April 8, 2025 • 47 mins
What happens when the interviewer becomes the interviewee? In this special episode, the microphone flips as Don Mock of the Hydroplane Race Boat Museum sits down with host David Newton to uncover the story behind the voice of Roostertail Talk. Don asks David about his childhood and where the love of hydroplane racing began. They talk about big hydros, small RC hydros and everything in between. Join us next week for part two of this revealing interview!
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
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 toRooster Tail Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome to Rooster Tail Talk.
My name is Don Mock.
I am sitting in for DavidNewton and we have a little bit
of a different type of show foryou today.
David has done such an amazingjob talking to everybody in the
(01:07):
sport of hydro racing, fromdrivers and sponsors and crew
people, in an effort to promotethe sport.
He's just been an amazing guy.
But I don't think a lot of youknow about him, so we had the
idea let's put him behind themicrophone.
So David is sitting right infront of me, I'm in his chair,
he's in my chair.
My name is Don Mock.
I'm with the High Des PlainesRace Boat Museum and I have
(01:28):
raced RC boats with David'slegendary dad, roger Newton, and
have been involved with themuseum for as long as it's been
around.
But the Newtons are a specialbreed of people and I want you
to get to know David Newtonbecause he is one talented kid.
I call you a kid, but let'sstart with that very date how
(01:51):
old are you and when were youborn.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I just turned 40 last September.
I was born September 2nd 1884.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So in 84.
So I started racing in 85.
So you were coming to thoseraces when you were one or two
years old.
Oh yeah, I was born into it.
Did you ever coming to thoseraces when you were one or two
years old?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Oh, yeah, I was born into it.
Did you ever hear about themall, my birthday.
Did you ever hear that story?
Well, no, what story?
Okay, so mall, as we raced forRC Unlimited for many years and
my dad had a big part of thatand raced there.
It was actually Gold Cup Sundaywhen I was born there.
(02:28):
It was actually gold cup sundaywhen I was born and back then
rcn limiteds raced down in kentat the brown bowl at this little
, what do you call that?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
it was a rain, water runoff retention, retention pond
yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So it was down in kent and my dad went down for
the race and he had a beautifulgriffin bud.
He was racing and he knew itwas my mom close, but it was
race Sunday so he went down tothe pond.
I think after the first heat mygrandpa came down and said hey,
raj, it's time let's go to thehospital.
Rocky Friedel, my dad's goodfriend, then took over driving.
(02:59):
I think he did a heat.
My dad went down to BellevueOverlake, saw me be born, said
you know, I did the hard part.
I'm gonna go back to the race.
He did and, yeah, he went down,finished the race.
I think he only missed one, onesection.
He eats maybe two, oh my.
And then he, yeah, he finishedthe race on.
So I was born.
Gold Cup Sunday 1984?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
yeah, that's funny as hell.
I didn't know that story.
You guys lived, of course, inRenton, washington.
You're in the same house.
You had an older sister andyour wonderful mom, marty.
Your dad, of course, was afireman for the city of Renton.
What do you remember?
First, he was already a racerby the time you were born.
(03:41):
Being a fireman, that's prettycool to have a dad that's a
fireman, yeah, but was the housealready full of trophies and
boats, do you remember?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
oh, yeah, my from young age my father.
He built a room in the back ofthe house for his plan business
and that was done, I think whenI was like two, so I don't
remember back that far, but Ijust run around the house.
I always remember there beingpictures of boats or VHS copies,
you know, available to watchboat racing, get all the models.
(04:12):
In his garage always had aBudweiser and Hawaii Kai out
there and did the plan businessin the back.
So it's pretty much wherever Iwent around the house were
hydros so you, just you, had noother reality.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
It was hydros and a fireman for a dad.
Yeah, Going to school out therein Renton where you lived right
.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, so we actually lived in the Issaquah School
District so it was right on theborder there.
But the middle school wasbordered right against my house.
I could walk to the elementary,middle or high school.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Do you have any recollection of the first time
your dad dragged you down to thelake to actually see one of
these things in person?
You did.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I don't have like a vivid memory of like the first
time seeing a hydro because Ithink I was always around and I
have pictures of me I think like85 I'm like less than a year
old with Chip down at Seafairyeah, I think I'm in a little
swaddle and he's got his mulleton and he's smiling with me.
(05:15):
But I always remember goingdown to the old museum or Ken's
shop.
I remember we'd always go toKen's shop because my dad in the
80s he was he worked forwinston eagle for a little bit,
yes, and I think it was a coupleyears he worked for them and
then he got really into thehydroplane racial museum when
(05:36):
that started off and, yes, didthe restorations for the slow
motions four and five.
And I remember a lot of summerswhen my dad wasn't at the
firehouse.
He would be at the either themuseum or ken shop and I would
always just troll down with him,hang out in the shop.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I mean roger was such a such a monster influencer guy
, I wouldn't have been racing, Iwouldn't have been involved in
the museum.
And there's dozens and dozensof guys with my same story that
wouldn't have been involved inthis, that haven't been for your
dad I mean, he's obviously thecore guy and then, especially in
the museum, a deal.
(06:14):
Well, so you get a little bitolder and they hand you a
transmitter.
I remember you're.
You're driving hawaii kai.
Yeah, not racing, I think youwere just practicing and dad had
you between his legs orsomething.
Did it get to you about drivingRC boats?
Or is it just because the folkswanted you to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I don't remember.
It was the early 90s and Iremember one early recollection.
I remember my dad was excited.
He came home one day and hesaid I got you a membership for
the boats.
I don't know why, but back thenRC Unlimited was a really high
honor.
I wanted to be a part of theclub.
That was my goal.
(06:57):
It was the only club at thetime.
It was the only club at thetime we spent so many weekends
at the races.
There were so many friends thatmy dad had and it was kind of
extended part of the family, butanyways.
But he said that yeah, I gotthis membership for you.
You're gonna get like a monthlynewsletter, all this fun stuff.
And it was for urc, for the,the unlimited they had some like
(07:18):
fan club.
Oh, yeah, that you could join,and I was so disappointed
because I wanted it to berclimited for the RC boats, wow,
yeah.
But there was a lot of timeswhere you take my mom's boat,
the Hawaii Kai 1957, 1-8 scaleof the Hawaii Kai 3.
Yes, and I'd just kind of trollaround.
I remember going to WildberryLake once.
Yeah, it was the 4th of July.
(07:38):
Yeah, at your parents.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Firecracker 500.
Yeah, your dad came up withthat term.
Yeah, yeah, that was a greattime.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That was your dad's cabin, right?
Uh-huh yeah, We'd go out therewith Harry and whoever else.
He drank with us and run someboats around and I don't think I
really could tell what I wasdoing out there, but I was in
between his legs so he wouldsteer me around.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
I didn't drive an RC boat until I was 35 years old
and you're driving him at three.
I mean it was four.
Did you ever feel like he waspressuring you to do it?
He wanted you so bad to be hispartner in this.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
There was definitely pressure I felt from him to be
around him.
I think I resented it a littlebit when I was in kindergarten.
But then something clicked forme.
I don't know, Maybe I just sawhow tight he was with it and how
much fun he was having.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Did you have any other interests, hobbies, that
you kind of wandered off to?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I remember being into comic books and some trading
cards.
I had some friends that werereally into.
There was a Star Wars tradingcards game that we did back then
, but it wasn't as big as theboats were.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
So your dad had this wonderful business, and it was
still called Newton Marine atthe time.
Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
And he started that.
What early 70s he started?
Well, I think he started rightout of high school.
He really, I mean, he grew uparound the area and loved the
hydroplanes and he went off tothe air force and he, before he
left, he started to build.
I can't remember if it was athunderbolt unlimited kit or
something, yeah, and therewasn't.
There was a few kits out at thetime, but no, there wasn't any
(09:19):
plans you could buy, no um.
And he really wanted somethingbigger than the kits were
providing.
And so when he got back fromthe air force he started to draw
up some plans to a sport 60size, which he thought would be
a good size at the time so hepretty much just came and said
that this is the size 1 8 scale.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, we'll just try one eight scale.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
That should work and he drew it up as that and I
think I think the first drawing,a half of his is from 74.
You have the original drawing.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Or 73.
So you've carried the torch, ofcourse, and you still are
Newton Marine and you stillmanage all his stuff.
I'm sure it's overwhelming.
I'd love to get into aconversation about how you're,
Because the demand has spreadout into the world of electric
hydros and bigger sizes, smallersizes, and people must ask you
(10:11):
for photos.
Your dad had a ridiculousamount of photographs archived
and that's a model.
Boater's dream is to get thoseNewton photos Right.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, the photo demand has actually gone down
over the last few years.
I think there's been so manyphotos available online that
people kind of find what theyneed to nowadays.
But I think also with the hobbythings have changed.
Now it's not as people aren'treally as curious about the
scale aspect anymore, they justkind of want to race.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
They are yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
RC boats and they live in the Seattle area or
Washington.
They know that RC Unlimited isa pretty big club or ERCU and
they want to go race and so theykind of join that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, it's definitely different and I'm sure that
affects you.
But what's going to happen withNewton Marine for you?
I mean, that's not your work.
I mean you're a teacher right.
Tell us quickly about your whatyou do for real money.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Well, I mean, after my father passed that was
actually one of the last thingshe said is got to keep the plan
business going, cause he justloved the hobby so much and
really wanted to keep that going, so I kept it going for I guess
17 years now it's been 17 years.
Yeah about that.
Yeah, I mean the demand's gonedown.
(11:33):
I've noticed that.
But I still have all of hisplans.
I drew a couple more boats up.
I don't quite have the time toadd to the inventory that he had
, but there's still hundreds ofplans available and I still sell
them.
I used to.
His machine was a dinosaur whenhe passed away.
