NEWSLETTER 11 - October 11, 2007 |
President's Corner: By Jim Miller. |
From the Salt to the Carrera Pan-American. The year is 1952. Benson Ford (yes that Ford) calls a man who started his racing career at Muroc in 1937. That man was Bill Stroppe. Seems Ford had the '53 Lincoln prototype hidden away in Colorado and wanted to see if it could cut the mustard in the upcoming Carrera Pan-American in Mexico. Bill and his buddy Clay Smith jumped a plane to get the car and do a little road test on the way back to his shop in Long Beach. They were cruising along and had this brilliant idea. How about a stop at Bonneville to see what she would do. The engine wasn't in the best of shape after the thrashing it got at Pikes Peak so they did a Banzai run to the shop bypassing the salt. Once there they literally did an all nighter and rebuilt the engine including a valve job then took off again for Bonneville. Back on the salt they tried out the 10-mile circle used for endurance runs and were blown away as the big Lincoln cruised along at 118 mph, and good news to Ford who decided to field a team of Lincoln’s for the '52 race with Stroppe as the constructor and team manager. Stroppe's Lincoln's dominated the Carrera's large stock car class from '52 till its end in '55. In '53, he even helped out his old dry lakes buddy, AK Miller with his "Iron horse." Seems the Lincoln's rims fitted with special Firestone tires bolted right on AK's '49 Ford chassied hot rod. The combo was good enough for eighth overall. In the early years Bill hired many dry lakes notables for his Lincoln team. Among them were Jack McGrath, Mickey Thompson, Manny Ayulo and Chuck Daigh who drove in '52 and '53 and prepped the cars in '54 after Clay Smith was killed. All of these gentlemen graduated from dry lakes racing like Bill Stroppe did. The Bill Stroppe & Sackett Special entry is seen at the Muroc Time Trials on May 16, 1937. The car was powered by a S.R. Fronty and ran 90.91 mph with Bill Stroppe at the wheel. Bill went on to fame in the racing game after WWII. |
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Wally Parks, 23 January 1913 - 28 September 2007 Celebration of Life Tributes. |
Click Here For, Sunday, November 4th 2007 Wally Parks Tribute Info |
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I know you are very busy and overwhelmed but I wanted to keep you in touch with the people who are contacting us. The link to your father’s page is www.Hotrodhotline.com/wallyparks. We have many sentiments and memories and I am keeping these emails for you so that you can have them when you are ready. Let us know if we can help in any way. |
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I will copy and paste all that I have (tributes to the passing of Wally Parks) so far into one email to you and then send the rest one at a time forwarding them as they come in. We would love to carry the newsletter. Please send us all that you can and we will archive them and add to it every time we receive something from you. This is a wonderful group and we would be proud to carry their information and perhaps let more people know about them and the work they do. Just send it when you have time. Thanks. Mary Ann & Jack Lawford |
Readers: Mary Ann and Jack Lawford own and operate the largest hot rodding website in the world and have been big supporters of car shows, racing and all motorsports. Their website is www.hotrodhotline.com. |
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Hello Richard, |
Members: Jonathan Amo, Brett Arena, Henry Astor, Glen Barrett, Warren Bullis, Gary Carmichael, Jack Dolan, Ugo Fadini, Robert Falcon, Rich Fox, Glenn Freudenberger, Bruce Geisler, Stan Goldstein, Walt James, Wendy Jeffries, Mike Kelly, Mary Ann and Jack Lawford, Dick Martin, Ron Martinez, Tom McIntyre, Don McMeekin, Tom Medley, Jim Miller, Don Montgomery, Mark Morton, Louise Ann Noeth, David Parks, Richard Parks, Wally Parks (in memorium), Eric Rickman, Willard Ritchie, Roger Rohrdanz, Evelyn Roth, Ed Safarik, Frank Salzberg, Charles Shaffer, Mike Stanton, David Steele, Doug Stokes, Bob Storck, Al Teague, JD Tone and Jack Underwood. |
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