Videos from the 1980s

Good morning,

I recently found a small collection of boat racing VHS tapes at my dad's house, mostly from the 1980's (and one very brief tape that looks like the 1950's). I've had them digitized and just uploaded them all to YouTube this morning.

My father (Joe Stager Jr) and grandfather (Joe Stager Sr) were alky drivers for many years who raced largely in the NY/NJ area. I just picked up the digitized copies last night so haven't seen all of the footage yet (there's several hours worth) but I thought there are probably some folks who will appreciate the shot of nostalgia. The quality is so-so as most of the tapes had some amount of degradation. The races are a little tough to see at times but there is also some great footage from driver meetings and the pits. In the small amount I've watched I've seen a ton of names & boats (Rusnak, Kirts, Augustine, Shakeshaft, Andrews, LaRose, Voss, & Harrison to name a few).

For those that are interested I'd love getting some help at identifying the location of some of the races. Most of the tapes were poorly labeled with minimal info. I guessed on the year of the Fulton tape as it could be '86, '87, or '88 though I think it's '88 b/c my dad rolled his Butts 500 Hydro that year and the accident was recorded around 9:50 into the video. Please feel free to comment w/ location/year suggestions. There's also a US Title Series Promo video from the early 80's that has interviews with a very young Chick LaRose and Gary Augustine.

I hope these bring back some great memories for the guys I grew up watching. I've recently re-joined the boat racing world in Region 1 and it's been pretty great re-connecting with an outstanding community of people.

Happy watching!

Chris Stager (78-B)



US Title Series Promo (unsure of date): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt-J59nu34A

Canandaigua Hydro Spectacular (Sept, 1981): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv2VsgOceRc

"Outboard Racing" (no known dates/location, tape starts w/ the end of a USTS Promo tape set to "Take On Me" then cuts to footage from Depue): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAJDB3oSaQQ

"Boat Racing 1982" (unknown locations): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZz77IYLwco

Fulton Hydro Spectacular (Sept, 1988 I think): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeC1bZ82yXE&t=3s

Joe Stager Sr Boat Racing Video (looks like 1950's): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USmDyVFfPtw

Thx for this Chris....you can hear and see my Dad in the Canandaigua vids!

I will let Chick and Neil know to take a look