1956 Stock Nationals Race Results

[Wagneracing]

Transcribed Race Results from 1956 Nationals in Cambridge, Maryland from The Daily Banner, Cambridge Maryland. August 27, 1956

JU runabout
Billy Schumacher, Lil Bill, Seattle, Wash, 800 pts., 24.820 mph (1 and 1)
Eddie Petrini, Wild Goose, Annapolis Md., 525 pts., 24.463 mph (3 and 2)
Danny Ziegfeld, Let?s go, Baltimore, Md., 525 pts., 23.961 mph (2 and 3)
Douglas Van Rosum, Sandy, Baltimore, Md., 296 pts., 23.547 mph (4 and 5)
Ronald Nixon, Poop Deck Pappy, Norfolk, Va., 199 pts., 23.340 mph (10 and 4)

AU runabout
Dean Chenowith, Beetle Bomb, Xenia, Ohio, 800 pts., 38.494 mph (1 and 1)
Billy Schumacher, Seattle Wash., 600 pts., 38.135 mph (2 and 2)
Ronnie Hill, Bellflower Ca. 394 pts., 37.672 mph (3 and 4)
Buddy Fleming, Cry Baby, Edgewater, Md., 37.627 mph (7 and 3)
Don Pontius, Ho-Fritz, Hummels Wharf, Pa., 37.375 mph (4 and 6)

BU runabout
David Kough, Miss F-L-D, Hawthorne, N.J., 625 pts., 44.009 mph (3 and 1) mph? 45.009
Charles Hursh, Goshen, Ind., 625 pts., 44.709 mph (1 and 3)
Chris Erneston, Jr., West Palm Beach, Fla., 395 pts., 42.775 mph (no place listed)
Gene Hawthorne, Jr., Roving Kind, Detroit, Mich., 300 pts., 44.161 mph (2 and DNF)
J. Byron, Chocolate ShBoom, Lansing, Mich., 296 pts., 43.248 mph (4 and 5)

CU runabout
Jon Culver, Revluc, Dayton, Ohio, 800 pts., 43.848mph (1 and 1)
Hunter F. Grimes, Uncle Sam, Alexandria Bay, N.Y. 600 pts., 43.529 mph (2 and 2)
Paul Woodroffe, Sloppy Joe IV, Salem, Ore., 394 pts., 42.333 mph (3 and 4)
Bill Tichey, Rock-N-Roll, Shelton, Conn., 265 pts., 42.795 mph. (9 and 3)
Ronnie Loomis, Beautiful Lass, Santa Barbara, Cal. 222pts., 41.475 mph (4 and 8)

36 cubic inch runabout
Ed Branding, Jeanne, Lake Villa, Ill., 800 pts., 35.597 mph (1 and 1)
Bob Murphy, Shamrock II, Springfield, Ill., 600 pts., 35.297 mph (2 and 2)
Bob Lenschow, Sycamore, Ill., 450 pts., 35.212 mph (3 and 3)
Rob Moore, Mad Mama, Royal Oak, Mich., 296 pts., (4 and 5)
Herb Moore, Who Me?, West Palm Beach, Fla. 296 pts., (5 and 4)

DU runabout
John B. Jackson, Hy-Jacker, Cincinnati, Ohio, 700 pts., 47.594 mph (1 and 2)
Eddie Thom, Fort Wayne, Ind., 569 pts., 43.128 mph (4 and 1)
Jack Reed, Cherokee, Erie, Pa., 525 pts., 47.294 mph (2 and 3)
Tom Krehl, Madison, Wisconsin, 254 pts., 45.274 mph (5 and 5)
Skip Forcier, Sunburst, Grosse Point, Mich., 225 pts., 47.145 mph (3 and DNF)






A stock hydroplane
Dean Chenoweth, Beedle Bomb, Xenia, Ohio, 800 pts., 38.995 mph (1 and 1)
Don Balcaccini, Miami, Fla., 525 pts., 38.876 mph (3 and 2)
Buddy Fleming, Bad News, Edgewater, Md., 469 pts., 38.709 mph (2 and 4)
John Webster, Four Bits, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 352 pts., 37.847 mph (5 and 3)
Dick O'Dea, Paterson, N.J., 264 pts., 37.926 mph (4 and 6)

