Autograph Collection

[Ron Hill]

I was looking at all your pictures.... The Bill Seebold went deep into my memory.

Most kids, read Batman comic books. I read Speed and Spray, Boat Sport and Outboard...Not once, but everyday.

AS I was telling Tinker Collinge, today, Homer Kincaid, from Carbon Cliff, Illinos is still the only boat racer to have ever won EVERY Class at a race. I've never been to Carbon Cliff, Illinois....But I'm sure, whe I do get there, it will be very emotional...Having raced against the GREAT HOMER KINCAID...When I passed Homer at Valleyfield, 1967....I like kept looking back it was like...I JUST PASSED HOMER KINCAID...

Seeing Bill Seebold's picture....reminded me how Bill Boyes, Jeff Merlin and myself were coming from the 1963 Boston Nationals and I saw on the MAP GRANITE CITY, ILLINOIS....I said, "Hell that is where the Seebold's live..." We stopped in front of their shop at like 5 A.M. I just stood there...

Last spring Bill Boyes and I were heading toward the Winter Nationals, coming from Iowa....Bill says, "Hey turn her...Quincy, Illinois is just down the road.." We stopped at 5th and State.....I thought I could hear a Quincy 44....

Bill Sr and Jr, were always friends...Lynn Seebold, when I first met her...I fell in Love...then found out she will Bill Seebold's wife....

When I first raced at DePue....The name I was racing against, scared me....Racing them and beating them.....either way, I was always treated as a GENTLEMAN!!!!

Thanks for the memories, Wayne!!!! Hope you find a few more pictures...

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This is THE picture that inspired me to start collecting autographs on pics I took of people in racing. It's not a good picture. The lighting is bad, but when I got the pics developed from Alex in 1979 I realized that this was the only halfway decent one I had of R. Allen "Papa" Smith. He had already been a legend in racing when I started thirteen years earlier. I immediately had a print made and took it to the next race I figured he would attend. There are many autographs I wasn't able to get. But I had the foresight to get this very first one of my collection, and is a real prize.

ADD: That's Benny Aylor's 350 Yamato Papa is inspecting, and it kind of does, but kind of doesn't look like a young Pete Nydahl in the further background. Is it?

[F-12]

I think you are right, Wayne. It is Pete in the background. Pop looks really good in that pic. I don't think I ever saw him REALLY upset, and he always had a smile for anyone he came in contact with (maybe Ma had something to do with that.)
I remember one time up at his shop in Shreveport, we were getting things in order for a Lakeland race and I asked him about the sand/dirt floor in his shop and why he didn't put concrete dowm. His response was priceless. He said "If I was working on one of your props, got a cramp in my hand and accidently dropped it, what would you rather it hit? Dirt..........or concrete. He was one in a million.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That is a priceless response Charley. I did see him upset once and it was with your former boss Walt Blankenstein.

It was Alex 1970, the NOA World Championships and I was in the inspection area having won the final heat of F Hydro. I have told the story previously about my Dad buying a D Konig for me and a C Konig for Clayton Elmer in 1967, and Jack Chance mounted the coils over the serial numbers and mistakenly got the motors switched. After we figured out which motor was which, Jack took a 3/8" metal stamp and whacked a D into the aluminum block. He was holding it crooked so the straight back was deeper than the curved part of the D. So he moved to the right a quarter inch and whacked it harder and perpendicular this time. So the letters were deeply imbedded and it was very clear that it was a D motor. We later on got a new D, then had Walt bore the old one out and turn piston blanks to the larger diameter bore. The F we had ran flat top pistons with cast iron dykes rings. Those rings were easy to break and there was so much surface area on them they wore out very quickly so we decided to see how a bored out D would work.

There was a rule in the rule book that stated that all motors in the Pro and AmPro divisions must have the class designation stamped on the block. This is where the point of contention between Papa and Walt was. I can't remember exactly how the motor was remarked as an F, but it wasn't as obvious as the old stamp. Those two big D's really stood out. Jack had taken a file and filed a shallow X across the two big D's. They were too deep to grind away, and he figured an X would cancel them out.

Papa said the motor wasn't legal as it was a D. I told him that it WAS an F. I was upset because we wasted a whole year experimenting with a CD ignition system that turned out to be unreliable. We were 1st standby in F hydro when one entry scratched. We weren't able to rig up in time to make the first heat. We were already packed up to go home. Now I was going to get tossed out because of a technicality. So I went and got Walt.

When Walt got to the inspection area he was already hot. He jumped on Papa and that just made Papa turn defensive. I think he was expecting that the motor sure enough was a D that I had stepped up, and not an overbored D that made an F. So he was clearly caught off guard and argued with Walt about the stamp. They went back and forth in a heated discussion. I was starting to feel bad because I liked them both and now was the cause of this arguing. I had seen Walt mad before but not Papa.

