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North South Championships
For the first and only time I didn't drive to Alexandria. Debbie and I drove down to DFW and flew in. Since San Antonio I didn't go back home to do any testing. In fact, there are only a couple of test sheets for D41994 after the 1978 Pro Nationals and they were both in 1980. I was not testing or keeping in shape and it showed in Alexandria.
Billed as the North South Championships, the races drew a number of drivers including Roy Alexander and Greg Hall from Canada. Roy was one of the entries in 725 hydro.
While Debbie was going to school, I was mostly goofing off. Reading, working on some environmental and regulatory matters regarding Alice Specialty Co, and developing negatives and prints. Being that Denton had two colleges, I found a darkroom run by an afro haired rock & roll dude that was into photography. He charged by the hour and provided a multi enlarger darkroom with all chemicals, a drying cabinet for negatives and a couple of different types of print dryers. I had taken my weights along, but for some reason had quit working out.
I don't have much info from the race at Alex. I have qualifying sheets and roster of drivers for the finals, but I don't have results. I didn't record them and I didn't clip any newspaper articles from the Alexandria Town Talk. I checked the Propeller, because Carl Rylee always sent in lengthy articles about his races. The January issue of Propeller was the first one I had seen that was not a true magazine format. It was a tabloid, and a pitiful one at that. Not much room for any info at all and no photos. It was a time period in our nation that Jimmy Carter fostered and fed what he called "malaise". And it hit APBA. No article from Carl.
This is all I wrote down in my notebook about the 725 Hydro race. "Worn to a frazzle & could not drive effectively. Out of shape or possibly would have had 2 wins. One for sure."
I don't remember who won. It might have been Jeff Hutchins, but I think it was Jerry Kirts. They were both running good. Jeff was driving Elmer Grade's stuff at Alex. I can remember though being just on the outside of the lead boat all the way around. I had a lot of power and good acceleration, but my right shoulder was just aching from fighting the torque. I could not blow through the turns as I was really fighting the boat instead of being a part of it. I don't know if I can describe it correctly, but if you are not familiar with a kneeler, you tend to be too tight because you are holding in to the left side of the cockpit to keep from being slung to the right and possibly dipping a sponson. When you are comfortable and know the boat, you can be loose and let the sponsons do their dance while the boat slips through the turn. Even though I knew SHADOWFAX extremely well, my right shoulder was too fatigued to push the wheel to the left in the turn, so I was very rigid in the cockpit. You can't put in a top performance like that, but I managed to finish a close second.
The second heat however, it was my throttle hand giving up. I still had the problem with my shoulder, but it mostly affected driving through the corners. I had also quit squeezing my hand excerciser like I did while driving to a from work every day. Now I was just a lazy bum hanging around the house. The drive to the lab was only three minutes. So beginning the final lap, I couldn't even squeeze the throttle wide open. Coming off a turn I had to push my hand with my left arm until the throttle handle stopped against the front stationary grip, then struggle to reach my fingers around the pipe lever to bring them up, then clamp my hand shut. What a pitiful way to race. I did manage to finish second again, but this time about 20 boat lengths behind.
the "just married" malaise
Wayne:
You are being WAY too hard on yourself. If the average boat racer could have accomplished just 10% as much as you did in your racing career, most would be estatic. And even if there had been absolutely no wins or championships, the folks reading your posts and seeing the pictures from years past would say you had a great career. It is not often that a person can participate in a sport that gave him so much pleasure as boat racing did you and your family, and also has given such a large group as the readers of BRF the good times and memories of times past you have over the last couple of years.
Besides, I remember the first year after Eileen and I got married. It is a natural thing that happens to every newly married male. Most outdoor sports loose their fascination for awhile.
Bill Van
AAAhhh.....what can I say?
.....I was going to tell about the rest of our honeymoon adventure (with pics) throughout the rest of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and about when I came home with pnuemonia and no strength when the whole topic was zapped.;):D