October 14, 2025 • 32 mins
A phone connection to Detroit’s past opens into a story of risk, grit, and craft. I sit down with legendary hydroplane driver Tom D’Eath to trace the path from a kid on a bike chasing the sound of engines to a champion whose name echoes on the Detroit River. Tom walks us through the early pull of the sport, including family boatyard days, outboard marathons, and the intoxicating feel of 135 hydros that smelled like alcohol and danger. If you love racing history, high-performance mindset, and the decisions that define a career, you’ll find plenty to savor here.
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*Photo from the Roger Newton Collection
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (02:35):
Startups started 1450.
(03:17):
The first week that we have withincorporating the storage code
with the first time.
I don't think that's that kindof thing again.
But it's the characteristics,the toughest and the grip that
he had driver to be able toovercome and first of the go
through the different challengesthat hide in racing has.
(03:39):
Well, I don't need to talk moreabout it.
Let's jump in.
Let's end up part one of myinterview with Tom DeEath.
I'm sitting down here talkingwith legendary hyphen racer Tom
DeEath via phone.
Tom, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_00 (03:55):
I'm doing actually pretty good for 81 years old.
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
Good to hear that.
Good to hear that.
Excited to hear that you're kindof come out and uh and and watch
uh some races here in a coupleweeks at Tri-Cities and in
Seattle.
SPEAKER_00 (04:10):
Yeah, I've got my flight reservations and uh it's
kind of like uh you know on mybucket list, maybe one last time
to come out west to watch Pascoand Seattle, uh two of the uh
favorite race courses.
SPEAKER_01 (04:27):
Yeah, that's uh it's it'll be fun to see out there,
and it's I'm sure you have a lotof memories from from racing out
there.
Was is that truly one of yourfavor your favorite race sites
that you went to?
SPEAKER_00 (04:38):
Well, it it it certainly had a lot of favorite
memories on and off, you know,and and obviously some agony of
defeat memories too, but uh butuh you know that's all goes with
the territory, you know.
Yeah when you when you become ayou know professional boat
racer, which I never had anyintention of doing when I was
(04:58):
young, it just kind of evolvedthat way.
SPEAKER_01 (05:02):
Okay, all right.
Well, let's talk about that whenyou started racing.
I believe you were 14 or so,Michigan native, began racing
outboards.
Uh right.
Was this just for fun or or didyou didn't really have big
ambitions for it?
SPEAKER_00 (05:15):
Uh no, I obviously my father was a big influence
because we had a uh you know aboatyard on Ashland Avenue,
which was on the Fox Creek Canalthat led to the Detroit River.
And obviously uh that was veryclose to where the traditional
uh Detroit race course was,where you know, uh even before I
(05:38):
was born, they were runningsleepstakes races, Harmsworth
Trophy, Silver Cup, DetroitMemorial, uh once in a while the
Gold Cup.
Uh so Detroit had as many asthree races a summer, so we
could hear the boats testing uskids.
I'm talking about, you know, Iwas probably 11, 12 years old,
(06:00):
and we'd get on our bicycles andwe would ride down to Keynes,
which is where the pit area was.
So it took us a while to getthere, and by the time we got
there, you know, we probablymissed the testing, but we at
least saw the boats, you know,coming out of the water and and
the teams around the boats, youknow.
So because at that time Keynes,which was a marina right there
(06:24):
by Sinbad's and across from thethe Detroit Yacht Club is where
all the boats got launched, youknow.
So uh yeah, so the interest wasthere.
Uh magazines my father had,obviously, and uh, you know, of
course, way back then uh wedidn't get a television until
1952.
(06:44):
So uh uh, you know, we picked upuh literature boating magazines
uh and read and of course I wentthrough them pretty fast looking
for the results of the races orstories about race boats, you
know.
And that's when I got theinterest to want to get a race
(07:05):
boat.
I was probably twelve.
And my dad told me that if youever earn enough money, son, uh
you know, we'll talk about it.
So that that's how the uh theember got you know turned into a
small flame.
SPEAKER_01 (07:22):
Well then that fl that flame continued to grow
throughout your life.
SPEAKER_00 (07:26):
It did.
I uh you know, all I reallywanted to do, my favorite class
uh at that time was called the135 cubic inch hydroplane class.
And I thought they were just thecoolest boats, uh uh, you know.
They had Ford V860 flatheadmotors in them, and they smelt
really cool.
(07:46):
They had alcohol for fuel, andthey all had cool names and they
all were tiny, 13 and a half,fourteen feet long.
And so, but you couldn't drivethose or race those until you
were sixteen.
And APBA wouldn't allow uh uhyou know, young people, and I
wasn't even fourteen yet, youknow, for that.
(08:08):
So that's the reason I decided,well, the first thing I would
love to do is get you know, uhan outboard race boat.
And and I thought marathonracing would be a good way to go
because uh y you're on the waterlonger, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (08:25):
Yeah, true.
SPEAKER_00 (08:27):
My very first race was the Detroit News, Bell Al
Outboard Marathon, and it wasfifty miles, and I had a
Sidcraft and uh hand throttleand a seven and a half
horsepower Mercury, and we wenttwenty-five miles downriver
under the Ambassador Bridge andthe Bell Al Bridge.
(08:47):
So my first race was on theDetroit River, all the way down
to Wyandotte and turn around andcome back, you know.
So that was my very firstexperience in a sanctioned race.
And of course they ran A utilityor yeah, A utility, B Utility,
36, C Utility, and D utility.
(09:07):
Those were the faster guys, youknow, with the uh fift 40
horsepower motors, I guess, backthen.
Wow.
So that was that was it.
Now I I couldn't get enough ofthat, you know.
So and of course, all at theamateur level, and I'll even
back up.
I was always kind of amechanical uh guy, and I had
(09:29):
paper outs, two of them, and Icarried groceries, cut lawns,
rake leaves, did anything Icould.
I was fascinated with money.
Uh couldn't wait till I couldtake my nickels, dimes, and
quarters to the the CommonwealthBank.
