This Sporting Life...That Sporting Death

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Wayne:

Several years ago (probably 10-12) Eileen and I were visiting Ralph Donald and I happened to see a copy of this book. I was fascinated by it, not only the chapter about boat racing, but the others as well. I always wanted a copy, but when we checked it had been out of print for years. About five years ago, Eileen surprised me at Christmas with a copy that she found on Amazon.com. It was not new, but in very good shape, and I feel very fortunate that she was able to find the book as I don't think very many copy's were published. I showed it to Butch a couple of years ago when he was visiting, and pointed out his quote at the top of the first page. He was amazed that ANYTHING he ever said made it into print, except some things he probably would not want publicized. It is great you have scanned it and put it on BRF.


Regrds your comment about Rex Hall's boat in the picture. If you are talking about Y-71 in the left hand margin of the pit scene, I don't think that is Rex. I believe Rex always used Y-5 when he lived in KC. I think that boat and number was used by "Dirty" Ernie LaRose, a C-Service driver from the St. Louis area. Ernie worked for McDonnell Aircraft in STL when they were building the F-4 Phantom, and a lot of the shear pins used in Alky racing at that time, were courtesy of Ernie. They were actually titanium rivets used to attach wing skin and other panels to the Phantom, and Ernie brought them out in coffee cans full. He never sold any as far as I know, just always gave them to all the boat racers.

Ernie had a very bad hip, and walked with a very pronounced limp, and it was very difficult for him to climb in and out of his boats, but I never heard him complain. He was the beneficiary of Bill Seebold Sr's expertise when the 4-cylinder merc on a Service lower unit was introduced into the C-Service class in the late 60's/early 70's, and had a very competitive engine with Bill Sr. and Bob McFarland massaging the props and engines for him. He was usually a third to fifth place boat when running a Speedytwin, but with the Merc he really came on and won his elimination heat at DePue one year. I have no idea whether there was a grudge against him because he won with a Merc, but he was thrown out in inspection because the prop nut on his lower unit was 1/8" too long. I really thought that was kind of crappy at the time and still do, but a rule is a rule, I guess. Anyway as I said, If the boat you are talking about is the Y-71 boat, I don't think that was Rex's boat, but Ernie's.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The last pic is Fred Hauenstein. We didn't do any good. That was a year of experimentation for us. Zak Staks, Nydahl ignition, airplane batteries, Marchetti tunnel boat, etc. We had fun though. John Kiely was a very interesting character. And very intertaining. Never heard from him again. That cigarette he's looking at on the back cover is probably the real thing because back then, his publisher would not want a picof him holding his alternative smoke.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Thanks for the correction Bill Van. Yeah, I remember Ernie. Nice guy.

You are lucky to find the book. Very few books have anything to do with alky racing. I have two left. Of the six I bought, I gave one to my brother, two went to my sisters, and one for my Dad which I do not know what happened to it. Joe Rome has one also. He was going to scan this two years ago, but I decided to do it this morning while waiting on Joe. He and Karen went to see Louis Williams this morning and he called me on the way. Louis was having a good day today so Joe put him on the phone for me to talk to. We talked about old times and he sure does miss his boat racing family.

[Gene East]

Wayne, this is a great thread you"ve started. Sorry I interupted earlier.

Bill, your assessment of "Dirty Ernie" is dead on. Not a nicer guy ever squeezed a throttle. You were right when you said he never took a nickle for the best shear pins any of us ever used.

He gave a can of pins to Q.W. We were charging .25 each for them. Ernie was very offended. Chris apologized, and after that we gave away those pins just like Ernie and every body was happy again.

