SOCIETY OF LAND SPEED RACING HISTORIANS
NEWSLETTER 78 - September 26, 2008
Editor: Richard Parks [email protected]
President's Corner: By Jim Miller (1-818-846-5139)

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President's Corner: By Jim Miller (1-818-846-5139)
The other night I pulled an old book off the shelf called the Encyclopedia of Motorsports. It has over 600 pages of stuff covering all forms of racing. What's amazing is only a page and a half is dedicated to Land Speed Racing. Seems the first recorded auto race took place in 1894 and by late 1898 land speed records were being set. At that time every country had their own sanctioning body so lots of National Records were set. In 1922 the forerunner of the FIA, the AIACR was formed and with it two way runs and certified timing came into being. In the U.S. the AAA was king until late 1955 when it quit the racing biz. In '56 USAC took over. In '57 ACCUS-FIA (Automobile Competition Committee for the United States) was formed and it's members were USAC, SCCA, NASCAR and the NHRA. It's all very confusing. The bottom line is if you want to set an International Record you have to pay big bucks to get all the ducks in a row not to mention having a special drivers lisense.
I guess you could say that anytime you run from point A to point B and are timed you could set a land speed record for that venue. To push this a little further consider Bar Stool Racing at USFRA meets or Tether cars. What about the Soap Box Derby or the guys that run Valve Covers with wheels down ramps. I don't think you could call a boat or aircraft a land speed vehicle but you should include trains, yes trains. While surfing I ran into this stange site- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record_for_railed_vehicles. It covers the history of train records from 1901 to 2003. Who knew. There's a place for all of us weirdos out there someplace.

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Editor's notes: Long before the invention of piston powered, gasoline fueled cars, trains were raced across Europe and America for times. The early railroads faced many problems. One was to create markets where none existed. Another was to raise money to build railroad tracks, trains and depots. When these early trains came out in the 1810's and 1820's, their speeds astonished a world that had previously traveled by horse, wagon, foot or sail, which meant anywhere from 1 mph up to 7 mph. The new trains could speed along at 15 mph or more! If you can wonder at the amazement of the people who never before imagined that you could go from London to Liverpool in a day. It was speed beyond their comprehension. Trains were constantly timed and the new records brought enthusiasm from the public in shares of these new forms of transportation. Soon thereafter, the trains destroyed the old canal boat commerical trading systems across Europe and America. When steamships became popular, they too were timed and a voyage around the world of 80 days was no longer a book of fiction. Boat racing actually predates motorized racing, since boats did not require a railroad track to be built or a road to be paved or graded. If you consider the water to be a "surface," on the face of the earth, you might have an argument for combining land and water records, except for the fact that water speed fans consider their sport to be the original speed sport and not land racing. They have a point there. The same is true with air records. They were set by ballooners as far back as the 1770's and they too feel their sport is more ancient and have no wish to combine air records with boat or land records.

