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Thread: Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

  1. #321
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default 1968 Chevy Wagon Heading for Beloit, Wisconsin, August 1970

    Long story here, may tell it sometime!
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  2. #322
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Hill View Post
    My dad had a new DeSilva in 1949...From the Kids, you know...Billy and Ralph DeSilva were considered the "KIDS" in 1949,

    My dad got the name Forever Amber about the time the book came out...Seems, when he played poker with the boys at Lake Elsinore he could get "AMBER" and still play pretty well...The boat club guys would go down to our cabin and raise hell for a few days at a time...

    My dad was leading this race, when a guy, Lee Cockren, got al ap late start, it was (https://erasmus-home.com/) in those days, and Lee pulled out in front of my (poker freerolls), my dad hit his swell and blew over backwards, knocking his two front teeth out. My dad never raced after the 1949 Hearst. My brother won A Hydro that day.. There were 32 hydros...they ran them in two heats...

    You can see the six studs on the head and the Perfect Circle piston Ring decal on the tank..This engine ran alcohol and it would take a decal off, if any alcohol was spilled on the motor....The decal was their, until we changed to a different fuel tank...
    9)
    Such an amazing picture, I would love to play poker like those on this picture

  3. #323
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Parker 9 Hour 1968: Fred Hauenstein and Ron Hill Drive the DeSilva Wing

    This is the first pit stop, 1968 at the Parker 9 Hour. Ron is in the blue driver's suit.

    I think we saw 94 MPH, that year. Ray Nydahl had seen 100 MPH on his Keller in the Switzer Wing that Ted May and Ernest Threlkeld drove...
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  4. #324
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Chicago to Milwaukee to Chicago Marathon 1966

    1967 Chicago-Milwaukee-Chicago

    This race was considered historically as an OFFSHORE RACE, but it was an all outboard race with LEGAL OPC Classes.

    I had raced for OMC at Parker in the spring of 1967 with a twin engine DeSilva. We didn't finish as we had gearcase problems, but I really enjoyed the race.

    DeSilva's had build me a new 17" runabout for twin X-115, which were just coming out. I had never raced a closed course OPC race in my life, but my dad took the boat to Waukegan to get two motors installed, so we could race the OPC Nationals at Canton, Ohio (Before there was a football hall of fame)...

    I was already in the Midwest with Harry Bartolomei's boats.

    It was Saturday night, late at DePue, and I just had showered and was thinking of going back to bed, when I decided I hadn't eaten all day, so I slipped down to the Holiday Inn restaurant, barefooted, to just grab a snack.....from the kitchen... Well, I ran into Charlie Strang, his mother, Ann, and Jack Leek...Charlie was the motor inspector and Leek was just helping out...

    I was like totally embarrassed, barefoot....an all...but I started talking like I was dressed for the occasion... Seems, the next week Jost had put together a Marathon from Chicago to Milwaukee to Chicago...Sponsored by Jim Moran, World's Largest Ford dealer and if I wanted to race in it, I'd have to go to the plant Monday morning and help rig the new 17' Glastron the Bob West of Evinrude had bought for me, for HAVASU (to run in November)...

    I said my dad, mom and me we going to Waukegan to rig the DeSilva for Canton anyway...So, we'd be there with bells on...

    Monday we got to Waukegan, and Harold Nauss told me I'd better run one motor on that DeSilva....as he figured I would probably kill myself with twins...
    We had back seat steering, so I sat where you would if she was a kneel down runabout....So, we agreed to put one motor...

    OMC said they could do the rest, on that boat, and my dad and mom left for my grandpa's in Arkasas....said they'd be back in a week and a half...

    Burt and me started rigging the Glastron..Don't remember Burt's last name...

    Tuesday morning I woke up sick with a burning fever. I went to the emergency room and told them I thought I was going to die.

    The doctor gave me HORSE PILLS, at this time, I didn't care if I raced or nit, I just wanted to live. I had no clue if the boat got rigged or not...

