Autograph Collection

[Master Oil Racing Team]

These pictures were taken in Baldy's front yard at Barbon Estates on Lake Corpus Christi on March 31, 1973. Tommy Wetherbee had just bought a D Konig and a Butts Aerowing. He was testing for the first time. We took delivery of the first CDF Aerowing that Tim built at Alexandria, Louisiana in October 1972, so this was an early CDF Butts hydro....maybe the second one he built. In the beginning Tim was building mostly AB hydros. During December of 1972 Tim Butts came down to test drive "Hookin' Bull", that first CDF hydro he built for us. He wanted to see what kind of power was there and get a feel of the handling at speed so he could try to improve on his design for the bigger boats. We did this kind of thing with Tim the whole time we raced. I'm willing to bet that Tommy's boat was the second built and was different from the first with changes made from his test driving three months earlier.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I got to thinking last night that one of the first Aerowings that Tim built after the successful run at Alex in 1972 was A C hydro that he built for Armand Hebert. Armand set a record with that boat in 1973.