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Editorial:
Politics in racing. Recently, Jim Miller and I were discussing the fact that the Bonneville Salt Flats are degrading due to the chemical companies that are removing potash, magnesium and other minerals from the salt and then pumping some of the brine back onto the lake bed. Jim's viewpoint is that the potash, magnesium and other chemicals bind the sodium chloride and make the salt at Bonneville harder and a better surface to race on. I have no opinion on the science of the lakebed, only on the politics of it. I've written an article called "Politics in Racing," and you can find it at www.hotrodhotline.com, Richard's Corner. The article is not concerned with club politics and infighting in a group. The topic is about how our National and local politics works and how we can use it to our advantage. Jim said that the BLM has signed contracts and therefore salt pumping will always be with us, and it could ruin the lake and force land speed racers to find another site to race on. That would be a tragedy, because each racing venue has a unique set of circumstances and the speeds set at one site will never equal the speeds at another site. Otherwise, the records at El Mirage and Bonneville would be identical and they are not. We don't want to be alarmist, because pumping by the Chemical companies and repumping of the waste salt back onto the Salt Flats may take years to determine whether the results will be positive or negative. I concede the point to Jim, because that isn't my argument at all. My point is this, if you want something bad enough you will fight for it. If you lose a site, it was your choice. How can that be when the different timing associations do all that they can and the political and business communities have so much counter-clout? The truth is, they don't have as much power as you think they do. Read the article and it will explain how you can prevail if you truly want to spend the time and effort that such a battle requires. This editorial is not criticizing the efforts of Save the Salt, which is a fine group, doing what they can to protect Bonneville. This editorial is concerned with the political fight that racers must exert if they want to save their oval, drag and other racing sites from extinction. It all comes down to leverage and whether racers will unite together to keep what they have and the past shows that racers rarely unite and rarely fight very hard. Most of the time they find alternatives and if this is what they want, then we will all learn to live with alternatives. Sometimes, like the track at the Pomona, California Fairplex, the racing groups aren't even the leading defenders. In those cases, it is the owners of the tracks themselves that exert political pressure to keep the tracks open, because it is extremely profitable to do so. What can a small group do? For starters, you have to vote in a bloc. Bloc voting means that conservative Republicans will have to vote for Liberal Democrats and vice versa. It's no good having a 1000 members if they are divided into 50 voting precincts. You attack at two levels, the local city and county, and secondarily at the Congressional level. You need 200 members in your local political area and 1000 members in a Congressional district. Your members bring in wives and adult children, neighbors and friends, who will show up at council meetings or your local Congressman's office. Most elections are decided by a 1000 votes at the local level and 5000 at the Congressional level. You never threaten, but you commit your votes to the party that supports your plans. Can it be done? Yes, and it is done by various voting groups at every election. These groups are environmentalists, minorities, businesses, animal rights and many other entities and they are represented in government, but racing is not. Others have gotten their issues heard, because they worked for those issues. Racers are not heard and they are not represented. They will never be represented until they choose to work as a group, withholding their support to those against them or giving their support to those who favor racing. If Bonneville goes away, that's your choice.

