By Bill Purcell
Reprinted from Tri-City Herald, March 8, 1972
If one of Andy Granatelli's Indy 500 cars spun around a track somewhere at record speed, the news would leak out soon enough. He might even incorporate it in one of his STP TV ads.
But in the clandestine sport of unlimited hydroplane racing, where the fleet of competitors is one-fifth as large, record speeds are preferably only hinted at.
Thunderboat owner Dave Heerensperger, the cautious owner of such a record on the 2½-mile watery oval of the Columbia River, explained why.
"If we let everybody know how fast we really went out there," avowed the 35-year-old hydroplane magnate, "we would lose our competitive edge.
"Suffice it to say, that we went considerably faster than we ever have on the Columbia. But that's all."
"Considerably faster," in this case was something between 116 and 118 m.p.h, according to the bits and pieces of veiled information coming from the pit crew, driver Billy Schumacher and his wife Cindy in the wake of an unofficial record run around the Atomic Cup course Monday by the Pride of Pay 'n Pak.
Although the Columbia has proven the most hospitable watering hole on the hydroplane circuit for Heerensperger - he won the race with Miss Eagle Electric on 1968 and with Lil Buzzard in 1970 - the president of the Pay 'n Pak store chain has good cause for caution.
Not only did racing accidents claim the lives of Eagle driver Warner Gardner and Buzzard pilot Tommy Fults, but Heerensperger was denied a third Atomic Cup when his crew gambled and lost with a new engine in the championship heat of last year's race.
After winning its first two heats by a dozen roostertails in 1971, the Pride was fitted out with a new engine before the final heat.
Recalling the abortive decision, Mrs. Schumacher, a dark-haired beauty more lovely to look at than any hydroplane, said the crew was afraid their usually trusted old Rolls would blow before the heat was over.
"How ironic," said Cindy, "that the new engine blew up instead and that Billy set a new qualification time with the old engine on Lake Washington (in Seattle) two weekends later."
Heerensperger brought his boat to the Tri-Cities, hoping such last-minute decisions could be avoided at this year's Atomic Cup, set for July 29.
"The more tinkering that can be done during the offseason," said Heerensperger, "the better prepared we can be for what might happen when the boat hits the water for real."
The red-and-gold sister ship to Lil Buzzard is not exactly the same unlimited which finished fifth behind Jim McCormick's Miss Madison in 1971's Atomic Cup.
The radically-designed sponsons have been cut back six inches, the boat has been lightened 400 pounds and a new prop has been installed.
Driver Schumacher, who has been competing on the water for 21 of his 29 years and has set 10 world record times, declared Tuesday, "This boat has never run better. We're going to win a lot with it this year."
Crew chief Jim Lucero, honored as the best in the business by the Unlimited Commission last year, was busy testing a new prop to replace the one that sank to the bottom of Lake Washington on a recent test run. Both crew chief and owner were surprised the new prop so closely approximated the performance standards of the old one.
Heerensperger admitted that the almost ideal conditions on the Columbia didn't hurt either.
"This is better water to test on than in Seattle," he said. "We always know what to expect here, and besides the Tri-Cities have usually been lucky for us."
As luck would have it, Schumacher almost had his racing career interrupted during a regatta in Parker, Ariz., on the Colorado River last month. His boat flipped, but a co-driver was in the cockpit.
The same thing didn't happen to veteran driver Bill Muncey on the same course, when his boat also flipped but a co-driver was likewise handling the controls.
Schumacher had another close call at Miami in 1971. The bugs hadn't yet been worked out of the Pride of Pay 'n Pak and the boat overturned in the water. Schumacher got a dunk, but not much more.
Asked if those experiences and the deaths of two Heerensperger pilots is enough to scare the Schumachers away from unlimited racing, Cindy replied, "My trepidation magnified 100-fold after the Miami incident, but since then I'm getting used to it.
"There is always danger in any high-speed sport, but Billy has the reputation of being one of the safest drivers in the business."
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Chasin’ the Pak
Pay 'n Pak Win Third Straight Governor's Cup Before Record 90,000
By J.D. Lewis, Staff Writer
Reprinted from The Republic, Columbus, Ind., July 7, 1975
Pay ‘n Pak out-dueled Weisfield's in one of the closest heat races in unlimited hydroplane history and went on to capture its third straight Indiana Governor's Cup Sunday during the 26th running of the Madison Regatta on the Ohio River.
A record crowd of 90,000 fans watched driver George Henley score about a 10-foot win over Bill Schumacher and Weisfield's in the fourth and next to last heat race. The victory worth 400 points meant Henley needed only a second place finish in the final heat to clinch the Governor's Cup. He did just that, playing it safe and settling for second behind Schumacher, whose finish maintained Weisfield's lead in the national point standings.
"The name of the game is winning the Cup,” said a smiling Henley later. "We could have gone all out at the end, but we could've broken something and not finished. You go on strategy, not pride."
The victory, Pay 'n Pak's first in five unlimited races this year, was worth $6,336 out of a total purse of $30,000 for Henley and owner Dave Heerensperger of Seattle, Wash. The winning combination scored a first and two seconds in three heat races for 1,000 points.
Weisfield’s had a first, second and third for 925. Lincoln Thrift driven by Milner Irvin placed third with 794, Miss U.S. driven by Tom D'Eath was fourth with 750 and Miss Vernor's driven by Fred Alter was fifth with 625.
The local favorite, Miss Madison, piloted by Jerry Bangs, was black flagged for failing to shut off its engine after conking out in turn two in the first heat and scored no points. However, it finished second in the third heat and wound up eighth overall with 300 points.
A total of 11 boats were entered, but only nine reached minimum qualifying speeds of 100 miles an hour on Friday and Saturday. Pay 'n Pak averaged 103.010 for the three heats. But it set new Madison records in the thrilling duel with, Weisfield's in heat 2B.
The Pak covered the fifth and final lap over the 2½-mile course at 116.883 miles an hour, the fastest speed ever at Madison. The previous lap records of 116.580 for qualifying and 114.796 during a race were set by the Pak last year. And the Pak's average for the heat was 115.148, which shattered the record of 110.892, also set by the same boat last year.
Told later what his heat average was, the 39-year-old Henley, an Eatonville, Wash., native, exclaimed, "Holy mackerel!"
"I didn't think I had it won until I looked over my shoulder and saw (Schumacher) wasn't there," he said. "I could hear him all the time."
"There was nothing left in my engine," said Schumacher. “I pushed it as hard as it would go. That's one of the best races I've ever been in. "
"Me, too," said Henley. "I don't think I've ever been in as close a race even when I was racing limiteds. It was a good, clean, fun race."
In the final heat, Schumacher took Weisfield's into a comfortable lead on the first lap and led all the way. Weisfield's only hope for a Cup championship was that Miss U.S. would beat the Pak for second, but Henley held on and finished ahead of D'Eath by a safe margin.
Prior to the Regatta, Pay 'n Pak had won only one out of 10 heat races, but Henley said he felt confident of his chances after taking the boat out for a test run on Friday. "It finally began to handle like it did last year," he said. "Now I think she's back where she was."
There was only one minor mishap during the 4-hour program. In the second heat race, Miss Budweiser sustained considerable sponson damage on the right side when she hit a "low" spot entering the second turn. Driven by Mickey Remund, she went on to win the heat, but was forced to withdraw from the competition. "The crew will have to work night and day for a week just to get her ready for the next race (the Dayton Hydroglobe on July 13)," said Remund.
Final Points Standing: 1.) Pay 'n Pak, George Henley, 1,000; 2.) Weisfield's, Bill Schumacher, 925; 3.) Lincoln Thrift, Milner Irvin, 794; 4.) Miss U.S., Tom D'Eath, 750; 5.) Miss Vernor's, Fred Alter, 625; 6.) Miss Budweiser, Mickey Remund, 400; 7.) Atlas Van Lines, Bill Muncey, 338; 8.) Miss Madison, Jerry Bangs, 300.
By J.D. Lewis, Staff Writer
Reprinted from The Republic, Columbus, Ind., July 7, 1975
Pay ‘n Pak out-dueled Weisfield's in one of the closest heat races in unlimited hydroplane history and went on to capture its third straight Indiana Governor's Cup Sunday during the 26th running of the Madison Regatta on the Ohio River.
A record crowd of 90,000 fans watched driver George Henley score about a 10-foot win over Bill Schumacher and Weisfield's in the fourth and next to last heat race. The victory worth 400 points meant Henley needed only a second place finish in the final heat to clinch the Governor's Cup. He did just that, playing it safe and settling for second behind Schumacher, whose finish maintained Weisfield's lead in the national point standings.
"The name of the game is winning the Cup,” said a smiling Henley later. "We could have gone all out at the end, but we could've broken something and not finished. You go on strategy, not pride."
The victory, Pay 'n Pak's first in five unlimited races this year, was worth $6,336 out of a total purse of $30,000 for Henley and owner Dave Heerensperger of Seattle, Wash. The winning combination scored a first and two seconds in three heat races for 1,000 points.
Weisfield’s had a first, second and third for 925. Lincoln Thrift driven by Milner Irvin placed third with 794, Miss U.S. driven by Tom D'Eath was fourth with 750 and Miss Vernor's driven by Fred Alter was fifth with 625.
The local favorite, Miss Madison, piloted by Jerry Bangs, was black flagged for failing to shut off its engine after conking out in turn two in the first heat and scored no points. However, it finished second in the third heat and wound up eighth overall with 300 points.
A total of 11 boats were entered, but only nine reached minimum qualifying speeds of 100 miles an hour on Friday and Saturday. Pay 'n Pak averaged 103.010 for the three heats. But it set new Madison records in the thrilling duel with, Weisfield's in heat 2B.
The Pak covered the fifth and final lap over the 2½-mile course at 116.883 miles an hour, the fastest speed ever at Madison. The previous lap records of 116.580 for qualifying and 114.796 during a race were set by the Pak last year. And the Pak's average for the heat was 115.148, which shattered the record of 110.892, also set by the same boat last year.
Told later what his heat average was, the 39-year-old Henley, an Eatonville, Wash., native, exclaimed, "Holy mackerel!"
"I didn't think I had it won until I looked over my shoulder and saw (Schumacher) wasn't there," he said. "I could hear him all the time."
"There was nothing left in my engine," said Schumacher. “I pushed it as hard as it would go. That's one of the best races I've ever been in. "
"Me, too," said Henley. "I don't think I've ever been in as close a race even when I was racing limiteds. It was a good, clean, fun race."
In the final heat, Schumacher took Weisfield's into a comfortable lead on the first lap and led all the way. Weisfield's only hope for a Cup championship was that Miss U.S. would beat the Pak for second, but Henley held on and finished ahead of D'Eath by a safe margin.
Prior to the Regatta, Pay 'n Pak had won only one out of 10 heat races, but Henley said he felt confident of his chances after taking the boat out for a test run on Friday. "It finally began to handle like it did last year," he said. "Now I think she's back where she was."
There was only one minor mishap during the 4-hour program. In the second heat race, Miss Budweiser sustained considerable sponson damage on the right side when she hit a "low" spot entering the second turn. Driven by Mickey Remund, she went on to win the heat, but was forced to withdraw from the competition. "The crew will have to work night and day for a week just to get her ready for the next race (the Dayton Hydroglobe on July 13)," said Remund.
Final Points Standing: 1.) Pay 'n Pak, George Henley, 1,000; 2.) Weisfield's, Bill Schumacher, 925; 3.) Lincoln Thrift, Milner Irvin, 794; 4.) Miss U.S., Tom D'Eath, 750; 5.) Miss Vernor's, Fred Alter, 625; 6.) Miss Budweiser, Mickey Remund, 400; 7.) Atlas Van Lines, Bill Muncey, 338; 8.) Miss Madison, Jerry Bangs, 300.
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Rest of Fleet Chases Miss Bud, ‘Pride’ Again
By Curt Sylvester
Reprinted from Detroit Free Press, June 30, 1974
Look out George Henley and Howie Benns. They're after you again. It will be Henley in Pride of Pay 'n Pak and Benns in Miss Budweiser against the world again Sunday in the Gar Wood Trophy Race on the Detroit River.
The rest of the 10-hydroplane field will be out to overtake the pace-setters when Detroit's only unlimited hydroplane race of the season gets under way at noon. The final heat is scheduled for approximately 3:40 p.m. The race will be broadcast by WBRB AM (1430) and FM (103). And if this race runs according to form for the first three races of the season, either Henley or Benns will be stepping up to collect the trophy by 4 o'clock.
Pay 'n Pak, with wins in the last two races, holds the point edge for the season with 2,925, just 256 better than Budweiser, which won the season's only other event.
Both boats were among the top speedsters during qualifying last week, but both will be up against factors they have not encountered earlier this season For one thing, the new Miss U.S. finally seems to be in racing form for driver Tom D'Eath, who would enjoy nothing more than winning in front of a hometown crowd on the Detroit River.
For another, veteran Bill Muncey, who is presently fourth in season points, will be back in the top Atlas Van Lines boat (U-71) which needed extensive rebuilding following a mishap earlier in the season.
Then there is the matter of handling the often-difficult Detroit River course and in this race, under the infrequently-used Fan Plan, there is no easy way to victory ... no backing into a title by accumulating points in preliminary heats against weak competition.
Under the Fan Plan, the five fastest qualifiers Pay 'n Pak, Miss U.S., Atlas U-71, Miss Budweiser and Miss Madison will battle it out in two preliminary heats. The top three will advance to the championship final. The five slowest qualifiers Savair's Probe, Atlas U-44, Sunny Jim, Miss Cott and Mr. Fabricator will compete in the other two preliminaries and send their top two into the final event.
The whole race then goes down to that championship heat, with the winner taking home the Gar Wood Trophy … regardless of point totals accumulated in previous heats.
"That's racing," said Henley. "It's good for the fans and it's good for racing. You have to win that last heat. It's not like the other races where you get enough points in the first two heats, then play it safe in the final and still win."
With speed going against speed all afternoon, and with the course shortened and redesigned to eliminate the sharp, Roostertail turn, the race could be a fast one.
Grandstand tickets are still available at the gates for $5. They will be sold at the foot of Parkview, Memorial Park and Waterworks Park, where bleachers have been.
Reprinted from Detroit Free Press, June 30, 1974
Look out George Henley and Howie Benns. They're after you again. It will be Henley in Pride of Pay 'n Pak and Benns in Miss Budweiser against the world again Sunday in the Gar Wood Trophy Race on the Detroit River.
