Episode 138: Mike Hall, Part 1

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Join us for an exhilarating ride into the world of unlimited hydroplane racing as we sit down with Mike Hall, a passionate crew member hailing from Indiana. With stories that date back to building RC models in his uncle's garage, Mike shares a heartfelt narrative of nostalgia and technical prowess, offering a rare glimpse into the evolution of the sport and the behind-the-scenes challenges faced by dedicated crew members. This is part 1 of a 2 part interview. Check for part 2 to stream next week in episode 139.  

Heat 3A of the 2007 Gold Cup (Referenced in the episode)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything
about the sport that we all love.
Hi, dreamland Racing.
I am your host, david Newton,and it's time once again.
So sit back, relax, and this isepisode 138.
Now, before I get started ontalking about this interview, I

(01:01):
want to say this was one of themore fun talks I had, because I
had a lot of good banter withthis gentleman and without
really knowing him too well.
But my interview today is withMike Hall, and he is what I call
one of the unsung heroes of thesport, because when you think
about unlimited hydroplaneracing, you think about greats

(01:23):
like Chip Hanauer.
Think about unlimitedhydroplane racing, you think
about greats like chip hanover,jim lacero, bernie little.
These are the, the people thatthat gave their all to the sport
in driving as owner or as acrew chief, and those people get
the credit and they get thestardom and hero status.
We'll all say that of the sport, but there's so many talented
people that work behind thescenes and don't get the credit,

(01:48):
and I think crew members fitthe bill, because without a
talented crew, you're not goingto have success on the water.
My call is that he's a lifetimefan of the sport and he's
really given his life anddedicated his life to working on
hydroplanes and that's why Isay it's unsung, because when

(02:08):
you get those race victories youget the driver's name, the
owner's name, on the trophy butyou don't have those crew
members' names, so that's why Imean they don't get their credit
.
Fan of the sport from Indianaand has a different background
in racing growing up because Ijust feel like there is West

(02:28):
Coast growing up in the Seattlearea is different than other
areas of the sport and it's I'malways fascinated to hear how
people entered into the sport.
But specifically it's justinteresting for me not being in
this region and hearing fromsomeone who's a lifetime fan and
getting that backgroundinformation and how they enter
the sport is just fascinating tome.
But he is a lifetime fan and hecrewed for cooper's express in

(02:53):
the late 80s and he worked crudefor cooper's up until they
stopped racing.
He's still crewing for forother teams in the hrl series
but just a wealth of knowledgeand I think you'll find it
fascinating how his collegiatecareer and schooling career is
just intertwined with hydroplaneracing and I'm excited for you

(03:15):
to hear that story and we'regoing to talk about his
background and crewing forCooper and just all the
different things that he did forthe team.
I think you'll enjoy theinterview, as it's really a fun
walk down nostalgic lane butalso talks about a lot of
technical aspects of the sport.
That's enough about me talkingabout the interview.

(03:36):
Let's listen to it and join mytalk with Mike Hall as we talk
about what else but hydroplanes?
Well, I'm sitting down here onZoom talking almost coast to
coast, talking to Mike Hall outof Indiana.
How are you doing, mike?

Speaker 2 (03:53):
I'm doing good, doing really well.
Well, I'm kind of lying.
I just got done with a bevy ofsurgeries.
I had hip surgeries, but I'm inrecovery now and doing pretty
well, all right.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, are you going to be done with recovery by
summertime?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, the goal is that I will be up and walking
without assistance.
I just talked or kind of textedwith Pyro Scott Rainey last
night, so I'll be up and walkingwithout assistance about a
month before Guntersville.
Okay, so that's the plan atleast.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
And they bumped up Guntersville this year a little
bit earlier.
I think it's the first weekendin June now Is that what it is
Okay?

Speaker 2 (04:32):
I was wondering why?
Because I looked at thatschedule and I was wondering
what it was different, becauseit seems like it was always a
little bit maybe.
When was it usually?

Speaker 1 (04:42):
I feel like it was the last, or close to the last,
weekend in June, but now it'sthe first weekend in June.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, allright.
Well, you've been around thesport for a few years.
I feel like a lifetime fan.
Yeah, absolutely, and you'vebeen crewing for most of your
life.
I would say, but what got youinterested?

(05:03):
Because I always talk to guysin the Seattle area and they
always talk about towing boatsbehind their bikes, going down
to Lake Washington and whatnot.
So it's a little bit here fromyour side of things, coming up
from a different area.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
On the East Coast it's probably a little bit
different just because it's notingrained.
Like you know, I've heard Chiptell me before.
You know, when he was youngerthey had no other pro sports.
They didn't have anything thatwas fighter planes.
That was the big time sport.
You know, around here we'vealways had IU basketball, things
like that, so you know kidsaround, you know Indiana's big
basketball and high schoolsports and so that's really big.

(05:37):
But I had an uncle who wasreally into RC planes, cars,
anything RC planes, cars, boats,anything that you could do, and
we started building theselittle airboats first and then
we'd go to the hobby shop andyou know you'd buy the motors
and the servos and all thatstuff.
And I saw a Dumas Atlas VanLines I think it was a U71,

(05:59):
which I think is the oneCantrell built.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
I don't know if that's right, I believe.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
So, yeah, so that was the first I saw that and I just
begged my uncle to get it andwe got it and we put a little
049 engine in it and we tetheredit and that was really cool.
And then I think they came outwith the U76.
Duma's had one of those and itwas also a tether.
We built that one with Atlasvan lines being here.

(06:23):
You know, we, you know we hadkind of access to the graphics
and stuff.
We could just pull out in frontof the building and look at it
and take a Polaroid back thenand see it.
So that was pretty cool.
And then I bought a Sport 40.
I think that was another Dumaskit.
So I guess the hobby shop hadto deal with Dumas and

(06:46):
everything was Atlas fan linesback then.
So I bought a Dumas Sport 40.
I think I put a K&B engine Ican't remember, you probably
know that stuff better than mebut yeah, had a good K&B engine
in that one.
So that was pretty cool.
And then I think the last thingI built was there was a plastic
1977, miss Budweiser, that Istill wish I had.

(07:09):
I didn't finish it, it wasalways in the box and I remember
Ron Snyder was driving and thiswas before I knew what the
hydroplanes were.
I'd never been to a hydroplanerace.
This was before any of that and, like Owensboro was an hour
away from me and I never knew itwas going on.
Because, you know, we didn'thave, uh, you know, social media

(07:30):
and I live pretty far out inthe country and you know I
played baseball in the summerand my summers were taken up and
, man, had I known that, thatthat would have been a life
changer for me because I couldhave been seeing that for a long
time.
But yeah, so, uh, so I guess itreally, you know, started as far
as the racing portion of it.
There was a guy named DickSwanson they called him Doc

(07:55):
Swanson and he was a URC medical, chief medical doctor, you know
, chief medical person orwhatever.
And I guess when he was in themilitary he was stationed up
near Seattle.
So he got this big love forhydroplanes and he lived in my
hometown, he was a hospital, hewas a doctor at the local

(08:15):
hospital, welborn hospital, and,um, he started this thing
called river city racing cluband we had a race that started.
Uh, it was called little thunderon ohio and they still have
that.
I think they still have littlethunder um well, that club name
is familiar.
I'm pretty sure that club'sstill around yes, it is river

(08:36):
city racing club yeah, so I waslike the first one of the first
members, first 10 or 15 membersof that even though I was like
seven years old or eight yearsold or whatever.
Uh, but yeah, that's kind ofwhere I got the start for that.
And you know, when Thunder onOhio came I think it was in 78,
I was there, my neighbor, whichthis was really cool my neighbor

(08:59):
was the head of safety for hislandline, so they used to rent
the museum out for theiremployees and actually, uh, give
them everybody pit passes too.
So well, I would be there onthursday and not leave till
sunday night, like I just wasthere around the clock.
I couldn't get enough of itthen it was just really cool.

