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

  1. #451
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I know who William Conrad is. I guess he might indeed make a pretty good Baldy. I know why Eileen married you Bill. She wouldn't ever be bored. Life can become dull with a routine, but you always manage to concoct something, or walk into a situation that makes thing interesting or gives us a laugh. I could actually see you in a situation comedy with Baldy, Ray Hardy and Harry Pasturczak. You and Baldy always scheming a plot against one another, Ray doing something completely off the wall, but is always able to escape intact, and Harry with a puzzled look on his face, shrugging his shoulders and saying "What now?" I think that would be something worth watching.

    I've been puzzling over those two rotary valve motors and so far I haven't been able to find any pictures of them at the State Park. I may have remembered wrong, but I could almost swear that this was the race we first ran them. I'll see if Clayton remembers.



  2. #452
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    Wayne,
    I too, look forward to each installment of your story. Although it doesn't bring back the memories for me as it does for others, it is such an interesting look into boat racing's history. Your story telling ability is supreme and I feel as though I know the "characters" well. Thank you for sharing this with all of us.

    Jean

    p.s. I think the Tannery you spoke of on where you stopped for lunch on your way to NC was our little downtown Buford, Georgia.

  3. #453
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    Smile No boredom

    Yes, Wayne.You are right about not wanting to be bored. Life with Bill certainly has been full of adventure! That is what I was looking for when I considered a mate. I think I could write my own book with all the fun and scary moments we have lived through with Ray Hardy and the cast of characters who we have known. It would make an interesting sitcom. Bill was telling the truth about us waiting impatiently for the next installment. Keep it coming!
    Eileen

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    You always were the smart one Eileen.



  5. #455
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    Amidst everything that was going on, Baldy organized his first race. Admittedly it was late in the year. But that time of year could be excellent weather.....if a norther didn't blow in. That's one of the reason's Baldy chose the State Park. It was not only protected from the normal southeastern breeze, but 100 percent invulnerable to a northwest blow which typically ranged from a mild 35 miles per hour to over 40 mph.

    Baldy had to complete the paperwork and send the money in for the sanctions in advance and had no idea what the weather would be like, but like Baldy always did, he took the chance and bulled his way ahead. He would make it work, no matter what.

    It was a dual sanction. NOA and Lone Star. I don't know how it was earlier, but when we started racing all the races were dual sanction which meant that drivers would get points in both organizations. The points we got racing outside of Lone Star Boat Racing Association didn't count in Lone Star points, only NOA. We never raced for points, but it was nice to see our points coming up in LSBRA as we got better.

    ADD: It was also the first time Baldy worked on boat racing publicity. This was a photo taken by Tamborella in Baytown

    Baldy had done all the work mostly by himself to get the race sanctioned and scheduled. He had help from Clayton's Mother Ouita in Baytown to guide him, and Homer Alford the head referee of Lone Star, but it was Baldy that got it done. He was very in tune with what needed to be done. When Baldy had a goal, he studied inside, outside, up and down, and inside out....then called people he knew were in on the know, or could help to see if he got it right. Sometimes he would just jump straight in and figure out which way to go, but if he had time....he would study the situation first.
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  6. #456
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    Baldy secured the standard prize money for Lone Star and NOA....$20..15..10...and 5. In addition he threw in a day's hunt for the winners and officials at our hunting lease only twenty minutes from the lake house. The November race would take some racers away from the early hunting season, so Baldy spiced up the prizes with the chance to hunt a variety of game on a 10,000 acre ranch. Probably most of the racers never had a chance like that in their lifetime, so a good turnout was expected.

    Baldy was looking forward to a host of boat racers coming into our territory, and he was ready to entertain. I can't remember if Jack's wife Gertie came or not. Sometimes she did...most times she didn't....but this was a first for Baldy.

    He cooked steaks and baked potatoes with a salad loaded with avocadoes for Jack, Clayton and his wife Doris, and the officials Homer and Joy Alford, Ouita and Slim Elmer, and maybe a couple of others. How do I know this? It's because they were there and that's what Baldy did. This time he knew they were comiing....but many..many times boat racers would just show up and Baldy sent me Quick Stop Place about 2 miles back and 6 minutes one way to buy frozen New York Strip steaks, potatoes, and the best avacodos riipe and ready to eat.



  7. #457
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    The race was November 5, 1967. It was a Sunday. The weather was perfect. Teams picked out there spots. Jack and Clayton pitted to the left of us. Seems they almost always did. Or did we pit to the right.

