Miami 225 marathon 1969, looking for any info

[brichter]

62341
I found this poor quality image of an OMC press release on the Miami 225 marathon. Looks like it was a great battle between Jimbo and Scotti running X-115s. I am looking for any info regarding this race or the engines and or boats used. A better image of this press release would be appreciated as well! Thanks!

[Willabee]

62341
I found this poor quality image of an OMC press release on the Miami 225 marathon. Looks like it was a great battle between Jimbo and Scotti running X-115s. I am looking for any info regarding this race or the engines and or boats used. A better image of this press release would be appreciated as well! Thanks!

I was at that race, I thought the little boat in that release was a McDonald driven by Ted May? It looked more like a 4 point hydro than a tunnel as it ran toward you. I don't know where it finished, but I remember it leading for quite a while. It had lots of top end on all the others when it ran inside the stadium, going outside is what slowed it down considerably. It did run as the picture indicates, way outside of the buoys, must have found flatter water there. I remember one of the OMC mechanics held up a sign in the pits as it went by in the lead, it read "when you're hot you're hot!" (a popular Jerry Reed song back then. :)

[Ron Hill]

There was no reason to call them, as I remembered more about the race than they did.

I had a new Sea Jay, as Bill Wiles had won Galveston with a Sea Jay (Single engine). Ted May had built a "YUGE" Hydro like his May Craft Hydros. But six inch deep sponsons packed too much air under the boat. I raced a May Craft D Racing Hydro and won several Winternationals with them.

Jimbo was driving the "LAY DOWN" McDonald designed by Jack Leek. Jimbo had a two lap lead when he broke a crank toward the end of the race and DNF.

I also broke a crank, but I was never NEAR the front.

After the race, I let Ted May and Paul Drake take my 1968 Chevy wagon and go back to California. I rode to Waukegan with Rich McKinley in one of the OMC truck because my dad and mom were picking me up so I could race the Marathon Nationals at Trenton, Michigan, then race at DePue.

When I got to Waukegan, I told Jack Leek, the reason all those motors broke crankshaft is they didn't have enough water in the blocks. When they made the "TUNE PIPE" they let the water out of the bottom of the block. Jimbo's crank and Scotti's ran the longest because they were the fastest. One of the FEW times Jack Leek ever admitted that a "HILL" had helped them. I got down to the OMC Plant, the next morning, and Jack was showing me how they were taking the water off the top of the tuner and keeping the block full of water. I said, "Yes, just like me dad did on my brother's 'A' in 1949, 20 years ago. (See photo of my brother's "A", water tube coming off the top of the block).

As it turned out, once I got to DePue, here was Ted May and Paul Drake in MY WAGON. They had gone to Texas and raced, the same weekend I raced in Trenton, then decided to go to DePue.

I was so pissed off that they had driven my WAGON all over the United States, (They had brought a boat to OMC in Wakegan from Illinois) I made Jack Lee pay me $.25 per mile from the time my car left California, until it got back, plus GAS. (9,000 miles, total bill $2,250 and I only paid $3,400 for the wagon).

Ted borrow a Sea Jay Runabout from Carl Meyers, and a "B" Konig from Dave Mayer and won his only APBA National is B Racing Runabout. I almost forgave Ted for driving all over the country with my wagon, I was so happy for his win.

Ted May was always like a BIG BROTHER to me!