Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

[lars strom]

My racing was a big part of my exclusive Evinrude dealership in Stockholm, Sweden.
Invoices from OMC racing was just like any invoice for regular outboards and parts. Just my OMC dealership number.
Even credits for advertising support and warranty. OMC Sweden sometimes gave me credit for racing reports in the media when Evinrude was in the picture.
Invoices was blue and credit red..an extremely good set up.
I also got some credit from OMC when they used me in advertising. Second picture.

[lars strom]

My racing truck came early to Ampolla, Spain. I think it was two weeks after Como. Me and my brother Lennart took a commercial flight to Ampolla. (A very long trip by car from Sweden)
Lennart won the F3 race and that was great..for me Ampolla, Spain was a disaster..No money from Aspen and no Aspen people at the race. They did not take my phone calls anymore.
The F1-V8 race was cancelled..Way to rough water.
I slowly starting to understand there was a major conflict between OMC and Aspen..I could not get any info out of Beat Jenni or George Lamy. Both was at the race in Ampolla, Spain.
My lawyer told me as long as Aspen is in business they are going to be forced to pay you..
Well.....now my F1-V8 main sponsor was me and my dealership..The good part was my dealership was doing great.

[lars strom]

When OMC changed the racing policy in the middle of the 1983 racing season was extremely bad news for me.. Second Effort was now the race engine, parts and service provider. All invoices must be separate from OMC and directly from Second Effort and payed to them.
On top of that I blow a power-head before the Stockholm GP..(problems with the connecting rod screws)
I knocked on the OMC President Beat Jenni's door in Brugge, Belgium very disappointed with Aspen & the new SE deal.
Playing nice was not working..
I told Beat Jenni my dealership just changed the policy..No more exclusive Evinrude..
Yamaha is going to be sold at my dealership and advertised on my F1-V8 boat at the Stockholm GP a few weeks from now.
(the fact was..Yamaha have asked me more than ones to be a Yamaha Center.)
Beat Jenni looked at me and finally agreed to continue with the same set up for me for the rest of the season. The power-head on him...No Second Effort for me as long as no Yamaha at my dealership.
The Aspen deal was still up in the air..there was a possibility for peace between the two according to Mr. Jenni..
My lawyer told me to keep Aspen on my boat. The only way the force Aspen to pay me now or later...I continued with Aspen during the rest of the season and hopefully they stayed in business and paid me..
Only option at that time...

[WaterZebra]

When OMC changed the racing policy in the middle of the 1983 racing season was extremely bad news for me.. Second Effort was now the race engine, parts and service provider. All invoices must be separate from OMC and directly from Second Effort and payed to them.
On top of that I blow a power-head before the Stockholm GP..(problems with the connecting rod screws)
I knocked on the OMC President Beat Jenni's door in Brugge, Belgium very disappointed with Aspen & the new SE deal.
Playing nice was not working..
I told Beat Jenni my dealership just changed the policy..No more exclusive Evinrude..
Yamaha is going to be sold at my dealership and advertised on my F1-V8 boat at the Stockholm GP a few weeks from now.
(the fact was..Yamaha have asked me more than ones to be a Yamaha Center.)
Beat Jenni looked at me and finally agreed to continue with the same set up for me for the rest of the season. The power-head on him...No Second Effort for me as long as no Yamaha at my dealership.
The Aspen deal was still up in the air..there was a possibility for peace between the two according to Mr. Jenni..
My lawyer told me to keep Aspen on my boat. The only way the force Aspen to pay me now or later...I continued with Aspen during the rest of the season and hopefully they stayed in business and paid me..
Only option at that time...

Boy! Have I heard this before! What I learned from all of this that you don't even put graphics the size of a postage stamp on the hull until their check clears in your bank account. It's amazing what potential sponsors have in mind for ads and promos on your stuff for a small amount of money. I bought into a pitch for a series race site sponsor one time and spent 2 weeks of my own time and money with event displays, newspaper and live radio interviews not to mention their logo plastered all over my boat and support truck. Never saw a dime. Never again unless cash is in my hand! As far as 2nd Effort goes, it became apparent to OMC to separate themselves from the V8 / HiPerf unit because the liability lawsuits were already starting to stack up. Not so much as the full up race units ,but the XP products were being purchased by idiots who had no business running equipment of that caliber. Ended up killing themselves (and others) so family lawyers lined up to paint a target on OMC. If I remember right, the small print on anything from 2nd Effort had "LLC" in the title (LIMITED Liability Company). Only ones that I remember who obtained true corporate outside sponsorship were Seebold, Molinari, Velden, Percival and DeSouza. Everybody else kind of wrote their own ticket.

