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SOCIETY OF LAND SPEED RACING HISTORIANS
NEWSLETTER 146 - January 13,2010
Editor: Richard Parks [email protected]
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:
 President's Corner, Editorials, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will host a Celebration of Life for Jason Dubs on Saturday January 9 at noon, www.LandSpeedRacingVideo.com has great 2009 Speedweek DVDS, Hello I would be very happy to be in touch with Mrs Paula Murphy about her racing career, Ron Main sent in an email showing cars at Bonneville, In an old family album I found this autographed photo of Johnny Beaudoin, Racing Clubs: Historians listed for each club, Thank you very much for your message and your help about Paula Murphy, I have been to your great site a couple of times without realizing that you actually send a weekly newsletter, That's the Lee Taylor jet powered boat "Hustler", Ron Main sent in the following video of an enclosed motorcycle with stabilizer wings, Gone Racin'… Old Hot Rod Scrapbooks Memories From The Past by Don Montgomery, Gone Racin'… Supercharged Gas Coupes Remembering the Sixties by Don Montgomery, Hold The Flomax "Speed Demon" Will Now Have The #999000-Waterman Flow Bench, Speed Demon Streamliner Plan for 2010, This appeared on the Jan 4, 2010 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer PDQ column

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President's Corner:  
Here's a little info on the boat pix. About the Johnny Beaudoin photo. The boat still exits and was/is owned by the Jimmy Deist family. Lee Taylor was the guy who dreamed up this boat. It was built by Rich Hallett. Originally sponsored by Harvey Aluminum to the tune of $82,000 construction cost, the boat features an ultra-streamlined superstructure of hand-formed sheet aluminum. The engine is a J-46 from a Navy Cutlass, rated at 10,000 horsepower. The Hustler weighs in at 5000 pounds with fuel and driver, height is 3 feet 10 inches at the center, with a length of 30 feet 6 inches and a beam of 8 feet. Taylor drove it to a world's water speed record of 285.2 mph in 1967.
   I was going through some shots over at the AHRF last week and ran across a note from Herb Zieman that he had enclosed and that were taken back in 1960 at the Detroit Dragway. The note basically stated that back in the day creativity was the order of the day. It's less so today because the rules are more strict but that's why we race isn't it, to find an advantage and put your competitor in the weeds.
   I think of all the forms of motorsports and land speed racing offers the most in the creativity department. When you look at the cars there are no two alike as everybody has his own speed secret and gets to try it. Let's look back to around 1930 and a plan hatched by two racing greats. Peter DePaolo and Harlan Fengler were the brains behind the scheme to bring the LSR Record back to the U.S. after British Major Henry Segrave grabbed it at Daytona Beach in 1929. The car (JMC_996) was to be named "Miss Los Angeles" because that's where the players were living and also because the engines were made there. Talking about the engines they were from the shop of Harry Miller and consisted of three straight-8 top ends on a common case with a single crank. Just think a 5" bore and a 6.5" stroke times 24 cylinders equaled 3755 and that was for a single motor. With two of these puppies as seen in the drawing one could say that the thing should go like stink. They were going to buzz the motors to all of 2600 rpm. With 36" wheels they calculated a velocity of 514 feet per second or a whopping 350 mph, or 120 mph over Segrave's record of 231.36 mph. Like everything in the early '30's this project came to a screeching halt because all the players didn't have any money for their toy. Too bad, because it would have been an interesting ride.
   Talking about way-out there ideas, how about Paul Mecham's wild one. (JMC_995) The Salt Lake resident dreamed up another twin engined car for a Rod & Custom Design Contest announced in September 1956. Like most wild concepts most never get built but the idea's are fantastic.
   If we look at the present there are some futuristic designs out there that actually got built. Take for instance this solar powered rig (Solar Car). It takes aero to the limit. To bad it doesn't have a real motor to test the slippery shape with.
   The next way-out there vehicle is a design exercise for a Mazda-Kaaen racer (KMR.jpg). I guess you could call it a Streamliner, but where do you put the motor? Oh I forgot, in ten or twenty years when this thing would be built it won't be politically correct to have an engine. Did I say that?
   Let's take the outlandish one step further with this Mercedes-Benz concept (M-B Racer). An electric motor on each wheel will provide power. One must wonder though if El Mirage will be surrounded by a housing development in the distant future.
   Next up for this week after a little fun is a bit of seriousness. Don't know how many of you know it but this coming August at Pebble Beach they will feature Hot Rods on the grass again. Entries will be picked on the 19th of January and it's going to be exciting to see who gets chosen. Some of the players will probably be long forgotten and long unseen LSR cars.
   While on the track of old iron, here's another one for you. Thom Metz sent me these body pix. Seems he's building a street rod and is going to use the body that he got back in the early 1980's. He wants to find some history on it! A dry lakes car as well as a track roadster came up as a possible source for the body, but without any other details it's like finding a needle in a haystack. As you can see it's just another boring day in hot rod land.

For Larger Pictures and Description click on Images below

Paul Mecham's twin engined car in Rod & Custom Design Contest, September 1956.

Huge race car.  Jim Miller collection.