It was an old ammonia diazolight transfer machine and so
(11:57):
you have to get the specialproduct paper that comes and
it's yellow, and then you turnthe machine on and it smells
like ammonia.
It's a terrible smell, and youput it through and it's yellow.
And then you turn the machineon and it smells like ammonia.
It's a terrible smell, and youput it through and it would be a
light transfer, a one-to-onecopy of it.
But that machine died this pastyear and so I got a brand-new
plotter printer and so I'mstarting to slowly go through
(12:17):
and scan the old archives and Ihave hundreds of plans.
How do you do?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
that I mean.
How do you scan a full-sizeH-scale?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Ideally I'd have my own scanner, but that's like
three or four grand and I don'thave the funding.
So I found a few copy machineplaces that I can go down and do
it for about $10 a sheet andjust digitalize the archive.
And I'm just kind of doing iton what the demand is right now.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, once you get those all digitized, that would
be goldmine.
I mean just to have them savedlike that?
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah, but I do that in my spare time and you're like
.
You asked me what my day job is.
I'm a teacher.
I teach for Risdon MiddleSchool out in Renton School
District, and they are locatedin Newcastle, the northern part
of the Renton School District,and it's right up from 405 where
the Seahawks training facilityis, if you know where that is
(13:12):
yeah very well, and this year Iteach language arts in one
section of PE and then also theschool newspaper.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
That's a lot to have on your plate.
You've got family, you've got abusiness and you've got a.
I don't know how many clubsyou're in, but you race RC boats
.
I know you've narrowed that down, but we'll get into that
because you have pulled off somepretty amazing racing.
I don't think people realizethat your dad was a great racer.
(13:42):
I mean the coolest, I meanRoger Newton racing against him,
but you'd kick his buttunfortunately, I hate to say
that, and he would be smiling,I'm sure he would he never had
the consistency and the smartsthat you've displayed.
When I've watched you race inthis last year, god, I'm getting
(14:03):
tears in my eyes just thinkingabout how amazing you did, yeah.
So school teacher trying tomanage a family.
So school teacher trying tomanage a family, yeah.
And then you have this inherentinterest in the sport of
hydroplane racing yeah, and youknow it's not perfect and you
want to help.
And what can you do?
(14:23):
So well, I could talk to people, so you come up with Rooster
Tail.
Talk, yeah, how many episodesago.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
So this recording.
We have 136 episodes that haveaired and they started back in
2019.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
And the idea was just to interview people and get a
take on what they think aboutthe sport.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, because at the time it was back in 2019.
I was a little late to the gamebut I was getting into podcasts
2019, I was a little late tothe game, but I was getting into
podcasts.
I'm really into horror moviesand I found some really cool
ones on that, but, as you said,I have this passion for
hydroplane racing.
There's nothing out there forit.
Of course, you can watch oldrace footage on YouTube and old
(15:08):
interviews on YouTube, but therewas no podcast back then.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Nothing live nothing current.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Nothing live, nothing current.
I was talking to people.
I said you know, this would beso great to have.
I think it's a resource that'snot tapped.
Everyone agreed and said, yeah,go do it.
Everyone told me well, go do itthen.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
You figured it out, you've done God.
I don't even want you to try tolist all the people, but is
there anybody left that youhaven't gotten to talk to yet,
that you?
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean there's a lot of people I still want to talk
to.
I mean, one person I'm tryingto reach out to right now is
jeff neff.
I'm having a hard time gettinga hold of him, but he had a big
influence on the sport.
Fortunately, the ravages oftime have hindered some.
I was prepared to talk to ScottPierce right before he passed.
(16:01):
Unfortunately, he went in thehospital and passed away, same
with Pat O'Day.
He passed away before I could.
Really, with a podcast, I wantto talk to every corner of the
sport that we have and I talk tofans and crew members and
owners and racers.
Basically, anyone has a storyto tell about hydroplane racing.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I want to talk to them.
Well, let's dive right intothat.
You're the clearinghouse now ofall this information.
Where is specifically unlimitedhydroplane racing with the
three, four or five I don't evenknow how many boats?
Now we're in the middle of achaotic.
Yeah, it's transition, there'sa and uh, you're an optimist, so
(16:40):
you're, you're hoping for thebest, but you, but I think you
put better than anybodyunderstands just the difficulty
of this sport now.
Yeah, um, where's it headed?
What do you?
What do you?
What have you learned that youcould pass along that?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
could help.
I think Steve David said itbest when everyone loves
sausages until they learned howit's made, I don't know I think
a lot about that where thefuture of the sport is.
I think as long as we havepeople that are building the
boats and working on the boats,we'll still have a sport.
Because you look back at thehistory of the sport, I think
(17:18):
people even into the 90s saidthe sport's dead.
And it's a reoccurring thingthat we hear about the sport.
Is that the sport's dead?
This is it.
This is the last year.
We lose sponsors, we lose TVbroadcasting, we lose race sites
, teams, but the sport's stillhere.
It's not as glamorous as it wasI don't know when you can go
(17:38):
look back at the heyday of itbut it doesn't have that gleam
and glimmer it had back in the80s and 90s, I guess you could
say, but it's still here.
One thing I mean there's somany problems I could point out,
but one thing you look aroundin the pits and the average age
of the crew members has gone up.
(17:59):
It's not going down.
Team count is down, race sitesare down.
Everything's in apparel withbeing able to afford insurance
and race site fees.
It's sad.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I think it's a motorsports problem all the way
around.
It is a motorsports problem allthe way around.
It's a new world order, and ina lot of ways you could say
they're doing pretty goodkeeping boats on the water, even
given the downside and theserace sites.
You know they're trying to getother entertainment Right, Like
the vintage boats, for one.
(18:34):
Yeah, they love having us outthere to try to stir up trouble.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Airplanes a lot of.
But if you look at thepositives, it's a great product
they're putting out.
Now, if you watch the YouTubelive stream on the racing
Fabulous, there's fabulousracing.
I mean you go back and look at.
I was watching the other dayseafair in like 88 yeah, and the
they're coming down for thestart and the boats are like 20
(19:00):
lanes apart from each other.
It's four boats and they'retaking up 40 lanes and they're
all spread apart.
But now they're they're onelane stack.
They're stacked on top of eachother and it's you don't know
who's in the win before the endof the race and they're faster
than hell.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I mean the boats are going.
Yeah, it's a remarkable thingto see even today I still marvel
at a start and how those guysget things through the turns.
Is there any gossip that weshould know about?
Is there any new ideas thatpeople have hinted to you?
Like they want to try a nuclearengine or they want to I don't
(19:39):
know what.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Well, there's interest out there.
I think the issue is funding.
But Mark, in one of the lastepisodes Mark Evans talked about
how he's got an automotivepower plant.
He wants to put in a hydro andhe almost had a deal with
Elstrom but Elstrom wouldn'tsell the boat to him and the
people behind the motor said ifyou don't have a boat, we're not
(20:03):
going to move forward with theproject.
So he's got I think he has amotor without a boat.
He's trying to figure that out.
But there was also that powerplant that Kevin Ellsworth was
trying to push down in San Diego.
They had a V12 engine that waspurpose for boat racing and I
(20:23):
think again there's lackingfunding for someone to try it.
It's a shame to have it.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So, David, all this running around with model boats,
did your dad ever talk to youabout throwing you in a little
J-stock hydro or an inboard orbigger?
Did you ever have aspirations?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
My dad never really pushed that.
He never really wanted me torace a real boat.
I think he was always concernedabout safety.
I wanted to play football inmiddle school and high school
and my parents said no, Really.
Yeah, they said they wouldn'tsign the waiver to let me do it
and I think they knew howdangerous that could be Good.
So they said no to that.
(20:59):
But I got the desire.
In high school I think, I sawJesse Robertson.
He raced in RC Unlimited andhad a great RC career and he
decided to sell his boat and hewent and got an inboard and he's
a fabulous racer, whatever itcould be, and he did really well
right off the bat.
(21:19):
And I think I saw that andwanted to try that out.
And I can't remember if I was ajunior or senior in high school
but I had a friend named ryanjohnson who's racing outboards
the Seattle Outboard Association.
I knew him from playing socceras a kid and he went to high
school not too far from me.
So I went out to Yelm onesummer and I tested, I guess,
(21:43):
Sea Hydro.
Oh good, and it was a smalllittle boat.
It only did about 50 miles anhour.
That's fast enough, yeah.
So it gave me a good taste ofit.
I went out there and I thoughtit was hanging the boat out and
just got a really good sense ofhow running a hydroplane feels
uncontrollable.
Yeah, Just doesn't feel it'snot like a car when you're
(22:05):
tracking, yeah Right, You're notlevel, it's just bouncing.
You could feel the air push thebow up and you'd hang and I'm
sure I thought I was reallyloose but I'm sure people on the
shore thought I was goingreally slow.
But I remember coming in andwith outboards you gotta kneel
down and try to get underneaththe windshield and all that.
And I thought it was kneelingdown and my dad was laughing at
(22:27):
me getting soaked.
Well, my dad was laughing at mewhen I came in and I was like I
, I didn't hit any buoys, Ididn't cut any buoys, I didn't
get anyone's way, I was able toget up on plane.
He was just laughing because hesaid I looked like Andre the
Giant out there because itlooked like I was standing up in
the boat.
Funny, Another friend of myfather's, Tony Perman.
(22:47):
Him and his son were racingoutboards.
He let me run his runabout andI loved that.
That felt really controllablebecause it's not like a hydro.
It doesn't hang out there andit's.
It's just always in the waterand had a lot of fun with that.
And my father actually got totest drive gw meyers d stock
hydro.
Your dad did, yeah, so that wasthat's the one where you you
(23:10):
lay down, oh, and you're likelooking up.
You know that was that was.
It was interesting to see himget in and out of that, but we
went out at the same time and Igot to see him on the outside of
me.
