James Diedrich Hallum, 5/18/32 - 7/19/16

[smittythewelder]

In another big loss for the old-timers of Seattle Outboard and Region 10, Jim Hallum died yesterday from non-smoker's lung cancer. This took him very quickly, which is fortunate, but a few of his old friends were able to talk to him first.

Jim was the oldest of three children born to Valdemir and Lillian Hallum, and is survived by his younger sisters Mary and Karen and their families. His dad Val (b. 1908), a great guy remembered by some of us, was a dairy farmer before he retired, but had started in his own father's business, Seattle Oxygen Supply. Val was also an outboard racer, starting before WW2. He raced KRs in A hydro with such local notables as Chuck Hickling, Lin Ivey, Dick Polk, Jack Livie, and Leonard Keller, our hardware supplier and one of Val's particular pals.

Jim was exceptionally mechanically talented from early on, and in high school was racing control-line model planes, even building his own engine on a lathe in the Tolt High School shop. Jim graduated from Tolt High (Carnation, WA) in 1950, but not before he was working on his dad's racing equipment even as Val was going to the airplane meets with him. There is a wonderful photo (which I hope to get scanned and reproduced here) of young Jim driving his dad's boat in his one and only race, which he won, coming out of a turn in front with an enormous grin on his face.

Jim entered the Engineering program at the Univ. of Washington after high school; he was delayed by illness, but graduated in 1957 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

At some point in the Fifties, the parents of a young racer, Gerry Walin, who had heard of Jim's abilities, asked if he could get some more power out of Jerry's KR. This started a long association of the engineer Jim and the driver and boat-builder Gerry.

Also somewhere in the early-mid-Fifties, Jim had obtained a Tenney Red-Head pulse-jet model engine manufactured by engineer/inventor/industrialist and racer Bill Tenney in the Midwest. Having built a couple of airframes to carry this screaming powerplant, and having gotten his best plane to making laps in the 130 to 150mph range, local champion racer Jim traveled to a big national meet in the Midwest. For some reason Jim had another fellow fly the plane, and it didn't quite perform at its best, but after the races Jim and Bill Tenney got together and talked pulse-jets, engineering, . . . and Anzani racing outboards, for which Tenney was the U.S. importer.

So at some time in the late 1950's we think, or maybe 1960 (nobody can remember any of this exactly anymore), Jim and Gerry began racing and developing the A and B Anzani. Lee Sutter was another SOA Anzani pioneer at about the same time (and we hope he will help correct and add to any of this!). Another essential figure in this period was another young engineer, Russ Rotzler, who had been working with Hu Entrop and who himself occasionally raced one of Entrop's early cabovers. Russ would visit Jim when he was building an engine and bounce ideas off him, which frequently appeared in the next-version racemotor.

Jim, working as always out of tiny home shops with very simple equipment, managed over the years to transition the rather balky "Anxieties" into increasingly fast and increasingly reliable engines that always held numbers of A and B records during the 1960s and early '70s. It was a lot of work. But it was made more fun by the presence of yet another young U of W engineering student and grad, Ron Anderson out of Port Angeles, WA, who had been racing an Alden-built Hot Rod in BOH before discovering the Anzanis and getting deeply involved in their development. Ron, who went on to the highest levels of factory tunnel boat racing, describes Jim's initial relationship to him as that of a mentor. A couple of other names to add at this point are Ron's brother Don "Dewey" Anderson and Charles "Honker" Walters, both of whom could fairly be called "team drivers."

We who watched this are of the opinion that Jim Hallum would have had a strong claim to be the best engine man in outboarding at the time, because his Anzanis were outrunning other men's Konigs which actually had more potential power in them than did the Anzanis. Jim himself, a rather shy and self-effacing man who preferred to stay quietly in the background, would never have thought in such terms. There's an old saw about show-horses vs. work-horses, and Jim was emphatically one of the latter. Additionally, he "could do more with less" than about anyone we knew, working at a little bench in a garage with the cars in it, and little equipment beyond a homemade press, a gas-welding rig, a little Atlas lathe, and his "Civil War milling machine," a genuine relic, yet sending world-beating 2-stroke screamers out the door.

If that's not enough, he helped some dirtbike and flat-track racers, and roadracer Jimmy Dunn with hopping up their bikes. Oh, and he built some racing chainsaws! In these efforts he was among the earlier American developers of tuned exhausts and expansion chambers.

Have I mentioned that Jim was a regular hiker and fly-fisherman?

The justly famous 100mph record set by Gerry and Jim in B Hydro with a rather obsolescent 2-cylinder Anzani, long into the era of Quincy loopers and 4-cylinder Konigs which even in the C and D classes had not yet matched that speed, has been described elsewhere. So has the less-known "D" engine, comprised of two B Anzanis (one of Jim's, one Ron's) mounted side by side on a very impressive Bill Tenny gearbox. I'm trying to coax Chuck Walters, who was the driver of this experimental 140hp brute, to come tell this story and others.

Ron Anderson moved to Wisconson in the early-Seventies to work for Mercury, and I believe he and Lee Sutter did about the last racing of the "Seattle-style" Anzanis. By that point the weak-kneed Lucas magnetos had been replaced by the Mercury "Super Spark" (right?) CD ignitions, making the final Anzanis, with their four carbs and high porting and expansion chambers actually more reliable than the early ones, certainly a lot easier to get on-plane without fouling plugs. I remember the season that Fantum ran Jim's last iteration of the B Anzani, and that motor ran like a watch, race after race.

By then the Anzani's time was up, and Jim was working on a B and a C Konig 4-cylinder Gerry had purchased. The C got sold fairly soon, but Jim's reworked B/350 Konig over a four-year period and with three owners and four drivers, won back to back National Championships (Walin and Dick Rautenberg), set a competiton record (Barry Lewis), and was National High Point in 350ccH (Steve Johnson). Jim Hallum could build a racemotor!! He also built what we think was the first alky race conversion of the Evinrude 60hp triple, with much bigger carbs, etc..

My computer is timing out. I'll be back with more, and am soliciting Jim's other friends, mostly named here, to tell their stories. Among them certainly will be the members of the Losvar family which employed Jim for many years; several Losvars (Art, Jim, Tom, Dave) were racers themselves. Another long-time friend, Leland Schmidt, a local tunnel-boat builder and racer, went on hikes and fishing trips with Jim in later years. In his last years Jim did some volunteer work in the local Duvall, WA food-bank, and we might hear more about that.

For myself, I want to say that Jim Hallum was a wonderful fellow to talk with. Nobody I've talked to can remember ever having seen Jim get angry. He had taken up working on and flying his old pulse-jet model planes, and some new ones, some years back, and was happy to talk at length of all the technical minutiae and fabrication problems with anyone who was interested in such things, and so I got to assist in a couple of launches. We had shared interests in light planes and old warbirds, which Jim enjoyed photographing, and yakked for hours on these and many other things from the space program to the making of pipe organs, and I will miss it very much.

[smittythewelder]

This afternoon I got to talk with Dave Losvar, head honcho at Seaway Marine in West Seattle and he cleared up and reminded me of some things. If you were around Jim Hallum at nearly any point of his adult life there would eventually be some reference to "the Boathouse." He worked as lead outboard mechanic for two of these at different times, both in the far northwest outskirts of the Seattle area. First was Art Losvar's Mukilteo Boathouse. Art was a racing buddy of Jim's dad Val, and continued racing even long after all his boys had got into it, running the Service classes far into the years when other men had settled for golfing or a rocking chair.

After Art Losvar closed shop (I think Dave said 1973) Jim eventually joined the Everett Boathouse, working there well into normal retirement age. Even after retiring, Jim would come into the shop maybe one day a week and work on any little old OMC engines that had come in. There's a whole younger generation of guys that knew Jim from those times. Daren Goehring, a top local racer and Seattle Outboard commodore, has been running the shop at the marina for some years according to Dave, so we can hope Daren will come here and add some stories.

(To all of you SOA guys who do chime in here, please go tell us your stories about Dick Rautenberg as well. I'm going to contact Dick's daughter Susan (an avid racer herself) to ask if she will write out a good bio of her dad.)


(EDIT) -- Just was informed by the family that a graveside service will be held on Monday at 1:30 at the Novelty Hill Cemetery, ******************************

(EDIT) -- Oops, was given the wrong address above. It's 28400 NE 116th St., Duvall.

[racnbns]

Smitty

Thank you for the history lesson. I worked at OMC in the 60's and 70's and was in the race group with Jack Leek as my boss. I heard a lot of the names you mention but didn't know how they fit into the puzzle. You have filled in a lot of the Seattle puzzle for me. I got to know Howard and Penny,Dwight and Zak and a few others from SOA. Always enjoyed visiting with them at Depue.
Thanks again,
Bruce

[smittythewelder]

Thanks Bruce, and I'm glad you brought up Jack Leek, one of the older group I'd heard mentioned but didn't know much about when I got into the sport in the mid-'60s as a dumb young kid. Doc Jones is another. That's why I'd like to see some of the Seattle-area racers from the Fifties add their memories to this thread. The majority of Seattle Outboard members, at least through the mid-'70s, seemed to come out of the north end of town, often having had fathers in racing or having known each other for years, where I came in cold from the south end, knowing nobody and nothing. Russ Rotzler can probably fill in a lot about the older days. I'm also awaiting Ron Anderson's stories, including the "dyno races" when he and Jim would tank-test their Anzanis with calibrated test-discs.

[smittythewelder]

Aw nuts, I sure wish I had known about this a while ago so I could have bought a jar as a gag gift for Jim, who fought with the Lucas magnetos on Anzanis for years:

http://www3.telus.net/bc_triumph_registry/smoke.htm



(EDIT, 4/23/18) Looking at RacingFan1's scans of 1953 Propeller magazines, I see a number of Region 10 race results where Jim's dad Val Hallum finished first or second in A Outboard Hydro. I believe Jim was chief mechanic on his dad's outfit.

[OldRJexSea]

Early in 2017 the carefully filed post-it note with Smitty's phone number fell out of the stack of desk paper. I gave him a call to ask if he had managed to survive into 2017 without trauma. He had. Then he reminded me that my 2016 long reply to his Post remembering Jim Hallum had been lost from the Forum, system problems. Smitty asked if I could reload the file if I had kept a copy. I am now going to try that reload. I reworked the file with a few more details and added a set of 4 photos taken from Hallum's video production about his Anzani which set the B-Hydro record over 100 mph with Gerry Walin and their true prop riding hull.
The file upload worked in 2016 so maybe I will be lucky again in 2017,
Rus Rotzler
===
NOTE:
The long .rtf text file must be viewed with a good word processor program to see the photo images at the end of the file. A simple text edit program may not display the images.
The photos are really worth a viewing. Anybody recall seeing a 4 carburetor -B- Anzani or the record setting prop on it straight from Entrop's Merc 75-H crew-sock prop bags?
6302563026
6302763028

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I haven't been able to post much here the last year or so, but I guess maybe that goes for a lot of others, otherwise, why is there not more here about Jim Hallum? I remember him from when I first started racing, and he was a legend then. I wish I had been more mature the few times I was around him and had the courage to come up to him and talk. We were busy the few times we went to DeLake, and took a lot of time trying to figure out setups since there was no testing, but we pitted on the far west where Mike Jones, Rick Sandstrom, and some of the other heavy hitters of the day were, but didn't talk to Jim. He was right there, and I saw him along with Jerry Walin, but I was too shy and intimidated to talk to guys that had set unbelievable records that I read about before I even saw my first starting flag. I did talk quite a bit with Jerry Walin in our pits in 1976, but never really with Jim. I got a head shot of him at that race and he took some film of me racing. I thank Mark Demaray for gathering up autograph photos for me of himself, and some others, but he was not able to get the one I sent him for Jim Hallum. This thread needs to continue, because there is way too much that has not been posted yet.

[smittythewelder]

Good to see some continued interest in this, Wayne. Good, too, that you brought up Mark Demeray's name as well, since Mark became one of the central players in what was about the last of Jim Hallum's boat racing project phases, the development of motorcycle powerheads for alky outboard use.

As with all of this old stuff, remembering exact years is difficult, but I'd guess that by about 1969 or so, interest in motorcycle-to-outboard conversions was gathering among the most widely-experienced and tech-savvy outboard tuners and their circles around the country. As oldsters may recall, alky ("Outboard" was the designation then) engines had to be approved for use by the APBA (maybe NOA as well), so while anybody could run the approved Mercs, Champs, Konigs, Anzanis, and Quincys, et al, you couldn't use a Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, or Honda. At the same time, the general motorsport-oriented public was getting accustomed to motorcycle engine displacement as measured in cubic centimeters, and the gear-heads among outboarders were realizing that while our displacement designations of Class "A" or "B" or "C" had no meaning to outsiders, changing those designations to "250cc" or "350cc" or "500cc" would make much sense. My own little contribution at the time was to write up a proposal that APBA drop the whole business of "approving" particular engines, freeing the creative engine-tuners and builders to apply what was current tech in bikes or sleds or whatever as long as it met the other racing rules and fell within class displacement limits . . . which should be designated in cc's. I sent copies of this letter to several APBA big-shots, who at that time happened to include fellows I knew from Reg. 10 (Sandstrom, Mike Jones, Howard Anderson). How much effect that letter had, I don't know; probably not a lot since as I say the idea was already in the air here, and I suppose all around the country. In any case, the rules got changed, which led to some very innovative engine projects from top tuners including Jim Hallum.

IIRC, the first of these was a 125cc Yamaha, an already-obsolete example with the sole advantage that Jim or some friend had it so it cost nothing. Converting it to outboard racing use was a matter of cutting and welding on the crankcase so it could be mounted to a towerhousing, raising compression and re-jetting and re-timing the gasoline engine to use methanol, lowering intake timing so that the engine had enough low-end to get on-plane (no 6-speed gearbox here), building a pipe and brackets, and so forth. So many guys have done this over the years that the process is no longer a novelty, but Jim was among the very first to do it. Jim Losvar was the driver of this early (was it the first-ever??) motorcycle engine in the previously tiny, Konig-dominated 125cc Hydro class. I should call him and see if he will come here and tell us about it.

I referred to Mark Demeray as being part of this motorcycle-to-outboard phase of Jim Hallum's racing "career." Mark, a top local A Stock driver, who had been a shop assistant to hardware manufacturer Leonard Keller as well as one of the boat-builders at the Craig-Craft operation, became the driver of Jim's second 125cc Yamaha, an up-to-date 1972 motocross motor. Mark took this to the Nationals and won the class, and opened a lot of eyes to what could be done. I know that at Yelm that year, Jim got a couple of offers to buy the motor by some big-name drivers from out of the region. Again, let's hope Mark D. will come here with more, and more accurate, info on all of this.

One of the more exciting of these projects was Hallum's outboard racing conversion for Cliff Kelley of a 500cc Kawasaki Mach 3 triple, which old guys will recall as one of the awesomely fast road bikes to come out in the very early Seventies. The sight of this brute, with three expansion chambers pointing aft of the forward-oriented cylinders, was a jaw-dropper. Dwight Malhoit currently has this engine in his stash of goodies, so ask him about it. Another first for Hallum was his early-Seventies conversion of the then-new three-cylinder Evinrude of 55-60+ horsepower (depended on year) that was one of the first loop-scavenged production outboards in this country. Because of it's odd (for us) displacement of, IIRC, about 49 cubic inches, Walin ran it as an F. This engine was a natural for OMC-mechanic-Jim; among other mods, he widened the front of the crankcase to take much larger reedblocks and carburetors from some larger OMC product.

[smittythewelder]

I had missed the fact that Russ Rotzler had got his wonderful post of old memories re-established here. Don't miss clicking on his link, above. I hardly knew him back in the day, and have had more conversation with him since Jim passed than I ever had earlier, but Russ is a prime example of fellows who were primarily gear-heads rather than drivers, and were consequently never big names in the sport even though motor-racing, and particularly open-class racing, is as much a sport for creative techies as it is for drivers. I hope Russ will continue to serve up his thoughts here; he is a smart and personable man with wide experience. For instance, back in the years we've been covering in this thread, Russ designed an interesting loop-scavenged engine to possibly replace the then-aging B Stock Merc 20H, and some of you would surely be interested in his drawings.

Additionally, let's hope we can get others who knew Jim to post here, including Ron Anderson (whose one post was lost), Don Anderson, Lee Sutter, Chuck Walters, Leland Schmidt and all the Losvars, and others who knew Jim very well.

It's hard to see in those photos, but one of the nifty gizmos Hallum fabricated for the Anzanis was his cockpit-controlled mixture adjustment for the big Vacturi carburetor. In the days when they were still using the Lucas magneto, the Anzanis attempting to set records in the cool autumn weather at Yelm and Delake were prone to fouling plugs while trying to plane-off with their big props. To address this, Jim built a rack-and-pinion adjuster attached to the high-speed needle of the Vacturi, with a Bowden cable leading to the cockpit of whatever boat was being used. The engine having been started, Gerry or other driver would get on-plane with a lean mixture, then move the mixture control to the full-rich racing position.

Possibly there are photos of another very cool piece of Hallum hardware (and again I'm hoping others who were there can improve this account by telling us if Gerry or Ron or Lee or whomever had some hand in these deals). To reduce whatever windage was created by the conventional steering bar/cables/clamps hanging outside the cockpit, for the 100mph Karelsen, Jim built a cable steering system that was entirely contained within the cockpit, out of the wind.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

When I revived this thread Smitty, I knew I could count on you to add some more to it, and you have been exceptional. Sometimes Lee posts, but Ron, Don/Dewey, and others don't. I loved the time at Ralph Donald's several years back getting to talk to Ron and Don again after so many, many years, and they have so much they could add, but a lot of the old racers don't write about it. They will talk to you, but not post.

