EIGHT BALL
This is a short story of Jim Townsend of Port Arthur, Texas
and a series of boats he campaigned under the name EIGHT BALL.

Eight Ball III, A-6
Jim Townsend | Port Arthur, Texas 1941
Built by Ventnor
The boat was originally owned Henry Davis, Jr. and when Jim Townsend was attending the
1941 Gold Cup in Detroit he saw the boat and purchased it on the spot.

Grey Goose F-45
1941
Built by Ventnor
Around the same time Jim Townsend also purchased this Ventnor from George Cannon
(who was also campaigning the unlimited G-class Ventnor built Grey Goose III, G-45
that at that time was running 3 Lycoming engines that were typically
being used in the 225 class).

Jim ran this F class for a few races before he sold this boat to Guy Lombardo who ended up campaigning it as Tempo IV.

Eight Ball, IV A-7
Jim Townsend
A Class National Championships at Louisville, Kentucky 1954
Eight Ball 4th was built in the late 1940s by John Peek. Jim won the 135 cubic inch A class Nationals in 1954. John Peek was his crew chief for this race.

Eight Ball Sr., F-99
Port Arthur, Texas 1954
Built in 1954 by Jim Townsend and running DeSoto 264 cubic inch Hemi.

At the 266 cubic inch F class National Championship races at Salton Sea, California in 1954, Jim was in the lead in that race dueling with Ray Gassner in the Sunshine Baby when the boat started getting loose and he had to back off coming to the finish line and was beat by half a boat length.

Eight Ball
Orange Bowl - Miami, Florida 1957
Same hull as the F class modified above, except the hydro is now running in the 800 kg class using two 327 Chevys bored to 339 cu. in..
The motor weight difference was not much heavier using the twin engine configuration versus the single Hemi 264.

Eight Ball H-8
Miami, Florida 1961

Jim reworked the boat again, BUT now it is running in a cabover configuration in the H class. He campaigned in this class by installing twin 265 cubic inch Chevys that were each destroked to 213 cubic inches to qualify for running at the 426 cu. in. class limit. The front V8 of that V16 configuration drove through the rear engine which led to several failures of the rear crankshaft. The entire twin-engine package was timed as a V-16 and no two cylinders fired at the same time.

I helped Dad with the 1962 conversion from twin engine back to a single 339 Chevy V8.

During the 7-Litre class National Championship races at Guntherville in 1962,
Jim finished a close second to Ray Gassner & his Sunshine Baby H-57.



Jim Townsend receiving congratulations after winning the 1962 Gunthersville, Alabama Governor's Cup Free-For-All.

Eight Ball H-8
Saint Petersburg, Florida 1963

Eight Ball H-8
Morgan City, Louisiana 1964
The next year the boat showed up ready to race with a cast iron Chevy 427 sitting really low in the boat. Jim's incredible straightaway speeds were attributed to a shallow prop shaft angle that he achieved by building in a "middle sponson" that was 2 inches shallower than the outside sponsons which led to a low, long roostertail. He had to have a special prop made to work with the very low shaft angle. He also changed the tail fin (that you saw in the all the previous configurations as a H class) which was a hindrance in the turns.

Eight Ball H-8
1968 now brings Jim running a Can Am racing version of the Chevrolet 427 - 1968
Jim was having oiling issues with the cast iron version of the 427 from earlier so when he put this aluminum 427
version in the boat, he fabricated a deeper oil pan to solve that issue. Even though the motor is now sitting higher in the boat, Jim still maintained his low shaft angle.

Eight Ball H-8
Morgan City, Louisiana 1969

Sadly, a couple of months later in 1969, tragedy struck as Jim Townsend lost his life doing what he loved doing while test driving his EIGHT BALL.
Something catastrophic happened with the 427 motor literally exploding in a testing session just before he was ready to let Jim McCormick (of Miss Madison fame) take it out so he could gain some experience driving a cabover.

Jim Townsend was a man willing to put in the effort to try out his innovative ideas.

SUMPIN'
Saint Petersburg, Florida 1965
I was following in my father's footsteps and was campaigning a Wickens 266 class hydro.

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