An Amazing Story

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I'm in Jeff!

[epugh66]

But Danny will put the squeeeeeeze on us before the first turn and Jerry will sneak up on the outside going to the last turn, then duck underneath

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I know a man of experience when I hear one.

[Doug Hall Y51]

Hey Wayne, I dont even know if Danny has the Internet at home. He spends so much time at the shop and when he is off from work he is either shooting his bow or hunting. I have had the privilage to not only race against him but to get to know him well through dad. They keep in contact regularly and when we go to Constantine we stay at he and Nancys house. It would be great to hear some stories from him though. I need to get dad to post some stories too. I know he reads these but I am sure he would have alot of stories to tell.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

......let's here some stories. Sometimes it takes someone else to get it from the person to the print,..........so if they don't.......will you? We want to hear the stories. Now....Doug......Check out the DePue Reunion thread.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Okay Jeff. Not exactly what you want in his own words, but this is the best I could get out of Tim yesterday regarding the race at Dayton. Every time I mentioned another name we would get off on a tangent and I would have to lead him back to the subject. I told him there was a big response to the segment on Dayton. It was such a unique event, I told him I had spent a lot of time on it and he asked if the BRF members "were interested in just the racing....or what happened in the pits too?" I told him......"All aspects."

So hear is what he said about the things he remembered.

I didn't know where he was during heat one that was stopped because of David Westbrook's accident. He was on the outside. There were five boats to his left. That jives with what I remember. There was a pack together in the turn, and I was just behind them when David flipped. David might have jumped the gun along with some others. But all the front pack was in the bottom turn when he lost it. Tim accelerated hard out of the turn and was obviously in position to win. When he returned to the pits, two of his pit men, Lee and Steve Hertz, were jumping up and down. One of them said "You're the fastest". They were very excited.

Tim didn't say much about the restart of heat one in which he won. I reminded him that I got the start, but he was able to get around me for the win. He did say the rotary valve was working perfect and he didn't even have to work the pipes that much. (this is a trade secret that Ray Hardy invented and we were both running.--sorry, can't divuldge) You can make some guesses though eagle eye, if you do a little research on some previous posts.

Heat two was the famous one. He remembered the half page spread with the photo of us in the newspaper. He was wishing he could get his hands on a copy of that photo. As do I. He also told me that Dan and Jerry Kirts both filed a protest agains Tim for violation of the overlap rule. They weren't successful and he didn't say where he thought it happened, but as we both had enough of a lead, I think it must have been the first turn at the start. When Tim got by me in heat two, it was clean. Whether it was close or not with Jerry and Dan, the turn judge did not see it as a violation.

Heat three was when his thrust bracket came loose. The water was rough by then. We both made a good start and getting to and through the first turn was fine. But when he got on the throttle to accelerate down the back straight, the boat did a little jerk. He knew something was up, but not exactly what, so he was careful when he set up for the next turn. Tim was still able to run at high speed and with the prop thrust, the bracket was firmly up against the transom. It was when he backed off, that it pulled away and then the tail was squirrely. It wasn't as bad at first, but right toward the end it was a handful in the turns and Jerry Kirts was able to make up enough ground (??water ??) to get around Tim for a second. Tim did finish third.

Of course it was the final heat in which Tim's carb flooded over and he didn't start. He didn't wait until the last minute. They had started cranking the motor, but it wouldn't start. The small batteries were not geared toward starting a motor with the flooding problem, and they didn't have enough time to do anything about it. He said to himself "Oh s&#t!" I tried to get him to tell me how he felt as I was surely headed toward the win as it appeared. But he got on to another subject, so I didn't ask how he felt when my motor dropped rpm's. I really don't have to ask to know, because anyone that has been in that situation knows. It is a feeling of relief, but also feeling a little down at the same time.

Tim's Airmarine V8 belonged to Joe Michelini, and for some reason Joe got mad at Tim for not doing what he wanted him to do. I really don't know what it was, or what Tim could have done better. But at the next race, the 1977 Pro Nationals at Hinton, Tim refused to run the 6 cylinder Yamato F that Joe had put together. Dan Kirts ended up registered to race it and Joe took the V8 away from Tim, never to be run again. Two races. It only ran in the Eastern Divisionals a few weeks earlier and the OD World Championships. A perfect record and as far as Tim knows it is gathering dust in Joe Michelini's warehouse with countless other motors and boats dating back to the fifties (or maybe even late 40's)


This final note he never had told me before. As we were standing on the podium and he was reflecting over all that had gone on over the past few days, he looked out over the race course we were facing. He recalled the speeds and the battles and thought to himself, "I'll NEVER do this again".

[Composite Specialties]

So, was that Tim's last race? I am always intrigued as to what and when drivers decide to just do something else.

Also, was Mal Harden in that race?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

No Marc. That was just a passing thought Tim had at the moment. At that time the only ride he had was the 700 hydro and he had just made the transition. Even though he drove mine a couple of times in 1975, he wasn't fully committed yet. The reason for getting into it was because we started promoting international racing. After Jerry Waldman died and Marshall Grant got out of racing, our push to make Pro racing live up to its name and go more professional went from domestic to international. My Dad had formed Hydroplanes International as an APBA member club with that in mind. It was my Dad, myself, Joe, Tim and Steve Jones that worked hard on getting international races over here and encouraged Americans to race overseas.

We submitted applications every year for OA through OE World Championships and we got OD in 73, 76, 77 and 80. OA through OC plus OE were much more popular and sought after in the rest of the racing world so we didn't get the award for those classes as often, and that's why Tim ended up in OD. He didn't race in Hinton because Joe Michelini took the boat away and Tim didn't build another one quick enough. Tim continued to race quite awhile after I got out. I don't remember offhand, but I think Tim's last year was probably around 86 or 87.

All entrants for this world championship were listed in a previous post. Mal didn't race here, but he did compete in the 1978 UIM World Championships which were held in Dayton for classes OB,OC, and OE.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Headlines in the newspaper were BUTTS REPELS BALDWIN BID and BALDWIN CAN'T CATCH HAPLESS BUTTS. In a interview following the race Tim's quote that appeared the following day was " 'Wayne is my best friend and I was disappointed for him', he said afterwards, 'but I wanted to win too'".

And after all we went through I have to say that Tim was the one that deserved to win. He was an A B driver for all his career. He took up the challenge to race in OD because that was the class we had to promote in 1977. I ran all classes, but Tim didn't so he had to make a transition to the class we ran that year.

Joe and I were talking about the 100 mph transition today. I think Ron and others who have experienced it will agree. Water turns to sticky concrete somewhere around 90. But there is a definite transition in the way a boat handles with the combination of air and water pressures around 100mph. Tim just focused on his mission and went into it full bore. I wanted that win as much as anything I ever did, and the final half lap will haunt me until I forget how to remember. But the man of the hour, the man of the 1977 OD World Championships was Tim Butts. And that is another part of this story that is amazing. What Tim accomplished is as great as any boat racing legend did in his time, and he will also cherish those memories to the end.

[epugh66]

Tim and the Pugh's were all in Nottingham England for the 1984 OB/350cc world championships, then again in Boretto Italy for the 1985 event. I'll sneak some pics in the pits thread sometime.