Mod VP Pictures..

[Ron Hill]

I was talking to Ted March the other day...about MOD VP..He reminded me, after I was saying many nice things about Roark Summerford, that Roark had once wanted to kick my ***....I reminded Ted, that in my life time, many have wanted to kick my ***....but that doesn't mean they don't like me or that I don't like them....Roark was usually on the "OTHERSIDE" when we were racing MOD VP..

I called Roark and Earl Bentz and BEGGED them to come to Parker....Earl's boat company has been bought out by Mercury Marine. Roark seems to say, "We can beat the bass boats, we know that...and we don't care to race with THEM other boats........but then, he did ask me the date of the race...."

I would like to really know more about Roark, I know he built Laser Boats and STV Boats....

Hope they show at Parker....Here is a picture of Roark in Powerboat 1981...at the St. Louis MOD VP SHOOT OUT!!!!

[AnthonySS]

Here is something from our STVowners Site regarding a brief History on STV Boats...see Link and ENJOY


http://www.stvowners.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=95

[Dabull1919]

Ron, I know you don`t remember me cuz I only ran Havasu& Parker one time each. I drove for Louis Collins the first time Mirage was at Havasu with a
Mariner and we did realy well till the gas tank split. I took out a bouy at the
Nautical Inn turn while Running second to Greg Foster. We made up that lap
and was running second to Stoker (Gregg pitted for fuel, we ran the whole
load-No stops) when the tank broke. Thirty min ta go and I sat in the infield
With the best seat in the house ta watch Allen lead on the first day. Day two
Louis, Brad and myself are all pumped up with a newly repaired gas tank and
something to prove. Then came the word-TO ROUGH TO RACE and we all hade to go home. This was very dissapointing as I had waited a long time
to get to Havasu and didn`t care how rough the water was, I wanted ta
race.

I`m sure glad you and the others are trying to keep our class from being
forgotten and it sure is nice ta see all of these great pictures-Thanks

Do you know if Reding Productions is still in buisness?

Mod VP forever
Bobby sanders

[Ron Hill]

Bobby...

When I DREAMED UP MOD VP RACING........my goal, as it is today, was to have a class that when the gun fires, you race.......Too rough??? Take up drinking full time....When I come to an ENDURO I don't want the SOB stopped until it is over....

When I won Chicago to Milwaukee to Chicago in a 17 foot boat....trust me, there were 10 foot waves on Lake Michigan...not the whole time......John Schubert, just at a few places....

Ross D. Boss and me talked today. IF we are to REBUILT OUR SPORT, we must look at the millions of past mistakes, and try to not make them again.

My son, Chad Hill, is racing 45 (Formula Lights)....which Ross has a pretty good little circuit going...but, at the races I see my mind wondering back to 1956....No, no, no, I can't go there...we need to move to what real people would want.........

AND I believe it is a boat that they could use on the weekends and race sometimes if they wanted to race......This could be a 14 foot boat or a 24 foot boat...

To be quite honest, two things really hurt my wife in boat racing:

One was the Mini Boat Enduro, where she had a 30 horsepower motor with an aluminum prop (C-NOD) racing in the same Enduro with 40 Horsepower motors, with Stainless props on tunnel hulls...The race was scheduled for five hours....Long story, but her three vee hulls with WOMAN drivers were running 2,3, and 4 OVERALL...Oh, there were MODIFIED 40's too...The officials called the race because it was TOO ROUGH...NOT ONE C-NOD had turned over and we had six women drivers, two of which this was their first race...

The straw that finished my wife was at San Diego when the tunnel MEN complained to the officials that the Women Vee Bottoms made the water too rough...That was my wife's last race... She has never been back into it like she was....Of course, Jimmy Hauenstein's death....with Chad as his team mate...didn't help either.

But my point....We NEED boats that RACE DAMN IT...no matter what the water is...Ever heard of an OFFROAD race being cancelled???? (Because the road was too rough???)

I feel your pain, Bobby, (I knew that he isn't Barry)...and we may never be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again!!!!