(09:20):
Uh, just never seen anythinglike that before.
How big they were.
Uh got to meet you know allthose people and I'm sure they
don't remember me, but uh, uh,probably the biggest memory from
there and is seeing bob, was itbob miller?
yeah, he brought the rock boatout one year and I'll never

(09:42):
forget like he pulled his helmetoff and I guess he wore a
toupee and when he pulled hishelmet off, like his toupee come
off and his crew guys wereyelling at him like hey, your
hair came off.
So he just reached in and putit back on and it was like
completely sideways and it wasso funny.
I was a little guy, I wasprobably eight or nine years old
, but anyway, just so manymemories from down there.

(10:07):
It was, it was really cool.
And then just the.
The last part of that was, Iguess one year for the river
city racing club they had littlethunder, like the week before
thunder on the Ohio, and chipHanauer came down, which is huge
for me as huge Japan our fan Iwas.
You know, for me it was for atleast for me it was like I was a
chip Hanauer Jim Lucero fan.
So I don't know if people onthe West Coast saw it that way,

(10:29):
like if you rooted for Ron Jonesdesigns over Jim Lucero designs
, but for me, since we hadIndyCar here, they always had
the March chassis versus thelotus chassis and all those
different things.
So maybe I saw it a little bitdifferently but like I rooted

(10:50):
for anything jim lucero, bill,that was, that was my thing, you
know.
And then getting to meet chip, Ijust thought chip was great and
uh, saw him just absolutelydestroy some guys, atlas van
lines, so they had all atlas vanlines race and we put little
different flags on the so theycould, everybody could tell

(11:11):
which was their boat, and chipjust absolutely just annihilated
this boat.
I never seen one torn up thatbad and I thought I thought he
was gonna cry, like you couldtell.
He was just the sweetest,nicest guy at that point of my
life because he, like hedestroyed this guy's boat and
the guy didn't care.
You know, that's just part ofit and yeah, so that was pretty

(11:31):
cool.
So anyway, yeah, so that's kindof how I got my start into it.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
And did you continue racing RCs for long or did that
switch for you?

Speaker 2 (11:43):
And did you continue racing RCs for long or did that
switch for you?
You know I pretty much when Iturned 14, got into high school
and kind of sports took over andyou know I still didn't miss
any Thunder on Ohio.
I missed one Thunder on Ohio.
It was the first year of theAtlas Turbine and I remember if
we won on Saturday we didn'thave to come back Sunday and we
got beat and I was crying.

(12:04):
I mean I know that's not a wayfor probably for a 14 year old,
but that's how important mywhole year revolved around the
Ohio and I was so upset and Ijust didn't want to go the next
day and kind of my dad made mego and the Atlas van lines ran
terrible that day so it was kindof it probably good I didn't go

(12:25):
.
But you know, at about age 14,I stopped racing those but I do
think I want to get back into it.
A buddy of mine, mike McIntosh,races the 110th scale.
Do you guys have 110th?

Speaker 1 (12:40):
scale.
Yeah, I race with him.
He races, I think, all 1 allone seventh scale now, but he
used to race 110 scale.
Yeah, and he's.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
He's building quite a few boats, yeah oh my gosh, you
know he, he worked on a numberof the crews when I was just
starting.
We got to be good friends.
Uh, he built some beautifulboats and I love, I love to see
the pictures of the stuff thathe, he sends it's.
It's really cool, the electricboats.
You guys turn left in thosethings, don't you?

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, and the scale 110th and 17th scale they turn
left like the real boats.
There's still the 1-8 scale,Like in your area, I think.
They race 1-8 scale and theyrace the opposite direction.
They turn right.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, they still do.
But we still what my son and Iwill every year, we'll go out to
that um, a good friend of mine,carl graff.
Um is kind of the really goodracer around here and uh, we go
out to see his boats.
He paints boats for a lot ofguys, uh, even out on the west
coast.
So I'm still a little bitinvolved, kind of on the fringe,

(13:45):
but I, I still like it, like II probably will get back into it
someday.
I don't know.
I'm still kind of racing nowwith the other one and I've got
three kids in school, so it'sit's a little bit tough right
now.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, yeah well after after the interview.
If you want to talk more, I can.
I can help you out.
Yeah, absolutely see, if I canhelp you out?
Yeah, absolutely See if I canhelp you out.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Well, and I've kind of talked to Mike a little bit
about I'm going to probably comeout to Tri-Cities this year and
get some more information onsome boats and stuff.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
yeah, yeah Well, I usually race over on Saturday at
the pond, so you'll have tocome over and check it it out
only been over there once likeand it was so cool.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah, it's a fun race .

Speaker 1 (14:27):
It just gets so hot over there and there's no wind
because well, the only windreally comes off the river and
it's.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
It's just really hot in the pond well, that's the
problem, is any chance you getto get rest there, you got to
take it.
So, especially all right.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Well, you got out of rc, rc, hydroplanes, and you got
into sports, but you have thelove of hydroplanes still.
How did you connect the dots tomake a jump into being involved
with hydroplane racing?

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So actually, so Ed Cooper wasmy seventh and eighth grade of
US history and world history, orvice versa.
I think we did world historythgrade, us history and world
history or vice versa.
I think we did world historythen US history.
Anyway, ed was my teacher.
He always had pictures of boatshanging, just not hydroplane

(15:19):
boats.
Ed's into all kinds of boats.
I didn't really put it alltogether but I guess back when I
was younger I had saw him.
I had seen him down there withI think it was yeah, it was with
Bill and Graham's boat, theKentuckiana Pave, and I looked

(15:41):
down there I was like, oh my God, that's Mr Cooper and I was
probably nine, ten years old andhe didn't know who I was then.
But I knew who he was,obviously because he was a
schoolteacher.
And when I got into school Iwas just so happy that I got in
for a teacher because I was likeyou know, I could somebody else
that was into this and yeah, sothat's kind of you know, I made

(16:03):
that connection and we talkedabout you know the boats a lot.
I guess when they built theChet's Music Shop in 84, I think
he would bring pictures andshow me.
I couldn't believe that theyhad a chance to have Ron Jones
build a boat and they hadStoddaker build a boat for them.
That was like unbelievable tome.

