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SOCIETY OF LAND SPEED RACING HISTORIANS
NEWSLETTER 126 - August 28, 2009
Editor: Richard Parks [email protected]
President's Corner: By Jim Miller (1-818-846-5139)
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Click On All Images For Larger View
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Some Names To Look For In This Newsletter:
President's Corner, Editorials, Bobby Sykes Sr died a week ago Sunday, John Thawley (aka Bob Waar 1937-2009. Author and motor journalist) died last month of complications from pneumonia He was 71, Mark's sister (Gloria Mendenhall) had lung cancer surgery today, I talked to Jim Murphy last night and he tells me Walt James is in the V.A. hospital and thinks Walt went in because of his back, On Saturday August 29 2009 starting at 10:00AM there will be a Bean Bandits reunion and car show at the Point Loma Masonic Center, Set your DVRs The second episode of "Shark Tank" will be broadcast on ABC at 9 PM PDT this evening, I tried putting in www.landspeedracing.com and it will not work with my contacts list, Burke LeSage and Gail Phillips sent in the announcement on the Gold Coast Roadster & Racing Club's 17th Annual Gas-Up Party and Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Nice piece - You pretty well covered the field with minimum BS but I'd like to toss out a few additional thoughts, I went through the '63 results, I am working on compiling a Vesco family racing history and need to find old speed records set at the Dry Lakes/Bonneville for the following years, Just been about an hour or two from Bonneville to here and will be back but I'm looking for Marvin Immerso news or contact, 'LA as Subject' is an academic project to collect Los Angeles history, This is the first email I received for Joe Conforth regarding a P38 belly tank lakester he and his father have restored, It is amazing what each person's life has been through - Everything done by everyone has build up theories and ideas that changes the future, Bonneville last week on HAMB, Hi Richard you know what - I haven't been receiving any newsletters, I am looking for a used ARCA or Nationwide or drag car to be used at Bonneville, I noticed your newsletter made no mention of the Loring Timing Association or its first event in Maine earlier this month - Did I miss something?, Challengers and friends - Just returned from the SCTA Speedweek on the salt and I can report the salt is in the best condition in years at the present time, The photos of the baby blue Volkswagen provided in the link were taken by Mick Percy in Australia this past March at the DRLA Dry Lakes Racers Australia, If you are coming to the World of Speed to race or support the 36hp Challenge racers, I would like to invite you to join us for the 2nd annual 36hp Challenge dinner to be held Thursday night after the days racing (Please RSVP!), Editor's notes: The following emails came back in response to a gentle nag to ask those doing their biographies to spend a little more time on them, Hi Jim and Richard: I hope all is going well for you guys - A good friend of mine (Raffi Minasian) has written a piece on Beast III and has some photos as well, I am trying to determine whether the Jack E. Jerrils you mention in your newsletter is the same historian who wrote "History of a City…Carson California.", Racing legends (Kenny Bernstein, David Hobbs, Scott Parker, Les Richter, Al Unser, Jr., H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler and Joe Weatherly) were inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America during an inspirational and emotional ceremony in Detroit, News from Speedweek 2009 at the Bonneville Salt Flats
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President's Corner:
After a week back from the salt I'm still not caught up so I'm going to take the easy way out and just show you some pictures. At El Mirage there is the visitor's center and the S.C.T.A. was asked to help decorate the place. Fellow Sidewinder Cliff Wheeler stepped up and designed and built a kiosk that will have a bunch of race pictures on it. I volunteered to do the pictures. Here are two of the panels and some shots that will make up the third. They're even identified for you. Enjoy. Least we not forget Land speed racing is the last motorsport venue on the planet where everyone has a chance to live their dream and compete at whatever level and speed they choose.
Color photos above from the Jim Miller Collection. - Click Image for Larger View
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Editorial :
Recently I spoke to a member of the Society about a very difficult problem. He knew a man, respected in our land speed racing group, who lent some of his photographs and other memorabilia to a man who was restoring a roadster. After months had gone by and the artifacts had not been returned, the elderly gentlemen called the borrower and asked when he could expect his possessions to be returned. To this date, none of his possessions have been returned and probably never will be. This is a very serious subject, because as historians, amateur or professional, we rely on people to lend us artifacts to study. If the public gets the idea that all we want to do is steal their possessions, then it will become harder and harder to find photographs and other historical material to study. In many cases people come to Jim Miller or myself and ask us to intervene. We make phone calls or visit people and gently inquire, because that is the limit of our authority. We aren't the Relic Police or paid investigators who can go out and get these objects, lawfully or otherwise, and return them to the rightful owners. Jim and I also have to be careful, because just because someone tells us that objects are being detained, doesn't mean that they are stolen objects. In many cases we find out that the present owners have paid for the objects or that they were "promised" them. In some cases the original owners forgot that they "gave" the objects away and later assumed that they would be returned. There is a responsibility of the lender to document to whom he is lending something, when it is to be returned and any other rules to follow. It is the responsibility of the borrower to adhere to these facts. Many people who have lent things out later tell us, "I don't want to take this person to court," and therefore they are relinquishing their rights to the borrower, even though they want the objects back. Without a deed or a contract, whoever "possesses" the objects is the rightful owner, unless you let the court decide that issue.
