By Danny Casey
I love books about sporting challenges and heroes – motorsport primarily, but any well-written work detailing triumph against insurmountable odds will pique my interest.
I have read some superb biographical, warts-and-all opuses on the lives of motorsport maestros like Stirling Moss, Denny Hulme, Chris Amon, Niki Lauda and Allan Moffat, so it was magnificent to discover, then, that a book had been published chronicling the gargantuan achievements of probably the best tunnel boat racer of all time – the legendary Billy Seebold (now sadly ailing with ALS, a particularly cruel form of Motor Neurone Disease), from St. Louis, Missouri. This is a man with over 69 titles and the winner – over five decades – of around 900 boat races.
So, having paid a not-cheap AU$55 to have the book (paperback, on very poor stock) express-delivered by Amazon, I thought I would be opening an engrossing, engaging, immaculately-crafted opus. This, unfortunately, was not the case. The book (“Mr. Bill” Seebold – “My dream come true”) is a compilation of some biographical detail on Billy, plus Billy’s own reminiscences, padded out with aged, faded newspaper clippings, old race reports and photocopied PR releases from sponsors and race organisers. Every illustration and photograph in the book is black and white (some of them even showing creases or ink blotting), and I can’t see how the writer (more an archivist and compiler, actually), Rick Stoff, envisaged this book holding the interest of anyone but the most dedicated boat racing fan.
The one redeeming part is the chronicling of Bill’s momentous victory at the Embassy Grand Prix in Bristol in 1982 when, after winning the up-to 2.0 litre (ON) class (all Mercury), he decided to take on the 3.5 litre Johnson/Evinrude V8 motors in the OZ (2-litre plus) class. Seebold had the boat craned out of the water in the pits area and the 2-litre ON powerhead swapped for one of 2,001.5 cc – just legal for OZ class in terms of capacity. Mechanic Leo Molendijk did the powerhead swap in less than 7 minutes, 30 seconds and was actually still astride the rear cowling of the boat fastening the engine cover as Seebold headed for the start pontoon – Molendijk jumped into the water and swam back to the pits jetty.
Billy wasn’t first home in the OZ class – Tom Percival’s V8 OMC-powered Hodges just about nosed him out on the straights – but his nerve-shredding 2nd place, tied with consistency in the points, saw him win the series and lift the Embassy Gold Cup. I, for one, have never seen any piece of racing equipment driven the way Seebold drove that day – doggedly, determinedly, aggressively and relentlessly, but not in the least ragged, erratic or reckless. A masterclass of man and machine in furious harmony.
The Bristol episode aside, I think that an international great has been let down by a rather insipid, uninspiring, cluttered and journeyman-like “scrapbook” – a shame, as a hero of this calibre deserved so much better.
Danny Casey is highly experienced, undoubtedly idiosyncratic, and immensely knowledgeable about things mechanical, new or old. His knowledge and passion are as a result of spending his whole life in or around anything power-driven – especially marine engines. His passion for boating is second to none, with his life a montage of fabulous memories from decades spent in or around water and boats, both here and in Europe. Danny has spent myriad years in the recreational marine industry in a varied career in which he has bamboozled colleagues and competitors alike with his well-honed insight.
His mellifluous Irish accent, however, has at times been known to become somewhat less intelligible in occasional attempts at deliberate vagueness or when trying to prevent others from proffering a counter-argument or even getting a word in. Frank and to-the-point, but with a heart of gold, it can be hard to convince Danny to put pen to paper to share his knowledge. Marine Business News is grateful for his contributions. Connect with Danny through LinkedIn.
