BADLANDS #239, 1970's Drag Hydro

[AquaCraft]

When Donald Duck 31E and I were still working, one of the guys we worked and hung out with was Matt Culbert, owner/builder/driver of the BADLANDS drag hydro #239 pictured below.

Matt built more than one BADLANDS and they were either injected or blown. Matt raced these boats on the West coast in the 1970's, Firebird and Marine Stadium were two of his regular venues.

Lou Garrett's disease took Matt's life while he was still young.

If any of the old timers have any stories or pictures they would not mind sharing regarding Matt and the BADLANDS I would be happy to pass them on to his family.

To start, does anyone recognize the make of this hull or know of any of the BADLANDS hulls that might be laying around in a backyard?

Thanks,

Aqua-Craft

[Flatmvn]

Looks like an old Sanger Shovel Nose Hydro to me but then I haven't been around that long. But I am Learning. :)

[RiverRacer]

That's a badass ride there, yep it's a Sanger!..

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/attachment.php?attachmentid=95&d=1207513672

[Norcal_73]

might be of interest. http://www.vintagehydroplanes.com/

[RiverRacer]

That is a great site, lot of history there!..

[Norcal_73]

Bob Silva of Region 11-12 APBA CSA turned me onto that. They had some of those vintage boats here on the lake last September.


norcal

[RiverRacer]

That must have been cool to see!..

[Norcal_73]

They will be back on June 21 with even more. I have been keeping in touch with Bob via email. I have been trying to get Jerry Kutz to show up with TFH "Plumb Crazy" so people can see then and now on design and tech.

norcal

[RiverRacer]

So Jerry is still around huh, that would be cool to see that boat run again!..

[Norcal_73]

He has had some personal probs last year. I am friends with a couple of guys in his crew.

[harlan orrin]

DONALD DUCK E-31 is alive and well, in Orange county. He is now powered with a sbc throu a Casale v-drive.
Harlan Orrin

[RiverRacer]

He has had some personal probs last year. I am friends with a couple of guys in his crew.

Well, I hope everything turns out for the best!..

[RiverRacer]

DONALD DUCK E-31 is alive and well, in Orange county. He is now powered with a sbc throu a Casale v-drive.
Harlan Orrin

Welcome Harlan, nice to see on here!..:cool:

[AquaCraft]

DONALD DUCK E-31 is alive and well, in Orange county. He is now powered with a sbc throu a Casale v-drive.
Harlan Orrin

Hello Harlan,

Donald Duck E-31 and his owner live in Shasta now. Donald Duck's owner is on the list here but has not posted yet. I will see him at the end of this month and I expect we may get Donald wet; I'll see if I can get some new photos.

Regards,

Aqua-Craft

[sloboat]

Hey there AquaCraft... and everyone else... haven't posted here before so I thought I would add some to Your thread here and Maybe kick it off again. Below is a post that I added to a thread on another site awhile back in response to someone asking about one of the Badlands boats.. and thought it would be appropriate to repost it here... AquaCraft, if you would, please check your PM.

Here’s a photo of Matt Culbert “taking off” in Badlands in the second round at Phoenix on May 28, 1978. At that time Matt was the driver for Vern & Marie Kinman’s “Crucifier III”, #61 BAH, and I was a crewmember on the boat.

In ’76 or ’77 Matt had bought this hull and two or three pallets of used parts (3 or 4 KB blocks, several cranks, heads, injectors, etc.) from Howard Brown, Howard Custom Boats, and planned to put together a boat to take to the River and play with when he wasn’t driving someone else’s boat or funny car… or Crucifier. The boat was Howard’s ex-BFH ( “Out-A-Sight” ) which had been a legitimate 192 mph boat, and maybe more.

In early ’78 (I think) Matt called me up and asked if I wanted to go to Parker the next weekend for a boat race. Gene Palmer, also ex-driver for Crucifier, and his “United Boat Racers” was putting on a race. Matt had gotten the Howard painted and had put together a blown fuel motor from the parts he had bought, and so we were off to Parker with a BFH. I think there were only 3 or 4 fuelers there and we spent the weekend sorting out fuel delivery problems that kept us from getting a real full pass… I think it turned out that the main feed line had a “flapper” inside so that when it got up to full pressure this flapper would suck into the flow and block the fuel flow and give us a lean condition.

