Editor's note: Ray Rodda, 73, of Carmel, Ind., has been the Voice of the DePue Boat Races for decades, having announced each and every DePue Men's Club's USTS nationals since the return of the nationals once Lake DePue was dredged. He also raced at DePue in the 1960s. He will share his favorite memories each day this week of the boat races, that were scheduled this weekend but canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Some of the crazy things that have occurred at DePue can boggle your mind.

Bobby Olsen leading in a runabout class took to the sky as high as I have ever seen a runabout climb and in that familiar backstretch just about all the way down the back stretch. Bobby Hookirk, Sean McKean, Tim Brinkman, Alan Ishii and many others come to mind as the wind comes through that little tree line over there and up and over they go.

Lee Sutter was running a 2-cylinder motor on Rocky Stone’s runabout when a storm blew up and Lee could not get off the course fast enough and broke that boat up pretty good. The DeSilva Bros. put it back together for Rocky to compete in his classes.

Before the lake was dredged, Bobby Viera of Oakland, Calif., went in the water in the bottom corner and he said he was waiting to float to the surface when he realized he was stuck in mud and when he finally pushed to get to the top, he said he sunk his arms to his elbows in the mud. When he pulled his helmet off, the whole inside was caked with mud.

Alan Ishii was testing in his 250cc Runabout one year and as he was going down the backstretch, I watched a white rooster tail turn brown, then black, and the next thing you saw was the runabout in the air, coming nose down into the water and stuck straight up. It took about an hour for the safety crews to pull the boat off the mud bank over there and then Alan went out and won the Nationals.
 
One of the enduring things about coming back to DePue are the families who have been third and fourth generation fans through the years and know you by name when you pull into town. It is so much of a rush when you see the kind of crowd drawn each year to the Nationals and can't help but think how hurt they are. I know we are as the racing group, of not coming to DePue. An interesting part of my job as the announcer was to hand the winners of the scholarship that the Title Series gave out. The look on their face, the motivation that they exhibited to move on with their education was a joy for me. 
 
Some of the greats in just pure names, start with Homer Kincaid, his son and grandson all raced at DePue. Billy Seebold, who raced later in the Formula 1 Outboard Performance Class, winning World championships with his own design and build boats with sons Mike and Tim following in the footsteps. Interesting story with Billy. He drove for Marshall Grant, who raced for a while, but after going on his head, his boss said no more. His boss, Johnny Cash, yes that Johnny Cash. Marshall was the bass player for the Tennessee Three, the backup band for Johnny on stage and recordings. Marshall was also the road manager for the tours they were on. Thus, the boats named Ring of Fire and a boat named Sue came along. Ralph Donald was another name that for years was winning and vying for championships at DePue and drove into his 80s as has Pete Voss.

0ne of the traditions of boat racing is when you win your first race, your pit crew picks you up and throw you as far into the water as they can. One of the biggest first wins of course is winning your very first race and it being your very first Nationals, and that was the win of Gary Augustine of Maryland. Cooper Thompson of Florida won his first race earlier in the year, and won the Nationals at DePue in K-Pro having been undefeated the whole year and was on pins and needles. Or should I say Pop Ben was on them along with Grandam Denise Eldredge, who does yeoman work on the judges stand for the USTS along with Coop’s Aunt Susan Eldredge Sailer, our chief scorer. I am sure a few tears struck home.

Some fans may remember the name Rocky Stone, Rocky was from Willimina, Ore. He ran a fuel company up there amongst the logging industry and drove and won many C-Service and C-Racing championships at DePue. Marshall Grant wanted desperately to own the equipment Rocky had as Rocky when on was virtually the king of the classes. Rocky was not willing to sell even though many an inquiry was made according to the story Rocky told me. One winter day while in the office, the phone rings and it is Marshall asking to purchase the equipment. Rocky again said, "No," and Marshall said, "Hang on, somebody wants to talk to you." The voice was unmistakable as Rocky heard, “Rocky, when are you going to sell that equipment to my man?" The voice was Johnny Cash, alas to them, Rocky hung on to the equipment and went on to more National championships.

One year at our Nationals, Rocky’s starting plate came loose and ended up in the boat spinning at about 8,000 RPM’s and finally got into his fanny and as he relayed later, it was making strawberry strudel on his fanny, bit him pretty hard. But he went on to win two other championships.