T2x

Photo courtesy of Bill Welch, ex Mercury Marine Race Manager.

Hint:

His current screen name conveys a certain sense of modesty.



T2x

Stormrider

richie?

7xchamp

WOW!!!!!!! I recognize that guy, And the guy next to Sirois`s boat is Dennis Robbins from Lake X, he did all the gear cases for the OPC boats, and I did the Powerheads, Ralph Seavey did the rigging.
The boat I am standing on was Renato Molinari`s new boat. If I am not mistaken that is the boat that he blew over while testing at hauvasu the day before the race, We were all standing on the hill watching him come down the front stretch, in this super new extra special boat, we were all saying how fast it looked, then it did a spectacular blow over.
Interesting story about that boat, it had what they called an S tunnel, if you looked down the tunnel it looked like an S. The purpose was to give it tail lift and ride flatter and faster. Sirois tryed the boat after it was repaired, and didn`t like it at all, but was forced to run it, I think Merten may have run it as well. No one liked the boat, it was fast but had no feel like the others.
Funny when I think back, a 21` Molinari with twin stackers seemed like a really big boat at the time.
I loved those days, it was probably a kin to formula 1 car racing of the day. It was all about Mercury VS OMC.
To add to this era, as we were all driving to Hauvasu in a convoy from Fon du lac, we were informed that Mr Kiekhaefer had resigned as chairman of Mercury and was no longer with the co.
Talk about a pit in the stomach. we didn`t know weather to continue, we didn`t know if we had a job etc etc. Then Garbrecht told us everything was OK and to continue to the race site and business as usual.
We won the world champioships with Sirois in the black boat in the background. Renato`s boat was named miss Ti Ti I think after his girlfriend. and bills boat name was up and away.
I also have a great story about a late night trip to San Luis Mexico. six of us each in two cars. rental Dodge Chargers. Sirois driving one and Pruitt in the other, I remember on several occasions the cars jumping from the road going over the small hills in the road, and speeds in excess of 120mph, lot of laughing, screaming, drinking, and of course women. we got back to our motel as the sun was comming up. Garbrecht and Welsch found out about the trip, and were not to happy, what a hang over.
The more I look at the picture, the white boat may not be miss TiTi, it may be the next years sprint 21` twin cow bell motor boat, my brain hurts, Bill Welsh i`m sure will know. Anyway thanks for the memories, I think I am probaly one of the last guys who has done it all so to speak, from OPC world titles to Offshore
7XCHAMP

seeroy

Richie - Dennis Robins...another name that I left off of the list I posted awhile ago. Any idea what became of him? By the way, I assume that you did get rid of the lamb chop sideburns....or, maybe not. I don't know if the above picture came from 1970 or 1971;... but in 1971 I had recently gotten back to Jacksonville from F-102 Interceptor school when Bill called me and asked if I would be interested in driving his El Camino to Wisconsin to pick up the Boat he was to run and take it to Havasu. I said, "Does a bear sh** in the woods?" Anyway, a guy from Miami named John Reed(?) was going to drive the El Camino from Miami to Jax where I would join him for the rest of the journey. We drove to Oshkosh, got the boat and headed West. Somewhere in the middle of the wide open praries of Kansas we stopped along the side of the road for a pee break. While I was in mid-stream on one side of the car the silence was shatterd by what sounded like an automatic cannon going off in my ear. Seems John had decided this would be a great time to blast away at the sky with the pistol the I didn't even know he had with him. Scared the crap out of me. Needless to say, I was not happy about the suprise and probably said so. Anyway, we continued our journey to Havasu. I have recounted somewhere on S&F about the great time Pruett and I had with the McCollough Gyro-copters..so will not recount that now. Unfortunately, this was also the race when Don was badly injured. Bill won the race and everyone was happy about that, but worried about Don. Afterwards, I was asked to tow another Molinari single back to Florida. The return was uneventful and when we reached Jax, I got out and John was to continue on to Bill's shop in Miami with the boat. A couple of days later Bill called me and asked if I knew where John was. Darned if I knew. A day or two later John finally showed up back in Miami....but somewhere along the way it seems that he had stopped for awhile. I don't know why, or what he did, but Bill was concerned that it was not good. - Steve Sirois

T2x

The Only two Molinari "pops" that I recall...other than the authorized Glastron/Molinari.....were the Checkmate and the Kitson. Both of them, I think, came from the Glastron/Molinari, as the work needed to get a stock molinari plug to release from a mold (reverse angles, etc) was pretty involved ( and Glastron was kind enough to do it on their nickel).

I don't recall any Molinari copies suddenly appearing out of Florida at that time, but I may be mistaken.....or they may have had to cut the mold apart after the boat that was "waylaid" got stuck in it.

lilabner

That would be Johnny Reed..he is still around..saw him last at Griley's funeral with Jim Sewares..I think he ran in SJ OPC stuff..2US70 would know..

seeroy

Indeed it was "Johnny", and I knew that when I wrote the story. But I was trying to be a little careful with the implications. As such, I have since edited the story a bit. If I implied nefarious behavior, it is because Bill was concerned that Johnny might have done something with the boat that he shouldn't have, and that some might wonder where I was in the equation. I only knew that I was back in Jax, flying at the speed of heat and pulling as many g's as I could. If there was anything I had plenty of in those days, it was naivete. -Steve

lilabner

Johnny has a plane now, and flys quite a bit..he would go to the Vet clinic where Treasure worked and tell her he would take us flying..I was under the impression that his mechanic was a customer of mine who brought me a 911 engine to "sort out" that he had rebuilt..It was so bad, I told her there ain't no way either one of us was going to get in that plane..I asked him about that at George's funeral, and he said he wouldn't let him touch it either..the mechanic is no longer with us, and Johnny is still flying..He started racing about the time I went in the USMC..I understand he did pretty well for a while.