---Friday, January 12 – Santa Ana, California – Santa Ana Register – Tomorrow the first game in AHRF history will be played at the Santa Ana Drags.  That game will pit Circle against Square.  Circle’s chances at victory rest on their standout driver Oscar Appelhof.  How could it be that Appelhof is already a standout if no game has yet been played?  Appelhof became a standout when he became the first selection nearly a week ago at Race Wars 1.  So, we ask, who is Oscar Appelhof and what kind of life led him to become the #1 pick?  Appelhof describes himself this way “I’ve read a lot of your profiles on riders over the last several months and I have to confess my life is not nearly as interesting.  My life was a plain one.  I grew up in a stable home in Compton.”  Appelhof was born on October 18, 1930, a year into the depression.  His family had several years before settled in the Los Angles area of California.  The patriarch of the family was a contractor by trade.  As people flocked to California during the depression, Oscar’s father thrived as a home builder.  He was able to raise a family on a strong income.  This success afforded the family discretionary income that they invested into their love of automobiles.  Oscar and his two brothers worked closely with their father in the garage of the family home.  Oscar was the youngest of the three boys, but he took to the cars best of all.  Oscar would ultimately build a 1934 Ford Model B into a true hot rod.  His father was so impressed with the car that when he read about the coming AHRF in the paper he encouraged Oscar to take the car down to the Santa Ana Drags and try and earn a contract with the new league.  That is precisely what happened, and it did not take long for Wally Parks to recognize the talents of Oscar Appelhof, he was singed among the first batch of drivers.  At Race Wars this past Saturday Appelhof continued to demonstrate that skill.  As Circle came up fo

---Wednesday, January 10 – Santa Ana, California – Santa Ana Register – Race Wars 1 is now in the past and we are now just days away from the first game in AHRF history.  In the lead up to the first game we are going to profile two more drivers and one more Crew Chief.  We will release these profiles in each of the coming days, starting today.  The first of these three profiles is Arthur Negrescu.  The first thing one notices about Negrescu when they meet him is his impeccable good looks.  Negrescu is a sharp dress young man with slicked wavey dark black hair.  He is tall and physically fit.  His looks hardly reflect the environments of his past.  Negrescu was born on January 7, 1930, in Bakersfield, California.  The home of his boyhood, in nearby Lamont, could stand as a symbol of poverty.  It was small and drafty.  Hardly suitable for a family of seven.  Negrescu’s father worked as a laborer, primarily as a picker, in nearby crop fields.  Just as the family home was hardly suitable for a family of such size, so too was the income earned by his father.  In a way that is almost too cliché the stress of this all drove Negrescu’s father to alcoholism.  He became abusive in such a way that he broke down those around him even his own children.  Negrescu and his siblings were expected to follow in the same path of their father.  No one in the children’s lives ever held an idea that the kids could do more for themselves.  Of the Negrescu children however Arthur could be said to have a wild spirit.  He tried his father’s short patience even when he knew it meant dealing with his wrath.  Still, he, even as a young boy pushed boundaries.  His will was so strong that his mother began to fear, so much so that when he was twelve years old in 1942 his mother sent him to live with her own mother in Tacate, Mexico.  Away from his father Arthur began to show signs of a brighter future.  School was still not a priority in his life but und

1951

---Saturday, January 6 – Santa Ana, California – Santa Ana, Register – It finally came and went.  Race Wars 1 and the official start of the inaugural American Hot Rod Federation (AHRF) season.  Twenty-five drivers were invited and all but Albie Travieso of Alhambra, California were selected.  The top pick belonged to Circle and they used it to acquire Oscar Appelhof of Compton, California.  The other two in the top three were Thorvald Thorley of Paso Robles, California to Square and Christoffer Huxley of Beaumont, California of Triangle.  With the fifth pick Diamond’s Crew Chief Marcus Forsberg got what he believes is an overlooked talent in Felix Kertesz of Lake Elsinore, California.  As of this report we at the Register had profiled four drivers.  All were selected.  They went as such: Coby Michaud went #10 to Square, Ashley Aiken went #14 to Triangle, Kaj Joyce went #17 to Circle, and Rolf Roggeveen was the last taken at #24 by Circle.  The only one of those four that will play as a starter on a team will be Michaud.  The others will be option drivers on their teams.  Ten times teams evaluated one driver against another, or in other words ten races were run at this Race Wars.  The best time on the night belonged to Jarrett Backus and his 1939 Chevrolet Coupe that ran the quarter mile in 11.29 seconds.  Backus went #12 to Diamond.  The next best finish was the man who was taken #1 Appelhof who ran the quarter mile in 11.32 seconds.  Overall, the event was a success and sets up wonderful things to come in the regular season. 
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Monday, October 23 – Santa Ana, California – Santa Ana Drags – Race Wars, the opening event to the AHRF season is drawing near.  We now have a schedule.  Recently league founder Wally Parks came to us to provide an insight as to how the schedule was drawn up.  He told us “Well the schedule has something to do with the picking order for Race Wars.”  Parks went onto describe that he recently had all the Crew Chiefs together down at the Santa Ana Drags.  They each drew straws to determine the picking order for Race Wars.  Longest straw picks first, next longest picks second, third longest picks third, and shortest picks last.  This resulted in Circle getting the first pick, Square getting the second pick, Triangle getting the third pick, and Diamond getting the fourth pick.  This will be the order for the first round of picks.  There will be six rounds.  In the second round the order will be reversed.  All odd number rounds will have the same order as the first round and all even numbered rounds will have the same order as the second round.  This process should balance the teams as best can be.  Circle will have the first and therefore expected best pick, but they will also have the final and lest desired pick. 

Saturday, October 14 – Nixa, Missouri – Santa Ana Register – Looking over the list of places that drivers signed to the AHRF come from, one place stands out as different: Nixa, Missouri.  Standing out as different is something that Coby Michaud is accustomed to.  Not only is he one of the few drivers from outside of California he is the lone colored driver.  Michaud was born in Nixa on September 11, 1924.  His father, Walsh Michaud, worked in a local factory until 1930 when he was let go from that job due to matters related to the Great Depression.  These times were hard on the Michaud family.  These hardships began to come to an end in late 1931 when Coby’s father got a job with Frisco Lines Railroad.  He worked onboard the trains and therefore was away from the family home frequently through this period of time.  The job afforded him the opportunity to meet some wealthy and powerful people.  One of those men, Lorenzo Carmichael, hired Walsh to come work for him maintaining his estate in Jefferson City, Missouri.  After getting settled Walsh brought his family including the now 9-year-old Coby to the estate to live.  The Michaud family was given a small house on a grand property.  Coby’s mother was also hired to work for Carmichael as a housekeeper.  Coby maintains that he has fond memories of his time living on the Carmichael estate.  The Carmichaels allowed him to play on the grounds with their children until there was an altercation one day between himself and a Carmichael boy about his same age.  Coby explains it this way “I would say Mr. Carmichael was a considerate man.  When we first arrived there, I often played with his children.  I was not allowed in the big house, but I could play on the grounds with his children.  One day we were all playing our own version of baseball.  His son Tony and I had a difference of interpretation of the rules, and we settled that difference with fists.  I don’t think it would have been