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regards mel kirts
Wayne:
You mentioned that you thought you never saw Mel again after the Laredo race. After Mary died at the race, and Mel arrived back home, within a just a few days he was in the hospital. Was there for several weeks and he also passed away. I never heard the official cause of death, but everyone said it was a "broken heart". He and Mary were married for many years and very close.
That's what we all figured Bill Van. It was very tough to keep the show going, but we had to. TV cameras were rigging up, the sound system was up and tested, newspaper photographers were making rounds in the pits.
Before noon there was a press party at the Elks Lodge where Elmer Buckley explained about the benefit for the Elks Crippled Children's Fund and then the press was introduced to various people. The German delegation led by Dieter Konig, the Austrians, Scott Smith, Tim Butts, R Allen Smith, J C Jack Waite, Jo Anne Ellis, among others. KGNS TV was there along with another TV crew, KOYE Radio, the Laredo News, the Laredo Times, and some press from Mexico I didn't write down. Press Chief from Federacion Mexicana de Motonautica Carlos Sandoval was there to witness our racing and to invite any that would come to race in Alcapulco in three weeks. He also told about the Rio Bolsos race that took five days through rivers, whitewater rapids and ended up with a stint into the Pacific. Countries from all over the world participated in that 600km race.
The qualifying heats for Americans would start at 1:00 and finish at 5:00. The top five would race for the U.S. Since some of the foreign countries that sent entries in didn't show, Carlos Sandoval was there to issue Mexican licenses and Germans would do the same as they had a couple of empty slots. I think we had previous agreements to issue Canadian licenses if we needed to. A lot of money had been spent up to this point to get everyone here and set up all that needed to be set up to put on a first class race, so we had to shake off the loss of Mary Kirts and get ready to race.
One more foreboding sign however. The blimp didn't show. They had picked up a building storm system over the horizon a couple of days out. They could not operate under the looming conditions they predicted would come in with a force.
We all heard out about Laredo up here and we turned a bit green!
The Laredo race was payed great attention here we being stock outboarders so what! We always payed great interest to Alky racing from the getgo in Texas with all their Konigs because we saw great NOA races here for so long that belonged to the Alky Deflector days that saw transition into the Anzani, Harrison, Flathead, Konig and Crescent Loop engines in turn and we were always interested in the evolution and Konigs at the time was that next evolution. That and the evolution to pickelfork hydros. When I heard about the International race at Loredo paid some $8500.00 to participants up here for NOA races we were into the $10,000 range before the 1970s ever came along and we got the racers to show for it too. It is too bad like all good things that these events could not keep going. Ironically we never seen our first pickelfork raceboats here until 1976 when Ron Smith brought his Giles pickelforks here from Edmonton, AB and wiped us all out in class C and D Stock in one event both days! After that Giles hydros and Butts Aerowings started to turn up here on trailers by late 1976.
Keep up with these great histories your doing.
Thanks John. Three of your compatriots had planned to make the trip up until the last minute. Glenn Coates had seen a press release I sent to Powerboat & Waterskiing the previous fall and wrote me a letter asking for details. Glenn, Roy Alexander and Greg Hall had all planned to come down from Canada. It may be that one or more got their entry fee in late. But things were also tough at that time. Inflation was high, we were just coming off of gas lines, motors and parts got very expensive due to the falling dollar. I don't think the Canadian dollar was doing any better against the Mark or Yen at that time. So I guess there were a number of reasons they didn't make it. I have had the opportunity to read about some really good money races in old programs when race courses could be found all over the country. I guess we should at least feel fortunate that we were around during some of those days. What we were doing was try to revive and build upon what the likes of Milly and Kay Harrison, Jerry Waldman, Ron Hill, the Seebolds and some others were trying to do.
I have no notes about how the time trials were run, but as we had a successful method at Dayton in 1978 with many more boats, I am thinking we did it the same way. There would be two attempts at two laps each. Drivers drew a number for their turn at the first attempt. After everyone got a time then drivers would have one more run to make the U.S. team. None of the top five had to go back out unless they chose to or were bumped, then they had one more run to get back in. The course was open for testing during the morning of the 11th, but you were also allowed one warm up lap to check course conditions before the two official timed laps.
I don't remember what number I picked but it was down the line. I can't remember how far back I was, but I watched some of them to kind of get an idea of the water conditions and how they were handling the course. We had never run on such a course as this and there was not enough time for everyone to really dial in a set up. One thing though was the embankment just behind the pit area was elevated so you could get a view of the entire course like you were in a stadium.
I used to be able to print a satellite image, but now it only lets me print this simple map. Anyway....it shows the layout of the course in relationship to the pit area. This is no way in scale, but it gives you an idea of how different this course was to normal, and nobody could guess about what the best times might be until we got started.
Overall, water conditions were not too bad. Winds were slight, but they were variable and so the slight chop was not all uniform and in the same direction. As the wind shifted there were some little holes in the water. You could run wide open, but you had to be on your toes. If it were just a race with other boats on the water that you had to watch out for and fight for the best position it would have been one thing. But the fact that the boats would be on their own trying for the two fastest laps they could put together meant something else entirely. That's why I remember water conditions more under those circumstances. You had to be more on the edge than you might be if you found yourself with a comfortable lead or maybe in the heat of battle with another boat.
