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

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Wayne:

For whatever its worth, I also think it is a flathead. The two cylinder loopers, or a least most of them, had the tall flywheel which this motor has, and I think what you first thought in the lower resolution picture was possibly the exhaust outlet on a tincan Konig exhaust is a steering bar pulley. Also looks to be a fabricated spray shield from a flat piece of aluminum in front of the carb as lots of loopers had. Some guys also mounted coils on top of the block right behind the flywheel but hard to tell from this photo.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

A flathead is the only thing that makes sense, but I don't remember Clayton ever running one in A, and neither does he, but it's been almost 45 years since this picture was taken. I can see where you think this might be a pulley, because it could be except that it looks too close to the motor. I does look like a tall flywheel, which I thought about too, but then I thought it also could be one of those big dark Konig magnetos that were mounted off the side near the front. Most likely it is a flathead with an "obstacle illusion" and our memories are partially erased. Here it is again with the higher resolution in B&W. clayton hydro.jpg

ADD: For some reason these pictures all post darker than what I am looking at. On Clayton's motor the pipes do not show the flute at the end from my computer screen. And the angle of the pipes is different than on Jerry's motor. I wish you guys could see what I'm looking at, but I can't make it look the same on the posts. Too bad the motor in question is the furthest away and does not have the white roostertail background to clearly define it like the other two. I guess I will just have to concede that it is a flathead.

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

A flathead is the only thing that makes sense, but I don't remember Clayton ever running one in A, and neither does he, but it's been almost 45 years since this picture was taken. I can see where you think this might be a pulley, because it could be except that it looks too close to the motor. I does look like a tall flywheel, which I thought about too, but then I thought it also could be one of those big dark Konig magnetos that were mounted off the side near the front. Most likely it is a flathead with an "obstacle illusion" and our memories are partially erased. Here it is again with the higher resolution in B&W. clayton hydro.jpg

Without a doubt, it's a flathead Looper

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Wayne:

Regards your comment about "our memories erased".


I NEVER DID ANYTHING EVER, to cause myself any memory problems.

Can't say the same for the rest of you. At least that is the way I remember it.

[Steve Litzell]

Wayne, Is it possible that you ran your A in a B race? Clayton's motor looks like a Flathead to me as well and the difference in bells on the flatheads could be that Quincy made tight elbows and then went to a wider sweeping elbow followed by a flared bell in about 1970 I think. Or it was the only way Jerry and Clayton could beat you was by running B's in a A race HE HE HE Steve

[David Weaver]

Wayne,

you appear to be running a 2 pipe FA Konig. It's pipes probably slid 2-3 inches or you may have just ran them up all the time. Sure looks like a Looper beside you. Could the inside boat be using an earlier FA Koing with the "horns"?

David

[Master Oil Racing Team]

It was before the bells were flared out much more Steve. As far as Jerry and Clayton are concerned, they had no problem beating me with anything, but about this time I was starting to become a threat. They always had plenty of boats at Alex so they didn't need to run step ups.

And David, no we didn't slide the pipes. We didn't do that until the higher ported single pipe FA came along. And I never saw a horned Konig except in pictures, so that rules that out. However, I think Joe and Clayton came up with the answer yesterday. I have to concede that it is a flathead, but it is NOT Clayton driving. I had a hard time with Clayton being in the cockpit from the beginning without the white helmet, but when Clayton told Joe that he thinks that is not him in the boat, then it is someone else in Clayton's old boat or they copied Clayton's colors and paint scheme. Can't tell anything about the numbers.

1968 was a transition year for us. We got in a bunch of rotary valve Konigs, we would be picking up three brand new Marchetti's at DePue in a couple of weeks, Baldy and his partner Joe Hendricks had bought Emmord's Boat Barn, and Clayton and Doris Elmer and their family would be moving down to Corpus Christi where Clayton would take over as general manager.

When we took that empty trailer to Floyd Hopkins', it wasn't just to drop off some motors and pick up props, we had to have been picking up a boat or two as well. I just do not remember the boats. My hydro in the picture is the one that replaced the Marchetti I exploded in Clarendon that Baldy gave to Craig Lawrence and Alan Registar. I think that we must have gotten another hydro for Clayton as well, and Joe thinks some racers from Louisiana ended up with Clayton's old hydro. If I had a roster of qualifying heats for A hydro, we could probably identify who it is, but that would make the pieces of the puzzle fit.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This is the story in the Sunday morning Alexandria Daily Town Talk with results of Sunday's races. And overall results. Don't have Sunday morning edition covering Saturday results.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Here is some more from the Sunday and overall results.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I am missing the newspaper article from the Saturday races except for the last column referring to Jerry Simison. NOA Roostertail just ran the first three places, so I tried to piece together between NOA and the Alexandria Town Talk how CB Racing Team faired.

I checked all the points, finishes per heat and overall point totals, but I came up short because I could not find the top five in A Runabout B Hydro, nothing in C Runabout, or D Hydro in which Charlie and Clayton would have run, or F Runabout, but this is what I came up with as close as I could figure. Baldy was very proud of the CB Racing Team effort, as were Jack Chance, Charlie Bailey, Clayton Elmer and myself.

High Point was Jerry Waldman with 3,700 points, beating out Jerry Simison by 300 points, and as was written in the story because Jerry S. loaned Jerry W. the motor he won D hydro with. Freddie Goehl was third overall in points with 2,989. CB Racing Team rounded out the top 5 with Clayton Elmer garnering 2,232 points and me finishing out with 2,007. Not having the total results it would not surprise me that Charlie Bailey finished 6th.

From incomplete results I show that CB Racing Team had 1 first, 6 seconds, 7 3rds, and 2 4ths, without any results at all from C Runabout and D Hydro. Clayton and Charlie were both competitive in those classes. So we had a very good weekend of racing, BUT it was not finished yet.

Clyde Fox had put Bob Hering's speed in a qualifying heat of B Hydro down as the new record. Bob had beaten his old record from the previous year in his qualifying heat. In the finals Bob won the first heat of B Hydro and I won the second, with Bob finishing second. My time was faster than Bob's previous record, but less than Bob's time in his qualifying heat. We both won our qualifying heats, and Baldy protested Claude's giving the competition record to Bob for a qualifying heat when I broke Bob's old record beating him in the finals. Baldy's argument was that in the first place, competition records were always set during the finals with the full field. Secondly, an elimination heat was not the same thing as a finals. Depending on the level of competion, an experienced driver could break away and not even be challenged. Especially if the field were not full, such as if there were 50 boats and eliminations were less than full field.

While being very pleased with our results at Alex. Baldy was insistent that the rules be consistent and fair, and he challenged Claude Fox.