(16:24):
And they had Stoddaker build aboat for them.
That was unbelievable to me.
They could have had this lateststate of the art and I think
Jim Sadam said he felt that LesStoddaker was due.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
He said he's due to come up with something good.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
So, yeah, Ed was shaking his head about that, but
it was a cool-looking boat andit ran okay.
But it really would have beencool if they could have got a
nice jones boat and seen whatthey could have done with that
right, but yeah, so yeah, that'suh, that's how it started, uh,
as far as knowing him.
And then in 88, when he hadbought the uh prodelco and I'm

(17:04):
really not sure who he boughtthat from If he bought it from
Mark Evans or Wumer, I don'tknow.
I get different stories.
So, but whatever, two of myfriends, dennis and Daniel
Wright, lived closer to Ed andthey said, hey, he pulled this
boat down into his driveway weneed to go down and see it.
And I had just graduated fromhigh school and pulled in the

(17:26):
driveway and I never left.
Like I just never left.
I just completely fell in lovewith it, uh, and just did
whatever.
I was, you know, first weekthere, I was just sweeping up.
Then we built that thingoutside uh, he didn't have the
big shop and oh, yeah, I didn'trealize that.
We built that thing outsideunderneath some tarps and two a

(17:49):
frames and it we just had thebest luck.
It was like 45 straight days oflike decent weather, wasn't too
hot, it was, I mean, it was justperfect.
It rained a few days, but forthe most part, yeah, we built
that thing out there, you know,and it's something I've heard
other guys talk about.
So I was like sweeping up partsand you know, by the second

(18:11):
week I was actually using handtools because I had that ability
.
You know, from just being in ashop building RC boats, a lot of
that does translate, and youprobably know that too, A lot of
the skills translate.
To the fourth week I was mixinghigh saw.
I was right next to Mitchputting stuff in and they

(18:32):
trusted me to, you know, startbuilding stuff on my own.
So, just, you know, my parentswere great and they let me do it
and they, you know, theyobviously knew ed from him being
my teacher, so they trusted him, you know, so I would be.
I was there day and night.
For you know, I forget how manydays.

(18:52):
It was 45, 50 days.
I've got a vc.
I need to watch the vhs tapelike some, some guy come by and
did a vhs tape of every day thatit was there and how it really
dressed.
Yeah, wow that'd be cool to seeyeah, if I get that, I'll send
it out to you.
But yeah, I'd love to see thatI'm gonna make a copy of it and
I'll send it to you.

(19:12):
But yeah, it was cool, you know, um, but you know, like, like I
said, we just I he brought itthere and I just I never left.
And know, still to this day Igo see Ed, you know, at least
probably once a month.
But yeah, you know, we've justbecome lifelong friends.
It's been one of the greatestthings that ever happened to me.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
So did a majority of his crew come from his classroom
then, or did anyone else comefrom his classroom?

Speaker 2 (19:41):
There is my childhood friend, aaron Farr.
Yeah, he came from there.
There was a guy named DennisWright, daniel Wright, I don't
know if you know Dennis Wrightor Daniel Wright, but Dennis he
races a 2.5 now and he still ispretty active in the models.
His brother, daniel, was a very, I guess, very good programmer

(20:09):
and he got hired right out ofhigh school to do programming so
he was busy with that and hedidn't really do it.
But yeah, and there was anotheryou know just a few guys.
There wasn't really a lot ofstudents.
There was a couple teachers.
There was a teacher, mikeAndrew, that did almost the
woodwork for us, and a guy, rickLaGrange, who was actually my

(20:30):
basketball, my JV basketballcoach and actually offensive
coordinator at my high school.
He was, he helped us.
So there was a little bit ofthat, but most of it was friends
that he had made from Madisonand you know things like that
and you know later guys he metlike Bill Fritz.
He brought on later, you know,on the circuit.

(20:51):
But you know, there was a goodmix of just kind of local guys
that I maybe was a friend ofthat I brought in, like Aaron
Farr and guys that he knew, garyTurner, guys like that, and his
father, obviously a senior, anda combination of just I don

(21:11):
don't know, just a mix of mix.
Mix of mix of people.
Yeah, they kind of wandered inand if they fit in with us, well
, they stayed, if they didn't,they just kind of wandered off.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
so yeah, well, that's a fun sense of community that
he had there.
Then he had he had a group ofyou know from his school area
and then his friends and whatnotcome together.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
You know, and that's the first thing is like, cause
you're a school teacher.
It's like the first thing islike seeing a teacher in a pair
of shorts.
I was like, wow, that was weird.
And then you're hearing aschool teacher cuss, you know.
And then you know justdifferent things that you're not
used to seeing school teachers.
Do you know?
My wife's a school teacher anduh, yeah, so it's.

(21:55):
You know, you see them in adifferent light and especially
back then, you know, back in the70s, you, you know, they were
like way up on a pedestal, youknow.
And then, um, yeah, so it wasjust a cool deal to get to meet,
you know, and actually becomefriends with like ed cooper is
my teacher and mike andre andyeah, and become like really

(22:16):
close friends with those guys.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
It was really a really a neat deal well, maybe
you can help me out with this,because, you mentioned, I am a
school teacher and I've beenthis for a while.
How the hell did he afford ahydroplane as a school teacher?

Speaker 2 (22:28):
I can't't figure this out yeah, first off, ed is very
intelligent, you know, and Ithink that's that's a given and
that's a good question, becauseI've asked him that you know and
the answer that I get is and Iand I believe him, is that you
know, when he bought the Tempestfrom Chuck Hickling, he bought

(22:50):
that at a time when actually themoney was pretty good in the
sport and he had some Allisonsand stuff that he had bought and
his father had put in a littlebit of money and I don't know
the exact, you know.
Let's just say the initialinvestment was $50,000 to
$80,000.
I don't know what it was andI'm sure Bill and Graham
probably helped him out a littlebit but knowing how tight

(23:11):
Graham was, he probably didn'thelp him out a whole lot.
But he was very good at knowingwhat he could do and he got
some good help from Ron Snyder.
Ron Snyder came down and helpedhim with the boat and getting
it lined out.
But he brought that boat hereand again did it in his driveway

(23:32):
.
I guess it ran when Chuck hadit.
It had a Merlin in it and hechanged it to an Allison which
everybody told him it won't work.
The motor spins the wrong way,it'll never turn blah, blah,
blah.
Well, kind of disproved that.
And you know, in that in thatera when he had that, like it
paid if you were consistent andyou started and finished, like

(23:54):
he said, that thing was amoney-making machine because it
just started and finished.
They didn't try to do thingsthat they couldn't do.
They had no intentions ofwinning races, they just needed
to qualify, start and finish andthey made quite a few finals.
Uh, they picked up you knowlittle sponsors here and there.
Uh, they had a really, uh, youknow, a bare bones crew.

(24:19):
I think it was probably joelunsford, ed and, uh, his father
.
I mean I don't know of anybodyelse that helped Davey.
Oh, he puts on the race inMadison.
I can't remember David's lastname.
Anyway, he puts on the vintageevent in Madison.

(24:41):
They called him Pigpen backthen, but now I know his name,
his name's David, but I can'tremember his last name.
Anyway, so he had a prettybare-bones crew and they went to
races that made sense for themand he just built his program up
over time.
But yeah, I mean he just saidthat thing was a moneymaker that

(25:05):
.
Tempest boat.
Okay, and when we built the 88boat he had invested in,
obviously the biggest investmentwas the boat.
But then we bought three setsof injections and Bill Cantrell
had made a lot of that stuff,bill bought the.

(25:28):
Hilburn injection for theAllison and he made some.
Probably the biggest thing ishe had a lot of free help, like
a lot of, but you know, you knowwhat.
I'm not saying that as a badthing, but no, yeah, I mean.
But you know, you get that freehelp and a lot.
You know, and I see this inother teams and I hear other
crew guys because, you know, Italked to the other crew guys

(25:48):
and they complained about theowners, this, that and the other
.
Um, and ed wasn't perfect by anymeans, but, uh, he was pretty
darn close to it, uh, but hemade the environment there
conducive to like people wantedto be there.
You know we weren't gettingpaid, even though, like, he took
care of me because I was a kid.
Uh, you know, he would give mesome extra money here and there

(26:11):
and make sure I wasn't starving.
And you know, and he was reallygood with the per diem and
everything like that, the hotelswe always stayed in nice places
, but he was really good athanging on to talent, knowing,
you know, finding out about aperson, knowing what they were
good at.
So when you went to the shop,you were working on something

(26:31):
that you wanted to work on.
And yeah, he just made it a funenvironment, like we always,
you know, usually here, I know,I think back on the West Coast
the teams tend to work throughthe week, you know, and nights,
so they'll have crew nights andthings like that, but on the
East Coast it it's really it'screw weekend.

