"Racing with Kansas City Speedboat & St.Louis ODA, 1969 - 1977"----Part IV

[Jeff Lytle]

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Here's the final part of the video slideshow.............I bet i've watched it 20 times! Seems only fitting that part 4 is going to be posted on July the fourth.

If any of you have old pics or slides of your racing days and would like to do a presentation like this about your boat racing career, simply contact a member of the BRF admin. team and we'll get it done for all to enjoy.

Thanks Tom for asking me to get involved with your project, I really enjoyed it, and learned more about doing stuff like this in the process.

[tomberry]

Jeff,

Thank you for your time and all the work you have done to make it possible for me to share this with the BRF family. There are many more pictures and my intention is to post some of them from time to time and to post any that have anything to do with any responses generated from these posts.

Tom

[Master Oil Racing Team]

And we thank YOU also Tom for learning how to scan them and put the music to the slides. I got your E mails. I will get back with you on some future pics that Bill Van told me you thought may not be good enough. You can do a lot to enhance them. We've been very busy lately and I haven't had the time to post some of the pics I want on your thread, but hopefully VERY soon.

[tomberry]

A close friend and I extended a motorcycle trip we were on in order to catch some of the racing at the Depue Nationals last week. Reunions with old friends made the trip very worth while. Attached are some pictures taken while we were there.

Tom, Bill Van, Mike Homefeld

Tom & Rich Krier

Tom with Ralph DeSilva

Tom & Jim Tremble

I also got to talk with a number of others like Rex Hall, Jim McKean, and Bruce Nicholson but did not get those pictures. All in all it was a great end to an already great trip.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Hi Karen:

I am trying to figure out your family connection to Ross Gibson and Bill Collins. I think from your posts, Ross was your grandfather. Is that correct??
In the 1980's I made many trips from the St. Louis area to the Quad Cities on Hiway 67 to visit Harry Pasturczak, and probably stopped a dozen times or more in McComb to visit with Bill Collins. I either would go by "Hanger 7" and pick him up or meet him at a bar in a Hotel downtown in McComb and we would discuss engines/theory for a couple of hours before I started on back for home. He was a very nice person and never had a bad word to say about anyone, which is unusual in a racing sport. He was always interested in what Harry ZAK had cooking and what his latest ideas were also. I always enjoyed meeting him and our conversations, and used to see him at DePue even into the 90's I believe. I have enjoyed your posts and pictures. Hope to see more, especially about the "golden years" of outboard racing. the 50's, if you have any. That is when I started and when I think about that time, I can actually smell the methonal/castor,benzol mix. I can only imagine your memories from when you were small, but you have a talent for sharing them with others, so keep sharing what you have.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Karen:

Thanks for the clarification on your relationship to Ross and Bill. I surmised that is what it was with Ross, but wanted to be sure. I did not have as much contact with him as I did Bill, but he was also a very nice and interesting individual to be around and talk to.

When you started writing about the flying, I remembered that was another topic of conversation between Bill and I. I did some agriculturial application (spraying cotton, and seeding and fertilizing rice) in Arkansas way back when when I was young and fearless(not so smart) and we discussed flying quite a bit. I seem to remember he had a light twin of some type, don't remember now what manufacturer it was. Did he not also practice law, or was that your grandad? Perhaps I am thinking about someone else.

Thanks again for clearing that up for me, and be sure and tell Bill I said "hi" the next time you talk with him.

The way you are going to spread your grandfathers ashes is very similar to the way I and some other friends of Ray Hardy (boat racer from Chicago) took care of his ashes several years ago. His daughters made some of his ashes available to Eileen and I, and we put them in 35MM film canisters and then gave them to friends and aquaintances of his to take for a final race at the Nationals at DePue. He almost won a Nationals again, but between an accident and a "beat the clock", he got a second. All in all I think he rode with about 10 different drivers in his last race. We also dispensed some just past the finish line at Alex the same year, as he always liked to race there also. He was an officer in Outboard Club of Chicago for quite a while, and had a lot to do with the success of the National Championships held at DePue in the 60's and early 70's put on by that club.

I belong to a gun club here locally and the long time treasurer of the club passed away a few weeks ago. The club has an annual 4th of July celebration every year and a cannon shoot in conjunction with it, and his ashes were placed in a drilled out bowling ball and shot from a black powder mortar big enough to hold a same. His final wish was to have his ashes scattered over the gun club grounds where he had had so much enjoyment over the years, and he certainly got his wish. I wasn't there but reportedly the bowling ball was sent several hundred yards in the air and downrange. If he was able to observe from wherever, I'm sure he was pleased. What a way to make your final appearance (or disappearance) in front of your friends.

Thanks again for the information

Bill Van