An Amazing Story: Part 2

[epugh66]

I ordered a fish sandwich at an imbiss in Sylt and it had four little fishies layed in a row alternating head and tail to make them fit the bun. Their little heads were still on with glossed over eyes not paying me any attention It tasted good.

I think I know why Danish Sushi didn't catch on
Glad to see you were in the MBZ, at first I thought you may be in the green Renault 4TL in the first pic. Also, if anyone wants to know, thats a 1974 up VW Type II transporter Westfalia getting on the ferry. Probably worth twice now what it cost when new.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That MBZ served us well Eric. We took the autobahn back to Hamburg. It was the most harrowing, nerve wracking auto trip I have ever had in my life. It could have been great fun if I was driving but Peter was at the wheel.

As West Berlin was basically an inland island concerning the free world in those days, Peter did all his long distance traveling by airplane or "flugzeug"--a flying thing. When zipping around Berlin he had a compact car, something about like a Fiat 124. I don't think he ever had much long distance high speed driving experience.

We were all laughing and joking until we got out on the autobahn and Peter got up to speed. We drove in the left lane all the way to Hamburg at 180 to 200 kph (sounds faster in kilometers ). That wasn't the bad part. The reason Debbie and I clammed up and quit talking as we both probably figured we would end up like sardines in a tin can after the car stopped tumbling. Peter drove almost all the way with only the index and middle finger of his right hand resting on the bottom of the steering wheel. I like to drive fast, but I always do so with both hands on the wheel. At those speeds I think of a car pulling into our lane, or our car blowing a tire. The cars in the right lane weren't exactly slow, but we were passing them like they were in a school zone. You can't imagine the feeling of relief Debbie and I had when we got to Hamburg. I love Germany, but I didn't want to be buried there.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Back in Hamburg we got a boat tour through the harbor. It is one of the big harbors of the world and also a major ship repair facitlity. I imagine since 911 there may no longer be any such tours available.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

When we got back to Berlin we began to prepare to return home. If you remember back as far as when we were getting ready to come to Berlin, you will remember our travel agent went in for minor surgery and forgot to book our return flight and missed the window. She called Pan Am and they told her no problem, just leave the date open and come back on standby. I didn't like the idea, but we didn't have any other choice. I recalled the year before that Debbie and I had run into Jerry Drake at the Frankfurt airport. He was flying in from South Africa to race in the World Cup also. I introduced Debbie to him and as we were talking found out that he had a standby number of around 70 or 80. Debbie and I had numbers somewhere around 150. So we all figured we would be much later getting into Berlin. Shortly after everyone boarded they started calling outnumbers and Jerry was able to board. After greeting him farewell, another 10 minutes and our numbers were called and we got on the same flight as Jerry. Seems with all the traffic between Frankfurt and West Berlin, businessmen started booking a return flight every hour after midmorning, hence a lot of no shows between noon and four in the afternoon.

So Debbie and I decided to leave a couple of days early in case we ran into a problem. We were on a 14-21 day excursion fare and returning at any date outside that window voided the fare and you pay book price.

Our friend Peter spent around 90 thousand per year flying to Zurich, Frankfurt, Leningrad and Moscow on business. He spent so much a young travel agent became his friend and would either bring the tickets to his house or send them out by taxi. Peter gave his friend all our travel info and said we needed to fly standby on the way home. His friend told him that was not possible. They spent the whole day trying to figure out a way to get home on our tickets. We couldn't. The airline situation in Berlin is unique. The Russian airline Aeroflot flew out of East Berlin. Only 1 airline from each of the three countries that had occupied West Berlin were allowed to fly out of there. Pan Am, British Airways and Air France. Anywhere else in the world we could have flown Pan Am on standby. The only exception was Berlin.