And back then you had a bankbook, and when you put all that
all your money up on thecounter, the lady counted it and
(09:49):
she added it into your bankbook, you know.
And so I look at that.
And I collected coins too, soobviously when you're young, you
know, and you're getting paidwith change, you're looking at
dates and stuff saving the goodones, and obviously, or the ones
you already have collected.
And so I did that a lot.
So but that's how I raise money.
SPEAKER_02 (10:10):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (10:11):
Kind of stuff to uh, you know, support my goal to
someday, you know, uh end upwith a 135 cubic inch hydro,
which became the 150 cubic inchclass.
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (10:25):
Yeah.
Well, it's a it's a dangeroussport to enter if you're
fascinated with money, right?
SPEAKER_00 (10:28):
Because you're it it takes a lot of money to you
start off with a fortune and youturn it into a small one, you
know.
SPEAKER_01 (10:37):
Yeah.
Well, uh growing up in that thattime frame and that in your
area, you had some huge names inthe sport.
Uh we did.
I'm sure I'm sure you had somepeople you looked up to.
Did you have any mentors growingup?
SPEAKER_00 (10:50):
Uh people you just looked up to in the They were
almost all the drivers, youknow, of course, us kids, we you
know, we we wouldn't get muchinformation because we were
either sneaking around the pitsor sneaking to a place where we
could watch them.
And so we got to know who thedrivers were by the colors of
(11:12):
their shirts uh or their helmetsand stuff like that.
So uh we did uh were drawn todrivers like uh Wild Bill
Cantrell with the star on hishelmet and Danny Foster.
Um, you know, he drove a lot ofdifferent boats, uh, but
whatever he got into, we knewhe'd usually win with it.
(11:33):
Chuck Thompson was another onethat and of course the Miss
Pepsi was the favorite of a lotof the kids because of Pepsi
Cola.
And uh and we liked the Canadiandrivers too.
Bob Hayward was uh you know,such a gentleman, drove uh with
an orange kapok jacket, but hehad a collared white shirt and
long sleeves.
(11:54):
So he was kind of like gettinginto the office, you know.
He was a businessman lookinguntil he put the life jacket on,
you know.
Right.
So yeah, there were there were alot of, you know, and of course
we knew about Lee Shahneth, andwe knew about you know uh uh
quite a few of the otherdrivers.
And then I was very much in tunewith limited inboard racing.
(12:16):
So I knew uh uh Donnie Wilsonran a 135, uh Ronnie Muson drove
a bunch of different boats, uhbecause I went to some of the
races with my father, and so youknow, uh we got to see uh Chuck
Hunter, Buddy Byers.
Uh so there was a lot of peoplethat that I admired.
(12:37):
Did any of those at that timeinfluence me?
Only enough to keep that amberburning to where I wanted to get
at 135 and race inboardhydroplanes.
SPEAKER_02 (12:49):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (12:50):
Later on, there was a few people that did.
I could mention names.
Uh the guy that really taught mehow to start was a guy named Ed
Barko.
He was from downriver, and hisuh he had uh a 135 and a 136.
His boats were called theVagabond.
And uh he was he was like reallyuh the kingpin at that time in
(13:13):
the 135 class.
Another guy, Bob Lukenhoff,drove for my father, 135.
And uh so that was the classthat I really was fascinated
with, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (13:25):
So uh it was probably more of a driver's
class, too, right?
SPEAKER_00 (13:31):
Yeah, because uh it was real remember back back then
when I first fell in love withthat class, there was no such
thing as a 136, one four whichbecame one forty-five.
There was no such thing as a twohundred eighty.
There was, you know, there wasno such thing as uh, you know,
the stock classes.
They basically were 48s, 135s,225s, 266, and 7 liter, you
(13:56):
know, and and that was it.
Uh the stock classes didn't comeinto play until much later.
Which would be the 145 classtoday, like I guess they call it
two and a half stock, and youknow, the those classes all
evolved from the modifiedclasses when uh, you know,
obviously they had uh those wereexpensive classes to get into.
(14:19):
So the 136 class basically wasthe same V860, same boat, but a
two-barrel barrel carburetor ongasoline went much slower,
obviously.
SPEAKER_01 (14:30):
Well, well, fun yeah, fun fun times to think
back on.
SPEAKER_00 (14:33):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (14:35):
But you know, just a few years later in the 70s, uh
George Simon hired you on todrive his Missy West, and you
were his last last driver there.
And like you said, you weren'tlooking for being a professional
racer, but you became one andmade a pretty big name on the
unlimited circuit.
You won 50 years ago the uh 1976Gold Cup in Detroit.
SPEAKER_00 (14:59):
Uh yeah, that would be next summer, is the 50th
anniversary, June the 27th.
My first victory was the Garwoodtrophy race, uh just uh it was
June the 29th, just past uh the50th anniversary of that.
But yeah, before that, uh I'llI'll back up a little bit
(15:20):
because I certainly was kind ofuh I finally did get out of
outboards after I was, you know,I raced those two years.
So when I became sixteen, uh thefirst boat that I was able to
get my hands on, because Icouldn't afford a 135, was a
burnout 280.
And uh I uh spent the wholewinter in the garage behind the
(15:42):
house uh cutting out littlepieces of wood with my brother's
help too.
Yeah, Roger, I had an olderbrother.
Was he wasn't interested inracing like I was at that time.
And so uh that really is thefirst boat uh, you know, that I
uh got to race.
Uh we went down to Cincinnati,Ohio, and uh unfortunately it
(16:06):
was a tragic race, uh nofatality, but my very first heat
of racing and this is the truth,uh uh you know, in the outboards
I was making good starts even inthe marathon races.
So I I learned how to, you know,make decent starts.
And so uh in the 280, in my veryfirst heat of racing, an
(16:29):
inboard, I was sixteen and Imade a beautiful start, and
nobody's around me.
I'm heading for the first turnway on the outside because I
kind of figured I should be awayfrom the fast guys.
And of course I backed off forthe corner way too soon, and I
got passed by everybody, youknow.
