Super Swede ... Lars Strom

[Lars Strom]

To Ron Hill,

Dear Ron,

Please help me put the 4 photos on Boat Racing Facts this time, next time I train my son.

Picture 1

My SE Boat from 1974, I won the European SE Championship 1973,74,75 and 76.
At that time there was no World title for the SE class.

Picture 2

Poster of my Aspen/Evinrude F1 V8 Boat 1983, Stockholm GP, very big race part of the world Championship that year downtown Stockholm, 250,000 spectators.

Picture 3

A little story and photo in Swedish about me, but very interesting so please put it in.
I Translate one day. (Maybe)

Picture 4

World famous Erik Eriksson and Lars, I think Marina Del Ray, CA
Erik Eriksson was a good friend of mine, and a close friend to Ron Hill.

He past away in a Helicopter crash a few years ago, and Ron asked me for a Picture of Erik


Regards

Lars[/QUOTE]

Lars, you are good to go. Look for an email from me about your password. Time to start bragging about all those races!

[Lars Strom]

Hi again,


I have been writing my Boat racing story's in Sweden for the last 6 month at www.Boatlife.se and the Swedish Powerboat
Federations Home Page. www.svera.org

My stories have been of big interest, and the Swedish Powerboat Federation made a folder
and gave them out to the public at the Stockholm Boat show this year when they celebrated the 60's
anniversary

All that in Swedish, but like to try my English now, so please have some patience with me.

I was born in Stockholm Sweden 1953 and my Family runs a Coffee processing plant that was founded 1890.
My dream was not coffee, but Outboards and Racing so I never worked in the Family business

Racing gave me the opportunity to start my own dealer ship and I sold lots of Evinrude Outboards, more than anyone else in the world according to some at OMC, but not the way I was supposed to
all the time. "Some export" back to the USA in the eighty's that turned the overseas Outboard market up side down.

That's a story I maybe tell you later, but in 1991 after I sold my business we moved to Florida and
I was a Resident Alien (Green Card holder) for a few years and then become an American citizen after 9-11.

So I am now a really proud American that fly the Red, White and Blue everyday at my 200 Acre Ranch
in Warsaw, MO close to Lake of the Ozarks.

I have seen many places in the world, and I strongly believe this is still the land of opportunities and the
only place to be.

Yes, gas prices are high, but still far lower than where I come from.

Now I think you know me little bit better and I slowly are going to tell you my Racing History that started
in 1970 with a 60 Hp Evinrude with electric shift and two stupid breaker points, but that engine made me
a Swedish Champ that year.

I raced for about 20 years, and my plan is to tell you the highlights.

Here is some US names you recognize that has made my Racing possible and they know me if you ask them.
Sorry, I know some are not with us anymore.

John Tucker, Jack Leek, Paul Kalb, Jim Wagner, Jim Brackenfield, Charlie Strang, Jim Nerstrom,
Ric McChesney, Ron Hill, Edgar Rose, Gary Garbrecht, Ralf Evinrude and Mouse.

I am sure I forget some, but I am going to start next time with the first Big race I won that made
it possible to make a living out of Boat racing.

SE European Championship
1973 Lappenranta, Finland
I went to that race with a brand new Clerici SE Boat and a Evinrude 65 SS with
the old X - 115 gear case and the shifter on the mid section.

I did not have a propeller with me(Backordered) and never tested the boat, an won the Race!!!!
A very unhappy Roger Jenkins was second.

Full story about this next time...

Lars Strom

[Lars Strom]

Welcome aboard Lars. Good looking equipment you had to run. Will be looking forward to your future posting of racing days.
Ye Olde Desert Geezer

Thank you,

The picture of the yellow SE Boat with # 48 was taken the week after
Paris 6 hours 1974.
Evinrude Sweden made this poster.
That was the first year the 70 HP came with the smaller gearcase, for Racing
only.
Standard in 1975, short shaft only 75 hp

If you look close you see the big fuel cap for fast refueling.

That was my first Paris 6 hours and I remember that Race as it was yesterday.
C. Scotti crasched and I did see when it happend.

I was in Paris for the 1973 6 hours, but the Swedish Powerboat
Federation sent my entry form to late and Mr. Bradinaire refuse to
let me start.
At that time all the entry forms for internationell Races had to go true the
local NA.
On top of that, Paris 6 hours 1973 was the first Race OMC paid me to do,
and it did not start out very good....

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Looking forward to more stories and pics Lars. This is from the November 1979 UIM News Bulletin, and I think it must be you Lars. I have seen a number of typos in these bulletins.

[Lars Strom]

Looking forward to more stories and pics Lars. This is from the November 1979 UIM News Bulletin, and I think it must be you Lars. I have seen a number of typos in these bulletins.

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for your response, 1979 was a year when lots of good things happen in my life.
I got married, my first son was born and I expanded my Evinrude dealership in Sweden by buying
a second dealership in Stockholm.
On top of that Sjoeberg Racing built his first Mod 50/F3 boat, and we finished 3 in Paris 6 hours with
that boat.