(26:51):
You know, we most of the guyswould would show up on the
weekends and he was alwaysreally good about having jobs
lined out for everybody, havinga goal.
We would all eat together,whether that would be barb would
make sandwiches, his wife wouldmake sandwiches and bring him
down the hill, or we would, uh,you know, go to the local tavern
or whatever and have.
But, like he just made it areally fun environment and he,

(27:13):
you know, to his credit, he was,we hung on to the same people
for 30 years and by the time webuilt that boat we had one of
the top two or three crews inthe circuit.
As far as experience, I mean,we were, we were really good.
But yeah, you know, I would sayhe was able to do it just from.
You know, he kind of got luckyin the sense that he didn't

(27:36):
really hurt that Tempest boatand it start and finished and he
made a lot of money you know,pretty decent money with it.
When he decided to jump up tothe 88 boat we call it the Mitch
boat he just made some gooddecisions.
We had good sponsors, we wentto races that we knew we could
make money at.
Uh, you know, by the time 2000,.

(27:59):
2003 rolled around like we knewhow much it costs per lap.
So, yeah, we took a lot ofgrief for not going to races and
everything, but there was a lotof.
You know, he just couldn't goto races that he couldn't make
money at that's really.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
It's really impressive to me.
I didn't think much of it as akid but now that I am in a
teacher role, I mean just makesme really think about what
you've said.
There's finding the talent andnurturing that talent to grow.
Uh, makes me think about talksI've had with coaches at schools
about, you know, finding thattalent, nurturing that to
develop that talent.
So interesting to see thatteacher mindset in that team

(28:38):
from what Ed did and where hestarted.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
I mean even just like the truck.
Like he taught me how to drivea truck and I'm a terrible truck
driver but like he taught mehow to do it and he did it in a
way that wasn't like he neverdemeaned anybody, like if you
did something wrong.
It was that teacher mentality,like he didn't demean you, he
would like find a positive andturn it around and you know, and
I'm just so grateful to himLike he taught me so much

(29:04):
growing up and just outside ofthe boat racing, just being a
man and being a father andeverything you know.
He just just an absolutelygreat human being.
Yeah, and even though I don'trace with the team anymore, like
we're still best, like best offriends, like we you know, I

(29:24):
can't, I can't say enough nicethings about it.
He's just a great guy.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, all the stories I'veheard definitely, definitely
told me that same.
My dad had a lot of greatthings to say about him.
He loved your father.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Anytime, anything your dad was working on came to
Evansville.
They came to our shop.
They needed to work there.
They were coming there.
Your dad was just such a coolguy.
Thank you, like you was justsuch a cool guy and thank you,
yeah.
So yeah, just like you said,just a great person.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Well let's get back to that mitch boat and I know
you helped out a lot whenbuilding that boat in 88 and
then did and you started on thecrew then with the team yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
So in 88 I uh that now this is crazy, because this
is crazy how the sport haschanged.
So in 88, like I built a lot ofthat.
You know what that helped and Iwas there every day, sweeping
up, holding till, doing whateveryou know, all day, all night,
spent many overnighters thereand everything.
And I got a pit pass for it.

(30:29):
Right, got a pit pass to thefirst race and that was it.
I think the only thing I did wasgo down and help put the wing
on, and then I was up in thestands with my girlfriend now my
wife and we watched the raceand then, when it was done, I
went right back down to the shopand worked on it, because you
kind of had to earn your wayonto the team.

(30:49):
And then in 89, I did all theeast coast races.
Uh, I'll never forget.
When I fixed my lap, they werewaiting for me to do the last
fiberglass work so I could pullout of the driveway to go to
tri-cities in 89 and they wentthere and ed just didn't have
the money to bring me outbecause it didn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
And uh, well, he didn't have a money to bring me
out because it didn't make sense.
Well, he didn't even have asponsor for the Tri-Cities race,
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
No, they had this company called.
Well, it was two things.
So Seco Aviation.
He kept begging them just like,give me an extra couple
thousand, I'll put the name onit, yeah, and they wouldn't do
it.
And then even they approachedwas it the circus?
Lost a rudder there, rightright.
He went to Mr Bennett and saidhey, just give me a couple
thousand, I'll put the circusname on there, you can get the

(31:38):
points or whatever.
How are they ever going to workit out?
And they didn't want to do itand wound up winning the race.
And what's crazy about that isI didn't know they want it till
he got home.
Like I had no idea that we hadwon that race until he had
gotten home.
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean, it's such adifferent world back then than
it is today.
You would have been streamingit at home, you would have known
instantly today what happened,but back then, no internet, not
as much coverage, I think my Ithink my brother might have told
me like, hey, ed won the race.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
And I was like, yeah, you know, we were actually on a
little bit of a heater there,like we had gotten third madison
, second in syracuse rightbefore that.
So the race before we left wassyracuse and we, the boat was
running really well and theother guys were doing a lot of
stupid stuff and like we got ona heater there.
So we yeah, it was really cool,just real quick.

(32:36):
So I do remember Ed Sr at theMadison, I think we had gotten a
third or second, I can'tremember.
Anyway, we had done really well,it was podium finish and so,
you know, he was giving up andgiving the giving the talk to
everything and you know, ed was,you know everybody wasn't a dry

(32:58):
eye in the place becauseeverybody, you know, was so
happy for ed and was talking,you know, and he had I'll never
forget he said some nice thingsabout me which I was like hey,
man, this is really cool, isthat a urc banquet?
And they got my name mentioned.
I thought that was really cool.
And then, uh, ed senior got upand he gave he used to do the
best speeches and he looked atbernie little.

(33:18):
And he said uh, bernie, there'sno.
Uh, let me see exactly how hesaid he goes.
There's no shame in finishingbehind the Cooper's Express, or
something to that effect.
Like Bernie used to always tellyou know, because like, hey, you
know there's no shame gettingsecond to the Miss Budweiser,

(33:38):
well, we had beaten the MissBudweiser that day and he goes,
or anyway he goes.
Yeah, you know, there's noshame finishing behind the
Cooper's Express.
That was pretty funny.
But yeah, ed Sr was just acharacter.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Alright, well then, you didn't go on West Coast in
89.
Did they bring you on full-timeafter that?

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Full-time in 90,.
Ed came back.
He's like hey, I really needhelp Full-time.
We had built a big shop andsponsors were getting better, we
picked up DLC and some otherthings, and he actually probably
shouldn't tell people this butlike he had paid me a little bit
of money on the side every week, you know, because I was there

(34:22):
basically full-time at that time.
I actually played football incollege, so if I didn't have
football workouts or whatever, Iwas at the shop doing stuff I
wasn't supposed to do.
I probably wasn't doing myworkouts and wasn't eating right
and everything.
I was at the shop every day.

(34:45):
I was a full-time crew member in1990.
That was when you had to get aCDL.
I think it was in 90.
You had to get a commercialdriver's license, okay, and so I
got grandfathered in because Ihad a chauffeur's license, and
so Ed and I studied for the testtogether and we went down and
took the test and got our CDLs.