You are also right he got shafted for winning with a Mercury in C-Service. Ernie deserved that win. Too bad politics reared it's ugly head that day.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I didn't know what you meant Gene, so I had to backtrack. You don't need to apologize. I was just taking a lunch break. I figured most alky guys never had a chance to read this chapter, or even knew about the book. So it was time to get it out for old racers to enjoy. BTW, I still have my St Jude medal.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Gene, you are absolutely right, Ernie was one of the nicest people I ever met. I never heard him have a bad word to say about anybody. And that brings to mind the first story:

One time either Eileen or I asked Ernie if he was married. His reply was, "which time"? As he told us a little more of the story, it seems he had been married (at that time, early 70's) 5 or 6 times, all but the first marriage to the same woman. As nicely as I could, I asked him why if it did not work out the first or second time to the second woman, did he do it again? He said that when she divorced him she "got it all" and he wasn't able to get ahead enough to find someone new, so they would get back together again, (she always got the house) and because he was old fashioned about living together, they would get married again. I guess that is the true meaning of "doing something over and over again, and expecting a different result". He always ended up on the short end of the stick in the subseqent divorces.

He left the STL area in I thing the late 70's or early 80's and moved out to Arizona to be with his brother. I saw him a couple of times up to the mid 80's at Seebold's OPC race here in St. Louis, but I don't think he ever moved back here permanently and he passed away later on.


During one of his "single times" we all attended a St. Louis ODA drivers party and banquet, and as sometimes happens Eileen and I found ourselves sitting across a long table from Ernie. It was around Halloween and we had bought a couple of Halloween masks for another party. These were the "whole head" type, that completely covered your face and head. Best I remember, one was Frankenstein, and the other was Dracula, or something similar. As the evening progressed, Ernie got in his beer pretty good, and got a little more unsteady that he usually was because of his hip problem. We had brought the masks inside the hall with us, and when Ernie got up to go to the restroom, fairly late in the evening and full of beer, we put the masks on while he was gone. When he came back and sat down, nobody seated around us said a word, and Ernie looked at us, and then he would look away at something else, and then he would look at us again. We just acted normally and continued to carry on a normal conversation with him, not acting in any way differently than before he went to the restroom. He finally got up from the table and said he had to go home, as he evidently had been drinking a little too much, as things just didn't seem to be as he remembered them earlier in the evening. We never said anything to him about the masks, and neither did he, so I have no way of knowing whether he figured it out or not. Later on when I saw him the next time, I never said anything about it, as I didn't want to embarass him, and he never mentioned it either. I'm sorry we never talked about it and had a chance to laugh about it, because as Gene mentioned, he was a prince of a guy.

[Pitboss]

I'ts funny, how things go around....here I'm reading and enjoyingthe post, then along comes a story about Ernie. At the time of this tale, I was living in Bridgeton Missouri...just a mile or so from were Ernie lived. Used to see his trailer parked in the yard.

Ernie had either bought a new hydro or was quiting, I dont remember which, anyhoo I bought his hydro.

I ran C Mod and also a C Service Merc.. ran a few years, then was changed jobs an moving. I then sold tha Hydro to a guy from Columbia Missouri...Larry MacAfee. I dont know how long he ran it. The Hydro was a Lowry hydro built by old Andy Lowrey, and was probably one of the last shovel nose he built.

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents worth. Great story..keep on!



Jim Vincent (Pitboss)

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That's what BRF is all about. Reading other people's stories and passing along some of your own.

[Dave_E71]

Here are some copies for sale on Amazon, I think I paid 3 bucks for my copy

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...2928960&sr=8-1

[Tim Chance]

Here is my Ernie LaRose story. We went to a race together. He put his boat on my trailer, I drove and he was going to pay for the gas. When we started to get low on gas I asked if he had a choice of gas stations. He told me he had an Amaco card. I stopped at the next Amaco station. When we got low again (quickly I might add as it was a 3/4 ton Chevy with a 350) I stopped at an Amaco. After I filled up Ernie asked why I stopped there because the station across the street was like 3 cents cheaper. OK. Next stop I filled up at a cut-rate. Then Ernie says: : "Why did you fill up here, you know I have an Amaco card".