Awesome Overhead

By Bill Osborne
Reprinted from facebook.com

It doesn't seem possible that 35 years ago I was in a helicopter photographing John Walters as he drove the turbine-powered Pay 'n Pak on Lake Washington. There was snow on the ground and we had only two chances to get a picture. This is the one Pay 'n Pak used for advertising.

Photo by Bill Osborne.

The Pride: Gold and Orange

By John Woodward
Reprinted from facebook.com

The 1970 Pay 'n Pak’s Lil Buzzard. Photo by Kirk Pagel.

As I look back at my experiences as a Seattle hydroplane fan in the early 70’s, the image of the Pay 'n Pak’s famous Gold and Orange paint scheme stands out as a favorite of mine. I remember the first time I saw the U-00 Pay 'n Pak’s Lil Buzzard (1969-25b) at the 1970 Seafair Trophy race, hoisted high on a crane as I entered the racecourse with my family. Even as the sun was hidden behind a blanket of clouds, her sparkly Gold and Orange paint caught my youthful eyes. She was the big “buzz” in the pits after her victory at the Atomic Cup two weeks previous. Pitted next to the Lil Buzzard was the other half of the sparkle machine, the twin auto powered cab-over 1970 U-25 Pride of Pay 'n Pak (3).

The 1970 Pride of Pay 'n Pak. Photo by Kirk Pagel.

After the first round of heats were done, the twin auto Pak driven by Ron Larsen had 300 pts from her 2nd place finish in 1A and the Lil Buzzard had 400 points from her victory in 1B with Tommy Fults at the helm. Well, that was enough to hook me and the other thousands of race fans. Whomever came up with that paint scheme was a genius. Unfortunately heat 2 was a complete bust and neither hull scored a single point, the auto Pak DNF’d and the Buzzard DNS’d. I would see both hulls one more time in the Consolation heat where Tommy Fults opened up the Lil Buzzard, running the fastest heat of the entire day at 108.433mph. Larsen’s auto Pak finished in third place at 100.037mph. “The paint job” was now burned into my memory banks forever.

The 1971 Pride of Pay 'n Pak. Photo by Kirk Pagel.

The Pride of Pay 'n Pak returned in 1971 completely transformed. She was now a conventional and had a knarly Rolls Merlin in her belly. But the paint job was still the same! She did not disappoint as the new look Pride with her new look pilot Billy Schumacher took home the coveted 1971 Seafair trophy, which was run twice due to an accident by the Notre Dame. Schumacher handily won both finals including the last two races of the 1971 season.

The 1972 Pride of Pay 'n Pak. Photo by Kirk Pagel.

The sky was the limit as the Dave Heerensperger owned Pride of Pay 'n Pak rolled into the ’72 season as a clear favorite but Joe Schoenith had other plans. His U-71 Atlas van Lines driven by the crafty champion Bill Muncey became the boat to beat. Before the Pak returned to Seattle, Schumacher had been replaced by Billy Sterett Jr. Sterett then picked up a convincing win in Washington DC at the 1972 Presidents Cup as he out-dueled Muncey in the final heat. When they came to Seattle, all the talk was on three boats, the U-1 Miss Budweiser (6) driven by Terry Sterett, the mighty Atlas driven by Bill Muncey who had already picked up 5 wins and of course the Pride of Pay 'n Pak with Billy Sterett Jr. At last, we would finally see who was mightier. Sadly, it would not be the Pak’s weekend. Three blown engines in two days put one of the favorites on the beach for most of the event without a single earned point. Much to my chagrin, the Atlas rolled over everyone to claim the ’72 Seafair trophy and the eventual national championship. The day after the Seafair race, the disappointed Heerensperger sold the hull and engine stock to Bernie Little who was looking to update his aging three-time champion Miss Budweiser.

And just like that, one the greatest paint schemes of all-time was gone, never to return. However, “never” is a very long time. After coming back home from her extended stay in Australia as the Miss Bud, this revolutionary hull quietly sits in storage waiting for an undetermined future restoration down the road. If it was up to me, this hull would be returned to her former glory as the Pride of Pay 'n Pak (3) with her trademark paint job that took Seattle by storm. I sure do miss those days but thanks to the late great Kirk Pagel, many of those fond memories were forever captured on film and are now presented here for your viewing pleasure. Until next time, see you at the races.