Solar powered car.  Jim Miller collection.

Mazda-Kaaen racer.  Jim Miller collection.

Mercedes-Benz concept car. An electric motor on each wheel will provide power. Jim Miller photo.

Thom Metz sent me this body pix. Seems he's building a street rod. Thom Metz photo.

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Editorial:   
The following email is the reason for the editorial in today's newsletter, thanks to Vito Capaccio.
"I just read your editorial concerning a museum that is closing in Cleveland. Your editorial is brilliant. You cut to the heart of issues that bog down any car club, church group, and antique store. You brought clarity to so many things that have happened to my good will projects in the past. I sincerely understand the sacrifices you and your brother endured so your father could do what he did best. I think the essence of what I learned while reading this is that you gotta be tough and ignore the hangers on folks that destroy any group. Avoiding the traps of getting caught up in the unfounded complaints. Thank you, Vito Capaccio"
Vito: Thank you for the compliment. Now I will have to prove to the members of the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians that I didn't write the letter that you sent to me. Editors have tricks you know. My father sent the famous "We need to have an association" letter to himself and then answered it in early 1951 in
Hot Rod magazine. He was a trailblazer and he used the SCTA and the NHRA as a bully pulpit to badger and push for laws, legislation and procedures to promote safe and sanctioned youth programs. I guess that I do the same thing, only on a smaller basis. Let me correct a few points. The auto museum in Cleveland is not closing down as far as I know, but they did rack up some large costs and in order to repay those costs before it does cause them to suffer, they are selling off some of their prized vehicles. The second thing that the managing authority did was to simply make those decisions without spending adequate time to assuage the anger and frustration of the docents and volunteers. It was as if the financial crisis trumped all other problems. So they have problems; 1) they overspent or spent unwisely in a downturn economy, 2) they are selling off donated vehicles which will deter other donors in the future from giving them support in the way of money or memorabilia, and 3) they have alienated their local volunteers.
If you know anything about how Wally Parks and the NHRA struggled to survive all these years in up and down markets, you will understand why I wrote the editorial about maintaining your donors, volunteers and public goodwill. Or let's put it another way; at an NHRA race the public should expect to have a good race, a safe one, short beer and food lines, clean bathrooms and friendly racers and staff who go out of their way to welcome you as family, not customers. I haven't had an opportunity to talk to the museum managers, so it is inappropriate of me to state that they haven't tried and we should give them the benefit of the doubt. Still, it is the responsibility of management, not the public, to clearly state the facts of their operations and they haven't done so, therefore until they do, my editorial stands as written, but I welcome their response. I have written on the politics of racing in my Gone Racin' by-line and you can find it on www.hotrodhotline.com. I've also done Public Relations, finding sponsors and using Public Access TV. Car clubs aren't the only organizations that run into rough spots because of personality conflicts or outright disapproval by the community. I suppose being tough is important, but leadership is about more than toughness. My father was a man of consensus. He had strong likes and dislikes, but you wouldn't know it by talking to him. He was uncomfortable ramming decisions down anyone's throats and preferred that the group come to a decision that was reasonable and practical. His way was to propose the problem and then let the groups argue it out. If they came to a decision that he thought was impractical he would raise a point and get the group talking again. When the group came close to what he thought was a good approach, he would commend them and say, "What a great idea," and call for a vote or "accept their view," and close the meeting.
He wasn't tough in the same manner as Bill France Sr, and the two men admired each other. But dad was tough in a persistent and patient way. France wanted to combine NHRA and NASCAR and for awhile dad gave it some thought, but realized that drag racing would become Bill France and not drag racing as we know it now. Every group is going to have the workers and the hangers-on in roughly a 10 or 20 to 1 ratio. You can see it in AYSO soccer or in Pop Warner football leagues. There is always one mother who will volunteer to be a Girl Scout troop leader and about a dozen mothers who are glad for the free day care. But we must be careful, for hangers-on are also volunteers and can be motivated to do more or to do less, depending on how demanding and forceful the leader is. I've found that aggressive pushers often cause the followers to back off and let the leader do it all. It takes a lot of patience to work with and encourage the volunteers in an organization to do jobs that the leaders know could be done better, faster and wiser. But you have to work with your staff. Also, leaders tend to give more negative feedback than positive compliments. The rule is 10 compliments for every negative one. So if the leader calls one of his followers "stupid," he literally has to come up with 10 good compliments to overcome the harmful effects of his anger. I think that I've only heard my father say 5 negative things in his entire life. I know that he could have said more negative things about people, but he kept his anger in control.
That doesn't mean that we should roll over and play dead when we are confronted with groups and people who wish us ill. As I have said before it isn't a matter of drag racers versus stock car racers. In fact, the oval and drag race guys compliment one another. Where there is strong oval track racing you will see drag strips and vice versa. Where the opposition to the car culture comes from is varied and determined. One group that opposes what we do is the environmentalist, who prattle on and on about "carbon footprints." Every time you breathe you put carbon back into the air and the "enviros" that I've met would love to see all of us without any cars, in fact, there are too many humans around and they secretly wish a plaque would wipe out 3 or 4 billion of us. Opposition doesn't have to be huge, for just a few angry people can make life hell for car groups by badgering city councils and mayors into outlawing a dragstrip or a car show. Since lawsuits are expensive for cities, counties and states to fight, it becomes easier to simply refuse to allow the permit. The Pomona drag strip is protected by the power and might of the County of Los Angeles and therefore the half dozen complainers in the City of La Verne have not been able to close down the facility yet. Can you imagine that there are 5000 local drag racers in the area and 6 people are all that it takes to nearly close the drag strip? Where racing is strongest is in communities where most or all of the people see it as their cultural heritage and come together to promote it to make it a part of their lives. Where racing and the car culture is weakest is where it is simply a show, a source of entertainment. It takes a lot of thoughtful preparation, good leadership and loyal followers to make an organization strong and able to fight back against the opposition that we face.

