2011 Gas-UP | Historian of the Year
Ed Safarik was born in 1935 in Los Angeles, California to parents Ed and Mary Safarik. His father was an Army Reserve Captain whose duty commands took the family many places. Ed recalls their time in Pismo where the house was only a half block from “the best beach on the Pacific coast” where he spent every day before the family moved on.
At age 14 he got a part-time job that paid .75 cents an hour at Al’s Shell Service on the corner of La Cienaga and Venice where he tested inner tubes and repair leaks . . ., you gotta start someplace. Ed bought his first car, a 1939 Ford coupe for $75. and began crawling underneath cars. Next came a ‘34 Ford roadster with a Carson top that he channeled the body, added a 3 1/2 dropped axle, and ‘39 backing plates all around with 5:50x16 front tires and 6:50x16 rear tires giving the car a nice rake. In went a Ford flathead six that he bored out and installed an Isky cam with a Knudsen head together with a Knudsen 3 carburetor intake with 97’s.
In his senior year dad was stationed in Okinawa and Ed was one of 11 who graduated from Kubasaki High School in 1954 --a stone’s throw from the beach filled with beautiful fish and reef formations that he frequented to avoid the unexploded ordinance and Habu snakes that inhabited the interior. He watched Chuck Yeager in simulated dog fights piloting an F86, and weathered a moderate typhoon.
Back in the USA he started as a mechanics apprentice working for Johnny Akutagawa. He bought a 1940 Ford coupe for $100. and installed the 6-cylinder Ford. The car was fast. Next he bought a new 1956 Chevy 150 business coupe with the Power Pack engine for $1,600. And immediately installed 36-inch mufflers, removed the air cleaner and went looking for guys to street race. He also won a trophy at Lyon’s Drag Strip that he still has to this day.
A member of the Screwdrivers Club with the Russetta Timing Association invited him to El Mirage for timing trials. He was hooked. Joined the club and participated in nearly every meet from 1956 to 1958 with his Chevy running in the mid 120’s. He set record for A Sports Car at 108 mph driving a friend’s 1952 Triumph TR2.
He has a degree in Electronic Technology with a minor in Math before getting drafted in the Army in 1959 where he fooled around with missiles until his discharge in 1961. Back to civilian life, he worked for a Beechcraft aircraft dealer at Van Nuys Airport installing avionics until he enrolled at New Mexico State University and graduated in 1968 and led to a dream job in radar development writing Fortran scientific programming.
Ed married Sandy Randolph in 1970 together they had four children: Trudy, Angelina, Amy and Mary. Sandy brought son Terry to the family when they married filling the Safarik household to seven.
He went to work for Lockheed in 1980 working temporarily on the U-2 and the SR-71 until the lab was built to handle data analysis for the F-117. This was really a “hush-hush” program. People would ask him if he was working on stealth stuff and he replied, “No, Northrup was doing that sort of work on the B-2,” and he never cracked a smile.
Ed’s co-worker in the Laboratory was gal named Pam who married land speed racer Mike Manghelli and then met Bob Jucewic and Dave Bloomberg. Back he went to El Mirage for a speed meet in 1998 and then joined the Sidewinders in 1999. A ‘29 street roadster, # 300, was purchased from Tom Gerardi and Ed ran all meets until 2004 when he sold the roadster back to Tom. Mike and Paula Meierle partnered with him in those years and while Ed never set any records, Mike Meierle did and currently holds records in F/BMMP at Maxton and Bonneville. Both Mike and Ed drove at El Mirage, Muroc, Bonneville and Maxton.
Ed served as the editor of the SCTA Racing News from 2003 to 2010; he also devoted a great deal of his time posting results on the SCTA/BNI web site and taken thousands of photos of racing action at Bonneville and El Mirage since 2000.