In one case I found out that the borrower was an honest man, but wasn't organized and he didn't know where the photographs were. He actually looked and couldn't find them in hundreds of boxes stashed in his garage and house. He had tried and simply given up. He was truly apologetic, and couldn't find a way out of the problem caused by his cluttered lifestyle. Unless the lender came to his house, 3000 miles away, and went through his boxes to help him locate the missing relics, there was nothing he could do. The lender valued the artifacts, but was not willing to go that far and spend that much time to get them back. Another example is that of a good friend of mine, Danny Oakes, who has since passed away. One day he called me up and said, "Richard, would you tell that guy you sent over to return my photo albums. He's had them long enough." I told Danny, "What are you talking about, what guy and what photo albums?" A month later the guy came back and gave the albums back to Danny. I'll never know who he was or what his name was, because for a second time, Danny forgot to ask him. Oakes let a stranger into his home, gave him the photo albums to scan and never knew the man's name. I can tell this story now because Danny has passed on and it's a good way to explain how trusting hot rodders can be. The scary thing is that Danny was partially blind, did not know this man, assumed that this man knew me and could have been robbed or seriously injured. Oakes was lucky that time because the man was a true fan and not out to hurt him, but what if he had come to rob or hurt him? These photographs, trophies and other memorabilia that these old racers have are worth a lot of money. I've been to their homes on many occasions and often they live alone or they and their wives are old and frail. Their health and memories are not always as good as it once was. Jim and I are very respectful and have earned a good reputation, but others are there to prey on our elderly racers.
I remember talking to a well-known land speed racer, who has also passed on. He lived alone in this large house on a large lot. He had a dog that patrolled the grounds, but he was hard of hearing. One night thieves came and opened his garage door and carefully brought out his tools and possessions and laid them out on the ground, taking only the valuable ones. They also let his dog out and I believe something happened to his beloved pet. They robbed him twice this way. I don't know a single person who hasn't suffered the indignity of having their prized possessions taken from them or who trusted someone, only to see that trust shattered. It's happened to me and someday it will happen again. We all live in a world of trust and broken trust. We can't stop trusting people, because that's a world not worth living in. On another occasion I spoke to a man who came to the Motorsports museum and brought with him a box of valuable old photographs from Paradise Mesa and other early drag strips. These photographs were priceless. Somebody asked him if they could take his picture and he put down his box and the man posed him with a few statues, said thanks and walked away. Our early day drag racing hero went back to pick up his box and they were gone. The photographer's "assistant" had made off with the box. It doesn't matter how the thief gets the pictures, whether by borrowing the photos and forgetting to give them back, or by telling one man, "prove it." One way or the other, a borrower is either honest and returns the photographs on time and in good order, or he has no intentions of returning what he borrowed. But sometimes it is confusion. I've heard old racers say, "Here, you can have these photos if you want them." What does that mean? Is the racer saying that he wants us to own, possess and keep them as our very own? Is he transferring title? Is he lending them to us? Is he making us a partner, a co-owner of the artifacts? So many times I call up the possessors of the objects, who then tell me, "That guy gave them to me and now he's saying that he wants them back?"
I have to be honest; it's as much the responsibility of the lender as it is for the borrower to make this transaction of lending artifacts clear. If the lender does not specify what is to be lent, when it is to be returned and any other details, IN WRITING AND WITH AN OBSERVER PRESENT, then you might as well consider what you are lending to be a gift. Jim and I know who the true and honest borrowers are. We also know who the real thieves are out there. We are helpless to help you unless you act in a smart, professional and organized manner and you are willing to turn the case over to the police if there isn't compliance. If you don't get a written agreement and you aren't willing to go to the police, then there is absolutely nothing that we can do to help you. Jim and I tried to create a Society rating list and have it available to the public. It would simply say, "This person has three comments, one negative, two positive." It wouldn't malign or praise anyone, the list would simply note what lenders thought of the borrowers. No one used this list, and no one called to give us ratings or make use of it. What people did was to email Jim and I from time to time and say, "Do you know what this guy did and what can you do to help me after the cows have all fled the barn?" We know that there are some real nasty piece of work out there that prey on others. We know that they will continue to do so and that they will always be looking for prey to take advantage of. Some even read the newsletter to see who we uncover in our researches so that they can track down old racers and approach them. These predators are no different from Bernie Madoff and other conmen. They live off of others and they are utterly ruthless. The Society is injured by these predators. People are burned once and then refuse to trust honest historians ever again. One man who lives close to me has a collection to die for, but he no longer lets anyone borrow his memorabilia after someone stole all his prized early programs. Another man, who also lives close by, refuses to do the same thing.
I cannot publish the names of lenders and borrowers. I cannot use the pages of the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians newsletter to publish the names of suspected thieves. I know that newspapers in the west do so all the time for poachers and hunters who are caught without licenses or tags, because they have broken the law. I cannot do that here because the Society has not given me that authority and no court of law has said, "That person has broken the law." We know they have stolen artifacts. We know their reputation is evil. We know that they would steal from any of us. We know they are cowardly and vicious men. But you, the lenders, have not done what you must do to prove it legally. You do not have a written contract. You do not have an inventory of artifacts lent, nor is the inventory initialed by the borrower. You have not turned his over to the police. The courts have not ruled on the ownership of the articles in question. Therefore it is simply your word against these craven thieves. I know that you have been wronged and that you deserve justice. But I also know that you have disregarded good advice and fell into the trap of desperadoes. We can't help you. Jim and I can sympathize with you, and in some cases, since we have been cheated, even empathize with you. But until you decide to be more professional and organized when you lend out your possessions, the thefts will continue and the help that you can expect will be minimal.
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Bobby Sykes Sr died a week ago Sunday. Services were last Friday at Tehama Cemetery where he wanted to be buried with military respects. Bob Sykes Jr
Dear Bobby: Please give us more information about your father so that we can give him a nice review, bio or obit in the SLSRH newsletter. I remember when we honored your father at the Boat Racers Reunion about 5 years ago. He was a pioneer and his influence on land speed, boat and car racing needs to be recorded, as well as all your family. I'm very sorry to hear of his passing. He was a true friend to us all.
