Still 1950
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Monday, July 10 – Santa Ana, California – Santa Ana Register – A couple weeks ago we at the Register brought you the story of a Hot Rod enthusiast named Wally Parks who was embarking on a journey to organize a drag racing league.  Today in our continuing coverage of the development of the league we introduce to you the branding for each of the four teams that will compete this coming season, set to begin on the first weekend of 1951.  We asked Parks to clue us in onto how he arrived at his decision as to how to brand each team.  This was his response; “Well all four teams are going to compete from the Santa Ana Drags so I of course could not call them all the Santa Ana this or that.  Say like they do in other ball sports.  Like the Los Angeles Rams or the New York Yankees.  So, I thought about team A, B, C and D but then it struck me that A would always be considered to be better then B, C or D.  Then I thought about just calling them by a color like Team Red, Team Blue, Team Yellow, and Team Green.  Finally, though I decided on shapes.”  Indeed, he did settle on shapes.  The four teams to compete in the inaugural season of the American Hot Rod Federation (AHRF) will be; Square Team, Circle Team, Triangle Team, and Diamond Team.   Parks has also created logos or crests to represent each team.  The logo for Square Team features a green square bordered in dark blue.  For Circle Team we have a yellow circle bordered in a darker green.  For Triangle Team we have a more true-blue triangle bordered with purple.  Finally, for Diamond Team we have an orange diamond bordered in red.  Each logo has the name of their shape written across it in the same color that the shapes border is done up in.  Simple representative tokens for the humble beginnings of a new adventure.  Parks further explained to our reporters that each driver is free to paint their car as they wish, however the logo of their team will be placed on the hood or roof of their car to help the viewing audience understand which team they represent while racing.  On the driver and passenger side door each rod will be required to carry a number of their choice.  This will also help distinguish who is who for both the audience and any game officials.  Parks is still on the lookout for twenty-five drivers to invite to Race Wars as well as four Crew Chiefs to head each team.  He hopes to have the Crew Chiefs hired before mid-fall. 
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Last edited by JMurr (7/27/2022 2:14 am)

Sunday, October 1 – Santa Ana, California – Santa Ana Register – Shortly after the Registers last report on progress towards the organizing of the American Hot Rod Federation (AHRF), Wally Parks came to us with the name of the fourth and final Crew Chief.  That man’s name is Tytus Sinagra, and he is from Fallbrook, California.  Sinagra has been assigned to head the Triangle Team.  We at the Register withheld reporting on this as it came so soon after we had just reported and as it were only a single name.  What we did not anticipate was that we would not here from Parks for quite some time thereafter.  He had so little contact with us for so long we began to fear that the whole project had fallen apart.  As September came to a close, as we neared three months before the first Race Wars are to be held, we decided to chase him down on our own for an update.  When we found him, he had a good explanation for his lack of communication.  He told us “First off, I want to express gratitude towards the Santa Ana Register for all it has done to report on our new league.  I am appreciative.  Still, we have been struggling to get the word out beyond the boarders of California.  I have been scouting talent.  This great expansive country of ours is full of hot rod enthusiasts and so I have been looking for some of that talent throughout the nation.  We have found drivers from places like North Carolina, New Jersey, and even Missouri.  That’s not to say however that I have stopped looking in California.”  Parks was not fibbing at all.  He turned over to us a list of fifteen more names who have been signed to compete at the first Race Wars and the list does include individuals from outside California.  Here now is that list of fifteen: Brent Albronda of Inglewood, California and his 1927 Essex Sedan; Christian Behrends of West Sacramento, California and his 1930 Ford Model T; Ron Borchard of Alhambra, California and his 1947 Ford Deluxe Sedan; Rafael DeAngelis of Huntington Park, California and his 1949 Oldsmobile 88; Fredie Finley of Goldsboro, North Carolina and his 1942 Willys Americar Coupe; Kaj Joyce of Monterey Park and his 1947 Pontiac Streamliner; Elias Kato of Huntington Park, California and his 1949 Mercury Eight; Felix Kertesz of Lake Elsinore, California and his 1932 Ford Coupe; Casimir McManus of Woodbury, New Jersey and his 1929 Ford Model A; Coby Michaud of Nixa, Missouri and his 1946 Mercury Eight; Arhtur Negrescu of Huntington Park, California and his 1941 Ford Super Deluxe; Jonathan Neroni of Monterey Park, California and his 1933 Ford Model B; Bobbie Sparacello of Grand Rapids, Michigan and his 1948 Dodge Coupe; Albie Travieso of Alhambra, California and his 1920 Ford Model T; and finally Addison Winter of Mountville, Pennsylvania and his 1931 Ford Model A Truck.  Only three more spots remain for entry into the first Race Wars.  Despite the present late date on the calendar the AHRF remains on schedule to begin competition on January 6th, 1951. 

