Roostertail Talk

Episode 147: Ted Porter, Part 2

• David Newton • Season 7 • Episode 11

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Ted Porter shares the highs, lows, and unforgettable moments from his decade-plus career as a hydroplane racing team owner. His journey from rookie team to dominating the sport includes winning the national high points championship in their first season, securing five world championships in Doha, and finally capturing the elusive Gold Cup in Detroit. I pick up that talk from last week's episode.  Don't miss part 2 and the conclusion to my interview with Ted Porter!

Also, I hop you can join us for H1's season kickoff this weekend in Tri-Cities, Washington for their annual spring testing. Look for us at the event in our Rooster Tail Talk shirt - come say hello!

*Photo by Digital Roostertails

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Speaker 1:

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 to sit back, relax and welcome. Rooster Tail Talk, we'll talk. Hello race fans, welcome back to the show.

Speaker 1:

It's May 13th and this is episode 147, part two and the conclusion of my interview with Ted Porter. Hopefully you had a chance to listen in last week to part one of my interview. Ted did a great job of talking about a lot of his past in the sport of H1, and we spent a lot of time talking more about the people that he was involved with, particularly the drivers, and we're going to continue the talk today as he'll talk more about some stories that he cherishes from his time in the sport. He's going to go back to revisit year one, some of the highs and lows he had there and just his impact on the sport. I did ask if he's ever coming back to the sport. You can hear that at the end and I'm just excited for you to get back in and listen to this talk. So enough of me yapping, let's listen in and talk more with Ted Porter. Well, I feel like you had a story or two to tell from that first year you wanted to get out Was something on your mind from year one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know, we went to, like I said, valley Field, yeah, and that was the first race we won. And right away, you know again, like I said, a rookie team, rookie, rookie owner, rookie team rookie crew chief, rookie driver, and the first race, and we're just in love and life and it was contested and it's like what? This is all new to me.

Speaker 1:

You know what?

Speaker 2:

do we do? Well, they said well, your propeller was too big, it didn't fit the you know ring that they put on, and I'm like well, it's a really tiny course. Is that an advantage, you know? So because Valley Field you know was super small.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was the smallest one on the circuit.

Speaker 2:

And they sent the prop out. They did their due diligence, they figured out that one of the blades had laid down and something was awry. So everybody, the powers that be, decided to let us have the win, which we were thankful for. Then, obviously, in the following races we did well enough in each heat to be, you know, the national high points champions, which is quite. It was kind of. That.

Speaker 2:

First year was kind of a blur to me. I mean, it was running two teams and and trying to keep everybody, keep everything moving, the right parts you need. There's, you know, there's so much that goes into a multi-boat team, you know, with even simple stuff like flights and hotels and food and snacks in the pit and water and making sure everybody, you know, nobody gets sick and nobody falls off the trailer, off the boat or what you. It's just it's kind of mind mind numbing everything that goes into it. Uh, but no, we had a. It was a super awesome first year. Uh, and again, now that was mike allen. But um, then then, yeah, it was so such a high year that when we started year two you heard of the sophomore slump or whatever. But we couldn't have started it any worse. Both boats went over at Evansville.

Speaker 2:

Both boats flipped over. That was new to me. We just had call it luck, call it whatever. We were running Budweiser props the first year and then we switched to another type of prop that made the boat go faster, but you might end up on your lid. I won't say what kind of prop it was, but there was only a couple makers back then. But the neat thing about it is that they kind of worked their way through it to where we could make the boats go fast and whatnot.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, the second year, 2007, was not as fun. We had fun, there's no doubt about it, but we just we got in the hole to begin with, as far as you know, having to fix, repair both boats and get things going. And and um no, we had some heat winds throughout that year, but uh, nothing, nothing too stellar. But after that year we kicked it in again and uh, uh, but uh it, uh. The neat thing about it you know I'm probably repeating myself, but when you know we were in the sport that 10 or 11 years, you know 11 seasons, I guess we did pretty good.

Speaker 2:

You know one one. Like I said, we won a lot of races and and and. Kudos to these teams that have been racing for 10, 20 plus years, 30 years, some of them, that I don't remember the last time they did win, you know. But but God bless them for being there at the races and putting on a good show. But but yeah, we, we were blessed to have the right people, the right equipment and, you know, be able to put it on. I would say, you know a pretty good, pretty good bunch of years there.

