1976 Mod 50 winner @OPC nats

[Roy Hodges]

This hydro ,with a merc 650 X won 1976 mod 50 at the dayton hydro bowl. Had a custom altered 3 blade quicky prop (Michigan) , made from 2 - two blade props . Tom Ireland was afraid that if the hydro got in the lead ,it would win . It DID. The power head chewed up quickies (D units) , so, they was changed after each heat. I think the #43 was Jeff Titus , in "odd job". a Sport E , one of the winningest -EVER. The other pic -A VanderVelden , with OMC V-6 , i think the most beautiful shape &lines on a tunnel- EVER. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ..................................................
Notice the custom fabbed tower housing on the merc - looked like Stainless steel sheet metal rolled to the required shape ?

[Roy Hodges]

I just found these pics , lookin for "something ELSE" ; had not seen them in over 30 years .

[Danny Pigott]

I saw that race, Lee Sutter drove one he## of a race . The tunnel boats made the water as rough as they could. Hydro was A an H. There is another side to this story. OMC would have had a Hydro too if not for one problem the PRO. Nat's

[Roy Hodges]

O K , i'll bite . What did the PRO nats have to do with the O P C nats ? I'm not being critical, i am just curious . Because i never heard of O M C doing anything in the pro's. Maybe i'm just ignorant on that subject . But, my ears are wide open . Thanks

[Danny Pigott]

It really had nothing to do with OMC an the PRO Nat's.This is what happened when OMC found out that Mercury was going to have a Hydro at Dayton they were worried that in the calm water the Hydro would win. So they made plans to have a Hydro also. They called Tim Butts an wanted him to build a MOD 50 Hydro an come to Dayton an run it. The PRO. Nat's happen to be on the same date, Tim told me that there was no way he could miss the PRO. Nat's, that was his bread an butter where he sold the most boats. So if things had been differant we might have seen two Hydros in the front. I wanted to tell this on the Butts thread I will put it there also. Roy you could put this in history, it was a historical race the first an probably the only MOD 50 win on a Hydro.

[Mark75H]

Roy you could put this in history, it was a historical race the first an probably the only MOD 50 win on a Hydro.

Copied. It now exists both places

[brichter]

I Can't believe I didn't see this before. I was at this Dayton race in 76' and the MOD 50 battle between Lee and Jimbo was the highlight of the day! It was basically a 2-boat race where Jimbo gained on Lee out of the turns and Lee had just enough top end to pull away on the straights and stay out front. Every one was watching in amazement, I never saw anything like that before or since.

I also remember seeing and admiring Ken Stevenson's boat. Just beautiful....... at that time just a work of art. Thanks for posting the pictures Roy!

[hydrodriver]

Email from Lee Sutter to his son Chris:
This boat was built to look like my 350 Hydro and Ron’s 250 Hydro? We didn’t want anyone (OMC) to know we were running a hydro at Dayton . The class was 100% tunnels. This was one of those projects that had a real purpose!!! OMC had a stronger engine then Mercury and Jimbo and Jeff Brown had factory Mod-50 tunnels that dominated the class. Mercury (Gary G) asked Ron Anderson, Bob Hering, and I if we could build a hydro to go beat the OMC’s at the Dayton Nationals. We agreed!

Ron and Bobby built the boat at Ron’s, put the Mod-50 power head on a Mercury “D” tower housing and used a “D” gear case. We built two props by cutting a blade off a 2 blade “D” Michigan prop and welding 2 blades back on the hub – bingo, the first 3 blade Michigan ever!!! No stock or Alky guys used 3 blade props at that time!!! Then, I sent the props to R. Allen Smith in Louisiana (my prop guy) who made to the specs we thought would work. 6/3/4” diameter x 12 ½” Pitch. Bob Hetzel at Mercury really helped with the props. In fact, he did all the tough stuff with the support of Dick Snyder at Mercury.

We tested it at Kaukauna , WI . along with all the alky equipment. We tested for two days 2 weeks before the Alky Nationals and the Dayton race was the week following. We tested the 250 runabout, 250 hydro, 350 hydro, and the Mod 50 project.

It went 93 MPH on the first pass and 95 MPH on the second. It vibrated really bad, had way too much acceleration. Funny thing is, it went the same speed as my 350 hydro.

You should have seen to look on Jack Leeks face when we unloaded the hydro off the trailer. As he thought it was one of our Alky boats.

WE Won!!! And, Mercury took all the equipment away from us the next week and tried to use it to run through the Kilos. Wrong boat, gear case, props, and wrong guys." Lee Sutter.