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

  1. #401
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    Default question for you

    Hi Wayne,

    It is obvious from your stories that you and most other racers were very busy running multiple classes each day. Who then manned the turn judge boats? At our races the drivers all take turns, did you do that too or did you have non-racing officials for that?

    Again, great job on the stories.

    Bill

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    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I'm not sure what the problem was with the flywheel of our 4 carb Konig, but we apparently tested it and besides compression being down, something was not right with the flywheel. Baldy ordered a new one from Scott Smith on August 14, 1967 along with 6 1mm chrome rings. Four for the VC and a couple of spares which also fit the FA. Note from the packing slip on post #380, the piston was the same for the FA and VC, but with a different crankshaft, the piston skirt had to be cut for clearance on the VC.

    I drove up to Baytown on a Friday afternoon. My classes on MWF were always over at noon. I checked in to the Holiday Inn and called Jack that I would be at his house early the next morning. Jack was going to give me lessons on putting together a four cylinder Konig and he wanted me to do everything while he supervised.

    I stripped the motor down, then cleaned all the parts. The pistons were all in good shape, so I just cleaned them off. Jack then handed me his glazebraker and just briefly ran them through the cylinders then cleaned them up. All the while we listened to Jack's favorite AM country music station. At the time I did not care for most C&W songs, but now when I hear some of them from that time, it carries me back to Jack's shop.

    His shop was about twenty or twenty five feet across and around fifty feet or so long and the door about fifteen feet from the west end and entered the shop from the south. The workbenches we used primarily ran along the south and west walls just to the left as you enter the shop. There were tools and parts from many years hanging on the walls, in boxes, on shelves and larger items on the floor. Hanging from the rafters toward the back was an old runabout named "Lil Stinker" with a skunk painted on it that Jack himself used to race. We seldom went to that part of the shop. It was crowded with other things Jack used as a mechanic to work on other types of engines.

    Jack showed me how to clean the surfaces of the two halves of the crankcase very well. Then with the crankshaft mounted on a stand made from a piece of square driveshaft, I installed the rings on the pistons. Then very carefully, I gently lowered the first piston into the crankcase with the locater pin for the center main and got the ring collapsed and started into the sleeve after having a light coat of oil on the parts. Having successfully inserted both pistons and gotten the center main properly aligned and seated we knocked out the aluminum upper labyrinth ring that the Konigs came with and with a tool Jack had made replaced that labryrinth ring with a rubber seal. Jack had found a good seal that fit the crankshaft as far as ID and thickness go, but was about 2 to 2.5 mm smaller than the OD of the labyrinth ring. Jack's brother-in-law made a bunch of bushings out of copper, and we used one of these to press a seal into then install it in the stator plate.

    With the stator plate bolted to the top of the crankshaft Jack had me bump the bottom of the crank so it would ride as high as possible. That's where the crank would be when it was running. Then checking how the crank itself was spaced, and how tight it would be when everything was bolted up, Jack showed me how to space it out just right using various ticknesses of shims above the upper main bearing. That done, we then bumped the cranshaft up again, then turned it while watching each rod separately to see how it rode, and how well it centered up between the throws. If it was not centered, we could move it up or down with various sized shims for the wrist pin end. This was very painstaking. I really don't remember now whether we had the rings in when we first started this procedure and didn't install them until toward the end when the spacing was good. All I remember is getting tired standing there for hours, pulling the crank back out, setting it on the stand, pushing the wrist pin through, having to repack the needle bearings and try different spacers.

    The spacers ranged anywhere from a thick feeler gauge to three millimeters thick. Sometimes we could slip a top one on by just pushing the wrist pin down for clearance and swapping out spacers, but sometimes we had to change the bottom or both, then if we weren't careful some of the needle bearings would slide out of their heavy grease encasement. My back was aching by the time we finished.

    We had taken a lunch break, then got back to it. It was probably earlier afternoon when it was time to button everything up. At this point Jack handed me a tube of 3M black adhesive for use on gaskets. Jack really liked this stuff, but he said go easy with it. I could plug something up if I got it in the motor.