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The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will host a Celebration of Life for Jason Dubs on Saturday, January 9 at noon. The celebration will begin at the starting line of the drag strip at noon and later move to the drivers' meeting room in the superspeedway's infield media center at 1 p.m. Jason was involved in an accident on Nellis Blvd in Las Vegas on Monday evening and remains in critical condition in the UMC Trauma Intensive Care Unit. Chris Blair, LVMS' vice president of racing operations, is Jason's brother-in-law. "The outpouring of support to our family has been tremendous and we appreciate your thoughts and prayers," Blair said. "No one really knew just how many lives had been touched by Jason here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We have family and friends coming in from all over the country. His brother is traveling here from England. We want to take this opportunity to assemble in one place to say 'thank you' for the love you've shown.
"Jason's biological family and his LVMS family would like to invite everyone to join us on Saturday for a celebration of the life of Jason Dubs. Friends are welcome to share stories about Jason and pay tribute to him." Jason John Dubs, 37, is a native of Freeport, Ill. He has been member of the starting-line team and a track preparation specialist for The Strip at LVMS since 2003. Jason is regarded in the motorsports
industry as one of the premiere racing track preparation specialists. Jason also works part-time at Belfab Racing in Las Vegas and has constructed a number of race cars for oval-track and drag-racing competition. Racers and street rod participants who would like to participate in the celebration by making a parade pass down the drag strip are welcome to attend and are asked to have their cars in the staging lanes at 11:30 a.m. For more information, please call LVMS at (702) 644-4444 or visit www.LVMS.com. Follow LVMS on Facebook and Twitter. Contact: John Bisci, LVMS Public Relations (702) 632-8231, [email protected].

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www.LandSpeedRacingVideo.com has great 2009 Speedweek DVDS. The owner is Mark Brazeau who makes them and you can reach him at [email protected]. Ron Main
Ron: I've mentioned Mark's videos before in the SLSRH. I try and mention everyone who has a product in LSR or nostalgia drag racing and give them some space in the newsletter. Part of the problem is that these guys are shy about writing to me or maybe they think I'll charge them a lot of money to mention their product. Well, the SLSRH is totally free and we are delighted to let people know about a product. If a person is an artist like Tom Fritz, Kenny Youngblood, James Ibusuki or anyone else, tell me what you are doing, painting, making, selling or are thinking of doing. We want to hear from you. We don't really take ads, but we take reports. You can tell us the what, how, why, when, where and who of your project and what you are going to charge for it. We like to know these things. Ugo Fadini makes the best models and so we want to know what he is doing so we can inform our members. Mark Brazeau makes the best videos and I blame myself for not checking with him more often and finding out what he's doing. Mark contributes to our history of LSR and hot rodding. His tapes are well done, very inexpensive and record our history and heritage. One day we will all look back and say, "Thank God Mark was around to record all this stuff or it would be lost forever." Tell Mark when you see him to send me constant updates on what he is doing and about tapes and DVDs of what he has from the past. If it's shyness, then Ron, find out for us what Mark is doing and let me know. I will be glad to publish anything that Mark does.

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Hello, I would be very happy to be in touch with Mrs Paula Murphy about her racing career. I am trying to prepare an article for the French magazine La Vie de l'Auto. If it could be possible, I would be very happy to have her E mail address. With all my best wishes. Jean-Pierre Potier
Jean-Pierre: Thank you for writing. I'm copying this email to Paula Murphy, a good friend of mine and to Jim Miller our Society's President. Paula will have your email address and will respond to you, if possible. Paula's story has been told many times and it is a fascinating one, full of acclaim, difficulty, trial and success. She is a true racing pioneer and though people say, "One of the world's fastest woman car racer," I know that Paula really feels that she is a fast car driver and gender has little to do with it. But I also know that Paula began her driving career when women were often not allowed to race and she struggled to do what she loved, drive fast cars. Today the stigma of women racers is almost a thing of the past, although it is still hard for women to get a ride. But the perception of the public and racing organizations is that women have proven their skills and abilities to race and much of that earned right can be attributed to Paula Murphy and women like her who broke down the barriers of prejudice. It wasn't so much that racing officials feared that women couldn't race, for they had Hila Paulsen and the Lady Leadfoots in oval track racing and Amelia Earhart and women flyers as examples. What racing organizations feared the most was that women would be involved in serious crashes and maybe die, causing horrible publicity and the public's demand to stop or curtail automotive racing. Paula Murphy and other women racers showed that this was an unreasonable fear and though accidents and injuries happened, women were willing and courageous enough to take the risk and eventually racing officials gained the courage to let them race. I'll ask our President, Jim Miller, to look into "Women in Racing" and see what he can find out. I don't normally give out email addresses, phone numbers or street addresses without the consent of the party one is looking for, but I do pass the message along. If you don't hear from Paula, let me know and I will call her and see if she is willing to talk to you. The more you can tell us, the better the response, but I don't want you to divulge any information that you don't want to. We are glad to help writers and photographers with any projects that they may have. Since our group is concerned with the history of land speed racing, we welcome any comments or history on LSR inside and outside of the United States and particularly Europe.

