Hot Singles ! - Pictures

**2us70** · 07-19-2013, 11:26 AM

John McCall truly believed in the tunnel boat concept. When I traded my McCall tunnel back to him for a v-bottom he was reluctant to build another one of those "wobbly v-bottoms". John did not like to follow or copy other builders designs and tried to go his own way. The variety of tunnel designs being tried at that time was due to the fact that most builders were just guessing what would work. I tested a couple of tunnels for guys that thought they had the answer. One of them was so bad that after a few passes I put it on the trailer and told the builder to "burn it before it kills someone". Good tunnel boats were mostly the result of good guesses at that time. paUOTE=willabee;2506098]mbd29 (Butler) sent me an email before you two posted and said it is a McCall. I responded with "I don't recall a good 'sit-down' McCall". Then you two said it's a McCall, so McCall it is ..... and I still don't recall a good sit-down McCall!

Back to Eufaula, here is a shot probably from the drivers meeting. Dick Sherrer with Mary West on his right. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Dick got as much credit as he deserved. He was not only a good, steady driver, but he could build boats, set them up and work on his own engines. Very few in this game were capable of performing all of those tasks well.

Mary was the promoter behind the Provo 250 races. It was she that decided to let those outlaw, big cube rogue rotarys into the 73 race.

She also covered OPC for Powerboat for a couple of years. Come to think of it, that's probably why she decided in favor of admitting the rotary .... her employer made her the ol' "offer she couldn't refuse"!

Here we have a meeting of the minds to decide what the engine timing really is ..... looks like the top of Beier's head, Shunk on the left & LaMore on the right.

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**2us70** · 07-19-2013, 12:25 PM

The boat we ran in SE at Eufala in 73 illustrates my point about tunnel boat design at that time. The tunnel we ran in SE at Eufala started its life as an 11 foot PRO Outboard "alky" hydro tunnel. The original builder could not get it to work and Action Marine somehow wound up with it. I was working at Action at the time and I was given the task of converting it to an OPC boat. I simply added length any way I could by raising and laying back the transom and adding a duck bill nose to make the boat long enough. We took this boat to Nationals as an afterthought since we were taking a couple of pretty good running SG boats anyway. We wound winning the first heat of the finals and running second overall to Bobby Drewery. The design of this boat was basically an accident

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Originally Posted by willabee

mbd29 (Butler) sent me an email before you two posted and said it is a McCall. I responded with "I don't recall a good 'sit-down' McCall". Then you two said it's a McCall, so McCall it is ..... and I still don't recall a good sit-down McCall!

Back to Eufaula, here is a shot probably from the drivers meeting. Dick Sherrer with Mary West on his right. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think Dick got as much credit as he deserved. He was not only a good, steady driver, but he could build boats, set them up and work on his own engines. Very few in this game were capable of performing all of those tasks well.

Mary was the promoter behind the Provo 250 races. It was she that decided to let those outlaw, big cube rogue rotarys into the 73 race.

She also covered OPC for Powerboat for a couple of years. Come to think of it, that's probably why she decided in favor of admitting the rotary .... her employer made her the ol' "offer she couldn't refuse"!

Here we have a meeting of the minds to decide what the engine timing really is ..... looks like the top of Beier's head, Shunk on the left & LaMore on the right.

**willabee** · 07-26-2013, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by C.G. 125

Bill, That last shot looks like St louis. I remember that corner. I spent a week in the hospital there because of it or my inability to make it..

Could be, but looks like too many trees and not enough people for St.Lui .....

Here's another shot from Eufaula (?) .....

I can't ID the boats running one, two & three, but fourth sure looks like the Twistercraft Lil Blue! Can't imagine what happened on the start that put the 113 mph world record holder way back there.

**C.G. 125** · 07-26-2013, 03:44 PM

Somebody sleeping..

**2us70** · 07-26-2013, 03:54 PM

In the far background in this picture you can see a buoy. That marks the Georgia/Alabama state line.While testing I made a couple of runs on the far side of that buoy and the GA. water cops tried to give me a ticket. Anybody else have that problem at Eufala?

**Ronster43** · 07-27-2013, 02:45 PM

Jeff Titus in the ScatCraft with the GT115. I believe that was the first motor he got from Jack Leek.

**mbd29** · 07-27-2013, 08:34 PM

I believe the first boat is #329 Frank Freeman from MN. It is the Clockwork Orange Miles Master with a TII.

**jackie wilson** · 08-13-2013, 01:34 PM

Hey Mike, Didn't Pruett run this rig when he got ambitious and lost it at Havasu, tearing his hip out.
Jim Hunt and meself drove the rig back to Oshberg----i got off at EL-PASO and caught a flight back to England, leaving Jim to do all the hard work.
Pruett made a real mans job of totalling the rig-------it was PERMANENT.

**mbd29** · 08-14-2013, 06:10 AM

Jackie: I didn't know Don ran that Miles. Frank Freeman had the boat in 1973. I think this shot of him was in Rice Lake, WI. Was that the boat you towed back.

**mbd29** · 08-14-2013, 06:12 AM

I'm talking about boat #329. #245 is Duwayne Timm and is from Lake Carroll in 1974

**jackie wilson** · 08-14-2013, 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by mbd29

Jackie: I didn't know Don ran that Miles. Frank Freeman had the boat in 1973. I think this shot of him was in Rice Lake, WI. Was that the boat you towed back.

Sorry ,Mike ----got me knickers in a twist, thought you were referring to the Sirois "up and away" rig. Just a little old senior moment !!!!!!!!!

**mbd29** · 08-15-2013, 06:07 AM

Willabee, I'm sure has more details on Don but this is the boat he ran in Havasu. I have another shot of him running it but it is at home. I'll dig it up and post it.