[OldRJexSea]

Well Smitty, your latest good words about the changing period into the outboard full open racing classes is quite interesting but mostly after my time with Jim Hallum. Jim and I had spent much conversation, and some detailed thoughts, about fitting the better mid-1960's motorcycle engines to outboard racing use. You have provided a nice overview of the later conversion successes and Jim sent a set of DVD's he made that showed the more current small racing classes using current motors & maybe some of the earlier conversions. I think that DVD set ought to be kept in an SOA library rather that go extinct with me out here in the hinterlands.

But more of interest for early moto engine to outboard conversion. It was about 1965-67 when we were out at the farm shop and thinking about some practical way to adapt the current 125 cc rotary valve Yamaha single to outboard racing use. The issue of engine approval was a question but since the motor was certainly a production engine by the thousands we thought that use was possible in the NOA if not the APBA. You previously told of the Bill Tenney twin Anzani gearbox to tower housing setup used one final time by Hallum and Anderson. That setup was the basis for a rough design drawing Hallum made which placed four of the 125 cc Yamaha motorcycle motors into a configuration which used the Tenney bevel gear system similar to the coupled Anzani's but with 4 input shafts, one on each face of a cube gearbox. As I mentioned earlier, this 'imagineering' was a fun exercise but Hallum was serious enough to make a fairly accurate rough design drawing. There was not a chance at that time of any actual construction.

The output of four "full modified" 125 cc Yamaha running alcohol was going to be something near or over 4 HP per cubic inch so the "Square 4" 500 cc Yamaha setup was likely to have 120 HP and loads of torque because of the basic bore/stroke ratio which I think was the same as the Factory RD-56 250 cc twin Gran Prix machine. It was also not going to be a light motor hanging on the transom; maybe no worse than two iron B Anzani's though.

Hallum & Dunn's first effort for the road racing 125 rotary valve Yamaha did prove out the horsepower range estimate using gasoline so the 500 cc outboard configuration would have been impressive right from the beginning. Probably would have needed to fit it to Charles Walters runabout for safe enough use though.

So there you have it, another snippet of an early interesting effort by Hallum before he got busy doing the rather outstanding post-Anzani workings.
Fun times later but I missed almost all of it unfortunately.

Another tidbit Smitty. In 1962 at Lake Lawrence, 1 2/3 mile record course, I ran over the record with my 1955 Entrop hull in DOH but by not enough to make the books; worst start I ever made at 3 seconds behind the clock. Finished well over a full turn ahead. Surprising super smooth ride with the transom off of the water except for the last half of each turn. Much lament over that lost 3 seconds since it would have put the DOH 5-mile record in the books until almost 1970. Wasn't wise enough to find $5 to buy the Bob Carver turn entry photo. A month earlier at the Divisionals in Estacada, Oregon I also finished with over a full turn lead but threw the shear pin in heat 2. I think it was Howard Anderson who won on points and got the guarantee to run at the Nationals. Am pretty sure that he won DOH at those Nationals so was was a fast fellow. OK then on your "gear head" description but I was plenty quick in DOH for a few short years. Fun times then too at age 20.
Russ Rotzler

[smittythewelder]

Interesting, Russ. I never heard about that mid-Sixties brainstorming about hanging four 125cc Yamahas on a common gearbox. You guys must have had one of those early rotary-valve engines to look at, and probably that was the one that Jim ultimately built for Jimmy Losvar to run, as I described above. Sort of a funny-looking thing in its outboard form, with the inlet duct (to the rotary valve) angling up and out, just missing the rope-plate, with the carb sitting at about a 45-degree angle to the lake, as I recall it. Again, I hope J. Losvar will come here, hopefully with a photo or two (for all I know, he might still have the engine).

You say you and Jim speculated that 4hp per cubic inch should be obtainable with an engine tricked-out for methanol, a good estimate as it turned out. I never heard a dyno figure for that first (rotary-valve) Yamaha of Losvar's, but Demeray's piston-port 1972 engine made 29hp, IIRC (I forget the rpm figure, but Mark would know, something like 11,200, maybe). Of course today's GRM and VRP 125s are said to be putting out something like 47hp; when I told Jim a year or so ago that I had read that, he laughed and said that his best A Anzani wouldn't quite do that!!

Russ, is your old Entrop hull long-gone? Those big old cabovers were quite a sight.

So sad to see those old good-guys dropping off. Both Hallum and Entrop, not to forget Rautenburg among many other old-timers, were wonderfully likeable and interesting guys to listen to, and I wish they could be here to speak for themselves.

[OldRJexSea]

Yes Smitty, there are too many lost memory tales from the really speedy Northwest racers of the 1960's era. The later 1970's and onward may have better ongoing memories and good movie records.

Hallum's Anzanis (and Anderson's) were good for about 3 HP per cu/in or more on average. We knew that 4 HP cu/in for a good modern 2-stroke was almost certain and would probably reach to 5 HP cu/in with specialty designs. That has proven to be far too modest if the current 125 cc motors are at 6 HP cu/in. At my last visit with Hallum in late 2015 we talked about the 125 cc outboard class and the single cylinder rule. We had a chuckle about my speculation of a single cylinder twin opposed piston design. The purpose would be to finally have a Curtis Loop full circumference port system controlled by the second (auxiliary) piston since the modified Schnurle Loop systems have long since run out of places to put more port area and also shorten the stroke. That concept tickled Jim as we thought about how it might best be a diesel with outstanding cornering torque. Then we went back to looking at his pulse jet engine efforts toward making the much smaller sizes operate well.

As for Entrop's first 3 cabover hulls for C & D/(F) motors. These were 11 1/2 foot length designed for the Merc KG-9 and later MK-55. I was able to buy the 1955 #2 hull which had been in storage for years by Dick Brunes near Kenmore who mostly ran it in D Stock. I think hull #3 was a special build for Doc Jones' class C OMC PR twin which had a ton of power. I never saw those older hulls in their original operations. And yes, my hull and equipment went to a fellow in Spokane about 1973 and I doubt it has run since or survived. Entrop's 13 foot hulls for the Mark 75 followed immediately since his 107 mph record was in 1958. The #2 (final) 13 ft. hull first ran in about 1964 and was the rig which set the class F kilo record of about 112 mph at DeLake. Amazing hulls for certain as were the later record hulls for Evinrude.

A last comment with regard to your earlier mention of my B Stock motor design of 1972 which was an effort to replace the old, obsolete and very noisy motors with something affordable. For those who may be curious, it was based on standard Evinrude parts using a single piston from their first loop scavenged 3 cyl. motor. Every part was modern Evinrude except the ignition, crankshaft, case/cyl block, and tuned pipe (muffled). It was a "detuned" low compression design to try for under 30 HP but had serious porting. Obviously, a 20 cu/in single was going to shake strongly so dealing with the vibration would be an issue. I still have the semi finished crankshaft, the block casting patterns, and all of the original Evinrude parts. I hope that there will eventually be time to build one powerhead just for fun. It will not be the detuned version however. I do have a PDF file (scanned) of the assembly drawing which shows the OMC part numbers if anyone would like to see my old drafting board effort.

As said previously, it was a fun time/era.
Russ Rotzler

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I'm glad that this thread has revived. Thank you Smitty for getting some of you old friends aboard. Russ.....it has been extremely interesting to hear what you have to say. Please keep up with your comments. You have told us stuff none of us guys toward the East ever heard. We knew that you guys in the Northwest had some real exoctic thing going, but most of the time you guys came East to race. Not many of us ever went to your home ground to race. I always loved the few times we went out there.

[smittythewelder]

Well by the same token, Wayne, some of us who were only region racers, and rarely or never made the weeks-long trips to other locales would surely like to hear the stories that were only known in those places, and for this thread the stories about the creative tuners and tech guys who left the piles of aluminum chips or sawdust on their basement floors building stuff that others drove. Who were some of the early experimenters with oddball engines in other regions, the quietly creative tech guys who would have had so much to talk about with Jim Hallum? I know John Alden down in California made an outboard out of the first reed-valve 125cc Yamaha of '73, having previously built some of the fastest alky Champ Hot Rods and probably a ton of other stuff I don't know about. The range of interest of some of these fellows was very wide; Duane Wallick once told me (hope I recall it correctly, that Alden had developed a new method of gem-cutting that had amazed the people in that business. And many here probably have samples of the innovative hose-clamp designed by Harry Pasturzak, best small hose-clamp I ever saw.

Russ, please put up a link so that members can have a look at your motor drawings. My laptop had a brain seizure not long after you posted it to me, and I lost it along with a ton of other stuff (some of which was important, dang it!!).

[OldRJexSea]

Team Master Oil tells of two strong issues for outboard racing in times prior to the 1970’s, not the least of which was the very long road to either Coast from almost anywhere to attend major racing events using the old national highways. They were generally good routes but not at all as effective as the Interstate highways after all of those route segments were finally cemented together. Time and cost of those long travels were quite a deterrent for most outboard racers I think. Eventually setting the major National Championships regularly into the middle Regions certainly helped.

The second item of note was the perceived “mystique” of APBA Region 10, mainly the coastal Pacific Northwest. Even those of us within the region who were new to outboard racing in the late 1950’s and the ’60’s were aware of the ongoing well deserved history generated by those good old racing hands of Jim Hallum’s father’s era. It is not quite fair to list only a few but Leonard Keller, Art Losfar, Val Hallum, plus a bunch of tough old C Service drivers such as Rocky Stone and the younger Harold Tolford, John Laird and their contemporaries defined that racing.

The old iron engines those fellows had raced since the early times, (and even back into step hydro’s), were what set the class motor sizes. The Johnson-Evinrude KR, SR, PR, SpeedTwin(?) in -C service, and the '4-60’ were the 15, 20, 30, and 60 cubic inch motors of A, B, C, and F classes. (The -D- and -E- classes were defined I think but seemed to be unused). There was even an M (midget) class which was about 1/2 size of A motors. A small group of Californians kept that class running until about 1960 as I recall.

The decade of the 1950’s with Mercury introducing a full line of Stock Racing motors by fitting good racing lower units to their production line motors brought a major sudden increase in racing drivers, probably everywhere, but certainly in Region 10. The -B-Stock class also had Champion motors and Martin (which disappeared along with its clockwise prop rotation). The already fast Northwest racers soon hauled these motors to DeLake and the records jumped, probably adding to the “mystique”. More racers were available to make the Nationals trek too.

I should end here since this thread is defined as related to Jim Hallum so I am unfamiliar with how these Forums continue when comments drift away from the main focus. There is more to add at another time if my concern about drifting topics is not an issue.
RR...

[OldRJexSea]

OK Smitty, here is the assembly drawing PDF file for the 1972 B-Stock motor using mostly OMC parts.
62916
Well it worked. A click downloads the file to your computer for viewing. Maybe I should try to upload it as an image which may be directly visible in the window.
62915
That worked,.. good when stuff happens.

Hallum enjoyed seeing this drawing, the actual detail design drawings (now firmly in hiding), and crankshaft counterweight calculations needed to direct the dominate vibratory force vector. It's most likely that I purchased the OMC parts from him at Losfar's Boathouse in Mukilteo before doing the design.

[Ketzer]

Long highways, for sure. The Ketzer Racing Team, with a home base in Hot Springs, Arkansas, went as far west as Arizona for one race, and east to Florida for another, but for the most part, we raced Arkansas and the surrounding states. We would have loved to travel farther, but being working-class folks, as most boat racers were in the 60s and 70s, when we dispatched on Friday after work for a race, we had to be back to work Monday morning--drive all night to get there; drive all night to get home. And we did, and although we got home all sore from the work and bruised from being slammed around in boats, it was fun, incredible fun.

[smittythewelder]

I've got something to say about that, Steve, but first I have a question for Russ:

Now this is really stretching the old memory banks, but if I remember right, there was a paired set of bounce pipes sitting with other discards in Hallum's shop, an early experiment. Again IF I remember correctly, these two early, rather skinny pipes, which were for a single-cylinder engine, were welded to each other at the header, that is, they used the exhaust outlet header in common, but they had no diverter valve of any kind, only this "one-into-two" header with it's single mounting flange. The pipes were of different lengths, and as I recall it the idea was to have a sort of "automatic-shift" at some point from the long pipe to the short pipe as the engine went up in rpms. I forget if this set of paired long/short pipes was for a motorcycle or possibly for a racing chainsaw (I remember they weren't for a boat, and they couldn't have been since there were no single-cylinder outboards racing in Reg. 10 in the days when they were made (mid-to-late-60s, I imagine). Do you recall anything like these valve-less "auto-shift" pipes, Russ? Jim didn't seem too excited about them, so maybe they were not particularly successful. I think at the time I saw them was when Jim and Keller had cast Jim's patterns for exhaust valves for the Anzanis. Now if you were no longer around at that point, you might not know that the original idea for those valves was to hold the "ram's-horn" curved bounce pipes on one side of the valves, and megaphones on the other side. The megaphones were for getting the boat up to speed, after which the valves would shift to the bounce pipes. But this configuration was very short-lived, as they decided to leave the megaphones off, and just have a no-pipe open exhaust for getting the boat planed-off.

One of the early users of two bounce-pipes WITH the diverter-valve on a single-cylinder motorcycle was Seattle's DSH ace, Tom O'Neill (also recently lost to us). O'Neill had a well-used 100cc Suzuki dirt bike with which he was trying to keep up with the 125s that flat-tracked in the dome at Gold Creek Park, near Bothell, every winter in the early '70s. Ron Anderson welded up a set of pipes (long and short) and a sheetmetal valve-box; Tom actuated the butterfly with a cable-connected trigger on the handlebars. I think all the two-pipe rigamarole had to do with some of the early Hallum and Anderson pipes being rather peaky (narrow working range), something they got better at later on. In any event, it was fun to try to listen for Tom's "shift" while sitting in the stands in the dome, with all the echos and racket (and dust) from all the other bikes in the race.

[smittythewelder]

Steve, this country is so big that even some in-state drives take hours, as from the Seattle-Tacoma area over the Cascades to central Washington where a lot of the best races used to be. Could be worse; from a few long trips it has always seemed to me that the State of Montana by itself takes a Whole Day to get across!! Anyhow, not so long ago, another old codger and I were laughing about a certain, uhmm, endurance or capacity issue that overtakes many old fellas. We were noting that when we were young we would have a couple of us guys riding along in the van with a hydro on top or trailer behind, and the girlfriends in back. WE could go on for hours, and we used to laugh at the gals, who seemed to have to make a "rest stop" every forty five minutes! Well, we're not laughing anymore.

[OldRJexSea]

Smitty; yeah, we old guys are now lucky in that there must have been women in the "Freeway Rest Stop" planning groups. Seems like a number of stops were later additions in the West.

About your early pipe & valve questions & comments. Here is an unfortunately long comment. I hope none doze off in the reading.

Hallum & I used two small 1961-62 motorcycles, a 50cc Tohatsu & 80cc Yamaha, as very good test machines for many later porting modifications and pipe test. The Anzani port numbers went to the motorcycles and then added carving & features tested went back. At times the large mostly empty Mukilteo public boat launch parking lot across from Loser’s Boathouse was the easy & quick place to test the pipes. We found some odd effects at different tuning ranges. Both moto's raced the short dirt oval tracks too.

Mainly, all that was needed was to learn what not to apply to the Anzani or any of the other motors. We could almost simulate the race boat conditions by making higher gear full throttle runs from very low motor speeds. That gave time to see what the tach was reading as we felt the pipe doing normal or strange things.

We did try various schemes to have pipes be effective over a longer rpm range. I don’t recall that Hallum’s bounce pipes had an operating range that was much different than any others. They did have a strong effect and depended on porting relations for peak performance. Nothing odd there. I will guess that the double pipe for a single cyl. that you saw could easily have been a test set for the 50cc Tohatsu. Dividing the initial pressure wave into two pipes near the cylinder is a problem for returning wave strength. Probably would have done strange things on the Tohatsu, including nasty flat zones and crankcase pressurizing since it wasn’t reed valved. One extra long Tohatsu pipe had 3 nodes where you could feel it “come in” twice more above its start point and wasn’t a strong action pipe either. This was years before the double divergent cone discovery. (Later, Anzani bounce pipe c-case pressurization problems were found when I took a good gage to Hallum for a tank test after seeing a vapor plume out of the Vacturi carb just before the tuned range when at a race).

At that same time for the 80cc Yamaha I built a coaxial double pipe to test for a broad operating range not needing a valve. The arrangement was an outer megaphone set to start about 6000 rpm with a standard expansion chamber mounted internally on center and set for about 9000 rpm. The test was to find out if the outbound pressure wave would divide equally enough between the outer megaphone and the inner bounce pipe. The tapered header pipe ended at about 2 in. diameter. The megaphone was welded to the header pipe. The expansion chamber divergent cone initial diameter was maybe 1/2 inch smaller and was supported downstream from the header pipe about an inch or two. The megaphone angle allowed for the inner bounce pipe angle.

The thought was that the initial shock wave would have its center portion “cored out” by the bounce pipe while the outer portion would flow as an annular ring out of the megaphone and hopefully act normally. The result was that both pipes had their effect but much diminished over what would be normal as individual pipes. The power band covered the full expected tuned range smoothly, had marginally OK power to top rpm, but was well below what either pipe would provide as normal single pipes of either type. Adjustments to change the “cored out” area made no difference. This is why I speculate that the outbound shock wave can be easily disrupted.

The now common two into one siamese bounce pipes on twin cyl. outboards did come after the double divergent cone discovery but that may not be why having half of the header pipe wall fall away at the convergence zone doesn’t seem to cause a large wave disruption.

=== Clear memories from 50 years past seem good, but .... ===
As for the “ram’s horn” -B- Anzani pipes. I recall being there sawing metal for them with Jim at the farm shop. That particular tubing was the initial expanding curve divergent cone portion starting at the exh. port mount plate and ran several segments around the long curve. I went home to make the end cones because I had the right lighter sheet stock. Brought them to the farm as Jim was finishing the divergent section (double divergent by then) and we rolled up the straight sections, mounted the end cones & exit tubes. That is my early memory. Jim built a good aux. mount system made easier by the short length of pipes aft of the motor.

