N.O.A. Roostertail

[racingfan1]

Here is the June 1960 edition of Roostertail

[racingfan1]

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[racingfan1]

Upon reading the story on page 3 about John Dortch I have a questiion , when did the kill switch become mandatory on all motors ? One more question as well , what was the difference between C runabout and C - 1 runabout ?

[Al Lang]

Back in those days, CRunabout and hydro were the PR engines or Merc and Konigs. The C-1 class was the Evinrude Speeditwins or P50s.

[Al Lang]

Dale, many thanks for posting the Rooster Tail. Wish I still had all my copies and the Propeller magazine also. A lot of racing history. Many names I either knew or raced against.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Same goes for me Al. I am amazed about how many guys I know were racing so long before I started. Johnny and Liz Dortch became dear friends of me and my Dad and spent a number of nights staying at my Dad's place. We talked some boat racing, but mainly we just talked about other common things we liked, laughed about, and had some good dinners. Johnny never talked about the incident with the throttle, or how many races he had won before we met. Glad to read that piece, and it goes to show that Johnny Dortch, though a Midwesterner, had the Code of the West. Do what's right and walk away.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

As far as the kill switch goes Dale, have to look at some rules. Didn't take effect here or overseas at the same time, but it was within a few years of each other. Have to look at the first rule I remember, but need to go back and see what it said. It was NOA, and the best I remember was that it stated that there must be a means to kill the ignition if a driver left the boat. In other words, something attached to the driver that was also spliced into the ignition. There was no one making such a device at the time, and so everyone made up their own system. I made one that worked the first time I used it. This was in 1966.

Later on we started racing APBA. Don't know exactly what year the mandated the kill switch, but by then I had perfected mine to a totally different system that worked very good. This was 1972. UIM had put in the same rule also, but I am not sure when. Must be along the same time line, because the next year after I had my system worked out, Dieter Konig had the best kill button made. Simple to attach, no hangups, worked perfectly every time. In fact would kill the motor if you bounced too high off the deck{which I did }. That would have been in the same time frame of 1972 Europe..1973 USA. That's just my recollection Dale. Rule books can tell you when it went into effect, I just remember about when we did it.

[racingfan1]

Dale, many thanks for posting the Rooster Tail. Wish I still had all my copies and the Propeller magazine also. A lot of racing history. Many names I either knew or raced against.

Thank you Al , I recently received a collection which included about 15 Rooster Tail publications and I will be putting them all up on this thread.

[racingfan1]

Here is the July 1960 edition.

[racingfan1]

Here is the August 1960 edition

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[crewman060]

Here is the July 1960 edition.never knew dad inspected.went to a lot Beaufort water festivals and races there.i was 5 weeks into this world when that race occured.and supposedly was there.Thank you very much for the posting of these Dale.

[racingfan1]

Here is the October 1960 edition that contains the results of the World Championships.

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[Master Oil Racing Team]

Good stuff Dale. First....I raced against Dick Davidson in California in 1969. I don't recall Dick ever running in NOA in the East. So I didn't know who he was until Ken and Gloria Steelman started sending me their publication and I read about him in Powerboat. Never met him except passing in boats with our helmets on. The article about Clayton Elmer marrying Doris was very special. It turned out that my very first Pro race where I actually got a starting flag with alky burning motors, we were pitted next to Clayton and Jack Chance. We happened to hook up on our first race, and have been friends ever since. A great and lasting friendship. Clayton taught me a lot.

[racingfan1]

Here is the January 1961 edition

[racingfan1]

Taken from the 1954 NOA rules book

[racingfan1]

Here is the March 1961 edition.

[racingfan1]

March edition cont'

[racingfan1]

Here is the May 1961 edition

[racingfan1]

9 - 16

[racingfan1]

May 1961 - page 13 - North South boxscore - the name Doug Earnhardt - any relation to the stock car Earnhardt family ??

[crewman060]

not sure dad would bumbled something watching nascar.it is not a uncommon name in sc and nc

[racingfan1]

Here is the August 1961 issue.

[racingfan1]

pages 9 - 12

[racingfan1]

Here is the November 1961 edition which contains the recap of all 3 NOA National & World Championship events. The 1961 NOA championship from St Paul MN was shown on CBS television.

[racingfan1]

Pages 9 - 16.

[racingfan1]

I love the comment by Art Pugh in his For Sale ad in the Tradin' Post on page 14 but probably not the best endorsement for the Swift boat company !! His quote " I cannot catch Dub Parker running a Swift ." That would make me want to buy the boat , not.

