0:25

Roussatel Talk , the podcast dedicated

0:27

to everything about the sport that we all

0:29

love . Hi , Jermaine Reese

0:31

, I am your host , david

0:33

Newton , and it's time once again

0:35

to sit back , relax and

0:38

welcome to Roussatel Talk . Hello

0:53

, reese Vans , welcome back to the podcast

0:55

. We're up to episode

0:57

114 and

1:00

it's early March and

1:02

we're going to listen to my my conversation with

1:04

the late Doug Brow , and

1:07

I talked with Doug shortly

1:09

before he passed away . He passed away on

1:12

December 13th , 2023

1:14

. I was gearing up to edit

1:17

this and go through the productions when

1:19

I heard of his passing and I

1:21

put this on hold . It didn't didn't

1:24

feel right for me to to put it out right away

1:26

with his passing . I don't

1:29

know if it was the right thing to do to wait , but

1:31

I think just for my own mental space

1:33

, I just put it into the

1:35

archives and just

1:38

I was thinking about him lately with getting back into season

1:40

six of the podcast and I wanted

1:42

to share my conversation with Doug

1:44

. He was such a great

1:46

friend and person in the

1:48

sport . I know many of you out

1:51

there in podcast land knew him

1:53

but unfortunately , after

1:55

a battle with cancer , he passed away December

1:57

13th , a few months ago and

2:00

I've known him for a long time back

2:02

in the 90s when he was crewing for

2:04

Ken Muscatel , when I was hanging

2:06

out and helping on the team with my father

2:08

. For many years he raced remote

2:10

controlled scale hydroplanes as well

2:13

. He had a beautiful model of his , his

2:15

dad's Miss Budweiser Great

2:18

man , and he had a great legacy with

2:20

him and his father in racing

2:22

Hydroplanes of all

2:24

sizes around the country and

2:27

being a part of hydroplane racing . I

2:29

talked with him about his racing legacy and what it

2:31

meant to him , and I want to share that story with you

2:33

Now . Unfortunately , some of the audio quality isn't

2:36

quite the best as I was not

2:38

able to meet with him in person and this took

2:40

place via phone call on

2:42

zoom , but I was able to preserve the audio

2:44

. So let's listen in and celebrate

2:46

the life of Doug Brow as we hear

2:48

my last conversation with him Joining

2:53

me today on the phone . I'm talking with legendary

2:55

hydroplane racer Doug Brow

2:57

. Doug , thanks for joining the podcast

2:59

today . Thanks

3:02

, david Brow , for having me , yeah , looking

3:04

forward to talking to you about your

3:06

racing experience and , in your family's

3:08

legacy , I've

3:11

been around the Seattle area for a long time and

3:14

I know you and your father were kind

3:16

of deep into hydroplane racing . So

3:19

, thinking about growing up in the area around

3:21

Seattle , what did that mean to

3:24

you to have you know , the father so

3:26

dedicated to hydroplane racing ?

3:30

Well , as a kid , you know well

3:34

, when he was killed , that was only like 12

3:36

years old , but growing up as a kid , I mean I

3:38

remember it like it was yesterday . We

3:40

grew up in Burien and of course

3:42

he drove the Miss Burien and

3:45

so it was as a kid going

3:47

to school and everything . You know everybody

3:49

thought it was pretty cool , you know , having

3:52

hydroplane drivers my

3:54

dad and so you know

3:56

. Needless to say , you know it

3:58

was a lot of fun as a kid , especially

4:00

in the summertime . You know everybody wanted

4:02

to hang out at the house . You

4:05

know , because we had the Miss , he

4:07

had the Miss Vitamel there , our family

4:09

race boat . And then when

4:11

he you know , when he wasn't , when he wasn't racing

4:13

the big boats , the Miss Burien , miss

4:16

Exide , whatever , you know , he would

4:19

take the Miss Vitamel racing , and

4:21

so it was busy in the summertime , spring

4:23

and summer , that's for sure .

4:26

I can imagine probably a lot of nights in the shop with

4:28

the and your dad and I

4:30

thought my wife's there right .

4:31

Yeah , well , like , yeah , like

4:33

I said , you know , my job , you know , was

4:35

when a tool was dropped and it rolled down into

4:38

the sponsor and my job was to crawl

4:40

down into the boat and get the tools out , you

4:42

know , or when they drop screws

4:44

or bolts or whatever it may be

4:47

, yeah , that was my job to

4:49

crawl down in there and get them .

4:52

I don't think I was as little as you were as

4:55

a kid , but I remember my dad telling me a gopher

4:57

in the shop , because he'd always

4:59

tell me to go for that you know . Go

5:01

for this ranch , go get this .

5:04

Oh yeah , that was automatic . I mean , I was , I

5:06

was born , I was born a gopher , you know

5:09

? Yeah , absolutely yep

5:11

.

5:12

Well , do you have a favorite memory

5:15

? I mean looking back growing

5:17

up around hide and run racing with your

5:19

father . I know he passed away when

5:21

you were quite young , but looking

5:23

back , what's your favorite memory ?

