Dear Sir,<\/p>\n
Well somehow I wandered onto your web site and the memories are flooding back.\u00a0 I was on hand as a 10 year old boy in New Martinsville, Wv. the day Buddy Byers set the speed record in Miss DeSoto.\u00a0 My father (Lee Ferrell and uncle\u00a0 (Jesse Ferrell) had taken two D-Class outboard Hydros to the races at New Martinsville and entered them in the event.\u00a0 Neither made the Main do to engine trouble but I believe Jesse did qualify.\u00a0 My dad was the gearhead.\u00a0 Jesse was a superb driver but lacked the skills Dad had.\u00a0 Dad and I spent many nights repairing and sanding after a hard weekend of racing.\u00a0 The pair of boats that they campaigned were always magnificent in their appearance.\u00a0 One (Dad\u2019s) was painted with alternating Bright Red Stripes on White on the doped canvas deck, starting with a Red Stripe and Alternating with White \u00a0and \u00a0the numbers were in Black.\u00a0 Jesse\u2019s was just the opposite it started with a White Stripe and alternated, \u00a0each stripe was about 4 inches wide and ran the full length of the deck.\u00a0 The motor\u2019s were Evinrude and I remember the steering wheel as a black Bakelite and steel.\u00a0 On the right the throttle was a two piece squeeze affair and you rode on your knees.\u00a0 \u00a0Dad kept each boat spotless and they were on a trailer that stacked one over the other and had a large red box on the back for the motors, tools and beer.<\/p>\n
If you had never been to the races at New Martinsville, Wv. in the \u201850\u2019s you missed a combination of the Indy 500 and a bluegrass concert.\u00a0 Country music, fast boats, lawn chairs, grandstands, food booths and of course the main attraction the Unlimited Hydroplane racers. \u00a0I remember watching as one of the Big Boats got out of hand, the nose raised up and she elevated into a full 360 degree loop on the front main stretch.\u00a0 The boat hit flat and a little sideways when it struck the water, it instantly exploded into marine grade splinters.\u00a0 You could see the driver bounce and disappear.\u00a0 We knew he was dead.\u00a0 But, in a few seconds his old Kapok life jacket did its job and he bobbed up. Knocked cold but alive.\u00a0 I bet the engine is still somewhere around New Martinsville, on the bottom.<\/p>\n
We made sure to be on the bleachers when Miss DeSoto was running, Dad was driving a new 1957 DeSoto Adventurer, Baby Blue and White and backed his man Buddy Byers with pride.\u00a0 When Miss DeSoto was in form she would put a rooster tail up that would block your view of the other side of the river and she would scream down the stretch with neck twisting speed.\u00a0 Some of the Unlimited Hydro\u2019s were faster and had a large Rolls P-51 Mustang engine that developed more HP but Miss DeSoto had a sound that we loved.\u00a0 She sounded like what we wanted our car\u2019s to sound like.\u00a0 That big 392 Hemi was in full voice on the river those days and Buddy Byers was THE MAN.\u00a0 I remember the record and how we left with Dad and Uncle Jess saying they just knew he was going to crash, the water was too choppy and the wind was getting up.\u00a0 Excitement back then wasn\u2019t on an X-Box, it was next weekend at the Boat races.\u00a0 We followed the tour for about three years with Dad winning a few and Jess winning several.\u00a0 Finally, Uncle Jess relocated to Martinsburg, Wv., Dad sold his boat and quit racing but those three years 1957, 1958 and 1959 will forever be etched in this old man\u2019s mind.\u00a0 10 Year old boys were pretty happy back then..<\/p>\n
I went on to be a fair mechanic, I worked on the late Gemini project and the Apollo project.\u00a0 Was in the U.S. Army and had some nice muscle cars.\u00a0 I still get to hear the roar of an engine and I still go 200 MPH on a regular basis as I have my own passion and it involves flying a Piper 235 four passenger aircraft and a private pilots\u2019 \u00a0license.<\/p>\n
Thanks for indulging me on this backward glance.<\/p>\n