1963 N.O.A. World Championship part 1

[racingfan1]

Hope you more "seasoned " drivers enjoy reading this !!!

[racingfan1]

Part 2 of the article.

[racingfan1]

After finding out that the X class was pretty much an unlimited class I am wondering what engines with what ci. were guys running ?

[smittythewelder]

Fun stuff! I was struck by the fact that CBS television thought enough of this event to provide coverage that included a blimp!

It was also interesting that when the CBS commentator was offered a ride in a boat, it was in a short-sponson Sid with a big, top-heavy four-banger, maybe not the most forgiving outfit one could choose!!

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Fun stuff! I was struck by the fact that CBS television thought enough of this event to provide coverage that included a blimp!

It was also interesting that when the CBS commentator was offered a ride in a boat, it was in a short-sponson Sid with a big, top-heavy four-banger, maybe not the most forgiving outfit one could choose!!

Actually Smitty, having driven Sids my entire racing career including the first 3 point that they built, I was surprised that anyone including a driver of Johnny Woods caliber would even consider a short sponson to drive at those speeds. The sponson would set kind of hard and the results speak for themselves.

[R Austin]

Nice to see the old programs with photos and numbers. The X class at that time was run with what you brought or still had running.
I did notice in the picture of the F Hydro start, my McDonald (M-14) cabover, owned and driven by John McMullen of Flint Mi. at that time, right in the middle without a rear fairing.
Thanks for the post.

[smittythewelder]

John, my first raceboat was a Hal Kelly "Jupiter" B Stock Hydro, which I built when I was 18, shortly after this Lake Spivey race was held. A number of the hydros in the photos above resemble the Jupiter, in a stretched version. You knew Hal Kelly, can you tell me whether that resemblance is coincidental, were guys doing their own one-off versions of Kelly's plans, or what? I know there was something called a Dubinski in those days. Who built those, and were there a lot of them back east ("Back East" for us Seattlites is pretty much anything aft of Montana)? And if you paid any attention to the later Stock stuff, the very fast little Hedlund A and BSH boats of the late Sixties had a bottom that looked like it might have been inspired by an old Jupiter.

There weren't a whole bunch of short-sponson Sids out here, but those were generally in the hands of fast guys. Mike Raich and Tom O'Neill set DSH completion records, and Paul Longthorpe was close competition for them (among others; DSH was a very competitive class in Reg. 10 in those years. And Jack Reed had a record in C Outboard Hydro with a longer version of this boat, running an FC Konig. He was one of the few alky guys to use short-sponson Sids in that era, out here, but the photos suggest that maybe they were more common in alky racing back east.

OTOH, an unfortunate novice, Doug Mahurin, showed up for his first and only season with a short sponson B Stock Sid named "Li'l Reeker," and got a dunking nearly every time he went out until Bob Rhoades gave poor Doug some pointers on skid-fin placement and such. Bob had run a short-sponson DSH Sid for a year, and he said that the very successful hydros built by himself and his brother in law, Jim Daniels, were dimensioned off of that Sid, but altered to fix the handling.

This is a kick, RacingFan1, thanks for putting it up!! It's fun for me to make out the images of a couple of early version A Konigs with their skinny little fixed expansion chambers, an engine I ran for a few years. And more Anzanis than I'd have expected to see at one race.

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

John, my first raceboat was a Hal Kelly "Jupiter" B Stock Hydro, which I built when I was 18. A number of the hydros in the photos above resemble the Jupiter, in a stretched version. You knew Hal Kelly, can you tell me whether that resemblance is coincidental, were guys doing their own one-off versions of Kelly's plans, or what? I know there was something called a Dubinski in those days. Who built those, and were there a lot of them back east ("Back East" for us Seattlites is pretty much anything aft of Montana)? And if you paid any attention to the later Stock stuff, the very fast little Hedlund A and BSH boats of the late Sixties had a bottom that looked like it might have been inspired by an old Jupiter.

There weren't a whole bunch of short-sponson Sids out here, but those were generally in the hands of fast guys. Mike Raich and Tom O'Neill set DSH completion records, and Paul Longthorpe was close competition for them (among others; DSH was a very competitive class in Reg. 10 in those years. And Jack Reed had a record in C Outboard Hydro with a longer version of this boat, running an FC Konig. He was one of the few alky guys to use short-sponson Sids in that era, out here, but the photos suggest that maybe they were more common in alky racing back east.

OTOH, an unfortunate novice, Doug Mahurin, showed up for his first and only season with a short sponson B Stock Sid named "Li'l Reeker," and got a dunking nearly every time he went out until Bob Rhoades gave poor Doug some pointers on skid-fin placement and such. Bob had run a short-sponson DSH Sid for a year, and he said that the very successful hydros built by himself and his brother in law, Jim Daniels, were dimensioned off of that Sid, but altered to fix the handling.