5:27

There's a lot of them , david . You know I you

5:31

think back . There's so many , so many

5:33

things that people

5:35

you know a lot , a lot of the hydro

5:38

fans you know , probably couldn't comprehend

5:40

. You know , every year at seafar

5:42

in the middle of the week , mom

5:44

and dad would have a cocktail party at the

5:46

house . I mean , it was nothing

5:49

, I didn't think anything of it

5:51

having . Bill Cantrell

5:53

, rex Manchester , red Lumis , ron

5:55

Musson , buddy Byers , you know

5:57

all these drivers at my house , you

6:00

know , and they were , they were all , they

6:02

were all there . You know , and those

6:04

are the little things is what I remember

6:06

. You know it's . Yeah

6:09

, you know those those little things , you

6:11

know it's . And then , of course , you

6:14

know when he drove the X-Eye

6:16

, that was , that was exciting , you know . You

6:19

know he broke the

6:21

Mavericks . You know Bill Stedge record and

6:24

you know 120.356

6:26

miles an hour . You know that's

6:28

back in 1965

6:30

, that's hauling ass oh yeah , oh yeah

6:33

that . That that was . That was fast , you

6:35

know , and . But you know . But

6:37

then come race time . You

6:39

know you can be as fast as you want to be , but

6:41

come race time , you know stuff happens

6:44

and it did . Yeah

6:46

, you know , but I'm sure everybody

6:48

remembers . You know , a fuel line broke

6:50

and the boat burned up

6:52

. You know and you know . And what

6:54

could , what could anybody do about it ? absolutely

6:57

nothing right you know , other

6:59

than you know . I don't know if a lot of people have seen

7:02

that picture of dad standing on the back of the

7:04

boat waving the

7:06

helicopter off because he's fanning

7:08

the blaze of the fire onto

7:10

the boat . You know , he wasn't waving

7:12

at the helicopter pilot , he was get the

7:14

hell out of here . You know

7:16

, but anyway , you know things

7:19

like that . You know things like that

7:21

, you know . And then you know , and then

7:23

, of course , when Bernie bought the X-Eye

7:26

and the crew and the driver

7:28

and everything to go with it , you know . Then then

7:30

Budweiser took over and you know

7:32

, he won . He won Bernie's

7:35

first four races . He

7:37

won Budweiser's first four races yeah

7:39

you know that , right , that , right there . You

7:41

know there's a lot of people that don't know that you

7:44

know .

7:44

But yeah , and he also won

7:46

the first race in Tri-Cities ever

7:49

held there as well that , absolutely

7:51

yeah , he won the very first race , the Atomic

7:53

Cup 1966 in Tri-Cities

7:55

.

7:55

You know it , yeah , neat

7:58

stuff that you know it's , and

8:00

as a kid remember and that stuff and being

8:02

there you know and

8:06

that's , that's cool , that's , that's

8:08

, that's neat stuff that you know .

8:10

Now that you asked me and now that I'm remembering this

8:12

stuff , it you know , wow , yeah

8:14

, neat , neat stuff yep , well , going

8:17

back to 1965 in

8:19

Seattle , that Seafar , like

8:21

you mentioned , he hit the 120

8:24

in qualifying , broke the record

8:26

there , and I remember seeing pictures that

8:28

came back . Come back to the dock and there's oil all down

8:30

the side of the boat and whatnot .

8:31

But were you there ? Did you see

8:33

it happen in person ? Oh yeah , oh

8:36

, absolutely , I was there . You know it

8:38

was . You know that boat , for

8:40

some reason , if

8:42

it wasn't throwing oil down the non-trip

8:45

, if it wasn't breathing oil out the side of it

8:47

, she wasn't running . I remember

8:49

every time that boat would come in and it

8:51

was fast there was oil

8:53

down the side of the boat . But that's how

8:55

, though . That's how those motors were . You know

8:57

, if that motor wasn't breathing

8:59

, if it wasn't breathing , it wasn't going fast

9:02

yeah you know , and

9:04

then of course , and then of course you know the nitrous

9:07

and you know stuff like that

9:09

. You know there's , there's

9:11

stories about the nitrous that I could

9:13

argue the point with a few different people , but

9:15

we don't want to go

9:17

there we don't want to we don't want to go there , okay

9:20

all right . I mean I'd love

9:22

to .

9:23

I'd love to , but I'd probably get a phone call

9:25

well , you're always

9:27

welcome to share whatever you

9:30

want here so yeah , just how much trouble you want to be in

9:32

well yeah , yeah , exactly

9:34

, you know .

9:35

Yeah , you know as far as the first boat to ever use

9:38

it . And there's a lot , there's a lot of stories

9:40

out there , you know . But you know

9:43

, and the guy that brought it into the sport , bernie

9:45

Van Cleave , you know , you know he

9:48

was , he worked for Boeing and he , from

9:50

what I understand , you know , he found

9:53

documents relating

9:56

to the German Messerschmitt and how

9:58

it could climb altitude so fast

10:01

and everything was because of nitrous injection

10:03

and

10:08

so they put it in the boat , they put it

10:10

in the Vitamilk and

10:13

then they put it in the Exide . And

10:16

I'm sure Dixon would

10:18

love to argue the point

10:20

on who used it first . And

10:24

there's some guys , there's some drag racers over

10:26

in Spokane that know

10:28

their stuff . I mean , there's no doubt about it

10:30

and

10:32

they used it Doc Johnson and Kenny

10:35

Leiden in the Redskins . But

10:39

yeah , again , stuff like that when

10:41

I was a kid . It's amazing how he remember

10:43

this stuff . But

10:46

anyway , yeah , so

10:48

yeah , I was there that day and the

10:50

boat come back covered in oil and dad

10:53

was covered in oil and had a big

10:56

grin on his face . He knew he did something

10:58

and

11:01

it was a pretty cool deal .

11:03

Yeah Well , that's impressive

11:06

because he didn't have any radio contact back then

11:08

to know right away the speed .

11:09

Oh , no , no , no , no , no

11:13

. It was enough to hold yourself in the boat , let

11:15

alone talk on the phone , you know .

11:17

Yeah , well

11:20

, I'm guessing that worked out pretty well in the Vitamilk as

11:22

well , the nitrous injection .

11:25

Oh , yeah , well , nobody touched the Vitamilk

11:27

, for whenever it was in the

11:29

boat , they didn't run it all the time , you

11:32

know , but when it was , when they did want to

11:34

do a test run or , you

11:36

know , test a system , so to

11:38

speak , you know . Yeah , oh , the boat was just

11:40

a rocket , I mean , nobody could

11:42

touch it . I would have been kind

11:44

of fun . I would like to put it in it and

11:46

try it , but the boat would have

11:48

probably vibrated apart .

