Random shots from the pits

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I'll see if I can spot one of you John. Trouble is, I don't have contact sheets for most of these. Guess I'll have to scan the whole bunch. Here's a few more.

[epugh66]

The UIM finally got around to changing the five boat rule. That was always a sore point with us. That gauranteed a world championship would be filled with slow boats being driven by squirrels who had no buisiness on the race course. Case in point, watch the video on the other 350cc WC at Milan thread.

[epugh66]

Lake Village,AR. '91? All I had to do was hold on one more heat to make the podium. Some of you know that Lake Village is some sort of inland ocean, so that was going to be hard. I wound up submarining into a large wave.

Gary is working the sponge, I'm pumping away and Pete Hellsten is looking on, probably saying something like "you dumbass". The cockpit was sealed off from the rest of the boat, so it never "sank"

Oh yeah, and I was third on the podium with the usual suspects, Danny and Denny

[Master Oil Racing Team]

There's been a lot of new members lately from the OPC and inboard ranks so here are a few pit shots from Clear Lake, Texas. The Red Adair North American Championships August 2 & 3, 1975.

[corin_huke]

Here's a question for Wayne, Eric, Ralph and the others that raced in Europe back in the day

Who represented the US at the World 500 in Milan in 1989? I'm pretty sure Ralph was there, but in the back of my mind also I can recall seeing the blue and white Bartholemi Popoli boat with a Yamato on the back, but who ran this boat? - Lee Bartholemi, Mark Borges or someone else?

The race was held on the Idroscalo circuit and was set up with 1000m straightaways. At the time F1 raced at the same event and I can remember that the F1 drivers complained like crazy to the officials to shorten the course as their engines couldn't handle the length of time they were on the throttle. Whereas the the hydro drivers were saying, "1000m....bring it on! It can be longer if you wish...."

I think John Hill was the F1 Champion at the time, or at least near the top of the pile. As a fellow Brit we got talking to him and the question was raised "So John, given the size of your engine and all that power at your disposal, how come that Russian guy over there in his hydro-cat and only a 500cc Konig engine is within 4 or 5 secs of your lap time!!?" Don't know if we ever got an answer before he went off in a huff!!!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I'll leave the 89 world 500 to Eric or Ralph as I don't have a clue. Regarding lap times, the alkies could get around pretty quickly with good water and properly laid out bouys. By that I mean on a surveyed course where you could get a good line through the turns.

I don't know this to be an actual fact, but as I have not seen anything to the contrary, I think I was the first outboard of any displacement to break an 80 mph average on a mile and a quarter course. It happened at the 1976 Pro Nationals in Winona, Minnesota. It didn't go in the books because two months later Jerry Kirts upped it at Alexandria. I probably would have retained it had I not overshot the bottom turn on lap one when my life jacket had gotten hung up on the throttle. But Dan and Jerry both broke the 80 mph barrier at Alexandria where they set 500, 700, and 1100 hydro records in excess of 80. Dan did it in 700 hydro with Rex Hall's R & B hydro. This goes back to a point I had been making on the Amazing Story tread. Our kilo records were all set with competition setups, so it is accurate to say ALL the frontrunners were turning the same straightaway speeds we ran at the kilos. That is to say 105+ with 500, 110+ with 700 and 1100 hydros.

There were no record courses for comparison with OPC on the 1 1/4 mile course, but they as well as PRO had 1 2/3 mile records. My 1100 hydro competition record in 1977 was just under 91 mph compared to Billy Seebold's S and X class records just under 92 mph. I had hoped to be the first outboard to break the 100 mph markin 700 hydro, but I didn't have the right set up to keep it on the water. My fastest lap at Yelm was 96. Jim Stone almost pulled it off, averaging in excess of 98, if I remember right, with Elmer Grade's 700 hydro at Florida.

Sam---who was the first outboard of any displacement to officially average over 100mph on a 1 2/3 mile course?

[john lawrence]

Wayne: For those of us that do not know, could you or someone post the names of some of the pics and could you and all the other old alky racers start making sure that they contact some of their old racer friends to get them to come to Depue. This is going to be a One Shot Deal and everyone who goes is going to rave about it and everyone who does not go will wish that they had so lets contact anyone who is still alive and kicking!! Regards John Lawrence

[J. Sherlock]

Champ Boat 1985: The start clock average was at 101 but the score keepers had me at 99.30

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I'll start naming names if no one else will John. I always hope first to get others involved, and there are some I don't know.

As far as DePue....yeah we need to start getting names together for a master list and get to John Schubert.

[J. Sherlock]

New Five-Mile Record in Competition 84.730