Hot Singles ! - Pictures [Archive] - Scream And Fly Powerboat and High Performance Powerboating Discussion Forums

willabee

12-06-2005, 02:45 PM

From the Golden Era

Found some old pictures ( don't know why I keep saying that, hell....all my stuff is old )

#254 - Tom Stickle - 17' Molinari sprint - 1350 stacker - 1971 Parker 9 Hour - note his cowling is gone, must be trying to make up time lost in the pits - can't get much looser than this and still keep the " This Side Up " decal pointed in the right direction. I think this is the race he ran wearing a full leg cast, we had to use a super-sized shoehorn just to get him in that thing.

365136

#251 - Mike Downard - 17' Molinari marathon - C6 - 1971 Parker 9 Hour - note the single pipe exhaust (loved that noise) - Mike seems to be saying " Yea, you can get just a little looser "

365137

specboatops

12-06-2005, 02:59 PM

...i Always Enjoy Your Posts And Pictures.

Chris

willabee

12-06-2005, 04:05 PM

Thank you......here's a couple more

#457 - Bobby Hering - 17' Molinari pickle fork sprint - TII - Dayton - the Kaukauna record run boat 118 mph - laid out about as perfect as can be done

365138

#190 - Bill Seebold - 17' Molinari marathon - TII - looks like Morgan City - he and Hering stole that show - they were running the 1st version of the NED C6 - When I sent the Morgan City powerheads to Fond du Lac for dyno testing, I asked Dr. Morgan to pay special attention to 2 specific serial numbers. When he sent them back, he said that those 2 had pulled the most horsepower. After the race he said " Let me guess, Hering and Seebold had the 2 we discussed " . I nodded "yes". He smiled and said " You're not going to tell me what you guys did are you?" I smiled and shook my head "no" :)

365139

...i Always Enjoy Your Posts And Pictures.

Chris

willabee

12-07-2005, 10:26 AM

Hope you're not disappointed that the pictures of 'Hot Singles" are of boats :D ..... here are a couple more

#148 - Dick Sherrer - Crusader hull - TII - Parker 9 Hour - laid out very nice

365140

#22 - Jackie Wilson - 17' Molinari marathon - Cowbell - Havasu 1970- If you have ever talked to Jackie, you know that every other sentence has a " bloody hooray " in it someplace. I had our boat painter make a couple of decals with that term on them. I presented them to Jackie at Havasu, he laughed and said that he would display them proudly :) I guess you can't see them the way this picture turned out, but that's what it says in the white rectangle just in front of his number.

365141

willabee

12-08-2005, 11:00 AM

Here's a couple more...

#457 - Bobby Hering - 17' Molinari sprint - 1350 stacker - Havasu - on Sunday he set a record for distance covered by a single over a 4 hour period, breaking the one Tom Stickle had set the day before in an identical setup

365142

#187 - Jim Merten - 16' Molinari sprint - 1250 - Miami Nationals - I might not have this exactly right because this was a strange deal, but here's the story.
We took two of these 16' sprints to Lake X, one for Merten and the other for Bill Sirois. The idea was to run the standard version of the engine for what was "U" class and then put the stacked powerhead on to run "S". Sirois hadn't arrived yet, so Merten set up both "U" boats. We started on the stacker setups and found that the engines were cutting out on both boats on top end only. We pulled carbs apart, changed electrical components and changed complete powerheads, all with no success. I called engineers back in Wisconsin, but they all drew blanks also. To make matters worse, while a bunch of us were in the shop working on Merten's boat, he and Richie Powers were testing Sirois's boat. Merten told Powers to take it for a run in hopes that might give Richie a better idea of what was happening........Richie blew it over. Looking at the bright side of things, that did cut our problem in half :)

365143

We finally figured out the problem and went down to Miami. If memory serves, Merten was feeling bad about Sirois not having a boat, so they agreed that one of them would run "U" and the other "S". This picture is Sirois driving.By the way, any of you guys got an idea on why those engines were cutting out ?:confused:

specboatops

12-08-2005, 11:28 AM

As a kid a use to watch these events locally ( Rockford Il/ RockRiver ) I remember guy's like Art Kennedy Dick Ingabritsen ( probably spelled it wrong )
Even saw Tim Seebolds first race, I believe it was class C he had a Orange tunnel that they had to weight the front of for him cuz he was such a little **** back then. At one point I think Alan Stoker and the mod vp stuff made its way into are area, sad, that stuff was great to watch and really brought the crowds out family entertainment at its best. Thanks again willabe for the great stuff your posting !!!

Chris

SCT

12-08-2005, 06:33 PM

Tom Stickle- " we had to use a super-sized shoehorn just to get him in that thing."

Willabee,

I saw Tom at the Cincinati Champ race this last summer......and he hasn't gotten any smaller! What a nice guy, though. Did he ever win Havasu or Parker in class?

Keep the pixs coming,

SCT

PARKER RABE

12-09-2005, 01:57 PM

my dads ron jones had the # 187 on it when he bought it.

willabee

12-12-2005, 10:21 AM

Tom Stickle
Not that I can recall, he always ran well.......sometimes in the lead, but something always seemed to happen to Tom at those events :(

Did he ever win Havasu or Parker in class?

willabee

12-12-2005, 03:08 PM

Did you finish 3rd - who did you co-drive with ? I think I have a picture of that somewhere, I'll find it and post it on this thread.

That's The Boat I Drove At Parker One Year. .

2us70

12-12-2005, 05:54 PM

Jim. Harold Bartee. Wasn't he the Mercury dealer in Sebring? I seem to remember you running a J Production Allison for him and his son ran a G boat.
Haven't seen a boat on this thread yet that I didn't lust after back then.

willabee

12-13-2005, 09:25 AM

Now I Remember It Well.......

I almost forgot about Pruett falling off of that truck.....another chapter in The Legend of Billy Don :) . It was Duane Berghauer that Gary put in your boat. When Gary told me what he was going to do, I asked him to put me in because Duane had never driven a sprint ( only the 18' "rockers" ) and I had. He just glared at me. When Duey came back in after one lousy lap, I glared back.

My experience with Gary taught me that if he expected you to do a good job, and you did , he didn't say thank you.....things had just gone as planned. When Duey's attempt flopped, but Petty's went well, Petty gets a "thank you" because it wasn't part of the plan. I was always okay with that, some people didn't understand his nature. You had accomplished everything Gary thought you would, hence, that was part of the plan.

Yes I Did Finish 3rd. I Went Out There To Codrive With Pruett. I'm Sure You Remember He Broke His Arm, Assin Around With The Omc Guys. .

willabee

12-13-2005, 09:35 AM

Tom Stickle

By the way, when I made the "super-sized shoehorn" remark, I was refering to the fact that his leg wouldn't bend. However, I really like your comment..... that should take down some of the head-swelling Watermark had created on another thread :)

......and he hasn't gotten any smaller!

willabee

12-13-2005, 10:23 AM

A Couple More Pics

I just answered my own question about who is driving the #187 boat pictured above, it is Bill Sirois. The first picture below had a caption that stated that Sirois drove Merten's boat and set a world record in "S" class, but didn't win the nationals because he jumped the gun in one of the heats. The helmet paint is the same in both pictures ( I don't think they will be clear enough for you to see it ).

The 2nd shot is of Jim Merten in the same boat winning the Miami 225 that same year, 1970. You can see he used a different shield than Bill did.

(Sorry, the first picture turned out lousy)

willabee

12-13-2005, 10:42 AM

A Couple of Bill Sirois

The 1st is at the 1970 Miami 225, driving the sister boat to the #187. He finished 10th, mainly because of time lost trying to get on plane at the start and after pitting. He had raced from39th to 5th before getting fuel. Back then, Bill had a favorite expression..."tough turkey". Before taking the boat to Lake X, I had " Tuff Turkey " painted on it... Bill seemed to like that :)

The 2nd is at Parker in the same boat, now painted black and called " Up, Up and Away " after being repaired ( the Richie Powers blowover ). In this photo, the boat is definately " Up - Up ".............unfortunately, late in the race it was " Away ". I'm not sure who was in it when it blew over, I just remember the sad sight when we got it back to Oshkosh and burned what was left :(

( Again, the 1st picture is crummy, sorry )

willabee

12-13-2005, 10:59 AM

T2x

12-13-2005, 12:04 PM

Freddy Miles...

Found one of a boat most people have not seen ( only because they are too young ), it's Fred himself in his own design, a Milesmaster. A good rough water boat, but not as fast as a Molinari. This is Havasu, 68 or 69, with a BP doing the pushing. I think this boat was used to launch Zonkercraft.....Mr T or TIIX could probably confirm or correct that statement. Note how close to the nose you sit in one of those things.

Fred Miles' designs were the source for Zonker Craft, Scorpions, and Kitson's... among others. The problem with the driver sitting so far forward was that it required excessive trim to balance the forward weight....until you reached the "snap flip" point.....and never knew what hit you.

T2x

willabee

12-13-2005, 12:27 PM

willabee

12-13-2005, 01:20 PM

It may have been early, my mind was saying it happened in the last hour, but that could have been a different team boat ( we lost several )...... It would have been fun to sit on that plane just behind you guys and listen to you tell Billy Don how happy you were with him :D

Bill Was Driving When The Boat Blew Over. For Some Reason I Was Thinking It Was Soon After The Start. He Had Just Passed Me. There Was A Canyon Coming Down To The River And The Wind Was Real Tough Right There. I Know I Had To Really Get On The Down Button When I Went Through There. Pruett And I Stopped By The Hospital To See Bill Before We Caught The Plane Home.

T2x

12-13-2005, 01:35 PM

Which one of these two statements is coming from your "voice of experience"..... the one about a Milesmaster "requires extra trim to balance the excessive forward weight" or the "never knew what hit you" :p

What I was thinking, was that this particular boat was the one that went to Al Martin's shop in Miami to start Zonkercraft. Do you know if that is the case?

Actually I watched two brand new full tunnel Kitson/Miles with Rookie drivers do exactly the same thing (snap flip).....my Miles "experience" was in a wooden pickle fork which I managed to back flip and later barrel roll, all in a 4 week period. I'm just not cut out to drive English tunnel boats......... :)

I believe you are correct about the boat in the picture becoming the "prototype" for the Zonker.

T2x

mike farmer

12-13-2005, 06:43 PM

if memory serves 1970 miami race was won by mertin followed closely by don clark & bill sirois was in a jones boat that he barrel rolled but i was just a punk kid then.mike :D it was dons last year so it could have been 71 my dad says don got hurt in 70 but when he was injured in paris he was running a twister not a stacker

BrianSmith

12-13-2005, 11:07 PM

We drove Freddys (Miles) boats out of Canada. As for the "Snap-over" maneuver, these were reserved for the glass copies I'm afraid.
Yes, the earlier Milesmaster was a tad touchy, however easily managed with your right foot!
Over a period with 3 vintages of his boats; I managed two Canadian Nationals championships, a Kilo record, two region 2 championships and many other victories.
Lots of Molys, Scotties and many others fell by the wayside to accomplish this.
These pics are from two of our boats.

Brian

willabee

12-14-2005, 10:15 AM

Part of your memory is still serving :) - Don Clark was driving a 18' Molinari marathon with the same type engine, a 1350 stacker, that Merten and Sirois had on their 16' sprints. Don's boat got through the rough stuff out in the bay much better than the sprints, but they probably had 10 mph on him inside of the stadium. He did lead for 15 laps and finished 2nd, the only boat on the same lap as Merten. As I mentioned, Sirois was in a Molinari and finished 10th. This race was in 1970.
I believe 1970 was the year Don got hurt in Paris driving a new 17' Molinari sprint with Twister power. If that year isn't correct, I'll let you know.

if memory serves 1970 miami race was won by mertin followed closely by don clark & bill sirois was in a jones boat that he barrel rolled but i was just a punk kid then.mike :D it was dons last year so it could have been 71 my dad says don got hurt in 70 but when he was injured in paris he was running a twister not a stacker

Mr.T

12-14-2005, 10:19 AM

Willabee Best I remember that Milesmaster was the prototype for the first zonkercraft. But I believe it was Havasu 1970. That was a joint venture between Chick Gagen and Gary PeacockMike Farmer Don did get hurt in 1970 in Paris 6hr. He and I were co-drivers. Happend about 1hr. 20min. into the race. He was driving 1st and last 2hrs. and myself middle 2hrs. Next was Berlin and we were going to do the oposite. I then drove Berlin with Carlos Rascine a tiemaker and banker from Italy good freind of Renatos. Wemust have run T1s because Stackers were not allowed in Europe due to noise

willabee

12-14-2005, 12:53 PM

The driver in the lower half of the second picture must have had two left feet because he sure didn't "easily" manage the "Snap-over" maneuver with his right ;)

As for the "Snap-over" maneuver, these were reserved for the glass copies I'm afraid.
Yes, the earlier Milesmaster was a tad touchy, however easily managed with your right foot!

mike farmer

12-14-2005, 09:46 PM

i wish i would have had a video at the [motel] at lake x before the 1970 miami race when roy [ridgle?] put the gator in bed with joe habie cause all joe had to say as he was runnig away was ttttttddttddddtt. what a prankster

Mr.T

12-15-2005, 10:42 AM

Mike:) :) :) A video would have been something to have that nite I was rooming with Joe. I think I was as scared as Joe . He slept nude and he came up out of that bed screaming and grabing the sheets stutering. He looked like CASPER the ghost

BrianSmith

12-15-2005, 07:09 PM

The driver in the lower half of the second picture must have had two left feet because he sure didn't "easily" manage the "Snap-over" maneuver with his right ;)
LOL..........! What happened was that, the guy we had rebuild the sponsons after my "Road excursion" earlier in the fall, took some rocker out therefore making the boat run flatter, without adding extra support at the fronts. The hard pounding punched holes in the front of both and it took a lap to figure out why I was having to use so much trim coming off a corner. Havasau water sure was cold!

willabee

12-16-2005, 02:44 PM

Roy Ridgell and his gators

Joe Habay even woke me up that night, and I was at least two rooms away......what I heard sounded more like a verbal version of Morse code than any spoken language that I was familar with :)

Ridgell pulled that stunt on me also. Story time........We were almost done testing for a Miami race and I was on a golf cart by the timing tower recording the last boats times. I think it was Bob "traitor" Hetzel that was driving the cart. As we drove back to the shop, I was still writing. When it stopped, I looked up and saw all of the guys standing in a semi-circle, but didn't think anything of it and continued to write. I didn't even notice Bob slip out of the cart. The thing that broke my concentration was a sound unfamilar to me....it was like a hissing noise, but I knew it wasn't Bob :rolleyes:

The guys tell me that when I saw the gator sitting in Bob's place, I went straight up about 3 or 4 feet ( not much of an unusual achievement ). However, they say that at the peak of my jump, I turned left, began kicking my legs and went another 3 or 4 feet horizontally. I was still kicking when my feet hit the floor, smoke came off of my sneakers and I was gone !

For at least a year after that , whenever I would run into Ridgell, he'd stick his paw out to say hello and have to pull it back and hold his stomach because he'd get to laughing so hard...............like I said before, we had a lot of fun :D :D

he came up out of that bed screaming and grabing the sheets stutering.

willabee

12-16-2005, 03:36 PM

I looked for a shot of Art Kennedy, but so far no luck. The closest I could come is a couple of the type boat he made his reputation in .....a GW ( George Wolridge ) Invader with a 1000 BP. In my opinion, nobody made that boat run the way he did!

These are from a Merc photo shoot to advertise the 1000 BP. In the 1st one, I was told to run on plane tight to the camera so they could get a clean shot of the engine ( I did and it came out pretty dorky, but I think they used it ) - the 2nd one is close to how the boat should look, but not enough engine for advertising use. The things that Art could make that boat do were just amazing. It was an absolute delight to watch him perform :)

I remember guy's like Art Kennedy

willabee

12-19-2005, 03:58 PM

Olegator in the #187

I couldn't find my pictures, but I found Powerboats.... here's the 16' Molinari sprint ( now with #174 on it because he was supposed to drive with Billy Don Pruett ) that Olegator spent 7 hours in at Parker in 1971. He finished 1st Merc, 3rd overall with a 1350 water-injected stacker on a McI speedmaster. The boat lost about a 1/2 hour of time on the course due to a screwed up driver change!

This was the year of Mercury's " Flying Circus ". The super speedmaster gearcases had been failing in big numbers, so the decision was made to fit all team boats with the MerCruiser I speedmasters for the 9 hour run. Obviously, the boats behaved differently because we took 10 and 5 blew over in the race....2 or 3 also went over during testing. When you bring 10, start 9 and have Sirois, Hering, Seebold, Downard and Collinge flip, plus you have Pruett fall and break his arm, you are not having a good day. However, there is even a bright side to all those flips........we did not fail any lower units :)

The 2nd picture is the boat that won......Johnny Sanders and Tom Posey

T2x

12-19-2005, 04:53 PM

Olegator in the #187

The super speedmaster gearcases had been failing in big numbers, so the decision was made to fit all team boats with the MerCruiser I speedmasters for the 9 hour run.

Were those units....... The "football" units we ran on the T-4's in Offshore in 1981? I recall them being cut down MC 1's.

T2x

willabee

12-20-2005, 03:06 PM

It's hard to remember who was co-driving with who back then, but I'm thinking Seebold and Petty were paired. If so, he flipped their boat testing, but I thought it wasn't damaged and that he flipped it again in the race :confused: Strangely enough, Mr.T wasn't among the "flippers". We need to ask him who flipped his boat before he had a chance to do it himself :)

Seems That I Recall Billy Flipping Petty's Boat While Testing And Stickle's Boat In The Race. Is That Anywhere Close?

Mr.T

12-21-2005, 09:51 AM

MR.BILL was the one if I remember right he blew over three that week. One testing two in the race. He wasn"t Mr. Bill then he was just another driver.I wasn"t a member of MERCURY'S FLYING CIRCUS that week end
It's hard to remember who was co-driving with who back then, but I'm thinking Seebold and Petty were paired. If so, he flipped their boat testing, but I thought it wasn't damaged and that he flipped it again in the race :confused: Strangely enough, Mr.T wasn't among the "flippers". We need to ask him who flipped his boat before he had a chance to do it himself :)

willabee

12-21-2005, 10:49 AM

What's Wrong With This Picture ?

Bruce Washburn

12-21-2005, 11:04 AM

Jimbo in Merc Powered boat???????

