Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

[2us70]

Krome Avenue canal

[2us70]

Bill Rowel and on either side of Chick the Chandlers.

[T2x]

Zonkers and Kitson started building wooden versions of the Milesmaster picklefork. It was confusing but I never asked any questions and have no idea of what really took place behind the scenes.

Mixing a little salt with the pepper just enhances the entire presentation .....

Some of Kitson's boats .....

Willabee I dont believe that Kitson ever built wooden versions of the Picklefork Miles hulls. They were all glass copies.

[STEVERINO]

Freddis boats for 1972 had the driver sat further back he was also Johnson powered by now.After quite a few accidents he chose to let Max Milton drive his 1972 boat which had slotted decks in the World ON championship in Italy I think it placed 4th.I would be curious to know if he sent many of his picklefork boats to the USA.

[willabee]

Willabee I dont believe that Kitson ever built wooden versions of the Picklefork Miles hulls. They were all glass copies.

You are probably correct about the glass construction. As I mentioned, it was confusing as to who was building what for whom.

[mbd29]

Chick: Well done. This is awesome. I had the basics of Zonkercraft but this really fills in the "rest of the story."
Hope to see you at the OFF?

[T2x]

Steverino:

This was my Picklefork MIles...Fast ....if....you could get it through the porpoise stage....and....it didn't hook and barrel roll in turns because of the hard chines. Dangerous boat that bit me pretty hard twice....


It was not in the same league as a Molinari....

[mbd29]

This shot is from Jim Schunke's collection.

[jackiewilson]

This shot is from Jim Schunke's collection.

that must have been when OMC emptied the gas station to feed the rotaries ?

[FUJIMO]

[willabee]

This picture brings back some terrific memories. Provo, Utah 1973, Gary Peacock at the wheel of The Mighty KT


I mentioned The Hunger Games because that boat had an appetite and is about to chew up everything racing on Utah Lake that Sunday! OMC will ultimately get one of it's rotary entries to finish first in the race, but not before a number of other "firsts" take place.

It proved to be one of those rare occasions where a late start actually made the race more exciting. As a result of his start, on the completion of the first lap Gary came back past the pits about 7th or so. The group in front of him included Merc Racing's best boat, the 118 mph record holder, driven by Bob Hering and all four of those nasty OMC rotary powered rigs ..... Barry Woods, Johnny Sanders, Jimbo McConnell & Tom Posey. Then the fun began, The Mighty KT began it's run to the front. He picked off some on the straights and some in the turns, it didn't matter where he caught them, he just proceeded to blow on by.

He saved his best pass for last, roaring past the leader, Barry Woods, right in front of the pits for all to see and admire. Later Gary told me he could have passed Woods earlier but he was pretty sure that I'd prefer the pit pass ..... he was totally correct. I'll never forget what happened after that pass. One of the OMC dudes standing with a group that included their President Charlie Strang looked over at me, smiled and said "that boat do run,run!". I smiled and think I said "yes it do" (Charlie smiled and nodded)

Also in the picture is Norm Teague (I think Norm is correct), he is on the boat with the fuel hose. Teague worked for Bob Nordskog at the Nordskog Competition Center in Van Nuys, CA. I think he did it all, rigged boats , built engines, etc. - a very talented young man. We were sharing a refueling rig with Nordskog for this race and that's why Teague is on the boat. Also pictured are Jim Schunke (red coveralls) and George Leigtens (sp) standing next to Jim. 'Shunk' was the lead mechanic on the KT project and George was a carb expert we borrowed from Fond du Lac for this project .... two more very talented individuals.

Working on The Mighty KT project that summer was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life - I'll never forget it.

[STEVERINO]

Steverino:

This was my Picklefork MIles...Fast ....if....you could get it through the porpoise stage....and....it didn't hook and barrel roll in turns because of the hard chines. Dangerous boat that bit me pretty hard twice....


It was not in the same league as a Molinari....

The only Milesmaster Picklefork that did look a fast boat at the time was the first one Freddi built he won the 1973 Chasewater 500mile race which consisted of 250miles each day he won easily but his opposition was 3 factory Molinaris driven by Velden. Percival.and Spalding but Freddi had an advantage the 3 Mercury drivers were still using twister 11 engines and were awaiting new Molinari boats fitted with T2x power but Freddi already had his T11x for this race.The one thing I noticed with this boat was I think it had a narrow tunnel most boats we had came from 4ftx8ft ply his tunnel looked more like 42inch and Freddi drove the race like he was on a oval circuit.After this race he sold this boat straight away and his customer raced it in the 89cu in class and it never looked fast against the opposition.Last year I had a chat with Dave Burgess we spoke about old times and remembered when one of my old boating teammates ran a Mclaren Can Am race car he got fed up with the expense involved and offered to swop Freddi this car for a new boat and engine which did sound like a good deal in todays money.