That was kind of fun.
I never saw him pick up, but wecame in from that.
Well, I remember going out forthat last run and the person who
was ever in charge of the eventnoticed I wasn't the boat owner
(23:31):
, right, it was someonedifferent.
And they said, do you haveinsurance?
And I was like APB insurance.
He's like, yeah, we got it.
And they said, well, give meyour card when you get back.
And so we went out, did our run, we came back and we had the
same insurance at that time forour RC boats and so we showed
them the card and they said itshowed RC, Unlimited RC boats.
And they didn't like that.
They got mad about that.
So I think we got Tony Permanand JW Myers in some trouble.
(23:58):
But I think the next day wasthe race and that same boat my
dad tested JW crashed theSwanson and fell off the next
morning.
So luckily that didn't happento my dad when he was out there,
but anyways.
So I was interested and we wentto that.
Same summer they had a nationalevent over in Moses Lake and I
think we were racing inWenatchee.
(24:19):
The club was yeah, RC Unlimitedwas racing in Wenatchee or Soap
Lake somewhere nearby.
Yeah.
So we went out and we watchedit and it was just so chaotic
because the starts were sodifferent from what I knew on
Unlimiteds and RC boats.
Yeah, they had like some scoreup the way out to the left there
.
You couldn't pass it at acertain time but boats were just
(24:40):
kind of circling like donutsbefore it.
And then we're watching and mydad knew some of the people
there and it was fun to talkwith him about it.
But there was a big crashduring the day and someone got
hit.
They went through the enginewall or the sidewall and he
broke some ribs.
And then a week or two laterthere was an outboard event
(25:04):
where someone died, I think backeast.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, hit and hit, get thrown out in a skid fin or
an engine propeller.
That's the big fear, I think,with those little things.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So after that happened I just thought about it
and said no, I can't.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I didn't know.
You got that close.
I'm proud of you.
So you've been on the water.
So now that gives you the realperspective for guys like me.
I drove a Paul Gillard's littleone liter, oh, as fast as it
could go, yeah, on lake chelan.
I thought I was flying and Isaw the video and I was putting
along at 50 miles an hour.
But yeah, it's uh, it it's uh,and I've ridden in the vintage
(25:46):
boats and it's a.
But when you race from theshore and you grow up, like you
and I did, watching boats fromthe shore, you develop a talent
for the boat ride that thedriver can't have.
I have talked to Chip manytimes about the feel of the boat
and there's so much of itthat's invisible to him because
(26:07):
he's in it and on the shore.
it's like why Jim Lucero wouldfilm every test run back in the
Blue Blaster days and his, allhis boats.
They were always close up films, setting every little splash,
everything and uh.
So I think RC people like you,you know, understand hydroplane
(26:33):
racing from a differentviewpoint, but probably almost a
more important viewpoint Boatride you can see what it's doing
.
You can't have the perspectiveof racing next to a guy or
something.
But you started racing in RC.
Let's get this straight RCUnlimited is the obviously
biggest club in the world of 1.8scale racing.
(26:54):
It's fanned out now to someother class sizes.
Right Now I have FE Electric's8 scale.
What is it?
1.6 scale gas?
Speaker 1 (27:04):
They call it gas scale.
It's like 1.6.66 or something.
It's some weird size.
But yeah it's a bigger size.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
And then the other club that your dad was
instrumental in was the offshootof RCU, the ERCU.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, which he actually helped develop
one-tenth scale racing.
He was one of the first peoplethat did one-tenth scales and
they started a club calledClassic Thunder in 1994.
And I started to run a littlebit with that.
Back then.
The technology was so muchdifferent than what we have
today.
It was really heavy NICADbatteries and brushed motors.
(27:41):
They were lucky if they couldget four or five laps out of a
boat.
We started racing tent scalesback then.
I remember taking turns with mydad racing his model theaikai.
Yeah, no, no, no.
The first boat he made was themiss wahoo and then we ended up
painting up as the shanty andthat's actually down at the
museum right now.
That tent scale.
Um, he's that there's a shanty.
(28:03):
And who drove the shanty?
That was, oh, it wasn't rushslay, was it rush slay, rush
Plumber, yep, and he's got alittle plumber's helper in his
hand.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So that's down at the museum.
Did your dad ever drag you outin the garage there and make you
sand and paint as you weregetting older?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I think there were some times he pushed me out
there At some point.
I mean, I started racing UrsaUnlimited in 96 and I got Dallas
Cooks Tempest.
I ran that for a year and thenmy dad we ended up selling that
to John Gatchens and my dadbuilt a new Budweiser and so he
(28:41):
wanted to be a Budweiser teambut at that time he was so busy
with the museum and Ken's boatthat we just our RC program was
terrible.
There's a lot of DNFs and DNSwith it and I think at some
point I started getting reallyfrustrated with it and I tried
to just figure out what's goingon in the boat.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Well, there is the father-son transition, where you
started to see your way to dothings and you were picking up
on what other people are doing.
Yeah, it was inevitable.
Your dad loved it, but youcould see it.
You could see this transitionhappening.
Yeah, you could see you kind oftaking charge.
A few years goes by and thenyou're the guy you know your dad
(29:23):
was obviously loved it.
He didn't care.
But uh, so you started.
You hit the budweiser team.
You guys looked great.
You had those cool boats.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
You had the Budweiser team.
You guys looked great.
You had those cool boats.
You had uniforms yeah, you guyswere.
Yeah, my dad painted the tablered and had some Budweiser logos
on the table too.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It was you guys were yeah, roger and Budweiser and
his relationship with BernieLittle was pretty cool, yeah,
and every driver I mean it was.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Did he ever tell you why he started racing Budweiser?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I guess, I don't know .
Speaker 1 (29:55):
He started the club.
Was it 74?
Yes, so in the Seattle area in1974, rc Unlimited was formed.
But in 77 or 78, maybe it was76, I can't remember One of the
late 70s RC Unlimited had acouple of years where they put
demonstrations on down atSeafair yes, in that little
(30:16):
lagoon area right by the pits.
And Bernie came over one yearand he had the big name and the
big budget behind him and my dadhad got to know him and I think
my dad started making somemodels for his corporate office
and whatnot.
And yes, he came over and saidRaj, where's the Budweiser?
He looked around and no one hada model of the Budweiser.
My dad felt actuallyembarrassed for the club.
(30:38):
Really he wanted to make surethat the biggest name in URC was
represented in RCU the nextyear.
He said I'm going to build thelatest Budweiser.
I'll just always build thelatest model of Budweiser.
So from that point on he alwayshad a Budweiser.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
He sure did yeah.
So such an important image ofthe club was it, and getting the
sponsorship money fromBudweiser was just massive.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Yeah, him and Bob Brackett.
Yeah, I think the mid-80s,shortly after you joined the
club.
Yeah, bob Brackett, I thinkmid-80s shortly after you joined
the club they went out to Berneand got a pretty good-sized
budget from Budweiser for thislittle RC club.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
It was incredible.
So tell us about learning todrive the things.
I can visualize you and yourdad driving home from races and
going back and talking out outthe the race and oh so.
And so cut me off.
And I made this mistake, wepicked the wrong prop, we did
this I I just because that'snatural.
(31:41):
Yeah, I would love to mic'd allthat, oh yeah, you guys, I'd
love to hear that, but did thattoo.
So when you started winningBudweiser first, right, you're
the butter, did you?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Well, in one eight scale.
But my first one was with myBudweiser and that was like
2003,.
But it so it took.
So I started in 96.
So that was a good seven, eightyears before I got my first win
, and back then it was it washard to get in the final heats
Cause you win, and back then itwas it was hard to get in the
final heats because you I meanyou'd have to.
If you dropped a heat I don'tthink you'd be in the final heat
(32:15):
and there was for a long time.
Well, I remember my first yearI got into.
I ran into rich mackin.
Actually I ran him over becauseI was just driving over my head
, didn't know what I was doing.
My dad told me, punch it.
And I punched a throttle and Ipunched his boat too, but I felt
terrible about it.
So I think after that for ayear or two I was just kind of
(32:35):
putzing around the course, yeah,and my dad I remember being
pretty aggravated about that?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Did he potentially try to calm you down?
Slow the boat down.
No, he just said Words ofwisdom.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
No, he just said just go back out there and you'll be
fine.
Words of wisdom, that no, Ijust said just go back out there
and you'll be fine, just do itagain.
That's great, but but I justlike no, I'm not comfortable
with it, and I just kind ofbacked off for a while did you
have words of wisdom for him?
Dad, maybe, maybe give me somemore support or something.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
But you better tape on your radio box lids.
Oh gosh, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Well, yeah, we always .
Yeah, he was always notoriousfor having waterproof or water
cooled radios.
Yeah, and at that time, none ofthe radios were waterproof.
And yeah, we had quite a fewboats at the beach.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You guys have a really good one, two type,
finish anywhere or close to thatwhere you both were in the
final and you went home therewas.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I mean, back then we had the same channel.
Oh, yeah frequency or saw theradio.
So we would always.
We wouldn't race each otheruntil unless we were in the same
connie or final heat, and thatdidn't happen very often, right,
but there was one time it was2006 we both went down to san
(33:47):
diego because back then sandiego had a rc club that raced
when eight scale hydroplanes andI ran my model of the mr
pringles and my dad had abudweiser.
He just converted over toformula boats and actually went
down there and he, his boat, wasall in red.
He didn't have graphics for it,yeah, and mike mcknight, I had
(34:08):
it sent to the hotel and thatFriday night we put all the
decals on his boat.
But we raced down in thatlittle pond, that narrow
saltwater pond, and his radioactually caught fire the first
day because it got saltwater init.
But we got it fixed and we bothmade the final.