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John Thawley (aka Bob Waar) 1937-2009. Author and motor journalist John Thawley died last month of complications from pneumonia. He was 71. How to Hot Rod Small Block Chevys, How to Hot Rod Big Block Chevys, the Off Road Handbook and the cult classic How to Modify Datsun 510/610/240Z Engines & Chassis were all written under Thawley's pen-name, Bob Waar. Those and the books that followed under his own name totaled some twenty titles over his career. John raced in Baja and Bonneville. He worked at Indy, Irwindale, Daytona, Pikes Peak and Riverside. He served time on the payrolls of Buick, Chevrolet, Nissan, Toyota and numerous performance industry manufacturers. Thawley began his career as a reporter and evening news anchor at KTBC-TV in Austin Texas. He later won a CBS fellowship to Columbia University School of journalism. Following his return to Austin, John covered the University of Texas tower shooting and was honored for rescuing several wounded from the line of fire. In 1966 he joined the staff of HOT ROD Magazine and began a lifetime in automotive journalism. The Bob Waar moniker on his early books was used to sidestep the issue of writing for other publishers while still under the employment of Petersen Publishing. Friend and colleague Tex Smith once ribbed him about his Texas drawl and strange hobby of collecting barbed wire...Bob Waar was the result. Enthusiasm for technical nuance combined with Thawley's plain-spoken Texas voice demystified complexities of engine & car building to a generation of hot rodders. John was one of the good guys and he will be missed. He is survived by his brother, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. A memorial service will be held at the NRHA Motorsports Museum, Thursday August 27th at 2pm. All are welcome. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you buy a car magazine or something trick for your car. NHRA Motorsports Museum, www.museum.nhra.com, 1101 W McKinley Ave, Pomona, CA 91768. 909-622-2133. Family contact: E. John Thawley III, [email protected], 714 542-3888.
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Mark's sister, Gloria Mendenhall, had lung cancer surgery today. There was more than the doctors thought and it took six and a half hours. He removed the bottom and middle lobes (originally it was going to be just the lower lobe) and several lymph nodes that also had cancer. She will have to follow up with chemo and radiation. They did not check out the gall bladder as this surgery took so long. Don't know when anything will be done with that issue (the MRI shows some sort of mass that the doctor has never seen before). Will update when there is more info. Vickie Mendenhall
Vickie: Please give our prayers and best wishes to Gloria and we hope that she has a complete recovery.
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I talked to Jim Murphy last night and he tells me Walt James is in the V.A. hospital and thinks Walt went in because of his back. Jim's wife, Sharon Murphy, fell and broke her ankle, but is recovering. Jim is doing all the domestic work besides trying to build engines. Billy Cruse
Billy: Jim Murphy called me on Friday, August 21, 2009 to inform us that Walt James is in the Veterans Hospital in Sawtelle, California from back surgery and complications. Walt James is good friend and a very knowledgeable historian of the racing scene.
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On Saturday, August 29, 2009, starting at 10:00AM, there will be a Bean Bandits reunion and car show at the Point Loma Masonic Center, 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd, San Diego, CA. The theme is to honor the 60th year of the San Diego BEAN BANDITS Racing Team, and to honor Joaquin Arnett. Joaquin is suffering from Alzheimer's, and won't be able to attend. Also featured will be the famous $5.00 donation lunch. If you can attend, please do, and extend an invitation to any and all that may be interested. Jack
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Set your DVRs. The second episode of "Shark Tank" will be broadcast on ABC at 9 PM PDT this evening. The publicity blurb states there will be a "life saving device" presented to the Sharks for consideration. It's not The Shoehorn! But we will be watching and recording. Bob Falcon
Bob: Please change my email address to [email protected], because the other email address that you used slowed down your email. Also, I need at least 3 weeks notice of an event in order to get it in the newsletter and on the website for our viewers to see before the event
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I tried putting in www.landspeedracing.com and it will not work with my contacts list. Why, I do not know. I simply write the words Society of Landspeed and I would click on the first newsletter that would show up on that page. So far I have been successful that way. Yes you are right about the Title of your website. It is not something that a regular hot rodder would look for. Maybe it would be a good idea to add Hot Rod in the beginning of whatever title you choose for the website. Such as Hot Rod legends of speed. It is without a doubt in my mind that once the word Hot Rod shows up before the title you choose the input of your mail would go up and out of the roof. I deeply know that if you do this every curious youngster will want a piece of the action. Spencer Simon
Spencer: Egad, Spencer, I can barely keep up with the volume now. I spoke to Mary Ann Lawford the other day and she told me that we now have 641 reader/members of the Society. When Jim and I founded the group, we struggled to come up with a name that identified what we believe in and Society of Land Speed Racing Historians (SLSRH) simply fit. It is cumbersome and somewhat high falutin' and my father and brother gave me a really bad time over the name. But when I asked either of them to come up with a more appropriate name, they couldn't. Just as when my father named his organization, The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), back in 1951, there were people who quizzed him about that. They asked him why he would give a drag racing organization such a strange name, but he never did change it and people came to love that name, as it represented something much more important and close to their hearts than simply "National Drag Racing Association." In the years to follow there were groups that formed and called themselves The American Hot Rod Association and The International Hot Rod Association. We have had the NHRA, the AHRA and the IHRA, among others. If the name seemed rather strange in 1951, it became endeared to the hearts of drag racers in a very short time. Perhaps the name National Hot Rod Association simply struck a nerve with people. The same thing is true with The Society of Land Speed Racing Historians (SLSRH). We are a society. We are racers or fans of straight-line racing. We are historians, amateur and professional. We don't want to attract those who simply want to read the newsletter. We want to attract those who will DO SOMETHING. We want to attract people who will write their biographies, caption their photographs, do interviews, write stories and articles and record hot rodding, land speed and early drag racing. We have a limited focus. We know that there are some really good websites out there that are much larger, better funded and staffed, who specialize in drag racing, hot rodding and land speed racing. In drag racing there is John Ewald's www.wediditforlove.com, H.A.M.B., www.competitionplus.com, www.nhra.com, www.draglist.com, www.dragracingwebsites.com, www.pscaracing.com, www.georgiadragracing.com, www.nedra.com, www.ggvintagedragracing.com, www.drawfasthelp.org, and www.standard1320club.com, among many more great websites. For land speed, dry lakes and Bonneville racing there are www.landracing.com, www.landspeed.com, www.alandspeed.com, www.landspeedrecords.com, www.purplesagetradingpost.com, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3358730/Top-ten-websites-for-land-speed-records.html, www.ugofadini.com, www.rocky-robinson.com, www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc/Internet/lsrsites.html, and many more. For hot rodding, the websites are just as varied. The SLSRH does not wish to monopolize the issues, but to provide a forum for all the sites to use and especially for historians and very interested individuals to post their research. We also urge our members to post their opinions, create a dialog, share photographs and their knowledge of hot rodding, land speed racing and early drag racing. In other words, the reason for our existence is different from other websites and if we change then the question is, "Why don't we just simply join the other websites and cease being the SLSRH?" Someday that may happen as people come and go and mergers happen. The members of the SLSRH may finally come up with that perfect name that we know is out there, or they may never find a better name. Whatever the circumstance, we will continue on with our work to uncover the history and heritage of land speed, early drag racing and hot rodding in general and save that knowledge for future generations.
