I just bought my dad a reproduction Russetta Timing Association timing tag for father's day and i was wondering about the meaning of the name. We all know S.C.T.A. stands for Southern California Timing Association but what about others? I know MUROC had something to do with the people who owned the land.
Russetta is a dry lake, so is Muroc. It is now known as Edwards Air Force Base. edit: I couldn't find Russetta on a map, but they also raced on Harper, Rogers and Rosamond dry lakes. I did find this small blurb about RTA : Russetta Timing Association (RTA) held speed meets at various southern California dry lakes, beginning in 1939 and continuing well into the 1960s. It was an independent association, owned by Ray Ingram, who also owned the clocks. It flourished in part because the more prominent SCTA did not allow coupes or sedans until 1951, and RTA did.
@redo32 According to Kustomrama the RTA even had a club called The Coupes which included members like Bobby Meeks, Ed Pink and others. https://kustomrama.com/wiki/The_Coupes
The Corum family homesteaded the area around Rogers Dry Lake, but when they went to register the mail box, there was already a Corum registered in the California data base, so they spelled it backwards and Muroc became the registry. It became Rogers later and enveloped by the burgeoning Edwards Air Force Base... as far as I can remember... No idea on the Russetta nomenclature however...
I think it's a good bet that the name Russetta comes from the red chariots in the 1925 silent movie, Ben Hur. Tony went to work for Raymond Ingram in 1939.......and of course, Ray was the founder of the Russetta Timing Association. This is from a Wilcap Co. article by Richard Parks on Tony Capanna: "While he was attending high school he met the Lewis brothers; Lowell and Kenny and joined the Albata car club in 1937. The club had been formed in 1936 to race on the dry lakes of Southern California’s Mojave Desert. The name of the club had been taken from the old silent movie Ben Hur. The extravagance of the chariot races and the huge cost to make the movie made a huge impact on young people of that era. The red chariots were named Russetta, after the Latin word for red, while the white chariots were named Albata after the Latin, according to Capanna. Tony’s first trip to the dry lakes at Muroc was in 1937 when Muroc Timing Association (MTA) was in charge of the desert land speed attempts, led by George Wight and George Riley. It was love at first sight and like many young men; it began his taste for speed." "After Tony graduated from high school in 1939 he went to work for Raymond Ingram as a mechanic." http://www.wilcap.com/webdoc7.html . .
All these years I thought Russetta was a dry lake. I found out it means "red chariot"! Cool. Who woulda thunk it.
A bit of Russetta timing assn history here History - Russetta Timing Association, etc | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com)
The Jalopy Journal
