What’s Up Doc Racing Team

Our racing history starts with my father, Kenneth Leonard Miller, who built a wooden runabout in his garage. He was an electrician by trade but he had many skills. It was probably not fast enough for him. He didn’t go to school as many children in the depression. He found a KG7 Mercury and ordered a speed liner from St Joseph, Missouri. There was an active boat racing club in Oklahoma. One day he saw a car with a hydro on top owned by a local man, Pete Norton. Pete had been a jockey and was a Cherokee Indian. They decided to form a team. Soon after, they ran some races finishing well back in the pack. Winning a third was a big deal. They purchased 20H Mercurys and my dad converted the carburetors to alcohol fuel by enlarging the passages. They took their motor motors to Frank Vincent a marine dealer in Tulsa to help improve the performance. Frank held the A Pro hydro record for many years. In 1954 the team improved. Pete won the B stock Nationals in Dallas, Texas. In that year my dad bought me a Swift hydro and KG4 Mercury as I was 14 years old. I was second in high points in Oklahoma. In 1955, my father won the B runabout high point, Pete won the B hydro and I won the A hydro. Papa Smith made us some good props. My dad also had a Bugs Bunny painted on the boat and the saying “What’s Up Doc”. Little did he know that his son and grandson would become dentists. At that time it was not unusual to have a field of 16 boats in the race. In 1956, we didn’t do as well as Konigs were being used against the Mercs. The team quit, sold the boats, and bought a Cessna 170. They slowly kept buying better airplanes till they had a Bonanza. At the age of 56, my dad died of a heart attack. After high school, I went to college and dental school. I enlisted in the army during the Vietnam war and was in Vietnam from 1967-1968. After returning home, I purchased a D hydro from Clyde Bayer of Tulsa, Oklahoma. In my second year in 1969, a guy went to the second buoy instead of the first and he hit me, breaking my leg.

I moved from Tulsa to Grove, Oklahoma where I was married to a women who had a six-year-old son. I purchased a Sid-son hydro and a 20h and begin racing. Over the next 20 years I won many state high points and in Madisonville, Louisiana I won my first AOF National Championship. I didn’t get my motor started for the first heat, but the field was red-flagged when there were three false starts. I made it out for the restart of the race and won.

In 1983 I won APBA 25 Mod Hydro National championship. There were 32 entries at Dayton, Ohio. With a new Bezoat hydro that I got delivery on at the race. The next year at Soddy Daisy, Tennessee I won the B and 25 Mod Hydro APBA National Championships. I have won 9 Championships over my 35 years of racing.

I have also put on and organized many races. We had races on our hometown lake from 1970-1983, took a break then brought them back from 2013 -2022. I was the Race Director for the AOF Nationals in 1979 and 1980 in Eufaula, Oklahoma. I was the Race Director for the APBA Nationals in Mountain Home, Arkansas from 1988-1991, as well as the NBRA Nationals in 2014.

My history in racing is somewhat meager compared to my son Rick’s. Rick began racing at 14 years old with an A Hot Rod and Staron hydro and runabout. Carl was building us hydros and runabouts during this time. Rick took 17 consecutive first-place wins in his 3rd year with the Staron runabout and then we sold it to get a Broccoli runabout.

Sometimes we question our thinking, but the Broccoli runabout was a beauty. I always made him drive the runabout first before concentrating on the hydros.

Rick is one of the winningest outboard drivers with 113 National Championships, 1 AOF Hall of Fame induction, and 6 APBA Hall of Champions induction. He has won in AOF, NBRA as well as APBA. He has also set 6 APBA competition records and two Bob Goller Overall High Point Awards. It’s not easy to compete in APBA races as the closest races is a 10-hour drive away.

When Rick became a dentist we officially called our team “What’s Up Doc Racing”, even though we had put the What’s Up Doc and Bugs Bunny on quite a few of our boats since 1953.

I adopted a 2-year-old grandchild Braxton along with his two sisters. Braxton started racing at 10 years old in the J classes and the NBRA Novice Class. We bought Andrew Tate’s J equipment. Braxton went on to win 2nd in JR and JH in his first APBA Nationals at 10 years old in Whitney Point, New York. There were over 20 boats in each of the classes. Braxton has won about 45 championships and in 2019 was inducted into the APBA Hall of Champions. For many years he was the Overall High Point Champion of NBRA and has won a Bob Goller Overall Hight Point award as well. Braxton has had 5 surgeries repairing legs, hips, and an ankle as a result of football injuries.

In 2019 he set a one mile record B Stock Hydro competition record at Dayton, Ohio, and won the Stock Nationals in D hydro. He has won two seconds at the D hydro champions. Braxton competes in the D stock hydro and runabout, C (500 Mod) Mod hydro and runabout and 3-4 other classes as well.

The What’s Up Doc racing team is easy to recognize with their purple and yellow color boats. We have enjoyed great success over the 8 decades of racing. We love traveling the country racing against many different racers and expect everyone to bring their “A” game when we show up..

Leonard “Doc” Miller 35-0