Autograph Collection

[Master Oil Racing Team]

These are two I was looking for from the reunion. I had placed them back in the binder where I carried them since 1980 for Bruce to sign. I finally got these autographs at the reunion.

Bruce is actually one of the first persons I ever raced with. It was in front of a different house we lived on in a different part of the lake. I ran in the first heat of B runabout in a Nomad with a stock B Merc and my brother Mark ran the second heat. It was very rough. I led the first lap and finished third behind Bruce in 77T and Bill Knipe in 177T.

Bruce is one of the all time top runabout drivers in PRO history. He was transferred from Houston to Gretna LA by Exxon for many years, but now he is back in Texas. The outside lane was Bruce's. He is an expert in setting a boat up. At the reunion he admitted that he would have lost some of his advantage in set ups with the way runabouts are turning now. But I'll bet he could have still figured out some additional edge to play with.

The combination of Bruce Nicholson/Craig Lawrence won many 1100 runabout races. One of Craig's duties was to pinch the fuel line as they broke over and the prop bit, then release it when they got the revs up.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The may be the first time Chris gave an autograph. The pic was taken at Alexandria in 1977 and appeared in the Dec 77 issue of Powerboat under the title "Alky in the Wind" I believe it was in 1980 at Alex that I caught up with him to get this picture signed. There were a lot of kids from racing families that were racing in those days, but Chris is the only one I was able to get an autograph from. I wish I had had a picture of Kristi with me at DePue to get her autograph, but I didn't. I guess Kurt was too small then and I never knew him.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Eric--Before I go to the next race I will have a pic of you to get signed. Hope you show. I had one of Gary at DePue, but when we finally got together he was just about to leave and the pic was in Joe's suburban. Tim, Joe, Gary and I did have a good long talk though.

This pic of Dan Kirts appeared on the December 1976 cover of Propeller. I don't know why I only sent a few to propeller--I think just some of the HOC and other champions a couple of times. This was also on the cover and inside some racing programs as well as a T shirt. I think it was the Pro Nationals at Alex in 1979.

I always like to see the Kirts' show up at a race. It meant there would be plenty of action. I think I had more battles with Dan than with Mel or Jerry, but I never raced against Tom. They were very competitive on the water, but in the pits we were all friends. We pitted next to them quite often. It was good to see Dan at the reunion. He told Joe "I didn't think I would ever see you or Wayne Baldwin alive again." Joe and I weren't really sure what he meant by that, but it was great that it happened.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I never came across that many stock guys while racing except on the west coast and I stupidly didn't go down to where they were pitted to take pics. Same with Mods. I would really like to have an autographed pic from Jo Ann Ellis. I quit going to OPC races when I was getting autographs, but some day I WILL get one from Darrell Beaulier and Gene Thibideaux But Jeff Hutchins was a stock guy that started racing a lot with us alkies. I don't know who all he drove for but I remember him driving for Dick O'Dea at the 1975 Pro Nationals and after Jim Stone was killed he drove for Elmer Grade.

This pic was taken at the Kilos at Kaukauna, Wisonsin in 1976. I always thought of Jeff as a very shrewd driver. He seemed to be at the right place at the right time. With the Kirts', you knew that they would be fighting for the front, but Jeff would just BE there. I got this pic autograped at Alex in 1979. I thought I could win at least one of the heats of 1100 hydro at Alex, but I was so out of shape it was all I could do to finish second behind him both heats.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Kurt Mischke is from West Berlin. He was the first driver from Germany besides Dieter Konig that I remember came over he to race. He ran Dieter's stuff over here a few times, but I didn't meet him until 1975 in Berlin. I became good friends with him and his wife Linda. They have a flower shop in Berlin.

Kurt was one of the top drivers in his day. He has won World, Continental and German championships. I'm not sure how many, but Mike Ward would know. The next batch of autographs are of drivers from across the pond. I got all these pics signed at my last race.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Marfred Richter No. 133 is from Dusseldorf. Back then he, along with Kurt Mischke and Bernd Tschierscke (who immigrated to Canada around 1979) were all sponsored by BOOTE Magazin. It is kind of like YACHTING with some racing coverage.

