Other OPC posts cleared from 1969 Havasu

[mercmack]

i think it was 1969 that some guy has a chev corvair on some kind of tower and gear case motoring around the course...sure sounded different...
that had to be the first 4 stroke race outboard...

[Mark75H]

had to be the first 4 stroke race outboard

I kinda don't think so:
Soriano 4 stroke 1929 (http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6450)



Even that wasn't the first:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh194/mark75h/1906Motogodille.jpg

[Skoontz]

In 1920, when the Johnson brothers made their first 4 hp engine it was an inboard cast from brass. The one detail I lost was that I thought it was a four stroke.... They tested on the banks of the Wabash river in Terre Haute, Ind.

Sam if you know correct me please.

[Mark75H]

Skoontz I think you are right, but I think all their outboards were 2 stroke

[MN1]

Does anyone have photos or stories from the first OPC Nationals in 1963 at Lake George, NY?
Mark N

[Miss BK]

My brother had just come back from Thailand (tail end of Vietnam) with some cool Nikon equipment, and we all went to Havasu for the 1970 World Championships and took a bunch of pictures. (I was only 9)

Unfortunately, they are all color slides.

Just for fun, I scanned one of them to see if a Slide could actually be digitally scanned, and here is how it turned out. Pretty impressive, considering!

This was taken early morning as everyone is getting ready for the start. The haze is most likely from all the "extra rich" outboards warming up for the endurance race ahead.

[T2x]

Does anyone have photos or stories from the first OPC Nationals in 1963 at Lake George, NY?
Mark N


I believe the Lake George Nationals (Marathon and closed course) were in '66 not '63.

[MN1]

I believe the Lake George Nationals (Marathon and closed course) were in '66 not '63.

I found this in a web search, looks like it was written by Edgar Rose.
http://tabararacing.com/sportc.com/aboutopc.htm
Mark N

[mercmack]

Up On The Point With All Those People Waitnig For It To Start Was Me (mercmack) And Yard Bird..we Never Missed A Race Back In Those Days..to Me It Was Like Going To Merc School All Over Again..you Learned So Much In Such A Short Period Of Time, So Much Brakeing And People In A Hurry To Fix It...its Way To Bad That Its All History Now..

[Beale Tilton]

Hate to disagree with Edgar, but the first OPC nationals were at Lake Georg 1966. It was rougher than a cob. They had a problem holding the committee boat at anchor. The first heat of the Nationals was FE and for some reason we all screwed up and jumped the gun.
I only remember a little, like Mike Quayle won FI and was disqualified because a couple of reeds didn't measure correctly.
The marathon was like a ocean race and the shore was soon littered with broken boats.
What I remember most was the long ride alone from Souther Maryland to Lake George at night.

[Miss BK]

Up On The Point With All Those People Waitnig For It To Start Was Me (mercmack) And Yard Bird..we Never Missed A Race Back In Those Days..to Me It Was Like Going To Merc School All Over Again..you Learned So Much In Such A Short Period Of Time, So Much Brakeing And People In A Hurry To Fix It...its Way To Bad That Its All History Now..

That's where we'd be too - just over on the back side, near where they used to have a dock (where I'd crash 17 years after this photo was taken).

Do you remember a family that used to bring a chimpanzee that was just like a child? We sat next to them about three years in a row there on the back side of the point. My job was to run up the hill and copy down from the leaderboard every year. As long as I can remember, Thanksgiving always meant Outboard World Championships. Great races.

Val

[Backfire!!]

At the 1969 Havasu race, I think I have a picture of a race boat with 2 OMC v-4 powerheads one on top of the other. It is not on the DVD, so I don't know if it even started the race. Got to dig into the slides.
Backfire ;)

[T2x]

Hate to disagree with Edgar, but the first OPC nationals were at Lake Georg 1966. It was rougher than a cob. They had a problem holding the committee boat at anchor. The first heat of the Nationals was FE and for some reason we all screwed up and jumped the gun.
I only remember a little, like Mike Quayle won FI and was disqualified because a couple of reeds didn't measure correctly.
The marathon was like a ocean race and the shore was soon littered with broken boats.
What I remember most was the long ride alone from Souther Maryland to Lake George at night.

That race was the event where the far turn boat in the marathon...some 10 miles east on the lake from the start......left its post ....leaving the fleet to flail about looking for the turn that wasn't there......

by the way if Mike Quayle was DQ'd...it was Edgar Rose who did it;)

That was also the event where we (Henry Greene, Billy Martin (of Offshore fame) Dick Knarich and me) launched Bob Van Epps's FE Allison into the motel pool......trailer and all....

T2x.....Fellow "survivor" of the '66(not '63) Lake George Nationals