Mercury Through The Years...

**FUJIMO** · 01-16-2016, 07:14 PM

Leading The Race...in the United Kingdom since 1973...

**moparbarn** · 01-16-2016, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by 2us70

This was my ride in the 1966 9 Hour. I went to High School with Ronny and Brooke ( Mr. Russell to me) took me under his wing and taught me a lot. I was running a flat bottom SE boat at the time so the Miami to New York boat was a lot different. I was relief driver for Brooke on the first day and then shared driving and later riding mechanic duties with Ronny and Ron Cherry on the restart oon day 2. Ronny was probably about 17 when this picture was taken.

Jim, I won't say we ever "knew" each other, I grew up 3 doors down from the Russell's. I'm about 3 or4 years younger than Ronnie. Hung out down there a lot, I'm reasonably sure we met back then. I remember the record boat well, sat in a lot in their back yard, pretending.....that & the purple metalflake aluminum D or E boat, that sat beside the garage in the grass ( the flexy flier as Brooke called it). A couple years later I was helping Teddy Swing screw & glue Swingers together. Thanx to you & everybody else for sharing this stuff with us.
Does anyone know what happened to Ronnie? We were roommates down off 79th street about 72 or 73, after he got out of the navy.Then I heard he was living on a houseboat off Pelican Harbor. Last I heard, someone thought he had moved to Orlando to be closer to his parents after they moved up there.

**FUJIMO** · 01-16-2016, 08:08 PM

**JFL** · 01-17-2016, 07:39 AM

Originally Posted by bernie

That doesn't look like the Lake - where was that shot, do you remember?

It was at the lake, just can't see the trees because of the haze.

**kdtilt** · 01-17-2016, 09:55 AM

Originally Posted by FUJIMO

Melvin Mattson, Prince Frederick,Md

**2us70** · 01-17-2016, 11:36 AM

I have a Ted Swing story. Teddy didn't have the best eyesight back when we were running E class. He could not see the start clock from very far out. I however ,in my youth was blessed with extraordinary good vision and Ted asked me how I could take such long runs to the start line. I told him that I could see the clock from out there. After that whenever we raced Ted would stick to me like glue before starts. I took advantage of this by letting him have the inside line and using him as a pic going into the first turn. Worked pretty well as long as I had boat speed on him.
I found out from a friend of my wife that Teddy had passed way too young a while back.

Originally Posted by moparbarn

Jim, I won't say we ever "knew" each other, I grew up 3 doors down from the Russell's. I'm about 3 or4 years younger than Ronnie. Hung out down there a lot, I'm reasonably sure we met back then. I remember the record boat well, sat in a lot in their back yard, pretending.....that & the purple metalflake aluminum D or E boat, that sat beside the garage in the grass ( the flexy flier as Brooke called it). A couple years later I was helping Teddy Swing screw & glue Swingers together. Thanx to you & everybody else for sharing this stuff with us.
Does anyone know what happened to Ronnie? We were roommates down off 79th street about 72 or 73, after he got out of the navy.Then I heard he was living on a houseboat off Pelican Harbor. Last I heard, someone thought he had moved to Orlando to be closer to his parents after they moved up there.

**moparbarn** · 01-17-2016, 11:43 AM

Too bad about Teddy, I saw that on the "Letters from Heaven" thread a few years back. My parents & the Swings were close friends, I knew Teddy, Suzie & Kirk since the late '50s. This was before they moved to 103rd. st., they lived a few blocks south, not on the water before that. Man, Suzie was a cutey!! I had a crush on her for years!