Episode 142: John Walters, Part 3

Send us a text

John Walters pulls back the curtain on his extraordinary journey through the world of unlimited hydroplane racing in this captivating conclusion to our three-part interview. After surviving a catastrophic crash in 1982, Walters shares the remarkable story of love and support from family, friends and others kept him in the sport. Throughout the interview, a powerful thread emerges about mental health awareness – a cause Walters champions through his upcoming book. Listen now to experience the insights from one of hydroplane racing's most respected figures and discover why John Walters remains a beloved ambassador for the sport.

Support the show

Help the podcast by subscribing to our new service, Roostertail Talk+. The podcast is still free to all on our website and through all major podcast platforms (such as Apple Podcast, Spotify, Castbox, etc) but with Roostertail Talk+ there is more you can enjoy ! With this service you will get early links to new episodes, enjoy access to extra content, raffle prizes and more. This is a new service that we will be adding to as we move along. As always your support to make this show grow is very appreciated! https://www.buzzsprout.com/434851/supporters/new

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 welcometo Rooster Tail Talk, talk.

(00:48):
Hello race fans, welcome back.
It's episode 142 and part three, the conclusion of my interview
with John Walters.
Really hope you've enjoyed thepast two episodes and getting to
know more about John'sbackground in racing and getting
to hear a lot of the insightand technical sides of sport, of

(01:09):
the sport.
But we're going to continueright where we left off last
week, as John talks aboutdealing with a terrible crash he
had in 1982, seafair driving,the pay impact and the support
he received to return back tothe sport that he loves you know

(01:30):
, friend muncie would call everynow and again.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Jim lucero, you know, called and we remained good
friends, I think between thethree of them.
They thought, well, you know,we could get john back involved
with boat racing if you thinkthat's the thing to do.
And so anyway I got.
I went to lunch with Jim Lucero.
He made me the offer.
He said, hey, stan Hanauer, youknow, was working on building
the engines and stuff last year.
Stan really doesn't want to dothat.

(01:56):
He might be interested in doingsome stuff with the boat on a
part time basis, but he doesn'twant to be the engine guy.
I need somebody to build theengines.
Would you be interested indoing that?
And yes, I was.
But at the same time, like wayback in 1974, when I got offered
a job to go racing, I felt someloyalty and I felt some

(02:18):
obligation to Ron Jones.
I couldn't just do it withouttalking with him, and so I told
Jim.
I said, yes, I'm veryinterested, but I've got some
things that I need to settlewith Dave Herensberger and Pay
Impact before I say yes.
And he said, well, the job'syours if you want it.
And so I went back and SybilTice was David's private

(02:39):
secretary at the time and Icalled Sybil and I said, hey,
could you get me an appointmentto see David for a whilebil?
And I said, hey, could you getme an appointment to to, you
know, see David for a while?
And she said, yeah, of course,and and uh, so he did, went in,
talked with him about it and hejust smiled and he said, john,
you know what you want and whatmakes you happy has always been

(02:59):
what I wanted.
And he said, um, and at thatpoint in time, dave Herensberger
and Jim Lucero were not thebest of friends and there were
some issues there and, honestly,there was some rough edges,
let's say.
And so in Dave Herensberger'swords, john, I told you before,

(03:21):
as long as I have anything to dowith running this company,
you've got a job here if youwant it.
And he said, if, making, if, if, what makes you happy is to go
race boats, and I know you'vegot a lot of things that you
wanted to do.
Do it with my blessing.
I just wish you could do itwith better people.
And I said, well, you know,thank you, I appreciate that,

(03:54):
appreciate that and so much ofof my uh experiences, some, so
many of my successes in thissport I owe to dave hernsberger
and pay impact storesincorporated, and um, and I
still see david's daughter,julie, at boat races here and
there and son, uh, joe and um, Isaw him this year at mahogany
and merlot and probably the lastfew years at at mahogany and
and merlot and um, uh, 20 yearreunion.

(04:19):
I think it was at the hydroplaneand race boat museum.
We all got together for a20-year reunion for the pay
impact stuff and and uh, davidherrensberger called me flipper,
um, and and to this day, juliestill still.
You know we'll be walking alongand I'll hear somebody yell hey
, flipper.
You know it's a little bitembarrassing, but it's kind of

(04:41):
endearing too yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Well, I love to hear that how close you were with
Herrensberger and how how wellhe treated you.
It's just, it's great to hearof his character.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
He was wonderful and like I said earlier, he could
have very easily said John man,I'm so sorry you got hurt.
You know, good luck withwhatever you want to do in the
future.
But he was always there andeven when I was, you know, still
in Harborview, three or fourtimes a week he'd show up and
come in and hang out and Iremember, you know, chatting
with him and talking with himabout about all of that stuff

(05:15):
and um and the things that youknow we did and what we could
have done and should have done,and all the stuff.
You know when you go back andlook at the stuff in hindsight,
the stuff you know when you goback and look at the stuff in
hindsight.
And even after I was home thenext year, I was going to
physical therapy several times aday and doing a lot of
different things there.
You know the phone would ringat 2.30 in the morning or three

(05:35):
o'clock in the morning orsomething, and you know Arlene
would answer it and I'd hear her, you know, talking and well,
thank you, and you know itwasn't just a, a crank call or
whatever.
Come back and and, uh, she saidthat was that was david
herringberger and I say, oh cool, you know what's he up to.
And well, he was in you knowsome other part of the world you

(05:55):
know in asia or whatever on abuying trip.
You know over there, you knowbuying stuff for the stores and
different things and, uh, youknow, lost track of what time it
was or whatever.
But he just called and wantedto know how you're doing and
what's going on.
And is the insurance?
Do you need anything?
Is the insurance doing theirjob?
Do you need anything?
Are the bills getting paid?

(06:16):
And he was there.
He was there to support me 100%.
And all of that time, in thebetter part of three and a half
years, before I could actuallygo back to work and actually
earn a paycheck, there was apaycheck in the mailbox every
other week for the same amountof money that I was getting to
drive the race.
So you know he was.

(06:36):
Yeah, he was the best.
He was the best as far as I'mconcerned and I have been in
groups of people where you knowthey might be talking about you
know people or different things,and I never knew anything but
just the good side of DaveHerrensberger.
I know that there were timeswhen you know being in business

(06:59):
you have to be tough and youhave to do this and you have to
do that, but he was always asweetheart to me and my family
and and, and I love that man,yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah Well, I mean you did talk about how, like you
did miss out on opportunitieswith the team not, you know,
getting more race wins, but youdid get an 82, the first ever
career victory for driving aturbine hydroplane, and that has
to hold a special place in yourheart.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
It absolutely does.
You know we set some recordsand did some things that I've
actually helped a lot of youngerguys, you know, go faster and
do things.
But you know that's one ofthose records that I will always
have.
I will always be the first guyto win a race in a turbine
powered boat and that's reallycool and I feel good about that.

