Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[T2x]

with his Don Ameche lips.

Jackie:

Have you been wearing your wife's undies again?

[John Schubert]

I don't know what Jackie's got on you, but after all of that you can certainly tell him that the debt is paid!

Thanks, Bill

Bill, nope, nothing on me, at least that I know of, other than fraternizing with you, Billy our host, Cees & Jackie maybe Stickle when I was sitting in the lounge at the Hilton in 1970 (no OMC guys around) & was invited to join your group for a party in the dark area of Paris, let's leave it at that.

[willabee]

..... I was invited to join your group for a party in the dark area of Paris, let's leave it at that.

I'd say that is an excellent idea!

I thank you & Jackie for the kind words, but I was just doing my job. We were fortunate to have a number of talented and hard working people involved with Mercury Racing and that made doing my job much easier. In terms of enjoyment, it was the best job I've ever had ..... all the traveling, meeting so many interesting people, the thrill of competition and being part of a boat racing evolution taking place right before my eyes ..... it just really doesn't get any better than that!

P.S. - Can't believe all you guys are going to let me get away with that Superstar stuff!

mbd29 sent me a pic he found at Merc, someone caught me working! I think it's Parker, 1973. Note the decal reads "1500"

[jackie wilson]

Bugger the decal ------------note the "Don Ameche"growth on the top lip-----just below the "Snotter"

The one i've been trying to tell you all about for years.

As for the "ELVIS" quiff !!!!!!!! God give me breathing space.

SUPERSTAR---------words have utterly failed me and left me totally bereft of speech.

NEVER ------in the field of human endeavour, ( or powerboat history ) has so much been endured, by so many, having to listen to the derring-do and mighty prowess of "THE WILLABEE"

BUTLER !!!!!!! you should be ashamed for posting such obscene pictures of previous employees.

May the Lord have mercy--------------------

[willabee]

[QUOTE=willabee;2487073]....mbd29 sent me a pic he found at Merc, ... [QUOTE]

Duey Berghauer, motoring up to the Merc refueling dock in the original Twistercraft ..... Havasu, 1971. I don't remember where or if the boat finished, but it didn't win and he didn't blow it over.

[Mark Poole ModVP]

How come Merc did not have any twin engine boats at the 1971 race with these engines? I think Sirois won with Twister 1 engines that year.

[willabee]

Mark, you made me think about that for a bit. There are really two, possibly three reasons that the C6 was not put on a multi. First and foremost was the lack of reliability. They hadn't been around long at that time, the first appearing a year earlier in Berlin. As Dr. Morgan and his team worked out the many bugs it had, he was generally only given one boat at a race to see if it was improving. We had just come from Paris a month earlier and only ran two in that event. Neither finished, although one of the failures was my fault not the powerheads. It hadn't won anything and I'm not sure if it had even finished a whole race as of Havasu 71!

A second reason they didn't use them on multi's was that we didn't have very many. I just said we ran two in Paris, I think we took a total of three for the race, two and one backup. It wasn't a sure thing that the carburation was ever going to be the answer, so only small numbers of carbs, intakes and exhaust systems were produced.

Lastly, I think the thinking at the time was that no one was going to be able to run with our TI powered twins anyway, so why go through all the expense and effort to get them to go even faster with a much less reliable powerplant.

I don't remember the total number of singles that had them for Havasu 71, but I'm thinking three or four max. However, what did happen there finalized the commitment to build them. One was put on Renato's new cockpit forward single. He had some kind of issue on Saturday and was down a few laps. Bob Hering started in that boat on Sunday and ran past everyone and everything. He made up two of the laps and Renato took over for the last two hours and made up the last one to win first single and fourth overall! Miami was next on our schedule in February of 72. We entered ten boats and they all had the C6!

Here is a shot before the start on Sunday, Havasu 71. From left to right: I think it's Gary Peacock behind the Foster Grants, Chuck Mettner, Georgio Molinari, Mike Downard (with a TI) and Hering sitting behind the #554 boat he was about to drive like a man possessed.

[Mark Poole ModVP]

Thanks for the reply. I have pics of Bucky Morris at a local race in 1972 with a Twister 2 on a Twistercraft. And them saw him race another one a year later. Some of the factory boats must have been sold off or...the builder was "backdooring" them to others lol!.

[willabee]

This picture could be titled "The calm before the Storm" ..... Parker, 73. I'll bet the guy in the white "Sidewinder" jacket is Tom Stickle and I think he is holding on to the Molinari driven by Gary Peacock.




The end of the lineup for the start .... the guy driving the #713 is already about a mile behind and the gun hasn't gone off yet!

[Mark75H]

WOW! Really cool pics!

[jackiewilson]

Hey Willa ----- simple question-------- we raced the SILO motors in 1970 in Europe, how come all the motors in Parker 1973 were straight sixes-----where were the V6's?

[willabee]

Hey Willa ----- simple question-------- we raced the SILO motors in 1970 in Europe, how come all the motors in Parker 1973 were straight sixes-----where were the V6's?

They hadn't been born yet, their debut was later that year in Europe.

[John Schubert]

They hadn't been born yet, their debut was later that year in Europe.

Bill,
Didn't they debut in Paris that year?

[STEVERINO]

Bill,
Didn't they debut in Paris that year?

I can remember Molinari running a T3/V6 engine at the Paris 6hr race in October 73 i am sure this outfit had 4 drivers sharing this outfit something about the torque steer tired the drivers out i think they ran 45mins each`if my memory serves me well i think it ran a much bigger gearcase with a larger diameter prop?.Can anyone remember this?

[willabee]

Bill,
Didn't they debut in Paris that year?

I found a mention of their debut in Mel Zikes column in the January, 1974 issue of Powerboat. The magazine didn't cover the race, but Zikes mentioned a few of the things that happened at the 73 event. My issue is a bit tattered and some of the sentences were incomplete, but what I got out of what is left is that the V6 did debut in Paris and did have a major steering torque problem. Zikes said one was on the Molinari/Hering entry and they were switcing drivers every twenty five minutes ..... but remember, Zikes also exaggerates a bunch! I don't know if they had four drivers assigned to that entry, but Steverino is correct about the torque problem and the big lower unit.

Dick Lanpheer, race engineering Mercury, said the torque was due to a new four shaft gearcase developed for the power they anticipated would come from the V6.

Going back to Parker 73, here is a shot from the early morning driver meeting. I think that Jack Leek, Director of Racing for OMC (center of pic, white jacket, white hair), is asking the Trophy Queen if she had a special prize for the head of the Race Team that had the boat that leads the first lap. He knew his rotarys wouldn't be around to collect the winners trophy, but was hopeful of receiving a treat for the thirteen mile dash!



In the second shot from the drivers meeting I think I see Mr. Ricky (Ricky DeMontrond) of Vapor Trail talking to Gary Garbrecht (far left side of pic). He's probably telling Gary that, for a big bottle of Chivas, he won't even mention in his publication that the rotarys were here. Like Provo, this is another of the special events where you got to see rotarys, KT's, multi's, inboards, Stranglers and Twisters on the course at the same time ..... very exciting stuff!