Okay, folks, I am in talks with the Snap-on Stars of Karting presented by IRL to award an Earl Ma Sportsmanship Award to deserving drivers in their series. Right now I'm fleshing out details but I'm working on saving up some cash from my business to award a dollar figure ($100 per race, or maybe $500 at season's end).

If it works out this season I'm thinking maybe having an award trophy done. Ideally it'd be a 76-type orange ball on a trophy stand or something. But that's only if I can afford t… Continue

Been a while since I've posted anything here. I got an e-mail the other day from CafePress.com that I had a sale on some Unions merchandise that Earl and I put together before he died. I kept the CafePress store up and added some memorial stuff after he passed with the intention of passing any proceeds onto the American Cancer Society.

Well, I totally forgot it was there until I got that e-mail, but it's still there. So if any of you want some Unions stuff, just go to http://www.cafepress.com/t… Continue

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