(16:50):
Um and the the experienceddrivers wouldn't have backed off
at all, they'd have just hauledit in there, you know.
And I had a guy on the outsideof me, Joe Alby, uh his boat was
called Sir Ron, and he choppedright in front of me.
I thought I was outside, but hewas actually outside of me.
And he blew my goggles off andblack and blue my face, and
(17:11):
everybody went around the turn,and I saw nothing but rooster
tails sitting down the backstretch, and my motor was
sputtering, and finally itcleared out, and I was dead
last, and so I kind of followedthe rooster tails, yeah, and I'm
heading down the back stretch,and uh and all of a sudden I see
rooster tails coming at me, andremember I'm kind of ducking
(17:34):
behind the dashboard a littlebit because I don't have any
goggles on anymore.
My eyes are stinging, and so'smy cheeks, and I'm thinking, oh
my god, I hope I'm not on thewrong straightaway, you know,
because Cincinnati-Ohio River ispretty narrow.
SPEAKER_02 (17:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:48):
But I was on the right straightaway when I got
closer to where these boats wereactually coming at me.
They were coming at me on thebackstretch.
What I didn't know, and I as Igot closer to the halfway point
of the backstretch, I saw aboat, the moonshine baby, uh,
kind of bobbing around with nodriver in it.
(18:08):
Okay.
And then I looked and I saw uhthere was the back of an orange
helmet, because you know, backthen we had not even Gentex
jackets, we had K Pok jackets,and the drivers were pretty low
in the water, so all you saw wasthe helmet.
unknown (18:23):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (18:23):
And it had a bubble shield on it, and when he turned
around uh toward me, uh this iswhere the gory part starts, uh
his face shield was all steamedup.
And I'm shutting my boat down,coasting toward him, and he's
waving for help, but his handwas gone and his arm was gone uh
(18:44):
hanging on by a piece of skin.
He had got thrown out of hisboat and one of the other boats
ran over him.
Okay.
And I'm 16 years old.
And so I'm thinking I my boat isslowing down, stopped.
I was almost the first one tohim.
Uh the other two guys that werecoming, the rooster tails that
(19:07):
were coming at me, okay, were EdMorgan and Chuck Thompson Jr.
And uh Ed Morgan and Chuck bothrealized that that the driver
was seriously injured.
And they jumped into the water.
They in fact Morgan was runningdown his deck faster than the
boat was coasting, you know.
(19:28):
And uh anyway, uh long storyshort, uh they jumped in the
water, so I didn't see muchpoint in me, you know, hanging
around watching this.
Ed swam up behind him andgrabbed him behind and and held
his arm really tight.
And I thought I better get toshore because they used to have
what they'd call uh the humanline from the beach to the
(19:51):
ambulance, you know.
And they had people holding armson both sides to have a clear
pathway for the rescue people.
And so I chugged my boat awayfrom there and to the shoreline
and beached it.
My dad came down to me and hesays, What's going on?
And I I said, Better get thehuman line, because uh the
(20:12):
driver lost his arm.
And I didn't know it, but theguy's wife was standing right
there, so very traumatic.
Uh obviously, he he survived, helived, he went on to race again
with one arm and became a goodfriend of mine.
But on the way home, my dad saidto me, uh, because he was
(20:33):
driving the car and stuff andtowing my race road with my
mother, and he says, Uh, son,you sure you want to do this?
SPEAKER_02 (20:41):
Yeah, oh my God.
SPEAKER_00 (20:43):
Yeah, so that was my very first inboard hydroplane
race.
SPEAKER_01 (20:47):
Wow, yeah, that that would make a huge impression on
your own.
Oh, it did, it did.
SPEAKER_00 (20:52):
Uh so I made it a point to visit him, obviously,
when he came home.
He was from the Detroit area.
SPEAKER_02 (20:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (20:59):
And uh, we became really good friends, and uh so
but that's that's the story ofmy first inboard hydroplane
race.
Obviously, I continued on, sobut I did learn a lot from from
that experience, yes.
SPEAKER_02 (21:17):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:18):
So, and and to get to the George Simon thing,
remember, I'm still don't knowdiddly squat about uh race
boats.
I'm trying to figure this stuffout on myself.
Yeah, I didn't know a lock nutfrom a farmer's nut, and uh and
so the first few races I went tothe dashboard would get loose
(21:39):
and fall out.
And of course, you kind of learnfrom what you what what you did
wrong, you know.
Fortunately, I didn't get inanybody's way too much.
My dad really wasn't mechanical,so he kind of just let me figure
it out on my own, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (21:55):
Okay, the trial by fire.
SPEAKER_00 (21:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:58):
And I finally did get rid of the 280, and uh and I
was this is a funny story, buttrue.
I was uh engaged to be marriedto Judy, and I was saving money
uh to get married, and I hadtwelve hundred dollars saved up.
And I still had the two eightyand I saw an ad for a
(22:22):
laughterback hydroplane.
Uh Shorty Hogarth was sellinghis uh 150 cubic inch
hydroplane, Shorty's LauderbackSpecial.
Fifteen hundred dollars boatmotor trailer.
Oh wow.
And I didn't want anybody toknow what I was doing.
I had a good job, I was workingat General Motors and and I was
gonna get married that fall.
(22:43):
And so I borrowed three hundreduh more dollars from my
grandmother and took my twelvehundred out of the bank and I I
drove straight to Portsmouth,Virginia, and bought my first
one fifty cubic inch hydroplate.
SPEAKER_02 (23:02):
There you go.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
Needless to say, that didn't go well with
anybody, you know, except me.
SPEAKER_01 (23:08):
Right, right, right.
Oh well that's that's a racerright there.
That's a racer.
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
So I I actually won, you know, I was trying to win a
heat of racing, let alone arace, you know.
But and I actually did win oneheat of racing.
Uh that uh uh that's what I wasaspiring to at least win a heat,
let alone a race.
And I did do that with the 280in Chicago, the uh in a rock
(23:35):
quarry.
It was a short course, and I uhelimination heat, I got a first
place there.