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Special on Marv Jenkins, by the editor.
I never met Ab Jenkins, that I can recall. I met Ab's son and wife Noma and some of their children just within the last decade. In fact, I made it a point to find Marvin Jenkins and talk to him after the drive up to St George, Utah. Rarely will you find a finer gentleman than Marv or a nicer lady than Noma. They took me into their home and were very gracious with their time. Marv built a second driveway that curved down into a basement of their house, so that he could store his father's car, The Mormon Meteor, and keep it safe from the elements. It is a beautifully designed car, a hot rodders dream car and to see it up close was a very special honor. Marv showed me his albums, letters and memorabilia and spoke of his father, his own racing and flying career, how he rescued the car from the elements and the history that he lived through. He was a young man compared to many of the other men and women I have interviewed. Or maybe he was just young at heart, because the obituary notice said he was 88. Sometimes I would just call Marv on the phone, especially if I had a question about the early days of Bonneville. Marv never ignored anyone, even though his time was spoken for. I remember when Marv and the car were honored at the Gas-Up Party, in Buellton, California and how proud Jack Mendenhall was to have scored a coup in getting the Meteor to come to Buellton. Then the car went on to the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum for a month and then back to St George. I mentioned the Meteor to Steve Gibbs and he and Greg Sharp followed up on it and got the car for a short showing at the museum. Gibbs always let me know how long the car really was, down to the inch. He would let out a sigh and say, "That car is really long..." That was about as far as Gibbs would ever come to saying no to you. David Abbot "Ab" Jenkins, Marv's father, was much older than Marv and even my father, who was born in 1913. In fact, Ab was racing on the Salt Flats before my father was born. Ab can't be separated from Marv, so great was their vision and loyalty to each other. I never considered Ab being gone, until I heard the news that Marv left us, then this sinking feeling that now the fabled Jenkins have finally left us. Perhaps it is hard for the average reader to understand the reverence we feel for the Jenkins family. If you carefully look at major figures in landspeed history, you have to start with Henry Ford, Malcolm Campbell, John Cobb, the combined leadership of the SCTA, Breedlove, Arfons, Noble and the Jenkins. I don't mean to overlook all the others. They were very important too. It's just that you have to look at those individuals that if you left them out, you would truly alter land speed racing. Maybe you could add to that list Pete Petersen, Wally Parks, Ak Miller and a few more, but those are the core and the heart of LSR. The editor stands ready to apologize for those he has slighted. The Jenkins came from pioneer stock. Good Welsh immigrants who came to Utah over a hundred years ago. Ab saw the Great Salt Lake and Bonneville and realized its potential as a racing site and as a way to show off his beautiful state. He wasn't the first to see the potential of Bonneville, but it was his efforts that got Malcolm Campbell to come and race his car there. Campbell became a convert and that brought John Cobb and in turn, Cobb drew a crowd of interested Southern California hotrodders in 1947. In 1948, Wally Parks used his charisma to persuade a dubious Robert "Pete" Petersen and Marvin Lee to go with him to see Ab Jenkins about leasing the Salt Flats to the SCTA for a one time race in 1949. They took Pete along because he had a brand new car, not because Petersen had become famous yet. Ab was the "Mayor" of Salt Lake City at the time. It was more of an honorary title as the city was run by a manager and the city council members each took a turn with the gavel as the mayor. Ab was accorded the title for his efforts to encourage tourism to the state and he did so with zeal. The one year lease from the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce turned into an annual one when the CofC realized that their state and little town of Wendover was not burnt down and the young men behaved honorably. Ab was not only a promoter of the Salt Flats, they were his and Marv's second home. They lived there and they set records on the Salt Flats. Many professional racers were hired to set endurance records by car companies who saw the publicity in such events. The car companies would hire half a dozen of the world's best drivers and they would take turns setting endurance records for 1 hour up to 3 days or more. The drivers would go out and race in oval courses and in a few hours they would stop and another driver would take their place. Ab sometimes used Marv and Babe Stapp as a replacement driver in emergencies, otherwise he would drive 98% of the race. When they talk about Iron Men, they mean Ab Jenkins. You try driving at speeds of over a hundred miles an hour, not for the twelve or twenty four hours of Sebring, but 36, 48 and 72 hours or more. Ab had a penchant for ice cream, I think Marv said vanilla, and they would put the cone or bowl on a stick and Ab would snag it as he went by. Exactly how you relieve yourself in a race car going that fast day and night without stop is a subject best left in whispers between gentlemen, but Ab lived in that whirling car and he wouldn't stop. There have been a lot of great racers in this world, but if you don't include Ab Jenkins at the top, you really don't know racing. Marv continued his father's legacy and rescued the Meteor from neglect and restored it. This is a strange story, because the state of Utah has always been known for efficiency, common sense and friendliness. The Meteor had been displayed in the basement of the Rotunda of the State House in Salt Lake City for as long as I can remember. It was in the very middle of the basement room, surrounded by glass cases showing the fauna, flora and history of the state. The Meteor was the crown jewel of Utah's collection. Then one day Marv saw the Meteor in the parking lot with no cover or tarp and water soaking the magnesium cylinders. The car had been subject to a lot of abuse and Marv demanded that it be rescued and put back on display. His requests were simply ignored. Finally he hired a lawyer and invoked a clause that Ab had made in the original contract with the state and Marv took the old warrior home to St George for repairs. Friends, family and the auto class at Dixie College put their time and money into restoring the Meteor to its original glory. I'll miss seeing Marv when I go up to St George. I always tried to stop in and say hello. The Jenkins meant so much to our family and to land speed racing in particular, though Ab and Marv spent most of their time in endurance racing. Ab published a small little paperback, called "Salt of the Earth." I reviewed it for www.hotrodhotline.com, book reviews. It's a gem of a book and if you see it at a used book store or on the internet, pick up a copy. It's a story of the First Family of Bonneville and the best supporters that we land speed racers and fans could ever have.

