Black Cat Racing Team.

[tthibodaux]

Tim, this wasn't exactly the prize I was looking for, but I had forgotten about the incident with Jim and I never knew if you had heard about this so I decided to post it. Your Dad was also in this article running 2nd behind Darrel Beaulier.

Words from my mother about this article!! "I had just gotten out of the hospital with you and was there the day the accident happened. The article was not quite correct, we won that race but they tried to throw us out, something about the pistons so we protested and they sent the motor parts to some machine shop for measurements. Gene (your dad) had them honed as close as specs would allow. After they took measurements with there machines we later got the points and the check for winning the race. I paid off the hospital bills with the money. They kept saying on the intercom that Gene's new son was in the pits. Friends of ours had a motor home and you slept in it all day while I watched the race from on top of it. It was a BLESSING that dad (JIM) was alive after that crash and a very hard race to watch.

I copied the article and emailed it to mom to read and that was her response!

[tthibodaux]

Tim, I will look for some more pics of Jim and Bud. I remember them both well, but for some reason I can't recall Bud's face. Your grandmother Willa I remember as a class act. A very attractive and an avid boat racer. If I remember correctly she was involved in scoring and other aspects of officiating. I didn't remember specifically Black Cat Racing Team, but those two gentlemen were leaders in their day, both on the course as well as off. I also recall the Super Carpenter boats.

Look what I found today!!!

[Mark75H]

Cool!

[tthibodaux]

Look what I found tonight! AeroTechx boats was my poppy's (Jim Foreman) last attempt at building boats before he passed. Found this poster tonight of my uncle Roddy and his Force powered tunnel boat. Notice Terry Strack also drove an AeroTehx/Force powered boat at the Nationals that season.

[marty92xrd]

Oh man, you just gave me goose bumps. I have been searching for a LONG time for something on John "Doc" Parsons and Terry Strack. They both drove an old boat that I have. Doc drove a couple somewhere around 89-93 or so and Strack drove it the last year it was raced. It was an old Seebold, #31. Do you have any other information on these guys? Thanks man!!!

[tthibodaux]

Oh man, you just gave me goose bumps. I have been searching for a LONG time for something on John "Doc" Parsons and Terry Strack. They both drove an old boat that I have. Doc drove a couple somewhere around 89-91 or so and Strack drove it the last year it was raced. It was an old Seebold, #31. Do you have any other information on these guys? Thanks man!!!

I'll dig up some old Terry info for ya! Terry was one hell of a driver in just about everything I ever saw him drive. What boat do you have? Got a picture? I may know the boat.

[marty92xrd]

Cool Deal! I have some pics of it from when I got it. This is the way it looked the last year or 2 it was raced. There is not much paint left on it now, paint stripper and scrapers work wonders. I thought that pink was kickin though.LOL I got the thing for a little of nothing and HATED to see it sitting doing nothing. Its just going to be something for me to toy around with, not putting much HP on it at all. Jerry Rothwell was the owner of it, I work for his son at a dealership. I have only seen one picture of it running and that was a poster we used to have hanging here at the store of Parsons running at Kankakee in '93.

[1169 Crusader]

[QUOTE=tthibodaux;31602]This is off the wall I know but does anyone remember or have any picture of the Black Cat Racing Team? The drivers were Jim Foreman (my grandfather) and Bud Babbitt. I found one picture in an old scrap book but it's very old and didn't scan well. Don't know how much or if ever these guys won any races but the stories say they had a heck of a time. My mom told me the first race they went to they had a prop that was the wrong rotation and the boat would only go backwards. lol. Jim was also a boat builder (Super Carpenter Racing) was the name of the boats he built if that rings any bells. My dad won countless races in a Mod 50 boat Jim built. Anyway if anyone can help I would be greatful.

Tim,
When I first met your grand dad, he & Bud had a Ron Jones w/ a single Johnson. The boat had Black Cat Racing written on it. This was 1970. In 71 your grand dad bought 2 locally built boats called Dodsons. I tore the transom out of one at Palacious. He rebuilt & extended the transom & later that year while waiting for the start at Lake Texoma, the boat sank. We figured out later that I had hit a pothole in the road while trailering the boat to the race & seperated some of the joints. I think that's when jim decided to go into the tunnel boat building business. He had had enough of the Dodsons.
I think he had had enough of me too.