10 Attachment(s)
N.O.A. Pleasure Craft Racing, 1958-'60
OPC racing started with N.O.A. from Knoxville to Nashville, and was called 'pleasure craft racing'. The Aristocrafts, Crosbys, Yellow Jackets and Crestliners were quickly replaced by the wooden Allisons shown, made in Paul and Lucille's garage in alcoa, Tenn. Rose made a boat that set an unlimited record with a hopped up Scott 60 (Buddy Mallonnee drove it), and the Rose was the prototype for the first fiberglass Allisons in 1961 after Paul's wooden boats were outlawed (he, my father and I set 6 records fall, 1960, that never saw the record books). See also the Allison website and allosinowners.com for more history.
Picture captions:
1. My Dad, Joe McCauley Sr. (Mercury 70/Aristocraft) and J. C. Leatherwood (Scott 60/Allison) are shown slowing down at the start while jumping the gun at the Knoxville Boat Club in 1959. J.C. ran Gateway Sporting Goods in Knoxville and was heavily supported by Scott-Atwater at the NOA Nationals in Nashville in 1958, they flew in spare Scott parts in planes when clamp brackets broke in large numbers.
Photos 2-4 are from the annual 100 Mile Ft. Loudon Marathon, taken at Three Rivers Boat Dock:
2. "Start of the 1960 100 mile Ft. Loudon Marathon at Three Rivers Boat Dock in 1960. The high flyer is a Mercury Mark 78A/14' Allison (allegedly a Quincy Mercury, driver could be Jim Jenkins-?), would run at least 53 mph (I know because I set up one with a stock Mark 78 year later). That's Clyde Holsonbach driving the high-flying Scott 40/Aristocraft.
3. My record holding Mark 58A/13' Allison, which I later drove it on my knees from the back seat to break 61 mph with a Merc 800. I remember a blond haired kid walking up the driveway at Paul and Lucille's house in Alcoa, Tenn. (I was 17), that was Darris. The Allison-Craft factory was their small garage.
4. "Last gasp" from McCulloch Corp.: twin Scott 75s on a 14' Allison, never made the start. The John-Rude 75 dominated the season until Paul, my father and I outran them by setting new records using the Merc 800 with Sportsmaster gearcase at the end of the season. We three were the first to break 60 mph in the "pleasure boat" division of NOA, Paul set the record at over 61 mph. The stance of the kid in Bermudas tells me that's Jay Blake Cox, whom I met a year earlier at a 3 rivers race. I won the 100 mi. Ft. Loudon Marathon (Mark 58A/Aristocraft in 1958, he won it in 1959 driving for a disqualified driver-I was disqualifid too for missing the drivers' meeting).
5. Three Rivers Boat Dock, Fall, 1960. Wynn Oil rep. hands me the $100 check (diamond pin came later) for increasing a record by the largest amount. The class is stock 70-80 cu. in. Paul got excited before I ran (he'd already set the Unlimited record at 61+ mph) and bondoed a wedge on the trailing edge of the running surface. I nearly broke the old unlimited record while sitting in the front seat of a heavy boat (56.693 mph)! Paul would have won the Wynn Oil pin if he hadn't bondoed the wedge on my boat, but he was more interested in making our boat faster than in wining $100 and a pin. He was still bondoing wedges (with good effect) when I reunited with him in 1977. The 14' Allison (McCall's Marine') that Paul used (having borrowed a Merc 800 with sportsmaster gearcase from Jay Cox's dad) to set the unlimited record at 61.5 mph is in the water beside me.
6. The record holding Merc 800 (Sportsmaster gearcas)/14' Allison in front of my parents' Mercury dealership in Middlesboro, Ky. In high school, I (a 1943 model) was the (2x factory trained Mercury) mechanic. Not shown are the two wooden runners that tunneled some air along the bottom. In the 13' boat, with Merc 800/Sportsmaster in the time trials, I could feel the boat break loose and lift a little at about 55 mph, was really exciting to drive it on my knees with my rear end as far back against the transom as i could get it.