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Ron Main sent in an email showing cars at Bonneville. You can see them at www.speedhunters.com.

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In an old family album, I found this autographed photo of Johnny Beaudoin. It's interesting that there is only one reference to him on the internet. Lee Van Gundy
Lee: Thank you very much for the photograph of Johnny Beaudoin and the Hustler. I've seen the boat, or the sister ship in Jim Deist's barn and he wanted to have it restored, but passed away before he could do it. Don Edwards had a similar boat, also built by Rich Hallett Sr, but had a squarish cowl. Edward's boat was chopped up for scrap by an overzealous and unsupervised volunteer at a museum. From 2000 to 2005 I ran the Boat Racer's Reunion, the newsletter and the Honorary Awards Program. After that the committee asked for and received my resignation and to my knowledge they hold irregular reunions and do not have a newsletter or a historical review. One of my goals while in office was to encourage the development of biographies, histories and research into boat racing's past. The readers sent in a great amount of information which I published in the Boat Racers Reunion Newsletter. No one stepped forth after my dismissal to keep that project going and so I know of no place or group to refer you to, or to store the great photograph of Johnny Beaudoin and the Hustler. The only group with any historical perspective that is still operating is the Propeller magazine out of Detroit.

johhnybeaudoin

Caption:
Johnny Beaudoin.jpg..................In an old family album, I found this autographed photo of Johnny Beaudoin. It's interesting that there is only one reference to him on the internet.  Lee Van Gundy

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Racing Clubs: Historians listed for each club
Eliminators................................................................none
Gear Grinders...........................................................Glen Barrett
Gold Coast Roadster and Racing Club.......................none
Gophers....................................................................Michael Brennan
Hi Desert Racers.......................................................none
Idlers........................................................................Michael Brennan
Lakers......................................................................none
LSR.........................................................................Mike Cook Jr
Milers.......................................................................none
Road Runners...........................................................Jerry Cornelison
Rod Riders...............................................................none
San Diego Roadster Club..........................................none
Sidewinders..............................................................Ron Main
Super Fours..............................................................Roy Creel
Throttlers..................................................................Michael Brennan

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Thank you very much for your message and your help about Paula Murphy. I began to propose some articles about women racing drivers in 1992 with La Vie de l'Auto magazine. It's an historic magazine, and I think we have to discover many famous racing drivers in USA in all the formula cars, jet cars, dragsters, and speed record. Since nine years I come to Goodwood for the Revival GP, it's always a fantastic time for me. I met, Richard Petty, Parnelli Jones, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Al Unser Senior, Desir� Wilson and Lynn St James. So I would be very happy to propose an article about the racing career of Paula Murphy. So, when it's possible, it's always a great pleasure for me to be in touch with the person. I will tell you if I have news from Paula. About the land speed record, in France, I never saw anything. In England there is a meeting at Santa Pod. Thank you very much. With all my best wishes. Jean-Pierre Potier
Jean-Pierre: Land speed and road course racing began in France and if not quite in France, in Belgium and nearby Germany. The United States probably conducts about 95% of all land speed racing events in the world and has for some time, but we borrowed the sport from Europe and we must give credit to those early European pioneers. Look around and research your local areas and you will see how rich the heritage is in Europe. We will wait to hear more about your research and your interviews.

