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

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We left our rooms early the next morning and drove up to DePue on 51 which is now also IH 39. We took the exit to what was the old highway 51, and headed more or less in a northwest direction. We had not gone far when the flat land dropped out from under us. Suddenly we were going down a fairly steep grade on a narrow winding two lane road. We rapidly descended down into the valley and came out on an old iron bridge that crossed the Illinois River and into Peru.

It was a quaint and old looking town. We followed our map and wound around the countryside, but a lot of the scenery was blocked by fields of tall corn. This was also our first trip into corn country, and despite seeing pictures and movies with corn fields, it is nothing like being among them in person. I had no idea until then how tall corn grew.

down in another valley on the other side of the river we came to the outskirts of DePue. There were a lot of cars and lots of activity then. The zinc smelter was still in operation and there were a lot of cars and people around. It didn't take long to follow the signs and see where people were headed before we found the race course. We didn't know where to park though. We ended up driving to where the VFW is now. Somehow we accidentally ended up in the right place because the boats Nick Marchetti brought for us were on a trailer very close to the launch ramp.

I don't recall if Nick brought them on a trailer of his own, or somebody else hauled them for him. Seems like he had someone else bring them, but I don't know how they had room for three hydros. I just can't remember that part. I just remember looking up at a couple of them on top of a trailer and being surprised to see they were already numbered T-73. I didn't particularly like the paint scheme, but they were ready to go and I wouldn't have to do it. They were varnished would the the cloth deck baby blue and a white ray starting on each side of the bow handle and widening out, splitting the blue field, back to the end of the sponson on either side. The numbers were solid black outlined in a half inch red stripe.

I don't know if Pat Marchetti was there or not. I knew Nick, but as far as I know I didn't meet Pat until they moved to Florida. At the time of the 1968 Nationals at DePue, Nick was still building boats in Bristol, Pennsylvania.

We got the boats transferred to our trailer and tied down, moved the Chrysler, trailer and boats to some other place to get out of the way, and then went to visit friends. I was very surprised to see how many people we knew. We had not gone to Lakeland up to this time, and there were not any APBA alky races anywhere else we went. We saw Bruce Nicholson (the only Texas racer there), the Dortch's, the Seebolds, the Harrisons, Jim Schoch, Jerry Waldman, Bob Hering, Ralph Donald, Wally Roman, Scott Smith, Walt Blankenstein, Jerry Simison and many others we knew. I didn't know Ron Hill or Fred Hauenstein back then, but I knew who they were from boat racing magazines. I was totally amazed.

We watched some boats on the course, but we did not stay to watch the races. We had to get on back home, and I suspect the Holiday Inn would have been booked solid anyway. We got started home that same day.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The way back was pretty much of the reverse of going up. Music, landscape and occasional stops for gasoline and for meals. The one main difference is we were in different places during the daytime this time. When we came up, we passed through the scenic Turner Falls area south of Oklahoma during the nighttime. This trip back was during the daylight and we got to see some very fine scenery. It was also the first time I ever noticed solid white lines at the edge of the road. I don't remember seeing them in those days except at Turner Falls, and we really appreciated them then. There was no shoulder and the very edge of the road is where it meets the verge had an upward curled lip and white stripe. It wouldn't do to run off the road here in the daytime let alone at night.

We got home during the night and Bud spent the night at our house in Alice. The next day I took him to Grandma (his) Mynier's house on the lake in the Pernitas Point subdivision.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This maps shows location of lake homes of Baldy and our various pit crew families. We traveled many miles on these roads in cars, jeeps, motorcycles and horses.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We got the boats unloaded and set up so we could work on them. The Keller steering wheels and combing pulleys were installed as well as the stops, but we installed our own quarter inch stainless steel
cables now with stainless steel pulleys with bearings at the steering bar and clevis's with the hole on top of the screw tied with wire that passed through the hole in the pin and the clevis.

After Clayton went on his head at Alex, we were not taking any chances. Speeds were rapidly rising, and boat design was not keeping pace with engine horsepower. It was evident with both Quincy and Konig. Anzani and Crescent were also increasing horsepower although without the number of drivers using their motors to put them to the test.

