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

  1. #461
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    Could be Charley. They were about gone by the time I started, at least where we raced, so I never got familiar with the way they look.



  2. #462
    Team Member Jeff Lytle's Avatar
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    Pic #2........front of the DeSilva.........Mud??

  3. #463
    BoatRacingFacts VIP John Schubert T*A*R*T's Avatar
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    Default SWift or Wetback

    Quote Originally Posted by F-12 View Post
    Looks like Lee is working on an old Swift hydro, Wayne............
    Charlie, I don't think that it is Swift as you can tell by the transom. I believe Hal Kelly's Wetback dersign/plans were that way.

  4. #464
    Team Member F-12's Avatar
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    I had an Atomic A that looked like the transom, but looking at the cowling, you are probably right John.
    Charley Bradley


  5. #465
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    Could be Jeff. The water had never been this high in the park before. Remember, it was barely six weeks before this picture had been taken that Lake Corpus Christi went to the 94 foot level for the first time. In this pit shot you can see grass growing up through the water that had not that long before been dry land. Also take note of all the water hiacynths in the pits. This would come into play into the races almost a year later. I had mentioned a few posts back how these were going over the dam by the millions until the wind picked up.
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  6. #466
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    Default Boom!

    When the cannon fired for the first heat, a lot of people were startled, in particular three guys.

    C runabout was up first and Charlie Bailey won both heats. I don't have any results except for the overall winners of the classes. D runabout was won by Bruce Nicholson. I ran our 4 carb C on the runabout and stepped it up to run D runabout.

    Up next was B hydro and it was won by Clayton Elmer. So far there were no flips and very few breakdowns. It was cold and blowing and Baldy wanted to get the show over and done with as quickly as possible. Everyone agreed. Dan Waggoner was overall winner in A runabout, and gave him Blanche and David a thrill.

    Joe Bowdler from San Antonio won C hydro and I had the first of my two towing experiences latched onto a race boat. I can't remember exactly who it was, but I know it wasn't Joe, Clayton Elmer, or Jim Mouton who cut in front of me. I I think it was probably Charlie Bailey. Anyway it was beginning the second lap and I just rounded the middle pin, when a hydro cut from outside to just pass the exit bouy. His bow slipped under my right sponson and lifted my Marchetti so high that the lower unit cleared the water. I tried turning left, but nothing worked, and the other boat just pulled me along. He didn't slow down....just kept going and went just to the right of the bouy as he planned all along. When my left sponson hit the bouy, it pulled me off the deck of the other hydro and my boat spun around backwards and came to rest dead in the water.

    The next heat up was D hydro and I won that one. Clayton Elmer swept the B class taking B runabout as well. Bruce Nicholson was also a repeat winner, taking the top spot in F runabout. I won the first heat of the Free-For-All, but Charlie Bailey became the third dual winner in the FFA overall.

    The first heat though was something that Baldy was so proud of he told the story many times over the years. I had been having success in the A and B classes, (, mostly runabout), but this was to be my first real hard fought win running really fast against top competitors in the big classes.

    Most of the drivers raced runabouts in the Free-For-All. In fact, back then they all did. We entered our C hydro. The thought in Lone Star in those days was you can't win a FFA with a hydro.

    I got a good start and raced down the front straight and came out of the turn almost side by side with P.G.Stepleton. He was running the same F Runabout he had just won the NOA World Championships with a few weeks earlier. As we raced side by side, I was inching up on the outside. We were both full throttle and never backing down. At first I thought I could get past him before the turn. I did get past, but not enough. I was only a half a boat length ahead. Then I thought P.G. would back off very soon and I would keep the hammer on a little longer and try to make a wide sweep with the speed up. That was the calmest corner. I kept the throttle down and so did P.G. All of this took only a second or two. We were just about at the corner and one of us had to give. There were boats chasing us so we had to make the turn quick. I still didn't back off and neither did P.G. Suddenly I dumped the throttle. the boat quickly settled down and P.G. shot straight ahead. There on my left was the whole turn with nobody around, so I quickly got back on the throttle, made a hard left hand and accelerated hard out of the turn and up the front straight. I was long gone and nobody ever closed the gap. P.G. swung way wide in the turn and Charlie Bailey got inside of him.

    After the races were over, Baldy went up to P.G. and said (he had become a real good friend of Baldy and me) "P. G. ...I know you like Wayne, but you didn't have to give it to him." Grinning P.G. said to Baldy "Hell Baldy....I didn't give it to him. I couldn't make that turn." Boy O boy was Baldy proud. He gave a big grin back to P.G. and started laughing then P.G. proceeded to tell him how I carried him up to the bring of the turn at full throttle, and he couldn't get shut down quick enough to turn. I can still remember that to this day. It takes longer in the telling, but in reallity it was only a few seconds that took place while we were in the zone where we should have been planting our hulls for the turn.