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I have been to your great site a couple of times without realizing that you actually send a weekly newsletter. When I noticed I subscribed right away. I really appreciate the job you are doing with the newsletter! I have been working on creating a traditional hot rod and custom Wikipedia myself called Kustomrama the last couple of years, and looks forward to getting weekly information from you guys that can help enrich and keep my project correct. I hope that is OK by you. If you wants to you can take a look at the site so far here: http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
Until now it contains more information about custom cars then hot rods, but I plan to add much more early hot rod history in there in the future. I found the newsletter while doing some research on the Gophers, and thanks to you guys I could expand the list of members thoroughly: http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Gophers
All of the names that are colored blue are people I have written about before. That is the best thing about a wiki structure that it links people and cars up in large networks. If you click on Don Blair for instance you can easily check out what pages that links to this site: http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Special:Whatlinkshere/Don_Blair
This function has helped me a lot in my research....well I guess I could go on forever on this subject! Keep up your good work, and I hope we can benefit from each other! Regards, Sondre Kvipt
Sondre: You have a great site. It's set up in an organized manner and I will ask our members to Google your website and spend some time there. A few points; give us more background on who you are, where you are and what your goals are. The SLSRH encourages our readers and members "to go on forever," as long as it pertains to land speed, early drag racing and hot rodding. We don't differentiate between a custom and a hot rod. The old term was "modified" or "altered." That's what a hot rodder is; a modifier. He's someone who takes something and improves upon it, in effect changing the product into something altogether different and more effective. You never have to feel inferior to anyone else, for what you have done is exemplary and we encourage you to continue. Take what you can from our archived newsletters and use it for your website. Contact other websites that are affiliated with us, such as www.hotrodhotline.com and ask them if you can cross-link your site with theirs. The more you tell us the better we can relate to what you are trying to accomplish. While our strength is in Southern California dry lakes racing, we are also interested in the research into world wide land speed and drag racing wherever it existed. So don't limit yourself to just one area.

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That's the Lee Taylor jet powered boat "Hustler." When I worked for the magazine Hot Boat I did a double truck drawing of The Hustler for Volume 1, Number 1. Lee who was a locksmith (in Downey, I believe) and a pal (a vehicle paint job designer who I seem to recall was named Larry Lee) stumbled into our Santa Monica publishing office with their story of how Lee was going to make an American assault on the world's water speed record. They had acquired an engine and were getting quotes on the hull fabrication. It was our feature story for the issue. I can tell you something else about that issue. Halibrand Engineering had an advertisement on the back cover plugging their marine Vee-Drive Transmissions. How do I know this? I sold the ad space to Ted Halibrand and designed the advert. It began an association (and friendship) with this well-known race car parts manufacturer that lasted over 30 years. At the Halibrand shop, Perry Grimm, a well know Midget Race Car driver (and champion) handled all the boat transmission assembly work. Bob Falcon
Bob: What happened to the Halibrand story you were going to send me? I know Larry Lee. He sends me beautiful hand-written Christmas cards that fold out to make a great etching. I save them all. He's the son of Marvin Lee, I believe, who was an associate of my father's at Hot Rod magazine, SCTA and the NHRA. I've been to see the Hustler at Jim Deist's barn. Jim's house caught fire and destroyed a wealth of car memorabilia, but the barn and Hustler were not damaged. When I was the editor of the Boat Racers Reunion Newsletter, I kept better tabs on all the boat racers, water speed racers and their histories. The new Boat Racers Reunion committee gave me the heave-ho and let the newsletter die, which was a shame, because so much that was historical and important was thus lost. A few years ago, when I ran the Boat Racers Reunion (which I co-founded) Honorary Awards Program, we had the honor of meeting Lee's family and it was a real pleasure. We honored Lee that year. I have your bio on record and will run it in the SLSRH, but I don't recall that you mentioned much about your boat racing experiences. I want more from you, Bob, you're a fantastic source of information.

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Ron Main sent in the following video of an enclosed motorcycle with stabilizer wings at http://www.wimp.com/ecomobiletests/. It does have an aerodynamic body.

