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

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Clayton and I had signed up for all our classes on Wednesday at the American Legion Hall, a large open space building with lots of chairs and tables just set back from the pit area. It was a great setup for big racing events.

Thursday morning. First day of qualifying. We were all up and ready to go. With a group like ours, it was easier to follow the routine we had set the last couple of days. Baldy, Jan, Jack, Velma, Clayton and Doris would eat breakfast wherever they did. I don't know. We went to the little café by the pits. I suppose some of the other workers and owner realized by now that we had a Texas booth that was our own and Daria was our waiter. We did the loop around and got to Forest Lake and inside the café about the same time we did the other times. Daria was all smiles and handed us our menu's as we greeted her all around. Bud still teasing Daria and asking when she would go out with him. She was getting comfortable around us and finally offered up the fact that she had a boyfriend. Bud asked about how often they went out and she told him maybe once every week or two, at which Bud considered that she really didn't have a boyfriend and was only saying that to put him off.

We joked with her about other things and we told her about South Texas, and she told us about cold winters. Daria came by the booth often while we were there, so even though she seemed to resist Bud's advances, she was obviously having a great time bantering back and forth.

The first elimination heats up on Thursday were C Runabout. I don't have a roster with all the entries, and number of heats per class, but there was a good attendance and so the number of qualifying heats were about like any NOA World Championship of that time. There were a lot of boats there. Of course as usual the A and B hydro and runabout classes would have the largest registration of drivers, and the most heats. I'm thinking C Runabout had three heats. Clayton qualified.

Up next was A hydro. Clayton won his heat. I was in the second heat and jumped the gun along with Kay Harrison, Bob Murphy and Mel Kirts.

Neither Clayton nor I qualified for D Hydro. None of us were entered in F Runabout, C-1 Hydro, or X Hydro.

Clayton finished 3rd in A Runabout. I did not qualify.

When we were racing, we did not go to the café, but I think Bud probably made a quick trip over for some iced tea during the day.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Back at the cafe Friday morning with our usual routine and table. We had the second half of finals to complete today.

I qualified 6th in C Hydro, but Clayton did not.

We both qualified in separate heats of B Hydro.

Clayton qualified D Runabout and D Hydro. I did not enter D Runabout and I failed to qualify in D hydro.

The weather had been great every day. Pits were fantastic, and the organizers had done a very good job with things running very smoothly. The only drawback was having to carry the boats a very long way in shallow water before we could set them down.

Here is a copy of a newspaper with some interesting tidbits.

The feet in the picture belong to my sister Jan. She was sleeping on the pad of Jack's trailer where the Morton CDF runabout rested. You can see in the last picture that the water is only knee deep at about 50 yards out. That played havoc with our plans it turned out, but we did not figure that out until later.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We didn't qualify in every class we entered, but we did good in most of them and left the race course very pleased.

I can't remember all we did after rigging up, testing , qualifying, etc. after the days were done. Think we may have gone to a movie, but I am not sure. We didn't hang out with Baldy, Velma, Jack, Clayton or Doris. Velma was the only one that didn't already know a bunch of racers, but she was such a character she could have a good time talking with anyone. And even though Doris did not know as many people as her husband Clayton, she surely knew Johnny Dortch, Billy Seebold and many that were there. And she was good looking, had an outgoing personality and was not shy. So the older men and women in our group were having a great time mingling and visiting racers from around the country.

Friday night I remember though. At least the supper part. We went for a late supper and it was at the top of the Holiday Inn. I can't remember if they had a restaurant on the bottom floor as they usually do, or at least a breakfast area. Continental breakfasts were not around back then, but if it was something like that, then maybe that's why we drove to Forest Lake to eat breakfast that first day.