    I get to the plant about closing time and Mouse tells me to go to Chicago, to the Holiday Inn...I go back to my hotel and go to bed...Saturday, I drive down to Chicago...hardly able to move, but check in and maybe attend the driver's meeting...but don't recall, they may have let me miss because I was sick...

    Sunday, I get to Navy Pier and all the boats are in the water...Leek asks if I'm going to race or stand there???? I tell him I'm not sure... Leeks looks at me like only Leek can look... I put on my jacket and helmet. I honestly didn't know how to get the motors started. Jack gets in and gets one going, tells me to get the other one going and jumps out on the dock, I head out toward other boats on one engine...not able to fire the other....

    Finally, I say...Now wait, if one runs, so should the other. So, I shut off the one that runs...I can hear the starter isn't kicking it over... So, I put it in neutral, he she fires up, I drop her in gear and the other won't start...I see, I figure they need to be in neutral to start, finally, both engines are running and I put them both in gear..

    She roars up on plane and I notice that all the boats are heading toward Milwaukee... So, I follow, it is so rough and I'm so weak, after about the third nose dive, and the second time I'm out of the seat I realize the waves are about 5 feet high....So, rather than cross the waves I decided I'd go down the troughs....I didn't know if I could get to Milwaukee that way, but was getting a good ride....I go about a mile offshore, then cross about a block of waves then go a mile offshore...about the third time I did this, I realized i was in second place...so I pulled in behind the leader for fear I'd get lost, it didn't seem long that a helicopter was over us....so we started following that, we came to a turn boat, and guys were waving flags, I had never seen Milwaukee by water, but the lead boat went right by the turn boat, I turned on the boat and started back to Chicago, the other Glastron with twin Merc turned as soon as they saw me, but now I was leading...

    At this point my brain was thinking, I caught these guys and we are half way...I can win this...Well, I kept looking over my shoulder and they were coming but they were in catching me...I'd nosed in about every mile and fly out of the seat...After awhile I noticed that the deck went up when the bottom went down, til sometimes I couldn't see (The deck and bottom had delaminated.

    I made it back to Chicago in 3 hours and one minute.... Charlie Strang still says this was the day Ron Hill carried the deck around his neck like a big collar.....

    This was the first win for Strang's X-115...The first OMC win since Charlie had left Mercury....(A story in its self)...Carl protested the motors saying they had "RACING RINGS"...

    Carl built the Merc BP because of this win...Carl called my brother the next morning at 5 A.M. and wanted know why his kid won a race with an Evinrude??? My brother told Carl his son was 3 and upstairs sleeping....(Carl thought he'd called my dad, the oldest Mercury Dealer in California)....Carl never spoke to my brother again....

    Because of the medication I was on, the sun burned my arms and hands to second degree burns......I slept all day Monday and Tuesday....Then got ready to go to Canton to the OPC Nationals... I won a new Evinrude and 1/2 a year's teaching salary in the Offshore Race...I even got mentioned in John Crouse's book because of the win.

    Sometimes, you get lucky when you get a late night snack!!!
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  5. #325
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Arapahoe, Nebraska 1961: Owen Hill's Funeral

    1961, Guntersville, Alabama

    We were on our way home, when we got word my dad's cousin had died from lung cancer... So we headed to Nebraska to the funeral. We spent the night before the funeral in Arapahoe, Nebraska, my dad's home town... The local newspaper saw the boats and saw a story. This picture, was in the local paper....

    This was before my dad got his "RUG"....

    ADD: Guntersville....I remember Ted May buying like $200 worth of fireworks.....In Missouri....That was when $200 was a LOT OF MONEY!!!!


    NOTE TO ALAN: My mom always wrote stuff on the back of pictures....and dated them...

    We got up in the morning and the newspaper guy was asking us questions. My dad later, donated $10,000 to the Arapahoe Library!
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  6. #326
    Team Member racnbns's Avatar
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    Ron---
    Thanks for the Memories! Burt was Burt Atkinson. He was a real good boat and engine guy. Leekey Jack would get him to help whenever he was short
    of help. Management at that time didn't want to waste Burt on that HOBBY called Boat Racing.