The rest of the 10-hydroplane field will be out to overtake the pace-setters when Detroit's only unlimited hydroplane race of the season gets under way at noon. The final heat is scheduled for approximately 3:40 p.m. The race will be broadcast by WBRB AM (1430) and FM (103). And if this race runs according to form for the first three races of the season, either Henley or Benns will be stepping up to collect the trophy by 4 o'clock.
Pay 'n Pak, with wins in the last two races, holds the point edge for the season with 2,925, just 256 better than Budweiser, which won the season's only other event.
Both boats were among the top speedsters during qualifying last week, but both will be up against factors they have not encountered earlier this season For one thing, the new Miss U.S. finally seems to be in racing form for driver Tom D'Eath, who would enjoy nothing more than winning in front of a hometown crowd on the Detroit River.
For another, veteran Bill Muncey, who is presently fourth in season points, will be back in the top Atlas Van Lines boat (U-71) which needed extensive rebuilding following a mishap earlier in the season.
Then there is the matter of handling the often-difficult Detroit River course and in this race, under the infrequently-used Fan Plan, there is no easy way to victory ... no backing into a title by accumulating points in preliminary heats against weak competition.
Under the Fan Plan, the five fastest qualifiers Pay 'n Pak, Miss U.S., Atlas U-71, Miss Budweiser and Miss Madison will battle it out in two preliminary heats. The top three will advance to the championship final. The five slowest qualifiers Savair's Probe, Atlas U-44, Sunny Jim, Miss Cott and Mr. Fabricator will compete in the other two preliminaries and send their top two into the final event.
The whole race then goes down to that championship heat, with the winner taking home the Gar Wood Trophy … regardless of point totals accumulated in previous heats.
"That's racing," said Henley. "It's good for the fans and it's good for racing. You have to win that last heat. It's not like the other races where you get enough points in the first two heats, then play it safe in the final and still win."
With speed going against speed all afternoon, and with the course shortened and redesigned to eliminate the sharp, Roostertail turn, the race could be a fast one.
Grandstand tickets are still available at the gates for $5. They will be sold at the foot of Parkview, Memorial Park and Waterworks Park, where bleachers have been.
Today on the River
11:30 a.m. Flag-raising ceremonies.
Noon. Flight 1A.
12:30 p.m. Flight IB.
1:00 p.m. Miss America IX vs. Miss Canada IV.
1:30 p.m. Flight 2A.
2:00 p.m. Flight 2B.
2:45 p.m. Schoenherr Memorial Consolation Race.
3:40 p.m. Gar Wood Trophy Race.
The Qualifiers
U-l Pay 'n Pak, George Henley, 133.044
U-2 Miss U.S., Tom D'Eath, 132.352
U-71 Atlas Van Lines, Bill Muncey, 132.352
U-l2 Miss Budweiser, Howie Benns, 129.963
U-8 Miss Madison, Milner Irvin, 118.811
U-50 Savair's Probe, Bob Miller, 116.883
U-44 Atlas Van Lines, Fred Alter, 111.111
U-22 Sunny Jim, Tom Martin, 109.311
U-76 Miss Cott, Roger D'Eath, 109.090
U-3 Mr. Fabricator, Tom Kaufman, 105.571
CU-22, Bob Schroeder, 102.661
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Schumacher Likely to Give Muncey Run for Gold Cup on the Detroit Today
DETROIT, June 24, 1972 — “This course is the roughest and toughest challenge in hydroplane racing,” asserted Bill Schumacher on the eve of tomorrow's $44,000 Gold Cup race.
“It also has the weirdest turns and the crookedest chutes [straightaways], is filled with driftwood and debris, has groundswells coming in from the lake, plus all of our wakes splash waves back at us from the bulkheads along the shore.
“Besides all this, the river current runs into the wind, which creates all kinds of ripples and waves, any one of which can flip your boat and snuff out your life before you know it.”
Despite his protestations of the Detroit River, where nine of the fastest propeller driven boats in the world will vie for the American Power Boat Association's coveted Gold Cup, Schumacher has won the big race twice, in Seattle in 1967 and in Detroit in 1968.
Switching Boats
His vehicle then was Miss Bardahl, the checkered thunderboat now retired. After a year with Parco O-Ring Miss, Schumacher moved to Seattle, got married and signed a contract to drive Dave Heerensperger's Pride of Pay 'n Pak, a revolutionary-designed unlimited named for a chain of West Coast department stores.
Totally unsuccessful at first with the radical pickle fork boat designed by Ron Jones, Schumacher worked with Heerensperger and his crew chief, Jim Lucero, and brought Pay 'n Pak to a point last year where it swept the last three races of the season and finished a close second to Miss Budweiser for the national championship.
This year, only the fabulously successful Bill Muncey, at the helm of two-year-old Atlas Van Lines, has managed to top Schumacher and Pay 'n Pak. And Muncey has won the Gold Cup four times, so he must remain the favorite.
Moves Backfire
Two other Gold Cup winners are competing: Jim McCormick, last year's victor in Miss Madison, and Dean Chenoweth, Miss Budweiser's driver last year. Both drivers have changed boats, however, and both have experienced little luck as a result.
McCormick is driving his own Miss Timex, preferring the dual role of owner-driver, but he has not come close to winning. Chenoweth took on the job of driving Notre Dame, a new Jones-designed boat which has also failed to win.
Why did Chenoweth, a Gold Cup winner, a two-time national champion and a victor in almost every race on the circuit in Miss Budweiser, quit a winning combination?
“I wanted a challenge, I guess,” said the Xenia, Ohio, automobile dealer. “Shirley [Mendelson McDonald, the owner] has been trying to put together a winner for 10 years, and now she's starting in all over again.”
Terry Sterett, one of the two driver sons of former champion Bill Sterett, is now the pilot of Budweiser, whose owners, Bernie Little and Tom Friedkin, seemed to have ignored the maxim, “Don't fool with a winning combination.”
After three years of domination, Budweiser's crew revised the sponsors and hull, but instead of improving her performance, it seemed to make it worse.
“The trouble was we never had proper conditions on the Coast to test those new ideas,” said Bill Sterett, “Now we've got her back to the way she was when I was driving and I think you'll see the difference Sunday.”
Muncey also has the advantage of a second Atlas Van Lines acting as a teammate in the fleet. Muncey drives U‐71 and Tom Sheehy drives U-70, which is the former Myr's Special and Miss Smirnoff and two years older.
“We've instructed Tom to push those other guys as hard as he can even though he doesn't win,” Muncey said.
Other boats and drivers in contention include Pizza Pete, with Bob Gilliam; Lincoln Thrift, a turbocharged boat, with George Henley, and Towne Club, with Fred Alter.
The next Miss Madison turned over and sank yesterday on a test run, thus denying the Gold Cup race a defending champion Her driver, Charlie Dunn, was not hurt seriously.
“It also has the weirdest turns and the crookedest chutes [straightaways], is filled with driftwood and debris, has groundswells coming in from the lake, plus all of our wakes splash waves back at us from the bulkheads along the shore.
“Besides all this, the river current runs into the wind, which creates all kinds of ripples and waves, any one of which can flip your boat and snuff out your life before you know it.”
Despite his protestations of the Detroit River, where nine of the fastest propeller driven boats in the world will vie for the American Power Boat Association's coveted Gold Cup, Schumacher has won the big race twice, in Seattle in 1967 and in Detroit in 1968.
Switching Boats
His vehicle then was Miss Bardahl, the checkered thunderboat now retired. After a year with Parco O-Ring Miss, Schumacher moved to Seattle, got married and signed a contract to drive Dave Heerensperger's Pride of Pay 'n Pak, a revolutionary-designed unlimited named for a chain of West Coast department stores.
Totally unsuccessful at first with the radical pickle fork boat designed by Ron Jones, Schumacher worked with Heerensperger and his crew chief, Jim Lucero, and brought Pay 'n Pak to a point last year where it swept the last three races of the season and finished a close second to Miss Budweiser for the national championship.
This year, only the fabulously successful Bill Muncey, at the helm of two-year-old Atlas Van Lines, has managed to top Schumacher and Pay 'n Pak. And Muncey has won the Gold Cup four times, so he must remain the favorite.
Moves Backfire
Two other Gold Cup winners are competing: Jim McCormick, last year's victor in Miss Madison, and Dean Chenoweth, Miss Budweiser's driver last year. Both drivers have changed boats, however, and both have experienced little luck as a result.
McCormick is driving his own Miss Timex, preferring the dual role of owner-driver, but he has not come close to winning. Chenoweth took on the job of driving Notre Dame, a new Jones-designed boat which has also failed to win.
Why did Chenoweth, a Gold Cup winner, a two-time national champion and a victor in almost every race on the circuit in Miss Budweiser, quit a winning combination?
“I wanted a challenge, I guess,” said the Xenia, Ohio, automobile dealer. “Shirley [Mendelson McDonald, the owner] has been trying to put together a winner for 10 years, and now she's starting in all over again.”
Terry Sterett, one of the two driver sons of former champion Bill Sterett, is now the pilot of Budweiser, whose owners, Bernie Little and Tom Friedkin, seemed to have ignored the maxim, “Don't fool with a winning combination.”
After three years of domination, Budweiser's crew revised the sponsors and hull, but instead of improving her performance, it seemed to make it worse.
“The trouble was we never had proper conditions on the Coast to test those new ideas,” said Bill Sterett, “Now we've got her back to the way she was when I was driving and I think you'll see the difference Sunday.”
Muncey also has the advantage of a second Atlas Van Lines acting as a teammate in the fleet. Muncey drives U‐71 and Tom Sheehy drives U-70, which is the former Myr's Special and Miss Smirnoff and two years older.
“We've instructed Tom to push those other guys as hard as he can even though he doesn't win,” Muncey said.
Other boats and drivers in contention include Pizza Pete, with Bob Gilliam; Lincoln Thrift, a turbocharged boat, with George Henley, and Towne Club, with Fred Alter.
The next Miss Madison turned over and sank yesterday on a test run, thus denying the Gold Cup race a defending champion Her driver, Charlie Dunn, was not hurt seriously.
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Schumacher's Hydro Wins In Seafair Trophy Race
SEATTLE, Aug. 8, 1971 (AP) — Bill Schumacher in Pride of Pay 'N Pak, forced by an accident to twice win a championship heat, raced to a quarter‐lap victory in $30,000 Seafair Trophy unlimited hydroplane race today.
Schumacher had crossed the finish line in the original championship heat seconds after Notre Dame disintegrated in the final lap of the three‐mile Lake Washington course.
Notre Dame driver, Billy Sterett, Jr., was listed in satisfactory condition with facial cuts after a Coast Guard helicopter plucked him, from the water.
Unlimited hydroplane rules specify that the final heat must be rerun if marred by an accident.
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| Seafair Trophy winner Billy Schumacher in the Pride of Pay 'N Pak |
Schumacher had crossed the finish line in the original championship heat seconds after Notre Dame disintegrated in the final lap of the three‐mile Lake Washington course.
Notre Dame driver, Billy Sterett, Jr., was listed in satisfactory condition with facial cuts after a Coast Guard helicopter plucked him, from the water.
Unlimited hydroplane rules specify that the final heat must be rerun if marred by an accident.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Back In Boat After Crash
June 3, 1971 — Billy Schumacher (below) was separated from his hydroplane two week ago in Miami at 150 miles per hour. He's alive and well and today will be back in the boat which nearly cost him his life.
At the season's opener, Schumacher had a close call at the wheel of the Pride of Pay ’n Pak. During the Champion Spark Plug Regatta, on Biscayne Bay at Miami Marine Stadium, the Pak's rudder linkage failed while he was traveling 150 mph, putting the boat into a 360-degree spin directly in front of the stadium. The two-time national driving champion was pitched out of his boat.
"The boat spun all the way around and clipped me on the back of my helmet. I was hospitalized for two weeks and couldn't lift my head," reported Schumacher.
Dean Chenoweth drove the Miss Budweiser to victory.
At the season's opener, Schumacher had a close call at the wheel of the Pride of Pay ’n Pak. During the Champion Spark Plug Regatta, on Biscayne Bay at Miami Marine Stadium, the Pak's rudder linkage failed while he was traveling 150 mph, putting the boat into a 360-degree spin directly in front of the stadium. The two-time national driving champion was pitched out of his boat.
"The boat spun all the way around and clipped me on the back of my helmet. I was hospitalized for two weeks and couldn't lift my head," reported Schumacher.
Dean Chenoweth drove the Miss Budweiser to victory.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Maiden voyager Billy Sterett steers by Muncey to win President's Cup
July 10, 1972, WASHINGTON (AP) - Billy Sterett Jr. of Owensboro, Ky., driving the Seattle-based Pride of Pay 'n Pak for the first time in competition, defeated previously unbeaten Bill Muncey and the Atlas Van Lines yesterday in the President's Cup unlimited hydroplane regatta at Washington, D.C.
Sterett, who just drove the boat for the first time Friday, beat Muncey by only 3½ seconds after securing the lead on the next-to-last turn.
Yesterday's program consisted of two other 15-mile preliminary heats plus the final. Sterett and Muncey, who is from San Diego, Calif., went into the final heat tied with 800 points.
Sterett led the fleet at the start and was first out of the initial turn. Muncey took the lead coming out of the second of the six laps. The two battled bow to bow for the next three laps before Sterett took command.
The next race on the circuit is the Tri-Cities Atomic Cup at Pasco, Wash., July 23.
Pak ended up with 1,200 points to the Detroit-based Atlas Van Lines' 1,100. Third was Miss Budweiser with 825, followed by Pizza Pete with 619.
Sterett and Muncey won the two President's Cup heats contested Saturday. Muncey was seeking his fifth cup victory of the season in the races on the Potomac River. Sterett won the final heat at an average speed of 109.090 mph.
Sterett, who drove the Notre Dame hydro in 1971 but didn't have a driving assignment for the first four races this year, was hired to guide the Pay 'n Pak after veteran Billy Schumacher announced his retirement Friday.
Other point winners in the race were Towne Club of Detroit with 525 and Miss Timex of Owensboro, Ky. with 300.
Despite the setback, Muncey and the Atlas still hold a comfortable lead in the national championship battle, owning 5,800 points to the second-place Pay 'n Pak's 4,925.
Sterett, who just drove the boat for the first time Friday, beat Muncey by only 3½ seconds after securing the lead on the next-to-last turn.
