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

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    I don't have any results to give....only some remembrances from that race.

    While the weather was good for racing the river was not. The past week had been a stormy one for East Texas and there had been considerable rain and flooding upriver in the Neches. The water had been coming down for several days, and while the Neches with still within the banks during the races, it was a couple of feet higher than normal. The big cypress stump in the dogleg on the back straight was a little bit underwater, but everybody racing knew where it was. The big problem was all the debris coming down, plus the Neches was very swift compared to its normal flow. There were currents, eddies along certain places near the banks, and low and high spots as the water rushed by. A lot of sticks, logs, cans and other detritus floated and spun by as the Neches made it's way toward the port and ultimately on down to the Gulf of Mexico.

    Early on I was coming up on the start of A hydro on the outside. There were a couple of big swells near the pits, and I slowed to about thirty miles per hour. The bow of my Marchetti took the top off of the first one and I can clearly still see that in my mind. It was about twenty to thirty gallons or water which slid like a wave hitting the beach across the bow and both sides of the deck except for the part that ran up the cowling. It was somewhere between one and two gallons and it launched from the cowling and struck me right in the Adams Apple.

    I was dazed by the hit, and there was nothing I could do to swallow. At first I was kind of paralyzed in my throat and I found it hard to breathe like when you fall off a horse and get the breath Knocked out of you. I made the start, but I ran way back. I was able to catch my breath fairly quickly, but for the first couple of laps I kept concentrating on trying to gulp, or make myself swallow. I was finally able to before the race was over, but I don't know what place I finished. All I know is that it was dead last.

    Baldy knew something wasn't right. He was in the water when I pulled into the pits, and he said "Wayne.....what's the matter son?" I tried to talk, but found out I couldn't. Since I never talk to myself alone I hadn't tried that on the race course, but it was like I had a frog in my throat. I was unable to speak at all. Baldy was getting kind of concerned then I tried to pantomime what happened and tried to demonstrate how I got clobbered in the throat by a big slug of water. It took about twenty minutes or more before I was able to squeak out any words in a hoarse voice (if it's possible to have a hoarse squeak).



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    After thinking about it some more, I don't think the inboards were there in 1968. They did not always race there at the festival. Maybe scheduling conflicts or whatever, I think that there would have been more incidents racing on a river full of trash and I would have remembered it. It was this race that caused Baldy, myself and others to boycott the 1980 Nationals at LaCrosse, Wisconsin when the Mississippi was very high and sending torrents of water laden debris downstream with tricky currents that played havoc on small racing outboard boats.

    In a heat of B Hydro (don't remember if it was the first or second) I was running fourth going down the back straight of the first lap. After that sock into the throat, I was leary of the race course. Tom Wetherbee broke out into the lead and was about thirty or forty yards ahead of Louis Williams and Jim Wilkins with his powerful Merc Quincy looper.

    I did not see the accident, only the water indicating something happened. Louis was on the inside and had the advantage on Jim as we were fastly approaching the turn. I was about thirty yards behind Louis and Jim. They were running bow to bow with only the width of Tommy's wake between them. Tommy hit something and rather than a flip and tumble across the water, the boat must have swapped ends and the mass of boat and man was all together in the spray. Louis snapped right, and Jim instinctively turned left. All of Tommy and his rig were right in front of both men. Watching from behind I recall Louis going right and Jim turning left and both colliding. The whole scenario lasted no more than three or four seconds from Tommy's flip to the two boat collision..

    I went right and sped past everything, made the turn and went into the pits. To this day I remember Louis and Jim going into the water, but without much damage to the boats or themselves. Joe Rome swears Louis never flipped that hydro. It was most likely his A Konig he stepped up into B, but I can still see them running together. Maybe Jim went into the water and Louis didn't but I recall them turning into each other. Since I went by in a flash on the right, I didn't see the whole incident. Maybe Louis did make it back to shore, or maybe drifted until he was towed in.

    Tommy told me later that when he surfaced, he started to raise both arms to signal he was Okay, but then saw the water was bloody. He felt allright, and thought at first about his legs and body, but when he looked at his hands he saw that the pinky finger on his left had was cut off. I don't know or remember whether he thought or knew if it was the prop, fin, or something else. Seems it was a clean cut and it was thought it came from the prop somehow.

    When Tommy realized he needed help, he signaled to the pickup boat that they needed to come on even though they had already been heading to him. They were all racing downriver in the current, and although the pickup boat had it's throttle engaged, it wasn't gaining much on Tommy. Normally the pickup boat would idle up to a driver in the water, but in this case the driver was on the move. They had to throttle up to catch up to Tommy and maneuver under speed to get close enough to manhandle him into the boat. It wasn't the best situation to be in to be heading underway to an accident victim and bearing down at the same time as a rescue was taking place. Anyway, Tommy was pulled from the water while another boat tied a rope onto his hydro. While Tommy was being hauled to the hospital, we rigged down our hydros and put them on the trailer. We still had a runabout or two to race and figured they would be safe enough despite the river conditions.



