An Amazing Story

[Master Oil Racing Team]

OK Skoontz, you got me on the brother, and there keeps coming up other weird angles.

My Galaxy I/O has been stuck in the lake for a month while the water continues to drop. My warranty work on getting a wiring harness replaced so the starter wouldn't catch on fire backfired. When I went to turn of the motor, it wouldn't stop. The kill switch didn't work, I disconnected all the wires to the ignition switch & finally had to pull the coil wire out of the distributor to kill it. It took a couple of weeks to figure out which wires went to where on the ignition switch because what was there didn't match the diagram or what the shop foreman told me. When I finally got it right, it wouldn't start. The brand new starter just spins, or does nothing. So now I've got to load the boat without power. Problem is the concrete launch ramp ends about 25' from the water and I have to back the trailer into a creek bed deep enough to load it and then be able to pull that heavy mother out of the water with only a single axle trailer.

So I go into Mathis to get a tow rope. I planned to hook it from my 4X4 to my son's 4X4 which will be on the concrete ramp and have solid footing to pull it out if the trailer wheels break through.

I'm not at the parts store but a few minutes when we get on the subject of high performance boats. One of the guys, Chuck, says he used to have a picklefork that he could outrun larger boats with. I asked him if it was wood and he said "Yes, red white and blue. The Eradicator!" I told him "That's my old boat". We had sold it to Neil Bauknight I think. Anyway, we used to see it run down the back straight at Barbon years ago, but I never knew who owned it. It's been quite a few years now since I've seen it. Chuck told me who he sold it to and where it is now located. It has been hanging in a warehouse near the entrance of Lake Corpus Christi State Park. He said I could look through a window and see it. Which I plan to do.

Then he tells me there is a guy in Sandia who just found one of his old racing motors. Dumb me. I'm thinking of either an old racer from the 50's or Tommy Wetherbee who used to live about 3 miles south of Sandia. He said he read about it on HotBoat. Chuck says "He calls himself Master Oil Racing." So this time I tell him "That's me!" He comes over and shakes my hand and we get a big laugh. Even though my address is Sandia and it is only a couple of miles from my house across the lake, it is probably 15 miles to get there from here.

[Skoontz]

I think Don Hardy is the brother to your Hardy Master Oil. That guy can make a drag car chassis burn!

If only I had a similar story with my old switzer super sport. I loved that boat and never tracked it down.

Now heres one for you. My daughter Katie, now 13, after successfully driving 3 1/4 midget and mini dwarf car seasons will get her first bout in an A hydro, many thanks to Ron Hill, Earnie Dawe, and Bob Peebles, who when I asked him what I would owe for this thrill (he will nhave an arm band and parking/pit passes for us on Sunday) he says if we get her drving an A boat in the region on a regular basis that's payment enough. If only my dad was alive to see his grand daughter debut...Anywho, did not want to steal the thread, it's my amazing story of the week!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

....an amazing story. Thanks for your contributions to the original Skootnz, and good luck on the next phase. I actually had a different amazing story before I started this thread and when Mike and Kate Hauenstein were at our house last Thursday night, I forgot to show it to them. It will come later. But I know there are many amazing stories out there if people would tell them.

I only have a few more years to go then mine's done. I guess I should have researched the whole thing before I started because I have since discovered a few inaccuracies. You know how the old brain remembers. Unfortunately, I do not have my notes from those days and have to trace things largely from photos. I found out toward the end of 1975 both Hookin' Bull and Texas Tornado had the same Texas registration number : . Methinks in our haste to get back to racing in our own backyard in Texas, we duplicated the numbers to be able to race. Don't know if that's what happened, but I have been a little confused about a couple of boat.s

If I would have thought about this thread more before starting it maybe things would have been more in order, but what you guys out there have contributed have moved it around some and added more interest.

BTW Skoontz, do you have any pics you could maybe post on an Off Topic thread with your daughter and her midget and mini dwarf cars?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

...it means get ready. So here's some more of 1975.

After Baytown I had to go to a torture chamber twice a week for six weeks after I could get around. My brother Mark had to drive me to Corpus christi and back to pick up the little red Fiat X 1-9 that I had ordered. For several months I couldn't look down or look up without holding my head. I couldn't work on motors, boats, test.............nothing. So I went to races to take pictures.

