WHAT IT WAS LIKE

Life at the drag boat races in the late ‘60s and early 70s, with Ma, Mac, and Dwight Bale

By Lawren Bale

What do you remember about your first drag boat races? I remember that Blown Fuel Hydros are very loud -- very quick -- and damned impressive. I can still feel the excitement at the Long Beach NDBA (National Drag Boat Association) Nationals in 1971, when my oldest brother, Dwight Bale, took Top Fuel, with a speed of 196.92 mph in “Down’ n’ Out.”
Bale had only been racing boats for five years, and this was his second straight NDBA national championship. Looking back, I remember glorious times, and =I still feel lucky and proud to have been at ‘The Beach’ that day. Of course, that same day, Larry Hill drove “Mr. Ed” to a new NDBA record (202.46 mph), which took some of the glow off Dwight’s victory. But Bale just shrugged, and said something about being happy to win the money, and not destroy the engine. You could tell he wasn’t pleased that they did not make a run for the record. Conditions were good, but the decision was not Bale’s to make, and that’s just a reality of racing.
We had all grown up with hot rods and drag racing. In ‘57, when Dwight was 13, and middle brother Mac was 11, Ma Bale gave in to Dwight’s insistence, and drove us kids to the drags at Lodi, California. There, we saw Don Garlits go up against Cooke & Bidwell in rigid framed “outlaw” fuelers.
But we had not been a boating family, and in the summer of ‘67, I was amazed to open a n issue of Hot Rod Magazine and find a centerfold photo of my brother hunkered down in “Conquest.” It read: “Dwight ‘Hey’ Bale of Walnut Creek, California, got the widest ride of his life when he took Ron Tort’s 392 Chrysler powered Sanger Hydro “Conquest” through the quarter mile lights at a fantastic 181.44 mph in 7.45 seconds. It was a new all-time drag boat top-end record.”

Only the press and strangers called him “Hey” Bale. Dwight appreciated the value of media attention and recognition, and even if he was no fan of the moniker, he inscribed “Hey Bale” across the visor of his helmet. Bale had bend rag racing since age 18, and he loved it. As Eddie Hill’s wife, Ercie, puts it, he was a “G-Freak.” he loved the feeling of being pushed back in the seat by 1,500 horsepower, and the feeling of just plain going fast. He also thrived on the challenges of racing -- the competition, and in part, the danger, but also the art of “dialing in” the motor, and getting the boat’s setup just right. He especially enjoyed the race fans, particularly the kids.
Bale was his own Chief Mechanic, and the 392 Hemi he used in his first boats came out of “Purple Haze,” his AAFD Blown Fuel dragster. In the summer of ‘66, Bale and his wife, Helga, toured the asphalt quarter mile circuit, sleeping in the back of his orange, hot-rod ‘55 pickup. He had been mildly successful on tour, but racing without real sponsors gets to be expensive; in ‘67, Bale had barely enough money to buy the B&H Slicks needed to run his race car. In fact, throughout his racing career (career? More like an obsession, or a ‘fine madness…), Dwight really did know what people meant by “Down ‘n Out.”
Then, one Saturday afternoon from out of nowhere, Ron Tort showed up at Bale’s front porch, and proposed a partnership: Bale’s idled motor, and Tort’s 16’ Sanger hydro, which they named “Conquest.”
“Conquest” was the boat that started it all, and from the beginning, it was a team effort that was wildly successful. The Sanger hull and boat setup came under Tort’s responsibilities -- getting horsepower out of the blown fuel Hemi was up to Bale and “Dago,” and Bale would drive…because he wanted to, and because Tort always maintained, “You have to be crazy to sit in one of those things.”
All of this transpired more than 30 years ago, but as I remember the story, the liquid quarter mile record was around 153 mph, and the third time Bale raced “Conquest,” he broke that record. The fifth time he sat in the boat, he reset the record at about 161 mph. He was a natural, in within nine months, he held the record at 181.44 mph, and occupied the centerfold spread in no less than Hot Rod.
Bale virtually owned the Top Fuel record for the next five years, moving it up in stages, to 193.54 mph -- until his death, in 1973. Ironically, not racing: he drowned when his four-man rubber raft capsized in the rain swollen canal system that meanders through Contra Costa County. A strange footnote: all through our childhood, we had been warned to “stay away from the canal.” In July, 1972, reporter Sheri Podesto wrote that “backing up the 193 pass was just a routine day for Bale, he’s dialed in to record-breaking speed by nature.” In fact, the only losing season Bale ever had was 1969, when our middle brother, Mac, raced Sanger Jack Davidson’s “Climax.” Dwight retained the speed record, but Mac out-raced him every time they competed.
The legend is that Mac Bale won every race he entered -- all except one, the 1968 NDBA Nationals at Ski-Land in Perris, CA. It was Mac’s first race, and when he showed up with Tort as the substitute driver of “Conquest,” everyone snickered. You can bet that stopped with Mac posted the meet’s lowest ET, and top-timed at 176 miles an hour, 19 mph faster than any other boat.
It was “Conquest” and “Climax” approaching the lights in the final round of eliminations, but they were waved off. While “Climax” waited for a tow, newcomer Mac drove “Conquest” back to the staging area as if it were a ski boat. Of course, he overheated the motor, and at the restart, lost his blower belt, and settled for runner up. Up in Walnut Creek, with Bale in a body cast, we listened to an incredibly excited Tort descried these events on the phone. It sounded as if Mac was going to take the Nationals, but it wasn’t to be, and that’s just part of racing.
After the ‘68 Nationals, Mac was “hooked on drag boats”, but Tort retired “Conquest” and began working on a new boat, with Dwight slated to drive. Mac quickly found a ride in Bob Miller’s Top Fueler, So Long, a beautiful but obsolete all-wood hulk from the 50s. It must have been some sight to see Mac’s lanky 6’5” frame sitting atop that huge, antiquated boat. Yet he was able to win a race at Modesto, and was twice runner up at Oakland. Mac soon moved up, with the call coming from Fresno for an interview with Jack Davidson.
“Sanger Jack” had expected someone other than Mac for the interview, but he was sufficiently impressed by the end of it to offer Mac the best ride in drag boat racing -- the factory sponsored 426 “Elephant” Chrysler powered “Climax.” The rest is history, and Mac’s accomplishments during his brief racing career were impressive.