Roostertail Talk
A show dedicated for preserving the history, breaking down the racing and looking to the future of the incredible sport of Unlimited Hydroplane racing. My name is David Newton, and I will be bringing you a weekly show in which we will discuss the boats, drivers, owners, crew members, legends, fans and anything that is involved with the sport that I love; hydroplane racing.
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Roostertail Talk
Episode 136: Mark and Mitch Evans, Part 4
Join us for an exhilarating ride as we wrap up our journey with hydroplane racing legends, Mark and Mitch Evans. These two icons share vivid recollections from their illustrious careers, filled with thrilling adventures and strategic partnerships. From Mitch's collaboration with Jerry Rise during the Apian Jeronimo years to Mark's strategic maneuvers in the sport, they reveal the intense competition and technological battles that defined their era. Let's reflect on the extraordinary legacy of these racing legends and look forward to the exciting projects that lie ahead.
*Photo by Jon Osterberg
Help the podcast by subscribing to our new service, Roostertail Talk+. The podcast is still free to all on our website and through all major podcast platforms (such as Apple Podcast, Spotify, Castbox, etc) but with Roostertail Talk+ there is more you can enjoy ! With this service you will get early links to new episodes, enjoy access to extra content, raffle prizes and more. This is a new service that we will be adding to as we move along. As always your support to make this show grow is very appreciated! https://www.buzzsprout.com/434851/supporters/new
Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything about the sport that we all love. Hi, dreamland Racing. I am your host, david Newton, and it's time once again. So sit back, relax, and this is episode 136. In today's episode we have our conclusion, part four, and our last portion of my interview with Mark and Mitch Evans. Now I hope you've enjoyed the last three parts as I have as well. This is probably going to be the longest episode it's over 40 minutes long. I thought about breaking this last part into two more parts, but I didn't want to drag it out anymore.
Speaker 1:Once again, I had a great conversation with Mark and Mitch Evans down at Sunshine Marina over in Chilean Washington, and really you're going to hear them talk about their careers in the late 90s, as Mitch joined up with Jerry Rise and talked about the African Geronimo years. He talks more in depth about building that brand new boat for Ed Cooper in 2002, and the success he had with that boat. It was such an amazing feat and accomplishment he did in that time of age in hydroplane racing, and Mark's going to talk more about the four-seater, their entry into the vintage class and just what's going on around Chelan for them. Now I won't keep you any longer. Let's jump in and listen to that conclusion of my talk with Mark and Mitch Evans. So then you went over to the Fred's with the people sponsorship and at the same time, mitch, I believe, you hooked up with Jerry rise and happy and Geronimo team, so you both were in some some pretty good boats at that time. Yeah yeah, get some good heats and good battles, yeah it was.
Speaker 2:It was a fun time with them. It was such a huge Change, you know, obviously going for me, from what, what Ed and I did for years and years. You know a couple bounces around, but yeah, and another one of those, it was the John Walters calls up on that. This boy, you know we're gonna. It's a Fred's, a Fred boat. There's a lot of history here. I think it could be great, and they were looking for help too to work on it, and so it was a big change, but a fun one.
Speaker 3:And again same thing. You got cut up. They had all the money in the world. But technology, you know, trying to bypass fuel, all the cheating going on. I'll just go ahead and say it All this cheating was going on, man yeah it was nonstop and like the Bud guys.
Speaker 2:I mean, we developed the dyno, you know, so we were able to run some stuff. But gosh, it's just that, putting that whole package together, you have to have the engines and the gear ratios, you know, propellers, and all of it had to come together and you just got to have a lot of racing Again. Great, great experience and great people to work with. Yeah, that was fun. Jerry was an interesting dude, you know, was full committed, you know, to whatever we needed to to win and to run. Well, he, um, he supplied that to us. And then, uh, basically he got in his life an offer to sell the company and as quick as it started, it ended. That was the first time I'd really been involved in anything like that, but it was literally. Here's your last paycheck.
Speaker 1:Off you go. That's why the team ended then. Yeah, that's too bad. I think for a long time you were towards the top of qualifying and there's a fast boat and I was really rooting for you to get a victory with that and I thought maybe a little bit more and you're going to get that, but it just didn't happen.
Speaker 2:We needed a little bit more time and we were just like you say. It was really kind of all coming together, but unfortunately by that time Jerry's business and all that stuff was coming to an end. Yeah, but it was a door that closed and obviously then another one with Ed that opened to build his last one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a good opportunity Before we get there. I'm just curious Was it hard to go from a turbocharged Allison to a turbine?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's a totally different driving experience, I guess you could put it, because literally the turbine thing, you're kind of just on the governor. You know the piston boat, you've got to be careful with it. You know and the throttle and steering and that, so it was, and especially because at that point that was the, the tubby area, the second boat, you know that you went from one extreme to the other and just handled differently and everything about it was different.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thing about a turbine is you're full out and you lift the throttle, it takes a long time to slow down. There's no compression like a piston let up, and that'll start slowing down immediately where a turbine doesn't and the re-acceleration on the torque is totally different so it takes a little bit longer to wind back up during turbines.
