During his 1970 to 1975 career, Henley won 12 out of 34 races entered, for a winning percentage of 0.353.
A veteran limited hydro pilot, Henley started his thunder boat career as a crew member on the likes of the Miss B & I and Coral Reef. His first unlimited ride as driver was in the Burien Lady, owned by Bob Murphy. The team's modest budget notwithstanding, Henley raised many eyebrows when he finished a strong second in the 1970 Seattle Seafair Regatta, winning the final heat and defeating the overall winner, Miss Budweiser, in the process. Later Henley saw action with Bob Fendler and Lincoln Thrift's 7 1/4% Special and Jim McCormick's Red Man II. Henley's best finish was second place in the 1973 Champion Spark Plug Regatta at Miami, Florida, with Lincoln Thrift.
Then came the historic 1974 racing season, when Henley joined forces with owner Dave Heerensperger and crew chief Jim Lucero on the "winged wonder," Pay 'n Pak. After having paid his dues with the low-budget teams, Henley had a ride that was truly commensurate with his ability. The Pay 'n Pak already had won four races and the National High Point Championship in 1973 with Mickey Remund as driver. It was up to Henley to do it all over again.
In his first appearance with Pay 'n Pak in Miami, Henley experienced mechanical difficulty after winning both of his preliminary heats. But a week later in Washington, D.C., Henley won the President's Cup on the Potomac River, beating the likes of Bill Muncey in Atlas Van Lines, Leif Borgersen in U-95, and Howie Benns in Miss Budweiser. He followed that win with victories at Owensboro, Kentucky; Tri-Cities and Seattle; Dayton, Ohio; San Diego; and Madison, Wisconsin, becoming the first driver to win seven High Point races in a single season.
After a stellar 1974 campaign, Henley decided to retire from unlimited hydro racing and to concentrate on his Eatonville-based marina business. But boat owner Heerensperger had a hard time replacing Henley in the cockpit of Pay 'n Pak, so he agreed to make Henley his partner if he would drive again. Following his brief retirement, Henley rejoined the Pay 'n Pak team at the third race of the 1975 season in Owensboro. In the short time that Henley had been away, Weisfield's, driven by Bill Schumacher, had garnered most of the glory and appeared likely to unseat Pay 'n Pak from its national championship throne. On the first lap in the first heat at Owensboro, Henley's boat spun out and then went on to blow an engine. Pay 'n Pak was forced to withdraw, and the race went to Weisfield's.
Despite a formidable deficit in points, however, George sparked Pay 'n Pak to one of the great comebacks in hydroplane history. The 'Pak took third at the next race in Detroit, and then found the winning combination a week later in Madison, where Henley retained his title in the Indiana Governor's Cup, decisively beating Weisfield's. This was followed with victories in Dayton, Tri-Cities, Seattle, and San Diego. The end result was a third-straight season title for Pay 'n Pak.
In his last season of Unlimited Class participation, "Smiling George" won more races than any other driver and averaged more points per race than anyone else. His legacy to the sport is a standard of competitive excellence that few drivers in any racing category have ever achieved.