Three-boat crash mars Hanauer's victory

By Glenn Nelson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 9, 1982

Executone driver George Johnson climbs out of the cockpit of his sinking boat, which had just been struck by the Pay 'n Pak (left) during an early heat in yesterday's Emerald Cup on Lake Washington. Pak driver John Walters was seriously injured. Johnson suffered a leg laceration.

Chip Hanauer of Seattle won the Sea Galley Emerald Cup yesterday, but he had been in a somber mood earlier in the day.

He had taken the Atlas Van Lines for a flighty test run just prior to the regatta and was concerned over rough water conditions on Lake Washington.

Prior to his wild ride in the Atlas, Hanauer witnessed Ron Armstrong's first run in the recently repaired Miss Budweiser, which had been damaged in Dean Chenoweth's fatal blowover-type flip last week in Pasco.

Armstrong provoked gasps of horror from the crowd amassed on the Lake Washington shores when the Bud several times went airborne.

"He scared me really bad," a pale Hanauer said at the time. "I hope Ron just takes it really, really safe. The whole course is really rough. I hit a low roller that knocked the wind out of me. When we get to the final heat, the water will be like an ocean.

"I'm very disappointed about the way we handed out there. This is the roughest I've ever seen it here. But everybody will be all right as long as everybody keeps their heads about themselves."

Well, everybody kept their heads for about one hour. Then, Heat 1B began.

Near the end of the front straightaway, Executone, on the outside lane, hit a bad spot that had plagued the unlimiteds throughout qualifying this week. Executone swerved to the left and went up on its right sponson.

The Squire Shop was heading broadside into Executone but driver Tom D'Eath decelerated and turned sharply to the left. Executone settled, but, according to driver George Johnson, its motor continued running and the boat again spun to the left, into the infield. D'Eath once again turned sharply to the left but was unable to avoid a collision.

Trailing the field, Pay 'n Pak zoomed into the wreckage, swerved left, and ran up onto the Executone, ripping apart the boat's rear cowling. The Pak went airborne, made a complete revolution and crashed onto the back of the Executone. As the Pak slammed right-side up onto the water surface, driver John Walters was pitched out of the cockpit, suffering serious injuries.

Walters, 28,  was listed in serious condition this morning at Harborview Medical Center.

The Renton resident had been placed on a ventilator after he was no longer able to breathe on his own and it was discovered he had water in his lungs. A CAT-scan X-ray was taken to check for head injuries and Walters underwent surgery late last night. He has switched to an intensive-care unit.

Walters suffered three spinal fractures but no paralysis, a broken left leg, a broken right elbow, a bruised lung, a concussion and injuries to his left eye. Johnson emerged with a leg laceration and D'Eath escaped uninjured.

Executone immediately sank to the bottom of Lake Washington.

A livid D'Eath blamed Johnson for the mishap.

"The guy should have a sponson up his butt," D'Eath said. "In this sport, we take four boats out of the top flight into the final. Fourth is what you should be racing for, not first. It's a long way 'til 4:10 (the scheduled start of the final heat). I was just trying to stay out of trouble. I couldn't believe my eyes when (Johnson) went sideways and into my lane.

"I know the water doesn't look bad from here but we've had problems with that spot all week. It shouldn't take a book to fall on somebody's head to find that out. A driver should always be looking for bad spots.

"I saw the bottom of the Executone and went into survival plan, cranking hard to the left and decelerating. The boat landed right-side up and instead of regrouping, accelerated like it'd like to continue racing. It went sideways again and sent us into another collision course with me. taking an altogether different evasive action. I was left between the devil and the deep blue sea. Boats were coming up on my left and there was this one on my right. I went left again because these boats don't turn right. Executone was going backwards but still under power and blasted into my side."

Johnson, the Executone's rookie driver, said he knew he was a slower boat and took every safety precaution possible.

"I was where I wanted to be, on the outside," he said. "I was a slower boat than these guys and wasn't on the inside. There were five other boats out there and they were going comparable speeds. The Squire was starting to back down because he was early at the start. I thought I was out of everybody's way but the boat dug in and went to the left.

