Ron Anderson

[Steve de Souza]

I believe Ron was one of the first to go over 100 mph with a 125CC

[David Weaver]

over 100mph in a 250cc? The engine in the photo is a FA Konig 250. If I recall correctly, the Kilo record for 250 was 96 or 97 mph for a very long time before being bumped over 100mph.

[DeanFHobart]

Steve & David,

I just talked to Don "Dewey" Anderson, Ron's brother...........

Gerry Walin went 92 mph with an Anzani in 1974.... Ron Anderson went 100mph with a Konig in 1977.

:cool: :cool: :D :D

[epugh66]

I like that picture, thanks Steve. 100 mph must have been FAST in the '70's! John Stevens went 101 in '84 and Sean McKean went 107 in '92, both with Pugh/Yamato combos. The record is ripe to be broken, Dave?

[David Weaver]

Eric, just call me and we can set you-up for the attempt in my boat!! Best I have seen is 97mph in a competition set-up. But, I know that is has more in it, just need someone else than me to give it a try.

[Ron Hill]

In the picture, the older gengleman is Rocky Stone, who are the rest? None are Ron Anderson, right?


Seems I remember the "Phantom" as Jerry Walin was called going 97 MPH with his B (350) Anzani at Modesto about 1967.

I'd like to know some speeds...

ADD:: On Walin's hydro, two blade cleaver (Cary) no skeg without out board (Actually like inboard) rudder.

Steve where did a man named Hallum come in? (Just remember Lon Steven talking about him)...

Lass ADD: Great picture...A and H? Anderson and ??? Hallum???

[Steve de Souza]

The guy with the beard is Steve Straigt. He bought to outfit from Ron. I believe the blonde to the right is Lynn Anderson's sister Ron's wife). That is Rocky in the middle.

Jim Hallum was one of Ron/Sutter group. There were a couple of others as well. Hallum and Ron were the engine guys - Ron drove some and Sutter & Jerry Walin were drivers. These guys at that time were pretty much in a league by themself.

A&H was for Anderson/Hering.

[smittythewelder]

A&H stood for "Anderson and Herring." I don't know how many boats Ron and Bob built together, but Ron kept putting that name on the boats he built. His brother Don built some number of boats under the trade name Dart or Dart Craft.

Jim Hallum was one of the great outboard engine builders, and should be in the Hall of Fame. His dad Val was a contemporary and competitor of Leonard Keller, Chuck Hickling, and other real-old-timers. Jim worked on his engines. He got a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the U. of Washington, but worked all his life as an outboard mechanic (and still does, when the marina gets swamped with work).

(more to come, I'm out of time)

[mercguy]

A&H stood for "Anderson and Herring." I don't know how many boats Ron and Bob built together, but Ron kept putting that name on the boats he built. His brother Don built some number of boats under the trade name Dart or Dart Craft.

Jim Hallum was one of the great outboard engine builders, and should be in the Hall of Fame. His dad Val was a contemporary and competitor of Leonard Keller, Chuck Hickling, and other real-old-timers. Jim worked on his engines. He got a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the U. of Washington, but worked all his life as an outboard mechanic (and still does, when the marina gets swamped with work).

(more to come, I'm out of time)

Jimmy stops by the shop about once a month, but mainy just to show off his new "toys" (pulse jets) he has built or use the internet............no more worky for him, but does lend some "ideas" once in awhile. Our new outboard shop (opening this fall, along with the rest of our new 5 million dollar facility) will be be named the "Jimmy Hallum Outboard Repair Shop". We are also working on having the boat and motor (that set the B record) on permanant display in the showroom. Jdub said he will "loan" us the boat back and we still have the Anzani at the shop.

that being said Jimmy is definately a master mind mechanic............


www.baysidemarine.com

http://www.baysidemarine.com/special.cfm?ID=1326

[smittythewelder]

Thanks, I haven't talked to Jim in a while, and maybe I misunderstood that he still occasionally turned a wrench there.


Anyhow, in tuning for his dad, Jim became known as one of the sharper minds in outboard racing by such luminaries as Charlie Strang, Hu Entrop, and soon, Bill Tenney. I think Tenney had raced against Jim's dad, and another connection came through Jim's other hobby of model airplane racing. Tenney manufactured a pulse-jet engine for model airplanes, which would push them to speeds upwards of 130mph, and Jim had modified one of these and gone back to a big Midwest race where he talked to Tenney, who may have started importing Anzani outboards about that time.

