Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[willabee]

Only Billy Don Pruett could make a pit stop at a public fuel dock. Roy Ridgell and I were watching from that bridge. Don is making motions that he is running out of fuel (Willabee needs to tell the 'steep ramp dipstick story'). We ran down and met him at that fuel dock on the next lap.
The rest of the 'WHO': Roy Ridgell fueling/oiling; Knocky House holding----
I'm sure that Roy got stuck with the fuel bill----

Wonderful, I just love it! There is absolutely nothing in this world better than a Billy Don Pruett story! Like this one, the cast of characters involved in one is usually pretty amazing.

[willabee]

Speaking of Billy Don, I have some new pictures of him in action. Short story is that Molly Ballou was kind enough to send me her collection of photos from back in the early 70's. She said she had received most of them from "a PR guy at Merc", I'd guess that was Joe Swift. Her collection includes the "head shot" of most of the Team Mercury drivers from 70 and 71. These were the photos the PR department released with an article when they were reporting about a race win or kilo record. There were a few other shots that I haven't seen posted, so I made a copy of them and will get them up as time permits.

Here's what Molly's collection had of The Man, Billy Don Pruett. The PR headshot , one of him in a Jones single (probably Long Beach, 1970), and one of him in what looks like a Tom Arnstead built Marathon twin. There are a couple of very interesting shots of him at Havasu in 1971. He is driving the Molinari that Bill Sirois won Havasu with in 1970, but now the boat has that "World Champion" paint job it went on tour with for a year. I don't remember if Pruett had it done or Merc did the work, but you can see the boat no longer carries that claim. In the last shot you can see him putting the boat's nose way up in the air as he tries to leave the beach for the start. Olegator was with him at this race and may remember for sure, but I think he had moved into about 3rd place before he blew it over. Don walked with a limp after that accident and I don't know what ever happened to the boat.

[GENE LANHAM]

I think I should move the "FAST BUCK" to the 'Hot Multi's thread---

[seeroy]

Bill - You were right about the "stuff". Those are really great pictures. The head shot makes Pruett look entirely too suave and debonaire. - Steve

[jackie wilson]

Hiya William, Since the new S&F format came about---i no longer get notified of the thread "Hot Singles" and every time i "reply with quote" the prattish thing tells me it's too short and i should lengthen the damn thing by at least 5 more "______" don't i wish. Damned Fool !!!!!!!
When Pruett destroyed the boat and made it into so much kindling------Olegator and self tied the mortal remains to the trailer and hitched it to Pruetts Pontiac station wagon {complete with imitation wood panels} and headed back to Florida. We made it as far as EL Paso before Jim decided enough was enough and he dropped me off at the airport and that was the last i heard of the boat. Knowing Pruett---he probably blagged the remains off G.G. and sent it abroad to some unsuspecting arab as "almost new" but has a slight knock on the nearside sponson. Yeah ---he was like that. F.B.I.

[Black Tornado]

Real close, peterse. Late fall (November?), 1967.
It does look like a NEW Gentex and Bell helmet. Maybe Balistrieri bought Don all new gear after the fire, October 1967??

Gene, the year is 1968. Miami-Nassau on October 9, Balestrieri had rented the 31' Bertram "Sternwinder" from Bill Sirois after his 28' Magnum "Tornado" was sunk during the race at Cowes.
Shortly after starting an engine had stopped, Pruett went to check in the engine bay. Everything was ok. He back in the cockpit and turn on the ignition. Explosion! Pruett flies through the air and falls back into the cockpit while Balestrieri remains stunned and helpless. Pruett manages to activate the extinguisher and then throws almost fainted on the deck.
Jim Harkin that in his boat had seen the whole scene stopped to help the two.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[ssmith007]

Man I love these stories. Thanks for telling them guys. Smitty

[GENE LANHAM]

[QUOTE=Black Tornado;2050016]Gene, the year is 1968. Miami-Nassau on October 9, Balestrieri had rented the 31' Bertram "Sternwinder" from Bill Sirois after his 28' Magnum "Tornado" was sunk during the race at Cowes.

Hey Marco!!
I'm sure you are correct. I would not make that mistake, if I could find my copy of John Crouse/Searace. But I think that the dates for the 1967 "HURRICANE CLASSIC 200" are correct------Gene

[Black Tornado]

[QUOTE=GENE LANHAM;2050339]

Gene, the year is 1968. Miami-Nassau on October 9, Balestrieri had rented the 31' Bertram "Sternwinder" from Bill Sirois after his 28' Magnum "Tornado" was sunk during the race at Cowes.

Hey Marco!!
I'm sure you are correct. I would not make that mistake, if I could find my copy of John Crouse/Searace. But I think that the dates for the 1967 "HURRICANE CLASSIC 200" are correct------Gene

I think so too. Balestrieri in those days was in Florida to buy his first US boat from Don Aronow and was preparing to build his Team Tornado to win his first World Title and at his side took Don Pruett.

BTW Gene,I'm trying to sort out with various Andrea of Doc Magoon. Can you help me?
In this case I will create a thread dedicated to the Andreas and there we discuss of them.

[willabee]

Hiya William, Since the new S&F format came about---i no longer get notified of the thread "Hot Singles" and every time i "reply with quote" the prattish thing tells me it's too short and i should lengthen the damn thing by at least 5 more "______" don't i wish......

Knowing Pruett---he probably blagged the remains off G.G. and sent it abroad to some unsuspecting arab as "almost new" but has a slight knock on the nearside sponson. Yeah ---he was like that. F.B.I.

