Quote Originally Posted by jackie wilson View Post
Used to love going up to Oulton and upsetting Tom and Bob.
Well Jackie Oulton Broad always drew big crowds to watch Thursday night boat racing and still does today` if I hadn`t watched boatracing as a young boy I would never have driven racing boats .I can remember some of the old characters like Toby Sutton owned Toby Marine sportsboats held the lap record with a Chrysler powered inboard hydro called Rooster and Alex Snelling or ( POP ) to his friends he was a ex Spitfire fighter pilot who ran Ludham Marine.In 1963 I can remember him opening a massive box it contained the first 100 HP Mercury outboard I ever saw we all hung around while he fitted his outfit out we couldn`t wait to see how fast it ran it did seam fast for those days.Another name Gerry Marsden from Gerry and the Pacemakers he ran a 65hp Mercury on a Broom Outfit and Carl Denver another singer showed up with boats mainly other peoples?.Dick Kimbling was a regular Thursday night racer drove a 15ft Bristol with 100hp Mercury he owned slot machine Arcades in Gt Yarmouth his wife controlled the purse strings when he had a breakage he paid for it with sacks full of coins we had 240 Pence to a £1 in those days his race shop was told if she asked about his costs they new nothing.The Young Guns of the time were Tom Percival who raced anything he could find from his fathers boatyard inboard or outboard then along came Bob Spalding I think his first outfit was a 14ft Flecher arrow with s 50hp Mercury and sometimes I would show up with a Hcraft V hull with a 65hp Mercury.I can remember Dennis Burton and his son as passenger racing his Levi 16 110hp Mercury and the unforgetable sounds in those days of the Cresent Powered hydros.If you could bottle that noise you could sell it?