Mercury Racing Team - 1972 Picture

[willabee]

It was taken in the early morning hours (we got there about 5:30) on race day at the Miami Marine Stadium in 1972, the year the Miami 225 was cancelled due to high winds.

Can you name the drivers of all ten boats ( the first boat is #457, the last one is #199 )?

Can you name the guys hanging around boat #457?

This was the first race that the whole team ran C6's - Morgan 6 carb on 1400 block.

[willabee]

No, it's a guy that we hired out of Texas - he drove a twin Jones for Shepherd Racing before he joined us.

You got the guy in the cockpit correct and you should definitely get the guy on the far left, in front of the boat and the guy on the far right, behind the boat

The Only Boat I'm Not Sure Of Is The #730. Seems Like Maybe California Driver, Tinker Coolidge? Looks Like Willabee In The Cockpit.

[willabee]

THE DRIVERS AND THEIR BOATS


#457 - Bobby Hering - 1971 17' Molinari sprint
#251 - Mike Downard - 1972 17' Molinari sprint ( first race for that boat )
#554 - Renato Molinari - 1972 17' Molinari sprint ( first race for that boat )
#730 - Bill Allen - 1971 17' Molinari marathon ( Renato's 1971 "cockpit forward"
Havasu boat )
#254 - Tom Stickle - 1971 17' Molinari marathon ( 1971 Paris boat )
#148 - Dick Sherrer - 1970 18'? Molinari marathon ( Renato's 1970 "extended
transom" Paris boat )
#190 - Billy Seebold - 1970 17' Molinari sprint
#998 - Bill Sirois - 1971 17' Molinari sprint
#22 - Gary Peacock - 1970 17' Molinari sprint
#199 - Bill Petty - 1971 17' Twistercraft

[willabee]

THE GUYS AROUND BOAT #457

Starting with the guy behind the boat on the far left and going clockwise:

Georgio Molinari ( Renato's younger brother )
Me
Dave Beier - powerhead mechanic
Greg Danfield - boat trailers, trucks, refueling rigs
Ken Ballou - marine owner Hemet, Ca. ( Molly's husband )
Rick Lamore - powerhead mechanic
Bob Geary - gearcase mechanic
Jim Emerson - Lake X offshore team ( in charge of our refueling )

[blkmtrfan]

Awsome photo, keep em coming

[T2x]

THE GUYS AROUND BOAT #457

Starting with the guy behind the boat on the far left and going clockwise:

Georgio Molinari ( Renato's younger brother )
Me
Dave Beier - powerhead mechanic
Greg Danfield - boat trailers, trucks, refueling rigs
Ken Ballou - marine owner Hemet, Ca. ( Molly's husband )
Rick Lamore - powerhead mechanic
Bob Geary - gearcase mechanic
Jim Emerson - Lake X offshore team ( in charge of our refueling )

You can't miss Rick Lamore..... Rest his soul....

But are you sure about JD?

T2x

[willabee]

Yea, Rick was one of the best - a great mechanic, 2 cycle or 4, and just one hell of a nice guy - really enjoyed working with him.

Ran into him and Dennis Mathis at a hi-performance show in Columbus somewhere around 1994. He had his own offshore engine business in Flordia at that time. He introduced me to Dennis as " the best boss he ever had" - that was a great compliment because it came from him.

Your question about JD must be a typo, who were you asking about?

You can't miss Rick Lamore..... Rest his soul....

But are you sure about JD?

T2x

[T2x]

Yea, Rick was one of the best - a great mechanic, 2 cycle or 4, and just one hell of a nice guy - really enjoyed working with him.

Ran into him and Dennis Mathis at a hi-performance show in Columbus somewhere around 1994. He had his own offshore engine business in Flordia at that time. He introduced me to Dennis as " the best boss he ever had" - that was a great compliment because it came from him.
Your question about JD must be a typo, who were you asking about?

Jim Emerson is/was known as "JD" at the Lake. He rigged the Jesse James Boats for us....... and is now semi-retired.... (he drives the Merc Offshore truck to races).... I last saw him in early August at St. Clair.

My question is about the guy you identified as him........ Is that a bad picture?..... He sure looks/looked different. By the way...He's Chuck Mercereau's nephew.

T2x....

P.S. George Linder sends his regards.

[T2x]

Yea, Rick was one of the best - a great mechanic, 2 cycle or 4, and just one hell of a nice guy - really enjoyed working with him.

LaMore Story......

1981 Offshore World's at Key West...... I had a pair of (the very rare)T-4's on one of our Shadow Cats... Rick and Mark Baier were "babysitting" them......This was when I kept insisiting on putting OPC hardware on our Offshore race boats (two T-4's on a Shadow Cat.... Four T-3's on a Conquest Cat) Rick was fascinated by this and worked closely with us.

