An Amazing Story

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I was very sorry to hear of Larry Latta losing his battle with cancer. He too was part of the 1977 Dayton Hydroglobe experience. He along with many other drivers came not to drive but be a witness to the event. There were many drivers, pit crews, officials, and fans there not only from the Pro ranks, but also stock, mod and limited inboard.

Larry is in the white T shirt with a camera and telephoto lens on a tripod. Sure wished he could have shared some of his stories with us of his long career in racing. He was very quiet, and reserved and a very nice guy. He had an amazing amount of stamina to drive C service through F for year after year. I'll post a few things on the encylopedia thread a little later for a place for the people who knew him best to tell what they can of his story.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Pro championship racing in the U.S. normally consisted of 5 laps on a 1 mile course, 4 on a 1 1/4 mile course or 3 on a 1 2/3rds mile course. UIM rules have a minimum as well as a maximum distance for World Championship events. The larger classes run longer distances. At Dayton, we ran the minimum required for OD under UIM rules, which was 10 Km. 5 laps on a 1 1/4 mile course. That's 25 miles total over the 4 heats, mostly over 100 mph, from flag to flag. That's quite a strain for those motors AND lower units. For that reason we planned to run MX-237 in our fuel.

In local races we normally ran a standard 20:1 methanol/castor oil mix. In the championship events we would run what we came to call the "Black" fuel. The black mixture consisted of replacing 8 oz of Castor Oil with Master Oil, plus 8 oz of Toluene to get it to mix. While MX 237 mixes perfectly and instantly with gasoline, it does not mix at all with methanol. The Black formula was invented by Bobby Wilson, 25-T. The only problem was that it is a pain to mix and does not always mix the same each time as the oil varies from crop to crop and country to country (it is a vegetable oil base). I explained the procedure a long while back on another thread, but maybe a lot of you never saw it.

You have to mix it in 5 gallon batches. First swirl 8 0z of Master Oil together with a 8 oz of castor oil in a 1 gallon glass jug. It blends easily. Then add 8 oz of toluene and shake vigorously until the oil is mixed. That goes easily too. Add methanol to fill up half the gallon jug and shake that vigorously as well. The mixture becomes a cloudy white. It is only an emulsion at that time. Top off the gallon jug and shake as best you can. Without much air space you mostly just turn it over and around until the whole gallon is cloudy. Pour that into a BLACK fuel can that has 2 gallons of methanol. Shake good. Fill up to the five gallon mark, and shake or stir as you can to get the mixture distributed throughout. It is still cloudy, but diluted. Let it set overnight. In the morning when you pull the spout up there should be a thin brown rig around the spout where it meets the fluid surface and also a brown ring on the can around the perimeter of the surface of the fuel. Then the fuel should be crystal clear. Every now and then there would be no ring and the fuel did not have a cloudy look, but it was NOT crystal clear. I think it may have had something to do with humidity when we mixed it or maybe the age of the methanol (again humidity if the drum wasn't full). If it wasn't clear the plugs would foul in no time. The Master Oil mixture was always in a black fuel can and the standard racing fuel in a blue can.

Right before we went to Dayton my Dad experimented with a chemical that could make MX237 water soluble for use as a coolant for machining. More machine shops used coolants than a straight cutting oil. The chemical worked great in mixing Master Oil with water, but it was still only an emulsion that would not break out. My Dad decided we would use that chemical to blend our fuel instead of toluene and the old method. I don't remember what the chemical was, but it did make Master Oil blend in right away and looked OK, but we hadn't tested it. Jack and I protested, but my Dad was the sponsor and pit boss so we ran with it.

After the second heat I told my Dad that the motor was great down the straights, but it was not coming off the corners like it should. Jack always checked plugs between heats and these were more oily than the ones in the first heat. MX 237 is non flammable and we ran it to protect the crank, bearings and upper cylinder. Since it doesn't burn, if you run too much it will accumulate and foul the plugs. Toulene was flammable, but I don't remember anything about the new chemical. Anyway, we decided to switch back to the standard "Blue" fuel. We still had residue of the Black to burn off the next heat.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The water had gotten rougher by the time the gun fired for the third heat. I had my timing down with my 10 second sweep Heuer stopwatch. You could tell where you were at any point in the final approach area down to a half second or better.

I hit the start wide open on the inside with only inches to spare. Tim already had overtaken me twice and I just had a third and second to show for my efforts. Jerry Kirts was making some good moves at the last minute. Dan Kirts had problems one heat, but he was back in the mix. Only half the schedule had been run so the rest of the field was not out yet either. Anything could happen, especially with the water more stirred up. The laydown of Kurt Mischke would have an advantage if it continued to worsen. And Erwin Zimmerman and Wilfried Weiland had much experience in rough water where in Europe they race while traffic is on the river.

I was pushing hard and Tim chased this time but not able to come alongside as he had in the first two heats. Two things were happening. The one I noticed was that my motor was accerating out of the turns much better and had an instant response. What I didn't know was that Tim was fighting for all he was worth to stay in the race AND keep his V8 boat upright. He had tested only a few times in this boat and raced only two heats prior to Dayton. The hardware and mounting brackets were newly installed and had never fully seated in yet. The two previous heats were long, grueling and high speed. During that third heat the thrust socket started working loose and it was all Tim could do to keep from losing control . In spite of that he was able to maintain second though not pushing me. This was the first heat I was able to back off and check who was close. As it was, I had a good lead and was able to back off some to save the motor. I couldn't back off too much because it could come down to a final heat and the championship decided on time. But, if I pushed the whole way, I could tear something up either this heat or the final.

