"you can't beat the way an old wood boat rides..."
The death of my old C Stock Runabout, the Killer Tomato was a fitting end to a boat that had seen many, many trips around the rivers and lakes of the West Coast APBA Outboard racing Circuit.
Darrell Sorensen built her back in 1978 for the then-new, 20SS Runabout class. At a time when most of the boats running the class were 10 feet in length, Darrell got the idea that a little more length would be in order. She was just over 11 feet long, and that extra length made it a particularly well handling boat. In fact, Darrell remembers it as being the first boat he built exclusively to handle the Yamato 80 engine. Darrell raced it for a few races that year, and toward the end of the season, northwest runabout legend Earl Garrison decided he had to have that boat. He became its second owner. From Earl, the boat made its way into the Whidbey Island Roostertail racing club, and there was campaigned by the likes of Ken Jones, Lou Kennedy Jr and Andy Schwenk.
Killer Tomato and I first crossed paths in 1986....Andy made an abrupt departure from the sport that year, and I was fortunate enough to acquire the whole rig (boat, motor and prop) for a mere $600. Right away, I knew the boat was something special, and decided that it required a special look. I painted the boat all white, then masked off where the name and number needed to go. At that time, I was an employee of an artist's supply company, Daniel Smith Inc....and worked with a ton of very talented people (no, really....trust me on this). Anyway, I took the boat over to my friend Jeff Johnson's house, bought a keg of beer, and we had a "Let's-Paint-The-Boat" party. About 50 or more people showed up, including one of the greatest outboard builders of all time, the legendary Joe Price. Every person there added something to the boat's look, and when we were done, it looked like this...kind of like something painted by a bunch of Montessori School kids on acid:
It was also at this party that Ric Montoya came up with the name for the boat, which previously had not had a name. I campaigned the boat with its stock Yamato 80 that year in B Modified Runabout. We made a respectable showing with it, and with its paint job, was a fan favorite. The most common reaction to people who saw it was "What the Hell is THAT????"
At the end of the '86 season, we had just purchased a new Johnson A engine, and were interested in developing that program. I sold the boat to Rich Timfichuk, who campaigned it for a season. From there, the boat changed hands in order to Don Hendrickson, Gary Whitt and John Slater.
Some 11 years later, I acquired a Yamato 302 "C" engine. When I went boat hunting, I knew there was only one boat that would suit me, and that was my old friend, the Killer Tomato. I tracked the boat down to Slater, who sold the boat back to me for $200 (at this point, I noticed that every time I bought the boat, the price got cheaper....and wondered how long it would take before I could sell it again, and eventually it would be given back to me). Since the boat was still 11 feet long and six inches too short for C Stock Runabout's minimum length, I sent the boat to JW Myers, who "stretched" the boat out to a legal C Stock Runabout length.
We took the boat down to Rockaway Oregon for a race on Lake Lytle. In my second heat, I nailed the start and was coming up like a rocket between two other boats....then Mother Nature took over and we had a little problem....
The force of the blowover blew a portion of the sides out of the boat. I ate Advil for lunch for about a week, Dave Anderson re-decked it, and a couple of weeks later, we both were ready to compete again at Newberg, OR, where the picture below was taken.
We competed throughout the 1997 and 1998 seasons in CSR and 25SSR with my Yamato. Another old racing friend, Chris Alloway, had returned from a stint in the Navy, and was looking for a boat to race. By that time, I had moved into 20SSH and OSY400 with a different hull, so Chris started campaigning the Killer Tomato. I sold her to him in 1999 and he was very competitive with it that year.
By 2000, the years had begun to take her toll. Almost every race Chris ran the boat that year, another piece would fall off the boat. While this kept Drew Thompson busy and happy in the lucrative boat repair business, it was pretty clear that the aging hull had seen better days. The boat was inactive for the 2001 season, and in May of 2002, it was decided that the boat was just too old and tired to continue racing. Furthermore, Chris and I both felt that if the boat fell into the hands of someone who was not aware of its age or limitations, they might actually get hurt trying to race it.
So, the decision was made....in the tradition of the Hawaii Kai III and countless other race boats, we would offer the boat up to the Gods at the Newberg Memorial Day Boat Races Saturday night Bonfire...BUT: Not before one last ride!
As has been a tradition at Newberg, we gave the boat one last little spin...with a tie strap hooked to the bow eye, and the other end tied to the rear bumper of Keith Alloway's pickup truck. Unfortunately there just wasn't enough length in the parking lot to get her up to her old competitive speeds in the mid-50s to low 60's, but I did get her up to about 35 mph on this last drive. Click here for a short movie clip of the last run (have patience; you are downloading a 1.4 meg file):
And so, later that evening, The Killer Tomato met her fate at the Newberg bonfire. She went up fast and it was a spectacular ending...but just before she was consumed, I was able to save the nose of the runabout from the fire as a keepsake...and Chris didn't charge me for it, so I guess that in a sense, I finally got my wish and waited until the boat was finally given back to me!
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"Built out
of love, made for the water
Ran her for years, 'til the transom got rotten
A piece of my childhood that will never be forgotten".
--Alan Jackson, from "Drive"