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Thread: An Amazing Story

  1. #461
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    We headed back to Texas on Monday 22nd, and it was about 3 days home. I don't remember if Harry and Jenny went all the way back with us. It seems we may have dropped them off in Dallas for a flight back to Germany.

    Debbie and I had moved to Denton right after the Eastern Divisionals where she would resume her studies at TWU as a graduate student in nutrition. I found a lab in Denton where I could develope my negatives and write the Pro Nationals story for Powerboat. We didn't have time to go down and do much work on the motors after Hinton.

    Basically everything was O.K. except for a sticky throttle on the 500 hydro. It was running good, I won both heats of 1100 hydro at 3/4 throttle and our 700 was still smokin'. So we didn't do any preparation prior to heading to Devil's Lake, Oregon for the kilos. It would be our second kilos to attend and once again we would go with our competition set ups with a conservative tuck for the long haul down the straights.

    We didn't bother taking the 350 because you couldn't come close to Gerry Walin's record without a straightaway rig. You don't get any testing time at Kilos and we didn't want to sqaunder any runs. We already had the 700 kilo record so we would concentrate on 500 and 1100.

    I flew home to get things ready for our trip and Tim and Ruth Butts came down to help and ride up to Oregon with us. The Kilos were scheduled for September 24 and 25. At that time the Butts' were tired of the cold weather in Michigan and found we had a perfect testing spot as they had come to be spending the last few New Years day testing with us. At that time they were still deciding whether to move down by us or up by Joe Rome near Houston.

    We went up through West Texas, New Mexico, a drive by of Arizona, Utah, Idaho and into Oregon to the West Coast where we stayed at a Hotel built into the side of a cliff on the Pacific Ocean.
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  2. #462
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I already told parts of the story of the trip up and back previously. Had I known how this story was going to progress, I would have saved it for this thread. Suffice to say we passed through the low and high deserts, through the dry side of the Rockies and up and over the Cascades.

    We didn't leave a spare minute for sightseeing. We drove, got gas, ate out of the 48 quart igloo, drove gassed up, ate and found a place to sleep. Three days worth.

    The hotel must have had a beautiful view. We checked in at the lobby which was around the 9th or 10th floor. It was at ground level at the top of the cliff. Our rooms were somewhere around level 5 or 6 and the restaurant was the top floor above the lobby.

    Only my Dad, Ruth Butts and myself went up to eat as Tim wasn't feeling well. It was too dark for a view of the Pacific Ocean and we were up before the sun to get down to DeLake for the drivers meeting. I do not remember being there for two full days, but if we were, we didn't lounge around overlooking the Pacific. I can remember nothing but being in a rush most of the time on the trip and for some reason I took very few pictures. Here are a few of them.
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  3. #463
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    A couple of more pics. I don't know who they are. These are the only two boats I took pictures of running.
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  4. #464
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    I was looking at some certificates from the DeLake Kilos before I continued and had to do some rethinking on what I remembered. It's kind of foggy, but here is what I can recall.

    We were trying to set the kilo records on the fastest three PRO classes with competion set ups. We already held 700 hydro so we concentrated on 500 and 1100. Hu Entrop's 1100 hydro record at Devils Lake on September 20, 1964 was the one in our sights. It was within range of the speeds we ran with the 4 carb dual rotary valve Konig we bought from Marshall Grant. Although at 110.485, it was nowhere near the N.O.A record he set at Parker in 1960, I think it may have been the same historical boat and motor. Both records were with an Evinrude on an Entrop/McDonald cabover. The one at Parker was 122.979 in the N.O.A. X Hydro class. I think it was the fastest outboard in the world at the time. But the record we wanted was the APBA record set with that historical rig.

    So our first two attempts were with the 1100 hydro on SHADOWFAX which had its maiden voyage on the record run in 700 hydro the previous year. We started with the Hopkins KD66 7 X 13 1/4" prop that we won the Nationals with a few weeks earlier. It bogged down as soon as the Butts broke over. I turned back to the pits and we changed props. Same thing. So we hurriedly put on another prop and made a run that averaged a sponson dragging 88 mph. When our time came back around, we tried a smaller prop and still ran 88. We could not figure out what the problem was.

    The following morning I drew number one. I can't remember doing any internal work on the 1100 overnight, but we did decide to make our first run with the 500 hydro, as were weren't sure we would do any better with the 1100.

