Sad News - Harry Bartolomei

[Joe J]

CASTRO VALLEY — An 80-year-old man died Monday after his gun accidentally discharged while he was cleaning it.

Harry Bartolomei of Castro Valley was cleaning his .45-caliber pistol in the parking lot of the Anthony Chabot Gun Club, 9999 Redwood Road, when the gun inadvertently fired, said Lt. Dave Dubowy, an investigator for the East Bay Regional Park District police.

The incident was reported at 3:17 p.m. When Alameda County Fire Department paramedics arrived at the scene, they found Bartolomei lying behind his parked pickup truck with a single gunshot wound to the head, Dubowy said.

Bartolomei was pronounced dead at the scene.

East Bay Parks Detective Sgt. Dale Davidson said his office has closed its investigation into Bartolomei's death because there was no evidence of criminal activity.

"We're satisfied at this point that it was purely an accident — an unfortunate accident," Davidson said. "There's no other reason to keep the case open. ... Based on everything we've learned, it was his hobby, and he went there to enjoy the afternoon."

A woman who identified herself as Bartolomei's wife declined to comment when approached by The Daily Review at her Castro Valley home. "We're not news, we're not news," she said.

However, the accident that led to Bartolomei's death underscores the need to use caution when handling firearms.

[Ron Hill]

I'll bet he dropped the mother...

I was talking about Harry, just yesterday...I had said that even though Harry sponosred me, he always treated me like a BROTHER....

I'm sorry I missed the funeral...

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Harry had bought all of our stuff when we quit and I had planned on talking to him about our old D motor and the hydros. Sam had E mailed me his phone number a few months ago. I learned this lesson once before, but still did not heed it. Don't put off calling. Do it or it may be too late. Very sorry to hear about his passing.

[Joe J]

Per Harry's wishes, there will be no funeral. there may be a memorial service, but so far nothing has been planned.

As soon as Teri and I hear something, we will post it here.

Joe

[Fred Hauenstein]

This is truly a loss to boat racing and its history. Harry was a great innovator in PRO category racing. I learned a lot by racing against him and listening to him talk about racing, props, set-ups, driving and anything else.

Harry loaned me the prop with which I won the John Ward Trophy race in 1968 (and he sold it for $300 in the inspection area following the race - when these props were $60 new).

I used to enjoy watching him race DOH (700H) in the old days. Lots of stories came from his DOH competition with Billy Jack Rucker, Sr.; and everyone watched each time the two took to the course.

Harry and I "bumped" boats quite a few times in CRR and DRR in the early '60s; and I always learned something.... But he always was there to help out and advise.

Rest in Peace Harry. We will remember.

Fred Hauenstein

[jrome]

I was lucky to be able to go to two world championships .Harry had a team at both races in England and Italy. We all had alot of fun with Harry. Harry was a great supporter of world class racing as well as local racing.The boat racing family will miss Harry.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I did a search to see if there was a thread on Harry in the encylopedia. I didn't find one. Ron---maybe you could start one on Harry or the Bartolomei family. I have some stuff to add, but you guys out there know more stories. I would like to hear more about Harry and his earlier racing days. Hopefully some pics too.

[Ron Hill]

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1030&postcount=53

I'll reread what I've written and maybe add some more...

As I was talking to some people at the Antique Meet, yesterday, I felt an urgency in some people's voices when they asked me questions...My mind flashed to Harry...thinking he'd promised to show me his personal pictures....the next time we got together...

I might be considered The Grand Poobah by some, but we all know that everyone's time is limited...

Rest in peace, Harry.....

C-2 is Harry's number, might be Bobby Viera in the boat, but looks like Harry!!


ADD: Freddy and I e-mail about Harry...

Hi Ron:
>
> Sad news for sure.
>
> I noticed in the article that the parks detective was named Dale
> Davidson -
> any relationship to the racer Dale Davidson?
>
> Fred (Hauenstein)

Fred,

Thanks for posting...I wish you'd post a ton about the Hauenstein's....but
thanks..

Dale Davidson, I saw that, but Dale has worked for the LA DA for 37 yerars,

If he hasn't retired...I was going to call Bob Davidson, after Long Beach
and tell him about Harry and ask if this DALE was related...

Do you think the prop I won The John Ward Trophy Race, for Harry, in 1967 was the same prop you used in 1968????

Smith Round ear two blades, and they were $65....

Ron

Ron:

Probably not the same Dale, but maybe related?

I understood that the prop was the same one. Bobby Viera flipped in
eliminations and didn't qualify Harry's CH so he loaned me the prop when
all else was getting pulled together. The only part I had in that rig was
the battery and the muffler can.

Fred

Unlike Jimbo, Freddy has invited me to his house to take pictures of his pictures and post them...Next few months, keep your eyes on me...

(I'll get a few more of my JIMBO pictures next week.....when Cathy, with a "C" ain't watching me).

[Ron Hill]

We raced at Sparks, Nevada, on Labor DAY FOR MANY YEARS. The lake was about as large as a super market's parking lot and shaped in a figure 8... We pitted in one pond, and raced in the other pond...(Other half of the 8)... They always paid very good money, so we frequently had a good turn out of boats...

Well, between the two ponds of the figure 8, it was narrow and a small point of land went out into the the "RACING POND" about 6 feet... Which was OK because most people didn't go within six feet of the shore....Notice, I said MOST people...