This is a kick, RacingFan1, thanks for putting it up!! It's fun for me to make out the images of a couple of early version A Konigs with their skinny little fixed expansion chambers, an engine I ran for a few years. And more Anzanis than I'd have expected to see at one race.
Actually Smitty they are Dubinski's copies of the Hedlund & built by Dub Parker. And most give credit to the Hedlunds for building the first S bottom boats when in fact Hal Kelley did first with the Ben
Hur.
The short sponson Sids were hard to set for a turn. I could always set my Sids. All classes later entering a turn & come out ahead. However once the sponson fin appeared & turns were wider the short sponson SIDS would float better without the rear edge of the sponson grabbing. Jimbo McConnel still says he could jump up on the wheel & set the sponson & out turn anyone including Ted May & Ron Hill. It's questionable to me but who wants to challenge Jimbo!!!!!

[smittythewelder]

Dubinskis came AFTER Hedlunds?? I can only go with what I saw out here, but I know some Dubinskis came out here for the APBA Outboard Nationals at Moses Lake in 1963, where I never saw a Hedlund until some came out for the Stock Nationals at Prineville, OR in 1966. John, you might recall that Hal Kelly had a photo in his brochure of plans, of Dub Parker running a C Konig on a stretched Jupiter. Was the Dubinski not a slightly later update of that boat of Parkers? Or maybe I should ask, when did the Hedlunds build their first hydro of that style? To take the progression a little earlier, I'm guessing Hal Kelly got the inspiration for that recurved bottom from one of Hu Entrop's big class F cabovers; true? I have no idea whether Entrop was the first to use that bottom shape to move the center of lift aftwards; I recall someone here saying they thought that DeSilva had built a hydro with a bottom like that in the early Fifties . . .

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Smitty,

Now you got me scratching my head. First, we never had an Enthrop out east, so not sure if Kelley invented the S bottom or saw it somewhere. That's a good ?

We always were under the impression that Dub copied Hedlund, yet I don't know when the first Hedlund hydro appeared. When/if I see them at the reunion I'll ask them. However, as a point of interest, the A & B Dubinskis were a spitten image of the Hedlunds especially the front cowl, the coamings & the way the coamings went forward of the dash along side of the sloped cowl. The coamings were somewhat different on the Jupiter & Ben Hur I believe.

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Smitty,

I just did a Kelly plans search & the only Alky picture was his Jupiter # 184-F the same BSH boat with a Konig on the back. Looks like an early A or B. Can you post a picture of Parker in the stretched out Ben Hur or e-mail to me jschubert19J@gmail.com

[zul8tr]

60902
Smitty,

I just did a Kelly plans search & the only Alky picture was his Jupiter # 184-F the same BSH boat with a Konig on the back. Looks like an early A or B. Can you post a picture of Parker in the stretched out Ben Hur or e-mail to me jschubert19J@gmail.com


John

Here is a pic of Dub Parket (maybe a miss spell in catalog?) running a Jupiter in C hydro in a Hal Kelly catalog I received from Hal when he lived in Ft Pierce Fla. Is Parket someone else?

Attached as a pdf at the top of post

Pete

[smittythewelder]

Hey, that's the boat! Stretched from the standard Jupiter. Now I think that brochure must date from 1960 or a year or two earlier (??). Somewhere in his literature, Hal Kelly said you could order plans for this stretched version. Don't know if that suggests that Kelly re-drew the Jupiter for Parker, or if Parker stretched the plans himself and gave the results to Kelly. Anyway, my wholly-uninformed guess is that the Dubinskis came from this boat.

None of this matters at all, LOL, just interesting old racing trivia.

As to there not being an Entrop boat for you back-east guys to see, well for starters look at the man himself in the photos above!! The story said he had his R-12 with him, the best of his F boats. Hu got out of racing not long after this, and sold the R-12 to Jerry Waldman, who set a competition record with it, beating Hu's record. I don't think Entrop built any boats for anyone but himself. He had started with a couple of Ted Jones boats, one of which he took back to Lake X in 1957. I believe he did made some other trips to races outside Reg. 10 in the Fifties. Jim Hallum knew Entrop fairly well, and maybe Doc Jones and Jack Leek and Charlie Strang and the other big names who were involved in various ways with the outboard speed runs of those years, and his memory is pretty good.

(I have just spent nearly an hour trying to get info on low-temp solder and flux for stainless steels. For all the money that companies spend on websites, somebody sure has forgotten how to lay out information in an organized manner since the good old days of PRINT catalogs.)

[racingfan1]

Smitty , I enjoy reading the follow up stories to the history I post. I am glad there is a forum for which to do it.

