Byrne/George Taylor Family Racing History -- 1948 to 1963

[ezryder]

Hi Bill,
Glad you enjoyed your visit to Barber.
The event we attended was a yearly event. The largest gathering of vintage m/c
racers in the US. Happens every Oct.
It's a huge event with over 70,000 atendees for the three days.
Sorry about your not getting into the restoration area.
It would be worth your time to attend the event next year
And it was great getting to meet you at Lake Alfred.
Regards,
Geo

[ezryder]

I'd like to know more about you. Were you racing with SEBA in the
50's, during my SEBA days?
If you were, please forgive my memory loss.
Regards,
George

[ezryder]

Hi Danny,
I'm guessing Archie would have been in his late 30's when we met him in '54. I was only 14 at the time and anyone older that 20 looked "really old" to me!
I always wondered why he had upper dentures -- here's why.
Archie told me that when he was on that death march, that he complained about a tooth ache. No problem for the japs! They yanked all his upper teeth out without any pain killer. And that was that.

Archie never drank any alcohol when I was around him at races, or anywhere else. Until one weekend when we went down to Miami together. It's been so many years that I don't recall why. Vaguely I
think it was to see some family friend of his.
This was also the only time I was ever with Archie on a trip when his wife, Mildred, was not with him. Every race he ever went to, Mildred was with him.
Anyway, now I was 16 and starting to "feel my oats" and I talked Archie into buying me some liquor.
We went back to the hotel, I got drunk, and went out chasing girls. When I got back to the hotel, no Archie. This was early Saturday morning. And I didn't see him again until Sunday morning.
He was totally "wasted" when he finally showed up. and was a HUGE handful for me to deal with. I knew I couldn't let him drive. I ended up
feeding him more whiskey. Then got him in the car where he finally passed out.
I drove him back to Orlando and turned him over to Mildred. The next
day he called and asked that I come over to his place. That's where he told me that he was an alcoholic and could not control his drinking.

Soon after Archie and Mildred got transferred to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Ala.
I spend lots of time staying with them in 56 and 57 because that was a lot closer to the SEBA races than Orlando.
Never once ever, did I see Archie drunk again.

But after his plane crash and the never ending rehab, he slipped back into drinking. Mildred kept me abreast of all these troubles.

Finally the AF mustered him out of the service, I think around 63 or so. They moved back to Birmingham, where Archie was from. And for the most part, I lost touch with them.

I'd like to know as much about you comments of Mildred attempting to shoot him, as you know. And also, I was really surprised in your comment that he was still racing with a Konig in 1970.
That was past my boat racing day. I was already heavy into m/c racing by then.

Regards,
George

[ezryder]

George, thanks for the story on Archie i never knew none of that. I don't remember Bill but i was firends with Danny Critchfield until his death, Danny build OPC V bottoms that were very fast an was a good driver i don't know if he was Bill's son or not. I went to the race at Jesup Ga. this past weekend i have a C MOD Hydro an a guy that drives for me . a lot of old timers show up at this race i don't know if you remember him but Robert Galeta (sp) a SEBA driver showed up i have not seen him sence in the 50's my e mail is Danny44z@yahoo.com Good to here from you Danny

HI Danny,
Yes, Danny was Bill's son. I remember him from when he was first born. And that goes way back
to the early 50's.
Danny and Bill went their separate ways as far as boat building went. Danny had his shop in Jacksonville, as I recall.
In fact if memory serves me correctly he died testing one of his OPC's.

It's kind of ironic that Danny turned out to be a really good driver considering the fact that Bill only ran one boat race his entire life.
I remember the race -- it was at Ocoee, Fla around 1952 or 3.
Bill had built a hydro and bought a KG7H. I remember him being so nervous that I was surprised that he actually managed to answer the 5min gun.
When he came in from the race and got out of the boat, I'd never in my lifetime seen anyone shaking that bad.
That was his only racing attempt ever.

