Thread: Wayne Baldwin's Amazing Story: Baldy's Eual Eldred Baldwin

  1. #201
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    Between Alex and the next race at San Antonio, Baldy took all us kids to Dallas. I don't know how he convinced Brenda to go except the fact that she was supposed to be in charge of us. Mostly Jan I think. I'm not sure why we went, but I suppose it had to do with getting out of the aloe vera business with the doctors and maybe/or not investment with Aldac. Probably both.

    We stayed at a Howard Johnsons at the western side of Dallas close to Arlington so we could be close to Six Flags. I imagine it was Baldy's way also of giving us a minivacation. He was gone all day all of the three days we were there and we went to six flags just once. Mostly we just stayed in our room watching TV. I headed down toward the candy machine and asked Mark if he wanted anything and he said "Yeah....but something with no chocolate....or no peanuts." I don't remember what I got him...if anything at all, but it was almost like a bit out of the first hit of the Statler Brothers song from later that year "Flowers on the Wall".

    The two main things I can remember from that trip were that I found out there was a race at Corpus Christi that we didn't attend, and I didn't know about, and that Ron Musson was killed at the President's Cup. The race was during Buccaneer Days near the Naval Air Station. The Blue Angels put on an air show. I've never figured out how we did not know about a race in our own back yard, but Baldy never intentionally withheld information. I figure since it wasn't in an NOA circular, and we were new Lone Star members and they did not send notices back then, someone dropped the ball. I was really bummed out about not being able to race there.

    More importantly though was picking up the copy of Hot Boat. Boating News I guess went out of business and seems like somehow Hot Boat picked up where they left off. It was the summer editon 1966. On page 14 was a story by Eileen Crimmen entitled "Boat Racing's Darkest Day: The President's Cup Regatta. The first man I saw on television pumping water high enough from a hydroplane to wash down a bridge was killed. I was devastated. Ron Musson and Miss Bardahl were my original introductions to boat racing. I read everything I could get on Unlimiteds, and especially Ron Musson. While they ran the ads I always stopped what I was doing to watch. It was very sad about Rex Manchester and Don Wilson as well, but the death of Ron Musson was very profound. I left the magazine in the Chrysler station wagon and every few hours I would go out to the parking lot and stare at the photos and read the story.

    The best part about the trip was eating fried clams for the first time. They were very delicious. Every time I was traveling after that and had a chance to eat at a Howard Johnson's I would stop to have clams. For those who never saw one....they had a paint scheme of Turquoise and Orange.
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  2. #202
    Team Member Gene East's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Master Oil Racing Team View Post
    His name was Rabalais. His son Bobby raced and sometime Reles LeBlanc worked his motor over at Bobby's house before the race at Alex. He took a liking to Baldy and myself and always came around to our pits. Joe first met Bobby's Dad, the one that towed in many a boat racer, back in 1956 at the first race at Alex. Mr. Rabalais and Louis Williams were tight...tight...tight! (That must mean something else besides paying for lunch, knowing Louis)
    Wayne,

    Sorry for posting right after the tragic posting of an event most boat racers wish they could forget, but have you ever been to Rabalais' shop?

    We usually stopped in at least once a trip to use his welding equipment or to clean spark plugs etc. The shop was very disorganized and it was a challenge to find what you needed. It was there, you just had to find it.

    The first time I went there, Chris challenged me to a scavenger hunt. He had been there before so he had a distinct advantage. There was a hydro in the rafters that was fairly easy to find, but the airplane/airboat? propeller was more difficult.

    Mr. Rabalais was an avid bass fisherman and his tackle boxes were 180 degrees opposite of his shop. I have never seen tackle boxes so well organized.

    I don't remember his first name but I do remember he was always a very gracious, courteous host. He called me Mr. Gene even though he was several years my senior.

    He was one of the many people working behind the scenes to make boat racing at Alex so great!

