MPH!

We're Getting Faster!

By Bill Moore

While standing in the Sonoma hills shooting pictures of the big NASCAR race, we bumped into Jorge Briones, exchanged business cards, and he's provided a couple of photos, including one of Toro Rosso Fomula One driver Scott Speed who was racing at the U.S. Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Jorge goes to a lot of races, and we'll be seeing a lot more of his photography and writing here.

Incidentally, we need to stop and talk about the 24-year-old Speed who was featured last August right here in SpeedMachines (See archived profile on him by clicking the cover with the SR-71 spy plane on it.). After spinning off the track at the German Grand Prix, there was a shoving match between team boss Franz Tost and Scott. After a few days of apparently making up, Speed was terminated -- so along with no U.S. Grand Prix, there are no Americans in Formula One.

Kevin Williams brings you something totally new, a "car" with three wheels and all the performance of a powerful motorcycle called the Can-Am. Kevin was going one way and this thing was going the other. Fortunately for us, he made a U-turn and got this exciting story for us.

You won't see Ed Madinya's name very often here, but he's like the Wizard of Oz, pulling levers behind the curtains to make the words and photos appear with a double click. He -- running a crew of website technicians -- makes it all happen in an easy-to-follow format. Thanks, Ed!

Noddy Watts is the guy behind the huge five-day-long car, truck and motorcycle show in New Zealand that turns a sleepy little beach town into a rock and roll magnet that draws 70,000 enthusiasts a year. This thing, called Beach Hop, was featured in our last issue. We will see Noddy at Hot August Nights and report back to you NEXT issue on what happens when an ex-patriot Englishman meets a Kiwi in a Casino bar in the land of the car.

Roger Rohrdanz and Richard Parks have teamed up to give us a look at the Twilight Cruise night at the NHRA Wally Parks Motorsports Museum, where some of Southern California's best hot rods, customs and musclecars gather once a month, from April straight through December.

John Drummond is the PR guy at the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association, and he's provided photos and words that we've used to give you a different look at that end of the car scene. And, in this issue, we have the Goodguys' Woman of the Year, and we're featuring both the Street Rod of the Year and the Street Machine of the year.

Mike Ewing and his brother, Bill, run The Great Race extravaganza, and thanks to them we have photography and words to cover this annual race of classic automobiles running across the country. This year they ran 4,000 miles from Concord, North Carolina, to Anaheim, California. Next year, the race will run from New York to Paris. Hey, we'll be there one way or another to give you info about that as well.

A special thank-you goes out to Butch Noble whose extraordinary photography skills come into play every time he goes to a racetrack. In this issue he hits three major events: the MotoGP event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the San Jose GP and the action at the 20th annual FRAM Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway. But, he's not done -- he'll have photos from Infineon's Indy Racing League event and from the Monterey Historic Automobile Races in the next issue.

In today's world, there are two ways of going long distance. You can get to the airport two hours early, suffer through all the usual delays, then rent a car when you get to your destination -- or you can fuel Old Betsy and drive yourself, enjoying the highways and byways along the way. Hal Wood did that recently, and we've got his story right here. Now, if you've just made a road trip, you should share the story with us.

In addition to the above, I've been busy too, to give you a look at Michael Tancreti's stunning Ford GT and reviews on the Chevy TrailBlazer, the Ford Expedition, the stunning new Toyota Tundra, and a quick look at the Ford Escape Hybrid.

On top of that we were on hand at Infineon Raceway a month or so back when the newly named Jim Russell Racing Drivers School held a gala event, complete with new facilities, old hay bales, new focus and a new school car . . . and had (at that point) America's only current Formula One driver, Scott Speed, on hand along with Bay Area icon, Joe Montana. Hey, I got to shake the hand that had thrown the football for the San Francisco 49ers. We wonder how fast that football flew!

We see ourselves as being in the business of sharing . . . rather than competing with others out there. As a consequence, many people are linking us to their websites, people like the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association, Noddy Watts who runs Beach Hop in New Zealand, and the good folks of speed at the North American Eagle land-speed organization. As time goes on, more people will join us in getting the word out about our true love for all things fast whether they're cars, planes, trains or watercraft. Drop us a line if you're interested in joining us.

The way we see it, it all works together. The more we can get the word out about SpeedMachines, the better off our advertisers will be, and the better we will be able to cover the wide range of speed events around the globe. So, please spread the word!