1976 Mod 50 winner @OPC nats

[Ron Hill]

I thought Tom was in the printing business? Miss that guy...Actually he had been my brother friend from the 1950's....Being the little brother I was just "adopted" by Tom...He had a HUGE HEART!!!!

When someone says Region 10 and family, they ain't kidding.

Ron Anderson is a member of BRF and has e-mailed with me...Getting him to open up and write would be amazing...I don't see him doing it...Maybe, someone could interview him sometime and write about his racing years.

His engine building abilities have spanned almost 50 years...To quote Bobby Knight, "He's forgot more about basketball than you guys will ever know..." Ron Anderson has probably forgotten more about two strokes than we will ever know..."

Question:

Working for Keller??? Did he drink as much as legend has it????

[Master Oil Racing Team]

It wasn't Tom Gouldstone Bill Van. He is younger than me. I am guessing he would be in his midfifties by now. He was not racing when I first met him. Or at least not alky, but I think later on he was a very accomplished racer.

Lee...I remember his first name was Tom. He had blonde or light colored hair in the longish style of the mid 70's. He had been working the pickup boats at D Lake for a number of years. He told me he never saw anyone fly through the traps as high as I did without picking them up off the water. He actually started idling toward where he thought I would come down. So he had been around racing for awhile. Somewhere in the archives in a thread about boat racing jewelry, someone may have posted his name. Back then no one ever confirmed that that was him. I hoped for the time that someone from you area would remember Tom and we could track him down.

ADD: Ron...I figured Ron Anderson has too much stuff going to sit down to write about the past, so an interview would be way cool.

ADD: I went to the archives and found the name Tom Hindley. This is him I believe. Does anyone have a picture of Tom?

[F-12]

Ron..........What do you think about getting Wayne to call Ron and put an interview together? I think Ron Anderson would be at ease knowing he was talking with another icon of the sport and Wayne can come up with the right questions. Anybody else have any ideas? Would probably be a good idea to make a section of BRF for nothing but interviews. This would be a good start.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Wayne:

I think you are probably right, as I remember now that you have mentioned his name (Hindley) that he did make jewelry. I think he used to have an ad in Propellor magazine. In fact I believe Eileen has a piece of jewelry that he made similar to what you mentioned.

I remember him being at DePue for several years, beautiful and very good performing equipment. Ran 500 and 700 Hydro I believe. I think he had a racing partner that he used to come with and they both had beautiful equipment. Think he had Apel boats, built by Jim Apel or close copies of them.

Tom Gouldstone as you said, was older, probably about my age or maybe even a couple years ahead of that, but based on Ron's post, I always understood he was a jeweler.

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Wayne:

I think you are probably right, as I remember now that you have mentioned his name (Hindley) that he did make jewelry. I think he used to have an ad in Propellor magazine. In fact I believe Eileen has a piece of jewelry that he made similar to what you mentioned.

I remember him being at DePue for several years, beautiful and very good performing equipment. Ran 500 and 700 Hydro I believe. I think he had a racing partner that he used to come with and they both had beautiful equipment. Think he had Apel boats, built by Jim Apel or close copies of them.

Tom Gouldstone as you said, was older, probably about my age or maybe even a couple years ahead of that, but based on Ron's post, I always understood he was a jeweler.

Bill,

Jim Apel actually moved from Florida to be closer to Tom while he was building the boats for him. Tom might even have had one of Jim's 4 points.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Thanks John. We're making some headway.

Hey Charley...thanks for your vote of confidence, but I'm not a real writer. I've only done a few interviews and I am not practiced at that sort of thing. My interview techniques sound kind of stilted. But Ron, being an english teacher, would be better at it. We're both friends of Ron Anderson, but since Ron Hill, the king size real deal icon, is already in contact with him, that's the way to go in my opinion. I do like your idea of an interview section though, or it could go into the encylopedia. Smitty The Welder and I discussed just such a thing a couple of years back, but neither one of us has pursued it any further....(Yet).

[Ron Hill]

And I'm the only one in the class that speaks English....So, I can talk to myself and no one cares...This is an APPLE...I am a TEACHER, not a T-Shirt.....Beginning III....LA 2 C is NOT how you say LETTUCE. A DUBLEE CHEESBURGER is Beginning I...My class eats DOUBLE cheeseburgers...My claim to fame as a teacher was that I told great boat race stories....and I was Nicole Simpson Brown's 6th grade PE teacher....I was a "JACK OF ALL TEACHER" "MASTER OF NONE"....Kids liked me and I liked them!!!!

My brother always talks DOWN running anything by forms...but I've often thought an electronic "FORM" that we could send out and get some facts and stuff would be great, not just for Ron Anderson but many out there if BRF land...

[Sutter's Gold Jr.]