Speaker 1:

So yep, oh yeah, you definitely did for that decade plus. I'll say and it's hard to think about your first year and the successes you had. Like you said brand new team rookie, this rookie crew, all that but it's it's hard to repeat that and yeah, you found, found out that second year. That's for sure. Repeat that.

Speaker 2:

And yeah you found out the second year, that's for sure, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yep, I think.

Speaker 2:

Jean Theriot, he flipped that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he did.

Speaker 2:

He did Three boats flip and he did the. You know he cheated. He landed right side up. In fact I think he kept going. They thought he was going to hit the shore.

Speaker 1:

Right, right yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, unlike Doc the year before that actually did. Yeah, oh yeah, muscatel, muscatel, the year before he started the race in Indiana and ended up in Kentucky.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, on the hard, yeah. But anyway, I remember that my dad was cruciate for that time and he called me and he's like, I'm calling from Kentucky. I was like why are you in Kentucky? What's going on? I'm standing on the boat around the shore, oh okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh well, all right.

Speaker 1:

Well, one thing I'm just curious about I always love seeing in the pits. You had this wall of props in later years. It was a fun display that you had out for the fans and people to view and I don't think that was your go-to storage for your props that you're trying on the weekend. Were those props that were timed out and you just wanted to display them, or were those props you wanted to run?

Speaker 2:

We actually had. We might have had two or three in the truck, but we actually used off of that rack, oh, you did every, every prop that was on there. Um, some weekends almost wish we didn't have it because they dig, dig deep into that rack. But but no, the the reason for that was as much, uh, access, if you can imagine. You know you've got three boats that you're racing and they want to. Everybody wants to switch a prop. Well, if you don't have them out of the box ready to go, you know they're all marked where they're mag, checked and cleaned up and ready to go. It was just, it was just easy access.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, it was to kind of interest the fans for one thing, you know, make the sport look more exciting.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, those were all runners. We may have had one or two with a little crack in them or something, but the majority of them on the rack were runners. And something else we did every weekend too we tried to unload every turbine and every gearbox, just because it just looked really cool, you know, and it was intimidating to the other teams, maybe a little bit, and and it helped us. You know, if you can imagine you come in from a heat and you're running a whole bunch of them on sunday and getting ready for the final and you know you have an issue with a fuel control turbine. Where you have an issue, you just count the minutes it takes to dig one out of the truck and if it's right on the ground, yeah, each day you've got to put them back in the truck. And not everybody was a fan of that but, boy, when they needed one and it was ready now, they were glad that they were all out and ready to run.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, yeah Well, I know the fans appreciated that. Yeah, to be able to see the parts and pieces there that you're using. Yeah, fun, yeah Well, another thing on my mind is around that time I can't remember what year it was, was it 2009 or so Doha got on the schedule, yeah, and you seem to have a number there, and I think you've won five out of six races. You seem to just find a way to win over there. What was that all about? How did you find success over there so well?

Speaker 2:

2009 was a sweet year. I mean, we just were getting everything dialed in and everything running good again. As far as Doha itself, we just made sure we took all of our equipment when we went and that it was all in good running condition. The teams would work together to make sure that they were at the right place at the right time. We didn't team race, so to speak, but I mean we made sure we stayed out of each other's way Instead of getting in the way of somebody else.

Speaker 2:

The best thing is just to stay out of the other team's way. So we had again Tom Anderson was really key in a lot of this setting up for the race, um but we would uh have uh other guys over there I mean I could go on all day of all the crew chiefs and everybody that helped out, um, but he just we had the right gears, the right setup, the right drivers and everything worked out good. But yeah, 2009, we laid that down and then yeah, but it went well. Sometime, when we're not being recorded, I'll tell you about the year we didn't win, because we did.

Speaker 1:

We'll do that some other time. Okay, all right, we'll get a lot over beer at some point.

Speaker 2:

I just went to the tech trailer and kept getting the same answer that I didn't believe I was hearing, but I didn't like to hear, and anyway so on. We went because I had to get out of the country. So that was year Qatar won.

Speaker 1:

So anyway, we'll leave it at that.

