Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

[jackiewilson]

2nd son of Roy Ridgell
Little brother to LakeX Kid.
I met you in Italy in '71 and saw you last year in Florida at the vintage boat race


Mr. Shakespeare won Paris that's cool.
When I first knew of Mr. Shakespeare, he was with OMC and drove a tunnel of his own design.
Didn't know about him having a history with Mercury.
Things that make you say hhhhuuummmm.

Concerning the Lake Havasu picture of my dad and Doc Magoon - I always wanted to go but never got the chance and it always prevented my dad from being with me on my birthday.

Wonderful thread, thanks for sharing your stories...…...keep them coming.

So, you must have been at Torriggia with your mum and dad. If that’s correct, then you have undoubtably played with some of my kids. I had four at the time.
Sandra. She was the eldest. Mark, my son. Tracy, but she’s always been known as BOO, and Kim, the quiet one, she would have been eight years old about then.
I remember ROY getting his Brother Bobby a job at the Torrigia factory. He had his young son Biff with him. As far as I remember Bobby was only over there a short while.
I do remember your mum had truck loads of Coca-Cola delivered from the USA in the Mercury truck.
Bill SHAKESPEARE was running Mercury long before he switched to OMC. Was only in the last two years of his life he used Jonrudes. I can’t ever remember him using anything other than a Mercury on the AVON SPECIAL monohull.
Roy was always much more of a friend than the Mercury Field officer.

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

...bill Sirois...

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[jackiewilson]

When Sirois won that race, mercury swept the board, every mercury driver received a cheque for over 3000 dollars . I was laid in a hospital bed in Needles , right next to Joe Feilder, having been flown there by helicopter, and on the outside. M.A.S.H. WAS ALL THE RAGE at that time. Even the surgeon who sewed my nose back on thought he was Hawkeye Pearce.

[FUJIMO]

[jackiewilson]

How come they all had matching footwear? Were Jack and Ben Kramer sat further down the same table?

[jackiewilson]

Is that the Italian or Mexican flag?

[FUJIMO]

...those shoes were what everyone wore in the states if you had anything to do with the water or boating in the mid 60's into the early 70's. they were ked's brand, who i believe started the style. they were sort of the boat shoe that you wore when you dressed up, but could also be the every day boat shoe for kids or adults. when they first came out, white were the only ones most people wore, as a shoe of color was considered a bit "out there" still. out of pure coincidence, they are currently back in vogue.

[FUJIMO]

...current versions...