* Slomoshun
Note: This article was
started months before Ted Jones passed away last
December. We had serious discussions with David Williams
about an article
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xxxxxx | Teds Jones Over the last 50 years an embittered Ted Jones who left the Slo-mo-shun IV and V team in 1951 at the peak of its fame, has repeatedly made the following statements attempting to discredit the efforts and contribution of Stan Sayres, who owned the boats, and demean the abilities and work of Anchor Jensen. The same men, especially Stan Sayres who gave the 39 year Ted Jones an opportunity of a lifetime and a place in history. Stan Sayres died in 1956 and never had an opportunity to respond to Ted’s outrageous comments and Anchor who after leaving hydroplane racing in 1957 tried to put it all behind him. He avoids most contact with the press concerning stories about the Slo-mo-shun era and only on rare occassions would write an editor about Ted’s statements. But when Ted Jones, Ron Jones and Bill Neville got together to write the last article in the 1999 Hydro Legends and then had it published on the "Hydroplane Antique and Raceboat Museum" webpage, Anchor and Stan Sayres son-in-law asked me to look into it. And the following comments and documented responses are what I uncovered. 1. Ted claimed over and over again that Stanley Sayres tricked him into signing a three year contract on the day of the Gold Race on July 22, 1950. He says in the August 10, 1980 Seattle Times article written by Weldon Johnson: " I got into the boat plenty early for the first heat- in case something went wrong. I hit the starter button and nothing happened. Solinoids! I was real excited and I ran across the bow and pulled of the hood. And I goofed around and found a wire loose, and I tightened it up. In the meantime five or eight minutes had gone by. And Sayres ran out on the dock and said , "hey, you forgot to sign the release! I said, "the release?" and he said , Yeah . Look I don’t want to support your wife the rest of my life if something happens to you. I want you to sign this release." And he put this piece of paper down and I signed it in three or four places. Just at the bottom of ‘em. And I’ve got my goggles on , and I’m ready to . And I’m excited! Never drove an unlimited race before, and Never on the river, So I signed it. After the race was over and everyone was back at their hotel Ted Says " So , went up to Sayres, I was so happy about the whole thing. I said, Oh Boy, I’ve finally got it made, I’m going to get some money for my boats." Up until this time, I hadn’t got a dime for Slo-mo IV and I never did. And boy his face just turned purple! He was real perturbed. And he said, "Don’t you know I have a contract with you?" And I said, "You don’t have a contract." And he showed me the copy of it -it was what I had signed the day before. Reason the Statement is
False: In 1956, the IRS took American
Properties Inc. which Sayres owned to tax court for
deducting expenses on Slo-mo-shun IV and V. The main
witness for the IRS against Sayres was Ted Jones: In the
"Findings of Fact" . which the IRS established
by interviewing Sayres and Jones:
You will note clearly, it says the contract was signed on the July 17th 1950, a full 5 days before the race. So Ted made up this outrageous story and fed it to anybody who would listen. He knowing lied about this contract for 50 years. Ted made up all these ridiculous stories which were printed over and over again. These same false stories are picked up and reprinted on the internet and recycled in all other media. 2.Ted also claimed that he couldn’t get out of the contract and that’s why he didn’t build any boats for three years. And bitterly accused Sayres as being the reason he was trapped. Reason the Statement is False: In the same trail The IRS vs. American Properties with Ted as the key IRS witness. The "Finding of Fact" states:
So another 50 years of false statements were fed to the Seattle fans by Ted O. Jones. All he had to do was notify Sayres, he wanted out and 180 days later he was free do whatever he wanted. He could have been out designing boats for whomever he pleased in 180 days. But HE never did. And lied about what happened for fifty years. 3.Ted also claimed that he was never paid; As in the 1980 Seattle Times Article where he says " I built Slo-mo-shun IV with no pay, no design pay, no nothing" And If you go back up and reread Paragraph #1 Ted Says "Up until this time, I hadn’t got a dime for Slo-mo IV and I never did. Reason the Statement is False: Again we go to Teds statements in the "Finding of Fact" in the IRS trail which states:
The compensation that Ted Jones received for his work on Slomo V was $500 a month on top of that $5000 And his compensation for his work on Slomo IV was a brand new Chrysler automobile presented to him in the presence of the crew and other valuables that total in excess of $5000 at the end of the 1950 season. 4. Look at Ted Jones statement in Paragraph #3 he Says "I built Slo-mo-shun IV with no pay" Reason the Statement is False: He didn’t say I helped build it, nor did he say I assisted in building it, he said "I built Slo-mo-shun IV with no pay" Nothing could be further from the truth. By leaving everyone else out of his responses the public gets the impression that Ted was responsible for most of the work. And for whatever work Mr. Jones did, he was well paid. Slo-mo IV was built at the Jensen Motor Boat Company under the direction of Anchor Jensen and the hard labors of the JMC staff who were also paid for their efforts. The unsung hero’s who didn’t get paid and who never complained about it and contributed enormously to it’s success were the Slo-mo’s volunteer crew, Mike Welsch, Elmer Linenshmidt, John Andrews, George Mckernan, Pete Bertillotti , Don Ibsen Jr, Joe Schobert & Martin Headman these guys and many more kept Slomo IV & V running and victorious. And Stanley Sayres paid the vast majority of all the costs needed to develop, construct and race the boat. But we cannot forget the money donated by the people of Seattle through the Greater Seattle Inc. 5. "The 3 day open Contract" "In a 1999 Bill Neville Article authored along with Ron & Ted Jones: "Called out of the heat of Controversy" ...referring to the June 26,1950 World Record Run, Ted states that he had a deal with Stan Sayres That he (Ted) get to drive the boat on any 3 days he chose"...He states: "As Ted was making final preparations he noticed Stan Putting on a Jump suit and life vest. Walking briskly up to Sayres he asked "What are you doing?" "I’m getting