I won the final and he gotthird place, so that was
(34:30):
probably our best finishtogether.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah, so you had a lot ofexperience with the 10th scale
of electrics, so you, way morethan me.
I had my 10-year retirementfrom the nitro world when I came
back to RCU.
All this new stuff had happened, including electrics world.
When I came back to rcu, this,all this new stuff that happened
(34:53):
, including electrics yeah, andI just in speaking of rich mack
and he's the one that kind ofdid, kind of dragged me into it
with the idea yeah, and so I.
I had a, my nitro boatsmothballed and there was my
atlas that I'd built and my 84atlas I'd built in about the
2002, 2003 years.
So I just threw the stuff inthat as a test bed, not thinking
(35:18):
that boat would ever win a raceor a championship or nine races
in one season.
So you had the chops of theelectrics that nobody else did,
because you guys came out ofthis other world, because you
knew all about the batterieswhen I first came along and I
had no clue tell me, where doyou plug it in?
And been pretty fun.
(35:40):
So let's just go get right tothe the meat of the story here.
When I I came back so I'm in2019 yeah, besides running over
you in one heat, I remember inyour beautiful dad's budweiser,
I felt so awful about that Iguess I forgot about that one.
Yeah, first race.
(36:00):
But I did manage thechampionship that year and I
thought I was and won the goldcup and I thought, wow, this is
unbelievable.
Yeah, but in that, even in thattime since then to this last
couple years, the, the level andspeed of the boat's technology
climbed.
I mean, yeah, what you racedagainst last year was not what I
raced against in 2019, althoughI had to race you, yeah, and I
(36:22):
don't want to do that anymore.
You have a a knack of calmness,and maybe your dad did too, but
that's what I really admire.
I watched, with videos of yourstarts.
You put the boat exactly at thesame place.
You just, you just have a asense for it.
I it's hard to explain some ofthe best driving I've ever seen,
(36:43):
so david.
So what you did is I, I forthis.
Last year you had not beenracing in RCU.
You'd kind of taken a littlevacation from the club.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, I kind of took a seat back.
I think I just wanted to dosome different things.
My kid was getting grown up alittle bit and I was more into
the tent scales and I didn'treally have a boat that was
working well on each scale.
I wanted to build a new boat,but just hadn't gotten around to
it.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
But in the tent scale club, the ERC, it seems like a
pretty common practice for theolder guys to let people drive
their boats.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yeah, there was a few there.
Yeah, like carrie jose, I racedfor him.
Yeah, quite often.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
And you won a lot of races.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, so you're, you're.
You're a good, you know, guestdriver I get.
And so that fast forward tolast year.
You just out of the blue, cameup to me and said you got a boat
, I can drive.
No, that's not how it happened.
I don't remember how ithappened.
(37:47):
I just remember you just askingme.
And I said yeah, I got a boat.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
No, I was helping you with the 50-year RCU video and
I came over here and I had boxesof pictures and tapes and I
think I overwhelmed you with allthe stuff.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I brought over Great stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
We were in your shop and I think you said something
casually about the Atlas yeah,so that needs to go back out.
Maybe you want to drive it.
I thought you were joking, ohfuck.
But then you kept poking aboutit and I said well, fine, yeah,
I'll drive it.
That was fabulous.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
So David borrows my boat and he puts it in my stock
setup.
You didn't change much, right?
I mean you got batteries.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
I think I changed the batteries because I purchased
some and then I put my radio onit and that was about it, and
then I made some propellers forit.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah, there's some smarts there.
You figured out your props.
So David goes to the first race.
I didn't go to the first racelast year.
Yeah, you skipped out, and I'mgetting the updates from Rich
Madkin Atlas won first heat.
Atlas wins second heat.
I go.
I don't know he's gonna makethe final.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Good for him, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
I hope he has fun, it's just cool.
And then you win the damn race.
I go God dang, what's going on?
Okay, keep going, and then thenext week.
I don't know where you were.
I didn't go to that one either.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
I may have thought of that one.
I think it was Ellensburg.
I may have been there and I wasbehind you and you kicked my
butt.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
You win that one.
Yeah, and I don't remember thestreak.
What was it?
Did you win five, six in a?
Row, I think the most I hadlast year was five in a row,
yeah.
Because I think I won the firstthree and then I got really sick
and had to miss a race WinningAt FV class.
There's some damn fast boatsand some pretty good drivers.
(39:48):
You had some competition, therewas no doubt about it.
The technology was improvingdaily.
It seemed like these new motorswere coming out, batteries were
getting better and the speedcontrollers were improving.
Next thing I know you're justcrushing it with the points and
I'm just amazed.
I think everybody is, and itwas so good for the club to have
(40:12):
you back, especially in the50th year anniversary.
Yeah, it was fun, and so youhad basically the Cinderella
season After 11 races.
After they look at the paper,it says that you won nine of the
11 races, including the GoldCup.
That's unheard of.
(40:32):
I can't think of that everbeing done in the Nitro class or
any of the classes.
It was just.
Did anybody show anydisapproval to you?
Did you feel like you were thebad guy?
Oh God, he's here.
I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
I think after a couple of races.
Well, I mean, I didn't know ifyou were going to let me run the
whole year or just a race ortwo.
But then when she said you gotto go for the high points I'd
never gotten high points beforein RC Unlimited oh, that's
incredible.
And so I said, okay, well, I'lltake it seriously then and go
for the high points.
And I think after a coupleraces people started to give me
gruff if they were in my heat.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Yeah, yeah, you're a bad guy, oh God, yeah.
So you score the most pointsanybody's ever scored for a
season.
You win nine races, which iscrazy.
I was thinking back to Nitro.
Jesse never pulled up 9.
Oh, really, oh, I don't thinkso.
Dave Brandt, maybe 5 or 6.
Nobody's ever strung that kindof winning streak.
(41:33):
What's your secret?
What did you figure out why youdid so?
Well, you can get in a heat anddrive great and rise above what
happened to me, or drive belowmy level, but you just seem to
have it consistently, heat afterheat.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Well, I mean, you gave me a really good boat that
was set up so well, it's prettyeasy to do.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
You kept it on the water.
I got it upside down many times.
I really try to watch theattitude.
It's pretty easy to do.
You kept it on the water.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
I got it upside down many times, yeah, yeah, I mean I
just really try to watch theattitude of the boat.
You know, as I go through everyheat, I mean I try not to drive
above its capabilities.
I just get out in front anddon't go anymore if I can, but
just really meticulous about themaintenance with the boat.
We were going through someprops and I figured out kind of
(42:24):
the the life expectancy of aprop wasn't much more beyond a
weekend.
Yeah, we're using, but wewatched out for that, because I
think the first race I broke thestrut off.
Yeah, yeah, cause I broke theprop and it I could continue to
run it.
I think that happened one moretime in a heat, but I was able
(42:50):
to stop it before it broke thestrut, but I figured out after
that when to pull the props andwhen to not.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Yeah, run them.
But I have one of your propsthe one you lent me at chilan,
yeah, and I noticed that youalmost polished it.
It's a weird aluminum alloy ofsome sort that comes from china.
We all don't know what thosethings are made out of, but
they're super lightweight andthat particular brand, the one
we're using, is fast.
It's got a little kicker on thetrailing edge.
You had a GPS in the boat mostof the time, right.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yeah, it wasn't always that accurate, but I
think the best I got it was like63.
So you're racing at 63 miles anhour.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
I never got a nitro boat, barely over 60 miles an
hour, only in rare conditions bymyself.
And that's for the radar gun.
Who knows how accurate that is?
And consistently.
Now our boats can kick up to 63.
I think Mark got up to 64.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
But it's your boat, it's your boat doing that.
Nah, the prop.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Yeah, the boat's not light.
There's nothing special aboutit.
So what's your plans?
What are we going to do nextyear?
I thought we were going tobuild you a brand new one.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, I wanted to build a new boat.
Life happens right.
Yeah, my son is starting tohave some interest.
He's nine, He'll be 10 in March, so we're building him a
one-tenth scale of islandsecurity systems, which his
grandfather my wife's dad was asponsor on the boat.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Okay, that's why you built an eighth scale of that.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah, I did Before I destroyed it in the beach in
Tri-Cities there.
But he's starting to show someinterest.
He's kind of a little bit notso much, but I'm hoping I can
get a bug planted in him.
So we're trying to get thatready for this year to run that.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
And I have.
You donated your Atlas to me.
No, that's your boat now.
I mean, you cannot, it's all arace on that.
You earned that boat.
I'm so proud of it, proud ofyou.
It's the coolest thing I'veever been able to do for anybody
.
Yeah thank you, but Iunderstand if you want to move
to another.
Keep moving up.
I might have a couple more inthere.
I might have to give youanother one.
(45:01):
I got some bullets in thechamber but I'm not sure I'm
going to get to race or not.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Well, yeah, we'll get you back out there this year.
Yeah, I'm anxious to at leasttest the things yeah.
But I'm also trying to.
I really want to push thepodcast further, so I'm going to
spend a lot of time on thatthis year as well.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Well, my lap this year as well.
That's great.
Well thanks, don, but that'sall the time we have for this
week.
Tune in next week as I hear Donmock and not myself as the host
, but Don will finish hisinterview with me, david Newton.
It was fun talking more aboutmy background with Don.
I had some people ask moreabout myself, where I've come
from and why I have this passionof hydroplane racing, and Don
(45:40):
really thought it'd be great toshare that with you, the
listener, just so you can get toknow more about my story.
And, as I said, tune in nextweek, as you'll hear part two of
Don's interview with me.
Until then, don't forget tocheck us out on social media Run
Facebook, instagram, alsoonline at wwwruchateltalkcom,
(46:03):
and on there you'll find lots offun stuff from our archives,
but there's also a great sectionof the site dedicated to our
subscribers, called RuchatelTalk Plus, where, for a monthly
fee, you have access to asecluded part of the website
that has photos, articles andother fun surprises.