T2x

12-21-2005, 06:09 PM

What's Wrong With This Picture ?

It's obviously the wrong caption for that picture............ Actual caption should have read.

" Has anyone seen the top half of my boat?"

T2x :p

T2x

12-22-2005, 08:07 AM

Could That Be Jeff Titus?

I believe his name is written on the front combing.

T2x

PARKER RABE

12-22-2005, 08:18 AM

mike mullins still has a scat craft with an xs on it , thing looks like new , same style as the one in the picture , and he has a v bottom one too .

willabee

12-22-2005, 10:28 AM

What's Wrong......

For those that can't read the small print, the caption under the Scat Craft reads " Jimbo McConnell, #191, leads Kenny Kitson, #119, over the finish line for a real thriller in the second heat of the torrid T class "

Just amazing, you are all correct ! It is Jeff Titus winning Sport I and setting a national record in a Scat Craft ( the lower half of a tunnel boat ) powered by a Merc 1000 in Miami in 1970........I've never seen a photo with Jimbo powered by Merc

I bet you guys can guess how the caption read for the picture below.......

Could That Be Jeff Titus?

2us70

12-22-2005, 11:17 AM

Boy my memory is fading fast. I was at the 70 Nationals in SE and I don't remember Jeff driving a ScatCraft.The ScatCraft I remember most was Bobby Soles "Prop Job" with a 135 Chrysler.It seemed to me that few of them were run with Mercs and that is the only picture I have seen of one with a Mercury. Was that a 100BP motor?

willabee

12-22-2005, 12:10 PM

I hope you don't feel like The Lone Ranger about that fading memory :)

Powerboat says that James Bolger won SE in a Merc powered McCall. Titus used the same Scat Craft to run in 4 classes and won 3 of them........SI with a Merc, SJ with a Merc and U with a Johnson. ....he flipped in FJ ( he must have had a 1000, a 1250 and a Stinger ). I think the picture is a "people 1000", the 1000 BP ran in UI. Olegator, do I have those engines matched for those classes?

Boy my memory is fading fast. I was at the 70 Nationals in SE and I don't remember Jeff driving a ScatCraft.The ScatCraft I remember most was Bobby Soles "Prop Job" with a 135 Chrysler.It seemed to me that few of them were run with Mercs and that is the only picture I have seen of one with a Mercury. Was that a 100BP motor?

T2x

12-22-2005, 12:36 PM

What's Wrong......

For those that can't read the small print, the caption reads " Jimbo McConnell, #191, leads Kenny Kitson, #119, over the finish line for a real thriller in the second heat of the torrid T class "

Just amazing, you are all correct ! It is Jeff Titus winning Sport I and setting a national record in a Scat Craft ( the lower half of a tunnel boat ) powered by a Merc 1000 in Miami in 1970........I've never seen a photo with Jimbo powered by Merc

I bet you guys can guess how the caption read for the picture below.......

If you look closely enough at that picture, it seems that Kitson is running an 18 footer (single engine design).....with twins.

T2x

2us70

12-22-2005, 12:53 PM

I think that I was so wraped up in my own efforts that year I didn't pay much attention to the other boats. Olegator had just fixed my best prop and in the process improved it almost a mile an hour so I figured this was my best shot at Nationals. I find that thinking back to that year I can only remember my own races. Do you have Powerboat from way back then or is it on the web somewhere?

willabee

12-22-2005, 01:19 PM

At 1st glance, it does look that way..........but, it seems to have too much nose for an 18'. I think the twin was a 20', however, who knows what Kenny might have put together for the Nationals.

Doesn't Raceman have one of these ? If so, what length is his ......

If you look closely enough at that picture, it seems that Kitson is running an 18 footer (single engine design).....with twins.

T2x

willabee

12-22-2005, 01:25 PM

What's this " from way back then " sh-t :)

I have lost some of my Powerboats from 68 and 69, however I think I have them pretty much complete through 1980 :cool:

Do you have Powerboat from way back then or is it on the web somewhere?

2us70

12-22-2005, 01:37 PM

Wow what a great resource. Of course you realize you will now be asked to research everything from that time.

willabee

12-22-2005, 01:55 PM

I wouldn't have any problem with requests from...............wait...wait a minute.....I smell smoke.............what the heck is burning????? Oh No, it's my Powerboats!!!

Shucks, there went the research :)

Wow what a great resource. Of course you realize you will now be asked to research everything from that time.

T2x

12-22-2005, 04:16 PM

At 1st glance, it does look that way..........but, it seems to have too much nose for an 18'. I think the twin was a 20', however, who knows what Kenny might have put together for the Nationals.

Doesn't Raceman have one of these ? If so, what length is his ......

RM has a 21 footer.....but the short rear cowl on that boat, even compared to Jimbo's next to him, looks to me like an 18.

T2x

Mark75H

12-22-2005, 05:57 PM

The main purpose of the 1000 BP was to use in Europe where the displacement limit was 1500cc, 100cc less than 99.9ci.

willabee

12-23-2005, 11:39 AM

Kitson in the 18'

If that was Kenny's "trick", to run an 18' with twins to win the Nationals, it wasn't enough. Billy Don Pruett won the 1st heat setting a world record with Jimbo coming in 2nd. Pruett got a bad start in the 2nd heat and finished 4th, Jimbo won that heat and took the title.

Here's a shot from the 1st heat showing the great start that Pruett got in his 20' Jones. He's on the inside and leading Johnny Sanders ( in a twin McCall - on his knees ! ), Jimbo and Kitson to the 1st turn. In the 2nd shot, he is coming out of the 2nd turn and heading for the flag :) Man, multi engine outboards are really cool :cool:

Note: Pruett's record with twins in T class was 76.598 mph - Bill Sirois also set a record that day in single engine S class at 76.989 mph - just a tick quicker than the twins !

I Agree With T2x On The Kitson Being A 18'.

willabee

12-23-2005, 12:11 PM

1970 U Class

Olegator, you're probably not going to like this, but Powerboat says Jeff Titus won U class that year. Did you and Soles have your battle in 1969 or is the magazine wrong?

If I'm Not Mistaken, That Was The Year That Bobby Soles And I Ran The U Class. Neither One Of Us Could Beat The Other Two Heats In A Row. At That Race I Won The Nationals By Winning One Heat And He Ran Third. Then He Beat Me The Second Heat, But I Finished Second. That Was The Runningest Chrysler I Ever Went Up Against.

The Big Al

12-23-2005, 12:14 PM

Dam it Willabee! You get me evey time I see this back at the top!!!

Merry Christmas!

jphii

12-23-2005, 12:15 PM

Dam it Willabee! You get me evey time I see this back at the top!!!

Merry Christmas!

What he said! This is a great thread.

2us70

12-23-2005, 06:10 PM

I went to Lake Magorie with John McCall to test my SE one day about that time and he brought a U boat to test also. That boat went sideways on him a couple of times that day and he was trying to figure out why. As bad as I wanted a chance to drive a U class boat I sure didn't want to get in that one. Wonder if it was the same one?

willabee

12-24-2005, 02:26 PM

And all this time I thought you were just showing off with that sideways move :)

Is this a shot of you just before the " sideways maneuver "

In The First Heat, While Leading The First Lap, The Mccall Turned Side Ways While Running Down The Front Straight Away. That Was Not A Good Feeling .

willabee

12-27-2005, 03:49 PM

Surrounded by singles........

Here's a shot of Joe Fielder at Havasu in 1970....the man in hot water! He led the 1st lap in a 21' Glastron/Molinari with twin 1250 stackers and as he came by the pits, he hit a huge hole left in the water by Rudy Ramos' triple engine Jones ( Rudy got a late start ). Joe tripped on the tail and did a nose dive in front of more than 100 boats. I remember it well, a very scary sight that seemed to last forever. I watched helplessly as he waved and boats tried to zig and zag to miss him..he actually pushed off of the side of a few boats to avoid their props! Amazingly, no one hit him, but he did suffer a fractured back as a result of the nose dive.

BrianSmith

12-27-2005, 04:12 PM

In those days there were a lot of scary accidents......near misses......and the others.

2us70

12-27-2005, 08:50 PM

That's not Olegator that's John McCall himself. I believe the picture is from a Mercury advertisement.

willabee

12-28-2005, 10:38 AM

I didn't think it was Olegator. The way that McCall is running, if he had been behind the wheel, we would be looking at a big grin :D

By the way, I didn't realize that I was telling you that you won SE at the Nationals :o ......I bet you already knew that - congratulations

That's not Olegator that's John McCall himself. I believe the picture is from a Mercury advertisement.

willabee

12-30-2005, 12:02 PM

Long Beach 225 Marathon of Champions - 1971......

A few shots of the boys going at it on the 1 1/8 mile course in the stadium. A 200 lap event, Renato Molinari looked like an easy winner early, having lapped everyone except Mike Wallace 30 minutes into the race. Then Art Kennedy drove over Renato's boat in a turn, which broke his hand and forced him out of the event. Mercury is still running TI's, I never was much good at identifying what was on the transom of an OMC rig.

The 1st shot is of Wallace, who won in a Schulze/Evinrude, his 1st outboard victory. The 2nd is of Jimbo, who with Ted May finished 2nd in an OMC/Evinrude.

Question for you OMC fans.......were OMC tunnels, OMC hydros, McDonalds and Goat boats all built by the same guy?

willabee

12-30-2005, 12:13 PM

Long Beach 225......

Alan Stinson / Bill Wiles finished 3rd in an Allison/Evinrude with one of those big wings on the rear ( I don't have a photo ). They were followed by Mr.T ( Tom stickle ) / Bill Seebold in a Molinari/ Merc TI....#254 below.

Mike Downard/Bill Sirois finished 5th in a Molinari/Merc TI....#251

willabee

12-30-2005, 12:28 PM

Long Beach 225.......

Pictured here are Dick Sherrer #148, who finished 9th in a Glastron-Carlson/Merc 1350 stacker and Fred Hauenstein in a ?????/Evinrude, #35 finishing 10th ( looks somewhat like a Tom Arnstead Marathon hull ).

T2x

12-30-2005, 02:31 PM

willabee

01-04-2006, 10:04 AM

That's easy.......You correct the mistakes you had made at a previous race where, for some unknown reason, Downard and Petty were teamed in a single ......for those that don't know, Petty had about 2' and 200 lbs. on Downard :eek:

How in the world did you balance a boat for both Mike Downard and Bill Sirois to co drive?????

T2x

willabee

01-04-2006, 11:28 AM

Paris 6 Hour - 1970

This race was not a pleasant experience, and I don't say that just because OMC won. Jimbo McConnell did a nose dive in his new, very fast OMC tunnel .....Cesare Scotti hit a barge and sank ( neither driver badly hurt ).....Jim Merten did a nose dive and suffered kidney damage.....and worst of all, Don Clark flipped and was taken down the tunnel of a boat behind him and was badly hurt. All of this, plus an "incident" that may have unknowingly been the beginning of the end of the relationship between Molinari and Mercury.

I think we ran 6 boats.....Renato/Wilson in a 17' extended transom marathon, Stickle/Clark, Hering/Downard, Pruett/Berghauer (Denny), Rasini/Tobino in new 17' marathons and Merten/Sirois in a 16'sprint. We took a stake truck, built solid sides, put all of our Twister engines for both Paris and Berlin in it, and loaded the 16' sprint ( the Miami 225 winner ) on top and shipped it to Italy.

All of the rigging and testing was done at Molinari's shop on Lake Como. Other than my having to learn to drink tea and exchange "bloody hoorays" with Jackie Wilson every morning, things went pretty smoothly. I even skipped lunch with the boys one day and took one of the Paris boats for a drive all around the lake, it was just beautiful. The day before we were to head for Paris, all of the boats were ready except Renato's. He seemed to be "tweaking" and was being very secretive. After a test run, he would pull the boat out of the water and send it to the second floor (we were all on the first) and wouldn't say anything.

The Italians always made the arrangements for transporting the boats to Paris, so we were ready to catch a plane. Before we left, I asked Renato if he needed anything and he told me he did not. We headed for Paris to relax for a day and wait for the boats...........to be continued

Here's a shot of the winner, Johnny Sanders/Tom Posey and one of the 2nd place finishing Molinari/Wilson rig.....

willabee

01-05-2006, 04:16 PM

Paris 6 Hour - 1970 ( continued )......

On Friday, I ran into Levio Prada at the hotel and he informed me that all of the boats had arrived safely. I then told the guys what time I wanted everyone to meet in the pits on Saturday. When I got there, some of the guys had already arrived and were gathered in deep conversation. As I approached, it was obvious that they weren't very happy about something. I asked what was up and Merten told me to go look at his boat.

There it was, the 16'sprint, just like it was when we left Italy except for one little change......the powerhead was missing! Upon futher inquiry, I learned that Renato had suspected that we had put our best powerhead on the Merten/Sirois boat, so he decided to try it during our absence. Although we had not done that, he felt that his test results confirmed his suspicions and he kept the powerhead. I don't where he got this idea, I think we all really liked Renato ( I still do ) and he was the winner of this event the last two years, so common sense would dictate that if we had a "best powerhead", we would put it on his boat. To me, he had done the unthinkable ( you just don't mess with someone elses' race boat - especially a team boat when you're all on the same team ) and I told Mert that I was going to put the powerhead back where it came from.

Enter Garbrecht.......he instructed me to leave it alone and to put a new one from the truck on Mert's boat. I told him that I didn't like the idea of the tail waging the dog, but he made it clear that we were to make no waves over this issue. When I infomed Jim of the plan, he said to me privately that he didn't know where and didn't know when, but " one day the Prince will get his due "........he was very angry. None of us knew then that a few months later, Mert would become the manager of the outboard race team and one of his priority projects was the development of the Twistercraft..........coincidence???

Here is a shot of the OMC tunnel that Jimbo did his nose dive in.....he passed Renato on the 2nd lap, but then had to fall back as the water got much rougher. The 2nd picture is of Arie deBoom ( from Amsterdam ), who with his son, finished 3rd in a Molinari/Johnson.

willabee

01-06-2006, 03:06 PM

Six Hours of Berlin - 1970

Telling you about this race is going to cause me to go off of my diet because, as you will see, I'm about to eat a lot of crow :o

The race is run the Sunday after the Paris 6 Hour. This time we run 5 boats because we lost the Don Clark Molinari in the accident at Paris. The driver pairings also changed a little. We put fresh Twisters on the Molinari's of Renato/Hering, Sirois/Wilson and Rasini/Stickle ( I think that's how they were paired ).

Then ( here comes my crow dinner ) we install a new powerhead with 6 rectangular shaped carbs and a bulbous cast exhaust system on the Pruett/Berghauer boat. But hey, we're not done.......we then install another new powerhead on the Downard/Tobino rig. This one ( here comes more crow ) has 9 carbs........3 where they belong and 6 more poking through the cowl from the transfer covers !! So much for my shot about two powerheads in Europe with about 57 carbs on them .......Mark75H, looks like it's my turn to say that you were more correct than me :rolleyes: I still don't remember squat about those powerheads and I probably helped install them. Never saw the 9 carber again and we know the 6 carb evolved into the C6.

Well. the 2 boats with the trick stuff didn't run worth a darn, so we really had 3 boats in the race. They pretty much ran 1-2-3 for the 1st couple of hours and then the McConnell/Hill Molinari/Johnson started to strut it's stuff. They won followed by Renato/Hering. There was an interesting piece of strategy played out in the last hour by Renato. Hill had a big lead and Renato wasn't going to be able to catch him, so he slowed down. When Hill caught him to put a lap on him, Renato started to race again. They went side by side for a couple of laps and Hill got out of shape a few times. That was Renato's idea, to see if Hill would race with him and make a mistake......it almost worked.

"BURP...burp...burp...Burp........excuse me, must be that darn crow :)

willabee

01-10-2006, 04:35 PM

Miami 225 - July 1971

To the best of my knowledge ( or lack of same ), this is the 1st race that a C6 ran competitively. We know that the first one appeared at Berlin in 1970 ( my ultimate goal is to complete the Big Engine list :) ), but I can't tell you if the Morgan 6 carb manifold was married to a 1350 or a 1400 block for that race. Mr.T recalls that he and a second boat were sent to Lake Tahoe with a C6's prior to this Miami race, but he said they didn't run worth a darn and were replaced by Twister's for that event..... those were 1400's.

We ran four C6's in Miami ( Hering, Molinari, Stickle and Downard ), as well as some Twisters and some 1350 water-injected stackers! All to no avail as Jimbo won driving an OMC tunnel with an Evinrude. However, as Jimbo led the 1st two-thirds of the race, Hering passed him several times as they went down the backstretch, seemingly with ease. Hering then took the lead and held it until 8 laps remained and then had a battery failure. After that performance, all engineering efforts were focused on what was to become the TII.

Here's a shot of Hering in a 17' Molinari sprint, #457 and one of Renato in a slightly different design of that boat, #554 - Miss Titti ( he finished 7th )........both powered by the C6.

willabee

01-11-2006, 01:56 PM

Miami 225 - July 1971

Here is a shot of Bill Seebold driving Old Blue ( I think Mr.T gave it that name which came from an old Chevy stationwagon Tom used to race around Oshkosh ). I believe this was the 1st single Seebold drove for the factory. Since he is running an older boat with a stacker, and 4 of our guys had new boats with C6 power, it's safe to say that this was early in his relationship with Mercury and he had not yet reached his "top gun" status.

Garbrecht and I were coming back from a trip out west and we stopped at a race in Illinois to watch Seebold driving Les Brown's 7 litre Long Gone. Gary talked to Bill after the race and I think the next move was to put a 20' Jones together for him to run at Havasu in 1970, maybe his first factory drive.

Anyway, here he is finishing 2nd at the 225 followed by Billy Don Pruett using another 1350 water-injected stacker.

mbd29

01-13-2006, 07:44 AM

Just got this from one of our Parts employees. We still have some of this around.

willabee

01-13-2006, 12:22 PM

More Singles.....

#119 - Bill Sirois - driving Kenny Kitson's 17' or 18' Kitson/Miles at Miami in 1971....I don't recall for sure why Sirois is driving instead of Kitson, maybe someone reading this does. The other thing that is puzzeling is that post #47 on this thread shows Kitson driving a boat of his own manufacture powered by OMC in 1970. This boat is powered by Mercury and is of a completely different design than the 18' twin. Did he partner with someone to build boats in 1970 and then partner with Fred Miles in 1971? Did he only run OMC's for one year? Maybe one of you guys that talks with Kenny can ask him those questions.