The Anzani -A- motor for record use was already sitting on a rack somewhere with the diverter valve and double pipe setup on each cylinder. I recall Jim making the wood pattern for the first cast diverter valve. I rode along with him to a pattern shop - small foundry of an old friend (Peterson) which was near the Spokane street overpass. Seems like it was a year or more before those castings became operating valves. That whole effort was a serious chore for Jim. I do know that the valved 4 pipe -A- motor was in Walin’s trailer box the year I subbed for Halum as his mechanic at the APBA DePue Nationals and the week later NOA Nationals at Midland, MI. I keep thinking that was 1966. I think that was also the first year of the “ram’s horn” pipes on the -B-.

Both races were very disappointing. Wain said the motors did not seem to have the normal power. Just plain felt feeble but still ran about equal to the other top racers. We didn’t discover the fuel type problem until back at the Boathouse and found that the “sponsored” fuel was not methanol and not nitro-methane. In the test tank the -B- wouldn’t pull the normal load wheel to proper rpm until the “nitro” was added at nearly double their top competition fuel percentage. Jim was very worried about dumping in more nitro so went in steps and hoped to catch problem indications before melting a piston. At something just under 60% nitro, instead of their normal 30% the motor was close to normal power and ran fine. Walin and I had discussed increasing the nitro at DePue after he commented that the motors acted like they were running straight methanol break-in fuel. I think Gerry even called Jim about added nitro but it was simply too much of a risk outside of experience and there was not enough time or extra fuel for testing. Had we tipped the nitro can hard at those two Nat’s the results would have been much more fun.
R.R.
Photo of me wrenching on Walin’s -A- to get at the twisted crank in a Milwaukee parking lot in between DePue and Midland Nat’s. Walin was inside getting a proper OMC recognition for his StarFlite 4 record. Yeah, my travel rig was the ’63 Stingray back then. Nice ride for a Model Maker apprentice. It hauled half a trailer box load of late prepared Anzani powerheads & pipes to catch up with Walin in Minnesota.
Fun times for sure (and a little stretching of the "Reasonable and Prudent" Montana posted highway speed limits).
62940

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This is some really good stuff. I wish the picture was larger, but you have given us some history I have never heard before. This was just before and during the time I started racing. Gerry Walin was a legend to me, and I was glad to finally meet him in 1970's. We would see Gerry and Ron Anderson come east with some totally different pipe setups. Had no idea of how the ideas, testing, and setups came about. Like to hear more. You guys on the West Coast didn't come East until the nationals, so you always had something going on we didn't know about until you got here.

[OldRJexSea]

Team Master Oil; please understand that my involvement & comments about the Hallum-Walin Anzani early-mid 1960's development era was preceded by already powerful Anzanis from Bill Tenney and initial efforts by Hallum. Those are vitally important.

The British knew how to make a proper 2-cycle motor plus Anzani was an old well established company I think. They made small aircraft engines in the early 1900’s WW-1 years and the motorboat engines in later times but I don’t remember their history well.

The interesting thing about British and European 2-stroke motors was that they used loop scavenged design in preference to the cross scavenged, deflector piston designs of American manufacturers from early times onward. The first Brit. 2-stroke motorcycle I saw was a loop scavenged 250cc Greeves single "scrambles" machine growling through a short tuned megaphone pipe and slinging sand around the Boise, ID foothills in late 1955.

For large and industrial 2-stroke motors the US did use various non-crossflow designs. I will guess that the deflector piston crossflow design standard used from the beginning by American outboard manufacturers was driven by manufacturing simplicity. Much less complicated foundry patterns for the cast iron and basic straight machining. Same benefits for the later aluminum production outboard motors. Multi cylinder inline motors also needed some added cylinder spacing distance for loop scavenge transfer passageways even with careful placement but that doesn't explain the old opposed twin's cross flow design.

Bill Tenney was a noted outboard racer, probably starting in that iron engine era of Jim Hallum’s father. He knew very well how to modify a motor for racing performance. He also had a good machining facility. I can only speculate on what he did to the already well designed Anzani loop scavenged standard production boat motor which he imported. I don’t know the history of his being the Anzani importer with regard to the standard motor or that which related to his providing the racing motors. Whatever the correct history, Tenney sent out Class A & B racing motors which were well modified versions of the standard motor. Their basic design insured immediate dominance over the American deflector piston motors, (and any other cross scavenged motor).

I would like make note here that the central States racers outboard racers ought to remember the “Aluminum Anzani” produced in northern Ohio by Milford Harrison & son Kaye (and the whole family) at Birmingham Metal Products; home was Vermillion, a lakeshore town east of Sandusky. I do not know the full history of their outboard racing motors but their machining facilities were excellent in a moderately large production shop specializing in products made on cam operated screw-machine type lathes. No shortage of milling machines and other machines either. (I sure hope that I have not messed up the spelling on “K’s” name.)

The Harrison’s certainly had the capability of manufacturing every part of their racing motors. They may have begun with a racing Anzani and decided that changing to an aluminum block would make a much lighter and more easily repaired or modified motor. Since the motor was approved for APBA racing it must have met the ‘commonly availabilty’ rules of the time. So I will guess that the entire motor was their product.

Externally it looked like an Anzani, megaphone pipes and all. They may not have used the gear driven magneto, just no memory on that. I also do not recall any internal differences but vague memory is that there were some; maybe something like not using a crankshaft center rotary valve but that is speculation. The motors were powerful and competitive in a fast region. The Harrison’s made the long trip to Lake Lawrence sometime in the mid 1960’s. Towed a very fine and impressive racing trailer, might have included a light machine shop. They ran A & B hydro & runabout, and it seems like more than that too. Kaye may have set a record in one runabout class and did take home the win I think. The Harrison’s were fast, Walin & Anderson & Sutter were fast, the California troops were fast, and so were the newer Konig’s.

The Loopers were noisy...

That year and those years at L. Lawrence were fairly spectacular. The little “Mukilteo” motorcycles had done their job as motor mod. & pipe test machines and had tossed some of us boat racers into the flat-track dirt an embarrassing number of times, then retired to dark corners. The mid 1970’s at L. Lawrence were even more spectacular according to the tales.

R.R.

[Ron Hill]

At the APBA Nationals, 1956, I think, Lowell Haberman had an Anzani and Eric Molinar drove it. Very unreliable at the time.

When I saw Jerry Walin "The Phantom" run at the kilos, Modesto, 1963, was the first time I thought those motors migh have some potential. Jerry went like a hundred in a 350....

[OldRJexSea]

Well Dean, good to see that you are still alive and maybe kicking grass in Indio, CA.
I do not think that Bill Tenney used the Anzani motors for racing himself, he did whatever development was needed. It is possible that his shop operations fellow, whose name has left me after 50 years, (imagine that), may have raced them since he was reasonably young in 1966.
Obviously, I do not know if Harrison used purchased Anzanis in racing since I do not know their full history. By default, the Harrison's needed a base design to produce their motors, including a good racing foot if memory is correct.
I am sure that Ron Anderson ran Anzani but not sure what brother Don ran; lots of years and many motor types, pretty much all successful for those two guys, for many years.
Bob & Dick Rautenberg ran Konig or Stock rigs earlier but went fast in the Outboard classes for sure.
I do not know or remember who ran Anzani outside of Region 10 but there must have been many more than I listed spread around a nation. The Oregon runabout racers were mostly Stock, C-racing, and C-Service guys.
Really vague memory has you sort of with the Lewis brothers on Lake Sammamish for Outboard class, and doing well in A & B Stock during my ancient times.
As for Lee Sutter, I mostly recall that after B Stock hydro & runabout he ran Anzani on his runabout and then moved to Konig. I certainly don't remember the details but Lee was a fine racer and a humorous fellow. I have 8mm movie clips of Lee in his runabout w/Konig at the '66 DePue Nationals which need to be put on DVD and handed to him.

Finally just remembered one other Anzani racer, a friend of Entrop's in Kalispell, MT. business man Chuck Mercord. (Need some luck on spelling the last name). Hard to recall any details of whether 2 classes or one, hydro only I think, but had nice gear and was a local race operations fellow and promoter.

R.R.

[DeanFHobart]

I was just wondering if anyone else ran Anzani's.

And, Lee Sutter is still a humorous fellow. He owns the Stock and Mod equipment that Kyle Lewis runs. And for sure he still knows how to make a race boat go fast.

[Donald]

I don't believe Tenny ever drove one, except maybe testing. Dick Hoppenrath was his driver.

[rumleyfips]

I think the Harrison's had to quit making the engine when they ran out of the NOS cranks they bought from Anzani. Their engine was close to an Anzani, or so I always thought.

[ProHydroRacer]

Question...... What other boat racers besides Tenney, Hallum, Walin, Anderson, Sutter and Harrison used the Anzani?

Clyde Queen

[ProHydroRacer]

I also seem to remember that Dean Wilson had one too.

[OldRJexSea]

At the APBA Nationals, 1956, I think, Lowell Haberman had an Anzani and Eric Molinar drove it. Very unreliable at the time.

When I saw Jerry Walin "The Phantom" run at the kilos, Modesto, 1963, was the first time I thought those motors migh have some potential. Jerry went like a hundred in a 350....

Ron; Modesto was quite an attraction back then for the Seattle area folks who were fast enough to try for records. Held early each year, maybe Feb. - March, gave another chance to make the books after DeLake in Sept. The drive was torturous if there was not time off from work. About 600 miles & a patchwork of short early freeway segments. I rode along to Modesto as pit help with someone about then, might have been Entrop but that is really a guess. There were a few rigs from Seattle. Walin was running strong in hydro & runabout too, had a newer hydro hull but not yet the final 100 mph record hull. That weekend had both a long record course and the kilo trials. Gerry ran runabout the first course race heat in the morning which was bothered by wind chop & rollers. It was not long before the day's event was canceled by strong wind. I think the kilo trials were set for early the next two mornings. A few began to set up their rigs but suddenly it was as windy as the previous day and forecast to continue so the Seattle folks had to just pack up and roll home. The one big take-home item was bags of fresh Almonds from roadside sales stands. Most of us had never munched Almonds that were not roasted, salted, and from a can.

I think it was later that same year or the following year that the Western Outboard Divisionals were run on Lake Merced in San Francisco. A small batch of Seattle drivers figured out how to stuff all sorts of boats onto one big trailer and camper pickup truck (which I think also had a runabout racked on top). Might have been Charles Walter's rig. I rode along as pit guy again, had time. Non stop, driver swap-out grind starting Thursday late afternoon. Truck differential began failing at Mt. Shasta and we made it to an auto wrecking yard on the outskirts of Redding. Lucky that they had a differential but it was geared for an automatic trans. That truck had a differential type that allowed an exchange without gear mating adjustment. Was lucky on that too. Laying on the boiling hot black pavement, wrenching on a still hot differential housing caused a sort of bucket brigade effect. Slide under on the cardboard heat shield, wrench until you couldn't take the burn, hand the tools to the next guy in line as a wet towel went on your back. Rolled the rest of the way to S.F. in second & third gear, (4th downhill), and then back to Seattle. Arrived back Monday morning just in time to drop off one or both Anderson's (someone ?) at their Boeing jobs. Lee Sutter was living in Hayward, CA at the time so there was a little extra fun after some pretty good racing.
R.R.
P.S..... Doing a little arithmetic to get the years better set. Those San Francisco Western Divisionals would have been some years after 1963 if we dropped the Anderson's off at Boeing jobs on Monday morning because first we need to let them finish their U of Washington studies which began sometime after 1960.

[Ron Hill]

From 1963 til 1967, I went to the Modesto (Bud David Kilos) and we broke one record in '63. Wallin may have broke one, but we got "Blown out" until 1967. I broke three records that day driving for Harry Bartolomei....Then, I ran the kilos in 1977 and set the 35 SS H and 35 SS R records...and came close in DSH. I had to average 80 MPH for the record, down wind, we'd go almost 81...up wind, I'd almost blow over. Just before dark they let me have three more tries...Modesto Reservoir was fast water, but usually had lots on wind in the spring.

These are the record certificates we got from UIM in those days.

[OldRJexSea]

Ron; Nice UIM record certificates. Certainly worth a place behind glass in a frame for a wall display somewhere.
I think that the Seattle folks became mostly too wary of the Modesto winds to chance the long drive later that decade and maybe longer.

[Ron Hill]

Ron; Nice UIM record certificates. Certainly worth a place behind glass in a frame for a wall display somewhere.
I think that the Seattle folks became mostly too wary of the Modesto winds to chance the long drive later that decade and maybe longer.

Even though the Kilos were always before boating season started, the board of Supervisors ruled that the reservoir could not be 100% closed to the public.

So, one person on a Jet Ski, kept 100 boats off the lake. Hotels, restaurants, gas stations lost business, but the county wanted to be "FAIR".

So, they moved the kilos to Oroville. I never thought Oroville was fast water, but then again, I never ran there. I only help set up the kilo course.

My record certificates were on my dad's desk, under glass til he passed, March 1997.

[smittythewelder]

Deano asked who ran Anzanis. Local Reg. 10 guys included Duane Wallick, who ran an A that I think he got from Bill Kelly. Duane also bought a new Harrison B engine in 1966 or 67. Buzz Thorsen had the first Harrison out here. You noticed Buzz when he rolled into the pits with his McDonald hydro painted in colors to match his beautiful '56 Nomad wagon. I remember when he first showed his brand new B Harrison, something we had only heard of, in the pits at an Oregon race (Rockaway?), and there were a bunch of guys eyeballing it and asking questions. Also running an A Anzani was Ron Magnusson of Tacoma who was part of the Goff-Hagness crowd and ran a gorgeous little red Goff hydro himself. A couple of later owners included Mike Flynn from Gig Harbor who had two B Anzanis tricked out with four carbs the way Jim and Ron were doing it, Al Vernam from somewhere on the Penninsula I think, who owned an A Anzani, and Roger Wendt who bought an open-pipe 2 carb B from Ron, and regularly drove out here to races with his wife Wanda from their home in Montana.

The only Anzani owner name I heard of from "back east" (for Reg. 10 guys this is anywhere aft of the Idaho panhandle) was Wally Roman.

[smittythewelder]

Russ, your comment that the loopers were "noisy," as if they had no other attributes, comes off a triffle snarky (maybe not intended), but remember that you only saw the earliest arrivals of that line of engines. It's true that some of the first Quincy loops seemed to pop a lot of corn with their battery-and-points ignitions. But as with the Anzanis, there was a learning curve. You might not know that Hallum built an A and a B loop for Chuck Walters each of which really hauled the mail, and Ron built what I'd call a second-generation (wide pipes and a couple of other tweaks) B Loop for Gene Laes that Walin said must be the fastest of its kind in the country when he ran against it. John Myers built a very good A, Bob Waite's D was no slouch, nor were any of Andy's engines, prepped as they were by Bill Rankin. Apart from that, Christner's basic concept of a loop-scavenged engine based using Mercury moving parts, which allowed a lot of deflector owners to make a cheap upgrade and do it in their own garages with ordinary home tools, was very clever and fondly remembered by all those who benefitted.

[Ketzer]

Yeah, Smitty, and I loved the sound of loopers! Konigs, in comparison, sounded like a bunch of P-O'd bees, but they were faster, so we went to them.

[OldRJexSea]

Smitty; Please do recall that during the period which we have tried to remember here and afterward, the racing engine noise became a restrictive problem at many Seattle area lakes for racing and even testing. Oddly enough, the major lake residents did not protest the open megaphone & expansion chamber racing motors anywhere near as much as the Merc 20-H conversion kit droning. That noise produced loss of lake access so was a factor of why I bothered with doing the -B- Stock motor design which used a bounce pipe with muffler.

My comment about the noise of the Q. Loop motors was intended to be as I stated for that period. They were very loud with that particular megaphone pipe and seemed relatively heavy. It was good that the loop scavenged design was produced but the expansion chamber pipe already existed in general by then and any outboard motor with reed valves could make easy use of them but that didn't seem to be of interest. Last time I looked it still did not. No doubt that adding the weight, complexity and durability of expansion chambers compared to the open megaphone must have been a necessary Looper compromise.

There was a question about the effect on pressure waves of a megaphone divergent cone angle much above 7 degrees. We didn't test any on the little motorcycles. The reports of racing performance with those high angle later megaphone pipes, first used in the siamese configuration I think, was that there was not the strong tuning-in effect of the earlier pipes. We had to assume that something positive had been shown in testing those pipes and their continued use on the Loop motor too. My understanding is that smooth (laminar) gas flow moving from high to lower pressure is traditionally done in expanding chambers with a 3 to 5 degree divergent angle. The shock wave in 2-stroke motor exhaust seemed to be sensitive to breaking away from a "sealing effect" against the pipe wall, something we imaged as "popping the bubble". The double divergent cone in bounce pipes, at 22 degrees for the short final section seemed to help with not popping the bubble. High angle megaphones were in question in both gas flow and pressure wave disturbance as we thought about it at the time. These thoughts are only empirical however. The increased loudness and type of sound from high angle megaphones was certainly noticed.

In the earlier times of adding megaphones to the Merc's, Entrop was quite concerned about the added aft weight of just the pipes. That turned out to not be a problem but few other of the later current C-D-F cabover hulls were true prop riders so engine weight was not so much of a concern as with Hugo. In his particular application the large added weight of "Loopers" would be a serious, maybe dangerous issue. The comparatively nose up, transom down racing attitude in pictures of the other fast cabover hulls with the earlier motors and then their much more powerful looper motors is a testament to that condition. I will guess that the pickle fork hydros were a better solution to a positive angle of attack, higher speeds, but without the old style foredeck profile which would blow over backwards with no chance of recovery.

