By Craig Smith
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, November 25, 1978
The new Pay ‘n Pak turbine-powered hydroplane won’t be ready for a test run until December, 1979, but it’s owner already is dreaming of a national speed record.
Dave Heerensperger, chairman of the board of Pay ‘n Pak Corp., said he is thinking of trying to break the straightaway speed record if the boat performs up to his expectations in races. The record is 200.419 miles an hour set in 1962 by Miss U.S. I.
Heerensperger dropped out of hydroplane racing three years ago after winning three consecutive national titles with a Miss Pay ‘n Pak that campaigned last season as Miss Madison. He said the resurgence of the sport was a big factor in his decision to resume racing.
“Two years ago the sport looked like it was in trouble,” he said. “But now there are five pretty fast boats . . . And I think some people are realizing the value of commercial sponsorship.”
Heerensperger added that his company has grown in the past three years and the cost of racing “isn’t as significant to the company as it used to be.”
In 1974 the U-95 raced with a turbine but never won a race. The boat sank in the Seafair Trophy Race and the project was abandoned later when the owner, Jim Clapp, died. The U-95 hull raced last season a the U-96 with a Rolls-Royce aircraft engine.
Why does Heerensperger think he can succeed when the U-95 failed?
“One big reason is weight,” Heerensperger said.
Heerensperger want the Miss Pay ‘n Pak to weigh less than 5,000 pounds. He suspects the U-95 weighed about 7,000 pounds. One reason the new boat will weigh less is because it will have one large turbine engine instead of two smaller ones, he explained.
Heerensperger added that the entire project “is going to have a lot of new technology in it.”
The turbine will be a Lycoming, T-55 L-7 gas turbine, originally developed for military helicopters. The Pay ‘n Pak camp says the engine has a 2,600-plus horsepower rating.
Heerensperger noted that the U-96 went faster when it was turbine-powered than it ever has with Roll-Royce power.
The new Pay ‘n Pak, to be designed by Jim Lucero, will be built in Kent. Lucero will remain as crew chief of Bill Muncey’s Atlas Van Lines through the 1979 racing season. Asked the reaction of Bill Muncey, owner-driver of the Atlas Van Lines, about losing Lucero, Heerensperger quipped, “It aged him a little.”
Heerensperger said he thinks the turbine can be much more dependable than the piston aircraft engines of other hydroplanes.
“This is a jet engine,” he said. “Look at jet engines on airplanes. They run for thousand and thousands of hour without hardly any maintenance.”
Heerensperger added, “We won’t be running this engine any harder than it was designed for helicopter use. The Rolls-Royce engines are run twice as hard as they were designed for airplane use. You are really straining them.”
Heerensperger said the new boat itself will cost less than $100,000 and he put a $50,000 tag on the gearbox. He wouldn’t divulge the cost of the turbine engines.
The owner said there are no plans to name a driver until after the boat is tested.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Saturday, April 29, 2017
The unretiring pilot and a stabilized Pak
By Georg N. Meyer
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, June 30, 1975
The favorite to win Seattle Seafair's hydroplane race — again — is the little man who didn't expect to be here, George Henley.
Henley retired last year, remember — after driving Pay 'n Pak to a record seven victories, including the Gold Cup off the un-baked, cussed-out shores of Sand Point.
At 38, George flashed his infectious grin and said he was more interested in the jet boats he peddles in Tacoma than the snorting monsters he had piloted, with mounting success, since 1970.
"I had to access my future," said the 1974 national point champion when he retired. "I decided my future wasn't in hydroplanes. I'd come home from a race with a lot of publicity, but nobody was out getting orders for jet boats. I was 12 weeks off the job."
So, for the 1975 season, Dave Heerensperger, the Pak's owner, signed on another veteran thunderboat driver, Jim McCormick of Owensboro, Ky.
For one reason or another, McCormick and the Pak never really got on a first-name basis. In two races, Jim was unable to get the thing around corners pointed in the right direction.
The Pak's crew had experimented with a new horizontal stabilizer, but the boat reacted neither horizontally nor with stability.
"McCormick was in a spot," Henley said here yesterday.
"He told me the it wanted to swap ends on the corners. As a new driver of the boat, he didn't feel he ought to tell the owner the boat was no good."
Sensing a lack of rapport between boat and driver, Heerensperger sent out an S.O.S. for the return of Henley.
George loves his jet boats and his family life in Eatonville. His ears flapped reluctantly at Heerensperger's summons.
Whatever business loses — real or feared — Henley might suffer back in the cockpit, Heerensperger took care of it. The way he put it, after George agreed to back to the Pak, was:
"When you give a leg, an arm, the pen and the checkbook, I guess I know how Bill Russell feels."
That is the Bill Russell who has to negotiate contracts with instant millionaires of the Seattle SuperSonics.
