An Amazing Story: Part 2

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I never drove one like that David, but I can feel where you're coming from. The boats I drove were made to fly, but sometimes when the wind was blowing hard down one of the straights, you had to tuck it in a little bit. We almost always ran a parallel prop shaft according to the pecker checker.

I can imagine what you were going through. The prop was thrusting the boat forward and pushing the sponsons down. Depending on wind direction, or if there was any wind at all, one straight may be worse than the other. You would be fighting the race course itself the whole time rather than concentrating on the competition. The thing is....water changes and moves so you cannot get into any kind of rhythm....you have to fight it the whole time. Your engine is pushing the boat rather than propelling it and letting it fly. I don't blame you for not wanting to do that again. One thing though....I didn't know that a tuck that much helped so much in turning. A lot of things we never tried. Thanks for the input David.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Bill...back to your question about Wilfried Weiland blowing over. He did, but I don't remember if it was before the time trials or afterward. In any case, he messed up his cowling and did more serious damage.

Several months earlier he said he planned to build his own catamaran for the race. My Dad offered him a shop and place to stay if he wanted to build it in Texas. He didn't take my Dad up on his offer and shipped the boat in from Austria. I am not sure whether he built this boat or not, but he took a loop in it at Lake Casa Blanca and knew what he needed to fix it. A couple of guys from the Elks Lodge had a shop for Wilfried to work in and helped him find all the materials. During the night wilfried, his crew and some Texans helped him put his boat back together.

[wboxell]

Wayne, I think that Wilfried's blow over was the very first test session. The crash boats weren't quite ready but he waved that he was ok and waited for a while for someone to go get him. Thought, boy we dodged bullet there! Little did we know what was to come that night and next day bill

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I didn't remember that part Bill. Thanks for your addition to the story. And you are right....little did we know. Mary Kirts's death was enough to cast a pall over the event, but the tragic loss of Jim Stone was a compound blow. The calcutta scheduled for Friday night was cancelled. We didn't have the cameraderie with friends from all over like we normally would as the racing season is kicked off again.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We woke up Saturday morning with almost gale winds. I don't remember when it came it, but the wind came in during the night with a vengence. It is not a hopeful sign to walk down to breakfast with the collar of your racing uniform whipping up in the breeze.

Debbie and I had spent a peaceful evening at a fine restaurant with our friends from Berlin--Harry Splettstoesser and Jenny Scwhartz-Nitka. We turned in early and had a fitful sleep. When the wind came in so strongly, it was impossible to sleep well.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The wind never slacked off the whole day. It was steady at 35 to 40mph or so. Gusts may have been higher. There was so much dust in the air that my 200mm lens had to be sent to EPOI in New York for repair. The focus ring was grinding every time I turned it. The wind was coming from the northwest --a very late norther. Up against the bank we were fairly protected as we were below the natural landscape. But the racecourse was all whitecaps.

We stood around all day waiting for a break. Nobody was really into racing at this point and the overall mood was down. I took very few pictures, and I don't think I have any black & white photos unless they are in the 10 or so rolls I never have developed.

Here is a quick snap of some of the officials from one of the meetings held throughout the day. Left to right Grand Exalted Ruler of the Elks Lodge Elmer Buckley in red windbreaker, Officer of the Day Jack Waite, US Juror Joe Rome, Inspector Harry Pasturczak, Dieter Konig, West German Juror Joachim Du Coffre, and with back to the camera in a blue windbreaker Leif Ahlborg from Sweden.

You can see indications of wind velocity from these next two pics.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Austrian driver Wilfreid Weiland seems to have chosen his own destiny for this race. He ran Bill Van Steenwyk's Rhoades hydro in the 1977 UIM World Championships at Dayton. He was the only person I ever knew to blow over a Rhoades. This time he came with a tunnel, or catamaran as they call them in Europe. This looks like the same rig he ran at Linz, Austria the previous year. He promptly blew it over at Laredo and was able to rebuild it with help from some citizen's of Laredo. Here are a few pics with his crew, one of which is wearing a T shirt predicting the outcome of the race with a strategically placed piece of duct tape. This was the first time a tunnel was entered in a OD World Championship race in the U.S. (may be the only time as far as I know) While Erwin Zimmerman was successful with a cat in 1978 in Berlin, the water over here is generally too calm for them to outrun the hydros. This race course however did take away some of the speed advantage of hydros. If the wind continued to blow, he would have his biggest advantage.

P.S. The boats in the background of the last pic belong to Artie Lund, Steve Jones and Rex Hall, Jr.