Speaker 3:It got to the point I almost just wanted a toggle switch for the throttle to turn it off and then use your wing to keep it on the power band because yeah, yeah, like mitch said, if you let up all the way in those, they go into a ground idler, yeah, and then you match the gas. It takes a few seconds to get going, by then they're gone so right, right. You can't.
Speaker 1:You got to stay on the throttle wild yeah, in 2002 you built the new boat I believe that was the year, yeah, and that was that was a big project, yeah, and that was a great project. Yeah, it was a successful boat and, yeah, blew away some records, got some great wins on that, yeah, and how, how was ed able to do that? And how how did he get hooked up with budweiser? Because I think Budweiser really supported the project.
Speaker 3:Well, Dale Van Weerden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Dale was the key to that.
Speaker 3:Both in the design and Rick.
Speaker 2:yeah, it was the people again. It was this group of people that somehow we were able to put together to do it. And some luck and some timing, and yeah, going to Dale and reaching out and then being able to use the molds to build the parts, I mean that was the huge thing. And Ronnie was just willing to do that, and Bernie, I mean everybody just stepped up and said listen, we'd like to help you out. I don't think they really ever dreamt it would run like it did. Probably were thinking about it in Detroit that one day that's the best part and it really was. And we were thinking, man, because the evolution of the other two boats was pretty long, a lot of learning, but by that time the engine program had come a long ways and it was, it was good, it was reliable. I mean, that was, that was the thing we always worked on, starting and finishing every, no matter if it was a hundred mile, an hour lap or 200, it didn't really matter. But but so that was a classic uh, of having everything come together?
Speaker 1:yeah, at the right time. Do you feel like they're open and honest with everything, like all the the technology and secrets of building the boat, or oh no, I mean they chose and and I respect that they.
Speaker 2:They said, okay, this is the parameter, you can use this mold and you can build the part however you want. This is, and they made suggestions along the way, but we never knew or never could find out how they actually built it. You know, it was just you could, I could, you could. Obviously the boat was there, you could look at it, you know, but there, as we discovered later on, there's so many things that went into each and every one of those pieces.
Speaker 2:You know it wasn't what you thought when you were seeing. Um, there was different changes, so so, but at that point we we knew we had to build.
Speaker 2:We were building the boat around an allison, yeah something, something nobody else had ever done and so we took, we took what we learned from the other two boats, the suggestions from everybody else, and literally just built the boat around around the allison the gearbox you had, um it, everything about it was so much different than the turbine. Around the Allison, the gearbox you had. Everything about it was so much different than the turbine just the physical size, the placement of the engine.
Speaker 1:So there was a lot of that, you know let's try this.
Speaker 2:And it worked out. I mean it really did. Would you say that was your favorite boat to drive? Oh, absolutely yeah, that thing was just when we got the right gear combination and propellers. The props were obviously the key to most of all of that that boat running well and the success, but it just was a great boat all the way around, just easy to drive. I mean, it truly was the easiest boat.
Speaker 1:I'd ever driven. Yeah yeah, it didn't take long. I mean you were setting records. I'm probably wrong on this, but it feels like it wasn't probably the first year you were setting records with it.
Speaker 2:The second year in particular, you know San Diego running a 160. Right, that was like the old yeah, yeah. And then you come back, you know, and in 03, that's when it just all started clicking, obviously from the get-go. I mean, unfortunately, you know, the Evansville win was Dave lost a prop at the dock, right, I mean we're literally icing it out, but I knew everybody else was running really fast and if I got that thing close to the inside lane it just had so much speed that I could drive wherever I needed to, and you know, just try to stay out of trouble.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and hang on, yeah. And then you, you got the, your gold cup victory, yeah, that year. And just how meaningful was that for you it was.
Speaker 2:You know, after all the years, all the work, um, it was the mrs pinnacle your career. Yeah, it's a gold cut. It was so long in coming that I thought. I don't think that this could probably really ever happen, but as the weekend went on and we started running the heats.
Speaker 2:I knew this thing was really fast and I knew that I had a good chance If I did my job and if the motor stayed together, you know, and all the parts had to stay in because Detroit, like San Diego, was one of those that just, it seemed like you were in the boat forever, you know, you go down that front straight and around and then, and then you're driving down into this little, you know, hairpin, corner right, just praying that everything stays on the boat, time after time after time. So, yeah, and I knew after about the second, after getting to the start, that first big turn, mike was right there, you know, made it to the bounce and and came out. Basically, first, you know, I knew day was outside, and then, um, and then I just prayed that'd stay together after that and just kept going. And that boat, that was the thing that we learned, it really got because of the fuel capacity, I mean the thing it was getting faster every lap.