#S-36 - Art Kennedy,Jr. ( here's your picture Specboatops :) ) - 18' Molinari "rocker bottom" powered by one of the four 1350 powerheads running their 1st race at Havasu in 1968....he finished 6th overall and 3rd single. Those 4 boats were the last of the "good" 18'ers that came over from Italy. They were replaced by the 17' sprints and marathons. Two or three of them sat in our yard at Merc in Oshkosh for a year or so, and then were put up for sale.......$100.00......makes you want to cry doesn't it.

T2x

01-13-2006, 03:18 PM

willabee

01-18-2006, 01:38 PM

:confused: :confused: Zonkercraft

Peacock/Gagen had Al Martin building wooden Zonkers ( Milesmasters ) in Florida.....Kitson/????? built glass Kitson's ( Milesmasters ) in Missouri.......and, Sirois/Janish also built glass Zonkers ?

1. Is that a Kitson...or a Sirois built Zonker Craft?

2. Kitson started out popping Glastron Molinari's and later worked with Miles.

T2x

2us70

01-18-2006, 04:17 PM

I think that the Scorpions were also based on the Milesmaster boats.

willabee

01-19-2006, 09:08 AM

I don't know what a Scorpion is.....do you have a photo, where were they built, when did they race, who built them, did they win anything, etc.?

Did Sirois/Janish also make a glass Zonker/Miles ?

I think that the Scorpions were also based on the Milesmaster boats.

specboatops

01-19-2006, 09:58 AM

S-36 - Art Kennedy,Jr. ( here's your picture Specboatops ) - 18' Molinari "rocker bottom" powered by one of the four 1350 powerheads running their 1st race at Havasu in 1968....he finished 6th overall and 3rd single. Those 4 boats were the last of the "good" 18'ers that came over from Italy. They were replaced by the 17' sprints and marathons

Thank you, Didn't Art later start driving for OMC ? seems I remember him at races with the white motor on the back. There use to be a guy who raced #13 do you remember who he was, I have a couple of pics of his old race boat think it was a seebold hull.....maybe not anyway he ran a 1500xs and had a very nice lookin boat.

specboatops

01-19-2006, 10:12 AM

JWTjr.

01-19-2006, 10:31 AM

Art did drive Mod U and OZ boats for Lou Eppel and were Johnson powered, beginning in the late 1970s into the early 80s, then was driving Merc powered boats again after that.

Great driver and always fun to watch.

JWTjr.

willabee

01-19-2006, 11:30 AM

You're welcome.........Yes, he did drive for OMC. The race pictured is 1968, I'm pretty sure it was his first tunnel drive. He received factory help from Merc during his GW Invader days and then moved into this factory boat at Havasu. He may have run a few more races for Merc and then something happened. I really don't recall what it was, but I kind of remember a sort of falling out between him and Garbrecht ( I could be wrong about that ). I think he tried to run on his own for a year or two and then OMC picked him up. He may have started for them in 1970, but for sure was driving for them in 1971. When he ran over Renato Molinari at Long Beach in 71, he was definately OMC factory powered.....I doubt that Art would have run like that with Renato if he had been in a Merc factory boat ( they banged sides for at least two laps before the accident ).

The #13 isn't ringing any bells at the moment, if it comes to me I'll holler back at you.

[QUOTE=specboatops]
Thank you, Didn't Art later start driving for OMC ? seems I remember him at races with the white motor on the back. There use to be a guy who raced #13 do you remember who he was,[QUOTE]

2us70

01-19-2006, 02:44 PM

Scorpoins were the boats Doug Perl ran in SJ. I think they built them just for Doug since I don't ever recall anyone else running one. I am pretty sure Albert Ensweiler had something to do with the final design but I think they started with a Milesmaster and kept changing things until they got the result they wanted.

willabee

01-19-2006, 03:15 PM

Scorpions

Okay, now I remember them......Homer Green may have run one also, he and Pearl were very successful with their boats. However, I would have guessed that they were both running before the Milesmaster came over.

Scorpoins were the boats Doug Perl ran in SJ. I think they built them just for Doug since I don't ever recall anyone else running one. I am pretty sure Albert Ensweiler had something to do with the final design but I think they started with a Milesmaster and kept changing things until they got the result they wanted.

Bruce Washburn

01-19-2006, 04:06 PM

Homer and Doug were the only two that I can remember. I think Pearl owned the molds. This was a little before my time but I do remember that they were ugly and fast Didn't Ensweiler work for Pearl?

2us70

01-19-2006, 05:37 PM

Albert worked several places and may have worked at UniWeld at one time.I believe Albert never ran a boat that he didn't take a saw to. Every boat he had kept getting smaller every few months. He cut down everything from a flatbottom Mitchell to a big twin engine Glasspar Vbottom,that one at least twice. He also cut down and redecked a Magnum Missile into twin engine kneeldown rig with 1250 Speedmasters on it. He blew it over in the Miami Marine Stadium big time and got hurt kind of bad and I don't remember him driving after that. I think he suffered some lingering effects from that one and he basicly coundn't race anymore.

willabee

01-20-2006, 02:55 PM

I thought those two boats were of wood construction ?

I think Pearl owned the molds.

2us70

01-20-2006, 03:15 PM

Glass bottoms with wood decks.

willabee

01-20-2006, 03:54 PM

Paris 6 Hour - 1971

The orders come down to start preparing for Paris. We are going to run six boats again, four new 17' Molinari's that are waiting to be rigged at Renato's shop along with the Molinari Bob Spalding had been running and a 20' hull that Renato had built to run with a pair of Twisters in special event races in Europe. I think the driver pairings were Renato/Hering, Downard/Pellolio, Seebold/Rasini, Stickle/Sirois, Spalding/Percival and Pruett/Petty in the big boat. The confidence level was still not that high for the C6, so the plan was to run two of them ( Renato and Pruett ) and run TI's on the others.

Paris is always a rough water race because you have 80/90 boats which include V bottoms, solid seawalls and barge traffic after the first hour of the race. With that thought in mind, it was decided to set the four TI boats up differently.....propshafts were run at levels between 1/4" to 5/8" below the sponsons to try to maintain a good bite all around the course. The thinking on the big boat was to give it the C6 and set it up as fast as that engine could push it and maybe it's size would make it competitive in that water. Of course Renato was allowed to set his up any way that he wanted to and he took the "as fast as it will go" route. When we left for Paris, the four new boats peaked out between 85 and 90 mph, the big boat might have hit 85 and Renato was flying.

Renato and Hering did all of their testing with a C6 that had been sent over for him to play with while coming up with his design for the new boats. As it got closer to race time, I suggested that we install his new C6 and make a few passes. He informed me that he was going to run the one he had been testing with. I gave him all of my reasons why that was a bad idea, he didn't want to hear it. I asked Hering to convince him otherwise, he declined. Garbrecht said that it was up to the drivers. Disgusted, I told Renato that if that powerhead failed, I was going to tell him in front of God and the whole world that he was a dumb, stubborn SOB......he responded by saying that if he wins, he was going to say the same to me.....I said "Deal".

Here's a shot of the winning Downard/Pellolio boat ( notice it's not Renato/Hering ).

To be continued.......

willabee

01-21-2006, 05:09 PM

Paris 6 Hour - 1971....continued
Paris is an impound race, so everyone has to be out of the pits by a certain hour on Saturday. All of our drivers had taken a few laps and we were wrapping things up when it was announced that, for the first time, barge traffic would be held for the entire race rather than just the first hour. Suddenly, the strategy for 5 of our 6 boats doesn't look as good because the water isn't going to be as rough as we had set up for, and there is no time to do anything about it.

The race starts, and Renato flys into the lead which he holds for almost an hour before that "test" C6 comes apart and he is done for the day ( you already know what I'm thinking ). Cesare Scotti takes the lead and sets a course record in the process, averaging 90 mph! Just after his fuel stop, he bangs sides with someone coming out of a turn and sinks ( I think Mr.T can tell you more about that ). Somtime into the 3rd hour, the boats running TI's start sounding strange, a misfire. Tom Stickle comes into the pits and a quick check doesn't reveal the problem. We put him on a trailer so we can find out what is going on and maybe be able to fix the others in the water. Turns out it's water in the distributor, so we spread the word to every pit using a TI to bring their boat in as soon as possible, drop the cap, spray the insides with CRC and to put GE sealant over the plug in the cap. We do the same with our remaining TI boats.

All of this takes time, so the OMC boats are running in the top positions. However, a variety of things break on all of their rigs during the last two hours! We didn't do much better, Molinari and Stickle were already out, Pruett breaks an ignition coil mount, Seebold flips and something broke on Spalding.....the one remaining factory boat in the race, Downard/Pellolio, pulls out the win :eek:

Here's a couple of shots of Scotti......

minto

01-22-2006, 06:45 AM

What a fascinating insight into an era widely regarded by many as the golden period for this type of racing. The entrylists for these events seem to read like royalty for tunnel boat racing, we salute you for taking the time to share your memories of those great races with us.

Mr.T

01-23-2006, 04:04 PM

Paris 6 Hour - 1971....continued Cesare Scotti takes the lead and sets a course record in the process, averaging 90 mph! Just after his fuel stop, he bangs sides with someone coming out of a turn and sinks ( I think Mr.T can tell you more about that ). ...... After Scotti re-fueld he wasn't as fast with a full load. He came out of the pits just ahead of me. By the time we got back around to the last bridge before the pits I was about one boat length behind him on the outside. He looked back saw me and drifted over. It was lift or hit the bridge I lifted cut in behind him. We came out of the pit turn side by side I had punch on him and got the rear of my sponson half way up the side of his. Then the rear of my boat (for some unknown reason) went sideways and we hit. I may have turned the wheel just a little bit. No worse than getting pushed into a concrete bridge. The next lap he was sinking almost the same spot were the rear of my boat went sideways. when I got into the pits Renato (even though he and Scotti were cousins) congratulated me for about an hour.AND THATS THE REST OF THE STORY MR.T :D :D :D

willabee

01-24-2006, 03:21 PM

Found Some More Stuff......

When you went to the Nautical Inn ( and other restaurants ) in Havasu for a bite to eat in 1972, you were treated to a placemat that featured Mercury's Twistercraft and Twister engine. This was in response to what OMC had forced you to stare at in 1971.

Starting top center and going clockwise, the Evinrude mat featured Jimbo McConnell, Ted May, Ron Hill, Cesare Scotti, Mike Wallace and Barry Woods.

The Johnson mat had Tommy Posey, Johnny Sanders, Art Kennedy, Mac McCune, and Jeff Briggs........:cool:

willabee

01-25-2006, 10:27 AM

A Couple of Great Designs.......

It didn't seem to matter what type of course or what the water conditions were, these two designs always ran at or near the front in every race they entered.

#254 - Tom Stickle - 1970 Havasu, set a course record on Saturday......notice how much room the other 100 boats gave this guy when he ran at speed ;) ( Bob Hering ran a twin to this boat ).

#251 - Mike Downard - 1970 Havasu, one of those "white" Molinari's we talked about earlier......Hering had one also and his success with it is what established his place as one of the best.

SCT

01-25-2006, 10:37 AM

willabee

01-25-2006, 10:48 AM

Speaking of Bob Hering.......

Another shot of the 118 mph kilo record setting Molinari.......this one was taken at the Nationals in Dayton where he set a 5 mile competition record of 82.873 mph. I'm pretty sure this was the first Molinari pickle fork run in the US and was it's first race. Notice what I always thought was Renato's idea of "wheelie bars for a boat" hanging out behind the TII.

willabee

01-25-2006, 11:10 AM

Willabee,

If you keep mentioning Mr. T......is head is only going to keep getting bigger and bigger then it already is.....just kidding!

Keep the great stories coming, very interesting pieces of OB history.

We need to get Mike Downard to post. His brother, Gorden posted a little a few months ago.

Although I do post pictures of him racing, please note that I never say anything nice about him. Like you, I worry about that head size :)

It would be interesting if Mike would share his thoughts and experiences.

brianT2

01-26-2006, 11:26 PM

willabee, this was on a old thread from a race in st. pete at lake maggorie, around '72?? any idea who was driving this rig? #699?

bigbore

01-27-2006, 12:52 AM

hey my dad was in the quote on quote (pit crew)here in rockford when dick englebrits blew over.he was getting beat in the heat races (just by a bit)and wanted a bigger prop which led up to him blowing over.not sure if this was talked about yet (didnt read all the replies but there ya go).:cool:

mbd29

01-27-2006, 07:30 AM

The photo shows Bob Spalding, Rick LaMore, and Big Bob Hetzel.

willabee

01-27-2006, 09:01 AM

The photo shows Bob Spalding, Rick LaMore, and Big Bob Hetzel.

Boat #699

Mike, hope you don't mind a slight correction.....Bob Spalding, big Rick LaMore and bald Boob Hetzel :) . It also looks like Garbrecht walking out of view on the right.
TII on a pickle fork, probably 1973.

Here's at shot of Hetzel showing a member of the Powerboat Magazine staff just what a Merc 1000 can do during the Mercury dealer congress in Oshkosh in 1968. Olegator, that same article mentioned that about a dozen of the 1250's made their debut at the Salton Sea 500 in 1967 ( think "Big Engine List" ).

willabee

01-30-2006, 02:32 PM

Speaking of Olegator......

Jim Hunt heading back to the pits after setting a world record of 67.265 mph in U class at the Div.8 Regionals in Miami......July,1969. Cowled McCall with a 1250 Super BP......on his knees again?

brianT2

01-30-2006, 09:21 PM

i appreciate you guys (mbd29 and willabee) posting the info on the picture. i had a feeling that the driver would have to be somebody relatively important to have that equipment during that time frame. also thanks again to willabee for the shot of dad in U-44, i'll add it to my growing collection of photos. on a side note i will be posting something soon about that U-44/McCall/stacker rig:D

willabee

02-03-2006, 11:42 AM

Havasu - 1971.....

This was the last go-round for factory multi engine boats. Among the Molinari hulls we entered were Bill Sirois in the reverse S with TI's ( Jim Merten's 1970 boat ), Bill Petty in the engines over sponsons with TI's ( Renato's 1970 boat ) and Billy Don Pruett in the 21' ( Sirois 1970 boat ). Singles included Bob Hering, Renato Molinari, Tom Stickle, Mike Downard and Bill Seebold.

Sirois won followed by Reggie Fountain, driving for Glastron in a 21' and Harold Eis in his modified Stylecraft, all twins. However, the real action was in the singles competition. Hering and Molinari ran C6's and the others had TI's. Hering actually paced the field on Saturday before he punched a hole in his rig. Seebold, Downard and OMC's Mike Wallace and Jimbo McConnell all led the singles competition at some point. On Sunday, Hering started for Renato and made up 2 of the 3 laps they were down, he even put a lap on the twins! Renato climbed in after a fuel stop and made up the last lap by passing Wallace with 3 laps remaining and that included making a fuel stop that Wallace didn't have to make.....they say the fuel stop took 15 seconds ( thank you Jim Emerson ). Renato and Hering finished 1st single and 4th overall, 24 seconds ahead of Wallace.

I don't remember what happened to Petty, Pruett flipped and broke his hip, Downard's engine caught fire while leading the singles, Seebold finished and I think I recall that Stickle overslept and missed the race on Sunday :p

Here's Hering driving Renato's boat and Wallace in his Schulze/Evinrude.

willabee

02-04-2006, 12:32 PM

Havasu - 1971 ( continued )......

Dick Sherrer took 6th overall and 3rd single followed by Jimbo McConnell ( despite performing a double barrel roll in his Scotticraft/Evinrude ). Hiram Mueck was 8th in a 21' Glastron Molinari/Merc's, Ron Brown 9th in a Schulze/Merc's and Bob Nordskog 10th in a single Schulze.

Here's a shot of Jimbo before the barrel roll and one of Johnny Sanders, who was fast, but didn't last.

willabee

02-07-2006, 03:52 PM

Parker - 1972.......

1972 was kind of a strange year for factory racing. We started the year with a full team at the Miami 225, all equipped with C6's for the first time ( the story of that event is posted on the "Mercury Racing Team - Picture 1972" thread ) and the race gets cancelled. Then both teams say that that they won't be attending Parker, I believe citing budgets as the reason. OMC ends up sending their whole team and Mercury sends one factory boat ( there were also a couple of factory supported boats ). I didn't attend the race, but I recall that the one boat was Bill Seebold/Bill Petty in Seebold's 17' Molinari and I'm pretty sure they ran a single pipe C6 with some experimental stuff. The boat ran strong but had to change powerheads and finished 6th, four laps behind the winning Scotticraft/Evinrude driven by Jimbo McConnell/Ted May. Here's a shot of the winner with Jimbo at the wheel.........

willabee

02-08-2006, 01:55 PM

Parker - 1972 ( continued )......

I believe this race served as sort of a launching pad for the racing careers of two drivers, Barry Woods and Bob Holloway. When I met Barry in 1970 or 1971, he was an independent driving a Mercury powered twin, I think it was a 20' Marathon out of Loveland, Co.. It must have been because of the equipment that he was driving ( his twin was not a very good boat ) that his real talent never really surfaced in those couple of years. Somehow, he and OMC got together and they put him in a single Schulze/Evinrude with Fred Hauenstein Jr. and they finished 3rd at Parker. That finish put Barry on the map and he proved to be one of the best for the next several years.....Mercury really missed that one :(.

Holloway was another independent driving Merc rigs mostly on the West coast. His 4th place finish opened the eyes of the Merc brass and he started receiving some assistance. As he continued to achieve good results, his support level continued to increase. When I was Mgr. of Hi-Perf., I was able to get him a new 17' Molinari with TII power and backup powerheads and gearcases, etc. and he won a bunch of races and almost always ran up front :).

Here's Woods in the Schulze and Holloway, teamed with Bruce Bourquin, in his Miles Master......

willabee

02-09-2006, 12:08 PM

Morgan City 225 - 1972........

