Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[jackiewilson]

YOU MEAN SOMETHING LIKE THIS WILLIAM———-i have my uses.

[FUJIMO]

[willabee]

Man, that model has detail! Who built these? How many were made? For who? Up/Away got repainted for the 1971 catalog centerfold shot as the 1970 Havasu world champion?

The model pictured is a one of a kind. I don't remember who did that model, but the detail is perfect ..... great job! The one that Merc had made for sale to the public wasn't close, I think they only put one outboard motor on it!

[willabee]

YOU MEAN SOMETHING LIKE THIS WILLIAM———-i have my uses.

No, that's not the color. The 187 boat was actually red deck with flat black cowling. The original orange on Up, Up and Away was closer to this .....

..... Back in 68/69, racing a tunnel boat was a whole new adventure for most US drivers. Consequently, the Molinari's you saw back then were often orange trimmed in 'splinter'.

[peterse90]

One of my all-time favourite ORANGE Molinaris;

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

...tell us why this was your mistake again willa...?

[peterse90]

A lot of history in this famous and well known 1970 picture/poster. Bill Sirois in Up Up and Away and behind him is Jim Merten who finished second in the hull that Bill drove in 1971 for his second consecutive OWC win. To me Bill's 1970 hull looks more 'rocker bottom' and Merten's looks more 'sprint' sponson design. I'm sure Willabee could expand upon this if I am seeing these differences correctly.

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

...this model & photo courtesy of sam cullis mark75h...

[WaterZebra]

A lot of history in this famous and well known 1970 picture/poster. Bill Sirois in Up Up and Away and behind him is Jim Merton who finished second in the hull that Bill drove in 1971 for his second consecutive OWC win. To me Bill's 1970 hull looks more 'rocker bottom' and Merton's looks more 'sprint' sponson design. I'm sure Willabee could expand upon this if I am seeing these differences correctly.

I have the sister poster to this one with an inset of #998 in LH corner with the start of the race at the beach. Titled: From Start to Finish,, Mercury's First. Funny thing is, the poster shows the Mercury Team white Molinaris with T2 power?

[jackiewilson]

Everybody who had anything to do with the Havasu race , ate breakfast at the NAUTICAL INN. MERCURY, and OMC. Presidents, Drivers , mechanics, den mothers, house cleaners.AND PRUETT. It was an absolute must .
OMC pulled a real smart move By supplying the nautical with place mats —— big ones with pictures of all the OMC drivers and boats ——— very collectible indeed . Me myself had at least a dozen. Had them all the time we lived in France.

[willabee]

..... Up/Away got repainted for the 1971 catalog centerfold shot as the 1970 Havasu world champion?

This boat got around! Back in 1968, Glastron and Molinari made some kind of deal that allowed Glastron to produce and market fiberglass Molinari tunnel hulls. The 21' orange with black twin was used for the mold. Here's a pic of the wood boat and a glass version .....

....

They look the same. The glass boats ran pretty well, once earned a 2nd place finish at Havasu in 1969.

The wood boat was rigged in Oskkosh with 1250 BP's, was test driven by Gary Garbrecht and I think it's first race was the 1969 Parker 9 Hour, driven by Bob Thompson. Bob didn't do well, he never really got the boat to get up and air out. It came back to Oshkosh and was used for the testing of many different components. During that time Mr. K told Garbrecht that he was banned from test driving. We hadn't hired any factory drivers yet, so I was the lucky replacement. I spent many enjoyable hours in that boat that summer.

Bob Massey ran it with BP's at Long Beach 1969. That wasn't a good course for that boat, but I think he finished second anyway. He did know how to run that thing .....

More testing and then Bill Sirois ran it at the 1969 Havasu OWC still sporting BP gearcases. He finished 3rd, beginning a remarkable three year streak of great finishes at Havasu. Bill definately knew how to air it out.

Over the winter the boat was painted black with grey stripes, rerigged and given a name .....Up,Up and Away The first activity it saw in 1970 was the Parker 9 Hour, this time driven by our favorite guy, Billy Don Pruett. I recall that we put a pair of experimental powerheads on it, but still ran the BP lower units. Pruett blew the gearcases up three different times and had to call it a day.
Behind the red Molinari .....

Sirois won with it at St. Mary's, this time using speedmasters. It was really windy and rough, but that rig could get over some water. He even passed Kitson's wing on the straightaway!

From there it went to Havasu, still dressed in black and won the big prize .....

After Havasu 70, Merc's PR department took over. They put some BS PR paint job on the poor thing and sent it to dealers and to shows. It took a nice picture, but I'll always believe the boat should have toured as it raced (except for the chrome stacks, they were really cool ).

Pruett wanted to run the 1971 Havasu OWC and this boat was pulled off tour for him. He modified the fancy paint job so that he could put his number on it and it was fitted with a pair of new Twister I's. Turned out the boat had developed a bad leak which gave him some grief. It also proved to be not as fast as it was (probably due to the 500 extra pounds of paint it was carrying).
He ended up blowing over and I'm pretty sure the boat was used for a weiner roast at Lake X ..... sad ending for a Champ.

[peterse90]

Willabee, what a great bit of history !!

Or as the saying goes...Now You Know the Rest of the Story.

[FUJIMO]