The basic Merc bore stroke ratio was superior to the Anzani; closer to the good motorcycle designs. Hallum was not at all comfortable with the too long stroke of the Anzani but was able to add power over time to an already initially powerful motor and solve other problems. Everything he did later built on solid experience from all earlier efforts. No surprise that you tell of what that expertise (and Ron & Don Anderson's) did when applied to any loop scavenged motor after the Anzani era. I was off to road racing, low budget style, in sports racing and formula cars after 1968 so have much less detail knowledge of the following periods of Region 10 boat racing. Old notable DOH racer from Salem, OR. Paul Woodruff was out there road racing his Porsche S-90 then too. It was good to talk with him about racing times, water & track. He ran a really powerful 55-H on a long Swift hull. Paul would be in front if his motor ran well. All modified 4 cyl. Marc's had unfriendly carb issues back then.

Good that a better tally of the Region 10 racing folks who ran Anzani is being noted. It was a worthy era as were those following.
R.R.

[DeanFHobart]

Phil,

I think my memory serves me right that Buzz Thorsen showed up with that "B" Harrison at Dexter Dam. And I think he beat Gerry Walin. I never saw him run it again.

[smittythewelder]

Russ, and the rest of you old guys, do you have a good recall of when the good aftermarket electronic ignitions started to show up in car magazine ads and on auto parts store shelves? In my memory the early "transistor ignitions," both inductive and capacitor discharge, got popular from maybe about 1967 or so. A lot of companies jumped into this field. At first I believe most of them utilized the existing breaker points, but later on eliminating points maintenance became part of the sales pitch. In alky outboard racing, either with Kettering's sixty-year-old battery-and-points system or with the various magnetos, launching a boat on a cold day with a big prop was a race between whether you could plane-off before plugs fouled.

Jim, and many others I expect, had addressed the problem of the phenolic drive-gear of the old Lucas magneto shredding its teeth by rubber mounting that gear. But I don't think he was ever in love with that mag. To keep the Anzani from fouling its very cold heat-range plugs (Autolite 203 or Champion L82R, IIRC), necessitated by the heavy load of nitro, Jim first brazed an extension on the Vacturi carb's needle valve. The boat was launched with the mixture leaned-out, and once he planed-off Fantum would scramble to the back of the boat and give the needle valve a twist to richen it up to race. Somewhat later Jim greatly improved this operation with a little cable-operated rack-and-pinion needle valve rotator that gave Gerry a convenient lever next to the throttle. I tell you, next to any other racemotor in the pits, a fully worked up Hallum Anzani with all the carbs and adjusters and exhaust diverter valves and ram's-horn pipes looked like a NASA project!!

The later (maybe '71-on?) Hallum and Anderson Anzanis all got a modified Mercury "SuperSpark" CD ignition replacing the poor old Luca mag, and with that and an up-graded crank-and-rods combination the era of semi-notorious Anzani unreliability was gone. But it seems to me that there was a period of a few years there when those first "transistor" ignitions were available before the Merc CD ignition came along. So Russ, do you recall any discussion of those possibilities? I remember one of them, called a Delta Mark 4, had quickly got a reputation as a good unit. I had a Sears version in my car.

[Dan M]

Smitty,

Ray Hardy, John Winzeler and Harry Pasturczak were using a Motorola CD ignition system about this time. Larry Lotta worked for Motorola and may have been involved also. There were 2 rectangular boxes about 3"X4" and Harry had cast a mounting plate that fit on the inside of the transom using the Konig mounting bolts to hold them. Used the Konig points to activate.

Regards,

Dan

[OldRJexSea]

Smitty;
Those original CDI boxes may have arrived as you have remembered. I built one sold in kit form by Heathkit. It worked well but I don't know for sure where I used it. The prospect of much higher spark voltage plus the claimed ability of the extremely quick voltage rise that would still arc across otherwise fouled spark plugs was worth having. I think it probably went into my sports-race car from the 1968 beginning.

The first full electronic breaker less CDI magneto I know anything about was the unit out of England which was commonly used in racing motorcycles of the mid-late 1960's . It was the unmounted unit I told about in the story of Jim Dunn's X-6 Suzuki for the 1967 Daytona race. It was still sitting on the bench, maybe only a day or two short of time needed for the adaption work before Daytona. I don't recall the name but it was utterly reliable. I bought one for the B-Stock engine design. It is shown on the assembly drawing. It had a rotating magnetic arm (outlined under the rope plate) which passed over the induction/trigger coils, a control box, and the spark coil. That unit disappeared while I was making the various first parts, etc. Cost maybe $120.

As for the Anzani rack & pinion remote mixture control for the Vacturi, I only relate it to the expansion chamber era. 50 year old memories are a chore. I think Hallum's original square box bounce pipes ran without the need for the mixture control but it was nice warm weather at that first race. Getting a grip on the Vacturi needle valve kind of needed that brazed-on extension any time with the notched detent knob. I don't recall Walin needing to adjust the valve while running in the early years.
R.R.
==P.S.===
OK Smitty, I've cobbled another long one together, not about the ignition & carb stuff, just a strange tale; tagged on below.There is maybe just one more left I think plus one for Dick Rautenberg, then I am probably done, just too out of date to be moderately relevant.

[ProHydroRacer]

Smitty,

Ray Hardy, John Winzeler and Harry Pasturczak were using a Motorola CD ignition system about this time. Larry Lotta worked for Motorola and may have been involved also. There were 2 rectangular boxes about 3"X4" and Harry had cast a mounting plate that fit on the inside of the transom using the Konig mounting bolts to hold them. Used the Konig points to activate.

Regards,

Dan

I had one too from ZAK. As Harry told the story to me, he quit selling the system after he found out that Ray Nydahl had first come out with the idea and didn't want to take any sales from him.
Bill

[OldRJexSea]

Smitty; Here is another old tale, fairly interesting in general. I may have just one more left from the weird past.
=====
This is an 8mm movie extracted photo of Entrop’s new (and last) -FOH- course hull on its first outing at the season opening race on Lake Sammamish. I think the year is the one following the Nationals in Casper, WY. (Can someone help with the Casper year, maybe 1963?). The first test was for ride attitude without the added weight of new siamese pipes. We bolted on the pipes and the ride balance remained stable. Short course prop gave 94 mph on speedometer so about normal. New deck curvature gave increased aft lift as expected so a more safe corner entry mode.
http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/images/attach/jpg.gif

The next race for Hugo was mid season Capital Lake in Olympia, a large 1 mile course. This story is about a very interesting discovery during that race and a later mystery.

Hugo used high shear strength aircraft bolts with a formed metal aircraft lock nut rather than standard shear pins. He wanted to retain the prop if the shaft failed at the threads. He used a torque wrench on the prop nut. I assumed that there had been a failure in early times.

Hugo coated his props in Lubriplate grease and kept them in crew sock bags, the few stored in a nice simple tray which fit a trunk space below where he laid the 75-H in his 1950’s Desoto. He pulled out the prop for the day at Olympia and mounted it, white grease included. Ran the first heat and set it on the stands for refueling.

I noticed the prop nut was missing, the shaft had broken at the threads. Hugh decided to run heat two but wanted to change to a prop for running at lower rpm & less throttle plus would be less concerned if it was lost.

I removed the prop as Hugh got the next one and then I saw that the forward face of both blades was still coated with white grease. A small band of grease was washed away for maybe 1/2 inch or less behind the leading edge. These are typical clever wedge type props as used on Inboard hydros.

Hugh was fascinated so got his nice 35 mm Pentaflex camera out to get a picture of the grease markings then set the prop carefully aside for later photos. We put on the second prop, shear pin bolt drive only, and Hugo said that he would use full throttle at the start and throttle back for the rest of the heat; still ran in front.

That prop also had the grease remaining on the forward face but a wider wash band behind the leading edge. More photos, close up, of both props. He said that Doc Jones would want to see the photos.

Talking with Hugh, maybe the next year, he told of getting a call from Doc Jones asking when he could bring the boat south for some test runs. Hugh had vacation time and the model shop was not busy so he made the trip. I did not know this at the time, no one was supposed to. Doc Jones had contacted someone at an “agency” and they wanted to set up a straightaway course in salt water where they could take high speed underwater movies of Hugh’s prop at his normal speeds. Probably coated with something a little more exotic than Lubriplate.

The course was quite narrow to allow for proper placement of several cameras and sound equipment so was a little spooky to run through but Hugh did the many passes as needed. The agency crew said thanks, Doc & Hugh left. Some time later Doc received a report from the agency telling that there was excellent new information about high speed prop micro cavitation from those tests, no more tests needed, and thanks for the outstanding service.

That’s it folks. You will have to guess, just as I did, where application of that new cavitation data was so critical. Doc & Hugh were either restricted from disclosure or did not know. Underwater noise is created from even minor prop cavitation and who knows just what that odd separated flow across the forward face of Hugo’s props looked like and what sound was generated.

Those props of Doc’s & Hugh’s were surprisingly efficient, calculated using simple pitch, tac rpm, and indicated speed. Much more so than those on typical outboard hydros of the time including the props I ran in -D- on Entrop’s 1955 course hull.

I think enough time has passed that my speculation and this story is of little importance, just interesting to think about.

R.R.

[DeanFHobart]

I was for sure at that first Lake Sammamish Race at Idylwild Park for his last course boat. I spent hours watching him set it up. Everything was measured with precision. It was watching a master at work. Hugh Enthrop was way ahead of his time. He was truly a genius.

[OldRJexSea]

I was for sure at that first Lake Sammamish Race at Idylwild Park for his last course boat. I spent hours watching him set it up. Everything was measured with precision. It was watching a master at work. Hugh Enthrop was way ahead of his time. He was truly a genius.

Dean; Maybe a most interesting aspect about Hugo other than his genius craftsmanship was that he was also a master story teller with a sharp memory. It was great fun to ramble along to various race events in that old Desoto w/top boat rack and listen to nearly endless tales of the whole experience involved in those years during his several early Mercury world record efforts. He did tell very humorous & fine detail stories of the many rather outrageous instances associated with Carl Kiekhaefer and the MK 75-H initial years. I enjoyed those traveling story times very much and also shortly later when he became so involved in serious photography coincident with racing both R-22 & R-12. At the time, and in retrospect, I felt privileged in every aspect of association with Hubert. He, Hal Tolford, and Hallum were real mentors; I was very lucky.
R.R.

[DeanFHobart]

Russ.... Really cool..... You could write a book... Have you read the books by Ralph Desilva?

I remember after he retired from 'Driving' race boats, he invented a mechanical photographic device that could follow an object... such as the moon, so it could be a time lapse photograph.... the picture would be clear without being blurry.

Russ.... maybe you can give some insight into this project.

Like I said he was truly a genius. Russ... did Hugh have an Engineering Degree or was he self taught?

[OldRJexSea]

Dean; Good that you found the writing interesting. I only have these few memories from my short time in racing outboards so that’s far too little material for more than telling tales. I generally know little or less about other noted outboard racers outside of Region 10 other than name recognition. I “disappeared” after the early 1970’s except for the random contact with Hallum and attended only a couple races any decade. That whole era was special for me so I never lost interest or curiosity though.

You asked about Hugo. When he called he would say it was Hugh or Hugo. Most often Hugh would ask if I had time to help lift the hydro to or from the car top rack sometime that week. When it was Hugo calling that meant soon going to the races.

I really don’t remember enough details about how he arrived at his long employment in the Boeing main Wind Tunnel Model Shop. The critical thing I can say is that the skills acquired by anyone working in that shop result in exactly those type of abilities that folks outside of that field admire and often think are Engineering. They are not wholly ‘self taught’ either due to the broad training of a Wind Tunnel Model Maker included in all of the experience.

I think Hugo graduated from Ballard H.S. as a regular good student, must have been about 1940. I cannot remember if he told of a first job being at Boeing in aircraft assembly but the timing sure would have been right because of the WW-2 build-up. I do vaguely remember something about the later sudden need for Wind Tunnel Model Makers because of the new Boeing Transonic & Supersonic Tunnels becoming operational, or soon to be so for the Supersonic.

Many Wind Tunnel Model Makers were also hobby model fliers since childhood. The Tunnel guys used the term Toy Models whenever they were talking about their hobby modeling while at work. Hugh was one of those who had done hobby model aircraft building & flying since his young years. There were so many of these early Toy Model Aircraft people involved in all aspects of the Wind Tunnel operations that Wind Tunnel managers went looking for more of them when the need grew large. If Hugh was already a Boeing employee and one of his many Toy Model friends already in the Tunnel operations told management that he was out there then I will guess that was his entry point to being a Model Maker.

Hugh’s photography enthusiasm got a sudden start in that year of the Outboard Nationals at Casper, WY. It was a circular trip, first to a demonstration run at a boat race in Paulson, MT the weekend previous to Casper. He opened up two fitted camera cases to show me his very new 35mm Pentax and a whole range of new premier lenses from short (macro) focus to 800 mm, no variable tele-photo types. This was no low cost operation! He had studied the operation manuals and a beginners guide but didn’t yet know details or have experience with good practices in photography. I think that he set up a full dark room for B&W prints almost immediately.

In 1962 at Everett J.C. I had taken courses in photography to help raise the struggling grade point. Also was one of the Yearbook staff photographers after that. So on the Casper Nationals trip there was much conversation about the details of using all of Hugo’s nifty new photo gear in the best ways. He took a ton of pictures through Glacier Park, then Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, then over a 9,000 ft. pass to Cody and on to Casper. There was no shortage of hilarious tales about Krazy Karl along the way too.

One of his Wind Tunnel and Toy Model friends was Herm Dittmer, a Model Design fellow, photographer, and amateur astronomer. He built his own larger type reflector astronomical telescopes and ground the precision lenses, a seriously involved task. Hugh showed him his photography and Herm showed him his latest telescope and the celestial photographs. Herm’s tracking mechanism for that telescope was a commercial unit I think and had operation issues of some sort but did OK.

So that was Hugh’s start point for celestial photography. He purchased a premium small reflector astronomical telescope, a Questar if I remember correctly. It was then the time for him to build his first powered tracking platform which could be adjusted accurately for Earth rotation and didn’t have whatever that issue was with the commercial unit of Herm’s. He showed it to me one afternoon in his back yard. That first unit did not appear complicated but did have all needed adjustment & rotation planes solidly set in place. I think that Hugh made modifications later to improve the nearly exact tracking.

The telescope maker set Hugh as an advisor for their products I think, used his photographs in their literature, etc. He became maybe even more generally known world wide for his photography than his earlier boating & model airplane record efforts. As with his speed records, it took years and maybe decades before his super sharp celestial images no longer amazed even professional astronomers or were equaled by amateurs.

R.R.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Russ:

Regards your question about who would be interested in the noise the props made while running.

I would imagine it would be someone like a think tank or engineering folks with Nuclear Submarines as this would have been in the time frame that they were trying to quiet the subs as much as possible to keep them from being detected.
"
I have a friend who was on the sister sub to the Thresher, the sub that was lost. I will tell him about this thread and the pertinent post as I am sure he will be interested. He was a diver and spent some time underwater free of the sub tapping underwater cables for information vital to our defense.

[OldRJexSea]

Russ:

Regards your question about who would be interested in the noise the props made while running.

I would imagine it would be someone like a think tank or engineering folks with Nuclear Submarines as this would have been in the time frame that they were trying to quiet the subs as much as possible to keep them from being detected.
"
I have a friend who was on the sister sub to the Thresher, the sub that was lost. I will tell him about this thread and the pertinent post as I am sure he will be interested. He was a diver and spent some time underwater free of the sub tapping underwater cables for information vital to our defense.

Bill:
It was not really a question. :cool: I was being indirect. (Sorry about that...)
I will neither confirm nor deny your thoughts.
Thank you for reading the long writings.
R.R.

[OldRJexSea]

Here is my only image of Gerry Walin & Dick Rautenberg from our early 1960's adventures in winter after the fast summers of boat racing. This is another marginal quality image extracted from 8mm movie film. This image is of Gerry & Dick in the Top lift line at Mt. Baldy in Ketchum (Sun Valley) Idaho. Skiing from about 9,000 ft. Baldy peak. The ski trip first went to Big Mountain in Whitefish, MT then to Ketchum & Sun Valley, ID & back to Seattle. Very good times with these guys summer & winter. Many Seattle boat racers were also skiers because the ski areas were only a 45 minute drive (some longer) and had night skiing.
63067
Dick was a long time skiing instructor. Gerry was a regular skier. I was a skier & lift operator.
When the water froze for mountain snow the boat racers just geared up for the slopes and kept going fast.
Russ Rotzler

[Master Oil Racing Team]

This is an extremely interesting thread Russ. We are learning things we never knew. I hope you keep it up. Gerry Walin was a hero of mine. I read about him and Hugh Entrop in Boating News and a couple of other magazine a year or two before I ever started racing. Had no idea I would ever get to meet him. I was very shy and didn't talk to him the first time I saw him, and didn't want to take pictures later when I finally had some time to talk to him at Yelm because he was paralyzed below. I knew Dick and Penny Rautenberg fairly well. Penny helped me with info for race results, and I served a number of years on the Pro Racing Commission with Dick besides the time we spent racing together. The National Meetings were always great to be able to spend more quality time with competitors from across the country. Mark Demaray sent me a DVD of films taken by Jim Hallum from a lot of the races in the Northwest. Jim narrated the earlier ones, with Gerry Walin as the Fantum. Toward the end Jim had some film of my last run at Yelm in a laydown Butts going for the 700 hydro record. I will always remember my times in Washington and Oregon with fond memories, and cherish the stories you tell of what you guys out there were able to accomplish that most of us on the east side of the Rocky Mountains never knew what you were up to.

[OldRJexSea]

Master Racing:
As Smitty has emphasized from his initial posting, there is so much more to remember about Hallum, Walin, the Andersons & Rautenbergs, and other Northwest outboard racers after the 1960’s. All of that must be done by those of you who were there with them later when so much more was accomplished, records set, significant equipment design changes, etc. I was not there so my old memory stories are from a short period by comparison. There is very little more that I can add although I will try to cobble any together before long. I feel OK about being able to write these old memories where folks can read and relate to them. It is good that, overall, more detail about these interesting old racers is told. The important continuing step is for more folks to write about their own personal details of times spent with these outstanding fellows and families. Maybe the emphasis of those stories could be about the persons rather than just the boat racers since they still are and were all interesting, fun at times, and worth a tale or three.
R.R.

