Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[Lake X Kid]

In an interview with Frode Sundsdal on May 2020, Scott Gillman is starting his own F1 (H2O) race team. After many years, He and the Victory Team parted ways.

The 4 time World Champion said his toughest competition as a driver was American Bill Seebold and Italian Guido Cappelli. And Scott mention, that Ron Anderson has been his engine man for decades.

When asked about the 4-stroke Mercury Marine V8 as a future race engine in the F1 H2O circuit, Scott was not very enthused. Scott reflecting on previous V8 outboards, thought they were slower in cornering speed, and he preferred the 2-stroke V6 instead for F1 racing.

see interview link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAUzN5JaLeQ

Lake X Kid wearing his Gillman race shirt from the 1980's, when I met Scott at a Puddingstone race in California.

[Lake X Kid]

Since my youth, I have observed {like most of you} that there is a pecking order of popularity in motorsports. And the premier league is automotive racing, in the world of racing. And then it is motorcycle racing, which garners more fan following then boat racing.

Case in point, I know guys whom follow Nascar and Indy, but dismiss boat racing as minor-league (at best). It is not their cup of tea. An illustration is, when I went to the Vintage Boat Race in Tavares last November 2019. A free event for spectators to watch from the shoreline, but I saw very few non-participants there to watch. I have seen more looky-loos, at a car show in the neighborhood parking lot for a gathering on Friday night.

I have associated with car gear-heads who knew of, F1 motorcycle champions Kenny Roberts and
Freddie Spencer. But if you mention Bill Seebold, Renato or Jimbo, they would give you a blank stare. They do not know what a Molinari tunnel hull is, no more than, where is the location of Lago di Como on a map. Yes they probably heard of Cigarette boats, and possibly might know the name of Don Aronow.

To be continued.

[Lake X Kid]

We spent a lot of money with PowerBoat over a LOT of years. Trust me, they included a bit of misinformation in everything they did. They would call to verify information, and still get it wrong when it went to print. Every frick'n month.

The reason I think Outboard Racing may have gotten more misinformation printed in print publications is the
pecking order. Outboards were the insignificant story compared to the bigger horsepower classes. So the publications would put less resources and editorial fact checking, in getting the Outboard race photos, captions and story line correct.

The pecking order within the boat racing fraternity, and here is my observation. A lot of car enthusiasts have heard of Cigarette boats. Talking to them, they associate the name Cigarette with fast boats. And the boats have V8 power, and that might be the extent of their surface knowledge. Thus this gives the high-powered offshore boats some credibility in their eyes.

Outboard power you are the little brother, which does not yet have the credentials to seat with the Big Horses. Therefore in my eyes (1960s – 70s), the V8 guys in flat bottoms, hydros, and offshore lauded their greater horsepower, as a badge of the superior class. As they should because they generated more casual attention from spectators, then, the 2 cycle outboard engines. The slower speed class was outboards public persona.

And who is more apt to garner, the crossover from automotive racing fans to boat racing is the unlimited hydros. The Unlimited boats did get more airtime on network television, then offshore boat races. So the public at large knew of the Budweiser race boat. The red boat was (and still maybe) probably the most recognize race boat in America, even more so then the Cigarette name. Fountain boats might now be surpassing the Cigarette for most offshore boat name recognition.

In summary, the boat racing pecking order (influenced by fan generation & horsepower noise) is in both 20^th & 21^st century:
Unlimited Hydros’ rooster tails, then leaping Offshore boats, and next coming up the front stretch is circuit racing.

[2us70]

Looking up from my position way down the "pecking order" I have to admit you are right.

[OLEGATOR]

The reason I think Outboard Racing may have gotten more misinformation printed in print publications is the
pecking order. Outboards were the insignificant story compared to the bigger horsepower classes. So the publications would put less resources and editorial fact checking, in getting the Outboard race photos, captions and story line correct.

The pecking order within the boat racing fraternity, and here is my observation. A lot of car enthusiasts have heard of Cigarette boats. Talking to them, they associate the name Cigarette with fast boats. And the boats have V8 power, and that might be the extent of their surface knowledge. Thus this gives the high-powered offshore boats some credibility in their eyes.

Outboard power you are the little brother, which does not yet have the credentials to seat with the Big Horses. Therefore in my eyes (1960s – 70s), the V8 guys in flat bottoms, hydros, and offshore lauded their greater horsepower, as a badge of the superior class. As they should because they generated more casual attention from spectators, then, the 2 cycle outboard engines. The slower speed class was outboards public persona.