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Gone Racin'… Old Hot Rod Scrapbooks, Memories From The Past, by Don Montgomery. Review by Richard Parks, photographic consultant Roger Rohrdanz
Old Hot Rod Scrapbook: Memories From The Past is the 8th book in the series by Don Montgomery of Fallbrook, California. Montgomery has a love of hot rods, automobiles and just about anything else from the early days of dry lakes and drag racing. He was there at the beginning of local Southern California tracks like Paradise Mesa, Saugus and Santa Ana. He also promoted drag racing shows from 1968 to 1972. Perhaps his greatest asset is the men and women whom he knew and the vast knowledge he has gained by being one of the original racers from that era. Montgomery has a wealth of photographs and memories to share and his friends include the original hot rodders and drag racers in Southern California. Old Hot Rods Scrapbook, Memories From The Past is a hard cover book which is 8 � by 11 inches in size and 192 pages in length. The book cover is white with Montgomery's red lettering and a photo of cars and spectators at the Muroc dry lake in 1939. His covers are exceptional and enhance the look of the book so don't toss them away. Montgomery writes and publishes his own books, which gives him complete control over the content and accuracy. He is a stickler for getting the text, captions and photos correctly identified.
Montgomery goes to great lengths to insure that errors do not creep into his books and his reputation for solid research is unsurpassed. This is his 8th book in a series that according to Montgomery will only end when he runs out of photos from his and his friends' scrapbooks. The quality is so high that we can only hope to see issue #9 and more to come after that. The only drawback is that he does not include an index. Many hot rod and drag racing writers leave out the indexes. Why they do that is hard to say. It doesn't take up that much more space and the extra attention turns a fine book into an excellent one, especially for history buffs and researchers. There is an astounding 606 black and white photos of superb quality covering a wide array of hot rod and coupe racing. There are no color photos in this book, but the quality of the black and white photos are excellent. Some photographs are full page and the rest are fairly large. I haven't seen some of the photos before and Montgomery did an excellent job of setting them in the right order to portray the story he wants to tell us. The text is mostly in caption form next to the photo, but he does provide a textual story.
What Montgomery is doing is what we all should be doing, recording the history to go along with our personal photographs. The captions are well written and informative to the point of archival quality. If only there was an index to help the reader find a particular car or individual. A Table of Contents is provided and is easy to access. There are five chapters, an introduction, acknowledgements and a brief description of the author. Chapter One is titled Hot Rodding Before World War II. Montgomery devotes 21 pages to the pre-war dry lakes period, a time little recorded or understood. He writes of the early days on the dry lakes of Southern California in the 1930's with feeling, in a manner that keeps up our interests. He provides photos of Don and Bruce Blair, Nellie Taylor, Randy Shinn, Manny Ayulo, Bob Rufi, Ernie McAfee, Chuck Spurgin, Nick DeFabrity, Dick Kraft, Sandy Belond, Lou Fageol and many more. Chapter Two is titled Hot Rodding Explodes and covers 70 pages. This chapter tells the story of post war hot rodding when returning servicemen came back to the dry lakes to race their cars, and from there expand into oval and drag racing. There are photos of Connie Weidell, Bud Van Maanen, Phil Weiand, Marvin Lee, Phil Remington, Jack Calori, Ken Lindley, Tony Capanna, Karl and Veda Orr, Roy 'Multy' Aldrich, Chuck Daigh, Wally Parks, Bert Letner, Stuart Hilborn, Harvey Haller, Tom Beatty, Bill Burke, Frank Coon, Doane Spencer, Roland Mays, Jim Lindsley, Chuck Abbott, Blackie Gold, Lou Baney and many more. These racers and car owners would go on to success in other fields of automotive racing.
Chapter Three is called Growth and Changes and tells the story of hot rodding as it evolved from street and dry lakes racing to drag strips, oval track, Bonneville and road course racing. Young racers were getting tired of the long and dusty trip to the dry lakes and opted to go racing on the new drag strips that were being developed closer to their homes. Many of these drag strips were abandoned airstrips from the surplus left over after World War II. Young men and women also took their cars to the new oval tracks forming all over Southern California. This chapter covers 33 pages and lists such well known people as Don Nicholson, Jack McGrath, Carl Fleischmann, Mal Hooper, Bill Eppling, Jazzy Jim Nelson, Bob McClure, Holly Hedrich, John Wolf, Don Ferguson, Gene Mooneyham, Dick and Bob Pierson, Doug Hartelt, Ak Miller, Don Rackemann, Kenny Parks, the Spaulding brothers, Keith Loomis, Don Zable, Alex Xydias, Dean Batchelor, Ray Brown and many other fine racers of the era., Chapter Four is called Dry Lakes Classes and has 37 pages devoted to hot rods at the dry lakes and Bonneville. Many of the previous generation in dry lakes racing had gone on to other forms of automotive endeavors. Wally Parks was editor of Hot Rod magazine and in the process of founding the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association). Lou Baney was the manager of the Saugus drag strip. Pete Petersen had turned Hot Rod magazine into Petersen Publishing Company with many fine magazines to his credit. Manny Ayulo and Jack McGrath were racing at the Indy 500.
The new breed of dry lakes and hot rod racers included George Williams, Bob Elliott, Dawson Hadley, Irv Brendel, who would go on to building the Hondo and Brendela ski and drag boats, Kenny Black, Bob Tattersfield, Louie Senter, Clem Tebow, George Rubio, Bill Likes, Doug Harrison, Art Tremaine, Howard Johansen, Leroy Neumayer, Bob Joehnck, Thatcher Darwin, Mickey Thompson, and others who would shape the 1950's., The Fifth and last chapter is called Hot Rods Go Drag Racing, and they certainly did with gusto. It covers 18 pages and has more text content along with some early drag racing photos. Some of those pictured include, Larry Shinoda, Art and Lloyd Chrisman, Dave Marquez, Ernie Hashim, Harold Nicholson, Pat Berardini, Frank Iacono, Harry Duncan, Leland Kolb, John Moxley, Lloyd Scott, Clark Cagle, Ed Losinski, Dick Winfield and the author himself, Don Montgomery in his Willys. This is another fine book from Montgomery, on a par with, if not slightly better than his first 7 books. I highly recommend it for those who love hot rodding and especially land speed racing and cruising. There are others who have written hot rod books and given us some history and photographs to add to our library, but none of them have been as consistently good as Montgomery. Gone Racin' is at [email protected]. Montgomery can be reached at [email protected].