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Burke LeSage and Gail Phillips sent in the announcement on the Gold Coast Roadster & Racing Club's 17th Annual Gas-Up Party and Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The date is September 26, 2009 at Mendenhall's Petroleum Museum, located in Buellton, California. The time is from 9 AM to 5 PM. Mark and Vicki Mendenhall are the hosts and provide a Santa Maria style barbecue with tri-tip steak, beans, salad and drinks. The pit passes are $55 each and you must register by September 15th. For more information call 805-245-8519 or email Gail at [email protected]. The honorees for 2009 are;
Historical vehicle-Mickey Thompson's Attempt Streamliner
Presently running vehicle-Walsh/Cusack/Walsh 333 Roadster
Motorcycle-(One of) Scott Guthrie's Multi-record Hayabusa
People who have contributed-Tanis Hammond, Lee Kennedy, Gail Watson Phillips, Mike Nish, Bill Taylor and Bob Sykes Jr
People from the past-Meb Healey, Eddie Kuzma and Walt Scott
Manufacturer-Mooneyes and Chico Kodama
Historian-Mark Brazeau
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Nice piece. You pretty well covered the field with minimum BS but I'd like to toss out a few additional thoughts. Many places I once did business with preferred submissions in .pdf format. This moved most responsibility from the service bureau or printer back to the provider. Many shops and bureaus in this neck of the woods (Oklahoma) moved from Quark, PageMaker and a few others to Corel Draw 6 or 8 years ago. I have done up to 264 page books in Corel without feeling I was "pushing" it at all. Indesign wasn't around then so I can't say much about it. Somewhere between vanity publishing and Commercial publishing lies the oft-glossed over world of "self-publishing." The important part of this distinction is the writer's self image. Like many other he-men and super heroes, vanity publishing conjures up a mental image of a moon struck old lady with a tome of poetry she can't believe no publisher wants to touch with his longest ten foot pole. Self-publishing is the zone of many of the best writers who understand the business and prefer to get the 60% cut from sales rather than the 5% or 10% chunk commercial publishers usually offer. Percentages that never quite make it to the bank because very few books actually show a profit.
It is true that self-publishers have to handle all their own promotion but that is also true if you sign with a big publishing house without using a name like Stephen King or Nora Roberts. The bulk of any promoter's budget will go to the established "big names" they know will almost absolutely sell big. Little, if any, will filter down to Joe DeNitro's book on "Hole Shots and Tire Wobble." Joe will have to hit the road and promote his own book if he expects to sell a few. The only other thing you left out was probably best left out anyway. That would be locating a print shop willing to produce the book pretty much "at cost" on a "just to see if I can" motive. Sadly, there are few overly curious idiots around these days. I may be the last. <Wink> Since copy shops are eating away at traditional printing's business base, it may be possible to strike a deal for an extended delivery date. Allowing a shop to use the project as between-jobs filler so that man and machine is not sitting idle between surges might rate a substantial discount. Again, congrats on an excellent piece...easily one of the best I've seen...and ignore these grumblings from an industry burn-out as you feel proper. Good on ya'! W. Dale Smith, Oklahoma [email protected]
WD: Thank you for the compliments and for your input. I would like to run your letter in The Society of Land Speed Racing Historians newsletter, which I edit. The purpose of the article was to inform the general racing public of a service that some of them might want to try. The subject matter is broad and sometimes complex, so a simple article on how to start is what I aimed at. Other How-To articles that have gone into the newsletter are; Public Access TV, Politics in Racing, How to Change a broken car window and other articles. We also do short biographies and post them on-line. We are all amateur historians and our work is free as is our website. Please let me know if I can use your letter and your email address if you should have a business that you would like to promote, because many racers would like to get their story in print and compared to many things that we spend our money on, it isn't all that expensive.
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I went through the '63 results. The only car that ran #28 that year was listed under the name of Dave Catrow. That number ran in class F production. The displacement for that class was 176" to 230". Unless they punched the VW out real big it would have run in class G, 0" to 175". If it was supercharged they probably would have bumped it up one class. Does the owner of the photo know the name Catrow? Jim Miller
Jim: The owner of the photograph is Darrell Vittone and Burly Burlile is the one who sent it in to the newsletter.
