Selling the Pride of Pay ’n Pak

By A.J. Muntz
Reprinted from At the Ragged Edge

Everything clicked for Bill Muncey in 1972. He won both preliminary heats at the season’s first race in Miami and was about to head onto the course for the final when he received sage advice that he would follow to the letter for the rest of the year. With a serious look on his face, his crew chief, Bill Cantrell, leaned over the cockpit and, in his deep, Kentucky drawl, told Muncey to “get out in front and then improve your position.

The 1972 Pride of Pay 'n Pak. Photo by Bill Osborne.

He not only followed Cantrell’s instructions in Miami, but also continued running ahead of the field at each race, winning in Owensboro, Detroit, Madison, the Tri-Cities, and in Seattle. The Detroit victory had been the most satisfying, giving him his fifth Gold Cup, a mark that tied him with the great Gar Wood.

It seemed Muncey and Atlas Van Lines could do nothing wrong that year. The team won 18 of the 21 heats started, placed second in the other three, set a number of lap, heat, race, and qualifying records, and earned Muncey his fourth national driver’s championship. “We didn’t expect to have this kind of a season,” Muncey said. “Who’d ever believe 10 years ago that I’d bring Lee Schoenith a national championship?”

As Muncey dominated everything in Atlas Van Lines, Bill Schumacher and Billy Sterett, Jr. combined to take runner-up honors aboard the Pride of Pay ’n Pak. In the process, the team also won  the only race Muncey didn’t, the President’s Cup, and set a world record qualifying time of 125.874 miles per hour.

Meanwhile, Bernie Little’s Karelsen-designed Budweiser began to show its age. With Terry Sterett at the wheel, the three-time national champion managed only two second-place finishes and ended the 1972 season a distant third in the national standings.

Bernie Little didn’t like being third in anything, so he again turned to the same strategy he used in 1966 when he bought Miss Exide and again in 1969 when he enticed Dean Chenoweth to join his team: He acquired the very thing he couldn’t beat.

The day after the season’s final race, Little announced that he had purchased the Pride of Pay ’n Pak from Dave Heerensperger for $30,000.

Heerensperger was willing to part with the boat because he already had plans for a new hydroplane. Months earlier, he had asked Ron Jones to design and build a new Pay ‘n Pak that would be even better than the “Pride.” Jones did just that, producing a boat that would stun the hydro-racing world and become one of the most successful race boats in history.”

Remund 1st; Muncey 5th

MIAMI — (Special) — Mickey Remund wasn't satisfied with going Bill Muncey one better. He had to rub it in a little.

Remund, getting his first assignment in a "real" unlimited hydroplane, yesterday outgunned Muncey for the Champion Regatta trophy and twice broke a course record set by the defending national champion.

Remund, Garden Grove, Calif., piloted the Seattle-based Pride of Pay 'n Pak to three easy heat wins and a 1,200-point sweep against seven competitors in Marine Stadium.

Remund won Heat 1A with a record 106.867 miles-an-hour average. In Head 2B, Remund zipped around the 2½-mile course even faster, setting the standard at 111.150 m.p.h. Muncey, who won six of last season's seven races, provided Remund a target with a 05.448 heat last year.

In the final, Remund slowed to 102.389 m.p.h., but was not pushed after Muncey's Atlas Van Lines stalled on the third lap.

Remund, who had a "cup of coffee" in the underpowered Van's P-X a few years back, established himself as the 1973 favorite with his immediate success in the new Pay 'n Pak.

Yesterday's regatta was the first for the new Ron Jones-designed hull, owned by Dave Heerensperger of Mercer Island. The last time a boat won it's first race was in 1959 when Chuck Hickling captured the Apple Cup with the Miss Pay 'n Save.

Heerensperger, a fierce competitor, was more than pleased with the win, which earned his camp $5,445.

"We've got one that Muncey's gonna chase all year, I hope," Heerensperger said after his boat crossed the finish line.

The Pay 'n Pak utilizes a horizontal stabilizer bar — a "bat wing" — on the tail fin to smooth out cornering.

"I think we will see a lot of those wings being built in the next 30 days," Buddy Byers, unlimited commissioner, said while congratulating Heerensperger.

George Henley of Eatonville, driving the Lincoln Thrift, placed second with 900 points on three second place finishes. Henley earned $4,095 for Bob Fendler, owner of the Lincoln.

Jim McCormick of Owensboro, Ky., was third with his Red Man (former Hallmark Homes).

Dean Chenoweth of Xenia, Ohio, was a disappointed fourth in the Budweiser.

Muncey's 300 points for a second in Heat 1A stood up for fifth overall.