11:52

Okay , Well

11:56

, your father had a unique nickname

11:58

, and I'm just thinking about when

12:01

I talk about Hydrofin Racing with my friends and people

12:04

I meet . They don't always get it

12:06

, but one of the jobs I had , I met

12:08

a person that he was . He grew

12:10

up in the area , was a big fan , and the

12:12

first thing out of his mouth was when I talked about

12:14

Hydrofin Racing was Miss Bairian and

12:16

the world's fastest milkman . So he was

12:18

. He was a big fan of your father . So

12:21

where did that nickname come from

12:23

?

12:26

Again , you know , back in the late fifties

12:28

, you know he was

12:30

with Carnation Dairy and then he really

12:33

got the name after

12:35

he's with Vitamilk . He was , you know , a

12:38

distributor , a milk distributor for Vitamilk Dairy

12:40

, and it

12:42

was , you know , he

12:45

was a milkman and it was

12:47

just to be honest

12:49

with you . I'm not absolutely sure who

12:51

it came from , but I'd

12:53

be willing to bet that there was a guy on the

12:55

crew . His name was George

12:57

Parminner and he also

13:00

worked for Vitamilk , and

13:03

I'm not sure if he was a milkman or not , but anyway

13:06

, I believe

13:08

I'd be willing to bet that he came up

13:10

with it because he was quite the character . Him

13:12

and dad were pretty good friends and

13:15

so you know to come up

13:17

with something like that , I wouldn't put it past George

13:19

to do that . Yeah , fun stuff .

13:24

Did you get to ever travel very much with him when

13:26

he went to the races , like when he went to the big boats

13:28

and back to

13:30

East and went on .

13:32

No , I mean on the West Coast . No , us

13:34

kids , you know , we had to stay home , we didn't

13:37

get to go back East . But there was

13:39

one year we did get to

13:41

go to Detroit . I remember that

13:43

. But

13:45

oh , mom , she was the worry ward , she didn't

13:47

want to see you know , oh , detroit , kids

13:50

can't go to Detroit . But

13:54

you know , coeur d'Alene , but all the West Coast , coeur

13:56

d'Alene , you know we were in all those

13:59

and back to

14:01

back wins in Coeur d'Alene . Yeah

14:04

, yeah , yeah , it would have been fun

14:06

to go back East , but I was pretty young

14:08

, you know . So to appreciate

14:11

it the way , you know

14:13

, I would have wanted to , wouldn't have been

14:15

able to happen , oh for sure . But , anyway

14:17

, yeah , a lot of good memories .

14:20

Well , in your dad's career he had a lot of great

14:22

wins and big moments and you said

14:24

he got the first four victories for Bernie

14:27

, biggest owner in the sport we ever had . Unfortunately

14:30

, a year after racing had

14:32

a terrible crash in Tampa

14:35

Bay , the end of his life

14:37

, dark

14:40

day in history . It was a dark time in

14:42

high to plain sport of racing lost a lot of great

14:44

legends but

14:47

you continued with high to clean racing . How were you able

14:49

to continue that torch ?

14:52

In secret . Yeah , mom

14:55

didn't like it at all . Yeah

14:57

, you know , there was a lot

14:59

of years where you know we would go visit at

15:01

Seafarer and then as I got

15:03

older , as I got older , I would sneak over

15:06

to Tri-Cities . But you know

15:08

, I crude on , I crude on a lot

15:10

of the unlimiteds and

15:12

mom didn't like , mom didn't like it . But

15:15

you know I did and

15:17

she knew she , you know was she'd

15:20

play hard , trying to stop me . You know , and

15:22

you grow up , you grow up from birth

15:24

doing something . You know you just don't let it go

15:26

.

15:27

Right .

15:28

And so you know it

15:31

, yes , I

15:33

got older and got harder for her

15:35

and and then , you know

15:37

, come drive and

15:39

I mean when we were growing up we had outboards . You know

15:41

, dad would buy these outboards and

15:44

stick motors on the back and we go to Angle Lake

15:46

and over at SeaTac Airport and

15:49

crash them and destroy them and

15:51

he'd rebuild them . He'd rebuild them for

15:54

us and we go do it again up at Lake

15:56

Taps . We had a , we had property up at

15:58

Lake Taps , up , you know , above Auburn

16:00

. Oh , there's a lot of boats on

16:02

the bottom of that lake . Yeah

16:04

, yeah , yeah , yeah . But

16:08

anyway , yeah , that's some

16:10

good memories there .

16:12

Well , I can only imagine you know , continuing the

16:14

legacy with that , I mean , I lost my father

16:17

. It's completely different , but still just being around

16:19

the boats , still just different

16:22

meaning .

16:24

Yeah , yeah . Well , you know , I don't know

16:26

if I say that , david , your father was great

16:28

and yeah , he had a lot

16:30

to do with hydroplane racing .

16:32

Oh yeah , he had a lot of influence on it .

16:34

He had a lot of influence on it . Yeah

16:37

, roger was a great guy , yeah .

16:38

He was a great guy , thank you .

16:40

Yeah .

16:40

Thank you . Well

16:44

, thinking back at your father's legacy

16:46

, all the wins he's had

16:48

, all the impressions he made , what

16:51

does it mean to you ?

16:59

I guess I

17:01

think about it different than a

17:04

fan would . I guess that's

17:09

how to answer it . The

17:14

legacy to me ? I suppose it's a legacy , but I

17:18

grew up watching it . It's nothing . I don't

17:21

think about it that way . I don't know if that answered

17:23

your question . It

17:28

was second nature to me . It's

17:32

what we did . It's what we did every weekend . Most

17:37

thing I wanted in life was a paper route and

17:39

I couldn't have one because of hydroplane

17:42

racing . I'm

17:46

the weekends . We were gone every

17:48

weekend , boat racing

17:50

, and

17:55

there's a lot of things I didn't get to do that

17:57

most kids did do , and it was because of boat racing

18:00

. But that's okay . That's okay

18:02

. I like

18:04

that , but

18:07

still it's funny in a way if you think about it . I

18:10

wanted a paper route .