  3. #203
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I never did Gene, and I asked Joe and he had not been there either. I don't know if I ever knew his first name. I asked Joe who's shops he had been in and he said, not that many and most were in Louisiana. That got me to thinking whose shops Baldy and I had been in.

    Curtis Michalczek,Dan Waggoner, Steve Jones, Jack Chance, Bill Seebold, Floyd Hopkins, Walt Blankenstein ,Tim Butts, Frank Zorkan, Dieter Konig, Hans Krage, and Ralph Donald in about that order. We both agreed it would have been great to see the shops of Harry Pasturczak, Joe Michelini, Bill Tenny, Harry Marioneaux, and of course the Quincy works.



  4. #204
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    [I]THE TEXAS PROFESSIONAL BOAT RACER[I] was a publication we got not long after we started racing. The inside cover says it was the April 1966 edition of the Texas Professional Boat Racing Association. I never saw another one, and I never heard of the association again. I think Lee Little might have been behind it. He was a great guy and a top notch racer. Something must have gone on in his life to get him out of racing, because he was a real hot shot, then disappeared. I can't remember his brother's name, but it might have been Bobbie. I read and reread this publication, and at the time I knew very few of these people so the "Short Subjects" were a little bit confusing to me.
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  5. #205
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    August 24, 1966 the DOORS recorded their first album. On August 28, 1966 the BEATLES did their last public appearance at Candlestick Park, except for the impromptu appearance when they played on the top of a building and shut down the traffic. That was 1969.

    On September 4, 1966 we went to a Labor Day race in San Antonio, Texas. I don't remember if that was a Sunday or Monday, but I think it was Sunday. It was a very small course. I'm not sure it would even make a mile. The pits were facing the bottom turn and we looked down the straightaway. Off to the left of the backstraight as we would look at the boats coming headon were some small dead tree trunks and branches sticking out of the water. I don't remember how we got there. It was in the boonies southwest of San Antonio.

    Steve Jones pitted left of us and Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch just to our right. It was the first time I talked to Artie Lund. He was in the Army and was just released or just about to be released when he came cruising by in the pits on a Japanese motorcycle. I think it was Yamaha. He asked Freddie if he had any metric tools to work on his Japanese Motorcycle. I instantly volunteered that we had the metric tools. Freddie looked me in the eye and said "He's just kidding." I was just a gullible kid and wanted to help in any way I could. I didn't know Artie then, nor really any racers very well, and I could be sucked in easily.

    The pits had a nice gentle slope, but below the surface of the lake, the mud was kind of mucky. Everyone tested and the race got off on schedule. As I was milling for the start of A runabout I saw Steve Jones sitting on his deck looking backwards at his motor. It wasn't firing well and would not plane out. He was not watching where he was going and the pickup boat had to move out of the way to keep from getting speared with Steve's red and white Ashburn. Baldy loved to tell that story.

    About half the races had been run when the gun fired for the first heat of B Hydro. We let a couple of discs drop before I fired off our FB Konig then we slid into the water. I made a couple of laps. It didn't take long. Then the one minute gun fired just as I was heading toward the clock and inside the safety bouy. The course was so short, I had to cross the start/finish line before I headed back to come around for a flying start. I accelerated to get to the start/finish line, then saw ripples coming across the water. Until then, the water was glassy and no breath of air. One of the first northers of the year just blew in.

    The little ripples turned into big ripples with the tops being torn off. Then it was full out fury, with whitecaps all in a matter of 10 or 15 seconds. I was head on into the leading edge when I first saw the ripples. I was running about 65 and immediately backed off. When the front of the wind hit, it was about 20 to 30 mph. I had back off already, but on the slick water and with the lift, that effectively put my airspeed up to around 80 mph.....making that Sid Craft want to fly. I felt it lifting and leaned forward. It rose about five feet and leveled off when I straightened back up. All was quiet and I didn't know what to do. The leading edge of the front went through and the wind did not increase so we stabilized and the Sid just made a lazy arc to the left, landed on the right side and I fell out into the water. So easy. That was my first dunk. The Sid didn't turn over, and the FB Konig stayed dry. Except for the rain to come.

