7X Scarab
 

hey Richie, just looking through those ads from Lake Cumberland Marine - is this one of your old rides??

http://www.lake-cumberland-marine.co...b77832c24d677b

if so how about another great story?!!

Hi Nigel: Yes that`s the 43` Scarab Tom G. and I set the Kilo record in of 126+ mph. also same boat I was hired to race for APBA worlds in Ft. Meyers 1993. I was told I could pick my crew, so I picked Omar Danial from Apache Heritage to steer, and Norman Gentry was Navigator. We had two run races to qualify her for the worlds, so we ran Corpus Christi, and Sarasota, we won both against the new Fountain INXS with Tres Martin on the sticks, we were also supposed to run Miami but was cancelled due to rough seas, so that counted as third qualifier for the worlds.
Originally Wellcraft wanted us to race her in Key West, but we couldn`t due to the fact that we had to defend our Championship in the Apache Heritage, which we won again both in class and overall by almost six minutes.
After winning Key West we drove to Ft. Meyers and week later won the APBA world championship in Superboat V we beat INXS and reggie who was driving Ohio Steele for Rehban.
Donnie Wadack was crew chief from Wellcraft and is responsible for the boat winning.
When we set the Kilo record for the V- Bottoms we actually had the boat running over 135 mph. Long story as to why we didn`t have faster average for the record. I have pictures of the boat running at 135 mph and there is maybe only 2 to 3 foot of the boat in the water, it was one of the scariest rides I was ever on.
Incidentally this was when we introduced Bob Herring to offshore boats. Tom had put him on retainer to build props only for us for first 3 yrs. Anyway Bob and I worked on the Merc. OPC team back in the late 1960`s, and we won Havausu together in 1970. Bob is responsible for our speed records for sure, and those records, were before the dry sump drives. Bob is the one with us who came up with the swept back skegs, and thinned down gear cases, as well as the props and hydrodynamics. As they say the rest is history.
When we started the Kilo attempt, our best speed was 110 to 115 mph. after two weeks of set-up and testing we were running 135 mph, Same procedure held true when we set the UIM open class kilo record in the Skater at 158 mph. when we started with that boat our top speed ws 130mph. with set-up and testing the rest is history again. We actually ran the Skater close to 180 mph with the superboat motors, as we were looking to set that record after Key West, we also had a new 47` Skater ordered. It is a shame we were not able to continue, I would still be in racing today.
Nigel: you have managed to get me flowing again, hope you enjoy the condensed version of that time, as always there is not enough room to write it all.
Your good friend: 7XCHAMP

Mr Powers,

I have been on this site since almost day one, your posts/stories are the best of all time.

Thank you!

Thanks as ever Richie.

Nigel,

We should collate Richie's annecdoctes from the various threads and save them. These are such good stories. Same can be said about Brownie's too.

Thanks for the memories, guys.

Here is a pic I took when the Scarab was at Emerald City Harbor, home of many great race boat's like the Wolverine, here on Lake St Clair. I dont remember the year, but I heard it was here for a water test.

Hey Mark, The previous owner, Steve M. was local to us, At the time he had 3X Merc 1000 SC's and it would run about 118Mph, The #5 boat was always one of my favorites.

The boat was here for a poker run 10 , 12 ? years ago. Bill Leslie was the owner of one of the larger Wellcraft dealerships at the time. He got Wellcraft to send the boat up here for the run. After one of the stops, he let all of the boats get out in front of him and then walked thruogh the pack at about a hundred. The boat just looked like it was loafing.:cool: :D