| Bill Scott- A remarkable combination of scholar, racer and entrepreneur. In 124 starts between 1965 and ’72 (Formula Vee, Super Vee and Ford) he had three world championships, 42 wins and all together 77 trips to the podium. Purchased and transformed Summit Point Motorsports Park. |
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Holiday Thanks
by Josh Max
No matter how serious things got this year, they still kept us rolling through rain, snow, sleet and gridlock. There isn’t a boldface name in any newspaper or magazine or website for these sweaty (or shivering) heroes of the road. Their mothers neither hang their work on fridges nor email published links to friends and relatives. A leisurely drive in a $60,000 sports car with their significant other on a lazy Sunday spring afternoon isn’t in their job description. The gig is to deliver and pick up the goods, and you can count on these guys like the sun rising and setting.
I’m talking about those unsung, coffee-soaked, iron-assed pros—the press fleet delivery people.
“Good morning, Mr. Max. Your vehicle is downstairs.” How sweet the sound.
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Photo By: Ralph Morris |
Alone after drop-off—unless a chaser car’s involved—they trudge off into the day or the night to the bus, subway or train. Their reward is another car to be delivered to another journalist, who may or may not be in a good mood that day or may criticize a car’s maker or car color straight off instead of looking in the driver’s eye for the briefest of greetings and perhaps ask how the trip was. Read the rest of this entry »
Girls Go Racing: Driving To Esteems is a new book by Dani Ben-Ari and Susan Frissell. The long time auto writers detail the benefits of auto racing, what it takes for interested young girls to get involved, how racing can become a viable career option, and how the involvement in motorsports builds much needed self esteem. Published by Authorhouse (September 2009, ISBN: 978-1-4490-0738-6, $12.95), the book is available at bookstores nationwide, major online booksellers, or directly from the publisher at www.Authorhouse.com, and on www.Amazon.com.
Burt Levy touts a number of Holiday gifts available at his last www.Openroad.com web site–including a chance to be in his newest book. . . . In recognition of his many outstanding contributions to the organization during his tenure as President, the Texas Auto Writers Association has honored Harold Gunn by renaming its scholarship fund the Harold Gunn Scholarship For Journalism. The scholarship is for students in a Texas university who are in their junior year and are pursuing a Bachelors Degree in journalism . . .Gary Witzenberg accepted the open invitation to attend Bill Maloney’s First Tuesday Car Lunch Bunch at Hawaii’s Waikiki Yacht Club and talked about the GM EV-1 which he was involved with in engineering and PR capacities. It was noted that he was driving a Prius loaned by Servco Toyota. Read the rest of this entry »
I got an interesting e-mail the other day. It was from an editor at the Improper Bostonian Magazine, where I’ve been on staff for nine years. It seems that someone pitched them a car column. While the Improper covers cars in an annual feature package, there’s no regular car column, which is what this enterprising individual was hoping to establish. I don’t begrudge anyone a pitch-my view is that it’s an open market, and if I’m afraid of someone treading on my turf, then I should step up my game-but this proposal did not come from an impetuous journalist looking to set up a gig.
It came from STI.
Near the beginning of the e-mail, forwarded to me by my editor, they get right to the point: “We are contacting you with hope we can provide you with an additional stimulating column to your already excellent publication.” The fact that they made this pitch to someone other than myself could mean one of two things: Either they’re so ignorant that they don’t know that I write for the Improper Bostonian, or they know I write for the Improper but tried to go over my head in the hopes that the promise of free cars would lure an editor there to assign himself a car column. Based on the following paragraph, pasted verbatim from the STI e-mail, I’d wager on the latter. Read the rest of this entry »
From Wooden Horse Newsletter and news releases: . . . FOREVER MX-5 is a new quarterly that targets Mazda Miata enthusiasts. Content focuses on road trips, car projects and parts, buying and selling Miatas, and club events. Jeff Zurschmeide is the editor-in-chief of the magazine, which is published by MediaSpigot LLC and sold in bookstores and on newsstands throughout the US… Courtney Caldwell, publisher/editor of Road & Travel Magazine, announced that her Earthbound Express, Inc. has launched Earth, Wind Power Blogazine to bring consumers the latest environmental developments and news on a variety of topics and tips on what readers can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
Racing World magazine was inspired by the 2008 opening of the New Jersey Motorsports Park in Vineland, NJ, but will cover auto and motorcycle racing from New England to Virginia. It is planned to launch this spring as a free bimonthly with hopes for a 40,000 issue distribution and cover NASCAR but also road racing, GT, vintage cars and the accompanying lifestyle, including coverage of local dining and hotels. Gerald Covella, owner of New Jersey Angler and Golfstyles New Jersey heads up editorial and design and is currently seeking funding. Interested writers and photographers should check out the website at http://www.racingworldnj.com.
Decades ago Paul Eisenstein christened his automotive news and feature writing for publications worldwide The Detroit Bureau and continued that service while nurturing his pioneering web site The Car Connection.com for 11 years until he sold it last fall. He has now launched The Detroit Bureau.com. He says the new site does not try to aggregate everything automotive but will be selective and focus on intelligent and reasoned commentary on things automotive. While it is a non-paying enterprise at the moment he has enlisted Joe Szczesny of Michigan’s Oakland Press, freelancer Mike Strong, environmental writer John DeCicco, Netherlands-based Henry Hemmes, marketing specialist Marty Bernstein, spy photographer Brenda Priddy, commentator Charlie Vogelheim, and others he has heard from to help make it a success. There have been offers of financial backing and advertising for the new site Eisenstein reports. However, he says, the main emphasis now is finding out if they can identify a niche in a heavily saturated market and provide a good product to fill it.
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