Top Five Tunnel Boat Drivers of All Time

[Jeff_G]

Thats the problem. There isn't a top five, and there is no way to compare. All very subjective. I think that T2X came closest, hard to argue.

[AnthonySS]

Mark Rotharmel
Oley Berkis
Ted Gryguc
Lee Davies

Honourable mention

Rob Schytes
Tom Wood

[Firestarter]

I would put Oley at the top, but I like the rest.

RT...........don't let Ted see the list

[Bruce Washburn]

Over the years there have been alot of great drivers.
Sirois was probably one of the smoothest drivers I have ever seen. He could drive anything that floated well.
Bill Seebold has to be at or near the top of anyone's list.
Molinari also was very good
Bush had great tallent but tore up to much stuff.
I don't think JIm Merten or his sons ever really got the chance to show what they could do but also had a ton of tallent.
A couple of other names that could also be in the top.
Rick Hoffman
Velden
Mike Seebold
Buck Thornton (Buck beat the factory drivers a number of times. With equal equipment he was very hard to beat.)
Benny Robertson also was very tallented.

It would be very difficult to make a list of the top 5 of all time since the equipment and driving styles have changed dramatically over the last 30 years.

[helmetguru]

yep rick hoffman is/was a great driver, seemed like he always had a problem with bouys though. i remember him driving his sst-100 boat at madison one year, came all the way through the pack driving his arse off then hit a bouy with a few laps to go. did the same thing in a 45. builder of some of the coolest boats ever made but never seemed to really break out...

bk, Scotti never get the recognition he deserved?? he's one of the greats, boat builders, drivers, pr guys for boat racing! while he died well before his time should have been up, he left a fame and legacy that extends even to today and i'm sure long into the future...i think Geoff Briggs would fall into that category but not Cesare ( chez A ray not ceezur ) wierd huh?

oley birkis almost wore the go navy cougar boat at st louis in 79 when he cut my dad off coming into the islands, if a spark plug wire wouldn't have come off the triple c, bud would have gotten oley long before cancer did...

[Ron Hill]

Gemini, I'd basically go with all but Herring. Bobby was good but not a top five.

Bruce Washburn's points about Hoffman and Thornton... I saw Buck beat many a racer when he, Buck, had lesser equipment.

The fact that Hoffman built and drove his own boats without any realy factory cash puts him in a different class than Scotti or Renato. Those two always had money to burn from factories and always had the best power available...

Example: Paris 1970. Renato asked Garbrecht if his engine is the same as Sirois. Garbrecht says yes. An hour later Renato asked garbrecht if his motor is the same as Sirois. Garbrecht get very angry at Renato for asking again.

That night, Renato and his team pay the guards in the pits and switch engines with Sirois. In the morning, Renato asks Garbrecht again. Garbrecht assures Renato they are equal. Renato says, "Great, because we switched powerheads in the night." Garbrecht checks and realizes Renato did in fact change motors....

Renato leads the first lap. Sirois comes around not in the top ten. Sirois later nose dives and has to come back to the U.S.A. for medical treatment... So, the best driver that day was Renato.

There have been some great ones. To me the great ones drove everything well...

ADD TED MAY: In the 1968 Six Hours of Paris...Ted May was number one driver, I was number on our team. I was 24 years old. Ted May was 48 years old...

[Ron Hill]

It is easy to sit an say how great they were. How great would Richard Petty be today?


Looking at the APBA Propeller Magazine, last night, it occured to me that guys like Greg Foster, Todd Bowden, Max Toler, Terry Rinker, Jason Campbell, Tim Seebold, Mike Seebold and Chris Fairchild have to be part of a new breed of GREATS.

Trust me, winning today isn't easy. Look at the time and experience some of these YOUNG LIONS HAVE.

Jason's dad raced. Hell, everyone one on this list is a second generation driver, maybe not MAX. But Max has been coming up for a long time. He held the 120 Kilo record...8 years ago.

These guys are running revlimited motors, equal S-3000 type blocks and heads. It ain't like you could just add 40 HP and go out an blow the doors off everyone.

When we went from 89 cubic inches to 100... holy sh*&, on a twin. What a difference.

These guys today are basically runing IROC Motors.

I give them my vote. Go to a Champ Race and watch one of these guys........only them. Look for errors....A second is a lot of time anymore!!!!


A different prop could be why these guys win......Turbo Props? I thought they made "FISHIN PROPS".......

I remember Scotti taking his prop to dinner with him several times. Once testing was done, the props stayed with him.

[Joe J.]

Val, the boat Ted crashed at Parker was my dad's old Del-craft.


As for a top 5 list Buddy, you really need to have 2 lists, like Ron refered to. One for the factory guys, and one for the independents.

Yes Ricky Hoffman could really drive a boat, but except in his 2nd Effort days, really never had any $$ behind him.

Don Johnston would not make a top 5 list, but could drive the sh__ out of a boat. How about some of the drivers that were not factory drivers, but had some help.

I always liked watching Bob Larson drive, he seemed to be on top of things.