A couple of years later, Jim was at a Reg. 10 race when the father of a young driver, Gerry Walin, asked him if he could look at their engine, a class A Evinrude (were these called KR's? This was a little before my time, and I can never keep the Evinrude designations straight). At some point, someone made the decision to acquire one of Tenney's Anzanis, which at that point were just even competition with the Mercs, Champions, and 2 cyl Konigs. In a year or so, Hallum had Walin and Lee Sutter, who was also working with the Anzanis, setting records at Lake Lawrence and Devils Lake.

At some point in the early 60's, a UW engineering student out of Port Angeles, Ron Anderson, was racing a B Alky Hot Rod he'd bought from John Alden. Ron became part of the Hallum/Walin/Sutter Anzani owners group, and soon was friendly competion in A and B Hydro. Jim had a simple dyno set up, and he and Ron had "dyno races" while dialing in their engines. Jim was first to build two-carb Anzanis in about 1965, four carbs in about '67, and the exotic looking ram's-horn expansion chambers the following year. Both Jim and Ron tired of the Lucas magneto that frequently stopped firing wet plugs when trying to get on plane; both fabricated mixture controls for the Vacturi carb, and if I recall, Hallum experimented with a Pioneer chainsaw mag, while Ron may have been first to use the Mercury electronic ignition which ultimatly solved the fouling problems. The Anzanis had earned a local reputation as "fast but unreliable" which they never lived down, yet in the early '70s, Walin's fully developed B Anzani ran race after race in Region 10 with perfect reliability. At about this point, Ron turned the powerhead around to use sliding expansion chambers in the early '70s, and went on to make further improvements to the Anzani after Walin bought a VB Konig (this Konig, massaged by Hallum, won back to back national championships with Walin and Dick Rautenburg driving, following which it got Steve Johnson the National Points Championship).

Hallum/Walin's most notable feat was surely the 100mph record set by Walin in BOH in about 1971, topping the 97mph UIM record of the Japanese Fuji factory with their 4-cyl precurser to the Yamato fours. At this time, even the C's and D's hadn't gone 100mph and wouldn't do so for a year or more. Everybody was blown away that an Anzani, already considered obsolete (especially outside Region 10), could go so fast. Before Walin got hurt, he made one more trip to Delake with the B Anzani, and ran 106 one-way before sticking a piston on the backup run. Gerry was not merely a driver of turn-key outfits, by the way; he became expert at setting up his boats for racecourse or kilo, and showed fine woodworking skills in building his last three boats.

After Gerry got hurt, Jim got out of racing, becoming an avid hiker and nature photographer, often in company with Leland Schmidt, a Northwest OPC driver. Recently, Jim dug out some of his old model racing equipment with the intention of firing up one of those Tenney jet engines (which he says are still manufactured somewhere, in tiny quantities).

Apart from his record as an engine developer, Jim Hallum (now in his mid-seventies) has always been one of the most likable men you could ever meet, quiet, a bit shy, with a low-key but infallible sense of humor.


(Thirty-to-forty year old memories are not to be fully trusted, but I think this account is roughly accurate as to events and sequences. Feel free to correct it if you know better.)

[RichardKCMo]

Hey Smitty, i thought Bs always went faster than Ds!!!
RichardKCMo

[Ron Hill]

Smitty, your post is the kind of posts I dreamed of, when I wanted a Boat Racing Encyclopedia. Lon Stevens mentioned Jim Hallums name, seemed like frequently when Lon and I talked, but I never knew anything about him.

Seems the Great Ones, lived this sport 24/7.....

Thanks again, your memory seemed perfect...

ADD: Seems the day Ted May averaged 94 in a C Hydro, powered bya Konig.....Walin's B went 97 (Modesto, around 1964....) There wasn't a "D" that I knew of, that would break 90....as "D" were all cross flows.

Ted's Kongi was really Harry Bartolomei's four carb...Walin's Anzani was a "KILLER" motor...

[Dr. Thunder]

A&H stood for "Anderson and Herring." I don't know how many boats Ron and Bob built together, but Ron kept putting that name on the boats he built. His brother Don built some number of boats under the trade name Dart or Dart Craft. ...