18:16

Sounds like it was just a way of life . You don't look

18:18

back and look at the way it was . The

18:21

points , that's life .

18:26

That's exactly what it was . It was life . It

18:28

was . What points ? How

18:30

many points did he get for what ? We

18:34

were there to race ? He

18:40

never did get a championship . He came close

18:42

. He

18:44

came real close to a few gold cups

18:46

but never got it . He

18:49

was the hardest driver out there . I

18:51

know that he was , and

18:54

there are a lot of people , a lot of people , don't agree

18:56

with me on that .

18:59

Everyone has their favorite right . Everyone has the

19:01

one they want to see .

19:02

Oh yeah , of course , from

19:05

what I've heard rumors of , he

19:08

was a lot of people's favorite . He was a

19:10

go-getter , that's for sure .

19:11

Oh , definitely , definitely . Well

19:14

, you talked about him getting outwards

19:16

for you . When did you

19:18

start racing in boards and stepping

19:21

up with your racing career ?

19:25

Well , I guess it was in

19:29

1980 , I guess I

19:33

was crewing on the Joy Ami , armand and Neil

19:35

Yappuccino's boat . We

19:39

were at

19:42

Sweet Home down in Oregon and

19:44

Neil got killed driving someone

19:46

else's boat at two and a quarter After

19:53

that it

19:55

was hard . Armand

19:59

asked me if I wanted to drive the Joy Ami and

20:03

I well , yeah , I

20:06

mean here , it is probably one of the fastest

20:08

280s in the nation . And

20:10

yeah , absolutely so

20:12

. Armand set me up

20:14

to the disagreement

20:17

of quite a few people , but there's

20:20

a lot of people that thought they should have got the ride . But

20:22

I did , but

20:25

anyway , yeah . So my first ride

20:27

, my first competitive ride , was with Armand

20:29

in the Joy Amia and

20:32

had a lot of fun , had

20:34

a gas , yeah , yeah , yeah . I won

20:37

a few races but that was

20:39

the start , right there , that's what got me

20:41

going competitively . I should say

20:43

yeah , yep , yep . And

20:46

then I had a two and a half . After

20:48

Armand I had a

20:50

two and a half liter and I

20:52

did really well with that boat for a long time

20:54

. And

20:58

then you know on

21:00

to bigger and better , seven

21:02

liters and

21:04

unlimited lights in the

21:06

90s , and

21:09

yeah that was

21:11

a lot of fun back then .

21:13

Yeah , hop , scotching

21:16

between boats , yeah , Well

21:18

, you mentioned unlimited lights and I mean

21:21

, look back on that . That was such a fun series

21:23

, that was really a great partnership

21:25

. I thought was unlimited . I

21:30

know you raced that series for a while . Tell

21:33

me about talks to that journey that you had with unlimited

21:35

lights back then . So

21:38

I don't think a lot of people nowadays

21:40

really can kind of like appreciate what that

21:42

brought to the sport .

21:45

You know I drove for John Hogan . I drove for

21:47

a few people , you

21:49

know , and in and out of different boats , but

21:51

John Hogan , I finally got into with

21:54

John and drove , you

21:56

know , his boat it was a Nate Brown boat and boy

21:58

it was fast . And then Ron

22:00

Jones Sr got ahold of it and made

22:02

some changes on it and

22:05

we finally got the thing wound up and it

22:07

was a gore . It was so much fun

22:09

to drive . It was so fat

22:11

, it was so small

22:14

in the boat and you

22:17

know it was so light and so small and

22:19

it was a handful to drive . But it always recovered

22:21

and it always came back in and

22:24

that's what I liked about it . But

22:27

the . Unlimited Light series it was . You

22:29

know there was a lot of different people involved in it

22:31

. You know there was the East Coast portion

22:34

of it and the West Coast portion of it , and

22:36

you know to call

22:38

it East Coast and West Coast . It

22:41

was really too bad that we couldn't get together

22:43

and run

22:45

a series with , like

22:47

you just said , with the Unlimited , you

22:50

know , and you would have the Unlimited and the Unlimited

22:52

Lights , and that never

22:54

did happen . There was some races on

22:56

the East Coast , you know , where they would

22:58

have a few Unlimited Lights and then they'd come out

23:00

West and there'd be a few Unlimited Lights . But

23:02

you know we could never get the whole

23:04

package put together and

23:07

that was really too bad . But

23:12

it was a lot of fun , you know . It

23:15

was affordable . That's what was fun about

23:18

it . A lot of people got

23:20

involved in it and could afford

23:22

to do it . And then they started

23:24

, of course , and it never and of course

23:26

it always happens Somebody wants

23:28

to get their fingers in the pot and they

23:30

want to change the rules , and

23:33

you know . And then there it goes

23:35

. Now you start putting

23:38

stock blowers on the stock

23:41

big block and there's

23:43

people that couldn't afford that . And

23:45

then there goes your class . You

23:48

know what I mean . It's like

23:50

the seven-liter class years ago

23:53

, back in the late 80s and 90s . I

23:55

was looking the other day I saw a high

23:57

point list

23:59

for the seven-liter

24:02

Grand Nationals and there

24:04

was like yeah

24:06

, I want to say there was 30-some boats

24:08

that scored points , wow

24:10

, and but you

24:13

know , but because of somebody wanting

24:15

to change the rules , there

24:18

went the class and now there's none

24:20

. There's a few Grand Nationals

24:22

out there , you know , but

24:25

not like it was or not

24:27

like it could be Right , and

24:30

that's sad when that stuff happens .