We ate late. It was sometime around 9:00 or a little after, and there was no one in the place. The restaurant was several floors above us, but I can't remember how many floors the top was. We didn't look out the windows at a view. Best I remember it was heavily curtained, so maybe the view was looking down on air conditioning units of adjacent buildings. We were right off the freeway and there should have been a great view. Otherwise, why put the restaurant on top where cooks, food service people, customers, everyone has to go up? I don't know. Maybe it was a high priced alternative to a ground floor standard restaurant. And maybe there was a great view, but we didn't care. It was most likely that the night time crush was over and that they were doing what they could to get ready to close, and closing the curtains against the morning sun would save on the electric bill and fading the carpet. All I know is that there were no other people up there other than us, and there were three young guys running the place that had nothing else to do on a Friday night. No customers and they were bored stiff.

The "manager" was about the same age as our girl pit crew. The other two were about the same age, but he somehow had the seniority or authority. I don't remember, or maybe forgot, but I suspect the night was dead and the real manager skipped out after the crowd was gone and turned it over to the young manager.

They were basically keeping things open and hot until closing when they would have to cool things down, sweep up, and close shop. They were very enthusiastic to see us come in just to have something to do and some pretty young girls to talk to. They got very personal with us since we were the only guests and not long after seating us at a long table next to some kind of buffet they found out we were from Texas. It was just the manager, two cooks and CB Racing Team in the restaurant. They were all nice looking boys, and our girl pit crew went to teasing them. Just like they did when they got a guy about the same age to put the welcome sign out for CB Racing Team. For all I know, it could have been one of those same guys.

As we were looking at the menu the manager kid says "I can make great pizzas". It was before any pizza boom in South Texas, and he was so self assured and enthusiastic we ordered pizza. Susan, Jeanie and Mary Jean said they wanted to make salad, so both the young cooks didn't hesitate to invite them back into the kitchen. Jan was too young, so she just stayed and the table and was more or less minding herself.

The pizza and salad were great. The guys from the restaurant joined us at the table and we talked for awhile. We stayed until it was time for them to close the doors, then we went back to our rooms.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Tim Chance changed up a boat racing handbook he had previously published to put together the best outboard nationals program ever. This was a gift to me from my pit man Bob Burnham who save it all these years, and sent it to me after reading this thread.

I only posted the parts of it regarding the NOA 1968 World Championships. This handbook has the most informative presentation I have ever seen outside a magazine article, and this was a $1.00 program. God bless you Tim. What you could have done with all of today's digitalized and multimedia gadgets. The program is chock full of information on boat building, boat builders, alky motors, classes, action pictures, and even a 6 page spread on the Midwest Powerboat Association featuring champs of the various classes. I have never seen the original handbook, but when I described to Joe Rome what the publication my pit man Bob Burnham had sent, he was familiar with it, except for the 1968 Nationals additions.

Here are the pages I scanned.

ADD: On the fourth page was an ad for Schraders' Café toward the right top. I think this was probably the café Daria worked at. The Champions page was preceding the listing of photos and biographies of first and second places of each class by points in the Midwest Power Boat Association as explained in the page. There were some drivers with multiple entries. One ad was about the second annual snowmobile races to be held at or around Forest Lake. I included that because only a few years later both Jerry Simison and Dan Kirts were telling me that they raced snowmobiles to keep their boat racing skills up during the winter months. Apparently this was about the time that snowmobile racing was in it's infancy. The final page is the back cover with some ads. Check out the forerunner of jet ski's.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Next morning same time, same place, same people, we had breakfast as we had each morning since coming to Forest Lake. We had thought we should get Daria hooked up with this guy from the Holiday Inn restaurant. After getting our orders in and waiting for Daria to take care of her other customers, she found some time to come to our table. We (don't remember which one of us started it) told Daria that we had a guy we thought she should meet. He was really a great guy. Fun, funny and good looking and we knew they would get along great. Daria said, "But I already have a boyfriend. I told you that." Just a few days ago when Bud first started trying to get a date, we thought she was just trying to discourage Bud. Especially when she said she only saw him maybe two or three times a month. She knew us better now, so we thought maybe she was after all truthful, but we wanted to hook these two up. We enjoyed both their company even though in separate settings.