Speaker 2:I was losing 200 or 300 pounds. Right, I mean, think of that. I was losing 200 or 300 pounds. I mean, think of that. We used 150 gallons of fuel to run those five laps. Wow. So by the end of the day it was lighter, so it was even faster than the first two laps.
Speaker 2:And it was looser but it was getting a better ride. It really felt like kind of that tank at first. Second lap it was loosening. Second lap it was just free and that's why that fast was handled and we had tanks in every compartment that we could because we were out of room. But we had it well balanced and, as it turned out, in the right places.
Speaker 1:And it just kept running better and better all the time. Well time, I'd say that was definitely a popular Gold Cup victory for you.
Speaker 2:The fans loved it and, being in Detroit, huge fan base support. It was just it all came together at the right time, so that was awesome well, unfortunately, mark, he was in the hospital.
Speaker 3:Well, thrill of victory. Yeah, I know the other side of things.
Speaker 1:You had a gnarly crash on the backstreet share really close to the Detroit Yacht Club and you got hurt pretty bad from that right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, it just was. Actually, the end result was more of a bad infection in my leg that was broke, so bad, and it got so infected, you know, and from uh staff and the mercer and whatever else there was. They darn near chopped it off at one point because it was getting pretty bad. Yeah, that was nuts. So, yeah, a few neck crack and ribs and elbow and all sorts of stuff. It was a wadded up thing, but hey, it was the way it was. We were fast, I, I felt we had a really good shot at it. And there there's a example of um.
Speaker 3:To this day, scott rainey, my crew chief, and brad haskins are so upset I didn't need to win that heat. You know, I kind of messed around on the start. I was trying to mess with these guys and so I could have just finished the heat where I was at and still made the final see. But ah, we to go for it and Scott was even going go, go, go. Steve David said he looked out his window and he saw me upside down. And Steve said when it blew over it turned to the right. He felt when I hit it flopped again because my that hole in the back of my helmet, hit this bolt this way up there. And these guys, the manage, everybody kept my helmet and they got in the boat and they tried to. You know the body stretch was incredible. So that's way up there. And these guys, the medics, everybody kept my helmet and they got in the boat and they tried to. You know the body stretch was incredible. So that's what cracked the vertebrae there. Yeah, just multiple injuries, but it was that bad infection, you know, from the hospital stuff and taking all the rods and crap back out. You know that's what the bad.
Speaker 3:It was interesting, it was not silly, but I'll never forget. My wife at the time says hey, mitch and Rick are coming to the hospital. Mitch would call me, you know, said that he won. I said are you kidding me? This is great. But then they said Mitch and Rick, or Johnny Walker was coming to the hospital. And I laughed. I go no, they don't like hospitals, they both get sick in a hospital, anyway. So I had a little bit of tunnel vision. I'll never forget. They go, mark, mitch and Johnny are here. And I looked over and my tunnel vision went like this and then I focused in on they both had this fake grin. Hi, I started laughing.
Speaker 3:Good seeing you guys get lost where you grow up, in here, yeah.
Speaker 2:I want to lose. Oh, I grew up in here, detroit general. I want to lose.
Speaker 3:Anyway, I had some experience. You go through that, you know part of the deal?
Speaker 1:Did those injuries last long? Was it hard for you to get back in Like? Did you downplay those injuries to get back in the boat?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, the next year I jumped in just to try it at Detroit. I got something. Yeah, I shouldn't have done it. I just to try it at Detroit, I got something. Yeah, I shouldn't have done it. And I was still pretty hurt. It took about 18 months to get over it. Just my body was the infection. I just fucked it all through my body and then, not being as active, you know, the leg was just bad man, and then some of the other back injuries and so on, just was. You can't, when you get atrophy and you're not active, it just slows you down, it takes a while Head spinning and so on. So, yeah, it was a trip. So, yeah, it took about. Yeah, I got in five years later. So, yeah, that goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you had a big win in Tri-Cities with Lumar. Yeah, yes, in Booster. I remember sitting on the beach and watching it and at that time it was a dynamical-looking boat, the Budweiser. You came out of that turn and the glare was so bad in that corner, everyone on the beach thought it was the Budweiser. Oh, I see, but then you're coming down and they realize it was Lumar and it was a big cheer.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, ironically that was parts and pieces from the two-winged bud.
Speaker 1:Right, so it was a Bud.
Speaker 3:Ironically, that was parts and pieces from the two-winged bud. Right yeah, so that's what's ironic. Well, again, Mitch was outside me, man, and he was honking on. I did one of the most dangerous things ever is. I went into that turn and I just gave her full wing down when I turned because I was out. You know wing four and you're in five.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was all the way up there.
