Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

[Ron Hill]

I think we first raced at Lake Weist in the fall of 1955.

The lake is larger today, and probably shallower, because the banks keep eroding.


This is C Runabout with Dave Bryan leading in "X", the guy behind Dave is me, Ron Hill.

Then, in third is Ben Stein, Dave' brother-in-law and that is Joe G. Schulte in the Rinker, 44-C, in the back of the pack.

I think this is the day, my dad and Joe Schulte had a disagreement about weight. Seems Joe had knee high boots, size 16's filled with water when he got on the scale. My Old Man made him drain the water from his boots and from the boat.

Joe argued that the water was in the boat when he raced, my dad pointed out that that isn't the way the rule was written.

I'm not sure if Joe held grudges, but he never ran under weight again......that my dad knew about.

It wasn't too long after this race, that my dad started weighing people after the first heat!

Many an under weight driver didn't like this "NEW" concept!

People wanted to know who would get weighed after the first heat. My dad's answer was, "Only the light boats." (Actually, my brother said that first, but it became the standard answer.)

Great picture of Joe's Rinker making a corner.......Only those who raced along side Joe, can tell you the terrifying feeling you'd get from the sound of his lower unit gears revving about 9,000 RPM's just before he made the turns,,,,,