Henley returned to the Pak in time for the Governor's Cup regatta in Owensboro. He told me about his reunion with his hydroplane.
"In the first lap, on a corner, she swapped ends. I caved in a sponson. Then she blew an engine," Henley said. "That was my first heat."
"We decided there MUST be something wrong with the boat."
A witness to all that was Jim McCormick.
Henley said McCormick came to commiserate with him. "He told me: 'I hate to see that happen George — but it made me feel good.'"
Since then, operating again with the stabilizer property horizontalized, the Pak was behaving more obediently. That is, Henley's Gold Cup recapture last week in Pasco was his third victory in a row.
At that race, George may retire again this year.
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, June 30, 1975
The favorite to win Seattle Seafair's hydroplane race — again — is the little man who didn't expect to be here, George Henley.
Henley retired last year, remember — after driving Pay 'n Pak to a record seven victories, including the Gold Cup off the un-baked, cussed-out shores of Sand Point.
 |
| George Henley |
At 38, George flashed his infectious grin and said he was more interested in the jet boats he peddles in Tacoma than the snorting monsters he had piloted, with mounting success, since 1970.
"I had to access my future," said the 1974 national point champion when he retired. "I decided my future wasn't in hydroplanes. I'd come home from a race with a lot of publicity, but nobody was out getting orders for jet boats. I was 12 weeks off the job."
So, for the 1975 season, Dave Heerensperger, the Pak's owner, signed on another veteran thunderboat driver, Jim McCormick of Owensboro, Ky.
For one reason or another, McCormick and the Pak never really got on a first-name basis. In two races, Jim was unable to get the thing around corners pointed in the right direction.
The Pak's crew had experimented with a new horizontal stabilizer, but the boat reacted neither horizontally nor with stability.
"McCormick was in a spot," Henley said here yesterday.
"He told me the it wanted to swap ends on the corners. As a new driver of the boat, he didn't feel he ought to tell the owner the boat was no good."
Sensing a lack of rapport between boat and driver, Heerensperger sent out an S.O.S. for the return of Henley.
George loves his jet boats and his family life in Eatonville. His ears flapped reluctantly at Heerensperger's summons.
Whatever business loses — real or feared — Henley might suffer back in the cockpit, Heerensperger took care of it. The way he put it, after George agreed to back to the Pak, was:
"When you give a leg, an arm, the pen and the checkbook, I guess I know how Bill Russell feels."
That is the Bill Russell who has to negotiate contracts with instant millionaires of the Seattle SuperSonics.
Henley returned to the Pak in time for the Governor's Cup regatta in Owensboro. He told me about his reunion with his hydroplane.
"In the first lap, on a corner, she swapped ends. I caved in a sponson. Then she blew an engine," Henley said. "That was my first heat."
"We decided there MUST be something wrong with the boat."
A witness to all that was Jim McCormick.
Henley said McCormick came to commiserate with him. "He told me: 'I hate to see that happen George — but it made me feel good.'"
Since then, operating again with the stabilizer property horizontalized, the Pak was behaving more obediently. That is, Henley's Gold Cup recapture last week in Pasco was his third victory in a row.
At that race, George may retire again this year.
Walters, Pak in first hydro win
June 15, 1982, GENEVA, N.Y. — John Walters piloted the Pay 'n Pak to his first ever unlimited hydroplane victory in yesterday's weather-delayed Thunder in the Park regatta at Sampson State Park in update New York.
The second-year driver from Renton, Wash., averaged 120.887 miles-per-hour over the five-lap, 10-mile final heat. The victory was also the first ever for the turbine-powered Pay 'n Pak.
Miss Madison, driven by Tom Sheehy, was the only other boat to finish the winner-take-all final. its average speed was 88.106.
The race was originally scheduled for Sunday, but 25-mph winds and choppy waters caused a post-ponement to yesterday.
"We tweaked the engine up (for the final heat)," explained Pay 'n Pak crew chief Jim Lucero. "I don't think anyone ever worked harder for his first win. John just drove the heck out of the boat."
Walters gunned the Pak over the starting line and in initial turn in first place. The Atlas Van Lines, which Chip Hanauer had maneuvered into the inside lane, was washed down by the roostertail of Miss Budweiser, driven by Dean Chenoweth. The Atlas' cowing and left wing support were knocked loose and Hanauer retired to the pits after one lap. The Bud was penalized one lap for the incident.
Halfway through the first lap, the favored Miss Budweiser pulled even and overtook the Pay 'n Pak in the second turn. At the beginning of the second lap, as the Bud's engine began to pop and smoke, Walters regained the lead for good. Not realizing the Budweiser had blew an engine, and had been earlier penalized, Walters pushed the Pak to 124.783 mph in the third lap, the fastest of the day.
