Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

[Ron Hill]

17 foot Glastron called "SNAPPER".....I loved to drive this boat...I lead the twin class for 8 hours, and loved every minute of it...I called her a "GAS STRON" as I thought she was a "GAS" to drive... Twin Ray Nydhal Evinrude X-115's....

[Ron Hill]

Man my pants were ready for Katrina... this was 1967...

The blue boat was for JIMBO, it was his BU... The top two are my marathon boat.....and kilo boat, DU!!!! The named got changed from SNAPPER to FLIPPER.....

[Ron Hill]

This was down at Blythe, I was testing, the tan gentleman is Carl Meyers.....Carl was from Iowa and loved them boats....I raced many a Carl Meyers's BU's!!!

Second pictures is Parker, at a Stock race....

[Ron Hill]

Bunker took thess pictures of Jimbo and me, Thanksgiving, 2005, ...That Jimbo is getting fat....Hard to believe he's six months younger than me!!!

[Ron Hill]

This was the FIRST SNAPPER....had Jerry Waldman not been killed, I would have kept track of all my Snappers. Jerry's boats were all called "SPOOKER". I think he was up to "Spooker XXX" when he was killed.

After that, I just called all my boats "SNAPPER"....without numbers....Snappers is what Ted May called the street walkers in Boston.....


Here is my CU, I was in second place, at the time, to Gary Stippich, Modesto Nationals, 1964....Gary won, I was 4th, after breaking a rewind....starter and having Charlie Strang DQ me!!!

I had broken the kilo record the day before and 64.661... Old Kilo Record was 60...Charlie Strang was quite impressed that HIS DESIGNED Mark 30-H would go that fast on a runabout!


Red and white striped Tee Shirts is what the Hill Boys wore and BAGGY Surf trunks....

[Ron Hill]

19-C Ron Hill...Carl Meyers, in the straw hat, is Ron's number one crew man.... Roy Miner, AKA, Smoooth Water Miner, is in the Sid Son DSH behined 19-C...A May Craft powered by a VC Konig...

[Ron Hill]

Jimbo and I won this race...Boat 22 is what we drove, you can see my back and Kenny.......from OMC...Second picture is after the race...

[russhill]

Since Ron does most of the writing for the Hill family (and everything else in this site), I thought I'd tell you all more than you ever wanted to know about RONALD LLOYD HILL.

Ron is the quintessential boat racer. His first race boat was a rocking horse he received for Christmas a few months before his second birthday. He immediately converted it into a race boat. He took the eyes out of the horse and inserted spark plugs. He removed the rope tail and bolted a propeller into the hole. And he made obnoxiously loud engine noises.

He went through boat race tricycles and bicycles. He even suggested the local gardeners have a power mower race. When he was nearly eleven, he was given his first real boat, an A Stock runabout (then called Utility). Since he was a big boy and had, essentially, 10 plus years race boat experience, he officially began his racing. Twelve was the minimum age for class A, but due to a parental clerical error, he started at eleven.

About six months after he starting racing, a Sunday afternoon live TV show started. It was called SPEEDBOAT RODEO and ran for 39 consecutive weeks. "Ronnie Hill" hadn't won any races yet, but the TV show did hold a Most Popular Driver contest, soliciting postcard votes. He won with more votes than the next ten other guys combined. I was 3rd or 4th with several thousand votes. His number was around 30-40,000 votes.

One other little rule "infraction" occurred when he was 15. He was running several Stock Outboard classes by then, but a rule was passed that, for safety, 16 would become the minimum age for Class D. That presented a slight enforcement dilemma for the officials: He was reining D Runabout National Champion, National High point winner, and held the straightaway and competition world records. That rule kind of got laughed off the books

Well, 50 years later, he hasn't lost an ounce of that enthusiasm that won him the TV popularity contest in the Speedboat Rodeo, so I'll summarize a little by listing some of his racing accomplishments:

• Seventeen times National champion in various classes.
• Two time World champion.
• I don't know how many dozen world records or National high point championships, but they would be counted by the dozen.
• He only won the Parker 9-hour once but he was 2nd 4 times, and had a 3rd and a 4th. Was also the first outboard to lead the 9-hour, when it was clearly an inboard event.
• He won the Berlin 6-Hour, Jimbo McConnell was his co-driver, who drove the middle 2 hours. He ran 2nd in the Paris 6-hour with Ted May.
• He won the Milwaukee to Chicago race in a boat that literally sunk when he stepped out, it was so broken up.
• He was inducted into the American Power Boat Association’s Honor Squadron (Hall of Fame).
• He won 12 consecutive Needles Marathons.
A two time member of APBA Hall of Champions.
John Ward Trophy Racing winner.

The Needles Marathon was a phenom in itself. It was the first stock outboard marathon ever run and was Needles' biggest event of the year. Studying all sports strings, I have never found a run of victories quite 12 years long. He loves Needles to this day, and rightfully so. It's been at least 20 years since the last Marathon there, but when Ron Hill walks down the street in Needles, lot of (the older) people still recognize him and are happy to see him.

I fancy myself as Mr. Absolute Facts, but I am a Hill. Most people have learned that Ron never lets facts stand in the way of his good stories. And he's into self improvement, which means that the more often he tells the story, the better it gets. I've probably embellished a little here and there, but hopefully anybody who would know the difference is dead, anyway.

We're pretty close brothers. I'm 10 years, 6 months and 4 days older. I can still tell him what a dumb sh-- he is. But don't YOU even think that in my presence.

[Ron Hill]

I've made it to Amarillo, but wanted to post this pictures from Flagstaff... In September, 1964, my fraternity brothers and I build this split rail fence... I made the yearbook with my picture from splitting logs, which I'll find and post, but none of us would have dreamed that 42 years later, this damn split rail fence would still be across the street from the Chilli Bean Dine...in down town Flagstaff, Arizona...trouble is, the Chilli Bean Diner is gone...Damn, they had great chilli and 2 A.M.

I only went to Flagstaff for two years, the ratio of women was two women to one guy...I tried my best to make up of the the other guys that weren't carrying their load...I never had a bad day in Flag...and IF I DIED TOMORROW, the undertaker would never be able to get the smile off my face because of the POLE...I was a SIGMA CHI...and the women from ARIZONA WERE GLAD TO MEET A MAN FROM CALIFORNIA!!!

[Ron Hill]

Dug out my 1965 yearbook from NAU (In 1965 it was still ASC or Arizona Stat College, but when I graduated it became Northern Arizona University).Our fraternity was called Sigma Chi Omega, in 1967 the Omega was dropped and we became Sigma Chi National....Kind of like being in APBA as the parent club...

Hard for me to believe that the "STUD" without hair and the big nose ...and BIG MOTHER ARM MUSCLES is me....I had actually forgotten that my Fraternity Brothers had put my Boat Racing pictures in the year book...Two women per guy at Arizona in those days, probably the same today...did my damnest to do my share with that ratio....

I guess from seeing the picture in the yearbook, I must have been hustling Boat Racing up at the "POLE" too...

Bottom picture, same Sid Craft, same Modesto Nationals...just can see the duct tape...