look through the past issues of The Society of Land Speed Racing Historians Newsletter, which is posted on www.landspeedracing.com for references to the topics that you want to research. That will give you some leads. You may write to the newsletter as often as you wish and use it as sort of a blog to generate responses to your questions. If you don't hear back from George, Kay and Jim in a reasonable time, please let me know. There are lots of people out there who have photos and personal knowledge of the era and they will be glad to assist you. It is important that you have references and places where people can check out your credentials. Follow the rules of our society and return all photographs and objects lent to you in a reasonable time and in the same condition that you received them in. Some of our members will not ship things to you and so you will have to go to where they live or get someone to scan the objects and send them to you by computer. Jim Miller can find someone who is a professional who can do that for you for a reasonable price. You should not make any trips to various parts of the United States or Canada until you have put together an itinerary of all those who can help you. There are literally hundreds of people who worked with Arfons, Breedlove and the other jet car land speed racers. It is a rich field and the guys are mostly still alive and in good health. It is a field that needs more books and research done. Don't forget Richard Noble. He is a latecomer, but he's earned his way into the hearts and minds of all land speed racing fans.

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This is Thomas "Pork Pie" Graf, the land speed historian and photogra�her from Germany. I got a question, which is your current email address....mparks1 or Rnparks1. I lost contact with Stan Goldstein. I know that the AOL provider makes sometimes trouble - had this for a while with Ugo Fadini, and Ugo had to use a gmx address to get in touch with me. Someone told me last year at the salt that there is a rumor that Stan passed away...please let me know what the reality is...thanks in advance. Second question was about the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians...how I can get a member of this Society? Jim (Miller) told me last year at the salt he would be glad if I would join the Society...but I lost his email connection...it was somewhere on a card he gave me....and I can't find the card. At last I saw a while ago that you be also involved into the Society...so what do I have to do? Did you read my last article from the meets at Bonneville in the Fast Facts...the Speed Record Club magazine? Thomas "Pork Pie" Graf
Thomas: Stan Goldstein is alive and well and I will BCC him in this email. I saw Stan at Jim Deist's Memorial Celebration of Life and he looks very good. Stan has a wealth of information on land speed and other forms of racing. Ugo does all this great research on LSR before he makes his models, which are of the first rank in authenticity and quality. I have been trying to get Stan and Ugo to do their biographies, because that should provide for some fascinating reading. My email address is [email protected]. It isn't case sensitive so you can use lower or upper case. The problem started when I had business cards read lower case and rn (RN) looks very much like an m (M) and people were sending their notices to the wrong email address. I feel very sorry for anyone who is Mparks1, wherever he/she may be that may be getting all my emails and wondering who I am. All that you have to do to become a member of the free Society and Newsletter is to go to the website, www.landspeedracing.com and sign in. It's as simple as that. Once you have done that you are officially a member. We don't charge dues, fees or have any posts, except for editor and President, so the way that you participate is to send in your articles, stories, captioned photographs and biography and tell us what you know in your area of specialty. We can really use a historian to tell us more about European land speed racing, including the German, French, Belgian and English attempts on the record during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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(editor-The following is a response to an email received in last week's newsletter)
My uncle, Charlie Beck and his brother George, were members of the Centuries Club as was Stu Hilborn and Bill Donovan and they were definitely not Black. A further check shows the Centuries first mentioned in S.C.T.A. literature being a club in 1941. I've heard the Mercuries were an all black club but checking programs, Manny Ayulo was a member and he wasn't black, but Hispanic. I know there was a black club but confirmation is lacking. From what I've seen there were no color lines in our kind of racing. The early S.C.T.A. and individual Club minutes are the only thing that will really clear this subject up. The one problem we have in '38 is that the S.C.T.A. Racing News covering the July and August meets have never been found. It wasn't until the '39 season that the programs started listing club affiliations. The only Wilson mentioned in '38 that I have found is Richmond. I found no Wilson's in '39. Guy Wilson was a Highway Baron in '40 as was my other uncle Bill Dean and they were white also. In '41 Howard Wilson surfaces as a Low Flyer and he was also white.
As to Veda Orr, I think it's in Al Drakes interview that she talks about her driving. I know she drag raced in San Diego in Karl's car before jumping in for a ride at the lakes, again pre war. That's another problem with the record keeping. The car owner and drivers were sometimes different folks so confirming who drove and when is impossible. Before the MTA started Earl Gilmore was involved with sponsorship. The Purdy Brothers also did the Timing at the events. They were based out of Santa Monica. As to the Timing Tags the S.C.T.A. has a policy on who and how many each team can receive. They don't do tags for non-members to stick on their cars. It's all in the recent minutes. As of now I know of four old clubs that minutes do exist for. Until they're read and understood, and missing results and Racing News' are found it's wise not to speculate without saying so. Jim Miller, Society President
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(Editor's comments: car and neighborhood clubs formed around local interests, i.e. kids coming together at someone's garage where they could work on cars or simply socialize. As the clubs became better known and more popular, they attracted members from further away. Based on the demographics and ethnic make-up of a neighborhood, the racial component of clubs varied. The Mercuries were said to be mostly black, according to oral witnesses like Ak Miller and others. I've been told that Johnny Junkin, who was white, was a leader in the Mercuries, but that hasn't been confirmed. There were certain prejudices and biases at that time toward ethnic groups, but in the SCTA it wasn't as pronounced as in the general public. That is a statement that I can make without hesitation. The 1930's and '40's cannot be equated to our view of race relationships today. In some regards the tolerance in land speed racing on the dry lakes was very modern and even better than it is today. But that wasn't always the case and people were segregated in the '40's. The point is that the car culture was the predominant influence not historical and cultural patterns. Within their small world, the hot rodders lived a life that was often detached from the wider world around them.
That meant that when they were around their families they might have been just as prejudiced as their families were, but around the car culture of the clubs, the young men found themselves very liberated and accepting of others. Some would say that I'm too optimistic and that I'm projecting my feelings of today back seventy years and suggesting that they thought then exactly as we are thinking today. I'm aware of that problem and I rest my case on written minutes and texts that have come forward to show that indeed there was an inter-racial cooperation, respect and even admiration for the various groups that made up the hot rodding world long ago. When the hot rodders were living in their little corner of the world, in their meetings, on the dry lakes or at races, they interacted based on what a person had achieved in the car culture. And that interaction was very positive indeed. We have talked in the past about Mel Leighton, who was black, being the treasurer for the SCTA. We have mentioned the outpouring of support for Danny Sakai, when he died tragically. The Oka brothers were well respected. There were many Hispanics, chief of whom was the Indy driver, Manny Ayulo, Joaquin Arnett and the Bean Bandits and Dave Marquez and the Motor Monarchs.
Some of the clubs had a reputation that suffered, while others were quite respected. Some were little more than juvenile delinquents and petty thugs. There were thousands of car clubs around the country and rarely were they alike or had the same values, except where the car culture was concerned. That was their mother tongue, their Lingua Franca, their language all their own which they shared and which was all but unintelligible to the rest of the world. As historians, we have to do valid research and then draw conclusions from that research. My view is that we are vastly different in how we look at the world in 2009, compared to 1939 and that the car culture was much more accepting of people back then, but not in the same way that we accept people today. They were more advanced in the way that they rewarded people based on merit than was the general public during the 1930's. That isn't to say they were better than the general public, only that the car culture played a role in how they reacted to minority groups within their groups. The rule that Jim Miller is stating is that we base our conclusions on facts. There will be times when we have holes in our knowledge where facts are missing and we will have to extrapolate from what we do know to what we don't know. All scientists and historians do this and we are no different. Where we do know for a certainty, we say so and where we draw a conclusion on something because we are lacking certain facts, then we must say so.

