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Thread: An Amazing Story

  1. #11
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    My very last race was the second heat of the UIM OD World Championships in Berlin and somewhere around 18-20 boats. It was at the Spandau course and I'm sure Ralph knows the milling area, what little of it there is. Probably 3/4 ths of the field jumped the gun and I just held back waiting to get to the first turn, a single pin bouy. There was so much spray that boats went way wide and I intended to cut in close and come out way ahead. That is until one of the boats in the spray missed the bouy and turned around without looking. He was directly in my path and I ramped over him, puncturing a sponson. I did have time to paddle to a yacht and get a rope on the bow handle just before it sank. There's the doorbell. Be back in a minute to do the story.



  2. #12
    Team JDS Jeff Akers's Avatar
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    [QUOTE=Master Oil Racing There's the doorbell. Be back in a minute to do the story.[/QUOTE]

    Don't toy with us Wayne just give us the scoop!
    Jeff 93-C



  3. #13
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    Default Okay...here goes

    About 6 or 8 months after I had discovered BRF I had decided I needed a Konig to hang on the wall in my racing room. After looking at all those beautifully restored motors that members were posting I decided to try to find one out there. I don't know how to do E Bay so I was going to post a want ad on the buy/sell thread. Well, only a couple of days later (before I had a chance to post) there was a new listing of 7 or 8 items. All but the last one was OPC boats and motors. The last item was a 700cc Konig. That was exactly what I wanted. I was hoping to find a 500 or 700cc Konig from the mid seventies like I last raced with.

    So I decided to buy the engine, but first I wanted to know the serial number to determine the year it was made. For those not familiar with Konig serial numbers the first two digits are the year of manufacture and the other numbers are the number it came off the line. For instance one of my old "F"s was 7331. It was the 31st "F" made in 1973. The seller E mailed me that the serial number was D41994. My response was "that's not a Konig number!" He replied that he knew that and that was an issue in the past when he tried to sell the motor. He assured me it was a Konig and sent pictures to prove it. It was, down to the old style coils and I made an offer. He made a counteroffer and I accepted. At this point it was a matter of getting the shipping costs and mailing him the money. The night I made the deal, I was in a deep sleep when all of a sudden my eyes popped open about three O'Clock in the morning. That number seemed familiar. First thing in the morning I got up and checked the "D" section of my test book. There it was on one of the test sheets---D41994. That was my old motor. The very one I hoped to find one similar to. Now I would get it back. I couldn't believe it.

    That motor has a good history. We bought it from Marshall Grant in 1974. It was the last D Billy Seebold ran before going to OPC. Billy was racing it in the heat that Jerry Waldman was killed in. Billy Hulgan and Jerry Simison ran it at Alexandria before we got it from Marshall. The second time I ran it, I stuffed my hydro and was out of action for the rest of the year. The beginning of the next year, 1976, I won a World Championship with it, set a competion record, and set a kilo record with the same set up we raced with. The only thing I didn't accomplish with it that year was win the Nationals. We had some kind of problem with it then. I did win a nationals with it in 78. I carried it to Austria and Germany, and was with me when it sunk at my last race in Berlin. You can't imagine the cloud I was on when I knew my favorite motor of all time was coming home.

    That was sometime last summer. After the early correspondence, nothing more was forthcoming. after a month or so had passed, the seller had moved and gotten a new E mail address. There were some sever health and other personal issues going on at the time that I was unaware of. Don't blame them for putting that ahead of an old chunk of aluminum. I was told the engine was put in storage and that when he had time, he would box it up and weigh it for freight charges. More time passed and I had told Joe the story of my find that same day. I didn't want to post anything here until I had it in my hands. After about two months Joe began pestering me about getting the motor. I was getting no response and finally sent an E Mail every other month or so. I told my daughter's boyfriend about it and he said he had a lot of stuff in storage when he was out of work after being discharged from the Marines and all his stuff was auctioned off for past due rent. Man, was I worried.

    Sorry, but have to finish later. My boat's ready in Corpus and they close at Noon. Debbie's hassling me to get out of here.



  4. #14
    David_L6
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    Jeff,

    Looks like he's going to keep teasing us!


    Wayne,

    Sounds like it's about time for you to contact Marc Johnson @ http://www.mjrboatplans.com/ and get one of these.....
    Attached Images Attached Images  

  5. #15
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    Default That do look good....

    ....I could only wish.

    No David....I really did have to go to Corpus Either that or sleep in the storage room because I didn't get the boat.

    So here goes again.

    I began to forget about the motor, then Joe would hammer me. Rusty Rae said if all it needed was boxing up, he would go get it and send it to me, but I didn't know where it was. Then a couple of weeks ago right before we left for Hawaii I got an E mail from the seller apologizing for the delay and explaining what had happened. He wasn't sure whether I still wanted it. I said I sure did and within a few days he had it all boxed up and weighed. I was up near Houston when he called and gave me shipping costs. I sent him a check and finally received the motor during the last couple of days. There were three packages. The first three came Thursday. Carbs, pipe bracket, elbows, tower housing etc. No powerhead. Oh man! Then yesterday had a notice that there was a package at the post office. I loaded up for a job then went over there to pick it up. No package. The mailman still had it. The postmaster gave me his cell and said we may be able to tag up somewhere. He never answered and I left a message. I headed toward the job. Nothing was going to be easy getting this motor. Shortly after I turned North to go to the job my cell rang. It was the postman. He was only two miles from me. So I drove to a store to meet him. After I signed the receipt I ripped the package open and Yes. there was my old motor.

    The people I bought it from acquired it from a guy named Michael who had in turn bought it from Harry Bartolomei. It was Harry Bartolomei who bought everything we had but the trailer in the fall of 81. I may be wrong, but I think I heard that Harry or Lee had set a kilo record in excess of 100mph in 700cc runabout. Or maybe it was that Lee was clocked over 100 when he blew over. Anyway, I'll try to track down some more of the history on it. Many thanks to the guys who made it through some tough times, but held out and got D41994 back to me. Now I need to call Marshall Grant and find out what the deal was with that weird serial number.
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  6. #16
    Team JDS Jeff Akers's Avatar
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    Default Congratts on geting it back!

    Great story even if it took all day to post it LOL

    I'll have to talk to my brother about this, he may know some history on it as he drove for Harry in the mid to late 80's...I know the stuff they had back then was very fast...I'll see what I can dig up.
    Jeff 93-C



  7. #17
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I never heard what happened to my Butts laydown "Vibora de Cascabel" (rattlesnake). Did your brother ever drive it?



  8. #18
    David_L6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Akers
    Great story even if it took all day to post it LOL

    No kiddin'! I've been running back in the house every few minutes to see if the rest of the story has been posted yet.


    Great story Wayne. Thanks for sharing.

  9. #19
    David_L6
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    Quote Originally Posted by David_L6
    I've been running back in the house every few minutes to see if the rest of the story has been posted yet.
    Well.... There was one trip into the house that wasn't to check the computer. I came in to get the key to my truck. I figured it may be best if I made myself scarce for a while after I ran my 44 on the hose for about 5 minutes. The neighbors on either side of me weren't home, but a 4 cylinder mod make enough noise to rattle a whole neighborhood!

  10. #20
    Administrator Ron Hill's Avatar
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    Default That Konig...

    That Konig looks like it was used too much when it was NEW!!!

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