Karl Williams to Ted Abel Part 1

[Ron Hill]

Photo is Bill Wells, London, Ontario, Canada at Valleyfield, Quebec 1956.
Class “C” Hydro. Engine Johnson PR-65 on a boat of his own design and build. (Bill also designed and built a hydro for his brother George’s 4-60)
Engine work by Blankenstein and Fuller. His PR had Johnson cylinders.
Bill’s current age is 85 and has two collectible cars he shows during the summers - probably not this year
Bill did not remember how he did at Valleyfield and said he was sure he did not win as one would remember winning Valleyfield as it was a far larger race than the CBF (Canadian Boating Federation) Nationals.
At 24 years he was the youngest “C” Hydro driver to win the A.P.B.A. Eastern Divisionals.
The day previous he raced at Arnprior, Ontario, Canada and led every lap up to approximately 200 yards before the finish line when the condenser wire broke moving Marcel LeBarge into the winners circle. LeBarge was the guy to beat from Quebec later after moving from outboards to inboards becoming the guy to beat in the 360 inboard class.
Bill raced in U.S. states neighboring the province of Ontario.
At a race in Pontiac, Michigan the first five boats were Milford Harrison, Mel Kirts, Dan Kirts (1st 2 cyl “C” Konig), Bill Wells and John Dertinger.

[Ron Hill]

Mon, Jul 27, 2020






Before I get into part 2 I have additional information regard Bill Wells and Marcel LeBerge from Part 1.

Attaching photos: Bill Wells testing on the Thames River in London, Ontario.
Bill beside one of his collector cars
Newspaper clipping from Saranac Lake, N.Y. the location Bill won the APBA eastern divisionals


Marcel LeBarge - After leaving outboards Marcel pursued the 360 inboard class. A new class where the driver sat behind a stock Chrysler engine in these hydros. The idea was to have an inboard class with low entry cost. Well that did not last long before new driver in front boats and engine that cost a pile of money made their way in the class. In spite of all this Marcel plunged forward. At Valleyfield one year his engine blew up in the first heat. Marcel pulled the engine from his taxi cab and ran a respectable second in the second heat. Engine went back in the taxi and Marcel went to work. This story comes from a reliable source I have known for several years and have no reason to doubt the validity.


Part 2:


Nearly everyone is familiar with Wiseco Piston Company, Cleveland, Ohio. In the early days they made pistons, lower units and performed racing service to drivers running the C-Service Speeditwins and PR’s as well as pistons for other Evinrude, Johnson and Mercury engines. What most people did not know was Cavell Brothers, Cleveland, Ohio (Tom Cavell) made the pattern equipment for the pistons and lower unit for the PR’s. A few years ago at a race in Alexandria, Kentucky Tom Cavell’s grandson Allen Wieland brought these to the race and I had the privilege to see the original drawing for the PR lower unit designed by Tom Cavell. The drawing was dated 3/25/53. Tom had the parts cast and they were machined in Clyde Wiseman’s shop. They were friends and both raced with the Cleveland group of racers during that era.

Attaching the front cover and inside pages from the Wiseco catalog (nothing printed on the back cover) Year approximately 1953. When you can buy a complete, ready to race, PR lower unit for $70.00 that’s a long time

[Ron Hill]

My plan was to keep these “a little history” emails fairly short. This is one guy a novel of 200 pages would not cover his life and accomplishments.

The Jones family of wooden barrel makers came from England. The wooden barrel business in the U.S. did not last long and the family went into steam valves supplying the locomotive industry until steam locomotive went by the wayside. They next got into the ball valve business supplying the petroleum industry. Wes Jones sold ball valves to the petroleum industry with Sun Oil being one of his accounts. He also designed a special pipe and fittings to move cold crude oil.


Wes graduated from Duke University with a business degree. The engineering part of his life was all self taught.


His early years of racing was with 4-60’s on Jacoby hydros. He did not run any PR’s until 1950-51. His grinding/machine shop was not started until the late 40’s.


During the early to mid 50’s he made the Jones - O’Dea Red Head for “B” deflector Merc’s in a joint effort with Dick O’Dea. This was approved by APBA and later disapproved. This did not set well with Wes and he dropped out of boat racing after this incident for several decades. At this time he also had just received a new Big “C” Neal that was never ran until his return to racing in 1986.


