Super Swede ... Lars Strom

[Lars Strom]

Thanks Wayne for all the work you put in to my Thread
Nice to read about Dieters factory.
The photos are exactly how I remember his shop-office.

My plan is to continue with my Racing stories in a few weeks.
A Sea Ray boat
at Lake of the Ozarks keep me busy right now.

PS. I went to the F1 ChampBoat race in St. Louis a few weeks ago
and there is lot of photos from that weekend on a Thread under
Champboat.

[Lars Strom]

I promised to get back with them in a few weeks, but so much
fun at the Lake of the Ozarks.
My Sea Ray Weekender 27' turned in to a 41' Formula PC with Cummins
diesels last Friday.

Please, do not give up on me.
I have lots of good Racingstories to tell but need little more time
with my new toy.....

My wife Carina and our Dog Lucky like the new Boat to

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

I, along with many others I'm sure, have missed your posts the last few weeks. Hope you can get them started again.

Bill

[Lars Strom]

We are still at the Marina, Lake of the Ozarks.

Our Boat has a new name but need to be winterized soon...
My plan is to continue with my racing stories after that.
I am sorry for the delay..

[Lars Strom]

My friend Dan in Sweden sent me this from a Swedish newspaper 1968...

A young Renato Molinari won the 3 Hour race.

Yes, that´s him on top of the Mercury...

[Lars Strom]

One more from Dan in Sweden.

This is Sigurd Isacsson and his very fast Offshore Cat 1968..

A few weeks after this photo was taken he flipped the Boat but was able to "swim away"....
This winning boat was no more...

40 years ago last months..

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Lars:

In the 70's here in St. Louis at George Winter Park, we had some of the most competitive OPC Tunnel boat races ever. One of them was the OZ World Championship. This was at the height of the "factory wars" when OMC had the Johnson and Evinrude teams, and of course there was the Mercury team with Seebold, Fountain, Benz and others driving, plus all the great drivers for OMC. I remember Renato Molinari participating in this race or if not the OZ Championship, one of the other big races held in St. Louis in that same time frame.
At that time the lake had only one ramp for both launching and retrieving boats, and with the large number competing it usually took some time to get them out after the heat was over with, as the ramp was being used to both launch and retrieve at the same time. Evidently Molinari had to take a "leak" quite badly after finishing his heat race, and the urge finally overcame whatever shyness he might have had (if any). I remember him climbing out on the deck of the boat and standing with the "golden stream" going into the lake, completely unmindful of the probably 15-20 thousand spectators looking on.
The picture of him on top of the motor you have posted reminded me of that moment. I seem to remember someone in the media took some pictures but I don't know whether they were ever published or not. I later found out that customs in Europe do not look upon that type of thing as we did here in the US, but it was unusual for a midwest crowd at that time. He was very nonchalant about the whole thing, and acted if there was nothing unusual about it at all. That was the only place I ever got to see him race, but he was a fierce competitor.

[Lars Strom]

The very good 3 hour Race of Amsterdam came to an end 1976.

I got a invitation from Holland 1977, to race OE in Gronningen instead and after some research I found
out it was a pretty big race.

Curre and I took my new Chevy Van and the Molinari Volvo/Konig and headed for Gronningen/Holland.
The City of Gronningen was really excited about the race and there was like a Party weekend
and the Boat race.

If I remember right it was OE and ON, and I think this was one of the first races
for Erwin Zimmerman in the ON class.

There was lots of OE boats and Paul Kalbs driver from Belgium, Willy Permanne was there.
Michael Werner and his factory Mercury also.
I think it was 2 X 30 minutes races and this was one of very few races that year when everything
just went my way.
The Volvo/Konig worked without any problems and I won both 30 minutes races and received
a nice Trophy and some good price money.

In one way this was a very good year for me, but I could not use my Racing to sell more
Evinrude Outboards.

The last Race of the season was Paris 6 Hours and back in Sweden I was working hard to find a way
to get OMC Sweden ready to spend some money for my Racing.
I know OMC hade a Policy that the only Racing expensies was thru Belgium, but I found out a
way to get around that...

The next story is about how I got back to Racing with Evinrude 1978.....

Happy New Year to all readers of this thread..
I am slow to get started on the 1978 Racing season and how I found
a smart way to get back to Race Evinrude for OMC again..


Here is a few more photos from 1977..

The first one is from a test in Sweden..

[Lars Strom]

This one is from Drammen Norway 1977..
My Molinari-Volvo Penta/König and
Roger Jenkins is changing from OE to ON and this is one of his first
Races in the ON class with a Mercury..

I am to the left, a man from Volvo in the Center..
Roger Jenkins to the right... looks grey??

[Master Oil Racing Team]

,,,,,,I know how much time it takes to dig up the photos and get back into the groove of telling your story. We are all glad to see you continue.