[smittythewelder]

I'm going to put some public pressure on Russ, and I bet some of you can help me.

Russ is an intelligent and talented individual and has done some very interesting work over the years. And while he will talk about some of it in PMs/emails with me, he is disinclined to have others think he might be exaggerating and tooting his own horn. He also has this weird notion that his many posts will eventually bore the members. I keep telling him NO!, anybody who follows this thread WANTS to hear the stories, and WANTS to hear about the technical stuff!!

Okay now, how many of you old goats remember the Yamaha "GYT-kits"?? (Poor Russ, he's cringing as he reads this, LOL!!). I think it stood for Genuine Yamaha Technology (or Tuning, or ?). The GYT-kit was, IIRC, a replacement cylinder, head, pipe, not sure what else, that you could buy from your Yamaha dealer in the early Seventies to bolt on your motocross bike to hop it up. Mr. Rotzler has some inside dope on the development of the GYT-kit, and I KNOW you old guys will want to hear his account. It's a bit of history that only he can tell.

[OldRJexSea]

I had already begun reworking this mid-1960’s tale as a final posting to suit Smitty. So now that he has become impatient maybe I can hurry a little.

In previous writing I told of the two small motorcycles that Hallum, Dunn, and I used as test machines for engine modification extremes (beyond what was already done in the Anzani’s), and many pipe tests. They were also raced on dirt short tracks. Both had the valved 2-stage pipes so had full effect from below 8K to above 14K rpm with a long overlap in the ranges. The two moto’s were a 50cc Tohatsu and an 80cc Yamaha. Both about 1961-62 vintage, the Yamaha used a disk rotary valve, the Tohatsu used piston skirt intake timing. Everything learned had potential transfer to the Anzani. They both were powerful and hard to hold the front wheel down on full power starts if the rear wheel did not completely break loose. The Yam had the same bad habit going to 2nd gear. So that brings this tale:

That Yamaha 80cc was my addition to the test bike stable. It got the full-plus-extreme treatment in testing limits for everything.  Actually never found limits because these were modified stock motor parts. Always a little more power or extended power range. Also, anything more than could be applied to the Anzani or Dunn’s Suzuki X6 road racer was rather pointless.

A little south of Dunn’s home in Everett, WA on old highway 99 was the Yamaha dealership of Bard Hanson & his Father. (Bard’s father had been a C-Service boat racer with the older Seattle gang). Bard was a first rate young local flat track racer, 250 cc Bultaco I think, semi pro type rating.  

Bard had seen me face down in the dirt trying to race the Yam 80 at Gold Creek indoor short track. He noticed the power and 2-stage pipes on the Yamaha & Tohatsu. When Dunn stopped at his shop Bard asked about both machines. Then asked us to bring the 80 to his shop for a back yard ride. We did that;  I warned him to load the front wheel but it still ran out from under him.   Second try he hung over the bars and got a good race type start spewing dirt through 2 gears.

Bard asked if he could keep the 80 for a couple of days until the Yamaha importer Rep out of L.A. was going to be there.  The next week Bard was laughing as he told us how the 80 threw the Rep on the ground twice, once in 2nd gear. The Rep was a dirt racer too so was a bit shocked.

The Yam Rep asked if he could get a set of parts with the racing mod’s in the 80 so I carved up a cyl., cut a valve, cut a Dykes top ring setup on a piston; ... didn’t make a “shell design” combustion chamber — just told them the chamber volume, the inlet port & carb throat size, and gave a length for the long pipe.   Hanson was authorized to give me Yam parts to modify.

About a month later Bard told us that the "Factory" was impressed. Maybe a year or more later Yamaha (probably the LA operation) began selling a modification for the 80 called the GYT-Kit. ... Genuine Yamaha Tuning.... It was the set of mod’s from our test Yam 80. Yamaha also put these mod’s in GYT-Kit form for their newer small motors, maybe up to 200cc’s.  They couldn’t use the extreme mod’s fully because these kits had to be long lived, not just racers. On the 80’s they used a short high rise expansion chamber which had only a moderate effect and the common long tiny diameter stinger-outlet, (but it was all pretty chrome).

Halum & I made 3 or 4 Yam 80 full mod cyl, Dykes ring piston, raised compression sets for local racers. Complete waste of time since there was more important racing gear needing attention.

So there you have it Smitty.  Yeah, I remember that (dam...d) Yamaha GYT-Kit as a prototype. Seemed to work well enough when stuffed onto a standard machine.  Strange that the Factory did not know or do this long before being shown. My guess is that they didn’t expect these machines to be used for anything except putting along trails and streets. I think it was a little before the motocross era; Seattle area riders were still racing Scrambles, 250 cc and larger.
R.R.

P.S.
More memory attempts on those early GYT-Kits. I do not remember any iron cylinder 'factory' kits but I think some were made available in L.A. When Hanson (Hansen?) first had a factory kit after that long initial quiet time, he called Hallum and we both were able to view and measure it. It was an aluminum cylinder, hard coated, (don't recall the method). The porting measured the same as my iron 80cc cylinders but was profiled for best ring support long term. The piston used more current thin chrome rings, two & about 1.0 mm thick. I think all later GYT-Kits used this method. During that period those kits did a fine job I think.

[DeanFHobart]

Russ,

One more story please. Tell the folks about Jim Hallum's 'Chain Saw Racing' career. This story I'm sure no one is familiar with..... However very very interesting. I heard when he showed up for the first time at one of these events with a chain saw with pipes, the other competitors were flabbergasted.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Way to go Smitty. That's a good story you got out of Russ, and Russ......we don't need just boat racing stories. I think you must know, as you have been there, that racers like to hear about motor modifications, racing, and personal stories about the people. Most of the guys I raced with all tuned to the Indy 500 when we raced on Memorial Day to listen between heats. Lot's of boat racers also raced ski mobiles in the winter and many also raced motorcycles, and some also ran carts. It's the kind of stuff you are telling us about that you did to the motors. I had a mechanic that taught me a lot. A lot of us used other mechanics or prop guys to help us beyond what our knowledge was. Thank you Dean for maybe coaxing out some more of Russ's memories.

[OldRJexSea]

OK Dean, here is what I remember from that fun chain saw episode. It was quite amazing as you say.

Hallum’s powerful 2-stroke motor successes were notice fairly soon in the latter 1960’s by a rather unique couple of serious woodsmen who were very active loggers in the Pacific Northwest. They were attending regularly scheduled logging competition-festivals in those many Northwest towns whose primary economics was based on felled trees and reducing them to manageable sizes. There was much included in these festivals including the traditional log rolling, axe work, and those quite effective two-(person) long cross cut saws.

I wandered into Losfar’s Boathouse one afternoon and Hallum was still feeling amused by the earlier events. Jim took me outside where a test log about 15 inches in diameter and the professional size Stihl long bar chain saw was sitting. Saw chips were everywhere. The saw owners had earlier left for home in Mt. Vernon. The Stihl was left behind because it required a new starting cord handle that would not fracture and blow apart if the saw motor kicked back when starting because of fixed ignition timing with high compression. This was a very serious problem; a little hard for outboard racers to know even with a few snatched-back starter ropes.

Jim told of two loggers arriving one day from Mt. Vernon, (half way to British Columbia from Seattle), some months earlier and telling him about these chain saw competitions which they regularly entered and how really serious (maybe only bragging rights, yearly total points, and a trophy) the events were. They showed Jim their "Pro Logger" Stihl chain saw which was very nicely loop scavenged but very “over square” (bore/stroke) compared to all of the racing motors Jim normally dealt with.

The loggers asked Jim if he could make their Stihl saw into a “racing chain saw” like his other excellent motors they knew about from reading and local talk. Jim liked the idea of finally having a motor to “hot rod” that was really over-square and an excellent design otherwise. The other important factor was that cutting logs was best done at a stable rpm, not yet exactly known. It was a motor power load where the chain produced the most chips, kept its momentum, but was not necessarily peak rpm. Somewhere above max. torque.

Pipes could be tuned for maximum effect exactly at this power range for max. applied torque at a stable cutting rpm. A few test cuts with the upgraded motor showed the best rpm band.

Jim could only tell me of his modifying work on this Stihl. The raised cyl. porting, reed valves behind multiple pumper carbs, high compression & combustion chamber reconfiguration, and a pipe that was set for best torque at cutting rpm.

The only failure was the starter rope handle which would blow up in those strong logger’s hands if the motor kicked back. First fix was a water ski double-hand-hold handle with the starter rope wound around it. That was good for cutting tests but was not going to be any good flopping around in contests. Jim made something work but I do not know what it was except that it did not use the familiar traditional handle with a center knotted starter cord in a through hole.

After that the real fun began and Jim was really chuckling as he told about the amazing success the loggers told him they were having with their new saw. (A side note I vaguely recall is that they were eventually restricted from competition by rule changes).

The Stihl saw was a very new brand in USA Logging at that time. I think that all former dominant Pro saws were American cross flow designs. Sometimes big heavy beasts because of large motor size for the power required. The Mt. Vernon loggers who brought the Stihl to Jim were already suspicious characters “packin’ thet ‘ferren’ equipment”.

The chain saw cutting competitions were what you might imagine except for one where a standard size long log was cantilevered out at 20 or 30 degrees above horizontal. The logger ran out from the base, whacked off a marked width slab, and ran back to set a time. They also did a standing cut on a large standard diameter horizontal log and another event which was a vertical pole climb, cut, and max. rapid descent to trip the clock. These loggers were very tough, agile characters,... no surprise on that.

The bottom line on this was almost magic viewing for those attending these logging competitions. The Hot Rod Stihl cut all diameter logs in times thought impossible before then. The angled log had the hot-rod-piped Stihl back at the base before the competitors were half way through their cut. The same for the vertical climb topping cut and even shorter for the standard horizontal log. It was an almost impossible situation for the competitors. My guess is that all Pro chain saws out working in the forests were soon lighter, more powerful, and more efficient for the loggers.

As with the 100 mph Anzani, needed change was suddenly obvious. Another ‘Bravo’ for a serious NW logger, Jim Hallum engine mod’s, and the “MukPipeCo.” tuned pipe. A proven practical precision tool regardless of whatever may have been happening internally.

An additional thought. I am pretty sure that there was not a valved twin pipe in the final configuration here but at first an open megaphone may have been part of the tests. I used to know that detail, .. it is a short blip in memory, now gone.

R.R.

[DeanFHobart]

Thank you Russ.... This is some really good history about the Genius Jim Hallum.

[smittythewelder]

Thanks for all that, Russ!! For me and Dean, this is wonderful detail to stories we only knew in outline. I need to figure a way to coax some of the others who knew Jim well to contribute here. When they see your contributions maybe they will be willing to share.

Wayne, you mention boat racers following the Indy 500 and other motorsports. In Reg. 10 we used to have a Stock race (sometimes with the OPC guys, which is where I got to drive Dave Losvar's tunnel boat during testing), in Newberg, Oregon on the Willamette River . . . always on Memorial Day weekend. As Dean will remember, as you walked through the pits between heats you would hear innumerable portable radios, all tuned to the Indy 500 broadcast.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Smitty, we followed all kinds of high performance races down here. The marine and motorcycle business that my Dad and his partner Joe owned sponsored a 250cc flat track dirt biker that won a Texas State championship on a Honda our company provided. Joe Rome and I had hooked up with Harry Echols, editor of Motorsport Magazine, and he got us into all kinds of places. USAC, NASCAR, AMA, ARCA, and we got him into APBA with Pro, OPC and Inboard Marathon racing. It was a wonderful time. I bought the best helmet I ever had from a high performance shop that advertised in Motorsport that was owned by the owner of the New Orleans Saints. We lived anything and everything that was racing in those days from Indy, Nascar, AMA in the Astrodome and all the boat racing venues we went to in those days. I can clearly remember I was riding with Steve Jones in Corpus Christi, Texas when news came on the radio that Peter Revson was killed in a Formula 1 race, I believe maybe at Nurembergring in 1972. It was before Mario Andretti drove F1, and Peter was to only American driving on the circuit in those days. Steve and I glanced at one another, then became silent. Steve drove on for a little bit before we talked about the death of Peter Revson. We had just left Grunwald Printing on Morgan Street only ten minutes earlier on the way back to Steve's house. We had sat down with a sales rep at Grunwalds going over the layout of a boat racing program. We had a number of ads, the sizes, the photos we wanted, the text, the pages where spectators could pencil in the results, the names of the drivers, classes, boat numbers, how the start was, flags, scoring, names of the officials, and everything needed for a good program. They had been doing our programs since 1968, and had most of the info already. Mainly Steve and I were bringing in new photos, sponsors and some updated information. We were very high, laughing, talking about the race coming up when we heard the news. To this day it seems kind of strange for Peter Revson's death to be announced over the radio, but it had to be because he was a daring racer and heir of the Revlon cosmetic company. I went way to long on this Smitty, but there are a lot of racers that have stories to share no matter how small or insignificant that can bring us back to those days and times that were all that we lived for. We didn't think about it at the time. But someone else's thoughts can spark a fond memory. Come on guys, Tell us your stories. Even just a couple of paragraphs. People will read them.

[OldRJexSea]

Master Oil Team.
Maybe it is possible that almost everyone in Region 10 (and elsewhere) who remained active in outboard racing simply does not have tales to tell from decades past. Being fully involved for decades might leave little outstanding to remember except for reliving a particularly interesting race turn by turn details with others who were in the race or watching. Maybe something else puts a damper on saving their ancient memories that are more than a few words past... “Remember when.....”.

You mentioned Peter Revson. His transition to racing the European circuit was interesting in that US drivers generally did not have the long, intense learning experience of the Pro drivers in the Manufacturers team positions. {Correction} I incorrectly recalled that Revson was noted in US sports car racing for building the Scarab race cars. {It was Lance Reventlow, a well-to-do contemporary of Revson who was responsible for the Scarab}. Foggy memory has it as a very nice front engined design similar to several of that type in those years. Sort of a combination of Shelby Cobra & D/E Jaguar with a little old Italian included. Maybe set in the times of the Can-Am operations by Jim Hall & Hap Sharp in Midland Texas. All covered pretty well by the new magazine “Sport Car Graphic” which was more focused on the details than Road & Track which had gone adrift. The local Seattle racers were calling it Rod & Truck.

My sports car road racing days ran 1968-1976 so it was tough to see the end of Revson’s racing. The safety in chassis design and for the tracks sure took a long time to develop since those much more unforgiving years. Dan Gurney was a contemporary builder/driver near that time but his F1 cars were not quite competitive with the major constructor teams. Not much notable from the US in that era with the exception of the Shelby Cobra and the Ford GT-40 LeMans effort (primarily out of England). Fortunately, for the local amateur US road racers there was certainly plenty of events to be had almost everywhere and costs were pretty reasonable.

One last old observation:
Outboard boat racing (and inboards) has been defined by the limitations of the hull design and power/speed. Those items are generally tied directly to the ability to purchase (or build) the proper equipment. The drivers become more capable than the hull in fairly short time frames. With the possible exception of the (older type) runabouts, a much more experienced driver will not be able to reduce lap times over that of a newer driver who has a year or two of experience, both driving the same rig. Excellent starts and being able to judge the hull’s limits for particular water conditions are generally the only advantage of more experience.

With track road racing, the much more experienced driver will almost always be able to step into a race car, (or onto a motorcycle), and run consistently reduced lap times over the driver of that machine who is in their early years of racing. As the novice gains the many years experience of that more advanced driver their lap times become similar. The natural abilities of each driver with equal experience make the only differences in the lap times if the racing machine is the same or is identical.

Outboard racing is an excellent family sport since very young people can go racing. Sitting beside water or being in it has really practical advantages over hot dry race tracks. A family is often able to have a race boat for each member while road racing families usually have one car, maybe two in smaller classes and their racing kids are adults. The go-cart and motocross racers can have the whole family racing so is good in that aspect.

I assume that as each racer group gets to that age point where mostly what is left to do is remember the experiences and tell the tales then there is little difference. Maybe in each instance the lifetime racers have less to say other than possibly important points about the racing itself.
R.R.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

I imagine there are several reasons why older Boat Racers are hesitant to post their experiences here. In no particular order they are as follows:

1. Many older folks whose stories might be very interesting are not computer literate or do not type well, or at all. I believe there are some programs available now that allow folks to just talk and the computer writes it for you, but possibly that is for e-mail only.

2. Many have memories that may have faded over time and are hesitant to put something in writing that may be incorrect in some small way and don't feel good about being corrected if that is the case. Dates, order of finish, type of boat or motor are examples of this.

3 Some might be hesitant to being thought of as "blowing their own horn" so to speak. Others might be afraid of being accused of criticizing others, or the folks being talked about taking it that way.

4. One other reason might be that some of the most interesting stories could be told by those who are somewhat introverted. I have known several that accomplished a great deal in our sport who seem to be, or are that way.

5 I for one would like to see posts by Billy Seebold. I am sure he has many stories about the "factory wars" in the 70's and the characters involved (both drivers and factory people) that would be very interesting. In fact I have told him several time he should write either a book or an autobiography.

Whatever the reasons that people are hesitant, it is a shame that more do not talk or write/post about the history of our sport. Someday a great deal of our history might be lost forever and that would be a great loss for those that both enjoy and have participated in it. That is one reason I have always enjoyed Wayne Baldwins musings about the sport, as I raced during the same period of time, and after, as he did, and know many of the same folks he describes in his postings.

[Ron Hill]

Hap Sharp raced C Hydro in California. Seems, my brother may have won the race in De Anza Cove, San Diego, 1953. He was from Texas, and the next time we heard about him, he was racing cars with Jim Hall.

HAP SHARP WAS C HYDRO NATIONAL CHAMPION: http://www.historicracing.com/driver_detail.cfm?driverID=1496

[Donald]

This applies to me. I am a hunt & peck typist.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

This applies to me. I am a hunt & peck typist.