    Having gotten the cases together and all the bolts tight, we turned the motor over. It was free and nothing was binding. The crankshaft had free movement up and down, but not sloppy. It was important for nothing to be in a bind, but not too loose. That's what Jack taught me. Then with the new flywheel and good seals, the motor would be better than new with a better flow through provided by the new seals.

    It was a lot of hard work, and I was glad to get done with it, but it was also very satisfying and I never have forgotten that day. I also remember other days in his shop when I made some mistakes by hurrying and having to take the motor back apart because there was a little binding when the bolts were tightened up. Mostly this was due to shimming the crank too closely. Also, I spent some very trying days spacing the rods in our own shop, but I learned from Jack that you have to do it right, or you will be doing it all over again in short order when something happens to the engine.
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  3. #403
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    When I left for home, Jack sent some frozen shrimp with me.

    This was the first time that it was me and Jack. Clayton didn't come around. He was working. Baldy was working. Me and Jack were working too....but I could sense some pride in Jack's demeanor as he puffed on his cigar. I was going to get some sleep before I headed back, and we would test the motor before Alex. but I could tell Jack knew it was right, and he would get Clayton's stuff ready too. Jack had taught me a lot since our first meeting, and after the intense weekend session, he could see that I would be able to take some of the load off of him as we prepared for upcoming races. There was still a lot for me to learn, but I think Jack recognized that from now on, it would just be what to do...not how to do.



  4. #404
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    Even though Jack was satisfied to turn me loose on the 4 cylinders, he knew I would need a lot more training and so did I. Without saying it,....we had an understanding. He watched my work and saw that I could do it correctly.....with patience. That was a BIG lesson. I didn't like to have to start over, but we had to several times. That lesson never left me and I had to do that over the years including the times that starting over made absolutely no difference in the motor except that we knew it was right.

    The new four cylinder Konigs with the external rotary valves had been produced and there was a little bit of a delay in them coming to America because of paperwork involved in getting them approved, but they were expected to be on hand for the 1968 racing season. We all read about it in Roostertail and the four cylinder VB Rotary valve was the talk of the circuit. Baldy had been talking to Scott Smith about all the changes. Scott had an ad in the Roostertail looking for dealers to sell Konig motors, parts, and accessories. Baldy talked about all this to Scott, and we were soon to be Konig dealers.

    This is and Ad in Roostertail from Arthur McMeans in Louisiana who was a Konig dealer and put out advance notice on the new Konigs for 1968.
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  5. #405
    Team Member Gene East's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Master Oil Racing Team View Post
    That's what Jim Schoch and Jerry Simison did at the Nationals at DePue Gene. You remember that I'm sure. The water was slick. It was as hot as if you walked out onto Frank Zorkan's patio in August. Jim and Jerry were racing A runabout side by side and inches apart. I think one started up, and the other went up in a blink. The boats toasted one another with a "clink" before they went bow over transom and Jerry and Jim both went to the hospital. They were Okay, as it turned out, but no racing until they got back, because there were no more ambulances. All this happened while they were dueling for the lead, right in front of the pits. That was a spectacular show.
    I certainly do remember that. The Quincy trailer and Jerry's trailer were parked nearly side by. I think the Waldman trailer was parked between us.
    The dual flip happened right in front of our pit area.
    Two of the fastest A runabouts in the world were out of business before the race even started.
    Jim's hips and legs were badly bruised from hitting one or both of the boats. I'm not sure even he knows which one since they blew over like they were bolted together.
    The following day there was a picture in the sports section of local paper showing Ann Cadle, (Karen's mother and a registered nurse) tending to him as he lay on a stretcher clad only in his whitie-tighties.
    The article referred to Ann as "Mrs. Schoch".
    That did not go well back in Quincy.
    My ex-wife who always oppossed me driving suggested that I fill in for Jim since he was too sore to drive.
    I guess she didn't understand the need to qualify etc. Then again that could have been her way of saying, "Go ahead" knowing full well it wasn't possible.
    A couple of years later, Lyle Mason blew a B-hydro over in exactly the same spot.
    Lyle had his bell rung hard and was late in giving the OK sign.
    John Woods swam out from the pits, fully clothed to help him.
    I knew John was a great driver, but I was amazed to see what a powerful swimmer he was.
    We were close enough to hear Lyle say, "I'm alright Johnny".
    There isn't a better sound in the world than to hear a fellow racer say, "I'm OK"!