And in fact, I still have thetrophy.
I ended up third overall.
That was the first trophy I everwon.
SPEAKER_02 (23:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (23:46):
And uh and then the lauder back that I bought uh
from Shorty Hogarth, uh, I wentto Charleston, West Virginia the
same year that I bought that,and uh that was my first
victory, uh where I won bothheats.
So but I still didn't know whatI was doing, okay.
(24:06):
And uh so anyway, long storyshort, there were there was one
particular person.
I mean, when Judy and I gotmarried, uh we both had great
jobs and no kids yet, and ofcourse Vietnam was hanging over
everybody.
Yeah um there was an opportunityto go to Florida and so I did
(24:32):
that because uh there was amarina, take over the lease,
thousand dollars down, take overthe lease.
So we were newly married, weboth quit our jobs and we moved
to Florida and took over thelease of this marina, and that's
the key part of how I got betterand uh uh more knowledgeable
(24:52):
about how to uh race a boat andrace smart.
Okay.
Uh and he owned a seven-litercalled Sunshine Baby.
unknown (25:07):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
And Ray kind of took me under his wing.
He saw something in me, becausethere's a lot of people in the
St.
Pete area that race boats.
Right.
And young people.
But uh Judy and I were new, andMeredith, his wife, and Ray, of
course, he was in the marinabusiness, and so was I.
Obviously, I was a competitor,but and I had a lot of back, and
(25:28):
so did he.
His was a seven liter, mine wasa one fifty.
So I don't know if that hadanything to do with it, but he
must have seen something in methat he didn't see in any of the
locals.
And uh so he started guiding myuh experience and taught me how
to win as slowly as possible.
Tom, don't let the boat don'tmake the boat do something it
(25:50):
doesn't like to do.
It's smarter than you are, letit do what it likes to do, you
know.
So he told me how to taught meover time, you know, how to hide
the buoy, how to do a lot ofmechanical stuff to be make my
motor better.
But so he really uh mentored me,and then I started driving his
seven liter when he couldn'tanymore.
(26:10):
And and of course, then Istarted winning the bigger
races.
So without the Sunshine Baby,there never would have been a
Miss US.
SPEAKER_02 (26:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:20):
George Simon called my father uh and wanted to find
out which one because Roger wasracing by then, which one of the
two boys drives the seven liter,and what possessed George to
call my dad, I don't know.
Who advised him to call my dad?
(26:41):
I don't know.
Okay, but he knew about medriving a seven liter and
winning races in Ray Gasner,Sunshine Baby, H57.
And so uh that was he said,Well, that'd be Tom.
So I want Tom to call me, iswhat George told my father, and
give him my contact information.
(27:02):
So that's how that's how thatbegan.
SPEAKER_02 (27:04):
Wow.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (27:07):
So without the Sunshine Baby, there never would
have been some beats and a Ms.
US.
Absolutely would never havehappened.
SPEAKER_01 (27:15):
That's pretty wild to think about this all the
steps you had to go through toto get that position.
Uh I mean, a lot of a lot ofthings in life, right?
If something doesn't happen,you're not gonna get that end
goal.
SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
Exactly.
And again, I'm still doing thisat an amateur level.
And uh, you know, uh, and Ididn't I mean Ray took a lot of
time with me teaching me how torun with the educated right
foot.
And so uh because a Hemi enginewith a supercharger fuel
injected on methanol with uh allthe horsepower that thing had,
(27:48):
Don Gartlett's helped uh Doc,you know, Doc Hardin and him and
Ray build the motors.
So there was no lack ofhorsepower there, trust me.
SPEAKER_01 (27:59):
I'm sure that was fun to drive.
SPEAKER_00 (28:01):
Oh, it was uh an eye-opening experience, and and
to this day, that's the onlyboat that I have never, and this
is the truth, I was never ableto ever run that thing on the
mat wide open.
I never got to the bottom with awith the right pedal.
Never.
I tried, and I was full of a lotof brave back then, but trust
(28:24):
me, it had its own, you know,and I kept listening to what Ray
told me, you know, don't try andmake the boat do what it doesn't
want to do, it'll bite you.
Let it do what it likes to do.
So I was trying to, you know,run that thing exactly the way
that he was teaching me how torun it.
And uh and then when thingsstarted clicking between the
(28:48):
boat and Ray's patience and me,uh we started beating everybody.
Boats that we shouldn't beat.
I mean we had plenty of speed onthe straightaway, but it was an
older boat with a narrow transomand the new cabovers were coming
out, so it was uh uh you knowquite a challenge uh with that
boat.
(29:08):
And the biggest race I I thinkwas the turning point that I won
with that.
He always wanted to win theSouthland sweepstakes, which was
the St.
Petersburg free-for-all at theend of a regatta weekend.
SPEAKER_02 (29:20):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (29:21):
And uh and there was a whole fleet.
I won the seven-liter race thatweekend and against the boats
that would be in thefree-for-all, the Southland
sweepstakes.
And of course, I finally won theSouthland sweepstakes for Ray
Gaster and Sunshine boat, neverraced again.
Wow.
Never raced again.
Yeah.
(29:41):
So so that was uh you know, thatwas the beginning of the end of
my amateur career, let's put itthat way.
SPEAKER_01 (29:50):
Okay.
Well, well, let's talk aboutyour professional career.
Um because you got a lot ofgreat accolades and wins and
championships in the unless.
Unlimited ranks as well asinboard racing.
But we're going to pause here,knuckleheads, and we're going to
get back to this episode nextweek.
It's a cliffhanger, I know.
I can hear you groaning from mystudios.
(30:11):
But we're going to jump back innext week and talk to Tom more
about his start of his unlimitedracing career and the process he
went through in Unlimited Rinks.
I hope you enjoyed part one.
Don't forget to come back nextweek for part two.
In the meantime, check us outonline.
We're on social media, onFacebook, Instagram, as well as
our website, RichotellTalk.com.
(30:33):
And when you're on the website,check out Richardel Talk Plus, a
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And in exchange, you're enteredinto a monthly raffle drawing.