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I am working on compiling a Vesco family racing history and need to find old speed records set at the Dry Lakes/Bonneville for the following years: 1930's & '40's, 1950 - '55, 1957 - '60, 1963, '65, '66, '67. Would you have or know where I could find this information? We know John Vesco and his partner raced on the lakes throughout these years. Any help would be deeply appreciated. Sincerely, Rick Vesco
Rick: Jack Underwood sent me your request. The first source that I would look at is The Society of Land Speed Racing Historians newsletter at www.landspeedracing.com. You will find back issues there and on the more recent issues the phone number of our president, Jim Miller. Call him and see if he can give you sources to contact. Be sure to let us know if you want your email address to go with your request, because I don't divulge any contact information unless you advise me too. We have about 500 members and when you send requests to us I post it in the newsletter to see if anyone can respond with answers. The second resource is the internet and I would advise you to check land speed racing, various Vesco names and Wendy Jeffries, Ed Safarik and John Wennerberg. They have newsletters also. Thirdly, I would suggest a phone tree starting with those that you know. Call them and ask, "Do you have any programs, letters, photographs and memorabilia of the Vesco family and their racing activity. Most people will have a little information. The important part comes next, as they say "sorry, that's all I know," respond with this question, "can you give me a few phone numbers of people you know who might know something?" Try for at least 5 names and phone numbers and keep a record of your contact. For example, I would suggest you talk to Julian Doty, Bruce Geisler, Burke LeSage, the Lindsley family and Jim Miller. They in turn might give you other names to contact. Fourthly, I will help you work on your bios if you like. Below is a guideline that I use. We have about 80 bios so far. I encourage you to do a minimal bio to start, because every fact that you know is likely to jog someone's memory. You have no idea how many times I will ask, "Do you know so and so," and people will tell me, "No, I don't." But if I keep probing, asking about other things, other people, cars, dates, anything that comes to mind, eventually the light goes on and they say, "Oh, you mean Red, yeah I know him." I will run your family bio in the newsletter to get people to respond, then later as you find out more information you can add to your family's story. Fifthly, you need to get all your family together in some sort of reunion and caption all your photographs to the best of your ability, because the more that is known about a photograph the more other historians can help you. I doubt that you will find any one single source that will answer your questions, but if you use our system, I believe you will locate what you need to finish your project.
Guideline for biography:
We have set a goal; to record and save the history and biographies of racing individuals and families. We encourage each and every person to write their biographies and to caption their photographs. Below is an outline for you to use for your life story and share it with us. Send it back to me and I will edit it for you and then post it on-line.
a) Where did your family come from; your parents and grandparents and what did they do for a living?
b) Where were you born and where did you grow up? What elementary, junior high and high school did you attend?
c) Did you take any shop classes, while you were in school? Name your friends, especially those interested in racing.
d) Did you join any car clubs or work on or own a car, or a race car, or work as a crewman on a race car while in school?
e) What kind of jobs did you have as a young person while growing up? What kinds of hobbies and interests did you have?
f) What did you do after graduation? Did you join the military? Were you drafted? Did you fight in the war?
g) What kind of racing did you get involved in? Did you own a racecar, drive a racecar or work as a crewman?
h) Who were some of your friends that were involved in racing with you? Name and describe them.
i) Tell us about your family, your wife and children. Were they involved in racing?
j) What kind of work did you find after you left school? Was it racing related employment?
k) Are you retired from racing? What are you doing today?
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Just been about an hour or two from Bonneville to here and will be back, but I'm looking for Marvin Immerso news or contact. If anyone out there has his phones or E-mail address, I 'd like to get in touch. Also, I was most curious about the Turbine powered car his dad and I built. I was at the Ranch on Del Amo before they lost the Lawyer/Trustee that Ermie had appointed. He passed away and I had made contact with Alfred before he had his court date in July, but haven't been able to find Marvin. If anyone knows the "Jim Ferguson" that was working on the Turbine Car, or has any info on Marvin, I'd like to hear from them. The original car Ermie Immerso and I built in his garage on 32nd Street in Phoenix, Arizona during 1961-62 was a Ford (4) engined LSR called Thunderbird IV, and it was a 4-wheel drive. In 1976, Ermie found two Lycoming gas turbines in a junk yard. We remodeled that frame and built the Thunderbird Turbine in his shop at EIE in Long Beach, California. I worked for him as a maintenance supervisor for about 18 months. Roger Mogford and I trailered the car to New York for an exposition in Madison Square Gardens in January 1977 and spent a week at the New York Auto Show as featured hot rod. We came back to California by way of the Mardi Gras in New Orleans with a couple of gals from the Atlanta area. I went to work at El Segundo in 1975 after leaving Ermie to go offshore boat racing with Art Koopmans in the "Big Broadjumper," in Bill Wisnik's aluminum blown Ford 32 Ftr. I had gone to Bonneville a total of twice with Ermie, once with Mickey Thompson and worked a total of 4 1/2 hears with Mickey and Trudy over in Wilmington, California. I also put in six months with Ermie at Shelby American Engine Shop, and then went to Chuck Daigh at Holman & Moody in Long Beach. H&M moved up to Signal Hill and became Holman, Moody & Stroppe, but I left them and went boat racing with Danny Oaks at Koopmans/Wisnik/Fortney and then to Kudu Aeroseacraft after they bought "Senor Zippe." I always admired Ermie for his craftsmanship and work ethic. I did learn a lot by watching him, for hours on end. I hope to get information on the last version of the turbine car. Howard Hays, 760-265-6469 or [email protected].
Howard: I'll post this to our newsletter at www.landspeedracing.com, but please let me know if it's alright to post your phone number and email address as without permission, I don't publish them in the newsletter. Also, the more information you provide the more memories you stir up with our readers, so tell us more about the car you worked on and the people you are looking for.
