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. 
[img][/img]
 

Last edited by JMurr (8/01/2022 8:06 pm)

---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 under the guidance of his ten-year senior cousin or primo, he began working on cars.  Arthur took to the work with ease.  He explained to us “My father usually told me I wasn’t very smart.  I came to believe it but me primo showed me different.  I may not of done well with books but I understood cars and I understand how to make them go fast.  Ever since my time in Mexico I’ve loved cars.”  Family life was better for Negrescu in Tacate, and he found his passion there, but they were still poor.  Even as much as he loved Mexico, he knew the States provided him more opportunities to both aim at getting out of poverty as well as doing something with his car hobby.  When he turned eighteen years old in 1948 Negrescu came to Huntington Park, California.  He had heard about a car club there and he wanted to join.  Negrescu found work at a local auto shop and settled into a small apartment he was renting on his own.   He also was able to join that car club.  A couple of years later in 1950 that car club would get the attention of Wally Parks as he was organizing the American Hot Rod Federation.  Three of its members would be invited to join the forthcoming league.  Negrescu was the third among them to receive an offer but indeed he was invited.  This past Saturday at Race Wars 1, when Diamond team came up for the twelfth pick, they asked for two races.  The first pitted Ashley Aiken against Jarrett Backus.  Backus would win that contest with the best finish of the night at just 11.29 seconds.  The second race they asked for put Negrescu up against Fredie Finley.  Negrescu would win that race, finishing the quarter mile in 13.98 seconds.  His score was still higher than the man who lost to Backus, Aiken who finished in 13.86 seconds.  Diamond would pick Backus with that twelfth pick followed by another man named Brent Albronda with the fourteenth pick.  Aiken was taken next with the fourteenth pick to Triangle Team.  Then, finally Negrescu was selected with the fifteenth pick by Square Team.  He was assigned to their First Option Position and given a three-year contract.  He will work with Crew Chief Edward Randrup and he could not be more excited.  His good friend and fellow member of the Huntington Park car club, Elias Kato, will be his teammate on Square Team.  “After all I have seen in life, after all I’ve had to go through, this may still really just be a hobby, but you know what I could not be happier with where I am at in life right now.”     
[img][/img]
 

---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 for the first pick their Crew Chief Stefanus Southgate requested the first race of the night.  He put Appelhof up against Thorvald Thorley.  Thorley would go onto be the second pick, but he lost considerably to Appelhof in this race.  Appelhof completed the quarter mile in 11.32 seconds while Thorley ran it in 13.47.  Appelhof may have been the first pick but later in the day Jarrett Backus put up the best time of the night with 11.29 seconds.  Backus was selected by Diamond.  On January 27 we will get a chance to perhaps see Backus and Appelhof go head-to-head when Circle and Diamond battle one another. 

[img][/img]