Billy Powe

[chrispowe]

Anyone ever heard of him? He's my grandpa and raced from the early 50's into the early 60's in A and B runabout. His boat number was B75. He and his brother Jimmy had a shop in Norco, LA.

We lost a good bit of his old racing things from water damage in hurricane katrina and I'm trying to put some stuff together for him. If anyone can help please let me know.

[jrome]

I Rember Both Brothers . They Could Turn Arunabout On The One Bouy Turns In South La. Iwas At The Races In Norco. Sonny Kolb Was My Cousin.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I wasn't sure where Norco was, and thinking about the number B75, I thought maybe it was close to Beaumont and the Powe brothers were Lone Star Boat Racing Association members racing out of the Beaumont club. Joe told me that was not so. Norco was between LaPlace and Baton Rouge and they were members of the Pelican (Outboard?) Racing Association. Or something like that. I had never heard of that so I asked Joe if they were affilitated with NOA and he said no. Sometimes they raced in LSBRA, but there were a lot of stock outboards and so they also raced with inboards at APBA sanctioned events. I had planned to look in some of the old Roostertails Johnny Dortch gave me, but he said they were not NOA. I hope you can post some of the stuff you have Chris. As long as you can get any pictures and pages apart to scan, you can clean them up a lot with photo and art programs.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

I seem to remember the "Pelican Outboard Asociation" or some such orginization being in existance when I started racing in Arkansas in the mid 50's.
Don Nichols Dad raced before him and then Don. Perhaps he knows the person or something about them. I'll contact him and see if he has anything to add.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I talked to Eileen a few hours ago. Bout time you got back.:rolleyes: But hey...Bill Van....it would be very cool for you to get info from Don. He needs to post some stories. Tell him if he does....I will put up some pics.

[chrispowe]

There are a few things left that I can scan and post. Most of it was ruined beyond photo shops help and long gone now. I'll get what I can find up tomorow sometime.

[chrispowe]

Here's what I could find. There are some others but the boats are to far off to tell anything. I snatched his 3rd place plaque off the wall and scanned it too. I stand corrected on the boat number also, it was R75 instead of B75. He bought the boat from Jack Corner in Dallas, TX in 52' or 53'.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i35/hoghunter601/Boat003.jpg

These next two are of him test running the R75 boat in the Bon Carre Spillway in Norco, LA.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i35/hoghunter601/Boat001.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i35/hoghunter601/Boat002.jpg

Here's his third place finish plaque from a race in 1958.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i35/hoghunter601/RacePlaque.jpg

And this picture says accross the bottom, " This is Chinba looking over your boat." It was another boat he had, not sure what he called it or the number.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i35/hoghunter601/Boat004.jpg

And a lineup of boats with the same boat as above in it somewhere. Thats what pops said anyway lol.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i35/hoghunter601/Boat005.jpg