Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

[Ron Hill]

Jimbo McConnell's mother took many slide photos over the years. Cathy McConnell has been scanning these pictures. I don't know if they should be under Jimbo The Wizard of OZ or the Hill Family. This is my brother try to "Back Into" another C hydro win. In the back ground is me winning D Runabout, one of 15 wins that year. Check out the ski jump in the middle of the river. I went over that ski jump ONCE...

[Ron Hill]

More Sue McConnell pictures;

1. San Diego Flood Control Channel, now closed to boat racing and re-named San Diego River. Russ heading in, in his Sid Craft, Jimbo heading out in his Maycraft a Swift copy. Actually, it looks like Mission Bay. Picture #2 is the Flood Control Channel.

2. 21-C Jimbo McConnell in D Stock Hydro. That is Ron Hill in the black surfer trunks. Rus Edmission looking on (more about Rus some other time).

3. Russ Hill, Jr and Jimbo 1962, white trailer with Sta-Mix decals is the Hill Racing Team trailer.

4. From right to left: Unknown due, Old Man Hill, Russ Hill, Sr, Rus Edmission, Ron Hill and Jimbo. 19-C is my D Runabout. The nose of that boat is Joe Moore's D Runabout.

5. Right to left: Val Snead, back to us, Ted May, Ron Hill and Jimbo in the helmet and jacket.

6. 76-C is Ted May's Sid Craft before he started being 2- U.S. or 2-C every year...

Left to right: Val Snead, short guy is Ted May, tall guy is Ron Hill and Jimbo is in he helmet with Jimbo on it.

ADD; All the San Diego pictures are at Mission Bay. Pictures 5 and 6 are at Yuma, Arizona.

[Ron Hill]

Some more of Sue McConnell's pictures, thanks to Cathy McConnell:

1. Needles Marathon 1963...My dad sitting in our trailer. The guy next to him looks like Tom Gouldstone, but I don't recall Tom ever being at the Needles Marathon. The lady is Mary Ann Meyers. In 1965 Mary Ann were seriously injured in an auto accident taking my boats to the Beaver Falls, PA Nationals.

2. Me working on my CU. Jeff Merlin from Niagara Falls, NY drove my Cu that year. The yellow Morehouse in the background was Carl Meyer's 36 Runabout, called "Turtle Express". Loved that old boat, it probably had a 50 inch wide bottom.

3. Me working on my CU. I won DU that year, one of my 8-10 straight DU wins.

4. Marathon grounds I think, in Needles.

5. Victorville Race, Roy Rogers came to this race to watch.

6. My mom, Mrs. Laura Hill, famous for making the Mrs. Hill Life Jackets.

.

[Ron Hill]

My brother was always crazy, but it kept him from going insane. He realized that January 1st would be a Sunday, and the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade would be Monday, Russ decided the Valley Speedboat Association could put on a race January 1, 1962 ans get new members.

This is Jimbo's Zorkan AU at Long Beach, my Old Man is in the hat. January 1, 1962. That's me in the white sweat shirt and Jimbo is behind me.

he second picture is of my mom and dad at Bakersfield, 1963.

[Ron Hill]

Cathy McConnell took this picture at Steven Dawe's house the day of Tammy's funeral.

The four of us have been friends for 50 years. Great picture, Cathy!

In case you don't know, from left to right is:

Ron Hill, Ernie Dawe, Jimbo McConnell and Russ Hill, Jr.

Funny, I don't think the four of us were ever in the same heat together.

[russhill]

Boatmark59, Nobody who knows me would ever start by saying, " Tell me---" . It could cure insomnia. First, thanks for asking. I did not have a career at Drake Engineering.

I spent 13 years at Mattel Toys where I was Data Processing (Computer) Chief Honcho. It was from there that I went to Drake. After Drake, I spent another 13 years at Northrop Aircraft on the B2 Stealth Bomber project. I ran a 7 acre computer room operation, the largest IBM installation in the world. I had about 400 people working for me.

Back to what you asked for, Drake. John Drake and I had hung out together and raced with or against each other since about 1950. After about 1970, we didn't see each other too often. Ron always liked John and stopped by occasionally to see him. In about 1978, Ron called me and said John is really in trouble, business wise. You should call him. I did. The following is my interview:
How you doing, John? Fine. How's business? Bad. What can I do to help you Take over. OK.

So I quit Mattel and for about 4 years was President of Drake Engineering. Things were bad. USAC had lowered the boost limits to where a Cosworth normally aspirated V8 Grand Prix engine could withstand the reduced boost. The four banger Offy could no longer compete.
So under the engineering guidance of Hans Hermann, Drake built a V8. It broke the company. That's when I arrived.

The V8 was a pretty good piece, but no engine has ever come off the drawing board and out of the machine shop ready to race. A lot of dyno time was necessary. We had a good dyno and a good dyno man, Stewart Van Dyne (Van Dyno), from the Penske stable, but we didn't have any money.

I'm tired of tired of typing and I'm sure you're tired of reading, so I'll continue with chapter 2 later.

[russhill]

Chapter Two
Maybe I should tell you a bit of the Drake Engineering history. It all started in 1920 with a guy named Harry Miller. I think he was a man of some money, but I'm not sure. He set out to build a boat engine. He copied the dual overhead cam concept from a 1909 Peugeot. A Peugeot had won Indy in 1913,16, 19.

