Wayne:
Several years ago (probably 10-12) Eileen and I were visiting Ralph Donald and I happened to see a copy of this book. I was fascinated by it, not only the chapter about boat racing, but the others as well. I always wanted a copy, but when we checked it had been out of print for years. About five years ago, Eileen surprised me at Christmas with a copy that she found on Amazon.com. It was not new, but in very good shape, and I feel very fortunate that she was able to find the book as I don't think very many copy's were published. I showed it to Butch a couple of years ago when he was visiting, and pointed out his quote at the top of the first page. He was amazed that ANYTHING he ever said made it into print, except some things he probably would not want publicized. It is great you have scanned it and put it on BRF.
Regrds your comment about Rex Hall's boat in the picture. If you are talking about Y-71 in the left hand margin of the pit scene, I don't think that is Rex. I believe Rex always used Y-5 when he lived in KC. I think that boat and number was used by "Dirty" Ernie LaRose, a C-Service driver from the St. Louis area. Ernie worked for McDonnell Aircraft in STL when they were building the F-4 Phantom, and a lot of the shear pins used in Alky racing at that time, were courtesy of Ernie. They were actually titanium rivets used to attach wing skin and other panels to the Phantom, and Ernie brought them out in coffee cans full. He never sold any as far as I know, just always gave them to all the boat racers.
Ernie had a very bad hip, and walked with a very pronounced limp, and it was very difficult for him to climb in and out of his boats, but I never heard him complain. He was the beneficiary of Bill Seebold Sr's expertise when the 4-cylinder merc on a Service lower unit was introduced into the C-Service class in the late 60's/early 70's, and had a very competitive engine with Bill Sr. and Bob McFarland massaging the props and engines for him. He was usually a third to fifth place boat when running a Speedytwin, but with the Merc he really came on and won his elimination heat at DePue one year. I have no idea whether there was a grudge against him because he won with a Merc, but he was thrown out in inspection because the prop nut on his lower unit was 1/8" too long. I really thought that was kind of crappy at the time and still do, but a rule is a rule, I guess. Anyway as I said, If the boat you are talking about is the Y-71 boat, I don't think that was Rex's boat, but Ernie's.
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