We were big on safety, and one of the things that Jack Chance had built, and Clayton Elmer attested to was the outrigger we installed on transoms of both hydros and runabouts to set the engines back about 2 inches. Nick Marchetti only had the Konig cast aluminum clamps with a bolt through the transom, and one to fasten the engine to plus the completely adjustable transom mount to bolt through the transom with two 8mm bolts. Baldy told Nick that we would take care of the transom mounts, the steering system and throttle parts ourselves. Nick was happy to comply and so we got our Marchetti's almost rigged up, but we had to finish them out with our own hardware and our own designed electric kill switch.

All that stuff we had to start working on. I don't remember who we sold a couple of the hydros we were running to, but we took off the transom gear to transfer to the new boats. Jack always had any extra transom setbacks we needed if we had to do one quickly.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The trouble with taking off time between the story is that sometimes I lose my place. I skipped a week between Alex and DePue and had us traveling north a week earlier when I resumed the tale. I found a picture I had been looking for, and discovered my error when I went back to reread what I posted since Alex. I made the correction tonight, so if anyone wants to go back, go to post #653 for the add to the story. Anyone reading this after October 4, 2013 has read the story with the fill in.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

CB Racing Team was preparing to head north to Forest Lake, Minnesota for the 1968 National Outboard Association World Championships. Sometime around Thursday or Friday after Brenda, Bud and I got back from DePue a couple of mothers and a grandmother decided to take most of the pit crew to Mexico before we headed off to Minnesota.

Mark and I drove to Kingsville to meet up with the rest of the crew. We drove to the Sandford's house in Kingsville to meet up with the rest of them coming up from the country outside of Riviera and Sarita, Texas. Matriarch Velma Myrnier met with her daughter Joyce Turcotte, Ann Sanford, and "Dot" Huff. to take us to the Cadillac Bar in Nuevo Laredo for lunch and drinks. For us drinks were Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, etc. but a little wine was also passed around. The ladies went there for the Ramos Gin Fizzes. I think they were first introduced at a place on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, but the Cadillac Bar in Nuevo Laredo made such a name for them that a bar opened in New York City also under the name "Cadillac Bar" (no relation) and specialized in Ramos Gin Fizzes. I had heard that a Ramos Gin Fizz was invented in New Orleans, and also that it was invented by the Cadillac Bar. Turns out both are true. The Cadillac Bar opened in 1926 after the Bressan family left New Orleans because of prohibition. It was only a few blocks into Mexico after crossing the Rio Grande, then go one and a half blocks east. Turn right into the parking lot behind the bar and for a few dollars a kid would watch over your car.

This is most of my pit crew and some supporters in the fall of 1968. The only crew members not present in this photo were Baldy Baldwin, Jack Chance and Bob Burnham.

Far left. Sitting at another table. Ann Sanford (back to camera) Joyce Turcotte. Not pictured Velma Mrynier and Dot Huff. Prime table. Hand carved face bought earlier at the Mercado (market). Left to right around the table Wayne Baldwin, Betsy Turcotte, Susan Turcotte, Mark Baldwin, Mary Jean Sanford, Jaime Sanford, Andy Turcotte, Jean Marie Huff, and Bud Turcotte.

I added a second photo, and it came out on top of the one from 1968. I believe it was taken in 1962 about a year before our Mom died. I am pretty sure that this was the same table in the same corner of the later picture. You can tell the chairs are the same style also. I think the room was remodeled before the 1968 photo, but the dimensions seem the same as well as the entry into the other room on the left. I don't know who put the ink on the pictures, but from left to right it is Mark Baldwin, Wayne Baldwin Brenda Baldwin, Jan Baldwin, Frances "Dodo" Baldwin and Eual "Baldy" Baldwin.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We had everything loaded and ready to go by the end of the week, and we left on a Saturday or Sunday. It would take us several days to get there and we planned to leave at different times by two different routes.

Jack Chance was hauling his stuff up to Forest Lake, but Baldy thought his pickup was too old to be going that far, so he gave him the white Chrysler 440 New Yorker that Mark had blown the engine in during the summer. Everything was fixed up, and as we had been hauling boats all over with it, the car had the trailer hitch and wiring, so it was just a matter of getting it up to Jack's house to hook it to his trailer. Clayton and Doris Elmer were going to ride with Jack.

