Super Swede ... Lars Strom

[Lars Strom]

Great behind the scenes stories Lars, to be so uncomfortable in a boat and still push it to the limit is very brave.

Well, I was young and maybe not very smart at that moment, but I learn
my lesson.

At that time we used old style power trim buttons, but I never drove another Race Boat without
the power trim buttons my way.

[Lars Strom]

I found this photo of the race course at the river Seine.
Around 3 miles long, and in the center of Paris, next to the Eifel Tower

Lots of great memories looking at this.
At the other end of the island is the Statue of Liberty, the little on.
Just to bad they don't race there anymore.

Sometimes my dream is that I am in charge of Evinrude, and Evinrude is back
in Outboard Racing big time.

The Paris 6 hour race is on again, so is Bristol and Amsterdam.
Lake Havasu City and Parker Dam to.

100 F1 OZ Race boats with full sponsorship at the starting grid at every
race.

Not a bad dream, or.....

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Lars:

I, along with many others I'm sure, are enjoying your narrative very much. It is not often we get to hear (the inside story) from someone so closely involved with the manufacturer, the distributor/retail part of the business, and also someone who has raced as you did. I hope you will continue to give us the "rest of the story" as a famous newscaster here in the US likes to say. I also hope you will continue to name names, and give us your opinion where OMC went wrong. I have known folks that worked for OMC in lower level positions and heard some stories of how things were done and mishandled, but you were in a very unique position, both selling and racing, so I am really looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I am sure we all are interested in how you ended up in the United States also. You seem to have a great affection for this country.

Keep on keeping on............

[Lars Strom]

Lars:

I, along with many others I'm sure, are enjoying your narrative very much. It is not often we get to hear (the inside story) from someone so closely involved with the manufacturer, the distributor/retail part of the business, and also someone who has raced as you did. I hope you will continue to give us the "rest of the story" as a famous newscaster here in the US likes to say. I also hope you will continue to name names, and give us your opinion where OMC went wrong. I have known folks that worked for OMC in lower level positions and heard some stories of how things were done and mishandled, but you were in a very unique position, both selling and racing, so I am really looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I am sure we all are interested in how you ended up in the United States also. You seem to have a great affection for this country.

Keep on keeping on............

Thank you Bill,

First and most important, I just tell the stories the way it happens.
I do not have any hard feelings and/or are trying to blame someone else
20 -30 years later.

For me Boat racing and the Outboard business was everything and I was pretty difficult myself when
I was younger and in high gear.

I was very focused on winning and success for me was extremely important.

Evinrude outboards has been extremely good to me, and I found out a way to work with
OMC's products that made me a Boat Racing Champ and put money in my pocket.

I was asked by OMC, in a meeting at the airport in Norway one year before they went out of business what they should do
to improve the outboard business in Europe.

I made a 10 page report/plan and it was more or less the same plan I told them 10 years earlier and they did not act 10 years ago.
After that I was invited to 200 Sea Horse Drive, Waukegan and Mr. David Jones.

That was the summer before OMC filed for bankruptcy.

I do not know what happen the next 6 month, but I was not surprised when the news came
about OMC going out of business early year 2000.

I was at my waterfront property next to Ralph Evinrude Test Center in Stuart, Florida the day I got the news.
A sad day.


Again,
I am just a simple man that loves the United States of America, and are really proud to be
part of this great nation.

More stories are coming.....

[Lars Strom]

The weekend after my crash at the OMC factory I raced that
"extremely low" tunnel boat at the
OE World Championship in France.
Was not feeling very good and had a fat lip.
Roger Jenkins did a very good race and was now the 1975 World OE Champ.

The OE class was a new class and not yet so popular and at the Continental/European
championship in Brodenbach, Germany a few weeks later a Konig won.

I made a new plan for the rest of my 1975 racing season to stick with the very popular SE class, and use
my own brand new Clerici SE boat.

Back in Scandinavia and the next big race was the Scandinavian SE Championship in Finland and that is my
next story I call Disqualified????

The white # 1 boat is my new Clerici.

[Lars Strom]

This is a picture from the Swedish Newspaper Aftonbladet when writing a story about ABBA.
All four members in this very popular group loved Boating and as I wrote earlier we supplied
ABBA with an Evinrude outboard.
You can see the boat in the background, but the point with this is that Björn Ulvaeus (far left)
is wearing my blue Race Boat T-shirt.
So is his wife Agneta, but the child makes it hard to see

Pretty proud of that and thanks for your support back then, ABBA

[Lars Strom]

Lennart is my brother, and he raced F3 many years after me and he is
4 X F3 World Champ 1985,1986,1988 and 1990

[Lars Strom]

This is from 1990 when I was a F3 Team owner with a very good
driver. (Lennart)

From The Daily News paper in Sweden, DN
one full page in colour.
Not bad!!

Ps. Lennart is to the left

[Mark75H]

Cool stuff! Keep it coming!

[Lars Strom]

Cool stuff! Keep it coming!

Thank you Sam,

When I get to the eighties, it gets really interesting!!!!

Well, I bought my first house in Boca Raton, FL 1977 and that's part of Racing to.