Below is some additional info on the Mod-50 Hydro project after my conversation with Ron.

PEOPLE:
Ron Anderson, Bob Herring, Gary Garbrecht, Dick Snyder, Bob Hetzel, and R. Allen Smith, and Lee Sutter.

Boat, Engine & Props:
A&H Hydro, Asymmetrical , 12' long and 120 lbs "Sprint" Hull. Build similar to Lee's 350 Hydro. Terminal speed: 100MPH. Mercury Mod 50 Powerhead, fabricated tower housing, "D" lower unit. Ron made the center section
Michigan 2 blade prop converted to 3 blades. The sizes were 7X13 and 7x13 1/2. Bob made the props

Testing:
Kaukauna, WI. We tested prior to the Pro Nationals at Winona, MN and OPC Nationals in Dayton. Ron Anderson and Lee tested the following classes:
• 250CC Hydro (Nitro Engine) – 87MPH - Stuck Piston while out front
• 350CC Hydro - 94MPH – Won Nationals
• 250CC Runabout (Nitro Engine) - 74MPH
• 250CC Runabout – 71MPH – Won Nationals
• Mod-50 Hydro – 93 MPH - Small prop. too much punch – Won Nationals
• Mod-50 Hydro – 99MPH – Bigger prop. Good Combination

The Race:

I raced the SST-120 Class on Saturday and didn’t win.

We had the Hydro on top of the Chevy Station Wagon. It just looked like one of our PRO Hydro boats. Ron and Bob arrived late Sunday morning (race day) in Bob’s car with the engine and props in his trunk. We showed up, registered in Mod-50, and attended the drivers meeting all while the Hydro was still on top the car and the engine in the trunk. After the drivers meeting, they announced the time for testing. We unloaded the hydro and Bob back his car up to the boat and unloaded the engine. It took about 15 minutes to get it set up and onto the course. I ran 2 laps with the small prop just to get a feel and to time my starts and get the reference points established and then came back to the pits. I wanted the larger prop as the small one had way to much punch and was not working very well. Guess what, the prop sheared our special aircraft (Boeing) shear pins and the prop was stuck on the prop shaft, which we never were able to remove. TESTING OVER and we had to run the smaller prop which also over revved the engine. This changed everything as our original plan was to use the advantage on the top end…I lost my advantage!!!

The first heat was interesting as during the 5 minute gun lots of boats were milling around by the starting line which made it pretty rough. This really gave me an advantage as most of the OMC guys were making waves, and this allowed me to make a perfect “Drag” start on the inside with nobody contesting my position. Jimbo was on the outside as we ran to the first turn and he beat me to the entrance buoy by about a boat length. I was a little careful as I didn’t know how hard Jimbo was going to turn when he set his tunnel boat. My boat started to climb and then hooked the chine real hard and I came off the buoy about 10 boat lengths ahead and ran hard down the back straightaway and could see that I had plenty of performance. Now to get through to rough stuff at the stating line was the next challenge. To do this, I went wide and backed off a bit. Not a problem and fun!!! I never ran the boat hard after that as the motor was vibrating so bad that every thing was coming loose. Mainly the engine clamps. We won the first heat and headed to the pits. Everything was loose and the nails were coming out of the boat and the left sponsor was delaminating with all the screws and nails backing out. Not fun any more!!! The boat leaked and was falling apart. Ron Hill, Bobby and Ron A jumped in to help nail and screw the boat back together and tighten the clamps and everything we had time to secure. We actually had the boat on its side doing this. I went back out for the second heat and finished where I would win by points. During the last 2 laps the clamp had backed all the way out and the motor was about to jump off the boat, but didn’t. WE Won!!! That was the last time I ever saw or drove that boat as Mercury took it back and I heard that someone raced it in Wisconsin. In fact, I was told it was a lousy boat. I think they tried to run or tested for the Kilo record? To break the Mod-50 Kilo record held by Fred Hauenstein at 107MPH, we needed a Kilo boat and gears, props, time and money. And I didn’t want to drive it as I wanted to race my tunnel boats.

To beat OMC when they were on top of the world in Mod 50 was a lot of fun and it had to frustrating for Charlie and Jack. Jack Leek was a class guy during and after the race.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Wow! Thanks Chris...that was a great story. And thanks for the followup and the info you got from your Dad and Ron. That's the type of racing you never forget.

[Ron Hill]

I can see now why Lee "Set" the boat up at the last minute....I had forgotten all the SECRETS that went on in those days...

AN FYI:

Just got off the phone with Phil Wagner....He had dinner in Florida, last night with Ron Anderson, Billy Seebold and Ralph Donald...I can imagine the storyies going on at a St. Patrick's Pub.....

I had called Phil to ask if he was ther Phil Wegner that race the Winnebagoland Marathon...Said, "It wasn't him..."