You can win numerous prizes, aswell as early entry to all new
episodes, and some many more funprizes along the way.
But that's all I got for youthis week.
(30:54):
So until next time, I hope tosee you at the races.
Startups started 1450.
(03:17):
The first week that we have withincorporating the storage code
with the first time.
I don't think that's that kindof thing again.
But it's the characteristics,the toughest and the grip that
he had driver to be able toovercome and first of the go
through the different challengesthat hide in racing has.
(03:39):
Well, I don't need to talk moreabout it.
Let's jump in.
Let's end up part one of myinterview with Tom DeEath.
I'm sitting down here talkingwith legendary hyphen racer Tom
DeEath via phone.
Tom, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_00 (03:55):
I'm doing actually pretty good for 81 years old.
SPEAKER_01 (04:00):
Good to hear that.
Good to hear that.
Excited to hear that you're kindof come out and uh and and watch
uh some races here in a coupleweeks at Tri-Cities and in
Seattle.
SPEAKER_00 (04:10):
Yeah, I've got my flight reservations and uh it's
kind of like uh you know on mybucket list, maybe one last time
to come out west to watch Pascoand Seattle, uh two of the uh
favorite race courses.
SPEAKER_01 (04:27):
Yeah, that's uh it's it'll be fun to see out there,
and it's I'm sure you have a lotof memories from from racing out
there.
Was is that truly one of yourfavor your favorite race sites
that you went to?
SPEAKER_00 (04:38):
Well, it it it certainly had a lot of favorite
memories on and off, you know,and and obviously some agony of
defeat memories too, but uh butuh you know that's all goes with
the territory, you know.
Yeah when you when you become ayou know professional boat
racer, which I never had anyintention of doing when I was
(04:58):
young, it just kind of evolvedthat way.
SPEAKER_01 (05:02):
Okay, all right.
Well, let's talk about that whenyou started racing.
I believe you were 14 or so,Michigan native, began racing
outboards.
Uh right.
Was this just for fun or or didyou didn't really have big
ambitions for it?
SPEAKER_00 (05:15):
Uh no, I obviously my father was a big influence
because we had a uh you know aboatyard on Ashland Avenue,
which was on the Fox Creek Canalthat led to the Detroit River.
And obviously uh that was veryclose to where the traditional
uh Detroit race course was,where you know, uh even before I
(05:38):
was born, they were runningsleepstakes races, Harmsworth
Trophy, Silver Cup, DetroitMemorial, uh once in a while the
Gold Cup.
Uh so Detroit had as many asthree races a summer, so we
could hear the boats testing uskids.
I'm talking about, you know, Iwas probably 11, 12 years old,
(06:00):
and we'd get on our bicycles andwe would ride down to Keynes,
which is where the pit area was.
So it took us a while to getthere, and by the time we got
there, you know, we probablymissed the testing, but we at
least saw the boats, you know,coming out of the water and and
the teams around the boats, youknow.
So because at that time Keynes,which was a marina right there
(06:24):
by Sinbad's and across from thethe Detroit Yacht Club is where
all the boats got launched, youknow.
So uh yeah, so the interest wasthere.
Uh magazines my father had,obviously, and uh, you know, of
course, way back then uh wedidn't get a television until
1952.
(06:44):
So uh uh, you know, we picked upuh literature boating magazines
uh and read and of course I wentthrough them pretty fast looking
for the results of the races orstories about race boats, you
know.
And that's when I got theinterest to want to get a race
(07:05):
boat.
I was probably twelve.
And my dad told me that if youever earn enough money, son, uh
you know, we'll talk about it.
So that that's how the uh theember got you know turned into a
small flame.
SPEAKER_01 (07:22):
Well then that fl that flame continued to grow
throughout your life.
SPEAKER_00 (07:26):
It did.
I uh you know, all I reallywanted to do, my favorite class
uh at that time was called the135 cubic inch hydroplane class.
And I thought they were just thecoolest boats, uh uh, you know.
They had Ford V860 flatheadmotors in them, and they smelt
really cool.
(07:46):
They had alcohol for fuel, andthey all had cool names and they
all were tiny, 13 and a half,fourteen feet long.
And so, but you couldn't drivethose or race those until you
were sixteen.
And APBA wouldn't allow uh uhyou know, young people, and I
wasn't even fourteen yet, youknow, for that.
(08:08):
So that's the reason I decided,well, the first thing I would
love to do is get you know, uhan outboard race boat.
And and I thought marathonracing would be a good way to go
because uh y you're on the waterlonger, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (08:25):
Yeah, true.
SPEAKER_00 (08:27):
My very first race was the Detroit News, Bell Al
Outboard Marathon, and it wasfifty miles, and I had a
Sidcraft and uh hand throttleand a seven and a half
horsepower Mercury, and we wenttwenty-five miles downriver
under the Ambassador Bridge andthe Bell Al Bridge.
(08:47):
So my first race was on theDetroit River, all the way down
to Wyandotte and turn around andcome back, you know.
So that was my very firstexperience in a sanctioned race.
And of course they ran A utilityor yeah, A utility, B Utility,
36, C Utility, and D utility.
(09:07):
Those were the faster guys, youknow, with the uh fift 40
horsepower motors, I guess, backthen.
Wow.
So that was that was it.
Now I I couldn't get enough ofthat, you know.
So and of course, all at theamateur level, and I'll even
back up.
I was always kind of amechanical uh guy, and I had
(09:29):
paper outs, two of them, and Icarried groceries, cut lawns,
rake leaves, did anything Icould.
I was fascinated with money.
Uh couldn't wait till I couldtake my nickels, dimes, and
quarters to the the CommonwealthBank.
And back then you had a bankbook, and when you put all that
all your money up on thecounter, the lady counted it and
(09:49):
she added it into your bankbook, you know.
And so I look at that.
And I collected coins too, soobviously when you're young, you
know, and you're getting paidwith change, you're looking at
dates and stuff saving the goodones, and obviously, or the ones
you already have collected.
And so I did that a lot.
So but that's how I raise money.
SPEAKER_02 (10:10):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (10:11):
Kind of stuff to uh, you know, support my goal to
someday, you know, uh end upwith a 135 cubic inch hydro,
which became the 150 cubic inchclass.
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (10:25):
Yeah.
Well, it's a it's a dangeroussport to enter if you're
fascinated with money, right?
SPEAKER_00 (10:28):
Because you're it it takes a lot of money to you
start off with a fortune and youturn it into a small one, you
know.
SPEAKER_01 (10:37):
Yeah.
Well, uh growing up in that thattime frame and that in your
area, you had some huge names inthe sport.
Uh we did.
I'm sure I'm sure you had somepeople you looked up to.
Did you have any mentors growingup?
SPEAKER_00 (10:50):
Uh people you just looked up to in the They were
almost all the drivers, youknow, of course, us kids, we you
know, we we wouldn't get muchinformation because we were
either sneaking around the pitsor sneaking to a place where we
could watch them.
And so we got to know who thedrivers were by the colors of
(11:12):
their shirts uh or their helmetsand stuff like that.
So uh we did uh were drawn todrivers like uh Wild Bill
Cantrell with the star on hishelmet and Danny Foster.
Um, you know, he drove a lot ofdifferent boats, uh, but
whatever he got into, we knewhe'd usually win with it.
(11:33):
Chuck Thompson was another onethat and of course the Miss
Pepsi was the favorite of a lotof the kids because of Pepsi
Cola.
And uh and we liked the Canadiandrivers too.
Bob Hayward was uh you know,such a gentleman, drove uh with
an orange kapok jacket, but hehad a collared white shirt and
long sleeves.
(11:54):
So he was kind of like gettinginto the office, you know.
He was a businessman lookinguntil he put the life jacket on,
you know.
Right.
So yeah, there were there were alot of, you know, and of course
we knew about Lee Shahneth, andwe knew about you know uh uh
quite a few of the otherdrivers.
And then I was very much in tunewith limited inboard racing.
(12:16):
So I knew uh uh Donnie Wilsonran a 135, uh Ronnie Muson drove
a bunch of different boats, uhbecause I went to some of the
races with my father, and so youknow, uh we got to see uh Chuck
Hunter, Buddy Byers.
Uh so there was a lot of peoplethat that I admired.
(12:37):
Did any of those at that timeinfluence me?
Only enough to keep that amberburning to where I wanted to get
at 135 and race inboardhydroplanes.
SPEAKER_02 (12:49):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (12:50):
Later on, there was a few people that did.
I could mention names.
Uh the guy that really taught mehow to start was a guy named Ed
Barko.
He was from downriver, and hisuh he had uh a 135 and a 136.
His boats were called theVagabond.
And uh he was he was like reallyuh the kingpin at that time in
(13:13):
the 135 class.
Another guy, Bob Lukenhoff,drove for my father, 135.
And uh so that was the classthat I really was fascinated
with, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (13:25):
So uh it was probably more of a driver's
class, too, right?
SPEAKER_00 (13:31):
Yeah, because uh it was real remember back back then
when I first fell in love withthat class, there was no such
thing as a 136, one four whichbecame one forty-five.
There was no such thing as a twohundred eighty.
There was, you know, there wasno such thing as uh, you know,
the stock classes.
They basically were 48s, 135s,225s, 266, and 7 liter, you
(13:56):
know, and and that was it.
Uh the stock classes didn't comeinto play until much later.
Which would be the 145 classtoday, like I guess they call it
two and a half stock, and youknow, the those classes all
evolved from the modifiedclasses when uh, you know,
obviously they had uh those wereexpensive classes to get into.
(14:19):
So the 136 class basically wasthe same V860, same boat, but a
two-barrel barrel carburetor ongasoline went much slower,
obviously.
SPEAKER_01 (14:30):
Well, well, fun yeah, fun fun times to think
back on.
SPEAKER_00 (14:33):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (14:35):
But you know, just a few years later in the 70s, uh
George Simon hired you on todrive his Missy West, and you
were his last last driver there.
And like you said, you weren'tlooking for being a professional
racer, but you became one andmade a pretty big name on the
unlimited circuit.
You won 50 years ago the uh 1976Gold Cup in Detroit.
SPEAKER_00 (14:59):
Uh yeah, that would be next summer, is the 50th
anniversary, June the 27th.
My first victory was the Garwoodtrophy race, uh just uh it was
June the 29th, just past uh the50th anniversary of that.
But yeah, before that, uh I'llI'll back up a little bit
(15:20):
because I certainly was kind ofuh I finally did get out of
outboards after I was, you know,I raced those two years.
So when I became sixteen, uh thefirst boat that I was able to
get my hands on, because Icouldn't afford a 135, was a
burnout 280.
And uh I uh spent the wholewinter in the garage behind the
(15:42):
house uh cutting out littlepieces of wood with my brother's
help too.
Yeah, Roger, I had an olderbrother.
Was he wasn't interested inracing like I was at that time.
And so uh that really is thefirst boat uh, you know, that I
uh got to race.
Uh we went down to Cincinnati,Ohio, and uh unfortunately it
(16:06):
was a tragic race, uh nofatality, but my very first heat
of racing and this is the truth,uh uh you know, in the outboards
I was making good starts even inthe marathon races.
So I I learned how to, you know,make decent starts.
And so uh in the 280, in my veryfirst heat of racing, an
(16:29):
inboard, I was sixteen and Imade a beautiful start, and
nobody's around me.
I'm heading for the first turnway on the outside because I
kind of figured I should be awayfrom the fast guys.
And of course I backed off forthe corner way too soon, and I
got passed by everybody, youknow.
(16:50):
Um and the the experienceddrivers wouldn't have backed off
at all, they'd have just hauledit in there, you know.
And I had a guy on the outsideof me, Joe Alby, uh his boat was
called Sir Ron, and he choppedright in front of me.
I thought I was outside, but hewas actually outside of me.
