Pictures

[racingfan1]

There were a stack of pictures left under the shelter in DePue and this was one in the stack. First , do you know who this might be and second if you recognize this photo as yours and want them back please let me know.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

There were a stack of pictures left under the shelter in DePue and this was one in the stack. First , do you know who this might be and second if you recognize this photo as yours and want them back please let me know.



The first picture is Bill Rucker Jr. I believe. Don't recognize the rider, but could be Alan Ishi or Bill's son.

Second one looks to be Bill Seebold Sr. That prop must be a OPC prop, or if it is a PRO prop and the motor can pull it, a world's record was surely set. Don't recognize the person behind Bill Sr.

Third picture is Tom Kirts Sr.'s boat number, but could be Tommy Jr. depending on when it was taken.

All were taken some years ago and hopefully the rightful owner will claim them as they are all of great PRO folks who meant much to the sport.

[racingfan1]

Thanks Bill. Here are a few more pictures from the stack. There were photos from across almost every category of boat racing. If you recognize them as your photos , please send me a PM and I will get them back to you.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

1. Cindy Hosler

2. Possibly Jim Stone? I don't believe I ever saw him drive a Runabout, but have heard he did and it sure looks like him.

3.Marshall Grant, but could be confused with Bruce Nicholson pretty easy

4 Gerry Waldman

All Champs and very accomplished Racers!

[Stuart]

1st pic is Rucker but that is not his son. I don't think Bill lll ever rode with the merc. My guess is that the rider would be John Medlen. I rode with Bill jr. 1 time. His only instructions. DON'T FALL OUT!

[racingfan1]

Trust me Bill , if nobody claims these pictures they will definately find a safe home in one of my binders!!!!!!

[Jeff Lytle]

Those are Wayne Balwin's pics. I remember from some of his posts before on here. He actually had 2 of those published in Powerboat--The one of Tom Kirts taking a ride and the other was the pic of Cindy Holster.

[racingfan1]

Thanks Jeff. That is what I thought also and I have sent an e-mail to Wayne but have yet to hear back from him.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Sorry Dale. I got a laptop finally (not because I wanted to, but was forced to) and all my old emails are gone incuding some I haven't opened yet, and I haven't learned yet how to work all the gadgets and programs. Last week was very frustrating. Imagine you drive to the same café for breakfast on Highway 237 for five years, then the morning after you buy a new pickup you head down highway 237 for breakfast only to find it's no longer on highway 237, but on state highway 22. All you did was buy a new vehicle, now you have to relearn where everything is.

The pictures were in a stack I have had for years in my darkroom in a big box. Most of them were either too light or too dark, or something else when I printed them. Like Jeff mentioned, a lot of them were for Powerboat, and they only printed a portion of those I sent. Naturally, I submitted numerous photos and let them choose the ones for publication. The ones in the box were my own rejects prior to submission, but I saved them anyway. Joe Rome was the recipient of most of my rejects over the years. As I was getting ready for last years reunion, I thought about the box of photos and thought, they are just taking up room here when some people could get much enjoyment out of them. Even though they were not top quality, it was the people in them that were most important, so I had the box at the banquet to be sold for $5.00 each for fundraising. Many were sold, but I think a lot of people just thumbed through them thinking they were just to look at. The next day I took the box to the concession stand and told them to sell them for what they wanted and the money goes to the Men's Club. After it was over some guy asked me if I wanted them back, and I said no, just try to sell them at the next race.

Well Dale, for all your hard work to piece together the history of DePue and alky racing, I bequeath them to you. You can do what you want with them.

[racingfan1]

Thank you Wayne - I will surely take them and add them to my collection. I may post a few more to try and get some information on them , if that is ok with you. I have to say , of all the pictures in that bunch , this may be my favorite. I cant believe I have an autographed Wayne Baldwin photo.

BTW - I feel your pain on the computer. I have also , in the past week , bought a new desktop computer , as my old one was starting to have issues booting up. While I got all my files to transfer over , I lost all my e-mail contacts for some reason.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Bill Ban and Jeff have correctly identified the people. It is Bill Rucker Jr in the runabout at San Antonio 1978. The photo of Marshall Grant was taken at Hot Springs in 1972 before Billy Seebold arrived. Marshall was doing some testing himself. It is Bill Seebold with his back to the camera.

