Hot Multi's - Pictures

[Ronster43]

Jeff Titus blew over Qualman's twin Magnum while testing at the Marine Stadium. I will look for the picture of the aftermath.

Correction! Spoke to Jeff. He believes that it is Wally Qualman inside of the Missille blowing over in the pic. But Wally's was a Dutchman, not a Magnum. Jeff went over in it testing and tore it up badly. Broke the deck away and damaged both engines. He was banged up, but not badly hurt. Don't know if the boat was repaired.

[GENE LANHAM]

So Dave Switzer must have been Jan's co-driver? Jan finished 5th overall---second outboard--

[Old fiberglass]

So Dave Switzer must have been Jan's co-driver? Jan finished 5th overall---second outboard--

Could be, not really sure I know they were friends so it is possible. Dave Craig didn't care for the glass wings. Big question is where is Dave Switzer's name on the list ? Possible DNF ??

[GENE LANHAM]

Could be, not really sure I know they were friends so it is possible. Dave Craig didn't care for the glass wings. Big question is where is Dave Switzer's name on the list ? Possible DNF ??

More ancient history Rick. Those two boats in the pic from Jan look like 'Lima Marine Center' and Odell's Black Wing??

[GENE LANHAM]

Correction! Spoke to Jeff. He believes that it is Wally Qualman inside of the Missille blowing over in the pic. But Wally's was a Dutchman, not a Magnum. Jeff went over in it testing and tore it up badly. Broke the deck away and damaged both engines. He was banged up, but not badly hurt. Don't know if the boat was repaired.

Hi Ron: Wasn't Jeff badly hurt in the Scotti? A defing moment? I think Jeff slowed down a little after that. 1971?

[Ronster43]

Correction! Spoke to Jeff. He believes that it is Wally Qualman inside of the Missille blowing over in the pic. But Wally's was a Dutchman, not a Magnum. Jeff went over in it testing and tore it up badly. Broke the deck away and damaged both engines. He was banged up, but not badly hurt. Don't know if the boat was repaired.

Wanted to be sure I was clear on this...
Wally is in the red boat (which is a Dutchman) TO THE INSIDE of the Missile that is blowing over. Jeff later wrecked this Dutchman while testing at the Stadium.

[Ronster43]

Hi Ron: Wasn't Jeff badly hurt in the Scotti? A defing moment? I think Jeff slowed down a little after that. 1971?

Hi Gene...yes...defining. That was his second Scotti. The first one was heavy and not very competitive...gave it back to Leek. He blew the second Scotti (Mod-U) over testing on Friday before a race in Tallahassee in 1974. There were no safety boats on the 2-1/2 mile course and he went on the far side. Jimbo was standing on the pit dock when the call came in and was still the first to get to him. I think he realized how lucky he was to survive that one. Ran Sport-E (and occasionally Mod-50) after that. When I went to college in '85, he got in my EP for a couple years, then hung it up!

[velox]

Could be, not really sure I know they were friends so it is possible. Dave Craig didn't care for the glass wings. Big question is where is Dave Switzer's name on the list ? Possible DNF ??

A couple of notes about this race. This was the first time the fiberglass Switzer were raced by the Lake X guys and the very first time the Super Speedmaster was used in a race. The fiberglass Switzers were quite un impressive and not really too much faster than the V hull Glastrons. I am pretty sure the Switzers were behind the Glastrons until the last hour or so when things smoothed out allowing the Switzers to run faster. I know if the Glastrons had the Super speedmasters and the Switzers had the stock lower units, the Glastrons would have won that day!
This is also the first time 3 of the fast sk boats kept going the entire race allowing them to go 123.
I drove the 4th place OB for the first 3 hours and it was the toughest 3 hours of my entire life.

[Old fiberglass]

A couple of notes about this race. This was the first time the fiberglass Switzer were raced by the Lake X guys and the very first time the Super Speedmaster was used in a race. The fiberglass Switzers were quite un impressive and not really too much faster than the V hull Glastrons. I am pretty sure the Switzers were behind the Glastrons until the last hour or so when things smoothed out allowing the Switzers to run faster. I know if the Glastrons had the Super speedmasters and the Switzers had the stock lower units, the Glastrons would have won that day!
This is also the first time 3 of the fast sk boats kept going the entire race allowing them to go 123.
I drove the 4th place OB for the first 3 hours and it was the toughest 3 hours of my entire life.