Ron

[Miss BK]

Ron, I know you don`t remember me cuz I only ran Havasu& Parker one time each. I drove for Louis Collins the first time Mirage was at Havasu with a Mariner and we did realy well till the gas tank split. I took out a bouy at the Nautical Inn turn while Running second to Greg Foster. We made up that lap and was running second to Stoker (Gregg pitted for fuel, we ran the whole load-No stops) when the tank broke. Thirty min ta go and I sat in the infield With the best seat in the house ta watch Allen lead on the first day. Day two Louis, Brad and myself are all pumped up with a newly repaired gas tank and something to prove. Then came the word-TO ROUGH TO RACE and we all hade to go home. This was very dissapointing as I had waited a long time to get to Havasu and didn`t care how rough the water was, I wanted ta race. Mod VP forever
Bobby sanders

How wild, Bobby!
I was just looking at that photo album earlier this evening...





PS Ron - it's "Bobby" Sanders, not Barry.....lol

[Miss BK]

I was running a Mod-C Kober Kat that was built like a tank. So, even though we had 12 crashes in 13 minutes on the first day, I still wanted to keep running. I knew my boat could handle it just fine. Too bad for the guys who brought paper-thin sprint boats - but that kind of water is the primary reason the Kober Kats were built so tough.

The race director needed to let the "Enduro-built" boats run their race - and the rest be told to "run at your own risk". I was disappointed when it was decided to cancel the event. It was my first Havasu too.




A couple more ModVP shots from that same weekend...#66 is Gary Tutle...

I don't see any white caps....

[Dabull1919]

Your right Val, I see no white caps either so hell I`m ready lets go race.
Man that boat would go over some garbage. We won several races with
that rigg. It had a special center pod that LH and Brad built. Running pad
was 9 in. wide others were 12.

Val, while were on the subject of pads I`m thinking of changing something
on the bottom of my 95 model mirage. I would love to talk to Brad about it
first in case he`s already done it. my numbers are
cell-318-218-4955
home-318-868-0389

Love the pixs-thanks
Bobby

[Ron Hill]

This is Tim Soares in a Witch Craft...He and I drove MOD VP together at the 1980 Havasu Classic...We finished fourth in Crazy Horse

76 miles an hour...We ran a out of the boat OMC 28 cleaver, thinned some.... Bill Muncey ran a Glastron, and he was 5th....as I recall...

Seems Stoker was first with Bowden second...Both ran 14 X 28 small blade Choppers and both had serious cracks in the blades at the end of the four hours of racing...I had used the cleaver, because I didn't think the Chopper would run four hours...I knew they were faster, but chose a more solid prop!!!

Stoker and Baker lengthened the Witch Craft out 18 inches, I'm going to say, in the middle and built the Baker MOD VP (V Hull, not yet, the tunnel)... using a Taylor deck...

[bajarick]

Wow! These are great pics!

There is an article on the International Hydrostream Registry called the "1981 Powerboat Magazine Shootout". I read this article about 5 years ago and it got me hyped on the 20 ft Mod VP boats with 200/250 hp, jack plates, transom notches, hot foots, and 28 to 32 inch props! What a blast!

Alan Stoker's boats wound up battling Pipcorn's Hydrostreams in some very close racing finals. Made me want to go out and find one of those SSTs or a V-King! I printed the article and have read it over and over again.....now to see all of these pics is a real BLAST!

Would post the article here, but it is too large. To see the article, go the the International Hydrostream Registry home page and click "literature". Then click "magazine performance reports". Click "CLICK HERE" for the reports. Then click "'81 Shootout-Torpedo King" for the article.

Dam...Im hyped up all over again

[Ted March]

1. Al Stoker in the winning Baker Ralleysport Tunnel. Al also won the Radar Runs on Saturday using my Ron Hill 14.5 X 32 Cleaper.
20 The transom of the modified Hydrostream Viking driven by Ron Baker To second place.
3. The Roark Summerford Lazer driven by Alan Miller.