SOCIETY OF LAND SPEED RACING HISTORIANS
NEWSLETTER 95 - January 21, 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:
How long do we land speed racers have? Early Dry lakes racer Dick Kraft passed away, There will be no services for Jay Steel at his request, Mari Palash has been moved out of the ICU to a regular room, Faith Granger has a new movie called the DEUCE OF SPADES, Award for Outstanding Sportmanship, a couple of rare photos of The Blue Flame, Among the attached photos is a 1985 match race between the Green Mamba driven by Doug Rose and the U.S. 1 (aka Valkyrie) driven by Fred Sibley, The tireless wheels, Noted a reference in SLSRH #94 concerning the Bob Rufi Streamliner and may be able to shed some light on what became of that vehicle, Wally Parks Day, February 5, 2009, News from Hotrod Hotline, The 75th Anniversary of the 1933-34 Ford Model 40 Exhibit will open at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum on January 24 and run until June 2009, date set for the March Meet for March 6-8, 2009, and Random Photos.

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President's Corner:  
   How long do we land speed racers have? The other night at the Sidewinders meeting one of our members who is a member of the Friends of El Mirage informed us about the Marine Corp facility at Twenty Nine Palms wanting to expand. The chunk of property they want to annex is an off-road recreational area called Johnson Valley. You're probably thinking what does this have to do with land speed racing. If you go back to the thirties there was an old dry lake called Muroc that was annexed by the military. Then they annexed a place called Rosamond Dry Lake. Then part of a place called Harper was turned into a bird sanctuary. See a pattern here. You start off with lots of usable land and not a bunch of people. Now you have a bunch of people and not a bunch of land. Where will it all end? Johnson Valley is used for off roading and is managed by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). El Mirage is also managed by the BLM and includes the lake bed and a large area around it also used for off-roading. The concern is that the folks who use Johnson Valley will now come to El Mirage making it even more of a zoo than it already is. In the last couple of years the BLM has fenced off the lakebed at El Mirage and put up some gates. This is good in some ways as it prevents jarheads from driving on the lakebed and doing donuts when it's wet and screwing up our racetrack. The bad thing is it now forces people to drive an extra 20 plus miles to come in the new paved entrance road with speed-bumps after closing off the other entrances. To add insult to injury, at the end of last year they even started charging you money to get on a lakebed that we, as citizens are supposed to own. If you dig a little further, you'll even find that some of the lakebed and surrounding area is still owned by private individuals, which is now fenced off. Great!
   Going back to the lead-off question, how long do we have? We are the only form of motorsports that doesn't have a barrier between the cars and the spectators. It's tough to get insurance to say the least and with an influx of more people on race weekends who knows how long we'll last. When you sit in a race vehicle you know it could be your last ride and the S.C.T.A./BNI does everything in its power to keep things safe. In the last few years we've added extra cones and fencing around our race area to define it. Does it work? No. People on motorbikes and cars drive into the race area all the time. The last close-call was when an unsupervised kid on a mini-bike looking for his dad drove into a racecar running on the track. He was lucky and ran into the side of the car that was running a hundred plus. A millisecond earlier and he would have been toast. Only time will tell how long our sport will survive.

