Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

[lars strom]

Over$14 million profit is pretty good..!!..

[FMP]

Pretty cool.

Attachment 473799

The coolest

[2us70]

Turn 1 must have been quite interesting. But as I have said here many times "it seemed perfectly reasonable at the time"

95% of all the UIM Championship races was always clock start. 5 drivers from every country was allowed to start. Sometimes like the UIM SE class European Championship race in Evian, France 1974 it was over 40 boats in a clock start..!!

http://svera.se/blogg/racing-historier/1974-was-a-very-good-year-for-my-se-class-racing/

[lars strom]

Turn 1 must have been quite interesting. But as I have said here many times "it seemed perfectly reasonable at the time"

Yes..always very stressful but part of racing back then when clock start was used.

Here is my experience from the race at Lake Geneva on the borderline with Switzerland & France 1974

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My best memories is from Evian, France where I defended my SE European championship.
Over 40 boats in this race, the SE class was very popular in the mid seventy’s.
The Italian drivers was still upset from the year before when I “stole” the race in Finland so they teamed up to try to run me over in every start.
My new Clerici boat and the way I could fly it, was perfect for this 2 point race course, two mile long.
(Jim Wagner told me I was way faster then the OMC Factory OE boats).
Normally a race was 4 heat and 3 of them counts, and the big Lake Geneva was extremely rough.
In the final heat when I was up front, one of the Italian drivers slowed down waiting for me to lap him and then he
hit my boat on purpose in the turn, but I was lucky to bring it home in first place.
On top of that, the top Italian drivers ended up disqualified for not legal modifications to the engines.
The final result with me as the Champ was ready 4 AM Monday morning with very angry and upset Bonvicini brothers from Italy.

Earlier that year one of my sponsors Melins Motor made very nice stickers with a picture of my boat saying I was the 1973 European Champion, but they never told me that the printing office made a mistake, putting year 1974 on the first set of stickers so in the pit area after the race, they put a new sticker on my boat saying
I was the 1974 European Champion and that made the Italians even more upset!!!!
I never told them the true story about the sticker screw up.

[lars strom]

Some more memories from beautiful Evian, France 1974

[lars strom]

Nice.
The Hodges F1-V8 boat was painted by Andy Bullen late 1984.

[lars strom]

A mix of Andy Bullens F1-V8 boats.

[lars strom]

EDIT:2 Better copy of second picture.
Alf Bullen driving the #6 Molinari/Evinrude CCC 3 liter V6 looper fuel injection. I think it is from Chasewater 1979 and turned very bad for Alf..
Second picture. @STEVERINO need help from you.

...

[2us70]

Racing against people who will hurt you on purpose is not fun. I only had a couple of competitors like that and I did not look to racing them. Racing against the good guys was what made it worthwhile. Some drivers did not have to worry about what they broke. Guys like me who were racing on my own dime had to try to keep the equipment intact.

Yes..always very stressful but part of racing back then when clock start was used.

Here is my experience from the race at Lake Geneva on the borderline with Switzerland & France 1974

////////////////////

My best memories is from Evian, France where I defended my SE European championship.
Over 40 boats in this race, the SE class was very popular in the mid seventy’s.
The Italian drivers was still upset from the year before when I “stole” the race in Finland so they teamed up to try to run me over in every start.
My new Clerici boat and the way I could fly it, was perfect for this 2 point race course, two mile long.
(Jim Wagner told me I was way faster then the OMC Factory OE boats).
Normally a race was 4 heat and 3 of them counts, and the big Lake Geneva was extremely rough.
In the final heat when I was up front, one of the Italian drivers slowed down waiting for me to lap him and then he
hit my boat on purpose in the turn, but I was lucky to bring it home in first place.
On top of that, the top Italian drivers ended up disqualified for not legal modifications to the engines.
The final result with me as the Champ was ready 4 AM Monday morning with very angry and upset Bonvicini brothers from Italy.

Earlier that year one of my sponsors Melins Motor made very nice stickers with a picture of my boat saying I was the 1973 European Champion, but they never told me that the printing office made a mistake, putting year 1974 on the first set of stickers so in the pit area after the race, they put a new sticker on my boat saying
I was the 1974 European Champion and that made the Italians even more upset!!!!
I never told them the true story about the sticker screw up.

[lars strom]

Andy Bullen going down in Bristol.

[lars strom]

I received this picture below from an Italian friend today.. He was working for Renato during his time with Mercury. He was also working for Renato all the years Renato raced Evinrude for OMC.

This picture is from the OE & ON World Championship race in Auronzo, It 1976. Renato won boat classes witch is a very unique situation.
Well..this was high up in the mountains and Renato was the only one allowed the be testing at this little lake for over a week before the race.
I am not sure if the info is correct, but according to my Italian friend the OE class powerhead Renato was using was made by Renato at his factory in Como.
This was also one of the last races for Renato for Team Mercury. If I remember right, Amsterdam, Paris and Havasu 1976 was the three left for Mercury.
Early 1977 Renato & Bob Hering won Parker in his Evinrude V6 CCC powered Molinari.

This is getting very interesting..Guido Cappellini..(a 10 times UIM F1 World Champ) is asking if anybody knows who owns the little red boat sitting in the water..
I was there in Auronzo 1976 and remember this and answering as you can see in the first "picture"

The second "picture" is the interesting one..it was Guido Cappellini's first race boat.
Yes..he was working for Renato as a young boy..

[STEVERINO]

...

I can remember this race at Chasewater The British Grand Prix. Rodger Jenkins won this race with Tom Percival 2nd Steve Pinson 3rd. I think Andy Bullen raced his dads old Burgess in the race and Alfi drove the new Molinari with a 3.0 Looper engine.I went to visit Alfi 3 days later at the Hospital in Walshall to say he was very unhappy was a understatment.Alfi had a business to run and places to be he had broken his femur bone right at the top of his leg so this was no quick fix i think this had him out of racing for sometime and Andy took over his driving seat.

[WaterZebra]

Racing against people who will hurt you on purpose is not fun. I only had a couple of competitors like that and I did not look to racing them. Racing against the good guys was what made it worthwhile. Some drivers did not have to worry about what they broke. Guys like me who were racing on my own dime had to try to keep the equipment intact.

It always seemed to be the same. If prize money was involved, the demeanor of some drivers flipped like a switch. Risking my hull and engine for a weekend of racing for a paltry sum of money that didn't even put a dent in my operating expenses wasn't worth it. One thing I did learn though was when the composite hulls starting showing up, the guys who were stupid enough to try "trading paint" with wood hulls always got the worst of it. LOL Also, if the rescue situation looked even the the least bit risky, I would not attend that race to begin with.

[lars strom]

Nice Evinrude V6 cross-flow

[lars strom]

This become extra funny a few weeks ago..