7. One of my 4 records that never saw the record book after the 1961 NOA annual meeting (the boats were disqualified after the fact!).
8. Proof that I was a factory trained Mercury mechanic at age 15 (Charlotte, N.C.). My Dad and me with Mercury sales rep. Nick Sussinger at the 1958 Chicago Boat Show. The weedless gearcase (Mark 10,15, 28) first came out in 1957.
9. My 1960 Wynn Oil Co. diamond pin. I still have a bottle of Wynn's Friction Proofing from 1960.
!0. Start of the 100 mile Marathon on Sunday morning, 1958 NOA Nationals on Old Hickory Lake, Nashville, Tenn., my dad out front in 14' AristoCraft/Mark 78 (47 mph). He won Unlimited Class but was 2nd overall. He ran over driftwood, bent the prop badly, tried to straighten it without success then came limping over the finish line. The fast hopped up Scott 60/13' Rose didn't finish, the motor didn't last. Buddy Malonee (81) is in the Crestliner/Scott 60 (44 mph). The Mark 58/14' AristoCraft won 40-50 Class. Far back to the left in the photo is a high flying hopped up Scott 40/Yellow Jacket that ran Unlimited Class. During the closed course nationals the day before, the clamp brackets broke on seven Scott 40s and 60s, new brackets were quickly flown in from the factory. Malonee was J.C. Leatherwood's mechanic (Gateway Sporting Goods), they were strongly supported by McCulloch. The Scott 60/13' Rose (Malonee driving) set the Umlimited record at nearly 52 mph in 1958. I don't know if it really was merely hopped up a Scott 60, OPC in NOA was to have been McCulloch's showplace those few years, and Leatherwood was McCulloch's man in NOA. We didn't have that kind of support from Kiekhaefer in 1958, 1959, but we won anyway.
1 Attachment(s)
Kiekhaefer Mercury racing posters, 1958 and '59.
Here are two Mercury posters from NOA Pleasure Craft Racing, 1958, 1959. I got a new gearcase and personal letter, from the old man E.C.K. himself, to replace the one with the busted skeg in the photo. I'm sure he appreciated my effort, since without me a Scott would have won. There's a story behind the win. There was a boat/motor identical to mine, but with a good, straight bottom (mine was badly hooked), several mph faster. Instead of one 12 gal. fuel tank for 100 mi., the other driver had a copilot to change from one 6 gal. tank to another. They pased me early on, and I passed the Scott early on. On the return leg (we ran from the Knoxville Boat Club to the dam and back) I discovered unhappily I'd left the main channel and had run far up a hollow, considered quiting but didn't (was a very strong lesson for life). I repassed the Scott, then passed the faster Aristocraft/Mercury dead in the water 5 mi. before the finish line: the copilot had failed to switch gas tanks in time, they were trying to restart the motor! For me, that was more or less the equivalent of a 'religious experience', the lesson stayed with me.
That's my Dad on the top right, Mark 78/Aristocraft at end of 100 mile marathon on Old Hickory Lake (Nashville), 1958 NOA Nationals. Photo shows boat plowing with badly bent prop. He'd leaned over the back of the boat and tried to hammer the prop straight enough (with a pair of pliers) to finish the race. He won his class, showing how brutal the marathon was, was the fastest boat on the course before he hit the piece of wood.
My life in those days was about as close to paradise as a kid could get: by age 14 I was a 2x factory trained Mercury mechanic (in Charlotte, NC), and ran my parents' shop, including the billing, and could race. There's a photo of my Dad standing beside a new Mark 75 in our 'showroom' in spring, '57. I read in the Kiekhaefer bio, 'Iron Fist', that Charlie Strang had to make the Mark 75 prototype secretly because Kiekhaefer had totally geared the shop to NASCAR racing. Strang cut and welded 2 4 cyl. blocks, and 3 2-cyl. cranks. On the other hand, that's how the first 4 cyl. prototype was made earlier from 2 2 cyl. blocks and cranks. Anyhow, impressive! Read the biography, it's well-written.