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Another part of LSR history has passed. Please visit the Notice for Marvin Edward Jenkins. Click on the above link or cut and paste the url into your browser's address bar. See http://www.legacy.com/Link.asp?I=LS000117553430X. Glen Barrett

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Marvin Edward Jenkins 1919-2008, 88 years old, of St George, Utah, passed away peacefully at his home on Sunday, September 14, 2008 from complications of a recent illness. He was born October 23, 1919, to David Abbott Jenkins and Evelyn Irene Thorstenburg in Blackfoot, Idaho. When Marvin was one year old the Jenkins family, including his older sister Ruth Jenkins, moved to Salt Lake City where he was raised, except for a few years spent in Los Angeles, California. Marvin attended East High School, where he was a quarterback on the football team, and Westminster College in Salt Lake City. In the summer of 1941, Marvin's dad, who was then the mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah had the responsibility of escorting the "Days of '47" pageant queen, Noma Andrus of St George, Utah, to an official function. Upon arriving home that night Marvin's mother woke him and told him they had met the girl they wanted him to marry. On October 11, 1941, Marvin and Noma were married and later sealed together in the St George, Utah, LDS Temple. Through the years he often referred to her as his queen. Marvin's wife and four children were the center of his life. Marvin developed a love for speed through his father who became part of racing history, especially that associated with the Bonneville Salt Flats. He was always a part of his father's many world-record setting runs, served as his relief driver in some of the later efforts, and also set speed records of his own. In terms of his career, Marvin became a Western Airlines pilot at the age of 21 and the youngest captain at the age of 24. However, for most of his career he flew for private concerns. He also owned and operated various businesses including a retail clothing store. He and Noma retired and moved to St George in 1982. At the age of 61 he literally built their retirement home with the aid of family members. In 1991, through negotiations with the state of Utah, he reclaimed his father's race car, the Mormon Meteor III, from the state capital building and personally restored the vehicle to its original running condition. From then on his desire was to promote the car along with its racing history in an effort to honor his father and the heritage of which he was part. Along the way Marvin made many wonderful and lasting friends, but his closest and most treasured friend was always his queen Noma. Marvin is survived by his wife, Noma Andrus Jenkins, and four children: Judith Evelyn Hadfield (husband Bob) of Denver, Colorado; Jeri Noma Hansen (husband Lowell) of St George, Utah; David Abbot Jenkins II (wife Paula) of Denver, Colorado; and Charles Lewis Jenkins (wife Jayne) of College Station, Texas. He is also survived by 16 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Saturday, September 20, 2008, at 11 a.m. at Bloomington Hills 2nd Ward, 750 Ft. Pierce, St. George, Utah. Visitation will take place Friday, September 19, 6-7 p.m. at Spilsbury Mortuary, 110 South Bluff Street. Interment will be in the Tonaquint Cemetery, St. George, Utah. Arrangements are made under the direction of Spilsbury Mortuary, 110 South Bluff Street, St. George, Utah, (435) 673-2454. Friends and family are invited to offer their condolences at www.spilsburymortuary.com. Click on the dove. Derived from the Deseret News obituaries section.

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Bonneville Salt Flats, World of Speed, September 17th, 2008. The forty seven year old record for 36hp Volkswagen Beetles of 101.296 miles per hour set by Dick Beith in 1961 has been surpassed! Tom Bruch, driving in the National 36hp Landspeed Challenge on the Bonneville Salt Flats in the 2008 USFRA World of Speed event took the Bruch/Gaylen Anderson New Age turbo-charged 36hp Beetle to a top speed of 103.469 miles per hour. Additional details be sent next week. Burly Burlile

