HORBA member needs help !!!
09-04-2007 | 10:32 AM
#63
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 451
Likes: 11
I was in both those races as well, co-driver with Gene Wagner we ran the 29` custom Formula outboard, same boat we built for around Long Island race, triple outboard.
Also ran the Bushmils and Hennessy races in Calif. with Doc. Magoon, I rode as Navigator, Lanham throttled, Gene is the guy I watched and studied as a throttleman for open class, He was one of the best out there, very smooth and easy on the equip., a real master. That was when we started running the fuel injection motors, and since they pulled about 150 more HP than the old stuff, we kept breaking stern drives, and that was the start of all the inovations to keep equip. alive. Remember the Long Beach to Ensenada races, again I was like 19 to 20 yrs old, young, dumb and full. Lots of drunken parties, I vaguely remember one with Bob Dewan, and some other crazies, I think you were there ( Brownie ) we got a big cooler and started dumping every kind of liquer known to man into it, along with every kind of juice known, and some unknown, plus some misc. illegal drugs. I was supposed to pick up the old man from the airport in LA. I was so ripped, I got lost, never did make it to pick him up. I spent the next day hiding from him. Those were the days huh Brownie and Seeroy.How about a real man like Bill Cooper in snoopy and Daryl Jenkins ( no fear ) 7XCHAMP
09-04-2007 | 05:25 PM
#69
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,421
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From: Viareggio-Italy
Marco - Let me try to clear this up....ON Feb 8, 1967 Bill won the Sam Griffith Memorial (Miami) in the 28' Donzi/Magnum "Old Yellar II". Odell Lewis ran the 32' TURBINE powered Maritime "Mona Lou" and finished second. This was the only time that the turbine boat was beaten.....ON May 7, 1967 Bill ran the same boat (28' Donzi/Magnum, Old YellarII) in the Bahama 500 and did not finish as a result of a motor mount failure......Odell won that race in a different and CONVENTIONALLY powered (twin 450HP Mercruisers) 32' Maritme named "Mona Lou III".....ON August 15-16, 1967 I rode with Aronow in the Hennesy Cup from Long Beach to SAN DIEGO (NOT San Francisco)and back. We finished second behind Odell, who once again ran the TURBINE powered Maritime. Bill did not run in that race for reasons that I do not remember......ON October 21-22, 1967 Odell ran the TURBINE powered Maritime for the last time in the Long Beach to SAN FRANCISCO race. Aronow finished second again in the same single Mercruiser powered Maltese Magnum that I had PREVIOUSLY ridden with him in. I do not know who rode with him in this race, but SEARACE says in the page 75 caption that it was brother Bill......... ON December 2, 1967 Bill won the St Pete Hurricane Classic in the twin Mercruiser powered 31' Bertram (yellow sides/white top) "Sternwinder". I do not remember if Odell ran in this race............ON June 9, 1968 Odell won the second Bahama 500 in the Mercruiser powered 32' Maritime (Mona Lou III). Bill finished second only seconds behind, once again in the Mercruiser powered 31' Bertram (yellow sides/white top) "Sternwinder".........ON July 17, 1968 Bill won the Hennessy Grand Prix (New York this time) once again in the Mercruiser powered 31' Bertram (yellow sides/white top) "Sternwinder". Freddy Kiekhaefer rode with Bill. Odell (Same Maritime, Mona Lou III) finished third behind Bobby Rautbord.......ON August 2, 1968 Bill and Odell again ran the same two boats in the two day West Palm Beach Gateway Marathon. This time Odell won while beating Bill by a grand total of 7 seconds......That is a far as I can go at this time. Suffice it to say that after Bill rode with Odell in the 1964 Miami to Nassau (which they won) in the original "Mona Lou", twin Mercruiser, 25' Bertram, the two of them became team members as well as fierce competitors........Hopefully this has cleared things up some.....Some of this info has come from my frazzled brain and some of it came from the frazzled brain of John Crouse through his "Searace"......Most of what John chronicled is correct (but not all)......ALL of what I have supplied MIGHT be true! 
Best Regard - Steve Sirois
Best Regard - Steve SiroisHere some frames from Run Sunward of 1967 season.
Bill run Sternwinder a yellow-white Bertram with two MerC. and Sterndrives in some races at the end of the season(surely in november and december).
But he drove an identical Bertram 31'(I think was the same boat) but with the Odell Lewis boats name Mona Lou.
I think in the Long Beach to San Diego and back in August or to San Francisco in October.
Last edited by Black Tornado; 09-04-2007 at 05:27 PM.
-Steve