And who is more apt to garner, the crossover from automotive racing fans to boat racing is the unlimited hydros. The Unlimited boats did get more airtime on network television, then offshore boat races. So the public at large knew of the Budweiser race boat. The red boat was (and still maybe) probably the most recognize race boat in America, even more so then the Cigarette name. Fountain boats might now be surpassing the Cigarette for most offshore boat name recognition.

In summary, the boat racing pecking order (influenced by fan generation & horsepower noise) is in both 20^th & 21^st century:
Unlimited Hydros’ rooster tails, then leaping Offshore boats, and next coming up the front stretch is circuit racing.

the last sentence of the first paragraph says it all for me. go back and look who took credit for that article.

[FUJIMO]

I don't believe PowerBoat discriminated against any particular boating group size or type. They were an equal opportunity misinformation printer... It was extremely aggravating, month after month, year after year...when you know you worked so hard to make everything perfect from your end. It was a hard pill to swallow, sending them their checks every month, because you still knew you needed them for promotion of your product over the years. Anyways, those days are long over.

[2us70]

For accuracy none was worse than "Vapor Trails".

[Lake X Kid]

At what fuel level, is the optima level to setup a boat for race conditions?

In my graph, I propose that the optima fuel level to rig for is, at 30% on the low end, or 80% on the high end. (Or any fuel level between 30% and 80% of the tank’s 100% fuel level). In the graph I show a 40% fuel range, with the ideal sweet spot in the middle of that range. The Sweet Zone range is 20% over and 20% under the target fuel load to setup to.

If one was to prop for a 100% fuel load, then that rig is only in the sweet fuel range for 20% (only the range under 100%). And on the lighter end of the weight range, if one setup’s for a 10% fuel load, then that boat setup is only in the sweet range for 20% to 30% (the over & under combined).
Optima setup for the 30% fuel level; leaves you a 10% fuel level to get back to the pits without running out of fuel. If you do optima setup for 20% fuel load or less, and want to race in the 40% sweet zone range, then you risk running out of fuel on the race course.

What fuel level did/would you setup to?

[WaterZebra]

I don't believe PowerBoat discriminated against any particular boating group size or type. They were an equal opportunity misinformation printer... It was extremely aggravating, month after month, year after year...when you know you worked so hard to make everything perfect from your end. It was a hard pill to swallow, sending them their checks every month, because you still knew you needed them for promotion of your product over the years. Anyways, those days are long over.

PowerBoat publication was a pet business project by Nordskog Industries. The magazine slowly degraded from technical articles about how to put a pad on a vee bottom for more speed, outboard hop-up ideas, etc to a front-to-back advertising pamphlet. I wrote a scathing letter to one of their editors once and suggested that they re-name the publication to Offshore Rich-Guy Monthly. Soon after, I let my subscription lapse and switched to HotBoat. HotBoat's lifespan wasn't going to last that much longer either. Changed to crammed with advertising, scant technical articles and completely pre-occupied with poker runs and silicone bikinis. At least HotBoat gave you a T shirt for renewing your subscription every year where PowerBoat just took your money. Either publication was bound for extinction with the arrival of the digital web, social media and YouTube.

[willabee]

Motor Names .....

Awhile back, WaterZebra started a thread asking how these racing motors of yesteryear got their names. I asked Dick Lanpheer, head two cycle engineer at Mercury back in the day, if he remembered how the name Twister was selected. On that thread I posted the portion of Dick's response that was directly related to the question. I left out some comments about his first choice for a name because I wasn't sure if he wanted them repeated. A week or so ago I remembered to ask Dick if it was ok to share those comments and he said it was fine. Here is Dick's response to how the Twister was named as he originally wrote it, I think you'll get a kick out of this (we could all use something to smile about right about now) .....

___________________________________________________________________________________________


Hi Bill,
Who named the Twister? That’s a long story but the short answer is that I did. At the time (late 60’s) the Styling Dept. was located at Plt. #6 and I was working with them (Art Miller (Chief Stylist) and a young guy whose name I cannot recall) on the exhaust layout, cowl modifications, etc. We started talking about what we would call it and I wanted to call it the “Strangler” for obvious reasons but Alex vetoed that immediately. That was a let-down for me because this young stylist had come up with a logo including lariat etc. and it was really neat. However, I realized that it wouldn’t be appropriate so I backed down. At the time Volkswagen introduced a model called the Scirocco , which referred to a desert storm and I liked the idea of an outboard that would create a storm. So this young stylist and I sat down and he began to draw and he came up with this corkscrew-like wind like a tornado I said “Hey, that’s a “Twister”, and the name was borne. So this stylist came up with a decal with the swirling wind and the Twister name. I really liked the concept and took it to Bob Johnson (my boss) and sold him on the idea. So, the original idea was mine and the young stylist that made it work. I don’t recall any meeting but as far as I was concerned it was a done deal.