Wednesday, October 11 – Hayward, California – Santa Ana Register – In the second of our AHRF player profiles we introduce you to Ashley Aiken.  Aiken will soon celebrate his 23rd birthday on October 29.  He was born in a modest home in Hayward, California to Kipper and Ruth Aiken, both workers in Haywards Hunt Brothers Cannery.  Aiken grew up in very modest conditions.  The family home he was born in was no more than nine-hundred square feet, in which a family of six lived.  Early in his life Aiken proved to be a smart boy.  He graduated from Hayward High School in 1945 with honors.  He applied to and was accepted by a collection of universities.  From among those acceptances, he chose to go to Stanford University.  In the summer of 1949, he completed his undergraduate degree in engineering.  His folks had high hopes for him to earn a good living and turn the fortunes of the family’s financial security.  Aiken was a natural learner.  Academics came natural to him.  Still, his soul never felt satisfied until he came across street drag racers in north Oakland one day.  Witnessing the activities of these street racers stirred something in Aikens imagination.  It consumed his mind through the last days of completing his bachelor’s degree.  It so consumed him that once competed he had no desire to go onto graduate work.  Instead, he returned home to Hayward, got a job at the cannery himself and spent all his free time and money towards building and racing hot rods.  He street raced all over the bay area, anywhere he could find a race.  The better he got, the better his cars got, the more he desired to take on better competition.  He began traveling as far south as Santa Ana chasing any and all competition, he could find with a 1936 Willys Truck rod he so proudly put up against anyone.  His travels cost him his job at the cannery but gained him a relationship with Wally Parks.  Aiken became one of the first people to sign a contract to compete at the first Race Wars.  As we did with Kaj Joyce, we asked Aiken to give us his thoughts on the coming event.  He said “I have some reservations.  I am at my best with just me and the machines.  I have some reservations as to how I will do with teammates and a crew chief.  Still, I need to earn some money as I don’t have any other job.  So, far this is costing me more then it’s earning me.” 

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Last edited by JMurr (7/30/2022 5:34 pm)

Friday, October 20 – Santa Ana, California – Santa Ana Register – Yesterday Wally Parks brought to the Register the final three individuals who have signed to compete at the first Race Wars.  All three are from California.  They are Idan Villeneuve of Sausalito with a 1940 Ford Coupe, Damien Cuellar of Emeryville with a 1936 Delahaye 135 Competition, and Rolf Roggeveen of El Cerrito with a 1927 Dodge Series 128.  Along with this announcement Parks released a schedule for the season.  The schedule is listed here:
Jan. 6 – Race Wars 1
Jan. 13 – Circle vs. Square
Jan. 20 – Triangle vs. Diamond
Jan. 27 – Diamond vs. Circle
Feb. 3 – Square vs. Triangle
Feb. 10 – Square vs. Diamond
Feb. 17 – Circle vs. Triangle
Feb. 24 – Title Match 1
Looking forward to this coming first season and continuing to gather interest in the AHRF overall we at the register decided to put together a profile of one of these final three drivers.  In putting together these profiles we interview the subject and try to go out and visit the places of their lives.  In this case we only had time for a single interview.  As it turned out the subject, we choose happened to be just the right person for such time constraints.  Our subject is Rolf Roggeveen.  Rolf was born in San Francisco, California on September 30, 1926.  Today he is twenty-four years old.  Rolf confessed to our interviewer “I have read your other driver profiles and I must confess my life is so much plainer.  I grew up in a modest family home.  My father worked and my mother stayed home to take care of four kids.”  Rolf’s father is an educator by profession.  Today he is a professor at the University of California in Berkley.  When Rolf was a smaller child, his father was both working and going to school to become a professor.  It was his fathers work that caused the family to relocate from San Francisco to El Cerrito.  Rolf is the third of four children.  All three of his siblings being female.  “Growing up in the house I did I suppose it was expected I would go off to college and become something along the lines of my father, he teaches math subjects you see.”  Rolf told us, “But that just wasn’t in me.”  In his high school years Rolf fell in with a group of car enthusiasts.  He performed much better in shop classes at school then he did in tradition academic subjects.  When he was seventeen years old Rolf got a job at a restaurant washing dishes.  He saved everything he made just to purchase an old 1927 Dodge Series 128.  Even after he bought the car Rolf continued to save money so that he could buy parts needed to improve the cars performance.  All the while he was putting his car up against others in local street races.  Wally Parks had caught word of the illegal street races going on in Northern California, so he came looking in his final hunt for talent to fill the rosters of AHRF teams.  Rolf was one car and driver who caught his attention.  As he entered his twenties Rolf’s parents continued to place pressure on him to do something with his life, to find a career path.  “When I came home and told them I signed with the AHRF at first, they had no idea what I was talking about.  When I explained to them someone was going to pay me to race my car, they were happy, that is until I told them how much I was going to make.  Then they said I’m still going to need to find another career.”        
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