(07:47):
I feel good that I've been ableto, you know, stay involved with
the sport and and and now andhopefully, you know, make some
difference.
I still involved with thecompetition committee and still
involved and still listed as thechief safety and technical
inspector.
I've got two really good guys,Steve Compton and Brian Vincent,

(08:09):
that are helping with, andBrian's wife, Heidi.
She's also been an inspectorand really helpful with the
stuff.
I'm, over the past couple ofyears, gotten some opportunities
with Brad Luce to do some ofthe commentating and I think
that this year I did get thecall and he's asked me to go to

(08:29):
all the races and be the thecolor guy for them.
And uh, and I've talked withbrian, I've talked with steve
and they're both prettycomfortable at this point in
time with doing the inspectionstuff.
And I can still, you know, lookat some of the boats when
they're getting put together onthursdays.
You know the the uh after thefinal heat uh inspection.
You know, look at some of theboats when they're getting put
together on Thursdays, you know,after the final heat inspection
.
You know I can be involved insome of that stuff too, and with

(08:50):
the technology of today, withcell phones and that sort of
thing, even most race courses.
The broadcast stuff is fairlyclose to the pits.
There's a couple of places like.
Seattle, where I'm out in thestart finish line.
Then it's a little moredifficult to get back and forth,
but I think it's doable and Ithink that everybody has has

(09:11):
agreed that if I can do a littlebit of both, I think I'm going
to do the color commentatingwith Brad and and in that group
and still be involved.
I, they, they think that it'simportant that I be listed as
the chief safety and technicalinspector.
I, you know, I guess, becauseof of the experience and the
fact that I'm an old man, thatthat offers some credibility.
I don't feel like I'm in chargeof that stuff.

(09:33):
Whenever it gets to a pointwhere either Steve Compton or
Brian aren't comfortable, I canmake the decision and I tend to
be the tiebreaker if there's,you know, something that that,
uh, that they disagree on, whichdoes happen occasionally.
But yeah, it's, it's fun to beinvolved.
I, I love these boats, I lovethese people.
I, I say that sometimes too,that you know I love everybody

(09:58):
in the sport and I've never metanybody in unlimited hydroplane
racing that I don't like, somecertainly more than than others,
but I like them.
I love them all.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, well, I love to hear that you're back as a
color commentator, because Ithink last year, at Seafair, if
I'm not mistaken you were doingsome color commentating, yeah,
and just some of the things thathappened on the course and like
there's, I don't know, but youwere just your depth of
knowledge of the boats, thecourse and like there's, I don't
know, but you, you were justyour depth of knowledge of the
boats, the equipment andeverything and you were able to

(10:28):
talk about, so, something simpleabout the water affecting the
turbines and you went into, Ithink, a digression on there.
That was just so fascinating,uh, and just on the top of your
hat, you did that, yeah, um, andjust I, I can't wait to see
more of that this year becausethat's just something that it's
very uh much enhancing theexperience of watching the races

(10:49):
.
So really looking forward toseeing you back in that seat.
Thank, you.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
That's been fun for me too, and and that's been one
of the biggest compliments thatI've gotten from everyone is
that, wow, I really enjoy thetechnical side of things.
Um, you know, you explain how,how that worked and why, and I
never would have thought that soso yeah, that's, that's fun.
I, I, I know, when I was, youknow, much younger and trying to
figure things out, that Ialways liked knowing how things

(11:17):
worked and and getting someinside information like that,
and there's a lot of that sortof thing in the book.
There's a lot of stories, a lotof strategies, a lot of things
that that you know the'reprobably the most exciting thing
about the race was the stuffthat went on, you know, in in in
the meetings, you know, beforeit ever got to the race course,

(11:50):
and and so try to expand on thata little bit if you will, and
and and bring a lot of that toto the party.
There's a lot of stuff therethat's directly involved with,
with Arlene and and some of theof the things that I didn't know
were red flags at the time.
That I do now that if I can getsomeone to read this book and

(12:13):
it can help one person tounderstand something that their
spouse or partner is goingthrough with their mental health
issues and problems, it willhave been worth the eight years
that it took me to get thisthing done.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah, you mentioned that how part of the book's
proceeds are to go back towardsmental health awareness, and I
don't know if you know thisabout me, I'm a school teacher.
I teach middle school, okay,and mental health is a huge part
of that.
Oh great, it's.
Yeah, and it's something that Ifeel it's starting to become
more normalized to talk about.
And there was for many yearsgrowing up with things I've had

(12:52):
to battle myself internally thatit just wasn't accepted to talk
about, right, and so now I feellike we're starting to get to
the point where it's okay totalk about my challenges and my
hurdles I have to go through,and so I think just having that
narrative is the first step, andI love to hear that.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, I think so too, and that's one of the things I
guess that makes me really proudof the younger generations.
Now I've struggled with thingsup here myself Myself depression
a little bit myself.
I suppose at times, theloneliness, different things
that have gone on and theyounger generations are so much

(13:35):
more aware of themselves and somuch more aware of mental health
and the things that you can do.
When I was growing up thosethings got hidden.
It was almost an embarrassment,it was almost a shortcoming.
It was that you were a rejector something if you had those

(13:55):
kinds of issues and those kindsof problems or, heaven forbid,
you had to go see a psychologistor a psychiatrist for anything.
And those things are so muchmore open now.
You know, with with the internetavailable, you know I've been
able to learn so much aboutmyself, in some cases things I
didn't I didn't understand.