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Smitty,

You have to remember Out East to me is the NE & Kelly lived in northern NJ. He later did move to FT. Pierce, FL. If my recollection is right the only time he was west of Pittsburgh was when he went to the 1954 SO nationals in Depere, WI with my dad & me.

[Donald]

I can add background to how this race came about. The lake was owned by Dr. Walter Spivey, a dentist, who built it and subdivided it into lots around the lake and also a beach and club house. I knew the Spiveys, when we lived in the same neighborhood and having gone to school with their son. I lost contact over the years until a cousin of mine bought a house on Lake Spivey. When I discovered it was the same Spiveys, I went to see them at their house on the lake. I mentioned that I was competing in boat races and would they allow me to bring my boats along with some other boat racers to do some testing. We did and they were fascinated by how fast these little boats would go. This was late spring of 1962 and I solicited a boat race for sometime in the summer, but it had to be after their beach and club house closed for the season.
I couldn't get it done, but I contacted Claude Fox about a race in 1963, Anyway, to make this short, Claude and Dr. Spivey got together and arranged to have the NOA championship there in September of 1963. The Spiveys contacted CBS for the TV coverage and Burrell Wilson, whose son was racing at that time, contacted the Lions, of which he was a member, and it all came together for a great event.
We did it again in 1964 and perhaps more, but after the 1965 civil rights bill passed congress, the clientele at the beach changed, and the Spiveys closed the park.
An anecdote, the prize money paid PER HEAT was $100 1st, $75 2nd, $50 3rd, $25 4th.

[DeanFHobart]

Smitty,

Now you got me scratching my head. First, we never had an Enthrop out east, so not sure if Kelley invented the S bottom or saw it somewhere. That's a good ?

We always were under the impression that Dub copied Hedlund, yet I don't know when the first Hedlund hydro appeared. When/if I see them at the reunion I'll ask them. However, as a point of interest, the A & B Dubinskis were a spitten image of the Hedlunds especially the front cowl, the coamings & the way the coamings went forward of the dash along side of the sloped cowl. The coamings were somewhat different on the Jupiter & Ben Hur I believe.

The first Hedlund Hydros I saw were at the 1964 SO Nationals in Modesto, CA. Driven by both Jerry Waldman and Bob Hering. At the Nationals, they also ran Straightaway Trials several days before the finals. Bob Hering went through very fast in BSH, but I don't think he broke the record. A fellow by the name of Bob Todd had set the BSH record several years before at Guntersville. Billy Hutchins won ASH in a Short Sponson Sid. He also ran the same boat in BSH..... He was very fast but he jumped the gun. The Hedlund's didn't do well... as yet.

Then the next year in 1965 at the Beaver Falls, PA SO Nationals Waldman and Hering were also running the Hedlunds with the same unsuccessful results. Billy Hutchins won BSH with an "A" Short Sponson Sid. And Jerry Lorer (sp)? won ASH with a Marchetti or possibly it was a Sid.

But then in 1966 at the Prineville, Oregon SO Nationals, the Hedlund Hydros came into their own and won both ASH with Doc Stu Wilson at the wheel and BSH with Bob Hering at the wheel. What they found was that since the Hedlunds had narrower bottom widths, you could jack the motor up much higher with a bigger propeller and of course go faster.

By the 1968 Green Lake, Seattle, WA. SO Nationals Hedlund Hydros were dominating both ASH and BSH.

I bought my first Hedlund right after that. I simply called R. Allen Poppa Smith and ordered several ASH propellers for my Hedlund with fantastic results.

Hedlunds dominated both ASH and BSH until about 1976 or so, when Shanon Bowman with his "Bezoats" showed up. The "Game" changed again.

That's the way I remember the Hedlund Hydro Era. Of, course the Hedlund Runabout was a different story. Only a very few could drive a Hedlund Runabout..... The Hedlund Brothers for sure and of course the Famous Stover Hire. Stover must have won the BU, "B Stock Runabout" SO Nationals at least 5 times.

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

The first Hedlund Hydros I saw were at the 1964 SO Nationals in Modesto, CA. Driven by both Jerry Waldman and Bob Hering. At the Nationals, they also ran Straightaway Trials several days before the finals. Bob Hering went through very fast in BSH, but I don't think he broke the record. A fellow by the name of Bob Todd had set the BSH record several years before at Guntersville. Billy Hutchins won ASH in a Short Sponson Sid. He also ran the same boat in BSH..... He was very fast but he jumped the gun. The Hedlund's didn't do well... as yet.

Then the next year in 1965 at the Beaver Falls, PA SO Nationals Waldman and Hering were also running the Hedlunds with the same unsuccessful results. Billy Hutchins won BSH with an "A" Short Sponson Sid. And Jerry Lorer (sp)? won ASH with a Marchetti or possibly it was a Sid.