And he blew my goggles off andblack and blue my face, and
(17:11):
everybody went around the turn,and I saw nothing but rooster
tails sitting down the backstretch, and my motor was
sputtering, and finally itcleared out, and I was dead
last, and so I kind of followedthe rooster tails, yeah, and I'm
heading down the back stretch,and uh and all of a sudden I see
rooster tails coming at me, andremember I'm kind of ducking
(17:34):
behind the dashboard a littlebit because I don't have any
goggles on anymore.
My eyes are stinging, and so'smy cheeks, and I'm thinking, oh
my god, I hope I'm not on thewrong straightaway, you know,
because Cincinnati-Ohio River ispretty narrow.
SPEAKER_02 (17:47):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:48):
But I was on the right straightaway when I got
closer to where these boats wereactually coming at me.
They were coming at me on thebackstretch.
What I didn't know, and I as Igot closer to the halfway point
of the backstretch, I saw aboat, the moonshine baby, uh,
kind of bobbing around with nodriver in it.
(18:08):
Okay.
And then I looked and I saw uhthere was the back of an orange
helmet, because you know, backthen we had not even Gentex
jackets, we had K Pok jackets,and the drivers were pretty low
in the water, so all you saw wasthe helmet.
unknown (18:23):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (18:23):
And it had a bubble shield on it, and when he turned
around uh toward me, uh this iswhere the gory part starts, uh
his face shield was all steamedup.
And I'm shutting my boat down,coasting toward him, and he's
waving for help, but his handwas gone and his arm was gone uh
(18:44):
hanging on by a piece of skin.
He had got thrown out of hisboat and one of the other boats
ran over him.
Okay.
And I'm 16 years old.
And so I'm thinking I my boat isslowing down, stopped.
I was almost the first one tohim.
Uh the other two guys that werecoming, the rooster tails that
(19:07):
were coming at me, okay, were EdMorgan and Chuck Thompson Jr.
And uh Ed Morgan and Chuck bothrealized that that the driver
was seriously injured.
And they jumped into the water.
They in fact Morgan was runningdown his deck faster than the
boat was coasting, you know.
(19:28):
And uh anyway, uh long storyshort, uh they jumped in the
water, so I didn't see muchpoint in me, you know, hanging
around watching this.
Ed swam up behind him andgrabbed him behind and and held
his arm really tight.
And I thought I better get toshore because they used to have
what they'd call uh the humanline from the beach to the
(19:51):
ambulance, you know.
And they had people holding armson both sides to have a clear
pathway for the rescue people.
And so I chugged my boat awayfrom there and to the shoreline
and beached it.
My dad came down to me and hesays, What's going on?
And I I said, Better get thehuman line, because uh the
(20:12):
driver lost his arm.
And I didn't know it, but theguy's wife was standing right
there, so very traumatic.
Uh obviously, he he survived, helived, he went on to race again
with one arm and became a goodfriend of mine.
But on the way home, my dad saidto me, uh, because he was
(20:33):
driving the car and stuff andtowing my race road with my
mother, and he says, Uh, son,you sure you want to do this?
SPEAKER_02 (20:41):
Yeah, oh my God.
SPEAKER_00 (20:43):
Yeah, so that was my very first inboard hydroplane
race.
SPEAKER_01 (20:47):
Wow, yeah, that that would make a huge impression on
your own.
Oh, it did, it did.
SPEAKER_00 (20:52):
Uh so I made it a point to visit him, obviously,
when he came home.
He was from the Detroit area.
SPEAKER_02 (20:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (20:59):
And uh, we became really good friends, and uh so
but that's that's the story ofmy first inboard hydroplane
race.
Obviously, I continued on, sobut I did learn a lot from from
that experience, yes.
SPEAKER_02 (21:17):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:18):
So, and and to get to the George Simon thing,
remember, I'm still don't knowdiddly squat about uh race
boats.
I'm trying to figure this stuffout on myself.
Yeah, I didn't know a lock nutfrom a farmer's nut, and uh and
so the first few races I went tothe dashboard would get loose
(21:39):
and fall out.
And of course, you kind of learnfrom what you what what you did
wrong, you know.
Fortunately, I didn't get inanybody's way too much.
My dad really wasn't mechanical,so he kind of just let me figure
it out on my own, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (21:55):
Okay, the trial by fire.
SPEAKER_00 (21:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:58):
And I finally did get rid of the 280, and uh and I
was this is a funny story, buttrue.
I was uh engaged to be marriedto Judy, and I was saving money
uh to get married, and I hadtwelve hundred dollars saved up.
And I still had the two eightyand I saw an ad for a
(22:22):
laughterback hydroplane.
Uh Shorty Hogarth was sellinghis uh 150 cubic inch
hydroplane, Shorty's LauderbackSpecial.
Fifteen hundred dollars boatmotor trailer.
Oh wow.
And I didn't want anybody toknow what I was doing.
I had a good job, I was workingat General Motors and and I was
gonna get married that fall.
(22:43):
And so I borrowed three hundreduh more dollars from my
grandmother and took my twelvehundred out of the bank and I I
drove straight to Portsmouth,Virginia, and bought my first
one fifty cubic inch hydroplate.
SPEAKER_02 (23:02):
There you go.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
Needless to say, that didn't go well with
anybody, you know, except me.
SPEAKER_01 (23:08):
Right, right, right.
Oh well that's that's a racerright there.
That's a racer.
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
So I I actually won, you know, I was trying to win a
heat of racing, let alone arace, you know.
But and I actually did win oneheat of racing.
Uh that uh uh that's what I wasaspiring to at least win a heat,
let alone a race.
And I did do that with the 280in Chicago, the uh in a rock
(23:35):
quarry.
It was a short course, and I uhelimination heat, I got a first
place there.
And in fact, I still have thetrophy.
I ended up third overall.
That was the first trophy I everwon.
SPEAKER_02 (23:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (23:46):
And uh and then the lauder back that I bought uh
from Shorty Hogarth, uh, I wentto Charleston, West Virginia the
same year that I bought that,and uh that was my first
victory, uh where I won bothheats.