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| The Sterett brothers: Terry (left) and Bill Jr. (right). |
Yesterday's program consisted of two other 15-mile preliminary heats plus the final. Sterett and Muncey, who is from San Diego, Calif., went into the final heat tied with 800 points.
Sterett led the fleet at the start and was first out of the initial turn. Muncey took the lead coming out of the second of the six laps. The two battled bow to bow for the next three laps before Sterett took command.
The next race on the circuit is the Tri-Cities Atomic Cup at Pasco, Wash., July 23.
Pak ended up with 1,200 points to the Detroit-based Atlas Van Lines' 1,100. Third was Miss Budweiser with 825, followed by Pizza Pete with 619.
Sterett and Muncey won the two President's Cup heats contested Saturday. Muncey was seeking his fifth cup victory of the season in the races on the Potomac River. Sterett won the final heat at an average speed of 109.090 mph.
Sterett, who drove the Notre Dame hydro in 1971 but didn't have a driving assignment for the first four races this year, was hired to guide the Pay 'n Pak after veteran Billy Schumacher announced his retirement Friday.
Other point winners in the race were Towne Club of Detroit with 525 and Miss Timex of Owensboro, Ky. with 300.
Despite the setback, Muncey and the Atlas still hold a comfortable lead in the national championship battle, owning 5,800 points to the second-place Pay 'n Pak's 4,925.
About time for Atomic Cup luck, says race winner
By Bill Purcell
Reprinted from Tri-City Herald, July 24, 1972
When it was suggested to Bill Muncey on Sunday afternoon that luck as much as speed decided 1972's Atomic Cup, he had a jovial retort.
"Well, it's about time Bill Muncey had a little luck on the Columbia. I've been trying to win this race for a long time, and I'm real happy we put it all together here."
For the 44-year-old hydroplane jockey with 32 regatta championships to his credit, the $4,500 he pocketed for first place in the Tri-Cities was only part of his winning story. His Atomic Cup victory, the first in seven tries, guaranteed Muncey of the unlimited hydroplane national point championship.
Although Muncey established three Atomic Cup and two world speed records before an estimated 50,000 fans, it is unlikely he would have won the race without Lady Luck interfering.
In the sixth and final lap of the championship heat, Muncey and his Atlas Van Lines were embarrassingly behind by some 13 seconds to favored Billy Sterett Jr. in the Pride of Pay 'n Pak. But, with the heat and the race nearly in the record books, Bob Gilliam was thrown from his hand-me-down boat, Pizza Pete, and the heat had to be restarted.
Forty-five minutes' worth of engine-changing and second-guessing later, Atlas and Pay 'n Pak resumed the fight. But no sooner had the two boats hit the starting line than Pay 'n Pak stopped dead in the water as a result of what the crew later diagnosed as a frozen supercharger.
So, while the Pay 'n Pak floated helplessly downstream in the final heat of a race it had virtually won earlier in the afternoon, Muncey coasted around the 2 1/2-mile course for his fifth victory in six races on the unlimited circuit this year.
Muncey said later that it was not until his second lap that he knew "we were on our way to the bank."
"Going through the corner of the first lap of the rerun, I didn't know he (Sterett) was down. I was wondering to myself on the first backstretch where his boat was, but I said to myself, "I've got a good lead and I'll keep on pushing.'"
In a unprecedented tribute to the racing fans, many of whom, Muncey admitted, weren't exactly rooting for him, the San Diego native toured the course one last time in a victory lap, clapping his hands with glee as he passed the official barge.
Sterett and Pay 'n Pak owner Dave Heerensperger, Kent, were appropriately glum-faced after the race. It was Billy Sterett Sr., however, who offered the most appropriate analysis. He said to Gilliam after the Pizza Pete driver had been safely brought back to shore, "If that happens again, please fly through the air for at least 30 seconds more."
Gilliam was scratched up a bit, but that's all. He finished fifth, behind Muncey, Terry Sterett in Miss Budweiser, Billy Sterett in Pay 'n Pak and defending Atomic Cup champion Jim McCormick in Miss Timex.
Muncey set new records for fastest lap, 115.979 m.p.h. fastest heat, 110.655, and race average, 107.417. The first two records are world as well as Atomic Cup standards.
Atlas and Pay 'n Pak won their respective heats so handily earlier in the afternoon that it was not until their long-awaited confrontation that the sun-drenched throng had much to get excited about.
In the "first" championship heat, Pay 'n Pak beat Atlas to the first buoy, Sterett outmaneuvered Muncey at the upstream turn and led by two seconds at the end of lap one. By the end of lap two, Sterett's lead was 11 seconds, and the issue was apparently decided.
But when Gilliam was tossed out of his boat four laps later, Muncey had his chance.
"It wasn't his (Sterett's) fault and it wasn't mine," said Muncey. "It's a shame this had to happen, but things like this have happened to me many, many, many times in this strange world of unlimited racing."
Reprinted from Tri-City Herald, July 24, 1972
When it was suggested to Bill Muncey on Sunday afternoon that luck as much as speed decided 1972's Atomic Cup, he had a jovial retort.
"Well, it's about time Bill Muncey had a little luck on the Columbia. I've been trying to win this race for a long time, and I'm real happy we put it all together here."
For the 44-year-old hydroplane jockey with 32 regatta championships to his credit, the $4,500 he pocketed for first place in the Tri-Cities was only part of his winning story. His Atomic Cup victory, the first in seven tries, guaranteed Muncey of the unlimited hydroplane national point championship.
Although Muncey established three Atomic Cup and two world speed records before an estimated 50,000 fans, it is unlikely he would have won the race without Lady Luck interfering.
In the sixth and final lap of the championship heat, Muncey and his Atlas Van Lines were embarrassingly behind by some 13 seconds to favored Billy Sterett Jr. in the Pride of Pay 'n Pak. But, with the heat and the race nearly in the record books, Bob Gilliam was thrown from his hand-me-down boat, Pizza Pete, and the heat had to be restarted.
Forty-five minutes' worth of engine-changing and second-guessing later, Atlas and Pay 'n Pak resumed the fight. But no sooner had the two boats hit the starting line than Pay 'n Pak stopped dead in the water as a result of what the crew later diagnosed as a frozen supercharger.
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| Crew chief Jim Lucero, driver Billy Sterett Jr., and owner Dave Heerensperger of the Pride of Pay 'n Pak racing team. |
So, while the Pay 'n Pak floated helplessly downstream in the final heat of a race it had virtually won earlier in the afternoon, Muncey coasted around the 2 1/2-mile course for his fifth victory in six races on the unlimited circuit this year.
Muncey said later that it was not until his second lap that he knew "we were on our way to the bank."
"Going through the corner of the first lap of the rerun, I didn't know he (Sterett) was down. I was wondering to myself on the first backstretch where his boat was, but I said to myself, "I've got a good lead and I'll keep on pushing.'"
In a unprecedented tribute to the racing fans, many of whom, Muncey admitted, weren't exactly rooting for him, the San Diego native toured the course one last time in a victory lap, clapping his hands with glee as he passed the official barge.
Sterett and Pay 'n Pak owner Dave Heerensperger, Kent, were appropriately glum-faced after the race. It was Billy Sterett Sr., however, who offered the most appropriate analysis. He said to Gilliam after the Pizza Pete driver had been safely brought back to shore, "If that happens again, please fly through the air for at least 30 seconds more."
Gilliam was scratched up a bit, but that's all. He finished fifth, behind Muncey, Terry Sterett in Miss Budweiser, Billy Sterett in Pay 'n Pak and defending Atomic Cup champion Jim McCormick in Miss Timex.
Muncey set new records for fastest lap, 115.979 m.p.h. fastest heat, 110.655, and race average, 107.417. The first two records are world as well as Atomic Cup standards.
Atlas and Pay 'n Pak won their respective heats so handily earlier in the afternoon that it was not until their long-awaited confrontation that the sun-drenched throng had much to get excited about.
In the "first" championship heat, Pay 'n Pak beat Atlas to the first buoy, Sterett outmaneuvered Muncey at the upstream turn and led by two seconds at the end of lap one. By the end of lap two, Sterett's lead was 11 seconds, and the issue was apparently decided.
But when Gilliam was tossed out of his boat four laps later, Muncey had his chance.
"It wasn't his (Sterett's) fault and it wasn't mine," said Muncey. "It's a shame this had to happen, but things like this have happened to me many, many, many times in this strange world of unlimited racing."
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Experience Apparently Unnecessary
July 29, 1977, KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) - Ron Armstrong of Lakewood. Calif., who has never won an unlimited hydroplane race, will pilot Pay 'n Pak. the winningest hydro in the sport. The 36-year-old Armstrong was named Wednesday by Dave Heerensperger of the Pak camp after conferring with Bill Muncey. who actually owns the boat, and crew chief Jim Lucero.
"I think Ron will do us a real good job." Heerensperger said. "He's very well thought of by the limited racing people. You know, nobody had heard much of Mickey Remund or George Henley before they drove the Pak. and he's got about the same kind of background. "And he never did have the top equipment when he was driving an unlimited."
The hull has 21 career victories. 16 as the Pak and five as Atlas Van Lines. It accounted for four straight national titles in 1973 through 1976.
Armstrong is a nationally prominent five and seven-litre driver. He was pitched out of the cockpit of the Seattle-based Value-Mart in his first race in Miami in 1974 and was involved in the unusual seven-boat final heat only six boats are legal on the course of the 1974 Tri-Cities races.
Armstrong drove the Valu-Mart in 1974 and his best performance was a third in the World Championship race at Tri-Cities.
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| Ron Armstrong in the Pay 'n Pak. Photo by Bill Osborne. |
"I think Ron will do us a real good job." Heerensperger said. "He's very well thought of by the limited racing people. You know, nobody had heard much of Mickey Remund or George Henley before they drove the Pak. and he's got about the same kind of background. "And he never did have the top equipment when he was driving an unlimited."
The hull has 21 career victories. 16 as the Pak and five as Atlas Van Lines. It accounted for four straight national titles in 1973 through 1976.
Armstrong is a nationally prominent five and seven-litre driver. He was pitched out of the cockpit of the Seattle-based Value-Mart in his first race in Miami in 1974 and was involved in the unusual seven-boat final heat only six boats are legal on the course of the 1974 Tri-Cities races.
Armstrong drove the Valu-Mart in 1974 and his best performance was a third in the World Championship race at Tri-Cities.
Winged Pay ‘n Pak Sets Record in Regatta Victory
July 9, 1973, MADISON, Ind. (UPI) - The winged Pay 'n Pak dominated the field Sunday to win the Indiana Governor's Cup for unlimited hydroplanes. The $25,000 cup race is the main prize at the two-day Madison Regatta on the Ohio River.
An estimated 100,000 spectators lined the Indiana and Kentucky shorelines to watch the event in sunny, 90-degree weather.
Pay 'n Pak, driven by Mickey Remund, Palm Desert, Calif., roared to a record 104.106 miles per hour to finish one-half lap ahead of Miss Budweiser in second place.
The two "thunderboats" were tied entering the 15-mile finale after each picked up a pair of heat victories. Miss Budweiser was driven by Dean Chenoweth, Xenia, Ohio. Third in the five-boat final was Lincoln Thrift, followed in fourth by Redman and in fifth by Mr. Fabricator.
Pay 'n Pak accumulated 1,200 points for the afternoon with Budweiser getting 1,100. Lincoln Thrift had 675, Redman 525 and Mr. Fabricator 469.
At the start of the last race, it appeared the final heat would be a head-to-head showdown between Pay 'n Pak and Budweiser. Chenoweth took the lead at the gun but Remund brought his boat alongside as the two battled the entire first lap.
But Miss Budweiser stalled on the second lap and Pay 'n Pak shot into the lead for good. The Budweiser driver said after the race that his boat was having carburetor problems and the engine was getting too much fuel.
Remund also had a difficult time. In the final heat when two of the three spokes on his steering wheel broke. The first broke prior to the race and the second on the backstretch of the first lap.
"When we ran that first lap almost side by side, the steering thing was all I could think about," he said. "If I'd lost control, I would have crashed into him since he was right beside me."
Despite performing well in qualifications, Miss Madison had her problems, finishing fifth in the first heat and third in the second and did not make the final race of the day. Sentimental favorite and community-owned Miss Madison was sixth with 352 points earned in heat races.
Gale's Roostertail was seventh with 300. Valu-Mart and Atlas Van Lines competed, but failed to score.
Atlas was the defending Regatta champ and the No. 1 boat in the American Power Boat Association races last season. But driver Bill Muncey, San Diego, Calif., experienced mechanical problems all week and his craft went dead in the water while leading a preliminary heat.
Pay 'n Pak passed Muncey and Atlas en route to a record 106.888 winning average in that heat.
Mechanical problems plagued many of the other boats in the nine craft event, but there were no accidents or sinkings.
Earlier in the week Pay 'n Pak, the first "thunderboat" to utilize the stabilizer wing, roared to a qualifying record on the 2½-mile Ohio River course. Remund posted a 115.908 clocking Thursday.
An estimated 100,000 spectators lined the Indiana and Kentucky shorelines to watch the event in sunny, 90-degree weather.
Pay 'n Pak, driven by Mickey Remund, Palm Desert, Calif., roared to a record 104.106 miles per hour to finish one-half lap ahead of Miss Budweiser in second place.
The two "thunderboats" were tied entering the 15-mile finale after each picked up a pair of heat victories. Miss Budweiser was driven by Dean Chenoweth, Xenia, Ohio. Third in the five-boat final was Lincoln Thrift, followed in fourth by Redman and in fifth by Mr. Fabricator.
Pay 'n Pak accumulated 1,200 points for the afternoon with Budweiser getting 1,100. Lincoln Thrift had 675, Redman 525 and Mr. Fabricator 469.
At the start of the last race, it appeared the final heat would be a head-to-head showdown between Pay 'n Pak and Budweiser. Chenoweth took the lead at the gun but Remund brought his boat alongside as the two battled the entire first lap.
But Miss Budweiser stalled on the second lap and Pay 'n Pak shot into the lead for good. The Budweiser driver said after the race that his boat was having carburetor problems and the engine was getting too much fuel.
Remund also had a difficult time. In the final heat when two of the three spokes on his steering wheel broke. The first broke prior to the race and the second on the backstretch of the first lap.
"When we ran that first lap almost side by side, the steering thing was all I could think about," he said. "If I'd lost control, I would have crashed into him since he was right beside me."