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Thanks very much for putting the word out. I'm looking forward to getting into this project. I'm definitely an outsider to land speed racing, but I'm learning. Just to give you a little background about myself: I have BA and MA degrees in history from Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. While living in East Asia from 1988 to 2007 (I retired as an associate professor of Communicative English at Yonsei University in Seoul) I wrote three books of what I guess you would call a scholarly nature:
“The Imjin War: Japan's 16th Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China” (co-published in 2005 by the Royal Asiatic Society, Seoul, and the Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley) “America's Man in Korea: The Private Letters of George C. Foulk, 1884-1887” (Lexington Books, 2007) “Inside the Hermit Kingdom: The 1884 Korea Travel Diary of George Clayton Foulk“ (Lexington Books, 2007) I retired from teaching and returned home to Canada in 2007 and am now a full-time writer of literary non-fiction. My first completed manuscript in this new vein is I Just Ran: The Life and Times of Percy Williams, World's Fastest Human, which my agent Arnold Gosewich is now shopping around to publishers. The Breedlove/Arfons book, “Speed Duel”, is my next project. With kind regards, Sam Hawley Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Email: [email protected].
Sam: I graduated with a degree in Oriental History myself, but never went into that field. Please write in as often as you want to, especially if you have questions. The newsletter goes out once a week to about 500 people and there's a good chance that one of our members will know the answers that you are looking for. In doing research, it isn't always the answers that are needed, but good questions. You need to talk to as many people as you can so that you don't start writing, only to find that you're half-way through your book and have missed finding major areas that are integral to your story. Most of our members are amateur historians of the highest zeal and they will proof read your text and lead you in the right directions. The quicker that you find your sources, the easier it will be to do your research and then start writing. There are hundreds of people alive who were part of those challenges to the ultimate land speed record. The first was Doc Ostich. You can find out more about him from Greg Sharp at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California. Call him at 909-622-2133. I am going to include your email address, but not your home address. That way you can work through your sources as you organize your workload.

