5 replies to this topic

[CJE]

Has anyone heard of this? I was recently invited to a private car collection and in amongst the cars was a speed boat from the early 1960's. I think it was driven by AJ Foyt. Anyway, I was told of this boat race in the 60's called the Salton Sea 500 (in southern California) where all of the Indianapolis 500 drivers participated in this 500 mile boat race each year! Just for fun.

[CJE]

These were some seriously fast boats. Prop driven. From the days when race drivers just wanted to go fast, no matter what the conveyance.

[Frank S]

My father was president of the San Bernardino Community College District at that time. He hired Art Scholl, famed aerobatics pilot, as an instructor in the system. Art invited him to attend one of those Salton Sea races, and they flew there in one of Art's planes. I think Art may have participated in the boat race. That's all I know about it. Not much of a contribution, but there it is.

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Frank S

[CJE]

Interesting. I'm wondering if these were sort of private 'outlaw' type races or if they were promoted to the general racing public? I've been able to find very little regarding these races. It's my understanding that they occurred each year for a period of years in the 60s/70s.

[Jerry Entin]

These boats are called SK boats. This stands for Ski Racing Runabouts. They were very prone to flipping and usually ran on closed courses like the Marine Stadium in the Long Beach area. Some real estate speculators in an effort to promote the Salton Sea Area in the 50's and 60's created a 500 mile endurance race to attract people to the area. Others tried the same type of races at Lake Havasu area of Arizona. Some of the main manufaturers of these boats were Hallett and Rayson Craft and Mandella and Schiada. They were usually built in the Califonia area. A fellow named Rudy Ramos put an Allison aircraft motor in one of these so called marathon Race boats.

[Bigzack]

My Uncle raced there in 60 to 69 some good racing, Lake Havasu and Parker dam where a 9 hour endurance race . We raced a home Built Tunnel hull with twin Mec 150





Bigzack