24:32

It's so unfortunate when that happens because it doesn't matter

24:34

what size of class it

24:36

is . Yeah , and even the

24:38

small model RC boats to the

24:40

unlimited lights . You know Grand Nationals

24:43

that just messes up the racing and

24:45

you lose interest and people can't

24:47

afford it . And there it goes .

24:49

Yeah , yeah , yeah .

24:50

Yeah , there it goes .

24:51

Yeah , yeah , you got it . Yeah , that

24:53

stock , that stock , you know

24:55

, that stock seven-liter motor that everybody

24:58

could afford to run is now by the wayside

25:00

. Yeah , but

25:03

anyway . Yeah , that's

25:06

the sad part of the sport when stuff like that happens

25:08

.

25:08

No , yeah , Well , back

25:10

in the 90s you got . I'm

25:13

not sure I can't remember if it was your first ride in a

25:15

limited or not , but you

25:17

had a chance to run a race

25:19

drive for the Misexide in Seafarer . I

25:22

think it was 90s yeah , Dicks or so , but

25:25

now it's approximately about 30 years

25:27

after your dad ran for the same sponsor . What

25:29

was that like ? To be able to race an

25:31

unlimited on ? The same body of water under

25:34

the same name as your dad . Yeah .

25:36

Yeah , that's

25:39

. How often can that happen to somebody or for

25:41

somebody ? You know what I mean , Right

25:44

, right , it

25:47

is . What do you

25:49

say ? You know ? I mean Mike

25:51

Jones gave me the opportunity to get in the boat

25:54

, and the Red Robin Misexide and

25:56

went out . You

25:59

know what do you say ? I mean

26:01

, it was unbelievable , it is one of those

26:03

once in a lifetime things and mom

26:06

didn't like it , but oh well . But

26:10

yeah , yeah , it was a neat experience

26:13

, a lot of fun , a lot of fun and

26:16

you know , to break in

26:18

the unlimiteds driving

26:21

the same boat . Your dad drove not the same boat

26:23

but the same sponsor . Yeah , yeah

26:25

.

26:26

Yeah , the same boat , not the same lake on

26:28

the same lake , yep .

26:30

Same body of water , yep yeah

26:32

. Good memories , those

26:35

are fun memories , yeah , yeah .

26:39

You know , in the 90s still , you

26:42

had that experience and you got a few rides and

26:44

then limited , yeah , but

26:47

I remember there was a year .

26:49

Yeah , I got a few rides out of the deal in the 90s

26:51

and into

26:53

the 2000s . You know , Fred Leland put

26:55

me in a couple of his boats and

26:57

you know I lived

27:00

up in Friday Harbor up in the San Juan

27:02

Islands and Rick Campbell lived

27:04

up there and he

27:07

brought me in to help build one of Ken's

27:09

boats . You know the purple boat purple and pink boat

27:11

, that's what I call it . Yeah , and

27:14

you know so I , you know , drove

27:17

the boat around , got in the truck and drove

27:20

the boat around the country and did

27:24

that for a couple of years and

27:28

I got in Ken's boat a couple of times . I

27:30

was told I was

27:32

maybe a backup driver , but it never really

27:34

happened . No , yeah . And

27:37

back then , back then Ken

27:39

was Ken was pretty tough

27:42

to get him out of that seat , right

27:44

right . You know I was wondering if

27:46

you were backup . Yeah

27:48

, well , the word , those

27:50

words were said , but it never happened

27:53

. Yeah , and

27:55

you know , like I said , ken had his

27:57

butt glued into that seat and there wasn't

27:59

anybody else that was going to

28:02

take that from him . Yeah , but

28:05

that's okay . Yeah , you know , that's okay . He's

28:07

done a lot for the sport and I

28:09

appreciate the opportunity . One

28:12

year I can't remember what year was in Tri-Cities

28:15

, I got in the boat and I was going to go

28:17

out and qualify and something happened . I

28:19

don't remember what it was , yeah

28:21

, right off hand , but I never

28:23

, never got to take the boat out

28:26

. But

28:28

anyway , yeah , between

28:30

Ken and you know , and Fred Leland and

28:33

I drove a few of Fred's boats and actually

28:36

one one of he did seafar . Everybody

28:39

else jumped the gun , but that's their fault

28:41

, not mine . That's right , that's

28:44

right . Yeah , you know I was

28:46

on time , they weren't , you

28:48

know . So accounts . In

28:50

fact I got my . There's

28:52

a case right here in the room . I'm in the house and I'm looking

28:55

at that trophy . I'll

28:57

be done , but

29:00

anyway , yeah

29:02

, so .

29:03

Yeah , well , I mean back when I remember hanging

29:06

around the crew a little bit , when you crewed

29:08

on the on the security racing team the

29:10

late 90s with the pink and purple monster . Yeah

29:13

, I just remember my dad always having some fond

29:15

memories of Ken's crews over the years . Did

29:18

you have a favorite memory of working

29:20

on the boat with Ken or for the team ?

29:26

I think the memories came from the team . You know

29:28

Ken , ken was a busy guy Back then . He was

29:30

involved in the politics of the sport and

29:33

he would run down , jump in the boat , drive

29:35

it and he didn't see much of

29:37

Ken early but

29:39

that's okay because he was keeping the sport

29:41

together , because back then that's

29:43

what it needed was someone to do that and

29:46

that was his job . But

29:48

back then it was me and you

29:52

know Bakke , jim Bakke , and

29:55

you know there was a bunch of guys on

29:57

the crew and we all got together so well and

29:59

we all worked together so well and

30:02

lots of memories amongst the crew

30:04

guys back then .

30:05

Yeah .

30:07

Yeah , life out on the road , life out on the road

30:09

was fun . Yeah , yep

30:11

, yeah . The

30:14

fond memories is that being out

30:16

on the road and

30:19

working with the other

30:21

guys .