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'LA as Subject' is an academic project to collect Los Angeles history. The material collected will be held by USC. They are having a bazaar in October and I would like to arrange a hot-rod display to show some grass-roots LA automotive/racing history as a lead-in to the rest of 'Motorsports.' Does anyone have, or know of, some kind of a travelling display that would show the advancements in hot-rodding from the early days and on up to the high-tech stuff seen at today's Bonneville and NHRA tracks? Ken Berg [email protected]
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This is the first email I received for Joe Conforth regarding a P38 belly tank lakester he and his father have restored. They purchased it in the Bronx, New York and it had supposedly been sitting at that location since 1958. I have volunteered to help the Conforth's uncover whatever history we can on the Lakester. I thought our readers might like to follow along on the process and maybe some of them can help too. Keep your fingers crossed for a successful excavation in history. Michael Brennan
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Hi Jaime [Gonzalez]; I was given your contact info from Michael Brennan and he suggested I contact you regarding an old tank that my father and I own in hopes you may have any type of info or old pics of it. We have had it for about 12 years now. We ran an ad in Hemmings for a couple years looking for an old lakes car and ended up getting a call from a man in Bronx, New York so we went and checked it out and the guy had the shell hanging in his machine shop for the past 35 years or so. He couldn't remember anything about the car except that he bought it in 1958 from the west coast out of an old Hot Rod magazine; I have gone through all the Hot Rod classifieds from 1957-59 but never found anything. Anyway he took it apart and was going to build an updated chassis and never got around to it. The number I'm guessing was for a V8-60 but the tank now has a V-8 in it, he had some of the original parts so we were able to put everything back in its original place using the T frame. Every hole on the car is exactly the same, we did not cut or make any new holes, and the exhaust did have the plates around the body as well. The bottom of the tank was never painted; the black on the nose of the tank is from fire damage when it was in storage at the guy's machine shop over 30 years ago. The numbers and decals are also untouched. The wheels may be different as well but I'm assuming it had pretty tall tires on it like we do now since the bottom belly is pretty low. Attached is a few pics of what I have on this computer, one other thing is that we never found any remnants of salt but I'm sure that would have melted away over the years, but there was some reddish type dirt down in the lower framing of the tank skin. Thanks for having a look I really appreciate it. I see Michael said you are from Evans Speed Equipment…..are you revamping the old Evans parts? I run an Evans 2x2 on my Roadster and am building a sedan right now; I'll be using an Evans 4x2 on it. Joe Conforth (973-222-5279, or [email protected] )
Michael and Joe: The first question I need to ask is if you mind if I put your phone number and email address in the newsletter? Now, the next thing is that I need you to write out a bio of you and your father's history and I'll enclose a guideline. This bio is strictly your own, unless you want me to put it in our archive lists at www.hotrodhotline.com. I'm sending this over to Jim Miller to see if he can give you a quick guess at who might have owned it and where it managed to race. The red dirt is not something that is normally found on the dry lakes and might indicate that it was in someone's back yard. Lots of areas are decidedly reddish out west. I will post the photographs on-line and you can send me more photographs if you wish. I need you to include all the information that you possibly can on the belly tank and go back and ask the man you bought the tank from if he has any additional documents, like receipts from whom he bought the tank from. Finally, we will be sending you names and phone numbers for people whom we think might hold some answers for you. This sounds like a great quest.
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I forwarded the photos to Michael Brennan. Off hand neither of us recalls it but over the weekend I will look through my lakes photos and see if I can make any sense of this. Michael wrote me saying he would forward all our correspondence to Jim Miller. Jim is the president of the American Hot Rod Foundation but he is away on assignment in Utah for Speedweek. So it will be a bite before we hear from him. Michael noticed it has 6 exhaust outlets and that is a good indicator; I recall seeing only a few lakesters running zoomies. Michael asked me to forward these questions to you: Who did you get it from? Did it ever have a roll bar? Is the competition number correct? It appears to be restored? If so do you know by whom? Has it been repainted? It looks to be a p-47 belly tank is that correct? Does the tank still have its fuel capacity ID tag? Jaime Gonzalez
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Some good info there. No roll bar means that the last time it could have run legally would have been before about '54. I'll get with an SCTA tech guy after Speedweek to find the date of the rules for mandatory roll over bars then I'll have another source check the run logs from the lakes events and hopefully your number pops up and it is a belly tank. The alpha letter is sort of weird though. I think it was an "A"; I'll have to review the pics you sent but that would be a very small engine for such a large tank. We'll just wait before I speculate further, sometimes these things have a nice way of working themselves out. We have had a couple of other people working on the history of their old race cars and I would like others to see how this process is handled and what to look forward too. Michael Brennan
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I called Joe Conforth this afternoon and what I found so far was that the tank appears to be a two tone red and black paint job is not the case at all. The fogged in looking black paint on the nose is actually damage to the paint from a fire where the tank was stored in the Bronx. Also all the silver tone is actually the unpainted aluminum surfaces. Joe verified that they did not repaint the tank. The competition number and the SCTA stickers are original too. The frame is a Ford model T unit and I have an inkling at this point that it was a Bill Burke built tank. Many of the Burke tanks I have seen have 6 exhaust ports and were built up on T frames. Michael Brennan
Click on image for larger view
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It is amazing what each person's life has been through. Everything done by everyone has build up theories and ideas that changes the future. I have not gotten a response from Dick Messer. I do not even know if my mail ever reached him through his E-mail. Well it is nice to know Bob Falcon was my neighbor. I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was in the Inliners International, AKA Philly the kid #1932. California Bill Fisher, Armond Orr, and Tom Langdon were in contact with me at the time when the project was in motion. When Bill passed away it was a downfall for me. He was awesomely knowledgeable. I also should have thanked Bob Falcon for the time he has spent responding to my car's history. I guess I was preoccupied with trying to think back to the past. Tell Bob I said thanks. Also I really want to thank you for making the great statement to me. It meant a lot to me. Spencer S. Simon
Spencer: Keep emailing Messer. He's under a lot of problems right now and it's a time consuming job. Bob Falcon is one of those guys that is rather nice, a gentleman, who doesn't brag a lot. I had to find out more about him by helping him do his bio. That's the advantage of a bio; you really get to know something about your friends and idols that you might never know. Start on your bio today and I'll help you edit it.