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The 20th Anniversary of the Stater Brothers Route 66 Rendezvous will take place on Sunday, May 10, 2009 with the Beach Boys in concert at the California Theatre of Performing Arts. We will unveil the new T-Shirt at that time.  Karen Blanco, Director of Communications, San Bernardino Convention & Visitors Bureau Stater Bros. Route 66 Rendezvous. California Welcome Center - San Bernardino. Phone: 909-891-1151 ext. 28. Toll Free: 800-867-8366 ext. 28. 1955 Hunts Lane, Suite 102, San Bernardino, CA 92408-3344. See www.route-66.org, or www.san-bernardino.org.

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Thanks for your support. Stan Goldstein is in contact with me. To Ugo, yes, it is some fun to work together with him for a new model....the investigation is sometimes like Sherlock Holmes. Especially with the Infinity, which Ugo has done for Omicron. Needs me some computer CAD hours to be sure that the dimension was roughly right. Also one of the decals was a troublemaker, we found them at last on picture from other Palamides jet car...if we had not found them, I fear Ugo wouldn't sleep for a long time...I will see about member of the Society. Hope my English will be good enough to write something about LSR history. This for the moment and thanks again for your help. Thomas "Pork Pie" Graf
   Thomas: Write in often and tell us what kind of research that you are doing and what you have discovered in your studies. Don't worry about your English, it's fine. As an editor I change things to make them more understandable and you aren't the only writer to this newsletter that has problems with the language. A lot of American hot rodders who write to the newsletter also make grammatical and spelling errors, including me as well. I make some changes where I think it will improve the understanding of the writer to the members, but otherwise I will leave most of the emails alone, without redaction. Ugo is one of the top level of model builders in the world. I tell him constantly to send me more information on what he's doing and to use this newsletter to tell us about his work. He has a loyal following who buy his models and we hope that he continues to create new ones for a long, long time. Please tell Ugo to write out a list of the models that he has built and sold and send it to me so that I can publish it here for our members to see. That way we will know what models are done and perhaps we can suggest new projects for Ugo to construct in the future.

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On April 12, 2009, Staci and I were on the Dave Stall radio show, 1170 AM KCBQ. Staci set her first record at SpeedWeek in 2008, on my GL 1800 equipped with a racing sidecar. We talked about Bonneville Racing and the Ride for Kids. I first met Staci at the Salt Lake City Ride for Kids last August, and she rode her own bike to the Ride. To play the radio show on your computer: Click on the web link below:
www.kcbq.motorsport.com. Find and click on: KCBQ-4.14.09 Part 2. Set volume on your computer: Click on Speaker Icon to set the volume. I will be bringing the GoldWing Streamliner, a record holding Vintage Class 1949 Triumph, and our racing photo "tree" to the May 3, Ride for Kids. See www.goldwingracingproject.info and www.projectgoldwing.org. Kenny Lyon
AND
Hi Kenny, The link for your sponsors or interested parties to listen directly is: http://kcbq.motorsportwebdesigns.com/shows.html, please click on "KCBQ-4.14.09 Part 2." I tried to get the show segment from the "downloads page" but the segments are mis-labeled. I cc'd Dave here to let him know so we can get that corrected and the show segment sent to you. See [email protected], Host, Ride-On Offroad Racing Roundup, Sundays 1-1:15PM, KCBQ, AM 1170, "intelligent talk radio. Alex Plewniak, Powersports Channel Manager

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Do you know Richard Phethean? I think he took over the 'Offenhauser' hot rod parts from 'young' Fred Offenhauser. Do you know the story? Could you fill me in? This could become a publishable article. Ken Berg
    Ken: I don't know Phethean, but maybe Stewart Van Dyne can help you. Readers, do you have any information on Offenhauser?

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Autobooks/Aerobooks will have a book signing by David Newhardt on his photographic work called GTO Pontiac's Great One, on Saturday, May 16, 2009, from 10AM - 2 PM, 3524 W Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, CA 91505.  Tina Van Curen

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Editor's notes: Lenny Schaeffer owns Chop Shop Customs in Woburn, Massachusetts and puts out a newsletter for those interested in hot rodding in the East. See http://www.chop-shopcustoms.com/Home.html.

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AMA Pro Racing, California Bike Week and Gene Romero's West Coast Flat Track Series is adding an event to the 2009 AMA Pro Flat Track schedule. On October 24, 2009, the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship and Gene Romero's West Coast Flat Track Series will co-headline the largest motorcycle flat track race on the west coast at the lightning-fast 5/8-mile race track at the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona, California during the 2009 California Bike Week festivities.  Pattie Frost

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Caption. Courtesy of Don Oaks.
Looking through albums for a picture for an old friend and ran across some of my old cars. Also this month's Rodders Journal (on the magazine racks) mentions my T roadster, on page 133 as, "the coolest driver he had ever scene," and a picture of it on page 139. Thought you might enjoy the old car pics.  Don Oaks (Don Oaks Collection)

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Caption:
Speed Demon 2009, the Dart "Hellfire V/8" 2200 horsepower engine at 9500 RPM. Photos courtesy of Ron Main.
SPEEDDEMON 2009
DART "HELLFIRE V/8" 2,200 HP. @ 9500 RPM.

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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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