And, don't forget, you'll alsoget early access to all new
(46:26):
episodes.
That's all I have for today, sountil next time, I hope to see
you at the races.
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 toRooster Tail Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome to Rooster Tail Talk.
My name is Don Mock.
I am sitting in for DavidNewton and we have a little bit
of a different type of show foryou today.
David has done such an amazingjob talking to everybody in the
(01:07):
sport of hydro racing, fromdrivers and sponsors and crew
people, in an effort to promotethe sport.
He's just been an amazing guy.
But I don't think a lot of youknow about him, so we had the
idea let's put him behind themicrophone.
So David is sitting right infront of me, I'm in his chair,
he's in my chair.
My name is Don Mock.
I'm with the High Des PlainesRace Boat Museum and I have
(01:28):
raced RC boats with David'slegendary dad, roger Newton, and
have been involved with themuseum for as long as it's been
around.
But the Newtons are a specialbreed of people and I want you
to get to know David Newtonbecause he is one talented kid.
I call you a kid, but let'sstart with that very date how
(01:51):
old are you and when were youborn.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I just turned 40 last September.
I was born September 2nd 1884.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So in 84.
So I started racing in 85.
So you were coming to thoseraces when you were one or two
years old.
Oh yeah, I was born into it.
Did you ever coming to thoseraces when you were one or two
years old?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Oh, yeah, I was born into it.
Did you ever hear about themall, my birthday.
Did you ever hear that story?
Well, no, what story?
Okay, so mall, as we raced forRC Unlimited for many years and
my dad had a big part of thatand raced there.
It was actually Gold Cup Sundaywhen I was born there.
(02:28):
It was actually gold cup sundaywhen I was born and back then
rcn limiteds raced down in kentat the brown bowl at this little
, what do you call that?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
it was a rain, water runoff retention, retention pond
yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So it was down in kent and my dad went down for
the race and he had a beautifulgriffin bud.
He was racing and he knew itwas my mom close, but it was
race Sunday so he went down tothe pond.
I think after the first heat mygrandpa came down and said hey,
raj, it's time let's go to thehospital.
Rocky Friedel, my dad's goodfriend, then took over driving.
(02:59):
I think he did a heat.
My dad went down to BellevueOverlake, saw me be born, said
you know, I did the hard part.
I'm gonna go back to the race.
He did and, yeah, he went down,finished the race.
I think he only missed one, onesection.
He eats maybe two, oh my.
And then he, yeah, he finishedthe race on.
So I was born.
Gold Cup Sunday 1984?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
yeah, that's funny as hell.
I didn't know that story.
You guys lived, of course, inRenton, washington.
You're in the same house.
You had an older sister andyour wonderful mom, marty.
Your dad, of course, was afireman for the city of Renton.
What do you remember?
First, he was already a racerby the time you were born.
(03:41):
Being a fireman, that's prettycool to have a dad that's a
fireman, yeah, but was the housealready full of trophies and
boats, do you remember?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
oh, yeah, my from young age my father.
He built a room in the back ofthe house for his plan business
and that was done, I think whenI was like two, so I don't
remember back that far, but Ijust run around the house.
I always remember there beingpictures of boats or VHS copies,
you know, available to watchboat racing, get all the models.
(04:12):
In his garage always had aBudweiser and Hawaii Kai out
there and did the plan businessin the back.
So it's pretty much wherever Iwent around the house were
hydros so you, just you, had noother reality.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
It was hydros and a fireman for a dad.
Yeah, Going to school out therein Renton where you lived right
.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, so we actually lived in the Issaquah School
District so it was right on theborder there.
But the middle school wasbordered right against my house.
I could walk to the elementary,middle or high school.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Do you have any recollection of the first time
your dad dragged you down to thelake to actually see one of
these things in person?
You did.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I don't have like a vivid memory of like the first
time seeing a hydro because Ithink I was always around and I
have pictures of me I think like85 I'm like less than a year
old with Chip down at Seafairyeah, I think I'm in a little
swaddle and he's got his mulleton and he's smiling with me.
(05:15):
But I always remember goingdown to the old museum or Ken's
shop.
I remember we'd always go toKen's shop because my dad in the
80s he was he worked forwinston eagle for a little bit,
yes, and I think it was a coupleyears he worked for them and
then he got really into thehydroplane racial museum when
(05:36):
that started off and, yes, didthe restorations for the slow
motions four and five.
And I remember a lot of summerswhen my dad wasn't at the
firehouse.
He would be at the either themuseum or ken shop and I would
always just troll down with him,hang out in the shop.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I mean roger was such a such a monster influencer guy
, I wouldn't have been racing, Iwouldn't have been involved in
the museum.
And there's dozens and dozensof guys with my same story that
wouldn't have been involved inthis, that haven't been for your
dad I mean, he's obviously thecore guy and then, especially in
the museum, a deal.
(06:14):
Well, so you get a little bitolder and they hand you a
transmitter.
I remember you're.
You're driving hawaii kai.
Yeah, not racing, I think youwere just practicing and dad had
you between his legs orsomething.
Did it get to you about drivingRC boats?
Or is it just because the folkswanted you to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I don't remember.
It was the early 90s and Iremember one early recollection.
I remember my dad was excited.
He came home one day and hesaid I got you a membership for
the boats.
I don't know why, but back thenRC Unlimited was a really high
honor.
I wanted to be a part of theclub.
That was my goal.
(06:57):
It was the only club at thetime.
It was the only club at thetime we spent so many weekends
at the races.
There were so many friends thatmy dad had and it was kind of
extended part of the family, butanyways.
But he said that yeah, I gotthis membership for you.
You're gonna get like a monthlynewsletter, all this fun stuff.
And it was for urc, for the,the unlimited they had some like
(07:18):
fan club.
Oh, yeah, that you could join,and I was so disappointed
because I wanted it to berclimited for the RC boats, wow,
yeah.
But there was a lot of timeswhere you take my mom's boat,
the Hawaii Kai 1957, 1-8 scaleof the Hawaii Kai 3.
Yes, and I'd just kind of trollaround.
I remember going to WildberryLake once.
Yeah, it was the 4th of July.
(07:38):
Yeah, at your parents.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Firecracker 500.
Yeah, your dad came up withthat term.
Yeah, yeah, that was a greattime.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That was your dad's cabin, right?
Uh-huh yeah, We'd go out therewith Harry and whoever else.
He drank with us and run someboats around and I don't think I
really could tell what I wasdoing out there, but I was in
between his legs so he wouldsteer me around.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
I didn't drive an RC boat until I was 35 years old
and you're driving him at three.
I mean it was four.
Did you ever feel like he waspressuring you to do it?
He wanted you so bad to be hispartner in this.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
There was definitely pressure I felt from him to be
around him.
I think I resented it a littlebit when I was in kindergarten.
But then something clicked forme.
I don't know, Maybe I just sawhow tight he was with it and how
much fun he was having.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Did you have any other interests, hobbies, that
you kind of wandered off to?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I remember being into comic books and some trading
cards.
I had some friends that werereally into.
There was a Star Wars tradingcards game that we did back then
, but it wasn't as big as theboats were.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
So your dad had this wonderful business, and it was
still called Newton Marine atthe time.
Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
And he started that.
What early 70s he started?
Well, I think he started rightout of high school.
He really, I mean, he grew uparound the area and loved the
hydroplanes and he went off tothe air force and he, before he
left, he started to build.
I can't remember if it was athunderbolt unlimited kit or
something, yeah, and therewasn't.
There was a few kits out at thetime, but no, there wasn't any
(09:19):
plans you could buy, no um.
And he really wanted somethingbigger than the kits were
providing.
And so when he got back fromthe air force he started to draw
up some plans to a sport 60size, which he thought would be
a good size at the time so hepretty much just came and said
that this is the size 1 8 scale.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, we'll just try one eight scale.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
That should work and he drew it up as that and I
think I think the first drawing,a half of his is from 74.
You have the original drawing.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Or 73.
So you've carried the torch, ofcourse, and you still are
Newton Marine and you stillmanage all his stuff.
I'm sure it's overwhelming.
I'd love to get into aconversation about how you're,
Because the demand has spreadout into the world of electric
hydros and bigger sizes, smallersizes, and people must ask you
(10:11):
for photos.
Your dad had a ridiculousamount of photographs archived
and that's a model.
Boater's dream is to get thoseNewton photos Right.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, the photo demand has actually gone down
over the last few years.
I think there's been so manyphotos available online that
people kind of find what theyneed to nowadays.
But I think also with the hobbythings have changed.
Now it's not as people aren'treally as curious about the
scale aspect anymore, they justkind of want to race.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
They are yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
RC boats and they live in the Seattle area or
Washington.
They know that RC Unlimited isa pretty big club or ERCU and
they want to go race and so theykind of join that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, it's definitely different and I'm sure that
affects you.
But what's going to happen withNewton Marine for you?
I mean, that's not your work.
I mean you're a teacher right.
Tell us quickly about your whatyou do for real money.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Well, I mean, after my father passed that was
actually one of the last thingshe said is got to keep the plan
business going, cause he justloved the hobby so much and
really wanted to keep that going, so I kept it going for I guess
17 years now it's been 17 years.
Yeah about that.
Yeah, I mean the demand's gonedown.
(11:33):
I've noticed that.
But I still have all of hisplans.
I drew a couple more boats up.
I don't quite have the time toadd to the inventory that he had
, but there's still hundreds ofplans available and I still sell
them.
I used to.
His machine was a dinosaur whenhe passed away.
It was an old ammonia diazolight transfer machine and so
(11:57):
you have to get the specialproduct paper that comes and
it's yellow, and then you turnthe machine on and it smells
like ammonia.
It's a terrible smell, and youput it through and it's yellow.
