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  1. #166
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    1976...After outrunning everything on the lake that Sunday in '76, Don Stegall was in the store Monday morning with a check, and took home that Red Viper and 1500XS. This started a long and meaningful relationship with Don and myself. I had various combinations of Allison and Hydrostream rides and we would gather about ten or fifteen of our buddies with hot boats and search the lake from South Carolina to Georgia for competitors. We did this for years and Don bought several Hydrostreams during that time. I had a reputation for outrunning people who had more horsepower than me. I took pride in this. So Don began to notice my driving talent. Don bought a Broughton tunnel and added nitrous to a Merc 2.4 with 12" mid and SSM. He had a driver severly injured when it blew over running 1/4 mile drags with it. So Don had bought a Speedcraft drag hydro during the winter of '83. His driver refused to drive it. So at the regional boat show in February '84 Don ask me to come down to the speedboat club's booth to look at this hydro. It wasn't rigged but I remember getting in there and just sitting in it and imagining making a pass in it. Well he ask if I would drive it in some races for him and being young and foolish, I said sure. A friend and I rigged it in our shop after hours one week, and took it to an American Drag Boat Association race in Oak Ridge TN. The record for the Unlimited Outboard class was 126 in the quarter, held by Larry Boyd from Texas, in a Ron Jones hydro. During qualifying on Saturday, Blake Justice set a new record and backed it up at 128 MPH. Both of their boats were beautiful, imaculate professional set ups. Our hydro, called "In a Hurry" was a round nose kneel down hydro built in 1968, and modified in 1976 to a sit down pickle fork design. It was rigged quickly and it showed. On Sunday I got by my first round competitor easily. In the semi finals I came up against Justice, with his day old record and full of confidence. I jumped him so bad off the start that he gave up at half track and let off the throttle as I cruised to the win. In the final it was me and Boyd in the beautiful Ron Jones. Again, I jumped out to a big lead and ran a record ET of 8.06 at 120.32 MPH to win a National event in my first try...That was the last race of the season and Don had made an offer for the 1985 season that I couldn't refuse...

    Last edited by warrior74z; 09-01-2007 at 11:04 AM.

  2. #167
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    Thumbs up

    Barron, thanks for taking the time to scan, post and fill in some historical info. This is one of the best threads I have seen in a very long time. Thanks,

    fish

    96' STV Euro

    Smarta$$ of the
    Sunshine Syndicate,

    How to upload pics (click here)


    Quote Originally Posted by jphii View Post
    Well then, give her a $50 bottle of booze and don't let her know about the hookers, or what you spend on them
    Quote Originally Posted by 1BadAction View Post
    oh no. i just realized I am the voice of reason on a thread. i am so done, RIP 1Bad.

  3. #168
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    My pleasure fish.

  4. #169
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    This thread wins the "best of 2007" award! We all appreciate it!


    Facebook | YouTube | Vintage Outboard Catalogs
    Photo prints available of your boat - click here


  5. #170
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    Barron, when I ask someone for a biography for the Who's Who I don't usually get this much detail

  6. #171
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    1985...After that win at Oak Ridge, we tried to run a couple of area races. After a qualifying run in which I hit some rollers at the finish line we realized the wood on the sponsons was coming loose as the wood was rotting and just wasn't solid enough to keep the screws in. I called the shot and refused to drive it anymore. The "In a Hurry" was history. So Don made the decision to have a new hydro built if I would agree to drive it. He commissioned Tommy Drodz, of Lake Dallas Boat Company in Denton Texas, to build it. We had been so pleased with the "In a Hurry" that we took it to Texas to have Tommy copy it. In March I drove out to pick it up. I'll never forget walking into Tommy's shop and there it was. A finely crafted work of art. It had lines that just flowed. It was silver and charcoal. It was just absolutly beautiful. It was 15'4" long and weighed 175 pounds. Wow! And it was going to have over four hundred horses of nitrous oxide injected 2.4 litre Mercury V6 with a 12" mid and SSM lower. And just like Charlie Strang's Mother's inflluence on the early Mercury color black, Don's wife pinned the new hydro... "The Toy"...


