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Thread: An Amazing Story: Part 3

  1. #41
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    Those that attended the convention might recall getting their photo taken and laminated in plastic tag with their name on it. My Dad took keen interest in that setup and began to ask questions of the security people that were in charge. Before we went back to Texas, my Dad had bought from them the complete system except for the background, which I had to make from a sheet of plywood and paint.

    The oilfield was booming and new workers were being hired left and right. The pay was excellent, but some were not suited to the hours. We had a lot of turnover at Alice Specialty, especially among the "swampers" who helped on the winch trucks. We had just built a new paint and body shop, a 6 bay mechanic shop with a grease and front end alignment pit, a fabrication shop with a 30 ton crane, and at the end was the Master Oil canning factory. We had so much theft going on we had to build one mile of chain link fence around the property and hire a 24 hour security service with a guard gate who logged everyone in and out. My Dad liked the laminated name tags because of the photo id. We employeed an average of 120 people back then and some would last from 2-3 hours to a paycheck or two before they decided they didn't like oil field work. Some would stay several months before being hired away for higher pay jobs. Roughnecks with no experience could bring down $4,000 per month in 1980.

    The ID system had a camera with two lenses that took two mug shots at a time, then automatically rotated 90 degrees. You could get two aproximately 1 X 1 1/2 inch sets of photos on one Polaroid (tm) print. Then you place the print in a machine that had a die to punch out the photos. One would go on the name tag to be laminated and the other attached to the personnel file. One of the duties added to my job was to take the photos of all ASCO and EMMX Corporation personnel and make the name tags. After the Alice Police Department and Jim Wells County Sheriff's Office found out about our "library" of mug shots, they would sometimes come down to search for a mug shot of a suspect they were looking for and I would make them an enlargement. Needless to say, a lot of employees didn't like the system and some in upper management didn't either. But if Baldy wanted it.....it got done.

    So thanks to the APBA convention, I had to sometimes stop what I was doing to go down to my studio in the storage room and make ID's.
    Last edited by Master Oil Racing Team; 12-06-2008 at 10:23 AM. Reason: spelling



  2. #42
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    Back to the convention.

    Rusty Rae was there and had a slide show of the Stock Nationals. Rusty and I spent a lot of time together and he showed me some new things he was doing as well as gave me some photo tips.

    There was a hospitality room open from 7 to midnight following the meetings. The room was way too small for the number of people that came. It was about the size of two hotel rooms with a bar. It was shoulder to shoulder and so noisy that today with my hearing loss, I wouldn't be able to understand a conversation. Then miraculously, shortly before either 8:00 or 9:00 (I forget which) the room all but emptied. Somebody turned a TV on in a different room down the hall and I overheard someone else say, "Come on...let's go find out who shot J.R." It turned out that the Dallas TV show episode where the viewers found out who shot JR came on. Today it remains the second most watched TV show in history, behind No. 1...the final episode of "Mash".

    I hated that show and never watched even one minute. It was a totally fictitious piece of propaganda about Texas oilmen. The only thing I could ever say good about it was that it emptied out that room and I found myself talking to the only other person left that cared nothing about "Dallas"....Ken Warby. I'll never forget that. The whole time the soap opera was on, Ken Warby and myself talked boat racing and about his speed record and what he went through to get there. For some reason I do not recall any talk between us of Lee Taylors death the week before in his attempt to break Ken's record. Maybe it was just too recent and sensitive for us to go on about.



  3. #43
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    I was in high school when I read about Lee Taylor, his water speed record, and his crash in either Boat News or Hot Boat. Art Arfons was going to put his Green Monster on flotations and drive it across the water. Those were exciting things for an about to be boat racer to read about. And those drag boat....Citation....Climax...and Skip Talbot with his 100 mph plus outboard cabover. Now, I was a part of the boat racing community and was talking to the fastest man on the water, and just came off the news that we just lost one of our own, in an attempt to regain his position as fastest man on the water. A sad thing.
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  4. #44
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    I talked to Tim Butts on November 24. I gave him the rundown on the APBA Convention. He said he still had neck problems from his crash at Waco. Then he told me about his "Top Secret Kilo Boat".

    It was an all together different fuselage. There was no bottom surface. Quad wing- sponsons in the rear that are wing shaped and will lift the bottom off the surface. Wedged surfaces..two on the outside turning surfaces. Fuselage has a step in it a little lower than the sponsons. Runs only on mechanical properties. Doesn't utilize air under the boat. Tim canned the outrigger designs. After he flipped, he decided he must do something new.

    I put in calls later that day to Wil Pergande, Fred Hauenstein and Lee Sutter. They were all out for the week.