  6. #406
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    I had forgotten about Johnny swimming out there. It wasn't very far. We were pitted left of the launching ramp, and the taco stand was up the hill behind us. You guys must have been just to the right of us Gene.



  7. #407
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    Marsha Wetherbee and I started corresponding. We traded handwritten letters between ourselves. I would be twenty in a couple of months and Marsha would be sixteen the month after. At our ages, it seemed to me inappropriate to date, and that's the way it was in those days. When I married Debbie, she was six years younger than me. In 1967 though, a 20 year old guy dating a 16 year old girl was looked on askance with a crooked eye, and I didn't know what Baldy, much less Tommy would think about that. Writing each other, and occassionally talking on the telephone wasn't of concern though.

    It's kind of crazy to thing about those days now. The internet, nor cell phones were available, but the telephone was. We chose to communicate via letters. Maybe I was afraid that Betty or Tommy Wetherbee would answer the phone and would wonder why I was calling Marsha. I don't remember. But I do remember answering each of Marsha's letters and posting them the same day.

    In the meantime, we had to get ready for the race at Alex. Work had to be done on our hydro for the 4 carb C Konig, and the other motors had to be in first class shape.

    With the new motors, out shop was not big enough. Baldy contracted a crew to build a new shop for us in the backyard. They had to run electicity to the shop, but no plumbing. It was about ten foot by twenty foot, but I don't have any pictures. The door was on the North side with two sliding windows on the South, one on the West and one on the East. There might have been a window or two on the North side, but I can't remember. The twelve foot work bench was on the long South side, and with a couple of windows providing light, that's all I remember.

    ADD: I had started surfing in 1966, which I did as often as I could between racing and working on the boats and motors. We mostly went to Port Aransas where waves were better between the jetties leading out to the Gulf of Mexico and Horace Caldwell pier, about a half a mile south. I had been waiting to cross the ship channel by ferry over to Port Aransas when the guy in front of me started to back up and switch to another lane. Problem was he was towing a boat with the outboard tilted up, and he wasn't paying attention. I could not back up, so I instantly laid on the horn. He didn't stop until the lower unit crunched the center of the hood on my Dodge Polara. I was able to get the hood open and check for damage to the radiator and such, and all was good, except the hood wouldn't close. I had to tie it down.

    The following Monday I was on the way to class in Kingsville with the hood tied down, waiting for parts to come in. I had just gotten up to speed when the air pushed by an oncoming eighteen wheeler caused my rope to break. There I was with the hood folded over my windshield and up next to the front surf rack. As I was standing on the engine, trying to peel it back some idiot pulled over to the side of the road. I thought he stopped to help. He just rolled down his window, leaned out and said "You got to tie that thing down....it could be dangerous." Then he took off. Thanks genius!

    Either because of my class schedule, waiting for parts, or both it would be several days before I could get it fixed and Baldy always insisted on us kids attending classes. So I drove it like that during the week, but now had a rope that would not break.

    Hurricane Beulah was the second tropical storm for 1967 and the second hurricane as well, and the only major hurricane for that year. It had already gone through the Carribean, passed ove the Yucatan Peninsula and was briefly a Category 5. It was weakened a lot going over the Yucatan, but it was still bearing down upon South Texas. I had taken a tarp to cover my motor while I was in class because I knew we were going to be looking at torrential rains soon. It was Friday, and I got out of class around noon. I was cutting it close. It was September 20 when Beaulah came ashore at South Padre, but we were on the rain side. The rain had been pouring very hard for a couple of hours, but no heavy wind gusts.

    I was soaked by the time I got to my Dodge, and five miles west of Kingsville, I had to drive slowly across a bridge with seven or eight inches of water flowing across. The normally placid Santa Gertrudis Creek had risen very quickly, and in another twenty or thirty minutes I would have had to have gone out another way. At home, we all packed up and left for the lakehouse to ride out the Hurricane.