"I kinda suspected he (Chenoweth) was having some problems when I went by on the front straight," Walters explained. "I got it up a little in the corner (when racing side by side with the Bud). It (the turbine engine) was making good power all day long."
The second-year driver from Renton, Wash., averaged 120.887 miles-per-hour over the five-lap, 10-mile final heat. The victory was also the first ever for the turbine-powered Pay 'n Pak.
Miss Madison, driven by Tom Sheehy, was the only other boat to finish the winner-take-all final. its average speed was 88.106.
The race was originally scheduled for Sunday, but 25-mph winds and choppy waters caused a post-ponement to yesterday.
"We tweaked the engine up (for the final heat)," explained Pay 'n Pak crew chief Jim Lucero. "I don't think anyone ever worked harder for his first win. John just drove the heck out of the boat."
Walters gunned the Pak over the starting line and in initial turn in first place. The Atlas Van Lines, which Chip Hanauer had maneuvered into the inside lane, was washed down by the roostertail of Miss Budweiser, driven by Dean Chenoweth. The Atlas' cowing and left wing support were knocked loose and Hanauer retired to the pits after one lap. The Bud was penalized one lap for the incident.
Halfway through the first lap, the favored Miss Budweiser pulled even and overtook the Pay 'n Pak in the second turn. At the beginning of the second lap, as the Bud's engine began to pop and smoke, Walters regained the lead for good. Not realizing the Budweiser had blew an engine, and had been earlier penalized, Walters pushed the Pak to 124.783 mph in the third lap, the fastest of the day.
"I kinda suspected he (Chenoweth) was having some problems when I went by on the front straight," Walters explained. "I got it up a little in the corner (when racing side by side with the Bud). It (the turbine engine) was making good power all day long."
Monday, April 24, 2017
Pak drops fortune in props in river
July 21, 1974, Kennewick, Wash., (AP) — Dave Heerensperger, owner of the Pay 'n Pak unlimited hydroplane, has seen $3,000 worth of his propellers sink to the bottom of the Columbia River this week.
But, with Heerensperger and the rest of the Pak's racing team here for today's World Championship Regatta, it isn't the money but the principle of the thing that bothers them.
The Pay 'n Pak, like most other unlimited hydros on the circuit, use props — also called "wheels" that are hand-forged in Italy and cost about $1,500 each. The Pak lost two in the first two days of qualifying for today's regatta.
"We're not breaking them," Heerensperger said. "They're just coming off."
Pay "N Pak driver George Henley said, "we've had no problem all season until this week."
The problem, Heerensperger and crew chief Jim Lucero decided, must be in the propeller shaft rather than the prop itself. So, they decided late Friday to switch to a different kind of shaft — a kind Heerensperger feels is potentially weaker and more likely to lead to a break in the prop were it connects with the shaft.
But, "we can't take the chance it will happen again," Heerensperger said as he discussed the disappearing propellers.
But, with Heerensperger and the rest of the Pak's racing team here for today's World Championship Regatta, it isn't the money but the principle of the thing that bothers them.
The Pay 'n Pak, like most other unlimited hydros on the circuit, use props — also called "wheels" that are hand-forged in Italy and cost about $1,500 each. The Pak lost two in the first two days of qualifying for today's regatta.
"We're not breaking them," Heerensperger said. "They're just coming off."
Pay "N Pak driver George Henley said, "we've had no problem all season until this week."
The problem, Heerensperger and crew chief Jim Lucero decided, must be in the propeller shaft rather than the prop itself. So, they decided late Friday to switch to a different kind of shaft — a kind Heerensperger feels is potentially weaker and more likely to lead to a break in the prop were it connects with the shaft.
But, "we can't take the chance it will happen again," Heerensperger said as he discussed the disappearing propellers.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Pak still boat to beat
By Hec Hancock
Reprinted from Tri-City Herald, August 4, 1974
SEATTLE - The format for today's Gold Cup race on Lake Washington will be essentially the same as it has been for most of the year, i.e., catch the Pride of Pay 'n Pak, and the latest driver to join the thunderboat fleet, Billy Schumacher, is confident he is up to the task.
"We needed a more experienced driver," Les Rosenberg, owner of the Valu-Mart, explained Saturday as he replaced first-year driver Ron Armstrong with the veteran Schumacher.
The winner of the national championship and the Gold Cup in 1967 and '68 responded by increasing Valu-Mart's qualifying speed from 115.017 m.p.h. to 119.051 m.p.h., good enough for fourth place and a spot in the five-best fastest heat.
"We'll take first or second if we can stay together," an optimistic Rosenberg predicted. A confident Schumacher didn't see any reason to disagree with his new boss. "I'm favorably impressed with the boat," he said. "I wouldn't be driving if I didn't think we could win. I didn't take much adjustment since it feels pretty much the same as the Pak did.
