Thanks: 
Likes: Whitney Terry.
Whitney Terry.
Dustin Terry
next to last one of the Derby.
Final one. Should have finished up this series a long while back. I'll add names when I find my notebook.
Kenneth (Curly) James riding deck for Charlie Bailey (not shown). This was at the Pro Nationals at Winona in 1976. Behind Kenneth is one of Artie Lund's pit crew and to Kenneth's left if Monty Crowell.
This was a unique race for Charlie Bailey and me, and I am glad I have a few photos for the record. It was at the UIM World Championships for OA, OD and OF and the other classes were given UIM status for North America. It was in 1973 at Alexandria, Louisiana.
There were several things that made this special for us. First, the boat , and motor I think, belonged to Roland Pruett. It was a Morton runabout built by Jim Morten in Baytown, Texas. So Charlie was driving his long time rival's boat. It was my first and only ride in the cockpit of an F runabout, and the same thing for being a deck rider. Allthough Charlie had many victories driving Merc Quincy loopers, it was the only time I was part of a winning team powered by a looper, but I am proud to have been a part of that win. Finally, Charlie and I were in a tight race for high point with maybe only one or two races left for us. He got the points for this championship, but I got none. I was thrilled to be able to ride in this boat for another reason. When I first saw this boat at Baytown I fell in love with it. Roland could really drive it. It had a nice paint scheme. White with red and blue trim,....And Pam was the name of the girlfriend I had when I first started racing.
Head shot of Charlie and me sitting in the boat prior to the start.
Start of the first heat of two man runabout. As usual Charlie Bailey started on the inside. Riding for Bruce Nicholson was Craig Lawrence. Some day I hope to get his autograph on this picture to make it complete.
I handed this photo to Charlie Bailey to sign and he said "Who's that?" I told him "That's you!" He did another take, laughed and said he couldn't believe it. It was taken at Alex in 1972.
A great package came in the mail today. Ron Anderson sent back four photos he took back home to get signed for me. The first one I took of Bob Hering before he won the OE World Championship at Dayton, Ohio in 1978. This was the day before racing after he was done testing.
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