    After everyone was back in the pits, the rain came. It came in torrents from the first drop. We were soaked from the moment we began rigging down. The drops were tadpole size and cold. Water was running back down the red clay banks into the small lake as we slipped and slided carrying the boats back to the trailer to load and tie them down. As teams got their boats loaded and secured, others pitched in to help push them out. We helped push Freddie and Arlen's trailer out, then when we got to ours, I made the mistake of getting behind Baldy's left tire. It didn't take but an instant of biting red mud for me to realize I screwed up. Never made that mistake again.

    The rain and wind was furious, but it was probably all over in fifteen minutes. That was enough to ruin the rest of the races, send the spectators hauling, and a financial loss for the Alamo Boat Club. I had always remembered that I was paid off for what little I won in beer. Baldy got two or three cases of Lone Star beer. I found that I got ten dollars for a second place for a step up in C runabout. Baldy must have contributed to the cause I guess.



  6. #206
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    It was some time during 1966 that Baldy bought Mark a performance boat of his own. Brenda was just interested in cruising the hangouts in her yellow and black Plymouth entitled "Suzy B" according to the plates (her middle name is Sue). There were three drive ins in Alice, and like Ron has told, the rest of teenagers across the country cruised on Friday and Saturday nights. Baldy figured she was distracted enough by the boys and her girlfriends, and Jan was still young,so his main concern was keeping the two teenage boys out of trouble.

    I don't know how he found out about the Mustang boat except through Freddie and Arlen. Builder Pete DeLackner didn't start advertising his boats in publications that I could find until after Baldy bought a 17' Mustang from Pete.....or maybe Bryan Marine most likely. I never did ask or consider before how Baldy got it. In any case, it was a beautiful boat. It was bronze metalflake and had a Mercury 110 mounted on a jackplate, and besides the clubfoot, Mark also got a Mercury Speedmaster lower unit. I am thinking now as I write that the boat had to have come through Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch at Bryan Marine because we had no clue about a jackplate, and Freddie and Arlen helped us with much to do with this boat. Funny how cobwebs sometimes get cleared away when you actually engage the past.

    Here is a photo of Mark I took from the balconey of Baldy's house at Pernitas Point when he was headed out to do a little testing. You can hardly tell, but he has on a Gentex and Bell Helmut with a bubble shield.

    ADD: Note that black hose in the foreground. It was the suction line for a 5 or 10 horsepower centrifugal pump that Baldy used to pump lake water onto his lawn. It was my job to move the hose around to water the approximate 6 acre piece of property.
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  7. #207
    Sam Cullis Mark75H's Avatar
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    How much later did you actually meet Pete?
    Since 1925, about 150 different racing outboards have been made.


  8. #208
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    We first met Pete in 1974 at Baldy's house when he came down for a race. My first impression of Pete was of a solid and dedicated boat racer that I knew before I started racing. It was like we never had not been friends with Pete. Baldy and myself could not get a word in edgewise listening to Pete talk about racing. I don't know if that's the same way he came across to you Sam when he came to your house in the snow, but it was like he didn't know a boat racer that was a stranger.



  9. #209
    Sam Cullis Mark75H's Avatar
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    We feel the same way about Pete. No boat racer is a stranger to him. We sat down to talk, the hours flew by like seconds. We were sorry to have to leave, but it was so late. I wish airfare to your area was less expensive, it would be nice to drop in on you and him once in a while.
    Since 1925, about 150 different racing outboards have been made.


  10. #210
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I know what you mean Sam. I was glad we had the opportunity to get together this summer and hope to do it again some day either at our place or yours again. Even though Pete is here in Texas, it is still a long way from here. He said he had as many pictures as I do, yet we haven't seen one. I suppose he is still waiting for his daughter to hook his computer up. If he weren't so far from here, I would have already made sure at least some of his pictures were posted. He's got a ton from old California and Arizona racing days.



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