[lars strom]

The Stockholm GP 1983 was a total success. Great weather, hundred thousand spectators or more. The race was run in the center of Stockholm late Saturday and Sunday. Full coverage by TV and news papers.
In the second heat I lost the rear boat cowling, Allan Nimmo was nice and in the third heat I used his boat cowling. He could not race for some problems I dont remember.
All the big wheels from OMC was in Stockholm for the race. When the race was over I asked for a meeting with Beat Jenni..(The President for OMC Europe) and my lawyer.
I think its important to know my relationship with Beat Jenni was very good. He know my history very well from years back.
Here is proof..when he was the Marketing Director for OMC Europe/OMBESA 10 years earlier.

At this meeting Beat Jenni promised to put pressure on Aspen to pay me. He also said OMC was still buying lots of stuff from Aspen.
The next two races was Minneapolis and Pittsburgh in the USA.
Beat Jenni asked me to bring my boat to Belgium and OMC was going to handle everything..Including hire someone in Waukegan to paint the new rear boat cowling from Dave Burgess in Aspen colors/text. There was no time to do this before shipping all the F1-V8 boats to the USA.

[lars strom]

When we arrived in Waukegan my Burgess boat was fixed perfect. OMC did hire someone I dont remember the name of to hand paint ASPEN on the new rear boat cowling David Burgess helped me with.
The only way to see this was my name was painted a bit different. Red circle..the second picture is from the race in Pittsburgh.
Pretty interesting if you think about this..OMC painted ASPEN on my boat..!!...made me think OMC is going to make sure I get paid.
Second Effort was at both races and I could tell the frictions between OMC racing people and the ones from SE.
To make sure I did only ask OMC mechanics for help..
There was a problem with the screws holding the carburetor float chamber..for some reason they broke off and you got a fuel leak/engine running to lean. I guess vibrations.
OMC replaced all the screws with stronger ones and that finally fixed the problem..8 carbs and 4 screws on each is a lot of screws..

[lars strom]

After the US races we were back in Europe.
Liege, Belgium was a disaster race for me in many ways..I crashed bad, nose dived WOT. Ended up at the hospital.
Stayed overnight but was OK.
Suddenly Beat Jenni was not at the race in Belgium..Dont remember exactly but never met Beat Jenni again. He was still within OMC in USA but not sure what he was doing.
No money from ASPEN..David Burgess repaired my badly damaged Burgess in time for London GP.
The last race of the 1983 season was Idroscalo, Milano.
I got my first heat victory..finally the season was over.
After Milano I drove straight to the Aspen Headquarter in Rouen, France and met with the President.
He was now a big snake and told me clearly he is not going to pay me anything. OMC & Aspen did not do any more business.
My lawyer did what he could do but Aspen filed for bankruptcy sometime later.
I did not get one cent out of Aspen..in my opinion OMC helped me get screwed..!!..no hard feelings but
when my outboard export business opened up late 1983 was in someway my way of getting even with OMC.

The picture is the last race with Aspen painted on my boat.
Heat victory at Idroscalo, Italy 1983

[lars strom]

One more thing..
Very few people know the correct history about my first year racing the F1-V8 series..(the long story above..the economic side)
By far the most costly racing season ever for me..
Was it worth it..??
Yes..I learned a lot..dont trust anyone in the business world..even people you think are your friends.
When things go wrong..few is there for you and some of them are even gone from the company.
Did I do mistakes..Yes I did, but so far in my live I have not done the same mistakes again.

[lars strom]

Before the 1984 F1-V8 series started George Lamy..still the marketing director for OMC Europe..(real name OMBESA...short for OMC Belgium Co) contacted me. The new plan was to have local sponsorship for each race in the series..
OMC Sweden and the CEO Bengt Nilsson paid for repainting my Burgess boat and Volvo Racing truck in white and blue colors. Bengt was feeling really bad for me getting screwed by Aspen with help from OMC.
This was the design I first did for the 1984 season. "LASSE STRÖM MARIN" was my outboard business name and by far the largest Evinrude dealer in Sweden..sometime later the largest Evinrude dealer in the world but OMC told me NOT the put that on my boat..!!

[lars strom]

The first F1-V8 race for me 1984 was the Holland GP in DenBosch.
OMC/George Lamy told me to bring my Burgess race boat "white only" to the race a few days early. The new one race sponsor deal was going to dress it up in the company logo.
Well..I am not going anywhere before you send me the $10,000.00 sponsor money for the race..as we agreed on.
I got the $10,000.00 credit to my dealership account and used some of it to pay Second Effort for the exhaust manifold update.
Heading to the race site in Holland with the Volvo race truck.
For some unknown reason to me the sponsor backed out in the last minute.
OMC dressed up my boat in the Evinrude colors instead.
We lost Luigi Valdano in the race..a very sad weekend.

