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.
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| 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.”