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Editorial: 
   Jim touched on an issue that is vital to land speed racing and that is, "Will we always have a place to race our cars." The answer is murky at best, and if you read the old minutes of the SCTA, you will see that they raised the same questions in the 1930's and '40's as we are raising today. There is a close partnership between the SCTA and the BLM in regards to El Mirage, just as there is a close friendship between the BNI and the BLM over Bonneville. I have witnessed meetings between the rangers and racing officials and they genuinely like each other. Even at Black Rock Desert in Northern Nevada, during the 1997 attempt at the unlimited land speed record, the BLM and the Breedlove and Noble teams worked very well together. There have always been irritations and frictions between the government, land owners and the racers. There probably will always be problems facing land speed racers and the communities that they race in. But I firmly believe that as long as the BLM has a say in the matter, that land speed racing will have a safe and secure site to race on. The issue is this; "How long can the BLM take that stance?" It doesn't take much to move a friendly ranger to another assignment. It doesn't take much for land owners to begin development and ask for the area to be rezoned. It doesn't take much for environmentalists to find unprotected species and ask for habitat space. It doesn't take much at all for land speed racers to lose their lake beds and playas. 
   Fifty-five years ago my father would take my brother and I out on an adventure and for him that meant a drive lasting 16 hours and covering the distance from Orange County to the Mexican border, circling the Salton Sea and then home again. There was no road, however desperate and undriveable that he didn't take. For many years I truly believed that my father, and many of his friends, such as Ak Miller, loved the desert more than life itself. It was only in my fifties, while I was out driving in the desert myself, looking for a dry lake to race on, that I understood why he always took us out to the desert on our 'adventures.' He was looking for dry lakes to race on should we ever lose El Mirage. The minutes of the SCTA from 1937 through 1948 show that many others also spent time in the desert looking for lake beds that could act as back-ups, should that be necessary. My father also used his contacts and influence to help procure the right to race at Vandenberg AFB and to return to Muroc for a series of reunions and racing. There has never been a time when land speed racers felt comfortable in their ability to keep their dry lakes. It has always been and always will be a threat of losing a place to race. SCTA officials even considered buying land and paving it over to make a long straight-away. Once a man even approached the Association and offered to build such a facility and then rent it out to any land speed group that wished to use it. It was the cost that stopped them then, as it stops them from doing that today. 
   Just what will it take to assure land speed racers that our dry lakes and Bonneville will always be there for us to race on? In the immediate future we can feel reasonably safe in having viable venues to race on. But looking ahead over the next five to ten years, we aren't so positive. I'm sure that the SCTA has made every effort to forge strong ties with the BLM and sign contracts that will perpetuate land speed racing at El Mirage and Bonneville. But ominous clouds are on the horizon. President Bush signed into law vast amounts of land into the public trust and President Obama ran on a platform that stresses environmental protection. Meanwhile, the cities around the lake bed are expanding and demand for recreational areas is booming, while the available land is being put into habitat preserves. Politicians living back East do not see or understand our needs. They simply look at numbers and when they do that they can see that animal and plant life is being depleted. Not by land speed racers. We aren't the problem, but we are very visible and thus an easy target for Washington's politicians to pick on. There is a way in which we can protect ourselves and that is by organizing a political wing and working toward protecting our interests. I suggested that to the boat racers and their organizations, as they were much more susceptible to losing their venue sites to racing than were land speed racers. Their response suggested that if it was going to be that much effort that they would simply stop. There really isn't any other alternative. The old SCTA of the thirties and forties realized that they needed to unite in order to press forward their views. If the land speed racers fail to do the same thing today, their sport has a bleak long term future.

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Early Dry lakes racer Dick Kraft passed away. He raced at Muroc, Harper and El Mirage. He was also one of the 1st drag racers at Santa Ana Drag Strip. Dick was 87.  Glen Barrett
   Glen: I'm very sorry to hear about Kraft. He was one of the all time great SCTA land speed guys who made the transition into early drag racing. His name appears prominently in the records at the Santa Ana Drags in the early 1950's. Dick and his partner, Marvin Webb, built and raced the 'Bug,' which was a track roadster that had been stripped down to its bare essentials for drag racing. It is sometimes called the prototype of the first dragster, although they were not the first to lighten a car by taking off stock parts. The 'Bug' was little more than frame, axles, wheels, engine and drive-train. They removed the radiator and ran water through thick tubing and back into the engine in a closed system. I asked Kraft just how far the car could go before it overheated and he told me that he drove the car to the Santa Ana drag strip, raced the car and drove it home. Kraft and Webb would add parts and take other parts off the car on a weekly basis. They had a pile of parts and from this they rebuilt the 'Bug', which Kraft sold to the Don Garlits museum in Ocala Florida. 
   Ron Roseberry later took a few spare parts from the original pile of parts once used on the 'Bug' and recycled parts from other cars and made a reconstructed 'Bug' for display at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California. The 'Bug' represented the very beginnings of the new sport of drag racing and shows how the racers were adapting to short track straight-line racing. I would sometimes go over to see Stan Betz, who was the nephew of Kraft, at his shop in Orange. Stan is one of the best paint mixers there is. He can eyeball a color off your car and then start mixing paints and when he was done, the new paint matched perfectly. Kraft spent a lot of time at the paint shop and it was always a pleasure to talk to him. Next to Ak Miller and Johnny Ryan, Kraft was one of the best story tellers I've ever heard. I'm sorry we have lost this legendary racer. I called Johnny Ryan, who is now 91 and a former Gopher car club member and he remembers going with Kraft to the beach to go body surfing. I have calls in to the family for more information on services.

