Enduro News: Hotboat Site

[Ron Hill]

The Blue Water Resort and Casino 300 Enduro

NOTE: I wrote this on Hot Boat because they were calling the Race Ron Hill's Race.The Min Enduro will be Ron Hill's race...


The name of the race is The Blue Water Resort and Casino 300 Enduro. Ron Hill did help promote last's year's race, and did work for the race last year. WWW.BOATRACINGFACTS.COM (http://www.boatracingfacts.com/) Ted March and My web site helped promote this year's race also.



I did CLOSE to nothing for this year's race:



I know that Ann Hoban worked long and hard scoring this race and signing everyone up for APBA at the race. I don't know the names of those who helped ANN but she had help from several volunteers. I do know that Kay Boyes drove down to Parker from Yuba City to help out. Her husband Bill, worked for two days on this race. They received a free room paid by RPM Enterprises...

ROD ZAPF SET OUT THE BOUYS FOR THE COURSE.



Ted Kolby worked all year getting people in this race.



Bob Devine bought part of the poster. Ken Wilcoxen did the same... Bill Reiter paid part also.



Sid Castle drove over from Phoenix, for two years in a row to patrol the whole race, never receiving a dime for his effort...I may have given him a prop....or at least a deal on one..



The Vossmeyer's patrolled last year, for free.



Jimmy Harris patrolled in his new 29 foot Warlock, for free this year. (ALL DAY)...



Pat Hoban patrolled this year for free...



Rod Zapf worked most of the year getting people to help out and race...



AND THE REAL PROTMOTER, AND MAN IN CHARGE, ROSS THE BOSS...really did most of the work.



Ben Marrone, entered three boats, and helped with promotional money...



Fred Bowden sponsored my son and Pat Bowman....



Mike Avila came with two boats, because Greg Foster told him he'd have fun....Foster came and raced, at the last minute, because of my posting on WWW.BOATRACINGFACTS.COM (http://www.boatracingfacts.com/) , Friday...I called him from the library in Parker....He left for the race at 4:30, Saturday...Boat 19, Mr. Terrible, was a nice PLUS to the race... Greg Foster did this....along with Mark Durham....



Ted Kolby, Rod Zapf and myself, told Ross we wanted to have this race again in 2006, and that we'd UNDERWRITE any losses he might encounter.



These are people and names that come to me...all did more than I did...I would like to think, they deserve credit for putting on The Blue Water Resort and Casino 300 Enduro...

[Ron Hill]

Parker Rules Meeting December 3, 2006
On December 3, 2006 at 12:00 there is a RULES MEETING FOR THE 2007 Blue Water Resort and Casino 300 Enduro. It is at Greg Falconer's shop in Huntington Beach. 15102 Bolsa Chica Street, Unit G. Phone number 714-315-9136.

Ross has asked that only drivers, team owners and crews that raced this year or last year, attend the meeting. BUT, there is an APBA Region 12 Meeting before this meeting at 10:00 to 12:00 and if you went to the Region Meeting and wanted to "HANG OUT" at the rules meeting, I'm sure no one will be sent home...

BACK GROUND:

The 9 Hour Enduro really went downhill when the outboards won in 1971, but by 1973, it was clear to me, that the V-Drives were leaving the ENDURO IN DROVES. The smart thing to have done would hav been to require all boats to be flat bottoms or vee hulls...No tunnels...as outboard power would out run a V-drive on a 400 pound boat... That's history...

In 1974, I talked Parker into having classes, and entries jumped to almost double 1973....With the death of MOD VP and the invention of the capsule, 2.5 Mercury motors....the Enduro went into HISTORY..

Rod Zapf grew up on the Mississippi River...He and his friends raced boats all the time, when they were kids...they made their own rules, like sand lot baseball. I grew up in California, when we weren't racing, we were playing behind Seaboard Equipment, Bixby Slough, or Tin Can Beach (Bolsa Chica Beach). Saturday was "TEST DAY" but Sunday, we'd go to Tin Can Beach, on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). We raced, Sunday...Ted May, Herbie, Bobby, Gary Ferguson, John Landon, Joe Moore, Bill Koch, and others... We ran "The Cheater's Sweepstakes" every Sunday, when we didn't race APBA...We had a course for "A", "C" and "D"...We'd race all day...We caused so many accident and traffic jams on PCH,, the CHP put up no parking signs... We made our own rules, and at the end of the day...we all "WON"...Great times... Ted May would make a trophy out of Garage Sales Stuff,......Sometime Pat May was the queen....(Pat was the MODEL for the Joke Page in Playboy....They still have her likeness...gloves and hose...That is waht she modeled...)....

