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

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This is a photo from the Southern Championships and written on the back is "Wayne Baldwin T-73 'B' Hydro World Competition Record 66.790 mph. July 19, 1968"

It was written a long time ago, and I don't remember if it was from the qualifying heat, or one of the finals. I always thought it was the heat I broke the record, but without any final's roster, or notes I can't be sure. I do know that this is the boat/motor combination and was the race that it happened. And I can remember Baldy was beaming. He was so proud and happy that he could bust. It didn't matter that I didn't win. I had not even made the finals the previous year. It didn't matter that this was the Southern Championships. All the same guys that ran here in the NOA Nationals were present. What mattered to Baldy was that we had won our qualifying heat in B Hydro, and that I had won one heat of the finals beating Bob Hering, and set a new B Hydro record. Our CB Racing Team did not win any championships, but we did very well overall, leaving Jack and Baldy very happy and satisfied with the weekend racing results.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Behind Freddie Goehl in the newspaper photo is Clayton Elmer. I had looked in all the info I had about the champions of the race, and nowhere was there anything about Clayton. Joe Rome and I spent half a day with Clayton at the races at Baytown yesterday (April 14, 2013) and had a wonderful time. I asked Clayton if he ever won a Sportsmanship trophy at Alex and he said yes. That was probably why he was in the photo. (Besides having a heck of a weekend of racing).

[tahawk]

[QUOTE=Master Oil Racing Team;130619]Behind Freddie Goehl in the newspaper photo is Clayton Elmer. I had looked in all the info I had about the champions of the race, and nowhere was there anything about Clayton. Joe Rome and I spent half a day with Clayton at the races at Baytown yesterday (April 14, 2013) and had a wonderful time. I asked Clayton if he ever won a Sportsmanship trophy at Alex and he said yes. That was probably why he was in the photo. (Besides having a heck of a weekend of racing).[/QUOTE_


Wayne its wasreally nice seeing you ,joe and billy davis at the race.wish we could have spent more time talk ing.hope you enjoyed it.hope to see you at port neches

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Will not be able to make Port Neches Tracy, but it was great seeing you and all the other guys too. Good luck to you.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Joe Rome and I had a great time talking with many of the Ray Yates family members, a bunch of the old and new OPC racers, Billy Davis and especially Clayton Elmer. Clayton and his wife Doris attended Ray Yates funeral, and that was the most time we had spent together since around 1973 I'm guessing. I have talked with Clayton off and on since then about the 1965 NOA World Championships broadcast by ABC's Wide World of Sports and other events. The race at Highlands was the first time we had many hours to talk. As I wrote when I first started this thread, we were very fortunate to have pitted next to Clayton Elmer and Jack Chance at our first real race. Baldy and Jack hit it off instantly, and Clayton took me under his wing. We had a great time talking about our beginnings....and about all the new kids.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Since none of the pit crew had to go to school, and Baldy could do whatever he pleased, he chose to spend the night at Alex and celebrate with the teams that chose to stay overnight. We had packed up and got the rig parked in a place at the Holiday Inn on McArthur where we could pull out in the morning without being blocked in. We were all happy that we did well and Baldy and Jack went back and forth over not a little beer how one thing or another could have made it even better.

Socks and towels hung over the metal railing, and wet tennies lined up side by side next to the doors, but not underneath the window units, we looked forward to slipping into dry shoes the next morning. We would stow the damp tennies in the trailer and gather up the socks and stuff them into plastic bags found in each room for such use. The towels we would use for a final shower since we would not have had a fresh change before leaving.

We got a copy of the Monday edition of the Alexandria Town Talk. This was a different turn of events at most races since we usually had the Sunday edition of a paper for Saturday results, and left Sunday evening and not getting a Monday morning paper covering the Sunday finals. ( Don't know why I don't have a copy of Sunday morning's Alexandria Town Talk.)

It was a long haul back, but it is a much better drive when you are glowing in the knowledge of establishing a new competition record in the most competitive class and beating the best their is, with them chasing you and not broken down on the course. Baldy was very happy except for one thing. In the newspaper article it held Bob Hering as the new B Hydro competition record holder even though it was set during a qualifying heat and not a finals. Baldy thought that would be easy enough to set straight after he got home. And so we had a fine leisurely trip home.

I would not be there long though as Baldy had ordered some hydros from Nick Marchetti to be picked up at the Nationals the weekend after next.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Here is a letter to Baldy from Carl Rylee. Carl agreed with Baldy, and apparently at the time helped convince Claude that the record should be from the finals and not an elimination heat. We all carried along that way until we got the 1969 rulebook some months later. It still showed the B Hydro record as the one Bob Hering set in 1967. So I guess Claude decided not to stir things up and didn't grant a B Hydro record to either Bob or myself. In fact, while researching what I have from the rule books of 1969, 1970 and 1971, I found some curious things.