On another subject, a couple of nights ago I was streaming videos about boating and this video came up about Reggie. I don’t know if you have seen it, but it was really interesting. .........
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______

[WaterZebra]

Motor Names .....

Awhile back, WaterZebra started a thread asking how these racing motors of yesteryear got their names. I asked Dick Lanpheer, head two cycle engineer at Mercury back in the day, if he remembered how the name Twister was selected. On that thread I posted the portion of Dick's response that was directly related to the question. I left out some comments about his first choice for a name because I wasn't sure if he wanted them repeated. A week or so ago I remembered to ask Dick if it was ok to share those comments and he said it was fine. Here is Dick's response to how the Twister was named as he originally wrote it, I think you'll get a kick out of this .....

___________________________________________________________________________________________


Hi Bill,
Who named the Twister? That’s a long story but the short answer is that I did. At the time (late 60’s) the Styling Dept. was located at Plt. #6 and I was working with them (Art Miller (Chief Stylist) and a young guy whose name I cannot recall) on the exhaust layout, cowl modifications, etc. We started talking about what we would call it and I wanted to call it the “Strangler” for obvious reasons but Alex vetoed that immediately. That was a let-down for me because this young stylist had come up with a logo including lariat etc. and it was really neat. However, I realized that it wouldn’t be appropriate so I backed down. At the time Volkswagen introduced a model called the Scirocco , which referred to a desert storm and I liked the idea of an outboard that would create a storm. So this young stylist and I sat down and he began to draw and he came up with this corkscrew-like wind like a tornado I said “Hey, that’s a “Twister”, and the name was borne. So this stylist came up with a decal with the swirling wind and the Twister name. I really liked the concept and took it to Bob Johnson (my boss) and sold him on the idea. So, the original idea was mine and the young stylist that made it work. I don’t recall any meeting but as far as I was concerned it was a done deal.

On another subject, a couple of nights ago I was streaming videos about boating and this video came up about Reggie. I don’t know if you have seen it, but it was really interesting. .........
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______

So how did "Strangler" end up at OMC? Strang??

[GENE LANHAM]

___________________________________________________________________________________________

on another subject, a couple of nights ago i was streaming videos about boating and this video came up about reggie. I don’t know if you have seen it, but it was really interesting. .........
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______

The King of Offshore-----

[willabee]

So how did "Strangler" end up at OMC? Strang??

I don't think that there's any doubt that the name Strangler was all about Charlie Strang.


I think Lanpheer wanted that name so that when the Merc silo won a race, they could say "We beat you Charlie" .....

I think OMC used it so that when their mod V4 won a race, they could say "We beat you Charlie" .....

I think it's fun stuff when the guys in charge of big things like this actually take the time to devise subtle ways to take shots at their professional competitors without having to say a word.

[Lake X Kid]

At the Paris 6 Hour, it seemed to me the refueling time slots, were by happenstance. As I recall in 1973 there was no headset communication from pit command to boat drivers. And the Paris pit location (refueling area) was at the end of the race course. The race layout was not like Havasu, Parker or Miami were the race boats raced in front of the pit area too.


So again refueling, as I reflect, was happenstance in that no one from the pit dock could flag/alert any given driver to pit on the next lap. Why does it matter? Because in 1973, I recall there were 4 (maybe 5) boats on the factory team. And the last thing a driver wants to do is lose time, idling in the pit area, wanting for another boat to be refueled.


At the ’73 race, I do not recall any driver losing extra time, waiting for his turn to refuel and exchange drivers. The only close conflict of circumstance that I recall was once. I was manning the catch pole, at the stern, on the engine’s cable steering bracket. Jim Emerson was refueling with Dave Brier helping manhandle the fuel hose (I think it was that duo).


Whilst holding the boat steady, I looked away from the refueling action over my left shoulder, and I saw another team boat idling 80 to 100 yards toward us.In a voice loud enough for the refueler and all concerned, I said “here comes another one.” After I said that, Gary G. and Roy Ridgell heads in unison, turned toward the incoming boat. They were standing on an elevated platform, looking down on the refueling team. If I recall correctly it seemed there was a third person standing up there too, maybe it was BW Willabee.


The four teams in which I remember were; Renato & Hering, Seebold &Cees,
Spalding & Percival, Pruett & Rasini, and (5^th team?). If there was a fifth team, then someone else will have to recall that. I do not think Tom Stickle participated in the 1973 race, maybe Reggie Fountain or Bert Serra did.

The race is counter-clock wise around the red buoys.
The bluish green line is the approximate area in the pits, of the Mercury Team refueling station.

[Lake X Kid]

Happy Father's Day to all the single-seater racers, and the support team members.

Here are a few faces representing those race drivers.