(35:05):
So I was a CDL truck driverhorrible truck driver, I mean.
But I was a CDL truck driver,horrible truck driver, I mean.
But I was like I had my hazmatrating and all these different
ratings and everything.
So I thought that was cool.
So I actually hadn't evenreally driven the truck and I
was a professional truck driverand yeah, I drove cross country
with him in 90 to.

(35:26):
Every race went everywhere.
Wow, amazing, yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
To every race, went everywhere.
Wow, amazing.
Yeah, that just seems wild tome to be driving one of those
rigs, pulling the boat behindyou.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
At 20.
I was 20 years old.
I was actually, yeah, 20 yearsold.
But the coolest thing, as ageography teacher too, was, like
I learned all about thegeography of the United States,
how everything slopes and whatthis did and what all that.
And, yeah, it was amazing.
You know, he was just alwaysteaching, you know, and I didn't

(35:58):
realize that until I got older,but like, and still to this day
.
So Ed would take my son, likeeven at races when they got
older, my son Mitch, he wouldlike to sit up front with Ed
when he drove and Ed would be.
You know, here's thesemountains.
This is why they look like that.
I was like man, that is so coolthat, like I've heard this
before and like now he's tellingmy son that's pretty neat,

(36:21):
that's cool.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, it is cool, that's fun, yeah, yeah.
Well, I talked to you earlierand you went to college and you
got an engineering degree.
Is that correct?
Yeah, and how did that comeinto play?

Speaker 2 (36:39):
How did you help the team out with your knowledge on
your engineering degree?
So as I went through my classesin school, you know I always
had to find for me learning wasI had to find something relative
that made sense to me.
And so, just like, when I gotto thermodynamics in college in

(37:00):
engineering, well, the ADIsystem, that's thermodynamics,
so that made sense to me, so Icould kind of correspond Just
all the different thingsinvolved with thermodynamics and
engines and things like that,when we got to the systems, my
systems classes, that's racepack stuff, that's data
acquisition, I get that Okay, soI can parallel that.

(37:23):
When we got the fluids, that's,you know, bodies and ground
effect, that's stuff flowingthrough the air and and that
made sense and and and, evenlike the flows of the pumps and
the flows of the, you know, thefuel and the bypasses, that
really helped me understand howthat was, uh, strength materials

(37:44):
, mechanics of solids, that wasall about, uh, the different
materials, just like andespecially the propellers,
knowing that, you know, when wefirst started we used the cast
mercury wheels, and thenunderstanding why those weren't
as good as the you know theRonnie Brown wheels that were
made from a forging, that wereabsolutely works of art and

(38:06):
beautiful.
And you know, one of the biggestthings, that I had a class
called Finite Element Analysiswhich is basically taking a
computer and it solvesstructural simulation, so like
you put loads on propellers andthings like that.
It really used that a lot,especially in the new boat.

(38:26):
It has used a lot of that.
But probably the biggest thingthat sticks out to me was and
Dave Vilwock had told me this along time ago was that the
biggest load on a propeller isjust the inertial loading of it
going 10,000 RPMs, which thatdoesn't make, you know, and I
thought about that and I'm like,well, that kind of makes sense.

(38:46):
But you know, propellers alwaysseem to break for us at at the
apex of the corner when it'sunder the biggest load.
That's when it always breaks, sothere's, gotta be, you know,
but if you do the functionalsimulation, so if you put the
loads on a propeller, it is soyou spend that thing up to 10

(39:08):
000 rpms.
If it will live through that,if you can get it to live
through that, then it's going tomake it Interesting.
And yeah, you know, and thatwas something that I didn't
really understand and you know,and Vilwa kind of told me that
before I'd even taken that classand the, you know, just the, I
mean it's 20 times the load ofjust it spinning up.

(39:28):
And I just remember, you know,when we first started they, we
had propellers break, theystarted making them beefier and
adding more to them and theybroke even worse, broke even
faster, and that was because ofthat inertial loading thing.
So, um, I know I went a littlebit off topic there, but that
was interesting that's.
That was one of the coolestthings that we ever, that we

(39:51):
ever came out of that.
And then you know so, when westarted kind of designing our
own stuff and but even though wedidn't make it, we told people
what we wanted.
We knew the thicknesses andstuff.
We want it and actually I wouldtry to run that through some of
the finite element stuff sothat you know if I could get the
surface files.
We'd run it through there andsee if they'd spin up and not

(40:11):
fly apart.
And that was probably one ofthe biggest benefits.
And then another big thing wedid is just using dynamics and
differential equations and allthe math classes, differential

(40:34):
equations and all the mathclasses was.
I used that because, like indifferential equations, you have
velocity and acceleration andstuff like that.
So I had developed this timingcharts, these timing charts, so
that when Mitch or Jimmy, youknow at that time, were out
there at any point, we wouldknow how fast.
You know if they, if we were atthe in the back, shoot halfway
up and there were three minutesleft to go, I could tell them

(40:55):
exactly how fast to go.
To make you know if.
If the acceleration time at theentrance of the second turn was
22 seconds.
I could tell them, if you go 85mile an hour from here around
out, you can make the start.
So and they and they work, theywork dead on uh, and I had sent
you a couple of those yeah,yeah, I got to look through
those.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
It's pretty incredible.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
All the, all the resources there, all the numbers
you have, yeah, it's reallycool if, if you go to that, uh,
it's that racing game, uh, it'sonline.
Yeah, hydrosyn yeah so my songot the hydrosome and so I said,
well, let's try that, you knowand do the time.
That thing is dead on, reallydead on.

(41:38):
Accurate matter of fact, whendylan runny got the um job to
drive for the madison, he hadasked me some things.
I said, well, first thing youneed to do is get in the gym.
That's like the best, andDylan's an athlete, so that
wasn't a problem and I said Iwould highly recommend getting
on Hydro Sim and practice starts.

(42:00):
The accelerations aren't exactlythe same as like, for example,
at Tri-Cities.
I think it's 19 seconds fromlane one to the entrance.
We've got to be at the exit atlike 10 seconds or something
like that.
The accelerations aren'texactly the same.
But going around the course,like I can my son, like we would

(42:24):
just practice.
So he would go out and say now,and I would look at where he's
at San Diego, you're on thefront stretch at this time, go
90 mile an hour and you'll hitthe start and it and it works
like it works every time.
Well, um so and those courts, I, you know, I think I'd given
those to andrew.
Uh, I think andrew has a copyof them.

(42:45):
Maybe pyro has a copy I thinkmaybe py, maybe Pyro doesn't, I
can't remember Well.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
I'm going to post those in the bio.
No, I'm joking, oh, I don't.
Well, yeah, I probablyshouldn't.
I'm joking.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
You know now with the starts, with them trolling,
it's not as big of a deal, butyou know, that's where you know
when a lot of that stuff cameout of, actually, when they were
trolling.
I don't know what they've doneto the turbines that can make
them spin up so fast now.
So we used to.
If you had a turbine downcoming out of the exit, if you

(43:20):
had it trolling like theycouldn't get the thing up, yeah,
but now they are up at topspeed.
I don't know what they've done,but they, you know we used to
have a huge advantage there andwe don't know what they've done,
but they, they.
You know we used to have a hugeadvantage there and we don't
anymore.
But when we did have thatadvantage I mean we we would get
to the inside just about anytime we wanted.
But what we found was that allof the motors that we lugged and

(43:43):
say that we did the trollinglike the turbines do every one
of them lost the bottom end.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Every single one.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Yep, yep, every one of them lost the bottom end,
every single one.
Yep, okay, yep.
And like every propeller thatwe had that would bend through,
that had broken every shaft likethe whole drive, we lost
gearboxes that we've never lostbefore and it was all due to
that trolling stuff because,like, the hardest part on that
whole drive shaft is from zeroto 100.
120 is when they getting up andthat's when the most violent

(44:13):
accelerations take place.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
It makes me think to go back to my models.
This last year I wasexperimenting with some aluminum
props that came out of China.
Oh wow, yeah and they're reallyfast, really great stuff, and I
modified them a little bit towork better.
But I started losing propswithin the first lap of the heat
and I think it was because Iwas going so slow and I would
punch it In electric boats.

