It's a Family Affair

Randy and our oldest daughter, Sheri. Hangin' in the pits between heats. Family, sun, water. What could be better?

I think this is on the Saginaw River in Bay City. There was the occassional barge which created HUGE swells in the river. Think skiing on an avalance.

"When is it your turn, Daddy?"

"Pretty soon, honey, pretty soon."

He's Flying

He's flying and loving every minute of it. We discover it's rare when everything comes together perfectly and at the right time.

We're Out of the Army!

We've made it back home after three years in the Army. We get ourselves settled into a new house in Middleville, have another baby...and buy a racing boat. We camped, and raced, and loved it.

We've re-connected (I don't remember how) with Mike Bugai, and he helps Rand in the pits coming to as many races as his schedule permits. Mike is also racing dirt bikes. We all have full schedules.

The "B" class of stock outboards is notorious for their extremely loud engines. They are not loved by the neighbors of any race events, but they sure sound fast. They are. Mike's cousin, John, is bitten by the bug and joins in.

Boat racing is a family affair, and we enjoy the water, sun and camping opportunities, but with our growing family it is getting difficult to find room for it in our budget.

Above, Mike helps Randy in the "pits".

Boat Racing

Randy's step-father, Bill Mick, had a stock outboard racing boat. As a family they travelled to races, which were mostly in the SW Michigan area. There was one special race which was held in northern Michigan at Topinabee. That race is still a part of the boat racing schedule.

When Randy was 13, they had the boat in the water at his grandparents cottage at Gun Lake. Randy was driving it when he was suddenly thrown from the boat. While the boat continued running, He attempted to get back into it, but was cut by the propeller. He was seriously injurred and was rushed to the hospital by long time family friend, Paul Slobey. He recovered with no lingering affects from the injury.

Much later, during the summer between our junior and senior year we attended the races at Topinabee. Several friends were racing, and the son of a family friend was one of them. There was a boat and trailer for sale. During that winter he bought the equipment and the summer after graduation he raced it. Ray Toppen helped him in the pits occassionally, and we had a blast.

That fall he enlisted in the Army. We were married December 28, 1964. He hadn't completed basic training, but they gave them 2 weeks furlough over the holidays. We were married during that furlough, but before I joined him in Germany I had sold both the Mustang and the racing boat. At least for a while there wouldn't be any racing of any kind. When we were in Germany, we listened to Armed Forces Radio, and every year the Indianapolis 500 was broadcast. Listening to that race was as close as we got to any racing...for a while...

A Little History

Lest anyone think that Rand suddenly was bitten by the racing bug, let me just tell you that our first real "date", was to go to the races at Berlin Raceway. Berlin was still a dirt track back then, and I grew to love the super modifieds. At that time, if there was an occasional sprint car, they ran with the super modifieds. Not the case anymore, but back then that's how it was.

Doug Lang, who owned the gas station on the NW corner of Buchanan and 36th street, owned a sprint car. It was driven by Norm Brown. He spun out...a lot. We loved the huge horsepower of the engines, inside an open wheel car, flying sideways around the turns and most of the straightaways.

The times were pretty innocent, at least for us, but I'll admit we had resorted to assorted ways to see races for free. On Friday nights at the Speedrome they used to have an intermission prior to the feature races. We would arrive, go to the concession stand, buy popcorn and pop, and walk in carrying our booty. They could see our hands were full and never bothered us for ticket stubs. We'd watch the features, sometimes lasting til quite late.

Saturday night we paid for Berlin. On Sundays we drove down to Kalamazoo, but we stopped off at the drag strip in Martin. We used to sit at the end of the strip on the grassy bank outside the fenced-in bleacher area. I remember one time we were sitting on that grassy bank when a rail's parachute didn't deploy properly to stop him. Off he came beyond the end of the track much to our shock and amazement. I can't remember whether we ever did that again.

We continued our drive to D Avenue in Kalamazoo to the track there. Again, we went when the super modifieds were running. Also again, we couldn't afford to buy tickets. There was a tree somewhere in the vicinity of turn three. We climbed it and each sat on a branch to watch the events of the evening, returning home with sore buns from our less-than-ideal accommodations.