The good old days

[KG4]

Found these going through some old boxes in my house.Thought ya might like to see them.

[KG4]

Another one

[KG4]

Max Mcpeek

[Ron Hill]

I Talked to Max McPeek Last Wednesday.

Max told me he won Top of Michigan 12 times, he won the Marathon Nationals several times but never won the closed course Nationals. Here is a guy, that was a good friend. My mom and dad made special trips to Grand Ledge, Michigan to see Max's mom, but when they dropped the KG-4 MAX quit and has not been to a race since.


Max told me when he quit, he had five or six boats, 100 propellers, five or six motors and two or three trailers. I don't recall the year Ernie Dawe and myself got OMC to make the 15 A and the 45 SS, but I never planned to run guys like Max "Blue Max" McPeek out of racing.

I used to call Max, "Mrs. Max" as he frequently complained more than me. But MAx came to race!

Thanks for the cool pictures. I am making plans right now to be a Top of Michigan in 2011.

JUST and FYI: My brother brought the Top of Michigan newspaper/program home this lasy August, and it listed all the winner back to 1977. That was cool, but I'd love to see all the winner listed.


How many times did Don Voison win there in DU??

That race is truely one of AMERICA's Greatest Boat Races!


ADD:

Max said he always wore long pants, until he came to Needles in 1966, when my Old Man made him take them off, wring them out, then weigh. After that, Max always raced in short pants.

[KG4]

Don Hagerl

[KG4]

Sorry about the quality.

[Ron Hill]

A Little History...

I won the D Runabout Marathon Nationals in Trenton, 1968. In '69 I was getting married, promoting the Winternatioanls, testing and developing my twin engine Evinrude powered Hallett.

My dad and mom wanted to go see Max McPeek's mom in Michigan, I really didn't want to go to DePue, then to Trenton again but I did. Seems I may have won on Saturday. I sat on a seven gallon square gas tank. On Sunday morning I was way beat, physically beat. I was 25, no longer a kid!. I'd raced DePue the week before, and got two or three seconds, no Championships.

I got out in the lead on Sunday and after about three laps managed to blow over.

At that point I didn't care, I had to get home to test for the Elsinore 500, Paris Six Hour and Havasu....As we were loading up and I said my DeSilva D Runaobut was for Sale for $1,000. (I made a quick sign) TWO GUYS STANDING THERE SAID THEY'D TAKE IT......Well an hour went by and no CASH. So, my 60 something dad and I loaded the boat on the trailer.

Someone else walked up and asked if the boat was for sale. I said, "That's what the sign says." He says, "He'll take it" 15 minutes goes by, and my Old Man says, "Let's go these guys are full of bull ****." We actually start drivng out of the pits at Trenton and two guys and their crews stop us.

They say we came to buy the boat. My Old Man says were going to California. I say, "Wait, that's my $1,000 dollars." Turns out I have two guys standing there with a $1,000 in their hands......My Old Man says, "Look, I'll flip a coin, whoever wins takes the boat now and if there is any hard feeling, we won't sell the **** boat."."

Ray Lenk won the toss and he won the Marathon Nationals with that boat the next year.

I went home and with the help of my dad, built the D Runabout I won the Nationals with in Beloit, 1970. I might add, my dad I had pretty much built that DeSilav at DeSilva's shop.

[oldracer]

Ron, when you ran the marathon in trenton, where was it run? At the same spot where they run the 45 and 120 Worlds? I remember when they ran it in Ecourse just up the river around Mud Island. That was a rough run where they had to contend with the Bob Lo boat wakes. That was survival of the fittest.

[Ron Hill]

I Don't Know...

Fred Miller would know. Ernie Dawe tells me where they race now isn't where I raced. He says "THEY" say it is smoother than the old course.

Seems I don't recall an island, but seems like the barges made some big rollers. It seems we drove down the main street of Ternton, past Miller's Real Estate store and launched. Hard to believe I never owned a boat cart to launch my boat. I bet I lifted and or carried a millions pounds of boats in my life!

I also figure I've driven more than 100,000 miles driving home from races with a wet crouch!

[Mike Beegle]

The quote of the day

Hard to believe I never owned a boat cart to launch my boat. I bet I lifted and or carried a millions pounds of boats in my life!

I also figure I've driven more than 100,000 miles driving home from races with a wet crouch!

This really made me laugh...

Mike Beegle

[Tomtall]

Mike

I also figure I've driven more than 100,000 miles driving home from races with a wet crouch!

This explains alot about Rons temperament.


Just kiding Ron - Great stories,thanks for sharing.

[topomichracer140m]

The first picture is Tommy Fairbairn and my brother has that boat now. Him and Mikey Ross had some good battles in CSR back in the old days.

[champhotrod]

1981 Divisionals

I was at the Crooked Lake Divisionals in 1981. Made the trip from Wisconsin with Del Snyder and Mike Crawford. I didn't run the marathon that year. Came home with a couple silver bowls and some cash if I remember right.
The 15 runabouts ran with D's one day, man those D's looked big in the first turn!

Cooper Jess

[John Schubert]

I don't recall the year Ernie Dawe and myself got OMC to make the 15 A and the 45 SS,

Ron,

I didn't want to quote your entire post but just the foregoing sentence. Perhaps you don't recall but I actually built a proto type 45 in my shop with a housing & tuner made by OMC research. It also had a 15:16 Konig gear case. The SO commission turned it down saying that if I wanted to go fast go back to Alky or OPC. I then submitted it to Edgar & OMC, the net of which was when the "A" was approved, Charlie Strang visited with us Lawn Boy staff in Memphis and asked what I thought about the new "A" & I then said, I see you got my 45 approved as well.

[Ron Hill]

You Could Have Built Them All...

The year that the APBA National Meeting was in Portland, Oregon. When I preesented myC-NOD class to Ernie's Commission. A ONE DESIGN BOAT with a Tohatsu motor, aluminum prop class. Ernie approved it. That night Merc counter with the Merc Cub, Ernie's Commission stayed the course of ONE NEW CLASS.

It was that evening that Ernie was offered two new motors if he got rid of C-NOD. Ernie's counter was this. You get me the motors and C-NOD will be moved to OPC.

One of the first 45's ended up on Ernie DEEP VEE D Runabout. But who actually built the engines, I always heard it was Jim Nerstrum. Who assisted Jim, I have no knowledge expect that Tom Moulder had something to do with the gearcases...

So, John, I didn't say WE BUILT the motors...Politics did. And true to Ernie's word C-NOD went to OPC then out the door! APBA's loss, again!

ADD;


When Jack Leek first went to work for OMC, one of his first planned projects was to built an "A"....which didn't happen for many years.

LAST ADD:

It was Ernie's idea about the restrictor on the J...We weren't sure it would work...