During the week of racing.... and the inevitable boredom in the pits........I got into a stupid bet that I could lift Rick off the ground and walk 20 feet with him..... ( I was at about 160 lbs, soaking wet, back then...and Rick was pushing 300+) .This occurred on a wharf next to where the boat was floating. Somehow I pulled this off......... but strained various parts of my back, legs and shoulders in the effort...... A few minutes later I climbed below the front deck of the boat to stow a reflector antenna.... and suddenly had a fierce charlie horse in my calf ( hot day..... cramped bow area...you get the picture). As I flipped over grabbing my leg I fell against the inflatable life raft....got tangled in the co2 lanyard and ..... WHAM!...... the inflating raft shot me back out of the cabin door, I'd crawled through seconds before...... I continued sliding backwards across the cockpit sole beneath the race hatch and wound up in a sponson under the bailing well.... covered in talculm powder.... (preservative for the raft)....and some light blood.

When I emerged looking like a bad three stooges finale........ La More took one look at me and asked if I was finished for the day..... or was there some kind of encore..... because he didn't want to miss anything.

I chased him for probably 100 yards.....

He could really move when pursued by a powder coated madman.......

Rest in Peace, Big Guy

T2x

[willabee]

Positive, that's Jim - remember, that was 1972, he was a lot younger and "lighter" back then.
One thing that makes him look different is the fact that he is standing like a frozen turd. The wind was already blowing hard that morning and that made it kind of cool, but this was February, so us Wisconsin boys still thought we were in a tropical paradise. However, the Florida boys acted like it was a winter blizzard! In addition, he was not thrilled with the idea of getting up at " O dark thirty" on a Sunday morning just so I could get that photo - that smile was really forced.
I don't recall anyone refering to him as JD, must have been an offshore thing.

Jim Emerson is/was known as "JD" at the Lake.
My question is about the guy you identified as him........ Is that a bad picture?..... He sure looks/looked different. .

[willabee]

THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO


The 1972 Miami 225 was the first major race where I was in total charge of Mercury's effort. Garbrecht and Merten had some type of scheduling conflict, so I was told who they wanted in the event and to make it happen.

Normally, our procedure for a major race was to get all of the equipment and team members to the test site the weekend before the race. The balance of the drivers would try to arrive sometime that Monday. I didn't think that was the most efficient way to get the job done because we would go from no drivers to all of the drivers in a matter of hours, and everyone wanted something done at the same time. I decided to try something different for the 225.

The guys at Lake X installed a duplicate of the Miami course for us to test on. I sent " Day Tripper " with all of the race powerheads and props and Bobby Hering and his #457. Bob Hetzel and I joined Rick Lamore and a couple more of our guys and we started testing. We ran every powerhead we had across Herings boat until they all performed almost identical, Lamore doing all of the adjusting. We then ran all the props, Hetzel doing all of the filing and banging. In 2 or 3 days, we were ready for the rest of the drivers who were set up with staggered arrivals, about 3 per day.

When each driver arrived, we already had his boat ready for testing - just add water. After each driver ran a few props, they were ready for final inspection. Most of the drivers commented that that was as ready as they felt they had ever been for a boat race. When all boats were done, there was about 3.5 seconds in total lap time difference between the fastest and the slowest. Hering was fastest, but ran with about 5 gallons of fuel aboard. Sherrer was slowest, but carried about 25 gallons.

We went to Miami with very high expectations, that's one reason I wanted that photo. We got up early so that we could get the boats lined up on the ramp ( we had to saw the chain locking the stadium gates in order to get in ). Unfortunately, the wind just got worse until the event was finally cancelled. OMC has no idea how lucky they were that day

Awsome photo, keep em coming

[blkmtrfan]

Great story willabee, thanks

[Mark75H]

I found this version of the picture on Tim Seebold's site. You can see another Merc boat and 2 OMC boats

[willabee]

That's interesting, wonder where he got it. The photos were taken by a Merc PR guy ( can't remember his name ) and several were taken. This one makes me think that they cropped the vehicles and used it for some advertising. Maybe Mike Butler can find it in his files.

I found this version of the picture on Tim Seebold's site. You can see another Merc boat and 2 OMC boats

[willabee]

Mercury Racing Team - 1970


Found this shot in Powerboat, it was the one that gave me the idea to make the 1972 picture. Shown are:
#174 - Billy Don Pruett in "Mullet"
#998 - Bill Sirois in "Tuff Turkey"
#199 - Bill Petty
#177 - Don Clark
#251 - Mike Downard - in "High and Dry"
#457 - Bob Hering

#254 - Tom Stickle
#187 - Jim Merten

I don't think Bill Seebold was at this race.

The rules for this Miami 225 stated that a driver must be 21 to compete....Downard was not yet 21, so he was told that he could not race. He happened to be driving the boat that I had a ton of test hours in and up until about an hour before the race it looked like I was going to get the seat ( I was very excited ). Then, Gary changed his mind and put Duey Berghauer in the boat Since Gary didn't think that Duey could win ( he had never been in the boat and had just come down to help his brother Dennis ) we took the water-injection system off of his engine and put it on someone else's!........... If I would have run.....I would have won