5 Attachment(s)
Root Family Racers: Jay and Father Mark
I truly don't remember when I met Jay Root. We are both about 80, now but we met when I may have been five or six.
Seems there was a boat race in De Anza Cove in San Diego.
Jay's dad was Mark Root and he raced A Hydro, my brother raced A Hydro in '49 and '50.
I think is was '52 that we stopped at the Root house and may have sold them some parts.
I don't recall when Jay started racing but it was probably ten years later. Jay was racing like a B Racing Runabout with a Quincy Cross Flow.
George May, also from San Diego, had raced BU but was driving John Toprahanian's F Runabout starting in about in the1960's.
John was putting Yamaha Motorcycle cylinders on the 460 Evinrudes and they were going like hell.
George May started Refereeing races and Jay took over the driving for George. Many, or maybe I should I, was never impressed with Jay's B Runabout and damn he looked good in the F. He had Fred Hauenstein riding Deck and I always thought this helped Jay.
I don't know if he ever won the F Nationals as it was still called a "West Coast" Class, but he was a top runner.
By 1967, Jay had a Looper B Quincy and a Collins Runabout and a Terrill Hydro, all good stuff, plus raced John's F.
I didn't think much about Jay, but he showed up at Valleyfield's Expos '67 Regatta and raced in style.
When the races were over I rented a house in Valleyfield, so I could se Expos '67. Jay, Jim Hauenstein, Rich Nahigian, Bill Smith and Roy Bowen. The house slept 6, but the guy that rented it to me thought I was by myself...$20 a night for three nights, for five guys...Damn good deal.
We left Valleyfield and headed for DePue.
Jay and I seems to talk the talk and we got along well. I really never knew him, even though I had known him since I was five...and I was 23 in '67.
OMC was expanding their race team at the time and I was pretty tight with all the OMC people. Jay applied for a job at OMC and I was asked about him and his abilities.
I said, "Well, he'd been around race boats all his life, has raced for 10-15 years now...what could you want for an employee?" They hired Jay.
My years blend together her, but it was about this same time that I encouraged Fred Hauenstein to apply for a job at OMC. Fred stayed with OMC til '78 or '79. Then work as head of Mercury Racing for 32 years.
I don't know if Jay missed California weather, or California racing or what but he came back to California and went to teaching at a Local Junior College.
While at the Junior College he put a Mercury Speedmaster on a Scotti Tunnel boat and entered in the 150 Class. Everyone in the class was happy to see a new boat in the class, til, he kicked their asses up between their ears.
So, APBA's Racing Commission came up with some rules to slow Jay Down.
Barring an electrical problem, Jay would have won the 150 Nationals, 1979, in California.
The next year, some more rules were written to slow Jay down. He bought a Velden and went to Dayton, Ohio. One week he ran the Velden as an Outboard in OPC, the net week and a 150 Inboard.
Jay did not win the 1980Nationals in 150 that year but by the time he got home from Dayton, the Inboard Racing Commission had kicked his boat out.
Interesting, Jay had been around race boats all his life. He had raced for 25 years. He put his heart and soul into the sterndrive package.
When APBA KICKED him out, he left Boat Racing never to return. He did attend the 2007 DePue Reunion that I sponsored. He and his wife enjoyed the reunion and we have stayed in touch. He and his wife both raced cars til recently, when Jay just started building engines for others.
I often wonder how many people have left the sport of boat racing without anyone ever asking why they left.
