I lived in Oceanside for 14 months when I left the Marines. Skip Talbot was a great friend and a very talented guy. He lived in Carlsbad next to Oceanside. He and Ted Jones were really tight. Ted worked for Mercury but hung out with Skip a lot. I was at his house on a lot of weekends or at the races. Ted was also a great guy and told me many stories. We would go to Perris for the drags whenever they had them. When I first met Skip he had just blown over the hydro testing with Ron Jones. They rebuilt it as a Pickel fork. He also had a Stylecraft Cat with 3 110's and Speedmasters. Skip wanted me to drive it so we went to his landing in Carlsbad. He said it would run 88 mph. I loved it. Thats the boat he got hurt in at the Sacramento River Race. Ended his racing. His talent didn't go to waste though. He moved to Fallon Nevada and started building .50 cal civilian rifles. He is credited with starting .50 cal civilian shooting, and held almost all the records at one time. At the 67 drag nationals we had to lift him in and out of the hydro so he could run. I spoke to him just before he passed away at the range in his stand. He was happy, doing what he loved.
