An Amazing Story: Part 2

[Master Oil Racing Team]

It is a B Bill Van...I have another photo of Dan next to Doug Thompson who won B hydro that year. But that's not to day that it wasn't done with a C too.

The steering wasn't bad because of overhang John. I just think that this was an idea that popped up and was tried in 1972. So far, that's the only year I have pics of such motor setups. It all could have come from a Kirts/Harrison collaboration or who knows what. All those guys in the manufacturing centers of the upper midwest had connections to build things if they couldn't do it themselves. The only time we had handling problems because of pipes was a B hydro around 1971 that was very fast, but it had 4 stationary pipes hanging off of it. It was extremely quick down the straights, but when I would back off and try to put the Marchetti in a turn, the inside chine would lift and I would have to correct a little right, then get back into the turn and do that once again until the boat settled in. I could literally feel the leverage of all that weight trying to pull the boat over. The less weight factor and sliding pipes instantly obsoleted the stationary 4 pipe set up. Although it would have been a real asset for a kilo run at that time. Between the cans and sliding pipes, we mostly ran ZAK STAKS and they were pretty compact and close in to the motor.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Master Oil:

When I was in Florida I believe in 2001 trip Elmer Grade had a C-Konig 4 cylinder block that had ZAK pipes in particular the ZAK manifolds were alluminum alloy cast with ribbing for strength and fixed (non sliding twin pipes) pipes. After seeing loads of sliding pipes in racks and barrels there I thought these ZAK pipes as some experiment we never did talk much about. It turned out that they were some really good pipes in their day.

[Mark75H]

We are getting a little long on this one ... get ready for Part 3 in a few days.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

They were EXCELLENT pipes in their day. Various motors driven by several different drivers, such as Homer Kincaid, Bob Rhoades, and Ray Hardy won National Championships and also Bob won the John Ward Trophy for C Hydro (now 500 Hydro) which was a World Caliber Award. In addition, in the early to mid 70's time frame, Konigs equipped with ZAK pipes and other modifications by Harry Pasturczak, set C and D Hydro Competition records at Yelm, Wa.

If there was a "knock" against them, it was that they did not slide, except for the stinger in later versions. There were a few attempts to make the longer section of the pipes slide within one another. I think this was only tried with the B motor pipes. There is further information about this on Wayne Baldwin's posts. When the Konig block design was changed to put the exaust port openings closer together, top to bottom cylinder spacing on the same end, that change of course changed the spacing of the cast manifolds Harry was using to collect and dump the exhaust charge into the sheet metal pipes. He was just starting to break even on the pattern costs of the cast manifolds, and that change would have resulted in him having to make new patterns for the manifolds. He decided it was not worth it financially and did not make any more. The same thing happened on his heads for the Konigs also, in that the design was changed and obsoleted his patterns.

He was very disgusted about this, and wondered if it had been done purposely to eliminate competition to the factory. Knowing him as well as I did, and others can also testify to this also, the things he did for the sport were not for financial gain, but to make the motors more reliable, dependable, and also of course improve the performance of them. He did of course make a living from the motor work he did for boat racers of the time, but he certainly did not get rich, or even well off from it. He did it for the love of the sport and to help the average guy compete better than he would have been able to on his own.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Knowing Dieter and Harry personally, and having some personal insight as to the cost of patterns and casting....Dieter did not make a change to obsolete Harry's efforts. To get the aluminum castings done, I am sure that both Harry and Dieter bought the minimum. As things can change rapidly with advancing technology, and buyers are a very limited market, you cannot get any kind of price breaks at all with such small runs. Harry made a wooden pattern (looked like metal turned on a lathe) for my Dad's venturi safety device which we outfitted our trucks with. It was only because of our friendship and a close relationship that Harry had with a small foundry that my Dad was able to get 250 sets of his venturi base cast. That was around 1972. When we shut the doors in 1994 we still had about 150 sets left that got hauled off to a scrap dealer. Harry could be very proud of what he did, and of course his name will be legend among alky racers for his skills. Like you say Bill Van....he didn't get rich, but his name will always be out there.

Now for John's post. When I first started, noise regulations in Europe caused Dieter to develope a can that enclosed the open exhaust megaphones and included a water hose coming from the top front of the motor to the can for the extra purpose of muffling noise. These cans could be set at a fixed position or slid on the manifold. The two cylinder A's had fixed expansion chambers but without the middle cylinder for sliding. Harry Pasturczak came out with the ZAK STAKS that you described and later modified as Bill Van mentioned. They were superior than the Konig exhaust at that time as they were better on acceleration and provided about the same top end. Harry also had a series of different rotary valves. They were much thicker than the Konig rotary valves which tended to flex and hang up on the closing port of the housing. Harry had a set of several stinger lengths that could be quickly changed according to the course. The sliding Konig pipes brought a wider range of torque and higher rpm's that allowed different prop selections and thus killed the growing market for the fixed ZAK STAKS.

Now Sam: I've been wondering when this Part 2 might get too big before started causing problems. I had figured I could have ended it by now....especially since my racing was coming to a close. But I have to say that all these sidelines have made it much more interesting. Whenever you're ready........

