Episode 139: Mike Hall, Part 2

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Join me as I conclude my interview with Mike Hall, a true veteran of the sport, who takes us behind the scenes of this charismatic community. The episode is filled with Mike's colorful anecdotes. His vivid storytelling paints a picture of a close-knit community where camaraderie and friendship thrive both on and off the water. We explore his technical adventures in building innovative boats and delve into the intricate world of GP racing, where Mike's passion and commitment shine through the challenges of crewing and boat building. This is one episode you don't want to miss.  Enjoy!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything
about the sport that we all love, Hydroplane racing.
I am your host, david Newton,and it's time once again.
So sit back, relax and welcome.
Rooster Tail, talk, talk.
Hello race fans, welcome back.

(00:53):
It's episode 139 and today isMarch 4th 2025.
Well, today we're going toconclude my interview with Mike
Hall.
Last week I got a chance totalk with Mike about growing up
in Indiana and how he fell inlove with hydroplane racing.
He talked about some of hiscontributions to the sport,

(01:13):
talked about the drivers.
He's been around with theCooper's Express and Cooper's
Racing Team and today we'regoing to continue that
conversation.
He needs to talk more about thecharacters and the
personalities around the sportthat he's involved himself with,
sharing some great stories andsome great insights to that
family of hydroplane racing.
Because whenever I've talked tosomeone on this podcast about

(01:35):
hydroplane racing, it alwaysgoes back to family and that
sense of family and friendship,and he's made some great friends
over the years and has somegreat stories to share about
that.
He'll also talk more about thattechnical friends over the
years and has some great storiesto share about that.
He'll also talk more about thattechnical side of the sport and
continue to talk about hiscrewing and what he's currently
up to.
So let's continue that talk aswe conclude my interview with

(01:56):
Mike Hall.
Well, as a crew member, I knowyou've visited all the sites and
had experiences with that, butyou also have had the
opportunity over the years tojust meet a lot of interesting
people.
Yeah, and I know some of thepeople you've worked with, but I
don't know everyone.

(02:16):
But I'd love to hear some greatstories about these people,
because I think fans don'talways get to hear these fun,
fun stories.
Uh, being around some of thesegreats and and characters as
well, um, mostly characters.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because they're just people,
normal people.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, right, yeah yeah, but I have a list of some,
some characters here.
I was wondering if you couldshare a story about each one,
sure, so first one on my list.
I have jamie ald james all.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, probably the nicest human being I've ever met
in my life.
Just the sweetest, nicestperson.
Uh, god, I can't say enoughgood things about jamie.
But, um, my good friend, chris,harley and michaelan they saw
him the father of the modernthree point hydroplane, like

(03:08):
they.
That's how well respected he is.
Um, yeah, just an unbelievableguy.
I'd met him a few times whenJim, when Jimmy and Jamie are
really good friends, um, and afew times in back in 2015,.
Uh, we were racing at Brockvilleand the three 50 that Roger has

(03:30):
was basically the, the three 50.
That was the best one in theworld for a long time.
Uh, hit a log and blew theright sponsor off I think Valley
field was.
Two weeks later, roger wantedto win Valley field real bad and
we had a good shot at it.
So I was in Ottawa.
I worked for Microsoft.
I was in Ottawa working on ajob, just happened to be there

(03:50):
and saw it happen in Brockville,went to Ottawa, completed my
job, flew home, got in myVolkswagen TDI and drove right
back to Brockville to Bert'sshop and Jamie's shop.
Drove right back to Brockvilleto Bert's shop and Jamie's shop
and that's really when I met,got to know Jamie Ald and worked
with him.

(04:12):
The funniest story I have abouthim is so if you've ever been in
a thrash with these boats, youknow that there's highs and lows
during that whole time and itwas really kind of a team
building exercise too.
There's highs and lows duringthat whole time and it was
really kind of a team buildingexercise too.
But the funniest thing was we'dbeen working on that thing for
I don't know about a week and wewere at the point where all the

(04:33):
parts were put together andgetting ready.
We were probably behind.
So we knew we had about two orthree all-nighters Weren't going
to go to bed for a few nights.
About two or three all-nightersweren't going to go to bed for a
few nights and it was going tobe nothing but grinding, itchy,
nasty, dirty work for about twoor three days and everybody's a
little bit grumpy uh.

(04:54):
I'll never forget jimmy wascalling me.
He called me, uh, and he saidyou know, hey, man, how's it
going.
You know, and I'm prettypositive guy and just would
usually yeah, it's going good,you know.
Typically, as Americans, wealways say when somebody says
hey how's it going?
Like, yeah, it's going great.
But I just told him.
I was like, hey, listen, jimmy,team morale is low.

(05:16):
Dude, we're in the A&W here inBrockville.
Jamie's in this corner, bobby'sin this corner, bobby's in
another corner.
My son hasn't talked to me allday.
He's in another corner and I'mover here.
I was like I don't know if we'regoing to get this thing done.
I mean, we're all pissed offand not mad at each other.
God, it's just and it's hot andwhatever.

(05:36):
But the funniest thing is so ifyou go back and watch the
speech of when Jimmy and we goand win Valleyfield, I don back
and watch the speech of when,when jimmy we want and we go and
win valley field, I don't knowhow we did, but we did, we won
it.
And as you go out and see, ineach heat it's got more pain on
every time we go out.
So we had, you know, startedputting more pain on it because
everything was still drying.
So when jimmy gives the speech,he's like, well, we didn't know

(06:00):
what was going to happen.
Team morale was low at one point.
So that's a really inside joke.
So that always cracks me upwhenever I hear that.
But that's kind of a Jamie Allstory.
It's kind of a Jimmy Jamie, butjust an awesome guy.
Yeah, I mean, I could do awhole podcast on Jamie, on the

(06:20):
stuff that he's taught me.
Yeah, just an awesome person,person, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Bill Fritz.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Fritzy, yeah, yeah, and I do you know.
Did you knew Bill didn't?

Speaker 1 (06:34):
you yeah.
Yeah, I knew Bill.
Yeah, because he was he.
He had some molds for when he'dscale hydroplanes.
My dad worked with him, yeah,for the Budweiser and on some
other ones and, um, yeah, he was.
He was such a funny guy, youknow it's it's sad he just
passed away as well, I know, Iknow.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
So, yeah, world famous bill fritz, that's what
we called him, uh, but you knowit's it's so funny because he's,
he's a really nice guy, but hedid, he had a bit of a temper.
So when we first met like thefirst time I met Bill was we
were going to drive the tubby toLake Havasu.
So Bill was a truck driver bytrade, very good truck driver,

(07:17):
yeah, and I was an awful truckdriver.
So I had driven that 73International for ed for years.
And he bought this freightliner which I'd never driven
before.
It's a whole different thing,uh.
And so fritz was going to teachme how to drive it whenever he
got tired.
So he, uh, he'd go out thereand uh, I'm having trouble

(07:40):
getting through the gearsbecause it's, it's just hard.
I mean, it's hard to drive atruck and I've got a lot of
respect for those because I suckat it and uh, so I'm going
through the gears and I can seejust getting madder and madder.
So I get out, it's his turn todrive.
We go on down the road.
He just keeps driving and,reluctantly, he gives the wheel

(08:01):
back to me a second time and theonly thing I'm watching is the
pyrometers, like don't get theengine too odd.
I'm getting this down the road,but he's not happy with how I'm
doing it.
All right, so we go out again.
So the third time we're in NewMexico he'd had enough of me,
like he just totally had it, andhe started yelling at me.