Speaker 2:

It's all good, but no, it was that first year of winning. I mean, I was listening on the radios, like I always did. I had, you know, a radio in my left ear and you know each team I was listening to as we went and in the end I've only got two ears. So when we had three boats running, I'd always put an earbud in the one ear and the ear mouth was playing, the other one and the other one was yeah, so I was listening to all three. Wow, but, yeah, just the excitement of, you know, tom and J Michael, and they were just, you know, just the happiest kids on the planet at the time, you know, to win a world, and little did we know that we're going to go back and do it again, you know, five more years or four more anyway, right, yeah, Five of the six.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Well, it had to be a big deal over there. It was a big stage, I feel, like over Doha. I mean travel halfway across the world and a lot of money was put into the sport at that time and even won a world championship over there when Scott won there with Vulcan Sports.

Speaker 2:

Yep, yes, yeah. No, it was always fun, you know, winning five out of the six when we were over there and each time it's a big deal Kind of reminds me a little bit. It sounds odd, but it reminds me a little bit of Valley Field, where you go up to the stage and they're announcing who won and everything. It's just a huge deal and lots of people around and a really exciting venue to race in. But, no, always a good time over there. Yeah, I think Jimmy won for us over there. Yeah, we've had several drivers win over there. So, yeah, all good. Yeah, I'll tell you one fun story.

Speaker 2:

One year, when we were over there, we had, let's see, we were running the 5, the 7, and the 57. And we had the. You know, we thought we were running like 3rd, 4th and 6th or something like that, and the race was over and we were, all you know, disappointed. Well, we found out that the first boats had jumped the gun. And, you know, a lot of times you hear the start is under review and you're like, yeah, right, you know, is it really no? And so, short story long, we had Greg Hopp was over there, he was driving for Leland and it was his persistence that kept going back to the trailer and saying, look guys, they jumped the gun. And they kept playing back the same tape. And he's like, look at that, that's not even the same boats out front. You're looking at the wrong review. So he got them to look at the at the other review and found out, yes, they had jumped the gun. So we got first, second and fourth and hop was in third at the time, which would have been do the math.

Speaker 2:

But and I had Jimmy I was running the radio with Jimmy, which doesn't happen often. I don't run the radio usually but I just told him just the boats run and just stay in lane one. Hop was out in lane 27 or something, I don't know what lane he was out there. You know he's on for the ride. But so if I'd have known it's a double-edged sword, it's like if I would have known that we were going to be first and second, I would have gone ahead and pushed Jimmy, because he could have not easily, but he could have crept up and taken Greg Hopp. But the downside of it is then I don't think Hopp would have gone to the trailer and pointed out the fact that they were looking at the wrong tape. So it's all good. We got first, second and fourth, which is pretty darn good in a world champion race oh yeah, anyway.

Speaker 1:

Fantastic Side story. Oh, I always love the digressions, yeah, okay. Well, I know you have so many memories I-plus years, a decade-plus in the sport and a lot of highs, and I'm sure you had plenty of lows along the way. But thinking back, you know, won so many races, high point championships. Looking back at that, what are your favorite moments to think about?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think we touched on some of them winning at Valley Field, winning the national high points.

Speaker 1:

Or do you have a favorite win that you had?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the year 09 in Evansville, when we got first and second, we celebrated a whole bunch that year. It was just with J Michael Kelly and Jeff Bernard and it just everything was right that year. I might have mentioned that before, but we just everything came together and that was fun. About every time we went over in Doha it was fun. I would say.

Speaker 2:

The Gold Cup win in 16, which was in Detroit, that was a big deal. That was the one that we hadn't gotten yet. We'd we'd finished. I believe we'd finished second a couple of times and we um just could not get the gold cup. And then when we finally won that that was just. It was kind of a relief to me because we were in the process of thinking about, you know, stepping out of the of racing but uh, but we, it was just super awesome to win the gold cup. So but yeah, we've had, they're all pretty, they're all pretty neat. You know we've won, we won it. Basically, about every venue we raced at, they all had their uh, their different uh ways of putting on a race and just the where you watched from and everything. But it was all, uh all exciting stuff yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

