1977 was also the year when Molinari started racing for OMC, but Renatos deal was with OMC USA..not Belgium.

I had a brand new OE/F3 Molinari Boat on order and an Evinrude engine for that boat.

Well..after the big  meeting with Rutger Friberg  at Volvo Penta, Sweden.

A new  much better deal was done and I got my biggest check ever (at that time) to
race Volvo Penta/Konig in OE/F3 1977.
I drove to Como,  picked up my new Molinari boat. Then to Clerici and  pick up a second boat if the Molinari boat did not work out good with the Volvo.
After that direct to Dieter Konig, West Berlin to install engines.

Then..straight to Uppsala, Sweden where the Volvo Penta outboard factory was located.

Gert Lowisin was living next door.
My deal with Volvo was to have Gert Lowisin 24/7  helping me that year in racing.

Gert was a very good man to have on your side. This was now  a very interesting year for me in racing.  I raced more or less every weekend somewhere in Europe.

When “that thing” on the transom stayed together I won, but most of the times it came a part.
Believe it or not, but I raced Paris 6 hours with my Konig….. and was leading the race for a few hours. Suddenly  I hit something in the dirty river and sank…. not the engine this time.
We used 50/50 Gasoline/Methanol and it did not take away to many horsepower.

 

The Sprint World OE Championship race  that year was in Brodenbach, Germany.

OMC was not very happy with me racing a Volvo and Jenkins racing a Archimedes. (Same thing)

Michael Werner was the home favorite with Mercury’s secret F3 engine with fuel injection.

OMC at that time did not have the speed, and where using the “Gas in a bottle” ( laughing gas), to make it better.
The German officials of the race said it was not legal, so OMC never raced and filed a protest.

I was fighting hard with Werner and won one heat, he the next etc. and it was down to the final heat
I had to win on a better time and I did, but then the German race officials said that my heat was 2/10 of a second slower than Werner’s so he was now the World Champ. (at that time they used stop watches)
I don’t know if it was right or wrong, but sometime later UIM made a decision about the OMC protest.  The race was not a official World Championship race anymore.

There is many stories about my year with Volvo/Konig and I can go back to that later.
When it comes to money, it was a very good year but I did not get the Trophy’s I wanted so after Paris 6 Hours I told Volvo that, I am out.

Volvo did not have a problem with that and late 1979, the Volvo Penta outboards took the sign down.
Not many people know that, but Volvo Penta Outboards was the first one the Japanese Outboards put out of business.

Well, maybe they killed them self with poorly designed production outboards….who knows.

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Here is how the Volvo Penta/Konig deal was done..

https://svera.se/blogg/racing-historier/before-the-1977-race-season/

A Volvo Penta/Konig in Paris Six Hours 1977

Here…https://svera.se/blogg/paris-6-hours/a-konig-outboard-in-paris-six-hours-1977/