Puddingstone Reservoir

[Jengle37]

In 1976 there was a race held at Puddingstone reservoir in southern California. Initially there was no plan for GN boats to be at the race, then Brad Miller and myself got together and promoted a GN division for the Sunday race. Last night while looking through some old stuff my mother had sent me, I found the cancelled checks for the prize money in the GN division. I was reminded that these guys used to race for the fun of it, not for the money, the payout was as follows:
1st place: Gil Gilbert $346.00
2nd place Tim Walllace $216.25
3rd place Stuart Palmer $129.75
4th place Brad Miller $86.50
5th place Don Cannan $86.50

The race was held on December 5, 1976. does anyone else out there have any info or memories of the race? I only have a couple of pictures and the cancelled checks.
This is the Yosemite Sam boat owned by Speed Marine/ Richard Berg, not sure who drove it that day.

[Miss BK]

Hi John,

In the 70's and 80's we raced at Puddingstone all the time. At least twice a year. The event almost always included Stock outboard, OPC and Inboard.

I have quite a few pictures from those days stashed away somewhere. Also, Puddingstone is where I saw my first skiff - I really admired those boats. Snow Goose was my favorite. I have a lot of great (and not so great) memories of Puddingstone. The last time I raced there was in 1987 and I lost my key during the race (yes, I still had a key ignition). That was a really bad weekend for me. :confused:

In 1988 or so, they ran the IOGP race there. I remember one incident where Chris Bush was making a wide sweeper turn and at the same moment, Terry Leatherby was coming out of the pits slowly - Chris and Terry were on course for a major collision when Chris turned hard and his Summerford tunnel suddenly began to barrel roll.......right over the top of Terry! He cleared the top of Terry's boat by inches. Just missed Terry's head. While we all held our breath - a slow moving Terry came motoring out of the dense spray. Absolutely a miracle!

But the Summerford tunnel was shredded to pieces. It was Roark's debut of the new boat. :( Both drivers were ok, and that was a good feeling.




I've sure got some good memories from Puddingstone!

[RichardKCMo]

Was there in 73 ,was mostly inboard race.
I never seen a stock o b in Ca till late 70s when i went to bakersfield/chowchilla.
RichardF

[racer98]

Those are some cool old boats. Not much has changed in 30 years, including the prize money amounts. The GN's will be at Parker on Thanksgiving weekend, 14 entries are expect to come out and play. Looks like the the Parker 300 kick started a resurgence. Hope to see everyone there.

[VaporTrails]

In 1976 there was a race held at Puddingstone reservoir in southern California. Initially there was no plan for GN boats to be at the race, then Brad Miller and myself got together and promoted a GN division for the Sunday race. Last night while looking through some old stuff my mother had sent me, I found the cancelled checks for the prize money in the GN division. I was reminded that these guys used to race for the fun of it, not for the money, the payout was as follows:
1st place: Gil Gilbert $346.00
2nd place Tim Walllace $216.25
3rd place Stuart Palmer $129.75
4th place Brad Miller $86.50
5th place Don Cannan $86.50

The race was held on December 5, 1976. does anyone else out there have any info or memories of the race? I only have a couple of pictures and the cancelled checks.
This is the Yosemite Sam boat owned by Speed Marine/ Richard Berg, not sure who drove it that day.

Yeah Mithch Lembke used to run the boat for Richard Berg, he also drove his ET and he would also run in the Pro Comp class too. We used to have so much fun, there were so many racers back then. And a race almost every weekend. And we went to all of them, if we were not running a boat we went and covered the race for our magazine Vapor Trails Boating News. My dad was Rickey DeMontrond better know as Mr Rickey!

[Jengle37]

Your dad's name came up just the other day when I was talking to Dr Cannan. In 76 or 77 we raced in a gravel pit in Memphis at a race put on by Armie Haines. Your dad did a video of some of the race. We have been trying to find that video, maybe Mr Ricky just lent it to us, not sure but as far as I know it's the only video that has the Inlay in action with the exception of about 2 seconds in the movie "Clambake". If you have a chance to check the archives, let me know if it still exists! Thanks

[tfitschen]

Yeah Mithch Lembke used to run the boat for Richard Berg, he also drove his ET and he would also run in the Pro Comp class too. We used to have so much fun, there were so many racers back then. And a race almost every weekend. And we went to all of them, if we were not running a boat we went and covered the race for our magazine Vapor Trails Boating News. My dad was Rickey DeMontrond better know as Mr Rickey!

