Click on Images to View Full Size
Return to BMP HomePage DWIGHT & MAC BALE MEMORIAL PAGES
Conquest Conquest - Page One
Conquest
Page Two

BMP HomePage
Ma Bale
Conquest
Bale - One
Bale - Two
Bale -Three
Bale - Four
Mac Bale
Mac - One
Mac - Two
Down 'n Out
Down 'n Out
Links
Links

DRAG BOAT
CHRONICLES

CLYDE
PARKHURST
GALLERIES

.  
Click on each Image




For Larger More Detailed View,
Click on each Image
Conquest, the boat that started it all, was a team effort. The Sanger hull belonged to Ron Tort, the blown fuel Hemi belonged to Bale, and there were various sponsors, but everybody knew that Ma Bale was the team's real sponsor.

We had all grown up with hot rods and drag racing. As far back as 1957 when Dwight was 13, and brother Mac 11, Ma Bale gave in to Dwight’s insistence and drove us kids to the drags at Lodi, California. There we saw Don Gartlits go up against Cooke & Bidwell in rigid framed “outlaw” fuelers.

But we had not been a boating family, so in the summer of 1967, I was both amazed and proud to find a centerfold photo of my brother in an issue of Hot Rod Magazine. It stated,  “Dwight ‘Hey’ Bale of Walnut Creek, California, got the wildest 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.”


A DRAG BOAT Hydro measures between 16 feet and 18 feet from stem to stern. And YES! When you know how to do it, these things literally fly across the water. Little more than half the prop, two rear stabilizers, and two metal skags are actually in the water (visible in this 1972 photo of Out-A-Sight, the skags are attached to the rear of the sponsons and not much bigger than a surfboard skag).
Go to Conquest Page Two
Links
lsb - 11/22/2007