    Brings back lots of MEMORIES,
    BRUCE
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  7. #327
    Team Member DeanFHobart's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Hill View Post
    Long story here, may tell it sometime!
    Car topping is how I raced for years…. Many, many years. The picture brings back a lot of memories. Thanks.
    Dean Hobart
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  8. #328
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default Custom Ron Hill Boat Rack

    I usually used our chase lounge mat folded, but going to Wisconsin, I decided a spare, spare tire could come in handy.

    I took delivery on that 1968 Chevy in December of '67. By September of '70 when I "Dropped a Valve" in Winslow, Arizona, my Chevy had 92,000 miles.

    The good thing was most of those miles were paid by OMC at $.25 per mile.

    I only paid $4,300 new for that Chevy!

  9. #329
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    Default Clark Maloof

    Clark Maloof: Quincy, Massachusetts

    Clark Maloof...

    I think Chad only met Clark once, and he was only 7, but he's heard stories all his life about "CLOCK" from Quincy, Massachusetts..

    I don't really recall when I met Clark, but I recall the 1966 Nationals at Prineville, Oregon.

    Seems we had a football game Region 12 vs. Region 7 (A REMATCH FOR 1963 BOSTON) in a Cow Pasture after a speech from Mark Hatfield, who later went on to be Governor of Oregon...and the Massachusetts boys were laughing at us because the "COW PIES" on the field weren't very dry.....and some of us had "Cow Pie" in our pants and on our pants..
    Anyway, after the game, at some meeting, it was decided to give a Special Trophy to the guy that won by the farthest distance... I come from a family...of arguers, so I said, "How can you do something like that? A JU takes 5 minutes to go a lap... the winner will be in JU, period."
    Well, I had won the CU and DU Marathon Nationals that year, I held the Kilo record in CU and in testing my CU lapped faster than my DU.
    So, when CU came up, before DU and DSH I was ecstatic, I didn't even try to start up front as I figured I'd be ahead by the second lap.... Well, I finished 9th. The second heat I decided MAYBE, I should try to get a better start, but by the time I thought that, the race was on, and I finished 9th or 10th again...
    Bill Giles won, and I remember looking at his prop saying, he just won the Nationals with a 55 mile an hour prop...MY CU goes 62.....
    Anyway, D Hydro was up first the next day, and I went out for a quick test and it would't go 60... I came in and grabbed my other D motor off my runabout and begged for one test lap, which I was allowed. This was my good runabout engine and I really had never been in a final of D Hydro before... I only made a half lap and the engine was running good and I saw 70 with my D Runabout engine, I figures, hell, I can't beat anyone with a runabout prop, but at least the engine runs OK.
    So, coming down for the start I'm thinking I'm late because these two Berghauer brothers are way ahead of me...and there had been a big deal about the clock the day before...So, I decided I'm late, again, I just throttle the fire out of my D hydro and run over the top of both Berghauer sponsons at the same time, then I see I'm early, so, I let off, like Jack the Bear, and Dewey and Dennis Berghauer kiss off my sponson, one on each side, and almost barrel roll, the clock hits 60 and I jump on it and to my surprise I get to the first turn first, and there are like 8 buoys, I figure, maybe, with this runabout wheel I can stay ahead through the corner.... About this time Clark Maloof comes FLYING BY...he has this fin that is about 14" deep, we're side by side, then he retracks the fin, and like over drive, he goes right out of sight.
    Had he been a D Quincy, he wouldn't been any faster....
    I finish second, it got rough a heck and that runabout wheel kept my nose up and I just never backed off.
    The second heat comes, and I figure the only way I could win is if someone ran over Clark before the start or if he jumped, and I knew he wasn't that dumb...I actually think I finished 4th in the second heat, but with Clark's two firsts, I got second....
    I ran a 14'4" DU Hill runabout that my dad and I had built to run F Runabout but couldn't get a motor, so I ran it is DU, It was called the Double 00 Snapper...(Secret Agent or the two ZEROES for the two drivers, had we raced F Runabout)... the water got rough, the 14 footer handled perfect and I won both heats of DU.. Billy Allen did win the second heat but had jumped......
    The IRONY, CLARK'S WIN is D Hydro was by the farthest distance, time wise...and I had said a JU would win, what it meant to me, I had the worst second at the Nationals.
    Don't remember Clark in BU, but that D Hydro was fast...
    Clark hit a tire testing in '69 and broke his leg, I think...and missed the Hinton, West Virginia Nationals.
    I think it was the 1969 Winternationals that Clark came to race and he ran BU, CU and DU. The Golden Valley Land Company was giving a $4,500 lot to the driver that was HIGH POINT. I was HIGH POINT, but when the Land Company People found out Clark didn't have a chance to win High Point because he only ran STOCK, they decided to award Clark a $4,500 lot for being STOCK OUTBOARD HIGH POINT.

