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Thread: An Amazing Story: Part 2

  1. #11
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I apologize for getting your numbers mixed up Eric. I knew Gary was 67, but when I saw the pic of you towing the other boat, I knew I had to post that and just had Gary on my mind.

    As far as Mark Donahue---He was a great racer. Broke a long spell, winning Forumla 1 in 1972 I believe. Steve Jones and I were making the rounds of newspaper and TV stations promoting coverage for a boat race when we got the news of his death.

    Here's you a little closer up.
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  2. #12
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    1977 was a good year for rookies. I think there may have even been more at Alex that I didn't get on film and I don't have a roster to check.
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  3. #13
    Team Member epugh66's Avatar
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    We are firmly seated in "The Wayback Machine" now.

    "X" is me in the MOH/125cc boat I mentioned above. As usuall, the exhaust has broken and I've gone from 25 horsepower to 10

    V-1 is Jeff Kuglar. Those were fun days(not) in 125. You either had one of the few Konig's, built it yourself or ran a Quincy "Z". Effectionatley called a "drill press" engine bt Racin' Ray Nydahl.
    Had I known 1984 was going to be my peak year, I would have tried harder

  4. #14
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I was thinking X was you Eric. That photo looks like from testing, then I have another where it looks like it came off during the race.



  5. #15
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    There had been a major worry about the weather prior to the races. Then there was a weather report in Friday's Alexandria Town Talk that said rain may not come until Monday. Referee Carl Rylee said "We can run in a light rain, but if the wind and rain get too strong, we'll have to delay running for awhile". Right before the start of 500 hydro the wind kicked up hard. We waited a half hour and it calmed a lot but was still rough. I wouldn't race in rough water anymore. When it became an endurance contest rather than a race, I would set on the bank. I had already lost one year due to an accident, and I didn't want that to happen again. So I scratched to allow someone else to get in if they wanted to.

    The wind of the finals on Saturday was just a preamble to the weather brewing over the horizon. That night a severe blow came out of the north. It blew the starting clock in the water, moved some bouys around, and some came loose from their moorings and were washed away. As a result, the survey was compromised so the finals on Sunday were reduced to three heats and no competition records.

    One of the boat racing legends that was created by Buddy McBride started here at this race. I'm sure it is lost to the past now, but from this race on, whenever Charlie Bailey first arrived in the pits, someone from the Texas ranks would holler out loud for all to hear "MY HERO.....CHARLIE BAILEY." Some of the racers from other parts of the country may have heard this once or twice and not given it another thought, but the Lone Star racers heard it at every race that Charlie attended after that.

    Charlie Bailey was setting smack in the middle of the Picadilly Cafeteria on McArthur Drive. Joe Rome and Louis Williams were also already seated. Our group was standing in line to be served when Buddy and Carolyn McBride arrived. There was a slatted partition alongside the serving line. When Buddy spotted Charlie he stuck his head through that partition and hollered that phrase so loud that all could hear. "MY HERO....CHARLIE BAILEY". It was Saturday night and a bunch of racers were already there so they all turned to look at Charlie, giving the non racing crowd an idea of who the commotion was about. Poor Charlie turned as red as Louis William's 14T DeSilva runabout.

    All this time Joe and I had thought Buddy McBride had just started that infamous greeting that night on his own, as he was usually the one to holler it at the races. If Buddy didn't see Charlie first, then my Dad would sometimes do the honors.

    Now...after all these years we get the skinny on how it all began. Joe talked to Charlie a couple of days ago and got the true story. It all started at a race on the Neches River in Beaumont earlier that year. After one of the races, one very large lady busted through the crowd, a piece of paper in hand, into Charlies pit area. Exclaiming loudly for Charlie and the others to hear "MY HERO...CHALLEY BAILEY....I WANT YO AUTOGRAPH!" Charlie stopped what he was doing and took her pen and paper. He told Joe "That was the first time anyone ever wanted my autograph."
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  6. #16
    Team Member epugh66's Avatar
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    That overnight storm was the one that crashed my Hedlund. It was pointing to the lake with the Y-80 on back. The wind "blew it over" onto the Hardins trailer. Crunched the nose a little, I don't remember if we ran Novice that day or not.
    Had I known 1984 was going to be my peak year, I would have tried harder

  7. #17
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    I have found one in a series of four pictures I want to look at before continuing with 700 hydro, in the meantime here are some other shots I picked out of Alex 1977.

    The last one was a double exposure mistake, but I saved it because of these two great guys that raced together in New York and made the trip down to Alex. It was just by chance they are to two that ended up in this double exposure.
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  8. #18
    Team Member jrome's Avatar
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    Default Pete And Bob

    Wayne Great Shot Or Mistake Or Karma. When We Saw Bob We Say Pete. Great Pic.

  9. #19
    Team Member Jeff Lytle's Avatar
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    I remember that green boat Pete Voss had. We used to tease him about the color, and rib him whenever we could. I remember a Canadian racer who used to run with us joined in on Pete at a race somewhere, his boat happened to be blue.

    Pete's reply was simple, and straight to the point- "Blue is glue......Green in MEAN!"

  10. #20
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    I found the photos, but they don't appear to be of heat 1 of 700 hydro as I thought. They were taken at that race by Floyd Hopkins but it appears it was during a test session rather than the first heat. But, as I have always thought that Floyd's captions were funny, I'll repost them.

    I don't have much in my notes except we did not make it out the first heat due to a ground wire not hooked up. I can't remember what happened and it doesn't make much sense because as soon as we rigged up a motor and it was ready, we fired it off. My Dad would snap the rope, I would wrap it up a couple of times then I would kill it and loosen the fuel cap to keep heat from pumping fuel into the carbs.

    We had lost the 1100 hydro event at Hot Springs due to a ground wire breaking with a huge lead, but after that we went to a new type wire that wasn't brittle. That cured that problem. We did have a problem running out of electricity with our fuel pumps though. In 1976 my fuel pump failed with a quarter lap to go in qualifying for the John Ward race in Canada and only a hundred yards to the finish at the 1976 Nationals my 500 hydro ran out of juice. So it may be that we disconnected the ground wire to make sure nothing bled out of our battery. I just don't remember, but I guess it must have been a stupid oversight. We usually didn't fire up until three minutes. So we must have not figured it out until it was too late to get out of the pits before the one minute gun fires. Anyway, here are those pics from Floyd Hopkins along with his captions.
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