(08:23):
He's like you know, you don't,you can't drive this truck.
And I was like dude, I nevertold you I could.
I'm just doing my best, likeyou know.
If you're upset with me, I'msorry, I'm trying, I'm getting
better.
But he wasn't happy.
He just kept yelling so I justput it in neutral.
I pushed the clutch and I gotit in neutral and just slowly
pulled off.

(08:43):
He goes why'd you pull off?
It's like we're gonna go oldman right now, because I've had
enough and I don't know why Isaid it.
I said I am gonna roll you likea gator when we get out this
thing.
And so we start looking at eachother and this is like 30
seconds of very awkward silenceand we both start laughing and

(09:06):
from that point on we were likethe best of friends.
I roomed with bill everywhere Iwent.
It's just, I don't know, he wasjust, he had a temper, but he,
I think it, he had somecompassion too and he really
knew I was trying.
I'm just not a good truckdriver, you know, I'm just.
You know, and people that cando that, that's really hard to
do, but and and I can drive itnow, but you know, I was a lot

(09:29):
younger then and it was I'dnever driven something like that
.
Yeah, it was hard to do.
That's a handful driving whileI was so yeah, so that that was
that's kind of my bill story.
But, like I said, we had arough start and a great ending
also yeah, I, I know you.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
I want to hear your stories, but I had a couple bill
stories I want to show youshare with you real quick.
um, one is I can't remember whatyear it was, but you guys had
tubby out here in seattle and hewas working on an engine that
was right by the the gate thereand my dad and I were talking
with him and he's like, well,well, I'm all done.
And he shows me this cup andit's full of these bolts and

(10:09):
nuts and I was like, well, don'tyou need those?
He's like well, I goteverything together.
These are just extra parts.
Now, I'm pretty sure he wasjust joking with me.
Oh no, it was a joke, I've heardthat before, but at the time I
was like holy shit, Is thatmotor going to survive?
What's going on?
But then another story I haveis he had all these great molds

(10:33):
and he didn't want to do.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
I would have loved a snake nose, yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
He didn't want to do the RC boats anymore.
I think he was tired of dealingwith some people.
But he sold everything to afriend I have down in Florida,
steve Galtieri, and he wastrying to learn everything from
Bill, and I think he laid up aboat and it flashed wrong and
didn't come out right, and so hecalled up Bill and told him
everything that he did.

(10:57):
And Bill said, well, do youknow what you did?
And Steve's like, no, I don'tknow.
And Bill said, well, you fuckedup.
Okay, bill, but that was asense of humor.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Well, he was the reason that we could even do
that boat.
Like he knew how to build themolds.
So he's the reason that we gotstarted on the new boat.
Like we had somebody that knewthe molds.
But then once he did it, wewere like, oh my God, is that
easy, yeah, the molds.
But then once he did it we'relike, oh my god, is that easy,
yeah.
Then we like I build molds allthe time for bmw parts and stuff
.
Now the stuff that I do on myown, but yeah, but he's bill was

(11:33):
like super instrumental in ed'sdeal yeah, yeah, he, he was, he
was, he was a fun guy miss him.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Oh yeah, yeah, all right, uh, scott Rainey or Pyro.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Pyro.
Yeah, so Scott and I probablystarted about the same time and
though, you know, even though wehaven't really raced together,
the biggest thing about Pyro Idon't really have like great
stories about him, but somethingthat's really cool that we
bonded over and I think it'sreally cool is is like we both
are disney, we both love disneyand uh, so we would always talk

(12:12):
and when he, when he marriedshannon, shannon loved disney
too, and that was something thatwe always had a common.
You know, we'd always.
You know we're going this yearand what are you guys going to
do and what?
You know, how can you savemoney here?
How, what did you do there?
And then we always had thatbond.
And then now his daughter,emily, is an imagineer, she's in
a, she is a engineer at disney,that's cool down in florida and

(12:35):
she lives down there, okay, anduh, yeah, so, um, that's kind
of a neat thing.
And and so actually, after theSan Diego race, the last couple
of years, we both kind of wentup to Disneyland, which I had
never been to Disneyland, beingfrom the East Coast.
Even though we really don'tspend the day with each other,
we both go up there that day andyou know it's funny, this year

(12:59):
I ran into Jay Michael and justwound up, you know, waiting in
line with him with with for acouple of rides and even though
he's been around a lot of time Ihaven't really talked to Jay
Michael a lot and he seems to bea really nice kid.
So yeah, but that you know it'sthat bond with Pyro has really
been over Disney and then herelately he's called me for

(13:20):
different structural things andthings in the boat that he knows
.
That I know and I've beenhelping him with that and I was
supposed to fly out there herein a few weeks and help him do
some fairly big projects.
I'm not going to get into whatthey are, but I just had some
medical things that I can't goout.
I'm going to be better soon,but yeah.

(13:41):
But yeah, I've gotten to knowhim pretty well over the last
few years and, like I said, justthat love of Disney he and I
kind of brought us together Fun.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, bill Cantrell.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Bill Cantrell.
Yeah, you would have loved tohave met that guy.
Just the millions of stories weused to go up.
I'd love to have met that guy.
Just the millions of stories weused to go up, ed and I, when
Ed first started that program,whereas now he does everything
in-house.
He does the cylinder banksin-house, he does everything.
But back then we pretty muchdid the motor assembly in

(14:17):
Evansville and all the stuff onthe boat.
Well, it's not really inEvansville, it's in Posey County
, but close enough to Evansville.
We did all that here.
But in Madison they didcylinder banks.
There was a guy named GaryTurner and Ed's dad Cuz we
called him Cousin.
Ed Cuz would do the cylinderbanks and so we would always

(14:45):
wind up monthly making a trip upto Madison.
And part of that trip to Madisonwas going up and seeing Bill
and Graham and meeting them atthe Hereford up on the hill, the
little restaurant which youhaven't been there so you
wouldn't know where it's at.
But there's a little restaurantup there.
It's got a big steer out infront of it called the Hereford.
But one time we went to seeCantrell and Cantrell wasn't
going to be able to make it tothe Hereford, it was for
whatever reason.