Wes Jones was responsible for developing the Jones PR cylinders, Jones pistons, Jones PR heads, Jones carb cover and decades later re-designed my Hubbell pattern equipment for the rotor valve, crankcase, clamp bracket and swivel bracket. The shop also did a lot of cylinder grinding for both iron and chrome cylinders. He also worked with the people at Quaker Gear in developing the PR lower unit gear sets that would work in both the Hubbell and Starnes lower units. The PR rod retainer was a weak part in these engines. I asked Wes what could these be made from to avoid the continual breaking. His answer was Delrin. These have been used since the mid 80’s with far greater success than the steel retainers.


Wes passed away in February 2000.


Photos:
top left - Jones family home and shop, Claymont, Delaware 1936 - 1939.
top right - Wes’ shop inside the house. He still had the engine stand until his passing.


row 2 left - Cylinders finished ready to ship
center - Jones - O’Dea Red Head
right - Wes with one of the many hydros, Barnstormer trailer/boats/van, Jones PR


bottom - l&r - Jacoby Hydros price sheet

[Ron Hill]

I was at the Grove, Oklahoma boat races last Thursday - Sunday and was not able to email part 6.


Addendum concerning the Jones - O’Dea Red Head kit: After communicating with Dick O’Dea with questions on this kit he suggested I contact John Schubert as he actually ran a Merc with the kit. The kit did include a block, head and hardware to use on the KG4 and 20H engines so the tank could be mounted on the KG4 and ready pull starter could be used on both. Here is what John had to say about the Red Head:



Wow that was a long time ago. Yes, Dick did install one of his Red Head
blocks on my #2 20H powerhead. I believe that it was 1954. We did not run it
on alky just gas. Not sure that I raced it or just ran my standard 20H,
leaning towards using it, in a race at Carlstadt, NJ. Vic Scott in a
Jacoby/SR was out front heading to the first turn, I was on the outside
catching him with my Jacoby/Merc when I blew over backwards. Had to make a
hospital trip hurting my ankle but was OK.
I don't believe that the block was even approved then, but do recall it
getting approved then dis-approved. Commission was loaded with non Merc
people & they were worried, but Karl, I was just 15 then & considerably
older now.



Re- Vic Scott being the guy to beat at the time - Yes Vic was . He was in c
Camel cigarette ads won many races including some nationals & won the Albany to NYC marathon I believe twice. Very nice guy. We had several from NJOA. The Jacobys, Don Whitfield several time champ in M, Gibby Peterman won many races in A with a KR then in his later years with either a Yamato or Konig. Emil & Dotty Mayer, Eleanor & Henry Shakeshaft, George Andrews Sr. Dick O’Dea, John Covals who almost won the Albany to NYC marathon with a KG7H but they had a 30 minute head start. Dick McFayden M class & founder of the Aqua Meter speedometer & other gauges. And so many more including Charlie Strang.

We only ran the Red Head once & as I said yesterday on gas. It was about the same as my stock 20H, but remember Dick installed it then we raced it. No testing at all.



Grove, Oklahoma NBRA boat races June 13-14, 2020



This race will fit easily in the category amount the best organized boat races. Over 50,000 miles round trip was driven by participants for this race. The 2.2 million dollar facility built to accommodate a 500 boat Bass Masters Classic fishing tournament came with concrete lighted parking/pit area along with food vendors, car show, bands, fiddle contest, helicopter rides and fireworks made for a well rounded entertaining weekend. The race course and pits were great. A lot of work by both doctors Leonard and Rick Miller made this possible. The number of entries as posted today on HydroRacer.Net (http://hydroracer.net/) by Hydro doc was 140.



They accommodated classes they normally did not run like the “J” class for kids and antique C-Service and C Racing classes. Justin and Britni Gibson ran the PR’s in C Racing Hydro and this was the second time a man and wife ran together since Fred Mathews and his wife ran C-Service Runabout at the Tonawanda, N.Y. race (mid 50’s) where I was present. Britni's win and style of driving placed her at the top of the list for anyone requiring a driver. Busy weekend for Justin with 9 year old daughter Brie’s first race in “J” hydro and wife Britni’s first race in “C Racing Hydro.





Pits and race course photos for Grove, Oklahoma: