Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[2us70]

How was the ignition still working?

[willabee]

B[/QUOTE
a
Actually

Did you try to say something John ?

[Mark75H]

How was the ignition still working?

Flex plate and outer ring, not hub and pulley.

[willabee]

He couldn't shut off the motor. Like the rest of the Mercury team, he lost his flywheel somewhere in the river. Those guys just lifted the boats by hand.

His flywheel was exactly where it was supposed to be, there was no known problem with the Berghauer boat. It was out of concern for a possible starter motor failure that it was decided his last pit stop would be performed with the motor running. Very dangerous, but we got away with it.

[C.G. 125]

Don't know. Maybe Willabee has the answer.

[John Schubert]

Did you try to say something John ?

Yes but being on my phone it stopped there &. 2 subsequent attempts were not accepted. I’ll try again & if that fails I’ll try again at home from my laptop,
The steering failure actually occurred during the 2nd hour at the far turn with Bill driving. He returned to the pits by grabbing the cables between the steering wheel & coaling as the spline inside the wheel stripped. The crew drilled threw & installed a bolt. I was then sent out only to find trim wires were broke. Had to go all around the course per Parker rules, got the trim fixed & was sent back out to stay out even though the next fuel stop. Bill wasn’t happy. BTW we were ahead of the Berghauers & Sanders with James Beard as his co- driver & I turned the fastest lap after the Rotaries broke

[willabee]

..... BTW we were ahead of the Berghsuers & Sanders with James Beard as his co- driver & I turned the fastest lap after the Rotaries broke

Actually ..... that was a good story until the BS about the fastest lap

Agreed, it was Sanders & Beard in the Cougar ....

[John Schubert]

Actually ..... that was a good story until the BS about the fastest lap

Agreed, it was Sanders & Beard in the Cougar ....

Yes even the fastest lap was true. I passed your main man Billy Seebold with ease just before the upper first turn. This will probably make Rotary John a bit upset, but Rich McKinley & I had V-4's and Jimbo & Posey had the rotaries, maybe Sanders testing in Stuart for the Rotary introduction at the Miami Marine Stadium 2 weeks prior to the Parker race, Every different test that Jack Leek told us to use, I out ran the Rotaries. Jack called me in & said "Johnny, that's not the idea, they are to SOUNDLY out run you". So I let them. At the in tro emceed by Muncey we did two starts for the press. One a flying start all 4 of us together & the other the rotaries were several boat lengths back. They passed Rich & I bay the first turn. At the cocktail reception following the press show, Tom I'm thinking "McMilliam" from Mechanics Illustrated came over to me and asked if I was "wide open"? I told him Certainly. He "responded, "then why did I hear your RPM's drop".

True story. At the reception I was asked if I would drive the same rig at Parker with Bill as my co-driver.

You Merc guys always had a hard time believing that we were fast sometimes LOL !!!!!
My Avatar is the Parker boat

[Capt.Insane-o]

Hey John, I'm still using that Merc 6 horse to go fishing with

[willabee]

Don't know. Maybe Willabee has the answer.

I seem to recall two 'flywheel' things happening with the new Twister II. One was that some of the flex plate bolts were breaking. I think it was determined that some of them somehow missed a heat treat process. Consequently some flywheel parts would try to make their way to freedom through the cowl. I don't remember a lot of that happening, but do recall it was a concern. We might have replaced the bolts on the 'in house' flywheels and exchanged them with the ones out in the field. The other thing that was happening simultaneously on the new motor was a few of the crankshafts were breaking! It would break at the top end cap and of course the flywheel would make a big bunch of noise as it tried to exit. Since these two problems were occurring at the same time, people (especially those covering the race) thought that there was "a flywheel problem" and we didn't try to tell people that some of this was a crank problem. I think it was determined that some crankshafts were improperly machined at that top radius.

[C.G. 125]

I remember the bad bolts. We had some fun with Peacock and took some old rusty bolts to a race in Key West and told him the ones he had were going to snap.

[willabee]

Yes even the fastest lap was true. I passed your main man Billy Seebold with ease just before the upper first turn. This will probably make Rotary John a bit upset, but .....

You Merc guys always had a hard time believing that we were fast sometimes LOL !!!!!
My Avatar is the Parker boat

Anything that upsets RJ works for me .....

This post is to see if I can get the Powerboat article about the 73 Parker race to post .....




That's all I can do. Can anyone blow this up so it is readable?

[Bob V]

Can anyone blow this up so it is readable?

Sorry, I tried, but the resolution is so low that if I even try to double the size, the print is not legible.

[willabee]

Thanks for trying, I'll try to figure out another way ( may have to ask Jackie ) .....

[jackiewilson]

Thanks for trying, I'll try to figure out another way ( may have to ask Jackie ) .....

always willing William——— just not often able to.