New Post: Ron Main, the book, the bad and the ugly
Ron Main has been way too busy with the new book, the show, and Save the Salt to post on the forums. And if Ron has anything to say about someone, it’s usually to their face. But it’s time that someone put out the truth on the Save the Salt donations.
I first want to thank all the people that took the time and effort to make intelligent, positive, and constructive posts on the Bonneville book and the land speed show. This post is not for them. It is for the self-proclaimed email experts and loud mouths, whose minds small in size and number have been condemning the alleged evil caused by Ron Main donating 2,000 free copies of the book, Bonneville a Century of Speed, to Save the Salt.
The bad and the ugly
“I don't understand the logic of spending $80 on a book and giving it away for $20”, I did not see anywhere where this is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and that buying a book would be tax deductible, not to be confused with donating $20 to STS”, “How much of your hard earned money do you want to pay to . . . nothing.”, “All of the money went to the crook”,
For starters, none of the 2,000 free books that Ron donated were sold at the Grand National Roadster Show. But with a $20.00 or more donation to Save the Salt, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, you would receive one of the books for free and yes, it could be used as a tax deduction.
The bad and the ugly are the ones who are irritated by the hard work of others and who only derive pleasure from constant whining and spoiling other people's efforts without contributing anything of any value to anyone or anything. I can understand them being confused and out of the loop with all their carping on the new Bonneville A Century of Speed book. But one would think that they would have had some facts, before mouthing off and crying for an exorcism to evict the demons from the person they accuse of being evil and possessed.
But the real question is who nominated them to be the Mother Superior’s? You know the saying, “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” If anyone had any questions, all they had to do was call Ron Main or Russ Eyres at Save the Salt, but that’s probably asking too much.
The following should answer the unjustified hostility that was dumped on the free books and moneys that went to Save the Salt during the Land Speed Car exhibit at the Grand National Roadster Show.
Ron Main and Save the Salt.
Ron is the kind of guy that often seems a bit nutty, very outspoken, yeah, sometimes a bit rude, loves racing, and he’s always coming up with crazy ideas outside of the box. But dishonesty is not one of his faults.
Lots of people just talk about helping Save the Salt, but Ron’s been doing it.
In 2012 at SEMA, Ron came up with the Gold Donor Program for Save the Salt. It was not just another program with recognition for donations. But under this program the donors received real 24 ct. gold & silver plated bronze sculptures along with recognition.
Ron also stipulated that in this new program that none of the money would be used for advertising, publicity, attorneys, hotel rooms or meetings. All of the money could only be used for salt replenishment. The Gold Program was approved by the Larry Volk and the Save the Salt Board in May of 2012.
Then Ron got on the phone (and on his own dime too) and started contacting and shaking down everybody he knew and could get a hold of and Ron got $50,000 donated to Save the Salt for salt replenishment.
Ron wanted the program to be ongoing with a new trophy for each year, but no one stepped up and offered to help with it, but the program is currently still on the website’s store at
www.savethesalt.org.
Raffle Ticket Sales for the Bonneville Speed Week Vacation
After the gold donor program for Save the Salt in 2010, Ron came up with the Bonneville Speed Week Vacation Raffle. Ron talked the Wendover Nugget Hotel into donating 3 nights at Speed Week for a Bonneville vacation at Speed Week in 2014.
Ron donated his personal 8-foot long fiberglass 3,000 dollar replica of Speed Demon to the raffle.
The car would be used as part of the Raffle display in order to attract attention to help sell the 5-dollar raffle tickets. And who wouldn’t want to have that cool model of the fastest car at Bonneville for the last five years and be part of the crew at Speed Week?
Ron then took the raffle, 8-foot car and exhibit to both the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, the L A Roadster Show, and the Super Nationals in New Mexico. The drawing was held Saturday at the Grand National Roadster show. Roscoe E. Morrow from Bakersfield was the winner. This Raffle raised almost $18,000.00 for Save the Salt.
The book: Bonneville a Century of Speed
Ron wanted a new book to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Land Speed Racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats. This was a big nut to crack as Ron had never put out a book and didn’t have any money of his own to pay all the expenses of the writing, copyrights, printing, shipping, and marketing of the book. Moreover, Ron wanted to have money from the sale of the book to go to Save the Salt for salt replenishment.
Ron’s solution: Just some good old P. T. Barnum bluff and a lot of out of the box thinking.
