Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[peterse90]

Bob Spalding, Peterborough, Ontario 1973. Photo borrowed from Mark Rotharmel's collection.

[bernie]

Bernie Bergen, Fond du Lac Wisconsin. During Mikey's rerigging of LilRed!
By the way, the original plans for this boat have been copied - another boat could be made!

[FUJIMO]

[Lake X Kid]

Since we were talking about a flying boat, I went back to the film of the 1970 Paris 6 Hour to try to get some frames of the boys as they were just trying to get down the backstretch. As you watch the race from the shore, you really don't get an appreciation for some of the things these guys are going through.....it happens so fast that the extremes sometimes just aren't captured in the mind.

These aren't nice, clear pictures, but I hope you can still get a sensation of the wild ride these guys were enjoying . Wing pilots move over, there are other drivers that know how to fly!

Here are a couple of Renato as he drives under the last bridge before the pit turn.....notice how flat the boat remains while airborne. .

Photos are from Post# 641 to 651.

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

[Lake X Kid]

Team Jaco driver Bill McClain of Lawrenceburg, TN, driving a Mercury Racing 200XS OptiMax outboard-powered Allison XB 2002 bass boat, set a new 102.099 mph Pro Stock Bass 200 outboard world kilo speed record November 2002 on the Tennessee River.
The records, governed on-site by American Power Boat Association (APBA) officials, require back-to-back speed runs over a straight-line, one kilometer course. The record is the average of two consecutive speed runs.

And then three years later David Shook in a kilo run does 116.594 mph.
~~~
I remember in 1971, that F1 tunnel boats were running in race trim around 116 mph.

Does anyone remember when, outboard powered Vees & Mod-Vees were able to achieve 100 mph in circuit racing?

[Lake X Kid]

What do these Formula One Boat names have in common with, the disagreement between
Enzo Ferrari and the younger Ferruccio Lamborghini.

I will start to explain the link on the next post.

[Lake X Kid]

At the OFF meeting in Tavares, November 2019 for the Vintage Regatta, I was fortunate to seat next to, hall of fame, Bill Seebold. And Bill among several race topics, revealed to me, his inception into why he entered into the production of building F1 tunnel boats. And hear it is a year later, as I remember the conversation from Mr. Bill in November 2019.

Build a Havasu Boat. Around 1975 that is the proposition Gary Garbretch. approached with Bill Seebold. And why did Bill begin a new career trajectory building F1 tunnel boats? Bill estimated that approximately 450 Seebold tunnel boats were, built throughout the Seebold Racing production run. (One wonders how many of the vintage 450 boats, are still floating today, my guess not many).

Bill informed me, the why started with a division (my interruption - a power struggle) between Gary G. and Renato Molinari, at an Auronzo Italy race, Renato had his boat sequestered under a canopy tent. And Gary went to enter Renato’s roped-off section, and Renato’s crew refused Gary’s entrance into Renato’s private pit area.

Gary later remarked to Bill that he (Mercury) was paying Renato good money in acquiring Molinari F1 tunnel race boats. And yet Gary, Mercury Race Manager, gets denied access to Renato’s pit area. And thus later an upset Gary G approaches Bill S, with a suggestion, can you build a F1 tunnel race boat.

[Here I have to enter my caveat, of two main factors in the timeline, which probably tipped the scales and of why Renato created a wider gulf (than was previously there) between him and Gary].

To be continued...

~~~
In the photos below is Gary G and Roy Ridgell in the mid 1960's coming to Como Italy to begin the partnership with the Molinari family. I beleive the winners photo is when Roy helped Renato and his co-driver Giovanni Pellolio win the 1969 Paris 6 Hour. The photo I think was taken afterward at Giovanni's restaurant on Lago di Como. The photo of Roy in his tie, was taken in the Como race shop preceding his 1974 departure back to the USA.

[Lake X Kid]

Can you and will you build a Havasu boat?

And therein begins the birth seed, toward formation of constructing Seebold F1 race boats. With
Gary Garbretch’s proposal, Bill then had to look for a carpenter, to build his wooden race boats. And a new contract marriage begins with Mercury Racing and Seebold Boats. A rival to the Molinari hull, in hindsight started in Molinari’s own home country of Italy at Auronzo. Not only a USA rival. But also in conjunction, the saw & hammer was taken up by a European rival too —the birth of the Velden Boats.

[Here I have to enter my caveat, of two main factors in the timeline, which probably tipped the scales and of why Renato Molinari created a wider gulf (than was previously there) between him and Gary].

1st) Roy Ridgell, Mercury European race manager, in 1974 returned back to the states. The pacifying liaison Roy brought, between the two titans, Gary and Renato, was no longer there to mitigate the differencing circumstances.

The second major factor was the fatal race accident of Cesare Scotti at the 1974 Paris 6 Hour. That started the demise of the Scotti craft, and left a void of race boat suppliers. Albeit with his cousin Scotti and Roy gone, Renato probably realized the potential to sell boats to both, OMC and Merc racing camps. And of course this is conjecture on my part, with no one supplying me evidence to my assumptions.

Bill Seebold Jr. said, he was going to supply the North American customers, and
Cees vander Velden will supply the European market. Both new upstart enterprises were getting the green light & greenbacks support, of Gary G, and from Mercury Racing money backing the yet unproven product.

To be continued ...

~~~
In this photo Bill is showing me all the things, which I taught him on his journey to being a
Hall of Fame member. Okay truth be told, that is Hyperbole by me, the Lake X Kid trying to be relevant.
Photo taken November 2019 at Tavares, Florida.

[Lake X Kid]

Previous racing co-drivers Bill Seebold and Cees vander Velden (at the Paris 6 Hour and also among other race events) become boat builders, and collaborate on boat design and manufacturing in the pursuit of replacing Molinari hulls on the race circuits. And the irony, Renato Molinari was instrumental (and maybe initially unbeknownst to him) in being the impetus of Two New Rival Competitors, for the limited resources of F1 tunnel race-boat sales.

Bill and Cees stepped up to the supply platform (Seebold Racing and Velden Racing respectively), and Renato risked reducing the demand for his product. This is a real business case-study, of the sifting tide for supply and demand. And it was not the displeasure in the product’s quality and performance (of Molinari boats), but the sour business relationships at the human level, that gave origin to contract cancellation.

Likewise it echoes the same scenario of Lamborghini versus Ferrari. Mr. Lamborghini owned a few Ferrari vehicles himself, but he thought that the clutch and after-sales service were lacking. When he made his dissatisfaction known to
Enzo Ferrari, the latter dismissed the younger Lambo. Ferruccio Lamborghini then created his automobile brand in 1963, because he thought he could create a better car than Enzo Ferrari.

My conclusion:
Burn a bridge, and you might create a rival, whom then might build a bridge upstream from you.
History repeats itself sometimes.

[Mark75H]

Very well put

[lars strom]

Drammen GP in Norway 1975.
Percival & Spalding JPS.
Thanks Paal R. Hansen.

[Lake X Kid]

Tom you hold the two boats together, while I hold onto the tree limb (Bob is probably thinking).

The guy in the water is thinking ... this cannot be the starting dock/position.