The white #270.
The white #270.
Talking to Chris Bush, this week, and realizing he's 45.....makes me realize my wife is right, I do live a lot in the past.....
BUT, GOD there were some GREAT MOD VP RACES in the PAST....
Looking at #9, my 19 Eliminator Daytona.....Holly Cow, how high must I have had the engine???...the boat is almost under water and the motor is sticking up in the air....
Brent Leach layed that boat up himself...We made some "CRAZY" inserts for the bottom....probably the only 19 Daytona that ever had a built in notched bottom of 6"....then, again, I never saw how Foster/Gilbreath inserted their 19 that they won Parker with...
Seeing Joe Burgess, brought back some great memories of a GREAT PERSON and a GREAT DRIVER...and put a tear in my eye...
I first met Joe at Havasu and he had THE BIG ORANGE MARINE ALLISON with a 150 on it, owned by a dentist...and I keep forgetting hjis name...Big Orange Marine had two boats and they blew the side out of one... I went up to the High School wood shop and talked the teacher into sawing us some pieces of plywood to fix it...
We all worked late into the night to fix that Allison...My dad, Joe, the Dentist and a guy named Roy, that had owned a Marine Shop in Edgeton, Wisconsin...15 miles from my wife's parent's house...Roy came to deliver some antique motors, I'd sold to Steve Mullholland, for him..We worked on that Allison..with an old ax....When we finished the job, Roy gave the ax to my dad...Roy died shortly after that and my dad's gone...but I have the AX...
Joe used my props on his JP's and I remember him winning a race at Kilowatt Marine Stadium in Memphis, TN... Joe was coming for the checker, and a slower boat went iinside, then, outside...as Joe got the checker, the guy went outside again. Joe tried to squeeze by but hit the end of a sea wall that was out in the water and he went nose first, kind of "*** over Teakettle"...Joe wasn't hurt...
The prop was a thru hub 26 cleaver and it flatten one blade right to the hub,,,,I mean like it was welded there...Now days, I'd cut it off and weld something to that hub....but then, I just told Joe to keep it as a trophy....
Chris Bush said a good capsule will cost $5,000.....He said, "If a caspule could save a life, you could go through the crowd and collect $5,000."
That wouldn't have been hard with Joe, as I would have put the first $5,000 up..
As Gary Garbrecht said not long ago...we were all a lot more INNOCENT then!!!
Last edited by Ron Hill; 02-02-2005 at 03:52 PM.
i have TONS of old pics from when dad was building for Roark and going to the ModVP races with Roark and Joe...wow, i'll have to get busy scanning them and post some of them up. i've got a great photo sequence of Joe in the white 380 leaving the hydrostreams at a race down at Lake Palestine
cool man, i think my boat was the one mike drove AFTER he went through the side of this boat. he told me after going threw the side he ran the calbe steering down the stringers b/c he got caught up in them going threw the side of that boat.
scott
The 56 was Joe Burgess.
I talked to dad this weekend, Joe and Stevie drove the 56, finished 3rd (1st legal Mod VP boat he says) and the white boat delaminated. The 56 had a huge break in the side dad remembers from some contact on the course also, I'm pretty sure it can be seen in the picture posted in my next post.
Stevie Robertson in the boat and Joe Burgess leaning in over the side... Stevie drove that boat with Joe, Roark drove the 270.
Some great shots of old Laser 380 Rays...
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