Somehow (there are several books written about this), I don't know how but his engines got into car racing. Then, beginning 1923 his engine won the Indy race. They subsequently won a total of 12 Indy races.

You may recall reading about it, but in the early thirties. our country had a pretty big recession (as we call then today). Ultimately in about 1933, Fred Offenhauser, Miller's shop foreman took over the company and started producing "Offenhausers". Offenhauser engines subsequently won 27 Indy races.

In about 1946, Dale Drake and the first three-time Indy winner, Louie Meyer bought out Fred Offenhauser. They called themselves Meyer-Drake Engineering but kept the Offenhauser engine name. Dale and Louie's friendship went back a long ways. Dale actually rode in on Indy race with Louie when two men were required. Dale was an accomplished wing walker and glider builder/pilot.

My first real girlfriend was Yvonne Meyer, Louie's daughter. I think I was 19 and she was 17. It didn't last long.

The engine built under all these name and owner changes was a basic four cylinder, four valve, dual overhead cams. Of course changes and upgrades were constantly being made. The first I remember was the 270 (4.5L), then the 254, 4.1 liter. Ultimately the turbocharged version was 2.8 liters - 171 ci. Over the years the valve angle was reduced several times.
Sometime in the thirties they built a "Midget Offy". On my opinion, it was obsolete when it was built; however, it raced in and won a lot of Midget car races. I think it was 91 ci, 1.5 L, It was very sturdy and reliable and it beat more Ford 60s than it ever lost to. It was an iron block, 3 main, 2 valve, SOHC.

We (I was in the company by then) built several championship Mini-Indy engines. They were based on the new VW Rabbit water cooled engines. We won the national championship two years in a row, with different teams.

We also built a 4 valve head for Carroll Shelby for the 2.2 liter Chrysler 4 banger. That's another long story.

Sleeping yet? Later.

[david bryan]

saw this 4 banger at claton ny

[Ron Hill]

I modeled much of my life and a reflection of John Drake. John was always called Johnny in our family. Dale and Louie ran Offenhauser and their engine won Indy year after year. The Hill Family only made the trip to Indy in 1952, but we never missed the race on the radio for 1947 to 1951, then we never missed a race from '52 until 1960 when it was on closed circuit TV.

John was an only child and I always felt he wished he had a little brother like me. Though he was ten years my senior, he treated me as an equal.

John never wanted for stuff as an only child, but he took h life in stride. He always said a Plymouth was the best car, because it was the hardest to tear up...and how did he know, He'd torn all his cars up.

Dale Drake was a humble man and was a"Hands On" person. He build Lee Wallard's 1951 Indy winning motor. He turbo charged the Offy for Bobby Unser. I think I could say Dale was never motivated by money, though he made quite a fortune.

Dale would run John "KR A" on the Offy Dyno and castor oil would get in the muffler. So, when the ran the Offy's on the dyno, the dyno would catch fire from the castor oil...Dale and Louie argued about this often.

Johnwas a pretty good driver, winning high points in several classes. He started driving Harold Guiddy's F Hydro DeSilva. The boat wanted to "Blow Over", so John bolted 20 pounds of lead to the nose. John was one of the first to realize the importance of "Balance" in a boat.

I once rode along with my brother and John to a race in Phoenix...John could preach and sing. He could do both, while driving, but not well.

When I was going to college in Flagstaff, Arizona, I called John and said I wanted to go to the car race at PIR in Phoenix. He got me tickets, Offy won, great weekend.

After I graduated from college and was racing for Evinrude, John and Bob Leach (Eliminator Boats Bob) were racing a Drake Jet at the Parker Nine Hour...

When John and I would see each other I would remind him of the Clock Drive-In in Bellflower....

After Lee Wallard won Indy in '51, Bardahl and Mercury Marine, which had been Lee's sponsor gave John like 200 cases of Bardahl and a new Mercury KG-7 H.

John had no idea what to do with the Bardalh, so when he and my brother would go to the CLOCK DRIVE IN, John would pour a can of Bardahl down the carb on his '54 Plymouth while it was parked. After we'd have our shakes and burgers, John would "FIRE UP" his Plymouth and that Bardalhl would smoke the whole CLOCK DRIVE IN out...I mean the air would be BLUE for about 20 minutes....Now days they's arrest us for air pollution..then, it was all good fun..

[russhill]

A couple of interesting add ons to the 1951 era Ron was talking about: Murrell Ballanger owned the '51 wining Indy car. He was a Chrysler (and Mercury Outboard) dealer in Crown Point Indiana. He gave John the KG7 to race on his A (Alky) hydro.

In the spirit of real men don't race those damn Mercurys, we just played with the engine. When Goulrocks (Tom Gouldstone, 1100 runabout national champion years later) would come over, before he got there, we'd take the spark plugs out and fill the cylinders with some of that Bardahl Ron mentioned above. We'd tell Gouldrocks that this was a super special high compressioned engine--try to pull the starting rope. This baby has compression.

J. C. Agaginian was a Southern California garbage collector and an indy car owner. He won in '52 with Troy Ruttman driving. He had hog farm , to eat the garbage and had a 4 inch tall picture of a pig on his car by the cockpit. So Murrell Ballanger, mentioned above, put a similar sized ear of corn in a similar place on his race car.

Then he told Aggy, "You never see a ear of corn chasing a pig."