2012 Depue Reunion

[Master Oil Racing Team]

OKAY Guys. Now soliciting donations for the silent auction. Please tell us what you can donate for this very worthy cause at the reunion. Ron has posted two items he will offer up, and now I will follow up with some items I am putting up. It would be great if you could post a picture as well, but if not.....well, tell us what it is.

The first item I have will be a new computer printed version of the Bob Hering flip sequence I took in 1976 and as was published in Powerboat that year. There are seven in the set. I will decide on whether or not to add an additional one that is mostly spray. The historical thing about this was that Bob drove Mercs when he lifted off. As near as I can remember, when he came back to racing he was driving an OMC. This was the flip also that led everyone to buying SafeJacs and cutting them up to fit under life jackets and racing styles.

Second is a windbreaker owned by Liz Dortch. Johnny and Liz were both honorary Texans and came to race with us many times. A few months before Liz passed away she asked Johnny to send the windbreaker back to me with some other stuff he was sending. I treasure it as coming from my friend, but I still have several used ones. This was is in immaculate condition and because of the historical value, I wanted to offer it up. The other historical factor is that Lone Star Boat Racing Association was around before NOA and was it's own sanctioning body. It lasted until the mid nineteen eighties. Steve Jones and I worked up the design and had around a hundred made I believe. The stitching on the patch is of the highest quality as is the windbreaker material. It is a tight heavy weave, not a flimsy piece of plastic.

The final item this go around is selected photos from my autograph collection. These are photos I took, and many are rejects for publishing, but when I started this collection, I didn't have time to go into the darkroom before a race. I just grabbed some that had already been printed before heading out for a race. What I was after was the autograph. I got this idea too late in my career to get many that I wished I had now, but I a grateful for the ones I have. My collection has grown too big for me to duplicate all of them, so I will hand pick ones from around the country that I think anyone would be proud to have. They will be in plastic sleeves in a three ring leather looking vinyl binder like the one I have my collection in. You can't see it in the first picture because the binder is larger than the scanner screen, but in the second, you can get the idea. It will have a zipper to protect the photos and the sleeves will be archival quality.