Speaker 3:I just decided I did not want to hit those waves that hard and give me some momentum and so I floated around that turn and it held on and then really that spit me up the exit of the turn and we had some good speed going up the backstreet, although I could hear and feel his boat rumbling. I could feel it coming up.
Speaker 2:I was touching it hard. I think the boat was just as up I was touching it hard.
Speaker 3:I was like this is going to be my only shot the boat was just as scared as I was.
Speaker 3:And then of course Troxel was on my inside and he got hosed and that kind of brushed mid-job. So anyway, it just worked out really good. It was a great throw for Bill and all of us. Yeah, that was fun. That was not to get into this full detail, but man, the race before the boat, just we couldn't get it right. And at Tri-Cities Scott Rainey cut off the trailing edge, I think only a half an inch or an inch, not much, but it made all the difference in the world. It was just incredible that small of an adjustment and the boat just was a total good handling boat. But it did hurt two other drivers after me too.
Speaker 1:So so Mitch told me his favorite boat. What was your favorite boat to drive?
Speaker 3:Well, the Bud was fun and a very good boat to drive. I had a good time in the American Spirit. But I'll say that one year in 95, when we were at Campbell on the boat and it was the rock boat and we were just messing around having a good year we could drive the thing wherever we wanted, just ran the heck out of it. We just had a blast that old rock boat in the fridge. It was pretty fun. I had a real good time with that. No stress, you know.
Speaker 1:You had some big sponsors then. I think Waffle House was a sponsor, yeah, and Phoenix, yeah, phoenix.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was it, you know. Yeah, and again I've got to thank Steve.
Speaker 1:Lampson, for you know, coming up with all this stuff. He was our guy trying to keep us on keep us going.
Speaker 3:So you know Waffle House. We were in Firebird down in Phoenix and the guy goes hey, would you take a waffle with you so I can have the world's fastest waffle.
Speaker 1:And I get a kick out of that I go.
Speaker 3:You take a waffle with you so I can have the world's fastest waffle and I get a kick out of that, I go well, it's not a problem, but I go, you might want to cook that a little extra, because I think by the time we get back it'll be all squished into the corner of the box. So um uh, ironically, I threw it in the back of the seat so that I could do something with it.
Speaker 3:I don't know what and I blew the broke down, blew the gearbox, so as we're getting towed in front of the grandstands, you're so close there someone screamed, hey, you should have had another waffle. That was my cue. I went, got the cockpit open it up, had the box. I showed the whole crowd, I pulled it out, took a big old bite of it. Well, guess what? It was dry as could be. I got cotton mouth. I oh I about gag and I'm looking at that brackish water.
Speaker 3:I was going to take a scoop of it. But there's no way. Oh man, I'm about choked on that waffle from Waffle House. But they got good advertisement. We gave it back to the guy with the big old bite out of it. He thought that was the coolest thing ever. I had two like that. We didn't even win the race and that guy was so happy with that damn box. You know, we all signed it and stuff it's hanging in the waffle house. Well, the other one. We got hooters one time down in miami yeah well, we did terrible because of the saltwater.
Speaker 3:Best thing that could ever happen is I hit the buoy and they gave us the orange buoy. So champ, one of the owners of hooters, just loved that. We all signed that, so that's hanging on the wall so you know sometimes you don't have to win you know, oh man, funny, funny.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to go back to that what if file, because a birdie told me about possible straightaway record event that you wanted to have here in lake chelan oh yeah, 20 plus years ago, but it's never happened. What happened? Why not Well?
Speaker 3:Johnny was promoting that, I just think I can't remember. I think a lot of people were worried about driftwood weather, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:It was scheduling, it was trying to get it at a time when we weren't racing and there just seemed to be a lot going on. And then insurance right pops up. It's just a whole different thing where you're not putting on a circle event right, it's kind of a special event. So it's very, it's very expensive too. I mean, you're you're not having these huge crowds to kind of help pay the bill. And there were just a lot of things we hadn't really thought about until you start going through the process of trying to put an event on um and, like I said, it was really just conflicted with the other racing we were doing at the time. We just couldn't ever come up with a uh a time. And then, and then even at that point you know we're starting this m&m thing, we're doing this little thing late in the year, and then the inboard racing came along, right with Chelan and Manson and all around us, and we just basically ran out of time. Okay.
Speaker 1:Was that intended for Unlimited to do? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Wanted to crack 200. Because we'd been going over 200 in the turbines when we were running. So I kept telling Jim gosh, let me go out and go 205 you know, whatever you know, just get the record. I know your dad and I butted heads about Russ Wicks and that old thing. I did not like that deal at all. I was against that all the way, unless they would let a bunch of press ups come in, like the old rules said, right did you have a?