At the national Pro races I would meet up with Anne Finkl who came with her Brother-in-Law Phil Wagner and her sister Joanie. At the OPC and Inboard races in Texas I took my future wife Debbie. I went to as many races as possible. I was at my prime in racing and had no other way to get closer to the speed on water than to be with my friends, walk the pits and smell and hear the essence of boat racing.

So here are some pics from those days.

At the pro races Anne would carry some of my camera stuff & take notes,(first set) & Debbie did it for the OPC and GN races.(Second set of helpers) Those notes I can't find. BTW that's a young Joe Rome to the right of Debbie in the B&W photo.

[deanwilson]

Hi Wayne,

Just want to let you know really enjoy the stories and the pics of the places and people I knew growing up. A while ago you mentioned that you were looking for AC M40FF spark plugs for the Konig. Well I just came across a set that look like they've never been in a motor. If you still need 'em, email your mailing address to me and I'll send them to you.

Dean
deanwilson17@sbcglobal.net

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I could have found some kind of plugs at a parts house, but I didn't figure they would know how to get an AC M40ff plug, and I wanted everything to be authentic.

We took our boats up to Winona, Minnesota for the Grain Belt Pro Nationals August 20-24, 1975. What a great place to race. And what a great organization. The Midwest Power Boat Association did a bang up job. I think Bruce Allman was commodore at the time and Bob and Judy Smith spearheaded the event.

Tim Butts would be driving our stuff. I have photos of him in all the classes but 700 hydro. He had the 500 on Texas Tornado and the 1100 on Honcho. I don't know which one he drove in the qualifying, but I suspect it was Honcho. I don't know if he qualified or not. I can't remember and my notes from that race are still lost. And I can't find a propeller with results from the 75 Pro Nationals. In any case, he got a lot more time in on the bigger classes this time that helped him design Shadowfax.

The first pic is the layout of our pit area. Tim is on the left walking, then pit man Jim Roerig and another person are rigging up Loaner. Between the boats are Frank Zorkan, Joe Rome and someone I don't know.

Second pic is Tim Butts and someone there helping us. I know the face, but I can't call up the name.

Third pic. Since Jack Chance didn't come with us and I wasn't carrying my weight in the pits, Joe and Jim had to make a few pit stops for refreshments.

4th. Tim racing the dual carb 1100 on Honcho.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

While looking through my contact sheet I found three pics I thought might be of interest.

1st. The boat in the foreground is having motor problems in 1100 hydro and he is heads up and aware that he will be lapped. When he sees Wayne Walgrave and another coming around the pins in a heated battle, he wants to make sure they know he's there (2nd pic)

3rd. Who can guess who the lady is?

[Jeff Lytle]

Looks like Dan Kirts on the inside......

[Master Oil Racing Team]

....but, I'm not sure. It looks exactly like his style through the turn, the goggle and his position, but I am not sure because of the way the motor looks.

But, wait, I went back and took another look at the contact sheets and it appears to be Dan. There was a controversy at this race where Charlie Bailey was running second in 500 hydro when his shear pin gave up welding his prop to the shaft in the process. For some reason Tim didn't qualify with our boat and we had offered the ride to Charlie. Charlie decided to stick with his own rig. He lead out of the first turn the first heat but Bob Rhoades passed him and went on to set a record. Unable to get the prop off his motor, he notified the judges stand that he was switching to our boat. Charlie ended up winning the second heat and matching Bob's record, but he was dsq'd for the switch.

My Dad protested and the sqaubble between him and Judy Smith went on for several months. In the end my Dad's argument won because of another ruling. Dan Kirts was driving a (Yale?) with a Merc Quincy and something happened. Maybe flipped. Then he switched to a Rhoades with a Konig and they let it stand. Charlie had a 500cc Konig on the sister aerowing to mine, also Konig powered. Tim built mine and Charlie's Butts Aerowing at the same time. So Dan's switch was from two different manufacturers of boat AND motor, while Charlie's only differences were serial numbers within the same manufacturers.

Gets kind of interesting dredging up the past sometimes Jeff. I've got some photos of Dan driving Rex Hall's boat and I'll bet this was the time.

[Mike Schmidt]

In my photo colection, I have one of the 8 cylinder Konig, that I thought was from the first Winona Nationals. Is that what is on the inside?

The boat he switched to in 700 was Rex's. Danny had never driven it and pushed the start the first heat and jumped. Won the second heat.

Plase keep the pictures coming......

Michael D-1