Schumacher was the driver of the Pay 'n Pak when he quit hydroplanes in 1972.
Catching the Pak, however, could prove to be something else. The winner of the World Championship at the Tri-Cities two weeks ago is running at top form and a smiling George Henley appeared unperturbed by the rough water off Sand Point as he sped to the top qualifying time of 122.531 m.p.h.
The defending national champion was trailed by Lincoln Thrift driven by Mickey Remund.
Remund, whose boat was plagued by troubles at Tri-Cities, expressed satisfaction with his craft's performance Saturday but voiced concern over the race course.
"It's almost as bad as Detroit," he said. "The water just misses coming over the bow, and that's when people get hurt. It looks like all right from the shore and it's fine in the morning, but later in the day there are swells that make it rough."
Stan Jones, driver of the Australian champion, Solo, concurred but added, "It's the type of course we're used to. In fact, it's just about the same as what we have at home except there are no flies, and needless to say, we don't miss that aspect."
After breaking two propellers including their best one at Tri-Cities, the Solo crew had a borrowed replacement flown up from Australia.
Jones was satisfied with the engine but pointed out that the attitude of the boat would have to be changed because of the greater amount of fuel needed for the longer course.
The turbine-powered U-95, which appeared ready to challenge the Pak at Tri-Cities before being crippled by a collision with a still-unidentified boat, qualified in the second heat along with the Atlas Van Lines, piloted by Bill Muncey.
The U-95 is running without a tail assembly and, in spite of a tendency to bounce around the course, posted a speed of 115 m.p.h. easy, but the ride could be much better.
As Borgersen pointed out, the boat is nearly 300 pounds lighter without the tail assembly, and air can now get under the stern causing the boat to rise up in the water.
And whether the U-95 as well as the rest of the roostertail crowd can make the needed adjustments to catch the front-running Pak remains to be seen. Heat 1-A of today's $52,500 Gold Cup starts at noon.
Reprinted from Tri-City Herald, August 4, 1974
SEATTLE - The format for today's Gold Cup race on Lake Washington will be essentially the same as it has been for most of the year, i.e., catch the Pride of Pay 'n Pak, and the latest driver to join the thunderboat fleet, Billy Schumacher, is confident he is up to the task.
"We needed a more experienced driver," Les Rosenberg, owner of the Valu-Mart, explained Saturday as he replaced first-year driver Ron Armstrong with the veteran Schumacher.
The winner of the national championship and the Gold Cup in 1967 and '68 responded by increasing Valu-Mart's qualifying speed from 115.017 m.p.h. to 119.051 m.p.h., good enough for fourth place and a spot in the five-best fastest heat.
"We'll take first or second if we can stay together," an optimistic Rosenberg predicted. A confident Schumacher didn't see any reason to disagree with his new boss. "I'm favorably impressed with the boat," he said. "I wouldn't be driving if I didn't think we could win. I didn't take much adjustment since it feels pretty much the same as the Pak did.
Schumacher was the driver of the Pay 'n Pak when he quit hydroplanes in 1972.
Catching the Pak, however, could prove to be something else. The winner of the World Championship at the Tri-Cities two weeks ago is running at top form and a smiling George Henley appeared unperturbed by the rough water off Sand Point as he sped to the top qualifying time of 122.531 m.p.h.
The defending national champion was trailed by Lincoln Thrift driven by Mickey Remund.
Remund, whose boat was plagued by troubles at Tri-Cities, expressed satisfaction with his craft's performance Saturday but voiced concern over the race course.
"It's almost as bad as Detroit," he said. "The water just misses coming over the bow, and that's when people get hurt. It looks like all right from the shore and it's fine in the morning, but later in the day there are swells that make it rough."
Stan Jones, driver of the Australian champion, Solo, concurred but added, "It's the type of course we're used to. In fact, it's just about the same as what we have at home except there are no flies, and needless to say, we don't miss that aspect."
After breaking two propellers including their best one at Tri-Cities, the Solo crew had a borrowed replacement flown up from Australia.
Jones was satisfied with the engine but pointed out that the attitude of the boat would have to be changed because of the greater amount of fuel needed for the longer course.
The turbine-powered U-95, which appeared ready to challenge the Pak at Tri-Cities before being crippled by a collision with a still-unidentified boat, qualified in the second heat along with the Atlas Van Lines, piloted by Bill Muncey.
The U-95 is running without a tail assembly and, in spite of a tendency to bounce around the course, posted a speed of 115 m.p.h. easy, but the ride could be much better.
As Borgersen pointed out, the boat is nearly 300 pounds lighter without the tail assembly, and air can now get under the stern causing the boat to rise up in the water.
And whether the U-95 as well as the rest of the roostertail crowd can make the needed adjustments to catch the front-running Pak remains to be seen. Heat 1-A of today's $52,500 Gold Cup starts at noon.
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