Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[Mark75H]

Six years earlier Carl (and Charlie) would probably have not released the Speedmaster and later Super Speedmaster if Bob Kies and Jack Oxley had not introduced Bob McCullough's "Sportsman" and 630 racing lower units.

[seeroy]

From 1942 until 1967 OMC was officially out of racing. Around 1960 they started sneaking a little bit into racing with Ralph Evinrude's personal money but made no overt effort as a company until 1967 - taking Kiekhaefer completely by surprise.
Suddenly there was a new motor and new brands to look at, talk about, and more importantly, write about ... and it wasn't Merc
Psychologically, Kiekhaefer was playing catchup in '67 and '68, but in reality OMC's efforts, though dramatic, were minimal and Merc still dominated OPC racing. Strang carefully chose his races, his boats and his drivers for maximum return on a minimal investment ... and it worked ... photographers took pictures of the new equipment, typewriters clacked away and type was set ... OMC's return was big news; that they won races was even more news aka free publicity.
This is why there was a sudden boom in factory involvement from all sides in the late 60's

Sam - Kind of makes this photo relevant as Raplh Evinrude hands big check to Mercury winner, Bill Sirois, at 1970 Havasu. - Steve Sirois

[seeroy]

Willabee - Wow! Congrats on zooming through 100,000 hits. - Steve

[Bob V]

Willabee - Wow! Congrats on zooming through 100,000 hits. - Steve

Don't forget the 1115 posts to this thread

Now we have to revive the "Hot Multi's" thread. Unfortunately it had slipped back to page two. It also is a great composition of history from a time that can never be repeated. It deserves to be on the front page.

[Mark75H]

Sam - Kind of makes this photo relevant as Raplh Evinrude hands big check to Mercury winner, Bill Sirois, at 1970 Havasu. - Steve Sirois

Exactly ... Ralph was also one of the co-owners of the Havasu land company. Ron Hill quotes Ralph as having said Lake Havasu made him more money than OMC at one point. How did Evinrude become involved with Havasu? The daughter of his father's partner in OMC married Bob McCullough Sr.

Carl always claimed this was proof of anti trust collusion between OMC and McCulloch outboards.

It must have been extremely gratifying to Carl to see your brother take that check from Ralph's hand

[GENE LANHAM]

[QUOTE=Mark75H;1687261

It must have been extremely gratifying to Carl to see your brother take that check from Ralph's hand [/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, when Bill accepted the check from Mr. Evinrude in November, 1970, Mr. Kiekhaefer hated everything that had anything to do with Mercury. Actually 'Kiekhaefer Aeromarine Inc.' would soon be doing precision machining operations on OMC lower units, up on the 'Ledge'----

[jackie wilson]

Unfortunately, when Bill accepted the check from Mr. Evinrude in November, 1970, Mr. Kiekhaefer hated everything that had anything to do with Mercury. Actually 'Kiekhaefer Aeromarine Inc.' would soon be doing precision machining operations on OMC lower units, up on the 'Ledge'----

You learn something every day. There i was thinking Mr.K was the father of Mercury. how can you HATE something you created. To me he will always be "MR. MERCURY". There would not be any OUTBOARD and RACING HISTORY, without that man. I just wish i had known him.

[jackie wilson]

Not a bad "OLD BOY" but hardly -----better half. !!!!!!!!

Still amazed at the Merc--OMC swop shop of personnel.

That was the original "head hunting "

[Old fiberglass]

Actually 'Kiekhaefer Aeromarine Inc.' would soon be doing precision machining operations on OMC lower units, up on the 'Ledge'----

What ever happened to that company ?? Seems like it didn't make much of a mark in the history books.

[Old fiberglass]

His "better half" Charlie Strang was gracious enough to "lend an ear" to this 17 year old driver from Hawaii at the Havasu OWC in '72 from the Nautical Inn on Friday night, alone at a table. Gulp. Needless to say, the biggest privilege of my then short life.
Learned the meaning of "awe" and "humility" that night.

I'm not reading between the lines very well what did Charlie say/do ?? We like good stories here....

[GENE LANHAM]

What ever happened to that company ?? Seems like it didn't make much of a mark in the history books.

Fred K. took over the company, developed a line of high performance items, including an awesome sterndrive capable of absorbing over 1000 horsepower, and was bought out by Mercury Marine, Fred becoming an employee of Mercury. In the 50's I had a Holtcraft DU/KG9/quickie (Willabee, a 'HOT SINGLE'!) the throttle was marked KAMINC, wish I still had it---

[Old fiberglass]

Gene you were racer back in the day and have a book full of stories........how about sharing some......at least the PG versions

Still want to see a picture of your truck towing a boat with a 68 Camaro funny car body on top.

[GENE LANHAM]

[QUOTE=Old fiberglass;1687957]Gene you were racer back in the day and have a book full of stories........how about sharing some......at least the PG versions

QUOTE]

-----but the ones not rated 'R' are probably not that interesting-----

[peterse90]

From Powerboat, here is a picture of the twin at Parker and one of his singles in Paris.

During that time, all of the Molinari's had a rectangular metal name plate attached to the cowl support just behind the cockpit of each boat which was inscribed Scafo Angelo Molinari. I guess someone at OMC thought that was a bit much and decided to mimmick the plate. At Miami Marine Stadium, I was walking past a McDonald that Ted was about to put in the water and had to do a double take. They had placed a piece of gray duck tape in that same location and, in magic marker, had written Scafo Wilber McDonald! They enjoyed a big laugh when they saw my reaction to their handywork.

Sorry to go back to a post from a few days ago but I've got to get my '2-cents worth' and say it's stories like these that reinforce my opinion that the early 70's were the best.
Here in Canada, OMC had a McDonald that Roger Wood set a kilo record in 1973 at 111.852 mph. Earlier that year at a race in St. Jean, Quebec (I remember John Sherlock was there) Jim Cascadden was driving the McDonald and got a perfect clock start...outside lane fastest to the first pin then when he went to set the boat for the corner the boat would not turn. Cascadden, who was a very good driver, just continued to go straight for about a mile, made a right hand turn a docked at someone's cottage.
I don't have a picture of this boat but here is the OMC Canada ad about the kilo record.
I think this McDonald was OMC's answer to Mercury's Twistercraft 'Little Red'. Both had very shallow tunnels but 'Little Red' could turn. I remember Bob Spalding driving 'Little Red' in Peterborough; May 1973.
Willabee, did you make it to any of our races here in Canada?

[willabee]

1968 was:??---
Bill Sirois and I finished sixth in Lonnie Todd's Wing, "Hot Toddy"; Ernie Threlkeld finished seventh or eighth in the OMC single pipe Wing; I think Bob Massey was in the top ten in his Wing: Doen't anyone have the official results?

Ron says 4th overall, 1st outboard went to Bob Massey, 5th to Don Harper (triple Mercs), 6th to Lonnie Todd, 7th to Bill Olney and 8th to Earnie Threlkeld! I missed that one by a mile. Maybe it was Parker 1967 that had just one outboard in the top ten?

Here are four of the five top finishing outboards from Parker 68 (don't have a picture of Harper).....Lanham (the red wing) ran that "wet" all the way around the course. As he went by, fans would holler "SURFACE, SURFACE!!!!! .....guess they thought it was a submarine. Lucky he had Sirois for a co-driver.