According to the Alexandria Town Talk twelve of thirteen competition records were broken, and three straightaway records were broken. Jerry Simison set a new mark in C Runabout, Jerry Waldman in C Hydro and Bob Hering in B Hydro. None of the competition records set in 1968 appeared in the 1969 Rule Book. The only record from Alex in the 1969 rule book was Bob Hering's straightaway, and it makes sense the other two were not in it because the C Runabout and Hydro records were upped in Knoxville the end of October and November 1, 1968. Even more strange is that Kay Harrison upped the C Hydro world record in Baldy's front yard for the second half of the 1968 NOA World Championships, but the record did not make it into the 1969 Rule Book. Chalk it up to printer error or editing the records section, except weirdness continued. In 1970 eleven of thirteen competition records were broken at Alexandria, and virtually every single record but the two that were not broken were slower than the records set in 1968, and a difference of 4 to 5 miles per hour slower in several classes. The two records that were not beaten were the F Hydro record of John Griffin from the 1968 Alex race and Jerry Simison's C Runabout record also from Alex in 1968. This was the first time any of the competition records from 1968 were published. The course size is not mentioned on any of the NOA competition records, but I do not recall Alex ever having a shorter surveyed course so that speeds decrease. Very puzzling.

I don't have a 1972 or 1973 rule book and since this was the time when NOA was having some struggles both internal and external, it may be that none were published. All these years I have claimed that record as one of my racing accomplishments, but I don't know if it was ever made official. I did not receive the plaque, but then again I never received one of the walnut plaques from APBA for one of my national championships either. Just never bothered to pursue either one.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We ate breakfast at the Holiday Inn Monday morning where Baldy put a quarter in the slot in the metal newspaper dispenser out front of the lobby to get our copy of the "Alexandria Daily Town Talk". We were riding high with thoughts of our racing weekend, but we had to get home and get busy. There was a lot to do and miles to travel before long. Many miles.

Sometimes we just went straight home after a race north of Houston and sometimes we stopped by Jack Chance's on the way home. Jack, Clayton, Doris, and Charlie had all left after the races on Sunday. This is around the time Jack retired from the Humble Oil & Gas Baytown refinery so I think he was home. We had done a lot of qualifying and racing the previous few days and a lot of work to do on motors. I had to go pick up three hydros from Nick Marchetti at DePue the weekend after next, so we stopped at Jack's to drop off motors for him to go through.

Many of you probably feel the same way. On the way to a race the mood is upbeat, buoyant and the drive is relaxing. Kind of like a good western or adventure movie sailing over the ocean. After the initial flurry of getting going there is a long sequel of traveling across scenic mountains and rivers or passive oceans with majestic and inspiring music. That's the way we always felt starting across country to a big race. Coming home, we were always anxious to get back and not have any delays. That's what it felt like stopping at Jack Chance's on the way back from a race. Win or lose didn't matter. I just didn't like to take the time to stop, open the hatches on the trailer lid, pull out empty fuel cans, tools, and stuff, slide the floor out, swivel the motors around to get to the ones we were going to leave, unscrew the nuts, then lift them off the bolts and work them around and through the other motors that were staying, and holding them with one hand on the front of the lower unit and the other hand under the powerhead, take them around the trailer into Jack's shop and set them on stands fitted with bolts.

It always took an hour or more by the time we got done. We were also out of our way coming back from Alex, but at least we could see how much further the apartment buildings had sunk near Clear Lake and how much the silo near Alvin had leaned since we passed there recently. But it had to be done because not only did motors have to be gone through, but we had three brand new boats to rig up and test. That meant Jack had to have them ready and come down to Baldy's to test before we left for the NOA World Championships.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Tuesday, after returning from Alex, Mark and I unloaded all the boats. We spread all the stands out in the garage and set the hydros and runabouts upon them. Any motors that we didn't leave at Jack Chance's house, we placed in our new shop in the backyard of our house in Alice. I worked on motors and cleaned up the boats. I could soap up the hydros and was them down with water to get rid of all the sand, silt and castor oil, but with our DeSilva runabouts, with no drain holes, I had to do the final bit of sand and silt with a bucket of water and a sponge to scrunch up the sand and slosh the sponge in the water bucket a number of times.

