The Southern California Chapter of the Society of Automotive Historians announced the winner of the 2012 James Valentine Memorial Award is Goodguys Goodtimes Gazette columnist and author “LandSpeed” Louise Ann Noeth of Creve Coeur, Missouri. The award for periodicals is granted for Excellence in Automotive Historical Research was presented for “Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame” which appeared as her August 2011 Fuel For Thought monthly column.
“I was particularly interested in the evolution of the idea of a Hall of Fame, and to see, in one place, the names of all those honored so far,” explained Bob Ewing speaking for the chapter , “It made me very happy to see the names of people whom I knew, such as Mark Dees, author of the book on Miller and co-founder of the Vintage Racing Association, local legend Ak Miller, and a fellow alumnus of my high school, Burke LeSage.”
The Valentine Memorial Award is named for the late J.H. Valentine, at one time the recognized authority of automobiles built in Los Angeles. Always a strong supporter of the Southern California Chapter SAH, Valentine devoted his life to accurately compiling nearly insignificant data on early automobiles one by one. With no chance of personal wealth, he ensured that future historians would have a large quantity of priceless material. The Valentine Award honors authors whose automotive historical research is linked to people and events in California, but does not preclude significant historical milestones anywhere in the world.
“The people, cars and motorcycles inducted into the Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame are not simply the speedy fabric of land speed racing,” said author Noeth of the winning column, “They represent the pioneers of the high performance community in this nation who doggedly demonstrate professional skills in an amateur environment. The honorees are peer voted giving greater weight to its membership. The Society of Automotive Historians Southern California Chapter humbles me with the honor.”
Noeth was first honored by the SAH SoCal Chapter winning the Valentine for her book: Bonneville Salt Flats in 2002. Known to her readers as “Landspeed Louise,” she next became the first recipient of the award to be honored for both a book and a periodical winning again in 2005. She also picked up the 2006 and 2009 periodical awards. All the winning articles first appeared in the Goodguys Goodtimes Gazette.