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

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I don't know everybody that came to the races from out of state, but there are many I do know were here. There was never an official roster so I made this one up from memory of myself and others I have talked to, race results and some I don't remember, but should have been here unless of some emergency. This list I think is better than 90 percent accurate, although I am certain I'm leaving out some C service drivers. Trouble is, I don't know who. And Frank Zorkan had come to Baldy's at least three times, but I can't remember if he was here at this race. I will add to the list if I find out who I missed. There is a guy whose name was mentioned in the Alice Daily Echo by the name of Wright Mayes from California. I am not familiar with that name. Given the misspelling of several other drivers I know, I'm thinking that may be the case here. Maybe Ron Hill or someone else might help with this name. I'm thinking it could be Dave Mayer. He came to Texas on several occasions.

ADD: I made a mistake on Lyndol Reid. He is from Texarkana, Arkansas.

ADD: Baldy had a long wooden serving table built down below the hill where his house would be built, and under a grove of tall mesquite trees. The table was about three feet wide and forty feet long to hold everything to be served. There were many tables set under the trees, but not enough for everyone. But there were a lot of places to sit. The Barbeque would be served Friday evening when it was figured that everyone that was coming would be there and were given notice that the feast was Friday night if they wanted to attend. Baldy and local boat racers helped prepare the food.

While Clayton was having trouble with his B Konig, so was I. At least one of our motors was first run at Forest Lake, but I don't know if it was mine or Clayton's. I stuck a piston in mine. Most likely the top front. Our shop was in Alice, so I would have to go back there to work on it if the trouble were serious, and I was sure it was. I pulled the powerhead and split the crankcase. Yep, a stuck piston. It was in the afternoon and I wanted to get it fixed quick so I could participate in the festivities. After all, we were the hosts to all these friends of ours. All of the Lone Star Boat Racing Association members were also proud to be the host state to some of these top drivers who did not race down here often. I loaded up the powerhead and everything I thought I might need. Had plenty of tools and parts at the shop in Alice, so I hustled everything up and took the half hour drive back to Alice. I would be late for the feed, but I should be getting back by around eight O'clock if everything went well.

The powerhead was apart, but I had to clean up the crank and bearings from aluminum fines as well as the ports and and the other pistons then hone the cylinders. It took awhile to get everything cleaned up and spaced out correctly, but I finally started back together with the engine. I was the only one in the shop. Everyone else was partying back a Baldy's and Baldy was on the run seeing to everything, and making sure his guests were having a great time.

I had gotten the crankcase back together with all surfaces permatexed and had the motor laying flat in the bench to install the rotary valve housing. When Baldy built the shop at the house he would build at Barbon, Jack Chance made us a couple of "stems" from short pieced of crankshaft with a base bolted onto the workbench. We worked with the motors swiveling upright on the driveshaft "stems". At this time however, I had the motor laying on it's side with the intake side looking up. I had started three of the four 10mm (wrench size) nuts started and was about to do the same with the final one when it slipped from my fingers directly into the open hole of the top intake. The rotary valve belt of course was not on, and instead of turning the cog so that the rotary valve blocked off most of either intake, the top one was wide open and the nut just plunked right in. I wasn't worried though. I just carefully turned the motor upside down and shook it and moved it around for the nut to fall out the big opening onto the workbench. My main concern was tilting the motor too much one way or the other and letting it slip into a port passageway. I shook and turned it some more, but the nut didn't come out. After about fifteen minutes of that, setting it back down and peering inside with a flashlight and fishing with a magnet, I became worried. I tried again, even bending some wire and moving it all around in case it somehow got lodged somewhere inside the motor. Again no success.

After my first initial failure, I looked all around the floor next to where I was standing. I was back at it again on the floor knowing that sometimes things you drop can end up a long way from where you think they should be. I started a methodical search around the immediate area, and began moving things stored under the bench completely away. I ended up clearing almost one whole side of the shop near where I was working. No nut. Nothing else to do but tear the motor back down and get that nut. Sometimes getting the B rings on a Konig started is a problem, but I had no choice but to open the motor back up. All this time, not a soul showed up. It was quiet and I was the only one not partying.

I got the motor broke down then started looking for the 10mm nut. It was nowhere to be found. I checked all the passageways and found nothing. I made sure I didn't miss anything, and when I was satisfied that there was no way that nut was in the motor, I started putting it back together. I never heard it hit the floor, and never saw where it might have ended up. To this day I have no idea how that nut completely disappeared. Anyway, I got the B Konig put back together and it was ready to race on Saturday. It was midnight by then, so I just stayed home and missed some really interesting stuff.

Sometimes when we worked on motors in the pits we would throw bad spark plugs into the lake, and we also had done the same with pistons. When the lake was down very low during the drought preceeding the current one, I found this piston. It is an early VB Konig piston from the first generation VB Konigs. This could very well be the piston that stuck that afternoon before the NOA finals. It was resting on a hard bottom about fifty feet from where we always pitted and was covered with algae and mud.

ADD: Jim Wilkins from Garland, Texas and Bob McFarland from Granite City, Illinois were also at the race.