Here is the the August 1975 issue pages 1 - 8 , I apologize for the cover , i promise i did not do it , i would not deface such an iconic , in my opinion , boat !!
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Here is the the August 1975 issue pages 1 - 8 , I apologize for the cover , i promise i did not do it , i would not deface such an iconic , in my opinion , boat !!
Here are pages 9 - 16.
Here is the September 1975 edition pages 1 - 8 .
Here are pages 9 - 16.
Here is the October 1975 issue of Propeller , inside you will find plenty of information on the 1975 Stock Nationals which were held at Dayton.
Here are pages 9 - 16
Here are the last 4 pages.
I said earlier I had a lot to say about this year, but between business and the Hurricane, I have been too busy. So I will briefly mention some of the things that happened regarding earlier issues of Propeller.
Since I was out of racing from Memorial Day, I could not compete. My Dad, Jack and I had talked it over and decided that motors and boats were developing so rapidly, that if I was going to be able to compete again after I recovered, we needed to continue to go to the "national events" and have a driver to keep our stuff out there and see how it stacked up. We went to the Eastern Divisionals at Gadsden, Alabama. It was a beautiful race course with perfect pits. Tim Butts drove for us. I think it was the first time he ever competed in C and D hydro. I don't think he drove F. It was a good learning experience for Tim. It helped him get an idea of the faster speeds, but also the power and acceleration coming off the turns. As a consequence, he designed a new boat for us, plus also gave him a heads up for what he was up against for winning the 1977 OD UIM World Championships in Dayton, Ohio.
We went to the Western Divisionals at Fort Worth, Texas where we didn't have a driver, but we wanted to keep in the mix. Homer Kincaid was there along with our Honorary Texans Johnny Dortch and Alan Ishii. Jim McKean took a local TV station reporter for a ride in his D Hydro for some publicity shots for the races to be held over the next two days.
In between these races Joe Rome, my girlfriend Debbie and I made as many OPC races as we could. Donna Buczo was Region 15 publicity chairman and did an excellent job along with her photographer husband and driver Pete. We went to most of the races Donna wrote about. The biggest was the Clear Lake race put on by Red Adair. Most of the big names in OPC and Inboard racing were there, and the OMC rotaries were there. Debbie and I had a wonderful time and got to see Billy Seebold, Ted May, Bob Nordskog and take pictures of some legends I had only read about.
Went to the Nationals at Winona, Minnesota. Bob and Judy Smith Spearheaded the effort from Minneapolis and other Minnesota boat racers, and I was maybe the finest first time Pro Nationals ever. The water was perfect as were the pits, with even shade trees to go with shallow launching. Bucky Makofski was referee and it was almost perfect with the crew. Only problem I heard about was from Joe Rome. I didn't pay attention, but Joe recalled the "Only" food in the pits was a hot dog stand. When I was racing, I didn't pay attention to food. I only ate a little bit to make sure my stomach wouldn't growl, but if there was a lot of action....food didn't catch my attention. To this day, Joe will not eat hot dogs.
Bob, Judy and the guys put on a fantastic 1974 Eastern Divisionals, which they had submitted to APBA earlier to "practice" for their winning bid of the 1975 Grain Belt Pro Nationals. That was also a great race and the first and only time I have ever seen the Aurora Borealis. The Nationals were fantastic though. We took our trailer there. Tim ran our A and B hydros, but didn't want to run the C,D, and F rigs. We tried to get Charlie Bailey to run our C Hydro. He didn't sign up for D or F. Charlie decided though that he wanted to run his own C hydro. It was a Butts, brand new to Charlie and built either before or after Tim build our current C hydro. He finished second the first heat, and decided to run our rig the second heat. He won and set a new record.
Here are the first 8 pages of the November issue.
Pages 9-16