One thing I remembered from the race, but could not reconcile was Jerry Waldman locking up his motor in D hydro and Lucien Marioneaux flipping to avoid him. After reading the newspaper account, it all came back. I remembered it because I saw it happen from a good view.
It was the first heat of D hydro and we were on the back straight of the first lap. More than halfway down the back straight and almost at the point where a lot of boats flip, Jerry Waldman's flathead locked up tight. You could instantly see the roostertail change from a prop pumping water to the spray off a locked up prop. Jerry had a good lead and about fifty yards directly (and I mean directly), behind Jerry was Lucien Marioneaux I was running third and about fifty yards behind and to the right of Lucien. Anyone who saw Lucien race would remember his knees were kneeling down, but he sat straight upright. No teacher would ever correct him for slouching. His back was straight as a Marine's at attention. I don't know how he could drive like that. Anyway I was curious as to why he was driving right in the middle of Jerry's propwash, but he was. Lucien and I saw instantly that Jerry's motor had locked up solid and his speed was coming off fast. In fact, Lucien only had a spit second to act before running up Waldman's pipes and transom.
Lucien jerked his wheel to the right and it changed direction enough that Lucien and his boat didn't pile into Waldman. I had immediately dumped my throttle when I saw what was going to happen and had enough clearance that I could get by the wreck safely. As it turned out, Lucien either didn't have a kill switch tied to himself, or it had somehow malfuntioned, and the boat remained upright after giving Lucien a brutal series of tumbles in the water. The race had to be stopped to get the errant hydro shut down. While all this went on Jerry was able to get a tow back to the pits, and between Waldman and Simison's crew, they were able to get one of Jerry Simison's Quincy Loopers hooked up on Waldman's hydro before the next heat. It was about three years or so before the rule was enacted that if you are the cause of a race being stopped then you would be ineligible for the restart. Lucien was even able to get back in the race and finish second in the next two heats behind Waldman's firsts. I do not recall if he ran in Jerry's wake the next two heats, but I bet not.
The ironic thing is that Simison and Waldman were each adding points to their totals as each one went out in his respective runabout or hydro heats. They were neck in neck for the high point total, and the loan of Simison's motor to Waldman put Waldman over the top. That's sportsmanship.
Bookmarks