(44:38):
It was instant power basically,and I think they just winged it
enough to crack one of theblades and I would lose a blade
before the first lap.
So I could only get throughrace and a half, or maybe two,
with one run propeller, yeah,before I would lose it.
So just what, and it doesn'tmake sense.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
I mean it because, like vilwok used to tell me that
too, like the, the hardest timeon a propeller is from start to
getting them up and going.
And if you think about theequation, force equals mass
times, acceleration.
The greatest force is whenyou're accelerating.
The mass is a change, you know,and so that would make sense,
that it would.
Probably that's when it'sgetting the most violent, you

(45:18):
know, forces put on it.
Yeah, and, and it's true, likewe started losing, like you can,
we mapped it all back to everytrolling start.
We made it just destroyed stuff.
So that's why we stopped doingit.
And that's another reason.
Like the timing charts reallyhelped us in that we couldn't go
that slow.
And that whole 80 mile per hourthing, that was a little bit

(45:39):
from us be like we're saying wecan't make that start.
And other guys were saying,yeah, we're starting to hurt
equipment.
And, uh, actually jim codlingknew that I was doing these
timing charts and he came to mehe was like, throw me a speed
that you think is good, and Ithink I threw 90 mile an hour at
him.
People complained, so I thinkthey wound up at 80.

(46:00):
Yeah, that was kind of theevolution of that Okay, all
right, well interesting.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Well, your time was at Cooper.
You had a lot of differentdrivers that joined the team and
found some success.
I was wondering if you had afavorite to work with.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
I think I know the answer.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Well, I don't know, it might surprise you.
It's like seeing who yourfavorite kid is, I guess.
It's kind of hard, but obviouslyMitch and Jimmy it would be.
I would say kind of hard, butobviously mitch and jimmy, you
know it would be.
I would say kind of an eventhing there.
Um, you know, because actuallywith this new boat jimmy's
actually been with it longer andyou know, and has driven more

(46:41):
heats with it and yeah, um, andjimmy's probably the best friend
that I have in the world rightnow.
I mean, he is just an awesomesweetheart of a guy and just has
we've done a lot of thingstogether.
But you know, just if I canthink back in the order of
drivers that we had, so Mitch,he's definitely definitely one

(47:02):
one, a, you know he's reallygood, smooth, calculated.
Uh, the thing about Mitch it washe's so good at is he was very
good at keeping the momentum up.
He understood that I have tokeep the momentum up.
I can't do things to scrubspeed, um, and he knew things
were going to happen like a halfa lap before they happened.

(47:23):
So, um, things were going tohappen like a half a lap before
they happened.
So, um, I remember we were backin the 89 90.
They used to have these pistonshootouts, so it was basically
us and the medicine would go up.
And uh, the first one was in, Ithink it was in syracuse, and
we had that one one, uh, and welost a mag and uh, which kind of

(47:45):
sucked.
And then the second one was inKansas City and we were like
dead, even with Mike and Mitch,you just seem just back way out
of it for no reason.
And this was before we hadradios and we didn't like, we
didn't have any idea what theheck was going on.
You know, yeah, or maybe wewere supposed to have radios and

(48:06):
they didn't work or whatever,but we didn't know what was
going on.
So he came back in and Mike hadactually cooked the motor, so we
had won it.
So they won the one.
You know, we lost the one weshould have won and they lost
the one they should have won.
But we came back in and I waslike Mitch, why did you back off
?
Like they should have won?
But we came back in and I waslike mitch, why, why did you

(48:27):
back off?
Like we had him.
You know he goes, he goes.
I could smell it, he goes, Icould smell their motor just
going away and he goes.
I was gonna push our stuff andwow, I'll be darned like he,
just like he just was veryuncanny for just seeing stuff a
half a lap before it happenedand yeah, um, yeah, and just one
of the nicest you know, and Iactually, you know, I named my
son after Mitch.

(48:49):
Just I can't say enough goodthings.
I still talk to Mitch at leastonce a month.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
That's why.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
another one was Todd Yarling, and I think he he was
only with a short time with theteam he drove, kind of when
Mitch did the Coors thing andthen Mitch had another thing he
had done or couldn't make it,and Todd, you know, and the
thing with Todd is like we neverreally asked him to do a lot,

(49:16):
just kind of start and finish.
But the thing about him is thathe's smart man.
I did not realize how he wouldhave been an excellent crew
chief or team manager.
Um, you know, he's from thesaluda bottoms over there near
madison, you know.
So probably in the way he talks, you know he's got that big

(49:38):
southern draw.
But you know, and sometimes hemaybe doesn't sound that
intelligent, but he is, off thecharts, one of the smartest
people ever met.
Like I always wondered, maybeif he was the guy that could
have been the person that gotthe Exide or the Formula deal,
like, or something, one of thosedeals that came through, one of

(50:00):
those one-offs, miracle thingsthat came together.
Like I would have really likedto have seen what he could have
done because he was veryintelligent.
I think his calling wasprobably as a crew chief or team
manager, but he wound updriving.
The next one was RickChristensen.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
We didn't really ask him to do a lot and we really
didn't give him much to drive,so it's hard to critique.
But he's a nice guy.
I see him.
He comes to the races.
If I'm in Tri-Cities or SeattleI'll see him.
I still have a goodrelationship with him.
But I don't know how good of adriver he is.
Your dad would probably knowbetter than me.
I I don't know how good of adriver is.

(50:45):
Your dad would probably knowbetter than me, I think, or
would have known Right.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
I think he drove for Jones some, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Yeah, he drove for Jones Leland and for Cooper for
short stint, didn't he drivethat great big Gentry turbo
thing?
Yeah?
That boat was enormous.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
It was like 34 feet long or something like
ridiculous like that.
Yeah, international news,international news yeah, I mean
anything.
He flipped it in seattlesomehow that thing was big.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Yeah, he just told me that thing was huge.
But yeah, yeah, that that boatwe built was not that great
tubby, was not that good.
But uh, anyways, I don't goodguy, just I don't know.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
And then I think the next one was was mark weber yeah
, he had mark and then mikeweber, he had the brothers yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
So mark, at the time mark would came on, uh, I think
we still had tubby and I.
That was a deal where I wasfinishing up school, uh, I was
coaching football and in theprocess of getting married, all
kinds of different things, and Ijust wasn't around much.
There was a year or two that Iwasn't around much and I wasn't

(51:56):
around much then.
But I know Mark, he's a greatguy.
He obviously is talented.
He drove for the Budweiser anddid some pretty cool stuff other
places.
It's nice to see him out in theMiss US now I get to see him at
some races, so that's cool.
And then Mike, I was aroundMike quite a bit.
Mike's a very talented driver.