Following that run we raced Crucifier at Ming, Firebird, Los Banos, back to Ming and the following weekend was another race at Firebird but Vern hadn’t been feeling well and had a Doctors appointment and decided we wouldn’t make that race. On Thursday Matt called and wanted to know if I was ready to go to Phoenix. Vern had asked Matt if he wanted to pull the motor out of Crucifier and stick it in Badlands and go to Phoenix and run BAH, which he agreed to do in a heartbeat.

On Saturday, the first pass, it didn’t kick the tail till ½ track and had a super bad vibration but still ran 166.86/7.92. We changed props and discovered the strut bushing was badly worn and changed that and increased the main jet hoping to kick the tail sooner.

On the next pass it did kick it a little sooner but the vibration was still there, not nearly as bad, and it fell off on the top end to a 165.5 but with a 7.81. Back in the pits we pulled the prop shaft and discovered it was bent, couldn’t find one the right length and size to borrow, and so we got after it with some blocks of wood and a hammer and straightened it on the ground in the pits. Everyone thought we were nuts, but on the following runs we had no vibration.

For the third pass we dropped the gear from 73 to 67 to get us out of the hole better, which it did, but still not like we expected, and it dropped off worse on the top end. All in all even with the problems we were qualified 4th of 24 in the field running Vern’s 540 Rodac with Cast Iron heads.

Sunday morning Matt decided that somehow we needed to get it out of the hole better and it needed to carry the top end through the lights and to do this we moved the prop shaft back 1” to get the prop closer to the tail of the boat, increased the blower from 52 to 58%, left the gearing the same, and then we found a short in one of the wires to the mag and fixed that. We got by Dave Nolte in “Assbite” in the first round simply because Matt was so good on the lights and psyching the competition, but although it pulled further down the track it still was falling off on the top end and ran a 167.24/7.87.

For the second pass we were up against “Heat Wave” and looking at their times Matt felt that this would be our last chance to experiment and try to get Badlands to respond closer to what Crucifier would have done, even though we knew we were dealing with a heavier hull.

So, for the second pass the air was dropping and the temp was going up.. we didn’t dare do too much, so we bumped the mag a touch… and then they were calling us to the ramp. We went to warm it up… Matt pushes the pedal down for me to squirt some fuel in the blower and that’s when I saw it… with the pedal floored the butterflies were only opening half way… Matt had changed something in the steering under the dash and the pedal was hitting on the steering and nobody caught it. Normally we would have had 4 or 5 of us at the race but this time it was only matt and me. I drove as slow as I could to the ramp to give Matt enough time to hacksaw the end of the pedal off to get clearance… but we didn’t have time to back down the mag, change the gear, and change the blower pulley.

...and the launch you see in the picture was the result, and at that point Matt was a good 1 ½ boat lengths ahead of the competition, but when the boat came slamming down it blew a hole in the bottom of the right sponson. I think it scared the bejeebers out of Dennis (the driver in the other lane, I think) and he finally got his foot back in it and went on for the win.

I was standing in the tower at the pickup ramp looking across the center island and I could see Matt still under power and moving up the track, and then waving off the tow boats and turning the corner at the end of the island, and that’s when I realized he was in trouble and taking on water rapidly. We were able to get the other trailers pulled out of the water and I angled the trailer towards Matt and Badlands basically “sank” on the trailer as he drove it on. That was the last time I saw the boat.

Matt drove for Vern all but one race in ’77, all of the ’78 season and the last half of ’79, and the first few races of ’80. It wasn’t the same for me without Matt and I left the team in mid ’80… Matt was one of the very best, he knew the motors and he knew the boats and could give great feedback. Some competitors and officials thought that he drove over his head but that wasn’t the case... he was really that good... if we didn't have the motor to get past the competition Matt could usually psych them out.

I hadn’t seen Badlands since then until a few years ago when I spotted it sitting in the parking lot of a friends shop, Tom at Jet Boat Performance here in Atascadero. The paint was faded but still there, gauge holes had been cut in the dash and side tanks had been added so I don’t know who made the modifications to the boat... last I heard somone up in the King City area had bought it and then proceeded to cut the deck apart, and as far as I know it is still in that state.