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Bonneville last week on HAMB. See http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=388215. Sent in by Evelyn Roth
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Hi Richard, you know what? I haven't been receiving any newsletters; I hope that I didn't sign off by mistake! I joined a long time ago, and was enjoying the letters. I have been a street rodder for 65 years. In fact I love all cars. I hope that I can continue to receive the news. Thank you, Vince Burgos, Sr
Vince: Some time back the newsletters began to average almost ten thousand words in length. The size, plus the number of members, about 500, began to cause the website owners trouble with various servers. Servers like AOL would consider the newsletter to be SPAM and would reject it. The only recourse for the Lawford's, who also own www.hotrodhotline.com, was to send out notices that the weekly newsletters were ready. Then our members had to actually go on-line and read the most recent issues. That was always the case with photographs, but now our members have to go to the website to read the text as well. Put www.landspeedracing.com on your list of favorites and go there once a week to see the latest issue. We haven't forgotten you, but the problems with the internet meant that we had to "hot rod" a solution in order to get the newsletters to our readers.
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I am looking for a used ARCA or Nationwide or drag car to be used at Bonneville. No engine required. $5,000 to $8,000 range. Must be a roller. Best if within 200 mile range of 46530 area but not necessary. Stephenson Marketing Concepts, phone: 574-273-8900, fax: 574-273-8987, [email protected], www.stephensonmarketing.com. John Stephenson
John: I received your email from www.hotrodhotline.com and will be glad to post your request on www.landspeedracing.com. Since you included your contact number in order to receive inquiries, I will accept that as your permission to publish your phone number and email address. If you don't want certain information publicized, please let me know before our deadline Tuesday night for Wednesday's issue.
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I noticed your newsletter made no mention of the Loring Timing Association or its first event in Maine earlier this month. Did I miss something? Were we remiss in providing information about our group? I do now understand all the difficulties involved in communicating today, even in this computer aided world, it's been a learning experience for us of the LTA. I apologize for any miscommunication from the LTA, if we did err. Thank You, Bob Wanner, President, Loring Timing Association
Bob: I will have to go back to previous issues, but I believe that I received and published about 10 photographs and about 7 or 8 emails from your group. I don't believe I received an official report of entrants, times or a history of the event, but there was mention of individuals and their accomplishments. The SLSRH newsletter will be delighted to publish as much as you send us. Since this is your first event, it is important that you publish and save as much as you can about what you went through, what happened, what you accomplished and what you hope to do in the future. This knowledge is important for every meet, but especially important for the first event. Racing fans, collectors and historians are always deeply committed to the first event in a series. That's why May 15, 1938 stands out at El Mirage, because it was the first SCTA meet. The first Bonneville meet in August 1949 will also remain the classic Bonneville meet. So whatever you have, send it in to be published here. We always fear truncation or the lopping off of material in transmission from the editor to the website. But please go to www.landspeedracing.com, the website and look up the last four issues. It is also probable that the website operator is behind in posting the issues, which I send in each Wednesday to them. That happens around the summer time when their staff is overwhelmed with car shows and requests at their other website, www.hotrodhotline.com and they fall behind on the newsletter. Since the Lawford's and their staff render free site space for us and do so many other wonderful things for us, we understand that their primary commitments must be to maintain their site that pays the bills. We truly are grateful for the help and support that they give us.
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Challengers and friends. Just returned from the SCTA Speedweek on the salt and I can report the salt is in the best condition in years at the present time. Many records were set by all the hot rodders and even one VW (non 36hp-there is no 36hp racing at this event!) set a new top speed for his category. Larry Monreal's Rabbit powered Karmann Ghia went over 156 miles per hour on one pass and set a two way average of 150 mph. The only air cooled bug racing this year is owned by Bob Stahl and he made three passes above 150 mph with his big 3.0 liter Porsche 914 motored 65 Beetle. The World of Speed and 36hp Challenge is just around the corner (about three weeks out) and everything is shaping up for our biggest 36hp event ever. Several folks are thrashing on their bugs and Ghias finalizing the last details. The weather will probably be in the cool 80's range during the day which is ideal for record runs and maximizing the horsepower in your 36hp racer. Attention all 36hp racers, pit crews and spectators! The second annual 36hp Challenge dinner will be held Thursday night (17th) at the Red Garter Casino. All 36hp supporters are welcomed and encouraged to attend this get together off the salt for a great evening of camaraderie. It is come as you are (T-shirts encouraged) and hopefully we will be able to celebrate more racers into the new "1" Club for 36hp powered cars. Details will follow in a separate email. If anyone is planning on coming out and needs information on rooms, camping, what to bring, etc., please email me with your specific questions or go to www.saltflats.com and check out the respective links at the USFRA site. They are extremely pleased with the 36hp entrants and the enthusiasm the Challengers show as are the ECTA on the east coast. Any eastern racers, who cannot join us on the salt for WOS, please try to make the remaining two events at Maxton, North Carolina, in September and October. Watch for a photo of Jeremy Freedman's 193 mile per hour VR6 Turbo powered street driven LSR 97 Golf GTi in the October issue of Hot VW's. This is truly one spectacular water-cooled VW. May the Speed be with you........Burly Burlile
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The photos of the baby blue Volkswagen in the link below were taken by Mick Percy in Australia this past March at the DRLA, Dry Lakes Racers Australia, annual land speed racing event on Lake Gairdner. He has sent me permission to utilize the photos which I hope you will find of interest. To my knowledge, this is the first VW to compete in land speed racing down under.
http://www.vdubber.com/grp.php?action=gallery&ID=3 Photo set by Mick Percy
http://www.dlra.org.au/2009.htm DRLA Result Sheet - see car # 644
The owner is Mark Holyoak and his top speed was 117.772 miles per hour. The car is a 1973 Volkswagen Super Beetle, right hand drive and runs in F/PRO which means the engine is between 2.1 and 3.0 liters and features dual carbs. I do not recognize the distributor (or mag?) but hope you might. It is of interest that he is running foam air filters. Googling the sponsors on the car did not reveal any links I might use to get further information and I have been unable to unearth a direct link to Mark. Below I will copy Mick's description of the drive to the lake and the available accommodations. Other than lowering, Moon Disc hubcaps and the Kamei spoiler, the body looks stock. From the photos it appears the car is equipped with a roll cage and race seat.