Being the religious person you are, I would call how you type the Bible System, "Seek and ye shall find".

As we have discussed in the past, any time you want to post something that requires a lot of typing, it can be done like we did once before.

[Ron Hill]

John raced a Mandella inboard Flat Bottom. Is that the guy you bought the helmet from Wayne?

I got a "B" in typing in school. I used to drive the teach nuts because I looked at my hands. I was one word away from an "A" in speed, 100% no errors on our final. He gave me a "B". Mr. Simpson said, "If I didn't look at my hands, I'd have been faster." I told him, "If I don't look at my hands, I don't know what I'm typing."

Typing class as a Sophomore was very good for me. I learned very quickly that a hand written assignment, no matter how well I wrote it, got a "C". Any typed assignment, no matter if it was piss poor, I got at least a "B".

We used to say about INBOARDS, "If it don't go, chrome it." But pretty sells. Turn in a piece of junk paper, typed, in a nice folder, smile when you turn it in......You got an "A", especially if you sat on the front row.

Wally Cleaver learned how to be the Beaver's brother from me, trust me!

I'm just a fast "HUNT and PECKER".

[Ron Hill]

I remember looking Gerry Wallin's boat over at the Modesto Kilos. Many things went through my head. The main thing at the time was a "B" (350 CC) going 100 MPH.

I thought then, and I still do, this was a "D" Quickie, shaved to a "HATCH" as my dad made one like this when he put his 60-42 Evinrude on a "D" Quickie. Quickies have built in "KICK OUT", my dad never liked that. He liked things running parallel.

I can't tell from the picture but wasn't the motor bolted straight, and the rudder was moveable.

I got several cleavers from Cary, for Lon Stevens, when was breaking F Hydro records. They looked a lot like this propeller.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Joe Rome is the one that told me about John Mecom's race shop Ron. It was new and close to where Joe's shop is on the way toward downtown Houston. I bought it from a slicked up version of a used car salesman that knew racing and the finer safety points of head protection. The Premier helmet was three times better and was more comfortable than the Bell. The main thing about the fit after I started racing C, D and F hydro was that at high speeds when I looked to the left or right to see who was chasing me, the helmet didn't shift. It stayed exactly in the same place as when I strapped it on. The Bell was OK for a number of years racing A and B hydro and runabout, but the insides kind of compacted and when I started driving the bigger classes, the helmet would shift when I looked around. I always strapped up very tight, same as with my Gentex jacket, but it didn't make any difference. At the time I had in my mind Bell was the best racing helmet ever made. This salesman at Mecom's racing shop showed me in detail the difference and he was right. The very best helmet in those days.

Bill Van had some very good points Russ. In fact, I think he covered most of the reasons why the boat racers do not get on BRF to write about their experiences. In one case for sure I know about and Ralph Donald admitted......he doesn't like to type. Joe Rome is the same way. Joe will respond more often than Ralph, but he doesn't type fast and doesn't want to, yet both these guys have told me lots and lots of stories. You can set down with them and talk hours on end about not just the current racing stuff, but go back thirty or forty years talking non stop about interesting stories.

And as Bill Van also mentioned, many don't like to toot their own horn. It's a generational kind of thing like the men who served in WWII who don't talk about their service. I think Homer Kincaid was one who would not post about his racing experiences on BRF as well as Rich Fuschlin, Tommy Christopher, Jerry Simison, Bill Tenny and as Bill Van mentioned Billy Seebold. And add to that...the Harrison and Kirts and Eldrige families. There are many more out there besides the ones I named.

I have received photos and stories from a number of old racing friends that want me to tell their stories as if I got the information, or if they were not able to do it themselves. I have posted some, but others have sent so much information and photos that I have not had the time to do them justice. Ron has gone through the same thing. He has posted many, many stories and photos that have been sent to him to get posted.

While I relish every word you write about your experiences Russ, I have to disagree with the fact that some of the old timers really don't have much more to say and there is little differences about their experiences. To me each milling before a start, trying to get where you want but settling on where you could be and try to hit the start as close to full throttle you could be is a different experience in every heat. Every heat is different in where you are and who you are sandwiched between on the way to the first turn. Who's inside? Are you sandwiched in the middle and trying to avoid all the spray? Way outside because everyone charged the first turn too hard and spray was everywhere...maybe there's a hole left inside from all the others swinging wide? Lot of things going on every race. Sometimes a boat climbs upon another or maybe some crew could switch powerheads between heats, or maybe someone started to blowover, then came back and won the heat. There are a million ways for someone to remember a race, a heat, a great place to race, or just getting there and back. And these are stories to be told Russ. And there are people out there to tell them, whether they do it themselves or someone like me or Smitty does it. A number of years ago Smitty asked me about both ourselves interviewing famous racers from our regions and posting what we were told. I was very busy at the time, and I'm not a news type of guy that knows how to interview anyone. Nothing came of that, but we continued our connection. Smitty got you to join BRF and post some very interesting facts about your limited dealings with outboard racing. It was fantastic, and we wanted more. You told Smitty that you had nothing left and we encouraged you for more, and Smitty was pushing you saying that he knew what more you had. And, in fact, Smitty was right as you have proven yourself to add more good stuff to this thread. So I say to you, and I think most other members would say, keep up with your experiences, and the motorcycle and car experiences are very welcome here.

[OldRJexSea]

My last speculation was about why there may be a lack of boat racing stories worth telling by folks who spent a large portion of their life enjoying the racing action; I tried to imagine how that might happen. Over decades of racing, each person and their contemporaries have many many memories. My guess was that a large portion of those memories would best fit into a scenario where the racers involved in those many repeated events were speaking to each other, reliving an experience each had and involving the other person. Those are quite personal experiences and most meaningful to those directly involved.

Another notably outstanding event memory may be worth writing because it illustrates some sort of important detail and is probably what the Forum is mostly about. That is also my guess.

My overall end comment in that writing was speculating that, in each type of motor racing done for a major portion of a lifetime, the people who finally are no longer racing (for whatever reason) have a very large set of personal, probably enjoyable, memories but those folks in general are similar in their choices of stories to tell. They may be very selective, very reserved or silent. In that respect, all motor racing (and maybe any type of racing) may be quite similar. A possible metaphor of “... been there, did that forever, good times,... gone fishin’..” may fit.

The real issue of a struggle to put personal thoughts to text is without doubt a problem. Bill Van S correctly lists the better set of reasons for that effect including those of typing and using current systems.

The handy feature of the BRF Forum that can be useful for any speed of typing is that the story can be typed off line using any text editor or writing program and taking as much time as needed to finish. Any saved text can be worked and reworked without time limit unless there is some time limit on the computer itself. It is bound to be a real chore to hunt-n-peck type for a long time but a worthwhile story can result. That saved text, copied using a menu “text only” option will easily “paste” into the thread Reply window you have opened. You can fiddle with it there if you wish and if you use the Advanced reply option you can add a header title.
My guessing continues with the thought that few Forum contributors do not already know this.
Whizz--Bang, log in, open whatever reply window needed, paste, done, gone.

I did, and still do, have very limited amount of tales to write about as I have explained to Smitty. Those and a couple added are pretty much done now. I do not think there is much left that would not drift into unneeded opinion.

Jim Hallum mailed a set of three DVD’s to me several months before he died. Today I discovered that my current iMac OS (still several generations old) does not have the easy disc copy feature of the previous OS. My plan is to make a couple of copies. One set is promised to Smitty and the other will go to Boss Ron Hill so he can enjoy the Anzani details in first person. A worthwhile contribution. Ron’s address is on a box of A-class props sent about 2010. If necessary I will fire up the old Windows machine to do the DVD copy.

Russ Rotzler >172-R; pal Jim Price> 250-R; 1960 testing at Lake Sammamish
63108

[DeanFHobart]

Rex,

Is the Cabover a Jones or a Ben Hur.... Or?.... Fine Craft?

Thanks, Dean

[OldRJexSea]

Rex,

Is the Cabover a Jones or a Ben Hur.... Or?.... Fine Craft?

Thanks, Dean
===
The cabover is the 1955 Hugh Entrop hull, 11 ft. 4 in., which he ran that year using a M 55-h. It is his second cabover hull, the first version ran in 1954 using a M KG-9. His third hull was a version for Doc Jones' PR powered COH. Dick Brunes ran 172-R mostly in DSH (that's why the extended steering wheel) for several years and I bought it for racing FOH in 1960 using the same M 55-H. DOH & FOH were separated about the end of 1960. Entrop's next two hulls were 13 ft. for the M 75-H straightaway and course racing. There were a couple of near copies of those early Entrop 11 ft. course hulls built by Seattle area racers. Probably the best one was by Bill Farr using the dim's from the 1954 hull. It was fast but needed the configuration of the 1955 hull to handle the speeds in the 1960's.

And, by the way, Hubert told me (in answer to my questions) that his original cabover designs were his own. His Wind Tunnel Model Design friends helped with text book basic calculations of aerodynamics, balance, and Ground Effect, (not on company time, and most certainly not wind tunnel time). His few design conversations with Ted Jones were for Ted to find what Hugh had learned, not the reverse.
Russ R.

[OldRJexSea]

I remember looking Gerry Wallin's boat over at the Modesto Kilos. Many things went through my head. The main thing at the time was a "B" (350 CC) going 100 MPH.

I thought then, and I still do, this was a "D" Quickie, shaved to a "HATCH" as my dad made one like this when he put his 60-42 Evinrude on a "D" Quickie. Quickies have built in "KICK OUT", my dad never liked that. He liked things running parallel.

I can't tell from the picture but wasn't the motor bolted straight, and the rudder was moveable.

I got several cleavers from Cary, for Lon Stevens, when was breaking F Hydro records. They looked a lot like this propeller.
====
Ron, that's a "nope" on the 100mph Anzani foot & fin guesses. I am fussing with making a copy of Hallum's DVD telling all details of that B motor. I will send a copy to you (as mentioned earlier) when I find a way past the limits of my later OS which removed the former easy disc copy feature. Hallum made this DVD for Bill Tenney; the file is time stamped 2007. You will find it quite interesting I think. Thanks for your Forum efforts.
Russ Rotzler

[DeanFHobart]

Russ,

Wasn't that Bill Farr hull later the boat that Bobby Waite used for his many Sammamish Slough wins in FOH? I think it usually shows up at the Slough reunion race.

Thanks, Dean

[smittythewelder]

IIRC, Waite's cabover was one of two built by a fellow named Jim King, seems like he was from somewhere around Olympia. At one point either Waite or Don Haack had installed a piece of shiny (looked chromed but probably polished aluminum) piece of tubing on the left side of the cockpit, sticking nearly a foot above the top edge of the cockpit to keep one's fanny in the boat when bouncing around a rough corner; I joked with them that it was their handicapped grab-rail.

By the way, "IIRC" ("If I Recall Correctly") is a prime caveat in anything I post here, and I welcome and encourage anyone with a better memory or information to correct anything I post. To any who are worried about "getting it wrong," nobody who is posting here is judgmental or fussy, and many of us have hit senior-citizen status years ago and are very forgiving of memory misfires.

About the surfacing lower unit in the photo, IIRC (!!!!!) it was an A/B/C size Quicky with 16:21 gears, and with a homemade propeller shaft (of ETD=150, again IIRC) and homemade cone. The rudder was bolted to the right side of the base of the towerhousing. The engine was kicked under so that the shaft angle was 6 degrees to the bottom of the boat (to make it prop-ride), and the bottom of the cone was then about parallel to the bottom. I recall being surprised and impressed that those poor little 16:21 gears would stand up to the power and to the slapping of that big 2-blade prop entering the water. Jim said that one of the not-so-good points of this style of surfacing lower unit was that because the bulb was positioned a lot farther below the bottom of the boat than a regular racing unit would be on an ordinary tail-dragger hydro, it created quite a lot of drag until the boat finally started prop-riding. Years afterward, he speculated that maybe some sort of small step in the bottom, a couple of inches wide and directly in front of part of that draggy bulb could have been beneficial. Now, I THINK I have all that about right, but this would be a fine time for Ron Anderson to chime in and give us the straight dope. Hallum did build another surfacing unit a little later, using a D Quickie, for bigger engines.

[OldRJexSea]

Russ,

Wasn't that Bill Farr hull later the boat that Bobby Waite used for his many Sammamish Slough wins in FOH? I think it usually shows up at the Slough reunion race.

Thanks, Dean
===
Dean; pretty good chance that I will fumble the details on the Farr, Waite cabover Q.

The long answer, (I obviously am not inclined toward “one liners”), is that the Region 10 F/DOH hulls in 1959 were mostly Karelson cabovers and maybe some conventional Swift types. I do not think a large Sid Craft had arrived West and Ron Jones hulls were a year or two in the future. I was advised by both Hal Tolford and Entrop that the most affordable and probably best D/F hull available was sitting idle with Dick Brunes. It was the #2 Entrop hull.
I bought it in time for the 1960 racing season.

I was surprised a few times to see “copies” showed up to race, never at the same time. I think that there were two of them, similar in appearance to my 1955 hull but different since they were from the first Entrop cabover. At some point I think that I learned who built which hull but that is gone now. There were strong finish appearance differences in the two copies. I will also guess that they influenced the Karelson designs.

The Farr hull appeared for racing again in 1961 & 1962. Then owned by a fellow who lived in an east lakeside upscale area maybe a half mile north of the L. Wash. floating bridge east end. It had very distinctive rich grained plywood skins and was extremely well cared for. It did not run the Slough to avoid damage. I cannot remember that owner’s name, a successful businessman. Went to his home one time, very nice fellow, and the hull was carefully stored for next season. He had an excellent current 55-H.

I do not know what became of that hull but Waite was also running at times during that whole period so was a separate hull. Both hulls were marginal for holding the nose down at speeds near 75 mph which is the reason for Entrop’s second hull type.

Bob Waite’s hull was nicely done but with a more standard grain plywood skin type. I sort of remember that Bob usually ran it in DSH and did OK. Vague memory has it that (Andy) Thompson may have been involved in building one of those two hulls. He was also the builder of the 250-R Calkins style runabout in the photo, run by Jim Henry and then Jim Price. I think his home/shop was near north L. Sammamish. I always thought of Farr’s & Waite’s cabovers as being Sammamish area boats.
R.R.

[OldRJexSea]

Hallum did some fine work building that surfacing foot for the Anzani B (and A). The whole long process began with the years earlier discovery of the high efficiency of Entrop’s props for his M 75-H and the horsepower, rpm, and resulting speed with his lower pitched course props as well.

The early calculations were done while traveling along in Entrop’s old Desoto to a race or demo run. The numbers were impressive. When Hallum told of the HP their current B Anzani was showing on the dyno I showed him the calculations made for Entrop’s prop efficiency and the HP & rpm of the original record 75-H motor. A few quick calculations showed that the Anzani B could turn those props nearly as well as the 75-H if running a foot gear ratio that would bring the prop to an rpm approaching that of the 75-H with the Anzani at peak torque/HP rpm. If the hull ride allowed rpm’s above peak HP at top speeds then acceleration would continue. Entrop said he would be quite willing to loan whatever usable prop he had to the Anzani record effort.

Fortunately, the gear ratio was already available from Merc. The concern over gear tooth strength was real but the actuality of all impulse loadings on the gears being spread by a “hunting pinion tooth” made the worthwhile option to give the whole project a try. Jim was fairly sure of the gear survival if very good meshing tolerances were set up.

As usual, a good option arrives and then Hallum gets to do all of the work. I do think that Wallin regularly whittled on many racing pieces out at the farm plus much intense effort at his home shop on the newer hulls too. That much effort compressed into a few years by both Halum & Walin while doing their day jobs (plus a huge yearly vegetable garden for Jim) and producing success is well beyond outstanding to think about.
R.R.

[DeanFHobart]

Russ,

A couple of time line questions.

What was the first year that Hubert won the FOH Nationals with a 4 cylinder Mercury?.... and was he running against the 4 cylinder OMC '60' motors?

What was the first year for the 6 cylinder Mercury 75H? Was there ever a F Stock class?

Did Hubert use Spruce for his stringers and frame cross members? It would have been either Aircraft Grade or Mast and Spar Grade.

Another observation....... The original Anchor Fast Silicon Bronze Boat Ring Shank Nails had a raised 'Anchor' on the head. Hubert would take the time to sand off the Anchor so the head would be smooth with the surface.

About how long would it take for Hubert to build a boat?

A question about the 'Starflight' boat that Gerry Walin drove to get the Record in 1966 I think... It was designed by Hubert and built by McDonald of Portland as I recall: How much different was the design, especially the bottom, from the boats that Hubert ran?

Thanks, Dean

[OldRJexSea]

Dean,
I arrived in N. Seattle from Boise after 9th grade 1957, did not know what hydroplanes were. Tolford tagged me in the Green Lake pits at the 1959 Stock Outboard Nationals to go help Entrop lift his hydro onto his car and help him with a demonstration run. Bottom line is that I know little about the Entrop racing of earlier times other than second hand stories about how extraordinarily fast he and Doc Jones were in F & C with those cabover hulls. Those stories were from the old gang which was there, including CA, at the time so that's all I have.

The news reports of his 107 mph record run on the East Channel in 1958 was all I knew until riding along as pit help in the early 1960's and talking about the effort involved with that hull and the M 75-H motor he ran during that early record process.

I never talked with Hubert in any detail about his early racing. I’ve read the stories about his early first runabout racing which was very early 1950’s. His first cabover reportedly used a modified Merc KG-9 (-H). The small skeg on that foot left the boat unstable in the corners; made a good Carver splash photo. He may have added the aux. rudder to that hull, I don’t know. The 1955 #2 hull had that rudder.