One of us told her his name (I forget it now, since we only saw him that one night 35 years ago), and Daria said, "That's the same name as my boyfriend." She was confused as to how we knew his name, but she was sure she never said it. The way Bud always teased her, she must have thought he coaxed it from someone else at the restaurant who would have known. When we told her how we met him and two other guys at the Holiday Inn restaurant Friday night. Her jaw dropped. Daria ran over to her boss and got someone to cover for her and she came and sat down with us. Now it was time for our jaws to drop. She described the guy, his job at the restaurant and other details that sent chills through us. All of us at the table were totally overcome by the fact that we picked out two people that were strangers to us less than a week ago and tried to match them together. The guy lived in a city full of tens of thousands of people, and she lived in the country outside of a small town thirty miles north. What are the odds of that? Being matchmakers to a couple that was already dating? Then we were all excited that they were already together. We never considered the fact earlier that both worked in the restaurant business at opposite times, and that's why they hardly got together. I guess one reason I don't remember much about the racing is because Clayton and I did not do any good after our promising finished in qualifying, plus in the years since, all the non racing things were so funny, coincidental or downright unexplainable that I remembered that instead of racing.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

It was Saturday, and at after the driver's meeting we got kicked off. First heat was C Runabout and Clayton was in the finals. Clayton was also in the very next heat which was A Hydro. Then it was a repeat of the second heat of C Runabout and A Hydro respectively. Clayton had plenty of pit crew with Mark, Bud, Bob and myself not to mention Baldy, Jack and the girls.

Next heat up was B Runabout in which Clayton and I were both entered, hence the number of pit crew to get both teams off the bank in time and to be able to handle last minute situations. We both got off without any problems. I cannot remember the start nor really anything about the race. I can remember somewhat the first turn, and that the turns were average for that size course, and that it was laid out well, but neither Clayton nor I ran very well. The motors were fine, but we just did not do as well as we did in qualifying. I only ran the two heats of B Runabout, but Clayton was in all of the first six heats of the finals and he did not do as well as he thought he could. He couldn't understand why the motors ran so well but were off in overall performance. It was in one of the heats of B Runabout that a boat blew over. Clayton doesn't remember who it was, but it was apparently a nasty spill. Clayton's boat was not running good, so he stopped and help hold the driver's head above water until the rescue boat arrived.

We were done for the day after the first three classes. We sat around and watched the races while Baldy and Jack wandered around the pits, watching, talking, meeting new people from up north, etc. I don't know where all the places Baldy went, but if our team wasn't racing or about to go out, he was on the prowl. Baldy lived and breathed alky racing and met people he had never seen before all along the way. On this trip there were a lot of Midwest Powerboat Association people further north than we had run into in N.O.A. It was the first time I can remember Rich Krier and Chuck Hall. We already knew who Wally Roman and Ray Olmos were, and Ray Nydahl, we had known in person. There were a number of others there as well that I came to know later, but Baldy had probably talked to them in the pits at that race.

We were packed up early for a World Championship and were set up for the next day already. Most of the racers would pack everything up and rig up all over again the next day. Having entered so many classes early on in our career, we would rig up the night before for the first classes, then cover everything up and tie down. We never had anything happen to our equipment overnight. So we got everything ready and left the race course to head back to the Holiday Inn in St. Paul.

We all got cleaned up and ready to go out that night. Bud had a date with Daria. In fact, all of us from the breakfast café did, but in the end it was only Bud, myself and Bob that drove to her house out in the country that night. The girls didn't want to go, and Mark wanted to stay with the girls.