    It was very foggy and the only way to make sure I was on course was to spot the bouys marking the way. On the first pass I came upon a large flock of seagulls floating on the water. I definitely did not want one to hit me in the face or chest, so I had to back off the throttle and duck down below the cowling. It was too late to change direction to avoid them so I just hoped if one hit the boat, nothing would happen. As it turned out I made it through OK and finished the second leg. I figured I blew it, but when I got to the pits one of the officials apologized saying that they didn't have all the electronic stuff ready yet and didn't get a reading. They wanted to know if I wanted to go right back out. Heck yeah!. So we picked up our second record with a competition set up.

    Jim McKeans record was 104.045 set here at DeLake two years earlier with a Konig on a Byers. Our record of 105.270 was over the current world record but not by 1.0075 as required by UIM, but we were happy with an APBA record. Two down and one to go.

    Instead of trying to up our 700 hydro record with D41994 we went back to Marshall's old dual rotary valve F. We figured the rings were weak and had to get the RPM's up. This motor had cast iron dykes rings and needed to be replaced fairly often. We Jacked the motor way up and put on the smallest prop we had for that motor. Records show it was a 6 7/8 X 12. The leading edge of both blades was 11", the center on one blade measured 10 7/8" while the other was 11 1/8". The trailing edge of both blades was 15". But I was not familiar with the stamp on it. I know Seebold and Hopkins markings, but I was not sure about this one so I made a phone call this morning to confirm my guess. This prop was marked K4 FH 1:1. Marshall Grant made many of his own props and Marshall confirmed this was one we got with that motor. It was not his best prop by far. This motor had a bad habit of breaking blades and he ran it deep with a 1:1 to help stop that problem. Here though, we had to get the rpm's up. According to my notes we made one pass at 103mph. According to the certificate we averaged 108 almost 109. We later discovered we had a broken ring on a top cylinder that must have broken just before starting the final lap of heat two at the nationals. It had started blubbering as I came out of the turn to start the final lap and I had thought it was just loading up because I was running 3/4 throttle.

    So we gave up on the 1100hydro and put Marshall's old D on SHADOWFAX. By then it was too late. The wind had picked up too much and I couldn't pull the pipes and throttle all the way. Downwind I ran 110, but upwind I could only go 108. I ran it to the edge, but the Aerowing was flying way to high for full throttle and pipes.



  5. #465
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    The Certificate of the official speed of Konig D41994. Marshall told me this morning that this motor was like that Johnny Cash song building the car one part at a time. Everything was hand picked, measured and worked on one part at a time.
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  6. #466
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    We left Devils Lake and did some sightseeing down the Pacific Highway. Seems like it was No. 5. It was kind of weird at sunset with the clouds below us on the Pacific like we were flying. I guess a lot of people fly above the clouds in this part of the world Maybe we were close to Big Sur.

    We spent the night at the Sequoia National Forest. I think we were the only ones there. At least we were the only ones in the dining room that evening. We had been running solid for the past week and I couldn't sleep. I hadn't talked to Debbie since we left. There was no phone in the room so I went outside to a pay phone. The guy running the place said not to wander around outside and if you did go out, keep a close eye out for bear. That I did, while standing outside talking to Debbie. She was crying the whole time because she had never heard from me and didn't know what was going on. That's about the lowest I have ever felt. Even to this day I have a little pang about not bothering to call her when we got to Lincoln City.

    The tree Tim Butts is standing by is the largest living thing in the world. It has thirty more years growth since that photo was taken. I wonder how many Aerowings it would make.

    It was on the way back that Ruth Butts got sick from a hot dog we grilled under the hood. A trip to the VA hospital and several hours later we were back on the road.
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  7. #467
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I don't have that problem, but then again, we got a new computer almost two months ago and it has a wide screen. The pictures kind of spread out more with it in wide mode, so maybe that's why I get the full view. One thing I have noticed with the new format is the pictures are smaller. No, I'm not talking about the thumbnails for those of you who were fixing to jump on that. They seem to only take up the left hand corner. I don't know if I should size them differently or what.



  8. #468
    Sam Cullis Mark75H's Avatar
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    Exclamation

    After a confrence with an expert ... its probably better that I leave the setting on and make the changes a different way.

    Very long threads become difficult to save correctly on the server that hosts the discussion board. The longer they are, the more likely they are to become corrupted and the whole thing may be lost.

    The advice I received is that we should end this particular thread and start a new one called "An Amazing Story: Part 2"

    This thread is more likely to remain available to read if we stop it and lock the contents preventing any future posts to it.

    The thread is LOCKED. Click this link to proceed to Part 2 Link to Part 2

    Note to other admins ... do not unlock this thread. Additional posts may cause the whole thread to become corrupted, unreadable or completely lost.
    Last edited by Mark75H; 03-26-2007 at 07:43 PM.
    Since 1925, about 150 different racing outboards have been made.


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