1 Attachment(s)
OMC, ASPEN, Second Effort and me.
When OMC changed the racing policy in the middle of the 1983 racing season was extremely bad news for me.. Second Effort was now the race engine, parts and service provider. All invoices must be separate from OMC and directly from Second Effort and payed to them.
On top of that I blow a power-head before the Stockholm GP..(problems with the connecting rod screws)
I knocked on the OMC President Beat Jenni's door in Brugge, Belgium very disappointed with Aspen & the new SE deal.
Playing nice was not working..
I told Beat Jenni my dealership just changed the policy..No more exclusive Evinrude..
Yamaha is going to be sold at my dealership and advertised on my F1-V8 boat at the Stockholm GP a few weeks from now.
(the fact was..Yamaha have asked me more than ones to be a Yamaha Center.)
Beat Jenni looked at me and finally agreed to continue with the same set up for me for the rest of the season. The power-head on him...No Second Effort for me as long as no Yamaha at my dealership.
The Aspen deal was still up in the air..there was a possibility for peace between the two according to Mr. Jenni..
My lawyer told me to keep Aspen on my boat. The only way the force Aspen to pay me now or later...I continued with Aspen during the rest of the season and hopefully they stayed in business and paid me..
Only option at that time...
https://www.screamandfly.com/attachm...5&d=1530067012
Check's In The Mail - Ha Ha
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lars strom
When OMC changed the racing policy in the middle of the 1983 racing season was extremely bad news for me.. Second Effort was now the race engine, parts and service provider. All invoices must be separate from OMC and directly from Second Effort and payed to them.
On top of that I blow a power-head before the Stockholm GP..(problems with the connecting rod screws)
I knocked on the OMC President Beat Jenni's door in Brugge, Belgium very disappointed with Aspen & the new SE deal.
Playing nice was not working..
I told Beat Jenni my dealership just changed the policy..No more exclusive Evinrude..
Yamaha is going to be sold at my dealership and advertised on my F1-V8 boat at the Stockholm GP a few weeks from now.
(the fact was..Yamaha have asked me more than ones to be a Yamaha Center.)
Beat Jenni looked at me and finally agreed to continue with the same set up for me for the rest of the season. The power-head on him...No Second Effort for me as long as no Yamaha at my dealership.
The Aspen deal was still up in the air..there was a possibility for peace between the two according to Mr. Jenni..
My lawyer told me to keep Aspen on my boat. The only way the force Aspen to pay me now or later...I continued with Aspen during the rest of the season and hopefully they stayed in business and paid me..
Only option at that time...
https://www.screamandfly.com/attachm...5&d=1530067012
Boy! Have I heard this before! What I learned from all of this that you don't even put graphics the size of a postage stamp on the hull until their check clears in your bank account. It's amazing what potential sponsors have in mind for ads and promos on your stuff for a small amount of money. I bought into a pitch for a series race site sponsor one time and spent 2 weeks of my own time and money with event displays, newspaper and live radio interviews not to mention their logo plastered all over my boat and support truck. Never saw a dime. Never again unless cash is in my hand! As far as 2nd Effort goes, it became apparent to OMC to separate themselves from the V8 / HiPerf unit because the liability lawsuits were already starting to stack up. Not so much as the full up race units ,but the XP products were being purchased by idiots who had no business running equipment of that caliber. Ended up killing themselves (and others) so family lawyers lined up to paint a target on OMC. If I remember right, the small print on anything from 2nd Effort had "LLC" in the title (LIMITED Liability Company). Only ones that I remember who obtained true corporate outside sponsorship were Seebold, Molinari, Velden, Percival and DeSouza. Everybody else kind of wrote their own ticket.
1 Attachment(s)
OMC, ASPEN, Second Effort and me.
The Stockholm GP 1983 was a total success. Great weather, hundred thousand spectators or more. The race was run in the center of Stockholm late Saturday and Sunday. Full coverage by TV and news papers.
In the second heat I lost the rear boat cowling, Allan Nimmo was nice and in the third heat I used his boat cowling. He could not race for some problems I dont remember.
All the big wheels from OMC was in Stockholm for the race. When the race was over I asked for a meeting with Beat Jenni..(The President for OMC Europe) and my lawyer.
I think its important to know my relationship with Beat Jenni was very good. He know my history very well from years back.
Here is proof..when he was the Marketing Director for OMC Europe/OMBESA 10 years earlier.
At this meeting Beat Jenni promised to put pressure on Aspen to pay me. He also said OMC was still buying lots of stuff from Aspen.
The next two races was Minneapolis and Pittsburgh in the USA.
Beat Jenni asked me to bring my boat to Belgium and OMC was going to handle everything..Including hire someone in Waukegan to paint the new rear boat cowling from Dave Burgess in Aspen colors/text. There was no time to do this before shipping all the F1-V8 boats to the USA.
https://www.screamandfly.com/attachm...5&d=1622212752
2 Attachment(s)
OMC, ASPEN, Second Effort and me.
When we arrived in Waukegan my Burgess boat was fixed perfect. OMC did hire someone I dont remember the name of to hand paint ASPEN on the new rear boat cowling David Burgess helped me with.
The only way to see this was my name was painted a bit different. Red circle..the second picture is from the race in Pittsburgh.
Pretty interesting if you think about this..OMC painted ASPEN on my boat..!!...made me think OMC is going to make sure I get paid.
Second Effort was at both races and I could tell the frictions between OMC racing people and the ones from SE.
To make sure I did only ask OMC mechanics for help..
There was a problem with the screws holding the carburetor float chamber..for some reason they broke off and you got a fuel leak/engine running to lean. I guess vibrations.
OMC replaced all the screws with stronger ones and that finally fixed the problem..8 carbs and 4 screws on each is a lot of screws..:)
https://www.screamandfly.com/attachm...6&d=1622215256
https://www.screamandfly.com/attachm...7&d=1622215264
2 Attachment(s)
OMC & my F1-V8 racing sponsors.
This long story started here..https://www.screamandfly.com/showthr...56#post3285856
After the Holland GP 1984 we left my racing truck at OMC Belgium. Went back home to Stockholm and called OMC Sweden. Placed an order of close to thousand new mixed sizes Evinrude Outboards. No questions asked from anyone. OMC could have easy said NO..but they did not.
A few days later two very large semi trucks came straight from OMC Belgium. We unloaded at a friend of mines export/shipping company.
Next F1-V8 race was in Paris and we picked up my truck/Burgess boat at OMC Belgium.
The boat was now painted in “International Travel Card” colors and logo.
Tom Percival's #10 Hodges/Evinrude V8 was also painted the same way..with the same sponsor “International Travel Card”
I dont have a picture of my boat but it was the same way as Tom's.
https://www.screamandfly.com/attachm...9&d=1603293040
We are now in the Paris pit and I was watching Gérard Barthélémy.. a new french F1-V8 driver and he was out testing before the race. He was flying down the race course and at the end of the course wide open he took off..a very bad flipp and we lost Gérard..
A terrible feeling watching and nothing you can do.
R.I.P my friend.
The Paris GP was run the next day but it was a very tough deal..
After Paris was Stockholm GP..I asked George Lamy at OMC for a full time sponsor instead of this one race deal sponsor..
At that time there was none available.
“International Travel Card” paid me upfront for the Paris race but was not interested in the Stockholm race.
The F1-V8 line up in Paris GP 1984.
From left:
Molinari, Velden, Salabert, Spalding, Percival,Bullen,Jenkins, Mostert, Frost, Vidoli, Strom, Hakkinen not sure about the last boats.
https://www.screamandfly.com/attachm...0&d=1501460964