(14:16):
In some cases I things I didn'teven want to know.
But you know it's it's so muchmore readily available and so
much more open.
And again, I would be so proudif something that comes from
this book, whether it's some ofthe proceeds or some of the
experiences, some of the thingsthat I explain and describe in

(14:37):
there.
If they can help one person, itwill have been worth the effort
and, honestly, it isn't even abook yet, but a few people that
have read it have said it helpedthem already, so I hope that it
does.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, well, and that's one of those things where
I guarantee it will, john, butyou won't directly know, right,
and they have to be okay withnot knowing that.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
But you are going to be helping people.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
So that is fantastic, great Well, going to be helping
people, so that is fantastic,correct.
Well, going back to boat racing, yeah, you were crewing for
Muncie Racing at the time, franMuncie Racing, with Lucero and
Miller building the motors, andthe team had some success, I
would say.
And Chip had a string of goldcups and you were in the thick

(15:24):
of it, and he actually dedicatedthe fifth gold cup to you.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, that was a very amazing day and we ran well.
It was in 1986 in Detroit withthe Miller American, and Bo got
back to the dock and, of course,everybody's excited and happy
and ready to start thecelebration and I jumped on the
boat to congratulate chip withtears in my eyes and I don't

(15:53):
know for sure, um, if I don'tremember being this emotional
prior to my head injuries andsome of the things that I've
done to myself, but after forsure, my emotions can just get
out of control.
I can cry at the drop of a hatanymore, it seems, and that was

(16:18):
one of those days.
I jumped on the boat with tearsin my eyes.
Chip gave me a big hug and saidwhat's going on?
Are you okay?
And I said, yeah, I am.
But I said, you know, I workedso hard, I tried so hard to get
my name on that trophy and Iwanted to win one of these so
bad as a driver.
It's wonderful to win them as ateam, it's wonderful to win

(16:39):
them as a crew chief, but I justI wanted my name on that trophy
as a driver and John Love wasdoing our PR at the time and
there's several pictures aroundof Fran and Chip and myself
holding our hands up for thefifth gold cup.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
And.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Chip said well, I'm dedicating this one to you.
And I cried a little bit more.
And I cried a little bit moreand I saw later in some of the
interviews and different thingsthat he had held to his word and
mentioned that he wasdedicating this fifth Gold Cup
to me.
So yeah, pretty special.
That's pretty amazing.
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Well, the next year 87, went down to San Diego.
I know the team had somechallenges that year but they
got.
Stuart Severson was involvedand you got another victory,
gold cup victory.
But I heard there's sometrouble at the border, or is
this the story.
You have to save for the bookyeah, no, um, I think it's.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
it's different stories.
Okay, we we struggled.
We built a new boat for 87 andstruggled with that a little bit
.
The Budweiser guys built a newboat in 87 and they didn't
struggle as much as we did, itseems, and and we were really
struggling propeller wise.
And this is also a story thatthat's in the book.

(18:01):
Certainly we had been buildingour own propellers and trying to
make some progress there.
By the time we got to Seattlewe were still struggling
propeller-wise at brokenpropellers.
And we're building propellers,new propellers for every race.

(18:24):
We're trying to make them largeenough, diameter and thin
enough and everything to be ableto win.
Uh, and harold kinswater wasbuilding propellers for us.
Harold lived in california, dida lot of drag boat stuff, was
building propellers for the dragboats, building gearboxes and
different things, and harold wasbuilding the propellers for us
and initially we were going totry to spin the propellers

(18:45):
15,000 RPM and do away with thegearbox altogether and save that
weight, save all that troubleand maintenance and everything
else that goes with the gearbox.
As it turned out, we couldn'tmake the propellers live and we
kept going higher and highergear ratios trying to get to
that one-to-one to see if wecould make them work.
Harold was machining the huband then building the blades

(19:09):
individually and would weld theblades on that hub and we'd
bring Harold into a race.
He'd bring two propellers, we'drace them, we'd break them that
weekend.
We'd put him on an airplaneSunday night after the race He'd
fly back to California, buildnew ones and meet us at the next
one on an airplane Sunday nightafter the race.
He'd fly back to California,build new ones and meet us at
the next one.
By the time we got to Seattle,harold said John, I can't do

(19:29):
this anymore.
Man, I haven't done anything inmy business.
I have a wife and a family thatI haven't seen and all I'm
doing is building propellers andI just I can't do this anymore.
And I said well, what are yousaying?
And he said I'm saying it'sbeen fun, but goodbye.
And I said, well, okay, um,fortunately we had some time

(19:51):
between Seattle and San Diegoand gave me some time to, you
know, figure out some thingsthere.
This is a story that that's inthe book and, I suppose, a
little bit sensitive on on onehand.
But way back when Lance Morriswas involved, lance was helping
us with the gearbox stuff andwhen we went to the L11s, lance

(20:18):
was going to build a new gearboxthat would handle 5,000
horsepower.
Uh, the John Maddox gearboxesthat we've been running in the
Pay Pack were developed to make3,500 horsepower or so and I was
a little bit concerned thatthey weren't going to handle
that kind of horsepower andtorque as the L11.
Plus, they were hard to work onand Lance thought that he could

(20:40):
make some progress there andmake them a little bit easier to
work on in the field.
So we ended up getting theengines and things.
I believe there was acommunications failure between
Lance and Jim Lucero and I thinkwhat happened was, I believe,
that Jim made a mistake and thatwhen Lance said, okay, we need

(21:06):
to figure out you know gearratios here, what do you want
the propeller to turn and what'sthe input speed of the gearbox.
And I think that Jim made themistake of giving Lance the
compressor speed, the N1 speed,not the N2 speed.
The N2 speed is 15,300 RPM butthe compressor spins faster.

(21:29):
The compressor spins up around18 to 18,500 RPM.
So, based on that, lance wentand built gears.
As you remember, that year theystarted in Evansville because
they didn't have gearboxes andwhat ended up happening was,
when the gears showed up, lanceused that 18,500 as the input

(21:54):
speed, which should have been13,000.
I mean 15,300.
And so the gear ratio was 0.59,which was like stump puller
gears, tractor gears.
Everybody else was running, youknow, 0.7, 0.8.
You know, in the pay impactdays.
We were running the things youknow, like 20% underdrive.
We were running, you know, 80%gear.

(22:15):
So when these 0.59 gears cameout, lucero said these things
are useless.
You know we there's, you knowwe, we don't have propellers, we
don't have anything that we canrun this stuff with and
literally I wish I would havetaken pictures Literally, we use

(22:38):
those 5, nine gears for glueweights.
Uh, we would, you know, use themfor door stops, uh around the
shop, you know, for a few yearsjust collecting dust and and
being, you know, a conversationstarter.
Um, so by the time we got donewith Seattle did not have any
propellers left.
So by the time we got done withSeattle did not have any
propellers left.
I called Bob Hetzel, who waswith Mercury Marine and their
performance propeller divisionand asked Bob, what do you have

(23:02):
got in the way of unlimitedpropellers?
And we're hurting here and hesays I've got two of them here
that I'd make you a super dealon.
And I said well, what are those?
And he said it's two of themthat the Budweiser guys ordered
for their Griffin program.
He said they're 15 and a halfinches in diameter, they're 24
inches of pitch, and he saidthey're so big, even with the

