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I recently came upon a collection of Motor Boat, MotorBoating and Power Boat magazines. Every once in a while there is an interesting article on boating and racing. Thought it may be a source of interesting conversation. I'll start with this one from August of 1948.
Motorboat magazine September 1943
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MotorBoating magazine - July 1931
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Gotta love the racing togs!
From the August 1927 edition of MotorBoating magazine
The year was 1931 and Gar Wood set a new speed record of 102.256 mph using 2 12 cylinder Packard motors with a total 2200 hp.
Fast forward 88 years, the year is 2019 and if you saw the Go-Pro video from Zac LaRose's boat at this springs USTS race in Florida you saw a top speed bump 103mph, from a Rossi 2 cylinder 250cc alky motor on a Trombetta hydro.
I dare say Zac's entire setup weighs less than 1 12 cylinder Packard motor did. Isn't technology great !!!!!:)
Some record runs results
This comes from the October 1956 edition of Outboard magazine
Great stuff!
This article from the March 1957 edition of Outboard magazine. Oh, how times have changed, but I guess cost is all relative to the time.
The cover picture for the article from the top 502-US Dick O'Dea finished 3rd, F-77 Don Baldaccini winner & 812-C Bob Parish, finished on the podium, not sure what position but he won BSH. This was at the 1954 nationals in Depere, WI. Dick & Don's boats were Swifts & Bob's was a DeSilva.
My dad was the Chief Motor inspector. When he left DePere, 526-C was the winner as my dad had DQ'd Baldaccini's block.
526-C was Vic Bonnam, his wife also raced A Hydro.
Don Guerin was APBA Stock VP and he had proxy votes from his Commission, and he personnally over ruled my dad's finding, Bonnam end up second.....unless, reinstating Baldaccini changed the points.
Guerin was a Mercury Distributor in New York, and my dad had disqualified his son, at the 1952 cut a illegal foot. Guerin never forgot! He screwed me out of two Nationals in D Runabout, 1959 and 1960.
When Vic got home from the Nationals he raced a Parker and threw a rod. My dad bought that engine from him with a rod sticking out of the case.
That same weekend, I had been given Red Thomas' A motor. Red was Squadron leader in the marine Air Force and had been at DePere, and was qualifed in AU and BU, we he saw summons home, late Saturday night, and sent to Korea.
As he didn't own the boat or his 20-H, he had no problem them. But he owned the "A" my dad had built him. He gave it to me as he left town!
September 1957 Outboard magazine
Check out who won AU and by how much.....Many of todays racers only know him as a propeller guy.
This from the November 1956 edition of Outboard Magazine
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The recap of the 1957 Stock Nationals
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26 flips in one day? That was some rough racing! Good thing they weren't going all that fast.
Here is the story on the 1957 Alky Nationals from the November 1957 edition of Outboard magazine,
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Here is the roundup of some 1955 Championships from the December edition of Outboard magazine.
Here is the story on the 1956 Alky Nationals in Long Beach from the December 1956 edition of Outboard magazine.
This from the August 1961 edition of Outboard magazine.
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I was glad to see the results that Ouita Elmer sent in to OUTBOARD. Ouita was the mother of Clayton Elmer the very highly regarded boat racer from Highlands, Texas. Ouita was for many years chief scorer for the Lone Star Boat Racing Association, and one of the primary members of the Baytown Boat Club. Her husband Slim was Clayton's Dad and they were stalwart friends of boat racing wherever it occurred and spent every weekend supporting boat racing. Ouita not only was directly involved in registration and scoring of drivers, be she was also publicity chairman for LSBRA. You can see a lot of her race reporting in Modified, Outboard News and other publications from the 50's and 60's. I'm sad that we lost her early in my career. I could have learned a lot from her. Most of my copies of newspaper articles from my early boat racing days were from stories that Ouita sent to newspapers in Houston, Beaumont, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Didn't matter that the race was in Houston, she sent the results to local newspapers where the boat racers came from. I could have learned a lot from Ouita early on.
This race recap was taken from the July 1961 edition of Outboard magazine.
Those sure were some funny looking runabouts (page 32) they ran back then!
The story from the November 1960 Outboard magazine.