Speaker 1:were you trying to get a team out there? Because? I think you were with elam. Uh, yeah, yeah, were you trying to get you? Yeah, oh, eric said he would put it together.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll go. Yeah, I said good, and then I wanted to bring the four-seater. We just finished it up, yeah and it was well balanced. That four-seater ended up being, uh, about 6850. I mean, we're right in the ballpark, everything. I would have just taken all the seats out, and I was going to take that too if Elstrom wouldn't have. And then, plus, there's the guy's bud. Who else? I mean, that was supposed to be the deal. One guy wants to do it, but anyway, that's the way that goes.
Speaker 1:You should have had it, so the free-eye went, first got the record, then you got the record.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah Bumped it up. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of what we were thinking, you know, because we were all kind of going free high. Well, nothing against Rick Gamble and those guys you know, and your dad and all, but anyway, I'll let that opportunity come to that. I don't know why it was such a thorn in my side and I even told Russ Wicks I go okay, goofball, you come out of who knows what. You said. You did go-karts. What the hell did you race your motorcycle and you're gonna come in and take our. You took our record, you know here's all us other guys you know that have been in the sport for years.
Speaker 3:I for some reason that kind of got me. He laughed, he called me up and said well, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have got the record. I said, don't say that to me, I like, I like to rip him about it.
Speaker 1:You's all kind of fun that boat was not a good boat. That was, one side weighed 600 pounds more than the other. Rick Campbell laid it up by hand. It wasn't bagged. I remember Ken got Jim Lucero down at Seafair and was looking at it. Ken finally asked him what you know, trying to look at it and all that. And Ken finally asked him well, what would you do with a boat? And Jim said I would take it back to the shop. And it was Saturday at Seafarer and they were like we're not doing that. Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2:That's funny.
Speaker 3:Thanks, but no, yeah, yeah and that was our other worry. A new guy comes in, blows a boat up, gets killed or something. He's going to come on and let's do it.
Speaker 1:A lot of things could have happened. You mentioned your four-seater that you had. That was a crazy concept and cool project. You had a turbine first off Because that was Mitch's boat he drove.
Speaker 2:That was the flip and win boat. That was the flip and win boat.
Speaker 3:So that's why the paint scheme had the lines of the Geronimo, but we did white and blue and red.
Speaker 3:That was kind of a combination of the two of us Now, after we did the Fendler thing and it was such a hit you know giving rides I wanted to do another one because Tom had crashed that and destroyed it in Tri-C, in tri-cities. So I got to looking at this thing and through the years we've been moving the turbine engine back and the gearbox so far that there was all this room back there in the computer department. I called it and so when I committed to it and we bought it from jerry, jerry rice gave me a heck of a deal on it, by the way, and I mean way cheap, so we couldn't pass it up. But when we started cutting into it and Marky and the rest of them and Greg Fogle, they go wow, there is a lot of room. You don't realize until you start opening it up and then weight and balance, it was just, it was fun. I had an insurance company that was going to back me and that fell through, but that's the way it goes. We got it in the water and we ran.
Speaker 3:After I got busted up, a lot of people had been sending me money and I hadn't sent it back, except for three guys. Those three guys gosh, I hope they're still around. They refused to take their money back. They wanted their ride. You've got to take these guys for a ride, so he did. They were laughing their ears off. It went pretty good.
Speaker 1:How fast did you get up to for the ride?
Speaker 2:We ran pretty close to 150. Yeah, because it needed to have some speed. It was the slower you know, like the first time. Who was it? I think Dr Ken.
Speaker 3:I took and Scott Pierce, right Pierce and Marky. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we kind of for the first trial. Aaron went out and I'm like, oh boy, this has got a lot of weight on the steering wheel here. You know, as you just keep stepping it up, you know it felt safe and could go around, because I figured we were going to be running it that way for some time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, don Maka, there's a video out there, there's some good air under it, you know especially when he took those other three guys too. Yeah, that was the first time we ever got running. And then finally they refused to let me sell any rags. So then the next year we got to run it at Tri-Cities and take the journalists and stuff, and they didn't want us going over 150. In fact, what was the insurance guy for APBA for years? Rick Feltz?
Speaker 3:Yeah, italian guy, about five minutes for him getting in the boat to take these guys for a ride. Um, gal come up, says hey, the insurance guy wants to talk to you. I go five minutes for him getting in the boat. Don't tell me you're canceling this thing. Well, he's Italian. He goes hey, this is Rick. I just want to know which leg did you break when you crashed your boat? I go what are you asking me that for? I mean, I'm just he goes, just tell me what leg. And I said I broke my right leg. He goes okay, I'm going to break your left leg if you go over. I'll never forget this. I'm getting a full Italian job. It was great man. Okay, dude. So I called him up. I said I think six journalists out, that was it. Yeah, the big room, yeah.