Walt pointed out the F, which I think may have been on the side of the crankcase rather than on top and in obvious view. Pointing, he told Papa once again that there is the F and that's what it is. Trying to make his point Papa shouted "Then what's the D D for?" Walt hollered back "Hell...it could stand for Donald Duck". Frustrated, Papa gave up and finished the inspection, and I got the win and a competition record. But for a long time I stayed away from him thinking he held some resentment over that episode.

[F-12]

Here is a scarey thing...........I remember that motor and Walt did call it the Donald Duck motor because of the 'DD' stamped in the block. He worked on that one in the evenings after dinner because he wanted to take his time and make sure it was right. Funny.........I think I remember him cutting one piston too small and had to do another in its place. I can hear Walt going off now............as I have heard it many times before. He was another that they broke the mold after ha came along. There was only one like him.
I also remember sitting in the shop one night during the time I was on the road playing music and had some time off. Walt started griping about something and while he was in the middle of it all, I wrote a country/swing song called "Uncle Walt's Blues". My partner Glenn and I used that one until I retired in 1978 all through Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. Everyone liked it so it got played alot. I think the last time we did it was at the 'Broken Spoke Saloon" in Nashville.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This one of Denny was taken at the Pro Western Divisionals at Marine Creek Lake in 1978. Jim McKean was responsible for bringing the Yamatos to the U,S, but in my opinion, Denny Henderson is the one showing the way that Yamatos were fast, and competitive and could step in to break the Konig monopoly on wins since the death of Jerry Waldman's and his successes with Merc Quincy. There were some early years where the piston ported engines were tough to get on a plane with the prop needed to win. But all the guys stayed with them until they got it worked out. Denny was foremost in bringing in wins to the Yamato camp.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The Kirts family was one of the great Pro racing dynasties. On and off the race course Jerry is a great guy. We had lots of fun chasing each other. This pic here was used in several racing programs. As you can see, Jerry is not at all excited about the boats attitude (altitude ?) He knew exactly where he was, and when it was time to let it back down a little.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Strange...I have an autographed photo of Eileen Van Steenwyk in her hydro, but not one of Bill Van Steenwyk. The reason is when I first started taking pictures, Bill Van and I ran in some of the same classes, then he had a severe injury to the ball socket of his hip when he blew over one of Billy Seebold's tunnels. It was awhile before he could get back in a hydro. And I don't have any good pics of him driving. But we always have a great time with Bill Van and Eileen. Since she was a stewardess, Bill Van could hop on a plane and fly wherever he wanted very cheaply, so they were frequent visitors to my Dad's house.

The pic was taken at the Neches River Festival at Beaumont in 1978. That is Marsha Thompson chasing Eileen in Formula 350 hydro.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Louis William was an undertaker by trade. Maybe the only one that ever raced boats. He was one of the best. Louis and my Dad clashed from the start. At our first race with real racing equipment he asked if "....all that chrome made it run any faster?" And when we were in the same heat he would run right up beside me as if to bump chines and intimidate me. But as I learned how to drive and got to understand his type of humour we got along better. Joe Rome was Louis' number one pit man when I started to race. When I transferred to Southwest Texas State College, I soon learned Joe was going to school there also. Later Joe pitted for us at out of state races that Louis didn't attend, and it was Joe's friendship that mellowed our relationship with Louis. Now and for many years Louis has been a good friend. This was one of my first and most sought after autographs I got when I started my collection.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Bill Van---it sounds like pandering to me.

The previous autographed pics are of a lot of well known hot shot drivers (except for Papa Smith, but he was famous in his own right), but this is not what my collection is all about. Partly, it is top guns, but then it is because I had some great racing duels with these guys. However, when I started this collection, I wanted signed pics of friends of mine that I raced with, and that I now plan to hang in the "Ring of Honor" section of my racing/music room.

One of the original pics I had signed back in 1980 was that of Craig Lawrence. He signed one at the DePue Reunion of a pic of him in his runabout, but this was the first that I had him sign 27 years ago. He was one of the "Katzenjammer Kids" as my Dad referred to them. There was a collection of young guys in the Dallas area that hung around together and pitted and raced together. Originally it was Craig and his brother Ashley, Alan Registar, Denny Henderson, then along came Joe Cohen and Alan Davis, and later Troy Dunn. Of course Denny continued to race long after the others and has won many championships and has become well known to others across the U.S. Craig had some high points and other championships to his credit, but never achieved the notoriety of Denny. When this photo was signed, it was because Craig was a friend and a racer I had admired and had many good times with.

Now Craig does have a little bit of notoriety (at least here on BRF). He told us at DePue and confirmed several weeks later about being hired at Hendricks Motorsports. Craig has had racing in his blood I guess all his life and he is being paid to work in a racing shop. What a cool job. And I met his wife Natalya at the Lone Star Reunion who is Russian and looks pretty enough to be a James Bond spy.