    We never got any bad winds, but only a couple of times since that have we had that kind of rainfall. Hurricane Beulah spawned 115 tornadoes, a record that lasted until 2004. There was so much water in a low lying area north of Raymondville that it was months before Highway 77 was passable. The bad thing was that highway cut through the King Ranch and there was around 60 to 70 miles that there were no roads you could cross over to get to Highway 281. Those were the only two roads to get directly to the Rio Grande Valley. Highway 281 bordered the King Ranch on the west side, and 77 went approximately down the middle. It was a long way around for a lot of people.

    At that time Lake Corpus Christ was the lowest I have ever seen it. I had mentioned previously how marinas were to low to launch boats and such. The day after Beulah had moved on into Northern Mexico, the lake was rising. I took our little Evinrude powered MFG boat down the creek bed upstream. It now had enough water coming in that the shallow draft boat could take me about a quarter miles upstream where I had to get out and walk. I walked to where the creek was dry and then watched water filling it up. Water would run into a pothole, fill it up, then spread to the next low spot. There was an enormus amount of water coming down the Nueces, Atascosa and Frio Rivers to be able to see the lake coming up. All those rivers were way above flood stage.

    I could now drive up that creek bed to the main part of the lake which I did later that morning. It was still, hot and the lake was glassy smooth. I witnessed something that would always stick in my memory. There were hundreds of millions of water hiacynths spilling over Wesley Seale Dam. It was a continuous, unbroken train as far as the eye could see snaking downstream and following the old unseen Nueces River bed. That stream of water hiacynths was about forty yards across, and tons were flowing over the dam every second. Then after noon the dead calm ended when wind came from the north. Those plants were blown into every cove, nook and cranny south and west of the old river bed. While many still went over the dam, Many parts of the lake were now infested with these rapidly growing plants. At first, they went way up creeks and lined just a little part of the shoreline, but within less than a year they would be overwhelming all the creeks covering them solid from bank to bank. There were not any houses to speak of back in the creeks, but no more fishing.

    I planned on driving to Corpus Christi to see Marsha Wetherbee the next day, but FM 624 was covered with water too deep to cross for about three miles. So I drove back toward Alice to take Highway 44 East into Corpus Christi. I got as far as Petronila Creek just east of the town of Banquete where Santa Ana stopped for a "Banquet" to rest his troops on the way to the Alamo. The bridge crossing Petronila Creek was flooded and water there was out of banks by about a quarter mile. So I went back to our house in Alice.



  8. #408
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    Originally our boat racing venture was to get us kids involved in something to get over our Mom's death, and maybe for Baldy too. Now Baldy was not only hooked, but was getting more deeply involved. He was talking to Scott Smith who through his company Overseas Dealer's imported the Konig motors.

    The rotary valve Konigs were already being shipped. Baldy bought from Scott two rotary valve B Konigs, a VC rotary valve for Clayton and a VD rotary valve for me. We had partnered up with Jack Chance to provide motors and boats, and Jack would prepare and modify the motors we bought. Clayton Elmer would race Jack's boats. Jack would tow the trailer, we would pit together, and all of us would be a team with Jack, and what little help I could offer at this time, work on the motors. It was to be called CB Racing Team.



  9. #409
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    When it came time to head to Alex, Jan stayed with longtime friends of our parents in Alice. Only Mark and I came along, but we had enough friends now, that pitting wasn't a problem. I started out cranking while Baldy lifted, and I could still do it, though that big piston FC could be a little tough at times.

    As we had been doing for almost two years now, we stopped at Jack Chance's shop on the way. Since the bulk of our racing was twice, and even three times a year at Baytown, or Beaumont, and Lake Charles and Alex were on the way, we always stopped there. Sometimes I was anxious, and was ready to keep on the road, but most of the time we had to stop to pick up a motor, or do something.

    We left with Jack to head for Alexanderia. Clayton and Doris Elmer traveled in their own vehicle as they had two kids. Paula and Donnie Elmer. Paula was three or four years older than Donnie, and was very well behaved. Donnie was not a bad kid, but he was at a very curious age. He must have been four or five then, and his fingers were designed to pick up parts, put them where fun places were, poke stuff, and just generally irritate Jack.

