Clark Maloof: Quincy, Massachusetts

[Ron Hill]

Clark Maloof...

I think Chad only met Clark once, and he was only 7, but he's heard stories all his life about "CLOCK" from Quincy, Massachusetts..

I don't really recall when I met Clark, but I recall the 1966 Nationals at Prineville, Oregon.

Seems we had a football game Region 12 vs. Region 7 (A REMATCH FOR 1963 BOSTON) in a Cow Pasture after a speech from Mark Hatfield, who later went on to be Governor of Oregon...and the Massachusetts boys were laughing at us because the "COW PIES" on the field weren't very dry.....and some of us had "Cow Pie" in our pants and on our pants..
Anyway, after the game, at some meeting, it was decided to give a Special Trophy to the guy that won by the farthest distance... I come from a family...of arguers, so I said, "How can you do something like that? A JU takes 5 minutes to go a lap... the winner will be in JU, period."
Well, I had won the CU and DU Marathon Nationals that year, I held the Kilo record in CU and in testing my CU lapped faster than my DU.
So, when CU came up, before DU and DSH I was ecstatic, I didn't even try to start up front as I figured I'd be ahead by the second lap.... Well, I finished 9th. The second heat I decided MAYBE, I should try to get a better start, but by the time I thought that, the race was on, and I finished 9th or 10th again...
Bill Giles won, and I remember looking at his prop saying, he just won the Nationals with a 55 mile an hour prop...MY CU goes 62.....
Anyway, D Hydro was up first the next day, and I went out for a quick test and it wouldn't go 60... I came in and grabbed my other D motor off my runabout and begged for one test lap, which I was allowed. This was my good runabout engine and I really had never been in a final of D Hydro before... I only made a half lap and the engine was running good and I saw 70 with my D Runabout engine, I figures, hell, I can't beat anyone with a runabout prop, but at least the engine runs OK.
So, coming down for the start I'm thinking I'm late because these two Wisconsin boats, one is Dewey Breghauer (Not sure the other, maybe Menzies) are way ahead of me...and there had been a big deal about the clock the day before...So, I decided I'm late, again, I just throttle the fire out of my D hydro and run over the top of Dewey Berghauer sponson and the Wisconsin boat at the same time, then I see I'm early, so, I let off, like Jack the Bear, and Dewey and the Wisconsin boat kiss off my sponson, one on each side, and almost barrel roll, the clock hits 60 and I jump on it and to my surprise I get to the first turn first, and there are like 8 buoys, I figure, maybe, with this runabout wheel I can stay ahead through the corner.... About this time Clark Maloof comes FLYING BY...he has this fin that is about 14" deep, then he retracks the fin, and like over drive, he goes right out of sight.
Had he been a D Quincy, he wouldn't been any faster....
I finish second, it got rough a heck and that runabout wheel kept my nose up and I just never backed off.
The second heat comes, and I figure the only way I could win is if someone ran over Clark before the start or if he jumped, and I knew he wasn't that dumb...I actually think I finished 4th in the second heat, but with Clark's two firsts, I got second....
I ran a 14'4" DU Hill runabout that my dad and I had built to run F Runabout but couldn't get a motor, so I ran it is DU, It was called the Double 00 Snapper...(Secret Agent or the two ZEROES for the two drivers, had we raced F Runabout). The water got rough, the 14 footer handled perfect and I won both heats of DU.. Billy Allen did win the second heat but had jumped.
The IRONY, CLARK'S WIN is D Hydro was by the farthest distance, time wise...and I had said a JU would win, what it meant to me, I had the worst second at the Nationals.
Don't remember Clark in BU, but that D Hydro was fast...
Clark hit a tire testing in '69 and broke his leg, I think...and missed the Hinton, West Virginia Nationals.
I think it was the 1969 Winternationals that Clark came to race and he ran BU, CU and DU. The Golden Valley Land Company was giving a $4,500 lot to the driver that was HIGH POINT. I was HIGH POINT, but when the Land Company People found out Clark didn't have a chance to win High Point because he only ran STOCK, they decided to award Clark a $4,500 lot for being STOCK OUTBOARD HIGH POINT.