We had the full crew going, so Velma Mynier Followed Baldy to Jack's with the girls in her Cadillac. With Velma were Susan Turcotte, Jean Marie "Jeanie" Huff, Mary Jean "Sanford" Sanford. My sister Jan rode with Baldy. They left ahead of the rest of us to get to Jack's house and get everything there ready. Riding with me in Baldy's Suburban were my brother Mark, Bud Turcotte and Bob Burnham. We were headed north back up IH 35 just like Brenda, Bud and I had done a few weeks earlier. No cell phones or anyway to communicate, so Baldy had worked out a plan before we all left, to meet at a designated time on IH 35 South of Dallas. I cannot remember exactly where, but it was anywhere from the North side of Waco to Hillsboro where 35 splits left to Fort Worth or right to Dallas. That was the plan.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I have tried to look up the route we traveled. I know most of it, but there are some sections I don't recall and think that maybe IH 35 was not complete through Kansas in 1968. I could be wrong, but I just remember on being in Kansas City, Kansas briefly on the way back as we detoured west out of Kansas City, Missouri. Maybe some of you out there might get me straight about Interstate 35 as it ran north and south in 1968.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Baldy and Jack knew we would be stopping for lunch, as they had planned also. So it was just a matter of timing to estimate the driving time, gassing up, and eating. Baldy had more distance to cover, plus all the women, so he should have more down time than us.

We planned to see what lunch opportunities there were on the north side of Austin, Texas. In those days, there were not a host of fast food chains lining the highway. No McDonalds, Burger Chef, KFC, etc., but there were a few hamburger joints. Pig Stands were in San Antonio, but not on IH 35. We were looking for a café that "looked like" it served up a good chicken fried steak. In 1968 all Texas cafes and restaurants had chicken fried steak on the menu, but you could look over at the parking lot at lunchtime to tell which place most likely had the best chicken fried steak.

As we were getting our thoughts together and planning to scope out restaurants left and right, we started across Town Lake, a part of the Colorado River. I was driving and Bud Turcotte was riding shotgun. I don't remember if anyone saw it first, or if we all saw it at once, but we all were together on one thing. As we crossed the IH35 bridge over Town Lake and the Colorado River we saw to the northeast on the north bank or Town Lake at least a hundred and fifty yards of race boats, cars and pit support. All the oohs and ahhs turned into slow down and turn down when we saw the full race cigarette boat several hundred feet down below in the pits. We didn't know what was going on, but there were too many race boats altogether for us to pass up. We figured Baldy would have done the same. Except we didn't have a way to tell him. And we were just dumb kids not being able to keep track of time.

All I can remember for sure is that the pits were to the right. I was driving and watching traffic, having just gotten into where it would be heavy, then probably Bud or Mark shouted "Look". I looked right where everyone pointed. As we exited the overpass crossing Town Lake there was a big sign with an arrow pointing right "BOAT RACING". It was an easy access. We had to drive less than a quarter mile. We could see a hundred race boats already from the view from the overpass. With that many people there already there must be some good food to eat. We could go down the ramp to the right... tell them our race boats were there for the event... get in free.. park..get something to eat...and walk around looking at all the raceboats.

It was so cool. There might have been drag boat idols that I read about in Boating News. I recalled Popular Mechanics with articles about "Citation" and ads in magazines about "Climax" running their oil. There were drivers and teams from all across the United States here to race on The premier drag boat race course. We were mesmerized walking among the boats. Blown Fuel hydros, Blown Gas Hydros, Blown Fuel Flatbottoms,...I can't remember all the categories, but all the top guys were there. I don't know why the Offshore boat was there, but it was a racing boat with a number pure and simple.

Somewhere around walking toward the staging area which was under the IH35 overpass we figured out we had stopped for much longer than we planned for a lunch break. We hurried back to the Suburban and after getting backed up, forth and around, hustled up the ramp and back on the road. I don't remember about the others in our pit crew, but I was worried about the extra time we spent wandering through the pits and looking at all the cool drag boats and the offshore racer.

The rest of the trip to the point where we met up with Baldy, Jack, Clayton, Velma and the girls went well. After that, I cannot remember anything except Baldy and Jack extremely mad. They had been waiting for us at our rendezvous point for several hours. Since we had no communications and no way to check progress, it was just an estimated time to meet that Baldy had come up with in the first place. We knew that and kept our mouths shut about what we knew. As soon as we pulled up to meet them, everyone knew that it wasn't cool.

I was the one Baldy would hold responsible. He asked me what took so long. I told him we stopped for lunch, but there was something else regarding Baldy, Velma and Jack Chance's trip up that put them on easy street and they were geared for an easy transition and cruise on.


Because of that, Baldy chewed us out...Jack said something...and Clayton didn't say anything but was glad to go north.