It was midweek, either Wednesday or Thursday that Bud Turcotte and myself drove up to San Marcos, halfway between San Antonio and Austin, Texas. Bud had lived all his life on a ranch and played football for the Riviera Seahawks, a AA school. It was probably assumed by his parents Louis Edgar and Joyce Turcotte that he would live at home and commute to Texas A&I University less than a half hour commute north. Since I was going there and commuting from home myself, and he was one of my top pit men, Bud would be a Texas A&I Javelina. But Bud had other ideas. He approached me and told me that not too far from home......far enough to be away, but not so far that we could not get home quickly....there was a college that was three or four two one girls....maybe more. I listened. It was Southwest Texas Teachers College. Of course everyone was familiar with the University of Texas, Texas A & M, Rice University, SMU, Baylor, Sam Houston State College, Red Raiders at Lubbock, Texas Christian University, and even Sul Ross at Alpine. I never thought about going anywhere but Texas A&I in Kingsville because that's where my sister Brenda went and it was close to home.

The more Bud talked about Southwest Texas Teachers College, the more interested I became. He told me you didn't have to go there to be a teacher. They taught the same business administration courses I was already taking, but it would not only be full of girls, but it was only a half hour north of San Antonio. His sister Susan and Jeanie Huff, both pit crews of mine, would be heading back to Incarnate Word along with my girlfriend Ginger. We would be very close, plus all the girls on our very own campus.

Bud had explained all of this to me in the previous weeks, and we took this time to run up to San Marcos to check out the campus, get the lay of the land and see what we needed to do to attend. I drove us up in my 1967 red Dodge Polara with a white top and surfboard racks. We drank Dr Pepper in bottles and had 95 percent accuracy in hitting roadside markers with empty bottles. I had to toss mine over the roof a little sooner than Bud, who had a direct shot. That was before I became an environmentalist. Uncanny how accurate we both were.

The song I can remember from that first trip came on the radio between Stockdale and Sequin. It was "higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson. Bud and I were sprouting wings and getting some feeling of independence. It was a carefree, heady feeling. We toured the campus, talked with administration, got info, and told them we were ready to enroll. We just needed to send in our applications with transcripts and money, and if all was right.....we would become Southwest Texas Teacher's College Bobcats. There were only about 7000 students there then, and probably 4000 were girls.

Bud and I were back at the lake that night and mighty pleased with our days work.

I don't recall anything particular about the weekend, but we probably did what we always did, and that was cruise around Pernitas Point. Baldy of course knew what Bud and I were up to, and although I don't think he particularly liked it, he didn't try to stop me from moving up to San Marcos. He would have paid for me to go to college wherever I wanted (except northeast liberal which he knew I wouldn't choose), and so I figure he thought San Marcos was close enough and he probably thought it would do me good to be somewhat on my own. He never tried to convince me to stay at Texas A & I and fully supported the move and finances for college.

It was then time to head north to DePue, Illinois to pick up the hydros Nick Marchetti had built. Tuesday evening Baldy went over a map with me and my sister Brenda on the best route to DePue. Brenda was going to help us drive. My brother Mark was doing something else so Brenda, pit man Bud Turcotte and myself were going to do a quick trip to DePue and back.

Brenda and I left our house in Alice on Wednesday morning pulling an almost empty trailer and drove down U.S. Highway 281 to Texas 141 to Kingsville, then to Texas 77 through Riveria, past the turnoff to the Famous King's Inn restaurant and just north of Sarita, Texas turned right to head up the caliche road to the Turcotte haunted house. It is a wooden three story Victorian house with a wrap around porch situated on a high hill overlooking the surrounding territory. It was built before air conditioning, and there was not much activity in the upper story after air conditioning was installed and windows and doors were closed. It was hot up there and that's where the ghosts lived.

Normally We would have picked Bud up at his lake house or he would have met us in Alice, but it was probably when he was making a hard left on FM369 and a retainer on his rear axle broke on his Camaro. the left axle slid almost all the way out and he was out of a ride until it was fixed. So whatever the reason, Brenda and I drove south a little over an hour to his house just north of Sarita, Texas. We drove up behind his house on the west side and parked, entering a breakfast area just off the kitchen. Nobody ever entered the front door facing the east unless they were selling encyclopedias.

Brenda and I talked with Bud's mother Joyce Turcotte while we waited for Bud. It was already late in the morning, but we still had to wait. Bud finally got his gear together and joined us. I started to back the trailer around to head back down the caliche road a quarter of a mile from highway 77 when the Rascals song "People Got to be Free" started pumping out of the speakers. Brenda was a die hard country music fan and didn't like a lot of what Bud and I listened to. It was a long way to and back from DePue, and music was our guiding soul. When Brenda exclaimed with delight "I love that song". I thought we got it made. I got the Chrysler and trailer turned around in their caliche parking lot and we headed east downhill, then left on Highway 77 northbound for 1,295 miles.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We followed 77, a two lane U.S. highway up to 5 points where the city of Calallen grew to the point where Corpus Christi annexed it in 1970 for the tax money. At that time FM 624 from Orange Grove ended there and intersected with U.S. 77 North and South and Texas State Highway 9 running northwest to southeast. The only thing anywhere near there in 1968 was a Humble Oil gas station. We took the Highway 9 exit. It was one of the oldest state highways in Texas. In 1917 the legislature proposed 26 highways criss crossing Texas including Highway 6 just a few miles from Joe Rome's shop and house. As were all highways back then, it had a number of alternate routes, took over some existing roads and had some new ones made. By 1939 all other parts were taken over by new and better highways and only the part from San Antonio to Corpus Christi was still named Highway 9. It was just a narrow 2 lane highway with no shoulders and followed the contour of the hills. About 45 miles north we passed through the historic town of Oakville with the ghost of the courthouse of Live Oak County still standing. When IH 37 from Corpus Christi to San Antonio was opened in 1971, there was no more Highway 9 designation in Texas.

