Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[Mark75H]

What time of year was the Milan race?

[Mark75H]

Jackie, what do you think of this picture?

[jackie wilson]

Hiya Big member, Milan was always the opening race of the year and usually took place in early April on the Idroscala, Which was a man made lake for the seaplane trade of the 30's. It was a great place to race but treacherous when the wind was blowing. Once, it rained and snowed so hard most of the competitors went to the top of the lake ,jumped in the water and held on to the painter until the storm passed. If you ever see any pictures taken from the south end of the course the Alps are always covered in snow. SO in answer to your question, it was Spring.!!!

[jackie wilson]

Jackie, what do you think of this picture?

That's a great piccy of Angelo's factory in COMO. I'm surprised the year is '65 i would have put big dosh on it being '66. But i have been known to get it wrong before. Angelo knew a lot of rich and influential People, The Rasini's, Carlo Bodega, [ Stanley tools ] Army generals and the like, he always seemed to have a full order book. When i ordered my first boat i had to wait 8 months for it

[jackie wilson]

Re 365 Dieter told me he cut out the profiles and the frames . put 'em in a box and shipped them to the U.S.A. [New York i think] Assembled the boat, bought a used station wagon for $300, fixed a tow hitch on it, borrowed a trailer, [TRAILOR] and drove all the way to Havasu. Raced the boat, then sold everything and went back home. He was always a loner and as independant as a guy could be. Didn't mean to poke my nose in, but i've always been like that, and yes it's been flattened a few times.

[jackie wilson]

to whom it may concern. If Renato was a --quote well known hydro racer in 1960, unquote, he was still in diapers, Nappies we call 'em. your call.

[Mark75H]

Re 365 Dieter told me he cut out the profiles and the frames . put 'em in a box and shipped them to the U.S.A. [New York i think] Assembled the boat, bought a used station wagon for $300, fixed a tow hitch on it, borrowed a trailer, [TRAILOR] and drove all the way to Havasu. Raced the boat, then sold everything and went back home. He was always a loner and as independant as a guy could be. Didn't mean to poke my nose in, but i've always been like that, and yes it's been flattened a few times.

I can add that he made arrangments with Sid Urytzski and assembled it in the Sidson hydro shop in New Jersey. They were accustomed to building boats on a jig table and were amazed that Dieter just built his boat up off the floor. Then he proceeded to Ohio where a motor was waiting at Merlin Culver's Merc distributorship. The motor was rigged there. Dieter took first single outboard (4th overall I think - maybe 3rd) and sold the boat to Bud Babbitt Sr after the race. He also made plans to have boats sold in America or maybe made in the US with the Switzer brothers, but that deal eventually fell thru for some reason.

[T2x]

to whom it may concern. If Renato was a --quote well known hydro racer in 1960, unquote, he was still in diapers, Nappies we call 'em. your call.

I believe the hydro stuff was about Angelo...not Renato.

T2x

[John Schubert]

I can add that he made arrangments with Sid Urksty and assembled it in the Sidson hydro shop in New Jersey. They were accustomed to building boats on a jig table and were amazed that Dieter just built his boat up off the floor. Then he proceeded to Ohio where a motor was waiting at Merlin Culver's Merc distributorship. The motor was rigged there. Dieter took first single outboard (4th overall I think - maybe 3rd) and sold the boat to Bud Babbitt Sr after the race. He also made plans to have boats sold in America or maybe made in the US with the Switzer brothers, but that deal eventually fell thru for some reason.

Not to be critical but since you are a great boat racing historian, the correct spelling of Sid's & Bobby's last name is "Urytzski"

[Mark75H]

Thank you, John. My collected history is nothing more than information provided by those who were really there like yourself.

[willabee]

So back to the events of 73.....Making the year even stranger is the fact that there was to be no Havasu Championship that year. I believe that decision had everything to do with the OMC rotary. Merc's contension was that 100 cubic inch was the rule and this thing was 122 inches. Merc said they weren't coming if it was allowed to run and OMC said they weren't coming if they couldn't run it.....result: No Race!!!

Merc had slimmed down to a four boat factory team and hadn't really been doing much racing anyway. OMC was running their rotary wherever they could, but not supporting much of the other racing. I had moved over to Hi-Performance Products and spent the summer with the KT project and wasn't really up to speed on what the engineering group was working on in terms of an answer for the rotary.

I do recall getting called to a meeting in Gary Garbrecht's office. During that session, a very disturbed Charles Alexander, Mercury's President, let it be known that Merc was building a V6. I guess that project was progressing just fine, but he didn't like the fact that Charlie Strang, OMC's President, had just sent him a complete set of the blueprints for that engine!!!! I knew that I wasn't in trouble, I didn't even know they were building it. But, Alexander was on a mission to find out who sent all that top secret stuff to OMC.....I don't know if he ever did find the Benedict Arnold in our ranks.

The race that caught everyone's attention now that Havasu was out was Canada's PS100's Outboard Championship, run on September 15th at Lake Ontario's Woodbine Beach. They offered a $15,000 purse and most of the single engine equipment that would have been at Havasu showed up in Canada. I didn't attend that event, but it sounded like a very good show. They ran a pair of one hour marathons in some windy conditions and Reggie Fountain turned out to be the man to beat. Spencer Dunn was the only driver to go past Fountain, but couldn't keep his Merc/Molinari on the water. Tom Posey and Tim Briggs couldn't get their OMC Scotti's to run with Reggie either, finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. Brian Smith brought his Merc/Milesmaster home in 10th.....not bad for a guy with two left feet .

