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).