Once again Jerry Kirts made his move on the final lap and passed Tim to take second place. I finished a little over 10 seconds ahead of Jerry with Tim about three seconds behind him. Got to go to work all night. Finish rest of results next day or two.

[Jeff Lytle]

Hi Wayne.......awsome as usual!

Got to send in an eagle eye report though........Got a feeling you're going to like this one.

Look at your testing report closely, you can see the outline of an outer rotary valve case on the paper!! Looks like it was placed on the paper with the carbs facing North and South--you can just see the upper opening.

Cool!!

Does it still smell good too?

[Jeff Lytle]

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

I remember being able to tell what engine was on the water simply from it's sound. I'm not referring to engine make, as they all have a distintive ring, I'm speaking of Konigs in particular. I could have my back to the beach, or be far from the action and easily tell a 250 from a 5 or 700. The RPM's had alot to do with it.......In fact, the 700's were the easiest because they had such a harsh crackling sound compaired to the others. I remember being in a pit area on a peninsula (sp) and hearing all the rigs in front of me and behind launching for their heats. There was always one I could identify clearly and more distintive over all the others and he launched behind me. I owned that engine years later, and the inside was ported and polished to the nines, and yes, it ran a 20% nitro mix.

As far as the sound of a strong engine goes: A strong PRO engine in my days did not come straight out of the box. There was ALOT of room for improvement on any V series engine I got into. Simple things like exhaust port to elbow matching (and who can forget those awful gaskets!! There was HP being wasted there BIG TIME!) to a mild port and polish to a full house port matching and altering job. We used to open up the transfer hole in the piston to provide a cleaner larger area for the charge to flow, and spend hours with a Foredom tool grinding and polishing the insides EVERYWHERE. Everything was weighed, matched and measured on my stuff.

A box stock, (if you can call it that,) Konig was still fast enough to make the average guy crap his pants, but the winners always went a notch or 2 further. I remember seeing a piston that Dan Kirts loaned a fellow racer who had stuck one and needed a spare. I noticed finger ports in the piston skirt at once, even when it was still in Dan's hand, and chuckled when the borrower asked Dan "What are these?" Dan just shrugged and said "It's nuthin', just finger ports". KONIGS DIDN'T HAVE FINGER PORTS IN THE LOWER PISTON SKIRTS!! see what I mean? Dan liked to win, and tried alot of newer ideas that worked on other forms of 2 stroke racing. Eg. sleds, (Dan used to race sleds remember?) karts, and motocross.

Danny's engines always sang, literally. So did Jerry's, Tom's, Tommy's and Jim's. The whole Kirts clan knew what they were doing with the racing 2 stroke, and Deiter knew it too.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Your eagle eye report was very close, but not exact. Had you seen the sheet in person you would have realized the circle was too small. I was wondering what the stain was when I was scanning it, but after your post I went and got a standard Konig rotary valve. It matches perfectly. So it was not the housing, but the guts. When we tested, I would lay my test book on the deck while I wrote up the report of what happened. We had some carbuerator problems during those tests and I guess Jack or myself put the disc on paper to keep grit off.

I had been up over 36 hours on a job that should have take 20-24. We had to postpone our midday thanksgiving meal from noon to evening. On my way home Debbie called from the hospital to inform me she had our son Andrew over there for tests. He had a fever and severe doubling-over abdominal cramps. I immediately headed for the hospital, but she told me to go home, get a shower and go to sleep. Our daughter Alexis was home by herself. She told me not to be worrying and to think positive. We prayed and I went home, but I couldn't sleep. They had to transfer him to another hospital to do a CAT Scan. I just felt tired, helpless and didn't know what to do. So I turned on BRF just to get my mind on something else. When I saw your post Jeff, it really helped settle me down. He's resting today, but no results yet of the latest test. Symptoms are appendecitus.

[Jeff Lytle]

but after your post I went and got a standard Konig rotary valve. It matches perfectly.

This really IS an amazing story!!

Good thing they got to the hospital when they did Wayne.........A burst appendix is not a good thing !

Tell him from all of us that it's a good thing though.....He'll just have to add a little more lead to make weight!

[Jeff Lytle]

Someone has been busy grinding the exhaust openings on the elbows!!

Did Jack do all your engine work?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

No Jeff, after Jack taught me I did a lot of the work myself except changing out liners and lower unit work. I really regret not having any pictures of Jack's shop when I first started. He had stuff everywhere including one of his old runabouts "Stinker" hanging from the rafters. Sometimes his pet monkey would watch us work on motors from a rafter above the work bench. When he would get curious and come down to pick up something on the bench all Jack had to do was pick up the hose with the air chuck and that little monkey was back on the rafters.

I was as green as they get as far as motors go when I started racing, but I spent a lot of time at Jack's shop in Baytown. The first motor I overhauled with him was the 4 carb C Konig we got from Marc's Dad. I watched him tear it down, then he made me put it back together with the new parts as he watched me. He always had country music playing and I liked rock n roll. Certain country songs take me back to Jack's shop.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Okay...back to finish with results of the third heat.

Once again Dan Kirts finished 4th, this time 5 seconds behind Tim. Erwin Zimmerman again 5th followed by Don Wood, Kurt Mischke, Steve Jones, Rex hall, Tim Crimmons, and Wilfried Weiland. Dennis McClellan DNF and Jimmie Nichols DNS. This heat was 10 seconds slower than the first two. The water was continuing to get a little rougher, although it didn't affect top end---we just had to be a little more careful through the turns. But the primary reason was there was not a head to head chase for the checkered flag.