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| Landspeed Historians Sports Fans
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SOCIETY OF LANDSPEED RACING HISTORIANS Newsletter
#21. Websites posting the newsletter are:
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President's Corner: By Jim
Miller.
Crossover racers. If you look at the dry lakes of Southern California you'll be amazed at the tallent that went to
school there. You'll find these Gow-Job
boys invaded every form of motorsports
imagineable. Right now I'm
looking at a picture of a Clyde Adams
dirt track racer built before the war
that was photographed on August 8,
1947. The car looks ready to win a
trophy dash for its driver and a kiss
from some budding starlet but wait, this
isn't Carrell or Saugus, the location is
El Mirage and the car is running in the
Streamliner Class. An old Ford
Model-B engine powers it sporting two
long pipes down the side. Right above
the pipes it says McAfee. This is
none other than Jack McAfee's Class C
ride that ran through the lights at 122+
mph. Later he ran the same car
with a Studie flathead-6. Tommy Davis
was another one who cut his teeth on the
dirt. He ran a car at the lakes
in '41 that started life at Indy as a
Miller, but you would never know it. The
chassis was the only thing left of the
original car. It ran an Olds flathead
straight-8 that turned 116 mph and used
a '29 Ford roadster body that was
narrowed and shortened. Tom started
Avaid, and the company still make the
dry-sump pumps today. And what
about Bruce Crower. Who else would show
up at Bonneville with a Hudson powered
by a Chrysler and run
151+ with guest driver Jimmy Bryan.
Today Bruse tinkers with Rice Rockets
and runs an empire. Hallock,
Magoo, Ingle, McGurk, Remington, Kurtis,
Schiefer, Brown, Pink, Hilborn, Senter,
Palamides, Winfield, Meyer,
Daigh, Kong, Barnes, Phil Hill, I could
go on forever with names, some you know,
some you don't that cut their
teeth or played in our sandbox. Thanks
guys!
1) I would really love to be a
member of the Historians. Paula Murphy
Paula: Welcome. You are on the
list. However, anyone can go to one of many websites
to read and enjoy and to send in histories and
questions.
There are no fees, duties or responsibilities outside
of what Jim Miller and I do, or what volunteers chose to
do.
We are a 'working' group of historians. Some are
trained, some are not. The main goals are for our
members to
find a museum to store landspeed and hotrodding
memorabilia and historical works and to encourage
writers,
researchers and photographers to continue to write and
study. What qualifies one for membership in the Society
of Land Speed Racing Historians (SLSRH)? Look at the
list of members and it will become obvious. Many
have written articles and books on the subjects of hot
rodding and landspeed racing. Some have been amateur
and professional photographers of these sports. Many
were original members of SCTA or other Timing
Associations and have intimate knowledge of our
history. Some are collectors, past officials, media
reporters
and public relations people. Why are we glad to have
you join us? Anybody who knows anything about what
we are doing knows the name Paula Murphy and what she
has done and what she means to our heritage. When
we talk about national treasures we are talking about
those who gave our hobbies life. We are honored that
you
want to belong. Welcome to our group.
Editor's notes: The following was
sent out in June, 2006 and just recently received.
Rex McAfee is the son of
Jack McAfee, who raced at the dry lakes in the
1940's. You may notice that I have been sending
quite a few
newsletters recently. The reason is that my server
would not let emails through to me earmarked for
Rnparks1
and so I had to go to Rnparks2, until the server
blocked that email address as well. Once I got DSL,
I was able
to go back and retrieve "lost" emails, some 2413 of
them. These backlogged emails will soon be
exhausted and
then only new material will go into the future
newsletters.
2) My driving debut in the
"Lone Wolf " Corvette took place this weekend at the
5th annual Historic Car
Festival at California Speedway. The weather
couldn't have been better; smoggy, hot,
humid....ahhh....
the Inland Empire! My good friend Rory
Rinebold who just ran his 1950's special weeks
earlier at the
Wine Country Classic purchased this Corvette
"project" car for me to drive. Hats off to Rory for
working
his tail off installing the roll-bar, fire
system, new front-end, fuel cell and other items.
After squeaking
by tech-inspection, he just felt sorry for us,
we went out for our first practice session. A few
laps out the
ignition went "South." I pulled off the
course but couldn't get the car in a protected
area. Full Course
Caution with the Safety Car! I told Rory "It
can only get better from here." Next session, I was
just
starting to finally relax and get a feel for
the car when coming on the main straight, the engine
started
losing power and smoking. I limped on the
shoulder across the finish line and coasted into the
last
paddock entrance with oil and water leaving a
nice trail...the engine had "expired." On the
bright side,
we had Rory's motor home with A/C to "retreat"
in and hide from the officials. A crate motor is in
the
works along with other improvements so we can
at least run at Palm Springs later in the season.
