Save the Old Race Tales

[smokeybandit]

Ryan,

I don't know how old you are, but if you were at the Grand Haven race in 86 you saw my worst moment in racing. I was racing my 24' Skater "Renegade" in the old stock class. I stuffed it less than a mile from the finish. I got busted up really bad and my t-man was in a lot worse shape than me. Stuffing a boat really sucks. It's like hitting a brick wall. Thankfully it happened in fresh water. My eyelid was hanging off after the boom on the mic broke from the force of the water and sliced my eyelid. If that was saltwater it really would have stung.

 

[Steve 1]

Grand Haven was rough we ran it that year!!

 

[Ryan8886]

Ryan,

I don't know how old you are, but if you were at the Grand Haven race in 86 you saw my worst moment in racing. I was racing my 24' Skater "Renegade" in the old stock class. I stuffed it less than a mile from the finish. I got busted up really bad and my t-man was in a lot worse shape than me. Stuffing a boat really sucks. It's like hitting a brick wall. Thankfully it happened in fresh water. My eyelid was hanging off after the boom on the mic broke from the force of the water and sliced my eyelid. If that was saltwater it really would have stung.

I was about 16 then. Didn't see the race that year but seems to me I remember hearing about that. I have family that spend the summer over there so that's likely where I heard it. Skater's were always a local favorite around there!That had to be brutal! Were they still racing out of Saugatuck that year?? Seemed to me they moved them somewhere else around that time...that or we stopped going there during race week.

I don't know how you guys do it. In the short time I've owned my boat, I've gained tremendous respect for what you guys do. 35mph in a 3-4 foot chop is enough to rattle my fillings loose...don't know how you do it at 60-70-80+

 

[ygrowup]

Grand Haven was rough we ran it that year!!

For what it's worth, I thinks GH '86 was the rare sunny & smooth Lake Mich event....Jesse James (what a gorgeous piece that was) put a thumpin' on the Cougar & Apache cat guys in that mill pond. 1987 was godawful snotty (Kaiser's revenge & Velocity's bobbing skyward in the channel) and 1985, well, seem to recall that god just forgot everybody's name out there! When Big Al mutters 'I think we need a bigger boat' on the deck of his crinkled & rivet-popped 50-foot Popeyes, you get the idea that this great lake takes no prisoners.

As a sidebar, we still laugh about those days & lessons learned....when Rajah Rogers said '3 to 5's out there, let's race' (from the helicopter), you just converted that from feet to meters and you were right in the ballpark!

Bring on GH to Chi-town or Milwaukee!

 

[BOJOE2]

great thread its all great

 

[smokeybandit]

Wow, Rajah Rogers. That's a blast from the past. He sent us out in some pretty big stuff. I remember GH in 85. Nasty, nasty water. We were stomping the whole field. Kurt had it humming. We passed most of the modified fleet and a good portion of the open fleet. Wouldn't you know it, we broke a prop and didn't have a spare on board. S**t happens.

 

[MarylandMark]

Wouldn't you know it, we broke a prop and didn't have a spare on board.

In todays "racing" (no disrespect to the current racers) you wouldn't have time to change a prop before the race was over...

 

[glassdave]

In todays "racing" (no disrespect to the current racers) you wouldn't have time to change a prop before the race was over...

True that, we finished the first two races in Key West in about fifteen minutes each. Lucky if i can change my mind that quick. :ack2:

 

[ygrowup]

For what it's worth, I thinks GH '86 was the rare sunny & smooth Lake Mich event....Jesse James (what a gorgeous piece that was) put a thumpin' on the Cougar & Apache cat guys in that mill pond. 1987 was godawful snotty (Kaiser's revenge & Velocity's bobbing skyward in the channel) and 1985, well, seem to recall that god just forgot everybody's name out there! When Big Al mutters 'I think we need a bigger boat' on the deck of his crinkled & rivet-popped 50-foot Popeyes, you get the idea that this great lake takes no prisoners.