B stock hydroplane
David Kough, Miss F-L-D, Hawthorne, N.J., 800 pts., 46.048 mph (1 and 1)
Don Baldaccini, Miami, Fla., 427 pts, NO SPEED GIVEN, (5 and 2)
Tom Weaver, Durham, N.C. 394 pts., 44.577 mph (4 and 3)
Cliff Miller, Chicago, Ill., 300 pts., 45.731 mph (2 and DNF)
Joe Zorkoskie (Zolkoskie?), Menasha, Wisconsin, 371 pts., 44.031 mph (7 and 2)

C stock hydroplane
Bill McClung, Miss Dixie Bell, Portsmouth, Va. 800 pts., 47.120 mph (1 and 1)
Rich Holt, Slo Poke, Bishopville, Md., 338 pts., 43.966 mph (4 and 4)
Ed Peterson, Flying Eagle, Utica, N.Y. 320 pts., 44.139 mph (6 and 3)
Don Baldaccinni, Miami, Fla., 254 pts., 43.353 mph (5 and 5)
Bill Ganz, Chicago, Ill., NO POINTS OR SPEED GIVEN

D stock hydroplane
Bill Holloway, Heat Wave, Monroe, Mich., 471 pts. 51.903 mph (7 and 1)
Bob Wagner, Willowick, Ohio, 469 pts., 50.963 mph (4 and 2)
Glenn C. Brown, Sooper Dooper II, Bloomsberg, Pa., 469 pts., 50.139 mph (2 and 4)
William Gene Hilton, Newton, N.C., 450 pts., 49.806 mph (3 and 3)
Bill Ganz, Chicago, Ill., 400 pts., 50.441 mph (1 and DISQ)

Please note: transcription of these race results can only be as accurate as the newspaper presented them. I have made small notations where the speeds didn?t seem right or I even figured the total points and race finish placings from the rule book awarding of points section. I also seem to remember a Joe Zolkoske (Zolkoskie) from Wisconsin when I lived in Illinois. So I am wondering if his name or his Dad's was misspelled in the paper.
In the D stock hydroplane category my dad, Bob Wagner, always tells the story of how he lost 1st place from Wild Bill Holloway by 2 points. A pleasure boat left a wake that my dad had to use caution when crossing over it. He has always felt that the slight hesitation and momentary backing off of the throttle cost him the position in the first turn and first place in that second heat.



Another interesting note is that my dad had the same number of points as the 3rd place finisher. There was only .829 miles per hour difference in the clocked speed between my Dad and Glen Brown. I wonder how many other National Championships were this close. It must have been a hell of a start in those days. 16 boats instead of 12, going into the first turn. And the roar of those 55H engines. 6 to 12 of them when I raced, was loud. Last summer I went to a Three Rivers race in Franklin, Pa. It was great seeing Brian Palmquist, Mark Wheeler, Ken Wojtalik, Larry Gottschalk, and Jim Sweeney battle it out. I never knew Brian, Mark, Ken, or Larry. But Jim is one I raced with, along with his dad, and I have always been happy to see that he stayed so consistent in his winning.

Rick Wagner

[David Weaver]

to see my uncle Tommy in 3rd place in BSH. Tommy and my dad are twins. Based on their stories, all they did was boat race in the early and mid 50's. As many as 36 races a year. They tell a story that the year the nationals were held in Wisconsin that Tommy won or took second in the first heat of BSR finals. Then he was leading in the last heat comfortably when he dumped it. He continues that trend later in life with inboard racing. One year at Dayton, he had 1 liter mod all but won when he pulled off the course a lap early in the final heat. Oops, we never let him live that down. A couple of years later (early 90's), he handily won his elimation heat in 2.5 liter stock. He got out of the boat and promptly had a heart attack, thus ending his racing career.

[Ron Hill]

I was hoping you'd post the picture of the results....

Man, some of us have been around for a LONG time...

ADD:

Schumacher's JU/AU was called Lil Bill!!!

We only ran 16 boats per heat, but we had boats with 22" bottoms and 14 inch transoms....

LAST ADD:

Look at the speeds between runabout and hydros...I won't "go off" here but two things everyone who has quit boat racing tells me two things:

1. Too Expensive
2. Too fast


And I don't believe the first one!!!!

