UIM World Championship Results

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Some of you may have seen a post by Mike Ward regarding UIM World Records and also a request for results from a couple of UIM races in 1992. I've been looking up some UIM results for Mike as well, but I have gone as far as I can with the information I have on several of these events. Mike is hoping to have his project complete right after the first of the year. He started working on it many years ago, but a fire at Belgian headquarters destroyed many records. He has been very patient at staying with this project. Maybe some of you might have some of the missing pieces to help Mike out.

I have all the information on the UIM World Championships for OA, OD and OF held at Phoenix in 1976 except the make of Bill Rucker's and Leif Ahlborg's boats. I think Leif borrowed a boat. I don't remember him shipping one over. Does anyone know what make boat Bill Rucker Sr. is driving?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

All these years I thought Bill Rucker was running a Merc deflector, then I spotted this picture. I need to know the manufacturer of this engine. Is it OMC, Crescent ...?

[Jeff Akers]

My Brother and I were just talking about Bill Rucker the other day. We think one of the boats I had was origanaly one of Bills. I buoght it from one of the Beogio's (sp)? at J&G marine in Napa CA. The boat in your photo sure looks like it. I'll dig up a pic of it if I can. Cant remember what make it was.
DeSilva???

The engine in the photo is an OMC for sure ;) :cool:

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Thanks Jeff. I keep forgetting about DeSilva making hydros. I was looking at the cowling and was thinking Bellcraft, but I don't ever remember Marcel making a picklefork. Looks to me like an OMC too, but I'm not an expert. When we get confirmation on the hydro, I'll submit it to Mike.

[Jeff Akers]

This is the only shot of the boat I could find.
Still not sure of the make of boat. some one else may be able to help?
If you look at the front of boat they sure look the same to me, low cockpit sides too. Not sure of the number on the boat in your pic but it looks close though?
I hope this info helps you and I'm not just clogging up your thread.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Looks the same to me too Jeff. Thanks. Even the number is close. Bill Rucker's was C-127. I've got a photo of a DeSilva hydro taken at the OLY Pro Nationals in Winona I'll compare it to.

[David Mason]

That OMC pic looks a lot like a OMC 75 Stinger (49 CI Triple). The Stingers had the orange paint on them. I know that is easy to change, as I change all mine as well. But it sure looks a lot like a gas burner converted to Alcohol ?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

The UIM OA, OD and OF World Championships were held at Firebird Lake near Phoenix, Arizona February 20-22, 1976. Firebird Lake is on the Maricopa Indian Reservation.

Position Driver Hometown Points Boat/Motor

OA 11 drivers in finals

1. Skip Birbarie Branford, Connecticut 1100 Yale/Konig

2. Tim Butts Romeo, Michigan 1000 Butts/Konig

3. Leif Ahlborg Orebro Sweden 678 ? /Konig



OD 13 boats in finals

1. Wayne Baldwin Sandia, Texas 1000 Butts/Konig

2. Charlie Bailey Houston, Texas 800 Butts/Konig

3. Rex Hall, Jr. Liberty, Missouri 750 R & D/ Konig



OF 9 boats in finals

1. Hans G. Krage West Berlin,W. Germany 1025 Konig/Konig

2. Bill Rucker, Sr. San Lorenzo, California 1025 ? / ?

3. Rex Hall, Jr. Liberty, Missouri 900 R & D/Konig


Hans won on time. He had a combination of 30.3 second less than Bill Rucker.


A couple of interesting items.

Waldemar Marsalek from Poland was, I believe, the defending OA champ. He was scheduled to compete, but he never showed up. I ran into him at Berlin the next year and asked why he didn't come. He said he was on the plane and ready to leave when the Polish authorities came on board and took him off. Remember, it was before the Communists were overthrown, and all those countries were paranoid. They were afraid for their citizens to go to the West and come back with tales of what they saw.

I got a PM from Skip Birbarie this morning explaining something Joe Rome or I didn't remember. The Americans had to have an elimination heat to choose the five drivers to represent the USA. The milling area at Firebird Lake was very difficult for good timing on a clock start. With a lot of boats milling you had to keep one eye on the clock and one on the other boats and try to figure out how to be in a decent postition when the one minute gun fired. As a result, there was a lot of gun jumping, and that happened in the elimination heat of OA. Skip Birbarie was among those who jumped and didn't make the finals.