Bill Wurster, in Bob Gilliam's Valu-Mart, and Charlie Dunn, in the Miss Madison, tied for sixth with 225 points each.

The unlimited fleet now heads for Washington, D.C., and the President's Cup on the Potomic River, June 2-3.

Pak won't be back—Heerensperger says 'I quit'

By Glenn Nelson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 11, 1982

Unlimited-hydroplane racing received another jolt yesterday when Pay 'n Pak owner Dave Heerensperger announced he was pulling out of racing.

Driver John Walters sits dejectedly on the hull of the Pay 'n Pak after the boat went dead in the water during testing before crashing in Sunday's Emerald Cup on Lake Washington. Yesterday, Pak owner Dave Heerensperger decided to retire from unlimited racing.

Heerensperger's decision came two days after his driver, John Walters, was injured in a three-boat crash during an early heat in the Sea Galley Emerald Cup on Lake Washington.

Walters was seriously injured when the Pak ran over Executone, which had gone out of control and struck The Squire Shop.

The 28-year-old Pak driver's condition is serious but has steadily improved, doctors at Harborview Medical Center said yesterday. Walters will remain on a ventilator until doctors can determine the extents of injuries to a lung.

Walters suffered a fractured right elbow, broken left knee, three broken bones in the cheek, all of which were set in surgery at Harborview Sunday night. He also had compression fractures of three vertebrae, but no paralysis.

"It was just the accident," said Heerensperger, explaining his decision. "It was an uncontrollable thing but the bad publicity and with John hurt and the boat wrecked ... and we'd lost Dean Chenoweth one weekend and one week later, I almost lost my own driver. When Muhammad Ali hits you in the face one or two times, you don't need the third. I'd had enough.

"If I hadn't won any national titles or any Gold Cups, that would be one thing. but I've done everything in this sport. I don't need anymore. Whenever you leave a sport that's been so good to you, sure you might have some regrets.

But I left in 1975, I left because we had just on three national championships. After winning the '75 title, (Pak driver) George Henley said, 'We've done everything. I think I want to get out.' I agreed. I sat on the beach for five years and it didn't bother me. I came back with the turbine to help the sport.

"The upside of racing is winning races. The downside is that I almost lost a driver and a friend. When I see the accident and get a queasy feeling in my stomach, it's time to get out."

With 25 victories spanning the period from 1968 to 1975 and 1980 to the present season, Heerensperger is the fifth winningest owner in the sport's history.

He captured national championships in 1973, '74, an '75 and Gold Cups in '74 and '75. Heerensperger won four races in Seattle and four in Pasco. The Pay 'n Pak Corp. sponsorship is fourth in career wins.

Heerensperger is chairman of the board of Pay 'n Pak, a Kent-based chain of plumbing and electrical stores. He had been one of the top innovators in the sport, credited with introducing stabilizer tail-fins, rear-mounted engines, trimaran hulls and the turbine power plant.

Heerensperger said he was also disturbed by the current trend of blowover-type accidents that claimed the lives of Chenoweth and Bill Muncey, two close friends.

"After what happened to Dean, I thought we should all meet in the winter and do something about safety," said Heerensperger. "Maybe shorten the courses, limit manifolds and maybe the sport would be called 'semi-limited." Something has to be done to make it safer. The sport has got to do some serious governing. It can't go on like it has. I think the sport itself will die if it does.

"I hope the sport can keep going. I'm sure it will, but without us. But this is a resilient bunch. Someone will step in and the sport will be back where it was."

According to Pak crew chief Jim Lucero, Heerensperger had hinted at the decision Sunday night.

"At the time, it was maybe yes, maybe no," Lucero said. "He probably didn't make the decision just because of the accident — though it was the biggest factor. Boat racing is an expensive thing to do. I don't think expenses was the major issue, however.

"I can understand the decision. We had two major accidents in the past two years. And there was nothing we could do about Sunday's. I felt we had reached the point where we were running better and safer than we had ever run.

"The Pay 'n Pak people feel real responsibility to Arlene (Walter's wife) and his two kids (Katrina and Marciva). I think they don't want to go through that again."

"We put together the best and safest equipment we could," Heerensperger said. "The accident wasn't related to going too fast or flying. It was an unfortunate accident — who knows what happened? If you noticed, John was behind everybody — exactly where we told him to be. We felt we could stay behind and that it would be no problem to pick off the rest one at a time, finished second because the Budweiser couldn't outrun us, and give a good show. If water conditions improved, which I understand they did, then give it a shot in the final."

Lucero, the all-time winningest crew chief in unlimited history with 45 victories, said he would continue in his advisory position with the Atlas Van Lines, which he designed and built.