(52:18):
I disagree with him on justabout 99% of everything that
comes out of his mouth, but he'sa really good friend.
But it's very funny.
Just about 99% of everythingthat come out of his mouth, but
he's a really good friend, butjust as it.
But it's very funny.
So he will always anything.
Politics, lebron, whatever.
We are just opposite spectrums,but it just like.
It just shows like, andespecially nowadays, like you

(52:39):
can totally disagree withsomebody on stuff, but you can
still be good friends and that'sa.
Mike Weber is a great exampleof that, because we don't agree
on anything.
Funny story about Mikey when wehad my daughter, he had sent a
set of Hello Kitty permanentmarkers as a gift and my

(53:03):
daughter marked her whole bodyup with them.
I mean face and everything.
So, uh, whenever alexis has adaughter or has a child, that
kid is going to get a set ofsharpies of every color and I'm
sending it to him.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
So so that's kind of been a running joke between Mike
and I will pay back.
Oh yeah, but he is just anexceptional human being.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
I I love Mike to death.
Uh then, obviously the lastone's, jimmy.
Um, and I can't say Jimmy and Ihave turned out to be.
He's my best friend.
I mean we talk all the time Ourwives are good friends.
I mean his kids are like mykids.
I mean we talk all the time Ourwives are good friends.

(53:48):
His kids are like my kids.
I mean Bobby is like my son andI'm just so proud of that kid
and what he's accomplished.
And he's done it the hard way,done everything himself, you
know, and he's an extremelytalented driver.
You know, mitch was morecalculated and smooth than Jimmy
we had.
You know, mitch was morecalculated and smooth than
Jimmy's.
Just that GP aggressive,reactive, just will get in and

(54:14):
drive the snot out of anythingyou give him.
I don't remember was it 2006,.
Him and Steve David in the GoldCup.
They raced each other.
I don't know if you ever sawthat heat, but they were neck
and neck.
We were outside and as weshedded that 80 pounds per lap,
the boat just kept gettingfaster and faster and jimmy got
him and that was just that's.
That's typical jimmy king.
He does not give up, um, I mean, we had was I can remember

(54:38):
three races.
We had a, uh, broken shaft innashville.
Had that won?
We came from the trailerposition.
Had it won?
Yeah, the worst one wasTri-Cities and nobody really
knows about this one, but we hadworked our ass off, got in the
inside lane and we're going toput the hammer down on everybody

(55:00):
.
And we had a system in the boatthat if we dropped below a
certain speed or manifoldpressure, the adi would shut off
.
It failed.
So we came up for the start tohit it and it was just flooded,
just water in all the cylinders.
That's the one that hurt themost because we were getting
ready to put it on them anddidn't do it.

(55:22):
And then, uh, evansville 2009,.
We were winning by, you know, aquarter of a lap and over the
form of the boat, and broke apropeller.
Broke a propeller that maybehad 30 laps, 40 laps on it.
So he deserves better than he'sgotten in the Unlimiteds, but
he's the.

(55:42):
To me, he's the greatest GPdriver in the world, always has
been, always will be.
He's back in the GPs now whenwe give him something to drive,
he's going to be pretty coolBetween Jimmy and Mitch,
obviously, those two are the twothat stick out the most to me,
definitely.

(56:03):
When I think Cooper and CooperRacing and Cooper Express, think
of, definitely think of mitchevans and jimmy king yeah, I
mean just it was really cool tosee the progression of how mitch
when first had I mean we werejust stuck trying to start and
finish, we didn't get to racethat much and everything that he
learned at the geronimo becausethat was a big learning curve

(56:24):
for him and he'll tell you youknow he messed up a few times
there and things he learned, Imean he was just flawless.
If you look at on, you know,cause now we have that, that
acquisition.
If you look at his corners andstuff, he was.
So I mean he just was sorepeatable in the things that he
did.
I mean he just was sorepeatable in the things that he

(56:46):
did.
Yeah, and he was very easy onequipment, very easy.
I think we didn't I don't knowthat we lost a bottom end the
entire time that he drove the2003.
Oh, wow, I don't think we didWow.
But we had some good stuff too.
We had one motor that was 3,800horsepower, that yellow motor,

(57:09):
and then we had another motor,janet, that came from Al Thorson
, that we put these really lightpistons in it and it would
accelerate.
It wasn't as much horsepowerbut the acceleration was just
out of this world.
And we use two motors all year.
Wow, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Yeah, that's impressive.
Yeah, that's impressive.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Yeah, well, I mean some great talent that you've
worked with over the years.
But you've also I think you'vegotten to visit many different
places around the US and Canadaand crewing for different teams,
and I know you crewed for manyyears for H1 series and you're
crewing now for HRL team.
I want to know I'm alwayscurious to know people have

(57:55):
visited, because I've actuallynever been out to the east coast
when I was oh, really.
Yeah, I didn't know that I askedmy dad one year if I could go
out back east and I think I wasin college at the time or
something he said no, you canhit the west coast side.
I don't know what that wasabout.
I never got to ask him why thatwas.
What's your favorite sites forH1 series?

(58:17):
Your favorite site for HRLseries?

Speaker 2 (58:21):
I'd say my favorite site back in the day was Miami
by far.
I love Miami.
I'm a big dolphins fan, big any, I'm big dolphin hurricane or
hurricanes heat, all thatdifferent stuff, but oh, I love
miami and been going down therefor a long time.
But that race site is wasunbelievable.
It was.
The spectators were right ontop of it.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Yeah, grand stands that they could sit in, yes, I
was just there.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
My son and I were just there.
We go down every year to watchthe dolphins and training camp
and then go to some Orleansgames.
We were just there this summerand I parked like, took pictures
.
I'll send them to you.
But we took pictures of the oldMiami Marine Stadium and it's
so sad because it's there.
It's just graffitied up.

(59:09):
I mean there's nothing reallychanged and it's just a bunch of
boats moored out in the bay.
But it's beautiful down there,absolutely beautiful.
We used to race in May.
It was nice, we'd go down thereand it was nice and sunny.
They had beautiful hotels.
By far that's my favorite,probably san diego and

(59:34):
tri-cities after that.
But yeah, miami hands down myfavorite race ever.
And then obviously san diego iscool just because of san diego.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
you know, being from the west coast, we're not really
used to seeing stuff like thatyeah, yeah, I think the only
midwest yeah I think the onlydrawback is dealing with the
salt water, but I meaneverything, everything else,
just it's beautiful, it's, it'swarm, it's it's nice, it's in
miami it wasn't as bad becauseyou always went to a salt, you
always went to a freshwater.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
Race after that and you can get righted out.
And you know, and I don't knowwhy people thought that that
saltwater was easier on thepiston engines and the turbines.
Because it's just, it's awful,yeah, for everything.
But, yeah, I.
But you know, back in 88, 89, Ididn't care, I could work all
day and night, it didn't matter,I didn't care if we had to

(01:00:23):
clean it up, that was okay, butthat was my favorite.
And then obviously tri-city,just because, uh, I've been out
there in a while, but I guessmanagement has changed, but back
when I was there, I mean it wasso well run with paul parish
and john culver, uh, justeverything about it, other than
it was 115 degrees sometimes outthere.