As I mentioned, 1972 was a strange year for factory racing. Here it is, May already and the two teams are about to have their first head to head confrontation of the year. I have told you how we had prepared our C6's for the Miami 225, but the race got blown out and that we didn't run at Parker. OMC did run Parker with a new engine, so this was the first time our C6's ( still using the Morgan square carbs ) would run against their new power. I also have told you that we had done some NED work on the two powerheads that were put on the Molinari's driven by Bill Seebold and Bob Hering. At this race, Reggie Fountain is now in a team boat and Seebold makes major gains in his climb to become "Top Gun". We have also got Mike Downard, Tom Stickle, Gary Peacock, Bill Allan and Bill Sirois running C6's on their Molinari's and Bill Petty running one on a Twistercraft.

I think we did all of our setup work at Lake X and then took off for Louisiana. On our first night in town, a few of us headed out to see what the locals did for fun. In the first joint we entered, we ran into a bunch of the OMC team members. At least two of them looked like they had been kicked in the head by a mule! While shaking hands I asked what was up with that, did you have a car wreck on the way? They told us that they had gone out last night and said "When these Cajuns talk, listen very carefully to what they are saying. We learned the hard way that if you get it wrong, you're going to get hurt". Since I already had a hearing problem, I decided I'd best stay pretty quiet for the rest of that trip :)

To be continued.......

Here's a couple of shots of the winner, Seebold in Old Blue II.......one of mine and one from Powerboat, September, 1972.........

willabee

02-10-2006, 02:58 PM

Morgan City - 1972 ( continued ) ........

This racesite required the use of cranes to launch the boats and they weren't going to be in place until Saturday, so we went looking for a ramp. The one we found was very old and narrow, made from wood. When the first boat was backed down the ramp, I walked out on this old rickety dock to make sure that the engine was pumping water. I looked around and saw the biggest snake that I had ever seen in my life sunning itself on some pads near the dock. I asked the locals about it and was informed that there were many nests of these water moccasins in the lake and people that step in a nest while swimming are usually dead before they make it back to shore ( brought back memories of the glades with Gary Peacock ) :eek:

Sunday morning the wind is really blowing and the lake is already rough. Sirois takes his hot lap and his engine sounds bad, we pull him back out and install a new set of carbs. We have one man assigned to hold each boat for the Lemans start but that turns out to be a difficult task. Someone in the crowd asked if we wanted any help and I said that would be great....several spectators walked into that water and helped steady the boats for the start, I thought that was really cool.

Jimbo leads to the first pin, then Hering zooms on by him and leads the first lap. Fountain blows over on lap #4 and Petty does the same on lap #8 ( it was still very windy ). Hering leads until he fuels at one hour and Seebold takes over......he leads until he fuels a half hour later and Hering takes over......he leads until he fuels at two hours and Seebold ( who didn't have to pit again ) takes the lead to the end. Those two guys led all of the laps and the C6's clearly dominated OMC's new engine :)

Here's a shot of Hering and Jimbo ( who did finish 3rd ) ....Hering's boat cowl looks a little short because he had flipped while testing at the Lake and the damage on the rear of it had been removed......

minto

02-12-2006, 06:23 AM

Great stuff, please keep it coming.:)

willabee

02-17-2006, 04:48 PM

Thought this thread might be a good place to get back to the list :)

Mercury Big Engine List........
( Power available to team boats and to factory supported boats )

This is what I think we have so far, more research is required to complete the last three years:

1965 - 1000 ( some 6 pipe stackers )
1966 - 1100 ( some 3 pipe stackers )
1967 - 1100 - the first 1250's race in the Salton Sea 500
1968 - 1250 BP / 1250 SSM stackers - the first direct charge 1350's race at Havasu on four single Molinari's
1969 - 1250 Super BP / 1350 SSM water injected stackers
1970 - 1350 "Red" Twister, silo and cowbell - the first C6 with Morgan square carbs races in the Berlin 6 Hour, it performs poorly
1971 - 1350 "Blue" TI - some team boats start running the 1350 C6 in July in the Miami 225
1972 - 1350 C6, the press starts calling them TII's - the first 1400 C6 races in June at the Dayton 225, it wins!
1973 - 1400 TII with Tillotson carbs ........more work required starting here
1974 -
1975 -

Please feel free to jump right in with corrections and comments :)

Mark75H

02-17-2006, 05:18 PM

I think you got it calendar year correct, but possibly model year confusing for a lot of readers who don't place the model year as early fall, well ahead of the famous fall races late in the calendar year.

Looking back in old magazines and stuff I still haven't found any pictures or descriptions of any stackers (other than motors & stacks built at Quincy Welding) between the 1960/61-ish Lake X race boats and the 1968 model year BP's raced at the Salton Sea race. Do you recall the names of any of the racers who had them in the 65-66 time period?

I think you made a typographical error on 1971 (1972 model year) blue decaled Twister-1, I think they are all marked "1400"

T2x

02-17-2006, 10:30 PM

Mark75H

02-17-2006, 11:33 PM

The T2 and T2x both appear in the '74 Hi Perf catalog ... meaning the T2x was a customer motor for the '74 season & probably debuted as a factory race motor in '73.

I agree on the V-6 Merc as '74; Seebold won & set an X class record with a V-6 in Eufaula in '74. I think they were originally decaled as 1750xs or "1750xs T-3"

I'm sure there were a few pieces like Chuck's stacks, but I can't convince myself that they were other than leftover '61-ish stuff, Quincy stuff or one off stuff snuck out of Lake X like the dual prop Speedmaster or overdrive Mk75H lower unit.

You made me get out my notes on the T-4. It was very clearly a '78 motor

lilabner

02-18-2006, 10:32 PM

1957 to 1959= open exhaust bought from Mercury on 6cyl engines..very rare
1960 to 1961= 6 pipe stacks on 800/850's not made by Quincy. Lake X had three Bubble Cats with this setup..They all showed up for the Around Miami Beach Race. The pipes we used were made by Quincy because they were easier to get. Mercurys pipes were longer and thinner and had a different elbow. The exhaust plate was also slightly different than Quincy's. I don't remember any boats other than Mercurys that ran these stacks. We even bought Quincys for Dave Craigs Power Cat experiment..
Olegator probably remembers more about it than I do..he was closer to the Lake..

Butch

willabee

02-20-2006, 05:01 PM

The Big Engine List.......

Just to clear up one point for some readers, the list has nothing to do with model years......it is trying to show the biggest power that Merc factory or Merc supported boats ran in each calendar year.

Earl Welch and one other guy, whose name escapes me ( they were always at the same races together ) , ran Switzer Wings with six pipe 1000's...one was gold and the other black...Kitson would remember who I'm talking about. I thought that I was told that they were 4 of about 10 stacker kits that Merc built for those engines ( they were before my time at Merc, I started in 67, but I saw those guys racing at that time ). I sure think I saw a twin or triple Power Cat back then also with 6 pipe stackers.

I don't remember what the decals said on the TI's ( someone must have one they can look at ), but they used a 1350 block. The 1400 block would not mount on the Twister dsh and Merc sold TI kits for people to upgrade their Twister which didn't include a dsh.....at least that's how I recall it.

Agreed, the 74 Hi-Perf catalog does list the T2 and T2x....

Mark75H

02-20-2006, 07:09 PM

willabee

02-21-2006, 10:33 AM

willabee

02-21-2006, 11:38 AM

Hmmm .... would a 1972 blue T-1 use the same block (135) or would it be based on the 140 & later block with the later base bolt pattern? Meaning are Twister and Twister-1 driveshaft housings different?

My memory bank ( at least what's left of it ) says the first two Twisters shared the same dsh.....the TI had the scalloped transfer covers with a third intake port milled into the 1350 block, there was also different exhaust porting. Does that ring any bells?

willabee

02-21-2006, 03:44 PM

Miami 225 - 1972........

The February race had been blown out, so we went back in late June to run this event. OMC didn't bring it's factory team to this race ( they had also pulled out of the Dayton 225 ). Jack Leek, their team manager, said " After what happened at Morgan City, we need to play it a little closer to our chest ". :rolleyes:

Only 21 boats started this race, with Bob Hering leading from start to finish with C6 power. Bill Seebold continued his climb towards "top gun" status with another good performance, running in 2nd until just past half-way when his C6 let go. Tom Stickle, also running a C6, did finish in 2nd. Jim Hunt finished 1st in the U class and Charles Craig won Sport J.

Here's a shot of Hering going past Reggie Fountain who is driving a team supported boat with a TI in the U class. The second photo is Chick Gagen in his Zonkercraft.

lilabner

02-21-2006, 04:39 PM

In 65-66 I was killing commies for christ on eastern front...All I know is thru 63...

willabee

02-22-2006, 11:29 AM

Dayton 225 - June,1972........

As I had mentioned earlier, 1972 was a strange year for factory racing That trend continued in Dayton when we discovered that OMC had pulled all of their boats from this event, saying that they didn't have anything that could run with the TII's yet! The 5 mile competition races were held on Saturday, and Bob Hering set a new record in S class at 82.763 mph in his new Molinari pickle fork ( the first one in the U.S. ) pushed by the C6.

On Sunday, the 225 started with Hering taking a quick lead, but his engine went sour after a few laps ( I think he burned a piston ). Tom Stickle ( driving Hering's old boat ) took the lead and held it until about the two-thirds mark, when Bill Sirois went out in front and took the win.

To be continued........

Here's Stickle in #254 with Hering on the outside and a shot of Hering .....

willabee

02-22-2006, 02:45 PM

Dayton 225 - 1972 ( continued ).........

Before heading out for Dayton, Dr. Ted Morgan had called and said he wanted to send us a powerhead to put in the parts truck and take to Dayton " just in case ". While testing, we had trouble getting Sirois up to speed, and Ted asked if we would try his powerhead. It was definitely faster than our C6, Sirois' boat was a twin to Stickle's, so we had a direct comparison. I doubt Sirois would have had anything for Hering though, the pickle fork was much quicker than the full nose boat he was running. After winning, Sirois said that he had been very fortunate throughout his career and announced his retirement :(.

Here's a shot of Sirois standing on the nose of his #998 getting ready for the start and one of the man himself.......he was definitely one of the best , if not thee best period :cool:.

willabee

02-22-2006, 03:07 PM

Dayton 225 - 1972 ( continued )........

A couple of shots from the pits that were in Powerboat, October, 1972. The first one shows Bill Allan, a team powerhead tech who was just starting to get some driving time, standing on the far left and immediately to his right is Gary Peacock, who needs no introduction :). The 2nd one is Dick Summerfeldt, sitting on the boat, and a member of his Canadian team......Brian Smith, is that you in the black hat?

Watermark

02-22-2006, 06:07 PM

Willabee, it just so happens I spoke to Dick Summerfeldt today... he is well and has an archive full of slides and home movies from his racing days.. including South Africa, Germany, France and Italy. I will be seeing him soon..

willabee

02-23-2006, 03:36 PM

Mercury Big Engine List.......
( Power available to team boats and to factory supported boats during each calendar year )

So far I think we have the following.....Wish someone could help resolve the pipe question for 1965 and 1966, did Merc make them or did Merc have Quincy make them or did individuals get them from Quincy themselves? I haven't gotten into my stuff from 1973 forward, so I am listing what you guys said and will confirm later.......

1965 - 1000 ( some 6 pipe stackers ?)
1966 - 1100 ( some 3 pipe stackers ?)
1967 - 1100 ( some 3 pipe stackers, Schnoover ) - the first 1250's race in the Salton Sea 500
1968 - 1250 BP / 1250 SSM stackers - the first direct charge 1350's race at Havasu on four single Molinari's
1969 - 1250 Super BP / 1350 SSM water injected stackers
1970 - 1350 "Red" Twister, silo and cowbell - the first C6 with Morgan square carbs races in the Berlin 6 Hour, it performs poorly
1971 - 1350 "Blue" TI - some team boats start running the 1400 C6 in July in the Miami 225
1972 - 1400 C6, the press starts calling them TII's - the first 1500 C6 races in June at the Dayton 225, it wins!
1973 - 1500 TII with Tillotson carbs - T2X makes it's debut?
1974 - T2X - T-3 makes debut in Eufaula, it wins!
1975 - ?
1976 - ?
1977 - ?
1978 - T-4

Just remembered something interesting, based on this list it must have happened in 1973. I was called into a meeting in Gary Garbrecht's office and when I arrived, Charles Alexander ( V.P. Engineering ), Bob Johnson and a few engineers were there. Alex proceded to unroll the blueprints he had been holding and said he had just received them from Charley Strang (Pres. OMC)........they were prints of Merc's new V-6!

B. Vruwink

02-23-2006, 06:13 PM

Jones 17' single first ran by Stickle in Miami

Molinari note::I worked for Gary in Oshkosh 68-70. All new Molinari hulls to Oshkosh in that time were BARE hulls. NO STEERING. We rigged all boats there with dual RideGuide as manufactured by Mercury. The boat(s) that Renato ran in the U.S. never came thru Oshkosh. All of Renato's boats had cable steering. I always had the impression from Gary that they were rigged and tested in Italy. Maybe they went thru Lake X but I would not know. They-he Renato--never had Mercury personel work-touch his boats at the races--he brought his own mechanics from Italy--as well as his father.

willabee

02-24-2006, 10:27 AM

Molinari note:: The boat(s) that Renato ran in the U.S. never came thru Oshkosh. All of Renato's boats had cable steering. I always had the impression from Gary that they were rigged and tested in Italy. Maybe they went thru Lake X but I would not know. They-he Renato--never had Mercury personel work-touch his boats at the races--he brought his own mechanics from Italy--as well as his father.

Renato's boats were generally rigged and tested in Italy, then he would remove the powerhead and lower unit and ship it to the U.S. Where it was shipped was determined by the upcoming race location......if that race was the Miami 225, it was shipped to Flordia. We would install a new powerhead and gearcase, he would take his favorite props out of his suitcase and begin testing.

Sometimes he would be late in getting his new boat finished and we would have to do all of the rigging except for the steering ( he did not want to use our heavy steering ). The first example of that situation that comes to mind is the green twin that he flipped at Havasu in 1969. When Gary told me that the boat was going to arrive late, I changed the schedule of who was riding with who to Havasu, and sent the team on it's way. I believe it was Jerry Kohnke that I stayed back with, and we rigged that boat with Renato and his brother Georgio on the weekend before the race in Oshkosh. Additionally, we always performed final inspection on his and all of the team boats before each race.

willabee

02-24-2006, 03:43 PM

Jones 17' single first ran by Stickle in Miami

Bruce, if memory serves, you rigged that Jones all by yourself at Jones's shop in California and then hauled it to Miami. As you stated, it was the first single built by Ron Jones. It turned out to be very fast, but very dangerous as well. Stickle managed to perform two barrel rolls and one gigantic flip in that thing that weekend. I don't remember if anyone tried to race it again.

willabee

02-24-2006, 04:27 PM

OPC Nationals, Miami - 1972.....

Mercury had hired Carl Stippich to design and build the Twistercraft. Prior to this race he and Jack Ferris had built two marathon boats. Lee Sutter wiped out the first one when it was hit by some guy that ran a stop sign while driving a chicken truck..."feathers everywhere" according to Lee. Bill Petty flipped the second one at Morgan City. So Carl built a new sprint boat that Jim Merten prepared in Oshkosh.

By this time, Bill Seebold had been racing team boats for about two years and had established himself as one of the top drivers. Merc put him in the new sprint called Little Red and he drove it to the fastest heat ever recorded in outboard history, 85.633 mph, in winning the S class in Miami.

Reggie Fountain had stated that his goal was to become the top Mercury team driver, and he helped his cause at the Nationals by taking three titles.....the U class in a factory Molinari and the UU and T classes in his 21' Glastron Molinari.

Here's a shot of the S and U class winners from that event ( someone on S&F has posted a really neat color picture of Little Red )....

willabee

02-28-2006, 04:10 PM

St. Louis 225 - 1972......

This was the beginning of the great races that took place in St. Louis, Bill Seebold worked with the Lions Club to stage this event with benefits going to a Lions charity. This was only the second time that the teams met head-on in 1972 and the first since Morgan City. OMC had skipped everything in between to improve their engine performance. Merc is still running the C6 in S class and the TI in U class.

I remember how exasperated Seebold was becoming because we couldn't get his 17' Molinari running right in his home town race. Finally, we figured out what was ailing and had him ready for Sunday. By this time, we were very familar with the Morgan carbs, and knew how quickly an engine could go sour because of them ( usually something happened to the float adjustment ). What we did to prepare for this situation was to build complete sets with all of the plumbing and have them in the parts truck. We found that it was faster to replace the whole set than it was to trouble-shoot what was on the powerhead.

Sunday morning, about an hour before race time, everyone goes out for their hot laps. Seebold does a couple of quick ones and then goes sour again. He brings the boat back in looking like a beaten man... I told him we would have him ready for the gun. Rick Lamore executes the fastest carb change I had ever seen and we put him in the water just as the boats are lining up for the Lemans start......we hope that it will run.

To be continued......

willabee

03-02-2006, 02:40 PM

St. Louis 225 - 1972 ( Continued ).........

It ran.....boy, did it run! Seebold comes back in front of the pack and the hometown crowd goes wild. These folks stood and cheered and waved and high-fived themselves every time he came around, it gave me goose bumps :). But, like they say, you run um lean, they're really mean...... He led for the first sixty-some laps and then it went ka-boom. Bob Hering took the lead until about half-way and then ran into a boat he was lapping and was done for the day. Reggie Fountain had over- propped his rig and was never a factor, and Gary Peacock never left the beach. Bill Allan finished third with a C6 / Molinari and Dennis Berghauer won the U Class with a TI / Molinari.

Merc still had the dominate power, but our best boats were on the trailer when they waved the checkered flag. Tom Posey won in a Johnson/Scotti and Jimbo McConnell finished 2nd in an Evinrude/McDonald......I didn't post their pictures because they came out really lousy

willabee

03-10-2006, 11:54 AM

Havasu Outboard World Championships - 1972.........

They could have named this one Flip City Regatta after all of the accidents that took place prior to and during the race! It was very cold and windy, and the course was blacked flagged for a day or two. A bunch of boats went to Parker to try to test in a more protected area, but at least a half dozen drivers went on their head including two-time champ Harold Eis. Another ten or so went over during the race.

The race had a new appearance because it was the first " all singles " championship and some changes had taken place in the cockpits. At Team Mercury, Bill Sirois, Tom Stickle and Mike Downard were not racing, but Cees Van Der Velden, Bert Serra ( who?? :) ) and Jerry Simison were. I know that the factorys went to the all singles format to save money, but they sure didn't do anything to help promote boat racing with that decision. Many fans told me that the race had lost a lot of it's glamour with the big multi engine machines not present. Even though some of them knew that the singles were averaging faster speeds around the course than the last years twins, they just didn't look as fast and as exciting.

