The night before I won my first race with the bubbledeck Rogers, Jack McClure got me so drunk such that I could hardly stand the next day. The crew poured me into the boat and somehow off we went to race in the Needles Marathon--90 minutes up and down the Colorado River. Jeff Bennett was standing on the shore holding a chalk board so I could see my + or - lead or trail on each lap. The truth is, I could hardly see Jeff, or anything else, at all. Jack had mechanical problems and I got by Jack, Jeff Paine and Phil Trichler about half way through. On the final lap I swung wide by the shore and I remember Jeff standing out waste deep in the River with the chalk board which just said "$$$$$." The tradition then was to through a driver who had just won his first race into the river--no easy task. Jack and I got drunk again that night as well.
I also remember drinking beer for hours out of the championship cup with Jack (and about 50 others) when Jack won the marathon at Bluewater. I also believe it was Jack who fished me out of the water in the rescue boat at Puddingstone (aka Puddinghole) after the worst of my 4 crashes. I flipped the Bubbledeck end over end on the back straight. I got hurt pretty good that day. That was the day Jeff Paine was badly injured in a crash as well. So it seems Jack has always been there- through the good and the bad.
And then of course there was the Bill Scotten era and our adventures. But that is another chapter.
I would love to race again, but my wife would kill me!
Craig,
Man, I love these stories. They are great. I cant wait to see pictures of this boat from back when it was in its prime....
Rod posted that he emailed you about the scoop (loader) that was on the boat before I bought it from him:
http://www.socaljetboats.com/index.php?topic=393
Anyways, keep those stories coming and I hope I can do your boat justice on this restore project.
-Brad
SpiritCJ712..............Please check your emails!
Brad:
I would love to see the boat as you move along. I am sure I can find some pictures of it. I found several of my Hondo, other Rogers and Eliminator at the office today, including some Liberty photos and pictures of Norm Grimes' boat, plus several old magazines from the 70's. But, I have to look at home and call my folks for pictures of the Raspberry. BTW the "Jeff, Dorothye and Karyn Millet" noted on the deck are my father, mother and sister. If I can find it, I will have one rather special picture for you too.
The boat was always named "Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry" from the start--after the character from the Kool Aid-like punch. But the boat was not capped originally (silver metalflake trim) and there wasn't enough room for the whole name. So it became Wild Raspberry for a time. Awhile later, we had the boat capped and the capped area painted bright white by Ken Meyers at B&K and, with the metal strip gone, the full proper name then returned.
Another Story: In the 70's, circle racing was the thing. The Raspberry was really fast, but we weren't sure if it would do well in circle races given the long lifting strakes and large bow. But, Steve was doing well in the MJ class in his newer stlye Rogers.
We used to take co-riders back then and in my first circle race at Castaic I had my hi-school chum Craig Peterson in the boat. We had a good start and true to form, the Raspberry left the other boats well behind. We got to the first turn after the long first straight ahead of the pack and started the turn. The Raspberry dropped the nose, hooked and spun 360--twice. On the first turn, my co rider went out. Having a death grip on the steering wheel, it took me a little longer, and I went out on the second turn. Peterson surfaced yelling "my watch is gone" and then "my wallet is gone too." He also lost his shoes, but we found one about a year later in the bow of the boat. We didn't know any better, we just got into the boat street dress and all and raced. That was my first time in the water in a race. I was really sore for several days.
We then built the bubbledeck Excalibur and did well. Peterson continued to co ride with me for many races until our second time in the water in a race....we rolled the the boat at Lake Casitas in a pretty spectacular high speed crash. The boat sunk with just the bow sticking straight up. I surfaced after the crash some distance from the boat, but I could not find Peterson. I was a little worried. Peterson swam to the surface to find himself still inside the boat, with his head inside the floating nose. I could hear him, but I couldn't find him. He finally pushed himself down into the water and swam out of the boat--pretty incredible considering he was wearing a Simpson life jacket. That crash hurt worse than no. 1 and I was laid up a little longer. But nothing at all like Crash No. 3 at Puddingstone.
I never had another co-rider after the Casitas crash. Wonder why? We converted the boat to a single center seat after that.
Thanks for letting me tell you all about this stuff. Best to you all and feel free to write with any questions, etc.
you have some huge gonads running a Cyclone that fast. My folks had a '71 Cyclone that i later inherited and at 70 mph it was a sketchy ride to shut down. turned on a dime though. They folks have a Super Cyclone now. I sure do love those boats. keep the stories coming..i'm forwarding them to the folks.
You know what's funny is i've spent many lunches with Jack and he rarely talks about his racing days. He does like to tell stories about hippies camping out naked at the river though. lol
Well, we did spend a lot of effort burning brain cells back then. And Jack had several years head start on me.
Did he at least mention the name of his Southwind race boat back then? If not, see re line above.
LOL thats awesome. Great stories!!! I'm sure you've seen but there's a race this weekend if you have the time you should come check it out.
Craig,
I want to thank you for sharing these stories with me and everyone here. They are priceless.
I have gotten much more out of this thread then I ever even expected. This boat is going to be a blast.
Thank you again and keep 'em comin'!
-Brad
As noted above, these stories are absolutely priceless!
Someone should save all these stories and write a book someday... :wink:
This is like finding the holy grail of boats.... buying an old boat, finding some names under the crappy paint, and the original owner popping up. The same thing happened on my roadster. Hopefully, you get all the old pics, stories, resto pics you can and assemble an album. Damn near as much work as restoring it, but a documented history adds another dimension that most boats don't have. Congratulations!
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