(23:25):
gears they've got in thatGriffin they couldn't swing them
, they couldn't pull them, butwouldn't get on a plane with
them.
And I said, man, I'm going tohave to crunch some numbers here
, but give me a little while andI'll come back and let you know
.
And he says it's no hurry,they've been sitting on the
shelf here collecting dust, youknow, for a couple of years,
just like my gears had beensitting there, you know,
collecting dust for a couple ofyears.
So I spent a little timecrunching the numbers and, lo

(23:49):
and behold, if we could bump upthe N2 speed a little bit on the
governor, which is a matter ofturning the screw a little bit
up to about 118 percent, whichwas certainly doable those 5.9
gears would work with those24-inch propellers.
So I called Fran Muncy and Isaid hey, it's going to be
expensive, because now withthese 5.9 gears, rather than the

(24:11):
0.8, 0.79 stuff we've beenrunning, the torque's going to
go way up.
We need new propeller shafts,we need new strut bushings, we
need all kinds of stuff tohandle this torque and
horsepower that we're going tomake.
And she said John, I don't carewhat it costs, but you've got
to guarantee me we're going towin.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
And I said man, I can guarantee you that we'll be
competitive.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
I cannot guarantee you that we're going to win.
So I called the gear works andwe started building two inch
propeller shafts and getting allthe spline work done in the in
and all the material andeverything done.
As it turned out, I thought wewere going to run out of time
and it got really close.
We went to Lake Washington totest the boat the Tuesday race

(24:55):
week in San Diego.
Wow, now yeah, and as it turnedout, it was Monday.
I guess it was Monday becauseeverybody was leaving to go to
San Diego and we were supposedto be able to run on Tuesday.
George Long was the guy thatwas a park ranger or whatever
that we would get the permitsthrough and if you couldn't run

(25:19):
because of wind or you knowwhatever, you could carry over
one day.
And as I remember, it was windyand rainy and nasty and we
weren't able to go run the boat.
As it turned out, we still hadsome work to do anyway and so we
ended up going to the pits,lake Washington, on Wednesday of

(25:42):
race week in San Diego.
Now, not that it was any realpressure.
I mean it was a Millersponsored event and oh, by the
way, did I mention it was thegold cup.
Um and um, and of course we weresponsored by Miller then.
So it was kind of a commandperformance.
We went and ran on Wednesdayand chip came back with his eyes

(26:04):
as big as 50 cent pieces and hesays my gosh, I don't know,
I've never driven anything likethis.
He says this is like a two 80with a seven liter engine in the
thing.
It's just amazing how it, howhard it accelerates and and and
how fast it goes.
But he says that's the problem,um it, it hits the wall at 150.
And I said, well, it's becauseit's on the end to governor, and
we've still got it set up for,you know, 80% years or 20% years

(26:28):
, um and um.
I said I can change that, youknow, we'll change that.
So I made a couple ofadjustments.
He went out and ran a littlebit more.
We came back and we're prettyexcited about you know what was
going on.
We left from the pits to go toSan Diego.
The pits, in Seattle and drovestraight through 24 hours, got
to San Diego by the time we gotthere Thursday and, being the

(26:51):
Gold Cup, they started runningon Thursday.
The Budweiser guys were fastqualifier.
I don't remember what the timeswere exactly high one forties,
one, 48, maybe something likethat.
And so we talked with chip andI said, you know, being
saltwater, I don't want to runany more than we absolutely have
to.
But I know this is anabsolutely going to be a

(27:14):
completely different ballgamefor you.
You know it's going toaccelerate different.
Your start times are going tobe different, everything's going
to be different.
It's probably going to use morefuel.
We put a 12 or 15 gallon Idon't remember surge tank in the
boat because I was worried thatwe were going to run out of gas
.
And I said what I'd like to dois we're going to fill this
thing up with fuel and let yougo out and run.

(27:36):
If you can do all your starttimes, if you can do all your
testing, if you can doeverything you need to do in one
run, even if you run 15 laps, Idon't care, run as much as you
want until the thing runs out offuel and we tow you back if you
want to, but we need to doeverything all in one shot.
And he said, yeah, I can dothat, everything all in one shot

(27:56):
.
Um, and he said, yeah, I, I cando that.
So chip's warm-up lap was likethree miles an hour faster than
the budweiser guys.
Um, qualifying gold cup, goldcup record, world record,
qualifying laps that they hadjust run, wow, and and they just
got faster from there.
And so two mistakes the gearratio on our end, the propeller
mistakes on the budweiser end.
Those two mistakes had gottentogether there, uh, to produce

(28:19):
the fastest unlimited hydroplanein the history of the sport.
The thing was just unbelievable, the way that it accelerated
and how fast it went.
And I have to go back and lookat the stuff to be exactly right
on all the details.
But you know we won.
On the inside lane, uh, hedrove around, crop fell.
You know the next time I thinkin the third heat, uh, jimmy got

(28:40):
the budweiser upside downchasing, chasing chip, um, and
it was just incredible, um, andI'll never forget.
Uh, jim lucero was with stevewoomer at the time and um, and
came down after the final heatand we were going to the trophy
presentation.
I, I guess um and jim wascoming the other way and he

(29:06):
stopped me and he says I gottaask what did you do?
I have never seen a boataccelerate that way.
I've never seen a boat run theway that thing did.
What did you do?
And I have never seen a boataccelerate that way.
I've never seen a boat run theway that thing did.
What did you do?
And I just kind of smiled andsaid Jim, you don't want to know
.
And, and of course later, youknow all that technology.
You know we, we had everybodyyou know, covered there and the

(29:30):
next weekend in in Las Vegas aswell, covered there and the next
weekend in Las Vegas as well.
All this stuff is in the bookbut the details you can read to
figure out how it all worked.
But you know, we won the GoldCup.
Like I say, the Miller Americanwas the fastest boat in the
history of the sport at the time, both there and the next
weekend in Las Vegas.
There was extremely fast andgot back home.

