There weren't many 6 pipe Wings, so I'm pretty sure I know the boat you are talking about. Rick, you may recall quite some time ago we were talking about who ran Wings back in the day and I mentioned Earl and his friend with a black 18', both having six pipe stackers ..... Ray Block is the name I couldn't come up with. Ray's Wing was indeed black, but as I recall it, they both ran glass 18'ers.
I think those guys ran 1000's. I saw them at a few races including the Parker 9 Hour. They always pitted next to each other, seemed to go out to test together. I think I recall Earl having all grey hair and this was 68ish, don't remember if Ray had any or not. Point is it seemed that they were a little older than most guys putting on a helmet and that they really came to these events just to have fun. They made one hell of a lot of noise, and were very entertaining, but didn't seem to race very hard. Matter of fact, at a race in St. Louis, they ran their Wings on a short course and got lapped, but still had a good time and the fans seemed to love those big ol' noisey boats.
Just my opinion, but back in that 67/68 time period, if you were going to a boat race for the first time, nothing got your attention like a Wing with stacks or a triple engine Powercat ..... mean, very mean looking machines!
I think this is Earl's Wing, Boots Spellman bought it from Merc and ran a couple of club races still dressed in it's original colors.
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