N.O.A. Roostertail

[racingfan1]

Here is the June 1960 edition of Roostertail

[racingfan1]

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[racingfan1]

Upon reading the story on page 3 about John Dortch I have a questiion , when did the kill switch become mandatory on all motors ? One more question as well , what was the difference between C runabout and C - 1 runabout ?

[Al Lang]

Back in those days, CRunabout and hydro were the PR engines or Merc and Konigs. The C-1 class was the Evinrude Speeditwins or P50s.

[Al Lang]

Dale, many thanks for posting the Rooster Tail. Wish I still had all my copies and the Propeller magazine also. A lot of racing history. Many names I either knew or raced against.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Same goes for me Al. I am amazed about how many guys I know were racing so long before I started. Johnny and Liz Dortch became dear friends of me and my Dad and spent a number of nights staying at my Dad's place. We talked some boat racing, but mainly we just talked about other common things we liked, laughed about, and had some good dinners. Johnny never talked about the incident with the throttle, or how many races he had won before we met. Glad to read that piece, and it goes to show that Johnny Dortch, though a Midwesterner, had the Code of the West. Do what's right and walk away.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

As far as the kill switch goes Dale, have to look at some rules. Didn't take effect here or overseas at the same time, but it was within a few years of each other. Have to look at the first rule I remember, but need to go back and see what it said. It was NOA, and the best I remember was that it stated that there must be a means to kill the ignition if a driver left the boat. In other words, something attached to the driver that was also spliced into the ignition. There was no one making such a device at the time, and so everyone made up their own system. I made one that worked the first time I used it. This was in 1966.

Later on we started racing APBA. Don't know exactly what year the mandated the kill switch, but by then I had perfected mine to a totally different system that worked very good. This was 1972. UIM had put in the same rule also, but I am not sure when. Must be along the same time line, because the next year after I had my system worked out, Dieter Konig had the best kill button made. Simple to attach, no hangups, worked perfectly every time. In fact would kill the motor if you bounced too high off the deck{which I did }. That would have been in the same time frame of 1972 Europe..1973 USA. That's just my recollection Dale. Rule books can tell you when it went into effect, I just remember about when we did it.

[racingfan1]

Dale, many thanks for posting the Rooster Tail. Wish I still had all my copies and the Propeller magazine also. A lot of racing history. Many names I either knew or raced against.

Thank you Al , I recently received a collection which included about 15 Rooster Tail publications and I will be putting them all up on this thread.

[racingfan1]

Here is the July 1960 edition.

[racingfan1]

Here is the August 1960 edition