But then in 1966 at the Prineville, Oregon SO Nationals, the Hedlund Hydros came into their own and won both ASH with Doc Stu Wilson at the wheel and BSH with Bob Hering at the wheel. What they found was that since the Hedlunds had narrower bottom widths, you could jack the motor up much higher with a bigger propeller and of course go faster.

By the 1968 Green Lake, Seattle, WA. SO Nationals Hedlund Hydros were dominating both ASH and BSH.

I bought my first Hedlund right after that. I simply called R. Allen Poppa Smith and ordered several ASH propellers for my Hedlund with fantastic results.

Hedlunds dominated both ASH and BSH until about 1976 or so, when Shanon Bowman with his "Bezoats" showed up. The "Game" changed again.

That's the way I remember the Hedlund Hydro Era. Of, course the Hedlund Runabout was a different story. Only a very few could drive a Hedlund Runabout..... The Hedlund Brothers for sure and of course the Famous Stover Hire. Stover must have won the BU, "B Stock Runabout" SO Nationals at least 5 times.
Dean,
Bob Todd set the BSH straightaway record at Beloit in 1960 with a Sid at over 70 mph. He used a propeller to that he & classmates at RPI Rensalear (not sure of spelling)Polytechnical Institue.

[smittythewelder]

All good, Deano, except that Jeff Lowe won BSH at Prineville in '66. Jeff was the only legal starter in the first heat of the finals, so he cruised around behind the pack in the second heat to win the thing. Kind of too bad in a way, because Jeff was fast enough (even though his brother Stu said, "we were never less than 25-30lbs overweight in that class"), and a top-notch driver, and might have won anyway. Two years later at Greenlake, the Hedlunds did win. Yet I looked at all the heat times for BSH for the prelims and finals, and the two fastest BSH heat times of the weekend were run by Barry Lewis and Jeff Lowe, both in Marchettis (and both using 1:1 gears).

Even for a mid-pack guy (sometimes better, sometimes worse!) like me . . . young, very dumb, half-blind, couldn't make two decent starts at a race to save my life, . . . even for shlubs like me, to be racing Stocks in Reg. 10 in the mid-'60s was just a blast. We never got to see much of the smart, fast guys like Jeff Lowe and Dennis Lee who could nail the start and keep the boat aired-out in the roughest corners, never wasting an ounce of momentum or a foot of their lanes. It was all still a gas! At least, since I didn't run the class, I DID get to watch Dean go at it against a very competitive pack of ASH guys every weekend. People who didn't know better might have dismissed A Stock Hydro as a slow, tame, beginners class, but anyone with eyes to see knew that this was pure deck-to-deck racing at its very best, every time. All the guys with big, fast, expensive alky rigs would stop whatever they were doing to watch A Stock. I'll never forget those days, those guys.

[DeanFHobart]

All good, Deano, except that Jeff Lowe won BSH at Prineville in '66. Jeff was the only legal starter in the first heat of the finals, so he cruised around behind the pack in the second heat to win the thing. Kind of too bad in a way, because Jeff was fast enough (even though his brother Stu said, "we were never less than 25-30lbs overweight in that class"), and a top-notch driver, and might have won anyway. Two years later at Greenlake, the Hedlunds did win. Yet I looked at all the heat times for BSH for the prelims and finals, and the two fastest BSH heat times of the weekend were run by Barry Lewis and Jeff Lowe, both in Marchettis (and both using 1:1 gears).

Even for a mid-pack guy (sometimes better, sometimes worse!) like me . . . young, very dumb, half-blind, couldn't make two decent starts at a race to save my life, even for shlubs like me, to be racing Stocks in Reg. 10 in the mid-'60s was just a blast. We never got to see much of the smart, fast guys like Jeff Lowe and Dennis Lee who could nail the start and keep the boat aired-out in the roughest corners, never wasting an ounce of momentum or a foot of their lanes. It was all still a gas! At least, since I didn't run the class, I DID get to watch Dean go at it against a very competitive pack of ASH guys every weekend. People who didn't know better might have dismissed A Stock Hydro as a slow, tame, beginners class, but anyone with eyes to see knew that this was pure deck-to-deck racing at its very best, every time. All the guys with big, fast, expensive alky rigs would stop whatever they were doing to watch A Stock. I'll never forget those days, those guys.

Opps....... You're right Phil, I forgot about Jeff Lowe. But the Hedlunds did dominate after that. And yes, ASH was a very competitive class, as was every Stock class back then...... Especially at the Nationals.

[25XS]

Would these NOA pictures from 1965 NOA Championships interest anyone? I think there are some Lake Spivey pics. I don't recognize anyone in the pics because I was only 2yrs old and living in Central Iowa at the time! https://www.ebay.com/itm/165381578951 (not my auction or pics) I copied one pic showing the banners and judges' stand.