Going thru the library (that's what I call it, you don't want to know what the Wife calls it) and finding some really interesting articles. Think everyone will like this one, Enjoy!
Eddie Hill was the first name that came to mind as I was reading this article. He stuck with it and had someone great ups and some horrible downs!
Hey C, Nice article on Prudhomme. I remember looking at an article around 1964 before I left Long Beach for Northern California. (upon further research, the information said it was on Oct 25, 1964. It is nice to know someone like Dave Zueschel and his contacts. But drag boat racing at the time was shaky and dangerous. One little cross swell or spiff of wind did odd things to those early hydro hull boats. Especially with the speeds they were going. The LB Marine Stadium is in the eastern neighborhood of Long Beach, half way from Belmont Shore and Long Beach State College, on the hill. The Long Beach Marine Stadium is a fixture in the edges of Long Beach, it was created and used in the 1932 Olympics for the rowing events. It is the perfect place for all kinds of water activities and being enclosed by homes, the water stayed relatively smooth. But, Long Beach is also known as “windy city” when the prevailing, afternoon West Winds come rolling into the harbor area. Living in the area since 1948, we were introduced to those winds all of our lives. So, a whiff of wind, a small wake caused by motion on the water or just a lot of horsepower doing some strange things... causes all sorts of reactions. (When driving a friend's Ford powered, power boat, it is amazing that the thing is still on the water while making turns and high speed runs, let alone driving one with a Dave Zueschel Hemi for power.) We used to frequent the Marine Stadium for the drag boat races. We thought Lions was making a lot of noise, this place made so much noise and traffic, that the city stopped all drag boat races in the mid 70s. HAMB member, "flyingT" is the resident LB area boat person. He has also spent plenty of time at the LB Marine Stadium, too. Jnaki In 1967, the Long Beach Marine Stadium held a huge weekend Drag Boat Festival Race event. The drag boats were very colorful, with some of the top names from the dragstrip, racing their boats, too. The racing was hectic, the pits were easily accessible and the surrounding scenes were also great. In the 70’s, drag boat racing was halted in the Marine Stadium, due to excessive noise. (homes with backyards were built adjacent to the stadium) A revival event was held in 1995, put on by an old HS/College friend who was one of the only 90+mph barefoot skiers in the area. Here is the “classic” security guard from 50 years ago. Protect and serve… (look in the background and see how close some of the homes were to the Marine Stadium. That was one of the main reasons the drag boats were banned from weekly racing meets.) L.B. Marine Stadium security guard https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...tage-speed-race-boat-pics.2480/#post-11963184 part 1 part 2
Thanks for adding to the story, you Really need to put all your memories in a book! Get in touch with Joey Ukrop on here, he may be willing to help. Just thinking out loud, always enjoy your posts, Carp.
Hey C, People read my stuff? I just like to research and write...I have come a long ways from those hectic high school days of getting C's on papers and tests. The writing over the years since 1962 has improved somewhat and those memories keep the old big "ALZ" away. My wife and I have always wanted to do research like we used to do in the "stacks" in the early A.M. at the UCLA Library. We killed two birds with one stone: Lots of extended, college days dating times, while researching information for papers and tests. She even suggested we offer our services to the cold case forensics people in our spare time.(lot of spare time these days...) So we could scour evidence that was not evident back in those trial days. Then write up our reports. It would be shades of our good old college days of growing up to be productive citizens. Thanks for the super nice comments... If I can add to a great thread and I have the original files or videos to support the information, then that is a fun thing to write about for the readers, if there are any... Jnaki I was there during the times of Don Prudhomme and that was a great article. Here is a historic film from a very "early" Prudhomme at Lions.
The hydro Prudhomme wrote off was Doc Magan's "Golden Thing". My mom took us kids to see Doc Magan when we were sick. He owned the Magan Clinic in Covina, Ca. The "Golden Thing " was the best money could buy at the time. Doc spared no expense. He later said "that was the quickest 30 grand I ever blew!"
Dean, I remember the "Golden Thing" being a Fuel Boat, with Keith Black power. around 1961. Chuck Gireth was the pilot.
I lived in Long Beach for a short time in 63 or 64 and a friends dad took a few of us young boys to the races there. I thought it was terrific! After that revelation I would ride my bike over to see the the activities at the stadium. Man being a kid in the sixties California was fabulous!
That incident probably humbled any number of guys who thought like Prudhomme did. Gotta have serious balls to drive the fast boats, especially Blown Fuel Flatbottoms and T/F Hydros. I loved going to the boat drags at LB Marine Stadium but compared to the non stop action at Lions the boat drags were a pretty slow show. They used to run the boats down to the starting line then wait for the water to smooth out then run the pairs. The batteries and starters weren't up to the task so there always seemed to be a lot of singles. I used to help my next door neighbor with his Blown Gas Hydro 'Aquarius', a HydroFlite hull with a Sid Waterman 392. Damned thing would start and run fine until he tried to leave the rope at the starting line - no start. Very frustrating. Then more waiting while they towed the non-starters back to the pits. Bottom line; sun, sand, colorful hot rod boats, nitro and BIKINIS!!! What more could a horny 20 something want.
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