Drew Herrick sent us 33 New Martinsville Regatta Race Program covers to add to our “Official Race Programs” book (we have almost 325 covers now). I really like this first one he sent from 1953. The Y-333 SHOOTING STAR is a cool boat, cool name, and even his helmet is painted nicely to go with his theme. The Program is kinda neat as it is New Martinsville’s 14th Annual race and they give a tip of the hat by noting A.P.B.A.’s 50th Anniversary on their cover. I also added some other covers that folks have sent us (and a couple of ones we are borrowing from the www). It makes a really neat book seeing all of them together. If you visit, they are arranged by years from oldest to newest.
If you want to see what’s behind those covers, TVH does go more in-depth on some of these Race Programs by scanning/posting the contents an what’s inside on some of these official Race Programs. Those can be found @ https://www.vintagehydroplanes.com/race…/regatta_past.html This webpage will also include NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINE ARTICLES & FIRST-HAND EYEWITNESS STORIES.
Iroquois Chief (Joe Guess built) and Plata Rey and Sumpin’ (both Fred Wickens built) getting ready to for the 5-minute gun in St. Pete 1965.The “Guess Who” Story, article page 1. Click to read both pages.page 22-NCopperhead II 1949 (click to enlarge)F-4 Guess Who Driver – Bob Sykes | Builder/Owner: Joe Guess 1953 (click to enlarge)Z-Z-ZIP
VINTAGE RACERS REDISCOVERED: “After many years of trying, I have been able to purchase the Z-Z-ZIP from Carl Schmidli of North Tonawanda, NY. Carl stored this 1955 Joe Guess raceboat in his pole barn for the last 20 years. He bought the Z-Z-ZIP from Gordie Reed, with the intentions of racing it, but that never happened. To my surprise the boat was kept in beautiful condition. Thanks to her previous owners, Al Brinkman, Gordie Reed and especially Carl. To me the most remarkable aspect is that all the original parts are there and intact. Including the Hi-J record holding propeller, the original aluminum cowlings, and the record setting Clay Smith, Bobbie Sykes and Keith Black DeSoto crossram fuel injected V-8 engine with a Wilber Houghton custom built gearbox. Would you believe that even Sid Street’s aluminum paddle was still in the cockpit! I’m a firm believer of giving credit where credit is due. The story here is Joe Guess. “To say that Joe just built the boat is an understatement. This truly is a work of perfection. Joe carefully planned his boats and the labor assumed the proportion of a career. One year, two years, whatever it took, time meant nothing. This is a masterpiece that equals anything seen at Indianapolis in the way of top quality craftsmanship. The result was a world record in 1958 at 146.945 mph”. Joe Guess built five boats. His first boat, a 135 hydro, was built prior to the WWII. After the war, Joe built two GUESS WHO 266 ci hydroplanes. Bobby Sykes drove the second GUESS WHO to a world record of 121.703 mph in 1952. Another one of his creations was the COPPER HEAD, a 225 ci hydro. The final Joe Guess hull was the Z-Z-ZIP built for Sid Street.” Above from Tom D’Eath’s “From the Vintage Notebook” [Sept. 1999] which was a series of articles that appeared in the American Power Boat Association’s Propeller magazine each month on the happenings of the APBA Vintage & Historic division.
There is a total of 11 newsprint articles from the 1980 NATIONALS in Dayton posted. Visit our media page and scroll down to the “1980 Dayton” articles, then click on each small pic to read the entire newspaper article.
Sorry, missing the last page(s). This article has lots of info on many of the boat engines Keith Black built. If you are on a desktop computer – the best way to view this book is to click the “toggle fullscreen” button, then use your arrow buttons on the keyboard to advance to the next covers. I scanned this at a larger format, so you can “enlarge the pages” to read by clicking the “zoom in” button. When you are done with reading the book, just press your “Esc” (escape) key and your monitor will go back to your normal view.
The flipbook starts out with an interesting 3-page interview from October 1998 with Robert Stack. Other info: From Wikipedia: By the time he was 20, Stack had achieved minor fame as a sportsman. He was an avid polo player and shooter. His brother and him won the International Outboard Motor Championships, in Venice, Italy, and at age 16, he became a member of the All-American Skeet Team. He set two world records in skeet shooting and became national champion. In 1971, he was inducted into the National Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame.” From Encyclopedia: In 1941, Stack’s film career was interrupted by World War II, in which he served as an aerial gunnery instructor in the U.S. Navy. He was absent from the screen from 1942 to 1948. Other photos found on the internet. If copyrighted, let me know and I will remove. Even though he was typically cast as a dramatic actor, I sure enjoyed his comedic parodies in both, Airplane and 1941.