(01:00:44):
Yeah, I've been out there.
Yeah, seems like I was therewhen it was raining and cold one
year.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Yeah, there's a few off times where it was cloudy
and chilly, but it's far inbetween yeah yeah and there's
humidity out there now.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
Last few times I've been out there, it's like humid
now.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
I don't remember that .
Yeah, it used to be so dry.
I I don't know if it's becausethe area is kind of it's kind of
a booming area.
Now there's more people movingout there and more vegetation, I
guess I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
But yeah, maybe the irrigation.
Irrigation has some humidity inthe air, but it's just.
It's just.
It's like humid and hot therenow.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
It's insane.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Yeah, I just know that when you go out there you
gotta throw a towel over yourtools or they'll burn your hands
when you go to pick them.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
Mm-hmm.
I remember my dad telling me astory when you guys raced in not
in Phoenix, but it was Arizona,Lake, Havasu.
Oh, my God yeah and he left atool out on the deck and he
reached for it and he just threwit in the lake and it was so
hot it just burned his hand.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Yeah, that's another place.
I'm glad we never went backthere.
Gosh, that place was.
I just remember two things.
So I drove, bill Fritz and Idrove there and I got to drive
over London Bridge, which Ithought that wasn't the real
London Bridge.
Come to find out it is the realLondon Bridge that you get to
drive over, and it was just abunch of old people Like it was

(01:02:16):
a retirement community, is whatit is, because, you know, I saw
Lake Havasu Well, it's the girlsgoing wild videos and stuff
like that and I was like, well,this is going to be crazy out
here.
Yeah, well, it wasn't.
It's basically a retirementcommunity and it was nice, but
it was so rough, oh my God.
But it was hot yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Yeah, is there any other race sites?
You're glad you don't have togo to anymore with H1?
Or is it just Arizona?

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Actually Evansville.
I'm glad we don't have to go toEvansville Really and most
people love it.
But if you're from here youhave family wanting pit passes
Just dealing with family Not myimmediate, not my kids and my
wife and stuff and they can dowhatever they want.

(01:03:07):
But you got uncles and auntsand friends that you haven't
seen and the pit pass thing andwe always just sucked in
Evansville.
We just could never run.
Well, I mean, obviously once wedid or twice we did, but we
just never seemed to really putit together at home.
It's just hard and you try andyou you know all the sponsors

(01:03:29):
are there from.
You know all the, the localsponsors, like Hardy break that
did our hoses and just all thepeople that you know, the
vendors around Evansville thathelped him out all those years,
and you try to do so well andyou probably try too hard.
But yeah, I'm glad Evansvillemust be to get paid a couple
times, which that's tough too,but yeah that's hard.

(01:03:50):
But like the HRL Valleyfield,that's, my hands down, the best
place ever.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
I've heard it's just like an amazing experience.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
I've got to get you out there like, yeah, I'd love
if you ever get out there, I'llwork something out so you get a
room or something.
That place is, I don't evenknow what to say.
It's probably what Seattle.
It reminds me probably whatSeattle was years ago, but the
people there are, it's justcrazy.

(01:04:21):
It's just a big party.
When we went there, I think itwas a 2006 or I can't remember
when it was.

Speaker 1 (01:04:31):
Anyway, yeah, somewhere on that yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Yeah, uh, I remember like like we didn't wear our
crew stuff in the crowds because, like people would, you weren't
going to get mobbed or hurt,but like they were kind of on
you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
Really.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
But some of the teams like that I remember Perkins
and some of the Lumar guys likethey had their career uniforms
on and all that they wore it in.
But like I was married, Iwasn't looking to have a, you
know, I was just wanting to goout and eat.
But yeah, I mean there's a bigdeal, it's a huge thing there.
And if you've never seen it, ifyou've never seen a GP run in

(01:05:06):
Valleyfield man, you're reallymissing something.
It's just the coolest thing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Well, I mean like seeing videos.
It looks like both sides of thelake or river or whatever that
is it's full, it is it's full ofbodies.
Yeah, and I've heard that it'sjust like nonstop racing all day
.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Like they have class after class, just ready to get
ready to go, yeah, and if you'renot ready, you won't race.
Yeah, and it's.
It's different than apba um, inthat, okay, this is if.
If it says three o'clock,you're going to run at three
o'clock, and if you're onesecond late, then you're not
going to run yeah um, and evenif our cranes mess up, it's on
you.
We're still going to, you know,and they're well, I shouldn't
say that If their crane messesup, they'll work with you, but

(01:05:52):
they're pretty hard, like theykeep the show going, and that's
why they've been successful.
Yeah, but yeah, it's a greatplace and Tonawanda is kind of
like that, and up in the niagarariver near buffalo, is pretty
nice and I can say the worstrace I've ever been to in my

(01:06:12):
life is a place called saintfelician.
I don't know if you ever heardof that, but it's where's that
it's six hours.
It's six hours north of mont,okay, I believe.
And like it doesn't get darktill 11 o'clock at night, 10
o'clock at night, it's crazy.
So you're that far north, Iguess.

(01:06:33):
Wow, and you know, jimmy and Itypically Jimmy and I would room
together.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
And Jimmy is really like he gets up early and he
gets going.
He's up at 2 o'clock in themorning because the sun's up all
of a sudden.
He's doing calisthenics.
Jesus Christ, jimmy, go back tobed.
It's just yeah.
But yeah, by far the worst raceI've ever been to in my life is
St Felician.

(01:06:59):
And the race course is nice andit's really weird because the
water's's like a dark, dingybrown, because they do logging
up there okay, I guess theyfloat those logs down yeah which
just seems that now is it nowthat I think about that's even
worse.
Like all those logs float downthe water.
They can't get them all out,maybe hit something, but anyway,
that's awful place, do theystill race there no, I haven't

(01:07:23):
raced there in a while.
I used to always wonder thatBert would never drive up there.
He'd always let his backupdriver drive All these teams.
All the backup drivers woulddrive in St Felician.
I never could figure it out theone time I went up.
I understand Just real quick.

(01:07:43):
Another thing I do rememberabout St felicia.
I think saint felicia is thefirst time the bobby king's boat
that he runs now the white, thewhite lady, we call it um.
It's the first time we reallyran it and bobby was out running
it and it was on the verge ofblowing over, like from how to
get going just on its.

(01:08:04):
The nose is way up in the airand bobby never driven a 350 so
he didn't know what it felt like.
And I just remember tammy, uh,king bobby's mom calling jim
while he was out running and uh,she was asking him how it's
doing and jimmy's on the phoneoh, it looks great, it's just

(01:08:24):
smooth.
And like's on the phone oh, itlooks great, it's just smooth
and like that.
And Bobby's just out there, thething's up all wild.
I'm like Jesus Christ, he'sgoing to blow.
I'm like just tell him to shutthe thing off.
Like we got to do something.
I just remember that and theradio weren't working right and
he was just out there, the thingwas on its.

(01:08:46):
I mean it was wild and thankgod the the canard broke and we
had to quit for the day because,I mean, we would have made a
war.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
I mean, it was crazy, I guess yeah that's all the
time we have for this week.
Please join us next week as Icontinue my talk with mike hall.
We're going to discuss moreabout cooper's racing, their new
boat that they made and thevarious drivers that they had
and the various drivers thatthey had over the years, and
it's just a fun walk downnostalgic lane, talking about

(01:09:10):
the success that Cooper Racinghad and his contributions that
Mike Hollis had on that team,and just more about hydroplanes.
So what else do you need?
Until then, please check us outon social media.
We're on Facebook, instagram.
We also have our website,roostertaltalkcom, and there you
can see all the news andupdates for the podcast.

(01:09:32):
I've got more interviews on theway.
I've actually conducted threeor four other interviews.
I'm excited to get those out toyou as well.
Stay tuned for more informationon that.
And that's all I've got forthis week.
So until next time, I hope tosee you at the races.