Page 2 of 8 FirstFirst 12345678 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 73

Thread: 1975

  1. #11
    BoatRacingFacts VIP racingfan1's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Bradford , Illinois
    Posts
    1,329
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default January 1975

    and finally 16-20
    Attached Images Attached Images      

  2. #12
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sandia, Texas
    Posts
    3,831
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    Thank you Bruce for sending this edition to Dale for posting. I have a complete copy except for the cover which is in one of my albums. Until recently there was no way to scan and get a good reproduction of a photo, magazine cover etc., so when I was putting my "museum" and compilation of photos and articles I had written for different publications I had to cut them out of the magazines. I really regret that now, but that was why I couldn't send my copy to Dale....and besides it was the only one I had.

    1975 was a very special year for a number of reasons, and I will add comments as we go along.



  3. #13
    BoatRacingFacts VIP racingfan1's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Bradford , Illinois
    Posts
    1,329
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default May 1975

    Here is the May 1975 edition pages 1-10
    Attached Images Attached Images           

  4. #14
    BoatRacingFacts VIP racingfan1's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Bradford , Illinois
    Posts
    1,329
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default May 1975

    Pages 11-20. While skimming through this I noticed an item circled on the last page , looks like Johnny may have been interested in some equipment.
    Attached Images Attached Images           
    Thanks zul8tr thanked for this post
    Likes zul8tr liked this post

  5. #15
    BoatRacingFacts VIP racingfan1's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Bradford , Illinois
    Posts
    1,329
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default June 1975

    Here are pages 1-8 of the june 1975 edition
    Attached Images Attached Images         

  6. #16
    BoatRacingFacts VIP racingfan1's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Bradford , Illinois
    Posts
    1,329
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default June 1975

    Pages 9 - 16
    Attached Images Attached Images         

  7. #17
    BoatRacingFacts VIP racingfan1's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Bradford , Illinois
    Posts
    1,329
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    While reading through this edition i read the story on Firebird Lake south of Phoenix , is this still existence and does it get used ??

  8. #18
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sandia, Texas
    Posts
    3,831
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    While in Phoenix in the mid 90's it was still in use Steve and had expanded a lot according to original plans. While I visiting the lake there was a big motorcycle grand prix race going on across the lake on a road course. On the front side was where Bob Bondurant had schools on evasive and other kinds of car driving skills. It was March or April and some champ cars were there preparing for the Indy 500. That was a long time ago, and I don't recall hearing anything about it except about 10 or so years ago a girl joined BRF and said she had become marketing or publicity director for Firebird Lake. Don't remember her name, and don't think she ever really posted much more.



  9. #19
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Sandia, Texas
    Posts
    3,831
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    I said I would have some comments regarding 1975, so here goes. This was the year that the PRO category got the name it goes by now. Previously it had gone by the name Outboard. It was confusing to some people because the OPC category had grown a lot in the last ten years and they looked like the regular stock outboards that the public bought rather than our highly modified motors with no cowling. It looked like they should be named Outboard instead of us. Hence, APBA requested our division submit names and my Dad's entry was chosen. See page 7 of the January issue. OPC also soon modified it's category name. It was still OPC, but instead of Outboard Pleasure Craft, it was changed to Outboard Performance Class more in line with what the motors were all about now. I was chosen at the 1974 Meeting at New Orleans to be on the 1975 Pro Racing Commission. My Dad had been elected to the APBA Council at Cincinatti the previous year, and was again on the council for 1975.

    On page 13 of the January issue I wrote a story about an OPC race in Texas which ended up causing a little ruckus of which I am not proud, but I found out I had a lot of friends. There are just a few lines in the middle column about a third of the way down about an SK and Jet boat heat. It doesn't make sense really because I didn't reference the class in which I wrote, but the guys in the race knew what it was about. It was about the merry-go-round. I was being flippant when I wrote it and I never was that way. Guess I thought I could be cute, but I ended up getting a letter from APBA General Counsel Al Smith. What happened at the race was there were two SK boats and two Jet boats. They were milling around after the five minute gun, and they were running the full course. When the 1 minute gun fired they did not all go back up the chute and come around to bear down in a line for a start, they just continued on like they were on the course and they were basically scattered all around the race course. Two of the guys had ostrich feathers somehow attached to their helmets. They went round and round and round. It was hard to figure out who the leader was because at the time of the start, there was no clear leader that broke out, and the boats remained about in the same place as when they first started milling. One had probably jumped the gun, but anyway the scorers lost count of the laps because it started out so confusing. They ran an extra lap or two just to make sure. So I wrote the story in a belittling way that I never should have.

    Fast forward to January and the Houston Boat Show. Joe Rome and I were standing around talking to Darrell Beaulier and a couple of other OPC guys when three people I didn't know came up and said they were going to whip my A$$. I didn't know why, but one of them had the January 1975 propeller in his hand and shaking it in my face and yelling about what I had written. I was confused at first as to what I wrote. Then the guy told me who he was and the race, then I figured it was probably the two jet boat guys with the ostrich feathers and an SK guy. It was really getting hot when a crowd surrounded us. Me, Joe, Darrell, and then Charlie Baily stepped in. Then a tall guy behind me said "Is there some trouble Wayne?" I turned around and saw that it was Jim Foreman a Houston boat builder and OPC driver, then looked all around and we were all surrounded by my OPC friends. There were maybe twenty. They all stepped up and the three guys that came to bust my head shut up. The leader later attended our District 15 annual meeting and as the only inboard guy there my Dad appointed him District 15 Inboard Chairman. A few years later Joe Rome called me and told me to turn the news on the TV quick. I did and that guy with the Propeller Magazine was the Grand Dragon leading a KKK march in Austin protesting something.



  10. #20
    Team Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    144
    Post Thanks / Like

    Default

    Great story, Wayne. You should have fought the guy. Then your kids could have told stories about how their daddy fought a dragon. It wouldn't have made any difference if you won or lost--you fought a dragon! Kind of like me racing against you.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 5 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 5 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Parker Enduro 1975 - Photographs
    By Intrepid422 in forum Outboard Racing History
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 11-02-2009, 10:31 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •