Episode 145: Don Mock

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We take time to remember and celebrate Don Mock, a great friend of the hydroplane racing community who recently passed away after a long battle with cancer. His extraordinary contributions as a talented craftsman, museum board member, restoration specialist, and musical composer shaped the hydroplane community in countless ways that often went unrecognized. Please share your memories of Don on social media. Listen to his song "Flight of the U10" from his album Basement Tap Tapes to remember and celebrate his legacy.

Notable links:

Don Mock on Spotify

Don Mock Double Guitar in Concert 1985

Scale Hydroplane Video created by Don Mock

Madison Movie model boats

1982 Atlas Van Lines Restoration 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Rooster Tail Talk, the podcast dedicated to
everything about the sport thatwe all love, hydroplane racing.
I am your host, david Newton,and it's time once again.
So sit back, relax and welcometo Rooster Tail Talk.

(00:59):
Let's go have anything reallyplanned for it.
It's a different take becauselast week I lost a good friend
in the hydroplane racingcommunity lost a good friend as
well with Don Mock.
He passed away after a longbattle with cancer and I really
been struggling the last weekbecause I've known Don pretty

(01:20):
much my whole life and looked atto him as kind of a racing dad.
He was one of those people thatalways took care of me when I
went to the races and whether Imade good decisions or bad, he
was always there to help.
But I really wanted to attributethis episode to Don because I
know many listeners out thereknew Don and if you didn't, don

(01:42):
was more than just a hydroplaneenthusiast.
If you didn't, don was morethan just a hydroplane
enthusiast.
He was a great human being,such a kind soul and just
talented in so many differentfacets of his life Within the

(02:02):
hydroplane racing world.
He was a longtime hydroplanefan, grew up in the Seattle area
, was a big Muncie fan and heactually joined RC Unlimited's
racing RC Scale hydroplanes in1986, where I first met him and
I was only two, so I guess Icould say I knew Don as far as I
can remember right.
So but he entered and he raceda model of the 1977 Blue Blaster
Atlas Van Lines and that washis favorite.

(02:23):
He loved Atlas Boats, he lovedMuncie and he loved Hanauer and
later in life he became goodfriends with Chip and I'll go
back to that here in a littlebit.
But I just want to talk abouthow talented this man was and
many of you may not understandhis contributions to the sport

(02:47):
Because there's so many peoplelike Don that don't get the
credit for all the things theydo behind the scenes.
And Don, yes, he was an RCscale hydroplane racer, talented
craftsman, but he really did alot for the Hydroplane and Race
Boat Museum.
Now Don was on the board formany years, helped influence a
lot of things that happened atthe museum, but he literally had

(03:09):
a hand in many restorations.
He helped out back in the 90swhen the museum first got
started restoring some of theslow motions.
He helped to hand out where hecould with that, but he really
took on charge.
Back in the early 2000s themuseum was able to get the night

(03:29):
the original 1982 atlas vanlines that was driven by chip
hanauer and he became the crewchief.
That was one of his favoritemodels that he raced and he went
, was able to build a few ofthose models of the 82 Atlas and
then, like I said, in the early2000s he helped to restore the

(03:50):
real boat and it was a big taskand he took it on like a
professional and in the end ChipHanauer actually really shared,
I think with anyone that wouldlisten, about how talented Don
was and without him the projectwouldn't have happened.
And Don is just one of thosepeople that if he would have

(04:12):
taken his talents to theUnlimiteds, he could have made
it as a crew chief because he'sso prepared and so thoughtful of
every little thing that theboats needed.
And I remember going down tothe museum when he was restoring
the 82 Atlas and I remembergoing down Well, that was
actually they restored it in JimHarvey's shop next to the
museum.

(04:32):
But I also remember going downto the museum and seeing his
efforts to restore the BlueBlaster and all the trick little
things that he brought to thetable that were so cool.
Don was also a talented musicianand we're actually going to
listen to one of his songs herebefore we leave today.

(04:53):
He released a few albums,talented jazz guitarist who
instructed many peoplethroughout the years and that's
a side of him that he didn'talways talk about because we
were always talking hydroplanes.
But uh, through after hispassing saw a lot of people from
the music industry that reachedout and really missed don and

(05:16):
don.
He really touched a lot oflives.
He did a lot for instructing inperson but but he also made
some great demonstration tapesand teaching tapes that he sold
in the 80s, 90s and onward onhow to play guitar.
Like I said, he has a fewalbums released.
You can check his name out onSpotify and listen to those.

(05:38):
I'll put some links in the biobelow in case you're interested.
But really he was just such atalented craftsman and I always
took awe of his work and if yougo down to the museum you can
see his work in the 82 Atlaswhen it's back from Florida and
then you can also see it in theBlue Blaster Just how talented

(06:01):
he was in getting everythingright proportionally, scale,
structurally, sound, justbeautiful, beautiful work.
It's wild to think about howsome things come full circle
because I I knew don very prettywell.
I would say, um, he never hadkids but in the 90s when I

(06:23):
started racing rca hydropl,whenever my dad couldn't take me
to a race, don was alwayswilling to give me a ride to the
race.
I always got to pit with himand he always helped me out and
I got to hear a lot of greatstories of his days in
hydroplane racing and one storyI just thought was amazing I

(06:44):
remember hearing this in thelate 90s when we were at the RC
races how he talked about helived in California for a while
and he loved the hydros andthere was a few times he would
rent out a sailboat and actuallybe on Mission Bay during the
races and he would see BillMuncy down there in the Blue
Blaster and how that was hisfavorite boat and his favorite

(07:07):
driver.
And then Chip Hanauer was hisfavorite later on and him able
to go back in later years tobuild models of the boats in 1-8
scale and then to goreconstruct and restore the
full-size ones is just amazing.
Some of his talents as well asfor the museum he did all the

(07:28):
videos he went through thousandsof hours of videos and put them
up to the YouTube channels,restored the videos.
He was the person behind theBill Muncy tribute video that
the museum has and you can thankDon Mock for that.
But you also heard him on thepodcast because I did interview

(07:51):
him back probably about four orfive years ago in Tri-Cities and
talked about his influenceswith the Hydroplane and Race
Club Museum as he was the crewchief of the Atlas Van Lines
there, with the Hydroplane andRace Club Museum as he was the
crew chief of the Atlas VanLines there.
But he also helped the podcastout a lot.
The intro music that is for thepodcast.
That was all done by Don and Iremember just giving him a phone
call and saying, hey, this iswhat I need, and he said, oh,

(08:17):
yeah, no problem, and I think Ifeel like it was like an hour
later he had all the audio donefor me and my intro music was
done.
Just a selfless man who was sogenerous with his time Can't say
enough about how much he hasmissed and will be missed by
myself, by his friends, by theguitar world, the hydroplane
community, a great andinfluential person that is no

(08:38):
longer with us A few more funthings that Don just was able to
do on a whim.
He actually raced sailboatswith Chip Hanauer.
I mean, out of all the vesselsthat they could have raced, they
raced sailboats and theyactually were quite successful
with that and with doing thesailboats and restoring the 82

(09:00):
Atlas.
He got a really close bond andrelationship with Chip Hanauer
that really grew to be bestfriends and I know that that
meant the world to him to get tobe so close to another person
who was so talented in manyfacets and just another caring
person.
In later years Don and Chipwere pretty inseparable, great,

(09:23):
close friends.
But his talents didn't stopthere.
He also made instructionalvideos on how to build and
construct RC hydroplanes and hedid a promotional video for RC
Unlimiteds in the late 80s thatwas voiced by Steve Montgomery
and he was really a great personthat brought people together.

(09:45):
He's one of those guys.
If you hadn't seen him for twoyears you could pick up on your
conversation Like no time hasbeen lost at all.
But he just was one of thoseinfluential people in the sport
that unfortunately is no longerwith us Now.
In the bio I would love it, ifyou have time just to explore

(10:06):
some of the links I have for him, because I'm going to link some
of his albums.
I'm going to link thepromotional video he did for RC
Unlimiteds and some of thetalents that he did, and in a
minute here I'm going to playone of his songs and in a minute
here I'm going to play one ofhis songs.
And he was such a talented Iuse that word a lot in this

(10:26):
episode talented musicianbecause he was.
He was talented in so manydifferent things, especially
music.
And I'm going to share a songfrom one of his last albums.
The album was Basement Taptapes but the song was called
flight of the u10.
It's kind of a longer song,it's it's a fun song and you're

(10:50):
going to be familiar with someof that because he used a lot of
his own music for backdrop in alot of the museum's videos.
So you're going to hear somemelodies and tunes in there that
you'll pick up on right away.
But if you were someone that wasclose to Don knew him well.
I want you to listen to thissong and just think about the

(11:12):
good times with Don, hispresence at the races, whether
you were RC racer with him, hispresence at Seafair and the
Columbia Cup, if you were amember of the Hydroplane and
Race Club community, because hehad a large impact with that
community as well, or maybe youurged a friend that knew him

(11:33):
well, or maybe he touched youmusically because I know he did
instruct and influence a lot ofpeople in that community as well
, because I know he did instructand influence a lot of people
in that community as well.
I want you to listen to thissong because I feel like this
song embodies Don and his workas he bridged the gap of
bringing some of his lovestogether of music and
hydroplanes.
And maybe you have somefavorite memories of Don.

(11:55):
Think about those as you listento this song and afterwards, if
you don't mind, I'd love tohear them from you.
Comment on social media andshare some memories you have of
Don and, as I said before insome of my posts and whatnot,
but he was a racing father to me.
I lost my dad almost 20 yearsago and whenever I saw him he

(12:20):
was always looking after me.
Really thought of him as anextended part of my family.
So this is for you, don, miss,you Look forward to seeing you
on the other side.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
The World of Music.
Music no-transcript.