Quoting Mick Holyoak; "The trip to get to the lake is 2 hours across dirt roads, creeks and outback - you have to be pretty dedicated to even get there. And once there - all there is at the lake is a canteen run by the local sheep station. No hotels, no motels, nothing. Looking at the roads, I'm pretty amazed that some of the big semi trailers made it out there at all. We stayed in the nearest town (2 hours away) in a rented house as the guy I travelled with took his young son, next year we've booked some accommodations in the sheep station - which is a lot nearer, however, if I take a car I'll camp out by the salt like everyone else." Burly Burlile, International 36hp Challenge http://www.vdubber.com/grp.php?action=gallery&ID=3
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If you are coming to the World of Speed to race or support the 36hp Challenge racers, I would like to invite you to join us for the 2nd annual 36hp Challenge dinner to be held Thursday night after the days racing (Please RSVP!). Below are the details:
Date............September 17th (Thursday)
Time............7:30 P.M.
Where.........Red Garter Casino (Convention Room) West Wendover (west of the Rainbow Casino)
Dress..........T-Shirts or whatever
Cost............$14.00 at the door (Cost includes both Tax and Tip!)
Food...........Small Buffet-Roast Beef and Baked Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Vegetable Blend, Tossed Salad, Rolls, Pie (Apple-Cherry-Blueberry), Drinks (Tea-Soda (bottled)-Coffee).
We look forward to a fun evening together talking about the first two days of 36hp racing and following day's efforts coming up. This is a good opportunity to get acquainted with new friends in a more relaxed, comfortable atmosphere and we hope ALL of you will join us. If you think you might be able to join us, please RSVP (at this email) with the number of folks who will be with you so we can get a close head count for our hosts. Should you have any questions on the evening, please get in touch with me via email. Until then, the 36hp Challenge is now only three weeks away. See you on the salt, soon! Burly Burlile
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Editor's notes: The following emails came back in response to a gentle nag to ask those doing their biographies to spend a little more time on them.
"....ooooh, the cattle prod just got some new batteries, 24 hour turnaround? I thought it was 24 weeks! I'd been working on this sporadically. It's all up to date since our last go around except for one thing: TELL ME ABOUT AS MANY PAINTINGS AS YOU CAN. I can tell you that this compilation alone is going to take more than 20 minutes, as I have painted somewhere near 500 paintings. But, onward I go..." Tom Fritz, www.fritzart.com.
"It seems that you are having difficulty getting people to document info for their bio's...what is the web site where the bios are stored? It would be fun to look at them." James Close
And finally an email from Megan Boyd, who has her own website, builds great hot rods and sadly, gentlemen, is spoken for. Tom Fritz is one of hot rodding and land speed racing's great all time painters and you can see him at the Grand National Roadster Show in January and the L.A. Roadster Show in June. He is super talented. James Close should have his interesting biography ready for publication soon. All bios are stored at www.hotrodhotline.com, guest columnist/Richard Parks, www.autobooks/aerobooks.com and www.oilstick.com.
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Hi Jim and Richard: I hope all is going well for you guys. A good friend of mine, Raffi Minasian, has written a piece on Beast III and has some photos as well. Would you be interested in this article for the Newsletter? Thanks, Mark Brinker
Mark: The newsletter is a shared endeavor. All of our readers are encouraged to write and to share what they know in the fields of hot rodding, early drag racing and land speed events and history. Please tell Raffi to send his photographs and text to me to include in the newsletter. We appreciate everything that comes to us.
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I am trying to determine whether the Jack E. Jerrils you mention in your newsletter is the same historian who wrote "History of a City…Carson, California." I am working on a documentary for the History Channel and am trying to locate an executor of his estate to get permission to use several photographs from his book. Any assistance you could provide in this search would be much appreciated. Jessie Vogelson Associate Producer, KPI, Two Rector Street, 18th fl., New York, NY 10006, 212-380-2581.
Jessie: Jack Jerrils is known to us by his pseudonym, Jack Peters, editor/publisher of Throttle Magazine. The source of the research was the staff of the The Rodder's Journal and the story should be out in publication by this time. The following information was taken from their website: http://www.roddersjournal.com/, The Rodder's Journal, 263 Wattis Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080, toll free 800-750-9550, phone 650-246-8920, fax 650-246-8927, Customer Service [email protected], Editorial [email protected], Webmaster [email protected]. Jack Jerrils did indeed write The History of a City...Carson, California, in 1972. The staff did locate a relative of Jerril's, who could possibly grant you permission to use the photographs.
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Racing legends Kenny Bernstein, David Hobbs, Scott Parker, Les Richter, Al Unser, Jr., H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler and Joe Weatherly were inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America during an inspirational and emotional ceremony on Wednesday, August, 12, 2009 at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit. At this year's Induction Ceremony, the list of presenters was nearly as impressive as the list of those being honored. Speed Channel's Bob Varsha introduced Hobbs. Harley-Davidson's Willie G. Davidson presented Parker. Roger Penske inducted Richter. Hall of Fame stock car legend Ned Jarrett presented and accepted on behalf of Weatherly. Long-time racing broadcaster Ken Squier introduced Wheeler. NHRA President Tom Compton presented Bernstein. And four-time Indy 500 champ Al Unser inducted his son. Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, P.O. Box 194, Novi, Michigan 48376. See [email protected] and www.mshf.com.
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News from Speedweek 2009 at the Bonneville Salt Flats
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