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Turn back the clock to June 15, 1941 and you'll find 19 year old Lancers member Dick Kraft scooting across Muroc Dry Lake in his pickup with a smile on his face. A milled flattie had propelled him through the clocks for an 89 mph ride. It was the first of many. After the war he picked up where he had left off at with another ride at 113 mph in his new roadster. By '48 he was running a streamliner and you might even say he had something to do with the Lancers being the "Hot" club. His lakes cars were becoming works of beauty and collecting trophies was a given. When drag racing hit, Dick took to the new sport like a duck to water. Over the years his work has graced more than his share of magazine covers and stands as a tribute to the man we knew. God Speed at your new racetrack in the sky.  Jim Miller

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There will be no services for Jay Steel at his request. Glen Barrett
   Readers: Is there anyone among us who can write a bio on Jay for the newsletter?

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Mari Palash has been moved out of the ICU to a regular room. She has a phone now. She's still having trouble with her hearing in her left ear, but it sounds like a CT scan and a visit from another ENT specialist are coming up. Andrea Palash
   Andrea and the readers: Mari Palash was married to Harvey Palash, a former board of director for the NHRA and close friends of Wally and Barbara Parks. Harvey was the President of Diamond P, an entertainment and movie producing company and produced many of the racing films for the NHRA. We have a collage painting that Mari did for us. We send her our best wishes for a full and complete recovery.

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Faith Granger has a new movie, called the DEUCE OF SPADES, that tells the story of early hot rodding. You can see the trailers at; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMhYQy54YZY, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB7jL5PtiLM.

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Another car that appeared at the 1990 Bonneville Speedweek with plasma coated tireless wheels was the neat little "Quicksilver" turbo Offy streamliner. However, I don't know whether the car had suspension. This same car ran later that year at the World Finals, although I don't know whether it was still with the tireless wheels. Does anyone out have personal firsthand knowledge of this car and what kind of results they were getting? Franklin Ratliff

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Among the attached photos is a 1985 match race between the Green Mamba driven by Doug Rose and the U.S. 1 (aka Valkyrie) driven by Fred Sibley. This was twenty two years after the Valkyrie had been driven by Gary Gabelich in the first all jet drag race, held at Bakersfield in 1963. The Green Mamba at that point was itself about seventeen years old. Both cars used the Westinghouse J-46. The J-46 is the only jet engine to set both land and water speed records, being used by Walt Arfons in the Wingfoot Express land speed car and by Lee Taylor in the Hustler boat. Bill Frederick built Valkyrie as a land speed car, but unlike Arfons did not get the opportunity to make official runs at Bonneville. The photos showing Valkyrie with the red, white, and blue paint job were taken by me at Orlando, Lakeland, and Bradenton over a period of about 12 years.  Franklin Ratliff

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You already have my bio, don't you? Speedy Regards, "LandSpeed" Louise Ann Noeth
LandSpeed: Thank you for your response, which I will use in the newsletter to let other people know how I go after biographies. When I receive an email sent out by the land speed racing community that has not been BCC'd (blind carbon copied), I reply to all of those listed on the email with a request for their bios. This is a "shot gun" approach to reach as many people as I can in as short a time as possible, before they leave us and I can't get to them to do their biography. In many cases I am being redundant and contacting those who have done their bios and for that I apologize, but my operating procedure relies on volume and I send out hundreds of emails a day and receive about 80 responses per day and there just isn't any time for me to carefully check the email addresses against the archives that I have for those who have already written their bios. So for you and thirty other individuals, I apologize for including you in a group email when you and the others have already responded and sent in your bios. The biographies can be read at www.hotrodhotline.com, guest columnist, Richard Parks.

