Jerry Waldman

[Ron Hill]

The way we heard the story, in Region 12, was this. Jerry FREQUENTLY, I won't say always, but everytime I remember racing with him, started on the outside, or at least lane 8, 9...toward the outside.

As the D Hydros headed for the first turn, Jerry Peterson was on the outside and in front, Jerry was closing in, when Jerry "Hooked" a chine and spilled. His boat went sideways in the spill, with the bow to the left.

I had heard that Jerry cranked hard left to miss the spilling boat. At the bow, where the deck meets the bottom, is where Jerry's head hit the boat (Peterson's boat was still in the air and Jerry almost went under it) when his head hit the boat, basically killed him instantly.

Neither boat hit. Neither boat was hurt. Dr. Phil Wagner traveled with Jerry to every race, after, Jerry had broken his back at the NOA Kilos when he sit the C Outboard Hydro Record. Phil performed a traechotomy on Jerry.

It was always considered a BOAT RACING accident. A man has a right to turn his boat over without the guy behind him hitting...at least that was always a Hill Family rule.

OMC Prop Man, Don Hendrich may have summed it up best. He looked me in the eye, and said, "You know Ron, you go into the first turn enough times, the odds will catch up with you."

My take on Jerry's death maybe wrong or way off, as I was NOT there. But in my minds eye, I've seen this scene played out maybe a thousand times. AS I ALWAYS started 8th lane out or wider and I did it for a reason...My OLD MAN always said...to my brother, me, Jimbo and everybody else...."STAY OUT OF TROUBLE".

It's like flying, there is only about six minutes that are dangerous in flying, going up (3 minutes...need to get high enough you could get back) and going down (last three minutes, you ARE going down). When you make the CHOICE to go to the inside on a pass, there only a split second that something bad can happen. Most of the time, in a heat race, there isn't really much risk...but the first turn is always dangerous with a group of boats...

I wish I had a DVD sound track of Waldman and Herring Loopers.....just to listen to going down the road....