Random shots from the pits

[Jeff Lytle]

Actually Wayne....The last pic is Danny driving a Schumacher in his pre-laydown days.

[sponsonhead]

I gave Cameraboy a little coaching on the Rhoades/Daniels connection last weekend between Kite Flyings (another story) and thought I would wander over here to see what the discussion was.

R&D's were built mostly from the late 60's to the early-to-mid seventies. Bob Rhoades and Jim Daniels were brothers-in-law. Bob was (and may still be) a Fireman for the City of Seattle (always used to see him in the pits and the Unlimited races, and we'd get him to be one of the SFD "Paid Goons" we needed to have for racing on Green Lake...always good to have one of those in your corner!). Jim worked for Boeing, I believe on AWACS stuff. They kinda broke up as a team when Jim and Wilma got a divorce, and I think Jim got transferred to Omaha.

Jim was real big in CSH in the late 60's, then when Bob started running COH, Jim bought one of Howard Anderson's big runabouts he started running CRR/DRR, then a couple of times they ran 1100R together. I remember they had lots of Zak Konigs, and a sponsorship with Olympia Brewery. If I am not mistaken, they won the very first "Best Dressed Team" award at the PRO Nationals because they had Oly Beer logos on EVERYTHING from their socks to their underwear....

If I'm not mistaken, the R&D Hydro was basically a knock-off of your basic Marchetti, but with high cockpit sides, and a half-cowl and windshield, like another boat from our area, a Goff-Hagness.

Some of the R&D's and drivers I can remember off the top of my head include:

Tad Daniels, JSH
Kyle Williams, BSH
Earl Garrison, BSH
Randy Short, BSH
Ron Calkins, CSH
Jim Daniels, CSH
Don Haack, CSH and possibly DSH
Bob Gierke, CSH and 250H (same boat)
Bill Sanderson, CSH
Jerry Clayton, CSH
Wilsey Hamilton, DSH
Bob Weiss, DSH
John Myers, DSH
Barry Lewis, 500CCH (bought Bob Rhoades' stuff)
Bob Rhoades, 500ccH
Howard Anderson, 1100H

And probably a few more I can't think of. Steve DeSouza bought a drop-dead gorgeous CSH rig, turn key that was an R&D from Haackie in 1973. The first race of the year was the Sammamish Slough race. Everybody kind of wondered about Steve's decision to make his first race the slough race, but he didn't earn the nickname "Fireball" for being conservative. Long story short, he missed a turn and totally wadded the boat into a Yard Sale on the rocks. It was sad. Later, Bill Sanderson bought the pieces and put it back together.

The absolute COOLEST boat they ever built was an FOH for Howard Anderson: White, with two-tone blue and Howard's big 6 on the back, plus an Entrop-style cowl. I've got some pictures of it around home; I'll see if I can find one or two.

R&D's were very pretty boats, and Bob and Jim did some outstanding woodwork on their stuff....kind of the Bezoats of their day in terms of craftsmanship.

That's what I remember about them anyway.....I'm surprised Hobart hasn't joined in on this one, since he and Bob were always pretty tight.

R-19

[Guy]

Actually Wayne....The last pic is Danny driving a Schumacher in his pre-laydown days.

Jeff, You sure thats a Schumacher?
I could be wrong, but I was thinking it had more of a "Yale" look. Did Danny ever have/race a Yale before he had/raced Schumachers?

In most of the 70's era of PRO, I seem to recall seeing more Yales & Butts on the water then I did Schumachers.

Which brings a question to mind: What year was it that Lowell really started mass producing his great hulls?
I was thinking it was the very late 70's & early 80's. Heck, back then I would not have been surprised to see that Lowell had 2 permanent separate area's set aside in his shop. One specifically for Elmer Grade and the other for the Kirts clan!

Which brings up another Schumacher question.
Last time I saw Lowell, he was laying down in a 250 trying to break a Kilo @ Moorehaven in 1987. Instead, sadly we witnessed him breaking his back in a horrible blowover (as well as witnessing Larry Lauderbacks brother getting killed the same way, in I believe, a 5 litre Inboard).
Last I heard, Lowell was helping Gary P. build some boats. Is he still doing this? Has anyone heard if he will "personally" build a boat for someone?

Thanks,
Guy

[denny henderson]

I'll jump in because I know for sure that it is a Schumacher. The picture may have been taken at Alexandria in '79. That was one of the few times Danny ran a Yamato. I built a 350 hydro that same year that had a plywood knot on the deck that resembled a Pekinese dog face. Danny's boat had an identical knot in the same place on the deck. He won the 350 Natls. that year at Alex.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

And Denny is right about when and where the photo was taken. But, ya gotta admit....that boat ain't no dog and it ain't runnin' flat.

[Ron Hill]

Sponsonhead...Didn't these hydros have the inside sponso a 1/2 lower than the outside sponson? They were bitchin looking, cool dark windshields... Frank Signarrillo had one....seems Seen, dark on the deck...????

Anyone one but me, think that the capsuled hydros would look better with a wing, like an Unlimited??? It would not be for speed, it would be a requirement...but then, PRO HYDROS would look like BIG BROTHER.....and like it on not, 400,000 went to San Diego to a boat race....Sorry to say, they didn't come to see our Formula Lights run!!!

Always thinking BoaT Race, 24-7....just an idea!!!

[sponsonhead]

Here's the pics I found. Too bad they're not color. I can tell you that to a 15 year old kid who saw his first F Hydro, this was the ultimate raceboat at the time...to borrow a line from the movie "Wayne's World":

'kinda made you feel funny all over, like when you used to climb the rope in Gym Class'.

I wonder whatever happened to this boat. Anybody know where it ended up?

R-19

[sponsonhead]

Sponsonhead...Didn't these hydros have the inside sponso a 1/2 lower than the outside sponson? They were bitchin looking, cool dark windshields... Frank Signarrillo had one....seems Seen, dark on the deck...????

They did.....asymetrical sponsons and a big-a$$ twist in the bottom of them. What I remember about those sponsons was that they didn't have curves to them....they were all kind of sharp and angular, but they seemed to get the guys around the corner all right.

In the late 70's, Ron Jones started building a few inboards the same way, with big shingles on the outside sponson. The things would roll up in the corners on the OUTSIDE sponson and corner like they were on rails. He even did that with the 79 Budweiser boat that Chenoweth blew over in the Kilos. Then when they built the "copy" of that boat for 1980s, the shingles were gone. I always wondered if Ron had been influenced by the G&H idea, because it was basically the same.

John Lasher used to run G&H's in DSH. When he built a Super C Hydro in the early 70's, it was a line-for-line copy of a G&H he called a "Lasher Craft". Faster than stink. Should have won the Super C Hydro Nationals at Bakersfield in 77, and he went back to Saranac Lake in 78 and sealed the dealm winning it handily.

Yep, those G&H boats were way cool.

R-19

[Dr. Thunder]

Hey Patrick ... any idea when/where those photos were taken

[sponsonhead]

Hey Patrick ... any idea when/where those photos were taken

The first one was Wenas Lake, the second one is Crescent Bar. Both in the 1970-71 time frame.

I have this HUGE box of photos that Richard Koch took in the late 60's/early 70's. That's where these came from. Some color, some black and white. I will try to get more scanned and post them here as time allows.

R-19