Bill holding the prop is what I believe to be inside a limited hydro van. He was looking at props. I may be wrong on that, but I could look at some old contact sheets to find out.

The photo of Jerry Waldman is what I believe the last pit shot of him. It was the day before the race in which he was killed. He just got in from testing his F hydro and my Dad asked him "How was it?" Jerry replied "It's got good top speed, but..."looking down and spreading his arms "....you would have to measure the acceleration with a calendar."

It is indeed Tom Kirts at Hinton in 1977. He blew over at the start disintegrating that new DeSilva.

[Krazy Karl]

Just a quick comment, if you use an online browser and email like Google Chrome it keeps all your contacts and favorite websites in it's database. That way if you change computers everything is still there just like you left it. No updates required, nothing lost.
kk

[racingfan1]

Wayne - I took this picture a few years ago at DePue , it remains one of my favorites. I have posted it before and have been accused of photoshopping it , but this is how it was taken. I did sharpen it up just a bit. As you know , when using a zoom lens it compresses everything making it appear tighter than it actually may be.

[Gene East]

Bill Ban and Jeff have correctly identified the people. It is Bill Rucker Jr in the runabout at San Antonio 1978. The photo of Marshall Grant was taken at Hot Springs in 1972 before Billy Seebold arrived. Marshall was doing some testing himself. It is Bill Seebold with his back to the camera.

Bill holding the prop is what I believe to be inside a limited hydro van. He was looking at props. I may be wrong on that, but I could look at some old contact sheets to find out.

The photo of Jerry Waldman is what I believe the last pit shot of him. It was the day before the race in which he was killed. He just got in from testing his F hydro and my Dad asked him "How was it?" Jerry replied "It's got good top speed, but..."looking down and spreading his arms "....you would have to measure the acceleration with a calendar."

It is indeed Tom Kirts at Hinton in 1977. He blew over at the start disintegrating that new DeSilva.

Wayne, that is a great shot of our friend Gerry/Jerry Waldman. That was not the first time he ever commented on measuring acceleration with a calendar.

The shot of Marshall getting out of the boat with that ratty old Quincy life jacket is priceless. I don't know how long he had that jacket, but he certainly got his money's worth out of it.

[FurnalFlyer]

The picture of Cindy in the background on the left side is Bill Hosler and on the right it looks Roy Deweese.
That is Jim Stone and the person with his back to you looks like Harry Pinner.
Leigh

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That is a great picture Dale.

Gene...I didn't know Jerry had used that expression before. I only remember taking the picture and my Dad was talking to Jerry when I took the picture. My Dad was always very sad when he saw that picture and told whoever it was what Jerry said. I didn't hear it. My dad remembered it very well and told me what Jerry said

That picture of Marshall getting out of the boat is priceless to me. I only have a couple of frames, and at the time I knew I should take the picture. It is not a good picture at all, and I don't have one of Marshall driving. We were testing at the same time. Nobody else was around. Jerry Waldman was Captain of the North, Marshall Grant Captain of the East, Baldy Baldwin Captain of the South, and Captain of the West was not there yet. It was the day before most everyone else would arrive. Baldy, Jerry and Marshall talked informally about the Invitational, but since it was calm, we were all testing. Like Joe Rome and I always talk about..."We didn't know what we were in the middle of. It was just happening. We were there. We just didn't think about it at the time". We had had an inkling from Marshall though that his Alky racing was coming to an end. Billy Seebold had been driving for him since 1968, and for the past couple of years had been driving mostly OPC for Mercury. Billy only made two or three alky races that year that I can remember. That's why I ran to get my camera to take a picture of Marshall slipping out of that K-4 hydro. That life jacket goes back to when he was racing earlier in his career and Johnny Cash said he had to give it up to be in the band.

(Johnny Cash loved the starting cannon though that Marshall would sometimes fire off at a hotel).)

[Steve Litzell]

Thanks Bill. Here are a few more pictures from the stack. There were photos from across almost every category of boat racing. If you recognize them as your photos , please send me a PM and I will get them back to you.

