Talking about officials, I don't believe I ever say one that could "parse" the rule book to find something wrong like Henry Wagner. The fact he just happened to be from California blends into the following story. Forgive me if you have heard it before but it is typical of someone like Henry. Don't get me wrong, I am sure he has his cheering section but some of the things he used to do never ceased to amaze me.
I am sure you remember "Dirty Ernie" LaRose from the St. Louis area. Poor Ernie was so crippled up he could hardly get in and out of his boats, much less do much on the race course. This was until Bill Seebold Sr. built him a C Service Mercury. You have to have lived thru that time to understand the bad feeling between the Speeditwin guys and the Mercury people.
Anyway the Merc Bill Sr. built for Ernie was a real goer and Ernie put everything together at DePue one year in the 70's and either won or placed high enough that he made the finals and had to be inspected. As you can imagine, Henry being a Speeditwin guy, he inspected Ernies motor with a fine tooth comb and he found something that disqualified Ernie. If you can imagine the prop nut on one of the Speeditwin lower units comes to a point on the back end, with a gentle taper from the shaft where it goes on to the tip, and there was a dimension to that length in the rule book.
When it was measured by Henry he found it to be a 1/4 inch too short and he threw Ernie out. Probably the first time Ernie had ever made the field at a Nationals in his life.
I would be eternally grateful if someone could tell me just what kind of speed advantage this would provide to someone who could not hardly get in and out of his boat as he was so disabled, that disqualification was necessary. To Ernie's credit he never said a word, but you could tell he was terribly hurt and disappointed. This is where an inspector, or any other official for that matter has to be able to use a little common sense and judgement.
BUT HEY, IT WAS C SERVICE.
The only time I ever saw Henry proved wrong was on of the Ackworth Nationals in the early 80's, where he threw Eddie Thrilby out of either the C Service Hydro or Runabout class for a measurement on an opening in the Speeditwin crankcase. If you measure it one way (diagonally) it measured one dimension, and another way, (side to side of the opening) another dimension. I seem to remember it was from opposite corner to corner one way and vertical side to vertical side the other. Anyway I have never seen Ed Thrilby so upset and hot. He was going to go after Henry, not so much because he threw them out, but because he just would not listen to Ed's explanation of the dimension. Ed protested and was found to be correct, but I would have hated to be inspected by him (Henry) after that, especially if I was the one proved right, and him wrong.
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