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

[A/B Speedliner]

George,
I thouhgt I had it bad but you are over the top. Alan and I raced boats and cars but never MC. We ran a 1960 A/h Sprite with a Buick 215 engine, built like an Indy car engine but less the blower. Along came marriage, kids and having to make a living with a real job, LOL.

Keep the great stuff coming and I look forward to another fine conversation like we had at Tavares a few weeks ago.
Your friend
David Van Weele

[ezryder]

George,
I thouhgt I had it bad but you are over the top. Alan and I raced boats and cars but never MC. We ran a 1960 A/h Sprite with a Buick 215 engine, built like an Indy car engine but less the blower. Along came marriage, kids and having to make a living with a real job, LOL.

Keep the great stuff coming and I look forward to another fine conversation like we had at Tavares a few weeks ago.
Your friend
David Van Weele

The Fiat Abarth was just my first race car. The following year I bought a Lotus 11 (1958 model) from a guy in Alabama for 1500 bucks.
BOY, do I WISH I had never sold it!!!
Then in '64 I went the long dollar and bought a brand new Lotus 23.
For the next two years I won races everywhere. I did get an offer of a
pro ride at the end of '65. But the ride vanished when Alcoa Aluminum decided not to sponsor the program that they had earlier committed to.

That was the end of my attempt to make it to the big time. I did sign a contract. But back in those days, contract's didn't mean much if the sponsor bailed out.
Anyway, at that point, I was "broke". Supporting a competitive Lotus 23 at the pro level had sapped my bank account. And I was done!

But in the end I still made my dream of making my living in motorsports come true. Just in a bit different fashion than I had hoped for.
I ended up in motorcycle racing. And although I was never a super star rider, I did have one talent that carried me through.
When I was racing cars, I earned my living building fiberglass bodywork for sports racing cars. I produced all the bodywork that was ever made for the "Formcar" formula V kits that were sold in the early sixties. That was how I was able to afford my Lotus 23. I paid $12000 bucks for my Lotus 23 in '64. That was a HUGE amount of money for that time.

But I was single, didn't mind working 18 hours a day and I wanted to
race a car that could win "so bad" you can't even imagine. In short,
I was "eat up" with my dream! Damn good thing I didn't get married 'til I was 27!

The car deal didn't work out. But the M/C deal sure did. My company, Taylor'd Fairings, built most all the roadracing fairings built for motorcycles in the US from 1974 until I sold the business in 1985.
And along with that, my products were used to win both 250cc and 500cc World championships during that time.

And the biggest bonus of all was that I got to "live" my dream from my
youth -- to make my living in motorsports. I was able to support my family while living my "dream".
What more could you ask for??
EZ

[ezryder]

Hi everyone,
Been a while since I've added anything to this thread. So decided to at least do some short notes today, before we head to my mother-in-law's for dinner.

I've been spending a lot of time in my race shop working on my "Mustang Sally" restoration. It's a slow road, but making progress.

Also spending time on my 20H "popper" project. And it's also coming along very well.
I'm basically building this engine from the bottom up. I bought the power head and 16/21 gearbox from Joe Welch.
Got the mid section and bracke assembly on eBay. It was in great shape, but was not the correct long reach transom long reach brackets.
I found a 20H bracket assembly on eBay, complete with a 20H I.D. plate in place.

I'm currently working on the paint job. Then I can assemble it into a complete package.
I'm doing the paint job just as it would be if I had bought a conversion kit from Mercury in "the day", and installed it on my motor. And that includes everything, including the fuel pump and carb conversion.

I just recently found a 16/21 prop for it courtesy of John Schubert, so
I'm set have a go with it as soon as I finish up the assembly.
Thanks John!

I've also been spending a lot of evening time on BRF exploring the late sixties on up into the 80's via Wayne's postings and photos.
Thanks so much to everyone for adding to my knowledge of my "lost years" after I was forced to quit boat racing (another story for another time). And moved on into cars and then m/c racing.

"Random pit shots" and "Random pit shots 2" have been a great help. And I'm still not all that far into them.
Same for Konig thread and the Tim Butts thread.
As some of you already know, I drove Konig's for Deter and Walt Blankenstein in the 50's.

I'll try to get busy and scan some more pictures to post soon. But don't expect the "Wayne" treatment. We took very few pictures back in those
days.

Regards,
George (AKA "ez")

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Thanks for the kind words George. You have already contributed mightily to outboard history. We welcome your pictures, but the main thing is your remembrances.

I complained to Joe Rome last week that "I wish I would have taken more notes" and I didn't say more pictures, but Joe countered "We did more than most of them." Joe is a packrat too, but he doesn't scan. His wife Karen does that. If Joe could speak to a computer and his words would turn to typestyle, he would have a thread that even the fastest spider couldn't spin with.

So while we want you pictures George, more importantly, you can fill us in on the details of how the racing was back then.

[ezryder]

Around late 57 or early 58, don't remember for sure ---

Walt was a great guy, but he could be a bit "crotchety" at times when
you "messed" with his mind!!
Walt had bought a Volkswagen "Beetle" to carry him from home to the race shop every day.
Man, he preached to me every day about how fantastic that "beetle" was!

Didn't impress me much! At the time I had a Chevvy tow car with a "heated up" engine in it. I could do the 1/4 mile in less than 12 seconds.
So I spent a lot of time "deriding" his Beetle. Boy, did he ever get "hot" under the collar when I kept giving him ****!

Finally, one day I decided that I was going to bring this whole gig to a boil!

As usual, Walt would keep preaching to me about how reliable the "Beetle" was! And deriding my Chevvy because I had done a "power shift" and blown the transmission. My dad was "pissed" and Walt was "over the moon" with insults to me about my Chevvy.

