Can we start a thread about everything you guys have linking WWII and Dry lakes racing together. Its for my senior paper, any facts, stories, and info will help. Anything. Thanks
Did you do a search for this subject here? Lots of stuff already posted. Plus, lots of stuff at Land Speed Racing and more.
i have done several searches and its sort of hard to root through threads for specific little details, i thought it would be easier to just ask for info straight up on the subject
Everyone has clever titles and its difficult to find some info when you need it. It wouldn't hurt to have a thread dedicated to it.
I think there is a guy named cousin Brucie on here that is up on the subject. Maybe try pming him. I have a book called :The birth of hotrodding that talks about the era. Mainly Muroc. I'll watch this because I am interested in the subject also. I agree it's hard to find things in the "search " I hope some reply. TP
you might pm Rockerhead here. that's Don Montgomery, author of several wonderful books on early hot rod history. buy his books too!
If you google "road runners scta" you will get the Road Runners site. Scroll down to the "Back in the Day" page you will find a lot of info and photos of Post WW2 lakes racing. I don't think there was any lakes racing during the war. Jerry Cornelison, our club historian, has done a fantastic job on digging up the club's history.
What is your goal? There is Pre WWII lakes history, are you looking for info the guys picked up after serving in WWII or what?
Hi.....a good friend of mine, Eric Loe, researched and wrote a fairly extensive article about the dry lakes racing during World War II..........it is in the HOP UP Annual #7.....pp 124-127, entitled *The Lost Years*....... You might also look into Al Drake's fine book called *Flat Out*.......which also has a lot of good early dry lakes history...... Robert Genat's book, the Birth of Hot Rodding:The Dry Lakes Era, has some early references, but it is mostly based in post-war Southern California from 1945-1950 or thereabouts........it has some wonderful color photographs, which are fairly rare for this genre...... By all means, do PM Don Montgomery (Rockerhead)as he is a very gracious gentleman who will, no doubt, try to help...... Go get 'em....... CB
Actually, there was dry lakes racing during the war........see Eric Loe's article in HOP UP Annual #7.......article entitled *The Lost Years* Cheers.... CB
Not being around at the time I was curious as to racing during the war years. Speaking to a few people I was told there was an "outlaw" meet in 1942 and another in 1945 and SCTA racing resumed in 1946. One old timer told me they were tossed off of Muroc at the start of the war. So I'm guessing the "outlaw" (the old timers term, meet of '42 was at El Mirage. I saw a copy (mimegraph as per period) of the program for the '45 meet at El Mirage.
Just a suggestion : Go to the SCTA website, look up some of the Club officers and make some phone calls. Tell them what you are working on and do some phone interviews, have some questions ready.
The SCTA ran 3 official meets in 1942. They picked up with a meet in 1945 and then the first full season after the war was in 1946. There were indeed a number of lakes meets during the war. Don.
Hey, we also had time trials on the kearny mesa road in San Diego before ww2 I went to a couple of the 1942 meets and on Harper and mirage. Don't remember much though, getting too old. traderjack
Karl Orr's wife Veda Orr,... Had a really big hand in "Throttle" magazine just before the war,.... and if I remember right she continued to publish a newsletter and send it to SCTA members that were serving overseas, during WWII,.... she did a book that was later republished by Floyd Clymer called Hot Rod Pictorial,..... While looking for info on Veda I ran across this,... I hope it helps. A lot of history can be re-learned by reading some of the old magazines tucked away in that cardboard box in the back of your closet. From '48 on we've been lucky enough to have them cover our sport in Hot Rod Magazine. Petersen,Quinn and Fawcett did a good job but what about before that? We Know about Throttle in 1941 but land speed racing just wasn't well covered. Or was it? Recently, I did a little digging at my local used book/magazine shop and came up with some great finds. I'm sure you've all heard of Mechanics Illustrated and Popular Mechanics right? These kinds of mags were loaded with car stuff. In the March '29 issue of PM they had a blurb on Campbell's Bluebird. In February '46 MI featured a Jet powered LSR car on its cover. Wow! I even found a posed picture with Veda Orr in the August '40 issue of a mans magazine called PIC. These are attached as is an article about 'Jazzed-Up Jalopies' from the April '46 issue of Popular Science Magazine. Yes there is info out there, we just have to do a little digging to find it. Happy hunting. Jim Mller Here is the link http://www.oilstick.com/sportsfans/pg12071017.htm Veda Orr was an early member of the SCTA. Here she is, racing her '32 roadster at Rosamond Dry Lake. She was also arguably the first hot rod journalist. She began the SCTA newsletter before WWII, and it became a vital lifeline for the lakes racers who were serving overseas. This content was from Hotrodhotline
Look for the article on Japanese American rodders in WWII in RJ within about the last year; Veda Orr's book; Dean Barchelor's book, Genat's book, and "When the hot rods ran, Muroc 1938" for starters
Also visit the American Hot Rod Foundation website: http://ahrf.com/ SCTA: http://www.scta-bni.org/ History of the salt: http://www.scta-bni.org/SCTA-NewWeb/Bonneville/SaveTheSalt.html Road Runners club: http://www.ussarcherfish.com/roadrunners/ And Sumner has some great links to all things landspeed here: http://www.purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/bvillecar/bvillelinks.htm Good luck!
The Jalopy Journal
