Carrol Shelby dies

[PopPop]

http://msn.foxsports.com/motor/story...-age-89-051112

[blueskyracer]

will never be another one like him..Very sad

[Larry Darneille]

I will never forget the blue daytona coupes. A true icon has passed.

[bill boyes]

I recall that Shelby built the Mustang at the Old Pan AM Hanger on the corner of Imperial and Sepulveda at the LAX Airport. Had the Mustangs lined up out side. He ran out of room and moved out and was replaced by an up start Cargo Airline called Fed-EX.

[jeff55v]

I'm very sad to hear of his passing. Carroll Shelby's Cobra muscle car was always my favorite.

[racingfan1]

Is there a boat racing equivelent to Carroll Shelby and if so who would it be ????

[blueskyracer]

Is there a boat racing equivelent to Carroll Selby and if so who would it be ????

Nobody even close

[jeff55v]

Is there a boat racing equivelent to Carroll Selby and if so who would it be ????

In my opinion, Reggie Fountain.

[pops67g]

How about Mr. Kiekhaefer.

[proprider]

Bill Seebold

Can't help but to think of Bill Seebold. Was an awesome racer and innovater for the sport of boatracing. He also had a knack for getting and keeping sponsorship...

[raceright]

best

How about Mr. Kiekhaefer.

Most definitely, his wars with Evinrude and Johnson is the stuff legends are made of.
If you do not agree then do some research. He made boat racing ,boat racing.
Billy is great no doubt, ask about best driver then he gets my vote. But Kiekhaefer was more of a innovater just like Shelby

[Steve77t]

What About Dieter Konig?

He was an inventor, craftsmen and broke through many technical aspects of our sport, Maybe to a smaller degree than Carl or others but he was also into other fields that he broke through these barriers like Shellby. We can not leave out OF Christner either. Two other men, one that passed late March of this year, in the same group is Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins and Smokey Yunick. Current man I can think of is Jack Rouche. All great thinkers and inventors. and some were involved in competition with Shellby.

[blueskyracer]

What about Bernie Little who developed the enclosed capsul concept that many classes of boats use now. His ideas have save many a life and he won a lot of races and pushed the turbines..

But we know a lot of these names from our small racing circles but if you went out in the public and tossed these names out there more folks would know who Carrol Shelby was just from the cobra and mustang fame than any of the others..

[Original Looper 1]

E. C. Kiekhaefer

There’s no question that my vote has to go to E. C. (Carl) Kiekhaefer. There has never been, in my opinion, a more “iron fisted” and diversely talented, industrial icon before or since. Look at what status he achieved in the marine industry while at the same time, in 1955 and 1956, totally dominating the Nascar racing circuit. He brought order and consistency to Nascar, while bringing engineering sophistication and affordably to the marine industry.

I’d also have to give credit to the other 2 points of the triangle, the fire and brimstone. Charlie Strang was undoubtedly not only Carl’s right hand man and the best (at the time) in engineering, he was the brimstone of necessary civil stability in an endeavor such as Mercury Marine became. My father, O. F. (Chris) Christner, for many years, was the fire side of the brimstone in the triangulation of the three.

I can remember when the Looper’s were evolving in the chase against Konig, and we were breaking connecting rods left and right. Dad called Kiekhaefer up and told Carl about the problems Quincy Welding was having. Carl told dad to call engineering and “tell them that I said to take care of the problem now.” In less than a month, we had brand new, never before produced, Mercury heavy duty connecting rods that took care of the problem. That’s the way Carl Kiekhaefer ran Mercury. Excuses were never allowed in the company vocabulary.

Charlie was Carl’s right hand man and kept Carl focused on the practicality of engineering and the reality of consumer use.

My dad consistently bounced racing ideas and innovation engineering off Charlie’s brilliance before we took it and put it into design and the RD phase at quincy welding prior to production.

As great as Carl was, he never would have achieved the level of excellence he did, in my opinion, without the likes of a Charles Strang and his engineering brilliance and consistent stability.


As to drivers, there’s no question that Billy Seebold and Jim Schoch were the two most talented and diversified professional drivers for many years I ever witnessed while growing up. Yes we had major achievers - Jerry Waldman in hydro and Jerry Simison in runabout. However, both of these individuals, Jim and Billy, had full time jobs working 50 hour weeks, then loading up the racing trailer, many times on a Friday night, heading down the highway to awaken early Saturday morning with very little sleep, help set up equipment, go out and successfully compete in F hydro, then get out fifteen minutes later and jump in a F runabout and win the race, shortly after head home Sunday night and be ready for work Monday morning. Wow! Of course, Billy went on to achieve even greater accomplishments in OPC tunnel boat racing, while Jim quit racing to build up a successful marine business totally from scratch. In my book, they’re two of the best ever when taking in account their successful diversity at the highest level of outboard racing at the time while on the non stop go.

In regards to Dieter Konig, being somewhat of a lesser icon than Kiekhaefer but still a monumental figure in the outboard racing world, I couldn’t agree more with Steve Litzell. To think that Dieter Konig rose up from the ashes of WW2 and the shear devastation left behind in Nazi Germany from the wrath of the American military war machine to the degree that he did is phenomenal. Especially as quickly as he did. During the 1980s I became good friends with Scott Smith, and he told me that for some time after the devastation of WW2 in Berlin, the only meat that Dieter and his family had access to was seagulls that they could shoot. I was fortunate enough to meet Dieter in 1976 at Firebird Lake in Phoenix, Arizona, and have somewhat of a lengthy conversation with him then. I got to know some more of his engineering traits over the years, and his German determination to achieve. Bravo!


Regards,

Paul A. Christner

[racingfan1]

Thanks Paul ! Always enjoy reading your posts and learning more on the history of boat racing. Dale