Here's a shot of about half of the 100 plus boats that started the race, an overhead of one of the turns and one of the winner....Johnny Sanders in a Scotticraft/Johnson ( from the cover of Powerboat, February, 1973 ).

To be continued........

Jan Lyda

03-10-2006, 07:15 PM

Ya'll mention about my dad, Don Pruett, just wondering about him falling off a truck? I don't remember that, but maybe I was too young to remember. Can I ask your names and see if they ring a bell? Also who is willabee? Thank you.
Is there any mention in any of these discussion groups of how he got hurt in I think it was Lake Havasu(sp), where he broke his back and hip? That is one thing I do remember bits and pieces of, or when he was driving with Vincenzo Ballesteri (sp) and gas blew up in his face? I know my stepmother Joan, had these articles and I'm gonna call her and ask if she still has all his old articles and if she does, I may have to get these and do some reminising of my own with ya'll! LOL

Jan Lyda

03-10-2006, 07:31 PM

Not sure if I'm doing this right or not, but I think I attached a picture of dad (Pruett) and Vincenzo Ballesteri.

willabee

03-16-2006, 04:00 PM

Havasu Outboard World Championships - 1972 ( continued ).......

This is the 9th championship and Merc has won seven, Cesare Scotti won one for OMC in 1969. Although OMC had won St. Louis, Merc was clearly the dominate force in 1972 and we had no reason to think we this race was going to be any different.......just set our stuff up right and keep it on the water and we should go home with another victory. Turned out that we screwed up our battle plan before the race ever started and keeping the boats on the water proved to be harder than anticipated.

I can't remember exactly how this happened, but the story goes something like this.......While most of us were in Europe, Plt.#6 engineering in Oshkosh had built four new TII powerheads and had offered them to Racing for Havasu. I remember asking what was different about them and just can't remember what the answer was, something about porting? Anyway, they were supposed to be good powerheads, but were not expected to perform as well as our C6's. So we took them ( I'll talk more about them later ) and Jim Merten added four boats to our support list for the race. When we got to Havasu, we just had too much going on at our rented house headquarters, so I asked Bob Geary to take the four powerheads and the rest of what he would require and to take the four boats to his hotel and set up shop for them at that location. The four boats were Bert Serra, Gary Peacock, Duey Berghauer and Jerry Simison.

The boats remaining at the house included Renato Molinari, Bob Hering and Bill Seebold all driving new picklefork Molinari's. I think Billy Don Pruett was in the Paris 72 winner and Cees van der Velden, Dick Sherrer, Bill Petty & Reggie Fountain were among the drivers running the full nose Molinari's ( Earl Bentz hadn't seen the light yet ;) and was driving for Team Johnson ). Great equipment and a pretty impressive group of drivers, another win can only be eight hours away!

Here are the boats that finisnhed 1-2-3......Johnny Sanders, Scotticraft/Johnson - Bert Serra, Schulze/Mercury - Billy Schumacher ( the Unlimited driver ), Scotticraft/Johnson.......

To be continued.........

willabee

03-21-2006, 12:58 PM

Havasu Outboard World Championships - 1972 ( continued ).....

We made two mistakes while setting up for this race ( maybe three if you count overconfidence ). The engineers had underestimated the performance level of the four new powerheads and we ( I think it was me ) decided to put them on the four oldest ( maybe slowest ) boats we had entered....the four assigned to Bob Geary. Additionally, all of the boats were set up for speed. The thinking was that our experienced group of drivers could keep them right side up and we wanted to blow the competition away, not just beat them.

It's finally Saturday and 100 plus engines fire at the gun, our show has started :rolleyes:. About an hour into the race we are already trying to figure out what the heck was going on.....our first boat in the standings was Bert Serra in 7th place! Molinari, Hering and Seebold had flipped the super fast pickle forks and Fountain apparently wanted to be part of that group and went over also. Seebold managed to stay with his, but it just didn't run right afterwards and Pruett had an engine failure....our top guns are out and we have over six hours of racing to go. OMC was also having some problems.... Barry Woods lost an engine, Bob Witt had a rigging problem and Clive Curtis flipped, all while leading. However, all was not lost....Saturday ended with the Mercs of Van Der Velden leading and Serra in 3rd, Johnny Sanders had his Johnson in 2nd.

Here's a shot of the 4th - 5th - and 10th place finishers......Gary Peacock, Duey Berghauer and Ted May .....

To be continued..........

willabee

03-22-2006, 04:38 PM

Havasu Outboard World Championships - 1972 ( continued ).......

Immediately after the four hour run on Saturday, all of our remaining boats went to the rented house for inspection. While we're working on the boats, the brain trust makes a few driver changes....Renato goes to Peacock's boat, Seebold to Berghauer's and I think Hering to Seebolds ( it might have been Fountain ). We worked through the night, with a few of us pulling the "no sleep" routine again. As I recall, most of the powerheads looked pretty good and we only replaced a couple that had a very slight indication of piston burn on #3, just to be safe.

Sunday's start was good and bad.... Sanders didn't start with the gun, but neither did Van Der Velden. Cees spotted the field almost a full lap and Sanders received a one lap penality for cutting across the course when he did fire. Renato was penalized for starting early and Seebold for the same infraction as Sanders. However, at the end of the first hour, Cees was back in the lead. During the second hour, Cees flipped and May hit some of the debris and put a hole in his Scotticraft. Sanders took the lead with Serra right behind him and they ran that way into the last hour. Serra did pass Sanders at least twice during that last hour, but Johnny got him back and won by 36 seconds! Seebold actually ran one more lap than anyone else on Sunday, and even with his one lap penality, Sanders ended up averaging over four miles per hour faster than Bill Sirois did with twins the previous year.

Soooo, where did "elite Team Merc" finish.....2nd, 4th, 5th & 11th .....and, who were these four boats.....the same four that I assigned the "weaker" powerheads to before the race started.....Serra, Peacock, Berghauer and Simison............Live and learn :).

Here's a shot of Van Der Velden in the boat Hering drove before he got the picklefork and one of Seebold in his new picklefork........

pyro

03-22-2006, 04:57 PM

Bert Serra used to live down the street from me, someone here was looking for him a while back and I got them back in touch. I'm going to hang out with him at the Bay City Champ race this year...

T2x

03-22-2006, 08:29 PM

willabee

03-23-2006, 09:15 AM

Bert Serra used to live down the street from me, someone here was looking for him a while back and I got them back in touch. I'm going to hang out with him at the Bay City Champ race this year...
One thing I should have mentioned in the Havasu story was that Serra was only in his second year of racing. For him to take that older and heavier Schulze and run with and even pass a guy like Johnny Sanders in his new Scotticraft meant that he had two things going for him......plenty of ponies pushing that rig and plenty of heart, he gave that race everything he had :cool:.

Please tell him that Bill Welch says " Hi " and ask him if he recalls my little wrestling match with the " big guy " at the Tarboro race......it will be a good story :).

willabee

06-09-2006, 02:06 PM

Have I ever told you guys the story about running the water-injection demonstration for Renato Molinari ( and Billy Don Pruett turns out to be right :eek: ) ?

Old fiberglass

06-10-2006, 10:43 PM

Welcome back Bill !!!! I assume things well for you.....we missed you.

Do tell the story about the water injection.

willabee

06-12-2006, 02:31 PM

It must be 1969 and it seems like I've spent the whole summer running various tests.....props, gearcase skegs, carbs, etc. on the last of the 18' Molinari marathon designs (just before the 17' sprints came into play). I swear that I had more time in one of those boats than anyone else on the planet. Anyway, I think it was Dick Lanpheer, an engineer from Plt.#6 two cycle R&D that came over with one of their techs and had this hardware to install on the 1250 SBP (1350) I had been running. It consisted of an on/off toggle switch, solenoid, some tubing and three exhaust elbows that had a bracket welded onto them which would accept a screw-in nozzle.....the first water-injection kit for the 1350 stackers.

I don't recall how many times we went out to test different configurations of this kit, but it was a bunch and none of them worked as designed. The idea was to help the the boat get out of the turn and then shut the water off to maintain the top end speed, but nothing we tried seemed to help the bottom end and some installations actually hurt the top end. A few days after another unsuccessful test, they sent over a different solenoid and a set of nozzles and asked us to install them and to test when we had an opportunity. We put them on, but weather kept us off of the water until the next week.

The day we went out to test, there wasn't a ripple on the lake....flat as a pancake and not a cloud in the sky. I figured that this was going to be a very short day because it was very difficult to get that hull with a full fuel load up and running without the aid of some chop and a little breeze. They towed me out to beautiful Lake Winnebago, I fired up and tried to get on plane several times with no success. Then I turned the water on, and with some groaning, the boat popped up and started to run. I shut it back down and repeated the test several times and it got up every time. Then I made some straightaway runs turning the water on and off at different rpms and you could really feel and hear the difference.....we had arrived!

I sent a safety boat back to the plant, they notified all of the proper players and about an hour later several boats with engineers arrived. I repeated the dead in the water start first and then ran some laps around their boats and a bunch of real happy people returned to the plant. :cool:

To be continued...........

willabee

06-13-2006, 01:22 PM

Soon after that successful test, Gary Garbrecht tells me to have the boat ready to run in a race type demo for Renato and Angelo who are arriving that next Tuesday. I don't remember why they were coming.....maybe stackers hadn't been outlawed in Europe yet or maybe this was to help them in designing the next generation tunnel. Wednesday morning, those guys along with Bill Steele (Gary's boss, in charge of Mercury racing at that time) and Billy Don Pruett (who was serving as the interpreter) climb into our 27' Thompson and head for the course that was set up on Lake Winnebago. One of the safety boats tows me out to the lake where I find really bad weather conditions.....the wind is blowing hard and the lake is very rough (I don't think APBA would have started a race in those conditions).

I fire up only to see Gary waving me over to their boat. I pull along side and he tells me I don't have to run today, he says let's wait for better conditions. I said no, everyone is on a schedule, let's get it done today and I head out for the course. I ran 6/8 laps and the boat felt just great. It just skimmed across the top of that rough water and the injection system worked like a charm. When I glanced over at their boat, they were all frantically waving their arms for me to stop, so I pulled along side again to see what they wanted. Gary said that was enough, Renato was smiling and Pruett was shaking his head at me.....I wasn't sure why.

Back at the plant, I was putting the boat away and Billy Don walked down from the office to have a chat with me. He said that he was excited about what the new injection system would do for them on the Miami type courses and that he was impressed by the way I had driven the boat (and he made it very clear that he doesn't impress easily :rolleyes:). He also said that Renato had asked Gary if I could be his co-driver for the Paris Six Hour :cool: and that Gary had already responded with a flat " No " :(. Billy Don had more to say........

To be continued......

willabee

06-13-2006, 03:46 PM

Billy Don went on to say that he knew I would jump at the chance to run Paris, but that he didn't say anything to try to change Gary's mind because he agreed with him. He said that he felt that I was lucky today and that I should have gone on my head, and, if I continued to drive like that, someone was going to get hurt (I assume that someone was me). I told him how much time I had in that boat and how well I knew it, but he continued to give me "Racing 101". Our conversation ended with him saying that I was going to flip and with me saying "there ain't no f'n way".

My next test was that Friday, and while making a run into the wind, the blue sky suddenly turned all orange (same color as the boat) and I remember thinking " I wonder what this is going to feel like". Well, it didn't feel good.....they fished me out of the lake and rushed me back to the plant so that I could get some medical attention for the cuts on my legs. As luck would have it, Mr. Kiekhaefer was visiting that afternoon and Gary didn't want him to know that I had just destroyed one of his cherished toys, so I was instructed to hide in a bathroom until E.C. left.....soak and wet and bleeding, I stayed there for about twenty minutes before Mike Goerlitz took me to the hospital. I was told that E.C. went to Plt.#5 next, and when he pulled in, they were pulling the Molinari out of the water. When he saw it, he threw his can of pop against the wall, said something about "they don't tell me anything" and left in a huff.

Then, to add salt to the wound, Billy Don found out about it and changed his flight schedule so that he could be at the plant when I returned. There he was, that big sh-t eating grin on his face as he watched me hobble in on my crutches, and he said " Famous last words.....there ain't no f'n way ", then came that terrific laugh - you just couldn't help but love that guy. Billy Don was right and that's the end of this story :D.

The test boat and "Up, Up and Away" (see post #18 on this thread) - same result

BrianSmith

06-13-2006, 08:42 PM

I guess this was the beginning of the new "pickle-fork" design huh Bill? Given the number of "Moly" backward skyrockets, I guess the Miles "snap-flips" weren't all that unusual huh?

With all of that.................I sure do enjoy your insights. To those of us on the "outside" at the time, I find it great to have the "blanks" finally filled in.
Billy Don Pruett was a wonderful character. I recall his description of Unlimited drivers "carrying their balls around in wheelbarrows; rather than tabbaca cans"!!!!!!!!
I was so envious of Bert at Havasau having the new engine. It was a well deserved "victory" for him and we all congratulated him. Did he ever tell you about "duck hunting" in Forida with his Checkmate?

willabee

06-14-2006, 08:02 AM

I guess this was the beginning of the new "pickle-fork" design huh Bill? Given the number of "Moly" backward skyrockets, I guess the Miles "snap-flips" weren't all that unusual huh?

Perfect - I think I fired the last volley with my "two left feet" shot.....your shot just leveled the playing field again. As a matter of fact, I like it so much that I may add a story to my Molinari tales.....something like "How I helped Renato come up with the pickle-fork" ;). Good to hear from you again Brian, and thanks for the smile maker :).

Never heard the duck hunting story, can you share it?

BrianSmith

06-14-2006, 02:37 PM

Good to hear from you....... Sorry.........I couldn't resist the "Barb".

Florida "Duck hunting" with Bert Serra. We met Bert in Florida when we were testing and running a couple of races during the winter of '70 I guess. He and Fred Van Wagoner were a couple of characters we enjoyed each time we were together.

During dinner one night I asked how he became so interested in racing and fast boats. When "wintering" in Florida he had a 16 ft checkmate with a 1250 on it I think. He said they all really liked the speed but driving around got kinda boring.
So.......they thought it would be kinda neat to chase ducks. (you know how they alight just in front of you and fly low?) This escalated to him standing on the deck with a net while they chased them.
Apparently they got pretty good at catching them, and I would suppose they became more daring chasing flocks and sneaking up on them.

This all came to an abrupt halt one day when they burst upon a flock...Bert swung the net at them .............and instead of a Duck he got a Pelican!!!!!!!!
Bert said...(He is a little guy) "It took me clean off the deck; over the windshield and into the water! Scared us to death!"

If someone is in contact with Bert please say hello for me.

willabee

06-21-2006, 03:25 PM

Art drove for Ted Jones, Second Effort racing V8 OMC F1 in 1986. he was my dads teamate alomg with Jonny Sanders. my dad Gene won the world championship that year.

:confused: :confused: :confused:

BrianSmith

06-21-2006, 07:40 PM

Hey there John.....just wanted to say Hi! Bill and I communicated here awhile ago about he helped with the design of the "Moly" picklefork.
Do you ever hear from Bert Serra?

willabee

06-22-2006, 08:23 AM

Art drove for Ted Jones, Second Effort racing V8 OMC F1 in 1986. he was my dads teamate alomg with Jonny Sanders. my dad Gene won the world championship that year.

Checking my emails as I was trying to leave the office, saw this post which sort of came out of the blue and had three questions (that's why the three icons).....1. Is Art - Art Kennedy 2. Is this Ted Jones the boat builder 3. Is Gene - Gene Thibodaux

Now I only need the answer to #2......

seeroy

06-26-2006, 01:01 PM

Here's a couple more...

#457 - Bobby Hering - 17' Molinari sprint - 1350 stacker - Havasu - on Sunday he set a record for distance covered by a single over a 4 hour period, breaking the one Tom Stickle had set the day before in an identical setup

#187 - Jim Merten - 16' Molinari sprint - 1250 - Miami Nationals - I might not have this exactly right because this was a strange deal, but here's the story.
We took two of these 16' sprints to Lake X, one for Merten and the other for Bill Sirois. The idea was to run the standard version of the engine for what was "U" class and then put the stacked powerhead on to run "S". Sirois hadn't arrived yet, so Merten set up both "U" boats. We started on the stacker setups and found that the engines were cutting out on both boats on top end only. We pulled carbs apart, changed electrical components and changed complete powerheads, all with no success. I called engineers back in Wisconsin, but they all drew blanks also. To make matters worse, while a bunch of us were in the shop working on Merten's boat, he and Richie Powers were testing Sirois's boat. Merten told Powers to take it for a run in hopes that might give Richie a better idea of what was happening........Richie blew it over. Looking at the bright side of things, that did cut our problem in half :)

We finally figured out the problem and went down to Miami. If memory serves, Merten was feeling bad about Sirois not having a boat, so they agreed that one of them would run "U" and the other "S". I'm not sure which one is in this picture, maybe Seeroy can tell us.

By the way, any of you guys got an idea on why those engines were cutting out ?:confused: Looks like Bill...Distinctive white pattern on helmet was his - Steve

willabee

06-28-2006, 03:15 PM

This all came to an abrupt halt one day when they burst upon a flock...Bert swung the net at them .............and instead of a Duck he got a Pelican!!!!!!!!
Bert said...(He is a little guy) "It took me clean off the deck; over the windshield and into the water! Scared us to death!"

If someone is in contact with Bert please say hello for me.

Love the story, I can see the little sh-t telling it......right hand cupped around his chin, left hand grabbing his right elbow, leaning back but looking at the ground and laughing as he speaks with little tears coming out of the corner of his eyes....I remember that sight well :).

Check post #148, Pyro says he will be with Bert at Bay City Champ boat race - I don't know when that is scheduled.

willabee

07-28-2006, 03:08 PM

I didn't know it when the year started, but 1973 was going to be different. OMC introduced the rotary outboard - factory racing was to take on a new look - I was to get so fed-up that I turn in my resignation (and end up with a promotion) - the Mercury Hi-Performance department was born and KT racing became a reality.... for me, those were some of the highlights from that year.