Sorry to hear that the "too short" thing has surfaced again Jackie , amazing what these computers know!

I bought a watch and a motorcycle from Pruett.....didn't need either, he should have worked on Wall Street!

Have a great time at OFF..... that goes for all you folks attending. Can't wait to hear the stories and see the pictures.

[GENE LANHAM]

BTW Gene,I'm trying to sort out with various Andrea of Doc Magoon. Can you help me?

Marco--I know of five.
23' Magnum---twin 1100 Mercs
28' Magnum---triple 1100 Mercs
27' Magnum---triple 1250 Mercs
27' Magnum---triple 115 OMCs
32' Cary---4 Super BP Mercs

[Black Tornado]

BTW Gene,I'm trying to sort out with various Andrea of Doc Magoon. Can you help me?

Marco--I know of five.
23' Magnum---twin 1100 Mercs
28' Magnum---triple 1100 Mercs
27' Magnum---triple 1250 Mercs
27' Magnum---triple 115 OMCs
32' Cary---4 Super BP Mercs

Gene, we can continue to talk about it in this new thread
http://www.screamandfly.com/showthre...for-doc-magoon

[willabee]

From the collection of Molly Ballou, we have a few shots of Tom Stickle. I met Tom before the Racing Team was formed at Merc. We used to load the parts truck, Day Tripper, with powerheads, gearcases, props and other spare parts and head for the races. Our job at that time was to try to help guys with Mercs win races. When we met, Tom was a very successful driver in the hotly contested FJ class, running a 16' Checkmate with a 1250.

Tom was one of four guys asked to run a Molinari at Havasu in 1968. These boats had the first 1350's to enter a race. Tom had never run a tunnel boat before, but he took to this one like a fish takes to water. At the two hour mark he was actually leading all of the 100 plus boats entered! Yep, his little single engine tunnel was in front of all those big bad Wings, dual Vee's and triple whatevers.....he was having the drive of his life. Apparantly he just couldn't stand the success of leading the Outboard World Championships and, sometime before the end of hour three, he performed a beautiful backflip for all of the judges and spectators to see.

At Havasu in 1970, Tom was running a new 17' Molinari sprint powered by a stacked 1350. With over 100 boats churning up the race course, he still went out on Saturday and set a record for laps completed in four hours by a single engine boat! I think he finished the race 5th overall and 2nd single.

After the Racing Team was formed, we set up shop in Oshkosh on the Fox river. That was a very fun time for me as we didn't have any factory drivers yet, so I got to do most of the testing. This gave me an opportunity to drive some pretty cool race boats. Sometimes we would set boats up and haul them to a race where a driver would run it and then we would bring it back to the shop. Other times a driver would come test a boat in Oshkosh or at the Lake and it would be assigned to him until a change was made.

I think Tom was the first guy hired to be a Team driver. He moved from Dayton, Ohio to Oshkosh and proceeded to take my fun away! Just kidding......, but he did work not only on his boat, but also did start to do the testing for various projects. We became good friends and did a bunch of stuff together. Had some success's, had some problems, got into some trouble and enjoyed some toddy's together.....all fond memories.

Here's Merc's PR head shot, one of him when Billy Seebold was his co-driver at a marathon in Long Beach and one of him and Jim Merten running a demostration at a dealer conference out west. I think they were touting the new Twistercraft and the Twister I. The fourth is of Tom at Parker in the 17' sprint mentioned above.

[FUJIMO]

Good, accurate, history story. Thanks willabee.

[willabee]

More from the collection of Molly Ballou, here is one of boat racing's all time zany characters.....Gary Peacock. I'm not real sure about when Gary and I met, a guess would be the Miami 225 in 1970. If I could recall what he was driving back in 68/69, I could probably put a better handle on it.....anyone know what that might have been? Anyway, when we did meet he was working for one of the airlines and was a pretty clean-cut young man. Wow, did that image ever change.

The first factory ride I can put him in is a older 17' black Molinari with a TI back in 1971. I think he opened more eyes with a great drive in Dayton that year (the NED powerhead story). Renato built a new design 17'er for himself to run in the Miami 225 in February of 72. That race was blown out and the boat was given to Peacock. He did well with it, even setting a kilo record at some point. He was hired to work on some special projects for Merc and came to Oshkosh a couple of times for extended periods.

In 73 he was again hired for a project, but this one was not about outboards. He was hired to be the test/race driver for the new KT package that the new Merc Hi Performance Department was developing. I was fortunate enough to be the first Manager of Hi Perf. for Merc and that project was assigned to us. I wrote a thread called My Favorite Summer and tried to describe some of what we did and how we went about our work.....I really did enjoy that experience. Gary did a great job driving that boat and pulled off one of the best PR moves for Merc I have ever witnessed. The OMC rotarys were running at that same time and nothing had ever passed one when it was running right on a race course. He passed all four, one at a time, during the first 10/12 laps of the Provo 250. He saved the best for last, passing the race leader right in front of the pits with all the OMC brass getting a full view. He could have done it earlier, but wanted to do a little "Grandstanding", and it was impressive.

As a result of the success of the KT project, Gary became a bigger name in boat racing. From there Gary became even more entrenched with the Race Team and ended up traveling to Europe to run the Paris 6 Hour for Merc. His racing for them lasted a few years after I left, but after that his whereabouts and profession are a big mystery.

Here is the Merc PR head shot and one of him in the new 17' Molinari back in 1972. There is one of the KT boat and the same boat getting refueled at Elsinore. The last is what the man looked like just a couple of years after that PR shot was taken.....was he having fun or what?