  7. #172
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    1985..."The Toy" was impressive, but it was not a copy of "In a Hurry". Tommy Drodz, and I'm not sure of the spelling of his name, had changed the sponson design to a 'wedge' surface. As the sponson bottom came from the tip to the end, the last 18" or so it changed a few degrees downward to produce 'tips' for the hull to rise up on at high speeds. I understood the idea was to reduce the wetted area therefore reduce drag. So we brought The Toy home and got her all rigged up, and went to Lake Hartwell just for testing. As I was feeling it out I noticed that when transitioning from seventy to eighty MPH the front of the hull 'sucked' down onto the water before it released and ran free, on the sponson tips, at speeds above eighty. After several easy runs into the low hundred MPH range, when decelerating through the 80 to 70 area, the front of the boat 'sucked' down hard, and the front of the sponsons submerged and the boat submarined at about 75 and there I was under water, underneath an upside down boat. The entire top cowling of the boat, which went from tip to stern, had broken up and was gone. I was scratched up pretty good on my hands and arms, from the cowling breaking up around me. We towed the boat back to the ramp and got her out dried the engine out and pondered our situation. After analizing the situation we came to the conclusion that the sponson design, with the wedge, when at about 70 MPH the entire sponson was in the water and became a concave surface. The concave caused a negative pressure area 'sucking' the hull downward. We decided to remove the engine and take the boat back to Tommy in Texas and have him put a conventional sponson design on it. Here is a photo of "The Toy " with the missing cowling, and ironically, "In a Hurry" with a replacement cowling after the original had blown off during a race.

    Last edited by warrior74z; 09-05-2007 at 08:35 AM.

  8. #173
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    Tommy did a fast job of reconfiguring the sponsons. So I drove from South Carolina to Texas for the third time to pick up the Toy. Tommy helped us with the rigging and we towed south to Liberty Texas, near Houston for the first race. I don't remember much about that race except that I did just enough to win. I was having some problems adapting to The Toy. For one thing the boat cowling came up higher in the front, restricting my view of the sponson tips. Driving "In a Hurry" I viewed the sponson tips, during racing for situational awareness. In "The Toy" all I could see out front was water. Drag hydros are set up loose and on the ragged edge. They will not tolerate any rough water, so I always liked a reference as a guage of my relation to the water surface. Also the Mercury 'breakaway' steering was giving me trouble. The steering wheel shaft is not supported near the wheel, but near the floor, so there is a lot of flex in the shaft, and the wheel would move up and down a few inches. This took away the feeling of holding on to something solid, while racing. Not making any excuses, its just that it took awhile to feel somewhat comfortable in The Toy. It probably had the highest horsepower to weight ratio of any outboard in history at that time. In other words, it was a hand full. We added fifty pounds of lead shot in the front of the left sponson and that settled it down somewhat. But we kept working at the setup and different combinations and slowly I became more comfortable in it. We won the first three races, but I had only been pushing it hard enough to stay ahead of the other guy...

    Last edited by warrior74z; 09-04-2007 at 11:17 AM.

  9. #174
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    1985...Canada, London Ontario. A long tow from South Carolina. One of my memories from this trip, is crossing into Canada from Detriot. As soon as we got over the bridge, the land became beautiful and pristine. It was like we entered a different world. Not a speck of trash on the roadsides. Never did figure out how fast to drive though, with those kph speed limit signs. The police were very nice too.I had been cruising the motels looking for racing friends, and in a parking lot I put the truck in reverse to back up and speak to someone and didn't realize someone had pulled up behind me...crunch!! I had been having an adult beverage at the time, but the nice police officer let me leave the scene and drive to my motel to retrieve my drivers license, and retrun to the scene of the fender bender. Also it was the only race in my career that when you went though registration for the race, they gave you two cases of Molson Beer!!! Here is a nice shot of the pits...Oh and I won!!!

    Last edited by warrior74z; 09-05-2007 at 08:40 AM.

  10. #175
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    September 13-14, 1985...St Louis Mo. I had become fairly comfortable in The Toy now and was making full track passes. At least most of the time. Probably one out of four passes I would abort the run if boat did not 'take a set' and settle down. Especially in qualifying, I would not take a chance, if the boat did not feel right. You have to realize this was a lot of horse power (400) for this small (15'4") and light (175 lbs boat only). And we wanted to set the record, so it was always set up on the loose side. Funny the things you remember after twenty two years, but when we arrived at the motel Thursday night, and was unloading luggage, I accidentally slammed Don's finger in the truck door. Had to open the door to get it out. We always stayed at the motel that was race headquarters and had lots of fun in the parking lot the night of arrival, visiting with friends, looking over all the race boats and having a few adult beverages. Saturday morning was always an exciting time as you drove to the race course and got the first look. My biggest concern was always how was the wind and waves affecting the course. Water conditions for the unlimited outboard hydros was very critical. The officials usually gave us the same considerations as the Top Fuel Hydro, (back then called blown fuel hydro) guys which ran 220 Mph in the quarter mile. They would wait extra time for the water to settle before giving us the ok. After all we were the top outboard class. A lot of the top fuel teams would tell me that they would stop their prep to watch the unlimited outboard guys. Anyway, I liked the look of the St Louis course. It was a small lake near the downtown area called Creve Couer. It was like a recreational park. It was hot as blue blazes, but if you walked through the woods just a little way, there was a cold waterfall to get under and cool off. I hear the call for Unlimited Outboard to 'put heat in your engines, and stand by'. This was when the butterflies start. We tow to the 'in ramp' and launch and motor down to the hold rope. And wait for our turn. The flashing amber lights up, two minutes to go. I put on my goggles, tighten my helmet strap and check that my parachute line is hooked up. The amber turns solid, thirty seconds to go. I hit the fuel pump switch and purge the nitrous. The twenty second clock starts. At three seconds to go I hit the start button and one second later go to full throttle and activate the nitrous switch. The boat leaps out of the water and takes a good set. It carries the left sponson up until half track. I'm doing over 100 MPH after five seconds. I nudge it ever so gently to keep it in the middle of the track. Eight and a half seconds and its all over. Bring it back down slowly, slowly. Let off the throttle all at once and the tail would drop and the front end would chase the sky. But this time I nurse it down to stop, and my friend in the rescue boat is holding up his fingers to indicate that I ran over a hundred and thirty one mph. A leg on the world record. I idle to the waiting trailer and load the boat and get out. Don pushes me into the lake to celebrate. I climb back out and sit on the trailer fender as he pulls me through the pits, and all the racers are congratulating me. It feels good to hear them, some of them that I didn't even know. We get back to our pit area and Don tells me he took the weight ballast that I had in the left sponson out, before we left South Carolina, without telling me. I was very upset that he did this, but we had a leg on the record to show for it, so I was too happy to worry about him taking my 'training wheels' off...Later that Saturday I made my second qualifying run, and ran within the required three percent of the first leg to set the record at 133.92 MPH...and then on Sunday chalked up another win...