(29:53):
The short version is I gotfired and when I got fired,
everybody quit.
Chip was the only one thatended up staying because he was
under contract both with BillMuncy Industries and the Miller.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Brewing.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Company and so he stayed to drive the boat and
that whole program, and I'm notsaying it was because of me, but
certainly I had some influenceon it.
When John Prevost got involved,he wanted to drive a boat, he
was romantically involved withFran and I got called in the

(30:30):
office and basically told thatthere was no position available
on the team for me.
Fran started crying, I startedcrying and Fran said John, you
know, that's not true.
You and Bill were so close.
There will always be a positionon this team for you if you
want it.
John informed me that he reallywanted his guy, artie Ross, to
be the crew chief and he saidyou can stay if you want, but

(30:51):
you're going to have to take animmediate cut and pay chief.
And he said you can stay if youwant, but you're going to have
to take an immediate cut and payand you'll have no influence on
the boat setup, the enginesetup, gear ratios, propellers,
anything else.
And I'd kind of like you toshow Artie how to make this
stuff work.
And I said let me make sure Iunderstand.
First of all, I'm going to takea big cut and pay.
I have no influence on theengine program that I helped to

(31:15):
design and put together.
I have no input on the boatthat I helped design and build
and have no input on, you know,any of the stuff that we've
enjoyed some success with, butyou'd like me to teach your new
guy my job and, uh, john kind ofsmiled and he said yeah, I
guess, I guess that's it.
And I said my french not only no, but hell no.

(31:35):
Uh, I, I'm not interested.
So as I came out of the officecarrying a lot of my stuff, um,
all the guys, um, you ask what'sgoing on and I said, you know,
basically I've been fired, andso chip was there.
Uh, he said, hey, let's roundup tonight.
You know, everybody at my houseat you know, 7, 30 or something
like that, and we all gottogether and I think that was
the last time that we were evertogether as a team and, like I

(32:00):
say, when everybody else gotcalled in, I went in first and
everybody else quit, with theexception of Chip, who I think
would have liked to but couldn't, who I think would have liked
to but couldn't, um and uh, andso, um, a lot of this stuff was.
You know, john spent some timethere looking around the shop

(32:20):
doing different things and heasked me a lot of questions and
I tried to be honest with him.
Um, he asked me well, what doyou think about, uh, you know,
running a two team, uh, out ofone shop here?
And I said, you know, I've I'vebeen involved with, with some
teams that have tried to do that.
I'm not saying it cannot bedone.
It's extremely difficult.
What starts out with all goodintentions, as our stuff
eventually becomes our stuff andtheir stuff and you're fighting

(32:43):
over engines and who gets thebest motor and who gets the best
tools and who gets the bestpropeller.
And I said it's reallydifficult.
And then he asked me about thatboat that he was building that
was going to have four Pontiacsin it and I said you know it's,
it's going to be man, it's goingto be a handful.
It's hard enough to keep one ofthem running, let alone four of

(33:05):
them.
And and he said, well, we'retrying to do this thing with an
adjustable strut that goes upand down, with, you know,
u-joints and things in there, sothe driver can adjust the shaft
angle.
What do you think of that?
And I said, on paper, it's awonderful idea.
I've been involved with someboats where we've tried to do
stuff like that and the U-jointswon't handle the torque, the
horsepower, the angle ofdeflection, all the things that

(33:27):
are involved there.
It won't work, not to mentionthe fact that you want to run
twin propellers, which isagainst the rules.
And so a lot of his, hisfavorite ideas and a lot of his
dreams.
I think he thought that I wasshooting down and I was just
trying to be honest with him.
I was just trying to give himyou know why my opinion and what

(33:48):
I.
I wasn't trying to tell himwhat I thought he wanted to hear
, and so, anyway, as you mayremember, they went out and
really struggled.
Yeah, they did.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
You know as.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
I lovingly refer to it at times as the Miller Circus
.
It was exactly that.
I don't think the Miller Beltgot qualified for like the first
four races or something.
It was, you know, really badand I mean they really had a
problem with it.
And so I've been lucky, I I'vebeen lucky to surround myself
with really good people, reallyskilled people.
Um, there have been a couple oftimes um including, um, you

(34:24):
know, the, the, the shoemaker,uh thing there we had.
We had our problems.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
We had our issues there.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
I thought Bill Worcester got railroaded in that
deal and Bill Worcester shouldhave gotten the credit for a lot
of things that that he set upin that team and didn't you know
?
We enjoyed a lot of successthere, won a gold cup with some.
You know one of my favoritepeople in the world, pyro Scott
Rainey.
Um and um, in a great group ofpeople, a great group of guys
again, you know, with a boatthat nobody else could make work

(34:51):
and with stuff that nobody elseseemed to want.
Jean Thierrette did an amazingjob of driving the boat and that
group of people was the magic.
We were willing to work hardenough to do what it took.
We had great sponsorship withBill Cahill and the Beacon
Plumbing and all the support andeverything there, and even with

(35:11):
all of that stuff, we won aworld's championship there.
We won the Seafair.
We won, you know, the Gold Cup,had some really good success
and some really fun times thereand at the end of the day, when
people got asked to go home andother people left on their own,

(35:32):
there was a team that had allthe potential to be a dominating
force in this sport.
They never won another race.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yeah, that's wild.
Wild to think about.
Yeah, that's wild, and like yousaid you, I mean you.
You worked with some greatpeople over the years and some
fantastic people.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
You ended up.
After Muncie racing, you wentto work for Woroster at Pringles
yeah, and you worked with BobFendler and Joey Rise in the
Geronimo program yeah, and youworked for Schumacher, like you
said, and you won that Gold Cupin 2006.
Yeah, and you're able to winyou know many races for crewing
for the different teams.
Out of those wins as a crewchief or crewman is there one

(36:17):
that stands out more than others?

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Gosh, you know, I think, probably the Jean
Thierrette days, and with thatgroup of guys there, with a lot
of the other teams, whether itwas Pay and Pack or Miller big
budgets you were expected to win.

(36:39):
Nobody expected us to win thoseraces and I think that we
caught a lot of people bysurprise.
John Thiorette did an amazingjob of driving the boat,
theorette did an amazing job ofdriving the boat and I think

(37:01):
that winning Seafair two yearsin a row there, that's a pretty
amazing feat in itself, thestuff that the odds were against
us doing those kinds of things,and I think for those reasons
those were really special wins.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yes, Okay, yeah, yeah , that does mean something more
when it's when you're theunderdog and underfinanced and
you come together as a group andyou make that happen.
Well, backing up to the 90s,there's one thing I was just
always curious, because in the90s I was really following the
sport pretty closely.
In one team I felt like theywere well, well funded and had a

(37:33):
good boat and had some speed.
Uh, the geronimo team, yeah,and I felt like they they were
always on the brink of winningbut could never win.
Do you thinking back on those,that experiment or that time
frame, what everyone call it?
Can you come up with a reasonwhy that never happened?
Was it just were the oddsagainst you the whole time, or I
think the odds were against ussomewhat.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Um, the boat was really the limiting factor.
Um, we tried as hard as wecould to lighten that thing up
and make it more competitive andmake it better.
Um, I think that, um, it tookmitch a while to get to be a
driver.
Um, he was, uh, um, an a racer.
Mitch had driven a lot of boatsin the past where the goal was

(38:19):
just to survive so that we cango to the next week, the next
race, the next weekend.
And it was a big deal to getthat killer instinct and and
bring that out in mitch, um, towhere he could go out and drive
hard and drive competitively andfeel like he was in a position
to win.
And I'm not blaming Mitch foranything, I'm just saying it
took a while for that to happenand for that to be able to take

(38:43):
place.
There were other times and I'mjust going to be honest BS in
politics.
You know Seattle, when BillDoner was running the sport.
We won all of our heats, wewere fast and thought we really
had a good opportunity to winthe final.