(15:06):
He was stuck at the house.
So we stopped it at at Bill'shouse to see him and I'll be
damned if he did not have a big50 pound raccoon sitting at the
table with him eating breakfast.
His name was Joe, the raccoon'sname was Joe and, like he would

(15:27):
just like was part of thefamily, was sitting at the table
eating off a plate and so, likebill and just you know, bill
was the sweetheart of a guy andhe was just like, hey, mike,
eddie, do you want?
Do you want a sandwich?
You want me to make something?
Dude, that's okay, we're good,we're good, we just ate.
Like, even though we hadn't,like I wasn't gonna eat off
plates that a raccoon had eaten,I'd still have to get rabies or

(15:48):
some crazy thing like that.
So that was the coolest thingabout him is just like he always
had cats around and I'm a bigcat guy, I love cats and he
raccoons, man, like he hadraccoons in the house and, yeah,
it's crazy.
Like never forget that.

(16:08):
Because, hey, do you want me tomake you something?
And I'm looking, I'm like, hell, no, I don't want you to, but
that that was.
Uh, I don't know that.
That that is funny and uh, Ijust can't explain it.
Yeah, it's just so surreal tosee I mean acoon.
I mean that thing had to be 50pounds in the house.
I almost started screaming whenI came.

(16:28):
I was like Ed, there's a.
And he even warned me.
He was like man, there might bea raccoon or something in the
house.
And Ed, just he's so full ofshit Like I didn't know if that
was right or not.
But I was a young kid so I kindof believed everything he said
at that point.
But yeah, I mean Dan, a bigraccoon in the house.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, wow, mitch Evans.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Mitch, yeah, I mean God, I can't think of a story
off the top of my head aboutMitch.
It's just there's so manythings and so many things we did
together of my head about myths.
It's just there's so manythings and so many things we did
together.
Um, um, I mean he.
I mean you just interviewed him.
You heard some of the storiesand probably the funniest and

(17:14):
the truest and funniest story Iever heard in my life was the
story of, I guess, when normtook a house from somewhere up
the hill and he took it downthat bridge and it was three
foot narrower on one side yeahand you can see the rub marks on
the bridge.
At least you could.
I don't know if the acid rainhas taken them off by now, but
at least 20 years ago you couldsee where that thing had rubbed

(17:37):
on both sides.
Yeah, uh, just the stories it's.
It's really not so much Mitch.
Mitch is just a mild-mannered,sweet, nice guy, just awesome.
You know, do anything for you.
Mark's the crazy one.
He's probably got more stories,but like, yeah, I mean, most of

(17:58):
the stories about Mitch arekind of about Norm as well.
I mean, just a great friend anda very underrated driver.
You know, I remember the day Iused to do all this plane
tickets.
I remember the day that he saidhe wasn't going to drive for us
anymore.
I was just devastated, you knowhe had, and I was the first one

(18:23):
that found out, I guess becauseI had called him and told him.
I was like hey, let's get yourtickets ready, cause you know,
mike, I just don't think I cando it anymore.
I was like, yeah, okay, well,what do you want to fly out to
Evansville first?
And he's like no, I'm serious,he goes, I'll talk to Ed, you
know.
And I guess at that moment hejust decided he didn't want to
do it anymore and I think hemight have had a, you know, I

(18:45):
know he was really stepping uphis marine business and
everything and had a lot goingand he always told me he never
wanted to get hurt in a boat andI just thought he figured it
was the right time.
Yeah, yeah, and I still talk toMitch at least once a month and

(19:05):
we're going to go out toMahhogany and Merlot this next
year, I think Jimmy King and I,jimmy and Tammy and my wife and
his wife, oh, cool, cool.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, have you been out there before?

Speaker 2 (19:16):
I have been to land several times, but I've never
been to mahogany and Merlot.
It's a fun it's a fun weekend.
I mean, you see a bunch ofvintage boats and a bunch of
people hanging out, yeah,whereas Troy Holmberg calls it
beer and plywood, I think iswhat he calls it.
I don't know if you've heard itcalled that or not.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
No, I haven't.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Okay, Troy always asks me if I'm coming to beer
and plywood and yeah, All right,yeah, I'm going to make it out
there.
You know, the plan is isJimmy's got into these wooden
boats, the older boats.
He's got a I don't know what itis, but like the old wood,
Chris crafts and stuff.
But he's gotten into that andhe's not.

(19:55):
Jimmy's retiring from driving.
He's not going to drive anymore, so he wants to go out and see
those boats.
That's his big thing.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
That'd be cool.
Okay, yeah, out and see thoseboats.
That's his big thing.
That'd be cool, okay, yeah,yeah.
Well, speaking of jimmy, whatdo you think about jimmy kane?

Speaker 2 (20:07):
jimmy.
He is my best friend in theworld.
There's no, I mean without adoubt, uh, greatest gp driver in
the world.
Um, really, I mean he's beenthrough me through thick and
thin.
You know we've just been greatfriends.
I was kind of going to tell youabout that.

(20:29):
You know the thing with Jimmythat comes to mind I was going
to tell you the thing about themorale was low, kind of.
Already told that about Jamie,but when Jimmy first started
driving with us, I'll neverforget.
So we, I think the first yearis when we went up to Valley
field.
I think that was his first year.
Second year drive, I can'tremember.

(20:50):
And he was early on when hefirst started driving.
Um, actually, there's twothings I can think.
I'll go to this one.
This one's even better.
It's not as off color, so it'sprobably better.
Um, when he came down to getfitted for the seat, we would
always say Ed didn't have abathroom in the shop and if you
were a man you kind of just wentout back, or if you need to do

(21:14):
something else, you just go upto the house.
But we told Jimmy, if you needto use the restroom, it's out
the back.
Man, there's copperheads.
I mean, there's some bad stuffback there.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
There really wasn't.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
None of us had ever seen anything back there, but we
just like, yeah, watch it, youmight want to take somebody with
you or take a gun.
And so finally we get him fitand sit.
He's getting there, gettingready to get in the seat, and he
goes hey, I better go to thebathroom before we get here,
because we pour that seat aroundhim.
Sit.
He's getting there, gettingready to get in the seat, and he
goes hey, I better go to thebathroom before we get here,
because you know we pour thatseat around him and he's going
to be there for a bit.