"I went up and over the windshield but held onto the steering wheel and stayed in the cockpit. When the boat comes up, I'm sure the staff of the wheel will be broken to prove this. The engine was still running and I think I remember reaching reaching down and shutting off the master switch."

Hanauer was in front of the accident but said, "I was George (Johnson) at the five-minute mark and it looked like his boat was out of shape. It seems to me he wasn't listening to what his boat was telling him."

It was ironic that the Pak would be involved in such an accident. According to Pak crew member Tom Bailey, the team's pre-race strategy was to stay away from all the other boats at the start.

"Our game plan was to stay away from the spray of the water and work our way through the pack in an organized fashion." Bailey said. "It was only the first heat and winning the first heat doesn't win the race.

"We didn't want to go out front like we did at Pasco just to get sawed off by the Atlas."

The Pak suffered rips through out its hull and a hole near the right side of the cockpit. The craft reportedly is through for the season. Owner Dave Heerensperger is already in the process of building a new boat.

Squire crew chief Jerry Zuvich thought the damage to his boat could be repaired. The left sponson, which had been rebuilt after damage sustained in Bill Muncey's fatal accident in the former Atlas hull at Acapulco, was destroyed. The frame of the air tunnel was severely damaged and the rear transom ripped up by Executone's propeller.

"It's similar to what happened to the Budweiser," Zuvich said. "You often loose integrity repairing the sponson like that - it depends on how much you want to dive into the repair."

The Atlas had cornered impeccably after several aerodynamic changes, leading to commanding wins in two preliminary heats and in the winner-take-all final. But the victory, of course, was overshadowed by Walter's injuries.

"It would have been more fun it he were out there racing," Hanauer said.

Miss Budweiser finished a surprising second, but even showing up yesterday was a miraculous achievement. The Bud crew worked around the clock to repair the boat's damaged sponsons and set the fiberglass deck just Saturday.

Ron Armstrong, who was hired Friday as Chenoweth's successor, qualified the Bud at 127.298 mph and was seeded in the fast heats.

Despite the Bud's solid performance, owner Bernie Little was not satisfied.

"I don't know what to do," he said. "We have some problems. When I race, I want to race! We were starting to take off at 135. I don't like telling my driver to go 140 in the straights when we have been going 170-180 all season."

Rolling Thunder

May 18, 1975 — The opening event of the APBA Unlimited season was the Champion Spark Plug Regatta at Miami Marine Stadium.

Pay 'n Pak, Miss Budweiser, and Lincoln Thrift, 1975 Champion Spark Plug Regatta.

It was expected that the 1975 season would be a red-hot competition between the defending champion, Pay 'n Pak, with Jim McCormick taking over for the retired George Henley, and Miss Budweiser, Atlas Van Lines and Weisfield's. But Weisfield's, with Billy Schumacher at the helm, had it all her way. She won both her heats and the final round for a perfect score of 1,200 points. Her sleek hull and Rolls-Royce power won at a record time of 110.701 mph average around the 2½ course. Only one boat got within two mph of her hot pace in qualifying and competitive laps.

Miss Budweiser winner in Miami

Reprinted from The New York Times, May 24, 1971

MIAMI, May 23 (AP)—Dean Chenoweth drove Miss Budweiser to first place and $10,000 in prize money today in the Champion Spark Plug unlimited hydroplane regatta at Miami Marine Stadium.

Miss Budweiser averaged 94.543 miles an hour in the championship heat on the 2.5-mile course, finishing well ahead of Miss Madison, driven by Jim McCormick of Owensboro, Ky. Miss Timex, a boat racing for the first time under Tom Sheehy of Miami, was third.

Hallmark Homes, driven by Leif Borgersen of Seattle, was dueling with Miss Madison for second place when the Hallmark thunderboat's 1,200 horsepower engine died only one lap from the end of the six-lap championship heat.

Billy Schumacher of Seattle escaped serious injury when his boat, Pride of Pay 'n Pak, did a 360-degree spin and ejected Schumacher into the water at about 150 m.p.h.

Unlimiteds Roar

MIAMI, Fla.— Two-time national champion Pay 'n Pak will be out to start defense of its crown, May 16-18, when giant unlimited hydroplanes barrel down the straightaways at more than 150 miles-per-hour in the Fifth Annual Champion Spark Plug Unlimited Regatta at Miami Marine Stadium.

The defending champ.

