old rigger
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Seeing the post @Bite the Bullet posted about Mario Andrretti going for a ride in Proud Mary back in the mid '70s reminded me of this run Prudhomme made also at the Stadium a decade earlier.
Pics are and text are from his book I found on the net, they're crappy pics but there're better than nothing...
"In the fall of 1964, Zeuschel asked me if I wanted to try my hand at boat racing. He built racing engines for boats too, really fast boats. He was building an engine for a guy named Rene Andre, and they asked me to drive it. It was a blown gas hydro with a wooden hull—not fiberglass. It was before fiberglass. It was built by Hallett. I said, “S——, why not.”
Well, I soon found out the reason why not. That was a real short experience. I drove it a couple times, then crashed it at Marine Stadium in Long Beach. Mickey Thompson pulled me out of the water. He was racing a boat too. I came up out of the water, and I was floating there thinking, “God, I’m still alive.” And my helmet, I remember my helmet floating next to me. Motherf——er. I mean, it ripped my helmet off. It felt like it ripped every bone and muscle in my body. I had a life jacket on, thank God, because I wouldn’t have been able to fight to stay up on top of the water. I was just floating there until the rescue boat came."
"It was one of those times where the lights went out and I was sure I was dead. I mean that’s how it feels. Then all of the sudden, the lights come back on, and you go, “Oh. Blue sky. Thank God. Whatever’s wrong with me I can fix. I’m alive.” They pulled me out of the water and put me on a stretcher. Mickey Thompson came running over, “You gonna be all right? Gonna be all right till I get you to the hospital?” And he took his wallet out and sort of shoved it into my armpit and said, “Here. There’s plenty of money in there. Whatever you need.” He didn’t know if I had any money or anything. I think that fortunately, I didn’t need it. All I needed to do was get some rest because it didn’t break anything; it just tore muscles and everything hurt. Just f——ed me up for a while.
Keith was really pissed at me. That was one of the few times we had a falling out. He thought that I shouldn’t have put my life in danger driving for his competition, driving for another engine builder. It wasn’t the smartest thing for me to do at all. I mean, it was stupid, actually. But when you’re young, you’ll just jump in anything. And it was a huge mistake. Rene ended up driving it himself after that and flipped it again. When the boat came down, it hit him in the shoulder, and he had a dead arm from then on. He was paralyzed on one side. I think he had to have it amputated later on. That could have been me. I didn’t go around boats after that. I didn’t want anything to do with them."
Pics are and text are from his book I found on the net, they're crappy pics but there're better than nothing...
"In the fall of 1964, Zeuschel asked me if I wanted to try my hand at boat racing. He built racing engines for boats too, really fast boats. He was building an engine for a guy named Rene Andre, and they asked me to drive it. It was a blown gas hydro with a wooden hull—not fiberglass. It was before fiberglass. It was built by Hallett. I said, “S——, why not.”
Well, I soon found out the reason why not. That was a real short experience. I drove it a couple times, then crashed it at Marine Stadium in Long Beach. Mickey Thompson pulled me out of the water. He was racing a boat too. I came up out of the water, and I was floating there thinking, “God, I’m still alive.” And my helmet, I remember my helmet floating next to me. Motherf——er. I mean, it ripped my helmet off. It felt like it ripped every bone and muscle in my body. I had a life jacket on, thank God, because I wouldn’t have been able to fight to stay up on top of the water. I was just floating there until the rescue boat came."
"It was one of those times where the lights went out and I was sure I was dead. I mean that’s how it feels. Then all of the sudden, the lights come back on, and you go, “Oh. Blue sky. Thank God. Whatever’s wrong with me I can fix. I’m alive.” They pulled me out of the water and put me on a stretcher. Mickey Thompson came running over, “You gonna be all right? Gonna be all right till I get you to the hospital?” And he took his wallet out and sort of shoved it into my armpit and said, “Here. There’s plenty of money in there. Whatever you need.” He didn’t know if I had any money or anything. I think that fortunately, I didn’t need it. All I needed to do was get some rest because it didn’t break anything; it just tore muscles and everything hurt. Just f——ed me up for a while.
Keith was really pissed at me. That was one of the few times we had a falling out. He thought that I shouldn’t have put my life in danger driving for his competition, driving for another engine builder. It wasn’t the smartest thing for me to do at all. I mean, it was stupid, actually. But when you’re young, you’ll just jump in anything. And it was a huge mistake. Rene ended up driving it himself after that and flipped it again. When the boat came down, it hit him in the shoulder, and he had a dead arm from then on. He was paralyzed on one side. I think he had to have it amputated later on. That could have been me. I didn’t go around boats after that. I didn’t want anything to do with them."