I like to add a few months earlier at the Stockholm Boat Show 1984 George Lamy and some other OMC people came and
asked me for a meeting at my dealerships large display at the show with Evinrude outboards.
OMC have traced lots of new Evinrude outboards in an outboard store in Marina Del Ray to my dealership.
Not a surprise..and I answered.. I must make back all the money I lost when ASPEN filed for bankruptcy..
The meeting ended pretty fast.

This is the only picture I have from Holland GP 1984

[powerabout]

Any more detail on the Exhaust update?

[lars strom]

This long story started here..https://www.screamandfly.com/showthr...56#post3285856

After the Holland GP 1984 we left my racing truck at OMC Belgium. Went back home to Stockholm and called OMC Sweden. Placed an order of close to thousand new mixed sizes Evinrude Outboards. No questions asked from anyone. OMC could have easy said NO..but they did not.
A few days later two very large semi trucks came straight from OMC Belgium. We unloaded at a friend of mines export/shipping company.
Next F1-V8 race was in Paris and we picked up my truck/Burgess boat at OMC Belgium.
The boat was now painted in “International Travel Card” colors and logo.
Tom Percival's #10 Hodges/Evinrude V8 was also painted the same way..with the same sponsor “International Travel Card”
I dont have a picture of my boat but it was the same way as Tom's.



We are now in the Paris pit and I was watching Gérard Barthélémy.. a new french F1-V8 driver and he was out testing before the race. He was flying down the race course and at the end of the course wide open he took off..a very bad flipp and we lost Gérard..
A terrible feeling watching and nothing you can do.
R.I.P my friend.
The Paris GP was run the next day but it was a very tough deal..

After Paris was Stockholm GP..I asked George Lamy at OMC for a full time sponsor instead of this one race deal sponsor..
At that time there was none available.
“International Travel Card” paid me upfront for the Paris race but was not interested in the Stockholm race.

The F1-V8 line up in Paris GP 1984.
From left:
Molinari, Velden, Salabert, Spalding, Percival,Bullen,Jenkins, Mostert, Frost, Vidoli, Strom, Hakkinen not sure about the last boats.

[Lake X Kid]

"LASSE STRÖM MARIN" was my outboard business name and by far the largest Evinrude dealer in Sweden..sometime later the largest Evinrude dealer in the world but OMC told me NOT the put that on my boat..!!

Lasse what do you attribute your huge success as the "largest Evinrude dealer in Sweden"?
Was one of the major factors your geographic location?
Were you fortunate to be near where a lot of prosperous Swedish people lived, and liked to go boating?

[lars strom]

Lasse what do you attribute your huge success as the "largest Evinrude dealer in Sweden"?
Was one of the major factors your geographic location?
Were you fortunate to be near where a lot of prosperous Swedish people lived, and liked to go boating?

Thanks for asking.
Many reasons for that..here is a few.. I started my Evinrude dealership 1975 with help of the Huzells..the Swedish distributor for Evinrude at that time. A good location next the one of the largest waterways to get out boating from Stockholm. Got lots of help from Huzells in form of advertising and racing support. Always a low price attitude for new outboards.. great service.
A few years later (1979/80) I purchased Melins Motor..a long time Evinrude dealer. Merge the two dealers in to one and took over Melins Motors location in Stockholm next to Riddarfjärden. That's the location for the Stockholm GP F1-V8 race.
My racing helped and the low price policy. On top of that very loyal employees.
Exclusive Evinrude sales and service and a pretty good relationship with OMC.

@Lake X Kid

Need to add one more thing about the Largest Evinrude dealer in Sweden..!! (Text on My F1-V8 boat).

OMC based sales in Sweden from Oct 1 to Sep. 30 the following year.

The Largest Evinrude dealer I refer to was from Oct. 1 1982 to September 30 1983.
This was before any Evinrude outboards was exported.

The export started after September 30 1983..

[lars strom]

@Lake X Kid

A picture over parts of Stockholm..the F1-V8 race course. The pit yellow X and my dealership location blue X.
This is a beautiful city..in the picture is also Stockholm City Hall, Old Town (Gamla Stan)
"The Old Town dates from the 13th century but most buildings are from the 1700s and 1800s. It is a glorious labyrinth of charming cobbled streets, alleyways, faded mustard and rust-coloured townhouses and meeting squares"
You can also find..
"The Royal Palace. Welcome to one of Europe's largest and most dynamic palaces. The Royal Palace of Stockholm is His Majesty The King's official residence" ...