Volume 64 No. 3
March—2016
Road Kings of Burbank NEWSLETTER
Contents Message From The President....................... 1
Hoffy’s Question ............................................ 2 Race Report ................................................... 2 Racers & Rodders ......................................... 3 Event Calendar .............................................. 5 Show Flyers .................................................... 6
Don and Ginger Hoffman’s beautiful 1965 Hi-Po Mustang. Bought brand new and still LOOKS brand new
Sneak Peeks .................................................. 7 U p c o mi n g M e et i n gs : E—Board Meeting March 1, 2016 - 6:30 PM Burbank Historical Society General Membership March 8, 2016 - 7:00 PM Burbank Elks Lodge
Officers of the Road Kings 2016 Elected Officers
Ben Curtis, President
Danny Nelson, Vice President
Don Hoffman, Secretary
Steven Holgate, Treasurer
Bruce Borst, Sgt. At Arms
Don Baldaseroni,
Jim Miles, Parliamentarian
Car Show Chairman
Executive Board
Mike Brewster
Mike Fea
Karl Grossman
Chuck Hanson
Dave Maher
Jim Miles
Bob Moore
Larry Tadlock
Bob Trainor
Don Siglar
Bob Money
Jim Gascoigne
Prez Sez….
Fellow Road Kings,
The Valentine’s Day Sweetheart Brunch was a success! The accommodations were excellent, and the food was fantastic. Anyone that left hungry had only themselves to blame. We enjoy seeing the Kings, their Queens AND their cars at this event. Al Mansor Court had roped off a section of their parking lot for us, and it became a mini car show for other patrons. The Road Kings did themselves proud. Our February General meeting was blessed with the attendance of long time Road King, Skip Torgerson. Skip entertained us all with his stories of the early days of the Road Kings. Skip reminded us all of the amazing history and legacy of this club… a legacy that we are all dedicated to maintaining and extending. Be sure to enjoy the great article, written by Jim Miles, about Fellow Road King, Joel Embick. Well worth the read… keep up the good work Jimmy. Don Baldaseroni continues with his hard work in managing our Car Show(s). Although the Johnny Carson Show is not going to happen this year, the E-Board is working on several other projects that will keep us all busy this summer. There are a couple of groups that would like to have our expertise in helping them with their local shows, and a decision on that will be forthcoming. Last meeting we welcomed prospective member Rochelle Sfetku to our group. I am sure that ALL of you know Rochelle and how hard she has worked at the club shows, assisting her Father Nick with the raffle. She will make a wonderful addition to our membership, and will break the ice as our first female Road King. There are a couple of other potential members in the works so stay tuned. A small committee has been formed to study a re-design of the club website. Our web presence is getting more and more important and the design of the site is evolving to meet the needs of our members and friends. If you have suggestions, please let me know. (Continued on page 6)
RACE REPORT The crisp, deep blue of the GTO passed muster in the sunshine for the Test & Tune, and we had another beautiful, calm, 70o day to start this season. February 20th was one of the last chances I had to get the new motor and car dialed in for the March Meet, and the second race of 2016. Integration of a new motor with existing handling qualities of the car always presents a few problems, but Saturday actually went quite well. I was lucky to make two test runs and would have made more except 250+ cars showed up and it was beyond crazy at Fontana. First run: The new engine and supercharger combination performed well on a very "iffy" track. I could only run 1000' as the car kept moving around and I had to shut it down. But, I still ran a respectable 7.74 @ 165 mph. Second run: This run was made on a much improved track and I made a full run at 7.58 @ 185 mph, very close to my index goal of 7.60, with the car moving like an arrow. One of the best things that happened Saturday was the many Road Kings who showed up to help and inspire me. I kept thinking, "egad, don't do something crazy in front of all these guys !" There was Ben Curtis, Bob Trainor, Jimmy Miles, Don Hoffman, Don Siglar, Karl Grossman, Chuck Null, Dick Plamondon, Dave Maher and Stan Dalton. (Apologies if I forgot a few.) Another special thing about Saturday was the many pictures Chuck Null took of my car and the RK’s. He wired the car for at least 3 Go-Pro cameras and I can hardly wait to see what this will look like. On the last run, Stan drove Chuck, in the golf cart, down to the far end so he could get a few shots with billowed chutes behind the car. These will really be cool and I want to thank him for all he did. Not much more to say about the Test & Tune, but I hope to have important things to report from the second race of the 2016 season, The March Meet (March 3rd thru 6th). My goal is to not break anything, run a perfect 7.60 with a blinding light, not run over anybody and win the damn thing! Thanks to Stan Dalton for the crewing, and for all you guys who came out to support the GTO. Brother Al
This Month’s question from Don Hoffman is… What is the name of the police Lieutenant that pursued the Fugitive?
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102 mph run at the old San Fernando Drag Strip. He didn’t race it at the drags when he bought it, because they started requiring a scatter shield due to the clutch coming out of the engine like a buzz-saw. Joel, fresh out of the Air Force in 1960, took a one year engineering course at Valley College. He also had a job working 12-hours on Sundays at Harry Jandt’s (Tom's dad) Mobile Station. It was located across from the Smoke House on Olive and was a hangout for some of the Road Kings in the club's infancy. Joel worked in block wall construction for almost 2-years after Valley College with Harry Frith-Smith. (Dave & Peter's dad), as a brick tender. Small world...ain't it??!!!
