Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

[lars strom]

6 men tooo lift it off the truck...…..

Every race most have cranes in the pit to get race boats in the water.
Boat ramps was never used at the races.

[Instigator]

Great story Lars.

Wondered about that truck being able haul/push all that.

Looks like an old Mazda like I used to have.
Was a great vehicle but not much of a truck.

I especially like the boat on top of truck as I used to “car top” my first 3 point hydros on top of a $125 ‘1972 Chevy Nova.
Motor, props, tools, gas, pit bicycle in trunk.
Camping equip in back seat.

Had seen that pic before but not heard the rational behind it.

Thx for the lesson.

Well..here is a long answer because most people living on this side of the Atlantic dont know this..

If you look at a map over Europe you can see Stockholm, Sweden is way up in the north Europe. Most of the 10 to 12 UIM OE/F3 races in the Aspen World series was run in central or southern Europe.
That means this little Swede must do a lot of travel to be part of the series.
Back in 1981 countries in Europe was still using their own currency, have their own borders with inspection before you could enter for example France or Italy.
After many years of traveling with a car and the race boat on a trailer I figure out a better way to do this.
This pick up truck was set up to try to bypass all the traveling difficulties..
Here is the advantage with my set up.
First..to leave south Sweden 1981 you must use a big ferry..Three options the one to Denmark, or the one to Germany or UK.
A pretty expensive trip if you have a trailer..with the pick up I pay for only one car.
Next thing was customs..with a trailer you must use the commercial entry in to every European country.. with my pick up I got away with using the car entry. Much easier and no Carne ATA document.
Even better was the speed limit..must countries have a max speed of 55 MPH with a trailer behind your car..
This "racing pick up" could run wide open on the famous Autobahn..I saved many hours driving much faster on my way to Italy for example.
Yes..there was two extra tanks on the pick up bed. One very large for gasoline and a smaller one for Methanol and yes I had sponsors for both gasoline and Methanol but I must do the fill ups in Sweden.
Back in 1981 a gasoline card for Sweden was not good in Germany etc.
This pick up was a big saver for me in many ways in 1981 when I won the Aspen World title.
I am not sure what I was doing in the first picture but could have been when I blow the pick up motor in Spain. We could not make it over the high mountains on three cylinders on the way back to Sweden. I was probably dumping the Methanol in the ditch do get over the mountains.
Back home I traded the blue pick up for a brand new red one with a lager cab.

[lars strom]

Yes, it was a Mazda pick up I purchased new early 1981. A perfect set up but the Mazda 4 cylinder engine did not survive the long wide open trips.
Blow a piston in Spain and no parts was available..a local service place made a Seat piston fit but did not last all the way back to Sweden.

[lars strom]

Here you can see my blue pick up in the pit. The AKAI/Burgess/Evinrude is already unloaded and sitting on the "pit trailer with wheels"
Pictures of that coming soon.

[lars strom]

6 men tooo lift it off the truck...…..

Milan/Idroscalo 1982. The new red Mazda with the same set up. You can see the "pit trailer with wheels" that bolts on to the top of the little truck.
Yes..its OMC's Ric McChesney in the first picture talking to me.

[lars strom]

Milan/Idroscalo 1982. The new red Mazda with the same set up. You can see the "pit trailer with wheels" that bolts on to the top of the little truck.
Yes..its OMC's Ric McChesney in the first picture talking to me.

More from Italy 1982.
My dad Roland and me in front of the red racing pickip and my American friend Russell working on the F3 boat. (yellow hat)
Russell was living in Sweden married to a Swedish woman.

[lars strom]

I don't know how I got the two pictures but have been in my file for many years..
Lets speculate..there was maybe a plan to replace the fake V8 inboard/outboard with a real 2 stroke Evinrude F1-V8 outboard standing next to the Hodges boat..!!..

[lars strom]

The UIM SE class European championship race in Copenhagen, Denmark 1981.
I think this was the last year for the OMC FT-19S in the UIM SE class. UIM voted the OMC engine out but the special 3 Cyl. Yamaha outboard was now legal in the class.
Lennart Strom drove his red #21 Sjoberg/Evinrude FT-19S and was in a hard battle with Denmark's Karin Nielsen in her #2 Molgaard/Johnson FT-19S.
They touched at the end of the straight away and Lennart got the worst part of it..A brutal WOT flipp..Lennart was OK but very disappointed..!!
Karin was the winner.

[lars strom]

Karin Nielsen

[lars strom]

Pretty cool.

[lars strom]

The UIM SE class European championship race in Copenhagen, Denmark 1981.
I think this was the last year for the OMC FT-19S in the UIM SE class. UIM voted the OMC engine out but the special 3 Cyl. Yamaha outboard was now legal in the class.
Lennart Strom drove his red #21 Sjoberg/Evinrude FT-19S and was in a hard battle with Denmark's Karin Nielsen in her #2 Molgaard/Johnson FT-19S.
They touched at the end of the straight away and Lennart got the worst part of it..A brutal WOT flipp..Lennart was OK but very disappointed..!!
Karin was the winner.

This is from the start in one of the heats in Copenhagen, Denmark 1981
You can see my brother Lennart in the red boat next to Karen.
Also an update:
The last year for the OMC FT-19S in the UIM SE class was 1982.
Not 1981.

[2us70]

Was this a clock start heat race? If so what was the maximum number of boats in a heat? In APBA the number was 12.

[lars strom]

This is the Marlboro Man's first really nice design. The #11 UIM ON class Marlboro/Velden Racing/Johnson V6 RS 2 liter from 1976.
The picture is from the ON World Championship race in Auronzo, Italy 1976.
Cees was by far the fastest boat and won the first heat. In the second heat Cees was on the way to lap Zoppi, an Italian back-marker..instead of just letting Cees lap him, Zoppi run over him on purpose and took a large part out of this beautiful #11 Marlboro/Velden Racing tunnel boat out.
I was standing on the shoreline watching and could not believe what I just saw..
Sometimes this was part of racing in Italy..(sorry my Italian friends..just another fact)

I received this picture below from an Italian friend today.. He was working for Renato during his time with Mercury. He was also working for Renato all the years Renato raced Evinrude for OMC.

This picture is from the OE & ON World Championship race in Auronzo, It 1976. Renato won boat classes witch is a very unique situation.
Well..this was high up in the mountains and Renato was the only one allowed the be testing at this little lake for over a week before the race.
I am not sure if the info is correct, but according to my Italian friend the OE class powerhead Renato was using was made by Renato at his factory in Como.
This was also one of the last races for Renato for Team Mercury. If I remember right, Amsterdam, Paris and Havasu 1976 was the three left for Mercury.
Early 1977 Renato & Bob Hering won Parker in his Evinrude V6 CCC powered Molinari.

[lars strom]

Was this a clock start heat race? If so what was the maximum number of boats in a heat? In APBA the number was 12.

95% of all the UIM Championship races was always clock start. 5 drivers from every country was allowed to start. Sometimes like the UIM SE class European Championship race in Evian, France 1974 it was over 40 boats in a clock start..!!

http://svera.se/blogg/racing-historier/1974-was-a-very-good-year-for-my-se-class-racing/

[lars strom]

It’s official..
The Ralph Evinrude Test Center property in Stuart, Florida is sold.