We did not have an extra $600 at the end of our trip to plunk down for two one way tickets home, so Jenny paid for the tickets and my Dad wired the money to Jenny from Texas as the wire could not get to Pan Am in time. After we got back to Denton and got rested up I headed to the travel agency. They blamed Pan Am, Pan Am put it back on them. I had to hire a lawyer and they did finally fork over out 600 but we were out lawyer fees. It wasn't as bad in those days. Now you would just have to take the loss because the lawyer would probably cost $2000.

We got home just before the Eastern Divisionals so we didn't go to Acworth. We still had to prepare for the upcoming UIM World at Dayton for classes OB,OC and OE.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Besides getting together with European and Japanese Teams to make arrangements for boats, transportation and lodging, we were in the middle of a battle with UIM on the fuel rule for OE. We were sending telegrams, letters and many phone callls around the world for help supporting our cause. In the end we lost, but I have a bunch of letters with full color logos and addresses of countries from all over the globe regarding our fight. Stamps included. So when we got back from Berlin, we hit the road running for the upcoming races. Since we were still living in Denton, I was having to fly back home to do motor work and testing. It was beginning to take a toll on Jack Chance.

[RichardKCMo]

Wayne , great history, living where i did when i was in my formative yrs. it was stock racing, it was a sin to take that thing apart without eyes on you.

Anyway, that was then and it's great reading this , btw i didn't even know NOA existed till i bought a copy of speed and spray.
RichardKCMo

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Thanks Richard. Hey...if you ever get to South Texas come by and have a look at my racing room. Got some old Roostertails and NOA rule books to look at. Somebody needs to pick Claude Fox's brain for NOA history before it's too late. How about it Eric?

The UIM World Championships for classes OB, OC and OE were held at the end of July. We got to see a bunch of our European friends again as well as meet some new racers from Japan, France, Yugoslavia, South Africa, and England . In spite of the power play by OMC regarding the fuel for class OE, the races went off great. It was a very professionally handled event with lots of local TV, radio and newspaper coverage. Among magazines coverage I know of at least two. Powerboat and Performance Boating.

I also had the good fortune to meet Sports Editor for the Dayton Daily News--Harvey Shapiro. He was just in the process of launching a new racing tabloid --WORLD OF SPEED. He asked me to become a columnist to cover UIM racing and my boat SHADOWFAX with Marshall's old D ended up on the cover along with illustrations of other columnists. I felt very honored to be included in this company and have the cover framed and hanging in my racing room.

[Mark75H]

I did a phone interview with Claude 10 or 12 years back regarding the beginning of the post war NOA and the general operation of NOA over the years. I still have those notes. Claude had a fantastic memory at that point and most likely still does. Everything he told me syncs up with the written history by others. What I didn't ask and should have is biographical info about Mr. Fox himself.


He told me that he had to sell his little outboard boat just a year or two before that phone call, due to his son's declining health in his son's advancing age (well into his 60's) ... the son just couldn't help him launch and recover the boat anymore ... but Claude and his wife missed boating by themselves so much they went out and bought a jetski ... they could launch and recover it themselves and were enjoying it tremendously

To us, Claude is known as the Executive Director of the NOA, to many others he is known as one of the movers and shakers that made the US Power Squadron and all their boating safety courses all over the US for many years. Along with a lot of other things he pushed for boating safety videos to send to schools and public service announcements on radio and TV.

As far as number of people his work has touched he is probably on peer with Ole Evinrude and Carl Kiekhaefer, but very few know his name.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I remember now you mentioning some of that information Sam. What is the status of his photos? He had a great collection. Many valuable and historic photos. I would love to have a complete collection of Roostertails.

What about the info from your interview with Claude? Are you just waiting until your book is published? If you don't have one planned yet, you need to start working on it.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I don't have proper lighting or filters to do the head on shot anymore. Even bouncing was tough because of the little rangefinder light that makes a glare, but here is an oddball angle of that cover. Harvey was going to make a poster of the cover, but I never saw one. And the list of columnists. Like Motorsport, a tabloid that covers a wide variety of racing is tough to keep going for a long time. I guess it lasted a little over a year.