Reprinted from Tri-City Herald, July 28, 1980
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Pay 'N Pak!
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| These photos show the Pay 'n Pak as it was making its spectacular 2 ½ revolution spill while warming up for Sunday's Columbia Cup. No spectators were injured and driver John Walters (see story below) survived to tell what it was like. |
It lasted just a few short seconds. But the memory will undoubtedly linger for a ling time in John Walters mind.
The 27-year-old rookie driver was to make his competitive debut as an unlimited hydroplane pilot in the turbine-powered Pay ' N Pak at the Columbia Cup hydro races Sunday.
But his first race didn't come about when the Pak was wrecked in a spectacular end-over-end crash during a high-speed test run around 10:40 a.m.
Walters, a native of Renton, suffered a fractured left hip socket and a sprain of the left knee, elbow and shoulder.
He was very fortunate.
"I have lots of bruises; I'm stiff and sore everywhere," Walters said from his hospital bed in Kennewick. "I've got a lot of pain in my lower back and legs."
Although doctors at first thought he may require surgery to repair his broken hip. Walters said they decided against it as of Sunday evening.
Walters recalls the crash, witnessed by thousands along the banks of the Columbia, clearly. His account:
"I was running what would have been my last lap at around 160 mph," he said. "I felt the nose come up a little and I let up on the throttle just to slow the boat down. All the corrections I made just didn't seem to get the job done. It just sort of hung there for the longest time.
"I remember being upside down and see the water twice and the sky once. I as kind of picked out of the boat when it actually hit the water. I was very much aware of what was going on, " Walters went on.
"As the boat was flying I tried to bury myself in the cockpit as much as possible and I remember there was a lot of pressure actually holding me in the seat.
"It hit the water upside down and backwards and the end 2 1/2 times, It came down hard on one sponson and that's when I fell out.
"The next thing I remember," he continued, "was being in the water with pieces of the boat all around me."
Walters said he never lost consciousness after the crash. "I just moved my hands and legs to make sure I was still in one piece," he said. "I knew I hurt my back, but I didn't know how bad."
Walters, with his wife Arlene by my side, said the rescue boats rushed to his aid quickly. "It seemed like the first boat got there about 50 seconds after the crash," he stated. "I was really impressed by how fast they got out there...and really thankful."
Was Walters going faster than he had planned when the boat flipped?
"No," he replied. "I had going 145 yesterday and the main problem was with the wind screen. The wind was twisting my head around and I had trouble breathing. After we adjusted the wind screen it went pretty smoothly. I felt very comfortable with the speed I was going at the time.
Were there any other reasons for the mishap?
"I don't know for sure," he said. "More than anything it's just that we didn't have a whole lot of time in the boat and we didn't have time to learn the boat's warning signals.
"Most boats, after you've worked on them for a while, can pretty much tell you what you can do and what you can't do. Maybe if I had been with it longer I would have picked something up before the accident happened that would have warned me."
Was the new project being pushed too hard?
"Possibly," he said. "That's a really hard question to answer. I felt comfortable going that fast. It really didn't give me any warning that it was going to happen.
"I wanted to run as hard as we could and do it safely. I don't think I was driving over my head. It's all a part of boat racing."
Does he still want to race?
Yea," was his answer. "On the initial impact I had thoughts of 'Wow, what am I doing this to myself for,' but when Jim and Dave (crew chief Jim Lucero and owner Dave Heerensperger) came up to see me and started talking about what changes we'd make on the boat. I found myself getting more and more involved. I'm really anxious to get back into it."
But it will take a while for Walters's battered body to heal and the damage to the boat will require extensive work.
And Walters will have plenty of time to ponder his future.