Despite performing well in qualifications, Miss Madison had her problems, finishing fifth in the first heat and third in the second and did not make the final race of the day. Sentimental favorite and community-owned Miss Madison was sixth with 352 points earned in heat races.
Gale's Roostertail was seventh with 300. Valu-Mart and Atlas Van Lines competed, but failed to score.
Atlas was the defending Regatta champ and the No. 1 boat in the American Power Boat Association races last season. But driver Bill Muncey, San Diego, Calif., experienced mechanical problems all week and his craft went dead in the water while leading a preliminary heat.
Pay 'n Pak passed Muncey and Atlas en route to a record 106.888 winning average in that heat.
Mechanical problems plagued many of the other boats in the nine craft event, but there were no accidents or sinkings.
Earlier in the week Pay 'n Pak, the first "thunderboat" to utilize the stabilizer wing, roared to a qualifying record on the 2½-mile Ohio River course. Remund posted a 115.908 clocking Thursday.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Hottest Boats
Reprinted from Popular Mechanics, May 1979
Fastest racers on water, the unlimited hydroplanes may take a leap into jet-age performance and speeds next year when David Heerensperger returns to racing. His Pay 'n Pak was the winningest of thunderboats until he retired his team two years ago. Now his famous former crew chief, Jim Lucero, designer-builder of the league-leading Atlas Van Lines, is creating a new Pay 'n Pak for next year. Front spoiler and rear stabilizer wing are expected to improve handling and performance.
But the power may be the real breakthrough. Sue Spunnoble, of the Unlimited Racing Commission, reports that clearance has been granted for the use of turbine engines, Instead of the customary Rolls-Royce aircraft mills that pushed rooster-tailers of the past, modified helicopter turbines should provide more thrust while making engine changes easier and reducing maintenance costs.
What speeds are possible? Fifty-year-old Bill Muncey, last year's champion driver again, tells us his Lucero Atlas can go well over the 200-mph official world record right now, Bernie Little's new Miss Budweiser might try turbine power, and Muncey reports he is considering ordering and driving a Lucero-turbine machine if his present winning steed slows down. A brand-new unlimited league with race-boat speeds up to 250 knots may be emerging.
Fastest racers on water, the unlimited hydroplanes may take a leap into jet-age performance and speeds next year when David Heerensperger returns to racing. His Pay 'n Pak was the winningest of thunderboats until he retired his team two years ago. Now his famous former crew chief, Jim Lucero, designer-builder of the league-leading Atlas Van Lines, is creating a new Pay 'n Pak for next year. Front spoiler and rear stabilizer wing are expected to improve handling and performance.
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| A first for unlimited competition, next year's Pay 'n Pak will have turbine power. |
But the power may be the real breakthrough. Sue Spunnoble, of the Unlimited Racing Commission, reports that clearance has been granted for the use of turbine engines, Instead of the customary Rolls-Royce aircraft mills that pushed rooster-tailers of the past, modified helicopter turbines should provide more thrust while making engine changes easier and reducing maintenance costs.
What speeds are possible? Fifty-year-old Bill Muncey, last year's champion driver again, tells us his Lucero Atlas can go well over the 200-mph official world record right now, Bernie Little's new Miss Budweiser might try turbine power, and Muncey reports he is considering ordering and driving a Lucero-turbine machine if his present winning steed slows down. A brand-new unlimited league with race-boat speeds up to 250 knots may be emerging.
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Pak Breaks; Bud Wins Gold Cup
Reprinted from Pay 'n Pak Racing News, Volume V, Issue 2
The sun streaked, wind dappled Gold Cup course at the Tri-Cities on the Columbia was the elation of victory and the frustration of defeat for the Pride of Pay 'n Pak.
In front of over 80,000 sun burned spectators Mickey Remund, who had qualified the Pride of Pay 'n Pak at 124.310 mph on Thursday, drove her to three straight heat victories Sunday and to a great 7 second lead in lap 2 of the final Gold Cup heat, but then it happened.
As the Pak, apparently hitting something or breaking a prop, tore a hole in the bottom of the boat.
Dean Chenoweth in the Budweiser (last year's Pride of Pay 'n Pak) drove on by and to final victory. But not until he had held off 2 screaming challenges by veteran Bill Muncey in last year's champion boat, Atlas Van Lines.
After setting the qualifying record (earlier in the week) the Pak and Mickey Remund set a new Gold Cup lap and heat record in easily winning heat 1A. Budweiser can back to beat that record in heat 3A in a head-to-head duel with Atlas Van Lines. Budweiser bested the record by only 24/1000th of a mph (110.929 over 110.909).
In a torrid final heat Pay 'n Pak broke the one lap record on a 2½ mile Gold Cup course with a streaking 119.691 and the "white machine" was on its way to a new heat record when she faltered in a shower of spray went dead in the water.
At the start of the final Gold Cup heat (with a perfect 3 for 3 record and 1200 points) the Pak had a slim lead in lane 2 as the thunderboats hit the line with Budweiser just to the outside and Pizza Pete in the No. 1 inside lane.
Remund came out of the first turn in front and by the second turn had built up a six or seven second lead. In the process he smashed the Gold Cup single lap record (119.691 mph).
By then Budweiser was second, Atlas Van Lines third and Pizza Pete and Notre Dame battling for 4th.
Dean Chenoweth in the Bud leaped in front as Remund and the Pak went dead in the water and never lost the lead. Muncey and the Atlas made a real challenge midway in the heat and closed within three seconds on the third lap but finally pulled off.
The eventual victory boosted Budweiser into the national points leading by a very slim 100 points. The see-saw battle for points lead saw Pak over Bud by 200 points coming into the Gold Cup.
The outcome recalled the Pasco Atomic Cup race of 1972 when the Pride of Pay 'n Pak had apparently had it all won and just as she crossed the finish line Bob Gilliam was tossed out of Pizza Pete and the final heat had to be rerun. In the rerun... (well in the lead) the Pak blew an engine and had to be towed back to the pits.
Mickey Remund - Good Sportsman!
When the Pride of Pay 'n Pak went dead in the water in the second lap of the final heat of the Gold Cup Sunday and Mickey Remund realized his boat was sinking he had the perfect right to jump in the water, stop the race and force a rerun.
But, accessing the damage properly, he stayed aboard and frantically waved off the rescue boats allowing the race to finish.
As the final checkered flag was flashed for Budweiser the Pak's "wing" was already under water. It was close!
Was it worth the risk? Mickey thought so, as he put it on KORD radio, "I believe we'd stay up long enough to finish the race, I would hate to be the one to stop the race 'cause something even worse could have happened in the rerun."
The fact that Mickey had a hole in his boat that couldn't have been fixed for a restart and the fact that he didn't sink entirely before the course closed and help got to him doesn't take too much away from Mick. When you're responsible for such a valuable piece of property any such decision has to be hard to make. As Mickey put it, "If it looked like we'd lose the boat I'd have been wet in a second and I knew the referee and judges were watching closely and had the flair guns in their hands."
"After all we want to get 'em at Seafair."
The sun streaked, wind dappled Gold Cup course at the Tri-Cities on the Columbia was the elation of victory and the frustration of defeat for the Pride of Pay 'n Pak.
In front of over 80,000 sun burned spectators Mickey Remund, who had qualified the Pride of Pay 'n Pak at 124.310 mph on Thursday, drove her to three straight heat victories Sunday and to a great 7 second lead in lap 2 of the final Gold Cup heat, but then it happened.
As the Pak, apparently hitting something or breaking a prop, tore a hole in the bottom of the boat.
Dean Chenoweth in the Budweiser (last year's Pride of Pay 'n Pak) drove on by and to final victory. But not until he had held off 2 screaming challenges by veteran Bill Muncey in last year's champion boat, Atlas Van Lines.
After setting the qualifying record (earlier in the week) the Pak and Mickey Remund set a new Gold Cup lap and heat record in easily winning heat 1A. Budweiser can back to beat that record in heat 3A in a head-to-head duel with Atlas Van Lines. Budweiser bested the record by only 24/1000th of a mph (110.929 over 110.909).
In a torrid final heat Pay 'n Pak broke the one lap record on a 2½ mile Gold Cup course with a streaking 119.691 and the "white machine" was on its way to a new heat record when she faltered in a shower of spray went dead in the water.
At the start of the final Gold Cup heat (with a perfect 3 for 3 record and 1200 points) the Pak had a slim lead in lane 2 as the thunderboats hit the line with Budweiser just to the outside and Pizza Pete in the No. 1 inside lane.
Remund came out of the first turn in front and by the second turn had built up a six or seven second lead. In the process he smashed the Gold Cup single lap record (119.691 mph).
By then Budweiser was second, Atlas Van Lines third and Pizza Pete and Notre Dame battling for 4th.
Dean Chenoweth in the Bud leaped in front as Remund and the Pak went dead in the water and never lost the lead. Muncey and the Atlas made a real challenge midway in the heat and closed within three seconds on the third lap but finally pulled off.
The eventual victory boosted Budweiser into the national points leading by a very slim 100 points. The see-saw battle for points lead saw Pak over Bud by 200 points coming into the Gold Cup.
The outcome recalled the Pasco Atomic Cup race of 1972 when the Pride of Pay 'n Pak had apparently had it all won and just as she crossed the finish line Bob Gilliam was tossed out of Pizza Pete and the final heat had to be rerun. In the rerun... (well in the lead) the Pak blew an engine and had to be towed back to the pits.
Mickey Remund - Good Sportsman!
When the Pride of Pay 'n Pak went dead in the water in the second lap of the final heat of the Gold Cup Sunday and Mickey Remund realized his boat was sinking he had the perfect right to jump in the water, stop the race and force a rerun.
But, accessing the damage properly, he stayed aboard and frantically waved off the rescue boats allowing the race to finish.
As the final checkered flag was flashed for Budweiser the Pak's "wing" was already under water. It was close!
Was it worth the risk? Mickey thought so, as he put it on KORD radio, "I believe we'd stay up long enough to finish the race, I would hate to be the one to stop the race 'cause something even worse could have happened in the rerun."
The fact that Mickey had a hole in his boat that couldn't have been fixed for a restart and the fact that he didn't sink entirely before the course closed and help got to him doesn't take too much away from Mick. When you're responsible for such a valuable piece of property any such decision has to be hard to make. As Mickey put it, "If it looked like we'd lose the boat I'd have been wet in a second and I knew the referee and judges were watching closely and had the flair guns in their hands."
"After all we want to get 'em at Seafair."
Saturday, November 12, 2016
The Winged Wonder: Hydroplanes Sprout Wings
Reprinted from Unlimited NewsJournal, October 2016
The Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent, Washington, has restored several hydroplanes that played a significant role in the history of the sport. Recently, for example, the museum restored Bill Muncey’s “Blue Blaster” Atlas Van Lines. Now, the volunteers at the museum are nearing the end of another important project: the restoration of the Pay ‘n Pak, which was built in 1973 and would win four straight national titles. The boat was also significant for introducing the sport to the horizontal stabilizer, a component that is now standard on all boats. NewsJournal Editor Andy Muntz has written a book about the history of the sport titled “At the Ragged Edge.” Below is an excerpt from Chapter 27 of that book.
Stanley S. Sayres Memorial Park is a peaceful place most of the year. An asphalt peninsula built in 1957 on the western shore of Lake Washington about a mile and a quarter south of the Interstate 90 floating bridge, the park provides a gentle ramp for launching small boats, 14 low wooden piers on the north and east sides, and plenty of parking for cars and trailers. It is a perfect spot for sockeye fishermen and water skiers to begin their fun. It’s also a quiet place where one can sit on the wooden piers, hear the rippling waves lap against the pilings, and watch a family of ducks swim by.
But, during the first week in August, the place becomes the nerve center for unlimited hydroplane racing. The calm is replaced by the sounds of fun and excitement: the clatter of helicopters overhead, the din of thousands of race fans, the throaty rumble of monster hydroplane engines being tested, and the buzz of electric generators. Chain link fencing is placed on the pavement to corral the huge crowds and tall scaffolding towers are erected for the television cameras. Trucks and motor homes are scattered about, vendors hawk Seafair pins and programs, and the place smells of grease and cotton candy.
Sometimes the serenity of Stan Sayres Park also is disrupted at other times of the year, especially during the spring. As each new hydroplane racing campaign draws nearer, it becomes a favorite spot for race teams to see if the boat performed better with the sponson changes they made over the winter, or if the new driver could get comfortable with the boat’s handling. It also is a place where new boats are launched—where beauty queens smash a bottle of champagne across the bow and where owners, designers, and crew members watch anxiously as their new hydroplane rumbles into action for the first time.
The tranquility of Stan Sayres Park was interrupted for just such an occasion on the afternoon of April 9, 1973, when a crowd of hydroplane groupies and reporters gathered near the familiar wooden piers to witness the christening of a hydroplane that promised to introduce the latest in boat technology: a glistening white craft named Pay ‘n Pak.
The new boat was the latest in a string of hydroplanes campaigned by Dave Heerensperger, a man with an easy grin, a receded hairline, large dark-framed eyeglasses, and a sometimes abrasive demand for perfection.
The story of Heerensperger’s involvement in unlimited hydroplane racing began in early 1963 as an act of civic charity when the community organizers who campaigned Miss Spokane issued a plea for sponsorship money so they could keep their effort going. The owner of a small chain of electrical supply stores in the Spokane area, Heerensperger saw this as an opportunity to advertise his business, gave the group $5,000, and asked that the boat be renamed Miss Eagle Electric.
After spending another $28,000 over the next two years, more than his business was worth at the time, and having little to show for the investment, he decided he couldn’t afford to stay involved. Yet, the racing bug had bit.
Less than two years later, toward the end of the 1967 season, Heerensperger purchased the old $Bill, a boat that had competed since 1962 with no race victories to its credit—even despite having drivers such as Bill Muncey, Rex Manchester, and Bill Schumacher in its cockpit—and put a hard charging former Air Force fighter jet pilot named Warner Gardner behind the wheel. Suddenly, he had a winner.
Gardner, who over the past few years had used his heavy foot to coax race victories out of marginal boats such as Mariner Too and Miss Lapeer, drove Eagle Electric to victory in the 1968 season opener in Guntersville, Alabama, and added wins at the Atomic Cup and the President’s Cup before heading to the Gold Cup in Detroit. There, during the final heat, Gardner gave chase to Bill Sterett in Miss Budweiser heading into the hairpin turn at the upstream end of the course and, when he cranked the steering wheel to the left, Eagle Electric pitched into its right side, rolled over, and landed upside down in a blast of spray. Gardner was pulled from the water with severe head injuries and died in the hospital the next day.
