Golden Shores Winter Nationals

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Ken did it any Mr. Odessky sent the pictures Ron. That's how I got mine. You guys did it right out there.

[Ron Hill]

Wayne when you say "We did it right..." We had people like my dad who would build your engine, like his kid's motors, and charge almost nothing. So, good equipment was available and cheap. He worked tirelessly to make sure everyone ran legally. He saw things black and white. Your boat made weight or it didn't....

We had monthly club meetings where we made plans.

We had "WORKER BEES" like Ken Scoville, Sr. and Danny Schwarzenbach. Schwarzenbach probably, if the truth be known, rebuilt, had parts on, or out right owned all the 36 motors in California, except Pete DeLackner's...

Pete was a good club member, made all the meeting and did anything asked of him...

Pop and Doc Collins had the interest and the money to help. Pop built probably ten boats and sold them for close to cost or less.

George Ishii came to ever meeting and never left without saying what a good job everyone was doing and ASKED if we needed anything.

Bob Davidson in San Bernardino and his wife Pat worked 24-7 to keep the San Bernardino group racing...

Dave Bryan helped with club equipment and built judges stands and such...

My brother was a great organizer and his wife worked 24-7 for the club...

The Dawe Family worked 24-7. Jimmy Dawe is really the one that got the WinterNationals started. (He used to have a few drinks in the Topock Bar and when they started selling land, he said they needed a race)...That is when Jimmy got a hold of me...

Jimbo coming along, living in Needles on the river, helped with Needles races...

Bill Boyes, Sr. and Jr....family worked 24-7 for boat racing...

Bob Martin worked 24-7...

Frank Williams, who had made several millions selling SunPower batteries, worked for the club many times...

Harold Wicks, our cousin, brought the patrol boat, bouys and clock to every race.

The Stoker Family, John's Cutom Marine, donated parts, motors and even a boat or two to help the club. They supported the club 100%.

AND THEN there was TED MAY, TED made a show out of every event...

We seemed to just have lots of fun....When we weren't racing boats many of us went Go-kart Racing, to the Motor cycle races, horse races, fishing..together.

It was simpler times...You could fish all day for $2.00 scoop of bait...and a $10 rental boat...

In 1968, Jimbo and I were heading to the Parker Enduro....We saw a Del Taco being built and we stopped and looked at the place. $35,000 for the business and land...Jimbo and I knew a Del Taco in Victorville would be a gold mine....all the way to Parker, Jimbo and I discussed buying that Del Taco...

We figured, if we sold all our boats, trailers and our cars we'd have $3,500. We were only $31,500 short...

Look at the prices in those days...Don Williams wanted to trade, what three boats for chrome reversed wheels...

I know I left out people who worked hard.....Lane Curry was finance Chairman, he was always having raffels...

Boat racing was our life style...we weren't rich, we weren't really famous. Everybody pulled together for the sake of the club...

Art Carlson, Carlson Boats, and son Bob helped. Bob designed T-Shirts that sold like crazy...Bob raced A Hydro.

The year Chad was born, 1977, SCOA had $20,000 in cash in "T" Bills, and $10,000 in the checking account...

I dropped out of the club, 1978, to be Region 12 Chairman and to race Mod VP.

Factors that hurt racing: Hansen Dam flooded and was never reopened (2 local races per year). Long Beach City priced us out of business. Golden Shores filled in with toolies (weeds), Diego Flood control channel was closed because of floods..Mission Bay became too rough to race in because of all the pleasure boats...Puddingstone only allowed Saturday racing....So, we ended up with Needles, Brawley and Bakersfield...

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I have a few more pictures to scan from our trip out west to the 1969 Golden Shores Winternationals. The remaining photos I have got wet during the hurricane that blew my Dad's house away in 1970 and I have tried to soak them in water to separated them, but the coating does not allow the water to soak down to the emulsion for them to unstick. So when I bought a new scanner, I got one that would do the larger format negatives that I took on that trip. The scanner doesn't work exactly how I think it should though because it split this 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 negative in half and made two pics. Maybe I should read the instructions. Anyway, I just rescanned and cropped the main part. Need to figure out though how to scan the full negative of the boat trailer without it being in two pieces.

I think this is the C hydro race where Norm Weiss and I traded 1st's. This is the paint scheme I had on my first named boat "Spyder". And the same paint scheme I did on my Gordon & Smith long board.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Another shot of the same boat. Don't know who the other driver is.