In that era we raced (circles) 12 times a year with COBRA, about 4 to 6 times with APBA and about 3 times with NJBA. The most races I remember running with my boat in one year was 17.
COBRA races originally were 30 minutes in length. The outboard guys liked enduros because their engines rarely blew up. The jet guys, on the other hand, couldn't figure out how to build reliability, so the races were cut to 20 minutes for them. The Olds engines were extremely unreliable (oiling issues) and it took years for those guys to solve their problems. The races were shortened again to 15 minutes and the finishing rate improved. That was still enough race time to have a lot of fun. When the races were held on narrow waterways like the River or LBMS or the Redwood City ship channel, the courses were straight line with one buoy turns at each end. When we raced on lakes like Casitas or Puddingstone (3 times each winter) the course was usually a triangle with one buoy at each turn and a different angle for each turn. Some turns were sweepers and others, hairpins. That equalized things for the different turning abilities of the different hull styles and made for very fun races.
APBA races were similar to today except that everyone battled for a starting lane during the 5 minute warm up period and then raced to the start line just as the clock counted down to zero. At zero a Poleroid photo of the start line caught any gun jumpers, who were then DQ'd. Very harsh, but everyone knew how to do it right. The courses at LBMS and Parker were straight line, one buoy turns, 5 laps. On the lakes like Yellowstone, Comache, Merrit and Clear Lake the courses were ovals with 5 or 7 buoy turns. Those were scary fast - a total adrenaline rush!
I think APBA also sanctioned the enduro circuit. The premier race, of course, was the Parker 9 hour - 6 !/2 miles one way from Bluewater to Bransons, one buoy at each end, 13 miles around, 120 boats leaving from a dead engine start at Bluewater beach, all at the same time!!! Talk about chaos...
The Elsinore 500 was another huge enduro that ran on a big oval around the entire lake in the roughest water ever. I can't remember the boat count but it was probably 75 or more. In Sept of 1971 (the last Elsinore 500, I think), Phil Trichler drove his Southwind marathon hull, "Peacemaker", to 1st Jet, 5th Inboard, 16th overall.
NJBA usually held about 3 events each year at Bluewater. There were drags, circles, slalom and marathon races (all jets). The circles were by class, SJ1 (Olds), SJ2 (Chevy), MJ & CJ. The course was a true 1/2 mile straight with one buoy turns and 5 laps long with a digital clock start (like APBA). The climax race of the weekend was a one hour marathon that usually paid $$$ to win. $1000 was the highest I remember going to the overall winner and lesser amounts going to the class winners.
It was definitely a different era for racing jet boats!
Jack