Gardner’s death hit Heerensperger particularly hard because he had already started talking to Les Staudacher about plans for a radical hull that promised to solve the stability problems that plagued the sport. Before this new boat took to the water, however, Heerensperger had become the president of a new chain of stores that resulted from the merger of his Eagle Electric stores with the Buzzard, Falcon, and Pay ‘n Pak store chains. It meant that his new boat would carry the name Pride of Pay ‘n Pak.
For all the hoopla it attracted, the new hydroplane may have been one of the most disappointing boats of its era. It was essentially a trimaran outrigger, with the cockpit and the engine set in a narrow section of hull and with its sponsons several feet to either side, attached by two beams. “She looked like a South Seas war canoe bobbing on the choppy river,” wrote Pete Waldmeir of the Detroit News. “You keep expecting a dozen guys with spears to come pouring out of the fuselage.”
The team could have used those warriors and especially their paddles. Except for a third place finish in the Tri-Cities, the boat did terribly. Driver Tommy Fults said, “it was like driving your car with the emergency brake on.” Others were less kind, suggesting that the best way to solve the boat’s problems would be to drill holes in it and let it sink. The team pulled the boat from the circuit before the 1969 season ended.
Never one to shy away from the edge, Heerensperger’s next venture was every bit as risky, but much more successful. He contacted Ron Jones and convinced him to design a new Pride of Pay ‘n Pak that would feature the most cutting-edge innovations. The boat not only had the driver sitting in front of the engine, but also was powered by a pair of Chrysler Hemi automotive engines.
The new boat had been troublesome during the 1970 season. Its two engines seemed to go lame regularly and were expensive to maintain, leaving the crew so busy just keeping the engines alive that they didn’t have time to address its serious handling problems. Consequently, when the season ended, Heerensperger decided to dump the Chryslers and go back to the tried and true Rolls Royce Merlin.
Led by their talented crew chief, Jim Lucero, who had joined the organization midway through the 1970 season, the team made the switch during the following winter. In order to keep the hull’s balance intact, they also were forced to abandon the cabover cockpit and move the driver’s seat behind the engine.
The change did wonders. Pride of Pay ‘n Pak won the last three races of the 1971 season with Bill Schumacher at the wheel and, with Schumacher and Billy Sterett, Jr. sharing driving duties in 1972, took runner-up honors in the national standings.
Meanwhile, Bernie Little’s three-time national champion, Karelsen-designed Budweiser had begun to show its age, managing only two second-place finishes that year, so Little made a deal. The day after the season’s final race, he announced that he had purchased the Pride of Pay ‘n Pak from Dave Heerensperger for $30,000.
Heerensperger was willing to part with the boat because he already had plans for a new hydroplane. Months earlier, he had asked Ron Jones to design and build a new Pay ‘n Pak that would be even better than the “Pride.” Jones did just that, producing a boat that would stun the hydro-racing world and become one of the most successful race boats in history.
A few details about the new Pay ‘n Pak began to emerge from Ron Jones’ Costa Mesa, California, shop while the thing was still under construction early in 1973. A press release said that it would be “new and revolutionary” and that it would look deceptively like Heerensperger’s previous boat, but much stronger and with other changes, such as aerodynamic cowlings. The biggest innovation was under the decking, though. Reports said the entire structure had been built with a strong but lightweight material called Hexcel, a sort of aluminum sandwich with thin sheets of the metal on the top and the bottom and a core made of aluminum set on-edge in a honeycomb pattern.
Soon it came time for the boat’s christening, which interrupted the calm at the Stanley S. Sayres Memorial Park on that sunny Monday afternoon in early April 1973. At their first sight of the boat, the crowd that had gathered for the occasion saw that it had a wedge shape, an effect created by the aerodynamic cowling that seemed to enclose the cockpit more than usual. The color scheme also was eye-catching, brilliant white decks with the name “Pay ‘nN Pak” painted in large orange and black letters.
What really caught their eye, though, was something that hadn’t been discussed in the accounts of the boat’s construction: a wing. Standing about five feet above the deck and resting atop two vertical tails was a horizontal stabilizer, a four-foot wide slab of honeycomb plastic and epoxy that was as long as the transom was wide.
According to crew chief Jim Lucero, who played a significant role in the design, the wing had two purposes: to give the rear end of the boat some lift and to be a safety device, to help give the hull better directional stability and control. It also grabbed attention. Fans argued over the merits of the wing. Would it cause the boat to become airborne? Would it come off when the boat hit high speed or ran into a large swell? It was just the kind of debate the sponsor side of Heerensperger dreamed about.
During a boat’s first season, especially a boat as innovative as Pay ‘n Pak, there typically is a period of fine-tuning. The crew will try different props, shift the weight around a little, and make small changes to the sponsons in an effort to get its ride just right. So, while the Pay ‘n Pak team and the boat’s driver, Mickey Remund, worked on these things in 1973, their old boat, now painted Budweiser gold, red, and white and with Dean Chenoweth back in the team’s cockpit, played the role of chief nemesis—always there and always a threat.
Remund and Chenoweth were locked in a struggle throughout the 1973 campaign. The Pay ‘n Pak won the first race it entered, the Champion Spark Plug Regatta in Miami, then Chenoweth took his turn at the winner’s circle by winning in both Owensboro, Kentucky, and at Detroit. Remund was never far behind, though. He finished second behind Chenoweth at Detroit then the two switched positions as Remund won and Chenoweth placed second in Madison, Indiana.
Perhaps the best battle of the year took place during a gray and drizzly Seafair World Championship Trophy race on Lake Washington, when Chenoweth and Remund raced side-by-side for three heats. Their duel then continued through the remaining two races of the season and in the end, when all the points were tallied, Pay ‘n Pak came out on top by a mere 275 points, giving Dave Heerensperger his first national championship. Although the points race had been close, the record book was one-sided in favor of the new hydro. During the year, Pay ‘n Pak had shattered 26 of 29 existing speed records.
There is something of a pack mentality among the unlimited race teams. If somebody builds a hydroplane that is superior to the others, there will be an immediate rush of orders for boats of its same ilk. During the winter of 1973-74, Jones received orders for four new hydroplanes to be made of lightweight Hexcel and to feature a horizontal stabilizer just like Pay ‘n Pak. The wing had already become standard equipment.
In the years that followed, the Winged Wonder would win another national title in 1974 with George Henley behind the wheel and another the following year with Henley and Jim McCormick sharing the driving duties. Then, Heerensperger pulled off another stunning deal, this time selling his entire team to Bill Muncey. In 1976, the boat won its fourth straight national title, this time with the name Atlas Van Lines painted on its hull.
In 1977, while Muncey raced his new boat, the Blue Blaster, the boat appeared in the two Pacific Northwest races as the Pay ‘n Pak, but was showing its age. The sponsons came apart twice. It was then was sold to the City of Madison, Indiana, the following winter and spent the next 11 seasons as either the Miss Madison or carrying the names of various sponsors, such as Dr. Toyota, Frank Kenney Toyota/Volvo, American Speedy Printing, Miss Ching Group, and Holset/Miss Madison. Sitting in the driver’s seat were people such as Jon Peddie, E. Milner Irvin, Tom Sheehy, Andy Coker, and Jerry Hopp.
The boat’s only race victory during this time was the 1983 season-opener, the Missouri Governor’s Cup in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. There, Ron Snyder, the man who may have logged the most time in the boat’s cockpit, drove Rich Plan Foodservice to victory in the final heat, largely because the Budweiser failed to start and the Atlas Van Lines was dead in the water with battery woes. The boat’s last appearance came at the 1988 Miller High Life Thunderboat Classic in Syracuse, NY. with Ron Snyder at the controls.
The Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent, Washington, has restored several hydroplanes that played a significant role in the history of the sport. Recently, for example, the museum restored Bill Muncey’s “Blue Blaster” Atlas Van Lines. Now, the volunteers at the museum are nearing the end of another important project: the restoration of the Pay ‘n Pak, which was built in 1973 and would win four straight national titles. The boat was also significant for introducing the sport to the horizontal stabilizer, a component that is now standard on all boats. NewsJournal Editor Andy Muntz has written a book about the history of the sport titled “At the Ragged Edge.” Below is an excerpt from Chapter 27 of that book.
Stanley S. Sayres Memorial Park is a peaceful place most of the year. An asphalt peninsula built in 1957 on the western shore of Lake Washington about a mile and a quarter south of the Interstate 90 floating bridge, the park provides a gentle ramp for launching small boats, 14 low wooden piers on the north and east sides, and plenty of parking for cars and trailers. It is a perfect spot for sockeye fishermen and water skiers to begin their fun. It’s also a quiet place where one can sit on the wooden piers, hear the rippling waves lap against the pilings, and watch a family of ducks swim by.
But, during the first week in August, the place becomes the nerve center for unlimited hydroplane racing. The calm is replaced by the sounds of fun and excitement: the clatter of helicopters overhead, the din of thousands of race fans, the throaty rumble of monster hydroplane engines being tested, and the buzz of electric generators. Chain link fencing is placed on the pavement to corral the huge crowds and tall scaffolding towers are erected for the television cameras. Trucks and motor homes are scattered about, vendors hawk Seafair pins and programs, and the place smells of grease and cotton candy.
Sometimes the serenity of Stan Sayres Park also is disrupted at other times of the year, especially during the spring. As each new hydroplane racing campaign draws nearer, it becomes a favorite spot for race teams to see if the boat performed better with the sponson changes they made over the winter, or if the new driver could get comfortable with the boat’s handling. It also is a place where new boats are launched—where beauty queens smash a bottle of champagne across the bow and where owners, designers, and crew members watch anxiously as their new hydroplane rumbles into action for the first time.
The tranquility of Stan Sayres Park was interrupted for just such an occasion on the afternoon of April 9, 1973, when a crowd of hydroplane groupies and reporters gathered near the familiar wooden piers to witness the christening of a hydroplane that promised to introduce the latest in boat technology: a glistening white craft named Pay ‘n Pak.
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| Owner Dave Heerensperger, driver Mickey Remund, and crew chief Jim Lucero. |
The new boat was the latest in a string of hydroplanes campaigned by Dave Heerensperger, a man with an easy grin, a receded hairline, large dark-framed eyeglasses, and a sometimes abrasive demand for perfection.
The story of Heerensperger’s involvement in unlimited hydroplane racing began in early 1963 as an act of civic charity when the community organizers who campaigned Miss Spokane issued a plea for sponsorship money so they could keep their effort going. The owner of a small chain of electrical supply stores in the Spokane area, Heerensperger saw this as an opportunity to advertise his business, gave the group $5,000, and asked that the boat be renamed Miss Eagle Electric.
After spending another $28,000 over the next two years, more than his business was worth at the time, and having little to show for the investment, he decided he couldn’t afford to stay involved. Yet, the racing bug had bit.
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| Dave Heerensperger |
Less than two years later, toward the end of the 1967 season, Heerensperger purchased the old $Bill, a boat that had competed since 1962 with no race victories to its credit—even despite having drivers such as Bill Muncey, Rex Manchester, and Bill Schumacher in its cockpit—and put a hard charging former Air Force fighter jet pilot named Warner Gardner behind the wheel. Suddenly, he had a winner.
Gardner, who over the past few years had used his heavy foot to coax race victories out of marginal boats such as Mariner Too and Miss Lapeer, drove Eagle Electric to victory in the 1968 season opener in Guntersville, Alabama, and added wins at the Atomic Cup and the President’s Cup before heading to the Gold Cup in Detroit. There, during the final heat, Gardner gave chase to Bill Sterett in Miss Budweiser heading into the hairpin turn at the upstream end of the course and, when he cranked the steering wheel to the left, Eagle Electric pitched into its right side, rolled over, and landed upside down in a blast of spray. Gardner was pulled from the water with severe head injuries and died in the hospital the next day.
Gardner’s death hit Heerensperger particularly hard because he had already started talking to Les Staudacher about plans for a radical hull that promised to solve the stability problems that plagued the sport. Before this new boat took to the water, however, Heerensperger had become the president of a new chain of stores that resulted from the merger of his Eagle Electric stores with the Buzzard, Falcon, and Pay ‘n Pak store chains. It meant that his new boat would carry the name Pride of Pay ‘n Pak.
For all the hoopla it attracted, the new hydroplane may have been one of the most disappointing boats of its era. It was essentially a trimaran outrigger, with the cockpit and the engine set in a narrow section of hull and with its sponsons several feet to either side, attached by two beams. “She looked like a South Seas war canoe bobbing on the choppy river,” wrote Pete Waldmeir of the Detroit News. “You keep expecting a dozen guys with spears to come pouring out of the fuselage.”
 |
| 1969 Pride of Pay 'n Pak |
The team could have used those warriors and especially their paddles. Except for a third place finish in the Tri-Cities, the boat did terribly. Driver Tommy Fults said, “it was like driving your car with the emergency brake on.” Others were less kind, suggesting that the best way to solve the boat’s problems would be to drill holes in it and let it sink. The team pulled the boat from the circuit before the 1969 season ended.
Never one to shy away from the edge, Heerensperger’s next venture was every bit as risky, but much more successful. He contacted Ron Jones and convinced him to design a new Pride of Pay ‘n Pak that would feature the most cutting-edge innovations. The boat not only had the driver sitting in front of the engine, but also was powered by a pair of Chrysler Hemi automotive engines.
The new boat had been troublesome during the 1970 season. Its two engines seemed to go lame regularly and were expensive to maintain, leaving the crew so busy just keeping the engines alive that they didn’t have time to address its serious handling problems. Consequently, when the season ended, Heerensperger decided to dump the Chryslers and go back to the tried and true Rolls Royce Merlin.
Led by their talented crew chief, Jim Lucero, who had joined the organization midway through the 1970 season, the team made the switch during the following winter. In order to keep the hull’s balance intact, they also were forced to abandon the cabover cockpit and move the driver’s seat behind the engine.
The change did wonders. Pride of Pay ‘n Pak won the last three races of the 1971 season with Bill Schumacher at the wheel and, with Schumacher and Billy Sterett, Jr. sharing driving duties in 1972, took runner-up honors in the national standings.
 |
| 1971 Pride of Pay 'n Pak |
Meanwhile, Bernie Little’s three-time national champion, Karelsen-designed Budweiser had begun to show its age, managing only two second-place finishes that year, so Little made a deal. The day after the season’s final race, he announced that he had purchased the Pride of Pay ‘n Pak from Dave Heerensperger for $30,000.
