Chief Tito Smith: Native American

[Ron Hill]

Tito Smith is the Chief of the Chemehuevi Indains. For the last nine years he's been the "GO TO" man at the casino at Havasu Landing. Tito worked for Edison for 20, before he reitred. He's raced boats since about 1960. He and his son race C Stock Runabout today. Tito builds their boat right on the shores of Lake Havasu. Tito is not the "ACTING" Chief, now, but as I understand it, once a Chief, always a Chief.

I don't really remember when I met Tito, seems, I've known him all my life. I know that isn't true, because I never went to Needles until I was 11. Needles was or is a UNIQUE place, n those days. The Needles Marathon was run on the Colorado River, 115 Miles. The race ran from Needles to Parker Dam and back. (No pit stops, on your knees all the way)...Mobil Oil was a big sponsor in those days as was Mercury. The city had a Marathon Parade down the main street and a city wide Bar-B-Q, that everyone in town attended... Boat Racing was HUGE to a small railroad town on Route 66. (They had no TV.....in those days)..

In 1956, I first raced in Needles. After the race, my brother, his girl friend and I stopped at the Foster's Freeze for a lime slush. We made a detour around the block....before we headed back to Route 66. A kid on a bicycle stopped us and asked, "Who won DU?" The kid wasn't Tito, it was Ed Peters....One of Needles's future boat racers...

Needles was like that. All the kids in town wanted to be boat racers...

Tito is 13 in this picture, that is his dad with Coke shirt. Tito's dad worked for Coke for 24 years. That's Tito's uncle on the left.

The second picture is Tito's grandmother....life wasn't easy in the desert around Needles.

[Dr. Thunder]

can you make the connection for me between Tito Smith and Ed Peters and the photo attached?

Thanks

[Ron Hill]

They both graduated from Needles High, 1962, same as Jimbo and I also graduated in '62...The point, if there was one, Ed Peters was 11 at the time, but he KNEW WHAT A DU WAS, but even as small as Needles was, he didn't get to the race...

AN ADD HERE: Needles has had, per capita, probably the most boat racer from any one city in America...

The Class of '62 produced: Glen Chambers, Jimbo McConnell, Tito Smith, Ed Peters...Other racers from Needles that come to midn: Ernie, Jimmy and Virginia Dawe, Brooks Hazelwood, Jimbo and Pete McConnell, Horace (Horse), Gene and Glen Chambers, Austin Secor,Cort Skinner, Val Snead, Ding ???, and probably 20 more I've fotgotten...



Have not finished my Tito Story...had a gas leak at home, had to go home...

[Ron Hill]

Tito raced 36, and damn, I can't remember, but I think his dad did too. Needles had Horse Chambers, Brooks Hazelwood and Tito....So, they had their own class....but 36 alway had Danny Schwarzenbach, Lane Curry, Ken Scoville, Don "BOASTING" Boster, Doug and Mike Wetmore ....Almost a full field every race..

This is a picture of Tito when he was in hig school...This picture hangs on his wall in his home at lake Havasu...These bows he made himself, they also hang there..

Some cool stuff, all hand made by Tito.

[Miss BK]

Tito was also one of the first guys to help my brother out when he first started racing stock outboard. We lived an hour away from Needles. At the time, I was only 14 and went to only about half of my brothers races because of HS activities.

But I do remember my brother coming home and telling stories about Tito always with a big smile.

I don't remember a lot about Tito, just that he was there to help when we needed help and had a witty sense of humor. The wit is what I remember the most.

I wonder if Tito remembers my brother? You need to ask him next time you see him, Ron. I'd be curious.

Val

[Ron Hill]

Tito bought this runabout from Danny Schwarzenbach, that Danny had really built to run at Kilo trials only. Danny had never built a boat, but he built this one on the floor of his garage with not patterns, no jig, just built the sucker the way he thought it should be built...

Here is the boat, with Tito at the wheel...I have changed the boat name from "Honest Injun" to "Honest Native American" for Political Correctness reasons....

Danny never told Tito that the boat never made two turns the same....I told Tito, last week, that was BULL...Tito turn that boat the same way everytime...and everytime he raced it, he turned over....Tito told me he just thought he was a bad driver, until he found out Danny turned it over everytime he ran it too!!!

The second picture is Danny. You can from the look on his face that he didn't feel very good in that boat....Funny thing, and Bill Boyes will correct me if I'm wrong, Danny wanted Bill to build him a boat, but Bill built Mike Wetmore a boat instead, and Danny, BEING DANNY, wouldn't pay Bill the price he wanted to build a boat. Danny did end up with Wetmore boat....

Picture 3 and 4 are of Mickey Schwarzenbach, in Wetmore's boat....All the pictures I'm posting are from Tito's pictures...

[mercguy]

Tito Smith is the Chief of the Chemehuevi Indains. For the last nine years he's been the "GO TO" man at the casino at Havasu Landing. Tito worked for Edison for 20, before he reitred. He's raced boats since about 1960. He and his son race C Stock Runabout today. Tito builds their boat right on the shores of Lake Havasu. Tito is not the "ACTING" Chief, now, but as I understand it, once a Chief, always a Chief.

