8 cylinder Konig outboard

[Master Oil Racing Team]

My friend and old racing partner Clayton Elmer sent me these photos last week . I was telling Joe about them and he said that one photo needed to go on this thread. It was similar, but much more famous and spectacular about the battle Dan Kirts and I had between the 4 and 8 cylinder Konigs.

It was the NOA Nationals Championships at Lake Spivey near Atlanta in 1963. This photo is the start of F Hydro. The numbers are too faded to tell who is in the cabover on the inside. Next to the inside and the lead boat in this photo is Clayton Elmer in no. T-60. In the middle of the three boats is Jim Schoch in V-5. Outside of the three is Hu Entrop in R-12.

Clayton was in and out of the first turn and began to outstrip the other competitors. When he got to the next turn, Hu Entrop had come up alongside the outside of Clayton. Clayton's boat had superior manueverability and accelleration over Entrop's 6 cylinder cabover. On every straightaway Entrop would get his cabover flying and running at trememdous speed, but always catching Elmer at the turns. He could not get around. It was a great race remembered by many. It was captured by Jim McKay on ABC's WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS. To me it is THE most famous and historic duel in the history of PRO racing. The crowd was on its feet watching as each lap Entrop pulled up to Elmer, but was unable to get around as Clayton blew down the corners and was off again. Hu knew that Clayton would cross the finish and get the checkered flag if he didn't do something. The start finish line was before the point where he could catch Clayton.

On the final lap, Entrop held the throttle down and was determined to keep the speed up until the last second before turning. It has been a long time since I talked to Clayton about this and don't remember, but he may have actually pulled ahead of Clayton at this point when they got to the turn. What happened next was most spectacular. Just imagine how this beautiful cabover was flying at top speed, clear of the water. Then Entrop makes the turn, but his cabover is not set yet. When the sponsons fully set in the water he is sideways. The water explodes and the boat does a specacular barrel roll. Clayton said there was a point sticking out in the water where a photographer was laying down shooting pictures of Clayton and Hu each time they raced down one straightaway.

Clayton tried to track down that photographer and get some pictures, but he was never able to find out who he was. Those would be photos for a boat racing museum.

[Mark75H]

I think this is one picture from that event:






I thought there were more, but this is the only one I could find on Charlie Williams' site. The photographer may have been Bob Carver

[Jeff Lytle]

I sized and flipped the image, and it looks like Hu it tryin' to tell Clayton exactly what he thinks about the whole situation!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Sam, I was just on the phone talking to Joe and he said "Wow...Sam just posted the photo of what you just described about Entrop." I got on the site to take a look and told Joe, "This is what Boatracingfacts is all about."

I had intended earlier to go on and give credit to the previous B&W photo I posted and this is a good time to do it. It was taken by Harold Rose out of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Hey Jeff, Joe was wanting to know who is the cabover on the inside was and I told him the photo was too faded and I couldn't pick out a number. Also, when you enlarge it and do some contrast enhancement there happens to be a thumbprint across the driver and also about where the boat number should be. Joe said "We need forensics to help". Any possibilities of figuring that out here.

BTW, looks like you got it right on that enlargement.

[Jeff Lytle]

Unless someone else knows who it is, it looks like it will remain a mystery. I tried enhancing like you did, and even inverting the colors which helps alot, but no dice. The thumb print, along with the driver reflection on the deck makes it unreadable.

[Original Looper 1]

I dug through my old archives of racing memorabilia and found the original program that I saved from the World Championship at Lake Spively. As you can see, the date of this event was September 10-14, 1964.

I'm not near a scanner at the moment, but maybe later I can scan these for better detail. Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures from the original program.

More pictures to come.

thanks,

Paul A Chrisnter

(Please note: These pictures are for your enjoyment and are not to be copied or posted to any other web site without my written permission.)

[Original Looper 1]

Here are some more pictures from the original program. I hope you all enjoy them as much as I enjoyed posting them here for you.


thanks,

Paul A Chrisnter



(Please note: These pictures are for your enjoyment and are not to be copied or posted to any other web site without my written permission.)

[Mark75H]

My problem with the letter is it makes things that happened around 1973 seem like they happened around 1966 ... 7 years earlier. Mr. O'Dea gave Rich Yost a copy of the letter sent to him advising him that there were no more parts to be had from Sweden and I think Rich passed a photocopy on to me, 1973 sounds like the right year, too. .... A photocopy of the 1973 letter from Sweden to go with the letter Mark already has would be helpful.

I found the photocopy ... according to that correspondence, dated December 5 1976, the last Crescent stuff was shipped from Sweden to O'Dea in 1976, more than a little bit later than inferred in the other letter.

[epugh66]

That photo of the cabover crash has bare hills in the back ground. Lake Spivy was just south of Atlanta and would probably have a cover of pine trees.

My dad says the Lake Spivy course was a "ball buster" with a tight turn and a large turn in the big part of the lake.