30:22

Yeah , definitely . Yep

30:24

, well , I just remember that . You know you said

30:26

the pink and purple boat , that's what you

30:28

called it . I just remember Bill

30:32

Fritz . I think he helped out a couple

30:34

times with Ken's crew and he mentioned

30:36

to me one time he was walking down to get

30:38

lunch or something and someone asked

30:40

him if he worked for 31 Flavors Baskin

30:42

Robbins and he just about

30:45

lost it there .

30:48

So that's funny , I never heard that one

30:50

.

30:54

Well , you remember those uniforms , the pink and purple

30:56

.

30:57

Oh yeah . In

30:59

fact , I still have one of the cruise shirts

31:02

the pink and purple and green Yep

31:04

.

31:04

Yep .

31:05

Yeah , so you

31:07

know you're being on the island and painting the boat and painting

31:10

the uprights and

31:12

painting them and taking the mask off and oh

31:14

my God , that's ugly . You

31:17

know you're going to run that .

31:20

Oh .

31:20

Campbell , you wanted it .

31:23

Was that his ? Thing ?

31:25

Yeah , that was his thing , that

31:30

was his Yep . Okay , god yeah

31:32

, oh boy , yep .

31:35

Well , fast forward in time and remember

31:37

a few years back you were helping

31:40

out the sport , each

31:42

one as a referee

31:44

.

31:45

Yep , how did you get ?

31:46

involved , to be a

31:48

referee in the sport and helping out in that , and how was

31:51

your time ? Like on that side of

31:53

the sport .

31:55

Oh , it was 96

31:57

, I believe it was . I got a call . I

32:00

got a call from Jim

32:02

Codling that was in there then and Mike

32:05

Noonan and I

32:07

got a call to ask if I'd come and help and

32:10

that was at Tri-Cities and I

32:12

thought , well , okay

32:14

, I guess . So

32:16

I drove over there and next

32:18

thing I knew I was the helicopter

32:21

referee . I was up in the air and the helicopter

32:23

making the calls and

32:26

I sat in the helicopter

32:28

for about

32:30

six years I was up in the helicopter

32:33

and

32:35

making calls from up there and of course

32:38

nobody liked the calls

32:40

but nobody likes anything

32:42

in H1 or the unlimited

32:44

. And

32:49

then I got out of there and some

32:52

new people come in and I just didn't want to get

32:54

up in the helicopter anymore . So

32:59

I made a change and I started running

33:01

the tower , I started running the race course and

33:06

so I made all the calls off the tower and

33:09

more or less ran the race from the tower

33:11

and

33:17

that was that job . And I mean there's

33:19

a lot of different jobs in H1 that

33:21

a lot of people don't realize is

33:24

part of the deal . There's

33:26

a lot of people behind the scenes that

33:29

people don't realize how important

33:32

they are . But anyway

33:35

, I was chief referee for

33:37

a few races and that

33:40

wasn't fun . The

33:44

owners make the rules and when

33:47

you abide by the rules they still don't like

33:49

it . So that's how that works

33:51

and

33:54

that's too bad too . It

33:56

really makes it tough , makes it

33:58

tough on the people . All

34:01

they want to do is run their boat and run

34:03

by the rules , and when you change the

34:05

rules that's

34:08

pretty tough to do . So

34:11

I think it wasn't that glamorous . Yeah , oh

34:13

, no , no , no , no

34:16

. I was there for I

34:19

want to say nine , 10 years . I did it and

34:22

finally I just got

34:24

excuse

34:27

the expression , I just got tired of getting beat up

34:29

every Monday morning in the newspaper , literally

34:31

, literally beat up , chastised

34:34

and verbally abused . You

34:37

know , especially

34:39

, you know tri-stitties , the towers

34:41

way down the river , and

34:43

I would have to jump in a golf cart or

34:45

on a little scooter or something and

34:48

drive down to the tower and

34:50

then drive back and at the end of

34:52

the final heat , driving back to

34:54

the pits . There

34:57

was a couple of times I swear I was going to get clothes

34:59

lined off that , off that scooter . You

35:02

know people with people with sly

35:04

remarks . You know there's

35:06

the dumb ass . You know . But

35:08

yeah , yeah , and

35:12

true story too . You know , it's a people you

35:15

know at airports Monday morning

35:17

, at people

35:20

flying home to Seattle on Monday morning , and here I

35:22

, you know , here we are getting on the same

35:24

plane and you can hear the sly remarks .

35:27

Yeah .

35:28

And but yeah

35:31

, so it wasn't fun anymore . You know it's . I

35:33

always told myself you know , when boat racing

35:35

wasn't fun anymore , I wasn't going to do it anymore

35:38

. Yeah , and that's . That's

35:40

pretty much where it went . You know it wasn't

35:42

fun anymore . I love the

35:44

sport with all my heart . I always will , and

35:47

I would love to get back into it , and I would

35:49

love to , just because I love the sport so much

35:51

. But I'm not

35:53

going to , I'm not going to think it verbally

35:55

chastised , chastised every Sunday

35:58

night and Monday morning . No , no , I'm

36:00

not going to you know , yeah , no

36:02

, it's not at all .

36:04

Well , you didn't totally walk , walk away from everything

36:06

, because a few years ago

36:09

I was you . You've located

36:11

your dad's old inboard that Miss Mitamoffie

36:13

talked about earlier .

36:15

Yeah , so it turned fun again , yeah

36:17

.

36:18

It turned fun again .