(21:49):
Yeah, so yeah, you know that'sprobably a good idea.
We didn't think anything of it.
And so he goes out back andjimmy comes like tiptoeing back
into the shop.
We go what in the hell is thematter with you?
He goes man, man, those snakesyou said.
He goes there's a zoo snakeback there.
We go what A zoo snake?
What is that?
He goes you know one of thosebig snakes that you only see in

(22:10):
the zoo, and we were like Jimmy,we were really just kidding
about that, you know, we weren'tserious.
And he goes oh no, there is one.
We go back there.
There is a five foot longcopperhead back there.
We had never seen a snake backhere.
Ed goes running back up to theshop and he must have shot 10

(22:31):
shells or shot shotgun shellsinto that thing and killed it.
I mean, and it was so funnybecause we were like holy cow,
there really is snakes back,there were, and, uh, the next
day go, and it was laying onthis big slab of concrete and we
went out there and somethinghad drug it off, you know, and

(22:53):
Ed goes, man, I wonder what drugit off?
And all I could think of wasman, whatever it did, it has a
chipped tooth in it because ofall the steel.
You know all the stuff, butthat that's, you know, as far as
first meeting jimmy, and thatwas like the funniest thing ever
, that's.
And then, just real quick, oneother story that I was thinking

(23:13):
of.
So when we first, when we firstmet him, um, he, uh, we went to
valley field and if you go tovalley field, jimmy's very
famous up there like grown I'veseen grown men drop and start
crying in front of jimmy sayingI finally got to meet you, and
all this and of course, hiswife's just sitting there

(23:35):
rolling his eyes.
Just, oh, my god, you know,just, if you know jimmy's, he's
just an awesome guy, uh, and itis, I don't, so anyway.
So, um, people name their kidsafter.
It's crazy.
Why can't say I named my kidafter mitch, so uh, but anyway,
uh, it's just we're, we're goingup there and I just remember

(23:59):
when I got on the plane to flyup there, I opened the door and
there's a woman like naked inthe plane.
Like I was like whoa, I justopened the door and shut it.
It's like what in the hell?
You know, that's never happenedbefore.
I guess she had like a bodysuit on and she used the
restroom and then like I wastotally embarrassed and like she
was almost sitting next to me.

(24:19):
So I was like totallyembarrassed, I felt bad for her.
And then the the next time I wasat, like you know, one of the
outhouses in the pits, I openedup the thing.
Same thing there was a nakedlady.
I mean, there were reallyattractive women and like I was
going oh my God, I'm so sorry.
You know, whatever.
I shut the door and like I'mjust embarrassed, whatever.

(24:40):
And I do the third time andJimmy whatever, and I to the
third time and jimmy's gettingchanged in it.
So I open it up and I open itand he's not butt naked, but he
like he was getting dressed andall I could tell you is like you
know what I probably did?
I was probably like a.
I rubbed up against a geniebottle or something, and I must
have wished that I'd seen threebeautiful women or something

(25:01):
like that, and I blew the lastchance on jimmy, you know.
So that was a running joke thatyou know, here I had this.
You know I had three wishes andyou ruined my last wish you know
so that that was probably thethe funniest thing you know,
jimmy, uh, but yeah, I, Iabsolutely adore that guy.
He's jk said he's probably thebest friend I've ever had.

(25:22):
He's just a great guy, yeahyeah, troy humberg my boy.
Yeah, I guess, besides mike uhand scott mcintosh, and there
was another guy named quinn thatwas on the winston eagle.
He's there.
Those, those guys were probablythe first friends I ever had on

(25:42):
the boat circuit that were notpart of my team okay uh, and I
think troy at that time wasprobably with the U2, the
Harvey's team back then, and heand I just hit it off.
And, matter of fact, one thingleads to another and I'm going
out and visiting Troy every year.
We go out and go up to Ballardand see was it, wooster's shop

(26:09):
was in Ballard.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Wooster was in Kent.
Bartle had a shop in Ballard.
Okay, elstrom was in Ballard.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Okay, well, maybe when Pyro the second time around
.
Anyway, we were up in Ballard.
I thought, we were up in Pyro'sor whatever.
I do remember the last time Ianyway we were up in ballard, I
thought we were up pyros orwhatever.
I do remember the last time I'dseen cowboy bob, uh, which
that's kind of sad.
I don't know if you remembercowboy bob yeah, yeah, because
he crewed on.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Uh well, he's at the museum a lot and he crewed with
um barge's team.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah and that was yeah anyway.
So, uh, we were troy and I wentup there and his wife at the
time was making shirts andthings for people, so we went
down to the is it the Ballardfreshwater docks?
I guess there's freshwater inBallard, so anyway, the locks,
yeah, yeah, the locks.

(27:03):
So all the deadliest catchboats were down there.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
And.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
I kind of liked that show, so we went down and looked
at it and I'll never forgetTroy.
We were down there looking.
I kind of like that show, so wewent down and looked at it and
uh, I'll never forget troy.
We were down there looking atthis stuff and uh, we meet the
guys from the wizard.
Um, I don't, I can't remembertheir names.
I know one of the guys names ismouse the brother and anyway.
So we go there and troy's gothands full of shirts and

(27:27):
everything.
So he goes and tries to sellshirts to the deadliest catch
guys and they were as nasty andmean and rugged as they are in
the show.
They were just a complete jerkto him.
So that was pretty funny.
But at the tail end of thatanother thing we used to do, so
like on tuesday nights, we goout with j-dub, j-dub and myers

(27:48):
and we'd go to a restaurant tacotuesday we'd go there, and
another night we'd meet this.
But the funniest thing is we'dgo to visit jim bachy and at the
time, jim, I guess it was justwhen the big tvs were coming out
I don't know if you like thebig, oh yeah, great big tvs and
uh, we used to go and watch thejbo Tron at Jim Hockey's house.

(28:12):
J-dub is very funny for comingup with names like that, but
yeah, so that's kind of a funnystory I remember every time I
think of Troy, besides himturning me on to the Rusty
Burger in Kashmir.
Is there a Kashmir?

Speaker 1 (28:27):
place called the Rusty Burger.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Every time I go there I'm stuck on eating at the
Rusty Burger.
I think of Troy about that, andthen I think of the Jimbo John.
I thought we thought that wasfunny.
Yeah, nice.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Tommy Alfano.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Tommy Alfano yep, great guy, the funniest story I
have about him.
So he helps Bobby King out alot because he lives in Detroit.
He's very instrumental in thatwhole program.
So at one point Bobby hadbought a van.
We call it the Shaggin' Wagon,so it kind of looked like the

(29:05):
old A-Team van.
I don't know if you rememberthat and across the A-Team van
and just the old conversion van.
It had know, if you rememberthat, and across the 18 van and
just a just an old conversionvan.
It had shag carpet in it and Imean he thought, you know, being
a young guy, he thought this isa great crew van.
You know I can go to races andsleep in it because bobby
doesn't require much.
You know he give him a soft bedand whatever he, he doesn't

(29:29):
need a hotel room, you know hedoesn't require.
He's very low maintenance.
So he bought this van and we'regoing down the I think it's the
401, whatever the road is inHanna that if you're on the HRL
circuit you go up and down the401.
You know it's right, you justgo from toronto to montreal,

(29:51):
brockville, all the, all thosecities are off of that.
So we're driving down the roadand tommy's driving and there's
no air conditioning in the van,it's hot, and we're trying to uh
get to a race and we're kind ofrunning late and we're just
like cars are flying by us like,and I'm like tommy, like what

(30:13):
the hell, dude, is theresomething wrong with the van or
what's going on?
He's like you know what he goesand you know tommy's kind of a
smart ass and I was like butreally good guy, but he's like I
am driving at an acceptablerate of speed, so just sit back
there and enjoy the ride.
Be okay, and I looked up and Igo.
You can't reach the pedals, canyou?

