Dan Pigott

[Danny Pigott]

This is 1958 I will put some info from inside. Ralph Donald is the only person I know who is still going that was a member of SEBA.

[Danny Pigott]

Boat clubs in SEBA

[Danny Pigott]

Here are some records, SEBA ran 16 boats in a heat, some time having three elim. heats to get in the race.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Great post Danny. And thanks for your input as well John. When I first posted stuff like this about the Lone Star Boat Racing Association, I figured that they must have taken the pattern from others, but until now it had not been clear. There are some good posts about a half dozen clubs, but nothing like SEBA. It looks like LSBRA was along the same format, but with not nearly as many clubs or members. John...could you get your hands on some old rule books from your roots on the east coast from those days? There must have been thousands of outboarders racing back then.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

When I started in 1955 I belonged to the "Little Rock Boat Club" whose headquarter lake was at Scott, Ar. just down river from L.R. on what was called an "old river" lake. Horseshoe shaped lake that at one time had been part of the Arkansas River channel but then had been closed in by whatever cause. I think I remember that some of the races I first attended were sanctioned by NOA, (could be mistaken about that) but our boat numbers at the time were not prefixed by the regular region number, but by the letters "LR" which of course stood for Little Rock Boat Club. L was also the region prefix for Arkansas. It seems from what I am reading that was a common thread that ran thru the boat racing organizations active in the south after WWII. We raced in several lakes in Arkansas, on a backwater of the Mississippi at Memphis, some in northern La., and also on the Red River on the Texas side of Texarkana, Tx. I will never forget the Red River races, as you could almost spit across the river where we raced, and the water was so muddy it was like molasses almost. Mud in the pits was knee deep and it took a long time to get in and out of the water.

As mentioned before in another thread, I had the good fortune to see Dieter Konig on what was supposedly his first trip to the US, race on Old River at Scott in probably about '56 or '57, don't remember which. He was not familiar with clock starts but it did not matter, as he started up to a half a lap behind and was that far or more ahead after four laps in all the hydro classes he ran. He ran a A, B, and C with the proper size engines and then stepped up and ran D and the "free for all" with his C and left everyone way behind. I understand he went to Memphis on the Mississippi the next weekend and did the same thing, although I did not get to see that race.

Seems there was much more autonomy insofar as boat numbers with the sanctioning organizations back then than there is now. With the LR prefix, and the BT for Baytown, plus probably others that Danny has spoken of, perhaps that made the "home folks" a little more excited and added to the general good time to be had at a boat race, by being able to readily identify a local driver.

[Danny Pigott]

Letters of each club.

[Danny Pigott]

Note, Dub Parker as Inspector

[Danny Pigott]

Some of the same ads we see today.

[Danny Pigott]

Some ads we don't.

[Donald]

Not only am I the only one still racing, I am probably the only one still alive. except George Taylor, who showed up at a USTS race in Inverness, Fl. I had a three cylinder Koenig in 1957 at the SEBA championship in Scottsboro, Al. Dieter was there and set up the boat and told me to use his propeller, and I went out and set a record. After the races on Sat. the local club had a bar-bq in the pits and Dieter and I went through the line and sat down at a table to eat. Dieter ate a bite and got up from the table and left, without saying a word, to go down to the lake. We watched him and wondered what was wrong. He washed all of the bar-bq sauce off of the meat and came back and finished his meal. I first met Dieter in 1956 in Dallas, Ga. through Scott Smith, who had just become Dieter's USA dealer. I bought an A, B, and C Koenig from Scott in 1957 for a total of $1200. for all three. I had a Richard Simmons hydro, which I used for all three classes. Dieter Scott and I went to several races together that year. FOND MEMORIES!