Turbine Racing with Jim Lucero

By David D. Williams
Reprinted from Turbine Racing in Seattle

No one person deserves more credit for introducing turbine power plants to unlimited racing than Jim Lucero. Lucero grew up in Seattle watching hydroplane racing. While he was still a young engineering student, he took a part-time job working as a parking attendant at a building that was owned by C. A. Lyford Il. Soon Jim met C. A.'s son, Chuck Lyford III, who owned and piloted the Bardahl Special, a modified P-51 pylon racer. Jim was invited to work on Chuck's plane, where he met the legendary Merlin motor wizard Dwight Thorn.

Stan Hanauer (left) with Jim Lucero (center) in Detroit in 1981. Photo by Larry Wilson.

In late 1965, Jim went to work for the Notre Dame Unlimited team. After the disastrous 1966 season, Jim was hired by Lee Schoenith and worked on a couple of boats, including the innovative "bat winged" Smirnoff. In 1970, Jim took a stab at boat designing and drew up plans for a radical twin automotive-powered "cabover" Atlas Van Lines for Bob Fendler. In the middle of the 1970 season, Jim landed with Dave Heerensperger and the Pay 'n Pak.

In Heerensperger, Lucero found a team owner who shared his total commitment for excellence and had the resources to back up his vision. Together Heerensperger and Lucero became a force to be reckoned with, winning the National Championship three years in a row: 1973, 1974, and 1975.

At the end of the 1975 season, Heerensperger surprised everybody (including Lucero) by retiring from unlimited racing and selling his entire team to Bill Muncey.

Muncey and Lucero picked right up where Heerensperger and Lucero left off, winning three more national championships in 1976, 1978, and 1979.

By the end of the 1979 season, Lucero had won six out of the last seven national championships. The challenge of running a successful Merlin-powered race team was becoming routine. Jim wanted something new; he wanted to run a turbine. He offered the chance to Muncey, but Muncey elected to stick with the tried-and-true Merlins

Dave Heerensperger was intrigued by Lucero's ideas and agreed to reenter the sport with a new Lucero-designed hull powered by a Lycoming T-55 L-7 turbine. Jim's close friend and talented inboard racer John Walters was asked to drive.

The T-55 seemed a perfect fit for an unlimited hydro, weighing only 600 pounds but putting out an incredible 2,850 horsepower.

The new turbine Pay 'n Pak debuted at Tri-Cites in July 1980 and looked incredibly fast, but a horrific blow-over accident during pre-race testing put the Pak out of the race.

The following year, a repaired and redesigned Pay 'n Pak took second place in the opening race of the season. The Pak struggled through the rest of 1981, qualifying fast but never cracking the winner's circle.

The last race of 1981 ended in tragedy, when Bill Muncey was killed in a blow-over accident while driving the Atlas Van Lines in Acapulco, Mexico. In the second race of 1982—Thunder in the Park in Geneva, New York-Walters and the Pak qualified fastest and went on to win the race, claiming the honor of being the first turbine boat to win a race. One month later, the sport suffered a devastating loss when Miss Budweiser driver Dean Chenoweth was killed while attempting to qualify for the Columbia Cup in Tri-Cities, Washington.

In Seattle that year, the Pay 'n Pak collided with the old U-95 (renamed Executone) in heat 1-B. The frightening accident severely injured John Walters. This accident, coming so close on the heels of Bill Muncey's fatal crash in Acapulco and Dean Chenoweth's death the previous week in Tri-Cities, prompted Heerensperger to retire again.

With Heerensperger's retirement, there would be no turbine teams in 1983. But Lucero didn't give up on racing. He became a partner in Muncey Enterprises and worked with Bill Muncey's widow, Fran, to campaign the Atlas Van Lines for the 1983 season. With Chip Hanauer driving, the Atlas won both the Gold Cup and the National Championship. Lucero, always an innovator, installed a reinforced "crash cockpit" on the 1983 Atlas that allowed Chip to wear a shoulder harness that would keep him in the boat in case of an accident.

In 1984, Lucero was incredibly busy. He built a Merlin-powered boat for Bill Wurster and Executone, and he built a turbine-powered boat for Bob Taylor, sponsored by Miller Brewing, named the Lite All Star. The Lite All Star was powered by a GE T-64 turbine. Lucero also built a brand-new turbine boat for Atlas Van Lines and Muncey Enterprises.

The new Atlas was very fast, earning top qualifier marks in seven out of eight races and winning the 1984 Gold Cup in Tri-Cities as well as the Governor's Cup in Madison, Indiana. But the boat suffered "new boat blues" and failed to finish a number of heats, dropping her to fourth in National High Points. It was Atlas's last year in the sport.

Another Lucero turbine, the former Pay 'n Pak backup boat, was renamed Miss Tosti Asti and won the 1984 World Championship Race in Houston, Texas.

At the end of 1984, Bob Taylor retired from unlimited racing and Muncey Enterprises picked up the Miller sponsorship. Miss Budweiser owner Bernie Little bought the Lite All Star hull and began to tinker with his own turbine team.

