Interesting article about the Champion Hot Rod and a DeSilva hydro.
Interesting article about the Champion Hot Rod and a DeSilva hydro.
Last edited by Ron Hill; 02-08-2017 at 05:47 PM.
Al Lang liked this post
One of the big names from your part of the world was John Alden, and I believe he was known for, among other things, his alky conversions of Champs. I'd be interested to see you or someone do a little bio sketch on Alden (I searched, found none). He evidently had talents beyond building racemotors; someone (Duane Wallick?) told me that Alden had found some new method of cutting diamonds that gave them extra sparkle and won him an award.
Thanks for the kind words about the boat of John Alden's. He used a Mercury tower and Mercury gearcase. If you look closely, there is a speedometer hose hooked to the sponson fin. It served to purposes, one it was a build in speedometer pick up, but when the speedometer quit working you knew the sponson's were top high.
Also, "Full Length" air traps were quite new in this time period.
I'm not sure what year it was, probably 1962, my dad was the motor inspector at the Western Divisionals. My dad disqualified John's Mark 20-H on a port measurement. John got quite "Vocal" with my Old Man and my dad punch John out.
I'm pretty sure that was John's last Stock race. My dad wasn't much for taking **** about his work. As I recall, he even let John measure the posts himself and that was when the "Argument" took a turn for the worst.
My dad gave Greg Selvidge and "Upper Cut" at the Winternationals one year. My dad told everyone at the driver's meet, "Top 5 gets money. So, come and get weighed." Well the boys from Seattle mostly ran "A Hydro" and making weight in "B Hydro" wasn't easy. So, they figure finishing 4-5, they'd be fine. Well, when they came to the awards, Greg had been DQ'd. So he said to my dad, "You're just he son of a bitch I herd you were." We wheeled around and started to leave and my Old Man kicked him in the ***. Greg turn around and lowered his head and charged my dad. My dad gave him and upper cut and knocked him on his ***. The Seattle guys got a "Kick out of it", said Greg was in the wrong.
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