And then you turn the machineon and it smells like ammonia.
It's a terrible smell, and youput it through and it would be a
light transfer, a one-to-onecopy of it.
But that machine died this pastyear and so I got a brand-new
plotter printer and so I'mstarting to slowly go through
(12:17):
and scan the old archives and Ihave hundreds of plans.
How do you do?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
that I mean.
How do you scan a full-sizeH-scale?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Ideally I'd have my own scanner, but that's like
three or four grand and I don'thave the funding.
So I found a few copy machineplaces that I can go down and do
it for about $10 a sheet andjust digitalize the archive.
And I'm just kind of doing iton what the demand is right now.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, once you get those all digitized, that would
be goldmine.
I mean just to have them savedlike that?
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah, but I do that in my spare time and you're like
.
You asked me what my day job is.
I'm a teacher.
I teach for Risdon MiddleSchool out in Renton School
District, and they are locatedin Newcastle, the northern part
of the Renton School District,and it's right up from 405 where
the Seahawks training facilityis, if you know where that is
(13:12):
yeah very well, and this year Iteach language arts in one
section of PE and then also theschool newspaper.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
That's a lot to have on your plate.
You've got family, you've got abusiness and you've got a.
I don't know how many clubsyou're in, but you race RC boats
.
I know you've narrowed that down, but we'll get into that
because you have pulled off somepretty amazing racing.
I don't think people realizethat your dad was a great racer.
(13:42):
I mean the coolest, I meanRoger Newton racing against him,
but you'd kick his buttunfortunately, I hate to say
that, and he would be smiling,I'm sure he would he never had
the consistency and the smartsthat you've displayed.
When I've watched you race inthis last year, god, I'm getting
(14:03):
tears in my eyes just thinkingabout how amazing you did, yeah.
So school teacher trying tomanage a family.
So school teacher trying tomanage a family, yeah.
And then you have this inherentinterest in the sport of
hydroplane racing yeah, and youknow it's not perfect and you
want to help.
And what can you do?
(14:23):
So well, I could talk to people, so you come up with Rooster
Tail.
Talk, yeah, how many episodesago.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
So this recording.
We have 136 episodes that haveaired and they started back in
2019.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
And the idea was just to interview people and get a
take on what they think aboutthe sport.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, because at the time it was back in 2019.
I was a little late to the gamebut I was getting into podcasts
2019, I was a little late tothe game, but I was getting into
podcasts.
I'm really into horror moviesand I found some really cool
ones on that, but, as you said,I have this passion for
hydroplane racing.
There's nothing out there forit.
Of course, you can watch oldrace footage on YouTube and old
(15:08):
interviews on YouTube, but therewas no podcast back then.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Nothing live nothing current.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Nothing live, nothing current.
I was talking to people.
I said you know, this would beso great to have.
I think it's a resource that'snot tapped.
Everyone agreed and said, yeah,go do it.
Everyone told me well, go do itthen.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
You figured it out, you've done God.
I don't even want you to try tolist all the people, but is
there anybody left that youhaven't gotten to talk to yet,
that you?
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean there's a lot of people I still want to talk
to.
I mean, one person I'm tryingto reach out to right now is
jeff neff.
I'm having a hard time gettinga hold of him, but he had a big
influence on the sport.
Fortunately, the ravages oftime have hindered some.
I was prepared to talk to ScottPierce right before he passed.
(16:01):
Unfortunately, he went in thehospital and passed away, same
with Pat O'Day.
He passed away before I could.
Really, with a podcast, I wantto talk to every corner of the
sport that we have and I talk tofans and crew members and
owners and racers.
Basically, anyone has a storyto tell about hydroplane racing.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I want to talk to them.
Well, let's dive right intothat.
You're the clearinghouse now ofall this information.
Where is specifically unlimitedhydroplane racing with the
three, four or five I don't evenknow how many boats?
Now we're in the middle of achaotic.
Yeah, it's transition, there'sa and uh, you're an optimist, so
(16:40):
you're, you're hoping for thebest, but you, but I think you
put better than anybodyunderstands just the difficulty
of this sport now.
Yeah, um, where's it headed?
What do you?
What do you?
What have you learned that youcould pass along that?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
could help.
I think Steve David said itbest when everyone loves
sausages until they learned howit's made, I don't know I think
a lot about that where thefuture of the sport is.
I think as long as we havepeople that are building the
boats and working on the boats,we'll still have a sport.
Because you look back at thehistory of the sport, I think
(17:18):
people even into the 90s saidthe sport's dead.
And it's a reoccurring thingthat we hear about the sport.
Is that the sport's dead?
This is it.
This is the last year.
We lose sponsors, we lose TVbroadcasting, we lose race sites
, teams, but the sport's stillhere.
It's not as glamorous as it wasI don't know when you can go
(17:38):
look back at the heyday of itbut it doesn't have that gleam
and glimmer it had back in the80s and 90s, I guess you could
say, but it's still here.
One thing I mean there's somany problems I could point out,
but one thing you look aroundin the pits and the average age
of the crew members has gone up.
(17:59):
It's not going down.
Team count is down, race sitesare down.
Everything's in apparel withbeing able to afford insurance
and race site fees.
It's sad.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I think it's a motorsports problem all the way
around.
It is a motorsports problem allthe way around.
It's a new world order, and ina lot of ways you could say
they're doing pretty goodkeeping boats on the water, even
given the downside and theserace sites.
You know they're trying to getother entertainment Right, Like
the vintage boats, for one.
(18:34):
Yeah, they love having us outthere to try to stir up trouble.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Airplanes a lot of.
But if you look at thepositives, it's a great product
they're putting out.
Now, if you watch the YouTubelive stream on the racing
Fabulous, there's fabulousracing.
I mean you go back and look at.
I was watching the other dayseafair in like 88 yeah, and the
they're coming down for thestart and the boats are like 20
(19:00):
lanes apart from each other.
It's four boats and they'retaking up 40 lanes and they're
all spread apart.
But now they're they're onelane stack.
They're stacked on top of eachother and it's you don't know
who's in the win before the endof the race and they're faster
than hell.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I mean the boats are going.
Yeah, it's a remarkable thingto see even today I still marvel
at a start and how those guysget things through the turns.
Is there any gossip that weshould know about?
Is there any new ideas thatpeople have hinted to you?
Like they want to try a nuclearengine or they want to I don't
(19:39):
know what.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Well, there's interest out there.
I think the issue is funding.
But Mark, in one of the lastepisodes Mark Evans talked about
how he's got an automotivepower plant.
He wants to put in a hydro andhe almost had a deal with
Elstrom but Elstrom wouldn'tsell the boat to him and the
people behind the motor said ifyou don't have a boat, we're not
(20:03):
going to move forward with theproject.
So he's got I think he has amotor without a boat.
He's trying to figure that out.
But there was also that powerplant that Kevin Ellsworth was
trying to push down in San Diego.
They had a V12 engine that waspurpose for boat racing and I
(20:23):
think again there's lackingfunding for someone to try it.
It's a shame to have it.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So, David, all this running around with model boats,
did your dad ever talk to youabout throwing you in a little
J-stock hydro or an inboard orbigger?
Did you ever have aspirations?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
My dad never really pushed that.
He never really wanted me torace a real boat.
I think he was always concernedabout safety.
I wanted to play football inmiddle school and high school
and my parents said no, Really.
Yeah, they said they wouldn'tsign the waiver to let me do it
and I think they knew howdangerous that could be Good.
So they said no to that.
(20:59):
But I got the desire.
In high school I think, I sawJesse Robertson.
He raced in RC Unlimited andhad a great RC career and he
decided to sell his boat and hewent and got an inboard and he's
a fabulous racer, whatever itcould be, and he did really well
right off the bat.
(21:19):
And I think I saw that andwanted to try that out.
And I can't remember if I was ajunior or senior in high school
but I had a friend named ryanjohnson who's racing outboards
the Seattle Outboard Association.
I knew him from playing socceras a kid and he went to high
school not too far from me.
So I went out to Yelm onesummer and I tested, I guess,
(21:43):
Sea Hydro.
Oh good, and it was a smalllittle boat.
It only did about 50 miles anhour.
That's fast enough, yeah.
So it gave me a good taste ofit.
I went out there and I thoughtit was hanging the boat out and
just got a really good sense ofhow running a hydroplane feels
uncontrollable.
Yeah, Just doesn't feel it'snot like a car when you're
(22:05):
tracking, yeah Right, You're notlevel, it's just bouncing.
You could feel the air push thebow up and you'd hang and I'm
sure I thought I was reallyloose but I'm sure people on the
shore thought I was goingreally slow.
But I remember coming in andwith outboards you gotta kneel
down and try to get underneaththe windshield and all that.
And I thought it was kneelingdown and my dad was laughing at
(22:27):
me getting soaked.
Well, my dad was laughing at mewhen I came in and I was like I
, I didn't hit any buoys, Ididn't cut any buoys, I didn't
get anyone's way, I was able toget up on plane.
He was just laughing because hesaid I looked like Andre the
Giant out there because itlooked like I was standing up in
the boat.
Funny, Another friend of myfather's, Tony Perman.
(22:47):
Him and his son were racingoutboards.
He let me run his runabout andI loved that.
That felt really controllablebecause it's not like a hydro.
It doesn't hang out there andit's.
It's just always in the waterand had a lot of fun with that.
And my father actually got totest drive gw meyers d stock
hydro.
Your dad did, yeah, so that wasthat's the one where you you
(23:10):
lay down, oh, and you're likelooking up.
You know that was that was.
It was interesting to see himget in and out of that, but we
went out at the same time and Igot to see him on the outside of
me.
That was kind of fun.
I never saw him pick up, but wecame in from that.
Well, I remember going out forthat last run and the person who
was ever in charge of the eventnoticed I wasn't the boat owner
(23:31):
, right, it was someonedifferent.