I would say the top 2 would be Billy and Jimbo.

JJ

[BK]

In my lifetime there are a handful of drivers who impressed me greatly with their driving skills. These guys could jump in any boat and always appear to make it go faster.....whether they had big bucks or not.

Some of these drivers are.......(not in any particular order)

Chris Bush, Ted May, Cesare Scotti, JR Saffold, Bob Wartinger, Rick Hoffman, Tracy Hawkins, Red Hindman, Bill and Mike Seebold, & Greg Foster.


This doesn't take in account all the great drivers I never got to watch race in person.....

[BK]

PS Rick Hoffman ran number #201 in the mid-late 1980s. When the F1 series went to single digits, he ran #6.

[Mark75H]

Chris Bush
Bill Seebold
Renato Molinari
Ken Stevenson
Gene Thibodeaux
Ted May
Cesare Scotti
JR Saffold
Bob Wartinger
Rick Hoffman
Tracy Hawkins
Red Hindman
Mike Seebold
Greg Foster
Jimbo McConnell
Bill Sirois
Harold Eis
Jack Oxley
Todd Bowden
Max Toler
Buck Thornton
Benny Robertson
Terry Rinker
Jason Campbell
Tim Seebold
Chris Fairchild
Geoff Briggs
Bob Herring
John Sanders
Ron Hill
Spencer Dunn
Mark Rotharmel
Oley Berkis
Ted Gryguc
Lee Davies
Cees Van Der Velden
Kenny Kitson
Earl Bentz


It's a pretty long list. Can you guys fill in some biography on each of these guys for those of us who don't know everyone on the list? If you can't, the list is just a bunch of names, familiar to insiders, but meaningless to other fans.

When did each guy start racing? Howmany wins in which classes? How long did they race?

[Joe J.]

Val, there is a simple reason that Ricky ran #201. His dad, Kenny, ran #281, and when Ricky got in the boat, they put duck tape over the middle leg of the 8.

When he ran #6, he was working with John Gibbs, and that was always John's number.

JJ

[Ron Hill]

Good point about where these guys came from:

Let me try with Todd Bowden: Fred Bowden was an Electrician in 1978, when he had a Taylor Hull with a Johnson and ran Mod VP. It was at about this time that Fred got layed off. His brother, Larry, was a sherrif in LA County and an executive with an insurance company. They decided to buy a small piece of dirt where a freeway off ramp had just been made. Basically, the idea was to make enough money, for Fred, until he could go back to work as an electrician. Well, they made more than wages and Bowden Development was born. Through the rumor mill, I heard they built more than 300 homes last year.

Todd had been a fan since 1978 when he was five or six. His mother says his first signed (Autographed) picture from a boat driver was signed Ron Hill.....Todd tells me, he doesn't know if that is true...

Anyway, Fred bought Todd a Gran Prix Sport C and Todd drove it flawlessly. At the time, I said, "Man that Gran Prix is a hell of a boat." Not giving Todd really any credit. Todd moved to SST 60 where he also had several Gran Prix hulls but I never saw one of them out of shape when Todd was at the wheel.

Todd co-drove several Parkers when he was 21 ish... The Bowden Development Team ran APR "The Super League" for two or three years. Where he basically dominated. At this same time he broke all kinds of KILO RECORDS in OPC.

He's won the Parker (Shortened) Enduro just about everytime the last 6-8 years.

He has won several Formual One races. He was second in PROP points this year. Through it all, I never heard him bad mouth anyone. I've never seen him get mad at his team. He is a very humble young man. They (Bowden Family) have used Gran Prix boat almost exclusivly.

Mother, Diane, comes to all the races and is always WONDERFUL to everyone. They are a famliy that know how to work. They know how to play. Developing your OWN DESIGN isn't easy.

Fred has helped many a young racer, including my son. Fred's passion for boat racing carries over to Todd.

I should add: Fred didn't always run an old boat in MOD VP He had some of the hottest MOD VP's to ever hit the race course.

Tood has paid his dues. He's come from the smallest OPC Class to the biggest, he has to be consdered one of the best.....

Brother Larry, Todd's uncle, died two seasons ago and it was difficult for the family. But they continue to be a close family and continue to be true friends to boat racing...

[helmetguru]

that is a long list for sure, and most of those guys are above average drivers, since tunnel boats are so difficult to master it usually attracts the more skilled.

if you're going to rate them as a top five then throw out almost all those guys. my top five was built on watching them all race in different parts of the world against different types of competition in different conditions in different classes of boats.

for the thousands of guys who have raced tunnel boats to be considered one of the greats, they would have had to have a stellar career, and very few have done that, probably the biggest reason is up until the late 80's the shelf life of a high speed boat racer wasn't that long.

bush seebold molinari stevenson thibodeaux....bada bing

[BK]

Originally posted by helmetguru
for the thousands of guys who have raced tunnel boats to be considered one of the greats, they would have had to have a stellar career, and very few have done that, probably the biggest reason is up until the late 80's the shelf life of a high speed boat racer wasn't that long.

Bingo