Manfred is a very personable and talented racer. I'm not sure how many years he continued racing, but I am sure he collected quite a few titles. Looks like Hans Krage on the inside.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I didn't know Ranier Bisterfeld, but I remembered him from my first race in Berlin and from the beginning knew he was a top competitor. He is from Wormradvald in what was formerly West Germany. Ervin Zimmerman drove his catamaran to a world championship in 1978. I don't remember all the classes he drove, but I think for sure OB, and OC....maybe more. His was one of the autographs I sought after and got at my last race in 1981.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Willhelm Dickoff was from Cologne. I first met Wilhelm at the Konig factory in 1976 as part of the US team competing in the World Cup. I arrived before my teammate David Westbrook from Georgia and so had the task of rigging up three new Konig Propriders. Steering wheels down to the engine mounts and thrust mounts.

Wilhelm showed up while I was in the process of drilling holes and we became acquainted. He was the one who showed me how to introduce myself to those who didn't speak German. As any true boat racer proves to be, he did his sign language and helped me with some German. He helped me in Dieter's factory and I helped him with his boat. None of us spoke each other's language.

When Dieter towed the boats to Spandau, we ended up pitting next to Wilhelm. Wilhelm had an accident during one race where his boat was too damaged to race and he hurt his leg. Two weeks later however, he had his boat back on the water at Karlshaven for a one hour marathon. A one hour marathon with an alky burning Konig. After thirty minutes or so Wilhelm was back in the pits limping. I seem to remember he came in on his own, but just couldn't go any longer.

Every race I ran in Europe Wilhelm was there and we always hugged and talked. He never spoke any English, but my German got better. When he came to the OD World Championships at Laredo, Texas in 1980, I loaned him my boat SHADOWFAX. I was racing my OD on VIBORA de CASCABEL then, but SHADOWFAX was still a formidable boat. As it turned out the weather howled from the north and no North American drivers went out. Wilhelm finished fourth in SHADOWFAX.

He was a special friend because we never really had a regular conversation together, but as boat racers we had a bond and understood. Germans have a great interest in the American west with cowboys and indians and so Wilhelm and I did a lot of sign language also. And I must also tell about when Wilhelm made his first (I think only) trip to the U.S. in 1980 for the OD World Championships, he arrived in Houston with Ernst Kozielski. Neither spoke English and Joe Rome was there at the airport to greet them and pick them up. They spent the night at Joe's house.

It was Joe who informed me a couple of years after I quit racing that Wilhelm Dickoff was on a tour bus in Thailand that plunged off a cliff and he was killed.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Wilhelm was a great guy Tom. And you are right. I have met people from many parts of the world and they are all good people. Boat racers are the best. The bad people are the higher ups in the government that feed people propaganda for the sole purpose of continuing their reign of power, corruption, and lining their pockets. All the average people want is a life of freedom, liberty, and the ability to live with their families and friends like they want to.

Number 34 is Ekkehard Knappe from Berg-Gladbach in West Germany. (When I write these stories from my racing days the places are named as they were back then. West Germany was referred to as BDR and East Germany-DDR) I didn't know Ekkehard very well, but he was a fine guy and top competitor. He was the first I saw to run OC on a catamaran. If the water was rough, he was the one to beat. He still finished high even on smooth water.

At one of the races in Berlin, Ekkehard was at a press conference and photo op with Hans Krage, Kurt Mischke and myself.

[jrome]

Wilhelm Dickoff, Ernst Koszienske (worked in the accounting dept in a hospital in Hmburg, Germany) and Kurt Reinicke (a taxi driver from Hamburg who spoke the best English?) came to my house in Stafford to spend the night before going on to Laredo the next day for the World Championships. That night we were sitting around the table looking through my boat racing scrap book and all of a sudden Wilhelm jumps up and says in German 'Thats me!" while looking at an advertisement for a television set. The picture of the television had a picture inserted on the screen and it was a picture of Wilhelm racing in a borrowed boat in Budapest, Hungary Evidently someone had taken his picture and sold it to an ad company who used it for the TV ad in a Houston, TX newspaper, which proves it is a very small world. Wilhelm got a tremendous laugh out of seeing his picture in Houston newspaper. He autographed the ad for me. I enjoyed my time visiting with the 3 Germans even tho there was a slight language barrier. Boat Racers are the same all over the world. Wayne Baldwin and I had always wondered who the boat racer was in this ad. Wilhelm solved the mystery for us. The pictures below are of the advertisement and the other one is Wilhelm's racing post card.