  3. #553
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    I don't remember the first heat of C runabout, but I finished. Baldy told me to let the other boats clear the path. He didn't want me to be in front of other boats and hit something and be thrown in the water like Tommy had.

    It is hard to win races coming from behind as everyone knows. If you are a young racer driving a runabout in Texas in the late sixties, and do not make a good start with the others, it was considered impossible to win. Except in this particular case of C runabout, I was way behind at the start and everyone else had jumped the gun badly.

    I was last and would get 400 points. All the others would get zero. That meant any points I got from the first heat would be enough for a win. All I had to do was finish.

    There were five or six boats only in the heat besides me in the big DeSilva and we were on the final lap going down the back straight. Ahead of me was one boat going into the turn and two running fairly close together and about three hundred feet ahead of me. We were heading upriver, and passing all kinds of debris. The two boats ahead made it past a twenty foot two by ten or two by twelve board. It was riding with the current, and left the gate open as the two boats ahead of me went by. As I approached it, I saw it close the door, and was perfectly perpendicular to my runabout when the bow passed over. It happened so quickly there was nothing I could do.

    It was riding low in the water having several days to get waterlogged and the first glimpse I had, it was turning counterclockwise and just about to be perfectly perpendicular. It was too wide for me to attempt to go either direction and I nailed it dead center.

    Jack Chance had built us aluminum outriggers we used from the beginning that had the bolts to mount the Konig as well as the thrust mount, and was welded to an identical cut piece of aluminum with an inch and a half spacer. This set the engine back from the transom somewhere around two inches. Four Three eighths bolts with washers secured everything to the transom.

    When I hit the board I was thrown up against the steering wheel as the engine revved and the bottom bolts pulled through the washers with the nuts and through the transom as the Konig was kicked into the air. With no steering, the DeSilva veered right and the shoreline was right there. The nose of the DeSilva stabbed into the red clay bank and I tumbled across the deck and onto the shore. Had the Neches not been on the rise, the forest bed would have been another several feet higher and I would have rolled dead end into the embankment. Luckily I was only going about fifty when I hit the board, and by the time I hit the bank the boat was down to maybe twenty five or thirty so I only went a little way into the forest without hitting a tree.

    We got towed back to the pits, and this time we rigged everything down and loaded up to watch the rest of the races. I'm not sure how much was left to go at this time, but that is all I recall of that race. I was always sore and bruised a couple of days after the races, but this time I had a little more to recover from. Baldy didn't say much about the throat punch or Tommy's finger being cut off when he hosted racers over the next few years, but he always talked about the time I hit the bank and fell out onto the ground.



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    First order of business when we got back home was to repair the transom of the CDF DeSilva runabout. We cleaned the holes out, and cut away any splinters then let it dry good. It would be a couple of weeks before the first Baytown race for 1968, so we had time. When the transom was prepared we used Weldwood and wooden dowels to plug the old holes. Then we cut out an aluminum or stainless steel plate that would cover all the old holes plus overlap and screwed it to the inside of the transom. When the glue was set, we drilled new holes through the transom and the metal plate on the inside, then remounted all the hardware.

    Tommy Wetherbee was released from the hospital after his left hand was taken care of, and he had to take time to heal because of skin grafts, so he was out for awhile.

    ADD: The second article was from I believe the San Antonio Express News. The San Antonio Light was bought by the Express in the late sixties sometime, but this article would have been in one or the other.
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  5. #555
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    The following Friday after the Beaumont Neches River Festival, I ran into Joe Bowdler between classes. I was heading from P.E. and just about to take a shortcut through the Student Union Building and Cafeteria when Joe came through the door on his way out.

    We both stopped, shook hands and started talking. I don't recall talking about boat racing, but we were now fast friends and looking forward to spending more time together between classes and at the races. I had not yet become friends with Denny Henderson, or Craig Lawrence, and some of the other younger racers that had not yet started racing. Steve Jones was the closest to my age and Joe was just a year older than me. We only had about three or four minutes to talk as Joe had to make it to class. I was headed to the dorm of my pit man Bob Burnham whose dorm was just the other side of Santa Gertrudis street which ran through the campus. I don't recall whether Bob was there or not, but his roommate was also from Alice and was a sophomore at Texas A & I. I hung out there frequently between classes. Of course Bob knew who Joe Bowdler was, but I don't think they had really done much talking at this point. Bob had joined ROTC and thus had other things besides studying after class to spend time on.