"I have a commitment with them and I'll stick to it," he said. "But as for what I'll do on a full-time basis, I think I'll sit back and see what develops. Meanwhile, I'll do whatever I can to help the other teams — especially from the aspect of safety,

Heerensperger had left unlimited racing before. After campaigning Miss Eagle Electric, Pride of Pay 'n Pak and Pay 'n Pak 'Lil Buzzard for eight years, he sold his three boats and equipment in 1975 to Muncey. Racing under the Atlas sponsorship, Muncey won the national title in 1976.

The 45-year-old Pak owner returned to the sport in 1980 with the turbine-powered hydro that crashed at Seattle on Sunday.

In the boat's first race at Pasco that year, Walters flipped in spectacular fashion during a pre-race test lap. He was hospitalized for two weeks with a fractured hip socket and sprains to his left shoulder, elbow and knee.

Lucero and the Pak crew last year completed a new Pay 'n Pak hull that was the prototype for this year's version of the successful Atlas Van Lines. Heerensperger said he will sell all his equipment but has not yet talked to anyone about the sale.

It has been speculated that Squire Shop owner bob Steil is interested in the boat, but Steil could not be reached for comment.

Two drivers have died under Heerensperger's employ. Col. Warner Gardner died in the Miss Eagle Electric at the 1968 Gold Cup in Detroit. Tommy Fults was killed during testing in Pay 'n Pak's 'Lil Buzzard four days before a 1970 race in San Diego.

"I had a real low feeling then," said Heerensperger. "But those were different type accidents. I didn't feel they had to do with anything safety wise with the sport. With the colonel, it was driver error."

Pay 'n Pak Corp. was founded in Longview in 1953 by Stan Thurman. Heerensperger got into the business under Thurman when he established a chain of stores known as Eagle Electric in Spokane. Heerensperger and Thurman merged their operations with John M. Headley's Seattle-based Buzzard Electric in 1969 under the Pay 'n Pak name.

Bill Sterett Jr. Wins on Potomac

Pay 'n Pak Substitute Does 109 M.P.H. -- Muncey Next in President's Cup Race

By Parton Keese
Reprinted from The New York Times, July 10, 1972

WASHINGTON, July 9—Little-known Bill Sterett Jr. put an end to Bill Muncey's reign in unlimited hydroplanes today when he drove Pride of Pay' N Pak to a record-breaking 200-yard victory in the President's Cup.

Driving at an average speed of 109.090 miles an hour for the six-lap, 15-mile race, Sterett set a record for a 2½-Mile course. He had to—Muncey's second-place finish at 108.324 also broke the mark he himself had set here yesterday.

The 24-year-old Sterett surprised Muncey as well as 80,000 spectators lined along the Potomac shore. He was given the helm after the two-time national champion, Billy Schumacher, quit last week, apparently tired of catching Muncey's roostertail spray during race after race.

The Muncey-Sterett duel gave a shot in the arm to the President's Cup race, which had been lacking luster throughout the weekend because of a curtailed fleet that was battered and torn by the Gold Cup race two weeks ago. Four damaged boats were missing, leaving seven to race here, only three of which had any zip.

A Family Affair

Sterett is one of two driver sons of Bill Sterett of Owensboro, Ky., who twice won national titles in Budweiser. Terry Sterett, 25, has been driving Budweiser this season and finished third today, a half-mile behind the leader.

“They made an agreement with me last year,” the senior Sterett said, “that they would race unlimited only two years and then retire. Billy was sit ting this year out to race next season, so I guess we won't count this as a full season.”

Asked if the new driver had made the difference in Pay ‘n Pak's becoming a winner rather than an also-ran, Dave Heerensperger the owner, said. “Well, we didn't change anything else. Does that answer your question?”

Muncey, who had won 13 of 14 races and had set three speed records while winning all four this season in Atlas Van Lines, got a good start, but could not pass Billy Sterett, who stayed a length in front for 2½ laps.

When Muncey shot by Sterett on the far turn and took a 100-yard lead, it looked like the excitement was over. But in a marvelous stretch battle, Sterett proved Pay ‘n Pak slightly faster on the straightaway and won going away.

David Heerensperger Passes Away

David Heerensperger, hydroplane owner, tough businessman and ‘the kindest man you could ever hope to meet’

By Asia Fields
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, December 7, 2018

The entrepreneur, known for his ownership of the Pay 'n Pak hardware stores and hydroplanes, was also an early investor in Emerald Downs.

Businessman David Heerensperger was known for being tough, but the sight of his hydroplane driver being severely injured in a crash made him feel like he was having a heart attack.