[ProHydroRacer]

Nov. 1961 - Page 5...A name from my past. Joe Maltba, Middleton Wisconsin.
Somewhere around 1956, my parents took the family of then five kids on vacation. We were going up North in Wisconsin to camp out for a week. Half way there from home in Chicago my dad missed a turn on a two lane highway and rolled over the car end over end. The car roof was flatten and the windshield busted out. For the family a few busted bones and such. My dad got the car running again and we were able to drive back home. Dad still had a week of vacation left, so a WWII war buddy offered his home on Lake Mendota to us for a few days. That war buddy was Joe Maltba. This was the first time I ever seen a race boat. Joe took my dad out on the lake in one of his hydros. My dad didn't like it at all. I watched, as a young boy and fell in love with it all!

[racingfan1]

Here is the March 1962 edition

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[smittythewelder]

I see a name that ought to be remembered. About eight pages up, in the "Trading Post," is an ad by Dave Berg, one of the top racers in A Outboard Hydro in those years, offering his rig for sale. Maybe he didn't find a buyer and ran it some more, because the sad news was that he was killed in a race. Maybe someone who knew him will have something to add . . .


(EDIT) See below, the Oct., '62 edition, page 6.

[racingfan1]

Here is the August 1962 edition

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[racingfan1]

cont2 , you will have to read this from bottom to top to stay in order.

[racingfan1]

The Oct 62 edition

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[ProHydroRacer]

The 1962 copy of NOA Roostertail is interesting to me, because it list names of drivers that I knew of after I started in the sport in 1966/67. Most interesting was the number of names that were not running by that time, and the number of drivers I knew that were not listed in 1962.

[racingfan1]

Well here is the last edition of Rooster Tail I have. Thanks to Richard Davidson for sending them to me. Here is the April 1963 edition. Enjoy.

[racingfan1]

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[racingfan1]

It has been a while since I have received some of these so it s time to start posting some I just have gotten. We will start here October 1956.

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[racingfan1]

Here is the March 1957 edition.

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[racingfan1]

Here is the April 1957 issue.

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[racingfan1]

Here is the May 1957 Rooster Tail edition.

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[racingfan1]

Here is the June 1957 edition of Rooster Tail.

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[racingfan1]

Here is the July 1957 edition.

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[Smokin' Joe]

I mistakenly posted responding to the wrong Roostertail, I thought this was the 1960 issue.

[Smokin' Joe]

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In Oct. 1960 I upped that record to 56.693 mph with the same boat and Merc 800 but running a Sportsmaster lower unit (small, the
size of a 1975 Johnson Stinger gearcase but geared 13:21). That record won me the Wynn Oil Co. diamond stick pin and $100, I still wear the pin. Paul's record wa set with a Gale 60, which was a Fat Fifty with higher compression and the 21:23 Johnson 75 lower unit. I set 2 more records that day (37-40 and 40-50) and my dad set the 67-70 record. All with Allisons and Mercurys. My dad and I each ran over 60.5 mph with the 800 on my 13' Allison driving from the rear (he sitting, I on my knees) but Paul had borrowed a Merc 800 with Sportsmaster (there were only two of those gearcases in Tenn. in Oct. 1960) and ran nearly 61.5 mph for the unlimited record. He borrowed the Merc 800 from Leland Willicks, the Johnson dealer (Blount Marine, later Johnnie's Marine in Maryville) who sponsored Norman Goodson (read the Roostertail article). Leland was running an 11' Allison with a mod Johnson 75, our Mercurys were stock. According to Paul, who loves to retell the story, Leland yelled to Norman (in his boat) 'Go get that record back!' Norman yelled back 'Paul could put my boat in his and still break the record'. Leland, 'Then put it on the trailer and let's go home'. So ended the domination of the Johnson 21:23-geared 75 over the Merc 800 that year, and Paul (who had earlier been a Scott man and then a Johnson man) became a Mercury man forever. From 1977-85 whenever we tested a new model for GP Class he always wanted to rig Darris' Merc 850 on the boat even if my smaller cid Evinrude 75 was faster. I set the EP record in APBA in Oct. 1980 at 70.560 mph with my stock Evinrude 75 on an Allison XR-14. Three of the four XR-14s made was eventually destroyed, it had bass boat chines and wouldn't turn. The EP-15 bass boat was molded off the XR-14. Darris sold Pedro's lightweight XR-14 (80 mph in NOA with Merc 850XS with under gearcase water pickup) for $4000 a few years ago.

