Pak again wins Ohio hydro race

Reprinted from The Seattle Times, July 14, 1975

DAYTON, Ohio — (Special) — Seattle's Billy Schumacher had a grand view of the final heat of the Hydroglobe race yesterday, but the price of admission was rather costly.

While Schumacher stood aboard his powerless boat and watched, George Henley of Eatonville, Wash., drove the Pay 'n Pak to its second straight Hydroglobe victory.

The Weisfield's (left) duels the Pay 'n Pak (right) during the final heat of yesterday's
Hydroglobe race in Dayton, Ohio. The battle was shorted lived, as the
Weisfleld's would soon break a propeller shaft and withdraw from the race.

Henley's winning ride in the last heat turned into little more than an around-the-lake cruise after the Weisfield's, driven by Schumacher, dropped out in the first lap with a broken propeller shaft.

Schumacher steered into the infield and watched as the Pay 'n Pak easily defeated the second-place finisher, Miss U.S., driven by Tom D'Eath.

Pay 'n Pak and Weisfield's each had scored a pair of decisive wins in preliminary heats as Henley set a course record for one lap of racing and Schumacher set another for a five-lap heat.

That setup the final-heat showdown: Pay 'n Pak, defending national champion, vs. Weisfield's, the 1975 point leader, for the $16,600 first place prize.

Henley had the Pak a boat length in front of the Weisfield's heading out of Turn No. 3 of the first lap when Schumacher suddenly dropped out.

"I'm sorry Billy blew an engine," Henley said shortly after the race, at that time unaware of the Weisfield's difficulty, "because I think we could have really had some fun out there.

"Our boat's running well now; I'd say a little better than last year."

Henley drove the Pay 'n Pak to seven victories in 11 unlimited races in 1974, but the Seattle-based boat encountered difficulties on this year's tour until Henley steered it back into the win column earlier this month at Madison, Ind.

The 39-year-old Henley pushed the Pak to its record lap of 107.463 miles an hour in Heat 1B yesterday, bettering his year-old race-day mark of 106.195 m.p.h for a tight, two-mile Hydroglobe course.

Schumacher, this season's only other double winner among the thunderboat drivers, set his heat record of 102.246 m.p.h. while easily winning 2B.

Henley's 1,200-point performance here moved the Pay 'n Pak into third place in the national point standings, ahead of another Seattle-based boat, Miss Budweiser.

The Pak, which trailed first-place Weisfield's by 1,524 points a week ago, cut the difference to 1,124 points with its final-heat win here. Lincoln Thrift, eliminated from a final-heat spot when Milner Irvin was unable to get his engine started for Heat 2C, remains in second place in the standings but is only 162 points ahead of the Pay 'n Pak.

The points totals are: Weisfield's 5,563; Lincoln Thrift 4,601, and Pay 'n Pak 4,439.

The crews started heading west today. Their next meeting will be July 27, at the Gold Cup race in Tri-Cities, Wash. The Seattle Seafair race will follow, on August 3.

Dual at Columbia Cup

Tri Cities, 1981 — The Miss Budweiser, with Dean Chenoweth driving, takes out the Pay 'n Pak with a wide drift out in the last preliminary heat knocking the Pak out of the final heat. The Pak was running hot all day until this.

Photo by Bill Osborne

"It was both frustrating and encouraging," recalled Pak driver John Walters. "I think that was pretty much the first time in a while, and that year, that anyone had been able to run with Dean and the Bud, especially from the outside.

"It was not the first time that year that I had to deal with getting pushed around and bullied. In Evansville that year we were fast, setting qualifying, course, and world records. But we still had some handling issues in rough water. So in the final, Chip (Hanauer) took one turn, and Dean the other. They spent a good portion of the five minute period almost off plane circling to churn up the water."

"In Dean's defense", continued Walters, "something weird was going on in the engine for me that heat. There were times the engine would decelerate, and lack throttle response. It got worse in this turn, and at this point the engine went to ground idle, and it would not accelerate. At that time it is hard to steer.  Had this not happened, I would have drifted out with Dean and maintained the boat speed."

"We will never know if I would have been able to beat him off the pin to the finish line," continued Walters. "But that was my plan and thinking when we entered that last turn. And for the record, the p-3 line fitting on the fuel control broke. That was what was going on earlier in the heat and it failed here. "

"The move by Dean was not surprising to me," added Walters. "He would do that occasionally. It was especially effective in Detroit with the wall there."

Memories of double flip remain with Pak camp

By Glenn Nelson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, July 26, 1981

PASCO — One year ago today was meant to be the culmination of a revolutionary experiment. The turbine-powered Pay 'n Pak was to compete in its first unlimited race.

Even before race day, the Pak had created a splash here on the Columbia River. Radio stations interrupted regularly-scheduled programming for reports on sightings of the new boat on the highway. When the Pay 'n Pak finally pulled into the pits during qualifying week for the Columbia Cup, people cheered and clapped. When the craft finally hit the waters for a test run, drivers and crewmen on other boats halted activity to watch.