Heerensperger was willing to part with the boat because he already had plans for a new hydroplane. Months earlier, he had asked Ron Jones to design and build a new Pay ‘n Pak that would be even better than the “Pride.” Jones did just that, producing a boat that would stun the hydro-racing world and become one of the most successful race boats in history.
A few details about the new Pay ‘n Pak began to emerge from Ron Jones’ Costa Mesa, California, shop while the thing was still under construction early in 1973. A press release said that it would be “new and revolutionary” and that it would look deceptively like Heerensperger’s previous boat, but much stronger and with other changes, such as aerodynamic cowlings. The biggest innovation was under the decking, though. Reports said the entire structure had been built with a strong but lightweight material called Hexcel, a sort of aluminum sandwich with thin sheets of the metal on the top and the bottom and a core made of aluminum set on-edge in a honeycomb pattern.
Soon it came time for the boat’s christening, which interrupted the calm at the Stanley S. Sayres Memorial Park on that sunny Monday afternoon in early April 1973. At their first sight of the boat, the crowd that had gathered for the occasion saw that it had a wedge shape, an effect created by the aerodynamic cowling that seemed to enclose the cockpit more than usual. The color scheme also was eye-catching, brilliant white decks with the name “Pay ‘nN Pak” painted in large orange and black letters.
What really caught their eye, though, was something that hadn’t been discussed in the accounts of the boat’s construction: a wing. Standing about five feet above the deck and resting atop two vertical tails was a horizontal stabilizer, a four-foot wide slab of honeycomb plastic and epoxy that was as long as the transom was wide.
 |
| 1973 Pay 'n Pak |
According to crew chief Jim Lucero, who played a significant role in the design, the wing had two purposes: to give the rear end of the boat some lift and to be a safety device, to help give the hull better directional stability and control. It also grabbed attention. Fans argued over the merits of the wing. Would it cause the boat to become airborne? Would it come off when the boat hit high speed or ran into a large swell? It was just the kind of debate the sponsor side of Heerensperger dreamed about.
During a boat’s first season, especially a boat as innovative as Pay ‘n Pak, there typically is a period of fine-tuning. The crew will try different props, shift the weight around a little, and make small changes to the sponsons in an effort to get its ride just right. So, while the Pay ‘n Pak team and the boat’s driver, Mickey Remund, worked on these things in 1973, their old boat, now painted Budweiser gold, red, and white and with Dean Chenoweth back in the team’s cockpit, played the role of chief nemesis—always there and always a threat.
Remund and Chenoweth were locked in a struggle throughout the 1973 campaign. The Pay ‘n Pak won the first race it entered, the Champion Spark Plug Regatta in Miami, then Chenoweth took his turn at the winner’s circle by winning in both Owensboro, Kentucky, and at Detroit. Remund was never far behind, though. He finished second behind Chenoweth at Detroit then the two switched positions as Remund won and Chenoweth placed second in Madison, Indiana.
Perhaps the best battle of the year took place during a gray and drizzly Seafair World Championship Trophy race on Lake Washington, when Chenoweth and Remund raced side-by-side for three heats. Their duel then continued through the remaining two races of the season and in the end, when all the points were tallied, Pay ‘n Pak came out on top by a mere 275 points, giving Dave Heerensperger his first national championship. Although the points race had been close, the record book was one-sided in favor of the new hydro. During the year, Pay ‘n Pak had shattered 26 of 29 existing speed records.
There is something of a pack mentality among the unlimited race teams. If somebody builds a hydroplane that is superior to the others, there will be an immediate rush of orders for boats of its same ilk. During the winter of 1973-74, Jones received orders for four new hydroplanes to be made of lightweight Hexcel and to feature a horizontal stabilizer just like Pay ‘n Pak. The wing had already become standard equipment.
Postscript
In the years that followed, the Winged Wonder would win another national title in 1974 with George Henley behind the wheel and another the following year with Henley and Jim McCormick sharing the driving duties. Then, Heerensperger pulled off another stunning deal, this time selling his entire team to Bill Muncey. In 1976, the boat won its fourth straight national title, this time with the name Atlas Van Lines painted on its hull.
In 1977, while Muncey raced his new boat, the Blue Blaster, the boat appeared in the two Pacific Northwest races as the Pay ‘n Pak, but was showing its age. The sponsons came apart twice. It was then was sold to the City of Madison, Indiana, the following winter and spent the next 11 seasons as either the Miss Madison or carrying the names of various sponsors, such as Dr. Toyota, Frank Kenney Toyota/Volvo, American Speedy Printing, Miss Ching Group, and Holset/Miss Madison. Sitting in the driver’s seat were people such as Jon Peddie, E. Milner Irvin, Tom Sheehy, Andy Coker, and Jerry Hopp.
The boat’s only race victory during this time was the 1983 season-opener, the Missouri Governor’s Cup in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. There, Ron Snyder, the man who may have logged the most time in the boat’s cockpit, drove Rich Plan Foodservice to victory in the final heat, largely because the Budweiser failed to start and the Atlas Van Lines was dead in the water with battery woes. The boat’s last appearance came at the 1988 Miller High Life Thunderboat Classic in Syracuse, NY. with Ron Snyder at the controls.
A conversation with Jim Lucero
By Chris Tracy
Reprinted from Unlimited NewsJournal, March 2016
Some people are living legends in the sport of unlimited hydroplane racing. Jim Lucero is certainly part of that group. His achievements as a crew chief for teams such as Pay ’n Pak, Atlas Van Lines and Winston Eagle, resulted in him being inducted into the Hydroplane Hall of Fame in 1980.
The Royal Order of the Turbine (ROTT) club invited Lucero to share some of his unlimited hydroplane memories at its ROTT West meeting in January. In accepting the invitation, Lucero noted that he’d be happy to speak as “the sport has been very good to him.”
Jim Lucero had both successful theater and parking lot businesses in Seattle, so how did this University of Washington engineering alumni get into the hydroplane business? He admits that he was always fascinated by hydroplane racing, dating back to when he was a kid in 1955, but his dad did not share that enthusiasm.
His first hydroplane gig in 1965 was the result of luck. He visited the Notre Dame shop with a friend who interviewed for a crew job. But his friend did not get back to the Notre Dame folks. They called Lucero and asked him if he wanted to work for them, mainly cleaning parts. At first he thought he’d work days on the Notre Dame and attend to his parking lot business at night, but he was invited to go the circuit.
One of his first experiences was to drive the Notre Dame truck, trailer and boat to Tampa, Florida for the race. Lucero had no experience whatsoever as a truck driver and the trip to Tampa proved to be death defying! He could not always keep the truck and trailer in one lane when he went down hills and sometimes the truck was in one lane and the trailer (and boat) crossing into the other lane. Sometimes going down hills the trailer and boat pushed the truck!
And it got worse in Louisiana, as a spring in the third axle broke. Without replacement parts, they continued to Tampa with the trailer sometimes swaying from one side of the road to the other. In Tampa, he learned that the new trailer had one axle placed too far forward and that resulted in not enough tongue weight. Lucero recalled a couple of near-miss accidents on that trip to Tampa.
Lucero recalled the trip from Tampa to Washington, D.C. and the deaths of three drivers at that race; one can tell that that experience still shakes him. In retrospect, he recalls that in those days the engine power was ahead of the boat aerodynamics. Boats were a handful and drivers were “brave.”
Generally, he believes, the team with the best boat won races. Boat work was relegated to the off- season and the work during the season was almost fully concentrated on engines and maybe a little on props. This was primarily true as the piston engines required so much work during the race season. Early in his career, he decided that model needed to change. Quite simply, making the boat better during the season needed to be also a priority, as this could improve both performance and safety.
As Lucero’s career progressed to other teams, he credits much of his racing success from getting talented help, often for free, from experts at Boeing and Lockheed who helped the programs he managed as the crew chief. The expert help was especially important in material technology and they contributed smarter construction techniques, innovation and improved aerodynamics. But he was quick to remind those attending that Dave Heerensperger was the force behind the rear wing.
Expert help, along with Lucero’s careful attention to budget, were instrumental in the winning of his teams, often with a smaller budget than teams such as Budweiser. He was quick to add that they filmed their runs, starting with Super 8mm and then video. Lucero especially liked to review 8mm film as he could go through it frame by frame.
After the deaths of his friends Bill Muncey and Dean Chenoweth in racing accidents, he sat down with Chip Hanauer and said he had to help fix safety issues or get out of the sport. Even before the enclosed cockpit, he fought with APBA over the concept of belting the driver in, as he thought most drivers that had died racing could have walked away if they were belted in. He noted that the APBA fought him on this and drivers that were belted in had to sign an APBA waiver.
Lucero is proud that he helped get the ball rolling on cockpit safety, which later moved to enclosed cockpits. He remarked that now we expect drivers to walk away from crashes and noted that safety changes have filtered down to the other boat racing classes. Over the years, Lucero credits Ron Jones, the Budweiser team, and the teams he worked with for improving driver safety.
So how did Lucero get interested in turbines? Dave Heerensperger pushed using turbines and sent him to turbine school in Connecticut. The advantage of turbines is that they require much less maintenance than piston engines, so teams can spend more time on the boat and less on the power plant at races. As he puts it, “the power source needed to stay in the boat” during races. Turbine power allows a competitive team to run a season with two or three engines. Lucero believes that there are turbines available for at least 10 more years, although he notes that part prices have increased recently.
Lucero gave his opinions on questions asked:
Did he work for some memorable commissioners? Lucero quickly pointed out that the commissioner job is not an easy one. “None really have had a lot of capital to work with.” He gave the impression that Bill Doner was a favorite.
Does he have a favorite memory? His teams won three President Cups and he was able to meet two presidents as a result. He met both Presidents Nixon and Ford. He especially enjoyed talking with President Ford and described him as a regular guy. Lucero noted that his team did not meet President Carter for their third President’s Cup, as Bill Muncey was a devoted Republican and declined a meeting with Democrat Carter.
Who was the best driver to work with? None of the drivers he worked with were engineering types, but many had “good seat of their pants” skill that helped them to be in sync with his boat design, including Mark Tate, Bill Muncey, Chip Hanauer and George Henley. “They could drive the boat hard, but would not hurt the boat.”
What were you thinking with the narrow lobster boat? The goal behind that boat was stability and aerodynamics. It would have taken a lot of time to work through that design and improve it. Like most owners, his owner Steve Woomer wanted to win and did not want to take the time to see this design concept through. Lucero noted that this kind of design has been successful in other classes.
Do you see a rebound in the sport? There is lots of work to be done and he is not sure of the future. It will take money to promote the sport. Lucero noted, “Motorsports are probably all in trouble.”
Reprinted from Unlimited NewsJournal, March 2016
Some people are living legends in the sport of unlimited hydroplane racing. Jim Lucero is certainly part of that group. His achievements as a crew chief for teams such as Pay ’n Pak, Atlas Van Lines and Winston Eagle, resulted in him being inducted into the Hydroplane Hall of Fame in 1980.
 |
| Crew Chief Jim Lucero and driver John Walters of the U-25 Pay 'n Pak. |
The Royal Order of the Turbine (ROTT) club invited Lucero to share some of his unlimited hydroplane memories at its ROTT West meeting in January. In accepting the invitation, Lucero noted that he’d be happy to speak as “the sport has been very good to him.”
Jim Lucero had both successful theater and parking lot businesses in Seattle, so how did this University of Washington engineering alumni get into the hydroplane business? He admits that he was always fascinated by hydroplane racing, dating back to when he was a kid in 1955, but his dad did not share that enthusiasm.
His first hydroplane gig in 1965 was the result of luck. He visited the Notre Dame shop with a friend who interviewed for a crew job. But his friend did not get back to the Notre Dame folks. They called Lucero and asked him if he wanted to work for them, mainly cleaning parts. At first he thought he’d work days on the Notre Dame and attend to his parking lot business at night, but he was invited to go the circuit.
One of his first experiences was to drive the Notre Dame truck, trailer and boat to Tampa, Florida for the race. Lucero had no experience whatsoever as a truck driver and the trip to Tampa proved to be death defying! He could not always keep the truck and trailer in one lane when he went down hills and sometimes the truck was in one lane and the trailer (and boat) crossing into the other lane. Sometimes going down hills the trailer and boat pushed the truck!
And it got worse in Louisiana, as a spring in the third axle broke. Without replacement parts, they continued to Tampa with the trailer sometimes swaying from one side of the road to the other. In Tampa, he learned that the new trailer had one axle placed too far forward and that resulted in not enough tongue weight. Lucero recalled a couple of near-miss accidents on that trip to Tampa.
Lucero recalled the trip from Tampa to Washington, D.C. and the deaths of three drivers at that race; one can tell that that experience still shakes him. In retrospect, he recalls that in those days the engine power was ahead of the boat aerodynamics. Boats were a handful and drivers were “brave.”
Generally, he believes, the team with the best boat won races. Boat work was relegated to the off- season and the work during the season was almost fully concentrated on engines and maybe a little on props. This was primarily true as the piston engines required so much work during the race season. Early in his career, he decided that model needed to change. Quite simply, making the boat better during the season needed to be also a priority, as this could improve both performance and safety.
As Lucero’s career progressed to other teams, he credits much of his racing success from getting talented help, often for free, from experts at Boeing and Lockheed who helped the programs he managed as the crew chief. The expert help was especially important in material technology and they contributed smarter construction techniques, innovation and improved aerodynamics. But he was quick to remind those attending that Dave Heerensperger was the force behind the rear wing.
Expert help, along with Lucero’s careful attention to budget, were instrumental in the winning of his teams, often with a smaller budget than teams such as Budweiser. He was quick to add that they filmed their runs, starting with Super 8mm and then video. Lucero especially liked to review 8mm film as he could go through it frame by frame.
After the deaths of his friends Bill Muncey and Dean Chenoweth in racing accidents, he sat down with Chip Hanauer and said he had to help fix safety issues or get out of the sport. Even before the enclosed cockpit, he fought with APBA over the concept of belting the driver in, as he thought most drivers that had died racing could have walked away if they were belted in. He noted that the APBA fought him on this and drivers that were belted in had to sign an APBA waiver.