So but I still didn't know whatI was doing, okay.
(24:06):
And uh so anyway, long storyshort, there were there was one
particular person.
I mean, when Judy and I gotmarried, uh we both had great
jobs and no kids yet, and ofcourse Vietnam was hanging over
everybody.
Yeah um there was an opportunityto go to Florida and so I did
(24:32):
that because uh there was amarina, take over the lease,
thousand dollars down, take overthe lease.
So we were newly married, weboth quit our jobs and we moved
to Florida and took over thelease of this marina, and that's
the key part of how I got betterand uh uh more knowledgeable
(24:52):
about how to uh race a boat andrace smart.
Okay.
Uh and he owned a seven-litercalled Sunshine Baby.
unknown (25:07):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:08):
And Ray kind of took me under his wing.
He saw something in me, becausethere's a lot of people in the
St.
Pete area that race boats.
Right.
And young people.
But uh Judy and I were new, andMeredith, his wife, and Ray, of
course, he was in the marinabusiness, and so was I.
Obviously, I was a competitor,but and I had a lot of back, and
(25:28):
so did he.
His was a seven liter, mine wasa one fifty.
So I don't know if that hadanything to do with it, but he
must have seen something in methat he didn't see in any of the
locals.
And uh so he started guiding myuh experience and taught me how
to win as slowly as possible.
Tom, don't let the boat don'tmake the boat do something it
(25:50):
doesn't like to do.
It's smarter than you are, letit do what it likes to do, you
know.
So he told me how to taught meover time, you know, how to hide
the buoy, how to do a lot ofmechanical stuff to be make my
motor better.
But so he really uh mentored me,and then I started driving his
seven liter when he couldn'tanymore.
(26:10):
And and of course, then Istarted winning the bigger
races.
So without the Sunshine Baby,there never would have been a
Miss US.
SPEAKER_02 (26:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:20):
George Simon called my father uh and wanted to find
out which one because Roger wasracing by then, which one of the
two boys drives the seven liter,and what possessed George to
call my dad, I don't know.
Who advised him to call my dad?
(26:41):
I don't know.
Okay, but he knew about medriving a seven liter and
winning races in Ray Gasner,Sunshine Baby, H57.
And so uh that was he said,Well, that'd be Tom.
So I want Tom to call me, iswhat George told my father, and
give him my contact information.
(27:02):
So that's how that's how thatbegan.
SPEAKER_02 (27:04):
Wow.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (27:07):
So without the Sunshine Baby, there never would
have been some beats and a Ms.
US.
Absolutely would never havehappened.
SPEAKER_01 (27:15):
That's pretty wild to think about this all the
steps you had to go through toto get that position.
Uh I mean, a lot of a lot ofthings in life, right?
If something doesn't happen,you're not gonna get that end
goal.
SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
Exactly.
And again, I'm still doing thisat an amateur level.
And uh, you know, uh, and Ididn't I mean Ray took a lot of
time with me teaching me how torun with the educated right
foot.
And so uh because a Hemi enginewith a supercharger fuel
injected on methanol with uh allthe horsepower that thing had,
(27:48):
Don Gartlett's helped uh Doc,you know, Doc Hardin and him and
Ray build the motors.
So there was no lack ofhorsepower there, trust me.
SPEAKER_01 (27:59):
I'm sure that was fun to drive.
SPEAKER_00 (28:01):
Oh, it was uh an eye-opening experience, and and
to this day, that's the onlyboat that I have never, and this
is the truth, I was never ableto ever run that thing on the
mat wide open.
I never got to the bottom with awith the right pedal.
Never.
I tried, and I was full of a lotof brave back then, but trust
(28:24):
me, it had its own, you know,and I kept listening to what Ray
told me, you know, don't try andmake the boat do what it doesn't
want to do, it'll bite you.
Let it do what it likes to do.
So I was trying to, you know,run that thing exactly the way
that he was teaching me how torun it.
And uh and then when thingsstarted clicking between the
(28:48):
boat and Ray's patience and me,uh we started beating everybody.
Boats that we shouldn't beat.
I mean we had plenty of speed onthe straightaway, but it was an
older boat with a narrow transomand the new cabovers were coming
out, so it was uh uh you knowquite a challenge uh with that
boat.
(29:08):
And the biggest race I I thinkwas the turning point that I won
with that.
He always wanted to win theSouthland sweepstakes, which was
the St.
Petersburg free-for-all at theend of a regatta weekend.
SPEAKER_02 (29:20):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (29:21):
And uh and there was a whole fleet.
I won the seven-liter race thatweekend and against the boats
that would be in thefree-for-all, the Southland
sweepstakes.
And of course, I finally won theSouthland sweepstakes for Ray
Gaster and Sunshine boat, neverraced again.
Wow.
Never raced again.
Yeah.
(29:41):
So so that was uh you know, thatwas the beginning of the end of
my amateur career, let's put itthat way.
SPEAKER_01 (29:50):
Okay.
Well, well, let's talk aboutyour professional career.
Um because you got a lot ofgreat accolades and wins and
championships in the unless.
Unlimited ranks as well asinboard racing.
But we're going to pause here,knuckleheads, and we're going to
get back to this episode nextweek.
It's a cliffhanger, I know.
I can hear you groaning from mystudios.
(30:11):
But we're going to jump back innext week and talk to Tom more
about his start of his unlimitedracing career and the process he
went through in Unlimited Rinks.
I hope you enjoyed part one.
Don't forget to come back nextweek for part two.
In the meantime, check us outonline.
We're on social media, onFacebook, Instagram, as well as
our website, RichotellTalk.com.
(30:33):
And when you're on the website,check out Richardel Talk Plus, a
subscription-based service whereyou can choose a monthly
donation amount.
And in exchange, you're enteredinto a monthly raffle drawing.
You can win numerous prizes, aswell as early entry to all new
episodes, and some many more funprizes along the way.
But that's all I got for youthis week.
(30:54):
So until next time, I hope tosee you at the races.
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