Attached Images

[racingfan1]

Here is the October 1957 edition

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[Master Oil Racing Team]

I really enjoyed reading about the 1957 World Championships at Sunset Lake Dale. It was almost 7 years later that we drove over to Sunset Lake just north of Corpus Christi to race in our third race. So far, I had only crossed the starting line at the first race we ever saw. The second race was in Mexico with a Mishey hydro and a Merc A Deflector. I blew the motor testing when I spun out in rough water and sucked in enough water to hydraulic the block and tower housing. This third race at Sunset Lake, we had a Merc B deflector that I never could get on a plane. Discovered later that there was a hole in the head of the top cylinder. As it turned out we were pitted right next to Freddie Goehl and Arlen Crouch. They had both moved from Quincy down to Bryan, Texas and opened up a marine store. They had those funny looking German engines we saw for the first time. Freddie ran a lot of classes and was winning just about everything. My Dad asked what kind of engines he had, and where he could buy some. Freddie told him he would sell him any of the engines he was running. My Dad said "I'm tired of buying this used s#!+. I want something that will run." So that's how we ended up with Konig and some top quality boats. Freddie and Arlen ordered us a brand new A/B DeSilva runabout and a used A/B Sid Craft, along with a new FA Konig and FB Konig. There were a number of drivers at that 1957 event that I eventually got to know and become friends with.

[racingfan1]

How many years did you run the runabout Wayne ? I've seen a lot of hydro pictures but never a runabout.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I ran runabouts from 1966 to early summer of 1969 Dale. I had a tough time in runabouts because the cockpits were so wide and I was a skinny kid. I bounced around all over. The first race I ever won was in our first DeSilva runabout, and it was a real win, not one I backed into. I beat Bobby Wilson, and he chased me around every turn, but couldn't get around. First time we had ever met, or raced together. He walked all the way down to our pits from the opposite end right after the race to shake my hand.

We could never get the boat set up like other drivers could. Mine hopped a lot in the turns even though we had made sure the bottom was flat. Jack Chance and Clayton Elmer helped us a lot, but I could never be good. I think part of the problem was I had to add about 60 pounds of lead to be legal, and all the other drivers carried the weight on their bodies and so could move around to change the dynamics of the boat. Plus, Lone Star was a runabout association. There were full fields of championship drivers like, Bruce Nicholson, Clayton Elmer, Freddie Goehl, Phil Crown, Raymond Jeffries, Louis Williams, Bobby Wilson, Artie Lund, Don Nichols, Jim Mouton, Charlie Bailey, PG Stepleton, and Roland Pruett just to name a few. Better that I stick to hydros. I quit flying lessons to take up boat racing, and I felt at home with the lift of the hydro. I had a very good grasp of when it was about to lift off, and thus could fly it to the edge. I only blew over one time in my career.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

There aren't many pics of me racing a runabout Dale. Here's on taken at the State Park on Lake Corpus Christi about a mile northeast of our house on the lake. This was the first race my Dad organized and sponsored. A very cold norther blew in. It was late in the year 1967. My Dad warned everyone not to leave the cove where the race was. It was on the lee side of a very wild, maybe 30-35 mph norther that popped up. One driver, don't know who and think he was a novice, went out on the main lake and had to be towed in. His old Canalito was destroyed and he was lucky not to get stuck out there with it. It got so cold that around 2:00 a bonfire was built just about halfway above the shore and between each end of the pits, the runabout was tossed onto the fire. My Dad sped up the program and he got all the heats in in just a few hours. Nobody flipped. It was too cold. Fastest race from beginning to end I ever attended. As soon as any conk outs were returned to the pits, the gun was fired for the next heat. In and out one boat into the next if you ran multiple classes. Strangely. now that I think about it, the fields in each class were good, and few went down.

Here is a photo of me in my DeSelva.

[racingfan1]

Here is the November 1957 edition

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[racingfan1]

Here is the January 1958 edition.

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[Ketzer]

I keep looking for Dan Futrell in these old Rooster Tails, but he hasn't turned up. He raced out of Nashville, Arkansas, in the late 1950's, ran a D-Hydro, Am-Pro; I'm not sure what else. Either he didn't win any races or had a driver? We (Ketzer Racing Team) ended up with his old Neal, D-Merc, and trailer, and used it when we first started racing in 1967. It must have been good equipment in its day, as it was still competitive in Arkansas and Oklahoma in '67. Anyone remember Dan Futrell?

[racingfan1]

Here is the March 1958 edition.

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[racingfan1]

Here is the April 1958 edition