Lucero is proud that he helped get the ball rolling on cockpit safety, which later moved to enclosed cockpits. He remarked that now we expect drivers to walk away from crashes and noted that safety changes have filtered down to the other boat racing classes. Over the years, Lucero credits Ron Jones, the Budweiser team, and the teams he worked with for improving driver safety.
So how did Lucero get interested in turbines? Dave Heerensperger pushed using turbines and sent him to turbine school in Connecticut. The advantage of turbines is that they require much less maintenance than piston engines, so teams can spend more time on the boat and less on the power plant at races. As he puts it, “the power source needed to stay in the boat” during races. Turbine power allows a competitive team to run a season with two or three engines. Lucero believes that there are turbines available for at least 10 more years, although he notes that part prices have increased recently.
Lucero gave his opinions on questions asked:
Did he work for some memorable commissioners? Lucero quickly pointed out that the commissioner job is not an easy one. “None really have had a lot of capital to work with.” He gave the impression that Bill Doner was a favorite.
Does he have a favorite memory? His teams won three President Cups and he was able to meet two presidents as a result. He met both Presidents Nixon and Ford. He especially enjoyed talking with President Ford and described him as a regular guy. Lucero noted that his team did not meet President Carter for their third President’s Cup, as Bill Muncey was a devoted Republican and declined a meeting with Democrat Carter.
Who was the best driver to work with? None of the drivers he worked with were engineering types, but many had “good seat of their pants” skill that helped them to be in sync with his boat design, including Mark Tate, Bill Muncey, Chip Hanauer and George Henley. “They could drive the boat hard, but would not hurt the boat.”
What were you thinking with the narrow lobster boat? The goal behind that boat was stability and aerodynamics. It would have taken a lot of time to work through that design and improve it. Like most owners, his owner Steve Woomer wanted to win and did not want to take the time to see this design concept through. Lucero noted that this kind of design has been successful in other classes.
Do you see a rebound in the sport? There is lots of work to be done and he is not sure of the future. It will take money to promote the sport. Lucero noted, “Motorsports are probably all in trouble.”
Stabilizer may not help Pay 'n Pak
PASCO, Wash., July 21, 1973 (AP) - Mickey Remund, driver of the baddest boat on the unlimited hydroplane circuit, says he's not sure the Pay 'n Pak's unique stabilizer has contributed to its success this year.
The eight-foot-long wing-like bar is mounted over the tail of the Seattle based Pay 'n Pak, current national point leader, in an attempt to provide a smoother ride for the hard-charging boat that reaches speeds of 160 miles an hour in the straight-aways.
Remund and the Pak - a new boat this year - are the favorites for Sunday's Gold Cup Regatta on the Columbia River.
"It's a good conversation piece," Remund said in an interview Friday. "It may not be helping us at all. We don't know. We think it is.
"When the season's over, we hope to take the stabilizer off and try the boat without it, just to see what happens."
Remund made clear that he thinks the boat runs smoother because of the stabilizer. It's just that he's not sure if it runs faster.
The Pak leads the list of 10 thunderboats that qualified for Sunday's race as of Friday night. Remund, of Palm Desert, Calif., averaged 124.310 m.p.h. for two qualifying laps this week - a new Gold Cup and course record.
The next closest qualifier is the Atlas Van Lines of Detroit, driven by Bill Muncey, at 116.863 for two laps.
The other eight qualifiers as of Friday night were Pizza Pete of Seattle; Miss Budweiser of Lakeland, Fla.; Lincoln Thrift of Phoenix, Ariz.; Miss Madison of Madison, Ind.; Shakey's Special of Seattle; Valu Mart U16 of Seattle; Notre Dame of Seattle, and Mr. Fabricator of Carrollton, Ohio.
Three other boats were in the pits Friday but failed to qualify. They will get another chance Saturday. They are Miss U.S. of Detroit, the Valu Mart U21, and Murphy's Marina of Seattle.
Two other boats, both named Red Man in honor of the chewing tobacco that sponsors them, are reportedly en route to the Gold Cup site. Their appearance would bring the field to 15, the largest Gold Cup fleet since 1967, long time hydro enthusiasts say.
The eight-foot-long wing-like bar is mounted over the tail of the Seattle based Pay 'n Pak, current national point leader, in an attempt to provide a smoother ride for the hard-charging boat that reaches speeds of 160 miles an hour in the straight-aways.
Remund and the Pak - a new boat this year - are the favorites for Sunday's Gold Cup Regatta on the Columbia River.
"It's a good conversation piece," Remund said in an interview Friday. "It may not be helping us at all. We don't know. We think it is.
"When the season's over, we hope to take the stabilizer off and try the boat without it, just to see what happens."
Remund made clear that he thinks the boat runs smoother because of the stabilizer. It's just that he's not sure if it runs faster.
The Pak leads the list of 10 thunderboats that qualified for Sunday's race as of Friday night. Remund, of Palm Desert, Calif., averaged 124.310 m.p.h. for two qualifying laps this week - a new Gold Cup and course record.
The next closest qualifier is the Atlas Van Lines of Detroit, driven by Bill Muncey, at 116.863 for two laps.
The other eight qualifiers as of Friday night were Pizza Pete of Seattle; Miss Budweiser of Lakeland, Fla.; Lincoln Thrift of Phoenix, Ariz.; Miss Madison of Madison, Ind.; Shakey's Special of Seattle; Valu Mart U16 of Seattle; Notre Dame of Seattle, and Mr. Fabricator of Carrollton, Ohio.
Three other boats were in the pits Friday but failed to qualify. They will get another chance Saturday. They are Miss U.S. of Detroit, the Valu Mart U21, and Murphy's Marina of Seattle.
Two other boats, both named Red Man in honor of the chewing tobacco that sponsors them, are reportedly en route to the Gold Cup site. Their appearance would bring the field to 15, the largest Gold Cup fleet since 1967, long time hydro enthusiasts say.
This Wasn't in the Manual
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| STUNNED SPECTATORS gape at the astonishing sight of an unlimited hydroplane stern-over-bow through the air above the Columbia River Sunday. The radically new Pay 'n Pak was seriously damaged and rookie driver John Walters was hospitalized. Walters is upset about the speculation that rookie mistakes caused the accident. (Tri-City Herald, July 28, 1980) |
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Pay ‘n Pak Victor
MADISON, Ind., July 8, 1973 (AP) —Mickey Remund, driving Pay ‘n Pak, won the 26th annual Madison Regatta for unlimited hydroplanes today.
The 34‐year‐old driver from Palm Desert, Calif., out-dueled Miss Budweiser, driven by Dean Chenoweth of Xenia, Ohio, in the final 15‐mile heat to win the 22d Indiana Governor's Cup.
More than 90,000 spectators lined the Indiana and Kentucky banks of the Ohio River in 90‐degree heat and watched as Pay ‘n Pak retained its lead in the American Power Boat Association standing.
Both Pay ‘n Pak and Miss Budweiser easily won a pair of preliminary races and went into the championship run tied with 800 points. The two thunderboats had run side by side for the 1½ laps of the six‐lap final before Miss Budweiser momentarily lost power in the downstream turn of the second lap and fell behind for good.
It was the second victory of the season for Pay ‘n Pak and snapped Miss Budweiser's string of victories at two.
Pay ‘n Pak's final margin was half a lap. Lincoln Thrift was third with a rookie, Danny Walls of Bellevue, Ky., at the controls. The other two boats in the final heat—Red Man, driven by Jim McCormick of Owensboro, Ky., and Mr. Fabricator, driven by a rookie, Tom Kaufman of Carrollton, Ohio, suffered engine problems and failed to finish.
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| Mickey Remund pilots the Pay 'n Pak to victory at Madison. |
The 34‐year‐old driver from Palm Desert, Calif., out-dueled Miss Budweiser, driven by Dean Chenoweth of Xenia, Ohio, in the final 15‐mile heat to win the 22d Indiana Governor's Cup.
More than 90,000 spectators lined the Indiana and Kentucky banks of the Ohio River in 90‐degree heat and watched as Pay ‘n Pak retained its lead in the American Power Boat Association standing.
Both Pay ‘n Pak and Miss Budweiser easily won a pair of preliminary races and went into the championship run tied with 800 points. The two thunderboats had run side by side for the 1½ laps of the six‐lap final before Miss Budweiser momentarily lost power in the downstream turn of the second lap and fell behind for good.
It was the second victory of the season for Pay ‘n Pak and snapped Miss Budweiser's string of victories at two.
Pay ‘n Pak's final margin was half a lap. Lincoln Thrift was third with a rookie, Danny Walls of Bellevue, Ky., at the controls. The other two boats in the final heat—Red Man, driven by Jim McCormick of Owensboro, Ky., and Mr. Fabricator, driven by a rookie, Tom Kaufman of Carrollton, Ohio, suffered engine problems and failed to finish.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Challengers ready for 1982 unlimited hydroplane season
MIAMI, Fla., June 5, 1982 (UPI) - The 1982 unlimited hydroplane racing season opens Sunday and defending champion Dean Chenoweth may get a strong challenge.
John Walters and his Pay 'n Pak have turned in record times for the sharply turned course at Miami Marine Stadium in qualifying during the week. But he agrees Chenoweth and his Miss Budweiser should still be favored in the 11th annual Champion Spark Plug Regatta.
In all, nine boats are entered in the thunderboats' first stop on the 10-race circuit. They will be competing for $75,000 in prize money.
For the first time, the new fan plan will be used Sunday. Competition will be divided into two flights with flight No. 1 including the fastest boats and No. 2 the slowest boats.
Each flight will run two heats at the end of which the top three boats from the fastest flight and the fastest boat from the slow flight will qualify for the final heat. The final will follow a consolation heat.
Walters said he had no idea he was setting a record when he averaged 124.48 mph for the 1⅔-mile course.
'"The speedometer only read 140, 145 mph on the straights and the boat went round the corners so easily that I thought I was only averaging about 112 or 115."
Chenoweth had set the old record last year. When he heard of Walters' time, he grinned and said, "He's going to have to do that in competition."
"There's a difference between doing it (in practice) and doing it in a race," he said.
He got no argument from Walters.
"I wouldn't feel comfortable if I had 20 mph on Miss Budweiser. They never give up and Dean has a lot of time in the cockpit," he said.
Sunday will mark the first race for the new Atlas Van Lines. The old Atlas was destroyed in the tragic accident last year in Mexico which took the life of Bill Muncey. It is owned by Muncey's wife, Fran.
John Walters and his Pay 'n Pak have turned in record times for the sharply turned course at Miami Marine Stadium in qualifying during the week. But he agrees Chenoweth and his Miss Budweiser should still be favored in the 11th annual Champion Spark Plug Regatta.
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| Walters and the Pay 'n Pak. |
In all, nine boats are entered in the thunderboats' first stop on the 10-race circuit. They will be competing for $75,000 in prize money.
For the first time, the new fan plan will be used Sunday. Competition will be divided into two flights with flight No. 1 including the fastest boats and No. 2 the slowest boats.
Each flight will run two heats at the end of which the top three boats from the fastest flight and the fastest boat from the slow flight will qualify for the final heat. The final will follow a consolation heat.
Walters said he had no idea he was setting a record when he averaged 124.48 mph for the 1⅔-mile course.
'"The speedometer only read 140, 145 mph on the straights and the boat went round the corners so easily that I thought I was only averaging about 112 or 115."
Chenoweth had set the old record last year. When he heard of Walters' time, he grinned and said, "He's going to have to do that in competition."
"There's a difference between doing it (in practice) and doing it in a race," he said.
He got no argument from Walters.
"I wouldn't feel comfortable if I had 20 mph on Miss Budweiser. They never give up and Dean has a lot of time in the cockpit," he said.
Sunday will mark the first race for the new Atlas Van Lines. The old Atlas was destroyed in the tragic accident last year in Mexico which took the life of Bill Muncey. It is owned by Muncey's wife, Fran.
Costly gash in boat bags Pay 'n Pak Cup chances
By Tommy George, Free Press Sports Writer
Reprinted from Detroit Free Press, June 28, 1982
John Walters with his turbine-powered hydro Pay 'n Pak had high hopes of claiming his first Gold Cup Sunday. He had good reason to be optimistic. After all, Walters had driven Pay 'n Pak to an impressive victory earlier this month on Lake Seneca in New York, beating a field that included the queen of unlimited hydroplanes, Miss Budweiser.
But Walters didn't get a shot at the coveted trophy Sunday. He was out of the race before it began. During an early qualifying heat, his orange, black and white boat, designed by Pay 'n Pak crew chief Jim Lucero, was damaged when the rough waters of the Detroit River course and a hard turn combined to open a two-foot hole in the front of the left sponson. "I was on my first turn just before the start when I saw that damage was done," Walters said. "I came down hard on the nose; I thought I could finish, but I knew that every lap it would get worse and worse."
He did finish the five-lap heat, placing second behind eventual Gold Cup winner Chip Hanauer and his Atlas Van Lines boat. Walters' average speed was 115.669 m.p.h.; his fastest lap was 121.649 m.p.h. But the damage was too severe to be repaired in time for the next heat. Walters and Pay 'n Pak had to withdraw.
"When you try to do a hurry-up repair job for this kind of course and race, you're asking for trouble," Walters said. He said his crew will take about six weeks to repair the boat and "make other modifications, including repair work on some engines."
Sunday, he had to watch the race from an unfamiliar and uncomfortable place; the river bank. "I knew that if we got through the preliminaries without boat damage, we'd be very competitive," Walters said. "There's no way to tell now, but I feel comfortable saying we'd have been competitive. Everybody on the crew has worked extremely hard to get where we are now. It's frustrating. This basically eliminates us from any chance at the national championship. Realizing that kind of shocks you."
Reprinted from Detroit Free Press, June 28, 1982
John Walters with his turbine-powered hydro Pay 'n Pak had high hopes of claiming his first Gold Cup Sunday. He had good reason to be optimistic. After all, Walters had driven Pay 'n Pak to an impressive victory earlier this month on Lake Seneca in New York, beating a field that included the queen of unlimited hydroplanes, Miss Budweiser.
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| John Walters with his turbine-powered hydro Pay 'n Pak. |
But Walters didn't get a shot at the coveted trophy Sunday. He was out of the race before it began. During an early qualifying heat, his orange, black and white boat, designed by Pay 'n Pak crew chief Jim Lucero, was damaged when the rough waters of the Detroit River course and a hard turn combined to open a two-foot hole in the front of the left sponson. "I was on my first turn just before the start when I saw that damage was done," Walters said. "I came down hard on the nose; I thought I could finish, but I knew that every lap it would get worse and worse."