It was the 1982 Emerald Cup on Lake Washington and John Walters was racing Mr. Heerensperger’s Pay ‘n Pak against its fiercest competitor, the Miss Budweiser. Another hydroplane unexpectedly veered off course and crashed into the Pay ‘n Pak, going over top of it. Walters was ejected and floated facedown in the lake for nine minutes until responders got to him, he said.

David Heerensperger was instrumental in growing Pay ‘n Pak’s annual sales
to nearly $400 million. (Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times, 1993)

The hydroplane’s owner, then 46, had already lost two drivers to fatal accidents. But the sight of the crash sent him to the hospital and off the sport for good. When Mr. Heerensperger was released, he went straight to Walters’ side. Doctors were able to restart Walters’ heart, but he had a broken back, head injuries, internal bleeding and broken ribs that had punctured his organs, he said.

Mr. Heerensperger kept him on the payroll for the four years it took him to recover.

Mr. Heerensperger was best known for his competitive spirit, which fueled his hardware-business empires and investments in Thoroughbred and hydroplane racing. Friends remember him most for his quiet generosity.

Mr. Heerensperger died Sunday from medical complications at the age of 82, surrounded by family at his home in Bellevue.

“I’d like for people to know that he was more than just a suit and tie in the corporate world,” Walters said. “He had to wear this armor to be the tough guy and the leader of a multimillion dollar business. But I was fortunate to see the other side of David Heerensperger. Under that armor was the heart and soul of the kindest man you could ever hope to meet.”

A self-made businessman

Mr. Heerensperger was born in 1936 in Longview. His first jobs included pumping gas and doing inventory for hardware-store owner Stanley Thurman, according to his biographer and former Seattle Times reporter Gary Dougherty. Thurman gave him a loan to open Eagle Electric and Plumbing Supply in Spokane in 1959.

As Mr. Heerensperger worked his way up, he began sponsoring Spokane sports, including hydroplane racing, softball, drag racing, football, basketball, baseball, hockey and bowling teams.

In 1969, a merger brought Eagle Electric under Thurman’s Kent-based hardware store Pay ‘n Pak, and Mr. Heerensperger soon after became chairman and CEO. He moved to the Seattle area and began funding the city’s fast-pitch softball team, which won three national and two international championships under his leadership.

Mr. Heerensperger oversaw Pay ‘n Pak’s expansion and grew its annual sales to nearly $400 million before he was forced out in 1989 after an attempted hostile takeover. He went on to create a competitor store, Eagle Hardware and Garden, and Pay ‘n Pak shuttered three years later.

David Heerensperger, left, gives his driver, Mickey Remund, a big hug after his hydroplane won the
World Championship Seafair regatta on Aug. 6, 1973. (Vic Condiotty / The Seattle Times)

Eagle Hardware, which competed with chains like Home Depot, was “the Nordstrom of home improvement,” former employee Eric Goranson said. Mr. Heerensperger would walk through the stores to ensure the white-tile floors were polished, items were perfectly straight on the shelves and employees were experts on inventory.

The company had grown to 32 stores and 6,000 employees by the time Mr. Heerensperger sold it to Lowe’s for $1 billion in 1998.

After selling Eagle, Mr. Heerensperger tried to retire, sailing to the Mediterranean on a 162-foot yacht with an 11-person crew and personal chef, according to a 2000 Seattle Times article. But he returned a year later to launch yet another business, founding World Lighting and Design at the age of 64. Mr. Heerensperger’s friend and Emerald Downs founder Ron Crockett said this was one of the few unsuccessful projects the late entrepreneur had, as the stores didn’t meet sales expectations and closed after two years.

“He was a risk-taker of a high degree, always willing to take a chance,” Crockett said.

Hydroplane and horse racing

Mr. Heerensperger bought his own hydroplane in 1967 and immediately began racking up victories.

Hydroplane racing was extremely dangerous during this time, recalled Stephen Shepperd, who wrote a book on the Diamond Cup hydroplane races. It wasn’t until the 1980s that closed canopies were used, which largely eliminated the deaths of drivers, he said.

It was during a 1968 race with the Miss Budweiser that Mr. Heerensperger’s boat somersaulted, killing the driver. It was the sixth fatality in unlimited hydroplane racing in two years, Shepperd said. Another one of Mr. Heerensperger’s drivers died in 1970.

Mr. Heerensperger hired designers to make his boats safer and faster, which led to the 1973 Winged Wonder Pay ‘n Pak. The boat was more stable and did better on corners, Shepperd said.

