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*Irwindale Speedway offers Thursday night drag racing.  Pro's and street legal racing welcome. 

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*Dirt Nation Radio show, Monday nights 8-10 P.M. at  www.racetalklive.com.  May 9, guests

  are Jim Nier, Danny Lasoski, Chris Stepan, John Kaanta, Bill Nelson, Dennis Erb, Pat Ward,

  and John Wright.  (Doc Lehman)

*Dirt Nation Radio show, Monday nights 8-10 P.M. at  www.racetalklive.com. May 16, guests

  are Steve Francis, Ricky Elliott, Tim Fuller, Jeff Geesey, Carl Short and Dean Nardi. (D. Lehman)

*Dirt Nation Radio show, Monday nights 8-10 P.M. at  www.racetalklive.com. May 23, guests

  are Bill Sawyer, Ralph Capitani, Mike Swims, Todd Fisher, Roger Slack, Allan Kreitzer and

  Ernie Saxton.  (Doc Lehman)

*Whitney McQueary won the O'Reilly NARA Battle of the Bluegrass DirtCar Series event at

  201 Speedway, in Sitka, KY.  (Dustin Jarrett)

*O'Reilly NARA Battle of the Bluegrass DirtCar Series Point Standings (after 5/7/05);

  Whitney McQueary 890, Mike Jewell 870, Michael England 860, Chris Combs 830, Tim

  Tungate 750, Aaron Hatton 705, Rick Combs 690, Chuckie May 685, Scott James 655,

  Wayne Chinn 615.  (Dustin Jarrett)

*Eric ‘Spud’ Myers won the 40th season opening race at Wayne County Speedway, in Orrville,

  Ohio.  110 cars ran on the 3/8 mile clay track. www.waynecountyspeedway.com (Ryan Pearson)

*North American Eagle made its 2nd test run at a test facility in Western Washington. A thirty

  second, 1.3MB, AVI video clip was captured and placed on today's update page to download

  and view.  See http://www.landspeed.com  (Jon Higley)

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We get mail:

*Frankly, all those boys and girls ought come to Bonneville and taste real racing, the kind

  that doesn’t insist you have permanent pucker on your face in case there is a sponsor’s

  behind waiting to be kissed.  Too much money, too much influence, it changes the challenge

  from best driver, mechanic, crew chief etc. to best fund raiser.  If I never attend another

  “moneyed” motorsport event I won’t miss a thing. I don’t even care about stick and ball

  pros anymore – that’s where professional money sluts shuck and jive.  Land speed racers

  practice random acts of kindness so often that the gesture is common, not extraordinary,

  big money weirds people out.    (LandSpeed Louise)

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*Gear Grinders Club news: Jack Mendenhall was in the hospital, but is home now. Send him a

  postcard at P.O. Box 95, Buellton, CA 93427.  Ralph Foster fell and broke his hip and now is

  home recovering. His wife Betty returned from Kansas City and gave us this update.  Bobby

  Sights Jr took a wrong step and had to have knee surgery, he is now home recovering.  Leland

  Kolb passed away this week.  Hillary Smith, Gear Grinder Treasurer was in a car accident but

  is home now.  When entering the El Mirage lakebed on the new blacktop road, watch for speed

  bumps.  Speed limit is 25 mph. The BLM enforces this limit.  Dee & Wink Eller will be stepping

  down from their board positions with the Gear Grinders due to their travel distance and other

  commitments. Becca Livington and Susan Robertson will share the position of secretary. Russ 

  O'Daly is our new Sergeant of Arms. El Mirage Lakebed repair is Saturday, July 9, 2005. Meet

  at George Calloway's at 8 am. Bring plenty of water and something to eat. All club members

  need a CB to communicate with Lonnie Martin. There will be a roll call held and we need to

  furnish 3+ members to the work party.  Gear Grinders have position 11 to fill at El Mirage.  May

  14, 2005 meet workduties will be Larry Lindsley, Paul Livingston, Rick MacLean and

  James Manning. Sunday, May 15, 2005, work duties will be Jeff Cheechov, Scott Mattern,
  Kent Lentz and Jay Cotting.  June 12, 2005, work duties will be David Cox, Steve Davis, 

  John Drake and Jim Duff.  July 17, 2005, work duties will be Dan Edmunds, Derrick