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There are new posts on the blog at www.goldenhawk.ca, (or click) http://goldenhawkproject.blogspot.com/. The World finals meet in October is our goal however, time is not standing still! Thank you for forwarding this to your friends! To add your comments or offer advices just click on the word comment on any posting and follow the instructions it is very easy. Regards, Randy Pierce

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I'm doing a little history in the hot rod eras of the 1930's and '40s, and am having difficulty finding issues of SCTA Racing News for those years. None of the libraries seem to have them. Question: does anybody know where I might find and be able to use these back issues in the Los Angeles area or its suburbs? Any help on this question will be very much appreciated. Thanks, Roger Harrell
Roger: I will post your request to the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians Newsletter at www.landspeedracing.com. You should sign up to receive the newsletter, which is free and also go to www.hotrodhotline.com to see what they have. Check with Tina Van Curen at Autobooks/Aerobooks on Magnolia Blvd in Burbank, California and see if she has some sources where you can go and buy them, borrow or view them. Check with Wendy Jeffries and Ed Safarik, who may know of archives. Many people do have back issues in their collections or were old time dry lakes guys who had subscriptions. One of the problems that we have been hearing about lately is thefts. These old issues have value now and when guys open their hearts and their garages to show their memorabilia, often unscrupulous people steal from them. It is becoming harder and harder to do honest research due to the thefts that have been occuring. What we hope to do as a society is to find and copy the original records and make them available on-line, thus sparing researchers from having to find and then persuade people to lend their memorabilia. You should also check with the American Hot Rod Foundation (AHRF) at www.ahrf.com.

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Road Runners and Friends; The September El Mirage Meet results and October start position numbers are now posted on the "Results / Points / Standings" webpage on our Road Runners website. See http://www.ussarcherfish.com/roadrunners. Jerry Cornelison

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Regarding the photo published in Issue #77 of the SLSRH Newsletter: It looks like a few folks in the Road Runners, George Ausburn picture, taken at Palm Springs were incorrectly identified in the caption that came with the picture.

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I have a Google Web Alert set up to notify me when new info about the SCTA Road Runners shows up in Google. Received this alert yesterday. (Open link below). It is a set of 3 Gus Maanum drawings and apparently the original photos used as models for the drawings for sale on E-Bay. Accompanying information says these were part of an estate sale from a Charter Member of the Road Runners. Says one of the Club Members founded the NRHA (Wally of course) but mentions no other names. I have no idea what Charter Member of the Road Runners owned these drawings and pictures.
   "Google Web Alert for: SCTA Road Runners. 1947 1st HOT ROD SCTA Sanctioned Flathead RACERS TROPHY - eBay ... The Family Patriarch was one of the Charter Members of the Roadster Club, Road Runners SCTA Southern California Timing Association, who raced their Hot Rods ...This once a day Google Alert is brought to you by Google."  Jerry Cornelison
   Jerry: Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This might be a great tool to use in finding out information. If our members who have eBay accounts would each take a club, like the Throttlers, Gophers, etc, and even different Associations like SCTA, Muroc, Russetta, then we could track the artifacts coming up for sale and get in touch with the families. Our intention is not to undercut eBay. Where we can, we want to reward eBay for their on-line auctioning, but if we can locate old members, this would be a great tool to use. I can't tell you whether the objects are real or copies or even if they came from my father's collection. My brother and I are attempting to catalog and bring his records out in an orderly way. At this point we don't even know what is there, or what objects were removed over the years. The same thing can be said for so many other founding members and the artifacts owned by their families.

   Editor: The photograph shows Steve and Gloria Gibbs in front of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum with their car from their high school days. Gibbs was the first director of the museum and a long time hot rodder and race director for the NHRA.