(39:06):
And I was out on the barge inthe corral there doing the radio
stuff with Mitch and Bill Donercame over to me and he said
John, you guys have been runningreally well today.
And he says I'm trying to getyour owner to go back to Madison
.
Uh, madison had been blown outor uh, I don't remember what had
happened, but they were goingback at the end of the season to

(39:27):
run in Madison and we weren'tin the championship race.
It didn't make any sense forJerry rise to go back there and
do that, and Jerry had said wewould.
We were not going to do it.
So Bill was pushing real hard,trying to support Madison, which
I understand and I agree with,and that's really the only
reason that I thought we shoulddo.
It is to, you know, promote therace.

(39:48):
And so Bill says well, I'vetalked with your owner and he
says I want you to know, I wanteverybody to know, that unless I
get a commitment before thefive minute gun goes off in the
final, you, you have runextremely well today, but I
promise you you will not winthis race.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
Oh my.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
God.
And I said what, what are youtalking about here?
And he says I didn't stutter,you will not win this race
unless I get a commitment.
Uh, about that time, um, daveBillwalk was driving the
Budweiser.
He drove right in front ofMitch, wet him down, blew the
mirrors off the boat, you know.
The engine stopped running, gotwet.
He did get it fired up againand got it going again, but

(40:25):
there was no call.
You know, I often wonder, youknow, if Jerry would have said
we were going to go, would thathave happened?
Would there have been a call?
If it did happen?
I don't know, but I think therewere a lot of politics involved
on that particular day.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Anyway, yeah, Well, I just remember that time frame.
Like you were always, that teamwas always putting up fast
qualifying numbers.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
And then there was a fuel flow violation or there was
something called against you.
Yeah, yeah, that's just.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yeah, once we started to go fast and in a position to
win, things changed.
There was a target on our backand I felt like we got some bad
calls at times and got somethings.
And then Kim Gregory, bless hisheart, he came to me in San
Diego and he said I hear JerryRises thinking about you know,
calling it quits.

(41:16):
And I said you know, jerry toldme he was going to do this for
five years.
And if we do great, we do great.
And if we didn't, you know, hecan say he did it and that's
really what he wanted to do.
And Kim asked me he says well,what do you think it would take
to keep Jerry involved in thesport?
And I said probably a new boat.
And he said, well, I've got oneof those.
And, um, he said do you thinkthere's any chance that we could

(41:39):
, you know, form, uh, uh, analliance here to where you guys
can build the engines and we'llgive you a new boat to run, um?
And I said that's yeah, thatsounds wonderful to me, um, but
not my, not my decision to make.
And I said let me talk withjerry and we'll, you know, see
what we can do.
And so we were able to puttogether a deal.

(41:59):
Jerry agreed to go one moreyear and the new boat man.
We really struggled with thatthing the first couple of races
and finally, by the time we gotto San Diego it was running well
.
I thought we were in a positionwe could win.
We were a fast qualifier.
For a while.
George had beaten the Budweisera time or two.

(42:21):
Uh, he thought that we won therace in tri cities and there
were a couple of gun jumpersthere and uh and George was just
out there running around andwhat he thought was a winning
position in third place Didn'trealize that.
I think Nate uh was was stillahead of him and we ended up
finishing second and and uh, theradios didn't work properly.
I couldn't, couldn't, couldn'ttalk to him and and uh, and he

(42:42):
thought that we had won that oneand and um, and that may have
made a difference, but but thenyou know, after the situation in
tri-cities, when, with thecrash and all that was, that was
just a horrible thing, georgewas so much fun to race with and
george was such a competitorand he used to do that in the

(43:04):
flat bottoms that he uh wasdriving.
He'd, he'd, you know, win or dogood, and he'd start playing
with the cavitation plate andhe'd get the boat hopping um and
um.
He tried doing that with withuh the unlimited a couple of
times and I kept telling george,george, george, please don't do
that.
And we, we were fast.
The propeller that we wantedbob herring was working on.

(43:26):
It was supposed to come, um, wewere supposed to be able to
take it with us down there andit didn't get done.
On friday night I talked withgeorge and he said it's just
about finished.
He says I can have it to youtomorrow, but it'll, it'll be
get there Saturday night, youcan run it Sunday, um.
And I said, okay, well, let'sdo that.
So they flew up counter tocounter.
We picked it up at the airportin San Diego, uh, put it on the

(43:46):
boat.
Sunday morning for the butterflyrun, um, with three other boats
on the race course and I don'tremember if we were a fast
qualifier or second fastqualifier, but we were quick
there and with that new herringpropeller, um, even with three
other boats on the race course,uh, george was like four miles
an hour faster than than ourqualifying time and he was so

(44:09):
excited he said, man, this is it, this is it, we're going to do
this thing.
And I started walking back upthe ramp, um, when I heard and
felt, you know, everybody in thecrowd, you know, draw a vacuum
on the place.
And when I looked out across,all I saw was the boat, you know
, upside down in the air there.
And that was really, I think,if we would have had the weekend

(44:34):
that I think we could have hadthere and actually won that race
Jerry Rice might, might stillbe, you know, it might have
stayed involved.
Um, but the fact that that welost george in that deal, uh, he
said, no, I don't, I don't know, I don't know that I ever want
to do this again.
So, yeah, yeah that was.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
That was such a sad day and, like you said, george
was such a kind man.
I think it was a kind soul and,yeah, that was a huge loss for
the sport.
It was.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
And it was such a freaky accident.
And when the boat got back Inoticed how the spar was broken,
the sponson was sticking way upin the air and everything there
, and I started looking atthings more closely.
We still hadn't heard the wordabout George, but I knew things
weren't good.
I could see, you know, with thebinoculars, that they were, you

(45:22):
know, trying to do CPR anddifferent things and get him to
the hospital and and all that.
And as he pulled the deckhatches off and started looking
at things and I could see allthe scratches and things on it.
I don't remember who I said itto first, but I said you know
what, I think this thing hit thebottom, um, and I thought, well
, no, I think you know, maybe wejust, you know I got dragged in
upside down or whateverhappened.

