A rarity: Owners, drivers agree - Pak is favored

By Chuck Ashmun
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 3, 1975

Jim Lucero, left, Pay 'n Pak crew chief, and Dave Heerensperger, owner, watch as the 1975
national-points leader was lowered into Lake Washington for a test run. The Pak, driven by George Henley
of Eatonville, will be bidding for it's forth consecutive victory in today's Seafair Trophy race.
Staff photo by Pete Liddell.

The Pak is the pick.

Unlimited-hydroplane owners and drivers, seldom unanimous about anything, have given the favorite's role to the Pay 'n Pak for today's Seafair Trophy Race on Lake Washington.

A spot check with several camps in the Stan Sayres pits resulted in a near-unanimous agreement that it will be a four-boat race and a less-solid vote for the Pak to finish first.

Weisfields, Miss Budweiser and Miss U.S. are the three other boats given a good chance, but the general feeling is that George Henley will wind up as leader of the pack.

Henley has won 10 unlimited races in less than two full seasons and is aiming for his fourth straight victory of 1975 and second straight in Seattle.

Nine boats qualified before time trials ended, but the field probably will grow by the time the first race starts at noon today.

Closed-mouth race officials last night would not say definitely, but it seemed certain more qualifying tries would be made this morning.

"I'll take the Pay 'n Pak," said Tom D'Eath, Miss U.S. driver, when asked for his assessment of today's outcome. D'Eath was an exception in the he did not choose his own boat to finish first.

"I don't think it's fair for me to pick my boat, but I really do think our chances of winning are very good." D'Eath said.

"We've had all kinds of problems with our engines this week, but maybe that's not so bad. We had trouble all week in Detroit, too."

D'Eath drove to the first unlimited triumph of this career on June 29, winning with a Detroit-based boat rebuilt after it was gutted in last year's Gold Cup race here.

"I'm not superstitious, but after what happened in Detroit, this might be a good omen," D'Eath said.

"Budweiser, Pay 'n Pak and Weisfield's," said Bernie Little, owner of the Miss Bud, giving his choices, in order, without hesitation.

"I'm really serious. I think this is our race course. Mickey went out and hit 160 (m.p.h.) and came back and said he could really turn one on."

The Budweiser jockey, Mickey Remund, charged around the 2½-mile course at an average speed of 121.786 miles an hour soon after the boat was lowered into the water for the first time on Friday.

Remund's last previous ride on the Bud ended with him standing on the upright pickle-forked bow, grasping a tow line from a rescue craft, as his boat sank in the Columbia River.

Another driver, Billy Schumacher, went with a top three of Weisfield's, Pay 'n Pak and Budweiser for today's race, while his former boss, Dave Heerensperger, said:

"Pay 'n Pak, Budweiser, Miss U.S."

"I still think we can beat him when we have it all together," Schumacher said following the Pak's Gold Cup win in the Tri-Cities last weekend.

The Weisfield's driver did not seriously challenge the Pak in what was expected to be a duel of Seattle boats as mechanical difficulties cost Schumacher points as well as money.

"I think this is going to be a Rolls Royce race, although I may have a surprise coming in Heat 1B," he added.

Schumacher's competition in the second heat race will include the Miss U.S. and Lincoln Thrift, both powered by turbocharged-Allison engines.

"The Budweiser might have an advantage if the water's rough," said Heerensperger, who owns the Pay 'n Pak. "He's been doing better than anybody in the corners."

But Heerensperger believes Henley will finish first.

And the consensus is: Stick with the Pak.

Pay 'n Pak meets Hollywood in T-Mobile commercial

March 14, 2018

Speed shouldn't be contained...

... and fast should be fast...

Walters' hydro-racing future no longer unlimited

By Kathy McCarthy
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, March 23, 1983

In the end, it was the battered body of hydroplane driver John Walters that dictated the decision his wife, his elder daughter and the doctor who "saved his life" hoped he would make — he quit racing.

"My back injuries make me so much more vulnerable that on a minor accident, or a good hard bump and I could very possibly never walk again," Walters said.