36:19

Yeah , well

36:22

, I , a buddy of mine , I'd

36:24

been looking for the boat for years and

36:27

a buddy of mine , I knew it

36:29

was around somewhere but

36:31

I didn't obviously didn't know where . Well

36:33

, a buddy of mine was a UPS driver and

36:35

he went into this warehouse down

36:38

by Blackstock Lumber , down by

36:40

Lake Union , and

36:42

he went in and delivered some boxes

36:44

and everything . And he looked over in the

36:46

corner and here's he thought it was a

36:48

hydroplane , with a whole bunch of boxes stacked

36:50

on top of it and stuff like that

36:53

. And we , him and I , grew up

36:55

together . He knew the

36:57

Miss Mitamoffie I mean , he was my

36:59

kid , we went to school together Great school

37:01

, junior high , you know and he went to races

37:04

with our family . He knew the boat and

37:07

so he asked the guy if he could go

37:09

over and look at it and guys , well , yeah , go ahead

37:11

. And he

37:13

went over and took some of the boxes

37:15

off of it and he looked in it and he knew , he

37:17

knew immediately it was the boat . And

37:20

he he says , okay , well , thank you , and

37:24

he could get outside fast enough . And he

37:26

calls me and he says

37:28

you got to get down here . He says

37:30

I think I found the boat . Wow , so

37:33

I wasn't doing anything at the moment . I

37:36

reached down there and knocked

37:38

on the door and the guy answered the door and I

37:40

asked him . You know , a

37:43

buddy of mine was here a while ago , ups

37:45

driver , and he looked at you have a hydroplane

37:47

here , and he says , yeah , you

37:50

mind if I come in and look at it . So no

37:52

, come on here . So I

37:54

went and looked at it and I knew immediately

37:57

. In fact , I knew immediately

37:59

because there's a , there

38:01

was a St Christopher metal

38:03

jammed underneath one

38:06

of the battens and I

38:08

could see the very , I could see the very

38:10

edge of it and that was dads , and

38:13

I don't know how it stayed there , but it was

38:15

there . And so that I could

38:17

tell that part of the boat was still original

38:19

. And so

38:22

, anyway , yeah , so

38:24

I sat down with the guy and I told

38:26

him the story , you know , the family story

38:29

, and what the boat was and what

38:32

I wanted to do with it . And

38:36

the guy almost had the guy in tears , you

38:38

know telling him the family story and about

38:40

dad and all the stuff , and he

38:43

says , well , you better get that thing out of here before I change

38:45

my mind . He gave it to me . Wow

38:47

, yeah , he

38:50

gave me the boat . So I called

38:52

Don Kelsen and Jerry Kelsen

38:55

, because I knew that's where the boat

38:57

would be fixed , for

38:59

you know , whatever we done . So

39:02

I got with Don and he came down and it

39:04

had fallen down onto the trailer . You know

39:06

, it had rotted through it and

39:11

, and you

39:13

know so we got the boat down to Don shop and

39:15

turned it over and got her

39:17

upside down and started tearing it apart and

39:20

it's all

39:22

over but the shouting . You

39:24

know it

39:26

, yeah it

39:29

, that was it . And the boat was reconstructed

39:31

back to its exact , exactly

39:35

the way dad had it back when he

39:38

was the milkman it

39:40

was the misvita milk and

39:42

the boat to this day is the

39:44

same exact engine , same exact paint

39:46

, same exact everything the

39:49

way dad had it . And

39:51

yeah , so

39:53

it's a pretty cool deal , pretty cool story

39:55

.

39:58

How long did that take to restore ?

40:01

It took about a year . I wasn't

40:03

in a big hurry . I

40:06

wasn't in a big hurry .

40:08

Anyway , yeah neat deal . Well

40:12

, I'm just curious the first time you

40:14

sat in the boat and you took that out on the water , what

40:17

emotions were going through your mind ?

40:20

I was in tears . I mean , I'll

40:22

be honest with you , like like like

40:25

span away , like span away . You

40:27

know , I got in the boat and it was like

40:29

something came over me and

40:31

my sister was there , you

40:34

know , and my

40:37

you know what of my family's left

40:39

was . That was there and yeah

40:43

, it was just a big rush came

40:45

over me . It's something , you

40:48

know , everybody should feel . Yeah

40:52

, and then the very first time I ran

40:54

it , I went out and the strut fell out of it , yeah

41:00

, so I had to get back to dawns and dawn

41:02

. We had to fix that

41:04

. But yeah

41:06

, the boat's been a lot of fun . Once we got all

41:08

the bugs ironed out of it and , you

41:11

know , got the vibrations out of it and everything

41:13

. The thing is , the thing is so much fun to drive

41:15

. It's just a Cadillac

41:18

. You know it's

41:20

against

41:24

all your normal thinking when you drive it because

41:26

you don't think you know . Well , here

41:28

comes this turn and I got to turn this tub

41:30

, you know . And sure

41:32

enough , you know there's a way to drive

41:34

it . And Freddie Wright I don't know if you know

41:36

who Fred Wright is . He's a machinist

41:39

. He's done a lot of , he's worked on a lot of unlimiteds

41:41

and he's . He's built a

41:43

lot of the rudders and a lot of the systems

41:45

for boats and when dad was

41:47

racing the big boats , fred Wright

41:50

would drive them as by the milk if dad

41:52

was chasing points or whatever , and

41:54

you know . So Fred sat

41:56

me down and explained how to

41:58

drive the boat and and

42:01

sure enough , yeah , the

42:03

thing is just with Cadillac

42:05

. You know , there's a particular

42:07

way . You got to drive a conventional hydroplane

42:09

and once you get that feel it's

42:11

, it's , there's nothing like it

42:14

. It's a lot of fun , Lots

42:16

of fun .

42:18

Well , can you describe what it

42:20

means to you to have that back ?