He did finish the five-lap heat, placing second behind eventual Gold Cup winner Chip Hanauer and his Atlas Van Lines boat. Walters' average speed was 115.669 m.p.h.; his fastest lap was 121.649 m.p.h. But the damage was too severe to be repaired in time for the next heat. Walters and Pay 'n Pak had to withdraw.
"When you try to do a hurry-up repair job for this kind of course and race, you're asking for trouble," Walters said. He said his crew will take about six weeks to repair the boat and "make other modifications, including repair work on some engines."
Sunday, he had to watch the race from an unfamiliar and uncomfortable place; the river bank. "I knew that if we got through the preliminaries without boat damage, we'd be very competitive," Walters said. "There's no way to tell now, but I feel comfortable saying we'd have been competitive. Everybody on the crew has worked extremely hard to get where we are now. It's frustrating. This basically eliminates us from any chance at the national championship. Realizing that kind of shocks you."
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Thunderboats -- The Craft They Call Unlimited
Shaped like a shingle, but powered by a herd of 3000 horses on top, this fastest of racing boats is in a class by itself.
By John Crouse
Reprinted from Popular Mechanics, June, 1976
Officially, they are unlimited-class hydroplane racing boats. There may be 30 in existence, with half that number ready to take the water this summer. To their hundreds of thousands of fans, they are unlimited hydros, thunderboats, gold cuppers or just unlimited - the fastest racing machines afloat.
They do have a few limitations, but the money an owner can spend to try to win is not one of them. The American Power Boat Association (APBA) rule book states that todays three-point unlimited hydroplane must be at least 28 feet long and can be powered by any inboard-mounted engine, which in turn can be naturally aspirated, supercharged, turbocharged, or turbine. No matter what the power source, it must be transmitted in the water by a propeller or screw, and steering has to be by means of one or more submerged rudders. Competition is held on a two-and-a-half or three-mile oval course. This effectively eliminates the jet-powered rockets that can approach 400 mph in a straight line but count never compete the first turn. Airfoil adjustments that could be made by the driver during a race are not allowed. Part of the skill in designing and driving an unlimited, in fact, is to keep from turning it into an airplane - and the disaster that follows.
The APBA rule says nothing about building a 50-footer with five engines, but added size and machinery can increase weight and lose in the trade-off for more speed, although tandem multi-engine installations have been tried. Competitors can make as many engine changes between heats as time will allow, however, and the rule means that backer can pour unlimited cash into the sport.
Earlier this spring, the Unlimited Racing Commission announced that the sport's most successful driver, Bill Muncey, had acquired Dave Heerensperger's fabled Pay 'n Pak, the most successful boat in unlimited racing history. Included in the package deal were some 30 World War II vintage Rolls-Royce aircraft engines, which pop for $10,000 and up each, if you can find them. Muncey will campaign at least one of the three Pay 'n Pak hulls this season under the Atlas Van Lines colors. He is a vice-president for the worldwide moving company, but reportedly made a six-figure deal with Heerensperger personally.
The start of something big
The first recored unlimited powerboat race took place at Queenstown, Ireland, in 1903 - and was won by a woman! Dorothy Levitt drove the 35-foot Napier displacement hull with a 75-hp Napier engine at a sizzling 19.35 mph to beat out a French entry to win the first British International Trophy race. In 1959, Roy Duby would drive George Simon's Rolls-powered Miss U.S. through the traps at Guntersville, Ala., at 200.419 mph - a mark that still stands today. The British International Trophy later took on the name of Harmsworth, a source of fierce rivalry between the United States, England, Canada, and France until its hibernation in 1962.
The "Grey Fox of Greyhaven," the late Gar Wood, dominated the 25 years the Harmsworth trophy was awarded, winning eight times as driver and eight more as owner with his noted Miss America hulls. England took it five times, Canada three, and France once. Wood, the wiry little inventor of the dump truck who may have held more patents than anyone at the time of this death shook up the water-speed world in 1932. In that year, he drove Miss America X, a 38-foot mahogany beauty powered by 4 12-cylinder Packard aircraft engines with a combined horsepower of 7600, over a measured course at 124.915 mph, while her four engines suck in five gallons of gasoline per minute.
Today's class of unlimiteds began after World War II when a surplus of aircraft engines became available. Big machines and big moneyed owners entered competition, and some race results were taken to court as hard-fighting tycoons tried to bend the rules. The present Unlimited Racing Commission was launched in 1958 when a brash young driver from Detroit, 26-year-old J. Lee Schoenith, told the venerable APBA that the sport seemed to be getting out of hand and needed its own special organization. Schoenith became the first racing commissioner for the big boats, and with is his own Gale unlimiteds, won three national championships along the way. Under his guidance, the Unlimited Commission has pioneered such safety requirements as mandatory medical checkups for each driver the morning before each race, fireproof clothing, kill switches and other regulations that keep drivers alive in a sport filled with inherit dangers.
Accidents happen
Even so, the big boats have their bad days. At the 1966 President's Cup race on the Potomac at Washington D.C, expert drivers Ron Musson, Rex Manchester and Don Wilson were killed in two accidents, followed by Chuck Thompson in a Detroit race one week later.
Recent races have been gratifyingly accident-free, while speed, maneuvering control and reliability of the big roostertailers keep inching up. As of last year, the most successful for winning in this fastest-boat league has been to have someone like Ron Jones design you a pickle-fork hull with a supercharged 3000-hp World War II Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in it, the kind that sent British Spitfires and American P-51s chasing after German Messerschmitts. But now you will need two more major parts: a nitrous oxide tank and injector to squirt an additional 300 horses into the engine when you want to get out of a turn in front of another boat. And you need a near-genius crew chief, who rivals most the top driver as the most important ingredient of the sport.
Pay 'n Pak's crew chief Jim Lucero, who reportedly went along with the boat and engines to Atlas Van Lines in the Bill Muncey deal, practices alls sorts of magic to keep the big mills humming and the hulls intact. To win, the thunderboats are often pushed beyond their red-line points by means of exotic fuel blends (such as 10 percent nitromethane and 90 percent methanol), plus spurts of nitrous oxide (laughing gas). They must also contend with the hazards of high-speed collisions with other boats, cocoanuts, sea cows and floating beer cans that are as rock reef when hit at high velocity. Latest Jim Lucero creation is a new cab-over hydro, previewed here, which the circuit expects may be the boat to beat this coming season. If she tests out according to designer Lucero's expectations, Bill Muncey will drive her.
World record holder
Other designers and power sources are represented on the unlimited courses. Two year ago, a turbine-powered hull, Pamala Clapp's U-95, make the scene but sank after setting a new U.S. course record. Some racers feel that the U.S.-made turbocharged Allison aircraft engine, which flew in P-40 Warhawks, may have a stronger block and better low-end and medium-range torque. So far, however, no one has been able to make it hang together long enough to beat the likes of Pay 'n Pak, Miss Budweiser or Weisfield's (now Olympia Beer). Pak's world record of 16 wins tops the 14 formally posted by Muncey in Miss Thriftway. Now the fans are waiting to see what Bill Muncey can do with the current Pak and the new Lucero cab-over, both campaigning under the blue-and-white Atlas colors.
The post war boom in thunderboats started when 30 new hulls were built and the circuit went nationwide in 1947. Designer Ted Jones introduced his surface-riding prop in 1950 on his famous design, Slo-mo-shun IV, first to have the propeller lift the hull enough so it ran on three points - the two sponsons and the lower half of the propeller. Owner Stan Sayres took the through the traps on Seattle's Lake Washington at the then incredible speed of 160.323 mph, 21 mph faster than the Indy "500" was run on land that year. Sayres's record topped the 141.740 mark set 11 years earlier on Scotland's Lake Coniston by the ill-fated Sir Malcolm Campbell in his Bluebird II. Earlier, Campbell has lifted Gar Wood's 124.9 record with an 1937 run in Switzerland aboard the first Bluebird at 129.5 mph.
Incredible speeds
Ten years after Stan Sayres's first record, Bill Muncey flashed over the same Seattle course at 192.001 mph in his Gold cup winner, Miss Thriftway, in 1962. Previously he had won two Gold Cups in earlier models of Thriftway and even survived a lost rudder. Heading into the first turn at a Seattle Seafair, Thriftway continued on a straight course for the spectator fleet and rocketed into an anchored Coast Guard boat. Both sank, but fortunately there were no fatalities. It was the first time a Coast Guard craft had ever been sunk by ramming.
Better boat balance and both aero and hydrodynamic improvements, plus advances in construction materials and safety gear, have cut down the number of accidents. Smaller courses also help. "We used to run on three-and-three-quarter-mile courses," Bill Muncey recalls, "and more bad things happen when you wind up for such a long time. I honestly think that today's Pay 'n Pak, constructed from honeycomb aluminum, could have turned in 130-mph laps on the bigger courses."
Most races today are staged on two-and-a-half mile ovals with a few runs on threes. One race last year at Phoenix, Ariz., was fought over a tiny mile-and-a-half course. And last year was one of the most accident free, with no major mishaps other than Bernie Little's Miss Budweiser holing out sinking in the Gold Cup race at Tri-Cities, Wash. Little, whose boats tied a record winning three straight national championships in 1960-71, once again made good his boast of never missing a race in 13 years of competition when he showed up at the Seattle Seafair event just a week after sinking.
Dangers are different
Because of the small number of thunderboat races each year and correspondingly fewer accidents, many spectators are unaware of special dangers which auto competitors don't have to face. The biggest enemy of the hydro driver is the sudden unexpected flip. A hydro can kite and go over just when it seems to be riding the smoothest - which probably means it has left the water and is sailing through the air! The best drivers can usually sense the change and immediately ease off to bring the bow down.
And there are other hazards. A broken prop blade can suddenly slash through the hull, a stack fire can spread or an engine explode. Collision from a boat out of control, hosing down from a fifty-foot-high roostertail of prop spray from a boat ahead, or holing out from hitting floating debris are major problems.
Yet there is something about riding one of these huge machines down the straightaway and into turns at 170 mph, or watching other battling boats do it, that seems to infect people for a lifetime. Every year competitors pour thousands of dollars into his unlimited hydro racing with no hope of ever getting it back in prizes, although firms who know how to use publicity often get back more than their money's worth in millions of words of print copy and numerous televisions shows. And the so-called "little guy" competitor, without tractor-trailers filled with engines and spare parts or motorhome loads of mechanics and pretty girls, keeps coming back every year as well, waiting for a chance that one of the well-healed may break down and give him a win.
Thousands watch
The fans are equally devoted. One of the biggest crowds to ever watch a sports event was the audience of 500,000 lining the banks of Seattle's Lake Washington several years ago to witness a Gold Cup race. Last year the thunderboats played before a combined total of 1,200,000 fans, with an estimated 420,000 attending the Detroit contest.
The unlimited frenzy reaches it peak at Seattle each year where the entire town goes wild with banners on street lights, speeches at civic clubs, parades, banquets and almost non-stop TV coverage of it all. Here enthusiasm runs so high that collectors of the various arm patches and boat badges have their own fenced-in where they barter from custom-made displays, with a favored boat badge going for up to $100 each. Little old ladies can discuss quill shafts and turbochargers, kiting hulls and blipping engines, and kids know which year band leader Guy Lombardo won the Gold Cup and how Lou Fageol, using half the lake for a full-throttle flying start, cartwheeled his boat in mid-air.
Fastest, noisiest, and most expensive and exciting - the unlimiteds are getting up power for another year of competition in a class by themselves.
Joy Riding at 150 mph
There is no safety belt to hold you in the crowded one-man cockpit of an unlimited. As speeds approach 200 and make each ripple ahead turn into rock while 3000 sit snarling in your lap and the wind buffets with gust that can kite and cartwheel your craft into toothpicks, you do not want to be strapped in if something goes wrong.
Jim Lucero, called the best crew chiefs, unbolted winning driver George Henley's special padded bucket seat and clamped in a board support so we both could fit in side Pay 'n Pak, winningest of all unlimited. "Hit me on the back," Henley said, "if it gets too rough for you." With the wind and engine roar, there'd be no way to communicate.
Firing away as we eased away from the dock and out onto San Diego's Mission Bay, the unmuffled Rolls-Royce Merlin sounded like those I'd flown in combat in a Mustang P-51. But we had used 55 inches of manifold pressure for take off; this one was souped to more than double that and had a full life expectancy, I knew, of less than one hour of racing.
George gunned the monster and over his shoulder I watched the speedometer flicker pass 100 and 130. We slammed into the flat, skidding, jolting turn as centrifugal tried to lift-flip and fling us off the course. Turns are taken on the ragged edge of controlled speed. Then we aimed out down the straightaway chute again, eased added rpm to build boost without blowing the engine, and accelerated past the roostertail of another hydro on the course. Pay 'n Pak topped 150 when our seat plank started vibrating loose and we slowed back down to reality. -- Bill McKeown
Friday, September 30, 2016
Pay 'n Pak Wins Hydroplane Event
MADISON. Ind., July 6 (UPI) - Pay 'n Pak, chalking up two course records en route, won the $30,000 Indiana Governor's Cup race for unlimited hydroplanes today on the Ohio River.
George Henley of Eatonville, Wash., steered the Seattle‐based craft to a first and two seconds in its three heats to best Weisfield's, driven by Billy Schumacher of Seattle.
Pay 'n Pak cruised the 2½‐mile river course at an average speed of 115.148 miles an hour in the fourth of the day's five heats for one mark. Henley's fastest lap in the five‐lap, 12½‐mile event of 116.883 m.p.h., also was a record.
George Henley of Eatonville, Wash., steered the Seattle‐based craft to a first and two seconds in its three heats to best Weisfield's, driven by Billy Schumacher of Seattle.
Pay 'n Pak cruised the 2½‐mile river course at an average speed of 115.148 miles an hour in the fourth of the day's five heats for one mark. Henley's fastest lap in the five‐lap, 12½‐mile event of 116.883 m.p.h., also was a record.
Monday, September 26, 2016
How do you paint the Pak?
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| Step 1 - Spray the White |
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| Step 2 - Mask for the Orange |
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| Step 3 - Spray the Orange |
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| Step 4 - Remove the Mask |
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| Step 5 - Mask for the Black |
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| Step 6 - Spray the Black |
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| Step 7 - Remove the Mask |
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| Step 8 - Sit back and enjoy the results...but not too long. |
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| Step 9 - Spray the Clear (upside down) |
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