As many as 15 of the giant thunderboats are expected to try and qualify for the $30,000 Marine Stadium battle, the kickoff of the unlimited schedule.

Pay 'n Pak, off its dominance of the unlimited circuit the past two seasons, is the pre-race favorite, but Dave Heerensperger's sleek craft is expected to be challenged by a host of formidable opponents.

Among those expected challengers will be the new wing-tail designed Atlas Van Lines with veteran Bill Muncey. With the new design and five time Gold Cup winner Muncey at the helm, Atlas Van Lines could give the Marine Stadium crowd the unlimited battle of the year.

Other boats expected to challenge the Pak include last year's Champion winner, Miss Budweiser, with Mickey Remund of Phoenix, Ariz. Remund, one of unlimited hydroplanes' hardest chargers, will challenge Muncey and Pak driver Jim McCormick for supremacy on the circuit.

McCormick, fully recovered from serious leg injuries suffered during a practice run for last year's Champion, also is the owner of an unlimited hydroplane, as yet sponsored.

Last year, after McCormick was injured, George "Skip" Walther, brother of race car driver David "Salt" Walther, took over the helm of the Red Man, only to be killed in front of the grandstands during a practice run as the boat crashed and disintegrated.

Despite this, Salt Walther might add his Country Boy to the list of probable entries which includes Just-a-Pest, Lincoln Thrift, Miss Madison, Weisfield's Diamond Mist (formerly Value-mart), and Miss U.S.

Miami, a hotbed of limited hydro racing, will have three drivers in this race, Tom Sheehy, Charlie Dun and E. Milner Irvin III, last year's rookie surprise who drive the Miss Madison to a forth place finish nationally. Sheehy is negotiating with numerous unlimited owners, but is expected to be in the cockpit of one of the giant thunderboats when the starting gun is fired. Dunn will be driving a yet unnamed unlimited out Virginia Beach, Va., while Irvin will be at the helm of the Lincoln Thrift.

According to Lee Evans, race director of the Champion Spark Plug Unlimited Regatta, the 1975 battle is shaping up as one of the finest in the race's history.

Bud wins by (—) that much

Pak edged at Detroit

Reprinted from The Seattle Times, July 1, 1974

DETROIT— (Special) — George Henley ran out of time in his game of "catch up" with Howie Benns, but the unlimited hydroplane jockey from Eatonville, Wash., still leads in the chase for national high points honors.

Howie Benns, Miss Budweiser driver, after a heat victory. Photo by Bill Knodell.

Henley, at the wheel of the Pay 'n Pak, was washed down by Benns in the Budweiser as the two boats battled for the lead late in the second lap of the winner-take-all final heat of yesterday's Gar Wood Trophy Race on the stormy Detroit River.

The splash pushed the Pak inside the buoy line and allowed Benns to build a commanding lead.

But Henley circled back to pick up the missed buoy and methodically gained on Benns to set up one of the most exciting finishes in the long history of hydro racing on the Motor City.

The two boats were side by side in the backstretch of the fifth and final lap, but Benns had the inside lane and held it through the final turn. Benns' margin of victory was three tenths of a second (about one boat length).

"I had to eat his water," Henley said of the incident. "But that's all part of the game."

Henley, trailed Benns by about four boat lengths at the apex of the turn, headed for the inside. But Benns had the necessary lead and cut for the exit buoy and Henley ran through the Budweiser's roostertail.

"We don't play any dirty game," Benns said when questioned about a possible infraction. "I wouldn't do anything like that and to him and he wouldn't to me."

Benns, a 35-year-old rookie from Grand Island, N.Y., received high praise from his boss, Bernie Little, owner of the Bud.

"It took him about three races to really get with it," Little said. "But he's a thousand percent better. You should have seen the move he put on Muncey in 1B."

Bill Muncey, winningest driver in unlimited history, ran forth in Heat 1B and did not finish 2B.

It was a Pak-Bud race all the way. Savair's Probe, driven by Bob Miller, ran third in the final but its speed was more than 10 miles an hour under the second-pace Pak. Tom Kaufman ran forth with his Mister Fabricator and Roger D'Each placed fifth in the Miss Cott's Beverages.