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I just spent a very interesting 2+ hours talking with John Welcher (aka Welchel) at his home in Colton. I found out that the reason we could not contact him via phone is we had an incorrect number. John was very excited that we had found him. He overwhelmed me with stories, memories and pictures. I took notes but did not do a real good job. I know now why you both have mentioned taking a recorder! I did leave John a copy of the SLSRH Bio Guidelines. He says he has a bio already done which includes some of his hot rodding and lakes racing days. He has led a most interesting life. Most if not all lakes racing was pre-war. He was a Charter Member of the Road Runners and in the club until he went in the Navy in December 1941. He was in 17 major sea battles in WWII aboard the heavy cruiser, USS Minneapolis. They even survived having the front of their ship blown off by a torpedo in a Japanese Sub attack. After the war he became a oil field engineer and spent a lot of time in South America. He got involved in Kart Racing with his son in the 1960's. He is a high office holder in the Masons. He volunteers at the VA Hospital in Loma Linda. He plays harmonica (and ??) and started a small band to entertain at convalescent hospitals, senior citizens centers and homes and hospitals. That small band has now grown to 11 members. Like I said, a very interesting fellow.
His memory of his days lakes racing, hot rodding and motorcycling is pretty vivid. He has lots of pictures! I saw one album and he was searching for another. He also said that his nephew John, Orville's (Snuffy's) son has an album or albums with many more pictures. (Uncle) John is contacting him (Nephew) to see about getting the pictures. In what I saw were personal pictures that included Ernie McAfee's streamliner, Ralph Schenck's streamliner, and much more. Ernie McAfee and the Welchers were neighbors and good friends. John said he has a picture of Wally, Vic Edelbrock, Randy Shinn and Snuffy standing by the Welcher Bros modified at the lakes. One of the pictures I showed John from the Jack Ratledge collection I have really peaked John's interest. It was a modified with #2 on the side that I had listed as "unknown." John said, "That's our car and that's Wally's sedan behind it. Wally towed us to the lake." All the pictures in John's album that I saw were pre-war. Jim - I told John about the project you do with copying picture collections for AHRF and then sending back originals with CD copy. He is VERY interested in that as soon as he has them (his and Snuffy's) all together.
He might be one you want to consider filming for the Pioneers also. He had all kinds of info and knowledge about how they hot rodded the cars back then, knew and was friends with many of the other Pioneers and early Lakes Racers and has some real good stories about some of the "fun" stuff they did off the lakes. I have invited John to attend our Road Runners meetings. He only lives around 10 miles away. I have added him to our regular Road Runners notification list so I can stay in touch and keep him notified our activities. Richard, John is looking forward, very much, to talking with you since John and Snuffy were good friends of your Dad. http://www.ussarcherfish.com/roadrunners. Jerry Cornelison

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I remembered some more details from my visit yesterday with Johnny Welcher (also known as Welchel). John said that one time he and Snuffy needed new tires for one the cars they ran at the lakes. He said they could not afford new tires so went to the junkyard and bought tires that were almost treadless. They used those for their runs at the lakes and ran several mph faster than they did with treaded tires that everyone was running at the time. John said, "I think we (Snuffy and I) were the first to run slicks at the lakes but the safety committee didn't like it and made us stop using them." I don't know what year this happened or which timing association, but he said that they began going to the lakes in 1935. In another story, John was talking about a clubhouse where the Road Runners used to meet. He said it was in a two story garage and the Club met in the upper story. I described the picture in the Edelbrock book (pg 58) of Wally and Vic and another Club member repairing the roof of a garage club house. John said that sounded like the place he remembered. I mentioned in my earlier e-mail that John has several picture albums, one of which I looked at. He is looking for the other one he has and is contacting his nephew, Snuffy's son, to get the others. I was telling John about several other Road Runners we are in contact with from the early days and mentioned Joe Reath. John said he and Snuffy were good friends with Joe and had sold him one of their cars. I told John I had contact info for Joe and he said he'd love to talk to him again.
John enlisted in the Navy right after Pearl Harbor. When he left, he entrusted his beautiful '34 Ford to another brother that did not go into the military. When John came home, he found the car was destroyed. The brother's boss wanted to drive the car and and crashed it street racing "at 100 miles and hour." John said, "When I came home, all that was left was the engine." John talked about racing at Muroc, Rosamond, Harper and El Mirage. He had lots of stories and anecdotes. I wish I had taken a recorder. The good news is he lives close and likely will be visiting the Road Runners for meetings from time to time so we will get to hear some of these stories first hand. Jerry Cornelison
http://www.ussarcherfish.com/roadrunners
Jerry: Thank you for taking the time to interview Johnny. We need more racing clubs to appoint Historians, or as they were called in the past, Scribes, to record their history before it is too late. What you are doing to keep the Road Runners history alive is much appreciated.