"I've been luck twice now . . . but I'm able to look back and see just how close I was to not making it at all."

So Walters, 30, is turning from a lifelong dream of unlimited hydroplane racing to build a new future with employer, Pay 'n Pak  this time as a management trainee.

Pay 'n Pak boss Dave Heerensperger left the sport before his driver, announcing within days of Walters' near-fatal crash last August, that Pay 'n Pak no longer would field an unlimited boat.

A Lake Washington collision between the Pay 'n Pak and the Executone put Walters in a hospital for two months and in a body cast for six.

Walters' back was broken in three places, is right elbow "scrambled" and his left leg had to be reassembled with metal pins and wire. He had a respirator for a week and suffered brain damage.

Fearful that he would not survive the succession of operations he needed immediately, a team of doctors at Harborview Medical Center undertook a surgical marathon to fix everything at once.

"They put me under on time and did all of the surgeries," Walters recalled. "It was like putting the straw man back together in the Wizard of Oz."

Walters still faces three more operations on his leg and elbow. He probably will never regain more than 50 percent mobility in the elbow, because of calcium deposits.

And the man who made a living piloting boats at high speeds now is working to regain his car driver's license. His license was voided because of the brain damage. He must pass psychological tests and a physical driving demonstration to regain it.

Walters' tortuous recovery — he was freed from his body cast only a month ago — gave him an in-depth medical education he finds fascinating, but would't want to repeat."

"I've gained a vast amount of knowledge about medicine . . . and how the body can repair itself even after you abuse it so badly."

It also helps with the homework for daughters Katrina, 11, and Maciva, 9. "I know the names of almost every bone in the skeletal system," Walters said.

Katrina and Walters' wife, Arlene, were among those who let Walters know even before his last accident that they would like him to stop driving.

Walters, 1981 rookie of the year on the unlimited circuit, survived two spectacular crashes in his 2½-year career, the first an eye-popping "blowover" in 1980 at Pasco.

Katrina told her father after Dean Chenoweth's death earlier last August that she hoped "'We can finish out the season without nobody else getting hurt and then I'd like you to stop,'" he recalled.

Arlene says she wanted her husband to stop driving ever since Bill Muncey's death in 1981. "I couldn't ever say, 'You're going to quit.' But he knew how I felt."

Dr. Michael Oreskovich, who headed the Harborview medical team that "reassembled" Walters after the crash, put it even more bluntly in a letter to his patient.

"You and Arlene thanked me and my team for 'saving your life,'" Oreskovich wrote. "The ultimate gratitude could come in the form of a statement that you will never drive a hydroplane again."

Walters' traumas did not stop when his hospital stay ended. While he was still hobbled by crutches and a body cast, Walters' garage door fell on him as he left his car after an evening dinner with his parents. Back to Harborview for the evening.

Nor have the family traumas been limited to Walters. His wife required a gall bladder operation and shoulder surgery during his convalescence.

"John got to take care of me," she said.

Walters is disappointed he never will win a national championship, but there is no bitterness about the crash.

When his health permits, Walters will begin management training to become a store manager with Pay 'n Pak.

"There isn't really any solid or stable future in hydroplanes," Walters said. "With Pay 'n Pak, the sky's the limit. I can go as far as I have the ability and desire to go."

But Walters, who has been fascinated by hydroplanes since he was his first race at age 9 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, does not plan to turn his back on the sport.

Walters, a hull specialist, said the boats are "exceeding their design limitations by going so fast." The ultimate solution is better design, the best interim solution is limiting the course size — to a maximum of two miles, he said.

Walters said his fellow drivers share his safety concerns but often cannot voice those opinions because of pressure from owners and/or sponsors.

Walters says he hopes he can act as a representative for active drivers and lobby the cause of safety to the Unlimited Racing Commission.

"There is no question the drivers want to be as safe as possible," he said. "We all realized going in there were a fair amount of risks involved, but anything we can do to decrease those ricks is what the drivers want."