I understand you where racing König Engines, and 1977 I made a bad mistake by switching from OMC to
König/Volvo Penta for the Mod 50/F3 class and was always the fastest boat, but the engine blow
up more or less in every race.
This specially design König 3 Cyl Mod 50/F3 had lots of horse power, but came apart all the time.
The only good thing was I become a good friend to Dieter and he was a very nice man and lots of fun things
happened in West Berlin that year.

Lars (Lasse) Strom

[Lars Strom]

I wasn't paying attention when I missed the (Lasse) Lars on a previous post.

I kind of had that feeling about the Konig/Volvo Penta engines Lars. I didn't like the looks of the carbs, rotary valve and length of that belt. Maybe for a short sprint....but it looked like trouble to me for the laps you guys ran.

When you joined BRF I recognized your name and looked into some programs, but I didn't find the ones I was looking for. Were you in Berlin at Spandau in 1977? I will look in some old Powerboat & Waterskiing magazines for some old racing articles.

Since you ran some of the Konig/Volvo Penta's I guess you knew Gert Lowisin. What a great guy. And did you ever know Leif Ahlborg and Roland Stoltz? They ran OA, OB and if anything else I don't know.

Hi again,

Well, 1977 was a year when OMC Racing had the first setback from Japanese outboards slowly taking over
in Europe.

The year before, OMC told all the distributors in most countries in Europe that OMC is going to
take over.

For example, Evinrude in Sweden was imported by Huzells, and I had a very good relationship with Huzells
and they gave me lots of money to race Evinrude Outboards.
Johnson had AGB in Sweden and they where good for drivers using Johnson outboards.

This is in my opinion the first really big mistake OMC made, and was the start for lots of bad mistakes,
that sadly put the them out of business later, as we all know.

Huzells owner Bill Huzell was really upset with OMC taking his business away after 10 years of hard work to distribute
Evinrude in Sweden, so he went to Japan and took over Suzuki outboards for Sweden.
His old Evinrude dealers in Sweden liked Billy, and they all signed up to have Suzuki as a second
brand.

AGB did the same thing, and grabbed the Mariner Brand for Sweden.

I can still not understand that OMC did not think better, Billy Huzell was a rich smart business man and his
top priority was to make Suzuki Outboards very strong in Sweden now, and that's how the price war
started in Europe.

Remember, OMC did the same thing in most countries overseas.

I was loyal OMC, and stayed as an exclusive Evinrude dealer, but 90 % of the Evinrude dealers
was now Evinrude/Suzuki and on the Johnson side Johnson/Mariner.

Back to Racing,

1977 was now the first year Evinrude/Johnson was distributed in Sweden by OMC Sweden and the policy
was, NO RACING and everything had to go true Paul Kalb at OMC's European headquarter in Brugge, Belgium,
and his budget was cut in half.

My relationship with Paul Kalb (Racing boss Europe) was not so good, he had his favorite drivers and I always won over them.
1977 was also the year when Molinari started Racing for OMC, but Renatos deal was with OMC USA,
not Belgium.

I had a brand new Mod 50/F3 Molinari Boat on order and an Evinrude engine for that boat, but after a meeting
with the BIG man at Volvo Penta, Sweden we made a deal and I got my biggest check ever (at that time) to
Race Volvo Penta/Konig in Mod 50/F3 1977.

I went to Como, to pick up my new boat, and to Clerici to pick up a second boat if the Molinari Boat
did not work with the Volvo.

Direct to Dieter Konig, West Berlin to install engines and after that Uppsala, Sweden where
the Volvo Penta outboard factory was located, and Gert Lowisin was living next door.
My deal with Volvo was to have Gert Lowisin 24/7 to help me that year in racing, and Gert was a very
good man to have on your side.

This was a very interesting year for me in Racing, and I raced more or less every weekend somewhere
in Europe, and when "that thing" on the transom stayed together I Won, but most of the times it came a part.

Believe it or not, but I raced Paris 6 hours with a Konig..... and was leading with many laps after
4 hours, when I hit something and sank.... not the engine this time.
We used 50/50 Gasoline/Methanol and it did not take away to many horsepower.

The Sprint World Champion Ship OE that year was in Brodenbach, and OMC was not very happy
with Lars racing a Volvo and Jenkins Racing a Archimedes. (Same thing)

Michael Werner was the home favorite with Mercury's secret OE engine with the EFI box.

OMC at that time did not have the speed, and where using the "Gas in a bottle" ( laughing gas), to make it better,
but the officials of the Race said it was not legal, so OMC never raced and filed a protest.

I was fighting hard with Werner and won one heat, he the next etc. and it was down to the final heat
I had to win on a better time and I did, but then the Race officials said that my heat was 2/10 of a second
slower than Werner's so he was now the World Champ. (at that time they used stop watches)

I don't now if it was right or wrong, but a week later UIM made a decision about the OMC protest and the Race
was not a official World Championship Race anymore.