  5. #45
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    I was trying to figure out where we were at that time according to my journals, and I was not keeping good notes anymore. As a consequence I may have gotten some things out of order. so I pulled out my folders to organize letters into the proper time frame. My Dad had a file, and I have two that deal with Pro and UIM. I just didn't realize it took so long to get this thing going.

    It was at the Washington D.C. APBA Convention where I had a good long talk with UIM Executive Director Jose Mawet. He and the UIM President had attended the convention. Since he was aware of my proposal to divide the U.S. into and Eastern and Western World Championship venues to encourage foreign participation and build U.S. interest in international racing he wanted to talk. Mr. Mawet asked me to join him at a bar at the hotel. We sat at the end of the bar, not at a table, and away from any other racer that may me there. He wanted to talk freely and off record. I don't remember any details of what we talked about other than the proposals I had, but we were there by ourselves for a couple of hours. I didn't have to complain about how we were ramrodded by politics in 1978 because he was fully aware. His interest was increasing UIM membership, international racing, records, etc. which Hydroplanes International could bring to the table (some states had more class entries than all of Europe), but he could not afford to jeopordize the UIM benefactor...OMC. I understood his position and we had a fine time getting to know each other personally.

    That was the reason I had put in calls to Wil Pergande, Fred Hauenstein and Lee Sutter. One of the things that was confusing to me was that I had thought I had done that before now, and a glimpse ahead was that I had not yet got confirmation with Jimbo McConnell whether or not he was agreeable. I still have to find my note from Charlie Strang giving his blessings to the idea.



  6. #46
    Team Member Master Oil Racing Team's Avatar
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    I pulled all the files to consolidate and put them in order of dates. Unfortunately I was bad about dating some of my correspondence as well as others, and I haven't gone through the biggest file regarding the fuel controversy, but I have a better idea now on how things happened. The original Pro UIM Commission didn't have as many members, and it was after the second assault on Pro Racing that I tried to enlist others from the OPC side.

    Up until my Dad, EE "Baldy" Baldwin began working to bring large scale international competition to America, I was not up on international racing. We were friends with the Canadians, Jack Marshall from Australia, and knew who Dieter Konig was. After NOA failed, the following year was the first UIM World Championships to be held in the outboard class in the U.S. that I am aware of.

    After numerous successful events (notwithstanding the disasterous weather spoiled race at Laredo later on) we felt we were on our way to building international racing in the U.S. The UIM ruling that overnight banned methanol from "O" classes blindsided us. Major rule changes were supposed to take effect two years after enactment. We spent the spring and summer fighting the methanol ban. We had never before been affected by such a major rule change without sound reasoning , and it came about from a category we had never raced with before. We had an uphill battle, but we didn't give up fighting. We lost in the end though. During those days when we at Hydroplanes International felt we were being railroaded by the OMC powerbrokers and their influence at Brussels, set out to put together a way to respond. We had no say in the discussions. The international racing was not within the jurisdicition of the Pro commission although it was affecting us. Within the outboard racing categories there was Offshore and OPC. They did not represent our interest, but it was the crossover at OE where the conflict was. OPC was represented, and held a seat at the table of UIM meetings. We did not. And we were totally unaware. After the battle over the fuel rule, we had another blind side and this is when Dieter Konig sent me this letter, and we started to find a way to represent the lesser "O" classes amongst the UIM rulers.
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  7. #47
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    Been away from here too long. Thought I would have wrapped it up by now, but my files were so jumbled, I just had to start consolidating three or four files and put everything in order. Still not complete, but here's some backtracking to put things a little more into perspective. I've included a list of the original members of the Pro/UIM Affairs Committee and some correspondence with Gary Garbrecht regarding our move into the international politics of outboard racing.
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  8. #48
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    I had mentioned previously that my Dad and I were talking to Jimbo McConnell at the kilos in Waco when Tim Butts blew over. We were talking about this Pro/UIM committee and I had asked him if he would be willing to serve. He said he would think it over. It was Jimbo that I was waiting on, and I didn't have another person in mind if he declined. I wanted someone of his caliber to represent OMC because the powers that be could look over this list and see that we were serious about the American interests in international outboard racing.
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  9. #49
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    I found my next journal with notes running from 12-30-81 to 8-31-81.

    On January 5th I wrote "Jimbo McConnell-glad to serve on UIM committee. If Carlsberg picks up series he will race @ Parker w/ Renato. After Waco he set a Mod 50 record of 85 & Mod 90 record of 82 @ Lakeland, Fla.



  10. #50
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    Default Rotary Valve Advancer

    Much earlier in this (Wayne's) thread there was talk about this device. Tim Butts hooked me up with Zack to get this built before the start of the 78 season. I will disassemble and post pics of parts later but right now I'm getting ready to head to the Luke and try to get the Colts a win! GO COLTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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