(30:34):
And you know, tommy, he's notthat tall.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah, he's a short guy.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
We had a block up there for him.
The block had slid out and he'stoo proud to tell anybody that,
hey, this block slid out.
So he's going down the 401 atlike 35, 40 miles an hour.
He's too proud to tell anybodyhey, could you get the block so
I can reach the pedal?
And I was like you can't reachthe pedal, can you?
He goes yeah, I can't reach thepedal.
That was the greatest.

(31:00):
That was so funny.
To this day we still tell thatstory and, yeah, everybody gets
a big laugh out of that.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
But he is so talented .
Yeah, I mean, what a great crewguy.
Well he, he crewed for ken fora number of years he loved
working for kids and um, I havea funny story.
Then I got a couple more namesfor you, but it was 97 and mark
weber was a sub driver forbudweiser and jimmy king was
actually driving forane at thetime.
And that's when they did thatpiggyback thing going through

(31:32):
the south turn.
And at the time Jimmy King hada pretty big mustache and so did
Tommy, and they were down thereworking on the boat and Bernie
walked by and he mistook Tommyfor Jimmy King and he put his
arm around him and said God damnit, jimmy Gave us quite a scare

(31:53):
there Because Bernie thoughtTommy was Jimmy King.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, and Tommy's just like oh, yeah, sorry.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Sorry about that.
Sorry about that, bernie, yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
He did have a big old mustache.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Jimmy did at once.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
If you look on the front of all the boats that he
drives for Roger Mahan, there'sa big mustache on the front of
them.
Just for that, because he usedto have that mustache.
Yeah, that's funny.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
All right.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Roger Mahan.
Roger, yeah, probably the mostdecent human being I've ever met
in my life.
He is good friends with, Iguess, ronnie Brown, les Brown.
He came from that era in theGPs when Les was running the

(32:39):
Long Gone and I guess they racedthe GP boats together and stuff
like that.
And Roger has become, just likeJimmy, one of the best friends
I've ever had.
Just a great guy, verysuccessful person, smart guy.
He actually owns the largest,he has the largest private
collection of Mack trucks himand his brother in the world.
So if you go to themayhemcollectioncom or something

(33:02):
like that, they have like allthese.
He owns rock quarries andthings like that.
So they have all these oldtrucks and these old chain
driven map trucks from the 30sand stuff.
They're all completely restored, beautiful.
There was like over 300 of themat one time.
But he was, yeah, and some ofthe trucks were used in the

(33:25):
Godfather, the Great Gatsby, themovies and stuff.
It was really cool.
That's cool.
It's a big thing there andpeople don't realize he was very
instrumental in the earlyturbine Budweiser stuff because
he and Jamie Alder are friends,like I said, with Ronnie Brown.
He did some work there but hewas instrumental in them.
I don't know if you rememberthey used to have those old Ford

(33:48):
, those great big Ford haulers,those trucks, and then when they
went to Mack trucks, I thinkthat Roger was kind of in the
middle of them getting thoseMack trucks.
Okay, roger's had a pretty bigtie-in with the Unlimiteds and
he's helped a lot of people overthe years.
Like I said, he's just a great,great guy and that collection

(34:13):
if somebody ever gets to theEast Coast near New Jersey where
he lives, they need to take thetime and go see that.
It's amazing, just absolutelyamazing.
And he's actually got one ofthe guns off the USS New Jersey
the battleship and like if theyshot it from the house they

(34:34):
could hit lower Manhattan.
I mean, it's crazy, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
It's wild.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
Neat guy, yeah, very neat guy, yeah All right, I have
one last name on the list.
I have to ask you about RogerNewton.
One last name on the list.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
I have to ask you about roger newton.
Oh yeah, and you know I don'thave a lot of stories about your
dad, but like he was just justso unassuming, like I never
realized he was on the fringe ofso many cool things that
happened in unlimited's over theyears, from like oh yeah, well,
I helped drive that back.
Like for oh yeah, well, Ihelped drive that back.

(35:12):
Like for the Miss Buzzard, ohyeah, I helped drive that boat
back from here there.
He did so many things withinthe sport that people didn't
know and to even you know peopleback here.
We just, you know, we justheard of the Ace Go Class.
You know people built Acebecause I never knew.
Like he invented that, likethat was his deal, he was the

(35:32):
godfather, did they call him theczar?

Speaker 1 (35:33):
yeah, yeah, that was his nickname around the hobby of
one person like he was not.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
As you know I it's the nicest, nicest guy.
Just yeah, I mean, I just I canstill see him now just sitting
on the lawn chair watching theguys work on the boat Just was
just so kind.
And you know, I just absolutelyloved your dad.
Like I said, I can't think ofany stories.

(36:00):
We didn't spend a lot of timetogether but you know, the time
that I did talk to him, healways would ask me how I'm
doing.
I had so much respect for himand then, just knowing all the
things that he did, and thenI've been to your website and
look at all the stuff that wasput together over the years,
it's just mind-boggling.

(36:20):
And he is you know, everybodyin RC Boats owes him a debt of
gratitude Just an amazing guyand yeah, I wish he was still
here.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
I mean, it was just just yeah, yeah, yeah, well,
thank you, yeah, he yeah hedefinitely had a burning passion
for the sport in every aspect.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, uh, getting back to thecooper days, um, it was fun
talking going down the nostalgiclane there with all those, all
those characters.

(36:51):
But uh, I know you, you had apart in in building that brand
new boat that cooper had was 22years ago now that came out.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
I don't know if it's unbelievable or not, but yeah, I
know you're you had a part inthat.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
What was your role and and and how did the boat
work so extremely well out ofthe box?

Speaker 2 (37:09):
I think it kind of surpassed some expectations yeah
, you know, I, we actuallystarted working that boat about
2000 is what people don'trealize is so with the first.
The first parts of that werebill fritz and Rick Bowles went

(37:31):
out and built sponsons off thebud molds and another part of
that deal was that we took thecockpit and built a plug out of
it, out of the Budweiser plug,and got out of the shop and then
JR Ron Jones jr built us a moldand then he could take it and

(37:54):
do whatever he wanted.
So that's how that.
That's kind of how that thatcockpit got to so many boats is
because of we started it with um, you know, basically doing the
stuff that we did and and wentfrom there.
So that's how JR got it and allthat.

(38:16):
But, and we and I'm kind ofgoing back to that so when that
was all brought back, so we hadalso we, we bought, we built the
sponsors, the canoes, the front, the front part we bought the
non-trips, some non-trips fromthe Budweiser that they didn't
want, and after we ran them wefigured out why they didn't want
them.

