Wayne Baldwin's Amazing Story: Baldy's Eual Eldred Baldwin

[Master Oil Racing Team]

There was some kind of problem that kept us from running the new 4 carb C, but I don't remember what it was. I don't remember whether we tested it and it wasn't right, or it could have been simply a different throttle connection that we didn't have time to convert to our system yet. Anyway, we ran the old FC.

I was not able to finish in the money in A runabout, and I took a third in A hydro. The reliable two cylinder B Konig brought me home to a third place in one heat of B runabout, but I didn't place in the other heat. Same with B hydro as far as only coming in one heat but this time is was a second. No places written down in my book on how I fared in either C hydro or runabout, but for the first time we entered the Free-for-All, and I took a fourth place. I was the only hydro. Free-for-Alls were pretty much exclusively D and F runabouts, but we wanted to give it a try with our C hydro.

I don't remember who won the FFA, but I was competing against the likes of Clayton Elmer, PG Stepleton, Bruce Nicholson, Roland Pruett, Charlie Bailey, Artie Lund, Jim Mouton, Phil Crown, and others, so we were pleased with the outcome.

We didn't hang around Jack's, but I believe he wanted to keep that 4 carb C. I'm thinking it didn't have enough compression, and he wanted to do some of his own modifications, but with me being there. We had a Sunday/Monday Labor Day race coming up on Lake Texoma the following weekend, and that was a long drive, so Jack kept the motor, and would wait until after the Labor Day race for me to come up and work on it. I do know we ran the FC at Lake Texoma near Denison.

ADD: I found some photos of this race. It was the 1967 LSBRA Texas State Championships.

The first photo is Baldy standing next to the trailer talking to Jerry Nunez. I don't know who the girl with Jerry is. Under the shade of the trailer are Dorothy "Dot" and Leonard Huff whose daugther Jeannie was to become part of the CB Racing Team pit crew the next year. Little in the chair is my younger sister Jan. Note all the white gallon jugs with the dark oval to the right of Jan, and also in a rack behind the tandem axles. Those are part of hundreds of gallon jugs left over after Baldy pulled the plug on the Aloe Vera business. We tried different methods of fueling, including the pressurized system and handcrank from a bulk tank to these individual gallon jugs. We premixed all the fuel, then filled up the jugs. Some of our fellow racers must have thought us "crazy" at times.

The third photo is Clayton Elmer leading out of a turn in C, D, or F hydro. In the center is Phil Crown from Dallas and a very rare photo of Joe Bowdler from San Antonio on the inside.

The second photo is of me being towed in. That is what happened in a least one heat of A Runabout. Don't know if it conked out or I got wet down.

ADD:This is in the first turn at Baytown. Joe Bowdler is in the lead with his Looper followed by Clayton Elmer.