What do you miss and not miss about boat racing?

[DeanFHobart]

Aside from Hydroracer, I rarely go on social media......it seems to easy to get bashed by people....and I get enough of THAT at the races. But was kinda cool Sunday to see a parade of both vintage and current unlimiteds in a parade around Seattle area....people were honking their horns and waving etc....was beyond cool. Side note...last weeks Seattle Times had a wonderful artical about the Slo Mo boats and the beginning of Seafair in Seattle. It was well written, and really underscores how boat racing even to this day is woven in the fabric of Seattle area.

Good stuff Dave. I was at the first Gold Cup race as a spectator and young kid on Lake Washington. Slo Mo 4 brought the Gold Cup to Seattle after winning it in Detroit the year before.

[daveracerdsh]

We would have block parties in my neighborhood seafair weekend. One house had channel 4 on, one had channel 5, one had channel 7 etc. Bets were placed on qualifying etc. All of us kids would have wooden hydroplanes we would tow around behind our bikes in between heats....of course if you were from this area it had to be a Seattle or Spokane based boat. I thought the Miss US was cool....but my dad said no way! Lol....I also remember as a kid going down to watch the slough races both with my dad and with my buddies when I was in my teens. I was from that point on hooked and had to get a hydro! Of course I used my college tuition money to buy a complete CSH rig....my mom was beyond pissed, but my dad was so so stoked.........

[jwmaddrell]

im 84 and have been doing this boat racing thing for 67 of those years so I have lots or misses and not misses. I miss baking cookies and passing them out to my racing friends at the races. I miss seeing my friends at the races and all the great competition of our racing adventures. I miss seeing the different parts of the country on the way to races. bill Giles and I said years ago the had it not been for going to boast races we would have missed seeing many parts of this great country. I will have to admit I don't miss some of the long drives . I miss many of my old friends that have passed away and also my pit crew friends that helped me at the races and helped me test. I don't miss turning over right or left and I don't miss nose dives and blowovers. i miss our racing but will keep baking and hope to get to as race soon. just baked a couple hundred cookies and may go to Springfield and give them away if I can get into the pits.
ps also miss the camping out and dinners in the pits and the campfires and occasionally burning of an old race boat. miss the racing bs sessions into late hours
good luck to all during these crazy times.
regards. John

[Tim Weber]

I miss the anticipation of the event.

To me, getting all my ducks in a row,
testing, tweaking, packing, shopping for my favorite beverage, favorite foods, booking a room, mapping my travels, remembering triumphs and goof ups and seeing my 2nd family is it.

Tim

[daveracerdsh]

Well put Tim. I have lost track of how many races I have attended since 1984....but one thing I remember clear as day. I was helping (in 84) at the Kingdome boat show, and this guy named Dean Hobart was in the booth with me. He told me, after I was still wide eyed and overwhelmed by it all, that I would learn something new about either my hydro or myself at every single race I went to....and to this day I still have notebooks filled from day one with how I did, what I needed fo get ready for the next race etc. I should go back and count how many heats I have ran over the years and how many crashes! Lol.

[DeanFHobart]

Well put Tim. I have lost track of how many races I have attended since 1984....but one thing I remember clear as day. I was helping (in 84) at the Kingdome boat show, and this guy named Dean Hobart was in the booth with me. He told me, after I was still wide eyed and overwhelmed by it all, that I would learn something new about either my hydro or myself at every single race I went to....and to this day I still have notebooks filled from day one with how I did, what I needed fo get ready for the next race etc. I should go back and count how many heats I have ran over the years and how many crashes! Lol.

I do remember that Boat Show... cool stuff.

[daveracerdsh]

There was no internet back then. I wanted to get into racing in the worse way, and found a little blurb on how to get started in hydro racing, with a presentation at the 83 boat show. Man was I hooked! I miss those days.

[DeanFHobart]

There was no internet back then. I wanted to get into racing in the worse way, and found a little blurb on how to get started in hydro racing, with a presentation at the 83 boat show. Man was I hooked! I miss those days.

Did SOA still have the Novice School at that time?

[daveracerdsh]

They sure did have a novice school. I saw a little blurb in the Seattle Times about it. I think it was held in the KIngdome itself, and I think Steve Vincent ran it.

[DeanFHobart]

Cool... the originator of it was Pop Tolford... he was the dad of Hal Tolford. It was called back then The Pop Tolford Seattle Outboard Assosiation Novice School. They also used to have the Novice Race. Back then there were enough boats in all classes to have a complete race. In 1962, my first year, it was at Stan Sayers Pits on Lake Washington. The same place where now the Unlimiteds pit.