Region 11 racing in the early days
Quote:
Originally Posted by
1100r
Not sure if they are lost waters or what happened but region 11 also held races at 2 different sites at Rollins Lake, Camp Far West, and one at Copperopolis.
Todd: I think that you and I might agree that Lodi was perhaps the best lost water for the number of spectators, a close-in exciting race spectacle where spectators could feel like they were in the boat, community support, driver turnout and July 4th pageantry.
Back in those earlier days, we called Cooperoplis "Salt Springs". Last year the flood control district evicted the lessee who allowed us to race there. Steve Wilde and I tried to get the lease to preserve boat racing there but they gave the lease to an insider even though I believe our offer was better. Glad to hear from Bill that there is now a chance to return.
Your post jogged my memory more and now let's add to the list Shadow Cliffs. Clearlake CA was a venue up until the mid 50s. Ben Shepard and the Redwood Outboard Association put together a race north of Arcata CA at one of the oceanfront lagoons in the late 60s. Trinity CA was a venue that I drove at. I heard that in earlier days there were races at Pinecrest near Strawberry Lodge. There were OPC races in Benicia and I think some alky races in earliest years. One lost one that came back this year is Sparks, NV but in a different location.
In those days there were so many CA drivers that Northern CA stock boats had an "O" designation and SoCal had a "C" designation. (All alkys had "C" - north and south.) Part of the fun of racing was the fabulous variety and beauty in NorCal race sites.
Some of the venues were great for spectators and leveled the field for drivers because they were short course with one or two buoy turns -even for alkys. Lodi was one example but others were tighter including Berkeley and Oakland Airport. It was truly hair raising to see F and later 1100 hydros battle it out at Oakland on that very narrow estuary. It was so tight that once I flipped my B Sid runabout on a turn just testing but I still loved to drive that course. I remember Hale Yeary, "the flying fireman" winning CRR races with his stock CU 30-H fitted with stacks because he could turn tighter than the Desilva CRRs. In those days a flat turning runabout was a disadvantage on many NorCal courses. To this day I believe that long courses with wide turns are a spectator turnoff.
Race sites like Oakland, San Francisco and Lodi attracted spectators (and some became drivers) because they were easy to get to in population centers. That helped racing grow and maintain. Geographically remote sites and boring long and wide courses for spectators are accelerating the decline of our sport. Not much to do about that though, because drivers today do not want to race in salt water, they prefer long courses and populated venues outlaw racing or price the water so high we cannot afford to race there.