Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

[lars strom]

...

[John Schubert]

UIM OE/F3 class.
No more info.

The St Louis raced first at the gravel pits in Fenton, MO then later at Creve Ceour were Billy Seebold’s races sponsored by The Lions Club where Billy was a member. An officer of the Lions Club, whose name I don’t recall, very active in the races wanted to own & campaign a boat in the races. He didn’t want to start in the F1 class so Billy hooked him up with a Mod 50 rig, built him a boat & recommended a local driver whose name I also don’t recall. Very successful rig, competitive with Butch Brown sponsored by Evinrude/Tom Ireland & Jimbo when he didn’t participate

[lars strom]

444

[John Schubert]

444

Obviously I can’t challenge this post but, the number on this post is 144. The previous post with 444 is unequivocally the reference made in my post. I saw it perform. When they moved up to F1 after one or maybe 2 years the equipment was sold

[lars strom]

The owner of the 144-444 boat today is in Argentina and he also own this racing V4 used in Paris 1974..
(Yes..its not the correct engine cover)
He also have the race boat from Paris 1974.

[lars strom]

...

[lars strom]

For sure the popular Evinrude 75 UIM SE class engine but not sure about the flag, boat and driver.

[Mark Poole ModVP]

Look close at the lower unit. The water inlets are visible. I remember going to a race when I was about 18 and seeing an E class V bottom with the propshaft even with the pad. I asked the guy how it could pump water at speed. His reply..."I don't know it just does".

[lars strom]

#28

Clerici SE boat, Italian Championship 1985, driver Franco Puleo

[lars strom]

10 years ago I did a lot of work as an Evinrude Ambassador.
Helping BRP promote the Evinrude brand and the new G2.
Sadly I wasted my time..but it was fun.

[108]

10 years ago I did a lot of work as an Evinrude Ambassador.
Helping BRP promote the Evinrude brand and the new G2.
Sadly I wasted my time..but it was fun.

They should have given you that statue.

[108]

Look close at the lower unit. The water inlets are visible. I remember going to a race when I was about 18 and seeing an E class V bottom with the propshaft even with the pad. I asked the guy how it could pump water at speed. His reply..."I don't know it just does".

I had a hustler on my vixen and was baffled how high it would run. same motor on my aquarius and it is way up there

[lars strom]

My experience with cooling water for the 75HP Evinrude.
Long story..

European Champion for the third consecutive year 1975

After the Nordic Championship race in Forsaa, Finland and my enormous success in the SE class the
past 3 years winning over 50 races rumors was circulating that I had a special engine from OMC.

Well, I DID NOT and the engine I used on my own Clerici SE boat 1975 was a stock short leg 75 Hp Evinrude from my inventory at my dealership.
A legal higher compression cylinder head was the only change, and the race power trim and stiff rubber mount.
I can tell the truth now, and the speed advantage was from the boat and the set up and my driving style.
The way to get the better top speed was to raise the engine up much higher than normal race set up.
The stock gear case was like a brake, and I was 2-3″ above everybody else, BUT that made it very difficult to drive/handle the boat.
The prop lost the grip, and the engine lost the cooling water but the trick was to just before the prop lost the grip to use power trim and throttle/steering to avoid that to happen.
I tested for many days and weeks how far you could drive before the engine started to
overheat and that was around 900 meters.
I lost many powerheads before I found out a way to back of just a little to pick up enough water to cool the engine on the straight a way before the turn.
On top of that you have to use the power trim in and out in a special way to make the “air bag” under the tunnel to lift the boat and I have to say that was my best
advantage.
The European Championship race this year was in Sabaudia Italy.
(Remember..in the UIM SE class this was the biggest most important race you could win. UIM did not have a World Championship title in the SE class in the seventies).
I called friends in Italy to find out about this new place for the race and was told that it is in a Lagoon, shallow water and flat water.
That was for me great news, and I worked on raising the engine even higher on the transom and picked up a few more MPH.
Stockholm GP was the weekend before the big one in Italy. I used the Stockholm GP race as a test.
Bad news..I screwed up.. hooked and rolled..but did not hurt myself.
There was plenty of damage the my #1 Clerici boat, a few days after I told Paul Kalb that I preferred
to race my own boat instead of the factory SE boat.
I got help from a local boat builder to repair my boat just in time to make it to Italy.
Did use spray can paint to the repaired wood on the boat at different rest areas on the Autobahn.
Normally I was hiding everything I was doing, (learned from Molinari) but for this big important race I changed that.
Parked the boat in the pit so everybody could see my set up and prop.
I told the Race officials that I want my engine inspected before the
race to put an end to “the special engine”rumor.
They said No, but told me that my engine is going to be inspected very seriously after the race if I was the winner.
I have never felt so ready to win a race and now all the good things started to happen.
Around 35 boats was at the race, and most drivers looked at my race set up and started to raise up there engines higher. That was my plan…
Mercury had maybe 10 drivers using the 650 XS.
4 heat, 3 counts and clock start and I was pretty good at them and took the start and turned first.
Then just pulled away on the long two turn race course.
Many drivers was hooking left and right, because they could not
drive with the engine that high.
This race was for me a perfect one. I won 3 heat in a row and did not race the last one.
I asked the officials to start taking my engine apart and they did.
The power head, mid section even the gear case to check gears and impeller and everybody could now see it was a stock 75 hp Evinrude.
Never worked on the ports or pistons.
Just standard.
Lots of disappointed people when my engine was cleared, but
Lars was happy and the European Champion for the third consecutive year.

[2us70]

You were fortunate to have a dealership at the time. Burning through "many powerheads" was not an option for most of us at the time. In 1973 at OPC Nationals I saw a guy running an SJ tunnel boat go through 3 99in Mercury powerheads right off the factory support truck in testing. His Dad was quite well off and could afford the cost.

[WaterZebra]

You were fortunate to have a dealership at the time. Burning through "many powerheads" was not an option for most of us at the time. In 1973 at OPC Nationals I saw a guy running an SJ tunnel boat go through 3 99in Mercury powerheads right off the factory support truck in testing. His Dad was quite well off and could afford the cost.

The "sport classes" were supposed to be powered by "stock" engines available thru any dealer. What was a factory support truck doing with "stock" powerheads in the first place"?! Sport classes were intended to prevent racers with deep pockets from dominating? One of the most powerful rules we had to prevent this kind of behavior was the "engine claimer" rule. Loosing racers had the option of "claiming" the winner's engine if the winner appeared to be dominating the race events.