As a sidebar, we still laugh about those days & lessons learned....when Rajah Rogers said '3 to 5's out there, let's race' (from the helicopter), you just converted that from feet to meters and you were right in the ballpark!

Bring on GH to Chi-town or Milwaukee!

Babbling about Velocity's going vertical brought back memories of an old oso post I threw out there:

The 30 Velocity / Putt Putt reminded me of B-Fast, which ran out of the great lakes mid to late 90's. Ralph & Tom usually managed to keep this fast, but unpredictable beast in a straight line. But every once in while, she'd show her mean streak by spitting out one or more of the crew. Louie "the buoy" was navigator & chief rag waver at the turns & S / F. He also held the distinction of getting tossed with alarming regularity. Key West ~'95....they're in a huge pack of B boats coming into the first outside turn in typical KW nastiness. As the spray settles and the scrum is sorted out, the turn buoy is destroyed and Louie has once again gone swimming. Although ok, bad news is the slower B boats and an even larger fleet of A boats are now turning on the only orange thing in the water...Louie's head! And the Detroit legend of "Louie the Buoy" was born.

 

[Buoy]

Great thread!
Keep going guys - we're eating this stuff up.

 

[ygrowup]

Wow, Rajah Rogers. That's a blast from the past. He sent us out in some pretty big stuff. I remember GH in 85. Nasty, nasty water. We were stomping the whole field. Kurt had it humming. We passed most of the modified fleet and a good portion of the open fleet. Wouldn't you know it, we broke a prop and didn't have a spare on board. S**t happens.

Should be the official title for Offshore, except maybe with Expensive in front of it!

Had another flashback from Grand Haven (officially called the Spirit of America / Run For Glory) ....post race '87, we're sprawled around on the grass in front of the Grand Isle showroom sipping 12 oz. smart juice and comparing war stories of whose stuff was busted up worst. A buddy (with cold cans duct taped to his mangled elbow & knee) chimes in that 'they should rename this suicide mission the Run For Your Life!'

 

[Top Banana]

Odell Lewis...... was supposed to drive the turbine boat at the Steel Pier Offshore Atlantic City race in '67 (Were some of you guys born then??) Anyway, Mr. Kiekhaefer changed his mind and wanted the boat back in Fond du Lac for an open house he was doing there.

So he sends Odell and Dale Thayer in this outboard instead. Now the boat didn't meet the minimum requirements for length, so they stuck on this beak...(Oh, you thought someone else thought that up 20 years later!!!) and the boat was legal.

Odell had a bet with another Mercury driver, that he would be the first outboard home.....so he was pushing it a bit. He figured out that he could run the boat wide open on some legs... as the waves (swells) were just far enough apart, that he could run up the front of the first wave, jump the second and land on the backside of the third.

Went just fine for a while...but waves being waves, they tripped on one and ended up stuffing the nose (First stuff in offshore?) The boat filled with water and the rescue boat that happened to be near them came rushing out to help.

But, Odell and Dale being Odell and Dale...waved the boat off, pushed the throttles up and the boat began to move and empty of water. One motor was dead, but they got it going and bailed with their helmets and.....yup, finished first outboard.

 

[Brownie]

Did not!

 

[glassdave]

Odell Lewis...... was supposed to drive the turbine boat at the Steel Pier Offshore Atlantic City race in '67 (Were some of you guys born then??) Anyway, Mr. Kiekhaefer changed his mind and wanted the boat back in Fond du Lac for an open house he was doing there.

So he sends Odell and Dale Thayer in this outboard instead. Now the boat didn't meet the minimum requirements for length, so they stuck on this beak...(Oh, you thought someone else thought that up 20 years later!!!) and the boat was legal.

Odell had a bet with another Mercury driver, that he would be the first outboard home.....so he was pushing it a bit. He figured out that he could run the boat wide open on some legs... as the waves (swells) were just far enough apart, that he could run up the front of the first wave, jump the second and land on the backside of the third.

Went just fine for a while...but waves being waves, they tripped on one and ended up stuffing the nose (First stuff in offshore?) The boat filled with water and the rescue boat that happened to be near them came rushing out to help.