    After our brief encounter that day, I was looking forward to seeing Joe again before school ended at the beginning of summer, and then we had the first race for Highlands coming up in a couple of weeks. That was location of the Baytown Boat Club and more commonly called the "Baytown Race".

    I don't recall what we did that weekend or the next, but most likely it was spent at Baldy's where the water was warming up and if we didn't do any early morning testing, we were surely on the water before noon either in Mark's Continental in futile pursuit of "pulldoo's", skiing behind the Mustang or Turcotte's Starcraft I/O, or on the Sanford's pontoon boat. Most likely a combination of all. And sometimes when the wind was up we would roll around on the waves in our twelve foot Starfish sailboat, but it was still a little chilly for that.

    That second Sunday after Beaumont I had gotten home from the lake late. I don't know where Baldy was, but I happened to be in the kitchen and it was about eight or eight thirty when the phone rang. I happened to be right next to the phone hanging on the wall between the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets and picked it up on the second or third ring. I can't remember who called, but it was someone from the Baytown Boat Club. It could have been Charles Fowler, Dick Hassler or one of the others that was a Lone Star official, or maybe just one of our other friends. I don't think it was Clayton or Jack, but I can't remember. All I remember for sure is the terrible words that Joe Bowdler was dead.

    Whoever called went on for twenty or thirty seconds while I was in shock and my mouth wide open. I couldn't talk, but I didn't hear either. All that ran around in my mind was that Joe was dead. I can remember telling them to stop. Stop and start over. I couldn't believe what they were saying and my brain just locked up. When whoever it was started telling the facts, they didn't really know much either. All they knew at that point was that Joe started feeling nauseated and had chest pains on Thursday He had called his Dad Sid and told him how he felt, Sid drove down from San Antonio to check on him. He had got some treatment from the infirmary He seemed to be getting better so Sid went back to San Antonio to bring some clothes back down because Joe had planned on going home, but then didn't. Like a lot of college kids he probably had a basketfull for his Mom Margaret to wash. Joe died on Saturday. Had they diagnosed what caused his condition earlier, it would have been a fairly simple procedure to drain the fluids around his heart, but in 1967, a lot of the common heart procedures today were just in infancy.

    The Baytown Boat race would have been the following weekend. Club members were calling everyone to tell them what happened to Joe and to also let everyone know the race was off for now. Everyone was all for that. No one wanted to race under the circumstances, and very many wanted to take time to go to Joe's funeral. The Bowdlers had built up enormous respect and admiration for the short time they were involved and Sid Bowdler was like Baldy in that he fully supported his son Joe's efforts and put money and time into Lone Star Boat Racing Association.

    Baldy and I attended along with a lot of other boat racers. It was very, very sad to lose Joe at such a young age. Sid and Margaret were devasted, but they carried on all the years that Lone Star still existed. They didn't make all the races, but they made many, and especially the Joe Bowdler Memorial Race. The Joe Bowdler Memorial was always the first race of the year that occurred at Baytown.

    ADD: The notice in the Roostertail about the Nationals in Portsmouth was wrong. Joe would have gone to the Pro Nationals at Forest Lake, Minnesota.
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  6. #556
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    There was another boat racing tragedy that had taken place the week prior to Joe Bowdler's death. I've always intended to tell the story of Baldy as it went along. I try to think ahead, but sometimes when I try to remember things, some memories are ahead and some behind. In this case, it was behind because I thought the Buccaneer Days were the next weekend.

    Buccaneer Days were a springtime celebration for the City of Corpus Christi. I had mentioned it a couple of times in previous posts when the four seater Miss Budweiser was on display, and in 1966 when all of us kids were in Dallas with Baldy and they had an alky race near the Naval Air Station. At that event one of the Blue Angles tipped a wing in the bay, and spun out of control to his instant death.

    The last weekend of April 1968 there was a powerboat race held in front of the T and L heads at the Corpus Christi marina. We didn't go, and I'm not sure we even knew it was scheduled. Baldy was busy with all kinds of things, and I didn't pay attention to local news and weather then.

    I don't know the day because I couldn't find it on the internet, but during the boat race down at the marina, an inboard flatbottom had the rudder break off. It was very bad that it broke on the front straight instead of the back straight. On the back straight, his boat would have run up on rocks providing a protected bulkhead for the cove. The driver was in a heavy flatbottom that most likely would have at least slowed in the muck on the lee side of the rocks. Instead, he was close to the spectators and it veered right and into the crowd of spectators. I'm not sure how many were injured, but a five year old girl was killed. The driver was devasted. He saw the accident coming and although it was only seconds in the making, it was a lifetime to him. I could never imagine what the family of the little girl went through when their fun was in a flash turned to tragedy.