Speaker 1:So was it insurance that killed that for you then?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yep, they wouldn't let me sell rags, you can't. Just similar to what the vintage guys are going through now. They've got to be APBA members, members, and you're gonna have a driver's school. If I would have got a sponsor and gone to the races just given the right, that'd been all right, but I needed to sell the rights to make the money, and so it's catch 22. So, yeah, the company had folded and the guide went away and I just couldn't afford it. So and then, as time went on, I sold all the turbine stuff and then got the other crazy idea just to put the outboards on and make a pleasure boat out of it, which I did. I got it all certified, but again, the insurance to sell rides just even that was $20,000 for the summer.
Speaker 3:And they said it was a really easy payment plan. Just one payment up front. Yeah, so yeah. And then locations we're not. Yeah, I based it right off of here, off the seaplanes office and the insurance, that the owners needed gaps of insurance. Pretty much did it.
Speaker 1:Golly, I always thought that would be just a great promotional tool if you could have somehow tied it with H1 and gone to the races.
Speaker 3:Oh, at the time every race site said we've got you a spot, roll out the red carpet please. And they all would go. I want to go first. Everybody I talked to okay, you can do it, but I want to go first. I could have made a fortune. At the time we even figured out how many rides to do at each race site and coordinated these guys and we could have raked in a million bucks 980 000, I think, is what, the, what the income would have been, what, the, how much it would have cost. I'm not sure you know. We'd have made some money off of it plus paid expenses and thrilled the heck out of people, possibly got another sponsor or helped the existing sponsor, because what I want to do I didn't. I didn't want to be the driver all the time. Some people would want to go with steve david or dan millwook or somebody else.
Speaker 3:So that sure, yeah, I mean, you know whatever, that's what I said. But then then I had one guy call up and says, why aren't you gonna have any other driver? And I said, sure he goes, I want to ride with jack berry man yeah, too bad.
Speaker 1:Well, where is that boat now?
Speaker 3:uh well, I can say it now it's in indiana, ted porters okay yeah, he. Uh, it's been 20, over 20 years, 22 years since we did it and it needs a paint job and upholstery and new engines. So yeah, ted is going to work on it this year at the factory there at Formula and see if they can recondition it and bring it out next year.
Speaker 1:As a pleasure boat to give rides Correct, just the simple thing. Without boards, nothing, not race, not turbine.
Speaker 3:So again, because he found out, so you know I can give rides, you know I did I parked it right out here for a couple of summers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And just jumped in and cruised around. It was fun. It floated out here for five months. That was the longest I ever left in the water.
Speaker 1:Turned on a bilge pump once in a while. Man foot down, that was the longest I ever left in the water. Well, you even took it around our model course one year. Yeah, that's right, you took it down there. I just keep looking at Mitch's shirt here. That beautiful red boat, yeah man and it's not racing right now and you've got a motor over there. How easy would that motor drop down in that?
Speaker 3:boat. Oh, one of Mitch's Allison's, you mean no, the blower motor you never know, you just have to try it. Yeah, absolutely it's in the retirement mode, hopefully somebody will pick it up and go.
Speaker 2:We talked about that, or is that going to come out for Eminem here next week? Yeah, how do you just walk away. We talk about that, or is that he comes, or is that going to come out for?
Speaker 1:Eminem here next week yeah, and you know you always ask how do you? How do you just walk away, how do you just?
Speaker 2:quit driving one day you just say this is it right, I'm coming home, I got to go to work and anyway. So he, of course he made the decision this year himself. But when we talk about it, I hope somebody would pick it up and continue on, because of the technology, to where it is, even the boat's 20 years old, right, right. But if someone would take the Allison thing and go to that next level.
Speaker 3:Wait a minute. You're right, david, forget the Allison.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Not modern, it could be an automobile.
Speaker 3:There you go. That's what I'm saying. I'm going to start leaning on it.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. You're right, it would be perfect. It would be a great platform old buddy.
Speaker 1:I think your brother knows him pretty well yeah.
Speaker 3:Ed knows me. Yeah, that's the best of the story.
Speaker 2:He'll just go oh, what now?
Speaker 1:um? Has he had any serious offers on the boat he's?
Speaker 2:had some tire kickers, nothing real serious, yet you know, same old deal he could sell. Puller, the tractor, trailer. You know engine parts. Oh, did the tractor pullers? Yeah, that's right, he just and the truck. You know engine parts. Oh, did the tractor pullers? Yeah, and the truck. You know it was a great truck and good for whatever. But he's holding on. He's going to keep it as a package at this point for the sport Yep, and see what that's good, see if somebody will bring it out again, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, you talk about being out of the sport, though, and stop racing, but you're still in the sport. You've got a vintage boat that you're messing around with, so I don't think you ever truly stopped driving, right.