Zapf drove for me in my MOD VP and several Parkers. Rod was a Navy pilot, before he became a Captain for TWA (His son is a TOP Gun pilot, today in Iraq). Rod wishes his son cold come an race with us all, but he has a job to do. and I for one, THANK, Erick Von Zapf for his service to this great country......When Rod lived in Keywest, they had handicapped races all the time...Twin Engine Switzers to 36 Cubic Inch Evinrudes raced together, with handcapped starts...

Rod is the past Commodore of King Harbor Yacht Club and frequently races sailboats.. (They suck)...

It was Rod that decided WE NEEDED a fun race at Parker. Rod came up with the CONCEPT of RED ZONES, TIMED PIT STOPS and HANDICAPPED STARTS. It was Rod WHO WANTED THE RACE TO BE A "RUN WHAT YOU BRUNG RACE"... Rod wanted a race, like he'd had when he was a KID...I liked the idea of a "FUN RUN" for NEW people...I said, "I'd help."

Ross Wallach contacted The Blue Water Resort and Casino and worked out a deal with them. The deal is very straight forward... The prize money comes as a percentage of the rooms booked and filled during the race weekend.

The Resort pays the prize money in cash....

Some questions were asked:

I'd like to think that the RULES COMMITTEE, of which I was a member, made all decisions on, "What would be the safest for a NEW DRIVER?" concept. Anytime discussions got heated, it was, "Ok, guys, FUN is the NAME of this race... What is best for a new guy??"

Rod developed the handicaps for last year and for this year. If you do like Paul Grichar and Ben Morrone did, they timed the boats, while they watched the race....They determined that the handicaps wer pretty close...as there were three Division VI boats that could have won....There was a Division V boat two laps behind the winner, a Division II boat...and then third was a Division IV boat....

Finishing to win:

The race doesn't end until SOMEONE goes 60 laps. Last year, had boat 34 not run out of water, the race would have ended an hour earlier...but boat 34 didn't finish, it was leading OVERALL...

This year, we had had three boats in Division I.

A Cracker Box, a Tunnel from Iowa with a 150 HP Merc on it and 007, a 16 foot Glastron with a 40 HP.....

OK, the chances weren't too good that 007 would win overall....But, both drivers, use to patrol races for SCSC, with the Eastman's when they were in their teens (They are in their 40's now).......They just never quite got into racing themselves...

I told them to come and RUN the "BAT BOAT"....Hell, it was James Bond's boat but I didn't know that, but Rod Zapf made a Batman helmet for them, so they wore it...

The Co-driver's daughter was there, 19 years old, and her girl friend...Neither had driven a boat, but after the race, they drove 007 all over the Parker Strip (Until dark) and they said they'd never had so much fun....

Greg Falconer's Cracker Box made the most laps...The tunnel outboard broke early. 007 was running at the end...There was $300 prize money to the winner, Greg, the Division I winer, said, "Let's split the prize money three ways" ... $100 for each "FINISHER"...it went into the casino's slots... I paid the 007 entry fee...

Who won on this deal??? At Badenoch's bar, they made a banner from a sheet that said, "007." They'd run out of the bar and cheer...and flash...

Hey, will these two race the Enduro in 2007?? Probably, both have boats....

I didn't really know the FINISHING RULE, until I asked John Castelli Chief Referee, at the race, what the rule was, as the 007 was running....at the end, average speed of 11 MPH...John said, "The rules say, only one boat needs to go 60 laps...after that, the race is over, the reat are scored by laps completed..."

Boat 211: ...I consider you a friend, so I don't want you to take this wrong...But I know you guys were worried about fuel at the end...Had you run out on your last lap...Would you have wanted a DNF or third overall??? The rules committee, felt, if a person has more laps than another boat, he should be the one that gets the prizes...

Truth is, this race was based on the CONCEPT on FUN....

Everyone can step up with rule ideas.

There has been talk of lengthing the boats to 24' 6" and maybe giving the handicaps duroing pits stops, not up front....but many like the idea of NEW DRIVERS starting with SMALL GROUPS......

The winner got $1,500.

We took four gearcases to the race. Twisted one propshalf before the race, realized another didn't need a water pump, it needed gears, the third was an Extra Long....We had one gearcase that worked...And after the race, Dave Strickbauer, Mercury Gearcase GURU, told me, that our gearcase should run about 100 miles....not 300 miles... Fred Bowden's BMB Storage boat got lucky...somewhat like Ron Hill and Fred Hauenstein did in 1978, when they caught on fire at their pit stop and still won OVERALL...

In 1978, Fred Bowden was racing......too, he had a Taylor with a 150 Johnson.

The Blue Water Resort and Casino 300 Enduro welcomes anyone that would like to work, race or just come and rent a room, as part of the room rent goes back to the drivers..