When my turn came I went out for the warm up lap then got way back for a run at the clock. On each lap, I felt that a little past the start/finish line the water was a little lumpy. I could run wide open, but it felt a little bit like at Hot Springs where there was a short vertical shoreline running near the front straight more than halfway to the turn. Water bouncing back caused a bumpy surface that would make the sponsons skitter and the transom do some slight fishtailing. We weren't really flying the sponsons much at that point because we weren't heading into the wind, and just coming off the one pin turn we were still accelerating. I think we went with more of a midrange prop than one for acceration. We couldn't bend the turn like Wilfried Weiland's cat and Hans Krage's proprider was more suited for a turn like that than the pickeforks. I tended to take the back straight more like Lakeland, then chop the throttle and make a narrow river type course turn at the single bouy.
This was not my first race in a laydown boat, but it was in a Butts Aerowing laydown. Don Nichols shot his laydown skyward right here the previous year when he ran up Bruce Nicholson's transom at the start. Our new Butts felt good and I found I could just let my body drift up against the right side of the cockpit and not worry about holding on in a tight turn. Just concentrate on driving and getting the feel of flying from a prone position.
Last edited by Master Oil Racing Team; 06-05-2008 at 08:36 AM. Reason: add photos
Overall, water conditions were not too bad. Winds were slight, but they were variable and so the slight chop was not all uniform and in the same direction. As the wind shifted there were some little holes in the water. You could run wide open, but you had to be on your toes. If it were just a race with other boats on the water that you had to watch out for and fight for the best position it would have been one thing. But the fact that the boats would be on their own trying for the two fastest laps they could put together meant something else entirely. That's why I remember water conditions more under those circumstances. You had to be more on the edge than you might be if you found yourself with a comfortable lead or maybe in the heat of battle with another boat.
When my turn came I went out for the warm up lap then got way back for a run at the clock. On each lap, I felt that a little past the start/finish line the water was a little lumpy. I could run wide open, but it felt a little bit like at Hot Springs where there was a short vertical shoreline running near the front straight more than halfway to the turn. Water bouncing back caused a bumpy surface that would make the sponsons skitter and the transom do some slight fishtailing. We weren't really flying the sponsons much at that point because we weren't heading into the wind, and just coming off the one pin turn we were still accelerating. I think we went with more of a midrange prop than one for acceration. We couldn't bend the turn like Wilfried Weiland's cat and Hans Krage's proprider was more suited for a turn like that than the pickeforks. I tended to take the back straight more like Lakeland, then chop the throttle and make a narrow river type course turn at the single bouy.
This was not my first race in a laydown boat, but it was in a Butts Aerowing laydown. Don Nichols shot his laydown skyward right here the previous year when he ran up Bruce Nicholson's transom at the start. The boat felt good and I found I could just let my body drift up against the right side of the cockpit and not worry about holding on in a tight turn. Just concentrate on driving and getting the feel of flying from a prone position.
Before I went out, a TV sports guy said he wanted to interview me after my run. So after we got our boat out of the water I headed up the hill behind the pits where they were set up overlooking the race course. As I got to the top, a radio guy stopped me for an interview. Jim Stone driving Elmer Grade's IRISH MIST Yale hydro was up after me and got cranked up and headed out for his run. After Jim had completed his warm up lap and part way into the first timed lap, the announcer asked me to take us around the race course. He wanted an explanation of what it felt like. Sometimes these sports guys don't know enough about our sport to ask simple pertinent questions. He wanted me to follow Jim around the race course explaining what he was doing without the visual aid like on TV. Trained radio guys could do that I guess, but I gave it my best shot. As Jim rounded the first turn, I imagined him lining up for the start, then heading for the first turn. I explained how he had to try to make a perfect flying start timing the clock just right, then how his sponsons floated down the straight, how he had to watch for other boats, then set up for the turn, exit the turn, pull pipes etc. I know it must have been confusing to the listeners because they didn't have anything to look at and they wouldn't have understood the boat racing terminology. I had a TV sports guy ask me a goofy question once when Jerry Waldman and I were doing a live interview. The racers that saw it on the 6 O'Clock news said I recovered good and gave a good answer to a question that really didn't make sense to a boat racer. That's kind of the way I felt at that time and was trying to figure out a way to end that line of questioning when something went very wrong.
I was looking right at Jim when the transom seemed to pop up at the same time the bow dipped. It was just a split second. A little spray went up from the bow where the top of a wave was clipped and Jim was shot straight ahead in front of the Yale picklefork. He had a chute, but it didn't deploy. The boat continued straight ahead and coasted to a stop. At first it didn't really look that bad. It didn't stuff and Jim skidded on the water so I figured he was OK. It didn't look to me like the boat hit him.
The radio guy asked me another question, I'm guessing about what he just witnessed along with me, but my memory of that was erased in just a few minutes. The Lone Star Rescue Sqaud was on the scene in only seconds. Maybe less than 10, and the water guy was already in the water when the rest of the crew stood up and began frantically waving to let the ambulance crew and the rest on the shore know that it was bad. Most all of the racers were watching and the Americans who knew the drill all took off to line both side of the ramp to keep spectators away while they brought Jim in.
I told the radio announcer I had to go and ran down the hill to join the others. Jim died instantly of a broken neck along with other head injuries and a crushed chest. I think the rescue guys knew instantly what they were dealing with, but took care to cut the chute away and get him carefully into the basket. Mercy Hospital, one of the best in South Texas, was off the same highway that ran by the race course and was only a few minutes away, but there was nothing they could do. Jim had just recently set a new 700cc hydro competition record at a little over 98 mph. Just a little faster and he would have been the first outboard in the world to break 100mph on a five mile course. He was a great guy and a fierce competitor....now he was gone.
You would have to figure that the steering cable probably caused Jim's fatal injuries.
The impact of the stuff, his body being flung forward into the wheel and cables, the steering bar bending until either the cable or bar broke--all happening in a milli-second. There is no way the human neck with the extra weight of the helmet added could survive the g's that accident caused.
A very sad day indeed.
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