The #2 cabover was his 1955 racing hull using a M 55-H as I understand the stories. He ran the #1 hull in 1954 and maybe 1953; again I don’t know details. So that gives us a guessing time line of:
1) maybe building and racing the runabout one year in 1950-1952;
2) building the #1 cabover and racing it in 1953-1954;
3) building the #2 cabover in time for 1955 racing season;
4) building the #1 13 foot cabover for the Merc 75-H testing and record trials which used up maybe 2 years or more so hull construction may have begun after or coincident with the #3 short version cabover for Doc Jones. Doc’s hull may have been built during the 1955 racing year and the first 13 foot hull immediately following for use in 1956 & 1957. World Record speeds in late 1957 & early 1958 per the news reports so the M 75-H was revealed early to Hubert in about 1956. I sure don’t remember any F Stock class for the M 75-H or the later 44 cu/in motors..

I do not know which short early hull, #1 or #2, won the FOH Nationals you referred to but either was probably fast enough; I will guess that the #2 hull in 1955 with the M 55-H was much more able to do that.

You can also see that Hubert was able to build a hull in a short time if he had completed the design work for patterns and lofts. He was a very skilled professional craftsman and had advanced techniques from his Model Shop experience which may have helped a great deal.

I do not know of any specific wood that Entrop used but there was no limit of vertical grain Spruce and marine plywood available then. (It was after all, fine ol’ boatyard Ballard..“Ya Sure ya Betcha”). The Anchor Fast ring shank nail head story may be correct, I don’t remember. Hubert did mention something about the nails. I would also think that he might have used peening as a practical & quick method.

As for the series of StarFlite hulls for OMC, I only know a little. Hugh built the first Starflight in his basement shop. It was a frame when I went there to help him load his -F- hull onto the car. All of the StarFlite hulls were proprietary information so Hugh could only generalize. That first StarFlite was the last hull small enough to squeeze out of his basement. I do not know about the hull named StarFlite 2. It may have actually been that first hull. There was something about that hull which made Hugh say that it was partially unsuccessful. StarFlite 3 was very successful and much larger, maybe 15 ft. Hugh said it handled really well and even would have been a fine rig to run in D or F on the 1 2/3 mile course at L. Lawrence with the power available at that time. StarFlite 4 was a similar size hull, slightly longer I think because of a different forward profile for a light driver and higher safe speed potential.

Hugh had a well defined method for providing a hull design riding balance for the motor and driver weights. StarFlite 4 had a light driver in Walin, maybe 30 lbs less than Hugo, so that hull was designed for a balance with the motor which may have been a little larger/heaver than what Hugo ran on StarFlite 3. When OMC later wanted to run a next generation larger motor, Hugh advised them not to do that because there was no way to keep the riding balance. OMC went ahead anyway and instead of rising level off of a small wave as in the first record runs the nose came up and Gerry never walked again. But I wasn’t there so ....

In 2009 I managed to stop at the L. Lawrence season final race and I had a short conversation with Bob Wartinger including a little about the OMC world record efforts. Bob began racing BSH shortly after I had moved to DOH in 1960, best guess. He and a batch of boat racers were in Jr. College at Everett in the early 60’s along with D. Rautenberg & myself. It was good to talk with him after decades. I think that he has very much more detailed information than I about the StarFlite 3 and onward because of his involvement with the later OMC record efforts.

Russ R.

[Ron Hill]

You mention Doc Jones, what a "Mover and Shaker" in Outboard Racing.

Elgin Gates owned the Trading Post in Needles, he could gas weld aluminum. My dad would send him gas tanks from the "Alky" races that had cracked.

Around 1949, Elgin owned an "M" Hydro Jacoby and an "C" Service Evinrude...SOA's (Seattle Outboard Association) logo is Elgin gate's "M" Hydro, today.

Elgin came to my dad and said, "He wanted to run for records at Devil's Lake, Oregon would he rebuild his "M" and "Service C"? My dad went through Elgin's two motors and Elgin broke both records.

Doc Jones offered Elgin a job because his boats were fast. Elgin and his wife, Dolly, came home and sold the Needles Trading Post and moved to I think, Spokane, Washington to work for Doc Jones.

Elgin, had not been there long when Doc came to him and said, "Elgin, I'm selling my Mercury Distributorship and buying the OMC Distributorship. I'm moving to Phoenix, But, they are going to have a Mercury Distributorship open up in California, you should buy it."

Well, the distributorship was going to be $35,000, So Elgin called my dad and a 1/7 partnership in the business for $5,000. My dad counter by saying, "I have the $5,000 but I only have one partner and she'd hard to get along with. But,I will buy $5,000 worth of motors." My dad became dealer #1 in CALIFORNIA, AND HE WAS STILL DEALER #1 when he died, 1997. Mercury would not give the dealership to me, my dad never had a retail business.

DOC Jones, and Charlie Strang were the OMC Race Team in the early days. Doc liked me, and offered me a job. I told him, as an Arizona College graduate, I'd love to live and work in Arizona, but as a teacher I got a draft deferment. Later, I won the lottery and didn't go, but the early days. I thought I'd be a ****ty foot soldier.

[OldRJexSea]

Ron;
Elgin Gates is a very familiar name from our memories of the late 1950’s. I think that some of the older SOA racers did remember that the insignia was Gate’s Jacoby, a bit of 'tribal' knowledge. In that era there were nice publications for reading about outboard racing so the Notable names were etched in memory. That reading included the Winnebagoland & Stockton to Redding marathon days which alway seemed fairly dramatic.

There is a short memory of Entrop telling about Doc’s business transition from Merc to OMC and the move to AZ. Might have been mention of E. Gates then too. The later years where the Hill’s were involved is interesting to learn about. Seems to be a very odd & unfortunate end arrangement for the Hill - Mercury connection.

Entrop spoke about Doc Jones in a way that it was easy to know they were very good friends. Had they lived in the same town you would expect them to be pals. In one of those rolling DeSoto conversations I asked Hugh about the “Doc” nickname, thinking it may be a professional attribute. I don’t recall that answer but did learn that he was C.W. Jones and answered to either.

My most distinct memory in 1959 was the Stock Outboard Nat’s at Seattle’s Green Lake. The California racer families were all gathered at the West end of the pit area. It was quite interesting to wander around and talk a little at the R. Hill, H. Bartolomei, J. Alden (I think), and L. Stevens (maybe), very substantial trailers. There were a few more with smaller rigs and car-toppers. Bunch of racer kids attached; everyone well tanned and wondering about the “rain bleached” Seattle crews. We could see their fine tans when they pulled off their winter jackets to go racing on a nice warm Seattle day. First sight of an M hydro motor in the Bartolomei trailer and a tiny hull on the top rack. I think a similar gang arrived at the same spot some years later for an Outboard Divisionals so I get the memory images mixed together.

Russ R.

[Ron Hill]

Ron;
Elgin Gates is a very familiar name from our memories of the late 1950’s. I think that some of the older SOA racers did remember that the insignia was Gate’s Jacoby, a bit of 'tribal' knowledge. In that era there were nice publications for reading about outboard racing so the Notable names were etched in memory. That reading included the Winnebagoland & Stockton to Redding marathon days which alway seemed fairly dramatic.

There is a short memory of Entrop telling about Doc’s business transition from Merc to OMC and the move to AZ. Might have been mention of E. Gates then too. The later years where the Hill’s were involved is interesting to learn about. Seems to be a very odd & unfortunate end arrangement for the Hill - Mercury connection.

Entrop spoke about Doc Jones in a way that it was easy to know they were very good friends. Had they lived in the same town you would expect them to be pals. In one of those rolling DeSoto conversations I asked Hugh about the “Doc” nickname, thinking it may be a professional attribute. I don’t recall that answer but did learn that he was C.W. Jones and answered to either.

My most distinct memory in 1959 was the Stock Outboard Nat’s at Seattle’s Green Lake. The California racer families were all gathered at the West end of the pit area. It was quite interesting to wander around and talk a little at the R. Hill, H. Bartolomei, J. Alden (I think), and L. Stevens (maybe), very substantial trailers. There were a few more with smaller rigs and car-toppers. Bunch of racer kids attached; everyone well tanned and wondering about the “rain bleached” Seattle crews. We could see their fine tans when they pulled off their winter jackets to go racing on a nice warm Seattle day. First sight of an M hydro motor in the Bartolomei trailer and a tiny hull on the top rack. I think a similar gang arrived at the same spot some years later for an Outboard Divisionals so I get the memory images mixed together.

Russ R.

Never fear, my dad and Elgin and Carl were friends til the end. My dad had a six car garage in Bellflower, where he worked on outboard motors. Elgin had his own shelf of various candies, in my dad's garage. My dad was a painter, but made a good living at it, never wanted to be in the boat business. He liked to make motors go fast. His dealership lasted until he died, March 1997.

1959, Green Lake National were all Stocks. Harry Bartolomei wasn't there, John Alden was, and he flipped in qualifying, his last Stock Outboard Race. Some of those "TANNED" Californian "STUDS" was me! I played varsity football as a Sophomore, we ran the beach in the morning, and rode air matt's, til one ever day...at Huntington Beach.

MANY PEOPLE IN NEWPORT BEACH TALK ABOUT JOHN WAYNE'S HOUSE, I ALWAYS SAY, "YOU MEAN ELGIN GATE'S?" ELGIN SOLD HIS HOUSE TO JOHN WAYNE WHEN MERCURY BOUGHT HIM OUT.

[OldRJexSea]

Yeah Ron,.. I figured that you would get a chuckle out of my comment about the tanned California racers vs. the Seattle crew's constant overcast T-shirt tans. Fun event, those Stock Nat's. That Fall I began the H.S. Senior year & set my ratty old BSH hull ablaze. Good to know that in actuality Bellfower rolled onward just fine, not affected by the Mercury situation. It must have been quite outstanding to live in the midst of many interesting transitions, .... all around the L.A. area. Pretty good lives to remember almost anywhere along the West Coast. That thought may be nicely adjustable to suit the region of boat racers all across the country. A particularly good activity for the young years.
R.R.

[smittythewelder]

Jim, who knew Entrop well, told me some things about the Starflite boats. Russ, you mention that Entrop was less than happy about one of the boats, and I believe that was the "2." The problem (for straightaway runs) was that instead of riding level or slightly "downhill" as the rest of the boats did, this one wanted to ride a little nose-high, which you can see in a photo which is on-line somewhere, maybe in some of the SOA articles.

As stated, Fantum had set the 130mph record with the Starflite 4. McDonald built yet another boat for OMC, to Entrop's specs, the Starflite 5, which was to carry a newer, bigger, heavier motor (including the weight of a starter). As I recall Jim's story, at the lake preparing for the record run, the crew weren't happy with the way their set-up of the new boat was going, so they decided to put the new motor on the earlier "4" boat. I don't know if this all occurred on one weekend. Anyway, as you said, people were concerned about the balance of the heavy motor on the old boat, but it was decided to see how it worked. The problem with these prop-riders is that once the back end comes up and the lower unit bulb is on top of the water, and when the pipes have come in, the boat accelerates very fast. The "4" would try to go from 110 or 120 up to 150 very quickly. So, rather than being able to gradually test the limits of the set-up, the boat just got away from Gerry.

Seems like a lot of the bad accidents that have occurred during record attempts in various motor sports have been under conditions where the racer is running out of time to get things set the way he'd like, while sponsors, owners, insurers, the timing crew, and others with money invested in the attempt are expecting results NOW, not going home and trying again in the indefinite future.

[racnbns]

Just My 2 Cents Worth--

Smitty or anybody else, do you know why the Starflite 2 had the word TOO instead of the number 2? I owned the TOO for quite awhile and always wondered about that. When I bought the TOO it had the no. 3 on it. The cockpit cowling was the only place the number was so with patience and oven cleaner I removed the paint and exposed the TOO. I was told the Too was renumbered by OMC to display at boat shows after they set the straightaway record with the 3. I took pics for proof. Even got a pic of 10+ years of dust and overspray while hanging in my garage.

Bruce

[smittythewelder]

You owned the boat? Well tell us about it, Bruce. Russ PMed me some stuff on that boat, maybe he will tell you something. As for "Too," this was Seattle in the Fifties, with Unlimiteds being the biggest sports game in town, and they often used "Too" for the second boat of a series (Thriftway Too, Scooter Too, Wha Hoppen Too). So maybe Hu thought he should do it 2.

[OldRJexSea]

Just My 2 Cents Worth--

Smitty or anybody else, do you know why the Starflite 2 had the word TOO instead of the number 2? I owned the TOO for quite awhile and always wondered about that. When I bought the TOO it had the no. 3 on it. The cockpit cowling was the only place the number was so with patience and oven cleaner I removed the paint and exposed the TOO. I was told the Too was renumbered by OMC to display at boat shows after they set the straightaway record with the 3. I took pics for proof. Even got a pic of 10+ years of dust and overspray while hanging in my garage.

Bruce
===

Memory has it that the StarFlite series of hulls used Roman numerals displayed on the cowling/fin, i.e. StarFlite III. I think that Hubert told of the S-2 being used for display after the initial record so the renumbering for display is most likely as you suspect. I understand that the hulls were kept in a controlled atmosphere Company storage room somewhere so maybe those were only the later hulls or time passed and S-2 was sold. It was the largest size hull that could be removed from Entrop's basement shop through existing doors. The remaining hulls were larger and built in McDonald's Portland shop. I still wonder about the later hulls continuing to be carefully stored. In one of my last regular conversations with Hugh, probably in the late 1970's, he did say that even though the S-3 was a large hull it was light weight and handled very well. I had asked if the S-3 hull would be good for the 1 2/3 mile record course at L. Lawrence using -F- or -D- motors. His answer was that it would work very well for any motors that were maybe 90 HP and up with a balancing driver weight near his, (roughly 160 lbs). That implied the use of his surfacing propellers of course.

Russ R.

[racnbns]

===

Memory has it that the StarFlite series of hulls used Roman numerals displayed on the cowling/fin, i.e. StarFlite III. I think that Hubert told of the S-2 being used for display after the initial record so the renumbering for display is most likely as you suspect. I understand that the hulls were kept in a controlled atmosphere Company storage room somewhere so maybe those were only the later hulls or time passed and S-2 was sold. It was the largest size hull that could be removed from Entrop's basement shop through existing doors. The remaining hulls were larger and built in McDonald's Portland shop. I still wonder about the later hulls continuing to be carefully stored. In one of my last regular conversations with Hugh, probably in the late 1970's, he did say that even though the S-3 was a large hull it was light weight and handled very well. I had asked if the S-3 hull would be good for the 1 2/3 mile record course at L. Lawrence using -F- or -D- motors. His answer was that it would work very well for any motors that were maybe 90 HP and up with a balancing driver weight near his, (roughly 160 lbs). That implied the use of his surfacing propellers of course.

Russ R.

Hi Russ and Smitty and all the BRF'ers--

I will try again. Couple of hours ago I started this, half done I hit the wrong button and it all went away. I am one of those hunt and peck senior citizens, 83 next month and proud of every day of it! I'M SHOOTING FOR 100!

Smitty, that makes sense about the TOO instead of 2. Fit right in and faster than some of the other TOO's.

Russ, I wonder if that storage story was just that,a story. I worked at OMC BOATS from 1963 to 65 and there was a STARFLITE stored in an enclosed trailer in theback parking lot. Maybe TOO or III. Duke Waldrop[sp.] was storing the III in Fl. and I rode with Ralph Lambrecht to pick it up and take it to a museum [boats and motors]belonging to Miami historical society. That name may be wrong but the boat is there.

The TOO I sold to Bill Fennessy who has passed on and I never heard anymore history about it.

I do not recall where the S 4+5 ended up.

Bruce

[OldRJexSea]

Hi Russ and Smitty and all the BRF'ers--

Russ, I wonder if that storage story was just that,a story. I worked at OMC BOATS from 1963 to 65 and there was a STARFLITE stored in an enclosed trailer in theback parking lot. Maybe TOO or III. Duke Waldrop[sp.] was storing the III in Fl. and I rode with Ralph Lambrecht to pick it up and take it to a museum [boats and motors]belonging to Miami historical society. That name may be wrong but the boat is there.
The TOO I sold to Bill Fennessy who has passed on and I never heard anymore history about it.
I do not recall where the S 4+5 ended up.
Bruce
====
Bruce,
The controlled storage story was told to me by Entrop during the year after the StarFlite IV record was set, so yes, it is just a story. The S-2 hull basic performance was marginal compared to the S-3 & S-4 hulls so the intent was to keep the later two hulls warp free and in good shape. The later hulls had much more cost wrapped up in them too. It would be nice to see the S-III in person someday but an unlikely chance.

A side note: since you are aiming for age 100 in hunt-n-peck mode, maybe one of the very basic Typing Training computer programs is still available to make that time easier. They used to be low cost and worked very well. Game-like in usage. A short time & effort to get all fingers working their assigned keys; maybe just a few hours. The basic skill makes life easier, speed is not the goal.
Russ

[racnbns]

You mention Doc Jones, what a "Mover and Shaker" in Outboard Racing.

Elgin Gates owned the Trading Post in Needles, he could gas weld aluminum. My dad would send him gas tanks from the "Alky" races that had cracked.

Around 1949, Elgin owned an "M" Hydro Jacoby and an "C" Service Evinrude...SOA's (Seattle Outboard Association) logo is Elgin gate's "M" Hydro, today.

Elgin came to my dad and said, "He wanted to run for records at Devil's Lake, Oregon would he rebuild his "M" and "Service C"? My dad went through Elgin's two motors and Elgin broke both records.

Doc Jones offered Elgin a job because his boats were fast. Elgin and his wife, Dolly, came home and sold the Needles Trading Post and moved to I think, Spokane, Washington to work for Doc Jones.

Elgin, had not been there long when Doc came to him and said, "Elgin, I'm selling my Mercury Distributorship and buying the OMC Distributorship. I'm moving to Phoenix, But, they are going to have a Mercury Distributorship open up in California, you should buy it."

Well, the distributorship was going to be $35,000, So Elgin called my dad and a 1/7 partnership in the business for $5,000. My dad counter by saying, "I have the $5,000 but I only have one partner and she'd hard to get along with. But,I will buy $5,000 worth of motors." My dad became dealer #1 in CALIFORNIA, AND HE WAS STILL DEALER #1 when he died, 1997. Mercury would not give the dealership to me, my dad never had a retail business.