Nope! Leigh, You are almost correct, Cindy is in the boat, Bill is on the left, and the fellow that has his arm up kinda hiding his face is Jeff Hutchins. You can see his mucstache a little. DeWeese was not that skinny! ( Sorry Roy) This was the times that I was Drag racing and also going to help Bill and Cindy with this, I was also working at Walt's at this time. I was moroe than likely attending a major drag race the day this was taken as This was around 76 or so and she set the record at Alex in 75. Steve Also may have been Jim Tudor maybe,:o

[racingfan1]

Wayne has given me the ok to post more of these pictures and he would fill in blanks if nobody else can. Thanks Wayne

[Gene East]

That is a great picture Dale.

Gene...I didn't know Jerry had used that expression before. I only remember taking the picture and my Dad was talking to Jerry when I took the picture. My Dad was always very sad when he saw that picture and told whoever it was what Jerry said. I didn't hear it. My dad remembered it very well and told me what Jerry said

That picture of Marshall getting out of the boat is priceless to me. I only have a couple of frames, and at the time I knew I should take the picture. It is not a good picture at all, and I don't have one of Marshall driving. We were testing at the same time. Nobody else was around. Jerry Waldman was Captain of the North, Marshall Grant Captain of the East, Baldy Baldwin Captain of the South, and Captain of the West was not there yet. It was the day before most everyone else would arrive. Baldy, Jerry and Marshall talked informally about the Invitational, but since it was calm, we were all testing. Like Joe Rome and I always talk about..."We didn't know what we were in the middle of. It was just happening. We were there. We just didn't think about it at the time". We had had an inkling from Marshall though that his Alky racing was coming to an end. Billy Seebold had been driving for him since 1968, and for the past couple of years had been driving mostly OPC for Mercury. Billy only made two or three alky races that year that I can remember. That's why I ran to get my camera to take a picture of Marshall slipping out of that K-4 hydro. That life jacket goes back to when he was racing earlier in his career and Johnny Cash said he had to give it up to be in the band.

(Johnny Cash loved the starting cannon though that Marshall would sometimes fire off at a hotel).)

Jerry used that "calendar" remark in discussions with those of us at QW several times, usually during record runs or after a change in engines. He was more than a customer, he was a very dear friend.
It's 5:00 AM and I've spent a very sleepless night because someone asked me yesterday what it was like that day over 40 years ago.
All of us knew he was hurt bad, but we had seen him bounce back before. Phil Wagner went to the hospital in the ambulance, but the rest of Jerry's pit crew were loading the boats. We (QW) were drying out the motor. Deep down all of us were thinking, "Jerry will be back to race at DePue" and then your Dad made that horrible announcement on the P.A. system.
Everyone was in total shock and disbelief and no one was ashamed to show his grief.
The sight of a hundred very macho men with tears flowing down their faces was a very humbling sight. We all finished the work that had to be done at the race course, went back to the motel and called our families to break the news. The ride home the next day seemed very long!
All of us had lost a brother.

Rest in peace dear friend. We'll see you soon!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That day haunts me as well Gene. I was like you and everyone else around. We all knew Jerry was hurt, but we expected him up and around soon. We were all rigging down and laughing, joking and having a great time when my Dad interrupted everyone for the announcement. Even before he got his words out, you could tell he had something of importance to say so everyone slowed down to listen. When he announced the time that Jerry had passed away, a total shock wave struck the pits. No one moved, no one said a word. It was total silence. Everyone stood right where they were. Wrenches in hand, or stopped when walking to some other place, or in conversation with someone else. We all did go back to our work quietly rigging down, but only after a long stunned silence. I don't know if you have any feeling about how long we stood there without moving Gene, but to me it was a very long time. I lost track of time, but it could have been twenty minutes or more. It was very slowly that one person after another picked up where he left off doing a job we all knew we had to do. Even when I was laying in the emergency room for two hours waiting for a doctor on Memorial day after stuffing in Baytown doesn't even come close to how bad I felt that afternoon in Baytown. That was the worst day in all my racing by far. And you are correct Gene. That ride home seemed like it would never end.

