ALL reading this need to pause for a moment and then raise a glass to continuous, supportive, and active SAH member #812. Think about what that number means – just how long John C Meyer III has been unwaveringly actively supporting this group.
He was one of the spark plugs organizing and putting on those well-remembered annual West Coast Literature Faires as part of the then Southern California SAH chapter that he helped found and served as its first director.
John authored a wonderful book titled Yosemite, The Forest Domain of the Pierce-Arrow. And he was the longtime editor of the Horseless Carriage Club’s Gazette. Plus John had had a hand in organizing and putting on the Horseless Carriage Club’s 75th Anniversary celebration in 2012.
However, this particular “huzzah” is in observance and celebration of John and his wife Pat (who, true confessions, your contributor has been friends with for maybe more decades than any of us can accurately remember) celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary.
Think about that for a moment – when were you born?? (hvh)
A number of you will recognize Joe Freeman’s name. Some may know him as an early SCCA racing enthusiast turned car owner/driver or as a restorer of vintage Indy cars. Others know him as fellow SAH member #1210. The membership elected him to the board in 1998, He subsequently became vice-president, then president for 2004 and ’05. Still others think of him as the publisher of racing books. He started Racemaker Press in 2006 all the while amassing an important collection of racing records and photos.
Freeman closed Racemaker in 2024 and more recently placed his entire collection—amounting to over one million historic motorsports photographs, plus artifacts, memorabilia and rare books and programs—with the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) in Daytona Beach, Florida.
MSHFA plans to make the photography in its Joseph S. Freeman Archive available to the public starting in 2026 with the uploading of the first 10,000 images to www.mshf.com. MSHFA plans to catalog the entire collection on its website and make the memorabilia and books available to use at its museum located on the grounds of Daytona International Speedway, which greets close to 150,000 visitors each year.
The MSHFA is the only hall honoring American motorsports in all its forms: cars, motorcycles, airplanes, off-road and powerboats. Its mission is to celebrate and instill the American motorsports values of leadership, creativity, originality, teamwork and spirit of competition. It held its first induction in 1989 in its original museum in Novi, Michigan that relocated to Daytona Beach in 2016. MSHFA is operated by the nonprofit Motorsports Museum and Hall of Fame of America Foundation, Inc. (hvh)