Well, Harry was running his Bull Nosed DeSilva and a Cross Flow Quincy..., we ran five laps, and the first lap Harry goes a little wide, while tryinbg to pass Billy Jack Rucker Sr., and he just runs over this point of land sticking out, about six feet and passes Rucker...When his hits this point of land, his boats jumps about four feet in the air There are rocks flying off the point and from Harry's prop......The boat jumps like one of those boats at Cypress Gardens of something and HARRY never cracks the throttle...(He never did)..Harry never slows...Everyone kind of goes, "Did you see that?" Second lap, Harry goes wide again, while leading, over the point of land again...For five straight laps, Harry goes over this point of land... His D Hydro jumps about four feet in th air every lap......rocks anf gravey go flying every lap...

Anyway, ...Harry pulls into the pits and sinks right in front of his pits...Caved in both sponson bottoms...Knocks the skeg off, chew hell out of the prop...BUT, After that..., there never was a six foot point of land out there...Harry had "KNOCKED" it down... He made the course six feet wider.

As Billy Jack Rucker Senior use to say, "This lake ain't big enough for Harry to pass me"...Well, that day Billy Jack was wrong....Harry made his own lake....(Rucker always ran Lon Stevens motors, never Quincy....)...

[Ron Hill]

I don't know why this comes to mind, maybe because I just got back from Bakersfield...where my mind slipped back a few years....Maybe, it was because I'd seen Bill Jack Rucker, Jr. two weeks ago at San Diego...

In 1967, Harry told me to fly up to Oakland and pick up his new 1967 Ford wagon and head for Valleyfield, he told me I had to go to DeSilva boats on the way to pick up a few boats to deliver....

Harry, in my mind, in those and even today, was about half crazy and I'm not sure which half. Even though he'd quit driving Race Boats, because his wife worried about him, he still did CRAZY things....

We'd just pulled into Harry's driveway when some DUDE pulls up on a pretty new HONDA motorcycle.....If you've never been in Castro Valley, the houses are built on like small lots, like they are stair stepped for each lot...So, Harry's house is like one house from the corner, but he had a view, and his lot was maybe 25 feet higher than the neighbor's...All the houses are seperated by hedges....All seemed to have views...

Well, this Dude on the motorcycle, revs her up and shut's her off...Harry introduces me to the DUDE. Harry kind of climbs on the motorcycle....The guys says,"You want to ride it...Harry says, "NO. but let's hear her again....Harry revs her a couple of times.....Then, he drops it into NEUTRAl, he thinks...(I guess on old Harley's all the way down on the shifter was neutral..on the HONDA it was low gear)...Harry revs this mother like he's going to shut her off and let's the clutch out, thinking she was in neutral....

The SUCKER does a wheelie, Harry almost flys off the back, his legs are clear above the handle bars, and he goes right though the neighbor's hedge and down the 25 foot inbankment....the DUDE and me run t see if Harry has been killed, we look over this hedge, just in time to see Harry gain control of the bike, but the neighbor had been reroofing and he'd layed his 20 foot ladder across his driveway. Harry goes across this ladder at about fifty miles an hour, like a wash board, Harry is hanging on to his jock strap, he about flys off again, then he disappeared over the side of the neighbor's lot...

This Dude and I are laughing our asses off but we aren't really sure if Harry hadn't killed himself ....About the time we start to run over to the neighbor's, when Harry comes up the drive way....He says, "I thought I was putting this mother in neutral...." We said, "That was the funniest thing we ever saw....."

And as I drove off in Harry's new Ford wagon, I thought, and his wife doesn't want him racing boats......I get tears in my eyes laughing about that day....

[seacow]

Just read this thread and the belated news saddened me as well.

I wanted to add how much I enjoyed watching Harry and speaking with him in the old days. How great those days were. And, I do I ever agree that Harry and Billy Jack always put on a great show.

At a race at another narrow venue - the Oakland Airport Estuary in D alky hydro... they bumped on a one buoy turn and a collision ensued. As their boats were being dragged on shore, Harry and Billy Jack continued to entertain in competition with an on-shore fist fight.

Harry was a engineer for a radio station and worked on the most popular morning radio show in the bay area -the Don Sherwood show?

[Ron Hill]

Harry was an engineer for that radio show, I think...They really didn't have much work for him, unless something really went crazy. So, Harry would sit for hours and watch the stock ticker everyday. He was always a "GO FOR IT" type guy...a "GAMBLER"... He noticed that some stocks went down in the moring, then went up in the afternoon...and they seemed to do this everyday...

Harry became a "DAY TRADER" when he worked at the radio station...After making several tons of money, he quit work and only invested money...

Not just his money but others, too.. Bill Boyes has a great story about Harry investing some money for the DeSilva brothers...Seems, Harry lost a ton of money for them...Bill Boyes said, "Why did you let Harry buy that much stock?" They said, "Well, he's a great boat racer..."

I know Harry got me into KatyRailroad, with about $5,000 of my HARD EARNED money........Somehow I missed the "SELL CALL" and when I FINALLY got rid of the stock I had $2,500....1966, never "PLAYED" the stock market again...

As Bobby Kitchens from Jackson, Mississippi, once asked me, when I was thinking of buying some trucks for STORAGE UNITS..... Bobby goes, "Ronnie, what THE F#$% do you know about trucking??? You are in the PROP BUSINESS.....and you ain't too bad at it....Why would you get in the TRUCKING STORAGE BUSINESS???"

Harry knew you win some and you lose some...Harry would have loved our 2007 DePue Reunion.....In 1967, I picked Harry, Frankie and Frank Signarillo up at O'Hare Airport...They had a two cyclinder "B" looper, a Four Carb "C" Konig, a Four Carb "D" Konig, and a about six gearcasaes, in their luggage....

Harry Bartolomei and Bill Jack Rucker, Sr. two of outboards greatest drivers and greatest showmen...a real pleasure to have known them and raced with them!!!! Harry was always very generous with me when he sponsored me....