The Germans were upset because they wanted to run against America's fastest and some of them were among the gun jumpers. The Germans protested, don't remember if it was formal or informal, but it was decided to draw straws for the finals. Skip was getting some coffee when they drew straws and John Yale drew one for himself and one for Skip. To this day Skip thinks John drew a straw for that was good for his own US entry, but gave it to Skip instead.

I came across some B&W negatives that show Bill Rucker, Sr. in a different rig that the earlier color photos I posted of him testing. Does anyone know how to contact Bill Rucker Jr. to find out what Bill Sr. ran in OF?

Also, Leif Ahlborg borrowed a boat and ran under his own number 59. Who may know whose boat that was. What was the make? Denny, Craig......?

[Mike Ward]

Thanks for your efforts Wayne. After 15 years I am finally winding down the project which I plan to publish soon. Just a few loose ends to finalise - for example, I am still looking for the 3rd place at the 1977 World OF Championship at Fort Worth!!

The 600 page book of statistics will be available on CD Rom - planning a publicity blitz in connection with the UIM. Stay tuned!!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Mike, I am either a little closer to the answer or a total blank. After looking through the notes I found and what Joe Rome wrote down, there may not BE a third place. Do you show Hans Krage 1st and Dan Kirts 2nd? That was a most unusual race and it may be that only three boats ran. I played phone tag with the only other person that may have been in it that is still around, then I lost his number. I may have found it last night and when I get back Monday, I will call. Here is what I remember.

There were three unique Konigs. Winner Hans Krage had an inline six, Dan Kirts was driving Marshall Grants Butts with two 500 cc konigs back to back with two driveshafts into a common lower unit. I was driving a Butts with an 850cc Konig we bought from Marshall. It had two rotary valves and four carbs. I actually finished out front, but was ineligible because my engine was a legal OE. I was allowed to run because of the poor showing. I can't remember any other participants so there may have been only us three. Dan Kirts was amazingly fast down the straights, but had a lot of weight hanging on the transom and with all that power, he had to be careful through the turns to save the lower unit. I found some notes from the next race (Eastern Divisionals I think) noting that Dan had not repaired the piston from the OF World Championships.

I was given the 1100cc win for the Western Division, Hans the OF World Championship, and Dan 2nd place. Since Dan went down, (I don't remember which heat), and myself not officially in the hunt, I believe only two heats were run, and the committee deciding that it was pointless to run the two final heats. I want to get confirmation from Dan next week then I will post that here.

Still waiting for the rig that Bill Rucker ran in OF at Phoenix in 1976 if anyone knows or can find Bill Rucker Jr to find out.

[Miss BK]

Does anyone know how to contact Bill Rucker Jr. to find out what Bill Sr. ran in OF?


Bill Jr.'s son-in-law is a member of this board. I'll PM him, as I know Bill's daughter Kim will probably know the answer.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That would be another piece of the puzzle for Mike's soon to be completed project. Val, I don't know if you saw an earlier request from Mike for some results of a UIM race in the OPC classes that took place in the U.S. Maybe you might help dig up that info for him.

[carl lewis]

Wayne,
From my memories of that race Bill Sr. was running his usual F boat, my guess would be a Marchetti with the 6 merc on the back. it could have been a Sid but my $ would be on Marchetti.
Another memory of that race was the German F boat with the 6 Konig started in the water,I remember him shutting down on the front chute waiting for the clock to start down and then making a run to the clock.

I dont know where all my pics are of that race but I remember the swede's having a new boat, maybe a yale or Butts. they had a flag from their country on the cowling.
That was many years ago now and ill try to find my pics for you

Carl 94-R

[Master Oil Racing Team]

...then I looked at my B&W pics. I had color photos of Bill testing what I think is a DeSilva with an OMC on it, but I have B & W photos of the race with him chasing Hans, but with a different boat and motor. The pits were set too far back from the race course to get decent shots, but with this computer I can enlarge a negative with much better clarity than on my enlarger. Maybe I'll try that. I hope you can find your pictures. It would be good if you could find one of the boat that Leif Ahlborg ran.

You're right about Hans' starting procedure. They lift and start the motor in the pits, Then Hans would drive to a spot he selected, kill the engine and wait until so many seconds were left on the clock. Then he would fire up his Konig and make the start. It came in handy at Phoenix where milling is tough.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

1977 UIM World Championships class OD were held at Eastwood Lake
Dayton, Ohio July 16 & 17, 1977. Participating countries were
USA Canada Belgium West Germany Austria. The safety committee decided they would allow 14-16 boats.

14 started

1 Tim Butts Romeo, Michigan Konig/Butts 1025pts

2 Wayne Baldwin Sandia, Texas Konig/Butts 925

3 Jerry Kirts Elkhart, Indiana Konig/Butts 900

[Master Oil Racing Team]

....by the time I get through I'm logged out. So please excuse the handwriting.

Note: The Konig hull listed in OB results is probably a private labe boat built by Bernie Danisch in East Berlin. He built the top of the line "Propriders", and I know he built boats for Dieter. I never saw anyplace where Konig built boats. This is my opinion only, but I think it is a Danisch with a Konig sticker. Maybe Ralph Donald or Steve Litzel can clarify this.

[Donald]

Wayne, I sure am glad you kept all of this information. Yes, Dieter did build boats for awhile. I should say he hired someone to build them for him. I had one in my basement that I stored for Dieter's nephew along with Hans Krage's boat that they used at Phoenix. I drove it one time, and that was my first time laying down. I did't like it then, but after I drove a Dannish at Oberhafel with a 500 I was hooked. I could't believe how it went over that rough water. I have recently brought my Dannish to Naples that Dieter bought for me in 1984 to run at Nottingham. I used it for eight years, the last time at the 500WC in Brandenburg. Hope to see you get active again.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I didn't have anything to save about Dieter's boats, so I am grateful you had the knowledge to add.

The Oberhavel is tough. Barges and other traffic passes off to the side during races. I had raced at Spandau twice before and had Tim build me a boat that could run there. We tested it several times during the winter when northers blew through. It was amazing how the sponson design would hit the waves with a pounding force and soften the blows without any tendency for the transom to bound off the waves.

We shipped that boat to Berlin for the 1978 OD World Championships, but we never raced it. The swells were huge. That was my only experience on the Havel. How was it when you raced there? The Danisch propriders are great boats for those courses. Deep sponsons and angles that will kill the waves, and when you are ready to back off for a turn you can charge in, dump the throttle and it will slow very quickly. Then with the light weight you can be back up flying down the straightaway in short order.

I will post some of the photos of racing in Germany and Austria one of these days. I hope you will dig out some of your photos too Ralph.

One other thing---Ron....I've been wondering,...when you won in Berlin did you race on the Oberhavel or where?

[Jeff Lytle]

I remember seeing a story somewhere about you racing in Germany. The photo I remember was showinh you guys uncrating the shipping crate the boat was shipped in.

What was that from? Powerboat?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Yeah Jeff. That was the September 1978 issue of Powerboat. We tested that boat and it worked good in the rough water on our lake, but not in Berlin. I made a mistake on the place we raced. It was on the Tegel, not Oberhavel. We paid to ship the boat to Berlin and when we arrived at Berlin Dieter told us how much the freight cost him. The freight company collected from both ends. My Dad told Dieter he should have called us first, we would never ship anything to him COD. Anyway, my Dad reimbursed Dieter and figured it shouldn't be any problem to straighten it out when we got back. Unfortunately, we got home to find out that the company filed bankruptcy while we were in Berlin.

[Ron Hill]

Oberhavel is where we raced, I think. Truth is, I frequently had no clue where I was the whole time I was in Europe. When I wanted to get somewhere, I've have my wife get in a taxi and I'd follow the taxi...We used that same approach this summer in Italy...I don't understand the language and can't read the signs...Taxi drivers seem to know where to go, and I follow!!!!

[Jeff Lytle]

Hey Wayne.......Did you end up leaving the boat there, or ship it back?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Motor Rennboot Club bought it for 3000 DM. They used it to train up and coming kids, and for any other driver from other countries that came to race and needed a boat. I named it Tex and only actually raced it once--in Austria on the Danube River. Funny thing is they bought it in 1979, but didn't pay me until I came back in 1981. Jimmy Carter was President when I sold it and if you remember we had 21 per cent interest rates, 20 per cent inflation and the dollar went totally to hell. When we made the deal it was 31/2 or 4 DM to the dollar. They paid me in DM and I held on to them thinking I was going back to Europe to race. I had to abruptly retire and never went back. When I cashed in my DM it was around 1 1/2 to 1 and I gained about 1600 US dollars.

