Ron Hill Family: Hill Marine and Signature Propellers

[Ron Hill]

John Schubert and I co-drove in PARIS, 1970, but he returned to the USA to work the next week, and Jimbo and I drove the same boat to win the six hours of Berlin....Interesting, Schubert was fired from his jiob two weeks later....or so..he would have loved winning Berlin....

Jim Briggs, was President of LAWNBOY LAWNMOWERS AT THE TIME, GAVE ME A NEW LAWN MOWER FOR WINNING BERLIN...About all I got as it seems they considered this a "SPORT"... in 1970...

Not sure what it said, maybe, Ron Hill won!!!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I saw where it said he was the best driver. but, it also answers a question I have long wondered. The race was on the Havel River.

[Ron Hill]

My dad always said he was very even tempered, he was mad all the time....(Which wasn't at all true....he was mellow, but had learned to box as a young man...didn't take much BULL to set him off)... I on the other hand, feel I'm seldom angery, but sometimes I go off...I don't ever stay mad and anyone....And If you know me, you know that several people have taken advantage of me several times....and I give them another "CHANCE" (To screw me).... But generally, life has been very good to me. I went into teaching to be off in the summers, but never worked a day in my teaching life that I didn't feel over paid.

One day, I came home and Chad had taken my new Weed Eater apart and told me he and grandpa WERE GOING TO MAKE AN OUTBOARD.....(Kind of like the song: "Now you can say there is no such thing as Santa, but as for me and grandpa we believe"...I thought, Christ, new Weed Eater torn to hell...).

Well, Chad and his Grandpa made patterns, ordered gears from Boston Gear, made castings, machined parts and built a motor....Later they used the Zinowa and had their been an E-Bay, Chad and my dad would have made a million dollars on these OUTBOARDS.

This is the ONLY WEED EATER they ever made, so it is the "ORIGINAl" ... I did help make a four blade prop for it..

I was mad about my Weed Eater, but twenty-two years later, I'm so glad Chad wanted to build an Outboard and I feel how lucky he and I both were to have a grandpa/dad who would build a motor with his grand son!!!!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Ron....that is a great tribute to not only your son Chad, but your Dad and yourself for their thought patterns. Outboard....Two cycle.... Experimentation. The younger and the older working to put something like that together is priceless. I have seen you post these pics together earlier, and it just put a thought into my head of another person you spent a lot of time with and loved as part of your own family. Ted May. I just had a thought, and Joe remembers more than me, about Ted grabbing and slinging water hayacyiths from the pits and those that were floating around the race course at the final round of the 1968 NOA World Championships. That was before Weedeater was invented I think, but if they would have had a loonng prop shaft and a heavy duty surfacing plastic rope, they could have cleared that pit area and race course in no time.

[Ron Hill]

In the spring of 1978, Fred Hauenstein and I won the Parker Enduro. Brad Miller owned the boat. Brad loved GN racing and drove a boat called Del Taco Express...Brad owned 192 Del Taco restaurants and he also owned a camp gorund called Crazyhorse.

After Freddy and I won Parker, Brad decided to open a Country and Western restaurant, I attended a "Blue Ribbon Cutting" for Crazy Horse" saloon and restaurant... Crazyhorse was the biggest Country and Western Stage in America and Brad Miller owned it...

Today, Bill Curtis gave me a coffee mug that said, "Crazyhorse"...

Rumor has it that Brandon Miller, Brad and Tracy's son, will be driving Busch Grand National Series this year with Jerry Gilbreath as crew chief....If Jerry is up to his normal levels...Brandon will run well in the 2007 Busch Series....

Good luck to you, Brandon, I'll be pulling for you......Thanks Brad, for the memories AND YOUR SUPPORT!!!!!!!!

[Ron Hill]

That "Head Shot" of me was in Power Boat Magazine, 1966. Dave Severson, who started Power Boat Magazine, liked me...He called me a "HERO DRIVER". He later hired me to sell subscriptions to the magazine and write articles...

I found these old pictures today...Hell, I guess all my pictures are OLD, but the first two pictures are the Elsinore 500, 1973. I had just won it, about one week before my daughter was born. I was supposed to race in Paris and Berlin the next two weeks, but my wife convinced me to stay for the birth of our "BABY"...I was one of the first dads to be in the delivery room, even though the doctor didn't like it at all...I stayed anyway...

Jessica was born on the day of the Six Hours of Paris, 1973....I've never regretted missing the race...

The guy in the straw hat is John Stoker...the YOUNG MAN, is AL Stoker...John's Custom Marine co-sponsored my boat in those days. The OLD MAN is in the blue hat (My dad....He owned 22 acres on Lake Elsinore, winning the 500 was a proud day for our family....My grandmother's house over looked the lake from Rome Hill.)...That's Gil Gilbert with the KM 55 shirt on... Gil drove Spectra Marine's Offshore boats...

The third picture is Ted March, in the red, and me in the blue at St. Louis, 1989...John Castelli drove my HST Hydrostream in MOD VP....I own the first two HST's ever build...Castelli had one, Jim Harris had the other...We ran a Merc on Castelli's and a Yamaha on Jim Harris's....

The rules were a bit tilted, and the Yamaha had to run stock heads, but now and then, Jim would put hot heads on the Yammie and win....

[Ron Hill]

I found these pictures of my brother's Sid Craft, 1960 Sid Craft, and my dad's Six Stud when we had it on a Merc mid section and gearcase...

[Ron Hill]

After this ad ran, Jim McKean from Mabank, Texas...called and wanted a "NOSE JOB" but he had one word wrong!!!! Started with a "B"...

[Ron Hill]

Ernie is building me a new KILO boat for 45 SST... I had Jimbo look the drawing over, I'm heading back to Indio today to pick you Broc's 45. Ernie put new decks on his boat...

We had planned to make the Oroville Kilos this March, 2007, but now, October at Devil's Lake, looks like the CALL!!!

[Ron Hill]

Funny, I was talking to Jimbo, Friday night....He loves boat racing more than he loves life, but he fools with RC airplanes because....

Parnelli Jones was a prop customer. At the LA Boat Show we talked, one Wednesday for an hour or two. He seemed depressed. The next year, we met again, he talked about his boys racing. Though, Page had been hurt, he seemed better than the year before, when he was out of RACING....

Jimbo is out of racing...He needs to return...

These pictures of Jimbo and myself, are from 1963. The FIRST EVER TWO DAY POINTS RACE at Blythe, California. It ws my first D Hydro race. My brother stayed home as Bunker Hill was born. 47 years ago, this month...

This was my first D Hydro race, and my LAST WITHOUT goggles or a shield...Jimbo always wore a bubble..I always just wore a shield...Goggles were Ok, but with a SHIELD you could see. Jimbo like the bubble shield. Jimbo was driving a Ted May hydro that was a copy of a Swift...

Ted May won D Hydro this weekend...