 #16
071030 |
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| Landspeed Historians Sports Fans
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SOCIETY OF LANDSPEED RACING HISTORIANS Newsletter #16. Websites posting
the newsletter are:
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President's Corner: By Jim Miller. (No
report received)
Editor's notes: This message was
received in November 2006, but was on an email
address I couldn't access.
1) My book on Ab and Marvin
Jenkins and the Mormon Meteor land speed record
cars, is just out. Ab ran
from the highways to the board tracks of the
twenties to Indy and to Bonneville. $32.95 + $4.95
s&h,
Gordon White, Box 129, Hardyville, VA 23070,
gewhite@crosslink.net
Editor's notes: The following was
received 20 March 2007, but I was unable to access it at
the time.
2) Lowry AFB Air Force Base
Dragstrip. The attached is from
www.coloradoracingmemories.com. I will
be sending another by separate e-mail. Both
feature your father's Safety Safari. Joe Stephan
Editor's notes: After I got a DSL line, I was
able to find over 2400 emails that were sent to me on my old
email
address and have been trying to respond to them as fast as I
can. Apologies to all.
3)
Www.AHRF.com Newsletter - May 14, 2007. If you've never
been in the pits at Indy then this is the
next best thing. The photos (from Bruce Hand) really
capture the energy and excitement of drivers and
mechanics at the track in 1960. Photos include: Dempsey
Wilson in his Novi, Troy Ruttman and A.J.
Foyt, a rare Kurtis 500H driven by Don Freeland, H.H.
Johnson's Helse Special that was on the cover
of Hot Rod Magazine, rare photos of Art Sparks in 1931
with a Miller 220. Altogether, there are over
160 amazing new photos for you to enjoy...as always...for
free at:
WWW.AHRF.COM. Keep
an eye out
for the upcoming Bob Wenz photo collection. Bob was a
member of the Low Flyers and a successful
competitor for many years. These photos are from right
after the war and capture the essence of dry
lake racing. The mud, dust, dedication and ingenuity of
these young kids can be seen in nearly every
shot. We're putting up about 20 a day so keep checking
in!
Editor's notes: This email is from April 2007.
4) Rat rodders and “cacklefesters” recently
came together with nostalgia fuelers and Funny Cars for a
fantasy weekend at Famoso Raceway. A photo gallery
accompanies Dave Wallace’s impressions of the
best Bakersfield March Meet in years at
http://www.hotrodnostalgia.com. The personal 8mm
movies of
pioneer drag racers and lakes racers from the 1950s and
’60s have been merged into a fascinating new
DVD, “The Way It Really Was: The Rough Cut.” Bert Munro,
Mickey Thompson, Norm Thatcher and
the Summers brothers are among the legends filmed by their
fellow racers at Bonneville. Just about
every streamliner that ever raced is shown, in color.
Extensive dry-lakes footage includes a scary spin
out recorded by a primitive onboard camera. Action and
pit film from legendary drag strips at Long
Beach, Santa Ana, Riverside, Pomona, Fontana, Saugus,
Fremont and Famoso illustrates the evolutions
not only of slingshot dragsters, altereds, gassers and
drag bikes, but also of “push cars” and female
fashions. Two hours long, “The Way It Really Was” (PN
6930) can be purchased 24/7 from Hot Rod
Nostalgia’s SECURE Web store at
http://hotrodnostalgia.com/Store/Video/miscracevid01.html#6930.
To charge to Visa or Mastercard, call (209) 293-2114
Monday through Friday, 9-5, PT. To order by
mail, send $24.95 plus $8.95 delivery to Hot Rod
Nostalgia, PO Box 249, West Point, CA 95255-0249
Editor's notes: This email is from April 2007.
5) I am inviting all of you to join me on
Thursday May 3rd for a tribute luncheon at the Peterson in honor
of my father. Lunch will be provided followed by some
remembrance speeches from friends and family.
Details at:
www.jackmcafee.com. You are welcome to share this with your
fellow sports car enthusiasts
who may not be on this email list. I look forward to
seeing you there! Rex McAfee Readers:
Rex's father
was Jack McAfee and he did some dry lakes racing before
becoming a standout road course racer. A cousin,
although distant, was Ernie McAfee, well known in the late
'30's and '40's as a great mechanic and dry lakes
racer. For a time, Ernie worked for Jack.
Editor's notes: This email is from April
2007.
6) Honoring Robert Petersen, Robert
Petersen Interview Parts 2 & 3. In continuing our tribute to
the late
and great Robert E. Petersen we have posted new film clips
from our 2004 interview with him. Robert
Petersen's passing was a huge loss to the hot rod world as
well as to the publishing world. In reading his
obituaries, we are reminded that while his beginnings were
in hot rodding, his influence and business
success stretched into many other areas. It is also clear
that his charitable giving was far greater than
anyone realized. While we mourn his loss we are grateful
that we can share this interview with you.
www.ahrf.com/video.php,
Robert Petersen also appeared in Deuce, the documentary on the
32 Ford.
This is available at
www.ahrf.com/store.php.
Editor's notes: The following email was received
June 2006
7) Wendy...So sorry to hear that Doc (Jeffries)
passed away. Our thoughts are with you during this time. I
always enjoyed talking to him as he was loaded with a lot
of history and racing facts. Glen Barrett
Editor's notes: The following email was
received June 2006.
