Molinari Racing Boat History and Information

[Lars Strom]

Not sure what year but this is Renato´s shop around 1970 I guess.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Steve...I don't know if you remember this, but 1978 was the year the U.S.A. was awarded the OE World Championships and UIM immediately , without regard to their own rules of a two year moratorium, banned of methanol. I have a whole file folder that someday I will post regarding all the correspondence, notes etc. Molinari was at the race in Dayton in 1978, but Bob Hering won the first three heats convincingly, I think John Hill was second and Terry Leatherby finished third. They were all three cylinder OMC's The final heat was won by Jeff Hutchins with a Konig running methanol. It was the first and only time my Dad was involved in cheating, but it was really a protest rather than cheating. He did not do this for our team to win. He thought the undue influence OMC had at Brugge caused them to violate their own rules and make the fuel rule effective immediately. Might this prop situation have somehow been a factor in OMC pressuring UIM in the rule change. I don't recall for sure, but it seems the only Merc entry then was Michael Werner. Their big concern were the alky hydros on a course with wide sweeping turns. I only heard about this prop problem here on BRF and am interested in what you and others know that may have influenced racing schedules and other stuff.

[Smokin' Joe]

Interesting to hear Don Hendricks name mentioned i can remember Paul Kalbe head of OMC Brugge racing in 1976 he had props on order from Hendricks for over 18months he wasn`t allowed to buy from anybody other than Hendricks orders from Strang.He tried to run the race team but had a poor selection of props in 1976 they still ran the early 2 litre engines still competetive in some races` i used to test with the props he had available and it could have been much better it goes from bad to worse in early 1977 when the new 2.4 crossflow engine came out for OZ class we used the same props i do know he managed to sneak one or two in i think from Ron Hill but i am sure these were for the 3cyl engines the first order of Hendricks props came in oct 1978 by now the 2.4 engines were history in sprint races because Mercury found much more power from their OZ engines.I always wondered which props Molinari used i am sure he would`t wait for 18 months.

Edgar Rose was Don's boss and Edgar was (and is) very much interested in making better props. We tried an OMC prop
in Mod-VP but always used Mercury cleavers, then choppers. I bought OMC props for EP and reworked them
myself in Baumann's prop shop 1978-79. One of those props set a kilo record that was never broken. That one originally came from
Don but I modified it far from the original pitch distribution. My other props were nearly identical to that one, and I reproduced two for our son
Hans' restored Allison EP boat 2 yrs. ago. Question: who made Jimbo's props? I don't know but can easily find out.

[Lars Strom]

I have no memory of OMC propeller problems those years and we run methanol in Europe up to 1982 in the OE-F3 class.
Paul Kalb was after Konig big time but he was not successful to get UIM to ban methanol when he was in charge in Brugge, Belgium.
I think he went back to USA late 1979.

[Lars Strom]

Here is a picture of my OE Burgess/Evinrude CC from Idroscalo, Italy late September 1982.

I installed an extra fuel tank on top of my regular tank to hold more methanol because it was a two mile long race course there.
A really big prop. and a special one pinion gear case made my boat extremely fast at my favorite race place.
Flat smooth long two point race course.

PS..I remember Renato checking out my funny looking fuel tank and shaking his head..

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Lars....Paul did get methanol banned, but for one race only. It was apparently not enforced anywhere else, but we did have to collect fuel samples during the 1978 OE UIM World Championships. Since the wind was blowing too hard for the alky hydros to compete for the first three heats, nobody asked for samples to be collected. not until the final heat when the wind had settled and Jeff had the only alky hydro on the bank stilled rigged up. He won by a large margin. I don't think Bob Hering went back out since he had already won. Jeff just went out because he was a Pro racer. He never quit. We all cheered him on It was not about the racing...but all about the powerplay.

I had a crate with four ounce plastic bottles fuel samples for a few years that were never tested. no reason to. Finally I threw all of them away except for Jeff Hutchins' last heat sample which contained a castor oil/methanol mix and finally tossed about twelve years ago...just before we built our music and boat racing room. Kept them in my darkroom, and was afraid the plastic would get bad and lead to a fire hazard.

[Lars Strom]

Paul Kalb was a big problem for many OMC race drivers, (except Willie Perman).. Roger Jenkins left OMC because of Paul for Volvo Penta/Konig OE racing 1976 and 77. Well 1977 Roger also started to race 2 liter Merc in a Cougar and Gordons Gin as a sponsor.
Roger wrote something really funny about Paul Kalb a few weeks ago on my Facebook page.
I don't want to copy that..Roger must write that himself..

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I didn't know Roger, I only took some pictures of him at a race in Berlin because I knew who he was. We talked, and he was very friendly. You can tell him that I can e mail him some other pictures I took, or he can contact me here at BRF.

[Lars Strom]

Roger is not very active in the cyber world Wayne. He lives in Spain winter time and I have some contact with him.
He is still the same old Roger and pretty good at giving old boat racers a hard time..!!

[Lars Strom]

Roger Jenkins and his wife last weekend in Spain.