I got fed up, so I plotted out a plan to get even! And boy, did I ever!!.
Most of you "old timers" will remember the "car bomb's" you could buy back then. The ones you wired into the ignition system. Then hung around and waited for your target to start his engine??

Well, I wired one up in Walt's beloved Volkswagen without his knowledge. And then hung around until he closed up shop to leave for home.
OH MY!!!
First the siren went off --- followed by the huge explosion -- then the smoke!
By that time Walt was in the next thing to "cardiac arrest"!!

FUNNEEEEEEEE!!!! He "banned" me from his race shop for a week!
But he needed me to finish a project I was working on for him, so I got off "light"!

It took Walt about a month to get over that stunt! hehe

And this is just one story of MANY really funny stories I have to tell about my days hanging around Walt's race shop when I was driving for Konig.

George (aka EZ)

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That's very funny about Walt. I could picture him hounding you beforehand, and the result of what you did.

I was looking through some old Roostertails reading all about the younger Johnny Dortch when I came across some mentions of you and your Dad. I had thought I posted a couple of results earlier about your racing, these seemed to be different. While I reviewed your thread I came across some of the motorcycle and auto racing pics I had not seen before. I was very impressed and it's not the first time something has happened either to me or the computer that I have missed something. Anyway...I will post the Roostertail stuff I found hopefully in the next few days.

[ezryder]

That's very funny about Walt. I could picture him hounding you beforehand, and the result of what you did.

I was looking through some old Roostertails reading all about the younger Johnny Dortch when I came across some mentions of you and your Dad. I had thought I posted a couple of results earlier about your racing, these seemed to be different. While I reviewed your thread I came across some of the motorcycle and auto racing pics I had not seen before. I was very impressed and it's not the first time something has happened either to me or the computer that I have missed something. Anyway...I will post the Roostertail stuff I found hopefully in the next few days.

Great Wayne! I'd love to see the Rostertail comments!

I have a rather large box full of all the stuff I collected from my boat racing days. Haven't looked at in years. But there is a lot of stuff there.
Boat Sport, Speed and Spray and other memorabilia.
Hopefully I'll have time to drag that box out sometime soon and post some of the results. Won't be like your "in the pits" photos, but should be interesting none the less.

If I remember correctly Johnny Dortch started making a name for himself in the latter days of my boat racing. I remember racing with him a few times, but he was so far north of where I raced, I didn't really know much about him.

It really hit home to me when I heard about his demise, and the story behind it. Made me realize just how lucky I am to still be around!

My wife, Sheila, is diabetic and I worry about her all the time! We have been married now for 48 years.
I could easily be Johnny Dortch all over again should I lose her!

I keep telling her that I'm gonna "check out" before she does -- but NONE of us know when we're gonna "check out"!

Considering the "type A" personality I've chased all these years, its truly surprising I'm still here! I really didn't expect to be!

I remember thinking, when my dad died at 52, that I would be really lucky to make it to his age considering what I was doing.
But somehow, God looked after me -- and I'm still here.

And enjoying getting older too! --- cuz the alternative really SUCKS!!
hehe

EZ

[Master Oil Racing Team]

...you look at your birth certificate and see it has an expiration date.

I like your attitude George. And prayer will keep you guys going for a long time.

It's sad you're Dad passed at such a young age. Johnny and Liz had a great life together although toward the end, it was tough on both Johnny and Liz. I talked to her a while a few months before she passed and at first she sounded so down and tired, but before we were through talking she was laughing and telling me all kinds of stories. You need to get Sheila to help collate your boat racing AND motorcycle stories and photos so we can see what all you guys did back then.

Here's one of the Roostertail articles I found.

[ezryder]

...you look at your birth certificate and see it has an expiration date.

I like your attitude George. And prayer will keep you guys going for a long time.

It's sad you're Dad passed at such a young age. Johnny and Liz had a great life together although toward the end, it was tough on both Johnny and Liz. I talked to her a while a few months before she passed and at first she sounded so down and tired, but before we were through talking she was laughing and telling me all kinds of stories. You need to get Sheila to help collate your boat racing AND motorcycle stories and photos so we can see what all you guys did back then.

Here's one of the Roostertail articles I found.

Thanks so much for your post Wayne!
That was a very special time of my life!
The story failed to mention the fact that I had crashed big time in practice on Sunday morning.
I hit a log while testing my Konig B hydro set up. The motor ended up in the boat. But I went out the side of the boat and ripped out all the combing on the left side of my "Big Bee" hydro.

I was one "beat up" dude! But when your that young, you can bounce back faster. And that I did! Until Monday morning, when we headed home!
My dad had his trailer of boats and I had mine. And when we would get low on gas, dad would pull into a gas station to get filled up.
He would fill up his car, and mine!
I could hardly move -- I could drive the rig, but that was about it. It was one painful trip home!

EZ

[Master Oil Racing Team]

So true George. When you're hot and rarin' to go, a setback like taking out the side of a hydro isn't going to stop you. Then when it's over and you cool down and get a good night's sleep......the stiffness sets in. Unfortunately I experienced a bruising incident in qualifying at the nationals. Having flown above the far tree line from the pits at DePue racing C hydro and landing in two feet of water in a silt filled river, I came back to win my qualifying heat in B hydro. At his last Pro race before going full time OPC Billy Seebold told me "You're not going to race tommorrow!" I assurred him I was, but he was right Billy knew from experience. I love all the side stories you have surrounding the racing itself, such as the trip home. How many times have we headed out to the races full of enthusiasm, and all kinds of opportuntities and things we could do, only to head home downhearted, broken and ready to get in our own bed. It was your youth, enthusiam, and talent that got you to the finish line. I cannot imagine what it took to get you up and going the next morning. Keep the stories coming.