Here are 3 more Tim Briggs pictures;
1) September 1973, Toronto - Ontario. Tim finished 3rd overall in the PS 100's.
2) Miami Winter Championships 1974. Maybe same Scotti that he used in Toronto but now with the 'Stars and Stripes'. Tim finished 2nd overall.
3) Ad that appeared in Powerboat, April 1975. As T2x describes...the handsome polished guy,the driving suit and the fancy Stars and Stripes hull.
I was watching the Havasu '72 vids yesterday and thought how these S class 100 cu. in. tunnel boats were such a great class of racing. I know the progression into the V-6 engines meant the end of it but, it made for some of the best racing. Look at the number of boats at Havasu and Parker and it seems it was not overly dangerous either.
The switch to more powerfull boats and "sprint" type racing added much more danger.
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I'm not so sure about that. The hulls seemed to flip less and less as the motors got bigger and the courses were shortened. The earlier races had more than their share of fatalities. Almost everybody I raced with has his share of injuries ranging from joint and bone issues to missing spleens and worse, most of these (but not all) dating back to the full tunnel (pre picklefork) days and even to the multi engine era. Certainly the safety capsules have helped to reduce injuries a great deal as well. No doubt the hulls are potentially faster but they don't sustain the speeds. One of the reasons for shortening the courses was to get rid of those long straights where you ran along flat out for a mile or more with nothing to do but press on the peddle and fiddle with your trim buttons.
T2x
OBSOLETE AND PROUD OF IT
Fred's son was racing 45 and Fred either started PTT or soon helped run it. At first, I thought Fred was crazy as he was running like 32 second courses, maybe 35 second.
I thought, hell man, we run 35 second straight aways in California. My son, Chad, started running 45 and we went to Indio to a race. Chad crashed out early in a corner, as I recall, but every other 45 there blew over that weekend.
I know two drivers that quit 45 from blow overs at Indio.
AS CHAD RACED 45 MORE AND MORE, I REALIZED HOW SMART FRED MILLER WAS. 45's still blow over on 32-35 but not all of them blow over.
Chad doesn't like to run clock starts on long courses as he feels he is not in control of his boat and that he's about to blow over at anytime.
In 1972, which seems like yesterday to me, (38 years ago). At Havasu, 1972, I could only run 90 MPH, big gearcase, and feel in control. With a 1:1 I could do 103 MPH, but thought I'd crash. First day I ended up about 18th. Second day, I ran the 1:1 and was, in the top ten for the day, but out of any chance of winning.
We came home from Havasu, made some streaks for the tunnel walls, moved my steering wheel back four inches and moved me back 6-8 inches and with the help of Fred Hauenstein's prop, we could run 108 MPH at Parker. Actually, it was Jimmy Hauenstein's prop.
Generally, blow overs with 100 inch singles didn't kill you. Mac McCune had blown a single V-4 over at Long Beach and was unhurt. He blew a V-6 over at Parker and was killed. Billy Seebold once blew over twice at Parker. ALL 10 OF Team MERCURY'S BOATS BLEW OVER IN THE 1973 OR 1974 Enduro and no one was killed.
The first V-6 I ever drove, off the cover where my V-4 would go 80 MPH, I could go 114 MPH. I knew right then people were going to die driving V-6's and I never drove a V-8 on a tunnel.
You can never go back, but single 100 inch racing was very special. 60-80 boats running 6 hours in Paris, France. 100 plus running Havasu and getting our picture in National Geograph!
I High Rider Molinari, made OUT OF CARBON, with a GREEN MOTOR, like a 130 E-Tec, with stacks, or any 130 GREEN MOTOR WITH STACKS, about 90 MPH MAX, maybe a transon height...
But green motors have to be run stock for the government controlled tree huggers.
Hell with them I got my memories....kids today would probably want the governent to sponsor them!
Last edited by Ron Hill; 05-14-2010 at 11:08 AM. Reason: OF mERCURY'S BOATS BLEW OVER IN THE 1973 OR 1974 RACE
No doubt when safety capsules came out racing crashes became much more survivable. It also became easier to drive because you no longer had to hold on to the boat.
Just making an observation that in that era, a 90 mph rig that was a fairly stable platform and the driver, knowing he needed to use his head for a longer race, made for many hours of competive racing without a huge number of crash and burns. Within 4 or 5 years tunnel boats were going into orbit blowing over on 130+ kilo runs and builders were trying to make boats to handle the leap in horsepower.
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Last week I went to Charleston SC,. about 30 miles from me to look for the old Jenk"Outboard Shop. Things have changed so much around here that nothing looked the same. I rode about an hr. looking for it I did not know if it was still there or not. one last look and i found it , the place looked much the same as it did in 77 when Jenk's was killed other than it is a auto shop now. I wish i knew how many racers came to this place during it't time there were many great drivers here at some time, even the great Gerry Waldman came here he and Jenk's were good friends
Yeah, Charleston has changed a lot! Danny, did you know that the Wild Geechee has been restored and is on Johns Island? I believe the guy that has it is either the son or nephew of the original builder. Jenks built some bad azz V-4's back in the day.
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Just became a forum member recently and have enjoyed seeing and reading about outboard racing. I was a child when my dad built racing engines in the 50's and early 60's, but I remember some names from the past listed in this forum. I was delighted to see this thread on "Geechee" and "Wild Geechee" since I did see "Wild Geechee" race at the Beaufort Water Festival in the late 70's with my father (and his former driver) spectating. "Wild Geechee" impressed the crowd and especially my dad who remarked that it was the most "balanced" rig he had ever seen! I believe we heard it was going over 100mph in the back stretch, and it handled beautifully. It was an exciting boat to watch and it was the fastest thing on the water that day. BTW, "Geechee" is the term for the dialect that old Charlestonians speak, for example, if you have ever heard Sen. Fritz Hollings speak in Congress. Keep up the good memories!
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