Benns' speed was announced at 109.800 m.p.h. But, in actuality, it was much slower. The Detroit course was shortened during time trials. Bill Newton, chief referee, ordered the sharp turns to be "rounded off" and this the course is about 2¾ miles. But a three-mile speed chart was used "for comparison purposes only."

The Pak leads in the points race with 3,750. Budweiser closed to 3,694.

Next stop on the unlimited circuit will be the World Championship Regatta in the Tri-Cities on July 21.

Billy talks Pride of Pay 'n Pak

By Craig Fjarlie
Reprinted from unlimitednewsjournal.net

Billy Schumacher

UNJ: After the 1970 season, did you know you were going to have the Pay 'n Pak ride the following year?

Schumacher: I have a shortness of memory when it comes to 1971. I don’t know if I raced.

Yes, you won the last few races. 

Oh, that was with Pay 'n Pak.

Yeah.

That’s right, that was Pay 'n Pak year.

And in ’72 you raced until Madison and quit because of the debris in the water.

Right.

But in ’71, Jim Lucero was crew chief. How was he for you to work with?

Fabulous.

Yeah?

With the Bardahl I had to watch the manifold pressure constantly. Of course, a lot of that was our high-dome pistons. We built quite a few engines in 1968 and that accounted for a couple of races that I lost, too. Once again, that year my starts weren’t the best and I’ll admit it, but I felt I had a good enough boat to pass anybody anyway. And I did. But we broke engines because of my pushing the boat harder than I should have, but I felt they were gonna live like they did in ’67, and then unfortunately, they didn’t. We blew up a few. Mostly manifold pressure, I think, that caused a lot of that. When I got to the Pay 'n Pak with Jim Lucero, I said, “How much manifold pressure should I look for, and where should I stop?” He said, “Manifold pressure? I don’t want you to even look at the gauge. Just stare at where you’re going and win the race.”

Mmm.

“I don’t want you to even look at the gauges.” He said, “You can do that during testing and let me know what’s going on but forget it in the race.” And you know what? In my whole career with Pay 'n Pak and Jim Lucero, I don’t remember breaking an engine. I don’t think we broke one single engine.

I don’t think you did.

I was able to put my foot on the floorboard I don’t know how many times and leave it there and use the nitrous before two laps were over. And never break an engine. Totally amazing to me, even to this day. I’m amazed at that. And you know, my accident with that boat set us back a few paces. It was turning left at 155 miles an hour, and that’s what caused that, because of the keyway in the rudder.

It took me a while to build confidence in it again. One of the races that year that I did win, in Dallas, I was going to the first turn testing and there’s a rockery. It was at the first turn, so if you didn’t make the turn you were gonna be in the rocks.

Oh, yeah.

I got down to that turn and turned for the corner and the steering wheel wouldn’t turn. It locked up. What happened was a bolt came out, vibrated out of the steering system, and when I went to turn it hit the frame in the boat. It wouldn’t do anything. It turned to the right but not to the left. So, I’m going pretty fast into that first turn and when that happened, I just turned off all the switches I could see and held on to the steering wheel and got up onto the deck, ready to jump off if I had to. But it stopped before the rocks. After my experience in Miami where I almost got killed, to have another steering problem happen in the same year, that was a big concern to me.

Sure.

I lost confidence. I really did. I lost confidence in the boat and some of the people working on it. Not mentioning any names, but it should have been corrected. Those things should not have been happening. So, all of that led to kind of an ill feeling between crew and driver.

And, you know, when the water was horrible in Madison [in 1972], I mean to the point of seeing tires and cows, stuff floating down the river—the river was dark brown, the buoys were laying on their sides from the current and you could see logs coming down. To race on that, I just said no. The rest of the drivers in the evening said no along with me. So, when race day came, they all said, “OK, I’ll do it.” Except me, I said no.

Yeah.

After the race when Sterett didn’t get killed, or nobody else got killed from hitting anything, there was some boat damage and stuff but nothing serious happened, then the crew started thinking that I was just afraid of the boat. After the race, that upset me to the point that I just got in my motor home and drove away.

Mmm, yeah.