(45:42):
I said I don't think so.
And uh, and just the way allthe glass and everything in the
canopy was blown out of it, anduh, and just all the stuff that
that happened.
As it turns out, I got a coursemap.
I started looking at the stuff.
It happened at 920 or somethinglike that.
In the morning, low tide waslike 915.
And there was eight and a halffeet of water there, and when

(46:05):
the thing came back in it wentin nose first and it hit the
bottom.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
So it stopped instantly then when it hit the
bottom, yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
And all that water and everything that was inside
the boat, even though it justwas instantly as it started to
fill up with water when it hitthe bottom.
All that water went forward andhit the glass and the canopy
and everything from the inside,and there's no strength from the
inside out, it's all the otherway.
That's why all the glass andeverything was missing.
Coroner's report and themedical examiner's report and

(46:43):
all that.
George's injuries were exactlythe same as dale earnhardt's.
It separated his spinal cordfrom um, from his brain.
At that point the hans devicewas recommended.
It wasn't mandatory and fromthat point on it was required
and I honestly believe it wouldhave saved George had he been

(47:05):
wearing it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
Yeah, I often forget that Dale Earnhardt passed away.
What a year before that.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yeah, that was the introduction of the Hans device,
going back to talking aboutsafety with that, and you spent
some years as an inspector forthe sport.
Yeah, a couple of thingscurious for the fans, like when
you go into inspect boats.
Is this just at the race sitesor do you go to the shops and

(47:36):
inspect them?
As you know, the year goestowards, or draws towards its
beginning of the race sites, ordo you go to the shops and
inspect them?
As you know, the year goestowards, or draws towards its
beginning of the race season.
How does that process work asan inspector?

Speaker 2 (47:46):
It's a little bit of both.
Every boat has to go through anannual inspection in order to
be in their first event, toqualify for their first event,
and there's like 14 pages.
You literally check every nutand bolt.
You know on the bottom, theinside, the outside.
You know wiring, plumbing, thecanopy, how it's attached.

(48:10):
You know checking for any kindof cracks, you know any place,
checking the skid fin, therudder.
All that stuff has to come offand have Magnaflux papers that
it's been checked,non-destructive testing, to make
sure that there's no cracks orno flaws or no problems with any
of that stuff in there.
And, like I say, thereliterally is 14 pages of things
that get checked off.

(48:31):
And then look at every singleitem in the boat.
In the event of an accident or aproblem, that section of the
boat that was damaged we'll gothrough a re-inspection.
And you know, take a look atall that stuff At every race.
I usually try to get there onThursdays during setup day when
the guys are putting the stufftogether.

(48:52):
Then I can take a look at thewing mounts and the wing
brackets and the front and rearand all the stuff and it doesn't
hinder them too much.
They're not trying to run theboat, so it's not a big problem.
But pull deck hatches off andtake a look at the brackery and
the attachment and everything ofall the brackets for the skid
fin, the rudder, the steeringsystem, turnbuckles, steering

(49:13):
cables, the pulleys, to makesure that you know that there's
nothing broken or nothingchafing or no problems or
anything with any of that stuff.
Most of it is safety related.
I mean there's some technicalstuff that has to be looked at
because of the fuel flow beingchecked and rpm and that sort of

(49:35):
thing being checked.
We look at that stuff on apretty regular basis and when
the box comes out and goes backto the truck, that stuff gets
looked at every time the boat'srun to make sure that there's no
fuel flow issues or over speedissues with RPM.
But the safety stuff every timethe boat gets run, one of the

(49:55):
inspectors and there's usuallyat least two of us and sometimes
three take a look at, you know,the skid fin and all the tie
rods and make sure that there'snothing pulling loose or you
know the paint's not chipping orthere's nothing moving.
Take a look inside, outside,with the rudder and the rudder
brackets, just kind of do avisual of all the stuff the wing
and take a good close look atthe bottom as it's coming out of

(50:16):
the water to go back to thetrailer, that there's no paint
blowing off or pieces of thebottom that are damaged or
anything like that.
There have been times wherethere's been accidents during an
event, whether it's a two-dayrace and there's Saturday and
Sunday, and maybe somethinghappened in Friday, or maybe
something happened in a heat onSaturday and the guys had to,

(50:36):
you know, work overnight to getstuff fixed.
That stuff all has to beinspected and taken a look at
before it goes back in the water.
There's been very few timesthat a boat has been deemed
unseaworthy to where it couldn'trun, but it's always been
because of a safety issue.
Something was wrong in thesteering, or you know the rudder

(50:59):
bracket you know wasn't quiteright, or you know something
that could come off and break it.
That could, you know,potentially damage another boat,
or, you know heaven forbid, youknow hurt a driver or have
somebody get hurt because ofsomething like that.
So my goal is always to havethe boats, as many boats, run as
often as we can, and if there'sanything that I can do to help

(51:21):
whether it's a quick fix or away to fix something that'll get
you by till the next heat orwhatever I'm always willing to
share that stuff and alwayswilling to do whatever it takes
to get as many boats on thewater as we can, provided it's
safe to do so.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Yeah, yeah hand, provided you know that it's safe
to do so.
Yeah, yeah, well, I think yousaid a good point that the fans
always get is that when you'redoing inspections, it's not not
a one and done like you'recontinuously inspecting, yeah,
or components of the boats tomake sure it's safe for the, for
the drivers and other otherperformers out there.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Yeah, yeah and there's been times, um, that, um
, you know, wing fairings or theuprights or the wing itself,
the rear wing and that sort ofthing, has been damaged, or the
front canard wings and thosekinds of things.
There have been times thatboats have been allowed to run
even though we know there's somedamage.
It's not a safety issue, it's aperformance issue.

(52:15):
You're probably not going towin the race and you're not
going to be able to go out thereand set world record lap times
and that sort of thing, but youcan still collect some points.
You can still, you know, fillthe field and then do those
things.
So, as long as it's notsomething that's going to
endanger somebody's life or, youknow, hurt somebody, you know
you're pretty much allowed torun.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
Yeah, okay, all right , yeah, well, I know we talked
for a long time.
I have one last question I wantto ask and then I'll let you go
.
I appreciate you taking thismuch time with me, but you have
such a knowledge of the sportand so many factors.
Turbines have been around for40, 50 years now in the sport

(52:54):
but I hear of a scarcity withthe availability of turbines.
Do you see the sport continuingwith turbines or is there
another avenue you see thatshould be looked at for power
plant?

