Homer Kincaid, Racing Legend

February 27, 2025 - 6:58pm

Homer driving for Bill Tenney in Florida

Information and photos from John & Merrilene Herberg on December 4, 2024

Homer Franklin Kincaid, Carbon Cliff, Illinois
Nov. 13, 1909 – Nov. 1986 (77)

A metallurgist by trade, Homer Kincaid worked for the city of Carbon Cliff, Illinois in the water department, and for Formal. He eventually was elected mayor of Carbon Cliff.

Homer’s racing career spanned decades, from the 1930s-80s. Homer loved all boat racing, and made many friends in the sport—especially Jack Lockhart and Bud Finkle. He decided to race hydros and runabouts after he bought an SR from George Kaufield. It wasn’t fast enough to suit him, so he went to Mercury and Konig. He had great success with any and all propellers available during his career. Homer later bought Tommy Small’s runabout when Tom quit racing. He sold his V-2 Banana boat that DeSilva later sold to John Herberg’s dad for John to drive. John still has this boat.

Homer Kincaid, Marv Braun, Doc Horner (raced since 1928)

Homer raced in the PRO category with NOA and APBA – the primary racing available in his area. He ran A, B, C, and C Service classes, using a Schultz hydro, and DeSilva hydro and runabout. He worked on engines with Harry Pasterzak, then did his own work.

His greatest racing achievements include winning the John Ward International 1962, the Governor’s Trophy in Wisconsin, and the 1961 NOA World Championship in CRH at St. Paul, MN. He drove for Clem Landis of Nebraska City, Nebraska. In one year Homer and Clem split $11,000.00 in prize money from boat racing. He also drove A and B Hydro for Bill Tenney in Florida, and drove for Paul Hayes, of Missouri. Alexandria, La. was his favorite race site.

Homer’s last race was at DePue. He then sold his equipment and never returned to racing.

Ted Abel recalled, “I saw him race several times at APBA Nationals, and Homer was truly a Legend!”

Homer at 1955 NOA Nationals Mt. Carmel, Il.

Homer at St. Paul, Mn.

Homer Kincaid May 1975, Outboard VP

Homer with Outboard Club of Chicago High Point Winner

Homer with sons Bill & Jack

Homer with Wisconsin Governor’s Trophy

Homer’s best friend Bud (possibly Bud Finkle?)

Left to Right: Bill Tenney, Jack Maypole, Milfred Harrison, Harry Vogts, Jack Barbee, Henry Taueart, Homer Kincaid, Clement M. Landis, Clyde Brackin, and Leonard E. Smith.

Top of cover- Homer Kincaid

NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT HOMER KINCAID

Retirement: Splash Party For Homer Kincaid
By GORDON NELSON
Assistant Sports Editor, Daily Dispatch, Saturday August 5, 1972

Thanks to John Herberg, Orion, Illinois for locating this article and photos.

The Daily Dispatch newspaper stopped publishing in 1992.

At age 62, a company man with 35 years’ experience doesn’t have to look ahead to retirement. It’s there – and with it the chance to get into that boat for all those pleasure cruises he’s been promising himself all along.

It was no different for Homer Kincaid when he retired from Farmall last February— only his idea of a “pleasure” cruise might have had a few people wincing. But this weekend, the former Carbon Cliff mayor faces his second retirement in six months – and with it a chance to get OUT of a boat for a while.

For, after 43 years, the two-time United States High Point champion outboard motor boat racer will hang up his fins after the Nationals going on this weekend on Lake DePue.

The announcement came without fanfare from the man who’s earned the highest accolades in a sport often bypassed by publicity. “I feel there’s nothing that I haven’t accomplished,” he said last week, before leaving for a week of warmups and practice at DePue, “I’m going to put my equipment up for sale after the Nationals.”

And when he does, the sport’s oldest competitor will be on the sidelines for the first time since 1929. “I’ve tapered off a bit in recent years, ” he admitted. “I’m only running one class now anyway.” But in his heyday during the ’50s and ’60s, Kincaid raced in and won more big events in all classes than one could possibly enumerate.

“I suppose I have a hundred trophies or so, and my sponsors might have twice that many,” the modest champ admitted only when pushed. Those figures might even be a bit low for the man who’s won a dozen national championships in various classes and set five competitive course records – one of which still stands (the C Service Hydro class mark he established in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1964).

That 13th National title certainly is within the realm of possibility at DePue this weekend, as Kincaid finished first in the Eastern Division championships July 1 to make the DePue field. Isn’t that a bit rough on a 62-year-old man who has aIready retired after 35 years at Farmall as an assistant works metallurgist and more recently a reliability engineer?

“It’s no rougher now than it ever was,’ he kidded. “In fact, at the higher speeds we’re going now, the ride is quite smooth.” More seriously, he did admit that maybe – and only maybe – his reactions aren’t quite as sharp as when he was racing in five or six classes a dozen times a year. “But on setup, past experience has to give me some edge,” he said.