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I received this email from you... I don't race my hotrod. Was this sent in error or did you want to get my bio because of the DEUCE OF SPADES hotrod film I am making? Faith Granger, Filmmaker, www.deuceofspadesmovie.com , and www.theparkbenchmovie.com.
Faith: George Callaway, Ron Main and others have sent me reports on your movie and I reviewed the trailers and was impressed at how well you captured the essence of the early hot rodding and dry lakes period. I sent off an email to your contact point at the company email listed, but haven't heard back. Perhaps I will see you at the SCTA Banquet on January 31st, in Norwalk. Here is a bit of background: Jim Miller is our main researcher and president of the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians and I am the editor of the Newsletter. It is free and is at www.landspeedracing.com, just sign in and the owner of the site will send you weekly email copies of the newsletter. We don't charge for subscriptions or ads and we encourage you to send us updates on your filming projects. We have about 500 members and the newsletters are circulated around to a few hundred more. Our goal is specifically to save and preserve the history and heritage of hot rodding, land speed racing and early drag or straightline racing. I also do book, art and movie reviews for the websites. I would encourage you to send in a weekly report or simply an email to tell us the status of your project so that we can keep your film clearly focused in the minds of the racing community. From time to time there are other projects, such as The World's Fastest Indian, the hydroplane racing movie and others that we promote in our newsletter. We will be glad to give you all the space that you need in order to get as much publicity for your film as possible. I edit the PR releases and my rule of thumb is "the more the better and the shorter the more likely to be read." As for the email that you received, it is a group email. I receive and send hundreds of emails a day and reply to most un-BCC'd emails with a request for biographies. We are stressing biographies and for our members to also caption their photographs. Why are we asking for bios? They are very valuable in our attempt to save and preserve the history of the automobile. We have compiled approximately 30 bios and they give us a history that is rich in detail about the lives of people who have lived during the time that is the golden age of auto racing. We archive this material for the use of present and future historians to utilize. We also link to other groups, such as the AHRF, or American Hot Rod Foundation, so that our records are exchanged and that way they are more likely to be preserved and saved for the future. Why is your bio important to us? Because we have no idea how future historians will value what we have saved, so we save everything and your memories and experiences are part of our car culture, so what you have to add is as important as anyone else's life story.

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With a diameter of 20 inches and a tread width of 8 inches, the tireless wheels fabricated for Mike Charlton's jet streamliner bike are among the widest tireless wheels ever installed on a land speed vehicle. This comparison is illustrated in the attached photos of the Steen/Herbert car, taken during its first appearance at the 1990 Bonneville Speedweek. The front wheels were 31 inches outside diameter and 6 inches wide. The rear wheels were also 31 inches outside diameter but 10 inches wide. Both sets of wheels were 7075-T6 aluminum and plasma sprayed with silicon carbide. The engines were 525 cubic inches each and dyno tested at 750 horsepower each. The transmissions were 4-speed Lencos with 1st gear removed. An APU motor circulated coolant from the tank in the nose. Unlike Goldenrod, which used hydraulic steering, the Steen/Herbert car had direct mechanical linkage with a steering shaft running from the cockpit to the steering box. Franklin Ratliff.......  Photos by Pete Farnsworth

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It appears to me that George Bentley is the person on the extreme left in the photo. I knew George through my buddy, Jerry Bondio. He and George, together, went a long way back in dry lakes racing. Jerry was the guy that convinced me we should run my Taurus SHO in dry lakes competition. George was very helpful to me in teaching how to find the sweet spot of the course. It's also how I became acquainted with Al Teague and it surprised me when I discovered that his future wife and her brother, Allen Welch, lived right around the corner from me in South San Gabriel.  Bob Falcon
   Editor's notes: This refers to the Bentley/Sadd/Teague Roadster.

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Thank you for your Christmas message. As you can see I don't use my computer very much but I really don't have the time. Hope 2009 is very good to you and that you did enjoy your holidays. KS and I are so blessed to have so many friends and a supportive family. Friends are so good to us. They send so many videos and DVD's of the old time drags and it's so good for KS as he really enjoys the old times. He has been on hospice for awhile and he is failing. LaVaun Pittman
   LaVaun: We are sorry to hear about KS's health problems. Another great man from that time, Eric "Rick" Rickman, is in the hospital and is in serious condition. KS and Rick are guys that we all looked up to and still admire today. It's so important for each of us to write down our life's story and caption all of our photographs, so that we can leave behind a history of what we did and what we saw for the next generation. KS is one of those wonderful pioneers who helped to create a sport. In fact, KS was involved in boat racing as well as drag racing. There is just something so special about people who create things. As time goes by we look up to them as examples to follow. Yet what example did KS have in the early days? He had to figure out what to do for the first time and he did a great job. KS and the other men and women who were around in the 1930's, '40's and later, helped to make new sports that are thriving today. So if you can, get all the photographs together and give them captions; when, where, who, what, why, etc. Write on peel-off labels and then stick the labels on the backs of the photos. If KS can help you with the memories, write down all that you can. If KS has a difficult time doing that, then write down all that you remember and observed and what he told you about the past. The greatest gift that we can give our children, family and friends is our heritage. Material things are lost over time, but history and heritage are a treasure that only grows more valuable over time. And if you have KS and your story and would like to share it with us at our on-line newsletter, we would be thrilled to publish it and let the world know what a great man KS is. Please give him a great big hug from us and tell him how important he is to all of us.