Clark and my dad seemed to get along really well. I'm not really sure why, maybe from my dad inspecting, maybe they just hit it off.
It wasn't long after the Winternationals that Clark had a bad accident and was hit by in the mouth by another boat. I came home from teaching one day and my mom and dad said they were going to see Clark, that he was in the hospital, hurt bad.
I said Clark Maloof in Quincy, Massachusetts?? 3,500 miles from here!! They said yes, and left.
They next time I saw Clark race was Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I think 1971. There were 12 BU's heading to the first turn, I think Lee Sutter was out front and Clark changed lanes going down the front straightaway and as he crossed Lee's rooster tail Clark's BU took off and flew. I mean, he flew up on the rooster tail and stayed there almost to the first turn, when he landed, he hadn't lost second...
I didn't stay for the finals, I had tunnel boats to drive.
While at the Winternationals, I talked Clark into riding deck in my F Runabout...I really had a D Konig, but the first heat going into the first turn I went between Bill Jack Rucker Sr. and Rich Fuchlin, just as I cleared them I kited my DeSilva at about 88 MPH...how I saved it I'm not sure, luck I guess... We won the heat. Clark says, "No competition.".....I say Clark, Fuchlin has the kilo at 97 and Rucker won the Nationals.....
In Hinton 1976, my DU didn't run well. Billy Allen won easily, I got third but I'm like 20 second off the pace...I talked to Clark, he says get a black block 55 E with 89 serial numbers....
I watch Clark with Billy's D motor appear to be winning DSH when he goes wide on the last corner and Jack Neeley wins...Unusual for Clark to make a mistake...I like Jack's BeZoat and get one for 1977... Craig and Shannon trade me three blade props for the boat....
1977 Nationals, I win my qualifiers in DU and DSH and set top time in both. I tell Clark, he shouldn't run the 55-H foot that the 35 SS foot is faster, he changes the foot and wins the DSH finals. I get second but can't seem to be sad as Clark is a master. CLARK TELLS MY NOT TO RUN SURFACE GAP PLUGS in my 35 SS. (We share speed secrets..).
Last time I saw Clark was the Winter Nationals in California, 1983....I remind him he poked four holes on my NEW CU DeSilva at the Winter Nationals, he just said the lake wasn't big enough for me to pass him...
Clark later broke his back in a 350 Hydro in Florida and has been recovering ever since...
Here's a picture of Clark at Dayton from Speed and Spray...
I know Clark won BU at the 1974 Dayton Nationals because it is in Rusty Rae and Reed Blackburn's Speed and Spray....

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I never met Clark, but I knew him from reading about all his exploits. He was a champions Champion. We never ran where there were any stock racers except at Lakeland, and I guess there might have been a time or two that he was there when we were, but I never knew it. The only time I know for sure I was at the same race where Clark Maloof raced was at the 1993 UIM World Championships. I don't recall all the details at this time, but I remember Peter Crowley won OA, I got a picture of Kay Harrison blowing over in a capsule boat on the way from a bank start to the first turn, and Steve Litzell being run over from behind at the judges stand and his butt sliced up by a prop. I had planned to do a story for Powerboat. I talked to Mark Spencer before going out there since it had been over 10 years from my last story and he told me to go for it. Our company's (Alice Specialty) business took a severe nose dive soon as I got back due to new offshore regulations that kicked in, and our revenues dropped 200,000, 215,000 and 257,000 in three successive months, wiping us out. I never finished developing the film, so I never submitted the story. I still have some undeveloped rolls from that race. After our wipe out, we filed for Chapter 11 in September that year, and Chapter 7 only a few months later. But I'm a packrat so I kept my film.

Many years later following the second DePue reunion, I told Steve Litzell I had his butt chewing on film. He wanted to see it so I bought chemicals and started to develop some of my old rolls. I had other B&W I didn't develop going back to that same bankruptcy in the early 90's. Maybe 20 rolls or so. Mostly Tri X. I did some research on all the new chemicals and tried to come up with a plan for age, temperature, etc. I pretty much decided to do a couple of test rolls to see how they turned and at the were good except I had overdeveloped them and they were very dense and contrasty negatives. I had kept them in good climate controlled conditions and so when I extended development time because of age, I overdeveloped them. I did some more with more standard times and got good results except for problems with loading the film. After all these years the rolls wanted to stay all cocooned and rolled up. Well, the whole point of this narrative is that I never got through developing all the film, and still have about a dozen rolls to go. They include the roll of Steve getting cut up as well as that of Clark Maloof flying higher that I have ever seen anyone go. He was on the far side of the course at Lakeland, Florida past the college and where the road in the northwest empties out on the circular road that goes around the course. Clark was a long way away even with my 500mm lens, but I got him soaring into the atmosphere. He got busted up really bad, and I think I heard he never raced after that, but I am not sure. You know how rumours are. I need to finish up the stuff I am working on, get new chemicals and finish developing film before it's too late. I always wanted to see if I was right about how high Clark Maloof went that day.