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Looking over my notes I found we got a lot of publicity for our Master Oil boats and were doing some successful promotions. I had to keep track of all that stuff for IRS purposes. Gene Whipp and Mike Poppa were using Master Oil in their lower units of their offshore boat, Billy Seebold in his lower unit and as an oil additive, Harry Pasturczak in his machine shop and selling to snowmobilers as an oil additive, not to mention the extreme lube grease he made. Of course Tim Butts, Ray Hardy, Steve Jones and other alky racers were using it and Bill and Jo Ann Ellis were running it as an oil additive in their mod equipment. Jo Anne had called on Septemeber 3rd and told me that she and Bill had won 3 Mod National Championships.

The next day Tim Butts called and said the 1100 hydro record was upped to 115mph, but I didn't write down who set it. Rats. But this next entry has me confused. A guy by the name of Red Taylor was running for PRO VP and proposed to break away the OD class for running UIM races. I don't remember a Red Taylor, and I don't recall anyone outside our Hydroplanes International group that interested in OD racing and UIM. There was a brief period during that time that the Pro Commission had toyed with eliminating 700 hydro, but it never happened. I called Fred Hauenstein the following Monday, possibly to do with this as well as other UIM business.

My Dad had left over the weekend to haul the boats and motors to Olympia, Washington for the 1100 hydro nationals to be held at Yelm. There were a a couple of memorable incidents that occurred on the way. He had bought 40 dollars worth of jerky and had it in a paper sack sitting in the front seat. He also had an identical sack he was putting trash in. He pulled over at a roadside park in west Texas to get rid of the trash. Instead of dropping the whole bag in the garbage can, he turned it upside down and shook all the contents out so he could save the bag. A little way down the road, he reached in the jerky bag and found it full of trash.

More serious though was when he woke up at a motel in Oregon a couple of mornings later, he found his suburban had been broken into. He had arrived very late at night, got a room and went immediately to bed. He had left everything in his suburban, including his suitcase which was gone. He was in a panic. He was too large to just walk into any clothes store and find anything that would fit. He bought all his clothes at a Large and Tall Man's store. Then he happened to see something white in the bushes next to the parking lot. There were a lot of trees, native grasses and bushes adjacent to the motel. He walked over to find that it was one of his shirts. Then a few yards away was more of his clothes. He followed that trail until he found all his clothes and the empty suitcase. The last item he found and recovered was his 12 guage Browining over and under shotgun.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I flew into Olympia, arriving on September 11. We stayed at the Bailey Motor Inn. My Dad Baldy and I did some Master Oil promotion and had dinner a couple of nights with Henry Wagner and Harry Bartolomei. Bob Rhoades ordered a 5 gallon can of Master Oil having been familiar with it in the past. He was getting into offshore rubber craft racing and wanted to try it there. We also gave samples to Ray Holiday, Ralph Hildebrand and Tom and Dave Hansen. Tom and a guy named Russell Birchen (SP?) both raced E mod and wanted to try it in their motors. Dave had gotten a sample from us in 1976 and tried it in his machine shop. He was very impressed with it and tried to get the purchasing agent to buy some. Back in those days the petroleum based oil was much cheaper. With the increase of petroleum oil prices, it was more in line with other cutting oils during these days. Unless someone tried it, they didn't realize it was more economical that the cheaper products because of extended tool life and a finer cut for a better finish. One of the highlights of racing at Yelm was the Olympia beer. We had gotten turned on to that at the 1976 Oly Pro Nationals at Winona, Minnesota.

One other thing I forgot to mention about my Dad's trip up was the utter devastion that my he saw of the Mount St. Helen's explosion. He tried to describe it, but I think it would be impossible for anyone who every personally witnessed the magnitude of that disaster could ever find the right words to do that. I only saw the remains of the volcano from the air still smoking. Among the tragic loss of life was Reid Blackburn who co-authored Rusty Rae's "Speed & Spray" which chronicled the largest Stock Nationals ever held. Reid was an extremely talented and young photographer. The boat racing world lost one of its finest the day Mount St Helens blew its top off.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I took only a few pics at Yelm this year. I don't know who this is. I zoomed in and it resembled Rusty Rae, but I don't recall him ever running anything but stock, and maybe mod.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

While looking for more pics of Yelm I came across a misfiled sheet. All the remaining B&W negs have no contact sheets or dates. I discovered a few rare negatives of our shop. I reget I never took any pics in Jack Chance's shop. I can still see it clearly in my mind. I remember my first session there where he guided me on rebuilding a four carb c Konig. That was in 1966. I did not have any date, time or place on these negatives, but I think it goes back to the last time Jack Chance worked on our motors. Marshall Grant's D 41994 that we bought was still faster and more powerful than our new 48mm carb Konig, but we couldn't shut off the water. We had a small leak around the top rear head, and maybe some place else. It would run great while milling, but when the time came to race, it would not come off a corner good. A high speed race was not so bad...but if you had to back off much....the power loss was apparent.

I think I must have realized at the time that Jack would not be doing our motors anymore and that's why I took the pictures. All the long nights we spent, all the stuff Jack taught me. All the times I wished we were through. I would give anything to have more photos of Jack Chance working his magic. These pics were taken just before we went to Dayton. Ron Anderson had gone through Tim's motor. Jack had told us he could not keep us on top anymore. It was after the race at Yelm that my Dad sent our 48mm carb D motor to Ron Anderson. It was very powerful after he went through it.

[J-Dub]

Looks like "Rotten" Ralph Hildebrand in what I assume bas his B.

J-Dub