The race calendar looked kind of bleak....no February 225 in Miami, Merc is not going to Parker (that's what I was told), 225's in Miami,Seattle and St. Louis were on the books for July and August. I'm thinking, "what the hell are we going to do for six months", but I didn't get to think that way for long. At Merc Racing, when you came to work the day after the big planning meeting, you generally found that "THE PLAN" had already changed.

So, with that being said, when I continue this, I'll start with the first race we went to, the Parker Nine Hour ......you know, the one we weren't going to attend.

Found a picture that brought back some fun memories. It showed up in one of the magazines, I think it was taken at Parker.....it's Gary Garbrecht and me standing on top of the parts truck "Daytripper". I don't remember what the article said, but I do recall that most people that did see it said that the caption should have read...."Those guys - customer service - you've got to be kidding" :)

willabee

08-01-2006, 01:15 PM

So the plan was we were not going, then we are going, but not really! I guess we were disguising our effort to make it look like we weren't there with the exception of the Bill Seebold entry, which we tried to disguise with Bert Serra as his co-driver (his reward for that stellar Havasu drive). Of course we hauled our big refueling trailer to the site and when we got there we happened to find Dennis and Duey Berghauer, Gary Peacock and Chick Gagen, Bob Holloway and Jock Horner and a few others including Billy Don Pruett driving an experimental Molinari KT (wonder where he got that?), so we invited them to refuel with us since we only had one boat using the rig. Bob Hering and Bob Spalding (who now worked for Merc Racing in Oshkosh) were not there, so I guess that Merc was not really attending this event :rolleyes:. I have been racking my brain to remember why we took this silly approach, but just can't recall the stated reasoning behind it......it may have had something to do with the fact that the OMC rotarys were going to be present.

As BK perfectly described the first lap drama at Parker on the Five Top Tunnell Driver thread, this one rates right up there with the best of them. The gun...the roar... the smoke and with the exception of Bill Onley in his Molinari/KT colliding with Mike Wallace in his Evinrude/Scotti, everyone disappears and the water settles down. Then about 6/7 minutes later the first rooster tail appears, but this time there are two of them. Jimbo McConnell and Tommy Posey come screaming down the backstretch in those rotarys with no one even close to them! When they make the pit turn, they slow down to get side by side and cruise by the pits.... both with their right arms raised, displaying the "victory" sign ( I think they had also lifted their face shields so that we could see their big smiles).....that was really cool :cool:.

Here's the first lap leader, Jimbo and one of Berghauer, who led the most important lap....the last one :).

To be continued.........

willabee

08-02-2006, 03:17 PM

So the rotarys had put on a great show for the first lap and it was fortunate for them that they did because when the boats came back to complete lap two, Posey wasn't among them. Turns out he had mechanical problems just after passing the pits to complete lap one and was put on the trailer for the day. In addition, Jimbo obviously had a problem because he was going much slower and boats were starting to pass him with ease. He only completed a couple more laps and then joined his teammate on the trailer.....the rotary show was over almost as quickly as it started, but I sure was impressed with that first lap performance.

The Seebold/Serra C6/Molinari had taken the lead from Jimbo and was pulling steadily away from the pack. The first hour ended with Seebold leading, followed by the OMC's of Bill Muncey, Billy Schumacher and Barry Woods and the C6/Molinari of the Berghauer brothers in fifth. By mid race, the Seebold and Berghauer boats had a comfortable lead on Reggie Fountain driving his 21' Glastron/Molinari and the OMC's of Alan Stinson and John Gibbs....Johnny Sanders and James Beard had pushed their Johnson/Scotti into seventh. Schumacher was gone with mechanical problems and Woods had punched a hole in his rig. Billy Don Pruett in the Merc /Molinari KT went out early also, but it really didn't matter that it broke because it was a dog anyway. By this time the wind had picked up and some of the singles started flipping....this included Kenny Kitson. Chuck Rear and Geoff Briggs.

Right at the six hour mark, Seebold broke :mad:. Powerboat said it lost the flywheel, but I seem to remember that it broke the crank at the top end cap and that was why the flywheel wasn't where it was supposed to be when the engine cowl was removed.

Here's a shot of the Sanders entry which finished second, Fountain's twin which finished tenth, seven laps or 91 miles behind the winner! and Pruett's KT.

To be continued.......

Mr.T

08-03-2006, 01:51 PM

Bert will be in St. Louis on Aug. 19th and 20th for the Champ Race at Creve Coure Lake.

willabee

08-03-2006, 02:22 PM

So with about three hours left, Berghauer has a lap on Stinson and Sanders and two or more laps on the rest of the remaining field (about half of the roughly 80 boats that started). However, the boat now running the fastest laps is Sanders. With about two hours left, Stinson breaks and Berghauer comes in for fuel. While pitting, Sanders goes past , putting him on the same lap with Berghauer. The buzz word we get is Sanders does not have to pit the rest of the way, and we know Berghauer will need a splash and go.

Jim Merten calls me and Denny Berghauer off to the side and wants to know if we think we can perform the last fuel stop without shutting the engine off :eek:. His concern was the starter motor trouble we had experienced on a couple of the other boats and if we had to do a rope start, that would definitely give the lead to Sanders. Denny was sure that he could communicate what was needed to Duane when he came in for the driver exchange and I said that as long as he knew it wasn't illegal, I would find enough volunteers to get it done. Bill Allan was the only Merc employee that would have anything to do with this idea, the rest of the help (about nine guys) came from other pit crews! Well, we did pull it off.....my memory bank says we had a lead of about two minutes when he came in and had about a minute on Sanders when he left....I think he actually won the nine hour race by about 39 seconds :).

When the single photo of the fuel stop showed up in a few magazines, the rules were changed so that all engines had to be dead when refueling ( Merc gave me the large version of it that used to hang in the main lobby at headquarters in Fond du Lac, now it hangs in my garage).....the three shot photo was in Powerboat.......I'm the good looking guy putting the fuel in the boat ;) .....another fun memory :D.

willabee

08-18-2006, 02:53 PM

Here's a little more on those engines that put on the first lap show at Parker (Mark75H..for your notes). An article in Powerboat, May 1973 said that they were first introduced to members of the boating press on February 23rd in Miami Marine stadium. They ran one boat with a Johnson and one with an Evinrude against two "conventionally" powered outboard race boats and "trounced them soundly". I wonder if the other two boats had Mercury power.....when E.C. Kiekhaefer introduced the 1250 BP, we bought two new 16' red metalflaked Switzer Shooting Stars and put the BP on one and a new 115 Evinrude on the other. He invited dealers to Plt. #5 to watch the two boats accelerate from on-plane to max speed as they went past the audience and the BP managed to whip the Evinrude every time :rolleyes:.

The article went on to say that the rotors are stackable and that these engines had a stack of four. They were 122 cu.in. and Si Metcalf, Director of Marine Engineering claimed the horsepower to be over 300! OMC said because of the brute horsepower, their boats could run flatter (not needing much trim) and therefore, safer from the danger of blowing over.

Here's a shot of one on the dyno, one of Jimbo during the demonstration and one of him next to his boat......they were truly "Hot Singles".

pinkrabbit

09-26-2006, 11:56 PM

Hi i just bought a 1972 pickle fork that looks identical to the pictures you posted im trying to find as many pictures on the internet and what the actual title of the boat is called. Im hopeing to get a new paint job on it within the month so iv been trying to find other pictures of it just to get some ideas. If you know of any web sites or other pictures of yours please send them. There are about six pictures of mine if you go to cheapoldboats.com then look in unique boats. im also buying a new motor for it, id like to only top out at about 70mph any suggestions would be much help. Thank you for your time. If you do have any info on the above please email me at advancedchecks@sbcglobal.net Thanks again...

Mark75H

09-27-2006, 05:42 AM

Hi i just bought a 1972 pickle fork that looks identical to the pictures you posted im trying to find as many pictures on the internet and what the actual title of the boat is called. My best guess is that your boat is a Kobercat

http://www.cheapoldboats.com/images/Hydro_3.jpg

willabee

09-27-2006, 07:47 AM

That looks like a Scat Craft.....check post #41 on this thread. I recall the Kobercats having a projectile about a foot long hanging in front of each sponson, but I don't remember them being actual pickle forks......just a full nose with pointers. I know I have some pictures of them, I'll do some digging when I have some time.

Mark75H

09-27-2006, 01:32 PM

I think you are right, Scat Craft, not Kober

BrianSmith

09-27-2006, 08:26 PM

I will agree...........I saw a few of these in the early days and still caqn't imagine what a ride it must have been! Even coming from the kneel down Alky world they always looked frightening!

BrianSmith

09-27-2006, 08:42 PM

In early '73 we went to Johanasburg (Africa) on an invitation from the Merc distributor. We took our twin Moly and a "Newer" Miles single (that was "too long and flat") for the twisters, and Oshokosh sent a C-6 for me for the single. Awesome on this boat!
Jimbo showed with a rotary and Dick with our twin pressed him for two hours and got second!
Someone "borrowed" my kill switch cover. so I started one lap down, and in 5 laps was pressing Dick. A rough tower housing casting cut the timing belt so I was "done" shortly after...sitting on the deck being waryof the alligators in the Transval.......

2us70

09-30-2006, 08:17 AM

It looks like a Scat Craft to me. I have never seen one with a seat in it before. All the Scat Crafts that were running back in the day were kneeldown rigs. The best running Chysler powered boat I can remember was Bobby Soles "Prop Job" Scat Craft.

Raceman

09-30-2006, 09:49 AM

I had a McCall that looked very similar. One difference was, it had an adjustable wing or spoiler of some kind mounted out at the front between the tips.

terry taylor

09-30-2006, 02:16 PM

Actually I watched two brand new full tunnel Kitson/Miles with Rookie drivers do exactly the same thing (snap flip).....my Miles "experience" was in a wooden pickle fork which I managed to back flip and later barrel roll, all in a 4 week period. I'm just not cut out to drive English tunnel boats......... :)

I believe you are correct about the boat in the picture becoming the "prototype" for the Zonker.

T2x
HI.Interesting i drove one in SJ 150 XS the boat was fast but would not turn a buoy barreled it once. on a short course i think i invented turning on rear of sponsons. That is slowing for turn then trim up and spin on its tail tricky yes gave some acceleration advantage coming off.B oat was fun but would not turn without hooking,first time i saw this boat i was a spectator yes you guessed it. It hooked 1st corner 1st lap. RATHER funny i thought it was the driver but oh no . I might mention this was in lake ONTARIO, TORONTO. thanks

BrianSmith

09-30-2006, 09:39 PM

That wouldn't be the sprint that Freddy Fincham bought from us would it?

willabee

10-02-2006, 02:22 PM

The OMC rotarys got their first win at this event, but the only factory stuff they beat were the OMC piston powered rigs. Merc did not have this race on their schedule and weren't about to add it with those rotarys running down there. There were two races, I think the one-hour marathon was a "run what ya brung" format, so the rotarys could run in it and there was a 100 miler for the "S" and "U" class boats.

Even though the win wasn't against Team Mercury, it still was a monumental step in the development of that engine. After all, it was only a month earlier that they couldn't run hard for 20 miles (the Parker Nine-Hour) and here they are running strong for an hour. In fact, they entered four and finished 1-2-3 and would have had 4th if Rich McKinley hadn't rolled his in a turn. The first Merc to finish was Hiram Muecke in a TII/Molinari, taking 5th place.

This win got some serious "jaw-jacking" going at Merc.....we were confident that our TII could beat their piston powered stuff but we were in deep do-do at events that would let that engine run.....the common thought was like that of Sheriff Brody in Jaws after he first saw the size of that shark....."we need a bigger boat" :eek: (in our case we needed a bigger engine).

Here are Tom Posey, Jimbo McConnell and Bob Witt ....1-2-3 :cool: all in Scotticraft's.

terry taylor

10-02-2006, 06:28 PM

That wouldn't be the sprint that Freddy Fincham bought from us would it?
HI.BrianSmith If your question was directed to me.I purchased complete outfit from Brian Rhodes,PICKERING ONTARIO . I don,t know how he obtained It boat #661 yellow and black thanks.

BrianSmith

10-14-2006, 03:14 AM

That name kinda rings a bell...........was it pretty narrow and light? Check the pics I have posted to see if you recognize it.
Regards

willabee

10-17-2006, 11:09 AM

Just a couple more shots from that race......Johnny Sanders who did finish 4th overall in the One-Hour due to McKinley's accident and was first piston in his Scotticraft...... Barry Woods, who won the 100 mile marathon, driving the same Scotticraft that he used to set a new "S" class kilo record of 116.538 in February...... and one more of that monster motor we were all talking about.

willabee

10-17-2006, 12:41 PM

So I've mentioned that 1973 would bring us the rotary outboard and we've talked a little about that. I also said that Factory Racing would take on a new look....I'd turn in my resignation and get a promotion and Hi-Performance Products was born.

Somebody(s) decided that the Race Team was going to consist of four boats. At the beginning of this format, they would be two Molinari pickle forks and two full nose sprint boats. The pickle forks were to be driven by Bob Hering and Billy Seebold with Reggie Fountain and Bob Spalding driving the other two. These guys would run all the experimental hot stuff and when that equipment was deemed ready, it would start to appear on the team support boats which were also to be handled by the Race Team. I think that there were about a dozen guys with that type of equipment which included the Berghauers, Bob Holloway, Gary Peacock, Jerry Simison, Lee Sutter, Brett May, Dick Sherrer and a few others.

One of the things they wanted for the new concept was that all four Team boats would look alike. After a bunch of different designs were tossed around, they decided on the format shown below.....this is Hering's boat which made it's debut at Memphis in May and appeared on the cover of Powerboat in August.

To be continued.....(sorry about the lousy picture of the magazine, I changed the size so many times I ended up with a big blur.....on the other hand, that's exactly what that boat was on a race course, a big blur, so maybe it's a fitting shot after all :)

willabee

10-18-2006, 11:23 AM

Maybe you won't find this interesting, but at the risk of boring you I'm going to tell you how that original "Team" paint scheme came about......I was talking to one of the guys (wish I could remember his name) responsible for coming up with new look, and during that chat we discussed a couple of schemes that we thought might work. I told him that I had a model of a pickle fork Molinari and offered to let him use it if he thought it might help to put the ideas on the model rather than paper to show the decision makers what the boats would really look like. He didn't know any models existed and asked me to show him what I was talking about.

What I had was a Christmas present from Renato Molinari. In 1972 he sent me a box that contained a very exotic looking bottle of wine (I still have it - unopened) and a wood model of his new 17' pickle fork design. This thing has little wooden stringers going through it, fiberglass cowling .....built just like the big boys. It was painted just like the boat he and Hering drove to win that years Paris Six Hour and he put the number he used when racing in the states on it - #554. I was totally surprised and delighted to receive such a gift. He also sent one to Jim Merten with Merten's #187 on it and one to Gary Garbrecht. I assume that Renato built one for himself, but am not aware of anyone else that has one of these.

When my oldest daughter Kelli moved to Florida with her family, she took my favorite little guy "Beanie Boy" with her. I wanted my grandson to have something special for his room so that when his friends came to visit, they would ask what that was and his answer would remind him of me :) ..... so I gave him my Molinari.

To be continued................

blkmtrfan

10-18-2006, 01:25 PM

That is very cool (and interesting ;) )

Hope you also sent a glass case to put it in :cool:

willabee

10-19-2006, 07:54 AM

Hope you also sent a glass case to put it in :cool:

I wasn't smart enough to think of the glass case, but Kelli knew it meant something special to me and kept it high enough in his room that he couldn't get at it without help. He's 18 now, so it has managed to survive in great shape :).

willabee

10-27-2006, 01:19 PM

I think the reason I got the model that had Renato's number on it and it was painted the same as his Paris winner is because of what happened at the 72 race. I talked about this race on another thread, but I'll tell the story here.

I'm pretty sure that the 1st Molinari pickle fork was what I called the "Koblenz" boat. I was sent to Koblenz, Germany in the summer of 72 for some kind of European Championship. I was to help Roy Ridgell, our European Team Manager, get the win with Renato (mission accomplished). That boat was the first one in the states and Bob Hering set a 118 kilo record in it, along with several other wins. It then went to Lee Sutter and I think he won at St. Louis with it - "Sutter's Gold". The next pickle fork was the one Renato and Hering ran in the Paris Six Hour. It was the only one entered in that race and there was a bunch of pre-race hoopla about the boat....pressure was on to win with that rig.

We were still running the C6, we had a "hot" spot at #3 cylinder and I was a little concerned about the fuel we may get at the race. We finished getting all of the Paris boats ready one day before we were scheduled to leave Lake Como for Paris so I told everyone except Rick Lamore to go sight seeing. He and I went back to Molinari's shop and practiced how to set the timing without using a dial indicator....I wanted to be able to call for a certain setting during the race if we started to have some trouble without spending too much time in the pits. It turned out that our time was well spent that day.

This is the "Koblenz" boat in the US with Hering at the controls and the Paris pits...the calm before the storm.

To be continued..................

willabee

10-27-2006, 02:30 PM

Race day arrives and all of the Merc and OMC brass head for the VIP barge sitting against the seawall at the pit turn and we head for the pits. The engines roar, away they go under the first bridge and you wait to see how they come back....Renato and his pickle fork are flying. Our guys on the VIP barge are exercising their bragging rights and ordering champagne. Then, about an hour into the race , Renato comes limping down the backstretch. He pulls into the pits, I jump on board, pull the engine cowl and remove #3 plug.....sure enough, burndt piston. In disgust, I toss the plug to Bill Allen who, after a closer look hollers "It ain't that bad!". I look again and decide to try to fix this thing. Allen puts a new plug in while Lamore is retarding the timing and Jim Emerson is adding extra oil to the fuel tank he had already filled. I explain to Renato what we have done and ask him to give it a try....he's says he's ready.

As he leaves, the boat goes into a wicked porpoise and disappears under the bridge. I'm thinking that I went too far with the timing and that it will never lay down and run. However, when he comes down the backstretch, he is hauling the mail :D..... but after making the pit turn, he starts to porpoise again :mad:. While this is happening, Charles Alexander, Merc President, comes down to our pits and asked what was going on with Renato's boat. I told him what we had done, told him it was my call and said I would put it on the trailer if we couldn't make it run any better...he was not a happy camper.