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=165&pictureid=866


sloboat

[Coolchange]

I ran the UBR deals and hung with him a couple of times camping at Riverland. Always thought it was cool that a guy who raced hydros had one for recreation. Took a ride in RAT PATROL, my first hydro ride. :eek: :eek: :eek: From what little time I spent around him I do remember him being genuine, open and easy to know. When Badlands ran UBF I remember watching thast thing leave like crazy, then setting and laying it down.

[AzDon]

I've never heard of Lou Garrett's disease...... do you mean Lou Gehrig's disease?
In the mid 80's I bought a bare Sanger hydro hull that was red and silver metalflake and had been one of the "Crucifier"s.... Re-rigged for recreational use. Not great for rec use though! I have a picture of it in my Gaylord photo album (last page of photo albums)

[AquaCraft]

I've never heard of Lou Garrett's disease...... do you mean Lou Gehrig's disease?
In the mid 80's I bought a bare Sanger hydro hull that was red and silver metalflake and had been one of the "Crucifier"s.... Re-rigged for recreational use. Not great for rec use though! I have a picture of it in my Gaylord photo album (last page of photo albums)

Yup, you are right AZDon, my mistake, it is Lou Gehrig's Disease, also known as ALS or "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis". Thanks.

[AquaCraft]

I ran the UBR deals and hung with him a couple of times camping at Riverland. Always thought it was cool that a guy who raced hydros had one for recreation. Took a ride in RAT PATROL, my first hydro ride. :eek: :eek: :eek: From what little time I spent around him I do remember him being genuine, open and easy to know. When Badlands ran UBF I remember watching thast thing leave like crazy, then setting and laying it down.

Thanks for the story on Matt Culbert. RAT PATROL was one of his river racer hydros and if you FELT like you had the potential to go over while in the boat you were RIGHT because it DID go over at the river at least once. Nobody was hurt and the boat was recovered; just another day at the river... Thanks Coolchange.

[AquaCraft]

Hey Sloboat,

Thanks for the story on Matt. I think one of the best ways we can honor guys who pioneered in front of us is by keeping their memories and feats alive in story. You are right, Matt had it all from mechanical smarts to being an athelete with lightening quick reflexes to on top of it all being a fierce competitor. 'Got your PM and I will get back to you soon. Thanks Sloboat.

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/attachment.php?attachmentid=1008&stc=1&d=1219711635

[sloboat]

This pic is from WDIFL and is a great overhead shot of Matt coming to the line at lake Ming in Vern Kinman's Crucifier III #61 - Sanger Shovelnose BBC.


http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=165&pictureid=867

sloboat

[sloboat]

Hey there AzDon,

... just love how the 6 degrees of separation works... strings just evolve and grow and spread.... I love the shots you had of your boats... especially the Crucifier Hydro... and since that particular boat was leaving the track about the time I was getting into Drag Boats I had to do a little thinking and searching... I've just about finished a post that I'll put up here later today. It's a pretty long one, with pictures, and it will pretty much sum up the early history of your boat... certainly not the specifics, but maybe if someone out there has some good NDBA race records from back in the early 70's more information may come forward.

Anyway... great post on Matt

sloboat

[sloboat]

Hey there AzDon,

SO... I checked out your pics... neat shots.... Below are some more shots of your boat “back-in-the-day”. Your hull is I think Vern Kinman’s original Crucifier... now that being said... there is a lot of misinformation... partial information etc. out there pertaining to Crucifier – the name, the people etc. ... I’ll try to sort it out a little... and I can’t say that I have it 100% accurate... but pretty darn close.

Vern had been a Crackerbox racer before being a Dragboat Racer. I wasn’t around in the early days but when Vern decided to get into Drags he tried to go with the best... and on a real tight budget. He bought his first Hydro hull from Sanger Jack Davidson and got into the Unblown Gas Hydro class as #61 and named his boat “Crucifier”. That was 1969 and Vern ended the year as the 1969 NDBA National Points Champ in UGH... and I think setting at least one record in the process... in that red and silver Hydro.

You have to realize that I was involved in the team a few years later and Vern and Marie didn’t talk too much about the past... in fact they were pretty tight-lipped about it... so what I picked up was bits and pieces over several years.

After some time racing Vern or Marie or both of them made a decision to get out of racing. I don’t know what brought that about... money, health, tragically losing friends??? Don’t know for sure... I do know that Vern had been in a construction accident at some point in time where he lost half of his right foot. Anyway, they sold the boat (Your boat I’m pretty sure) to Mac and Liz Christensen. I don’t know if it was sold complete with engine or exactly what.

