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The boat in the second photo was designed by a guy called Tony DeFina to race offshore in Australia. He is known for his slightly odd designs and has built several offshore cats(not all of them successfull) At present he is the Commodore of the Australian Offshore Power Boat Club and his son races a 30ft 6 Litre Cat in the australian offshore series. They also own a 24ft mono fitted with a 300x which I belive Tony is going to race in a couple of weeks.Quote:
Originally Posted by willabee
I saw this pix over on the checkmate site. Who is the #94 wing in the background?
Gene Lanham.Quote:
Originally Posted by SCT
wogi - That story is a hoot.......Boots also told me his dealership was close to Mercury at the time....so they drove the OMC decaled wing right in front of Mercury as a rub..... I guess he got a few phone calls over that one.
What ever happend to the T-111 wing.....got any pictures of it ???
Here is a shot I took in summer of 1971 in Fond du Lac - there was a stock outboard marathon going on and Boots came down from Oshkosh in this and Fred Hug had a stacker on I think a GW Invader tunnel. I had trailered my wing to Fond du Lac (Dave Craig's old U-1), and during an intermission we went out and made some laps for the folks. Boots had 10+ MPH on me. I hit some rollers at 96 on the airspeed indicator and launched for what seeemd to be 3 days - the boat came down right side up, took a couple hops and away we went - right back to the trailer - that was enough for me for that day.
The U-1, by the way, resides in the Cass Couty North Dakota landfill since 1973 - and I think that is where the T111 ended up too.
I've seen that # 94 somewhere before??:D
I have some pic's of the t-111 when my dad had it, he even gave me a ride in it a time or to, that is something i will never forget:thumbsup: Bernie is right, the t-111 did end up in a land fill as stated:( I had the pic's posted on here years ago, one of these days i will do it again. Bernie didnt you work for boots at one time? If so didnt my dad sell tou a real light vector splash with a blue deck?????????
No - I didn't work for Boots - I knew folks that did - Charlie Luedke, John Litjens. I was with Mercury my whole life - 41 years wearing black underwear. Retired now -
Some things stay with you forever. If you had ever had the chance to see Gene pilot the Red Bird, you would never forget it. Gene was one of several outstanding wing pilots back in the day!Quote:
Originally Posted by largecar91
Some things never change....Gene still pilots his own plane these days.
This might be slightly off topic, but thought it's the best place to ask. Picture is out of 1969 Powerboat magazine...had the 1969 Parker results. Anyway there is an ad for folks to join the Marathon Boat Racers Association. I assume it was a still born idea and mostly southern California folks. There were some heavy hitters in the area listed below and seen in the ad. Does anyone remember anything about it ??
Lou Brummett, Dick Freek, Bob Nordskog, Bill Cooper, Bob Massey & Mike Wallace.
Is there a website that will list the race results of Parker and Havasu over the years?
I'm not aware of any comprehensive listing.
On that topic picture below is out 1969 PowerBoat Magazine with the 3rd, 4th & 5th place winners. Mertens & Spellman in the #125 Wet & Wild wing were second overall and first outboard.
I believe it was one of the final stands for the wings because they came in 2nd, 3th & 4th....then that pesky OMC guy Jimbo :)
95 entries that year only 34 finishing .....23 outborads and 11 inboards....the inboards were losing ground.
Here are a few more Wing shots including Mert and Mr. K.
More Wings