8) I'm a little behind on things what with
the documentary taking up most of my time. I am really excited
about the regional officer concept. It's brilliant on so
many levels. They can collect photos; do interviews,
help promote stuff we're doing etc. and make sure the AHRF
is known throughout the country. I might
put an ad up on our web site. Will you be at the roadster
show? Perhaps we can talk then (Saturday).
Henry Astor Readers: The
regional officers concept had to do with making a coordinated
attempt to do
oral histories with our hot rodding and landspeed pioneers
before they passed away.
Editor's notes: The following was received June
2006.
9) A colleague of mine, Alice Harper,
Series Producer for Truth about Food at BBC Science in England
has
contacted me for help with a television show she is
producing and I have agreed to be her "Pied Piper"
here in the USA. Below are the casting call details and
contact information. Alice and I worked together
a on a number of documentaries about land speed racing and
I have found her to be a trust worthy "TV"
person. I believe you will be treated right. Speedy
Regards, LandSpeed Louise
'The Truth About Food' will be transmitted in January 2007 and produced by BBC Science in London.
This series will explore how different foods interact with
the body, and will be illustrated using a combination
of state of the art medical imaging and experimentation. It
is being co-produced with Discovery. We are
looking to shoot a sequence with 3 classy 70's or 80's cars
eg Mustang, Dodge challenger, Trans am (not
hot rods or anything that looks too racey) on route 66 in
the Amboy area. The filming would involve the 3
cars with 3 drivers, each with a companion, for 2
consecutive days. We would run a simple eating test at
lunch time on both days. This would involve the
participants eating a different meal and reporting back how
long they feel full for. We are hoping to film this on the
weekend of 8 and 9 July. Participants would also
be given an evening meal, put up over night in a hotel or
motel and receive reasonable expenses. If you
would like to know more please email Katie Lobban:
katie.lobban@bbc.co.uk.
Editor's notes: The following was received June
2006.
10) There are all kind of sanctioning
bodys, holding different racing events with diferent classes to
compete
in, each organization make up there own ruels,some as they
go. It would be hard to build a car that would
satisfy each organization. If someone had a car that is
capable of setting a speed record that could stand
the test of time, I would suggest to them to forget all
the organization, sanctioning bodies, and club's.
Have several credible radar units set up at a place of your choosing, and have the record runs certified
by Genesis (sic) Book of Records. If you succeed in
breaking a record then it is yours till someone else
goes faster in the same type of car with the same set up.
Regardless if it is a VW bug or a car with a J-79
in it. I have never been much of a conformist, and don't
care much for an organization of any kind trying
to tell me what I can or cannot do. Arvil
Editor's notes: The following was received June
2006.
11) My experience with BNI/SCTA was not as bad as the jets in '62, but might go to your point. I brought
my 1948 Kurtis Offy midget in 1986 and immediately had
rules problems. The late Mark L. Dees talked
me into towing out from the East Coast to run in the
Vintage class. I had read the rule book and had a
USAC roll cage and other required alterations. First,
though the USAC cage had been signed off by a
certified USAC supplier (as the rulebook asked) BNI would
not accept it and I had to get it modified, big-
time. The following year I had built a cage identical with
the lakester style cage, but BNI still required
modifications. At that time the U.S. midget record set in
1952 by Rex Mays was 147 mph. I qualified at
149, as I recall and went out the next morning to run for
the record. The BNI officials said "oh no, the
minimum is 150," and wouldn't let me run, even though I
was three miles over the actual existing record.
Later I ran with USFRA and turned 156.902 average both
ways. I came back in 1989 to try to get a BNI
record and they came up with all sorts of things such as I
had to run on 4.00x12 front tires, though that
size had not been made in 20 years except for implements.
I made a pass on 1942 4.00x12 tires, then
said the hell with it and put on my dragster 2.5" inch
fronts and ran the course with the FIA guys' timing
me. All-told, in four years, I ran a couple dozen
passes under BNI timing but got only one timing tag,
for a 134 mph pass my first time out in 1986. Got a few
paper timing slips. Never got a BNI record,
though, I think at least one of my times got into a BNI
book. My times under FIA are still in their inter-
national record book (not beaten yet). There was a fair
amount of "not invented here" about BNI/SCTA,
though Dees and the late Bruce Johnston helped a fair
amount. Dees broke down later and said to me
"White, the trouble with you is you're going too damn
fast." I found Bonneville quite a mixture of stub-
bornness, helpfulness and cussedness. Gordon White
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Members: Jonathan Amo, Brett Arena, Henry
Astor, Glen Barrett, Lee Blaisdell, Warren Bullis, Gary
Carmichael,
G. Thatcher Darwin, Jack Dolan, Ugo Fadini, Robert Falcon,
Rich Fox, Glenn Freudenberger, Don Garlits, Bruce
Geisler, Stan Goldstein, Andy Granatelli, Walt James, Wendy
Jeffries, Mike Kelly, Mary Ann and Jack Lawford,
Fred Lobello, 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 memoriam), Eric
Rickman, Willard Ritchie, Roger Rohrdanz, Evelyn Roth, Ed
Safarik, Frank Salzberg, Charles Shaffer, Mike
Stanton, David Steele, Doug Stokes, Bob Storck, Pat Swanson,
Al Teague, JD Tone and Jack Underwood.
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