But on that ill-fated Sunday, the day of the regatta, John Walters, the Pak's rookie driver, took the boat for one last test run. Walters was traveling about 160 miles an hour on the front straightaway what the boat's rear stabilizer failed and the Pak went airborne. The double flip was one of the most spectacular ever in the sport. Walters suffered a fractured left hip socket and sprained his left shoulder, elbow, and knee. He was hospitalized for about two weeks.

But the Pak is back. The boat, its crew and driver have returned to the scene of that horrible nightmare — all in one piece and primed to continue the grand experiment.

John Walters takes the Pay 'n Pak onto the Columbia River yesterday in preparation for today's
Columbia Cup. Walters survived a bad accident on the day of this race a year ago.

Back too are the troubling memories. After completing his first qualifying run, at 126.923 m.p.h., Walters admitted that flashbacks to last year's accident had occurred.

"Leading up to racing her, I thought about the flip," said the 27-year-old Renton resident. "On the beach, waiting for my first time out, I thought about it again. When I reached the starting line, I had some flashbacks. But during the course of the run, my mind was occupied enough. I didn't have time to wander off and think about the accident. Plus, the ride was stable enough that I had no insecure feelings."

Rib contusions suffered as Walters was tossed against the driver's seat when the Pak hit two swells in the Ohio River during a  preliminary heat in Evansville two weeks ago, added to the discomfort.

"I had some trouble on the turns," Walters said. "It did hurt trying to make the corners. It wasn't a constant pain. It shouldn't affect me in the race."

Experimentation with the turbine engines from Vietnam-era helicopters began but failed with the U-95 in 1973. The use of turbine engines is considered revolutionary because they are about one-third the weight of the Allison and Rolls-Royce engines used in most hydros today.

The Pak hull was built extra light so the boat's total racing weight is 5,200 pounds — 1,000 to 1,500 pounds lighter than most boats on the circuit.

Considered even more important than its weight is the engine's longer life expectancy and low maintenance. Though the use of turbines commands a larger startup cost than other power-plants, the cost of maintaining a set of them over a season will be considerably lower.

Jim Lucero Pak crew chief and designer, spend the off-season pouring over videotapes of the flip with Walters in an effort to determine the cause of the accident and methods to prevent its recurrence. What the Pak team discovered was that the head created by the engine's hot startup process caused the machinery to flex and deform. The pressure began loading up in the stabilizers and the wing folded up. Now, the engine is never started without the placement of a thermal blanket on the wing.

"I'll be the first to admit that our testing regimen was considerably slowed because of what happened," Walters said. "We were extremely cautious in our testing. Instead of increasing speeds by 5-10 mile an hour increments, we increased by 2-5.

"But I think we're benefiting by it. It took a little longer to get the kind of results we wanted. But we also got more time on the equipment and I got more time in the boat."

Lucero, for one, has put the past behind him.

"We are not consumed by the accident," he said. "We've come into a new season looking forward to new things. We have to get to the business of winning races."

This amounts to a hometown race for the Pak with hundreds of the chain's employees and longtime Pak fans on the shore. With such a winning tradition (three national championships in earlier boats), there are high expectations for the Pak here.

Those expectations were heightened by Walter's 2-mile world qualifying record set at Evansville.

"The record is kind of a compromise situation," said Walters. "It did raise expectations for us. But the fact that I went out and did it hopefully helps other drivers believe I'm qualified enough to handle the equipment. The very best thing that came from the record is that it boosted team morale considerably. We had put a lot of work into this boat, but we were thrashing about, suffering setback after setback. Not that anyone lost any confidence in the project but it gave us a chance to savor a moment of glory for a change."

A good showing in today's race will at least establish some consistency in the seemingly snake-bitten Pak program this year. The season began auspiciously enough for the team with a second-place finish in the circuit's opener in Miami. But the engine was doused with water in the first heat in the next race in Detroit and the Pak couldn't muster the points to make the final. In Madison, the next week, the Pak suffered the same kind of mishap in the final and Walters was forced to shut down in a preliminary heat due to an abnormally high reading on his exhaust-temperature gauge. Then where was the sponson damage and Walter's resulting injury in Evansville.

Pak makes surprise appearance

May 4, 2017 — In an unannounced test session, Dr. Ken Muscatel and Mike Hanson each took turns testing out the newly and beautifully restored 1973 Pay 'n Pak out for a couple laps on American Lake, south of Tacoma, WA.

Mike Hanson tests out the newly restored Pay 'n Pak.

The session, amid sun, rain, and thunderstorms, provided the crew with a shakedown test in preparation for its public debut on June 2nd at Tri-Cities, WA. at the H1 Unlimited testing session on the Columbia River.