    That was the last time a boat race was held there until several years ago the Texas Tri Hulls brought boat racing back to Corpus Christi.



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    There were a lot of boat racers at the funeral of Joe Bowdler. He was young, friendly and very talented. Had he not died, he would have been up there with Billy Seebold, Jerry Simison, Bruce Nicholson, Fred Hauenstein, Ron Hill, Dick Pond, Bill Fales, and the like racing for DRR National Championships. Sid Bowdler would have been right there in the pits.

    Sid Bowdler insisted t the racing go on as his Son Joe would have wanted. The first race at Baytown would be in a couple of weeks and was to forevermore be the Joe Bowdler Memorial Race.

    Still not over the sudden loss of Joe, we nevertheless loaded up, drove up Texas 35 and through the Baytown Boat Tunnel as we always did, and checked in to the Holiday Inn. This time we had some CB Racing Team members with us. Not all could make it because of school, but Bob Burnham, Bud Turcotte, and my brother Mark were there.

    We still had to lift boats from the pits down a five foot embankment to the sawhorses. And then back up!

    We were all very somber about the loss of Joe, and some were not able to make it to Joe's funeral. Sid Bowdler showed up and was a surprise to many. It was'nt a surprise to Baldy though. They had gotten to know each other very well during the race at Denison. While Marsha Wetherbee and I were spending time waiting out the rain, Baldy was enjoying his time spent with Sid Bowdler.

    I do not know what Sid and Baldy talked about their son's racing, but I do know that they had a deep relationship that lasted to the end. I suspect that it had to be because of our age, when we started racing, where we went to school, and we started racing out of nowhere.



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    The General Manager for Emmord's Boat Barn was Clayton Elmer.

    After Baldy and Joe Hendricks finalized their partnership, and ended up buying Emmord's they needed someone new to run it. I think Baldy had Clayton in mind from the outset, but I wasn't part of those discussions. Clayton did accept, and he and his family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas to start on a new career. I had thought Clayton had moved in the summer, but as I was going through photos and press releases, I realized he had moved earlier than I remembered. When I asked Joe about what he remembered about it today he said "I know how Baldy would think. He would want Clayton down there BEFORE the boating season started, NOT after." I have to agree with Joe. I will call Clayton tomorrow. I didn't have his number with me today.



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    When I talked to Clayton today he rembered October 1968. I reminded him about the press release of the NOA Southern Championships to be held in Baldy's front yard.

    Clayton didn't remember the time he moved his family to South Texas to become the manager of Emmors's Marine, but I think the October date was when he closed on the house that he and Doris bought. Clayton was in Corpus Christi....managing and racing boats before October 1968.



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    This is a part of the Baldy thread that I cannot lay down a time line or even remember. I found out the answer today from Clayton Elmer. I had intended to call Clayton anyway but I was curious about a couple of old photos. The main one I was interested about was me in that big DeSilva runabout and the rotary valve engine on the transom. It didn't look right. The rotary valve motors had a "can" for an exhaust system. I emailed Clayton the picture, and he told me the story. The motor was indeed a Konig rotary valve, 1968, but the exhaust's were Jack Chance.

    ADD: I solved a big part of the mystery that had me confused about dates, times and photos. The runabout pic was taken at Baytown by Mr. Tamborella at the next race coming up.


    ADD: I didn't have time to finish this part last night. This is what I think happened.

    Clayton tells me that there was just one set of these made, and the way the rotary's were designed, the pipes could be put on any motor. I believe after Baldy and Jack saw the can schematic from Dieter, Baldy and Jack hatched up a plan to build some similar ones based on the drawing, but without the can. The can we learned was because of noise restrictions being placed upon racing motors in Europe. We did not have any such restrictions here, so the plan was to build some open exhaust megaphones to test how they would run, and be based upon the drawings from Dieter.

    Clayton said that Jack had them built longer, then would test and come back in, cut a little off the end and go back out for another test. I do not remember any of this, so I think it must have been Jack and Clayton doing the testing at the Baytown Boat Club. I have another picture from Alexandria in 1968 at the scales and me with a hydro, so I know that we raced with them in 1968 as we did in this picture from Baytown, but they must have not been any better than the can in either acceleration or top end. They must not have been any worse either, or I would not have made it to the inspection area at Alex. And they definitely would have been harder on the ears of the pitmen, So I guess we did not build any more and eventually went back to the can. This is one of the new C Konigs on the runabout.
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