42:25

Oh , it's one of . It's one of them , things

42:27

, david , it's hard to describe , you

42:29

know , I mean I got it right out of here in my garage

42:31

, you know , and , and you

42:34

know , every time I go out in my shop it's

42:37

right there . And right

42:39

now , you know , because of you know , the cancer

42:41

that I have , and and financially

42:45

, right now I , I , the motor , needs

42:47

to be done , redone

42:49

, and Marty Hack , who's the great

42:51

motor builder around here , I wouldn't let anybody

42:53

else do it . He told me

42:55

, you know that right now I have a the

42:58

motors , you know , tired , and

43:00

I did a great job

43:02

maintaining it for a few years . But it's really tired

43:04

and he's afraid , if I go out and run it , that I'll

43:06

blow the motor up and then I'll have nothing . And

43:09

so he says you're better , you're better off . Just

43:12

, you know you've raced before

43:14

. You know , just sit back and relax , and when

43:16

you , when it's time to do it again , you know

43:18

we'll , we'll put the motor back together , we'll freshen

43:20

it up and , and you

43:22

know we'll , we'll get her back in the water . So

43:24

it's been a couple years since the boats run

43:26

and . But that's

43:29

okay , I'm good with that . I've been to a boat race before

43:31

. You

43:34

know , I I don't need

43:36

to race every weekend . A lot of people

43:38

, you know that , want me to get back

43:40

out there and I want to get back out there . But

43:42

I , when I do something

43:44

like this , I do it right and I'm

43:46

not . I'm not going to throw something together just to go out

43:48

and run the boat . I

43:50

don't need to just go out and run the boat . You

43:53

know , I want to go out and make sure it comes back

43:55

in . Anyway , yeah

43:57

, she's a neat toy , she's , she's

43:59

, she's a lot of fun and

44:01

it's a keepsake , you know if

44:03

I ever get rid of it ? I think it will probably . If I ever

44:06

get rid of it , I think it'll be a Viking funeral , you

44:09

know , like , like , like , like the Hawaii Kai .

44:12

Yeah , I'm just going to say well

44:14

, yeah , unfortunately

44:16

that's down down there

44:18

and the sound yeah

44:22

yeah , yeah , yeah Well

44:25

. I'm glad you got the bottom of that . It's

44:28

restored and it's it's such

44:30

a great connection to have with your father

44:32

.

44:34

Oh , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah

44:36

, it is very special , you're right .

44:40

Well , we've been talking for a while and I

44:42

don't want to keep it too much longer , but one last

44:44

question , just uh sure

44:46

, thinking about all the years in your racing career

44:49

whether it was driving wrenching

44:51

with your dad was , was your

44:53

friends Do you have that one special

44:56

year ? Because I feel like we always have that special year in

44:58

racing where it just stands out that everything

45:00

went right Maybe not on the water

45:02

, but just just everything went right in your mind . Do

45:05

you have that ? What year is that for you ?

45:12

David , you're being tough . Wow

45:14

, there's a lot of them , I've , I've

45:16

. There's so many . There's so many

45:18

small memories . You know that

45:20

. Uh , so

45:23

many small memories , just the little things I

45:25

remember . One time at Lake Spanaway , bud

45:28

Burns come up to me when he was driving the shady

45:30

lady and he said you want to drive

45:32

the boat ? I said yeah yeah

45:34

, I want to drive the boat . You know

45:37

that's a shady lady . Hell yeah , I want to drive

45:39

it . So I went out and won heat

45:41

as a division one seven later and

45:44

went out in the boat and I wasn't

45:46

even trying but

45:48

went out and set a new world record . But it

45:50

didn't count because Howie LaBrie broke

45:52

down on the last lap and there wasn't

45:55

enough boats across the finish line , but

45:58

uh but . But it was . But

46:00

it was so much fun because a

46:02

lot of people don't remember . But Bud Burns

46:04

, you know he had that big old pop deli and he

46:06

weighed a ton and the

46:08

boat kind of the boat kind of ran downhill

46:11

. When he would drive it it

46:13

was still fast , but boy , it would kind of be downhill

46:16

. And I got in the

46:18

thing and I was just a skinny little run

46:20

and the

46:22

thing actually broke loose and flew

46:24

when I drove it and I

46:26

didn't realize it , but I broke

46:28

the division one seven later world record

46:31

by a considerable amount , wow

46:33

. But you know , it's a little

46:35

things like that that you know . You

46:38

remember , you know that

46:40

, uh , yeah , little

46:42

things like that that they'll always stick with

46:44

you . You know the two

46:46

and a half later that Sam Bryant owned

46:48

that I drove , and

46:51

what year was it ? 1980

46:56

. Ah , shoot , I can't remember what year

46:58

84 , 85 , I don't know but

47:00

uh , between Sam and I we

47:02

ran 34 races and 127

47:05

of them he's . And

47:08

that was that . That was in a , that was in a Larry Campbell

47:10

hold . Jeff and Mike Campbell , their

47:13

dad built the boat and that thing was

47:15

so fast , wow . But

47:18

back then you know everybody , that little

47:20

stock pinot motor with a little

47:23

carburetor on it and it

47:25

was just a great little boat . But that right there

47:27

. You know that . You remember stuff like

47:30

that . You know everybody called me cheater

47:32

cam . They

47:35

never pay the money to tear the motor down , but they

47:37

call me cheater cam . They

47:42

couldn't call you cheater cam if they broke it down , and then

47:44

you're legal . That's

47:47

right . That's right . That's why they never did yeah

47:49

.

47:53

Right on .

47:53

David , thank you for the call , yeah .

47:56

It was a lot of fun .

47:58

I'm glad you called me to do this . You know you . You

48:00

know I'm thinking about things

48:03

that I haven't thought about for a long time and

48:05

neat stuff . I'm glad

48:07

, I'm glad . I'm glad you asked me to do this .

48:10

It was a lot of fun having you on . I appreciate it . Well

48:15

, listeners , no matter what you have in

48:17

your cup , whether it's water , juice

48:20

, milk or a beer , let's

48:23

raise it up , let's give it toast and

48:26

remember the great life of Doug Brow and

48:28

his family's legacy in

48:30

hydroplane racing . Doug

48:32

, this is for you , and

48:34

enjoy your time up there with all the other hydroplane

48:37

, all the other people from the sport

48:39

that we've lost over the years . Well

48:42

, thank you , doug .