(38:36):
They were actually made out ofKevlar and formed fiber.
And Kevlar is not something youwant to build non-trips out of
what we found out.
It's so strong, like if youhurt it in the back it'll pull
the pull the kevlar all the waythrough, so it'll go all the way
to the front, wow.
So if you heard something inthe back, it like pulled one of

(38:58):
those little strands all the wayup, uh.
But anyway, so all of thatstuff.
So, yeah, it was brought back.
And then between 2000 2000,when we, you know, we finished
it mid-season.
So we actually ran the eastcoast with tubby and I stayed
back and was working on the newboat.

(39:19):
And when we got home, when wegot back, we knew we had to get
that boat out.
It was so close, you know, wealways made the joke is uh, it
was sitting there in the shop ithad, if you would go in and
look at it, oh, it's ready.
And we were like, well, we'rehalfway done, you know, because
there's so many things you haveto do as far as putting systems
in and everything.
So the first race we ran it wasin tri cities, I don't know if

(39:43):
people remember that, but like,yeah, we ran the East coast with
tubby and there was a lot ofstuff that had to come out of
tubby to go into the new boatand during that time, between
the engineering hours and justthe fabrication hours, I had
averaged over 1800 hours a yearfor the, you know, per year,

(40:03):
cause I I owned an engineeringfirm at the time and so I was
kind of keeping track of thetime so I could, you know, see,
you know, basically kind ofwrite some of that time off.
But there was one year I hadlike 2100 hours and stuff, but
yeah, so I did everything.
You know there's not a singlepart on that boat outside of the

(40:24):
sponsons and that I didn't helphave a part in making.
And even if you look at theboat now, I mean all that stuff
is stuff that either I made thewhole thing or had an art and
building, all the layups on thatwhich made it really different.
Going back to my engineeringbackground, all of the layups on

(40:46):
that Rick bowles did anoutstanding job of documenting
everything.
But we put a lot of time intothe laminate theory and stuff
like that to get the layups atthe right thickness and
everything.
So that thing is probably thelightest, unlimited ever built,
because once you take theallison engine out of it it's

(41:07):
really light.
I mean really light.
So if somebody was to buy thatand put a turbine in it, you'd
have to.
First thing, we made the rightsponson wider the footprint,
because of the way the Allisonspins.
The other way, the rotationalinertia wouldn't want to press
the right sponson down, okay, sowe felt we needed to widen the
footprint of the sponson to pushit back up.

(41:29):
They may want to take that outof it if they ran a turbine.
But yeah, I mean I had a lot todo with that.
There was a lot of us RickBowles, aaron Farr, ben Cooper I
mean just thousands andthousands of hours in the shop.
But it's still.
You know, know, it's still fromfront to end.

(41:51):
It's really probably the onlyboat that I've built from
beginning to end.
Um, yeah, I mean obviouslydidn't build it by myself yeah
right, right guys, but yeah,just a beautiful piece, yeah
yeah, and it was.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
It was fun to see it come out and I think people had
some optimism to see it workwell, but I think it blew away a
lot of people's expectations.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
We didn't expect it to run like that.
Yeah, we, you know, I did allthe calculations and the and the
motors, the two motors we had.
We thought we could get to themwith 155.
Okay, you know, but for it todo what it did was way beyond.
And it was light.
I mean it was lighter than theturbines when we first made it

(42:42):
and I don't remember the exactweight, but it was light and we
just got lucky with the balance.
And we just got lucky with thebalance.
I mean, basically, we made someeducated guesses but it came
out.
The percents were perfect.
It was one-third on each corner.
I mean, it was amazing, wowyeah.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
I was just thinking back to it.
I know that boat broke all thepiston records and it was top
qualifier at some a few races.
Yeah, do you recall like thefastest lap that ever did?

Speaker 2 (43:14):
the fastest lap yeah, actually the fastest lap it
ever did wasn't recorded um,which sucks.
We did a 165 in tri-cities andwas it testing then?

Speaker 1 (43:25):
it wasn't.
No, it wasn't recorded.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
I forget well I guess it wasn't.
No, it wasn't recorded, Iforget.
Well, I guess it wasn't testing, but they were still.
You know which.
I hated that rule.
I mean, every time you, youknow how hard it is Every time
you go out it should count.
I don't like that test, I don'tlike that.
But anyway, we were reallygeared up to run one and I

(43:49):
actually went part of my dealwas doing the radios so I went
to the judges' stand early andsaid, hey, we are going to try
to break a record here.
And it was right before lunch,it was like 11 o'clock, it was
in Tri-Cities, the water wasperfect, it was a little bit
cooler out so we could get somehorsepower.
And I told them we are going totry to break one.

(44:10):
Please pay attention.
And I'll never forget it.
He went out and went wide on thefirst one came back into, you
know, really burned one off onthe second lap to tuck inside.
And I, I was looking at mystopwatch and I hit it and I had

(44:31):
us at like 166 and I lookeddown and the timing people were
sorting sandwiches.
I guess somebody had broughtsandwiches to the table.
I wasn't upset, because they'resuch nice people and like
they're volunteering becausethey're such nice people and

(44:53):
like they're volunteering right.
You know, as I wasn't thatupset, I knew what we did but
and I think they gave us anofficial speed of 160.000.
Yeah, like the 165.
I mean, it was legit too.
I, I had it at 166 and I thinkwe've gone back and looked at
the video.
Maybe it's like 165, but it wasfast and uh, we never had an

(45:14):
opportunity like that again, uh.
But I think we ran a 163 intri-cities once with jimmy um.
Just, we never had thepropellers like the.
The initial propellers we hadwere great.
We had the high-rankrakepropellers that Ronnie Brown had
built.
They were just absolute piecesof art, those that all went away
.
Everybody's running lower-rakestuff now.

(45:36):
If you look at the rooster tailon Ed's boat, if you look at it
when it runs in between after2006, you'll see a really jagged
rooster tail and it's becauseof the low-rake wheels just make
it want to hop up and down.
It's still crazy fast, but itdoesn't want to stay in the

(45:57):
water as good.
But when Ronnie Brown was, Imean we won Thunder on the Ohio,
which people don't believe.
We won it with a wheel that wastwo inches under diameter.
Really it was 25 degrees ofrake and we just spun it up Wow,
you know as fast as we couldspin it, yeah.
And we came back.

(46:17):
All three blades were brokenwhen we got back, yeah, but it
was crazy.
But that boat, if you could geta little bit of a you know a
little bit of an undersizedwheel with tons of rake in it, a
lot of pitch, it's so fast,it's crazy.
But we can't get anybody tobuild those anymore.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
That's too bad.
Well, Cooper just announcedover the offseason that the
team's for sale.
It didn't run last year.
It last ran, if I'm notmistaken, in Tri-Cities 2023.
And it's been sitting.
Do you have any knowledge, anyrumors out there that it's going

(46:57):
to be back out on the circuitwith new management or one more
last run?