Trivia question ... anyone care to guess what was the original meaning of D.A.R.T when it was first used in reference to Ron Anderson?

[smittythewelder]

I'll hazard a guess. Ron occasionally referred to himself as "Dumb Andy" by way of comparision to "Smart Andy", Howard Anderson, who was already doing very well financially with his marina. So maybe, "Dumb Andy's Racing Team"??

Ron, I private-messaged Wayne Baldwin some time back that we needed to identify the talented interviewers and writers among us and encourage them to do arranged, extended interviews of the old-timers before they're gone. Craig Fjarlie made a great start on this before I ever suggested it, and I'm particularly glad he got to record Hu Entrop's words a couple of years before he passed away. Someone ought to catch up with Ron Jones, Sr., Ed Karelsen, Howard Anderson, and Ron, too, even though he isn't all that old. I don't feel that I have any particular talent for it, but time and opportunity are flying by . . . .

A particular problem in interviewing is asking all of the questions that various parties might have, and getting the subject to re-tell this or that good story that someone recalls. Ron, do you think it would make sense to develop a place on this site where someone working up a list of questions could lay his ideas out for the readership, and anyone interested could chime in and say, "Be sure and ask him about the time he . . .", and so forth? Also it might encourage some of the more self-effacing types like Jim Hallum to be interviewed at all if the interviewer could hand him a printout with a bunch of his old contemporaries and admirers saying, "Come on and talk to the guy, ya old goat!!"

[Ron Hill]

My "half-A%$ed" cousin, as I called him, John Heggenburger, told me that the "D" D.A.R.T. stood for Dewey Anderson...seems that ALL I remember...

Didn't Craig Fjarlie interview Jack Leek....?? Some stand questions would be good, though I've never been a "FORM" man...but an outline of questions would be good...

Truth is, wish someone would come up with questions, we could post them....Guys like Rich Fuchlin could ask Lon Stevens questions that I'd never even know to ask...Lon, has some great stories....

AS the dreamer I have always been, I dreamed of having enough money to travel and visit people like Ed Karelsen, Ralph DeSilva, Lon Stevens, the Hedlunds, Dick O'Dea, John Riner Woods, Bill Seebold, Jr., Fred Hauenstein, Jr.....Someday, right now I need to sell some DePue and BRF "T" shirts....

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I like your idea Smitty and I think about it often, but I have been trying to finish up some stuff I started first. In my opinion you did an excellent job with that Jim Hallum, Ron Anderson, Lee Sutter, Gerry Walin piece you did. It would be great if we could get Rusty Rae to do some stuff on the guys in your area. (or anywhere for that matter) I'll bet Rusty knows a lot of them personally.

The stuff I write about is just stories about things that happened ala Ron Hill style. I have on tape interviews I did with Dieter Konig, Scott Smith, Hans Krage, Jerry Drake, Kurt Mishcke and Karl Bartel, but I am just an amatuer. If you don't have practice at it, it's tough to do a professional interview without it sounding stilted. But we need to start somewhere.

[smittythewelder]

I phoned Rusty after you and I discussed this, and his attitude seemed to be that his interest in boat racing had pretty well faded out, that he was into golf or something of that nature. The only problem with Rusty interviewing guys like Jim and Ron would be that he never had any interest in or knowledge of the machinery, the technology, which was always the central interest for those guys.

Rusty did indicate some interest in contacting you, however; did he?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Yeah, I talked to him over the phone several times since then, in fact, the first time was shortly after you and I had first discussed interviews. I was ready to get started on the first one and rewound the tape I did in Dieter's office in 1975. I had never rewound it from those days and once that Sony got a head of steam going it didn't stop. It spooled the leader right off the reel. I haven't gotten it reattached yet.:(

I think a bunch of us should take tapes and pencils and tablets to DePue to record what's left of our memories.

[Dr. Thunder]

Probably shouldn't speak for either of these two guys but I would think that Craig Fjarle (he's in the biz) and/or Pat Gleason would be the ideal candidates to capture some of the Region 10 lore ... both know tons about the sport and all the players ... from j to unlimited!

[smittythewelder]

Yup, they'd be very good. Trouble is, each of them has already done so much . . . .

I'm going to call Fjarlie and ask if we could get all of the Pit Previews interviews he has done so far, and transcribe them so that people here could enjoy them.