On July 23rd the Southern California chapter of the Society of Automotive Historians presented its annual James Valentine Memorial Award to Bill Pollack and Louise Ann Noeth. This was the seventh year that the chapter presented the award, named for a founding member who was an authority on the Tourist automobile produced in Southern California.

Bill Pollack, an outstanding sports car driver in California during the 1950s, was honored for his book Red Wheels and White Sidewalls: Confessions of an Allard Racer, published by Brown Fox Books. In accepting his award Bill said he "never intended to write a book. I just wanted to collect some memories for my grandchildren."

The book recounts Bill’s childhood in Southern California, his experiences in World War II, the birth of the California Sports Car Club and his design of Willow Springs International Raceway in the desert north of Los Angeles. Bill recounts his near fatal accident with the Allard after the Pebble Beach races near Monterey in 1953. Bill went on to compete in many races through 1958, and in 2002 he was reunited with the restored Allard at the Monterey Historics.

Louise Ann Noeth had been honored before by her fellow SAH SoCal members when she was awarded the Valentine for her book on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2002. Known to her readers as "Landspeed Louise," she became the first recipient of the award to be honored for both a book and an article in a periodical. "What’s an FIA World Land Speed Record Worth?", which appeared in the Goodguys Goodtimes Gazette in October 2004, recounts her efforts to spur the FIA, which is nominally responsible for land speed record keeping as well as other aspects of motor sports, to officially recognize the efforts of competitors before they passed away.

She was particularly interested in the cases of Don Vesco and Nolan White, two Californians whose lives were cut short before the bureaucrats of the FIA would provide official recognition of their achievements. Starting in 2002, and aided in her research by USAC timer Dave Petrali, she began a one-woman crusade to have the records updated and official recognition bestowed on these competitors. Her research involved contacts with drivers, ACCUS (which controls all motor sports competition in the United States), as well as sources in books and news accounts. Data was only submitted to the FIA when three independent sources agreed.

One major finding reported in her story was that the FIA appears to have a total lack of interest in good record keeping while gladly accepting the fees racers must pay to contest for a land speed record. Louise concluded in her acceptance of the Valentine Award that the battle to have competitors for speed records properly recognized would be an ongoing struggle.

Nominations for the 2006 Valentine Award should be submitted by the end of May, 2006. Entries are limited to books and articles published in 2005 with a major focus on people, products or events in California.