Speaker 2:No, no, you just kind of take hiatuses. Sometimes they're just periods of time in life, and that was exactly me. I had the opportunity to buy a piece of property and open up my business and go back at it and I just thank God I did because it was really the right decision. But no, now to be able to come back and do the vintage thing has just been a blast. So it keeps you involved and then you can re-involve everybody else you know and keep going. So we're so lucky, obviously, to live here and be able to take advantage of the lake and go for a ride, take some rides, so it was the perfect way to end.
Speaker 3:But I've got to tell you how this started, though. I've been bugging Will Muncy for years. I just wanted an Allison engine stock, that I could have an engine stand, just start it up. I didn't have the money or time to put it into a boat, I just wanted to do this. So he called me up one day and says come on over, man Dick, do this stuff, I'll make you a heck of a deal. Did some trading. So I wish I would have had a GoPro camera up my head, because you know the story's about Will's place and you know just stuff everywhere and been through a few floods, so he was really great.
Speaker 1:Was it like Great American Pickers, oh man big time.
Speaker 3:I didn't even know where to turn next. So I'm grabbing pistons and rods and we found a block. And he goes how about this blower? How about this carburetor? I don't know. So I'm filling up a trailer full of stuff and so I'm driving over the pass thinking what in the heck am I doing here? Oh, my gosh, to put an Allison together. So I pulled into the shop. Mitch was standing there. He walked up and looked in that trailer and when he looked up I could see the look in his eyes. I go, man bro, I tell you what I'll make you deal on this allison stuff here right now. How about that? So mitch is the engine builder guy. You can. Then we got some uh manuals.
Speaker 3:Oh boy, yeah, then, ed cooper, you know mitch has been involved with him so long. Then, ironically, uh mitch and uh johnny were messing with that hawaii kite boat and and Johnny had me tear it apart to rebuild it, and that all kind of stopped for a while and then one day Mitch goes hey, let's get that thing back, turn it into the Breathless and put the engine in. That's how that all kind of started many years ago. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it was when we started. Yeah, that when? When did you first run it? So?
Speaker 2:I'd see 18 would have been, because then when I went to detroit, um, when we the year before actually, so 17, well, let's see back at 16 actually because, um, we ran it here.
Speaker 3:That just popped up in the memory.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as the Breathless, because that was obviously what it was, so I called it the Breathless 3.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, because Chris Dinslow, my four-seater, we chased you around, we came about.
Speaker 2:That's right, it was here, definitely. And then the following year met the Gordon family, the grandkids, you know, of course I knew Rick in particular working with the Geronimo thing, and he really helped us with the, the gearboxes and trying to, you know, update it to the Fairlane type specs and so, anyway, then they said, hey, would you ever think about bringing that old boat out here? You know, we heard my granddad owned it, you know, and ran it as the blue chip in the what, 65, 67, whatever. I said, man, yeah, I'd love to come back to Detroit.
Speaker 1:I hadn't obviously been there since the time, the day I left, basically, and yeah, so I got to go out make some laps and then, of course, been doing the the dry cities thing, yeah, and here ever since. Yeah, okay, you ever thought about putting a fake? Uh, like what was it? Mahogany deck, was it? Was it a birch?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, about putting like a fake. So the boat is obviously based white and then we put the blue chip wrap and stuff on it. Man, one day you could make this thing look like anything, right I?
Speaker 2:mean, just roll it, roll it out, yeah, and and yeah so, uh, so I I just I've left the blue chip thing on there. The family still sponsor me to this day. They, they help out financially, so I just kind of left it alone. But at some point um, when the day comes it'd be great to you had to take it back to its original look and and uh, run it one more time, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's cool now what they can do with wraps. Oh my gosh. Yes.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You could literally roll that out in one day and put your numbers on there and you could make it look just like the day it came to Seattle in 57.
Speaker 3:I recently saw a big, beautiful, brand new offshore boat, but the wrap is like old planks, know, like old plank boat. So you look at it, it's a swoopy offshore boat, but it looks like it's all wood, it's a wrap, pretty cool the gp boat.
Speaker 2:It's that plate rivets. You know, it looks like, yeah, armored.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, the trust company boat yeah, my son's like wow, yeah, that's cool, yeah, so when you got a vintage boat mark, oh, I've actually got a couple in the backyard.
Speaker 3:I got my little two and a quarter red wolf that I used to race years ago in the 80s. Jimmy labrie helped me. Uh holes done and I finished the trailer. My engine program is really slow and then I do have what we call the bat boat. That's not occurred in my backyard that's right, that's right.
Speaker 3:I need to pull the wood off of that. See, see if it's any good. So I've got a few projects. I also have a 1957, what's it called? Barracuda and that was built by Dan Arena the guys that started the arena gearboxes for the Allisons. They built these pleasure boats for a while, and so Dan Arena's son came up here a few years ago. I saw him down in Sacramento years ago. He thinks it's either number one or number two. It's early, early, so it's sitting out there, but it's a mess.
Speaker 2:It needs a full rebuild. It's kind of a runabout type boat, but it's got these little wings on the back.