Mitch only drove the GN boat once, and that was in Provo. He did drive the ET Boat all the years, and the Pro Comp only a handful of times (not very successfully though) before we retired it. The picture in the opening thread was either Jerry Fitschen, Jerry Gilbreath, Jerry Lembke, or Russ Romer driving.

[Jengle37]

Would have been Jerry Gilbreath. This was before Jerry started driving Brad Miller's boat and after Jerry Lembke. Russ Romer was campaigning his boat that was sponsored by one of the casinos (Circus Circus I think) at the time I believe. As I look back at the pictures I'm not sure that one was from Puddingstone. If it had been, that boat would have easily been in the top 5. It's more likely the pic is from Walker Lake Nevada.

[tfitschen]

Would have been Jerry Gilbreath. This was before Jerry started driving Brad Miller's boat and after Jerry Lembke. Russ Romer was campaigning his boat that was sponsored by one of the casinos (Circus Circus I think) at the time I believe. As I look back at the pictures I'm not sure that one was from Puddingstone. If it had been, that boat would have easily been in the top 5. It's more likely the pic is from Walker Lake Nevada.

it is most likely jerry gilbreath, because of how high he is sitting, the others were all much shorter, russ drove for us after my dad and mitchs dad, he only drove the circus circus gn a couple of times with art williams, and remember there were absolutely no trees around walker lake. and in this picture, he was either way out front, or there werent many boats, because there are no other wakes

[Ron Hill]

In 1976 there was a race held at Puddingstone reservoir in southern California. Initially there was no plan for GN boats to be at the race, then Brad Miller and myself got together and promoted a GN division for the Sunday race. Last night while looking through some old stuff my mother had sent me, I found the cancelled checks for the prize money in the GN division. I was reminded that these guys used to race for the fun of it, not for the money, the payout was as follows:
1st place: Gil Gilbert $346.00
2nd place Tim Walllace $216.25
3rd place Stuart Palmer $129.75
4th place Brad Miller $86.50
5th place Don Cannan $86.50

The race was held on December 5, 1976. does anyone else out there have any info or memories of the race? I only have a couple of pictures and the cancelled checks.
This is the Yosemite Sam boat owned by Speed Marine/ Richard Berg, not sure who drove it that day.

I think this is Puddingstone in December. It doesn't get green until after the rains, and December, it hasn't rained. As Jerry Gilbreath always said, "Waler Lake is like the moon." I think this is Russ Romer, Jerry is bigger and his kneck is longer...but, I've been wrong before!

ADD:

I saw the letter Brad Miller sent to Puddingstone after this race, and you have thought Puddingstone wa the best place in the world. Brad was a great person, an heir to the J.C Penny Company, he never let having millions stand in his way! He owned Del Taco, Crazy Horse Campgrounds, and Crazy Horse Steakhouse to name a few of his holdings...

Brad later married Jerry Gilbreath step daughter and had a son named Brandon. Bradon works for Kevin Harvick of NASCAR fame now. Brad passed away about five years ago, he was a great guy. He brought Rocky Aoki into Gn Racing!

[tfitschen]

I think this is Puddingstone in December. It doesn't get green until after the rains, and December, it hasn't rained. As Jerry Gilbreath always said, "Waler Lake is like the moon." I think this is Russ Romer, Jerry is bigger and his kneck is longer...but, I've been wrong before!

ADD:

I saw the letter Brad Miller sent to Puddingstone after this race, and you have thought Puddingstone wa the best place in the world. Brad was a great person, an heir to the J.C Penny Company, he never let having millions stand in his way! He owned Del Taco, Crazy Horse Campgrounds, and Crazy Horse Steakhouse to name a few of his holdings...

Brad later married Jerry Gilbreath step daughter and had a son named Brandon. Bradon works for Kevin Harvick of NASCAR fame now. Brad passed away about five years ago, he was a great guy. He brought Rocky Aoki into Gn Racing!

that is jerry gilbreath driving. Jerry Fitschen, Jerry Lembke, and Russ Romer were all pretty much tne same size, and that boat, "YOSEMITE SAM" was designed by Jerry Lembke, Jerry Fitschen, and Larry Lee, for the safety of the driver, at Speed and Marine with a special deck, so that the drivers legs were not under the deck at all, there were 4 stringers that were cut down, so that the driver could sit much lower, to lessen the stress on the NECK, and the open side of the cockpit was sealed off with a structure and and a cover, so that in case of an accident, the driver could not get trapped underneath the deck

[JWM]

Mr. Rickys son. What happened to all your Dad's ET race boats. Mr. Ricky was a gread man for our sport.

Jim Wilkes
Wilkes Marine

[bandit]

I seen that boat race at S.D.Mission Bay. That was was my Cb handle in those days.!!