In 1985, the combination of Muncey, Lucero, Hanauer, and Miller was awesome, winning five of nine races and capturing both the Gold Cup and National High Points Championship. Along the way, Hanauer and Miller set half a dozen world records, including a one lap of 153.061 miles per hour at Tri-Cities.

A new, lighter Lucero-designed Miller was ordered for 1986, and construction began during the off-season. From the outside, it looked like Muncey and Lucero had the world by the tail, but appearances can be deceiving. Behind closed doors, there was tremendous friction between Jim and Fran, and it all came to a head just six weeks before the start of the 1986 season.

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 Muncey Era Comes to a Sad End

By Joanne A. Fishman
Reprinted from The New York Times, October 25, 1981

''Dangerous? This is defined as one of the cruel sports. We figure anything less than death is a minor accident.'' So said Bill Muncey of unlimited hydroplane racing two years ago. Then, at the age of 50, Muncey was preparing to embark on his 29th year on the circuit.

Bill Muncey standing on the deck of the Atlas Van Lines in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1981.

Tomorrow on the shores of San Diego's Mission Bay, not far from his La Mesa, Calif., home and where Muncey last year set the record of 140 miles an hour for a 2.5-mile oval, an outdoor funeral service will be held for this driver who dominated the sport. In the process, he collected an unprecedented seven national championships and 62 career victories in unlimited hydroplane racing.

With airfoils and stabilizer wings, the unlimiteds are the fastest boats afloat, capable of reaching speeds in excess of 200 miles an hour. Skimming the surface, the boats become almost airborne, riding only on the tips of two sponsons and half a propellor. And to hear their 3,000-horsepower airplane engines blast is to know forever why they are called Thunderboats.

No Accidents in 20 Years

Muncey had not had a serious accident in 20 years, although he had two notable ones prior to that. In the 1958 Seattle race, he lost his steering and drove his boat into a Coast Guard cutter at 100 miles an hour, puncturing the cutter's steel hull. Then two years later, in a race at Madison, Ind., his boat disintegrated beneath him.

A determined competitor, Muncey stepped on an oil patch and slipped off his boat's deck in the pits during the Detroit race a few years ago, breaking a bone in his right foot, recalled John Crouse, a longtime friend. Refusing medication, Muncey had his crew lower him into the boat and then went out and won three straight heats with that broken foot on the throttle.

This year had not been one of his outstanding seasons, though. Muncey had won only one race and was third in the national standings behind Dean Chenoweth of Miss Budweiser and John Walters of Pay 'n Pak. During the first two heats of the $175,000 world championship in Acapulco, Mexico, last Saturday, Muncey had finished second and fourth.

Tried to Make Adjustment

Muncey felt his boat, called Atlas Van Lines, was sticking to the water too much, and before the third and final heat, he had some adjustments made to make it ''a little more flighty,'' related Sam Cole of the American Power Boat Association.

Chenoweth recalled that the boats were ''flighty all day long.'' ''In the first heat,'' Chenoweth explained, ''my boat was all over the place, and they said Bill's boat was, too. We made a modification and ours got better after the first heat.''

Yet, Pay 'n Pak took off like an airplane in the second heat, traveling about 100 feet at about 10 feet off the water, said Chenoweth.

''All day long these boats were just acting wild like that and for no apparent reason,'' he said. ''There was no rough water, no wind, and no current.''

Classic Muncey Start

The conditions in the lagoon were perfect, with the surface as smooth as glass. In the third heat, Muncey made one of his classic starts, hanging back behind the other four boats as they approached the starting line and searching for a hole. Then, accelerating all the way, he ducked inside, left the others sitting at the start, and shot out to a five-second lead.

Muncey increased his lead as he pulled out of the first turn. Two-thirds of the way up the backstretch, his boat rose into the air, did a complete revolution and landed upside down. Muncey, who remained in the cockpit, was fatally crushed on impact, his spinal column severed, according to Cole, who was at the race.

Why did Muncey, who was vice president of marketing for Atlas Van Lines, persist in such a high-risk sport? After all, the monetary rewards were not predominant for him, because it cost several hundred thousand dollars to campaign a boat for a season, and the most the team could hope to make from prize money was about $125,000.

The lure was speed, certainly. But more, as Muncey put it two years ago, when he acknowledged that a racing person in his fifties is not the norm.

''It sounds irresponsible,'' he continued, ''but I don't feel that way. I'm feeling strong, and I expect to be competitive. There is still the child in me; I like to run and play like all the other kids.''

Chenoweth Wins Hydroplane Cup

Reprinted from The New York Times, August 10, 1981

SEATTLE, Wash. (AP) —  Chenoweth, driving Miss Budweiser, set lap and heat records as he won his second consecutive Gold Cup regatta for unlimited hydroplanes today. It was the fourth Gold Cup victory for Chenoweth.

Dean Chenoweth in Miss Budweiser (left) leads John Walters in Pay 'n Pak (right)
out of turn four during the final head of the Gold Cup on Seattle, Wash.