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Not sure if you can help but I would like to get in touch with Jake Crimmins (AKA Crazzzy Jake) and noticed that you had pictures of his Nostalgia Mustang Funny car on your site.

You can google drag racing and find thousands of sites. Developing a provenance and proving your car's history is very important and we appreciate what you are trying to do. Also, try finding Don Garlit's Drag Racing Museum on-line and contact the staff there. Don is very knowledgeable and his museum is very comprehensive. Each time you reach somebody, ask if they know Jake or his crew members. Use the internet first, before you start calling. We have two reunions, one in Bakersfield, California and one in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and they are a wealth of information for hot rodders and drag racers. Sign up with the Motorsports Museum so that you can get the word on their activities. The problem isn't the absence of sources, it's the sheer magnitude of what's out there that it takes so long to go through all the records available.

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"They're all my kids and I want the best and safest tracks for them," said Georgia Seipel, Infineon Raceway track manager. Aptly nicknamed "Mama" by drag racers, Seipel added, "People become extended families in drag racing.

Her husband Ted and son Kyle are also drag racers at the NHRA level. She left racing to pursue a career in track management. Seipel has been honored before, being named Grand Marshal of the 2004 NHRA FRAM Autolite Nationals. "I still don't understand why they picked me," she said. "There are more people that deserve it." Hot Rod Reunion officials clearly disagree. In this Fast Five interview, Seipel talks about the Reunion and the excitement of drag racing.
 Question: "How does it feel to be named an Honoree for the 17th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion? What does the Reunion mean to you?"
 Georgia Seipel: It's an honor. I'm just a working-type of person and I enjoy what I'm doing.
 Question: "Did you ever think you'd be honored years later for all that you brought to the sport, especially as drag strip manager at Infineon Raceway? What was it like being a woman in a male-dominated sport?"
 Seipel: "Good heavens no! I thought it was a joke first, me being honored at CHHR. Being a woman in this sport is in some ways easy and difficult. I think its easier today than when I first started because men usually didn't take orders from women. It wasn't acceptable at that time. Also, I'm not very feminine and can hold my own with the guys. Today, it's a whole different world. We have so many women doing things. Shirley Muldowney opened the door for women as a Top Fuel driver. No female came before her."
 Question: "What are some of your fondest memories about drag racing in the early days? What do you miss most? Do you keep in touch with a lot of your drag racing friends?"
 Seipel: "I get to meet people I would not have meet if I weren't a manager. When I first started my job managing the drag strip, I met Joe Pisano. I had no idea who he was and that he was the owner of Venolia Pistons. After talking to him for just five minutes, he said, 'You're new at this, aren't you?' Joe took me under his wing and became my mentor. He said, 'I'm going to help you, tell you who the good guys and the bad guys are.' He was pretty accurate with who was good and bad. Joe was a gracious and a good friend until he passed away. I owe him a lot. I still keep in touch with friends who are still racing. My husband still races, so we see a lot of the guys we've known from the earlier days. Just watching my racers and then seeing their children race is amazing. I can't believe the amount of time that goes by."
 Question: "Are you surprised at the popularity of nostalgia in drag racing? Why do you think people enjoy it so much?"
 Seipel: "When you stay involved, it's very addictive. It's amazing how far the sport has come in such a short time. I think drag racing is friendly.
   You can meet racers and visit in the pits with them. You don't get the accessibility in NASCAR racing as you do with drag racing."
 Question: "What do you think of drag racing today compared to the early days?"
 Seipel: "Today we're a national event, a money-making machine that is more business-oriented. Back then we did it for fun and for little money.
   There is more pressure to win today, which can lose some of the fun."
Sent in by Bill Groak.