From Powerboat, here's a shot of the winner.....a shot of the start.

[willabee]

In the fall of 73, Mercury was finishing it's testing of the TII (Tillitson carbs) and Merc's 122 inch T3 made it's debut in Europe.....think "Big Engine List". I found an article in Powerboat, January 1974, but can't read the whole story because some parts of it have been torn away . What I can read says "torque problems greater than they expected, veteran drivers such as Renato Molinari and Bob Hering having to change off every half hour as they found a new way to develop shoulder muscles. The U.S. debut of these 122 cubic inch heavyweights will be Feb. 24 at Miami.....the 122 inch engines will run in S and X will be unlimited, including any OPC rigs with up to three engines on a boat and also the Rotary Combustion engines."

That same article went on to say that Cees Van der Velden and Billy Seebold won the 3 hours of Amsterdam (don't know which Merc engine they used).....Tom Posey and Mike Downard won at Windermere, England, the only place to allow the rotary in Europe.....and Reggie Fountain, "one of the 10 best dressed men in Tarboro, N.C." took "ON" (100 cubic inch) honors at Windemere. Reggie had completed his very fast jump from independant driver in 1971 to one of the dozen or so drivers that Merc and OMC had decided to race against each other with in the U.S. and Europe in 1973.

Also appearing in that magazine was an ad featuring Merc's new Twister II, now available for racing in "U" and "S" classes. Looking at the name used for the engine in the ad (the bold print above the description), I figure mbd29 had his hand in there someplace .....I bet it's the one I have posted before, the 1st one assembled in final form.

[willabee]

Another change that took place at Mercury sometime towards the end of 1973 was the handling of the "factory support team". When the race team went to the four boat format, they were also to be responsible for the support group. However, without any real notice, Gary Garbrecht informed me that that group was moved over to Hi-Performance Products. He told me that they were now my responsibility and he also transferred some of the race team personnel to Hi-Perf.

Our first major event was the Miami race and I started making arrangements to build some new equipment and to get the group scheduled for testing at Lake X. I think the U.S. race team now consisted of Seebold, Hering, Fountain and Spalding (I think Bob was still in the states at this time). The ever changing race support team included Holloway, Scherrer, Brett May, Berghauer, Bucky Morris, Sutter, Peacock and a new guy named Bentz. The Race Team had managed to get him that yellow pickle fork Molinari you guys were talking about earlier. Thorton and Jock Horner would get added to this list and I think this was the race that I invited Ken Stevenson to join us at the Lake. There may have been a few more, but this is who I remember now.

I don't know why I don't have a better memory of the testing session, but it is what it is. I recall there were some bitter feelings on the part of some race team members because of the change of who was now handling the support team. I don't remember Morris and Bentz being there, but they must have been. I think Scherrer and Chick Gagen flipped during testing, but am not positive. I know I sent Lil Blue, the twin Twistercraft to Lil Red to the Lake and we got it ready for Peacock to race if the wind conditions proved to be favorable on Sunday morning. We all ran TII's and I'm not sure, but I don't think the four team boats had anything different under their bonnets.....they weren't saying too much to me about anything.

Mark75H, this gives you a more definitive time table on the carbs. First C6 (Morgan 6 carb) at Berlin in Oct. 1970.....first competitive race for the C6 is Miami, July 1971.....all team boats running C6's by Miami, Feb. 1972.....all team boats running TII's (Tillitson's) by Miami Feb. 1973.

To be continued.....

Here is a shot of Bucky Morris and what might be a Twistercraft #522.....the race winner Reggie Fountain with Sport J class Jeff Ettinger #309 in his Zonkercraft.....Bentz in #241.

[peterse90]

The race that caught everyone's attention now that Havasu was out was Canada's PS100's Outboard Championship, run on September 15th at Lake Ontario's Woodbine Beach. They offered a $15,000 purse and most of the single engine equipment that would have been at Havasu showed up in Canada. I didn't attend that event, but it sounded like a very good show. They ran a pair of one hour marathons in some windy conditions and Reggie Fountain turned out to be the man to beat. Spencer Dunn was the only driver to go past Fountain, but couldn't keep his Merc/Molinari on the water. Tom Posey and Tim Briggs couldn't get their OMC Scotti's to run with Reggie either, finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. Brian Smith brought his Merc/Milesmaster home in 10th.....not bad for a guy with two left feet .

From Powerboat, here's a shot of the winner.....a shot of the start.[/quote]

Here are some more pictures from the 1973 PS 100.
Oley Berkis #44 was 8th overall and first Canadian, Brian Smith #588 was 10th as you mentioned.
Two weeks later, Fountain's #76 became Spencer Dunn's #73 so that Spencer could run the last race of the 1973 season and claim the S class high point championship.
The 1974 PS 100's was a far better race than the 1973 event, in 1974 Bentz, Seebold, the Berghauers and the best OMC drivers showed up.

Willabee...what was the difference between a U-class T-II and a S-class T-II?

[willabee]

.....Willabee...what was the difference between a U-class T-II and a S-class T-II?

There is no difference, it was just a silly statement they put in the ad (you know how those PR guys can be ). Build at least 100 of them and don't exceed 100 cubic inches and it's "U" class legal. Step up and run "S" as long as you don't exceed 100 inches. The Race Team did come up with some changes for that engine that were legal to run in "S". One that comes to mind was a thinner carb manifold plate. They found more horsepower on the dyno by removing something like .060 or .125, not sure of the exact amount anymore.