    Clark and my dad seemed to get along really well. I'm not really sure why, maybe from my dad inspecting, maybe they just hit it off.
    It wasn't long after the Winternationals that Clark had a bad accident and was hit by in the mouth by another boat. I came home from teaching one day and my mom and dad said they were going to see Clark, that he was in the hospital, hurt bad.
    I said Clark Maloof in Quincy, Massachusetts?? 3,500 miles from here!! They said yes, and left.
    They next time I saw Clark race was Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I think 1971. There were 12 BU's heading to the first turn, I think Lee Sutter was out front and Clark changed lanes going down the front straightaway and as he crossed Lee's rooster tail Clark's BU took off and flew. I mean, he flew up on the rooster tail and stayed there almost to the first turn, when he landed, he hadn't lost second...
    I didn't stay for the finals, I had tunnel boats to drive.
    While at the Winternationals, I talked Clark into riding deck in my F Runabout...I really had a D Konig, but the first heat going into the first turn I went between Bill Jack Rucker Sr. and Rich Fuchslin, just as I cleared them I kited my DeSilva at about 88 MPH...how I saved it I'm not sure, luck I guess... We won the heat. Clark says, "No competition.".....I say Clark, Fuchlin has the kilo at 97 and Rucker won the Nationals.....
    In Hinton 1976, my DU doesn't run well. Billy Allen won easily, I got third but I'm like 20 second off the pace...I talk to Clark, he says get a black block 55 E with 89 serial numbers....
    I watch Clark with Billy's D motor appear to be winning DSH when he goes wide on the last corner and Jack Neeley wins...Unusual for Clark to make a mistake...I like Jack's BeZoat and get one for 1977... Craig and Shannon trade me three blade props for the boat....
    1977 Nationals, I win my qualifiers in DU and DSH and set top time in both. I tell Clark, he sHouldn't run the 55-H foot that the 35 SS foot is faster, he changes the foot and wins the DSH finals. I get second but can't seem to be sad as Clark is a master. CLARK TELLS MY NOT TO RUN SURFACE GAP PLUGS IN my 35 SS. (We share speed secrets..).
    Last time I saw Clark was the Winter Nationals in California, 1983....I remind him he poked four holes on my NEW CU DeSilva at the Winter Nationals, he just said the lake wasn't big enough for me to pass him...
    Clark later broke his back in a 350 Hydro in Florida and has been recovering ever since...
    Here's a picture of Clark at Dayton from Speed and Spray...
    I know Clark won BU at the 1974 Dayton Nationals because it is in Rusty Rae and Reed Blackburn's Speed and Spray....
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  10. #330
    Team Member DeanFHobart's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DeanFHobart View Post
    Car topping is how I raced for years…. Many, many years. The picture brings back a lot of memories. Thanks.
    We started out with a ‘Car Top Rack’…. But much later I used 4” foam with the boat on backwards so it would not ‘lift’ with’ ratchet type straps fore and aft and a ‘safety’ strap through the door opening, so you close the door since the straps were flat… I also used 2” seat belt strapping.
    Dean Hobart
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