At that time Vern must have had some thoughts as to whether in the future he might want to get back into racing... so he maintained his full membership in the NDBA, Drivers License as well as his racing number, #61. Along this same line is the boat name... a boat owner usually keeps the same name hull to hull... Can you imagine Sanger jack with out “Climax”, or Howard Brown without “Out-A-Sight”, or Charlie Miranda without “Daddy’s Toy”? Well, Mac and Liz, after purchasing the boat, decided to leave the paint on the hull as was and began running the boat as “Crucifier”. Mac & Liz’s number was #127 so they just changed the number.

A year or two later Vern and Marie decided to get back into racing (don’t know how much time exactly there was in-between). They hadn’t let their membership lapse so they still had their number, #61. Jack Davidson had redesigned the Sanger Junior “Shovelnose” hull in the meantime... lighter, shorter sponsons, lowered the deck height and who knows what else... so out came the Gen 2 ... I was told the first one out of the mold was Climax and the second was Crucifier. The boat came to Downey and was painted in the now familiar Black and Gold and lettered “Crucifier – 61”. Vern enlisted Sid Waterman to help with the engine setup for a jump in class to UFH and in ’72 or ’73 off to the races Vern went... driving himself.

There was controversy from the outset ... two boats in the same class showing up and registering with the same name. Within NDBA there was politics and those in the “in crowd” were the ones who usually got what they wanted... Vern and Marie were not socialites and didn’t rub shoulders at functions with those that were... they were just hard working folks on a real tight budget who enjoyed racing. There were Lawsuits filed to keep Vern from using his “Crucifier” moniker and a bitter rivalry and dispute ensued. Vern’s claim was that he sold his boat but he didn’t sell his name.... Mac’s claim was that the name was on the boat and so it went with it.

During that first full year Vern became NDBA Driver of the Year, and he was considerably older than most of his competition... the new hull was doing the trick. In the meantime Mac and Liz campaigned the red & silver (I don’t know what classes they ran in... whether he progressed from UGH to BGH and then UFH or exactly what) I don’t know if it was that year or the next that Mac & Liz Christensen got a new Hondo hull and the Red and Silver Sanger Crucifier was retired. Mac named his new Hondo “Crucifier” again. In the meantime Vern took himself out of the full-time drivers seat, replaced by John Gardner and then Joe Babel... Joe was at the time President of the NDBA ... or maybe it was only the California Drag Boat Assoc. at the time, and Joe was well liked... which gave Vern and Marie a little bit more credibility in the politics of racing at the time.

Somewhere along the line (and I don’t know whose idea it was... Vern’s, NDBA’s, attorneys... don’t know) Vern added the roman numeral III after “Crucifier” and from the legality standpoint there were now two different names in the UBF class... problem solved.... except the bitterness continued to the end, Mac & Liz were well liked by all the insiders and Vern & Marie...not so much, although respected as competitors.

So there was the Crucifier (Sanger shovelnose Junior 1st gen., silver & red), the second Christensen Crucifier (Hondo shovelnose, actually at that time it was already the 3rd Crucifier, white & blue), and Vern’s 2nd Crucifier which then became “Crucifier III” (Sanger shovelnose Junior 2nd gen,, black & gold).

You will see in old magazines as well as such great sites as WDIFL (where I got the pictures below from) many instances where there are pictures of Vern’s Crucifier III and they are titled as Mac Christensen & Bob Vogel. Many times the Announcers, Writers or even the Photographers couldn’t keep it straight and since Mac was better known and liked (He became one of the BFH rock-stars) they just credited it to him and Liz and Bob Vogel whenever they saw the name Crucifier... that always irked Vern and Marie. Those in the know knew... the rest of the world had no clue.

In this same time frame Mac Christensen went on to drive the factory Hondo BFH, “Aftershock” and Bob Vogel replaced Mac in the driver’s seat of Mac & Liz’s Crucifier. The Red and Silver hydro I think was the first UFH over 140 and 150, and held the records several times. After that first Sanger boat I think all of the #127 boats were Hondo-Hemis. All of Verns #61 boats were Sanger BBCs. So your boat Don ran as UGH with a Chevy and UFH with a Hemi.