And they said, do you haveinsurance?
And I was like APB insurance.
He's like, yeah, we got it.
And they said, well, give meyour card when you get back.
And so we went out, did our run, we came back and we had the
same insurance at that time forour RC boats and so we showed
them the card and they said itshowed RC, Unlimited RC boats.
And they didn't like that.
They got mad about that.
So I think we got Tony Permanand JW Myers in some trouble.
(23:58):
But I think the next day wasthe race and that same boat my
dad tested JW crashed theSwanson and fell off the next
morning.
So luckily that didn't happento my dad when he was out there,
but anyways.
So I was interested and we wentto that.
Same summer they had a nationalevent over in Moses Lake and I
think we were racing inWenatchee.
(24:19):
The club was yeah, RC Unlimitedwas racing in Wenatchee or Soap
Lake somewhere nearby.
Yeah.
So we went out and we watchedit and it was just so chaotic
because the starts were sodifferent from what I knew on
Unlimiteds and RC boats.
Yeah, they had like some scoreup the way out to the left there
.
You couldn't pass it at acertain time but boats were just
(24:40):
kind of circling like donutsbefore it.
And then we're watching and mydad knew some of the people
there and it was fun to talkwith him about it.
But there was a big crashduring the day and someone got
hit.
They went through the enginewall or the sidewall and he
broke some ribs.
And then a week or two laterthere was an outboard event
(25:04):
where someone died, I think backeast.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, hit and hit, get thrown out in a skid fin or
an engine propeller.
That's the big fear, I think,with those little things.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So after that happened I just thought about it
and said no, I can't.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I didn't know.
You got that close.
I'm proud of you.
So you've been on the water.
So now that gives you the realperspective for guys like me.
I drove a Paul Gillard's littleone liter, oh, as fast as it
could go, yeah, on lake chelan.
I thought I was flying and Isaw the video and I was putting
along at 50 miles an hour.
But yeah, it's uh, it it's uh,and I've ridden in the vintage
(25:46):
boats and it's a.
But when you race from theshore and you grow up, like you
and I did, watching boats fromthe shore, you develop a talent
for the boat ride that thedriver can't have.
I have talked to Chip manytimes about the feel of the boat
and there's so much of itthat's invisible to him because
(26:07):
he's in it and on the shore.
it's like why Jim Lucero wouldfilm every test run back in the
Blue Blaster days and his, allhis boats.
They were always close up films, setting every little splash,
everything and uh.
So I think RC people like you,you know, understand hydroplane
(26:33):
racing from a differentviewpoint, but probably almost a
more important viewpoint Boatride you can see what it's doing
.
You can't have the perspectiveof racing next to a guy or
something.
But you started racing in RC.
Let's get this straight RCUnlimited is the obviously
biggest club in the world of 1.8scale racing.
(26:54):
It's fanned out now to someother class sizes.
Right Now I have FE Electric's8 scale.
What is it?
1.6 scale gas?
Speaker 1 (27:04):
They call it gas scale.
It's like 1.6.66 or something.
It's some weird size.
But yeah it's a bigger size.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
And then the other club that your dad was
instrumental in was the offshootof RCU, the ERCU.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, which he actually helped develop
one-tenth scale racing.
He was one of the first peoplethat did one-tenth scales and
they started a club calledClassic Thunder in 1994.
And I started to run a littlebit with that.
Back then.
The technology was so muchdifferent than what we have
today.
It was really heavy NICADbatteries and brushed motors.
(27:41):
They were lucky if they couldget four or five laps out of a
boat.
We started racing tent scalesback then.
I remember taking turns with mydad racing his model theaikai.
Yeah, no, no, no.
The first boat he made was themiss wahoo and then we ended up
painting up as the shanty andthat's actually down at the
museum right now.
That tent scale.
Um, he's that there's a shanty.
(28:03):
And who drove the shanty?
That was, oh, it wasn't rushslay, was it rush slay, rush
Plumber, yep, and he's got alittle plumber's helper in his
hand.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So that's down at the museum.
Did your dad ever drag you outin the garage there and make you
sand and paint as you weregetting older?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I think there were some times he pushed me out
there At some point.
I mean, I started racing UrsaUnlimited in 96 and I got Dallas
Cooks Tempest.
I ran that for a year and thenmy dad we ended up selling that
to John Gatchens and my dadbuilt a new Budweiser and so he
(28:41):
wanted to be a Budweiser teambut at that time he was so busy
with the museum and Ken's boatthat we just our RC program was
terrible.
There's a lot of DNFs and DNSwith it and I think at some
point I started getting reallyfrustrated with it and I tried
to just figure out what's goingon in the boat.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Well, there is the father-son transition, where you
started to see your way to dothings and you were picking up
on what other people are doing.
Yeah, it was inevitable.
Your dad loved it, but youcould see it.
You could see this transitionhappening.
Yeah, you could see you kind oftaking charge.
A few years goes by and thenyou're the guy you know your dad
(29:23):
was obviously loved it.
He didn't care.
But uh, so you started.
You hit the budweiser team.
You guys looked great.
You had those cool boats.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
You had the Budweiser team.
You guys looked great.
You had those cool boats.
You had uniforms yeah, you guyswere.
Yeah, my dad painted the tablered and had some Budweiser logos
on the table too.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It was you guys were yeah, roger and Budweiser and
his relationship with BernieLittle was pretty cool, yeah,
and every driver I mean it was.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Did he ever tell you why he started racing Budweiser?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I guess, I don't know .
Speaker 1 (29:55):
He started the club.
Was it 74?
Yes, so in the Seattle area in1974, rc Unlimited was formed.
But in 77 or 78, maybe it was76, I can't remember One of the
late 70s RC Unlimited had acouple of years where they put
demonstrations on down atSeafair yes, in that little
(30:16):
lagoon area right by the pits.
And Bernie came over one yearand he had the big name and the
big budget behind him and my dadhad got to know him and I think
my dad started making somemodels for his corporate office
and whatnot.
And yes, he came over and saidRaj, where's the Budweiser?
He looked around and no one hada model of the Budweiser.
My dad felt actuallyembarrassed for the club.
(30:38):
Really he wanted to make surethat the biggest name in URC was
represented in RCU the nextyear.
He said I'm going to build thelatest Budweiser.
I'll just always build thelatest model of Budweiser.
So from that point on he alwayshad a Budweiser.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
He sure did yeah.
So such an important image ofthe club was it, and getting the
sponsorship money fromBudweiser was just massive.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Yeah, him and Bob Brackett.
Yeah, I think the mid-80s,shortly after you joined the
club.
Yeah, bob Brackett, I thinkmid-80s shortly after you joined
the club they went out to Berneand got a pretty good-sized
budget from Budweiser for thislittle RC club.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
It was incredible.
So tell us about learning todrive the things.
I can visualize you and yourdad driving home from races and
going back and talking out outthe the race and oh so.
And so cut me off.
And I made this mistake, wepicked the wrong prop, we did
this I I just because that'snatural.
(31:41):
Yeah, I would love to mic'd allthat, oh yeah, you guys, I'd
love to hear that, but did thattoo.
So when you started winningBudweiser first, right, you're
the butter, did you?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Well, in one eight scale.
But my first one was with myBudweiser and that was like
2003,.
But it so it took.
So I started in 96.
So that was a good seven, eightyears before I got my first win
, and back then it was it washard to get in the final heats
Cause you win, and back then itwas it was hard to get in the
final heats because you I meanyou'd have to.
If you dropped a heat I don'tthink you'd be in the final heat
(32:15):
and there was for a long time.
Well, I remember my first yearI got into.
I ran into rich mackin.
Actually I ran him over becauseI was just driving over my head
, didn't know what I was doing.
My dad told me, punch it.
And I punched a throttle and Ipunched his boat too, but I felt
terrible about it.
So I think after that for ayear or two I was just kind of
(32:35):
putzing around the course, yeah,and my dad I remember being
pretty aggravated about that?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Did he potentially try to calm you down?
Slow the boat down.
No, he just said Words ofwisdom.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
No, he just said just go back out there and you'll be
fine.
Words of wisdom, that no, Ijust said just go back out there
and you'll be fine, just do itagain.
That's great, but but I justlike no, I'm not comfortable
with it, and I just kind ofbacked off for a while did you
have words of wisdom for him?
Dad, maybe, maybe give me somemore support or something.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
But you better tape on your radio box lids.
Oh gosh, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Well, yeah, we always .
Yeah, he was always notoriousfor having waterproof or water
cooled radios.
Yeah, and at that time, none ofthe radios were waterproof.
And yeah, we had quite a fewboats at the beach.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You guys have a really good one, two type,
finish anywhere or close to thatwhere you both were in the
final and you went home therewas.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I mean, back then we had the same channel.
Oh, yeah frequency or saw theradio.
So we would always.
We wouldn't race each otheruntil unless we were in the same
connie or final heat, and thatdidn't happen very often, right,
but there was one time it was2006 we both went down to san
(33:47):
diego because back then sandiego had a rc club that raced
when eight scale hydroplanes andI ran my model of the mr
pringles and my dad had abudweiser.
He just converted over toformula boats and actually went
down there and he, his boat, wasall in red.
He didn't have graphics for it,yeah, and mike mcknight, I had
(34:08):
it sent to the hotel and thatFriday night we put all the
decals on his boat.
But we raced down in thatlittle pond, that narrow
saltwater pond, and his radioactually caught fire the first
day because it got saltwater init.
But we got it fixed and we bothmade the final.
I won the final and he gotthird place, so that was
(34:30):
probably our best finishtogether.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah, so you had a lot ofexperience with the 10th scale
of electrics, so you, way morethan me.
I had my 10-year retirementfrom the nitro world when I came
back to RCU.
All this new stuff had happened, including electrics world.
