Super Swede ... Lars Strom

[mintominto]

Thanks for the information Lars and Wayne.

I found an old shot of Roger Jenkins with the Volvo, I'm guessing it must be 1977?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Here is a copy from a 1977 World Cup program from Berlin listing the drivers.

In 1976 I was supposed to race OB in Berlin, but Hans told the press I would be racing OA and OE so that's what I did. About half the field was propriders, and the rest cats. I wasn't sure I would like that. Dieter told me it was the biggest race ever in Berlin. 108 entries for classes OA,OB,OC,OD and OE. Drivers came from East and West Germany, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, France, Italy and USA. I had a Volvo Konig on my proprider and would be racing for Volvo Penta in the Manufacturers Championship. Unfortunately, my motor ran badly in all the heats and I didn't contribute a single point for Volvo Penta. I have more photos about Volvo Konigs Mintominto and Lars, but first a story about Hans Krage.

After the banquet at DePue last year, Joe Rome, Fred Hauenstein, Tim and Ryan Butts, Steve Litzell and myself stood outside after every one else was gone, swapping stories. Steve Litzell lived with Dieter for awhile and told this story. I have to laugh once again thinking about it. Steve told it in an imitation of Dieter's voice and mannerisms.

Dieter called Steve "Boy". They were testing on that canal and Dieter said to Steve, holding his hands up then bringing them down swiftly "Boy...if you see me do this...you must quickly slow down. You must watch me very closely. When I do this" again demonstrating his arm signal, "you must immediately stop. Do you understand?" Dieter went on to explain why this was so important, and here in Steve's words mimicking Dieter is what Dieter told Steve.

"I was here with Hans on the canal and he was flying too high. It was too late and the boat flew through the air and stuck in a Mercedes that was crossing a bridge. I must go to the police station.....and for five hours I try to convince them that Hans is no criminal." I can't remember all that Steve said, but I could see Dieter telling him that story, and it was so funny that we had tears in our eyes from laughing so hard.

[Lars Strom]

Wayne,

The canal outside Konigs factory was more like a "wide creek".
There was no boat ramp and Dieter stopped the traffic so
I could back down my trailer.

I guess you was one year to early for me in West Berlin.

The 1977 race at Tegel, I think the name was and it turned out to be
a bad one for me.
I flipped my Molinari boat , over 100 miles mph and it was only a week or two
before the Paris 6 hours.
Dieter was very helpful and we got the boat ready in time.
Joachim Mareth was my co-pilot.
Dieter was really into this 6 hour Race and traveled with us to Paris.

Do you have a photo of Dieter and Joachim??

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I have lots of photos of Dieter and Joachim Lars. I will post some. After reading all your posts, I am surprised we didn't cross paths at some time. Dieter was wired nonstop racing. We never talked about his OPC stuff or racing at the Paris 6 Hours. Dieter was always taking care of what what going on then at the time I was there, but thinking way ahead on how to get more horsepower.

I have so many fond memories of Dieter and his shop people...the things we did. You can do a search on BRF and type in Dieter Konig or Konig and see some of the pictures and stories that have already been posted.

As far as the wide creek Lars...you are right. The first turn I ever tried with an OA, I ran up onto the rock embankment. I backed off for the turn, but was not used to the steering. It was 1:1 turning, but even then I couldn't make it...and backed off and went to the rocks. In the canal...you had to turn left so hard you would break the prop loose to spin the transom around while cavitating. Then you could straighten out and take off back in the other direction down the canal.

[mintominto]

Wayne,

Thanks for digging out that entrylist, looks a real strong field of driving talent, I certainly wouldn't have found it easy to predict the winner from that lot.

I notice Dutch driver Cor Krouwel seems to be running a Johnson despite being backed by Team Mercury. Good to see the normally efficient Germans can make the same errors in their programmes as the rest of us.

Great to hear you have lots more stories and pics on these type of events. Both you and Lars seem able to deliver your stories in such terrific detail, long may it continue as it is very appreciated.

[Lars Strom]

Dieter Konig told me about a very nice Race in Austria he was going to and asked me to
Race there to.

I do not remember the name of this very old little town up in the mountains.
A beautiful place and the Race was on a River.

I was surprised to se so many OE boats, over 10 including Mercury's Michael Werner.

The OE class was not the only class, there was a World Championship in one of the Hydro
classes.
Not sure, but maybe OB.

There was two Teams from Japan and this was for me the first time I could see have effective the
Japanese people was.
Every one in the Team was working with white gloves and a written notebook to follow.

I do not remember the name of the Japanese engine, but the engine was faster than the Konig
and they won the World Championship.

Erwin Zimmerman was Racing Konig and Dieter was not happy, but in a very charming way he just
said that he has more homework to do.

I won the OE class and stayed at this beautiful place a few extra days.

Dieter left and a few weeks later he told me there was a new modified Konig engine available now to beat
the Japanese.

Wayne, do you know anything about this Race and what engine the two Japanese Teams where using??

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I don't know where that race was Lars. Possibly Linz on the Danube River, but it is a pretty large town. The OB World Champ was Yutaka Sugihara and his motor was a Yamato.

You were right about the new Konig. Dieter sent us one shortly before the Pro Nationals in Hinton, West Virginia. It did not even have a serial number. It just had VB stamped on it. Dieter said to turn it between 10,500 and 11,000 rpm's. It was hard to get on top, but once you got it up the motor was very powerful. The first morning we started to test it Dieter called to say shorten the mid section of the pipes to 150mm and keep the stinger the same length but with an id of 20 to 23 mm. It was the most powerful OB motor we ever had.

I don't recall what happened to us at the Nationals, but Dan Kirts was the fastest with a Konig. He outran everyone in the first heat, but in the second heat a pit man tossed the starting rope into the cockpit as he was pulling out of the pits. It got tangled in Dan's feet and as he was kicking around to get free of it, he kicked the throttle cable and dislodged it. His motor was only getting a little over half throttle after that, but they didn't discover what happened until he came back to the pits. Canadian Doug Thompson won with a Konig and Masaaki Nakmura was second with a Yamato.

Here's a few pics from Berlin 1977.

[Fast Fred]

thanks Lars, be interested in them parts. no i never worked for any of them guys. I do how ever envy your time as a Racer, seems that was the time . now cuzz i'm a "racer", i got to wait after every body else to get the parts i need or so they tell me. thay would be beter off liein to me and just sayin "we'll get them to you as fast as we can but that mite be a while"
and thats why i do my own stuff, but i can't make every thing.

tell us more about the FT, and how it compared to the Stinger

thanks
FF

[Lars Strom]

Fast Fred,

I get back to OMC 3 cyl in the 1978 racing.

[Lars Strom]

I have been looking really hard to find more photos
from my year with Volvo - Konig but so far no success.

This i s the only one I have