Joel Embick
In 1963, Joel went to work for the City of Burbank as a laborer. He retired from the City in 2001 as the City’s Landfill Joel joined the Road Kings in 1972 with his Maroon '40 Supervisor, a position he held for the last 16-years of his FORD De Luxe coupe and Bob Muravez as his sponsor. Joel tour of duty. has sponsored into the Road Kings, Karl Grossman, Nick Sfetku and Joe Caponetta and takes no responsibility for If it wasn't for Joel's friend Karl Grossman helping Bud Lebel get started in the boat business, almost certainly not for their actions...well maybe Karl, ha ha! Joel hanging around with Karl, Joel probably would have He graduated from John Burroughs High School in '56 at age never gotten involved driving drag boats. Bud and Karl set of 17 along with fellow Road King Chuck Stein who also had up the very first drag boat Joel ever drove. Fortunately oneclasses with in all three schools, Luther Burbank Jr. High and time Road King member Rod Peppmuller (RIP) and his son, Theodore Roosevelt Grammar School in the City of Burfound and restored the original 1966 Lebel flat bottom drag bank. -boat that Joel drove. Rod’s son displays the boat to this Immediately following his graduation from High School, Joel day. joined the Air Force. After graduating from USAF Technical Joel's drag boat racing career lasted for a period of 11-years School, he served as a Jet Mechanic. He was fortunate to be over a 13-year span. He started with a Holman/Moody NASplaced in a medium jet aircraft bomb squadron, consisting CAR 427 Ford engine in a Lebel flat bottom, that went 93 of 15 Boeing B-47 aircraft. He spent nearly his entire USAF mph on his first 1/4 mile run. In the same boat, they put career with that squadron which was based at March AFB in Tony Nancy's blown 482 ci. Olds on gas and had run one Riverside, CA.. race meet with Tommy Ivo's 392 ci. blown fuel Chrysler. Joel commuted between March AFB and his parents home Shortly after that, the old heavy wood deck boat was sold in Burbank in his '48 Ford 4-dr. sedan on weekends. He which put Joel on a break. Rod Peppmuller had maintained wound up putting a '50 Olds engine in the sedan at the age and tuned both Olds and Chrysler motors that Joel drove. of 19. At Christmas of '59 and with 7-months tour of duty Nick Sfetku did a great job driving the new Lebel lighter left in the Air Force, Joel bought one weight drag boat for a short period of time. That caught the of those extremely rare black '57 eye of a fellow boat racer, Mike Halloran. Mike talked Bud Chev hard tops with 270 hp and a 3Lebel into trying his big blown gas Chevy motor in the boat, speed trans. Road King Ray Cash (Continued on page 4) bored the engine to 4-in resulting in a
Remember… Bob’s Cruise every Friday Evening on Riverside Drive...
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his driving career several years later at the end of '79 season, driving a Di Marco Hydro with a twin-turbo 417 Donovan enputting Nick out of the driver's seat. Shortly after the engine gine. swap, Mike crashed the boat. Joel is currently involved with Nick Arias Jr, and International Bud Lebel then built a 3rd drag boat that Joel drove. It was Drag Racing Hall of Fame. Along with Bill Schultz, they are powered by a blown gas Olds, which was eventually swapped preparing a 351 CLEVELAND FORD/ARIAS that's bored & for a blown gas 496 ci. late hemi Chrysler. This boat met its stroked to 427 ci.. It will be installed in Lynda McCourry's '50 demise a couple of years later when they started running FORD sedan to run at the Mojave Mile twice a year at the nitro which proved to be ill handling in the flat bottoms and Mojave Airport. was outlawed quite a few years later. (Continued from page 3)
After Joel's flat bottom boat accident, he raced in the blown fuel jet boat category and then blown gas hydro’s. He ended
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Jim Miles
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2016 Official Club Events February Feb. 14: Valentines Brunch
March March 13: Sierra Madre Car Show
April April 12: Club Meeting at Galpin Auto Sports, Van Nuys April 23: Burbank on Parade
May TBD: Justice Brothers May 21: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Newhall
June Jun, 26: Newhall Car Show June 18, 19, 20: L.A. Roadster Show
July July 3: Montrose Car Show TBD: Bent Axle Car Show, Santa Maria
August August 13: Big Bear Lake Car Show August 27: Budweiser Family and Friends Day
September Sept. 18: Galpin Car Show
October Oct. 1: Budweiser United Way Car Show TBD: Santa Anita Car Show
November TBD: Poker Run
December Dec. 4: Granada Hills Christmas Parade TBD: Road Kings Christmas Party
Further Information, please check our Website at http://roadkingsburbank.com Updated February 28, 2016 Page 5
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(Continued from page 1)
Bruce Borst has compiled a list of “Club Events” for 2016 that is available on the website and at the General meeting. This will, as always, be a busy summer, so polish up those wheels, wax that paint, and be ready. Remember that Friday evenings are still Cruise Night at Bob’s Big Boy on Riverside Drive. Come out and support them and help us pay them back for their decades of support of the Road Kings. If you have information on events taking place in SoCal, please email them to:
[email protected]. If you have a flyer for the event, include it with your email so we can add it to our calendar. We can’t guarantee all the events will make the calendar, but we will do our best to include those of greatest importance to the Road Kings. Ben Curtis (Photos thanks to Chuck Null)
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Fair Warning…. Never, I mean NEVER think that Ben, Don, Steve or Chuck won’t be lurking in the shadows with loaded cameras...
The Road Kings of Burbank Post Office Box 11135 Burbank, California 91506
http://www.burbankroadkings.com
The Road Kings is formed under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code as a Public Benefit Corporation that is exempt from Taxation. Page 7
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