    Last edited by warrior74z; 09-11-2007 at 10:03 PM.

  11. #176
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    Getting some ink in Hot Boat is rare for outboard drag boats


  12. #177
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    Ink inside too Notice that the outboard record is faster than a blown jet (1200 horsepower) record

    Last edited by warrior74z; 09-06-2007 at 10:00 PM.

  13. #178
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    1985...Phoenix Arizona The Saint Louis race was sanctioned by The American Drag Boat Association which ruled the eastern half of the U.S. The Southern Drag Boat Association, based in Texas joined The ADBA for a couple of races this season to form The ADBA/SDBA National Challenge Series. So setting the record in Saint Louis covered the compitition for most of the country. But then there was that west coast association, the International Hot Boat Association, in California and Arizona. This organization did not even have an outboard class. Soooo, Don calls the head of the IHBA and sells him on letting us run by invitation to establish an Unlimited Outboard record. So we get ready for the long haul to Phoenix. We had a trailer hitch reciever installed on The Toy trailer and hooked a friends River Race Hydro rig behind The Toy. Two boats and the dually truck was over 65 feet long. We never asked anyone if it was legal or not and got a lot of comments on the CB about that. We made it all the way to the Arizona line and had to go through a weigh station and cargo check and were told we could not pull through Arizona with a double rig. It was about three AM at the time. We left the friend's hydro at the check station and went to the next exit, pulled off the Interstate and unhooked The Toy in a vacant lot and I stood there in the middle of nowhere with a .357 Magnum in my hand, guarding The Toy, while the guys went back to the weigh station, hooked up the other boat, came back to me. We hooked the boats back up together and struck out for Pheonix, and never looked back.
    Firebird Raceway is an amazing place. The lake is man made, and is rectangular shaped with a slim island running down the middle. The island allows circle track boat races and the Island dissipates the wave action. I'm guessing each straight is about a half of a mile long, allowing drag racing on one side of the lake. They have permanant grandstand type seating with a roof. The in-ramp is at the starting line and you make your pass and drive around the other side of the island to the out-ramp. This keeps the down time for launching and retrieving boats and waiting for the water to settle to a minimum. Two boats make a pass about every minute or so, all day long. This facility also has the NHRA Drag strip, a sports car road race track, a motocross track and maybe an asphalt circle track. Really nice place. They start qualifying on Saturday at eight thirty AM, and my river race hydro friend was supposed to be there at the launch ramp at eight thirty, but we were about five minutes late. They had launched about two boats in the next class onto the hold rope and would not allow my friend to launch and qualify, after towing two thousand miles. He was not happy and so he marched up to the officials office and confronted the head dude, and proceded to nail him right between the eyes and knocked him out cold. My friend, Johnny, took off running and stripped out of his red windbreaker thinking maybe he could blend into the crowd. What Johnny forgot was that his driving suit under his jacket was also red and they spotted and arrested him. We bailed him out later, and at the motel restaurant that night all the racers were congratulating him and buying him drinks because they all hated the way the IHBA was run by this guy. More on Pheonix later...

    Last edited by warrior74z; 09-09-2007 at 08:20 PM.

  14. #179
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    This is the best post in a long time, I was in London in 85, somewhere I have pictures, I will try and dig them up.

    RT

  15. #180
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    Thanks RBT. I think I have another pic from Canada, that I'll post tonight. And all of you who have sent compliments, thank you. I was begining to wonder if I was boring and putting everyone to sleep. Please send a note if you like this post and want me to continue.
    Barron

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