    Jack Chance loved kids, but at this particular stage of Donnie Elmer, and all the things we were doing, Jack would lose his temper. Jack very seldom ever did that, and if he could find the things he was looking for, he would not say anything. But a couple of times Donnie did something that really set Jack off. It bothered me when Jack said a couple of things to Baldy, but now I understand. I didn't want him to get mad at Clayton. We were all friends, but he thought Donnie should not be allowed to roam at will throughout the trailers where the parts were kept.

    It would be fun being back at Alex where all the top racers gathered. Even many from the West Coast came.

    We left Jack's and continued eastward on IH 10 through Beaumont, Orange and across the state line. A little over an hour later we crossed over the bridge at Lake Charles looking at the Calcasieu Lake on our right and refineries on our left. I thought about our recent journey through these parts during the summer, and thought about all we had gone through. Soon though we got to Kenner, Louisiana and turned north on 165 to take us to Alexandria.

    We pulled off to gas up about thirty or so miles north of Kenner. The reason I remember that was because we always did that before getting into the rolling hills. 165 was two lane, and the hills were forested with pine. From these rolling hills to most of the way to Alexandria, there were logging trucks hauling fresh cut logs.

    They would lug up the hills, and not get much speed up going down because the hills were too close together. Baldy had a lead foot, and the Chrysler New Yorker had some guts. Even with the trailer, he could get around a logging truck once he got going down, and punched that throttle. I never got used to Baldy's wide open passing skills even though I knew we would make it. I've been with him when he drove on the left side at ninety miles per hour (not with a trailer of course) for almost a mile while he passed slower traffic scattered about on the right side.

    We got to Alexandria just about dusk, and did our usual roundabout at the traffic circle south of Alex. We always seemed to do that over the years. We entered the circle, and looked to the right for McArthur drive. Baldy alerted us to say "when". It never failed. We would say "There it is" just as we passed it. Fortunately, we always caught it as we circled back around. We could never remember how far around it was to pick it up. The same thing went on when we went to Lakeland. It wasn't a traffic circle, but to pick IH 10 back up in downtown Mobile, Alabama, you had to do a sudden lane change to catch the tunnel.

    We got to Alexandria and all checked in at the Holiday Inn on McArthur Drive. We were all hopeful and looking forward to the next day when we would spot our trailers in the pits, and start testing. The best thing though was to see friends we had been making from all around the country.



  10. #410
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    I'm sorry Bill, but I missed your question regarding turn judges. I had missed some important information that pertains to racing at Baldy's house in 1968, and was looking back to the best place to post it when I came across your question.

    I'm sorry I don't know how to move the quotes around. I've tried, but I don't get it. Anyway, the question Bill asked was with drivers running multiple classes, who was it that served as turn judges. Where he races the drivers take turns, and he wanted to know if our drivers did or we used non racing officials.

    We had no shortage of people willing to provide pick up boats, and we had many ex-drivers and also officials that volunteered to be turn judges. Seldom did active drivers be turn judges unless they ran only one or two classes, and the schedule allowed them to be out in a boat for awhile. I'm sure it is the same at most races, our turn judges also rode in the pickup boats that would return the broke down, or wet down boats back to the pits. I myself did not serve as a turn judge during my racing career. Whenever I was in a boat I was taking pictures, and that's what the officials and drivers wanted me doing.

    Like I said, we had no shortage of those willing to serve, and since we had a lot of great ex-drivers, we had no dispute as to what an overlap was. I was surprised by a lot of discussion several years ago about what an overlap was, and how the rule had to be changed around so much. When I was racing, our guys knew what it was, and if it was called, there was no dispute, and no protests. The violator got a DSQ and we all went about our business. It could be a long hot day for many turn judges, but we always had plenty.

    Sorry for the delay in answering your question Bill. It was a good one. I will post where the additional info for the time line of the story is after I go back to review where it would best fit in.

    ADD: I added on to post 410 to cover some info I had left out previously. I wanted to keep it in chronological order so it is easier to follow the timeline.



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