1 Attachment(s)
UIM World Championship Results
Some of you may have seen a post by Mike Ward regarding UIM World Records and also a request for results from a couple of UIM races in 1992. I've been looking up some UIM results for Mike as well, but I have gone as far as I can with the information I have on several of these events. Mike is hoping to have his project complete right after the first of the year. He started working on it many years ago, but a fire at Belgian headquarters destroyed many records. He has been very patient at staying with this project. Maybe some of you might have some of the missing pieces to help Mike out.
I have all the information on the UIM World Championships for OA, OD and OF held at Phoenix in 1976 except the make of Bill Rucker's and Leif Ahlborg's boats. I think Leif borrowed a boat. I don't remember him shipping one over. Does anyone know what make boat Bill Rucker Sr. is driving?
Mike Ward--here is some more info
The UIM OA, OD and OF World Championships were held at Firebird Lake near Phoenix, Arizona February 20-22, 1976. Firebird Lake is on the Maricopa Indian Reservation.
Position Driver Hometown Points Boat/Motor
OA 11 drivers in finals
1. Skip Birbarie Branford, Connecticut 1100 Yale/Konig
2. Tim Butts Romeo, Michigan 1000 Butts/Konig
3. Leif Ahlborg Orebro Sweden 678 ? /Konig
OD 13 boats in finals
1. Wayne Baldwin Sandia, Texas 1000 Butts/Konig
2. Charlie Bailey Houston, Texas 800 Butts/Konig
3. Rex Hall, Jr. Liberty, Missouri 750 R & D/ Konig
OF 9 boats in finals
1. Hans G. Krage West Berlin,W. Germany 1025 Konig/Konig
2. Bill Rucker, Sr. San Lorenzo, California 1025 ? / ?
3. Rex Hall, Jr. Liberty, Missouri 900 R & D/Konig
Hans won on time. He had a combination of 30.3 second less than Bill Rucker.
A couple of interesting items.
Waldemar Marsalek from Poland was, I believe, the defending OA champ. He was scheduled to compete, but he never showed up. I ran into him at Berlin the next year and asked why he didn't come. He said he was on the plane and ready to leave when the Polish authorities came on board and took him off. Remember, it was before the Communists were overthrown, and all those countries were paranoid. They were afraid for their citizens to go to the West and come back with tales of what they saw.
I got a PM from Skip Birbarie this morning explaining something Joe Rome or I didn't remember. The Americans had to have an elimination heat to choose the five drivers to represent the USA. The milling area at Firebird Lake was very difficult for good timing on a clock start. With a lot of boats milling you had to keep one eye on the clock and one on the other boats and try to figure out how to be in a decent postition when the one minute gun fired. As a result, there was a lot of gun jumping, and that happened in the elimination heat of OA. Skip Birbarie was among those who jumped and didn't make the finals.
The Germans were upset because they wanted to run against America's fastest and some of them were among the gun jumpers. The Germans protested, don't remember if it was formal or informal, but it was decided to draw straws for the finals. Skip was getting some coffee when they drew straws and John Yale drew one for himself and one for Skip. To this day Skip thinks John drew a straw for that was good for his own US entry, but gave it to Skip instead.
I came across some B&W negatives that show Bill Rucker, Sr. in a different rig that the earlier color photos I posted of him testing. Does anyone know how to contact Bill Rucker Jr. to find out what Bill Sr. ran in OF?
Also, Leif Ahlborg borrowed a boat and ran under his own number 59. Who may know whose boat that was. What was the make? Denny, Craig......?