ready to drive, of course. After all it’s my boat,
"Stan explained. The reason it’s false: In The July 16,1950 Post Intelligencer Ted Jones Says: " I rode with Stan when he set the new World’s Record and he did a splendid job, a lead foot when necessary and caution when advisable. He (Stan Sayres) really handled that boat when the drive shaft broke at 160 MPH on the first try." So what can we believe, that Ted also has physic ability’s, that he knew the first try would fail, so he never confronted Sayres when Stan drove the boat on the first attempt. Should we believe the 1950 version where Ted says Stan did a splendid job of driving the boat or the 1999 version where Ted says that Stan doesn’t even know how to drive the boat. And you will notice in Ted’s 1950 response, he makes reference to the first try for the World Record Run which was attempted two days earlier. During that first run which Stan Sayres also drove (with obviously no complaints from Mr. Jones) the drive shaft broke at 160 MPH and Stan was more then capable of handling the damaged boat under those conditions. So where does Ted come up with this "three day contract" deal on the second attempt, saying Stan "you don’t even know how to drive the boat". Another Reason the Statement is False: In mutiple news articles that ran at least 8 days before the Word Record attempt, in the Seattle Times and The Seattle Post Intelligencer, They all say Stan Sayres was going to be the driver. And it took 4 days and a couple of tries to accomplish the record. Now unless Ted was asleep for the two weeks prior to the record run or wasn’t present when Stan drove during the first attempt, and we all know that Ted was there for that run and had high praise for Stans driving ability ( see paragraph 5 above) Ted definitely knew that Stan was going to drive the boat. There was no 3 day open contract 6.Also in the same Bill Neville, Jones, in Hydro Legends 1999. Ted’s Claims that he drove the Slo-mo IV from the Mechanic’s seat... The reason it’s false: Rather then repeat the infomation over simply go back up one paragraph and read number 5 again. One minute Stan's the best driver there is and the next time you hear the story, Ted is driving from the mechanic's seat. 7.Ted stated in his 1950 story "How the Slo-mo-shun IV was designed " and in other numerous newspaper articles and most recently on the HARM website that he built the Slo-mo-shun III in his basement. Reason the Statement is False: Attached is a photo of the Slo-mo-shun III being completed at the Jensen Motor Boat Company. It was sent there after Stan Sayres got fed up with Teds delays and sent the partially completed skeleton to Anchor Jensen to complete most of the work. The truth is Ted may have started to build the boat in his basement but only completed a portion of the framing. The rest of the work was done at Jensens. But that fact never stopped Ted from repeatedly telling reporters for 50 years that he built the boat in his basement and never mentioned Jensens. We also have the billing sheets for the Slo-mo III for those who need further verification.
8.Ted stated over and over again that in daily test runs he ran Slo-mo-shun IV at 180 and 190 MPH: Reason the Statement is False: Attached is a photo of the Keller water speed indicator- marked MPH. That was in the IV during the 1950-51 seasons . The speedometer only goes up to 150 MPH. The only way Ted could be sure of his actual speed was to have had devices based on land the same as they used in the World Speed Record and that wasn’t available.. You can also check out the July 1950 Pacific Motor Boat article that states: " However, a fairly accurate knowledge of the Slo-mo-shun’s actual speed was available because the instrument panel includes a Keller water speedometer, an instrument which is considered very accurate. The one in the Slo-mo-shun IV is calibrated to 150 MPH. Plus we have the Black Box documentation used to analyze the boats performance to show what the boat could do under each setup.
This photo is the original Slomo IV speedometer. The numbers run 110-115-120-125-130-135-140-145-and tops out at 150. 9. Ted also tries to claim in an August 3rd, 1953 article by David Stern that he invented the three point hydroplane.. Reason the Statement is False: The 3 point Hydroplane was patented in 1935 by Ventnor Boats of Atlantic City New Jersey in 1935. 13 years before the Slo-mo-shun IV hit the Water. And in 1948 Anchor Jensen got a call from the owners of Ventnor who threatened Sayres and Jensen with a law suit for infringement of their patent. Which Sayres lawyer had to work out with Ventnor. The reason Sayres and Jensen were allowed to continue was that they were essentially doing a one off, and not mass producing them. And it is well known that the first unlimited Hydroplane credited to be a prop rider is the "Hurricane" that ran in the 1948 Gold Cup that Sayres took Ted and Anchor to see. 10. Ted states in a 1980 article by Weldon Johnson that he had the concept sketch of a hydroplane that Ted claims is the Slo-mo-shun IV drawn 4 years before he started on the boat. BUT, Then in an early article in the Seattle Times by David Stern he says he had it many years early. And then in The HARM website article he says he drew it 10 years early . My Response: Well when was it,4, 10 or many years before 1948, or maybe it was 3 months after he came back from the Detroit Gold Cup where Ted had gotten his first "up close and personal" look at some big time unlimiteds, including the "Hurricane"courtesy of Mr. Sayres who paid for all the costs of the trip. In any case, since we have Teds, signed, original concept sketch, we know by comparing that sketch, to Anchor Jensens plans and then comparing both to the finished Slomo IV the only conclusion one can come to is that Anchor Jensen, Stan and the crew did a heck of a lot more design work on the Slomo IV then Ted Jones. The only measurement that is the same between Teds drawing and Anchor’ s is the length of 28ft. The Final Slomo IV is almost an exact replica of Anchors drawings and plans. And then we get into all the evolutionary changes in the boat that took place over the 18 months of development . But we will discuss that soon.
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