Oakville died when the Missouri Pacific rail line ran down to Corpus Christi ten miles to the west, but in the mid 1870's it was a wild and dangerous town. It was haven for outlaws, gunslingers, murderers, robbers, smugglers and all types of bad people. No law enforcement tried to put a stop to the mayhem. If by chance the law did try to catch up with a particularly bad character that wandered in from elsewhere all they had to do was race for Banquete about 60 miles south then they were home free. Law enforcement did not go south of Banquete on the way to Mexico because that was considered desert of the dead. Few people lived in that wild part between southern Texas and northern Mexico. Banquete (pronounced Ban ketty, or in Spanish ban KET te) was given that name because it was where Santa Anna camped for several days on the way to the Alamo. It was a grueling trek and Agua Dulce (sweet water) Creek was the first good water they had since crossing the Rio Grande River.

The worst governor Texas ever had was EJ Davis from Corpus Christi by way of St Augustine, Florida. He was a lawyer, then a judge and became a brigadier general in the Union Army after the civil war. He won governorship as a Republican and jailed many of his political enemies. He replaced the Texas Rangers (America's oldest law enforcement group) with what was called the Texas State Police. Most good Texas Rangers did not enlist in this group, or quit in disgust. What it was made up of primarily was a bunch of thugs who used their power to carry out power grabs, bribes , settle old scores and many other abusive actions. They became hated throughout the state, particularly when during reconstruction citizens rights were suspended and a special group made up of many white carpetbaggers and freed blacks used the power of the law to make false accusations and create a lot of fear and anger in the citizens. After three years and a new governor the Texas State Police was shut down and Texas Rangers were reformed. The bad guys were run off or were killed one way or another. Governor Davis refused to leave the Texas Mansion but was forced to after General Grant refused to intervene, so he locked it up and took the key. Governor Coke had to have the door broken down to enter his new residence.

Passing through Oakville, we drove another ten miles to Highway 72 to Kennedy then left for a few miles on 181 to Karnes City where we picked up Texas Highway 123 that took us to San Marcos. That would be a route Bud Turcotte and I would make many times after we headed off to college in about a month. It was a very scenic drive through the rolling hills including the tiny community of Czestahowa (I think the oldest Czech community in America, or maybe oldest Czech church).


At Seguin we crossed the Guadalupe River. Seguin was named after Juan Seguin who was a large landowner and one of many Texas Mexicans who sided with the anglos and was one of the heroes of the Texas Revolution. After half a dozen more small communities we got on Interstate 35 at San Marcos. Going the way we did, we bypassed San Antonio and now blew down the road toward Austin and points north. IH-35 was easy to travel back then. There was sometimes a lot of congestion just south of Austin, but it was not really too bad. On the south edge of Austin we crossed over what was once possibly the greatest dragboat course in America. That would be Town Lake on the Colorado River. Continuing north on IH35 we soon passed through Round Rock which is where the law finally caught up with the notorious outlaw Sam Bass. A spy within the gang tipped off the Rangers about a bank robbery and they rode fast as they could all night to be there during the robbery. He was shot during the getaway and died leaning against an oak tree out of town where the Rangers had caught up to him. He was still alive when they got there. I believe he was gut shot.

We were making some good time. I forgot where we stopped for lunch, but by late afternoon we passed through Killeen which is almost home away from home for thousands of Army personnel stationed at near by Fort Hood. Just down the road from that we Crossed the Brazos at Waco and home to Louis Collins. Another half hour or so up the road near Jacksboro we had a choice of taking IH35 West and go through Fort Worth, or stay right and take IH35 East and go through Dallas. It would have been the time of day that rush hour traffic was already down, so that would be the quickest route for us. On through Dallas, Denton and further north through Gainesville. Not many miles north of Gainesville we crossed the Red River into Oklahoma. It was the first time any of us had been in Oklahoma. Although we raced on Lake Texoma in 1967 near Denison, I don't believe the race course crossed into Oklahoma territory.

I don't recall where we stopped for supper, but we drove on into the night finally stopping I believe at a motel in Norman, Oklahoma, just south of Oklahoma City.