Originally Posted by
Master Oil Racing Team
I didn't like to eat breakfast in those days. I didn't like bacon, eggs or coffee. Baldy didn't drink coffee either, but he did like to eat breakfast, so we had to go into the lobby, order and wait around for the food....then eat. I was ready to get to the race course.
The race course at the Baytown Boat Club situated on the banks of the San Jacinto River, was actually next to Highlands, Texas. Highlands was back toward Houston about 10 or 15 miles and we had to exit and cross over IH 10 to get on the main road through Highlands. Baldy saw some guys at a table eating breakfast that were obviously boat racers. He asked them how to get to the race course. It turned out that the one telling Baldy how to get there was Reles LeBlanc. What I remember was to cross over a set of railroad tracks, then look for a sign on the left that said "DILL's"at an old gas station converted to a small engine repair service or something like that. We saw the sign and Dill had a boat and motor on the side by the road we were to take, along with a piece of plywood painted white and had an arrow pointing left and said "Boat Races." Right after we made the turn, we saw a yellow trailer with a hydro and runabout and we followed them the couple of miles down the road to the Baytown Boat Club. It was Reles we followed in.
I can still remember turning off the road to the right into the tree shaded club grounds. Lots of tents, campers and travel trailers were under the trees. There were many people milling about and a number of boats already in the pits. Baldy pulled up to the south side of the club and got out to scout out a place to pit. He found an opening about 50 yards to the right of the judges stand and just to the left of Jack Chance's trailer. The only people we knew at that point were Dan and David Waggoner, Steve Jones, Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch. Knowing Baldy and Jack, they would have soon met and become friends, but somehow I think pitting next to Jack and his driver Clayton Elmer for our first real race cemented our friendships and helped us get on the right track. Had things continued to go wrong and frustrate us, we might have given up. But Jack and Clayton were very helpful and offered anything they could to get us going.