Now remember two years ago when Ron worked day and night to get $50,000 from sponsors with his Gold Donor program for Save the Salt. Ron knew that the chances of getting more donations from the sponsors were slim to none. Business sponsors aren’t like charities. Businesses need return and recognition. So then Ron decided on his Bonneville Book project, which would offer ads and recognition to the Sponsors throughout the new book. Now maybe some might think that’s a bit crass, but these companies work with all of us and are part of our Bonneville racing family. Yeah, it’s was a bit unusual, but that’s how Ron got the book financed. All the details were submitted to Save the Salt Foundation for approval and then the program was posted on the Bonneville Century of Speed website.
Ron then contacted David Fetherston on writing the new book. David Fetherston is a historian, journalist and photographer, specializing in automotive subjects for magazines and books or in special interest automotive TV history and culture programs. He has been a prolific author and publisher with over 35 titles to his credit, including the 1999 Automotive Book of the Year. He has worked in the word of marketing for twenty years, raced with the SCCA, teamed record cars at Bonneville, built race-cars, and recently restored a Maserati Khamsin.
Bonneville Books
There have been a number of great books on Bonneville over the years.
These books all have two things in common:
1.) They are all about Bonneville.
2.) Not one cent ever goes to help with saving the Salt.
This is not the case with Ron and Dave’s new Book
Ron donated 2,000 copies to Save the Salt at no cost. They will not be sold, but one book will be given out for each donation of $20.00 or more to Save the Salt at The Grand National Roadster Show, until they are all gone. Fetherston publishing will be doing marketing for the sales on the remaining books. Ron Main will receive (0%) zero percent from the sales, and 20% will be given to Save the Salt in order to create an income for the future. At regular retail, Save the Salt would get $10.00/book.
I could also go on how much time and work Ron has spent in order to get the book Bonneville a Century of Speed out and the thousands of hours of hard work putting the Land Speed Car show together for the Grand National Roadster Show. I don’t understand why none of the Grinch’s has been offering to be of help to Save the Salt or the Land Speed Show at the Grand National Roadster Show. All I could see on the forum from the Grinch’s was a bunch of loud mouth bitching, with little or nothing in the way of encouragement or support.
The Grinch’s, who waste time dwelling on the negative with misinformation and pettiness on what they know nothing about just to criticize the work of others, aren’t contributing a damn thing toward the betterment of this sport.
The show has just ended. And just like the $50,000 donated to Save the Salt in 2010, now Ron Main has now had another $40,000 donated to Save the Salt during the three day run of the Grand National Roadster Show.
Dave Fetherston Ron Main RUSS EYRES
Writer extraordinaire PHD in BS Treasurer Save the Salt
The ones that make a difference are the ones that have been contributing positive and supportive posts and are working to help improve the sport of land speed racing. The ones who also deserve our thanks are the ones who joined with Ron to bring their vehicles to the show. None of them were complaining about not getting paid for their time and efforts. They are the ones who deserve our thanks for making the book donations and the Land Speed Show such a great success.
Salt-Overlay-Replacement test 1
The money that has Ron has been rising has been restricted for Salt replacement only. In addition to the Intrepid’s pumping program, Ron has initiated a new salt replacement program and it is currently waiting for approval from the BLM.
Ron is working with Russ Deane, General Counsel for SEMA, Chairman for Save the Salt
Russ Eyres, Treasurer Save the Salt, and Stuart Gosswein, Sr. Director, Federal Government Affairs, Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA)
The Salt-Overlay-Replacement test 1 proposes to will put 1,120 tons of salt be put down on the Bonneville Salt Flats starting from the frontage road at I-80 adjacent to the International course between from mile 0 to mile 2. The mile 0 to the 2 mile part of the course is mostly gypsum and mud with a thin buckled salt crust, making it perfect for our first test. “Having this test at the end of speed week will allow SCTA to observe and evaluate this process. Hopefully after the finals we can use this process to repair our SCTA course wherever it is soft or muddy. I truly feel that by wheel packing and rolling this 24 foot by 2 mile strip of salt that it will stay in place, but if all fails we have put 1,120 tons of new salt on our Bonneville Salt Flats. I have contracted investor relations and marketing at Intrepid to join with us with the Salt-overlay project”—Ron Main
More information will be coming out on this very soon.
Bottom line:
Ron efforts on behalf of Save the Salt have been good for the sport of Land Speed Racing in spite of the bitching and whining from the small number of Grinch’s on the Forum sitting on their butts and contributing nothing to our sport except hearing themselves talk.
If anyone is still information deprived, rather than speculating or mouthing off, call and get the information directly from Ron Main (818) 998-7848 ron@speeddemon.us or Russ Eyres at Save the Salt.
Respectfully submitted,
Bob Main
With Ed Horton’s help I did the parking plot plan—kind of cool.