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MagicFloat
12-30-2002, 11:00 PM
1973 or so,APBA OPC Regionals,Clanton,Al. Family G class,full field,12 boats. 13'Allisons,!3' Checkmates,Kennedy Crafts,Streams,etc.Boat shows up from South Florida,an Action Marine named Rocket Man,obviously a copy of the MX 13 Checkmate. We don't pay any attention to him,11 of us toward the clock,he is way outside,no threat.Clock zeros,good start for 11 of us but Rocket Man from way outside closes the door on all of us,leads to the finish. We protest his engine,lots of pieces on the parking lot,nothing illegal.He takes his trophy and goes back to South Florida. After all these years when I hear Elton John sing Rocket Man on oldies radio I wonder who was that guy and where is he now? Any body remember?

2us70
12-31-2002, 12:50 AM
That was Roger Dixon.The Rocket Man was a SG boat however. I heard that Roger had some health problems and I have not seen him in years. I drove a couple of Actions at that nationals and also helped pit for Roger that day.In the first heat his foot throtle came loose and we were barely able to get it screwed back to the floor in time for the second heat. Roger drove the race of his life that day. It should also be remembered that in one of the elimination heats a young driver by the name of Robbie Knight was killed. I was in that heat along with one of the Seebolds(Mike I think) and it was hard to go back out for the restart but that's racing. I worked at Action part time when we built Rocket Man for Roger, it was built as light as we could get without breaking. The boat was lost at the bottom of a lake in Opa- Locka FL for a while until it was recovered by Hugh Spencer and myself. I am looking for pictures taken of us testing after Hugh rebuilt the motor.

2us70
01-01-2003, 04:34 PM
These are the last pictures taken of the Rocket Man in May of 1975. The gelcoat shows the damage from spending several months at the bottom of a very polluted lake. These pictures were taken at Krome Ave Canal a popular test site back then out on the edge of the Everglades. The drivers are Hugh Spencer and Myself.

2us70
01-01-2003, 04:37 PM
Rocket Man

MagicFloat
01-01-2003, 04:43 PM
Thanks,2us70,photos bring back lots of memories. That's the way that Action Marine(13' Checkmate pop) was hangin when he blew by me and everyone else. To this day I wonder how he made it so fast.Thanks for the memory,wish we had taken more photos in the old days. Robert Nelems(FG-826 a long time ago)

BK
01-01-2003, 05:49 PM
That helmet looks like the close fitting helmets Nordskog and Ted May were making for boat racing...they called them the "anti-bucket" helmets. Do you know if this is one of them?

Despite the light-weight and reduction of "Bucket" trauma from the tapered close-fit edges, they were never approved because they lacked "Snell" approval.

But Ted and Bob somehow got away with racing with those helmets, all the way into the late 1980's. I asked an Inspector once why Ted was allowed to wear them even though they weren't approved safety devices. He replied "Have you ever tried telling Ted "no"?" :D

If you knew Ted, you'd understand..... :)

MagicFloat
01-01-2003, 06:01 PM
Not sure from the photos but they look very much like the Bell helmets that most all of us wore in the early 70's. Wasn't Nordskog's helmet later?

2us70
01-01-2003, 07:09 PM
Thats just my old Bell Magnum open face. I never ran a full face helmet. I still have that helmet and GenTex jacket up in the attic.

BK
01-01-2003, 07:44 PM
I never realized the old helmets were close fitting. Today the Bell helmets are so much bigger and edges protrude so much further out. Can't help but think this isn't a good thing for boat racing.

Thanks for sharing the great pictures!


Ron ~
If I can find a pic of Ted and Nordskog's "anti-bucket" helmet, I'll post it for you.

2us70
01-02-2003, 09:07 AM
Does anyone know when GenTex quit making raceing life jackets?