An Amazing Story

[Master Oil Racing Team]

After I get done with Dayton, Hinton Pro Nationals is next Dave. That little demonstration with Master Oil is one that my Dad liked to do because it really showed how much that oil could move on its own.

On the T shirt---they were made for a Master Oil promotional at the OD World Championships but they weren't ready in time. The original boat was supposed to be Shadowfax with the D Konig, but we had bad lighting and the image was too small to make for a good pic. We always tested in the morning because South Texas winds start kicking up about 10 am. But the boats are backlit then. The clock was ticking to get the photo off so we finally had to settle for an afternoon run one day. The 700 hydro was too fast for my brother Mark to catch in the frame at close range so we ran the 350 hydr0. I gave him my Nikon with a motor drive and 200 mm lens with a full 36 exposure roll. I made a slow pass for him to prefocus and told him when I got close on the fast runs just press down the button and follow through. As it turned out, only one photo had the full frame of the boat. The one slow pass where he prefocused. I always hated that picture because the whole boat was ploughing through the water. But we ran out of time. We didn't even get them in time for Dayton so the first time we sold any was at Hinton and we weren't even advertising there. But we had a whole bunch to get rid of. They did become popular and we unloaded most of them there.

As far as Debbie goes, there were a number of people at Hinton that didn't even know we were married. We had only been married four months at that time and we stuck close to our pits. We were on one end and now I really regret not walking all the way to the other end with my camera. There would have been many pits shots I could sure use now. Especially of a lot of the East Coast guys I didn't cross paths with that much.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Dave--Here's that T shirt you mentioned. I still have several. You can see what a dog that boat looks like in this pic. But all the other frames only had the motor or the pickleforks Oh well. Other than that photo the shirts turned out great. Good colors, good transfer and the shirt quality was good. Joe said he had some shots of people wearing it, so when we get to Hinton I think I might post pics of whoever is wearing one.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Hey Dan M........check these out. From the slides that weren't mounted.

Jerry Drake and you getting Kurt Mischke started. Jerry's got a strain on cranking that Konig brute and you are straining to hold the transom up, and keep Jerry from pulling you sideways. The only way is for Jerry to grit his teeth and snap it. I guess I could have set my cameras down and gone out to help you. But....if I did....I wouldn't have gotten these pics.

[Dan M]

Wayne,

Somewhere I have an autographed picture of Kurt thanking me for the help during the weekend. A lot of the Europeans had them back then.I'll see if I can find it and post it here. Kurt's english was a little better than my German, but being boat people it was easy to communicate with him with a lot of pointing and hand gestures. Jerry Drake was another all around super guy. Never really got to know him too well, but he always had a helping hand for anyone that needed it. That laydown boat was really awesome to watch. If you look at the pictures closely, my lifting hand is on an "afterplane". The front of that boat would ride about 2 feet above the water, and the back would just have the afterplanes skimming. I think they helped the boat to spill air so that it could run that high in the front, but still be under control. I know that Kurt had many European championships, but I don't know a lot of detail. Did he run "factory" Konig stuff for Dieter? Nothing but good memories of those times.

Dan

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I noticed your hand was holding the afterplane Dan. That boat was actually Hans Krage's that he left over here after the OF World Championships in 1976. Kurt's number was 69. I don't really know the arrangement between Kurt and Dieter, but to me it was kind of like a privateer arrangement with his own boat but with factory support on all the new and latest. But I am not sure. I know that they were closely associated though. Kurt won many titles and of the World titles the two I am sure of are OB World Championships in 1968 and 1976. Jerry Drake was a top driver in South Africa and raced a lot in Europe before he immigrated to America. I am not sure why he did not race here, but he was great friends with most of the drivers from Berlin.

[Jeff Lytle]

Notice that Kurt is using a 700cc Konig motorcycle block. The plugs are set on an angle.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

....is there a merit badge for your scouts for scoping out something different? Good Job Jeff. Helps keep things straight too.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Some more pit shots from the photo strip.

[MN1]

Hi Wayne,
I've been to a few Alky races during the last 30 years and would like to know about how a good motor sounds compared to a weak one.
I've seen some fast boats at Depue that have this certain sound, it's a different tone, (a bigger whap). Is this because it's a better motor or because of Nitro?
Mark Nelson

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Have too many photos to keep track of and don't want to duplicate posts & I have done that before. I started to write a "B" in the upper right hand corner of the slides that I had previously posted. No system yet for the B&W. But this series that are not mounted, I can't keep track of. They are all from Dayton 1977 so I'll just do them all now. Actually, I'm heading out to run pipe at 4 am, so won't finish until maybe Friday.