In the time that I was with Vern and “Crucifier III” we had several drivers from Vern himself, Gail Remy, Frank Matthews, Gene Palmer and Matt Culbert... and a few others for a pass or two. In that time we were three time NDBA champions and held 5 or 6 world records in both APBA and NDBA. Crucifier III was the first drag boat to campaign with the Arias Hemi Head Chevy... Nick Arias’ personal engine.... and in the end NDBA politics raised its ugly head again to bring that relationship to an end... but that’s another story,

While Matt was driving Vern had the boat repainted from the Black and Gold to a 3 tone blue with gold trim which matched better with Matt’s blue driving suit. Crucifier III went down and was destroyed with Matt at the wheel at Long Beach, and I think it was in a speed ski exhibition run. I didn’t find out about it until I showed up at the next race and there sat a new picklefork. (Never saw any pictures of that accident, if anyone has any) ..and while all this was going on of course we went from UBF... to a combined class of UBF / BAH... and to BAH... and at the same time we ran a BFH named Teddy Bear... we ran both a shovelnose and a picklefork.

Crucifier III (shovelnose) had many accomplishments over the years even though most of the time we were the underdog... never had a spare engine or parts other than some gaskets, oil, belts and plugs and a spare prop, if we broke we were pretty much done. Our hull was the oldest, and while everyone else had the latest aluminum heads, we still ran cast iron.

1969 NDBA Nat. Champ UGH – AzDon’s boat
1973 NDBA Nat. Champ UFH
1973 APBA Nat. Champ UFH
1973 Driver of the Year – Vern Kinman
1974 NDBA Nat. HiPt Champ UFH
1974 APBA Nat. HiPt Champ UFH
1975 Rookie Driver of the Year – Frank Matthews

RECORDS
UGH 1969 Vern Kinman
UFH May 19,73 Lake Ming NDBA 159.85 Joe Babel
UFH May 20,73 Lake Ming NDBA 162.45 Joe Babel
UFH Feb. 1974 Turlock APBA 162.74 Gail Remy
UFH June 75 Long Beach NDBA 163.48 Frank Matthews
UFH Sep13,75 Red Bluff NDBA 164.85 Gene Palmer
UFH Sep14,75 Red Bluff NDBA 168.22 Gene Palmer
BAH May 76 Lake Ming NDBA 168.53 Gene Palmer
BAH Aug 76 Long Beach NDBA 173.71 Gene Palmer

So Don, that’s some of the history and lineage of your great Sanger shovelnose “Crucifier”.

sloboat

[sloboat]

The following shots came from WDIFL... thanks to them for a great site....

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=868
101 Crucifier Deck Mac Christensen
http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=869
102 Crucifier race lead - Bob Vogel - Long Beach
http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=870
103 Crucifier Hemi pass - Bob Vogel
http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=871
104 Crucifier #127 at Oakland with BobVogel at the wheel

[sloboat]

The Story behind AzDons vintage Sanger shovelnose back in the day

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=873
105 Crucifier 127 UFH Macs 2nd Crucifier - Hondo at Long Beach - Bob Vogel shoeing it
http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=872
106 Mac C in the seat of the 2nd Crucifier 127 UFH a Hondo Hemi
http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=877
107 Crucifier #127 vs. Crucifier #61 Lake Ming
http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=874
108 Mac's 1st Crucifier #127 displayed in the background behind Hillbilly with KellyLang on the Today Show from Long Beach I think

[sloboat]

http://www.v-driveboat.com/vweb/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=878
109 Bob Vogel with Mac & Liz Christensen receive a trophy for setting an UFH record.

It's great seeing such a vintage racer... a real SURVIVOR with documented history still in its original paint from 1969...39 years later...NEAT!!!

sloboat

[AzDon]

A guy in Pomona was selling the bare hull with steel strut installed... everything else was gone! I purchased for $300 in (I'm guessing) 1984.
I built pretty cool stuff for it at that time (considering my skill level) but it was FAR from a raceable boat.... The flake was still in pretty good shape and the lettering for the records was visible but had been polished off the boat. An exacto-knife outline of "Crucifier" was visible on the deck, I think from the trimming of gold-leaf or prism tape lettering before outlining and shading.

[sloboat]

Hey there Don,
Do you still have the Crucifier boat? or if not, what happened to it?

sloboat