1972 Notre Dame

[keith warham]

Looking for pictures of this boat in the driver area.

 

[Duck899]

Hi Keith, this hull in 72 was the same hull as the others mentioned in the following excerpt;

Shirley McDonald ordered a hull from Jones for 1972.

Despite the many success stories about Jones’s hulls, Notre Dame unfortunately wasn’t one of them.

Notre Dame the ninth, from Day One, handled poorly and defied the efforts of crew chief Bob Espland and drivers Dean Chenoweth and Ron Larsen. Her best finish was a second place to Bill Muncey and Atlas Van Lines in the 1972 Seattle Seafair Regatta with Chenoweth.

The 1973 campaign was almost a total washout for Notre Dame. The boat entered six races and finished only one of them. The lone ray of sunshine was a fifth place performance at the Tri-Cities Gold Cup with Larsen driving. In addition to blowing a lot of engines, the team was having personnel problems. The crew that started the season was quite different from the crew that finished it.

After twelve years and 75 race appearances, Shirley Mendelson McDonald decided to call it a career. Her health problems were increasing and her husband, Dr. McDonald, who had never been a great fan of the sport, urged Shirley to retire. And so she disbanded the Notre Dame team and sold her equipment to Bernie Little.

'Her last boat continued on in Unlimited racing until 1982 but was never much of a factor in competition, no matter who was campaigning her. Notre Dame the ninth was variously identified as Miss Cott Beverages, Miss Northwest Tank Service, Miss Technicolor, Miss Valvoline, Bootheads, and Spirit of Dayton-Walther. She was a stand-in Miss Budweiser at a couple of races in 1980. Her most memorable performance was a victory in the consolation Seafair Trophy race at the 1981 Gold Cup Regatta as Captran Resorts with Steve Reynolds driving.

I doubt that the cockpit changed much.

 

[Duck899]

I have a bunch of cockpit pics on my other computer, I'll see what I can find. Pretty sure I had a shot of the 1980 bud back up boat which became the 1981 Captran Resorts.

 

[SayMikey]

this is all I have for that era Captran

 

[Dasboatman]

Hey Keith,

How about this one?? CHEERS !!! Bob

 

[keith warham]

Thanks guy's for the pictures.

 

[68Bud]

I have one that I believe is the '72. The stripes in the center of the cowl are visible under the windshield.

 

[Duck899]

68 buds pic proves that not much changed from 72 to that rusty old captran cockpit pic