Speaker 3:It's pretty crazy, so I've got three projects.
Speaker 1:Just a couple. Yeah Well, it was a number of years ago, mark. You had a book that you worked with Dave Williams.
Speaker 3:Dancing with the Devil Dancing with.
Speaker 1:Disaster.
Speaker 2:Or Dancing with Disaster.
Speaker 1:That was a fun read. A lot of crazy stories in there. I feel like you didn't share all of them.
Speaker 3:No, Well, at that time it cost a lot to put a book out and David Williams and his publisher kind of. I wasn't into autobiography, I just wanted new stories. But they kind of turned it into that and, yeah, david still got a bunch of them stories that we just couldn't put in. We had to narrow it down. It became very short stories. I'd like to elaborate on it someday. We'll see what goes.
Speaker 1:Was there any stories you want to elaborate right now?
Speaker 3:No, those are the other stories we couldn't put in. Yeah, it was pretty fun, though I had some calls from a few drivers and ex-wife that said, don't tell this story, don't tell that story. So that was kind of fun, but no, all in all it was a kick, and there's a few of them that I could elaborate on even more, so maybe someday Great to read something like that and do the tips down memory lane.
Speaker 2:I didn't get a lot like you were to be raised to live here you know, enjoy the area.
Speaker 3:What was really enjoyable is getting uh calls from some people going well, I didn't live there, I didn't grow up like you guys, but it made them think about their childhood and some like goofy things they had, you know, like throwing rocks at beehives. You probably shouldn't do that someone's Mitch's version coming out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it'll just be the rest of the story. At some point we'll have to maybe revisit that. And I can include I live vicariously through him. Everything that happened I was pretty close by. It was as much my story as his and the family's and everybody else but no, we appreciate you coming in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot of questions, yeah yeah, I appreciate it stories?
Speaker 1:yeah, for sure yeah, well, I appreciate your time.
Speaker 3:It's been fun sitting here with you and recalling some great years of racing and living and, uh, I look forward to what you have to give us next sure we're very blessed, I mean, uh, seeing mark tate there at tri-cities this year and we both said, man, we, we raced kind of in the heyday and we had the money and wow, the big sponsors you know, and gosh, we're so thankful and blessed and we sure appreciated it and you're still here to recall it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah actually.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no kidding, we talked about a couple of crashes. That's the evolution of the safety things. That's why I'll tell you the first boat we built, the first time we put a cockpit on, I started getting nervous after seeing a few crashes. I'm so glad Mitch didn't blow that boat over because that cockpit might not have lasted. Oh really, oh yeah, not elastin. So really, oh yeah, yeah, we only had a one inch wall behind it.
Speaker 2:you know, we didn't know at the time, yeah, you had roll bars, you know, tubing on. It seemed like it was well attached. But then then you look at where it evolved to. You know this carbon fiber, a grade that was super strong, you know. So, um, it was great to be a part of the evolution, but it was even better to finish it off in something really safe and really fast. You know Everything that I had to drive for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you have any regrets? Or sleeping on the table that you wish you had gotten?
Speaker 2:Not really. I accomplished a lot, you know, in a long period of time, but I knew we weren't gonna probably know contend for a national championship. We just wasn't in the cards. So everything, I'm thankful for everything that I have right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just feel very lucky to be able to do it, you know, and, like I say, survive it. So, no, if I had no regrets, it wouldn't have changed. Oh, maybe a crash I do believe that was part of the deal. Pretty cool, pretty cool career.
Speaker 1:All right, excellent, all right, well, thank you guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Rob Thanks for coming on in. That's all the time we have for this week. Knuckleheads, really hope you enjoyed my talk with Mark and Mitch Evans. Again, thank you, mark and Mitch, for your time. I want to thank you for everything you did to make this happen. It was fun doing this in Chelan at the end of the hydroplane season and I also want to thank once again John Osterberg with Puyo Point Publishing for all of his help. He helped me out with a lot of background information, helped me with some questions and got me the photos that we had for the episodes, so I really appreciate your help. You can show him some support by picking up a copy of his book Remember he's the author of Dragon Days when he talks about growing up in the Seattle area and how influential hydroplane racing was to the community back in the 1950s and 60s and his passage into that era alongside his favorite boat, the Miss Bardo. You can pick that up online, amazon, and I'll throw in a link here on the bio so you can get direct access to that.
Speaker 1:We just finished out season six of this podcast. I'm going to take a short break. I think we're going to. I'm going to spend January to recoup, get some interviews done and we'll hit it strong for season seven. Oh my gosh, hard to believe we'll be going into season seven of this journey, but it's got some fun talks planned out. I'm excited to get those conducted and get some more interviews out to you. Hopefully you have a great new year, hopefully you're happy and healthy and let's start off 2025 strong. Until the next time, I hope to see you at the races.