Maybe
Las Vegas too. Until next time...Rex
3) Saw you and Bro on the
'tube of boob' Sunday in THE Roadster...sure
brought back memories. Looked
like a good time was had by all. "THANX
TO "WALLY" FOR ALL HE DID FOR US"!!! Your
pal, Don
Rudy Don: I've
just finished a story on the Celebration of Life
at the racetrack last Sunday and will send it to
www.hotrodhotline.com,
www.oilstick.com and any other publication
that wants it. In addition, there will be a
video tape made and possibly sold through the
museum. There was an A-list of celebrities who
came. All the
nostalgia guys and gals. Dad always said that
he wanted a "Steve Evans" type send-off and they
did just that.
Because it was at an NHRA event, it required a
ticket and Dad would have been hurt had he
thought that his
Farewell came at a cost to anyone. So we are
planning another event in February, a day before
the Winter-
nationals, when parking and admission won't be
charged and we won't have to rush the speakers
and do it all
in half an hour. NHRA and the Motorsports
Museum did a great job, but we need to have a
Celebration of
Life that is open and accessible, as he would
have wanted it. Neither my brother or I have
stood in the way
of anyone wishing to create a tasteful event
to say goodbye to our Dad. These events are
important. They
allow us to say our goodbyes, but also to say
hello to those we don't see very often. It is
the hellos that are
really important, to let those we admire know
that we respect and admire them. Goodbyes and
hellos are a
bonding experience from one generation to
another and we need them.
4) Working on a Blackie
Gejeian story. Most of his photos were destroyed
in a fire. Greg Sharp kindly sent
me several photos of Blackie's Modified.
I'm looking for photos of the Clovis Speedway,
and Fresno
Dragway, particularly any showing 4
dragsters running side by side down the
strip. Blackie was the only
promoter to do such. Of course any photo
of Blackie at El Mirage would be the crowning
jewel. Dick
Martin Dick:
I will post your email and ask our readers if
they have what you need and if they will contact
you. Readers: If you have a
request, please post an email address, phone
number or some other way for people
to get in touch with you. It is the policy of
the newsletter to not divulge your whereabouts
until you expressly tell
me to or if you provide it in your email to
the newsletter. But the volume of mail has
gotten so high lately that it
is time consuming and difficult to resend
messenges and I would ask you all to help me out
in my workload by
conducting conversations directly among
yourselves. Unless of course, in case you want
to make your answers
public. I will be glad to post any letter
that you send in.
5) Editor's notes: I attended
the 70th Anniversary of the SCTA Exhibit at the
Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports
Museum on November 7, 2007 and met many land
speed racers and fans. Among our group in
attendance was
Jim Miller, Roger Rohrdanz, Ed Safarik, Al
Teague, JD Tone and myself. A full report will
be written under my
Gone Racin' by-line and sent to the websites.
6) I began writing these
"Epistles" in 1999. Some are around. I'll send
what I can find. You can use what
ever you want. It's been a lot of fun and
I've met a number of people and made some good
friends because
of these letters. I have one about our
week at the Chili Bowl in Tulsa you might enjoy,
but it's about
Bonneville people going to the granddaddy
of all midget races. I'll send it and you can
decide if it really
belongs in a Bonneville genre. I have now
installed a 533 cu. in. KB with a 14-71 blower
to run on about
35% nitro. It's still in work. Pete
Prentice, my youthful partner has moved on to
other endeavors, so the
KB installation is progressing slowly as I
only have 1/10 the energy he does at age 38. I
just hit the big
seven-zero and run out of steam more
quickly than when I was younger. Ken Kelley
Ken: I will publish
anything that is sent to me as it concerns the
hotrodding and landspeed world. We will be glad
to publish them.
7) The tribute to
your dad at Pomona was great. I hope
you and your family had the same view as
the rest
of the people there. I got some
great pictures and one ran in 1320 notes
on
www.dragracingonline.com.
When you take as many as I do it
is hard deciding which are the ones to
use out of the 1000's I take.
James Drew
James: Thank you for the nice
compliments and for covering Dad's
Celebration of Life at
Pomona last Sunday.
8) I have been
retired since 1995. Sure, sent the
newsletter. Ken Kelley
Ken: Welcome, you're on the
list.
Keep sending us your observations on
landspeed racing, past and present.
9) We here at Infineon
Raceway are celebrating our 40th year in
Racing here in Sonoma County. We are
trying to locate old images, stories,
etc from 1968 through the mid to late 80’s
for Drag Racing, Early
Indy Cars, Camel GT, early NASCAR etc.
If you have any information please contact
Mike D'Addario
Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, CA
800-870-7223 X141 -
mdaddario@infineonraceway.com
10) The following came from
www.hotrodhotline.com. They are
featuring us in their on-line website.
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Members: Jonathan Amo, Brett Arena,
Henry Astor, Glen Barrett, Lee Blaisdell, Warren
Bullis, Gary Carmichael,
Jerry Cornelison, 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, Ken Kelley,
Mike Kelly,
Jim Lattin, Mary Ann and Jack Lawford, Fred Lobello,
Dick Martin, Ron Martinez, Tom McIntyre, Don
McMeekin,
Tom Medley, Jim Miller, Don Montgomery, Mark Morton,
Paula Murphy, 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 and
Jane Teague, JD Tone and Jack Underwood.
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