Speaker 2 (47:03):
No, I don't know anything.
You know Ed's daughter passedaway last year, year before last
, and then he really hasn't runit since.
And you know I haven't reallyeven.
It doesn't even really come upwhen we talk about it.
You know, I'll be honest withyou.
I'm just so happy for Ed.
Ed seems at such peace now withthe boat and where he is in his

(47:29):
life.
Him and Barb go and Barb stillgo to the races.
He's at every race still, buthe helps with Jay Armstrong and
the Miss US, is that right?
He's at all the races and heactually will crew for Bobby
King.
But it's so nice to have Ed atthe races without the pressure

(47:51):
of having the boat there.
I don't know it was.
It seemed different for me whenhe was running it later.
It was a lot of stress for him.
Yeah, and you know he's just ata different time in his life.
He's got two beautifulgranddaughters from Eddie and he
spends time doing stuff withthem and his wife, barb, is just

(48:14):
absolutely the best and it'sher.
You know, I think it's probablyhe figures it's her time.
You know she put up with myshit for these many years.
So we're going to go do thestuff that she wants to do and
Barb still likes to go do thestuff that she wants to do.
Yeah, and barb still comes,likes to go to the races, like
she hangs out with us and we goout to eat and uh, I mean, she's

(48:35):
always, she's like a mom to me.
You know she's, she's amazing,but I I don't see that it's.
I know when ed had made thatannouncement, mitch had called
me to see if we could try tofind some people to take that
program to the next level, dosome electronic fuel injection
and stuff like that.
I had no interest in it.
I like doing the GP stuff andyeah, but I don't think you'll

(49:00):
ever see it out.
But the thing with it, there'salways a number.
There's always a number thatare getting back out.
So, yeah, okay, all right.
Yeah, I don't see it happening,and I had no idea that he was
just going to stop like that too.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Well, it's too bad.
Hopefully we can see it againat some point.
Yeah, I heard like you saidyou're big into crewing with HRL
and the GPA series.
Now who were you working forand how did that transition
happen to go from?
Cooper's team to HRL.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
I had an opportunity to work for some other teams but
I honestly had no desire towork on a turbine and you know
I'd been approached by a coupleother teams to maybe do some
stuff and, like I said, I'llhelp like Pyro in the offseason
and things like that do somethings, but I don't ever want to
go back to doing Unlimiteds.

(49:58):
I think that transitionhappened to the GPA and things
back in 2015 when I helped RogerMahan rebuild his 350 for
Valleyfield.
He saw some of the talent thatI could bring, or some of the
things that I could bring, to aprogram and we started, you know
, over the years, talking aboutbuilding another GP.

(50:19):
He had built a GP that was justcrazy dominant.
At one time he ran ChryslerHemi's and they were just
unbelievable.
I mean great power andeverything.
So I forget when we startedtalking about it, probably 2018,
19.
He approached me and said, hey,if we build these GPs, would

(50:41):
you be involved?
And I was like heck, yeah, youknow, you got Jamie Ald involved
and all these really talentedpeople Jamie Alde involved and
all these really talented peopleChris Harley, his son, michael
Mahan one of the most talentedboat people I've ever met in my
life, absolutely so.
I have been with him.

(51:08):
I've actually been with RogerMahan ever since that day 2015.
I've been doing everything.
I go to all the races with themand still kind of crewed on
both teams.
I think the last race Iprobably crewed with Ed was 17
or 18, 2017 or 18.
Okay, and then pretty much fulltime with Roger.
I will go up to New Jersey inthe winter and work in the shop
and my son both my son and I,which is awesome that my son
gets to go and do the thingsthat I did back in the day, yeah

(51:31):
.
But yeah, I pretty much madethat full transition to Roger's
team and then pretty much anytime Bobby King runs his boat, I
will be there to help crew thatthing too.
I had a little bit to do whenhe built that.
I did some of the electronicstuff and then did a little bit
of the aero stuff for him, someof the electronic stuff and then
did a little bit of the arrowstuff for him, and then we've
got some stuff planned for theupcoming season on some arrow

(51:53):
stuff that I've been wanting totry for a long time.
Bobby is always willing, bobby'sa great listener and the reason
that boat's so successful isbecause he is.
He takes, he takes a little bitof good things from everybody
and puts an end to that thatthing's.
I've never seen a boat likethat in my life.

(52:15):
That thing's just so dominant,it's so nice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, I crew.
That's pretty much.
All I'll do is anything thatRoger has I will crew with, and
anything that Bobby King is withI will probably be around too.
All right, because Jimmy's done, he's told me he's retired.
Yeah, he is done.
Okay, and I'll believe thatwhen the GP3 goes out and he's

(52:40):
not in it, wherever we're atnext, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
Some people they say they're done, but yeah, until
you see it Right, yeah, yeah,yeah.
Some people, they say they'redone, but yeah, until you see it
right, yeah, all right.
Well, my last question for you.
I mean just thinking back onyour career of crewing.
I mean you've talked about howdedicated you are and well, I
mean one thing that I think fansdon't understand is how much of
a time commitment it takes tocrew.
I mean you're talking aboutsome years, 1800 hours you put

(53:07):
into to like cooper's program or, and I'm sure it's not.
I mean I'm sure you're stilldoing the same amount or close
to with hrl now, but no I've cutit way down from there.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
Well, I don't know, I guess stuff in the shop, no,
it's way down from there, butyeah, it's still.
It's still commitment, right?
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (53:25):
yeah.
So I mean, just think about allthese things you've gotten to
do and all these experiences,events you've gone to.
Can you narrow down, like, whatare your favorite moments in
Unlimited ranks and HRL ranks?

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Obviously number one 2003 Gold Cup.
Winning that that I just thatwas indescribable.
I still can't believe we won it.
You know and I still will watchit and send the video to ed and
said we won it again, you can'ttake it away.
And then you know, we were thelast ones that ever got to take

(53:59):
that trophy home with us, so wewere the last people to ever,
because it was a travelingtrophy, so we got to take it
home.
So I've got pictures of my kidswith it.
You know, my son, son Mitch,was as tall as the trophy.
He was three when I tookpictures with it, so that's
pretty cool.
Probably number two is winningEvansville at home, because we
always suck there, you know, andit's the first race we won with

(54:22):
it and I had some stuff goingon in my family at the time and
I really needed that.
And I've got this picture andit almost brings tears to my
eyes now.
It's a picture of my son thathelps me race now, mitch and he
and I.
I've just got him.
He's a little guy and I'mhugging him.

(54:43):
Yeah, god, that kind of gets tome now.
But yeah, that was pretty cool.
And probably the last thing Ithink of is when Jimmy beat the
Alberto in Detroit in 2006,.
I think it was.
It's one of the greatest racesthey show.