Jan told me a story Mercury had the idea to make the flaps out of aluminum. Then load the race up with wings and all but a few of the aluminum flaps, (I believe they were set in a fixed position) broke because thay could not take the abuse. Plus the early wings were sopposed to have built too heavy. I'm a little fuzzy about this but I believe Odell was one of the ones that stayed together, so this could be the race Jan was talking about.

Why was running the SK boat one of the toughest three hours of your life ??? Rough ride ??

[2us70]

I ran one Orange Bowl 9 Hour an it was a brutal affair. It was kind of like the "Gold Coast Marathon" in that they had a class for about anything. Inboards, outboards fast stuff and not so fast stuff.A lot of boats with a big speed diferential. About half the course was inside the Marine Stadium and the other half out in Biscayne Bay. It was rough and there was almost no place where a driver relax and recover for even a few seconds.

[GENE LANHAM]

I drove the 4th place OB for the first 3 hours and it was the toughest 3 hours of my entire life.

Charlie, didn't you and George run that Glastron in the 6 Hour, that same week?

[velox]

Jan told me a story Mercury had the idea to make the flaps out of aluminum. Then load the race up with wings and all but a few of the aluminum flaps, (I believe they were set in a fixed position) broke because they could not take the abuse. Plus the early wings were supposed to have built too heavy. I'm a little fuzzy about this but I believe Odell was one of the ones that stayed together, so this could be the race Jan was talking about.

Why was running the SK boat one of the toughest three hours of your life ??? Rough ride ??

I was driving the Glastron with George Griley. The start got completely F'ed up. The pace boat led half the boats out of the Marine Stadium and into a dead end cove. In the meantime the California guys in their SK boats simply started racing while everybody else sat outsides the stadium. The race officials did not take charge, and let them keep going. That put half of us at least a lap down to start the race.

The water was so rough that the Glastron would roll from side to side violently, taking you head from side to side so hard if felt like you helmet weighed about 50 lbs. It was so bad I could not really see anything except for the outlines of objects in the distance. It was the hardest physical output I had ever done and the pain was so bad I was in tears! For 3 straight hours, I never back off from full throttle, trying to make up for the stupid starters. I averaged well over 50 MPH, but our times got slower as the day went on.
After the race we found out why we were getting slower. In my last hour of driving, the number 1 Mandella. slid into me on a turn, barely making contact. It was so slight I thought nothing about it. When we pulled the boat out of the water and pulled the drain plug we dumped water for 10 minutes! This was in a boat that never , ever took on any water. When the Mandella bumped me, his cavitation plate punched a small slotted hole in the back of the Glastron below the waterline. The hole was probably less than 1/8 inch, but it was a slot and acted like a pitot tube. BTW the week before George and I won the OPC 6 hour in the twin engine unlimited class in the same boat. The only maintenance was to pull the cowlings and check everything. That was 15 hours of running the twin Mercs wide open with no problems. PS the Ole man was still not happy with me as I set the RPMs too high for his liking.

[velox]

Charlie, didn't you and George run that Glastron in the 6 Hour, that same week?

Boy, you have a good memory!
We did run that boat in the 6 hour and won the twin engine unlimited class.
I am sure you remember George Griley. He was one of the greats guys around for all the younger guys (and gals but that another story). He was really laid back and never really got his boats running unless, Butch, Richard Baiz or I helped him. I put the Glastron in racing configuration and did the setup and testing.
I put some Michigan lip cupped props on it and got it running very fast, but at a high RPM.
During the 6 hour, Carl sent a rep over to tell me to bring the boat in and change the props because we were going to blow an engine and make Mercury look bad. I knew were were racing an if we took the time to change props we would not only lose speed we would lose a ton of time changing the props. Not only did we win the race, we ran the 9 hour with the same setup for 15 total hours with almost zero maintenance. Carl was still not happy with me.

[Powercat]

This photo was indicated as being from Marine Stadium in Miami, and I was wondering if any of the South Florida alumni recognize the "other" boat in the background. Butch Stokes had told me about some Power Cat hydros that had been modified to 4-point
configurations and raced for a short time. This one looks like it could be one....?
Danny Leger
Austin, Texas

[GENE LANHAM]

This photo was indicated as being from Marine Stadium in Miami, and I was wondering if any of the South Florida alumni recognize the "other" boat in the background. Butch Stokes had told me about some Power Cat hydros that had been modified to 4-point
configurations and raced for a short time. This one looks like it could be one....?
Danny Leger
Austin, Texas

Danny, I think that is Tommy Sikes. Tommy ran a lot of different boats, and had a very unusual method of acquiring his equipment. Jock is running some 'stange' looking 1100 stackers on the 'El Lobo' and the time frame would be early 1968, February or March---