By request, here is the eulogy I wrote for Earl that ended up winning an AARWBA award: EULOGY FOR THE UNIONS by Tony Johns To understand who Earl Ma was, one only needed to see him at the Chateau Thomas Winery in Plainfield, Indiana, just two weeks ago. Playa Del Racing's pre-Indy 500 party was going on in the second-floor loft at Chateau Thomas on the Saturday before the race. Earl was an invited guest of Playa Del's rookie driver Phil Giebler, who happened to be one of Earl's… Continue

Found out today that I won what may be my last AARWBA contest award - a second-place award for Online Column Writing. Ironies abound... earlier this week, I finally shut down Racing Press, the web-zine that Earl and I had run for 10 years together. It had been more or less totally dormant since Earl died - I didn't have the money or the heart to keep it going. But the article I won with was a Racing Press article. The article, as it turns out, was the extended unofficial eulogy that I wrote im… Continue

Last year, I was in Indianapolis for another Indy 500. My buddy Phil Giebler was qualified for the 500 and I was looking forward to seeing my friend Earl Ma again. Earl was determined to see Phil in the 500 regardless of his health, which was deteriorating (although how fast none of us knew until it was too late). He was in a wheelchair and paraplegic by then but he was still taking photos and working as hard as we all remember he could. I was only able to meet up with him twice during the who… Continue