[Wagneracing]

I corrected the number of entries in my first post. I tried to load the picture but the website kicked it out. I guess it was too big. I'll have to decrease the size or compress it and try again.
I recently tried to get a copy of the February 1957 Boat Sport magazine that had the 56 National highlights. But I missed out on it due to my need to clear the snow out of my driveway and I'm really bad at my math when figuring time zones for the end of auction.
If anyone has a copy of this issue I would appreciate hearing from them. I am also wondering if Hank Bowman did a racing yearbook for 1956. I have my dad's copy from 1955.

[Mark75H]

Every issue of Boatsport is on line thanks to Ed Hatch who took the time both to collect them to scan and get actual permission from the current copyright holder.

The url for the website is www.boatsport.org

First page of Nationals results:

Thanks to Marvel Features for allowing Ed to make these available and to Ed for doing the work!

You can download Boatsport issues to your computer and save them and or print them for yourself,
but you may not sell them either printed out on paper or saved to a CD or DVD without permission
from Marvel. Marvel paid for the rights to these and reserves the right to any and all profits from their
sale (even with your paper and ink!). Ed tells me Speed and Spray magazine's rights were allowed to lapse and
anyone can reproduce them for sale if they wish.

[Ron Hill]

Paul Woodroffe owned a restaurant in Salem, Oregon...He had a daughter around my age...good looking...and that is all I can say on that subject...

Paul had a "D" Mod that he ran at Lake Mead....first time I evey heard of four banger Mercury with open stacks....loved it right off...

Paul would come down and run our winter races, like Brawley....

I remember him telling someone at Cambridge, Maryland, that no one understand how hard it is to win a Nationals... He was defending National Champion in DU, that year....I kind of listened with one ear....As time went by, his words came to almost "HAUNT" me...as I won five seconds, in a row, before I ever won a title...

Paul did spill in D RUnabout, but he broke a pulley first. He drove a Caulkins Craft...cool runabout with a 3/8 vee in the bottom....Lee Sutter had a BU Caulkins. Ronnie Rima ended up with Paul's DU...Not many were built...but they ran really well!!!

Ted may didn't win a Nationals until 1968...and he raced A,B, D Hydro from like 1956.....

If you notce the fin on my 19-C...after this race I cut my fin on the angle of the water...Something I did until I quit racing runabouts...no need to drag a fin on the straightaway...

As Tommy Lasorda said about coaching. "THIS JOB AIN"T THAT F*&^ING EASY."

[Wagneracing]

Thanks Sam!!!! I can't wait to show my dad the boat sport website.

[Wagneracing]

Here is the picture of the top 5 finishers of the D Stock Hydroplane class, at the 1956 APBA Stock Outboard National Championships in Cambridge, Maryland. From left to right: Bill Holloway, Bob Wagner, Glenn Brown, William Gene Hilton, and Bill Ganz.

[High Point]

Bud Fleming, whose name is listed under AU Runabout and A Stock Hydroplane is indirectly responsible for me getting into stock outboard racing and directly responsible for helping me get my very first win.

Tom Cosden, a relative of Buddy’s who had pitted for him in the 50’s, was visiting my dad one summer day in the early 1970’s. Watching me putt-putt around in my jon boat with a Mercury 7.5 Hp fishing motor he told me stories about Buddy Fleming, stock outboard hydroplane racing, and those Merc KG4s that could go 50 MPH.

I couldn’t believe my ears. A 7.5 HP doing 50 MPH! I wanted to learn more. And a few years later I was piloting my very own ASH.

Before the end of my first racing season in 1973, the ignition in the KG4 starting breaking down. At 15 years old I didn’t know how to fix this and I turned to Buddy Fleming for help. He ran an outboard repair shop in Edgewater, Maryland and he tuned my Merc KG4.

Boy did he ever tune it. My next race of the season was in Hinton,WV over Labor Day weekend 1973. And one of those three days I finished 1st in ASH and won a Coleman camping lantern as a prize. Another day I finished third and won my very first trophy.

I think about that first place win in my first year racing when I read posts about some folks waiting years to win a race. Or worse, folks who quit racing before they ever win because they don’t see equality in the engines they can buy and the engines used by the folks who always seem to finish up front, which is sad. I remember the excitement of the weekend and that win. It inspired me to try even harder the following year, knowing that winning was possible.

Can someone verify if and when Buddy was National High Point Champion in ASH?

[1-D 1-US]

My god, looking thru the finishers brings back memories..I bought 1 of Kough's a/b sids (from Jim Coulburn)..gave blood for Bill McClung @ Wooster nats
1-D 1-US