ADD: I will never forget the next morning either. We had to go back out to the lodge to settle up any outstanding matters regarding the race and Diamondhead, the real estate subdivision on Lake Catherine that hosted the races. Those familiar with the invitational will recall it was my Dad's idea and he spearheaded the effort with help from Jerry Waldman, Marshall Grant, Tim Butts and Lee Sutter. He was the one to wrap up all the leftover details after the race. When he finished up at the lodge, he started for his Suburban to hitch up our trailer. We loaded it up the previous afternoon and left it in the pits. I started to head outside with him, and he said he could do it by himself. I asked, "Are you sure you don't want some help?" He said"No...I can do it." I went out on the front porch of the lodge and watched him wind his way down to the pits. Those who were there remember it was a grand view overlooking the whole race course. There were no other trailers. All others had pulled out the evening before. My heart was very heavy watching my Dad because he was in terrible grief. Everything was totally quiet on the lake. No boats, no people no nothing except some squirrels chattering and birds chirping. in the pits he swung the Suburban around to the left, then backed straight to the trailer which was parked at a slight angle to the left. He backed up to where the hitch was, got out, walked to the back and began turning the crank to lower the hitch onto the 2 inch ball. The hitch was perfectly aligned above the ball, and all he had to do was secure the bulldog hitch around the ball, raise and lock the wheel, hook up the lights and chains and it was ready to go. He put the chocks back in the trailer, got back into the suburban and drove back up the hill to the parking lot of the lodge. I was totally amazed at how he didn't have to jockey or move anything, just as if someone had guided him in perfectly. Maybe someone did.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Dale, the first picture is of Johnny Woods looking at Paul Bogosian pointing out something that must have happened to him. It was taken at DePue in 1972, and since they both raced D runabout, I think this might have been taken at inspection and Paul was referring to what somebody might have done. He was pointing in the direction of the first turn.

The second picture is of Tim Butts driving Ruthless II which I later named "Loaner" after we bought the complete rig from Tim. It was taken at Alex I believe in 1972, but it could have been 1973.

Third is Jim Stone at Alexandria in 1972.



I don't know who is in the fourth picture, but I think it was taken in Winona, Minnesota in 1975, but I could be totally off base. It is F hydro, but I don't know if the motor was Evinrude or Johnson. Maybe somebody else can help with this one. I took it because I always liked to take pictures of boats and/or motors that were different from the majority of what was being raced.

The last one is Jerry Kirts at Alex either 1976 or 77. I have to look that up.

[JGOSMAN JR]

I am pretty sure the F40 or F-48 pictured was Chuck Gurr of the Odessa Boy's Racing team back in 75' or 76'. Chuck once had co-owned American Marine Service in Tarpon Srings fl., so that motor could have been either or. Definetly OMC running on methanol and very loud. I don't think he ever went to Winona, however, one time up to Depue, Alex. and several grapefruit circuts. Think the boat was a a "Bunky".

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I know the name JGOSMAN,JR, but I didn't know him. I'm going to check the Eastern Divisional contact sheets for Acworth, Georgia and Gadsden, Alabama. Thanks for that info.

[Donald]

In the picture of Jim Stone, he is in my runabout. The Strange Stuff racing team had two runabouts, Small Stuff for the 250, and Big Stuff for the 350.
I don't remember, but I suspect I had loaned the Big Stuff to Jim because there is a 250 on the boat.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I had always wondered about Jim in that boat Ralph. Now it makes sense.

Thanks for the hint JGOSMAN JR. Chuck Gurr finished second in F 48 behind Tom Kirts in FOH and just ahead of Mel Kirts. For some reason only one heat was run. It was the Eastern Divisionals at Gadsden, Alabama June 21-22, 1975. It was our first race after I stuffed on Memorial Day in May. I missed driving most of the season, but we hauled our stuff around so Charlie Bailey and Tim Butts could drive and at least keep us competitive until I could get back in the cockpit. The one good thing about being on the bank that year was I got a lot of good pit shots. There are so many good ones at Gadsden I should make a separate thread, or at least put them on Random Shots From the Pits.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The photo of Tim Butts was in 1973 at the UIM OA, OD and OF World Championships at Alexandria, Louisiana August 9-12, 1973. Tim won OA convincingly.