“Back when he started, the boats were all made of wood. He brought the aluminum construction into the sport,” Shepperd said. He was an innovator and he did it by hiring the best.”

David Heerensperger, owner of Millennium Wind, talks about his horse’s chances in the Kentucky Derby during a
press conference at Emerald Downs in April 2001. (Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times)

The piston-powered ’73 Pay ‘n Pak, white with a distinct orange stripe, set a world lap speed record of almost 127 mph on a 3-mile Lake Washington course. It’s now in the Hydroplane & Race Boat Museum in Kent.

Mr. Heerensperger’s team won 25 races from 1968 to 1982, including two prestigious American Power Boat Association Gold Cups and four Seafair races. President Richard Nixon personally gave Mr. Heerensperger a trophy in 1973, and the boat owner was inducted into the Unlimited Hydroplane Hall of Fame in 1980.

After leaving hydroplane racing, Mr. Heerensperger focused his attention on Thoroughbreds. He was an early investor in Emerald Downs, which Crockett opened in 1996. He won 25 graded stakes races from 1995 to 2014, Dougherty said, and his horse Millennium Wind ran in the 2001 Kentucky Derby.

“He was a guy who could do most anything, to tell you the truth,” Crockett said.

Mr. Heerensperger is survived by his children Joe, Julie, Karen and Corey, and fiancée Nikki Johnson.

David Heerensperger

David Heerensperger, former H1 Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Series owner & successful businessman passes away.

December 2, 2018 —  (SEATTLE) The world of hydroplane racing has lost one of its legendary former boat owners with the passing of David Heerensperger at the age of 82.

Dave Heerensperger in 1971

Heerensperger died of complications from a medical procedure. Members of his family were at his bedside.

Born in Longview, Washington on June 5, 1936, Heerensperger's foray into the business world began in Longview, Washington in 1959 when businessmen Stan Thurman and Bob Grover of T&T Electric set him up in a store in Spokane, Washington called Eagle Electric and Plumbing.

In 1969, Eagle Electric and Plumbing, was acquired by Pay 'n Pak, which was founded by Thurman. A year later, a rift developed between Thurman, Heerensperger and another longtime T&T employee, John Headley. Thurman left the group.

Dave Heerensperger, with Mickey Remund, in 1973

In 1969 Heerensperger became chairman and CEO of Pay 'n Pak. He grew it to more than 30 stores throughout the western United States. After a hostile takeover attempt, Heerensperger retired from Pay 'n Pak in November 1989.

After his retirement from the Pay 'n Pak stores, Heerensperger developed Eagle Hardware and Garden, a west coast big box hardware store. He was chairman from 1989 to 1997 and it was sold 1997 to Lowes Home Improvement Warehouse for an estimated $1 billion.

Never one to slow down, Heerensperger then founded and was chairman of World Lighting & Design based in Bellevue, Washington.

Dave Heerensperger, with George Henley and Jim Lucero, in 1974

During his life he invested in seven different unlimited hydroplanes including the 1968 "Miss Eagle Electric," the iconic 1973 "Pay 'n Pak," and in the 1980s campaigned the first turbine-powered hydroplane to win a H1 Unlimited Hydroplane race.

Between 1968 and 1982, Heerensperger’s team won 25 races, including two prestigious American Power Boat Association Gold Cups, and three National High Point Championships. In 1973, the "Pay 'n Pak" set a world lap speed record of 126.760 m.p.h. on a 3-mile course on Seattle’s Lake Washington with Mickey Remund driving.

Dave Heerensperger, with John Walters, in 1981

The Heerensperger dynasty also had its dark side. Two drivers were fatally injured in hydroplane accidents–Warner Gardner in 1968 with the second "Miss Eagle Electric" and Tommy Fults in 1970 with "Pay 'n Pak."

In his early years, Heerensperger was an avid fast pitch softball player and hockey player, and sponsored highly successful semi-pro softball teams in the Spokane and Seattle. In addition to H1 Unlimited Hydroplanes, Heerensperger and his Pay 'n Pak stores sponsored NHRA dragsters.

Dave Heerensperger, with Jim Lucero, in 2004

In his later years, he became involved in the world of thoroughbred racing and became a successful owner and breeder. Heerensperger and then-wife Jill first became involved in racing after purchasing a trip to the 1980 Kentucky Derby at a charity auction. They reached the Derby as owners in 2001 with GI Toyota Blue Grass S. winner Millennium Wind (Cryptoclearance). Trained by David Hofmans, the $1.2-million Keeneland September purchase was 11th in the Run for the Roses that year.

He was also reported to be a significant investor in Emerald Downs race track near Auburn, Washington.