Kincaid’s career just about has paralleled that of outboard racing. The sport was just beginning to mushroom in 1928-29 when Kincaid and his cousin Ed Kennedy saw plans for a hydroplane in Sports Afield Magazine. “I always liked the water – hunting, fishing, things like that,” he said. “Building the boat sounded like fun, so we did it.”

The pair had no intention of racing the machine, even after buying an 11-horsepower engine for it and trying it on the flood waters of the Rock River. “It was really something.” Kincaid recalled. “Someone on the shore saw us and told us we should enter it in the May 30th races at Muscatine the next week.”

They did, and Kincaid’s career was launched. He won the B-Hydro division in that first run and later took four of the five races held that summer in Prophetstown, Davenport and Clinton. “We used to run right on the Mississippi River then, he said. “There are too many pleasure boats out there now so you can’t do that anymore.”

After that start, it all comes to an end this weekend some 15,000 competitive miles later. In between are squeezed so many memories that Kincaid can recall only the highlights.

“My biggest thrill was sweeping all six classes in one day at Rome City, Ind., in 1968,” he said. “Or maybe it was winning the International John War Trophy in the C Hydro class at Bradenton, Fla., in 1962.” He didn’t even mention his double induction into the Marine Racing Hall of Fame for his 1959 and 1964 efforts, or piloting St. Louis millionaire J. T. Millikin’s boat in the 1933-34 Chicago Century of Progress exposition. All were thrills, but the biggest: Who knows?

He didn’t have that problem recalling his biggest disappointment. “It was up in LaCrosse way back in the mid-30s,” he said. “I spilled three times in the same day.

“I was ready to quit right then and there.” That’s just one of the innumerable times he’s finished without his boat, or vice versa, but he still has escaped what he classifies as “serious” injury. Just last February he broke five ribs in a flip, but that’s just “minor.” “It was the fourth time I’ve had ribs broken,” he laughed.

He did admit, however, that the danger element in the sport has grown in proportion to the increases in speed. “Forty years ago, the fastest you would go was 40 miles an hour,” he said. Now his C Class boat travels over the water about 95 m.p.h.—and it’s only the second biggest class. (Classes are divided by the size of the engine, while boat bodies are split into hydro and runabout divisions.)

The greatest progress has been made in the design of the boats and in the propellers,” Kincaid said. “A gear-reduction system used to move the boats with big propellers; now you try to turn the smaller props as fast as possible.”

But changes in safety equipment for the driver have kept pace. While no precautionary gear was required in his early outings, Kincaid now has to wear a life jacket with leg straps and flotation collar in case he is knocked out in a spill. He also dons a helmet with a bubble visor, very similar to those worn by auto racers.

He wears basketball knee pads for added protection as he kneels on the deck of the boat. “You just kind of squat on your heels and use your knees as a spring,’ he said. “You don’t want your legs under the deck, so if you go out, you’ll go free of the boat.

That’s the way he’s ridden for some 15,000 miles in competition, and countless thousands of practice miles all over the United States and Canada. Recent testing has pretty much been limited to runs at DePue, however.

He’s threatened retirement several times in his career (the first time in his initial year when he finally was beaten by the then – brand new Johnson 16 h.p. engine), but kept coming back because “you know how it goes; I guess I just had it in my blood.”

Even now, he won’t be severing connections completely, as he will retain his administrative posts with the American Power Boat Association, and will officiate some meets.

But it’s his retirement party as far as active racing goes at DePue this weekend, and he’s planning on going out with a big splash!

2 World Marks Assist Kincaid’s Title Quest

Homer Kincaid, veteran boat race driver, made a triumphant return to his home in Carbon Cliff this morning after taking a big step toward another national hydroplane racing title last weekend in a sensational racing sweep at Minden, La.

Kincaid, national outboard racing champion in 1955, brought home six trophies and two plaques which were tossed into the loot after the veteran racer established two world records in the American Power Boat Association competition.

His world records came in A Racing Runabout class, where Kincaid upped the mark to 50 miles an hour in a 5-mile race, and in the B Racing Runabout event where his average speed was 53.6 miles an hour—almost 1 MPH better than the previous record.

Kincaid also won trophies for leading the field in C Service Hydro and in two other classes of competition. Topping off his weekend activities was presentation of a special trophy for overall high point winner in the entire regatta.

Biggest achievement for Kincaid, however, was accumulation of 5,500 points in national competition—a tremendous number of points for a single regatta. The Carbon Cliff pilot has been in only five races this year and now has 11,000 points for the season, which should make him a strong contender for national honors.

His other competition this year has been at St. Petersburg, Fla., Danville and DePue, Illinois, and Waukesha, Wis. The weekend events in Louisiana concluded his racing schedule for this season and he will not enter competition again until February, when he will return to Florida.

Kincaid is in partnership with W. H. Bartelson of Silvis in the racing field, and Harry F. Pettingill of Rock Island serves as his crew chief and travels with him, occasionally entering racing competition.