There is many stories about my year with Volvo/Konig and I can go back to that later.
When it comes to money, it was a very good year but I did not get the Trophy's I wanted so after Paris
6 Hours I told Volvo that, I am out.

Volvo did not have a problem with that and late 1978, the Volvo Penta outboards
was history.

Not many people know that, but Volvo Penta Outboards was the first one the Japanese Outboards
put out of business.

Well, maybe they killed them self with poorly designed production outboards.....


One more thing,

My real name is Lars Strom, in Sweden your nick name for Lars is Lasse, but over here Lassie is a dog,
so my name is now Lars.....

Sorry, one more thing.

I am going to stick with my plan to tell my Racing Story's year by year, that is the only way to remember
correct, so next time I am back to Lappenranta, Finland 1973.

[Lars Strom]

That is the way I like to do it to Lars. I found something about you in Powerboat & Waterskiing, but I'll hold on to it until you get to that time. Looking forward to more of your story.

OK, good and thanks for understanding.

I forgot to tell you that Leif Ahlborg is a good friend of mine, and he visited
me in Florida a few years ago and we went to a SST 120 race.

Leif is now a Boat race Promotor. www.nolimit.se

[Lars Strom]

After a few years in the Sport, a big possibility opened up in
the winter 1972/73.
Hans Holmen who worked for Evinrude Sweden called me and said that Huzells and Evinrude
has picked me and one other Swede to get the new Evinrude 65 SS, that was designed
to be a winner in the SE class.

One condition, I have to buy a new SE Cat from Italy. There was two choices, Abbate or Clerici and I picked
Clerici without really a good reason.

We where late to order, but Clerici promise to have the boat ready in June that summer, but that was OK
because OMC was late with the new 65 SS also.

I friend of mine lent me and older Schultze cat and I used my stock Evinrude 65 hp.
At the Swedish Championship in Torsby, Varmland, I ended up around fifth.

Me and my dad Roland took the Coffee delivery truck and headed to Cremona, Italy with a big bag full of
Lire (Italian Cash) to pick up the new very good looking cat.

Back to Sweden to install the brand new 65 SS Evinrude, that had just arrived.

There was one big problem, this engine was using left hand props, and there was not many around.
I found one 2 blade prop used for the Mercury BP's, but not very fast at testing.

The big Race was the European Championship in Lappenranta Finland and OMC's Racing Boss
Jim Wagner, had a lay over in Stockholm on his way to Finland and I got a chance to test factory driver
Roger Jenkins propellers and my boat was flying.

This was a 3 bladed cleaver left hand rotation and Jim Wagner promise me that if I showed up in Finland he was
going to let me use Rogers spare prop.

Me, Holmen and friend Curre took the ferry to Finland and when we arrived at the race there was 45 boats
with Mercury, Carniti, Konigs, Evinrude and Johnson engines, but now Jenkins refused to let me borrow any
of his props.

I was very disappointed and was walking around in the pit, when I ran in to Tor Smith Ingebrittsen from
Norway.
He had an older home built boat, and he showed me his prop that looked like the one Jenkins used.
We made a deal and exchanged props with a handshake.

There was no time for testing and when they dropped the green flag I was flying through the field and after a few
laps I lead the race and pulled away.
I won the heat with half a lap, and everybody went crazy regarding my prop.
Many drivers offered my new friend from Norway lots of money for his prop, that he lent me but he was cool and said it belongs to Lars.
Next heat the Italian drivers was trying to run me over in the start, and later pushed me up on one of the
turning buoys and I was disqualified and had some damage to the boat but we fixed that overnight.

I do not remember the third heat, but I had to win the last one, and I did.

I was now declared the winner and the new European Champion, and Jim Wagner was forced to come over to my boat
and congratulate me.

Roger Jenkins went strait to the Airport and Wales, and Lars and his friends had the biggest after race
party they have ever seen in Lappenranta.

This was the beginning of my professional boat racing carrier and my Outboard Business success.

EDIT...This is Tor Smith Ingebrittsen..from Norway.
He let me use his special race- propeller in Lappenranta, Finland..to Win..!!
Thanks again Tor Smith..

The second picture is me just after the race..and than my Clerici/Evinrude SS # 99 boat

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That is a very exiciting start Lars. I like the way you tell it. I could picture the race. I have seen it many times that boat racers will loan props to other competitors. That is why boat racing is so special. They do not hesitate to help another racer. Keep the stories coming.

[Lars Strom]

That is a very exiciting start Lars. I like the way you tell it. I could picture the race. I have seen it many times that boat racers will loan props to other competitors. That is why boat racing is so special. They do not hesitate to help another racer. Keep the stories coming.

Thank you,

Well, I have about 35 more in Swedish, and are translating by my self and
sometimes it just dont come our right in English, so please bare with me.

I did race 11 Paris 6 hours and one time in the Rouen 24 hours and you are going to
like the result.