He went on his own building boats around 54. They were named "Scat Craft" boats. Later he changed the name to Critchfield Marine, and started building in fiberglass.
Over the years I drove some of his OPC stuff and built hydros and runabouts in his shop for
racing customers. Also built hydro and runabouts for myself. I even built a few quite successful hydros and runabouts.

There was a driver named Chris Enerston from down in the Lauderdale area that was very successful in the stockers. He built a runabout of his own design and won all the time with it.
He let me copy the design and I built one for myself. It was FAST. But a bit prone to "taking off". Since I was racing SEBA and modifieds I quickly discovered that it was not enough boat for the power. But it was great for AU or BU.

I also built a Sid Craft hydro "knock off" that I had a lot of success with in SEBA.

Over the years I always stayed in touch with Bill.
In fact he was how I ended up in the Fiberglass business building race car bodies in the 60's and motorcycle racing fairings back in the 70's and 80's.

Yes, I remember Robert Galeta. But I can't remember what classes he ran. ??

Regards,
George
PS: I posted this to my thread figuring others would be interested in my remembrances of Bill Critchfield.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

George, I had some cabinets put up in my darkroom so I could organize boat racing magazines and I came across this article you might get a kick out of. It was from June-July 1958 Aqua Sport.

[ezryder]

Thanks so much for posting the aqua sport story!!

Being that I'm such an 'old fart now, could you tell me where this race was held"
I'm sure it was part of the winter "Citrus Circuit" racing, but I don't recall the name of the lake mentioned.
And I don't recall ever reading the story either.

Now lake Maggorie in St Pete was very familiar to me. We had the outboards there every year back in "the day". And they paid "BIG BUCKS" also. And they paid everybody with silver dollars back then.
The "real" kind of silver dollars!!

One year my Dad and I won over 600 silver dollars at Lake Maggorie.
We took all our racing buddies to "Las Nova Datis" in Tampa on the way home for dinner.
When it came time to pay the bill, Dad and I took the "money bags" that held the silver dollars we won, and pored them on the table.
Then counted them out to pay the bill.

You, know, I don't have a clue as to why I remembered that evening so well, but it is burned into my mind for some reason.
The Las Nova Datis Mexican restaurant was renowned for it's "Cabanza Soup".

Almost all the drivers names mentioned we knew very well. We nicknamed Don Baldicinni "bug eyes" because his eyeballs stuck out so far.
Chris Erneston -- Scott Ritter -- Bill Tenny -- Bud Wiget --- Wally Adams --- all guys I knew very well.

Those were FANTASTIC times for a "jirky kid" that was only 16 years old!!

Thanks SO much for your post!

Regards,
George

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Thanks so much for your stories George. Those little tidbits are like spices on an otherwise average meal. I will go pull the magazine to find the beginning of the story.

[ezryder]

Hi everyone,
Now here's something different. I'm sure that most of you youngsters won't have a clue as to what this spark plug is all about.
I know the history. Because I just found this spark plug today. It is a NOS plug that I happened across stored in all my really OLD memorabilia from my boat racing youth.
Hint! --- my dad used these spark plugs in his early racing days.

Hey old timer's!! Tell me all about this plug!!

Regards,
Geo

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

made so you can change the insulator portion of the plug and consequently the heat range without replacing the whole spark plug? Looks like it would be easy enough to do if it were to be cost effective, i.e. the insulator portion 1/2 or less the cost of a complete plug.

It would be easy enough to miss the capability of the plug to be disassembled by not noticing the two hex portions at first glance, especially if it had a boot of some sort on it.

Will look forward to your telling what motors they were used on.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

You got me really curious, so I did a little research and found out this plug will fit an old Harley race bike, perhaps a "shovelhead"?

Anyway, I would still like to know if the reason the plug is designed the way it is, is so the insulator section can be changed to change the heat range.

By the way, there is one listed on E-Bay for $40.00, "Buy it Now". There is a picture shown of one that has holes all the way around the bottom steel portion of the plug that seats against the head. Very unusual design.