  McLeish, Geoffrey Gaites and Doug McLeish.  September 11, 2005, work duties will be 

  Dan Hart, Bob Griffen, Steve Hensley and Martin Hansen.  October 23, 2005, work duties

  will be Kim Harding, Dr. Kathy Hickey, Mike Meierle and Howard Hoffman.  Saturday,

  November 12, 2005, work duties will be Robert McLeish, Len Jones, Bill Kennedy and 

  Max Kranz. Sunday, November 13, 2005, work duties will be Larry Larson, Ron Lau, Brian

  Law and Ralph Leclercq.  Call George Vose at 760-868-9101 if you have a question or can't

  pull your assigned duties.  Susan Robertson received the Hank Negley award for 2004. It is

  an award that has a season pass attached for the receivers use. The award was presented by

  Paula Negley, Hank's daughter, and has been a special award to the club member the board and

  membership feels most deserving. Burke Le Sage was elected to the SEMA Hall of Fame.

  Russ O'Daly showed the new leathers inspection button.  There is a new motorcycle Tech

  Inspection sheet which is now available.  Dan Chilson reports Bonneville Trophies will increase

  to $175 each; Class changes for Speedweek will go to $200. Save the Salt; Intrepid

  Chemicals has agreed to continue the pumping at Bonneville and will start in April 2006 full time.

  New Gear Grinders are: Brian Gillespie, Royce Branch, and Nick Van Nugteren.  Jack

  Underwood and Neil Thompson made a motion to make a donation to Save the Salt in the

  memory of Jim Lindsey's lifetime of SCTA participation, motion passed. The El Mirage Ladies

  Auxiliary was noted for their service to the SCTA. John Bjorkman made a motion to donate

  $100 to the EMLA.  May 15th is the last day to pre register for Speed Week.  Condition of the

  lakebed at El Mirage is dry on the surface, but damp beneath.  The gate on our property and

  George Calloway's gate should both be open.  Special thanks to Mark Brazeau for donations of

  his videos to our raffles.  (Becca Livingston and Susan Robertson)

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  USAC/CRA Sprint Car Points-Rip Williams 571, Mike Kirby 541, Charles Davis Jr 537,

  Damion Gardner 521, Cory Kruseman 503, Rickie Gaunt 395, Tony Jones 321, Josh Ford 310,

  Seth Wilson 299, Mike Spencer 297.  Snap-On Tools Trophy Dash point standings-Damion

  Gardner 36, Charles Davis Jr 20, Mike Kirby 16, Josh Ford 14, Alan Ballard 10, Danny

  Sheridan 8, Tracy Hines 8, Rip Williams 6, Rickie Gaunt 6, Bobby Cody 6, Bobby Graham 6,

  Seth Wilson 4.  (Scott Daloisio and Kim Donner) 
*Sept 18, Irwindale Speedway, Irwindale, California, old fashioned car show, autocross. Falken

  presents DUBFEST 2005 will be a gala gathering of Volkswagens and Audis in an autocross

  race.  Dubfests have been staged for many years but this is our first time at Irwindale Speedway.  

  Falken Tire, Euromotive Tuning Inc, Fortitude, Meguiar's, VWvortex.com,  ACT, Pick Your

  Part, SupremePower, GraphicWorks, and nextlevel are some of the sponsors. See the website
  www.dubfestusa.com.  Adults are $15 and kids under 13 will be FREE.  (Doug Stokes)

*We get mail:

  1) I think we've all read or heard about Jim Murray's "start your coffins" quote. So good to

  read his thoughts sometime later and realize it was a small part of a much richer picture.

  Thanks for sharing them.  (Rocky Entriken)
  2) Deke - The following is an excerpt from Jim's 1993 autobiography.  It was reprinted as

  "In His Own Words" in our 2004 Jim Murray Memorial Golf Classic program honoring

  Bobby Rahal and the Wonderful World of Auto Racing. There's a column around here...

  somewhere...that Jim wrote on NASCAR.  If I can find it, I'll send it. (Linda McCoy/Murray)

  3) "Gentlemen, Start Your What? Gentlemen, start your coffins!"  Most people seem to

  think that quotation from one of my columns sums up my attitude and relationship with

  the auto racing industry.  Not quite. I had a love-hate relationship with auto racing.  I

  loved it.  It hated me. Well, not exactly.  Our problems arose quite early in the game. When