Speaker 2 (53:05):
I think they're going to continue.
With the turbines, there is aproblem with some parts,
especially in the hot end the GPwheel, gas producer wheel, the
first turbine and first turbinenozzles and some of those things
that are getting very rare andhard to find.
I think we're going to get to apoint to where you're going to
see some of the teams startingto have to manufacture those

(53:27):
parts.
They're going to have to startbuilding some of those, and that
can be done as an automotivething or as an experimental
thing, to where we don't have togo through the FAA inspection
process and they don't have tobe deemed airworthy.
But it's pretty rare now,unless you see a boat involved
in an accident, or somebody doessomething, leaves something

(53:52):
loose or a problem.
It's pretty rare that we heardengines now and with and uh,
with the fuel flow restrictionsand the RPM restrictions,
there's, there's teams that runthe same engine for every single
lap.
Um, all the testing, all thequalifying, all the racing, all
the, everything, um is all done,um, and then the engines are
still good and healthy at theend of the season, as long as we

(54:14):
continue to run them withintheir design specification, uh,
and we're not stretching thisstuff now.
I mean in the early days.
You know, in the Miller days.
You know we had 16 engines andyou know, I know, the Budweiser
guys had just as many.
There were times we took 12 ofthem.
You know, back east and weexpected to hurt three or four

(54:35):
of them every weekend.
You know you'd burn a nozzle,you'd burn a wheel, you did
whatever it took to win and wewent through a lot of stuff
there and, as it turns out, therestrictions both fuel and RPM
has been a good thing.
It's saved a lot of equipment.
We very rarely hurt things nowIf you go through a rooster tail

(54:58):
or somebody crashes, getsupside down and the engine goes
into water while it's stillrunning it bends blades and
takes out, you know, the inletguide bane and some of those
things that are gettingextremely difficult to find.
So I think we're going to haveto start, you know, getting some
teams together to come up withthe money as a group to build
enough parts to make itworthwhile to whoever's building

(55:18):
them, and you're going to haveto start building some of their
own parts and pieces.
I honestly don't know anotherform of power that we could
throw at it right now.
There's a big interest inautomotive and I'd love to see
that too.
I don't think there's a singleteam out there that can afford
to run automotive right now.

(55:38):
You'd have to have 12 or 15engines.
They'd have to be in a constantrotation where you run four
engines this weekend and they goback and are getting rebuilt
and you'll run four more for thenext couple of races or
whatever.
And they're expensive.
I mean you look at the dragrace stuff or NASCAR or whatever
, and you'd have to have amultimillion dollar engine

(56:00):
program in order to supportthese things, unless we just
restrict them to the point.
You know that they would live,and we're doing that now with
the turbines, and I think thatthe turbines are light enough.
They make enough torque andenough horsepower, even running
at, you know, four gallons aminute, 4.1 gallons per minute.

(56:21):
We're going faster now than wedid with unrestricted fuel and
everything, because the guys areworking harder on aerodynamics
and hydrodynamics.
The propeller technology hasgotten so much better I think
that's probably the biggestsingle thing that and the skid
fins and the boats handle sowell and you know they push so

(56:42):
easy and you know, even as heavyas they are, on less fuel and
less RPM, we're still going, youknow, way faster.
So yeah, yeah, I just don't seeanything that makes sense right
now other than what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Yeah, I think it would take someone like a david
terrence burger who wants toexperiment and has sourcing for
that, to, yeah, to get that nextlevel.
But I'm glad to hear that thereare options for turbines,
because I've heard people talkabout how they're the the time
limit is there now, yeah,because of the scarcity of parts
.
So well, I appreciate, john.

(57:16):
It's been such a great time totalk with you about your career
and about your contributions tothe sport and I'm looking
forward to your book.
Thank you, can't wait to readthat and I'm looking forward to
getting a copy for myself.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Thank you, all right.
Well, I look forward to gettingit, getting it done and getting
some of the stuff out there.
Like I say, there's so manystories in there that are just
you know, this sort of thing, uh, things that you know, people
don't know and people don'trealize, just like you know that
that gear ratio and propellerstories that, uh, that people
will, oh wow, and I never knewthat.

(57:55):
I never I knew and then I didn'thave any idea.
Uh, good reaction and hopefullystore some interest and be good
for the sport as well.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Oh, definitely, definitely, Can't wait.
Well, knuckleheads, that's allthe time we had for this week.
Hope you really enjoyed my talkwith John Walters.
Loved every second of it.
He could tell tales for days,I'll tell you that, and I would
just be there and I would soakit up.
Loved hearing all the insightsfrom the sport and his personal

(58:23):
journey and his experiencesaround the sport.
He's had so many great, greatmemories, so many great moments,
but that always comes with thatother side of things and he has
had some difficult moments andespecially around that time of
that crash of the pain pack.
And I love that.
He's sharing a story and Icannot wait for his book to come

(58:46):
out, because he's going toshare more insights around the
sport, but more around mentalhealth as well, and I think
that's a great bridge becauseeveryone has their own demons
that they deal with.
And being able to talk about itas the first step, I love what
he has done with his book.
I can't wait to read it andhopefully talk to you, the

(59:07):
listener, more about that.
Really want to thank again johnwalters for coming on the show
and sharing his tale and justbeing the awesome person he is,
and there's there's many more.
I could think that to go alongwith this interview, because I
had some other people reach out,give me some questions and give
me some insight, and reallyappreciate everyone's support

(59:29):
with that.
But that's all we've got forthis week.
Stay tuned.
Next week We'll have our new,next interview.
I have a few in the pipeline,so I'm not sure which one that's
going to be yet, but I'mexcited to get the next
interview out for you, theviewer.
In the meantime, check us outon social media.
We're on the Facebook.
We're on the Instagram.
We've got our website,wwwrucheteltalkcom.

(59:52):
On there I've got all theepisodes from previous
interviews, but I also havesomething called
BrewsterTailTalk Plus where youcan subscribe for a small
monthly fee and get some moreinsight around the sport.
I'm going into my archives frommy father, roger Newton, my own
archives.
I'm adding photos from previousyears of hydroplane racing.

(01:00:15):
I've got some fun articles andsome more just fun things around
the sport that you can getaccess to with your subscription
.
But don't forget, you also getearly access to all new episodes
, as well as a monthly drawingfor some fun prizes.
But that's all I have today.
So until next time, I hope tosee you at the races.