    ADD: In the first picture Louis Williams, Jr. is in front and I am aways behind.

    Pic 2. Louis is on the inside driving his A Konig on a Fillinger runabout, Ed Eastham is in the middle and I am on the outside. Back in the spray is Dan Waggoner.

    Pic 3 Joe Bowdler is leading, Clayton Elmer in the middle and me on the outside.

    Pic 4 Charlie Bailey has the lead followed by Clayton Elmer inside with the cabover is either Alex or Tommy Wetherbee. The wake on the outside might be mine. That's where I always tried to start.

    Pic 5 I don't know who is in the lead. Maybe that's who I hooked up with in the turn. Second is Joe Bowdler, I am on the outside. Not enough detail to see who else is in the mix, but Clayton is one of the ones with a white helmet.

    Pic 6 Louis Williams and I am on the inside, looking like I'm overtaking him. That was the hydro Louis bought from Ken Drake.
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  7. #467
    Team Member Jeff Lytle's Avatar
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    Wayne.......I'm still looking at pics 1 + 2 in post 463. In pic 1, the one where Baldy is rigging up the A on the runabout. You mentioned you like to start on the outside......well, if the paint marks and scrapes on the right of your DeSilva are any indication, you were learning how to push and shove on the inside a bit too!
    I also noticed something in front of the throttles on the DeSilva and the Marchetti. Kill switches or just shut off switches?

    Also........post 470, pic 2, the mud is still there!

  8. #468
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I noticed the "mud" still there too Jeff. I think it might be some kind of epoxy goop like I used to put the wooden panels on the trailer. One part was yellow and the other blue. When it hardened it was a dark grayish green. I can't seem to remember what might have happened.

    Funny thing about that kill switch. I was going to explain what that was, but it was kind of small and obscure so I told myself, "No....I won't say anything about it until Jeff asks about it." So that's what they were Jeff Kill switches. When the rule first came out, it was everyone come up with whatever they could. I went through a number of different designs until Dieter came up with the springloaded one with the little plastic circlip. That was the best one.

    This particular one, I cut out a stainless steel piece with the uprights, both angling outside in opposite directions. I cut one of the wires running from the battery to the kill switch and crimped "U" shaped connectors on each wire end. Then I took a piece of quarter inch brass about four inches long and with a hacksaw cut a groove encircling the brass so that it would fit snugly into the two connectors. Then I ground down almost a half inch near each end of the rod so that I could wrap rubber bands around the ends of the rod and the stainless steel angled posts. I fastened a string with a hasp from the center of the brass rod to a leather wrist band with a D ring on it. After we got the motor fired up, I clipped the string to the wrist band on my throttle hand.



  9. #469
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    We ran the heats back to back. The only two I didn't run were the two heats of F runabout. Other than getting hung up on the bouy, we didn't have to get towed in. I made it back to the pits all the other heats. Like I said, no flips. Nobody wanted to go into the water. The races were run very quickly and we got out of one boat and in to the other except C and D hydro and runabout where we just refueled and went back out (step up in the D classes). Waiting for the two heats of F runabout, I cooled off and got stiff. I went over by the fire where the runabout was aready consumed to get a little warm. It was a hard thing to do to get back into the water for the Free for All.

    After the races were over, we started rigging down as quickly as we could. While we were doing that three guys approached us and said they wanted to talk. I didn't know who they were until the ring leader said "We're sorry about last night. You guys are really cool." It was then that Mark, Bob and I recognized the three who were taunting us at the movie theater. The leader stuck out his hand and apologized again. We shook hands all around and everyone was all smiles. They said they had never seen any boats like these and loved the sounds. They asked all about them. After a little bit of talking one of them told us how they heard about the boat races and drove over to see what that was all about. They had actually seen us earlier in the morning, but stayed back in the crowd to watch. When the five minute gun went off, they almost jumped out of their skins because they thought somebody pulled out a shotgun. We all had a good laugh over that, and we talked to them for a half hour or more as we rigged down. I emailed Bob yesterday and he said that for the longest time he remembered the ringleaders name, but he can't recall it now. We had done well at the races, and they now had more respect for us little wimps than they did the night before. We all departed friendly and satisfied.
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  10. #470
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    Now that the racing season was over, it didn't mean an end to the cameraderie. The beginning of Baldy hosting boat racers at his house was just about to take on new dimensions. The deer hunting season was about to start in a couple of weeks and a weekend hunt for the winners was part of the prize.

    In the meantime, we also were getting ready to enlarge the box on our trailer to accomodate more motors and parts. Plus we needed to revamp the rails to carry the boats.



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