[jmccoy]

Tim Small cannot get on the site so he asked me to post this for him.

Jerry, Here is what I remember. Jim and I drove the rig out to Laredo along with my dad. Upon arriving I picked up Elmer at the airport and we all went down to the lake. We tested for the next day or two. I ran the 350, Jim ran the 700. At the time I was driving Elmer’s 250 stuff and Jim drove the big stuff. Elmer was and still is my neighbor in Florida, so I always loaded the trailer and drove it to the races along with Jim and sometimes Jeff Hutchins. Anyway, after the last day of testing Jim said he felt the 700 he was running was not quite as fast as the record holding engine. I told him it was plenty fast and to leave it alone. Well, Jim wanted more so we put the MONSTER on, and Jim didn’t get to test it. We knew the setup so we felt confident. That engine set the kilo record at 122mph in Florida with George Andrews driving. We always ran the overdrive unit as we had the power to pull amazing horsepower with this engine. Anyway, as Jim went out to make his run, he always wedged himself into the Yale hydro, sort of half lying on his right side. He said the G forces were so hard when kneeling that he couldn’t hold on. As I remember, I timed his first lap and couldn’t believe my watch. He was flying. On the second lap, about 3/4 of the way down the back shoot, the back of the boat popped up for and instant and the front buried and the boat seemed to disappear. I knew by watching at that moment that it would be almost impossible to survive this type of crash. I remember when they brought Jim to shore, his goggles, shoes were gone. His helmet was also not on correctly and we instantly knew Jim was gone. As we carried the boat to shore I noticed the steering wheel was bent in half and the pullies on the steering cable were bent also. I believe the cables caught him between the neck and shoulder as he shot through the front of the boat. As they rushed Jim to the hospital, we slowly loaded up and took the rig back to the hotel. We were in such shock that we were numb. Elmer had already got the call that Jim didn’t make it. I don’t think we ate dinner, just sat in the room talking about Jim. Jim and I shared a room at Laredo, so I had to pack his clothes and his watch which he left on the bed before we left for the pits that day. In the meantime Scott Smith asked me if I would drive Danny Kirts 350, as Danny’s mom had died that week also. I called Scott to tell him we were leaving the next morning for Florida and I was sorry. So after making all the funeral arrangements we took off for Jacksonville the next day. Elmer road with my dad and I as we had 3 days to get back for the funeral. Upon arriving we parked the trailer in back and went in to greet all people who had come to say goodbye to Jim. Many, many boat racers showed up and had so many questions. Shirley, Jim’s wife had left Jims hands dirty from working on the engines, which she said Jim would have wanted. We said our goodbyes to our friend and headed home. After getting back, we took the boat up to Johnny Yale’s where it has remained since, covered up and never repaired. It was one of the saddest days in my life that day in Laredo. I quit racing for almost 2 years, but eventually Elmer and I started talking about racing again, and soon I was driving his 250 again, and Elmer got Jerry Kirts to drive the big stuff. We proceeded to win the 250, 350, 500, and 700 nationals more than once over the next few years, but it was never quite the same without Jim. To this day none of us know what happened that fateful day, but I do remember testing and seeing big turtles bobbing up and down in front of my boat. Was it the water, was it a turtle? Would Jim still be alive if he kneeled instead of lying down? No one knows, but we all knew Jim was a fierce competitor, and a great guy.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Jerry, thanks so much for posting this and tell Tim thanks for sharing. I could see some of the damage from the newspaper photo that Tim described. I purposely didn't go look at the boat. I knew it was bad, and I didn't want to have to deal with it. That's why I have so few notes of the race days itself, and hardly any pics. I never did a story for Powerboat or P&W.

I also didn't know the reason until now why Jim wedged himself low in the boat like that. The steering cable was most likely what got him. As Tim Small wondered and Joe Rome had said...if he wasn't half laying down, the outcome may have been different.

I never thought of the turtle angle, but at those speeds it could definetly be a possibilty. I can't imagine what Tim felt like packing up Jim's belongings then the long drive back. It was a tremendous loss for us all, but especially so for his teammates.

[geodavid]

Wayne and Tim,
I have many memories of racing with Jim and the friendship that we shared. Jim and I were acquainted, but not friends at first. Then, one of the several times Carl Rylee DQ'ed me for overlap in Alexandria, Jim was the apparent victim. Jim was incensed. He ran up to the judges stand and said in no way was he cut off. I was reinstated and a true friendship followed for many years. This is what PRO racing is all about. A true sportsman and man of honor. I read these posts with a tear in my eye.
Jim, we all miss you so much....