[Jeff Lytle]

Ok, I figured it stayed there.

So------What made it handle the rough stuff so well? What had Tim done to the design?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

We tested during the winter when we had strong northers. Didn't take long for one to blow in. The back straightaway was just a little bit east of north, so we could run almost into the wind and turn around to run with it.

It was blowing 30 to 35 mph one cold morning when we tested and the boat handled beautifully. Going into the wind the sponsons mushed then firmed up to keep the boat from clipping the next waves. Running with the wind, which can be very tricky, the boat just plowed on through with never any sign of stuffing.

What we learned in Berlin and the following year at Linz, Austria is that it didn't handle swells good at all. The rough water we tested in had a head on breeze that helped keep the nose up and thereby keeping more weight on the transom. And the waves were fairly uniformly spaced. Running with the wind the sponsons were cutting the waves and rebounding at a regular pace to keep the rear of the boat from bouncing.

The swells we encountered in Europe were in addition to the wind blowing. I could run okay down the front straight in Linz, but on the back straight I would catch a swell wrong and I would literally hang on with all I had, to stay in the boat. The third heat my legs were probably 3 or 4 feet above the boat and high enough to pull the kill switch. I lay dead in the water and was unable to restart the motor.

I will look in my notes to see if I can find the sketch on the sponson design. Tim made a sponson change on one of my 350 hydros that made it very hard to drive---until an Italian friend put his prop on it. An interesting story for later.

[BRIAN HENDRICK]

This pic is of a DeSilva F, one of the last built, so I am told.
It was powered by a 460, now a M75H, although it does not handle well
with the tall six. Maybe a 497 OMC would run better on it ??

[Ron Hill]

Just found the same magazine....

Cool article, Wayne...

Sometime, I forget how many articles Powerboat really had about Boat racing...Some of the article didn't have my name in them, so maybe I forgot about them...

Bob Nordskog was an amazing man!!!!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

When I was looking in the storage above our carport for something I had to move some boxes of Powerboat and Powerboat & Waterskiing magazines. I kept skimming through them and set six or eight issues aside to scan. One of them was the back to back coverage of Paris and Berlin. You won the Berlin race. I haven't brought those issues down yet to scan, and BTW I forgot what Debbie sent me up there to get. I had to go back a couple of days later and bring down some compact suitcases.

[Brendan Power]

Bill Rucker SR'S baot was a Z Craft buit by Frank Zorkin out of Pheonix AZ.
Bill Rucker SR never ran an OMC only Mercury's.

[Ron Hill]

Billy Jack Rucker, Sr. MAY never have owned an OMC race motor, but I'd swear I raced against him at a lake in Northern California, where they hold Bass Fishing Tournaments......Rough as all get out...But they ran Stock Runabouts and Formula E Runabout together...Bill Jack and I had a great race....I thought it was a red and mohogany DeSilva with a three holer OMC......I had my Hill DU with a 55-H... The three holer would come off the corners like "Jack the Bear"....but run out of legs, and my 55-H would haul by on top end...We both were winning our class but neither wanted to let the other win the heat.....So we ran side by side for two heats......Maybe, it was three holer Merc.....

Seems that Billy Jack was driving for someone....

We had some great laughs after that race...as we were the only two really racing, as the water was way too rough......Rucker wasn't one to back off and either was I....Miss that guy!!!!

Miss seeing you at the races, Brendan...Why don't you post your business card....??? And, if I never thanked you for helping me out when I inspected for the Prop Tour...Thank you a TON!!!!!!!

[Brendan Power]

Hi Ron
It was a 3 cylinder Mercury!

Power Performance Engineering
12003 49th street N unit 308
Clearwater Florida 33762
727 573 9288
www.powerperformanceengineering.com
:)

[Ron Hill]

I guess I was thinking all three cyclinder motors were OMC.....(In those days)...

Was reading about O-Ringing V-6 Merc heads...

What's the deal??? Why? Or your thoughts??