    Lots of teams were coming in, and it was the making of a very good late racing season. Baldy was very enthused. He invited everyone that wanted to come to his house at Pernitas Point. A lot of the teams that got there late, just set up camp in the pits.

    The pits were filled with a canopy of overlapping mesquiete trees, and concrete tables, benches, fire pits and the like were spaced for good sized camp sites. No one had to pay anything to camp there.

    From the camping sites it was a gentle slope to the pits which were only yards away. The pit area and into the water was firm. In short, it was a perfect place to race, although the course was shorter than a mile. We had to put on our short course props. Things looked good for the race though. All the officials, clock, weight machine were in place, but most importantly, the Texas Parks and Wildlife who were in charge of the park were firmly in charge and gave us their blessings.

    ADD: Baldy's lake house at Pernitas Point is where Mark and I ran our first race. To the right is the State Park where the November 5 race took place. Baldy's at Barbon is where his house would be built starting in 1969, and location of our future race course is shown. The property at Barbon encompassed 534 acres. The island on the backside was never there when we raced. It's only there occassionally now during droughts and because of government mandated dumping of water from the reservoir.
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  8. #458
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    I was disappointed that Marsha didn't show. Mark, pit man Bob Burnham and myself decided to go to the movies that Saturday night in Mathis....about twenty five minutes from Baldy's past the turnoff to the State Park.

    I don't remember the name of the show, but it was something to do with the Hell's Angels. As we settled in and our eyes got accustomed to the dark one of us noticed you could see outside. There were a number of small holes all the way through the roof. None of us had ever been in that theater before....or since.

    It was not very crowded and we were sitting a little more than halfway toward the back. We started feeling something hitting our backs and the backs of our heads. At first it wasn't much, but then when it continued we looked around and found three guys up in the balcony throwing spit wads, balled up paper and other stuff at us. The movie wasn't all that great, so we got up and left. Those three guys came down as we were leaving and followed us out. We all thought we were about to get into a scrape. None of us were fighters, escpecially against three guys bigger than us. The ringleader was heavyset and outweiged any one of us three by thirty or forty pounds and a couple of inches taller.

    We were afraid of being pounded with sticks and they way they looked, we suspected they had knives. I do not remember what they were saying as they taunted us, but while we wanted to run to the car, we figured it was best to just walk and appear calm.

    We had driven over in Baldy's Chrysler New Yorker and it was very powerful. We felt safe then, and drove past them on the street as they stood in front of the theater and I shouted "We're going home to get a twelve gauge shotgun, then we'll be back for you!" I instantly regretted saying that and was kind of shaking, but we got out of there in one piece, and felt lucky to do so. Then when we were safe, we got angry and cussed them all the way home.



  9. #459
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    Sometime during the night a cold, wet norther blew in with a vengence. The wind was a steady thirty to thirty five miles per hour, with gusts up over forty. Had we tried to race at Pernitas Point in front of Baldy's the result would have been worse than the May front that blew in that spring two years earlier. The wind would have blown straight down the course bringing two foot waves. Baldy picked the State Park just for the reason that it was protected from the prevailing breeze as well as northers.

    Everyone was bundled up as we rigged up and tested. One driver, (Joe and I think it was either James Fitzgibbon or Mike Murray) went out onto the main lake in his B runabout. He drove around the corner toward the Boy Scout retreat Camp Karankawa. Don't have a clue why he decided to do that, but somehow he was able to keep the Mercury deflector running and made it back into the protected cove.

    When he pulled into the pits, his runabout began sinking. It was an old style runabout that looked like a Canalito, which it might have been. Anyway, it was destroyed from the pounding it took out on the open lake. After he, (probably Mike because James had more experience) got the motor off, he had some pit crew help him carry it over to a bonfire someone had started. He laughingly started pulling pieces of plywood off and feeding the fire. He said "At least it's still good enough to help keep us warm." Everybody laughed about burning the boat up, and all who attended still remember that incident.

    Note the A Konig that Baldy is working on. That is our cast iron block A. Check out how well dressed most kids were back in those days. These three were obviously very interested in the race boats. The guy in the runabout was long time Corpus Christ Boat Club member Lee Bollmeyer, and this was one of his last races to drive.

    ADD: The blonde on the top of our trailer is my Sister Jan, and the guy in the dark jacket behind the motor to Baldy's right is a high school buddy, Whitney Reese.
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  10. #460
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    Looks like Lee is working on an old Swift hydro, Wayne............
    Charley Bradley


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