  I first began to write about auto racing, it was a closed fraternity.  It wasn't covered by

  journalists, it was covered by a claque. Automotive writers were just an extension of the

  pit crew. When I came on the scene, the first thing that struck me was the danger. I soon

  found out it was a taboo subject.  You never ­ever ­mention the fact that you had a good

  chance to die driving between concrete walls at speeds up to 240 miles an hour.  You didnąt

  point out that cars burned.  So did people.  I got off on the wrong foot.  I arrived at

  Indianapolis for the 500 in May of 1963.  I was syndicated in the local Indianapolis Times,

  a Scripps Howard paper, now defunct.  The editor, Irv Liebowitz, tracked me down when I

  arrived in town and asked if I would pen a Hello-to-Indy note for his paper. It would help

  my recognition, he suggested. It sure did.  Unwary, I cheerfully complied.  Some way,

  somehow, I alluded to the Indy 500 as "Americaąs Earache."  It made the paper, all right. 

  On page one.  Not page one of the sports page.  Page one of the newspaper.  I was a

  marked man before I ever set foot on Pit Row or Gasoline Alley.  I didnąt see how you

  could separate the sport from its danger quotient and call yourself a reporter. The drivers

  were, usually, reckless young cowboys with a lust for speed and a restless, hyperactive

  nature that made it impossible for them to stand still.  They were either in a car or on a

  motorcycle or on a plane.  They wanted to go through life at Mach One. I didnąt know

  much about the technical aspects of the motor sport when I first came upon it ­ and I know

  little more today ­ but, as usual, my tack was to write about people, not machines.  I didnąt

  know the mechanics of the sport, but I knew danger when I saw it.  I wrote about that.  I

  loved the guys.  They were everything I wasnąt.  I donąt think I ever drove a car fast in my

  life.  I had to much imagination to come up on a blind curve at eighty miles an hour and

  the one time I drove around the Indy 500 oval I think I got lapped by the track sweeper. It

  takes a special kind of human to jump into a car, drive five hundred miles at breakneck

  speed and wind up in the same spot where he started.  Of the many lines I wrote about the

  Indianapolis 500, the deathless one seems to be "Gentlemen, start your coffins."  I am not

  entirely happy with that.  Indy-o-philes took it as a cheap shot.  It could be construed as

  such but you have to remember at the time it was written this line pretty much summed up

  Indyąs role in the scheme of things. The absence of fatalities (May 25, 1992) probably

  muted the cry that would otherwise have gone up from the reformers for the abolition of

  the sport. But the notion persists that race drivers would, so to speak, drive on barges or

  find secret venues far from the raiding police if their sport were outlawed. It isnąt as if

  these guys are ripping through traffic on I-91.  They are in their own little closed circuit. 

  They know the risks.  There isnąt a one of them who hasnąt been in a violent, near-fatal

  crash. Telling them they canąt race is like telling Hemingway he canąt write, Kelly he canąt

  dance or Sinatra he canąt sing. Itąs somebody elseąs job, not mine.  Indy is one of Americaąs

  tribal rites.  -An excerpt from "Jim Murray: The Autobiography of the Pulitzer Prize

  Winning Sports Columnist" (Macmillan, 1993)  Linda McCoy-Murray Pres/Founder Jim

  Murray Memorial Foundation P.O. Box 491304 Los Angeles, CA  90049 Ph/Fx:

  310-476-8948 Cell: 310-770-4547  http://www.jimmurrayfoundation.org
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 *Dodge Racing Division IV Points standings: TODD SOUTHWELL-IRWINDALE SPEED
  WAY 270, WADE BUTTREY-MUSIC CITY MOTORPLEX 258, DONNIE BAZEMORE
  SR-OGLETHORPE SPEEDWAY PARK 230, JOE PALADENIC-TUCSON RACEWAY
  PARK 196, MARK SMITH-JENNERSTOWN SPEEDWAY 156, RICK MILLER-MOTOR
  DROME SPEEDWAY 154, JAMES CIVALI-THOMPSON SPEEDWAY 140, JON
  LEMKE-ELKO SPEEDWAY 140, DONNY REUVERS-RACEWAY PARK 140, AARON
  FELLOWS-TWIN STATE SPEEDWAY 130.    
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