After the revelations that morning at breakfast, we were all elated and subdued at the same time. Daria invited us to visit her at her parents home in the country that night where she lived. We found the place without any trouble. Her parents were around somewhere I suppose, but I don't recall ever seeing them. She greeted us at the front door and we went inside to the living room. Bud was no longer teasing or flirting with Daria. We now talked freely like we had been friends for awhile. We spent most of the time talking about the two different states we lived in and what it was like. We of course had to talk about the guy from the Holiday Inn...her boyfriend, and nobody could believe how it was possible for a group of strangers in three separate locations could have found a common thread like we did in a matter of a few days. I can remember the living room was dark, with lights turned down while we were talking. In a way it was appropriate because we all knew that this would be the last time we would ever see each other again. Those four or five days we came to relish starting out our morning were over. One more day of racing and we would be gone. The NOA World Championships would be in Alexandria, Louisiana the next year so we would not be coming back.

As we left, Daria hugged Bob and myself, and had an extra big one for Bud. They wrote each other for awhile, but it was just because of that special time Bud had started with Daria, and I think he had sparked some self confidence in herself. Then I never heard Bud mention Daria anymore.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Things were all out of whack when we got up Sunday morning for the last half of the finals, and we knew it. No breakfast with Daria. I can't remember if she told us she was off, but I'm pretty sure the café was closed Sunday morning. In those days in Texas there were hardly any stores open at all, including gas stations. I don't know about the rest of the country, but we had what were called "Blue Laws" and it prohibited stores from opening on Sunday, and maybe the few types that could had to open after 12:00 noon. No liquor of any kind could be sold. I think business on major highways that served the traveling public could be open, but rural towns were quiet as well as inner city neighborhood stores. It might have been the same in Minnesota back then, but I can't remember.

We were blowing all over the road on the way from the Holiday Inn to the race course at the park in Forest Lake. We knew there would be no racing unless the fierce norther that blew in overnight played itself out. It was blowing hard around thirty to thirty five miles per hour and gusts up to forty. And when Baldy dons his Eddie Bauer down coat, you know it's a cold biting wind. We sat in our vehicles and watched the whitecaps out on the water and the big rollers breaking on the shoreline. A few people milled around, their hands clutching cups of coffee or hot chocolate. They were not just standing around, but going from one place to another to find shelter out of the wind. Behind campers, in the American Legion building, or finding some shelter to huddle up and talk about the situation. Others sat in their vehicles like us.

Somewhere around 9:00 or so there was a drivers meeting in the American Legion hall. We all gathered to hear what the plan was. I believe it was referee Floyd Harris who conducted the meeting, but there were other race officials that spoke also. I don't remember their names. As many of you have been in the same situation, you know how it goes. Waiting on the weather. We would of course wait for awhile to see if there was any break, but pretty much all around we all knew it would take a miracle for this norther to calm down anytime soon. Drivers from different parts of the country told about how sometimes weather in their area could calm down fairly quickly after a big blow passed through. However, we all knew that was wishful thinking. Still, we had a little time, and weren't ready to throw in the towel yet.

There was also talk about giving up on today, and moving up starting time earlier on Monday morning to get the race run, and everybody on their way home. While there were some that would be willing and able to stay, it would be impossible for most, and thus the races would be meaningless as a World Championship with hardly any boats in every class. It was a late date for the World Championships anyway, with school just about to start all across the country, and after Labor Day no one had any vacation days set aside except for maybe holiday travel. So it was decided that a new date would be out of the question as winter was already coming on and driving all the way back just to watch another norther blow in was a real possibility. Our only choice was to wait and watch and see if there was any lessening of the wind, so that it might start dying down to run a real quick schedule. We would meet back somewhere around 11:00 and decide then what to do.

In the meantime, some drivers started rigging down and packing up. They knew it was hopeless, and so were ready to hit the road as soon as the next drivers meeting was over. Some probably already were packing up to leave.

When we gathered for the next drivers meeting, the hall was still packed. Most of the drivers, crew and family were still there. The storm had not abated at all, and for the time being there was talk of waiting until 1:00 and either cancel the second half of the NOA World Championships for 1968, or see if the wind might be subsiding. That was the only choice at that time until Baldy took the floor. There was a lot of chatter and Baldy hollered in a loud voice, he had another alternative. Some were still talking when Baldy tried to get their attention, and then among the crowd were a number of people that had gotten to know Baldy and that he was a man of action. They silenced everyone around them, then suddenly there was a hush among the audience.