When I came back to rcu, this,all this new stuff that happened
(34:53):
, including electrics yeah, andI just in speaking of rich mack
and he's the one that kind ofdid, kind of dragged me into it
with the idea yeah, and so I.
I had a, my nitro boatsmothballed and there was my
atlas that I'd built and my 84atlas I'd built in about the
2002, 2003 years.
So I just threw the stuff inthat as a test bed, not thinking
(35:18):
that boat would ever win a raceor a championship or nine races
in one season.
So you had the chops of theelectrics that nobody else did,
because you guys came out ofthis other world, because you
knew all about the batterieswhen I first came along and I
had no clue tell me, where doyou plug it in?
And been pretty fun.
(35:40):
So let's just go get right tothe the meat of the story here.
When I I came back so I'm in2019 yeah, besides running over
you in one heat, I remember inyour beautiful dad's budweiser,
I felt so awful about that Iguess I forgot about that one.
Yeah, first race.
(36:00):
But I did manage thechampionship that year and I
thought I was and won the goldcup and I thought, wow, this is
unbelievable.
Yeah, but in that, even in thattime since then to this last
couple years, the, the level andspeed of the boat's technology
climbed.
I mean, yeah, what you racedagainst last year was not what I
raced against in 2019, althoughI had to race you, yeah, and I
(36:22):
don't want to do that anymore.
You have a a knack of calmness,and maybe your dad did too, but
that's what I really admire.
I watched, with videos of yourstarts.
You put the boat exactly at thesame place.
You just, you just have a asense for it.
I it's hard to explain some ofthe best driving I've ever seen,
(36:43):
so david.
So what you did is I, I forthis.
Last year you had not beenracing in RCU.
You'd kind of taken a littlevacation from the club.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, I kind of took a seat back.
I think I just wanted to dosome different things.
My kid was getting grown up alittle bit and I was more into
the tent scales and I didn'treally have a boat that was
working well on each scale.
I wanted to build a new boat,but just hadn't gotten around to
it.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
But in the tent scale club, the ERC, it seems like a
pretty common practice for theolder guys to let people drive
their boats.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yeah, there was a few there.
Yeah, like carrie jose, I racedfor him.
Yeah, quite often.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
And you won a lot of races.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, so you're, you're.
You're a good, you know, guestdriver I get.
And so that fast forward tolast year.
You just out of the blue, cameup to me and said you got a boat
, I can drive.
No, that's not how it happened.
I don't remember how ithappened.
(37:47):
I just remember you just askingme.
And I said yeah, I got a boat.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
No, I was helping you with the 50-year RCU video and
I came over here and I had boxesof pictures and tapes and I
think I overwhelmed you with allthe stuff.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I brought over Great stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
We were in your shop and I think you said something
casually about the Atlas yeah,so that needs to go back out.
Maybe you want to drive it.
I thought you were joking, ohfuck.
But then you kept poking aboutit and I said well, fine, yeah,
I'll drive it.
That was fabulous.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
So David borrows my boat and he puts it in my stock
setup.
You didn't change much, right?
I mean you got batteries.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
I think I changed the batteries because I purchased
some and then I put my radio onit and that was about it, and
then I made some propellers forit.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah, there's some smarts there.
You figured out your props.
So David goes to the first race.
I didn't go to the first racelast year.
Yeah, you skipped out, and I'mgetting the updates from Rich
Madkin Atlas won first heat.
Atlas wins second heat.
I go.
I don't know he's gonna makethe final.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Good for him, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
I hope he has fun, it's just cool.
And then you win the damn race.
I go God dang, what's going on?
Okay, keep going, and then thenext week.
I don't know where you were.
I didn't go to that one either.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
I may have thought of that one.
I think it was Ellensburg.
I may have been there and I wasbehind you and you kicked my
butt.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
You win that one.
Yeah, and I don't remember thestreak.
What was it?
Did you win five, six in a?
Row, I think the most I hadlast year was five in a row,
yeah.
Because I think I won the firstthree and then I got really sick
and had to miss a race WinningAt FV class.
There's some damn fast boatsand some pretty good drivers.
(39:48):
You had some competition, therewas no doubt about it.
The technology was improvingdaily.
It seemed like these new motorswere coming out, batteries were
getting better and the speedcontrollers were improving.
Next thing I know you're justcrushing it with the points and
I'm just amazed.
I think everybody is, and itwas so good for the club to have
(40:12):
you back, especially in the50th year anniversary.
Yeah, it was fun, and so youhad basically the Cinderella
season After 11 races.
After they look at the paper,it says that you won nine of the
11 races, including the GoldCup.
That's unheard of.
(40:32):
I can't think of that everbeing done in the Nitro class or
any of the classes.
It was just.
Did anybody show anydisapproval to you?
Did you feel like you were thebad guy?
Oh God, he's here.
I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
I think after a couple of races.
Well, I mean, I didn't know ifyou were going to let me run the
whole year or just a race ortwo.
But then when she said you gotto go for the high points I'd
never gotten high points beforein RC Unlimited oh, that's
incredible.
And so I said, okay, well, I'lltake it seriously then and go
for the high points.
And I think after a coupleraces people started to give me
gruff if they were in my heat.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Yeah, yeah, you're a bad guy, oh God, yeah.
So you score the most pointsanybody's ever scored for a
season.
You win nine races, which iscrazy.
I was thinking back to Nitro.
Jesse never pulled up 9.
Oh, really, oh, I don't thinkso.
Dave Brandt, maybe 5 or 6.
Nobody's ever strung that kindof winning streak.
(41:33):
What's your secret?
What did you figure out why youdid so?
Well, you can get in a heat anddrive great and rise above what
happened to me, or drive belowmy level, but you just seem to
have it consistently, heat afterheat.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Well, I mean, you gave me a really good boat that
was set up so well, it's prettyeasy to do.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
You kept it on the water.
I got it upside down many times.
I really try to watch theattitude.
It's pretty easy to do.
You kept it on the water.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
I got it upside down many times, yeah, yeah, I mean I
just really try to watch theattitude of the boat.
You know, as I go through everyheat, I mean I try not to drive
above its capabilities.
I just get out in front anddon't go anymore if I can, but
just really meticulous about themaintenance with the boat.
We were going through someprops and I figured out kind of
(42:24):
the the life expectancy of aprop wasn't much more beyond a
weekend.
Yeah, we're using, but wewatched out for that, because I
think the first race I broke thestrut off.
Yeah, yeah, cause I broke theprop and it I could continue to
run it.
I think that happened one moretime in a heat, but I was able
(42:50):
to stop it before it broke thestrut, but I figured out after
that when to pull the props andwhen to not.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Yeah, run them.
But I have one of your propsthe one you lent me at chilan,
yeah, and I noticed that youalmost polished it.
It's a weird aluminum alloy ofsome sort that comes from china.
We all don't know what thosethings are made out of, but
they're super lightweight andthat particular brand, the one
we're using, is fast.
It's got a little kicker on thetrailing edge.
You had a GPS in the boat mostof the time, right.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yeah, it wasn't always that accurate, but I
think the best I got it was like63.
So you're racing at 63 miles anhour.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
I never got a nitro boat, barely over 60 miles an
hour, only in rare conditions bymyself.
And that's for the radar gun.
Who knows how accurate that is?
And consistently.
Now our boats can kick up to 63.
I think Mark got up to 64.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
But it's your boat, it's your boat doing that.
Nah, the prop.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Yeah, the boat's not light.
There's nothing special aboutit.
So what's your plans?
What are we going to do nextyear?
I thought we were going tobuild you a brand new one.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, I wanted to build a new boat.
Life happens right.
Yeah, my son is starting tohave some interest.
He's nine, He'll be 10 in March, so we're building him a
one-tenth scale of islandsecurity systems, which his
grandfather my wife's dad was asponsor on the boat.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Okay, that's why you built an eighth scale of that.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah, I did Before I destroyed it in the beach in
Tri-Cities there.
But he's starting to show someinterest.
He's kind of a little bit notso much, but I'm hoping I can
get a bug planted in him.
So we're trying to get thatready for this year to run that.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
And I have.
You donated your Atlas to me.
No, that's your boat now.
I mean, you cannot, it's all arace on that.
You earned that boat.
I'm so proud of it, proud ofyou.
It's the coolest thing I'veever been able to do for anybody
.
Yeah thank you, but Iunderstand if you want to move
to another.
Keep moving up.
I might have a couple more inthere.
I might have to give youanother one.
(45:01):
I got some bullets in thechamber but I'm not sure I'm
going to get to race or not.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Well, yeah, we'll get you back out there this year.
Yeah, I'm anxious to at leasttest the things yeah.
But I'm also trying to.
I really want to push thepodcast further, so I'm going to
spend a lot of time on thatthis year as well.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Well, my lap this year as well.
That's great.
Well thanks, don, but that'sall the time we have for this
week.
Tune in next week as I hear Donmock and not myself as the host
, but Don will finish hisinterview with me, david Newton.
It was fun talking more aboutmy background with Don.
I had some people ask moreabout myself, where I've come
from and why I have this passionof hydroplane racing, and Don
(45:40):
really thought it'd be great toshare that with you, the
listener, just so you can get toknow more about my story.
And, as I said, tune in nextweek, as you'll hear part two of
Don's interview with me.
Until then, don't forget tocheck us out on social media Run
Facebook, instagram, alsoonline at wwwruchateltalkcom,
(46:03):
and on there you'll find lots offun stuff from our archives,
but there's also a great sectionof the site dedicated to our
subscribers, called RuchatelTalk Plus, where, for a monthly
fee, you have access to asecluded part of the website
that has photos, articles andother fun surprises.
And, don't forget, you'll alsoget early access to all new
(46:26):
episodes.
That's all I have for today, sountil next time, I hope to see
you at the races.
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