WASHINGTON, July 18 (AP) —New drivers and new boats are all over the unlimited hydroplane racing circuit this season, but older pilots and craft still lead the field in this comeback year for the fastest sport on water.
The national point leader, Bill Muncey, pilot of Myr's Sheet Metal, and Dean Chenoweth, driver of 1969 national champion, Miss Budweiser, are leading the fleet after five of eighth regattas. Muncey at age 41 and Chenoweth at 36 are two of the old men of unlimited hydroplane racing.
Going into tomorrow's Atomic Cup Regatta on the Columbia River at Tri-Cities, Wash. Muncey has led his huge roostertail Detroit boat to victories in Washington, Owensboro, Ky., and Detroit, a second place in Tampa, Fla., and fourth at Madison, Ind. He leads in the standing with 5,194 points.
Chenoweth Is Runner-Up
In Muncey's shadow, with 4,775 points, is Chenoweth and the Tampa boat Miss Budweiser. The Bud is the only other winner so far this season with victories at home and in Madison.
Three other boats can't be counted out of the running for the national title. They are: the Notre Dame of Detroit, 3,915 points; Parco's 0 Ring Miss. Ontario, Calif., 3,746 and the Miss Owensboro, 3,565.
After Miss Owensboro it's considerable drop to the Pride of Pay 'n Pak, a new Seattle boat, with 1,688 points. Eight additional boats have competed so far this year.
This was to be the year of the transition—and transfusion—for the beleaguered sport and it might eventually prove to be just that. But the Pay 'n Pak and Atlas Van Lines, new boats with revolutionary pickle fork design hulls and twin Chrysler super modified engines located behind the driver, haven't been convincing so far.
The Pay 'n Pak is sixth in the season standing, but Atlas has had a miserable year and is scoreless.
George Byers Jr., the Columbus, Ohio chairman of the Unlimited Racing Commission, said he thought Atlas and Pay 'n Pak tried to incorporate too many changes at once.
“I expect more boats to use auto engines next year,” Byers said although he concedes there is still a good supply available of the World War II vintage Rolls-Royce and Allison 12-piston aircraft engines that have powered conventional hydroplanes for years.
“But,” he added, “trying to prove both a new hull and new engines is too much.” He said the standard design, in which the driver sits behind the engine, is more satisfactory.
“The front end is just too light in the new cabover design,” of Pay 'n Pak and Atlas. he said. “It didn't work with 7-litre limited hydroplanes and it does not work with unlimiteds.”
Byers hesitated to predict 1970 champion, but said the title could go to any of the top four boats—Myr's, Bud, Notre Dame and Parco's.
Boasts a Sleek Design
Of the top five boats, only Parco's is new. The star-spangled red, white and blue craft is one of the sleekest of the conventional-design boats, with a length of 30 feet and weight of 5,500 pounds. The leader, Myr's Sheet Metal, weighs 7,000 pounds and is 32 feet long.
Of the handful of new unlimited drivers this year, the 23-year-old Miss Owensboro pilot, Billy Sterett Jr. is the front-runner with a total of 1,846 points.
But despite the rookie drivers, like Sterett and Dave Walther, 24 of the Miss U.S. and interesting if not always exciting new boats, unlimited racing it in a tenuous position this year after a miserable 1969 season in which there were only seven race dates and a severe drop in spectator interest.
The sport has been a victim over the years of its own esoteric nature it is a rich man's sport—expensive to participate in and expensive to stage.