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Noted a reference in SLSRH #94 concerning the Bob Rufi Streamliner and may be able to shed some light on what became of that vehicle. I had heard quite some time ago that an old high school buddy of mine, Bob Arner, had the car in his possession. Back in 1996 we were running the Taurus SHO at a meet on El Mirage. As we were in the line, and doing some minor prepping on the car, we were behind a crew running a Porsche 912. We needed to borrow a tool so I approached the guy who seemed to be in charge and asked if he had what I needed. When I returned the tool he said, "You look familiar! I think I know you." We exchanged names and I discovered he was Bob Arner....small world! I asked if he still had the Rufi car. He kind of chuckled and said, "No. Dad told Lyn and me to either sell it or he was going to give it to the junk man. So Lyn and I tossed a coin and Lyn won the car." Well my next question was, "Where is it now?" and he replied, "Lyn decided he didn't want it so he put what was left out for the trash guys." Either of them may have some of the pieces. I believe Bob, at the time we spoke, was living in Valencia. SCTA may have an address for him but I don't recall his club affiliation...but think it dealt with four cylinder cars. He didn't have a good day with the Porsche that meet. We did pretty good in our class, F Production, that day and I think we registered a speed near 130 MPH which was not bad for a 3600 pound, unsupercharged 3.0 L, four door sedan. This car will be for sale soon. Bob Falcon
Bob: When I spoke to Bob Rufi many years ago, he told me that he sold the remains of the crashed car to the Beck Brothers in Los Angeles. I have it on tape when I interviewed him. This is probably the premier dry lakes car and the only other car that rivals it in fame is Art Chrisman's #25. Jim Miller should have plenty of history on the car and may be able to tell us if any of the parts are still around. The Bob Rufi Streamliner was the talk of the old SCTA. It was the record that everybody tried to beat. There is enough information to start on a reproduction of the car, and if we find original parts from the old streamliner, we can certify it to be a recreated car, that is, a rebuilt car as close to the original as to have the term "original" to back it up. I emailed Jim Miller and his response follows. Richard Parks
Richard: Bob Arner and his brother owned the Schenck car not the Rufi car. They threw Ralph's car body in the alley for the trash man. As to the Rufi car, my uncle is Charlie Beck and he did indeed own and rebuild the Rufi car with his brother George. I've talked to everyone who ever owned the car (5 total) except Howard Wilson (dead) and Howard Markham(?). I have the history down pretty good. In the last year or so I've been collecting info on it, but I'm still missing some details. I am also working on a couple of other famous cars trying to get the story right and stop all the misinformation. Jim Miller
To Jim and Bob: Can you tell us if the Arner Brother's kept any on the Schenck car, like the body, chassis, engine or parts? The Schenck car is equally as famous as the cars we have mentioned, along with the Spurgin/Giovanine/Borgh car. Two other cars worthy of restoration are the Burke/Francisco belly tank and the Paul Shinn car. Richard

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I haven't seen your stuff yet -- but it sounds like a good enough project that I'll consider having a link to it on www.landracing.com, if you'd like. I'd have the link lead to your site, and then you can direct viewers to the history/bio page or whatever you'd like to do. I won't be charging for the link, of course -- but also don't have anything in place to charge my viewers and to thereby generate revenue for you. It'd be free through me 'til they get in your hands -- from then on it's all your show. Interested? Let me know. In the meantime I'll see about finding the hours it'll take to get my (and Nancy's) story written and ready for you. I hope you have a few terabytes available for us. Jon Wennerberg
(Tall guy with moustache and a pair of 2 Club hats)
Jon: We will be glad to post your www.landracing.com site in our newsletter. The full title is The Society of Land Speed Racing Historians (SLSRH) and our newsletter is posted on www.landspeedracing.com and www.autobooks/aerobooks.com. There may be other sites that the newsletter is posted to, that I'm not aware of. We also send biographies to www.hotrodhotline.com under the Gone Racin' by-line and that's where most of the articles go that are biographical in nature. The SLSRH is a free group and we do not charge people to sign up or to be members. There are no fees, duties or responsibilities other than that we would like each of our members to caption their photographs and write their biographies and share them. Other than that our sole goal is to preserve and save the history and heritage of straightline racing. That includes land speed racing from 1890 to the present, hot rodding and early drag racing as it evolved from the dry lakes. We have about 500 members who receive the emailed version of the newsletter and more who simply go to the site and read the latest issue. The SLSRH has been in operation for about two years now, the name is bulky, but it's the best we could think of and we are open to both professional and amateur historians in the fields that we are interested in. Besides researching and writing about land speed, hot rodding and pre-1960 drag racing, we also try and determine by a consensus of our members, other important issues, such as what constitutes a restoration, recreation and replica for those rebuilding old famous race cars. We also keep records pertaining to fraud or inaccuracies in lending and borrowing transaction. The newsletter does not take ads or request any payments or donations of any sort, therefore we have no ax to grind. We are independent of all outside influence. Members and the general public share their memories, stories and photographs with us and Jim Miller and I share what we know. The only officers at the present are Jim, who is our President and myself, as editor. We can always use additional help, especially from those who will write their biographies and send in their captioned photographs. You can join us simply by logging on. Anything that you see in our current issues or archives can be re-used, but you need to paraphrase it in your own words and simply add a disclaimer that the source was the SLSRH. Please send us statements as often as you wish about what you do with the site www.landracing.com and what projects you are working on. We will print everything that comes to us, unless it is stated in the email, "Personal and Confidential," or words to that effect. If we can help boost your readership, we will be glad to do so. As a historical society, we are not a blog and we will try not to get into arguments that you see on normal blogs. But historians argue and fight too and Jim and I sometimes disagree as well as agree over historical issues. Maybe we'll see you at the upcoming SCTA Awards Banquet on the 31st of this month.

