The Wild Geechee

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

No I didn't get one. All I have is the flags for 1970, 1971 & 1972. I also have a medallion from Berlin in 1971.

What is the eBay # of the medallion, maybe I need it.

Did we finish in the top 5 in 1970? We were first Johnson & there was an award for that but don't know who got it.

[Steve Pinson]

What does the newspaper say in English? Any official score sheets till out there???

I know one thing about 1971, if Wallace and i had electrical problems it was because the flywheel and crank shaft came out of the motor and ripped the wires with it....

Hi Ron Happy New year to you and all on this site. I had forgotton that Bill Seebold was driving with Rasini in 1971 this must have been around the last we saw of the Rasini brothers racing at Paris `both brothers had won this race in a previous year and I never heard much of them racing after this event.The winning driver who was teamed up with Downard in this event was Peliolio we had him over in the UK in june 1971 he was co driver to Molinari at the Chasewater 500 which consisted of a 2 day race 250miles each day I remember this race well I was lucky to be asked to co drive with Bill Shakespeare in 15ft stepped cat V4 Johnson we won the first days racing but lost out on the 2nd days race.

[Ron Hill]

No I didn't get one. All I have is the flags for 1970, 1971 & 1972. I also have a medallion from Berlin in 1971.

What is the eBay # of the medallion, maybe I need it.

Did we finish in the top 5 in 1970? We were first Johnson & there was an award for that but don't know who got it.

1970 Paris, I think you were 4th at the last stop, but the steering had come way loose, and the OMC crew did a great job trying to fix it, but sent me on my way, I think we were 7th or 8th.

Might have been first Evinrude, as Sanders and Posey won with the Johnson.

I'll send you the E-Bay number when I get to the shop tomorrow, or....sell you mine LOL!

[Ron Hill]

Hi Ron Happy New year to you and all on this site. I had forgotton that Bill Seebold was driving with Rasini in 1971 this must have been around the last we saw of the Rasini brothers racing at Paris `both brothers had won this race in a previous year and I never heard much of them racing after this event.The winning driver who was teamed up with Downard in this event was Peliolio we had him over in the UK in june 1971 he was co driver to Molinari at the Chasewater 500 which consisted of a 2 day race 250miles each day I remember this race well I was lucky to be asked to co drive with Bill Shakespeare in 15ft stepped cat V4 Johnson we won the first days racing but lost out on the 2nd days race.

What happened more than 40 years ago, seems easy to remember, I thought we broke down the last 30 minutes. But then again, I never let facts get in the way of a good story...Thanks for posting those cool old stories and pictures.

The only things I remember about the Rasini family was they always had body guards, and their daughter was SUPER FINE looking.

Didn't Bill Shakespeare die in a blow over at Lake Windemere?

[Steve Pinson]

What happened more than 40 years ago, seems easy to remember, I thought we broke down the last 30 minutes. But then again, I never let facts get in the way of a good story...Thanks for posting those cool old stories and pictures.

The only things I remember about the Rasini family was they always had body guards, and their daughter was SUPER FINE looking.

Didn't Bill Shakespeare die in a blow over at Lake Windemere?

Bill Shakespeare owned a boat manufacturing company he had been racing boats for many years and had won many races all over Europe.When I first met with him in 1968 I was surprised to see he was only around 5ft 2inch tall weighed around 130 lbs and reminded me of a jockey but he was a great man to know and we became good friends.In 1970 he had a choice of a Mercury twister 1 or a Johnson V4 outboard we even showed up at the Chasewater 500 mile race in 1970 with one of each bill drove the Johnson I drove the Mercury Bill had told the people at OMC he would drive a Johnson and told the Mercury people he would drive a Mercury so he decided we would swop outfits at refuelling time he said he wouldn't lie to them but my engine failed after 30mins and I can tell you the Mercury camp were non too pleased and removed the engine.In october of 1970 they held the first Windemere speed record attempt week for all classes hydros `offshore` ski-racing` etc allocating 1 day only for circuit racing boats.The ON world record at that time was 96mph so E P BARRUS were the Johnson outboard distributers and they wanted Bill to run one of his 15 ft GRP cats at this event.So Bill had a stepped hull moulded to the deck of a 15ft cat built of very lightweight GRP and foam decking.We had 1 trial run on the river Avon before heading for Windermere.The following morning at daybreak we were out testing Jack Leek had henrix send a 2 blade prop over for the 1 to 1 gearcase for us to try when Bill did his first run the engine sounded very busy but we only had the 1 prop.We waited for a slot around 11 oclock for the record attempt and Bill did the first run ok but on the return run the engine failed so we rang Bills factory at Tewksbury 200 miles away and they pulled the powerhead off the outfit Bill ran in the Paris 6hr 2 weeks before.Within 5hrs we had the new powerhead fitted around 4 oclock and Bill was off to try again.His engine was very busy and his 1st run was 119 mph his engine just managed to last the return run which was down to 89mph which made the new record 104 mph.I have posted a picture of the record boat on the trailer at Windermere.The picture of the no 15 boat was exactly 1 yr later when Bill lost his life in practise for the Windermere 3hr grand prix for this race Mercury had just sent Molinari to this race with their new 6c race outboard and bill was testing with a 1 to 1 gearcase hoping he could win this race even Jack Leek had flown in to watch.Now the no 15 boat he was using was a 15 ft stepped cat which Bill and myself had won one International race at Chasewater with and was a safe boat to drive .My opinion why he blew this boat over was he had for practise a workshop voltmeter on the floor of his boat to check the rpm I had used this myself and to read the small scale needed was around 6 maybe 8 seconds or more loss of concentration and strangely enough when he and his boat disappeared and sank without trace the voltmeter he had been looking at was floating nearby.

[Ron Hill]

All I really recall is Jack Leek calling me when he got home, he said Bill Shakespeare had been killed in a blow over. Jack seemed pretty upset about it. Seems we were getting ready for Havasu. Death is just so permanent.

When you mentioned two blade 1 to 1 prop. After Scotti won Havasu, in '69, my dad bought eight sets of Record props, about $3,000 worth at the time. I remember John Woods bought two sets at Parker 1970. We lost four, at Havasu 1970. But Jack had bought all of them, like the one in the picture.