An Amazing Story: Part 2

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That's right Eric. Konigs originally came with red rubber or black rubber water discharges hoses. Just imagine how it feels when you get on a plane, start looking back for that tell tale of water coming from the hoses...nothing yet....nothing yet....then water comes out of the front hose??? You continue on, the motor is good, getting some good speed but no water from the rear hose. You are ready to race, the butterflys are gone as the speed gets fresh air under your bubble shield. Still no water from the rear hose. You ease off the throttle so as not to create heat too fast. Still no water. Aaaaggghhh! Can't go any more. Have to kill the engine before it sticks. Back in the pits you pull the hose off and try to blow through it. Nothing doing. You poke a piece of wire up inside to break up that damn mud dauber nest. No more solid rubber hoses.......from now on use clear plastic fuel hose....problem solved.

This is my question. Have you ever run across mud dauber nests by the thousands on trees, bushes and other things of nature? No. They are all on man made stuff. Under the eaves, under tarps, on brake handles of unused bikes, inside motor parts........... What did they do for a living before man came along? Especially racing man (and woman)!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Two days after the Eastern Divisionals at Acworth Tim Butts had a new hydro design at our house for testing. It was bought by Don Nichols and as far as I know, he was the first to drive a Butts laydown and the first to own one. I don't know if they came straight from Acworth or didn't attend. Along with Tim and Don were Bill Bede Sr. and Jr. and Gary Williams, "Instigator" here on BRF. Don took it easy at first, gradually increasing speed until he got used to the new feel of laying down. Those first laydowns didn't have the plexiglass bubble shield. It seemed to do well in a little bit of rough water.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I forgot that I was going to post a pic of the crossover passage. I have seen an example of the pulse wave from the exhaust working it's way all the way thru the carb so I'm guessing that probably interfered with the theory of what this crossover manifold could accomplish.

[wboxell]

wayne,
i want to thank you again and again for your posts. your pictures and commentary. i had a small window into pro racing, and enjoyed every minute of it. to see a picture of the first aerowing laydown. cool!
bill

[epugh66]

Not claiming to be an entomologist, or even an expert on mud daubers, but they will still find the holes on the front of the lower unit. Also, go in an old barn looking for VW parts(or your car/boat/engine of passion) and you will find dauber nest. They look like rows of little cigars about six inches long. Always on the verticle side of beams, rafters and othe surfaces. They are usually "nested" in parrallel rows. And of course, made out of mud.

Alan, I wanted to make it to Depue, I've been recently and will make it again. Nina had a grand dauters birthday to attend.

[stewjrfan]

Here is a photo at the start of a runabout race at Depue 2007

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Back to the race at Laredo......

I found these pics when I was looking for something else. I don't know what I was doing here, but I had everyone facing the mirror and Debbie is in the pic twice. Her back is to us, then facing is Debbie, and Judy and Steve Jones from Corpus Christi. We had earlier been to a banquet at the La Posada by the Rio Grande with all the diplomats, generals, politicians etc. sponsored by Tequila Sauza and now we were dressed up for the Dinner, Ball, Extravaganza at another place. I told Debbie to take the 2nd pic while I jumped up in the air.

A little bit about this race beforehand. It was sponsored by the Elks Club of Laredo. Proceeds were to benefit the Texas Elks Foundation of Crippled Children. The Exalted Leader of Elks Lodge 1018 was Elmer Buckley who was also Special Assistant to the Mayor of Laredo....Aldo Tatangelo. Special Assistant was his title and Elmer was the one that made sure things got done.

Here's the strange part. Aldo Tantangelo was originally from Philadelphia I think or maybe Pittsburg.......one of those big PA. towns. He dressed, talked and looked like a mobster. He was a Republican.........in a South Texas border town.....strange! In the 80's he sold one of Laredo's city streets to a private concern. Don't really know what that was all about, but he claimed the city needed money. But Elmer really took good care of us and we had a great time. The race was the first part of July and a lot of people in the city worked hard to see it become a success. Quite a few of the locals helped us a lot and we got good media coverage.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

So now it's only 6 days before our first race of the year. Hydroplanes International is the club and the races are APBA sanction. There is so much buzz among the locals that we are anxious to have this venue as one of the annual races and as we have done every year, we applied for all the UIM outboard categories OA-OE for a world championship event.

As part of the promotional effort I had my favorite rig, "Shadowfax" with our "D" Konig fixed to the transom, on display at the Del Norte Mall in Laredo. My co-conspirator on race promotion Steve Jones was there with his family. We enjoyed talking about the races, but it's different when you are trying to explain the basics over and over again to people who didn't even know such boats existed. We were glad when it was over. We left the boat in the Mall for a few dayor two before we took it down to Lake Casablanca.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

My Dad, Steve Jones and myself had made a number of trips to meet with Elmer Buckley to work out all the details. On our first trip Elmer had the kitchen at the Elks Lodge serve us lobster tails. We were more interested in a good steak, but he insisted their lobster was good. Here is an Elks Lodge a few miles northeast of Laredo overlooking a man made lake surrounded by a semi arid landscape...almost desert. And Elmer says "Get the lobster". We found it to be as good as the best in any big coastal city anywhere...including the Bahamas. So we ate a lot of lobster during those trips.

I had forgotten that three of the classes were World Championships. Charlie Strang had advised my Dad that APBA only classes could also hold World Championship races by filing the correct paperwork and fees to UIM. So 500 Runabout, 700 runabout and 1100 Hydro were World Championship events. Hydroplanes International had a goal of paying higher prize money than the average national race and we did here as well.

The night before the race there was an auction of donated merchandise to benefit the Elks Crippled Children fund. One of the Elks members had a business that made the most unusual candles I have ever seen. He called them "water candles and every one was unique. They were very beautiful. He donated some of those, I guess we probably donated some gallons and cases of Master Oil, but the donation I remember the most was a catfish weighing thirty or forty pounds. Someone had caught it just down the hill from the Elks Lodge. As the bidding got up around $70 people started dropping out. The beer was flowing freely and the oilfield was booming and my Dad wanted to get the most money for the Elks so he stayed in it. He knew the oilfield guy out of Laredo that he was bidding against and so my Dad got it up somewhere over $100 then let the guy have it. Neither one really wanted the fish, but there was a lot of laughing, joking and prodding going on during the bidding and the other guy thought my Dad would go a little more before he hung it to him. A fun time was had by all.

The following page came from the Elks newsletter.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Oops! Got distracted by a phone call and punched the wrong button. The post was following at a distance.