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From America's first motorcycles - Indians to 100-year-old Harley-Davidsons and vintage and classics - will be displayed at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by Automobile Club of Southern California on Oct. 25 for its 2nd annual Indian Motorcycle Day. The event, held in conjunction with California Bike Week, runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is sponsored by Coker Tire and Duke Video USA. Part
of the festivities is a free seminar with Sam Wheeler, owner, builder and rider of the Kawasaki-powered E-Z-Hook Motorcycle Streamliner at 11 a.m. Wheeler will discuss what it takes to engineer, build and ride a motorcycle that can go more than 300 miles per hour. Wheeler, a land
speed racing legend, attained the amazing speed of 355.303 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in September 2006. While not a record, it is the
fastest speed ever recorded for a motorcycle. "Sam Wheeler goes down in the history books of land speed racing," said Tony Thacker, executive director of the Parks Museum. "I am thrilled that he will be able to talk about his experience as one of the world's fastest motorcycle riders." Admission is free to all who bring a pre-1968 motorcycle (includes entry to the Museum and California Bike Weekend (Saturday only) and Flat Track Racing at Pomona Fairplex on Saturday night. More than 25,000 bikers will ride into Pomona Fairplex for the final days of California Bike Week, which features the 25th Anniversary of the Love Ride (the largest motorcycle fundraiser), a star-studded concert, stunt shows, and a motorcycle trade show. For more on California Bike Week, visit www.calweek.com. Currently on display at the Parks Museum: Trophy Queens, special photo exhibit on the glamour girls or racing: through Aug. 2009
NASCAR: 60 Years of Racing: through Mar. 1, 2009
Celebrating 60 Years of Hot Rod Magazine: through October 2008
Coker Tire/Honest Charley Anniversary: "A Tribute to American Ingenuity." The exhibition celebrates Coker Tire's 50th anniversary and Honest Charley's 60th. The exhibit runs through Nov. 16th
Next exhibit coming to the Parks Museum in '08-'09:
The 50th Anniversary of Gale Banks Engineering: Dec. 3 to fall 2009. Exhibit.
75th Anniversary of the 1933-'34 Ford Model 40 goes from Jan. 23, 2009 to spring 2009. Exhibit, sponsored by Steve's Auto Restorations, highlights one of the most popular hot rod platforms around, the 1933-'34 Ford.
Among the cars in the exhibit will be three of the most famous: the Billy F Gibbons' ZZ Top Eliminator, the Pierson Brother's Coupe and the Pete & Jake's California Kid. Also on display will be the Super Bell Coupe, Big Al and the Mooneyham & Sharp 554 car. Named for the founder of the National Hot Rod Association, the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California houses the very roots of hot rodding. Scores of famous vehicles spanning American motorsports history are on display, including winning cars representing 50 years of drag racing, dry lakes and salt-flat racers, oval track challengers and exhibits describing their colorful backgrounds. The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., PST. Current NHRA members are admitted free. Admission for non-members is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors 60 and older, $5 for juniors six through 15, and free for children under the age of five. The Museum is also available for special group tours. The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum is located at Fairplex Gate 1, 1101 W. McKinley Ave. in Pomona. For further information on special exhibits, museum events or directions, call 909/622-2133 or visit http://museum.nhra.com.

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Links to other land speed and hotrodding websites:
www.landspeedproductions.biz, http://www.landracing.com, www.speedrecordclub.com,
http://www.ahrf.com/video.php, www.hotrodhotline.com,
www.landspeedracing.com, www.Autobooks-Aerobooks.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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