An Amazing Story: Part 2

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The wind was really blowing when we did the testing and I eased into it until I found out what the boat would do. Mostly I was afraid of stuffing. Once I found out that the design would keep the sponsons and nose above the water, I increased the speed. The sponson design was mushing in pretty good and it would have been a great rough water boat for most of the courses we run here. I would later discover though that I should have driven the mile and a half out to the main body of lake where in addition to wind blown waves there were rollers or swells to contend with. This was the difference between running in water roughed up by the wind in a cove, versus wind blowing down a larger body of water.

We got the testing done and two weeks later I came down when we boxed "TEX" up for shipping to Berlin two weeks after that. Often times my German caused a lot of laughter because of how I used the wrong words. So I guess I was close enough here because it did get to Berlin and it wasn't dropped or stabbed by forklift tines.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We got a late start racing in 1978. In 1978 first class postage was only .13, Dallas beat Denver 27-10 in the Superbowl, all time number one idiot for President Jimmy Carter gave the Panama Canal to the Chinese, Polish Cardinal Wojytla became Pope John Paul II, the record of the year was Hotel California by The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours won album of the year.

Our first race was April 23 in Beaumont, Texas on the Neches River. We only ran 350 and 500 hydro. Our motor D41994 was on the way to Berlin and the sleeved down F Konig still had a leak around one of the sleeves. Not enough boats to run 1100 hydro.

First pic is my Dad Baldy Baldwin on left and our mechanic Jack Chance on the right. Second is Marsha Thompson chasing RB Hydro winner Eileen Van Steenwyk. The RB class in Texas was growing due to an influx of new drivers mostly from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and a couple from Corpus Christi. (One was Denny Henderson's future wife Lizzie).

And this was the infamous race in which Ray Hardy attacked and speared a big yacht with his picklefork Butts Aerowing. There were actually two boats involved, but I can't recall the other driver. While milling they looked to see they had gotten a little to far out and Ray got hemmed in with no where to go and couldn't come to a stop in time. The yacht was actually encrouching in the milling area. The patrol boats were constantly having to tell them to move back, but this didn't stop the lawsuit from going forward.

[wboxell]

wayne,

Eileen looks intence. never could see what she saw in bill .

your dad and jack were always my heros.

bill

[Master Oil Racing Team]

...but you are reading the caption wrong. The Yamato in the foreground is Eileen's. It is Marsha Thompson that has the look you call intense. She was a very pretty girl with long brown hair. As far as Bill Van goes, I'd say he was pretty lucky.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Three days after the Beaumont race Dieter Konig gave me a call to say that members of the UIM Technical Committee voted to change the rule that stated "fuel is free" in the outboard category to a requirement that all engines above 700cc were restricted to gasoline. This was a blow because we were scheduled to run the OE World Championships at Dayton, Ohio at the end of July. Such a course with wide sweeping turns and the minimum distance to run would favor the hydroplanes over the tunnels. The move was an effort to reduce the horsepower and reliabilty of the Konigs.

The committee was made up of Bill Brown from England, Erik Braaten from Norway, Gert Lowisin from Sweden, Wolfgang Klein from West Germany and Paul Kalb and Gary Garbrecht from the USA. It was a three to three tie with Brown, Lowisin and Klein opposed. There ended up being a compromise, but the restriction remained. Some day I will get all the correspondence together and post the long running controversy that only ended after the race was run.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The next race up was the Pro Western Divisionals at Marine Creek Lake near Forth Worth on May 29 and 30. Drivers came from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, California, and maybe a couple of other states.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Scorer (left) Patty Doering looks on as other scorers Kim and Carolyn McBride sign up drivers. With her back toward the camera is Marsha Thompson and Dick Frye kneeling down. Waiting in line are Denny Hederson's future wife Lizzie, Alan Isii and further back to the right is Phil Howard.

[David Weaver]

It looks very windy in that last photo!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

........stay tuned.

[BPIII125V]

Wayne,

Thanks for continuing the story, this has been a great read. Definately makes me wish I was old enough at the time to see you guys race.

Bill Pavlick