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Thread: Miami match race of Champions 1975

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    Default Miami match race of Champions 1975

    I remember watching this race on TV, nationally televised on wide world of sports.
    Billy Schumacher was 1st,
    Geoff Briggs was 2nd,
    Roger Jenkins was 3rd,
    Jimbo was somewhere in the pack?
    Can any one provide the rest of the list, even if not in order?

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    Burgess/Evinrude F1 V8 Lars Strom's Avatar
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    The Race of Champions at the Miami Marine Stadium 1975 by Bill Muncey

    http://svera.se/blogg/the-race-of-ch...y-bill-muncey/
    Lars Strom

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    Check my own racing history at BRF...http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forum...ead.php?t=6727

    My racing web site SVERA.se....http://svera.se/blogg/paris-6-hours/

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    Are any of the boats still around?

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    Quote Originally Posted by calvin View Post
    Are any of the boats still around?
    Jimbo had one, put Molinari cowls on it and campaigned it as a Mod 50.........I believe it survived and someone in Canada has it.

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    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default I'll See JImbo Next Week

    I'll see Jimbo next week, but don't think the Molinari that went to Canada was one of these boats.

    Very cool concept....too bad no one but Bill Muncey could see the potential!

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    Who was the designer/builder of those boats?Seebold?

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    Burgess/Evinrude F1 V8 Lars Strom's Avatar
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    Yes..Billy Seebold was the boat builder.
    Lars Strom

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    Check my own racing history at BRF...http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forum...ead.php?t=6727

    My racing web site SVERA.se....http://svera.se/blogg/paris-6-hours/

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    Looked at the post from Lars and my question was answered.If BRP or someone else manufactured that same motor again now,i'm sure they would sell quite well.Especially Australia.

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    Thanks Lars.Have strong demand for OMC 3 cylinder gear here,but prices for used gear from the US,whether it be SE,SST60 or MOD50/F3 are out of our reach.Especially considering the currency conversion of the australian dollar at this time.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lars Strom View Post
    Yes..Billy Seebold was the boat builder.
    Lars is absolutely correct about Billy being the designer/builder of these boats that were used in this race, but I don't believe he built ALL of them. This was the time frame when Billy had been very successful with the Tunnel Boats at the start of that phase of his racing career, having come from primarily the PRO Category, first with owning his own equipment and then after Marshall Grant bought all the PRO equipment from Bill Sr., and he drove for Marshall for a time, and also started with the Tunnel Boat portion of his boat racing career. He also had driven a 7 Litre, "Long Gone" for a short time (short time meaning compared to his total career time). I think Long Gone was owned by Les Brown the orchestra leader, but do not remember for sure if that is correct.

    I was recovering from a broken pelvis and destroyed hip socket from a blowover while taking a "test ride" in one of his boats with a inline 6 on it, and during the recovery process which lasted some time, I had the opportunity to hang around Billy and Bill Sr. while they were doing prop testing several times a week on the Meremac River above where it enters and widens out into George Winter Park. This is where so many of the St. Louis races were held that he and a local civic club were responsible for promoting. This time frame was truly the heyday of Tunnel Boat racing and included several UIM races that had the OZ class featured with all the attendant drama that came with the "factory Wars" between Mercury and OMC.

    I believe he would confirm that Andy Lowrey, a cabinet maker recently retired at the time from Budweiser in St. Louis, both built and had input into the design of the first model or so of not only the "Mod 50" type boat used in this racing that took place at the Marine Stadium in Miami, but previously several of the Tunnel Boats he campaigned in the larger classes. Andy was not in good health at this time, and I seem to remember that he became unable to continue to do the actual build work on these boats and others that he was building of the smaller Hydro type for that type racing also. Andy built many of the smaller Hydro's that won many Championships in the MOD classes, and also some PRO classes that Andy's two sons campaigned in local races sponsored by NOA before they faded from the sanctioning body scene. This was the time frame that Billy hired BeBe Crum who was the husband of a close friend of Billy's wife Lynn, to carry on with the actual construction of the balance of the Mod 50 boats, which were all built the same and then wgt added to some of them so as to make them all the same performance wise, as I seem to remember they got lighter as BeBe became more familiar with the construction of them. He also rented space in a building where the boats could be constructed much easier, as to this point they were being built in his garage at this home as I was there many times and remember very clearly these boats and how excited he was that he had this contract that basically put him in the boat building business with a large number of boats to construct, all the same, so as to make it somewhat of a cookie cutter operation that could maximum profit once the final design was proved and settled on. I could be wrong, but seem to remember there were 15 total of this type and possibly a couple of extra's in case of damage or any were destroyed prior to the finish of the contract with the promoter of the series.

    I remember one time Billy was testing props on the test model of the boat, and was a LONG ways up the river from where the boat had been put in. Bill Sr. made the comment that he did not hear the motor anymore, and then we waited for quite some time and finally after about 45 minutes just before Bill was going to get in his car and drive around and try to find a way to the river and see what might have happened, Billy came walking around a bend of the river with a rope over his shoulder pulling the boat. The water in the Meramec was usually very shallow in the fall which was time of year it was then, and Billy was almost in the middle of the river only up to about his knees in the water. He was very fortunate when he blew over while testing at that time, that the water was somewhat deeper where he went over, as he could have ended up with his head stuck in the bottom which is very rocky in the river in the area. The time frame I am speaking of is the fall of 1974 and possibly into the spring of 1975.

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