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.
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| 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.”