(55:05):
But I mean we were on theoutside and it just shows the
engineering of that boat, of howsolid it was.
And we really built that boatfor um detroit.
I mean we had that course inmind when we built it.
We built it wanting to win thegold cup and just to see all the
things that we put together forthat to to win and to see it

(55:28):
win.
You know and do so well, butthe one thing that we knew about
it is like for every minute itran I mean it was, it was, I
mean it was shucking like 50, 60pounds uh, yeah, because it
goes through a crazy amount offuel, right, like, how many
gallons does it take every,every minute?

(55:49):
I mean we uh well, it's probablyseven to eight gallons per
minute yeah so you're losing 50,60 pounds and the motors we
were running what's what's crazyis the motor we want it with
was sucking more fuel than that.
Like I never got a number on it.
Matter Matter of fact, like wefueled it, I had to put, we'd

(56:10):
feel it, and we have put ourthumbs on the vents and we put
caps on them and we got to thewater and if you I don't know if
they got video of it, butyou'll have two guys on the
boats right before it takes off,taking the vent caps off the
fuel, so it'll stay in therethere, so we'd have enough.
Wow, because that course wasalmost three miles long.

(56:32):
Yeah, back then, you know, yeahand uh, yeah.
So if we had to run an extralap, I don't know if we would
have made it.
It's just like the evansvillerace.
We won it.
You watch the race like he dieson the on the cool down lap,
coming out of the last turn andI'm in charge of fuel.
I'm just like almost throwingup, thinking God, I almost had

(56:53):
that wrong because that yellowmotor we had just drank more
fuel.
I don't know what he did to itand he never told me, but like
it drank at least a gallon to agallon and a half, maybe two
gallons or more per minute, likeit was just probably, and if
you do the calculations it'slike 4 000 horsepower.
It was amazing how much.

(57:15):
Yeah, wow, yeah man, what about?

Speaker 1 (57:19):
what about your favorite hrl moments?

Speaker 2 (57:22):
yeah, uh, I'll tell you what the best thing about
the hrRL is just watching my son.
You know, it's just not onemoment, it's just like every
moment I get to spend with myson, who's now 24, every moment

(57:42):
I get to go to a race with himis just the best.
It's like you can't get anybetter.
Every year we go to now thatBobby's driving an Unlimited
Jimmy.
He has a sponsor in tonawanda,new york, so he's got
commitments to run that boat, somy son and I go up and run the
boat there and mitch is my son.
Mitch is kind of the crew chiefat that boat because I've got

(58:03):
two artificial hips now I can'tget up and do the stuff I did on
the boat.
And Mitch is, you know, theyoungest of us, so he gets to do
all the jobs on the boat andit's really special for me to
get to see him do that.
So you know, anything we do HRL, gpa just being able to watch
him do the things that I used todo is the best.

(58:27):
That I used to do is the best.
2015 when in Valley Field withwhen we broke the boat in
Brockville, and that's when Ikind of started that
relationship with Roger MahanAny of Bobby King's Valley Field
wins.
Just name one of them.
Any of those were some of thetop moments you know.

(58:51):
And just going back to the youknow we've won Tonawanda two
years in a row now, basicallywith my son doing most of the
crew chief stuff.
So that's cool.
And then I'd say the last thingis we did that pro light thing
in 2022, where we went out andjust dominated all the races
between when I say that, betweenroger mayhans, uh, boat and

(59:14):
bobby kings like we just splitraces and some of the best
racing I'd ever seen.
Um, so, yeah, those, that'sprobably probably it, but just
going back, just being able todo this with my son, is probably
the best thing ever.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
I told the hero on that.
I have a nine-year-old.
He'll be 10 in March, but I'mtrying to instill that love of
boat racing in him.
It's kind of taken off.
But he's doing some RC stuffwith me but I'm really hoping
that that takes off so he canshow up.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
What I found is you can't force them into it.
Like I tried to force him to doit and I finally just kind of
gave up and just kind of tookhim in some races and then, if
they want to do it and that'swhat makes it cool you know he
wants to do it and like it'salmost more important for him to
be at a race now than me, whichis nice, because I'm just like

(01:00:10):
I said when I played collegefootball, that was the only way
I could go to college was toplay ball, and I've had 14, well
, now 15 surgeries since then.
Two artificial hips torn, allthis stuff and it got me through
school.
But yeah, that's why you don'tlet your kids play football.
Kids, right, there't play there.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
I guess my dad made a good decision he wouldn't let
me play.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
I don't blame him.
No, I should have stuck withtennis, but I don't know.
I love football and that's youknow.
I was telling you about thosetiming charts and that's where
they came from was being able to.
I used to call plays as a coachand I'd always have that sheet.
There was a sheet.
So my thing was I wanted to runas many plays as I could all

(01:00:55):
the time.
So I came up with that sheet sothat basically, you know, if it
was third down and we were onthe 40-yard line, this was a set
of plays I could run.
You know this was the down anddistance.
So all of that came and it wasall color-coded.
So if you look at those sheets,there's color codes and

(01:01:15):
everything, and it all came fromthat football background of.
Okay, if I'm in this situation,this is what I have, this is
what I have and it's just beingable to do it real quick.
So calling plays as a footballcoach and and being a
quarterback and stuff in college, I knew that like I want to run
60 plays every game.
So and you know I had to befast.
So that's why that sheet's likeit is.

(01:01:36):
So if Jimmy comes out of theturn and I'm at four minutes and
30 seconds and I'm halfway atthe back sheet.
How fast do I got to go to makethe start, so we could tell him
right away.
Or if we got to cut the courseto get to somebody in front of
somebody, I could always tellhim how fast he needs to go.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
So, yeah, man well, a lot of fun stories.
I appreciate your talk today,thanks for coming on awesome.
Yeah, I hope I didn't bore youno, mike, you didn't bore me and
I don't think you bored any ofthe audience at all.
It was.
Those were some great storiesyou shared and it was fun to
talk about that technical sideof the sport Just the fun
personalities and sharing thosestories is so fun because there

(01:02:16):
are so many great people in thesport that have a lot of great
personalities.
But that's all we have for thisweek.
Please tune in next week as Italk with legendary hydroplane
driver, crew member, inspectorand now author, john Walters.
He's going to join the podcastnext week.
It'll be a multiple-partepisode.

(01:02:37):
Stay tuned for more informationon that.
In the meantime, don't forget tofollow us on social media.
We're on Facebook and Instagram.
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On there you can become asubscribed member.
There's a link in the supporttab where you can choose your
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(01:02:58):
return you get early access toall the episodes and you also
get first dibs on anymerchandise that we will be
selling, which also hasexclusive entry to my vault,
where I have many old articlesand pictures from yesteryear of
Heidemann Racing.
I'm going to be adding more tothat.
Currently I have pictures from1993 and 1984, and I'm going to

(01:03:20):
be adding more pictures as wemove along.
Well, that's all we got thisweek, so until next time,
knuckleheads, hope to see you atthe races.