Baldy told them "I will put on the second half of the World Championships down at my house in South Texas if you all want to give it a try. September and October are the two best months to race in South Texas. The prevailing southeast breeze usually lays, and it is before the northers come in. I have a protected cove on my property where I will be building a house. The judges stand is already built and we have had a race there already. Pit area is a gentle slope and we run a one mile surveyed course." people asked questions, and Baldy answered. It was a back and forth and there was some talk about how he could put together something so quickly. He explained that the Lone Star Boat Racing Association had everything we needed and traveled to the race courses from Beaumont south to handle everything from registration, officiating, scoring, inspections and had our own scales. Baldy said all he had to do was work out the sanction with Claude Fox and the Lone Star people. He said he could do it, and I think he had already been talking with Claude before he stood up with his alternative. Claude and Baldy had been talking for some months already about Southern Championships, etc.

All of a sudden there was a lot of interest and hope. People wanted to know how the heats would be made up. Everyone knew that most of the drivers would not be able to make it, but the ones that did that were already qualified would keep their spot. Anyone who wanted to take a chance and come down to qualify for any open places in a given class were welcome. Baldy would have a two day sanction for the purposes of qualifying any boats for classes that were short, and also concession races for drivers that didn't make the finals. All classes would be run. Baldy had been talking with other drivers between both drivers meeting, plus thinking on the fly as others peppered him with questions, and suggestions. So it was decided that Baldy would host the second half of the 1968 National Outboard Association World Championships at Lake Corpus Christi in September or October. Baldy would get with Claude Fox, the Lone Star Commodore and our local club as soon as we got back to Texas and notices would be sent out as soon as possible.

We went back to our pits to rig down in the miserable blow, but we were uplifted by the fact that the 1968 World Championships would be concluded, and that we would not have to travel too far. I was also buoyed by the fact that Baldy had taken the bull by the horns and came up with a solution that everyone agreed to. I was very proud of him. Baldy was upgraded in the minds of many who had never met him before, and many who knew who he was but didn't know him. Baldy loved to see his old friends and meet new ones. He never went to a race without making the rounds and talking to people. So soon we would be back to racing and finish the national circuit for the year. In the meantime we had to rig down, load up and head back to the Holiday Inn in St. Paul for our final night.

These are results from Saturday's finals. I don't know where Clayton and I placed, but it wasn't anywhere in the top five.

[rumleyfips]

Valleyfield, Quebec in the 70's was a big deal: nice permanent clubhouse, closed tv of the racecourse , bikers etc. We were there one year when the wind blew. About 10AM we went to the clubhouse for breakfast and sat at the bar watching the whitecaps roll on the CCTV. Looking at eack other we ordered beers: no racing that day.

[crewman060]

never knew Mr.lastinger went that far to race or was racing in 1968.He is still with us and Mr.redmond left us last year.As always thank you Wayne for this excellent history of alky racing.going to try and find out if dad built that motor(if a quincy he might have) for Mr.lastinger,or one he bought when dad retired18 months earlier.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

It is a great clubhouse rumleyfips. Among the best I've seen at a race course.

I never met David Lastinger Robert. It would be good if you could ask him what he remembered about that race. And I would also be interested to hear what you find out about the motor and other info. That's one of the reasons I started this thread and try to personalize it as much as possible. Baldy loved boat racing and all its people. I lost a lot of information during Hurricane Celia and after all these years there are some gaps, but I have had some help from others help filling in where I am lost. As I mentioned earlier this is not just a thread in the memory of Baldy, but it is also to help readers who have lived these boat racing travels to call up their own memories, because just about everyone involved any time in boat racing has gone through all the basic stuff I write about, only maybe different times, different places. Please give my regards to Mr. Lastinger.