I don't really remember when I met Tito, seems, I've known him all my life. I know that isn't true, because I never went to Needles until I was 11. Needles was or is a UNIQUE place, n those days. The Needles Marathon was run on the Colorado River, 115 Miles. The race ran from Needles to Parker Dam and back. (No pit stops, on your knees all the way)...Mobil Oil was a big sponsor in those days as was Mercury. The city had a Marathon Parade down the main street and a city wide Bar-B-Q, that everyone in town attended... Boat Racing was HUGE to a small railroad town on Route 66. (They had no TV.....in those days)..

In 1956, I first raced in Needles. After the race, my brother, his girl friend and I stopped at the Foster's Freeze for a lime slush. We made a detour around the block....before we headed back to Route 66. A kid on a bicycle stopped us and asked, "Who won DU?" The kid wasn't Tito, it was Ed Peters....One of Needles's future boat racers...

Needles was like that. All the kids in town wanted to be boat racers...

Tito is 13 in this picture, that is his dad with Coke shirt. Tito's dad worked for Coke for 24 years. That's Tito's uncle on the left.

The second picture is Tito's grandmother....life wasn't easy in the desert around Needles.

one hell of a nice guy and boy, can he build a FAST CSR!!!!!!!! They are odd looking, but looks do not win the race!

[Ron Hill]

(Mercguy, I didn't edit your post, clicked on it by accident)...

Gene Chambers was getting married or had gotten married and I bought his D Mercury. With Gene out of the class, DU needed more boats...A 36 runabout was the same boat as a DU...Except 36's went 42 and Du's went about 62...

Well, I told Tito, I'd loan my a D motor, hoping he'd like it and want to buy it...I'ds never run Gene's D but knew it was pretty good. So, for insurance, as I really didn't want my motor wet or Tito wet, I retarded the spark advance, wo he wouldn't go too fast.

Well, hell, there wasa only about 6 DU's and I lapped Tito. I thought, "CRAP" retarded the spark too much. After the heat, I just wnt down and advance the timing with a 7/16 wrench, never mentioning anything to anyone. I guess while I was on in C Hydro, the Old Man (My dad), decided to taker a look at Tito's motor to see why it was so dam slow...

Well, he found that some how, the mag had gone past the throttle shaft and the butterflys weren't opening. So, The Old man, without saysing a word to anyone, held the mag open, slipped the butterfly shaft where it belonged and walked away.

Second heat of DU, guns fires and Tito roars out the pitting like a Jack the Bear and only goews about 50 yards and blows over backward, big time....

He was running about 40 MPH the first heat, and when he got on the throttle the second heat that sucker took off for the MOON...He never had a chance to back off... My dad was saying it was his fault. I was saying, damn, a half inch a spark advance does that????

That was about 40 years ago, Tito still laughs about the time we tried to kill him!!!!

[Ron Hill]

Tito had pictures of the Needles Marathon, 1960, that were in Arizona Highways....I had two more disks of pictures, but the Needles sun melted them...lost them...

Tito's love for boat racing seems to be strong now than ever.

He became a real "STUDENT OF THE GAME" and has built some very fast boats. He recently built a new trailer with a boom on it, so he can load the boat and unload them withoiut help. He's building a New C Runabout for his son, Young Tito, who is a Fireman...

Here are two pictures of Tito Built boats, Gary Lewis is driving. 350 is also a Tito Mosquito Boat, with Young Tito driving..

The Chemehuevi Indians sponsor a race every January at their landing, Havasu Landing. The sponsorship has help SCOA put on the Winter Nationals.... Tito loves having races in his front yard... He welcomes any racer to come and test, right in his front yard...

Tito didn't really want to sell me his Sleek Craft, but I said "Tito, I want to buy it." So, he sold it to me!!!

Hey, Tito THANKS for 50 years of Friendship!!!!

[mercguy]

They both graduated from Needles High, 1962, same as Jimbo and I also graduated in '62...The point, if there was one, Ed Peters was 11 at the time, but he KNEW WHAT A DU WAS, but even as small as Needles was, he didn't get to the race...

AN ADD HERE: Needles has had, per capita, probably the most boat racer from any one city in America...

The Class of '62 produced: Glen Chambers, Jimbo McConnell, Tito Smith, Ed Peters...Other racers from Needles that come to midn: Ernie, Jimmy and Virginia Dawe, Brooks Hazelwood, Jimbo and Pete McConnell, Horace (Horse), Gene and Glen Chambers, Austin Secor,Cort Skinner, Val Snead, Ding ???, and probably 20 more I've fotgotten...



Have not finished my Tito Story...had a gas leak at home, had to go home...

now, it seems as if Gary Lewis is the only racer left in Needles, whom, by the way, could be one of the greatest, at the current pace he is racing.......(not good for me though, but still glad he is my "racing partner"......