But, Odell and Dale being Odell and Dale...waved the boat off, pushed the throttles up and the boat began to move and empty of water. One motor was dead, but they got it going and bailed with their helmets and.....yup, finished first outboard.

was that boat related to "Spooky"?

 

[Steve 1]

For what it's worth, I thinks GH '86 was the rare sunny & smooth Lake Mich event....Jesse James (what a gorgeous piece that was) put a thumpin' on the Cougar & Apache cat guys in that mill pond. 1987 was godawful snotty (Kaiser's revenge & Velocity's bobbing skyward in the channel) and 1985, well, seem to recall that god just forgot everybody's name out there! When Big Al mutters 'I think we need a bigger boat' on the deck of his crinkled & rivet-popped 50-foot Popeyes, you get the idea that this great lake takes no prisoners.

As a sidebar, we still laugh about those days & lessons learned....when Rajah Rogers said '3 to 5's out there, let's race' (from the helicopter), you just converted that from feet to meters and you were right in the ballpark!

Bring on GH to Chi-town or Milwaukee!

May have been 87 We had the Thriller Jaguar Cat there is a picture of it about 15 feet up and climbing.

 

[nocigarette]

Great thread guys.....

 

[ygrowup]

May have been 87 We had the Thriller Jaguar Cat there is a picture of it about 15 feet up and climbing.

...and a Thriller it was! Key West '87 was my very first race in Pro Stock. We're barreling along on the outside in that typical Worlds slop and I happen to glance over and back and there's Thriller about to blast by us. From there it got surreal. They hit one of those ohmigod holes and put that big b-itch on its side and then completely upside-down and proceeded to skip like a stone at a 45 degree....right at us! Luckily, the wheel on our rig was on the far starboard side, so our driver saw them and started sawing the wheel to port like a madman. Shame there wasn't a flim crew above for this rodeo...an upside-down cat chasing three rather concerned stooges towards the island! Seemed like forever, but in an instant, the Thriller somehow snapped back over and slid to a stop. After the ugliness there in '85 and '86, we had a sick feeling as we came back around to check on them. Happy ending...Jaguar Jack and Ed(?) popped out of those capsules with the same astonished, I need a LOT of drinks look that we had on our faces. After making sure they were ok, we blasted off to finish the race and I remember thinking to my young self:

A> thank god for canopies

B> I really should've went bowling!

 

[Davidmnc]

...and a Thriller it was! Key West '87 was my very first race in Pro Stock. We're barreling along on the outside in that typical Worlds slop and I happen to glance over and back and there's Thriller about to blast by us. From there it got surreal. They hit one of those ohmigod holes and put that big b-itch on its side and then completely upside-down and proceeded to skip like a stone at a 45 degree....right at us! Luckily, the wheel on our rig was on the far starboard side, so our driver saw them and started sawing the wheel to port like a madman. Shame there wasn't a flim crew above for this rodeo...an upside-down cat chasing three rather concerned stooges towards the island! Seemed like forever, but in an instant, the Thriller somehow snapped back over and slid to a stop. After the ugliness there in '85 and '86, we had a sick feeling as we came back around to check on them. Happy ending...Jaguar Jack and Ed(?) popped out of those capsules with the same astonished, I need a LOT of drinks look that we had on our faces. After making sure they were ok, we blasted off to finish the race and I remember thinking to my young self:

A> thank god for canopies

B> I really should've went bowling!

Great story!! WOW

 

[Top Banana]

Did not!

I know you were there.....it was the Miss America race after all......Dale Thayer told me the story....do you have a clarification of the finish of the outboard class?

 

[Top Banana]

was that boat related to "Spooky"?

No.... Spooky was a California 16 foot Formula, that had the "Beak" added to make it a 21 footer, for minimum length.

The engine was put in the middle of the boat and the driver sat with his legs on both sides of the engine. The crewman was put outside on the transom with a seat bolted into a cage.

Brownie actually rode in this thing, so he may be able to fill in more details for us.