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Gone Racin'… Supercharged Gas Coupes, Remembering the Sixties, by Don Montgomery. Book review by Richard Parks, photographic consultant Roger Rohrdanz, Supercharged Gas Coupes, Remembering the Sixties is another fine book by Don Montgomery Publishing, from Fallbrook, California. It is a hardbound book with 192 glossy-waxed high quality pages and measures 9 inches wide by 11 � inches in height. There are 364 black and white photographs, but no color photos. The quality of the photos is very good. There are 12 additional inserts, from ads to letters and lists. The book cover jacket is in the red, white and black style that Montgomery uses for all of his books. Keep the jacket as it gives the book a unique look. Don Montgomery is the writer, editor and publisher of Supercharged Gas Coupes, Remembering the Sixties. The book was copyrighted in 1993 and the ISBN# is 0-9626454-3-5. The book is available from the author or at Autobooks/Aerobooks at 818-845-0707. The book is dedicated to those who competed in or enjoyed Supercharged Gas Coupe racing. Montgomery provides an introduction, acknowledgment, five chapters and a list of records. The author does not provide an index and this is an oversight that many writers make. Without an index it takes the reader a great deal longer to find a particular car or driver that they might be interested in. There is an adequate amount of text to explain the topic that Montgomery is covering. The captions are normally thorough and well done. In his introduction he pays special homage to the 'Big Four' of Supercharged Gas Coupe racers, K.S. Pittman, John Mazmanian, George Montgomery and Stone/Woods/Cook.
Don Montgomery gives full credit to his legion of friends who provide him with the photographs and research that make his excellent hot rod books successful. Two people in particularly made this book possible. The first was Tom Chambliss who contacted his many friends and encouraged them to share their memories and photos with the author. The second person is Claire Montgomery, the editor's wife who tirelessly helped her husband and gave him encouragement. Some of those who provided help included, Gene Adams, Brad Anderson, Bob Balogh, Rocky Childs, Doug Cook, Jeg Coughlin, Pat Dakin, Larry Dixon, Ernie Hashim, Mike Kuhl, Don Long, Sherm Porter, Don Prieto, Bob Spar, Junior Thompson and Steve Woods. Many other fans and racers also opened up their photo albums and memories to add to this history. The writing is crisp, straightforward and interesting. Supercharged Gas Coupes, Remembering the Sixties tells the story of a class of drag racing that captured the imagination and still does. The K.S. Pittman and Stone/Woods/Cook cars are presently in the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, in Pomona, California. Don Montgomery usually produces book about streetcars and hot rods and was leery about writing on a subject slightly outside of his major field. He has captured the sounds, smells and feel of the golden age of Supercharged Gas Coupe racing and we can only hope that he decides to write more books on drag racing. The first chapter is called Supercharged Classes - How and Why. He discusses how the National Hot Rod Association, set up this category in 1960. Prior to this time, drag racers had been slow to pick up on the technology of supercharging that had made the Miller and Duesenberg cars so formidable on oval tracks. The first drag racers to use supercharging were in the dragster class, but soon the coupes caught up to them.
Chapter two is named The First Years and discusses the classifications and the competitors. There were A/GS, B/GS and C/GS categories established and some of the best drivers were George Montgomery and Curt Carroll in A/GS, K.S. Pittman and Junior Thompson in B/GS and K.S. Pittman and Doug Cook in C/GS. Burt Looney was regularly featured in advertisements by Isky Cams. Chapter three is titled The Great Gasser Wars and these events defined the mid-1960's in drag racing in both the NHRA and AHRA. The big Chrysler Hemi engines led the way and the word on the track was "if you can't beat them, join them." Racetracks around the country began paying supercharged gas coupes to appear at their tracks and stage match races. Less expensive to run and just as exciting as the funny cars and dragsters, the supercharged gas coupes created profits for the promoters and fun for the fans. Chapter four is called Progress and Changes and follows the years 1967 through 1970. Prize money fueled competition, which in turn increased the expense to run cars in this class. The class was going through a change as the more professional and well-financed teams were putting tremendous pressure on other less funded racing teams. Chapter five is named The Last Years and discusses the years 1971 through 1975. A poor economy and recession put pressure on this class of drag racing. Many cars opted to race in other categories. The Funny car class exerted even more pressure on the Supercharged Gas Coupe classes. By the end of 1975 the age of the Supercharged Gas Coupes were over. Gone Racin' is at [email protected].

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Subject: SPEED DEMON JANUARY 2010

Hold The Flomax "Speed Demon" Will Now Have The #999000-Waterman Flow Bench. Steve Watt At Maxwell Industries Will Flow Our Complete Fuel System With Our Motec Computers, Pumps, Nozzles And Drivers Before Kenny At Duttweiler Performance Makes His First Pull On His Dyno. We can Test Our Incar Fuel System Under Race Conditions For A Run To Salt Lake City And Back!

For Larger Pictures and Description (last 3 pictures) click on images below

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Kinney Duttweiler Has Just Finished Our 5 Liter [300 CID] "Hellfire V8" It Will Be Installed In "Speed Demon" Jan. 13 In Preparation For The Grand National Roadster Show January 28-31. It Will Be In A Special Exhibit "The History Of Racing" After The GNRS

Our New 6 Liter [347 CID] Duttweiler Dart "Hellfire" Engine The Cower Crankshaft Should Be Here By Jan. 22 And It Will Be Complete And Ready For Testing In Late February. George Is Ready For 500!