A lot of fun moments, a lot of fun victories and definitely impressive you impressive decade plus you had in the sport yeah, I think we won.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, you probably got the stats. I think it was close to 20 races, I don't know, through the years, but it was, uh, it was. You know, it's a good chunk. Our expectations were pretty high. So there was several weekends where we left and we were, uh, even though we weren't last, we weren't where we wanted to be, and and we built on that for the next weekend and you, uh, it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

Like you said, after that decade plus, you figured out it was time to leave the sport, and I've never really heard why that was. What was your decision? Uh, what made that decision for you to leave the sport at that time?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think, um, uh, I grew up around the lake and doing a lot of boating, spending a lot of family time and the racing Unless. You travel with your family every time and that's a way. You know people that grow up in racing, you know their families are that's all they know on the weekends, I think it's it's it's a fun time for them. Uh, one thing I wanted to make sure, uh, you know, is that if we did uh step out of racing or we sold, sold the team, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't just like, well, what Budweiser did, you know? You just turn the lights off and leave them sit there and collect dust.

Speaker 2:

So, my, my goal started a couple of years before, where I was talking to sponsors and other owners about, hey, I, I might be interested in selling some of this, but, that being said, I don't want it to just sit and not race, because that's one of the reasons I kept in racing a lot was just to keep the sport alive. But uh, and winning, that's fun too, but uh, so that's you know. So that was kind of, you know, talking with Rob Graham and talking with Dave Bardish and some others, you know, just just making sure that that the boats went to a place that, uh, that was going to continue racing them, or at least that was their commitment at the time. So, yeah, okay, but I loved it to pieces. The thing I miss the most is the people. I think I said that before, but just, you built quite an extended family of people and they all you know, if I miss anything the most is that, and winning I miss winning, but you know I get enough time.

Speaker 2:

We've got grandkids now and it's just fun to be able to go do things with them. Yeah, whether it's go to the lake with them or invite them over. They all live local, so invite them over. They all live local, so invite them over for dinner some night. Or if they come down to florida, we'll make a little boat trip somewhere or go to disney on occasion, but hop in the boat and go to key west or or whatever you know. Just uh, kind of a fun, fun, fun time to spend with them as their families are growing too.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, it's pretty cool, but yeah, yeah Well, it's hard to deny that fact that you want to spend time with your family and, you know, continue your time with them. But also I have?

Speaker 2:

yeah, and I I did go. You know you'll see me around the pits once in a while. I went to Detroit a couple of years ago to help Dave a little bit Dave Bartish and then uh, uh, I was in the pits at Madison this year and got to talk to a lot of uh owners and and and crew members that were on our team and it was fun. It's a fun time, I mean, to be able to go see some of these guys and just be able to talk with them how things are going and how their families are and everything about that. So I do miss that. There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So many great people around the sport, so many friends, and that word family just comes up again and again when I talk to people about the sport, so many friends and and that word family just comes up again and again when I talk to people about this sport. Well, I know you. You said you do have some things you miss about it. Ever thought about returning as an owner for h1?

Speaker 2:

well, oh, I've thought about it plenty. I just, um, I don't know, I think there's a. There are several good teams, good owners, good sponsors out there right now. I don't think. I guess I would rather assist, you know, help other teams. You know, I've got a little bit of knowledge of how to put together, you know, multi-team or a whatever to. You know, help different teams and if they need any input. But there's there's also a lot of crew chiefs out there that can do that as well. But no, I'd, I'd like to be somewhat involved. I just for now, I'm done writing checks. So that was the Sunday thing. Every weekend you get writers cramp because you're writing 50 checks or you're writing whatever to paying for fuel, paying for the spot, paying for you know, you name it, uh, parks and everything, and but uh, nope, it's it, it was, it was a fun run, um, and I'll still go back and and watch from time to time and uh, yeah, yeah, I'm good yeah, we'll just maybe just not have any responsibility, just show up and have some fun.

Speaker 2:

Yeah I wouldn't say never, but we'll see. Yeah, I'm in a good place now with our family and everything. So, yeah, let some others take the lead for a while. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1:

Well, I have heard some rumors, though, about you acquiring some equipment and you mentioned that earlier vintage and there's a boat that was absolutely one of my favorites historic in the sport for many reasons, but the Bubble Bud has been sitting for a long time. I've heard you're acquiring it to restore it. Can you put any truth to this rumor or?