Turned out that that retarded timing just didn't like a full fuel load, so we gave it one hour loads the rest of the way. They made up the (I think) two laps lost for that pit stop and won that race :cool:. Everyone was very happy.....Alexander bought dinner at the Hilton that night. I didn't make it all the way to my steak....too much liquid with the boys before I found out he was taking us to dinner :o. Renato was thrilled and I think giving me a model of the boat that won that event was his way of saying "thank you" :).....and that's the end of this story.

Found a photo of Angelo Molinari's ( Renato's father) home in Como, Italy.

brichter

10-30-2006, 07:26 AM

specboatops

10-31-2006, 06:44 AM

Yea That Name Sounds Right, It Was A Grey And Maroon Boat, And I Think It Had A Amsoil Logo On The Side, I Liked That Boat. Sorry for the misspell on your name, it should have read Brichter.

Chris

willabee

11-09-2006, 03:23 PM

Here is an ad Merc had in Powerboat for a model of Bill Sirois' 1970 Havasu winning boat......I don't remember them making that, but I wish I would have bought two so that I could have made the model a Twin like it was supposed to be :) .......also, a "Model" shot of Seebold in what looks like Old Blue II, he really has it aired out......and, I told you that I got a promotion in 1973, here is the world shaking announcement that Merc put out about the creation of Hi Performance Products and the man that was to run it - really made me proud :rolleyes:......you got to love Mel Zikes, "Oshburg"

willabee

11-14-2006, 03:37 PM

What does it say on the rear of the engine cowl in the picture below........I think the red said Twister II, but I'm not positive and, obviously :o, I have forgotten what it said under the red lettering. No big deal, just buggin' me that I can't remember.

Mark75H

11-14-2006, 04:02 PM

Can't find the close up right now ... I think it says Twister II in red and 1400 under it

willabee

11-14-2006, 04:08 PM

Super Six

You sure :confused: .....that doesn't look like enough letters to say that and are you confirming the red is Twister II?......thanks

Mark75H

11-14-2006, 04:26 PM

I was wrong about "Super Six" ... I think that was an earlier decal

Pretty sure the red on your picture is the word twister II in an italic font, starting with a lower case "t" with a thin white outline around the red. Still thinking the text under twister II is "1400", might be 99ci

largecar91

11-14-2006, 10:29 PM

Here's what the later ones say.

willabee

11-15-2006, 04:08 PM

Here's what the later ones say.

Thank you, now I really want to know what the Twister II and the orginal C6 said!

We ran the C6 for about a year and one-half (mid 71 through 72). I thought that we put a "1400 - Super Six - 99.9 cu.in" on the rear of those cowls. However, the photo of Mike Downards Molinari on the "Does anybody know what o/b this is" thread (page #7, post #20) doesn't seem to agree with my thinking. Mark 75H, would you look at the magazine article of that again and see if you can tell what it says....that would cover what we called the C6 and the media started calling the Twister II.

The Twister II (Tillitson carbs) didn't debut until 73 and we did call it a Twister II. So the photo of Hering's Molinari does show the name Twister II in red, but I don't remember what the rest of it said. FYI....the photos of the Twister II posted on the very last entry of that same thread are of the first Twister II as they were to be built in their final form.....it was put together in our engine shop in Oshkosh :cool:.

If none of you guys have a cowl or a photo that gives the info that I'm looking for, surely some of you OMC guys can tell me what those cowls said.....you certainly spent enough time looking at the rear of those engines:p.

largecar91

11-15-2006, 05:34 PM

I Am Pretty Sure My T2 C-6 Said 99 Cu In On The Back. I Lost The Original Cowling In Denver When I Blew It Over. The Motor Now Has An Aftermarket Plain Black Cowl(no Decals). The Only Good Pics I Have Of It Is From The Front And It Said Twister II. My C-6 Had The Old Style 10 Bolt Pattern On It And I Was Pretty Sure It Was Based On The 135 Block so I don't think it would have said 1400. Have The Mid Section That Came With It But Now It Has A T2x Powerhead On It.

baldad45

11-15-2006, 06:34 PM

My T-II has 1500 in that area, but I don't know when it was built.The 73 and up likely had 1500 and the 72 1400.

Mark75H

11-15-2006, 06:45 PM

Didn't Willabee just say the first Twister 2 was a 73? ... meaning the 72's were factory team "C-6" motors without the Twister 2 name

largecar91

11-16-2006, 07:14 AM

He said the c6 was 71 and 72. Mine could have had the wrong cowl on it when I bought it but it was a c6 and it had blue decals but the "TWISTER II" was in red lettering.

Jeff_G

11-16-2006, 10:54 AM

My T-II cowl is like the one in Inline 6's picture, has the holes and washers for the cowl top mounts. The later T-IIX motors didn't have them. Also on the front of the cowl has the Power Trim decal. The T-II had blue decals with red and black stripe pieces at the corner. The T-IIX motors had just blue decals and didn't have the 99.9 CI on them but they all had the 1500.

willabee

11-16-2006, 11:07 AM

.............
Thank you, that clears up what the TII and TIIX had to say.......now I just have to rummage through my stuff and find a photo of the C6 and I'll have this straight.

Largecar91.... Some of the names get a little confusing, let me try to clear this up a little. When the six carb stuff started, they were square and we called them "Morgan carbs" after the engineer that was responsible for them, Dr. Ted Morgan. They were on the 1400 block which was the first of the new dsh bolt patterns.....the 1350 shared a dsh bolt pattern with the 1250 which covered the BP's and the Twister and Twister I. While we raced the square carb engine in 71 and 72, we called them a C6. However, the media erroneously started to refer to this engine as a "Twister II", but it never had any TII decals on it. The actual Twister II came out in 73 and had the more familar round Tillotson carbs and as Inlines' photo shows, it used a 1500 block. I believe the T2X made it's debut in late 73 and was the 74 engine and as your photo shows, it used the 1500 block...same bolt pattern as the 1400.

The photo on the left is the Morgan carbed C6 and the center and right are the Tillotson carbed Twister II ..........clear as mud? :)

T2x

11-16-2006, 02:43 PM

Thank you, that clears up what the TII and TIIX had to say.......now I just have to rummage through my stuff and find a photo of the C6 and I'll have this straight.

Largecar91.... Some of the names get a little confusing, let me try to clear this up a little. When the six carb stuff started, they were square and we called them "Morgan carbs" after the engineer that was responsible for them, Dr. Ted Morgan. They were on the 1400 block which was the first of the new dsh bolt patterns.....the 1350 shared a dsh bolt pattern with the 1250 which covered the BP's and the Twister and Twister I. While we raced the square carb engine in 71 and 72, we called them a C6. However, the media erroneously started to refer to this engine as a "Twister II", but it never had any TII decals on it. The actual Twister II came out in 73 and had the more familar round Tillotson carbs and as Inlines' photo shows, it used a 1500 block. I believe the T2X made it's debut in late 73 and was the 74 engine and as your photo shows, it used the 1500 block...same bolt pattern as the 1400.

The photo on the left is the Morgan carbed C6 1400 and the center and right are the Tillotson carbed Twister II 1500..........clear as mud? :)

UH....... Willabee?

I can't bring the photo up but it seems that YOU have a picture of the C-6 cowl...... you posted it in the last thread above.....on the 251 boat.... What does it say?

Large Car:

Based on my memory..and Willabees post above, I don't think you could buy a C-6..... they were strictly factory team motors....unless you bought it a few years later out the back door?

T2x

willabee

11-16-2006, 03:36 PM

UH....... Willabee?I can't bring the photo up but it seems that YOU have a picture of the C-6 cowl...... you posted it in the last thread above.....on the 251 boat.... What does it say?

You bonehead.....if I could read what it said I wouldn't be askin' the question :). On post #198 I asked Mark75H if he could locate that article about Downard's #251 that he got the photo from to see if he could read the cowl, havn't heard back. I think I have that article somewhere, just have to start looking.

Jeff_G

11-16-2006, 03:38 PM

T2x

11-16-2006, 03:45 PM

You bonehead......

I beg your pardon........ In my day to day communications I insist on being referred to with respect and decorum..... so please refer to me in a more professional manner. In the future you will kindly refer to me as MISTER... Bonehead.

you bonehead.....:D :D :D

T2x

T2x

11-16-2006, 03:49 PM

Mark75H

11-16-2006, 03:56 PM

Mr. Lanphear emailed me a few years ago regarding this time period. He told me that development of the C-6 was actually split into 2 separate groups, one headed by himself and the other by Dr. Morgan. Lanphear's group was using Tillotson carbs and Morgan's group the square carbs and extra exhaust tuning. Things slowed up and Merc tightened it's budget and cut back on staff, Morgan stayed, Lanphear left and the C-6 stuff that was already working from each group was combined to make the T-2 ... Tillotson carbs & the extended exhaust tuning.

Mark75H

11-16-2006, 04:11 PM

Wait, now I'm getting confused.
Are you telling me the T-II was a one year motor? 1973
The C-6 wasn't a T-II and was a 1400 block? How does either one get to be a 1400 or 1500 blocks they were totally different from the production 1400 or 1500. I thought all of the T-II motors were the same basic block.
I was also under the impression the oval carbs were Mercarbs and only used one year unsuccessfully, that's why the change to the Tillotsons.
I was under the impression the C-6 was the correct name for the motor and the advertised public name was the Twister II or T-II

Which motor isthis; Isn't this the T-I with the Super Six on the back and the T-II type cowl?

In reverse order .... nope not a T-1 in any way. I'm very certain it is a 6 carb pre-T2 factory team motor ... a C-6 (because it has no other name). I think the mid is actually a BP mid, it has the bosses for the lower cover under the cowl.

"C-6" unfortunately is used by many folks for all of the 6 carbed inlines, whether they be un-named prototypes, Super Sixes, T-2's or T-IIX's. Mercury never officially called any motor a C-6. I'd say that it is unfortunate that so many people call all of them C-6's, because it is quite confusing. When I write "C-6" I am always refering to motors made before 1973 ... pre T-2.

Yes, the T-2 was a one year motor (or year and a half, whatever)

As per my post quoting Mr. Lanphear ... pre T-2 C-6's were tested and probably raced in both configuations for a year or two ... unless Willabee is certain no Tillotson carbed C-6's were out for racing at the same time as the Morgan's. The impression I got from Lanphear was that they were.

willabee

11-16-2006, 04:36 PM

Wait, now I'm getting confused.
Are you telling me the T-II was a one year motor? 1973
The C-6 wasn't a T-II and was a 1400 block? How does either one get to be a 1400 or 1500 blocks they were totally different from the production 1400 or 1500. I thought all of the T-II motors were the same basic block.
I was also under the impression the oval carbs were Mercarbs and only used one year unsuccessfully, that's why the change to the Tillotsons.
I was under the impression the C-6 was the correct name for the motor and the advertised public name was the Twister II or T-II
Which motor isthis; Isn't this the T-I with the Super Six on the back and the T-II type cowl?

I was afraid that I was going to confuse someone, sorry about that. Yes, the TII was a 1973 engine.....Yes, the C6 wasn't a TII and used a 1400 block.....Yes, the TII and TIIX used a 1500 block.....I don't remember the manufacturer of the square (actually rectangular, not oval) carbs and they were used for about a year and one-half.....I sure wouldn't say they were unsuccessful, we won one hell of a lot of races with them. They were just too tempermental to put out to the public.....No, C6 was used internally for the square carber and TII publically for the Tillotson carber.....The engine in your photo is a C6 (thank you for that, now I know what the rear cowl said).....Mister Bonehead is correct, there is no such thing as a TI hiding under a TII cowl.....As for the photo, T2X astutely called out the steering. What I think Merc did was take one of the older boats we were not racing and paint it to look like the boat Renato and Hering used to finish 1st single at Havasu in 1971 so it could be sent to dealers for advertising purposes, it ran with a C6.....here is a shot of it with Hering behind the wheel and you can see that it did race with cable steering :)......another of the same boat, but color picture

SportJ-US-1

11-16-2006, 04:57 PM

"T-1 with a T-II type cowl"..........???????????? I don't believe such a critter ever existed.

By the way...ya gotta love the Ride Guide steering.

T2x

For one thing the belly pan wouldn't work as the exhaust configurations were totally different.

largecar91

11-16-2006, 05:20 PM

Mark75H

11-16-2006, 05:29 PM

I did buy that motor several years later. I ran it in Mod 100. It had a 10 bolt base with TC 3B Tillotsons. All the internals were T2. Not sure if Mercury ever said this motor existed but I sure owned it. Like I said in an earlier post, the powerhead has been gone for 20 years but still have the mid with a different powerhead.

Any possiblity that someone before you built the motor from "parts"? A 135 block over a BP mid with a later six carb front, internals and cowl?

Raceman

11-16-2006, 05:38 PM

I was afraid that I was going to confuse someone, sorry about that. Yes, the TII was a 1973 engine.....Yes, the C6 wasn't a TII and used a 1400 block.....Yes, the TII and TIIX used a 1500 block.....I don't remember the manufacturer of the square (actually rectangular, not oval) carbs and they were used for about a year and one-half.....I sure wouldn't say they were unsuccessful, we won one hell of a lot of races with them. They were just too tempermental to put out to the public.....No, C6 was used internally for the square carber and TII publically for the Tillotson carber.....

I'm sorry, but I just don't believe it. I've yet to look at a T2 that had a 1500 block. I've never seen one that had powerported pistons and the corresponding slot in the cyl wall, and don't think they exist.

largecar91

11-16-2006, 05:47 PM

Anything is possible. The porting was pretty extreme. It sure looked factory. Someone would have had to do a lot of work. I know it was a very strong engine. I bought it from a racer that owned a marina in Bothel,Wa if this rings a bell to anyone. It has been too long for me to remember his name. At the time he told me it was a Mercury factory motor.:confused:

SportJ-US-1

11-16-2006, 05:51 PM

SportJ-US-1

11-16-2006, 05:53 PM

I'm sorry, but I just don't believe it. I've yet to look at a T2 that had a 1500 block. I've never seen one that had powerported pistons and the corresponding slot in the cyl wall, and don't think they exist.

I've seen a couple of TII setups with 1500XS blocks (usually after a blown engine and a race the next weekend), but they never ran as well as a real TII or TIIX.

Raceman

11-16-2006, 06:18 PM

I've seen a couple of TII setups with 1500XS blocks (usually after a blown engine and a race the next weekend), but they never ran as well as a real TII or TIIX.

Actually I meant factory equipped with a 1500 block. I HAVE seen a couple of em done by individuals. The point I was trying to make was, I don't think Merc used any power ported block/piston combos in factory T2 or T2X's, and since I'm not aware of any difference between a '72 1400 block and the subsequent 1500 ones except for the hole in the cyl wall for the power port, I don't understand the distinction.

mbd29

11-17-2006, 07:26 AM

Well here is my two cents. About the only things that were common between the TII,TIIX and 1400/1500 was the block foot print, rod and pin bearings. Now you real detailed guys may find other details but thats about it. I struggle to remember some of this stuff and I looked at it everyday. The production engines were referenced in context with the race engines because they were our flagship engines at the time so Marketing used it to their advantage.
There was so much going on at that time I'm supprised that Bill can remember the details he does, especially decals used. I sure can't and I came later. Believe me I sucked up every detail on all the Merc race engines at that time and thought that I new quite a bit until I see what everyone is coming up with on this site. And I'm sorry to say some of it is way out in left field. But that is the way legends continue.

Sam: I'm sure that Bill can give some details of the competition between Plant 6 and Plant 12 (Morgan/Lanphear). I believe it was quite intense in the 60's and early 70's. Dick did not leave Mercury but stayed on as, I believe, the Director of Large Outboards when Morgan became VP of Engineering. I too saw him a few years ago and he still looked the same. He came strolling into plant 6 when I was there doing a video shoot. Couldn't believe he remembered who I was.

Jeff_G

11-17-2006, 10:30 AM

OK so the cowl with the Super Six was the C-6.

The C-6 only used the oval carbs which do say MerCarb on them, I have to go look.

The C-6 although it was the same as the T-II block was advertised as the 1400 for marketing and the later 1973 T-II was marketed as the 1500 even though they shared almost nothing.

I do know the C-6 and T-II are the same blocks and are nothing like a production 1400/1500.

The C-6 and 1973 T-II used the BP type mid and the later 1973/74 on T-IIX used the Champ style.

And they all came standard with Mercury steering bars for cable pulley steering.

Correct?

Bruce Washburn

11-17-2006, 10:54 AM

I could be wrong but I believe that there were some factory TII X motors that had both power ports and finger ports.and single or two 1mmring trw pistons.

willabee

11-17-2006, 12:40 PM

As per my post quoting Mr. Lanphear ... pre T-2 C-6's were tested and probably raced in both configuations for a year or two ... unless Willabee is certain no Tillotson carbed C-6's were out for racing at the same time as the Morgan's. The impression I got from Lanphear was that they were.

The Morgan carbs were probably running for about a year before Lanpheer was ready for us to test the Tillotsons. I do remember the first powerhead he sent over for us to test. We had just returned from a race and the powerhead arrived. I asked the rigging guys to put it on one of the 17' Molinari's while the engine shop guys disassembled all of the stuff we had broken at the last race...... we always laid out the failed parts for the engineering guys to inspect and gave them as much info as possible about each broken piece. When the rig shop said the boat was ready for testing, I went down to check it out and really didn't like what I saw, so we didn't test right away.

Instead, I waited for the day that all engineers, which included Charles Alexander (either VP Engineering or Company Pres. at the time) were performing their inspection. When finished, Alexander asked me if there was any more to look at and I said yes, and opened the overhead door to the shop to show him the powerhead we were sent to test. I pointed out a number of things that were, in my opinion, not installed properly on that powerhead and said they would never make it through a race in that form. That really upset the boys from Plt.6, but I didn't think I should worry about that.....they had previously made it clear that I was not an engineer and I should leave the engineering up to them. Well, they were right about that, but my job was to make sure that we finished and hopefully won some races and I figured I would try to get some stuff fixed before it ever got the chance to break in a race. Anyway, I seem to recall some of the Tillotson powerheads being sent to non-factory races to see how they would perform before they were were allowed to run at a major event.....probably about a six month period.

willabee

11-17-2006, 01:56 PM

The point I was trying to make was, I don't think Merc used any power ported block/piston combos in factory T2 or T2X's, and since I'm not aware of any difference between a '72 1400 block and the subsequent 1500 ones except for the hole in the cyl wall for the power port, I don't understand the distinction.