DOC Jones, and Charlie Strang were the OMC Race Team in the early days. Doc liked me, and offered me a job. I told him, as an Arizona College graduate, I'd love to live and work in Arizona, but as a teacher I got a draft deferment. Later, I won the lottery and didn't go, but the early days. I thought I'd be a ****ty foot soldier.

Doc Jones and Charlie Strang were the OMC race team.
Hey Ron you forgot us wrench guys!
Just kidding and you have mentioned us numerous times when posting about OMC. Your right about Doc and Charlie. If it wasn't for Charlie OMC would have never gone racing and Doc had the shop in Phoenix where we did final prep for Parker and other races.
I left the OMC race group to do my own thing in 1968. I missed all those trips to Europe etc. Great times though!

Bruce

[OldRJexSea]

My previous posts referred to the rather unique different exhaust pipe systems for the Anzani -A- & -B- engines produced by Jim Hallum during the early 1960's. I did not have photos of those unusual pipe systems, still do not unfortunately, but have found some following a BRF thread lead web link.
Much thanks to the photo website, www.outboardracing.com in Puyallup, WA (near Tacoma). It tells that the photos shown were mostly from Bob Carver or Hugh Entrop stored images.

Walin’s trailer box usually carried the latest version of their original A & B Anzani for normal competition. Those engines also ran the higher-nitro fuel for the early Kilo record runs. In rather few years the set of power heads, tuned pipes, tower housings, and various geared lower units might at times fill the trailer box. The whole set of engine equipment available was always in flux with the maintenance, repairs, endless modifications, and limited time for it all.

One year that Walin’s trailer carried all of the early specialty motors & pipe systems was for the 1966 APBA Nationals at DePue, IL and the week later NOA Nationals in Midland, MI. Midland also included Kilo trials so Gerry’s trailer carried the straightaway hull and the full special setup for that in A & B. The standard course competition engines were also in the trailer box. (Small photo, BRF_encyclopedia_ James Hallum_ p-3, in a Milwaukee motel parking lot).

Included was the -A- “straightaway” Anzani with the diverter valved twin-pipe per cylinder system and the -B- “course race” Anzani with the newer “Ram’s Horn” expansion chamber pipes. The “mile/kilo record hull” is seen on the trailer waiting for the Midland-NOA speed traps.

No photo of the 4-pipe -A- Anzani but here is a good photo of the original “Ram’s Horn” -B- Anzani first use in late 1965 or early 1966. Hallum rechecking the timing. These first-use -B-expansion chambers running normal course 25-30% nitro fuel produced power equal to or more than the same motor with std. megaphones & 45% nitro fuel used only for Kilo trials. The extremely steep power curve rise when the ‘bounce-pipes’ tuned in put excess stress on crankshaft & rods which was not produced by the high-nitro w/megaphone combination or the normal fuel w/megaphone pipes. Hallum was pleased with the Ram’s Horn pipes for dyno & course racing power but not happy with the resulting crank & rod issues. Too often twisted -B- cranks, some broken. Megaphones were used for Kilo records by needing the unrestricted low rpm power to haul the large props from planing to operating speed.

Original Ram’s Horn -B- Anzani photo. Second photo is Lee Sutter in a later year use with the troublesome magneto removed.
63273
63274
===
Now for a final surprise photos, a unique old motor setup that I added to those initial strange pipe building years of the early 1960’s Seattle scene. I did not remember that the photo’s existed, that anyone still alive had ever seen the motor, or that anyone remembered, so no chance of my mention of it. An old friend did remember seeing it so the best estimate of the build year was 1962 over winter. This was after the first Hallum valved twin-pipe test Tohatsu 50cc motorcycle use and maybe during the initial building of the -A- Anzani diverter valve 4 pipe system (which was a long process). It was a bit of a shock to see this old 55-H beast again. Set on a runabout for the photo shoot I guess. Time & money ran out for me & the motor after one test on my hydro. (Added photo of the Hallum Tohatsu 50cc moto later set up for 1/4 mile drag w/Jim Dunn riding).
Russ Rotzler
===
63275
63276
63277

[OldRJexSea]

Master Oil Team.
Some quite wild happenings in those early 1960's Seattle years and they continued as many slightly later outboard racers know.

I have tried to be careful in sorting my old memories but it has been tough to be certain. I hope that any discrepancies are small enough to not effect the larger story. The photo of Sutter under tow in his Ram's Horn piped Anzani is an example. If you examine the two photos of those curled pipes you will see that the pipe segment just downstream of the rope plate on Hallum's original has several weld beads which were where wedge shaped cutouts are used to shrink the tube to a smaller end diameter and to adjust the bend radius. On Sutter's pipes that segment is without several of those welds so that pipe set was built a little later. I probably should not have labeled the motor as a -B- Anzani since it could just as easily be an -A- and there is also a pretty good chance that Ron Anderson may have built that pipe set. Hallum and the Anderson brothers were busy (prolific) builders of good equipment and collaborated extensively. The record books and titles tell that story.
R.R.

[smittythewelder]

Russ, you've really brought this thread to life with your stories from the day. I know how much you miss Jim at times, me too, but at least we know he would have got a charge out of reading it all. Also know that Jim's family very much appreciates this as a tribute to him.

(EDIT} (1-20-18) Earlier in this thread, some were asking who else ran Anzanis, and we came up with a few names. But recently "Racingfan1" has been posting old newsletters with race reports from the '50s and early '60s, and if wou want to look through them there are quite a few Anzani racers mentioned, names we didn't recall. So FWIW, and if you haven't already seen them, here are two threads in the Outboard History section:

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?10-Outboard-Racing-History

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/showthread.php?18409-Outboard-magazine-articles

[smittythewelder]

I'm wondering about an old project of Jim's. Russ, this would have been after your time, but maybe Mark D or some other insider from those days will know about it.

After the loop-scavenged engines had completely obsoleted the cross-flow Mercs in most of the alky classes, APBA made a good rule, the deflector step-down rule, that allowed owners of those old Mercs to run them in the next smaller displacement class. They still wouldn't generally be competitive with the modern engines, but would have a better chance. At this time, Jim, a career OMC mechanic, took what I think was an old 18hp Evinrude, anyway the 20 cubic inch version, and started carving on it to make something that could be used to play around in A Hydro. It wasn't any kind of serious project, more something to do for fun and to see what the old Evinrude could do. Dual reedblocks and dual alky/nitro carbs, full porting, more compression and squish, a light flywheel, different ignition, megaphones. I have an idea that this project was set aside before it was ever finished. Does anybody know about this thing, and who ended up with the box of parts?

[OldRJexSea]

Well Smitty, “after my time” sure did cover an extensive amount of Hallum’s continuing good work. Sorry to have missed most of it except a few races scattered over decades.

Jim & I did talk a little about standard modifying potential of the smaller OMC deflector motors in the early 1960’s. The problem generally was the displacements didn’t fit racing classes. Oversize or gave away too much displacement. I am unfamiliar with the later “step down” rule by APBA you noted but it seems reasonable so folks could keep racing within their same budget.

There is a very vague memory of the young Losfar boys running a small ‘sport runabout’ from the dock of the Mukilteo Marina/Boathouse using a ported & compression modified, open exhaust, Evinrude ... maybe a 25 HP. They might have run some of the local saltwater “wildcat” sport hull race events too. Only utility gear cases and no short tower housings from OMC in those days though.

My guess about an extensively modified Evinrude that you described to fit into -A- class might have been in-work during that period when Hallum was doing the full mod’s on the 3-cyl OMC Loop motor that Bob Rhodes ran with some success over time. I sure do not know the history of that effort but I think I saw it run one time at Lake Lawrence early in its development. Might have been about 1979 or then a decade later.
Carry on,
RR

[smittythewelder]

Sounds like roughly the right time period, Russ. If so, by that point Class B had become 350cc, which would include 22" engines. But maybe this project was no more than a playmotor. All I saw was powerhead parts in a box, set aside.

Hey Russ, I have a thread going up in the Technical section, entitled "Mild hop-up of a Merc 350?" Take a look at the photos and link to photos that were just contributed. Other guys than Hallum have been radically modifying some "unlikely" engines, very nice work.

[smittythewelder]

Part of the current sad news about losing good old boys from the ranks concerns Steve Litzell, who was just the sort of smart, enthusiastic gear-head that Jim Hallum would have enjoyed knowing.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

So true Smitty.

[OldRJexSea]

Part of the current sad news about losing good old boys from the ranks concerns Steve Litzell, who was just the sort of smart, enthusiastic gear-head that Jim Hallum would have enjoyed knowing.
---
Smitty:
The BRF feature of sending "heads up" emails for any current forum action in a Thread is probably very OK. The only downside is that I checked the link provided and find that I have Zero knowledge that relates. So, this particular time I poured another "realxer", grabbed the peanut jar and went fumbling through the Forum to get a better understanding of the scope for those BRF regulars who seem to connect on various topics with Smitty.
First notable item is that you guys have been BUSY, for years yet! I am not sure of any significance of the strongly ongoing commentary but here is a little detail which you all may find interesting.

Several years before Jim Hallum died I read a description of the effort made by, (I think it was a British fellow with 'resources') who had somehow acquired remnants and Engineering data of the Honda Moto GP 250 cc 4-stroke, 6 cylinder factory racing machine which was just barely able to exceed the capabilities of the various other Japanese GP 2-stroke machines. (I am, today, not completely sure of that motor size,...might have been 500 cc's but that doesn't seem correct).

The reason behind saying this is that in those GP circuit road racing championships for Factory honors since 1960, (maybe earlier), the 2-stroke motor was vastly dominant in the 50cc to 250 cc classes. During that period, Honda attempted to produce Factory GP racing motorcycles of 4-stroke engine designs which would be competitive. To do this, Honda found that they needed to add one cylinder per GP motor size to match other 2-stroke horsepower. So, a champion single cylinder 50cc Suzuki of one season required a 2 cylinder Honda of the next season to be competitive. And if Suzuki, or any other Factory went to water cooled cylinders the Honda, (or any other 4 stroke), was still at a disadvantage. The Honda advantage was fortunately aided by the very superb handling characteristics of their racing frames and funds to hire top dollar GP riders. Those Factory riders in that era were paid at rates above the Formula-1 auto-GP driver, amazing as that may seem.

So, after some decades, the specific details of the restoration/rebuild of the Honda GP 6-cyl 250cc 4-stroke motor was published. I sent the detailed article to Hallum immediately because we had been so intently curious about those Moto GP years where the Yamaha RD-56, 250 cc had been dominant. Honda had built a 3 cyl and then 6 cylinder 250 cc GP motors to be competitive with the 2 cylinder 2-stroke motors and the later 4 cyl, 250 cc, 2-stroke motors for the other serious GP Factory teams. Vague memory of Honda eventually needing a 3 cyl. 50cc, a 4 or 5 cyl. 125cc, and the 6 cyl. 250cc to run with the top 2-stroke machines.

For Hallum, being able to finally read the details of what Honda had to do to produce a 6 cylinder, 250 cc, 4-stroke Factory GP motor which would surpass the other Factory 4-cyl (or less), 2-stroke motor designs was a bit of engineering relief for his senses. The engineering potential advantage of the 2-cycle motor remained a foremost thought in his mind for his later lifetime.

In that earlier era, the humorous comment was that Honda had shorted the Japanese watchmaker industry by hiring so many to build the valve train for their 6-cyl, 4 or 5 valves per cyl. 250 cc GP racing machine. That machine did well. The modern lesson for learning should be that extraordinary efforts and (invariably) costs are the perceived solution for any predicament discerned. Never mind that in modern times "discernment" has become a very foolishly discredited concept.

Hallum found a sort-of 'closure' in the better understanding provided by the article describing the Honda 6-cyl GP motor details. That Extraordinary effort, even at Factory GP motor development level, was necessary to produce truly top level equipment against all other manufactures using 2-stroke motors.

It was quite fun to finally talk with Jim about that article I sent when a time had me in the Seattle area long enough to make the side trip out to visit for a day. This was not long before 2016.
Russ Rotzler

[DeanFHobart]

I remember the ‘two set of pipes motors’... one set of pipes for acceleration and one set of pipes for top end... and there was a solenoid operated valve that would switch between the two sets. Who could compete with that? Not many!!!

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Russ, I find this info very interesting. In fact, I thank Smitty very much for bringing you into this thread and all the information you have provided that could not come from anywhere else. With all your wealth of knowledge you might see a but coming, and there is. Your vast knowledge of two cycles as you say was of motorcycles, but you played around with Jim on his outboard motor stuff. I have corresponded (not lately) with an English motorcycle guy that wants information regarding the first use of rotary valve engines. He wanted to know if Dieter Konig's rotary valve engines were a result of what a guy named Zimmerman in East Berlin did, or if it was a separate development. Zimmerman was a motorcycle guy, and had been working on rotary valves for motorcycles before Deiter. I don't want to hijack this excellent thread, but I know you don't go anywhere else, so I figured this was the only place I could ask this question. If you want to respond, you can PM me or answer me here and we will set up a separate thread to hear your input and not take away or get sidetracked from this excellent thread on Jim Hallum. If you don't want to, that's OK. I thank Smitty very much for bringing you to this forum in the first place and all the history you have given us.

[OldRJexSea]

Somewhere along this trail, Master Oil Team & Wayne B. settled into my understanding.

So, Wayne; the Title is true, I was there during a transition time for outboard and moto GP racing (and others similar);... and was trying to gain knowledge. The journalist coverage of the era and much supporting details was very well done. So I read it, remember it because of timely correct details, and eventually it all becomes Old Information. The problem of not remembering this many decades past of stuff that sort of no longer matters certainly does not merit a "wealth of knowledge" characterization. Only maybe a decade later you active folks gathered your own very worthy history & a complete set of advancing details.

My oldest vague memories of rotary valve published information are so muddled that to comment on the disc rotary valve concept or its first use would be bogus. I am not at all sure why this old thought pops up but here goes. It could easily be wrong. The Isle of Mann moto-GP races up through the very early 1960's had a 50cc class winner one year manufactured by Kreidler of Germany, (not sure of the spelling). The motor was, I think, a single cyl., disk rotary valve type and showed quite a power advantage. It also had a secondary "overdrive" type gear system so had 12 gear ratios fit the power to that odd hilly road course. I recall listening to the sound records of that race in Jim Dunn's basement with the Kreidler accelerating out of the slowest corner and shifting up almost endlessly. The rider interview later was fun as he (Anscheit?) was saying, "Ya, mit de hand and mit de foot ve make 12 gears".

The oldest diagrams of rotary valves I recall were cylindrical and used for industrial applications where external "supercharging" was operating so exhaust ports & inlet ports/passages needed to be sealed at particular times.

As for the disk rotary valve; If the German fellow you mentioned, Zimmerman, was part of that Kreidler motorcycle factory team then he certainly would be a candidate for all following applications of disk rotary valves.

I doubt that this helps much with your question but maybe it provides some old leading information to track.
Russ R.

[OldRJexSea]

I remember the ‘two set of pipes motors’... one set of pipes for acceleration and one set of pipes for top end... and there was a solenoid operated valve that would switch between the two sets. Who could compete with that? Not many!!!
Well Dean, it is fun to have you remember being there for the diverter valved Anzani operation. I actually was not around when the -A- Anzani was run for record, either kilo or L. Lawrence, even though I helped with the development & pipe building at times. All of the initial valved pipes on the little motorcycles were operated by a thumb lever on the left handlebar.

I do not recall the actuating mechanism for the valves on the -A- motor in 1966 since it never came out of the trailer at those two Nationals, DePue & Midland. There is a vague memory of Walin & Hallum in an earlier year discussing the upcoming need to add the valve movement to the hand throttle in some way. The first thoughts were to follow what had worked on the motorcycles but I do not know if the electrical method was the final outcome.

As for the Anzani pipe operating range, I think the open megaphone "tuned in" about 6500-7000 rpm and the bounce pipe was set to start at about 8500-9000 rpm. The operating overlap was more than 1000 rpm. The little motorcycles, using two bounce pipes had a larger practical overlap range. Really hard to remember those detail but I know it was sure fun to ride the motos with a simple thumb press giving a repeat boost just as strong as the initial boost at lower speed.
Russ R.

[smittythewelder]

Geez, Wayne, don't worry about "side-tracking" THIS thread with obscure tech matters. This is exactly the sort of discussion Jim Hallum would like as our memorial to him, and the more it meanders, the better!! Like Russ, I used to take Jim articles and books on all sort of things, sparking many a good conversation. I used to subscribe to a wonderful magazine spun off by American Heritage entitled, "(American Heritage of) Invention and Technology," which covered the whole spectrum of subjects implied by the title, and several issues ended up over at Jim's place. So, side-track away!!!

For that matter, don't anybody worry too much about repeating something you said here pages and months ago; most of us are old coots, our brains a little addled, and repeating our stories is one of the few privileges of being old.

Wayne, are you specifying disc rotary valves, or just any rotary valves? When the C Service crowd started running the Antique C Racing motors, they were showing us rotary-valved cross-flow motors from the Thirties, I believe. Hard to know where any of this got started (though there are some well-informed tech-historians on this site) (seems to me that "Mk75" is one). Some of the more modern stuff seems to have had its start in Soviet-controlled East Germany, so info on that is bound to be hard to come by.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Thanks for the kind words Smitty. I will track down every word Russ has to say because it is so interesting, and so I won't worry about where I post regarding his input. One of my main thoughts though was finding the particular thread regarding a particular subject.

As far as the rotary valve was concerned, it was primarily regarding the external rotary valves with a disc. I need to go back a couple of years to the original inquiry though to make sure. Our first two cylinder FB Konig had internal rotary valves, and as you mentioned, they go way back. They were fixed and could not be adjusted unless you took the crank out and ground on them some I suppose. I was just a kid then and didn't have a clue so I don't know anything about those rotary valves.