ALLAN BROWN
12-16-2002, 01:21 PM
Had a cocktail on Friday with Butch Elliot and Bruce (the Moose) Wilson, who date back to the 1960 Miami-Nassau race.We were recounting stories (lies?) from the old days, came up with a good one. In 1966, we went to Houston, Tx. for the channel derby, a race from the Texas City Dike to the San Jacinto Monument and back. I was there with Aronow and Bobby Moore in 008, the entire Mercury team, about thirty boats, Gus Grissom and Gordon Cooper in tandem Chevy 24' Hydrodyne racer, and Red Adair, the fire-putter-outer in last years winner, "Holocaust", a 23' Formula with tandem (1 in front, 1 in back) turbocharged 327 Daytonas on 1 prop. It was the fastest, wildest boat in the race. Red had just bought it. He was a veteran marathon boat racer, and wanted to win this race very badly. The day before the race, the aviation fuel truck showed up and we were all fueling. Red asked Butch how much fuel he should carry. Butch said "Fill 'er up, Red" Red said "Hell, Butch, it's only 75 miles!" Butch said "Red, you're gonna spill more than you burn!" We won the race in 008, set a couple of altitude records.