Note The Added Head Bolt At Rear Of Head

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Poteet & Main
Speed Demon Streamliner Plan for 2010
By Chad Posted 01/09/10

Ron Main and George Poteet have caused quite a stir over the last few years with their Speed Demon streamliner and their quest for 500 mph. Ron and George are good people, friends of BangShift.com, and serious racers who won the 2009 Hot Rod trophy for the fastest run of Speed Week. While talking with Ron about the Speed Demon at last weeks Sidewinders Car Club meeting, he let us know about the teams latest round of testing going on at Maxwell Industries.

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Steve Watt at Maxwell Industries has the compete Speed Demon fuel system hooked up to a trick Waterman Racing Components 999000WDA flow bench that provides data on the race ready fuel system’s performance. This makes it possible to simulate a pass equivalent to driving “from here to Salt Lake City and back!” according to Ron.

This trick flow bench will provide much needed data to Kenny Duttweiler as he gets ready to tune the new 300ci “Hellfire V8” that he has just finished building for this year. In addition to the 300-inch engine, the team is also building a 347-incher featuring a Dart Block, Crower Crankshaft, and trick heads that have had an extra head bolt added to aid sealing in all that Duttweiler boost (see the photo below).

As testing continues, we’ll see what kind of access we can get, and bring you all the latest numbers leading up to Speed Week. In the meantime, if you want a chance to check out the Speed Demon car without going to Bonneville, it will be on display at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona January 28-31, 2010.

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This appeared on the Jan 4, 2010 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer PDQ column. The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum is part of Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS). They have been a good friend to our cause. Online copy:
 http://www.cleveland.com/pdq/index.ssf/2010/01/we_supply_the_new_years_resolu.html.
Just read your editorial. I passed it on to the volunteers. I hope they find it inspiring. The Belanger Special I referred to is a Stevens-Offy that was last raced at Indy in 1949. It was built in the '30s and had been upgraded through the years. It ran in more Indy 500s than an other. It appeared in the movie "To Please a Lady"

From RM Auctions

Est. 325 hp, 270.2 cu. in. Offenhauser four-cylinder engine, dual overhead camshafts, parallel leaf-front and single-leaf rear suspension.
Murrell Belanger, Sr., the man with whom this race car’s history is inextricably intertwined, was a wealthy businessman and auto dealership owner in Crown Point Indiana who spent considerable sums on his race cars to compete at Indianapolis. His cars finished in the money many times and even won the Indy 500 in 1951.
In 1976 the supervisor of research at Harrah's Automobile Collection contacted Murrell Belanger, Sr. inquiring about the history of the Belanger Special race car owned by the collection. A copy of the letter Belanger wrote in response will go to the new owner and will be available for review in the auction office as well. All in all, the letter is a remarkable historical document, particularly since there was no reason to track changes made in a race car’s history in those days, and part of what we know of its early history comes directly from Mr. Belanger’s own letter. Who could have predicted that decades later restorers would treasure this information?
It should be noted, however, that the letter erroneously claims this car to have been driven by Myron Stevens at Indianapolis in 1931 and that it won the national championship in 1932, which is incorrect because the championship-winning car is currently in another private collection. Any additional history until the late 1940s cannot be confirmed at present, but Belanger evidently purchased the car from Tony Bettenhausen in 1947, who drove for him on number 29, as the car was finished in blue and gold and named the “Belanger Motors Special.” Tony drove for him again the following year, finishing 14th.
In 1949, the blue and gold Belanger Special, #17, with Duane Carter driving, qualified in fifth position and finished 14th after spinning out due to steering trouble. For the 1950 Indianapolis 500, Mr. Belanger replaced the proven 270 cubic inch Offenhauser powerplant with a supercharged 176 cubic inch version. Sometime after race day and a stint in the motion picture To Please a Lady, the supercharged engine was removed and the 270 reinstalled. The car was stored away and remained in his possession until Tiny Gould, one of the first collectors of American open wheel race cars, purchased it. Upon arrival at Gould's shop, the need for some paint work was noted and a decision made to send the car to respected race car mechanic Buster Warke to freshen up the engine and chassis and clean out the cobwebs. Upon its return to Gould, the flaking paint on the aluminum rims was removed and the wheels were repainted. Likewise, the belly pans were repainted and the body panels were spotted in where needed. The car now looked much as it did on race day in May 1949. Ownership passed to Bill Harrah at Gould’s landmark race car auction held at the Pocono Speedway in 1975. When Harrah's collection was sold, the Belanger Special passed to B. Scott Isquick and was ultimately donated to the Crawford Museum, where it has remained ever since.
http://www.rmauctions.com/CarDetails.cfm?SaleCode=HF09&CarID=r110&Currency

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Murrell Belanger, Duane Carter and Clark Gable
This photo, taken in 1950 during the filming of Gable's 1950 racing movie To Please a Lady, was originally from the collection of Donna Belanger Haniford, daughter of Murrell Belanger, owner of the car. Duane Carter was the driver.

Clark Gable in the Bellanger Special #18
This publicity shot for Gable's 1950 racing movie To Please a Lady was originally from the collection of Donna Belanger Haniford, daughter of Murrell Belanger, owner of the car. Marshall Corns, a licensed 3-A mechanic who worked on the car at that time, brought in his copy of the photo

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www.hotrodhotline.com, www.landspeedracing.com

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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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