I don't know what to tell you...... I can say that from the 1250 on, the racing team always got the new block, assembled the powerhead and ran it in major races before it was turned over to production. I did find the articles below......they are both from Powerboat. The first is from October, 1972 and they are featuring all of the new outboards for 1973...read the 3rd paragraph. The second is from October, 1973 and they are talking about the new models for 74...read the 2nd paragraph.

When I post, I do so with the intent of accurate information and, on occasion, hopefully some entertainment. If I am not sure of something, I try to look it up.....If I can't find it, I give you what I recall to the best of my ability.

T2x

11-17-2006, 02:18 PM

I could be wrong but I believe that there were some factory TII X motors that had both power ports and finger ports.and single or two 1mmring trw pistons.

That would be correct....... The final (factory racing) T2x's were potent mothers.

T2x

willabee

11-17-2006, 02:19 PM

Mark75H

11-17-2006, 05:56 PM

The C-6 and 1973 T-II used the BP type mid and the later 1973/74 on T-IIX used the Champ style.

The BP and T-II mids are slightly different at the top. On the BP a steering bar would have to mount to the engine studs and the mid has the mounting bosses for the under cowl cover that covers the powerhead studs and nuts. The T-II mid is smoother up to the powerhead studs except for big bosses sticking out to mount a steering bar directly to the mid.

Raceman

11-17-2006, 10:54 PM

The C-6 and 1973 T-II used the BP type mid and the later 1973/74 on T-IIX used the Champ style.

Seems like "BP type mid" in describing a T2 is a big stretch, since the bolt pattern at the top is different between the two, as well as the exhaust configuration.

One other comment......... I've been in a bunch of T2/T2X powerheads now with my bore scope and again, I've NEVER seen one with the powerport in the side like the 1500. I've only seen one that had the finger ports, and was told by the owner that it had single ring pistons, although we didn't pull a side cover to look, but even it didn't have the power port.

Mark75H

11-17-2006, 11:03 PM

Dang! I forgot about the bolt pattern change .... I knew that, duh.

Jeff_G

11-18-2006, 09:10 AM

Don't be so picky :) , when I said the BP TYPE I was referring to the BASIC shape as opposed to the Champ style. Not all the little differences!

Raceman

11-19-2006, 11:18 PM

I can say that from the 1250 on, the racing team always got the new block, assembled the powerhead and ran it in major races before it was turned over to production. I did find the articles below......they are both from Powerboat. The first is from October, 1972 and they are featuring all of the new outboards for 1973...read the 3rd paragraph. The second is from October, 1973 and they are talking about the new models for 74...read the 2nd paragraph.

When I post, I do so with the intent of accurate information and, on occasion, hopefully some entertainment. If I am not sure of something, I try to look it up.....If I can't find it, I give you what I recall to the best of my ability.

Here's what I can't figure out about the comments earlier in this thread, and the two pictured magazine articles further confuse it. (For background, I have 2 Twisters (red striped), 2 Twister 1's, 1 Twister1 upgrade kit - new in box and never assembled, 3 complete Twister 2's and 1 complete and 1 partial T2X. I previously had 2 additional T2's) I have looked inside most of these powerheads with a bore scope, and there's not a power ported cylinder in the bunch. So if Merc put out a press release in '72 saying that powerporting was developed for the Twister racing engines, what Twister was it used in?

mbd29

11-20-2006, 06:18 AM

The Marketing Group didn't know the difference between a power ported piston and a non, or the difference between a direct charged block and a cross flow. These were technical terms used in the literature, supplied by engineering. They also didn't know what kind of "parts" were used in race engines. So, when they refered to all of these developments coming from racing they used it in general terms.

Jeff_G

11-20-2006, 09:26 AM

RM remember the discussion about a year or so ago about "forged" pistons? The marketing guys said forged when they were actually pressure cast pistons, never forged. I take what I see in ads and all with a grain of salt.
I'll have to look into my blocks to see what is in there, it has been so long.

willabee

12-07-2006, 03:55 PM

Well here is my two cents. About the only things that were common between the TII,TIIX and 1400/1500 was the block foot print, rod and pin bearings. The production engines were referenced in context with the race engines because they were our flagship engines at the time so Marketing used it to their advantage.There was so much going on at that time I'm supprised that Bill can remember the details he does

So, the TII was the legal "U" class engine in 1973 and the 1500 "power-ported" engine is the big people engine for 1973. In addition, Merc was racing a "S" class version of the TII that same year. Maybe the TII was built with the 1400 block and the "S" version was that block with the power-ports, which would be called a 1500 because the 1400 was gone.

At some point, the race team would have run the power-ported block before it was approved for production. Sorry, I just can't put it in it's exact time frame right now.....maybe something else will come up that will turn on one of my old lightbulbs :(

Here is Billy Seebold and Bob Hering taking 1st and 2nd in "S" class in Memphis in May of 1973......note that Hering is in his new stars & stripes pickle fork Molinari and Seebold hadn't received his new one yet (he is driving Old Blue IV)......Billy Schumacher finished 3rd in his Johnson/Scotti.

willabee

12-08-2006, 11:26 AM

Jerry Simison was new to the Merc Team, I think becoming a member in 1973 and this event may have been his first race. I do remember the black 17' Sprint Molinari was the first boat he was given and he did win the "U" class with it at this event running the TII. Doug Pearl drove one of those Scorpions we talked about earlier with a 1400 to victory in the "SJ" class.....you could always tell it was Pearl on the course because of that ponytail flying at the back of his helmet :).

Mr. T, you should remember that black Molinari also. There was a race in Merrill, Wi. and you and I could not get your Molinari to run well back in Oshkosh. Everyone else had departed for the race except us and we were running out of time. We finally found a problem with hook in one of your sponsons and I decided that we would put your engine on the new black boat in the rig shop.....it was fully riggged but had never been in the water at that point. We made a quick run with it and agreed it was ready to go and we took off for Merrill.

Man, you would have thought we committed some kind of horrible crime the way we were treated when we arrived. All we did was park a boat that wouldn't run and put in a bunch of big time effort to replace it with one that would, and yet certain folks were pissed off. I still don't know what the big deal was about us using that boat, but they sure weren't happy about it..... even took away our truck keys so that we couldn't play that night (didn't matter, we didn't need em :)). Anyway, I figured whatever the problem is, it goes away if you win and that was looking pretty good. It didn't help matters much when you ran out of fuel just before your one hour stop.....that was when I realized that in my haste to get everything else done, I had forgotten to check the size of that tank :eek: .....sorry bout' that.

willabee

12-13-2006, 01:49 PM

willabee

12-15-2006, 02:09 PM

Had to laugh at myself on this one...... A while back, mbd29 posted a photo of Jim Merten's single engine kilo record setting boat and I asked him why they took the single pipe exhaust system that they used to set the record off of the powerhead and put a twin pipe system on. Well, I just came across an article about the record in Powerboat, and the record was set with a twin pipe system and I knew that.....hell, I was indirectly responsible for it being on there in the first place! Just goes to show that a picture can sometimes distort the facts rather than clear them up. I've seen that single pipe picture so many times that my mind must have finally said "OK, that's how the record was set" :o......bet I'm not alone in that thinking :)......definately a "Hot Single"

The picture mbd29 put up (those are not the pipes used for the record).....the picture used by Merc PR and most other articles.....the shot from Powerboat (not a good pic, you have to look hard to see both pipes).....

Bob V

12-15-2006, 07:17 PM

Found this, sent to me by Molly Ballou. Can anyone ID the driver on the far right.....been racking my brain, but can't come up with a name. This was taken at the Provo 250 in 1973. That is his boat behind him and I think the man with his head down on the far left is part of this man's pit crew. A west coast driver ?????.......Irwin or Erwin maybe ????? I remember both of those faces and talking to them about the TII.

Willabee...I believe that guy on the right is a young Rocky Aoki, the founder of Benihana Japanese Restaurants. He would have just been starting out in his racing about that time. Here are some pictures of him from that same time era:
http://www.benihana.com/hall_of_fame.asp

willabee

12-19-2006, 03:26 PM

Willabee...I believe that guy on the right is a young Rocky Aoki, the founder of Benihana Japanese Restaurants.

Although I see where you get the resemblance, the man in the picture is not Aoki. This guy spoke perfect english, not a hint of Japanese and was bigger than Rocky. Rocky started offshore racing in 1975 as a 36 year old and this guy is much younger. I don't think that Rocky was in any other type of boat racing before offshore.

While talking about KT's on another thread, came across this picture of Dick Sherrer in Powerboat (same one I posted at the beginning of this thread), found out it was him winning the Redwood City race and that he built the Crusader boat that he is driving. Also found this shot of Bob Holloway winning the Walker Lake 100 and found a shot of Broadway Joe Habay in one of the early Ron Jones 17' singles....maybe 1970.

willabee

12-20-2006, 03:42 PM

Found a picture of Mike Downard at Havasu in 1970. Noticed the boat has "ON" on the side and then remembered why...... it was the Renato Molinari/Jackie Wilson entry at the Paris 6 Hour that year running a Twister. It was flown back for Havasu where it ran a 1350 stacker. Then it ran a single pipe C6 in 1971 at Parker and after that race it became the Dick Sherrer entry you see in the Team picture from Miami, #148.....a very good boat.

SCT

12-20-2006, 04:43 PM

How did Mike place? Next time I see him, I'll tell him he needs to post here on S&F.

Bruce Washburn

12-21-2006, 06:45 AM

A little off the subject but Gordon Downard started racing again in SST 60 last year. It is always good to see some of the old names come back.

willabee

12-21-2006, 10:30 AM

How did Mike place? Next time I see him, I'll tell him he needs to post here on S&F.

He dropped out during the 6th hour, I don't recall what broke......he wasn't running in the top ten.

willabee

01-15-2007, 04:15 PM

This was our first race in Memphis. I think Billy Don Pruett was driving a Marathon/TII for Arnie Haynes (think that was his name, he also had an inboard named Kilowatt) and had arranged for us to use one of his electrical shops for race headquarters. After we got all of our equipment put away that first night, we went back to the hotel to clean up. It was already late, but about six of us decided to go take a look at what Memphis had to offer in the way of night life. We stopped at a couple places and were on our way back to the motel when I eyeballed a TGI Fridays. Although it was closing time, a couple of us went in to see what it looked like in case we might want to come back another night.

Well, what we found resembled a high school dance. Lights were bright, two groups of people on the dance floor just standing there looking at each other and seperated by two police officers. I inquired as to what was happening and was informed that this very good looking (and very well endowed) young lady had decided to remove her top during the last dance. Apparently this upset some women from the other group and the police had been summoned to arrest this woman for doing something obscene. Remember, this was 1973, and things were different then.

After listening to the officers talk to the two groups, it was obvious to me that they didn't want to arrest anyone, they just wanted everyone to get along and to leave peacefully. I don't know why, but I walked onto the dance floor and looked at the officer in charge.....then the six pack of backbone I had consumed earlier caused me to say "I don't know what you think, but if someone has to be arrested, I think it should be the person that thinks that those things are obscene." as I pointed at the lady who had been the topless dancer. That officer looked at me, a smile came across his face and he raised his hand and gave me a high five as he said "right on brother!" Both groups broke into laughter and the evening ended without further incident. We went back that Friday night and the manager put us at the head table and we were treated like royality .....a fun time :). Not a racing story, just a story that happened at a race.....hope that is ok.

T2x

01-16-2007, 10:41 AM

gofish7070

01-17-2007, 09:37 AM

At that time was zone sale manager for Merc living in Memphis Remember the Race it was great fun,,,Due recall Pruitt running a Miles their remember he had a a squaw hand painted on the front of the boat,I think she was topless,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Pretty racy stuff for the times and Memphis

willabee

01-17-2007, 12:48 PM

Due recall Pruitt running a Miles their remember he had a a squaw hand painted on the front of the boat,I think she was topless,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Pretty racy stuff for the times and Memphis

I remember that painting on his boat also and I think this is the boat it was on..........sorry about the poor quality of the picture, tried to take a picture of a Merc ad and blow it up. I think this is a Tom Arnstad Marathon hull built in Loveland, Colorado.

willabee

01-17-2007, 01:28 PM

Didn't Billy Don run Tony Rodriguez' boat, a Miles or Jones called "Sagres" at that race? My memory is shakey on the hull make, but it was on a fancy carpeted trailer and looked like it was on display rather than attending a race.
Bill: Feel free to tell all the stories you want ...regardless of topic, but , if possible, when police are involved....tell the parts where you or some one else...wound up in jail. :)T2x

I looked up the race in Powerboat and they say Tony Rodrigues finished 4th in the inboard KM event, it doesn't say anything about Billy Don. Like I mentioned earlier, Pruett was our conduit to Haynes and that was why we used his shop. However, I do remember something about Pruett and Rodrigues.....I just can't recall what it is :rolleyes:.

As far as stories about jail go, if I started that, we'd have to title it "They fought the law....the never ending story"......It would probably start with Denis Berghauer (his brother Duane may have been with him) and the story of him stealing a train! I think it was one that ran from Milwaukee to Chicago and to this day he still says "I can't figure out how in the heck they tracked me down, even I wasn't sure where I was going to take it" :confused: :confused:.

Now you know why we affectionately referred to the big guy as "our portable hoist" during his racing days.....very big in the heart and arms, very small in ......well you know what I mean :D

Note to Boob Hetzel : I am trusting you to see that Denny reads this and, hopefully, gets on here to defend himself.

willabee

01-19-2007, 04:08 PM

You guys were talking somewhere about Lil Red going to Dave Packer in Hawaii. I didn't remember that happening, but I did come across a photo in Powerboat showing him in a Twistercraft he drove to one of the six wins he took at the Hawaiian Water Carnival in 1973. This boat is a 17' marathon version, the 2nd one that Carl Stippich built and the one that Petty blew over at Morgan City. The 1st one was destroyed when it got hit by a chicken truck as Lee Sutter was towing it home from Oshkosh - "feathers everywhere" said Sutter. After this boat Stippich built Lil Red and Lil Blue, the sprints - 16' I think.

In the photo with Packer is a shot of a Kober Kat, Steve Soon winning the SU class at the same event (I included that because we were talking about them and what they look like on another thread). The third photo is Bob Hering winning the Seattle 225 in 1973. I didn't make that race because I was on the road with the KT boat, but I was told that he could do just about anything he wanted to in that stars & stripes Molinari. He decided to make a race out of it and led Johnny Sanders, Barry Woods, Billy Seebold and Tom Posey to the finish line.

T2x

01-20-2007, 11:22 AM

I remember that painting on his boat also and I think this is the boat it was on..........sorry about the poor quality of the picture, tried to take a picture of a Merc ad and blow it up. I think this is a Tom Arnstad Marathon hull built in Loveland, Colorado.

It sure looks like the twin to a Miles I ran a year later.......
Maybe Arnstad copied the hull and cowlings from Miles...?
T2x

mbd29

01-22-2007, 07:00 AM

Dave did get Lil Red. It ended up in New York and is still on display.

willabee

01-22-2007, 08:42 AM

It sure looks like the twin to a Miles I ran a year later.......
Maybe Arnstad copied the hull and cowlings from Miles...?
T2x

Or.....maybe I'm wrong about the boat. Do you guys recall this being the one that Pruett ran at Memphis? If so, then I could be wrong about the make.....I just seem to remember him running a Marathon.

willabee

01-22-2007, 08:46 AM

Dave did get Lil Red. It ended up in New York and is still on display.

That's interesting.....what year did he get the boat, I assume he did well with it in Hawaii and where was that picture taken?

largecar91

01-22-2007, 10:44 AM

Any idea on how many Marathon hulls were built? I had one and a friend of mine still has one.

willabee

01-22-2007, 11:11 AM

Any idea on how many Marathon hulls were built? I had one and a friend of mine still has one.

No, I sure don't have any idea of how many were built. They were a well built boat, a little heavy, but strong. I think I first saw them as twin outboards around 1969 and not very many of them. Then around 1973 he started building hulls for the KT's and some single engine outboards. Don't know how many, but would be surprised if it was much more than a dozen of each.....just a guess.

largecar91

01-22-2007, 01:47 PM

I Plan On Testing The One My Friend Has This Spring. I Will Post Some Pics. It Has A Chrysler Stacker On It.

willabee

01-22-2007, 02:20 PM

Willabee,Your welcome,,, glad I could help !!! :p John

Man!!!.....you have really become the typical Evinrude guy ..... Slow on Sunday and super quick on Monday. I figured I had time to wait until you answered the rest of that question before I'd send the thanks :D.

I didn't know Dave was from New York and, until your response, was thinking that maybe Clayton was where mbd29 was talking about. I've talked with him many times, at races and in Oshkosh, and I guess where he was from never came up. Dave used to stop in at Racing about once a year and go through our scrap bins. Then he would ask for an escort and walk through the boat yard to see if there were any "used" race boats that we would part with and would also ask me if there were any engines that we "had no use for". When he was finished touring, he would meet with Garbrecht. Gary would let me know what stuff he had agreed to sell to Dave and we would get it boxed up for shipment. I have no idea what kind of deals he was given, and there was certainly nothing wrong or out of line with how he went about his quest for equipment, but that was how he acquired and maintained a lot of his racing equipment in Hawaii.

BTW, I do respond to "Bill" also, you didn't have to change that :D.

willabee

01-22-2007, 02:31 PM

I Plan On Testing The One My Friend Has This Spring. I Will Post Some Pics. It Has A Chrysler Stacker On It.

Would like to see it.....it won't be quick, but it may be a "looker" and will sound mean. Sounds like a fun project :).

willabee

01-22-2007, 03:04 PM

This I don't know but I think Bob Valachovic. would have the answer. Bob did it over and donated it to the museum.

Thank you for that information.........As to your question about number of races won, I have to stick with my "If I would have run, I would have won" :rolleyes:.

mbd29

01-23-2007, 06:00 AM

Hey Bill: Dave didn't change much after you left. He would come to Oshkosh walk around and see what was there and leave with a truck full of stuff. He and Gary were close. He picked up Lil Red in 1976. I believe he painted it yellow right away. I never saw it again until John sent the picture. I would like to build a copy of it and set it up the way Billy ran it when he set the record. It is just talk now. Jim Merten and I have been talking about it a little.

Attached is the Marathon boat I ran with a Twister. Barry Woods ran a twin Marathon at Havasu in 1970.