4 Attachment(s)
Modern Outboard: November 1971
Neal Chambers? Is Neal Chambers related to the Chambers that is Terry Rinker's Crew Chief? Great stuff here...
Only name still around is Jeff Titus, he is Chief Inspector for the APR Super Series and makes Custom propellers.....Well it does mention Jim Hunt and John Schubert...
There was a TV show call "Then Came Bronson"...Mike Osborn raced a Johnson and on the cowling he painted "Then came Johnson" and they almost DQ'd him for not being stock...
Doug Pearl Was Ahead of the Game....
I first met Doug in Dayton, I think 1976 and later at St. Louis...SJ was a big class in COBRA (California Outboard Racing Association). An SJ was a Merc 150, short shaft, with a production gearcase.
I can't recall how fast they went but there were almost 25 boats at each of COBRA's races, and in those days, COBRA raced 11 times a year and were not connected with APBA.
There were a few guys, Ron Eisley, Jim Johnson, Carl Jackson, Pat Murphy and Kenny Hoffman (Rick Hoffman is Kenny's son, Rick, built the Hoffman tunnel boats)...that ventured out to race SJ with the APBA BOYS...
These five guys and maybe Kim Howard would go to St. Louis but when they came home they'd always tell me how bad Doug Pearl and David Lee would beat them.
Most of my customers ran 26 or 28 pitch thru hub cleavers. I found some 28 Offshore, over the hub wheels that I let Carl Jackson test with Pat Murphy driving and they loved the wheels...They also beat all the SJ's in SoCal so they headed for St. Louis...(1976-78) not sure of the year...
Pat ran well, think he was third behind Lee and Pearl...
I snooped at Doug Peral's wheel at Dayton, 1976 and he was running a 30 over the hub, like I'k made for Carl and Pat...
Not long after that, I heard Doug blew over testing and was hurt pretty badly.
At about the same time, we'd heard because of a law suit, Mercury started calling all over the hub outboard propellers OFFSHORES, suggested use OFFSHORE only.
i never knew if the law suit and Doug Peral were related but it all came down about the time Doug was hurt and quit...
The Offshore was a great wheel, Grandpa Seebold and i battled back and forth for years making those things run...
With a capsule, SJ would still be a great class...BOX STOCK MERCURY on a tunnel!!!!
Maybe, with Mercury Racing no longer supporting TUNNEL BOAT RACING....Maybe some people will think of racing box stock motors again!
ADD:
Look at Doug's set back..1977?? Way ahead of his time!