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Wally Parks Day, February 5, 2009. Free Museum admission, 9 am to 6 pm, to honor our founder Wally Parks. Join the Automobile Club of Southern California and Shelby Automobiles, Inc on Wally Day for a very special evening banquet and support Wally's dream. Forty years since they fielded a Top Fuel dragster, Carroll Shelby and Don "The Snake" Prudhomme will unveil a limited-edition Shelby Mustang. Mike Dunn will host a panel discussion with John Force, Don Prudhomme, Ed McCulloch and Jerry Ruth. Tickets are $125 each or tables of 10 for $1100. Limited seating is available. All proceeds from this event including a memorabilia auction will go directly to support the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California. Your contribution may be tax deductible. From Monique Valadez, 909-622-2133

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Happy New Year Road Runners and Friends: The meeting notes from our January meeting are now available at, http://www.ussarcherfish.com/roadrunners/news.html.  Jerry Cornelison, Road Runners - SCTA (est. 1937)

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News from www.hotrodhotline.com. The Pinstripers "Von Dutch" award was created and sponsored by Tommy "Itchy" Otis. Each year's awards are unique and created by Otis. This year it will be a copy of the guitar he pinstriped for Brian Setzer. The Grand National Roadster Show's Hall of Fame will honor Dick Bertolucci, Steve Coonan, John Mumford and Thom Taylor this year. This is the 60th Anniversary of the GNRS.
A number of stolen hot rods and classics have occurred. The latest is a 1960 Corvette stolen in Glendale, California. Check out www.hotrodhotline.com for more details or to report your stolen hot rod.

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The 75th Anniversary of the 1933-34 Ford Model 40 Exhibit will open at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum on January 24 and run until June 2009. Featured will be; Pierson Brother's coupe, So-Cal coupe, Mooneyham and Sharp 554 (courtesy of Don Garlits' Museum of Drag Racing, California Kid, Jake Jacobs' coupe, Billy F. Gibbons' Eliminator coupe and photographs and artifacts that tell the story of the '33-'34 Ford. On Saturday, January 24, 2009, from 5 to 7pm will be a special panel featuring many of the owners, racers and stars who will tell the public about their exploits. Cost is $25 and is open to the public. Information is at 909-622-2133.  From Monique Valadez

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Blake and John Bowser of the Kern County Racing Association (KCRA) operators for the Auto Club Famoso Raceway (just north of Bakersfield, California) have set the date for the March Meet for March 6-8, 2009. For more details, visit www.autoclubfamosoraceway.com. Sent in by Bill Groak

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Attached is a selection of magazine covers which have featured jet drag cars. On the cover of the November 1973 issue of Drag Racing USA, the question (regarding NHRA) was posed "The Jets: Why are they illegal?" This question was answered on the cover of the February 1975 issue of Hot Rod with the words "Jet dragsters are back after NHRA's 12 year ban." However, it would not be until seven years after NHRA legalized jet dragsters that they would allow jet Funny Cars, so in the second half of the seventies all the innovation by jet car constructors focused on jet dragsters. Franklin Ratliff

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George Callaway's Gas/Fuel Roadster and Projects for Jim Martin

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From Jack Underwood’s Collection

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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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