blast from the past

[bill van steenwyk]

Alex's accident

I seem to remember that his spleen was ruptured. I also seem to remember that Doc Collins was there at the edge of the lake when they brought him in in a patrol boat. I heard Doc removed his spleen at the hospital in Spring Valley. I am not positive about that part of the story. I do remember seeing Doc at the lakes edge looking after him when they brought him in. I also remember he was about the only one on the lake, just before dusk, and the boat went to the moon. Chris is right about the time frame, but I don't remember the exact year.

[jdalan]

DePue Blowover Magic Spot

Thought I could add something here. It was in 1971 that Alex was injured testing. The same exact place where Wayne, Tom Kirts and myself were victims of blowovers. Dr. Collins was the one who attended to him at the race site and in the ambulance in transit to the hospital. Dr. Collins did not perform the surgery, however, the surgeon was a student of his while he was on the faculty of USC hospital. I always thought Dr. Collins was on the faculty to assure seating at the football games. He had season tickets in the faculty section where you had to hold up the flash cards at halftime. He was also a huge Laker Fan. Also had tickets to their games. Sadly, the last addition to this story is that Alex passed away several years ago. He was my friend and one of the first people that I met in DePue.
Ted May was the one who first called the boats "Pughburgers."

[bill van steenwyk]

thanks for the "rest of the story"

I had often wondered if the part of that story about Doc doing the surgery was true and always meant to ask him, but just always had something else to talk about when around him. He was one interesting and knowledgeable guy. I took a trip out to Ca. in the 80's after I bought a dyno from him, and went down to his place from LA as I was out there on business anyway, to crate it up for shipment back to Mo. Really enjoyed the stay and visiting with him.
The only question in my mind about him doing the surgery on Alex, was how he would have gotten operating room priviliges on such short notice. He was a terrific person and did lots for the PRO category with the J PRO introduction and furnishing the boats and motors to start so kids could get a ride and get excited about boat racing. I remember the kids would line up on the lake bank at Depue to get a chance to take a couple of laps. In addition of course, he provided equipment for some of the best drivers in the PRO ranks like Alan Ishi and Billy Rucker Jr.

[roperz111]

The same exact place where Wayne, Tom Kirts and myself were victims of blowovers.

Isn't that also about the same place on the racecourse that got Gerry Drake too?

Chris Johnson

[bill van steenwyk]

the "blowover spot"

That was a long time ago, as was Gerry Drakes accident now, but I seem to remember Alex blowing over approx. half way down the back straightaway, and Gerry Drake was almost to the end of the back straightaway. I saw both accidents, and those locations seem to stick in my mind, although as mentioned, it was a long time ago.