Famous people who raced Stock/Mod/Pro?

[Abbott Racing]

ex pro football player "Gordon Judges" raced a Pro Stock flatbottom

[DougMc]

... that karrati guy (name slips my mind at the moment), ...

Chuck Norris

[aojesus]

Frank Cicci

Frank Cicci had some fast stuff. Gord McCrady Sr. bought a beautiful Mitch Meyer ASR from Frank and kicked my butt for several years with it. Dad bought me a Pickerel ASH from Frank. Frank used to have the number 13-N.
The hydro below was one of Franks. This hydro was fast, but John Webster still kicked my butt for several years! There is a rich history of famous wealthy people racing inboard and outboards in the 1000 Islands area in the early 1900's.

Russ

[Dr. Thunder]

Pat Boone ...

Just kidding

[HydroKyle93R]

Doug Herbert, CSR (i think) - NHRA Top Fuel Dragster racer

[jrome]

Roy Rodgers

Roy made yellow jacket boats famous.

[Ron Hill]

Doug Herbert...

Actually, Doug Herbert ran 20 SS Hydro..a Zorkan that I sold him.. Doug and Chet got my son, Chad, into BMX racing.

Chet owned several MOD VP boats, the most famous one, Greg Foster drove for him...

I saw Chet, a few weeks ago and took quite a few pictures of him, of which they are still in my F(*&ING new digital camera... Chet is building a single engine "laker" car (Designed to set the land speed World Record)...

Chet designed and build a twin crankshaft two stroke, once....Gary Ferguson built a boat for the engine. They had planned an attempt on the outboard speed record. They engine had problems, Gary put three Evinrudes on his boat and drove it at Havasu, 1968 with Gary "ROCKET MAN" Gablich....

The record "ROCKET MAN" may have been written about Gablich as he was the fastestest funny car driver or the times...He once crashed and burned a hole through his fire proof underware...quite a status symbol at the time...

[Ron Hill]

How About Broc Glover???

Broc was called the "GOLDEN BOY" of Moto Cross... He drove my MOD VP...It was called the Hill Marine Special......but Broc paid the bills... Yamaha paid him, at that time, 5 million for three years... He was a great MOD VP driver, until he turned over...never raced a boat again..

Road racer Edddie Lawson and Moto Cross racer, Jeff Ward both played with seriously fast outboards, neither actually raced in competition...though, I will invie them to Parker in 2006 to drive SOMETHING...

ADD:

The movie Bernadine, starring Pat Boone featured outboar boats...Pat's boat was called Bernadine Mudd....a Howard Thompson hull...with a Mark 30-H...owned by Charlie Engle.

Last add:

Roy Rogers raced at Lake Los Angeles in the 1950's on Speedboat Rodeo...and also raced the Catalina Island Marathon in a Yellow Jacket with twin Mark 55E's...

Louis Morphy's boat was called Shooting Star. He was a trick shooter in the early days of Movies (Westerns)...

For more "Ron Hill" facts...see www.boatracingfacts.com

[sponsonhead]

White Shoes or White hair?

Just kidding

Pat Boone? I thought that was Tom O'Neill.....

R-19

[18W]

How about David Froelich who raced legends cars before trying his hand at the Craftsman Truck series.

[RLR]

famous racers

Eddie Hill held world records in Drag Boats and Cars at same time

John Medlin raced Mod and Pro in California before going to work for John Force in Funny Cars and now having his kid run Funny Car.

Great story on Johnny Cash. Rocky Stone owned the fastest Service outfits in the country. Marshall Grant wanted to buy the equipment, but Rocky did not want to sell it. One night Rocky said Marshall Grant called trying to buy the stuff and when Rocky said no again, Marshall said someone wants to talk to you. The phone boomed out in a deep bass voice. Hello, this is Johnny Cash and I want to buy your equipment. Still no dice.

Ray

[Andrew 4CE]

Some cool names out there! Keep them coming if you know any more. Updated the links of these people who were from stock/mod/pro on first page...

Andrew

[Richard K.C. Mo.]

Movie and tv people

Robert Stack aka Elliot Ness , 225 hydro , Don Johnson Miami Vice stock OB.
Richard F.

[sponsonhead]

Adolph Spreckels

Ever hear of Spreckels Sugar? The company's founder's son, Adolph Spreckels 3rd raced F Hydro in the 1930's.

Here's an excerpt about him off the SOA Web Site:

"By far one of the most unusual accidents in the '30s occurred at Seattle's Green Lake. On June 14, 1936, Adolph Spreckels was driving an F Class Hydroplane owned by Finley Webb. As he returned to the pit area after a heat, the throttle stuck open. Spreckels hit the beach at top speed. The boat flew over one woman's head, then struck several other spectators before coming to rest against the sound truck. Spreckels was thrown from the boat and landed on a telephone pole, a climbing spike impaling his upper left arm. He hung there until rescuers were able to lift him down. Spreckels was badly injured and needed several operations to restore his arm and face. More tragic, however, was the fate of spectator Ord Lockhard, who had been watching the race from his wheelchair. He was struck by Spreckels' boat and subsequently died."

R-19

[Andrew 4CE]

Don Johnson raced stock outboard? Any more info on that? That's cool. I know he was into offshore.

Robert Stack, that's cool too! Never heard of the sugar guy, but may be an American thing.