Speaker 2:

Actually I can dispel that rumor. I've, I've, I've definitely talked to him before, but right right now I've actually got the 1979 Griffin Bud, which was the first one that they ran the speed record with on Lake Washington, wiped out at 200 and some miles an hour, and the boat has been in ill repair for a long time and I've got it in the race shop right now and I'm working on that one. So that would be probably two boats before the bubble boat, I guess. So it's basically looks like the same hall. It doesn't have an enclosed cockpit or anything.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

No, that boat is still there. I'm aware of it. I've just got to focus on a different boat right now. I wouldn't say never, but right now I'm focusing on this boat to try and get it put back together to run.

Speaker 1:

Where was that kept? I heard rumors it was actually scrapped.

Speaker 2:

Well, I don't know. I think somebody went dumpster diving and grabbed it back out of there. It ended up at Dave.

Speaker 2:

Bartish's for several years in his warehouse of various boats. He and I did some horse trading back and forth and I ended up with it. I've had it for probably four years four years, maybe, maybe more, I don't know uh and it it's kind of just been sitting in storage and I've been working with uh a little bit, with uh, john Ryan Burger and Dixon Smith, uh, just trying to figure out what it would take to get the boat put back together. So I've actually got full size prints of the 1979 and 1980 hulls, so full size line drawings, the originals. So I got those from Dave as well. But so we roll those out and they're, you know, 30 plus feet long and it's hard to find a table to put them on All the stations or frames, whatever you want to call it. It's pretty cool, it's a neat piece of history and we're just trying to get it back to where maybe we can run it on the weekend. Maybe we'll see if we get that running.

Speaker 1:

Do you have a timeline for that, or is it just kind of as you go along Well?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I updated the timeline because I had a timeline about five years ago and now I've got a different timeline, so a lot of it is. You know, I've gotten real serious recently getting all the parts together and everything. So I don't know, I still think we're probably at least two years away. The boat was hurt, pretty bad things. So I don't know, I still think we're probably at least two years away. Uh, the boat was hurt pretty bad and uh, we're we're doing a lot of demo work to get back to putting it together.

Speaker 1:

so yeah, okay, okay, any other vintage boats on the here you said? I think you said bubble bud was number three in line.

Speaker 2:

Maybe another one in line for you no, no, not right now, not right now. I know dave bardish has a barn full, like I said, but uh, he um, right now. This one is definitely my focus. I think I was insinuating that the bubble bud was after the 1980 boat, okay, which was after the 79 boat, you know. Okay, and I don't know how many 1980 boats there were. I think they would wipe one out and come out with another one that looked like the other one.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, yeah, they ran the Notre Dame as a backup. Ron Snyder drove that Seattle, and then they sponsored Chuck Hickling's boat for a race or two.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 2:

All right.

Speaker 1:

Well, fantastic talking with you. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, all right, well, fantastic talking with you. Yeah, glad to hear you still got your hand in hydropon racing in some, some aspect, and hopefully we can see you just cruising the pits and hanging out.

Speaker 2:

Sounds great, Sounds great. I appreciate appreciate you asking me so.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's all the time we have today, knuckleheads. Hopefully you enjoyed my talk with Ted Porter. I have some more great interviews on the line and this weekend actually is a big event it's the kickoff for H1 season. They're going to be over in Tri-Cities, washington, for their annual spring testing. A few changes this year they're going to be moving it to Saturday, so I expect to see more of you down there at the lake, uh, well, river in Tri-Cities, uh, but I hope to see you down there at the races and please say hi, I'll have my Roostertail Talks shirt on. I'll be down there hanging out and talking, hopefully talking with you.

Speaker 1:

Uh, as we have another exciting year ahead of us. I believe there'll be six boats for H1 there. There'll be some vintage boats, some GP boats. Should be a good day at the river. In the meantime, don't forget we're on social media. We're on Facebook, instagram. Check us out online at roostertailtalkcom and don't forget about that Roostertail Talk Plus subscription service. As every new episode, you get early access to all new episodes. You get entered into the monthly raffle drawing. You get access to that secret portion of the website with some goodies and treasures from Hydro Yesteryear. Well, I know you're excited for it and I'm excited for it. This weekend, h1 is back on the water, so I hope to see you at the races.