Raceboat and Switzer Wings

[Ron Hill]

Fred Hauenstein
Team Member

Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 34

Freddy's transom pulled out and he did about a triple back flip and landed almost on the shore. He did have a broke back, but the capsule saved him. (He needed more stretch room above his head)...This Wizard....did it have a capsule???

[Ron Hill]

Mark Spencer wrote the article. Mark father used to race M Outboard Hydro...

Some mentions of Kenny Stevenson here...

[Sutter's Gold Jr.]

I remember being at the Minneapolis race with my dad in 1984. He was going to run Wil Pergande's new Seebold for their new sponsor, Texaco. All of the Texaco people showed up and we sat on the beach all weekend because of the dispute between OMC and Mercury. Threatend to send him to jail if he raced. I think that period/dispute was crippling to racing.

That was my dad's last year racing as his employer had promoted him and asked him to quit racing. If he wasn't so frustrated with state of the sport I'm sure he would have continued to race as he was only 40 at the time and starting to get his swagger back after the back to back accidents in Parker.

As Brandon mentioned above I am also reliving memories on this website. Thank you. I talked to my dad and we are going to box up all of his pictures/slides/negatives and send to www.scandigital.com so I can post a few from all his years of racing. He was into photography so he has thousands of pictures from his days in stock, pro, and opc.

Chris Sutter

[carl lewis]

Hey Chris,

Ask your dad about the time he ran through the kilo traps at D lake, blew the 250 runabout over, went to the hardware store got duct tape wood yard sticks and black plastic, "rebuilt" the deck (that was gone) and went on to set the record that day with the deck flapping in the wind !!!!

quite a site to have seen !!!!


Carl

P.S. be sure to post a pic of the old BU sutters gold

[Sutter's Gold Jr.]

Hi Carl,

Lee sent me a couple pictures and some commentary. Trying to figure out how to post a JPEG picture. Any clues?

Chris

[Mark75H]

Chris, try this link: posting images to this forum

If you have any trouble, send me a message by PM or email

-Sam

PS: we are looking forward to your pictures

[Sutter's Gold Jr.]

Carl...

A couple pictures and some commentary from Lee. More to follow.

Actually, Carl inquired about my 250 boat with a 350 4 banger Koenig. I have a picture of the boat with the plastic repaired deck. I’ll get you the pic to you soon. I do know that the record was 82 MPH and I ran the biggest prop I had and ran 91 MPH on the 1st pass and blew over coming back. With different gears, and nitro, it could have run over 95 to 98 MPH. Ron built the engine for the Hydro. The blow over was my fault….

One picture is my 350 Hydro at the 1975 Alky (PRO) nationals in Winona, MN where I won 350 Hydro and 250 Runabout Championship.

Other picture is Craig-Craft BSR that I ran at D Lake and Yelm. I set the kilo record at 73+ MPH and the 5 mile competition record at 59+ MPH. This was Craig’s boat.

Talked to Ron last week and we are talking about building a straight-a-way runabout for 350 Koenig to exceed 100 MPH!!!

[geodavid]

I think I was at Devil's lake with you about the time that Sutter Jr. was born. Yikes, does that put him at about 40??
Great pictures Lee. Looks like you have that 20H really jacked. What year was the photo taken? Do you have any 250 runabout pictures? I would like to see the entire boat. All I had a was a great view of the transom...

[Sutter's Gold Jr.]

Hi Alan,

Lee said to tell you "hi" and went on to tell me what a terrific person/racer you were/are. I am Lee's oldest son and am close to 40 yrs old (38). My brother Steve and Lee work together in Seattle and just bought a scanner so I will post some of thousands of pictures that Lee has in his basement. Two below are of his 250 runabout and the boat after he blew it over at D lake running through Kilo's. He said he went through kilo at 90.9mph and sat up at end at end of pass and the wind caught him and he blew over. Pissed off so he went hardware store bought plastic and tape and then went back out and set record at 85mph.

[Tim Weber]

I was a kid about 10-11 years old when he was trying to set a kilo record at Kaukauna, Wisconsin with what looked like the same boat. He blew over on that day too. I don't remember how fast he was going but fast.

I do remember Jim Mertens setting the ModU record that day and Fred Haunstein breaking 100 with a mod 50.

Tim