An Amazing Story

[Mark75H]

I love Hinton ... the way the site is practically made for racing, the way the motor sounds echo off the mountains for a second or tow after the motors have stopped.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

A few more Jeff.

[Jeff Lytle]

Pic three............Did Joe get to go for a ride??

He couldn't have enjoyed it as much as he should...............Looks like he lost a pipe.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We'll have to get Joe to fill us in on that pic because I can't remember myself. But if you look closely behind the life jacket you can see a stinger sticking up.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Joe remembers that I had to get back to the pits for something. When the pipe came off I went to the pits at the far end so I wouldn't lose it. water was too deep and too many boats to walk it back so Joe hitched a ride.

Now Sam's observation and a question: You're right about the sound Sam. And the water was great. What I remember about the pit area was that it was very long and flat. A great place to spread out a lot of boats with plenty of elbow room. The course was too long for my taste though. I prefer a shorter course with more turns for a nationals. A mile and 2/3rds is for concentrating on the ultimate speed records.

Since that was the only time I ever raced at Hinton, I was wondering if there tended to be a lot of crashes. There were many in 1977, and a lot of them had to do with the angle boats approached the start. It was very deceiving when milling for the 1 minute gun, then lining up. I only went into the open water on the right once and I could see a problem with a dogleg if you were in the wrong position. I made the rest of my starts from the inside.

Some of the guys milled in that area since there was a lot of room. I always wondered if the other races held there experienced the same problems. Other than all the crashes, we all had a great time. I scanned a layout of the course as depicted in the program with added lines showing lines of approach to the start. The second pic is Tom Kirts destroying his brand new DeSilva runabout.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

What's the deal???

[jrome]

Inspection Was A mile Away It Seemed Like.that Is Why I Got A Tow When I Could Get It. The Water Was Deep Even If You Are 6ft 5.wayne Would Have Been Under Water.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Everybody in a pit crew has more than one specialty. Joe was our deep water man.

Here's a pic Mal's hydro that made Tom so mad. It must have been the second heat of 500 hydro. The first heat my throttle stuck wide open setting up for turn three. It was a little spooky as I had never experienced that before. It took several seconds to get it to back off. Not knowing what was going on, I didn't trust it enough to continue racing so I returned to the pits. I didn't go out the second heat, so that's when I took this pic.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I forgot I had this one.

[MikeyHauenstein]

What I remember about the pit area was that it was very long and flat. A great place to spread out a lot of boats with plenty of elbow room. The course was too long for my taste though. I prefer a shorter course with more turns for a nationals. A mile and 2/3rds is for concentrating on the ultimate speed records.

I raced at Hinton three times (’93, ’95 and ’97) and I’m not sure we ran the same course twice. Compared to the 1-2/3–mile course layout you posted and described, Wayne, one Stock/Mod Nationals course from the 90s kept the first turn in the same place but pulled the second turn in tighter (north?) while keeping the start line in place. This would mitigate funneling into the starting chute I suppose, but it seems like anytime the starting chute is not parallel with the bank there is going to be a problem. Another variation on the course repositioned it to keep the 1977 second turn in place, with the first turn moved south. This may have been done because of wind conditions that week, though.

There was a big painting on the wall of a cheap Chinese restaurant on Holly Hall St. in Houston (Astrodome/Reliant neighborhood) that looked just like the view from the pits at Hinton. My brother and I each lived in that area at different times and he alerted me to it so I had to check it out. (I never ate at the place as often as he did, though.) Anyway, we always enjoyed Hinton. Wayne mentioned Pipestem and staying down at the bottom of the mountain. I remember one year when my brother had too much work to do, as usual, so he stayed in the room while Mom and Dad and I went to dinner. We watched a big storm blow in while we were at dinner, the resort ended up shutting down the tram and we had to stay in the lodge at the top of the hill while Dan was stranded down at the bottom. I’m not really sure what he had for dinner that night.

We also brought an inflatable dinghy with an outboard one year when I camped at Bluestone State Park. It was a fun way to get to and from the pits each day, and a good way to make the long run from the inspection area back to our pits with torn-down engines. It has to be one of the deeper bodies of water we ever raced on—that might be interesting to research.