Originally Posted by
Ron Hill
As I RECALL, the Cosworth ran all day and was not disqualified at all. It placed about 7th. I called Karon May today and asked her to get a hold of Brett, as I told her on her voicemail...we wanted to "DISCUSS" the Cosworth and other items...
My brother was the President of Drake Engineering at this time and they were trying to build a V-8 Offy to compete with Keith Duckworth's Cosworth...
I was driving for Brad Miller, who owned Crazyhorse Campgrounds, The Del Taco Chain and a few other ventures, and I was trying to get Brad interested in buying a Drake V-8 to run in our Crazyhorse tunnel boat....
I'm going to say this was 1979, but recall, like yesterday, that Keith and my brother got along very well and both agreed that the BEST racing would really be with one engine and one car....but both agreed that no one would ever go there....Hmmm...Seems NASCAR is getting closer...
Anyway, at the 1970 Enduro, I talked Brad into having a party at his campgrounds and I invited everyone at the race...We had a seriouly wild party...Havasu wasn't the CITY it now is, and that is the night that Fred Hauenstein and I decided to see if Brad Miller's Turbo Charged Porsch would go 150....We found out it would, on the Havasu City run way....
I remember talking to Keith Duckworth, that night, he was quite disappointed that my brother wasn't there...
Bottom Line, the Cosworth didn't really have a lot of TORQUE and wasn't really a "BALL OF FIRE"...and Cosworth could see that they weren't going to be selling too many motors to BOAT RACERS.....
The thing I remember, was at pit stops, they pulled the damn boat out of the water, drained the oil, or at least checked the oil and fooled around like it was lunch break...15 minut pit stops knocks hell out you when the other guys are making 1 minute stops...
This was a Gary Garbrecht, Mercury Racing deal...and as I always accused Brett May, was this: I told Brett the only reason he was driving this MACHINE, was he had a damn good looking sister and Gary Garbrecht liked having her around.....Of course, Brett thought they liked his driving STYLE!!!! Not to MENTION, George May was Referee at all these races in those days....
Ok, Brett...come after me!!!! Tell me where I've gone wrong!!!!
ADD:
When Bret was only about 18, Gary sent Bert Serra's Schutz with a T2X on it to California for Brett.....Brett didn't have enough money for gas or entry fees... I tell Brett, "Get off your ***, go to you local dealer, tell him you've got this Factory Ride and you need $1,000 for the next race..." Well, Brett goes to Nautal-Stryus (Mercury dealer in San Diego)...and gets $1,000... Brett shows up at the first race with this SPONSOR's name on the side...
Brett says, "Hey, that was a good IDEA youy had..." The dealer sponsored him for several years...
Gary sent Brett a new Molinari...and I happened to be talking to Gary (I was Mercury's High Performance's biggest propeller dealer, at that time)...and said I could sell the T2X of Brett's ...Gary said, anything over $2,000, keep it...I said the guy offered me $5,000.... Gary said, "WELL, sell it and send me 2..."
So, I sold it and sent him $2,000... Gary Garbrecht was always fair with me!!!