I wasn’t very nice about it, but I figured the next race was a week or two away and they could find somebody else. I should have gone to Heerensperger or Lucero and said, “Look, I’ve had enough of this and I’m not gonna do it anymore,” but I didn’t. I just drove away. So, they hired Bill Sterett, Jr., to drive the next…

He finished off the season. You know, they won that race, I heard. I wasn’t there, but I heard the boat was completely out of shape many times, but he drove it hard enough to win. They were pretty proud of that fact that they won it. I wasn’t drivin’ it. So, there were some pretty bad feelings between Heerensperger and me.

The Pride of Pay 'n Pak team in 1971, from the left, crew chief Jim Lucero,
team owner Dave Heerensperger, and Billy Schumacher,

Yeah.

Actually, and Lucero, for a while.

To back up just a little bit to 1971, that was the year Madison—you were still coming off your accident in Miami—won the Gold Cup on their home water and then they won at Tri-Cities, the next race.

Yeah.

In Seattle you won, and you won a race in Eugene, and then Dallas. You finished off the season winning three races. Except for that incident in Dallas, things seemed to be better in ’71, the end of the year.

Yeah, the boat was faster. We had tried different skid fins and made it corner better. It was a goal of mine to set the course record in Seattle in qualifying, which we accomplished. Just barely, but we did it. I started liking driving it again. It was a fast boat that I could use the engines as hard as I wanted to use ‘em and I didn’t have to worry about breaking ‘em. That helped a lot, too.

I felt like we had something really going there. But, I don’t know, things happen in racing that you don’t expect. That thing in Miami really was an experience, you know. Going back to your thing about the Madison race and Tri-Cities, I think Jim McCormick got on a roll. They had, with that Madison boat, they had put nitrous in it. I think I could have actually won that Gold Cup, but he was faster than I expected him to be, and, uh, legitimately won the race.

Yeah.

I couldn’t really go much faster. I think I could’ve made a better start or something where he didn’t get the jump that he got and, uh, done better. It could’ve been driver error as much as anything but, my hat’s off to the way Jim McCormick drove the boat, and they had nitrous in it. He drove the pants off that boat, and it showed. Once you’re on a roll like he was in winning the Gold Cup in Madison, he showed everybody it wasn’t an accident and he did a really good job.

During those years—this is kind of an overview question—a lot of fatal accidents were happening. Were you worried about that being a possibility for yourself in racing as well? This is a dangerous game…

Constantly.

…can I survive this and still have fun?

That was mostly on my mind in the Bardahl days, because of what happened to Ron Musson and others in those years. I had a bucket of Bardahl that I would sit on in the truck, away from everybody, and I would just think about what I was gonna do and how I was gonna do it. How I was going to be concentrating on what I needed to do to win. Period. That was my goal. And I wasn’t the most  friendly guy in the world on my way to the boat when it came time to race. In other words, people needed to just get out of my way. I didn’t want a slap on the back, a slap on the hand. I didn’t want anybody saying anything to me. I was just tunnel-vision down to the boat and got in it.

The Pride of Pay 'n Pak heads out onto the Columbia River at the Tri-Cities, Wash., in 1971.

Yeah.

I didn’t even want crew guys sayin’ anything to me. I’d been on my bucket and I knew what I was gonna do, and I was thinking about it the entire time. I was very thankful to come back in one piece after every race.

A couple of times you were pretty lucky.

Yeah, that went through my, uh, I was lucky, probably, in my career, talking about Unlimiteds only, probably four or five times. And that’s what really led me to quit when I quit, at 36 years old. You know, that’s pretty young today, but my thought was one of these times my luck’s gonna run out.

Yeah.

There were several times when it was out of my control and I was just flat lucky. And so, there was a lot more I wanted to do in life other than race boats. That’s when I decided to quit. Those people who got killed were on my mind a lot.

Like every driver you think, well, if I’m watching my p’s and q’s, I’m gonna get through it OK where they don’t. We just think that. I still concentrated on every effort that I did to be safe about it, about the dangerous sport I was in. As safe as I could be and still do well. So, yeah, it was on my mind a lot. And you know, it’s tough when you see people, I mean, there were a couple of times when people got killed where I actually knew something was gonna happen. You just know.

Yeah.

In a couple instances I could tell that the driver’s not thinking clear. Just wasn’t thinking clear. The only thing on their mind was to win at any expense. That was never a problem with me. I did not have that attitude. I just knew that was not a healthy attitude, something could possibly happen. And it did. So, yes, it was on my mind constantly.