Pay 'n Pak finished second after challenging for four laps in the six-lap championship heat. Chenoweth finished with a record average speed of 123.814 miles per hour for the 15-mile heat. John Walters, in Pay 'n Pak, finished with an average speed of 122.223 m.p.h. The old record was set by Chenoweth last year at 117.391 m.p.h.

Chenoweth also set a lap record of 127.728 m.p.h. in the final heat, breaking Bill Muncey's record of 124.309 m.p.h. in 1977. The race was run in near-100-degree temperature on Lake Washington.

Accident mars Pay 'n Pak's chances in hydroplane race

Reprinted from The Seattle Times, July 12, 1981

Pay 'n Pak, driven by John Walters, for the first time this season topped Miss Budweiser in qualifying, but whether the Pacific Northwest boat can regain that form in time for today's Thunder on the Ohio III race remains in doubt.

As the Pay 'n Pak completed her record-breaking run of 131.627 miles an hour over the 2-mile course near Evansville, Ind., she struck a submerged log, which damaged a skid fin and sponson.

"We repaired it as best we could, but we're not sure how it's going to affect the boat in competition," said Jim Lucero, Pay 'n Pak crew chief.

Miss Budweiser, with Dean Chenoweth driving, earlier in the day averaged 131.148. Other qualifiers yesterday included Squire Shop (Chip Hanauer) at 127.208, Atlas Van Lines (Bill Muncey) at 124.352, Miss Madison (Milner Ervin) at 110.940, Miss Great Scot (Scott Pierce) at 109.589, and Miss Kentuckiana Paving (Ron Snyder) at 98.495.

Minimum qualifying speed is 95 m.ph.

Nine boats have qualified for the race. The draw for Heat 1A (10 a.m. Seattle time): Captran Resorts (Bobbie Howard), 100.279; Pay 'n Pak; Gilmore Chevy Special (Terry Turner), 104.803; Squire Shop; Miss Kentuckiana Paving. Heat 1B (10:30 a.m.): Miss Budweiser, Miss Madison, Miss Great Scot, Atlas Van Lines.

Dual at Columbia Cup

Tri Cities, 1981 — The Miss Budweiser, with Dean Chenoweth driving, takes out the Pay 'n Pak with a wide drift out in the last preliminary heat knocking the Pak out of the final heat. The Pak was running hot all day until this.

Photo by Bill Osborne

"It was both frustrating and encouraging," recalled Pak driver John Walters. "I think that was pretty much the first time in a while, and that year, that anyone had been able to run with Dean and the Bud, especially from the outside.

"It was not the first time that year that I had to deal with getting pushed around and bullied. In Evansville that year we were fast, setting qualifying, course, and world records. But we still had some handling issues in rough water. So in the final, Chip (Hanauer) took one turn, and Dean the other. They spent a good portion of the five minute period almost off plane circling to churn up the water."

"In Dean's defense", continued Walters, "something weird was going on in the engine for me that heat. There were times the engine would decelerate, and lack throttle response. It got worse in this turn, and at this point the engine went to ground idle, and it would not accelerate. At that time it is hard to steer.  Had this not happened, I would have drifted out with Dean and maintained the boat speed."

"We will never know if I would have been able to beat him off the pin to the finish line," continued Walters. "But that was my plan and thinking when we entered that last turn. And for the record, the p-3 line fitting on the fuel control broke. That was what was going on earlier in the heat and it failed here. "

"The move by Dean was not surprising to me," added Walters. "He would do that occasionally. It was especially effective in Detroit with the wall there."

Memories of double flip remain with Pak camp

By Glenn Nelson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, July 26, 1981

PASCO — One year ago today was meant to be the culmination of a revolutionary experiment. The turbine-powered Pay 'n Pak was to compete in its first unlimited race.

Even before race day, the Pak had created a splash here on the Columbia River. Radio stations interrupted regularly-scheduled programming for reports on sightings of the new boat on the highway. When the Pay 'n Pak finally pulled into the pits during qualifying week for the Columbia Cup, people cheered and clapped. When the craft finally hit the waters for a test run, drivers and crewmen on other boats halted activity to watch.

But on that ill-fated Sunday, the day of the regatta, John Walters, the Pak's rookie driver, took the boat for one last test run. Walters was traveling about 160 miles an hour on the front straightaway what the boat's rear stabilizer failed and the Pak went airborne. The double flip was one of the most spectacular ever in the sport. Walters suffered a fractured left hip socket and sprained his left shoulder, elbow, and knee. He was hospitalized for about two weeks.

But the Pak is back. The boat, its crew and driver have returned to the scene of that horrible nightmare — all in one piece and primed to continue the grand experiment.

John Walters takes the Pay 'n Pak onto the Columbia River yesterday in preparation for today's
Columbia Cup. Walters survived a bad accident on the day of this race a year ago.

Back too are the troubling memories. After completing his first qualifying run, at 126.923 m.p.h., Walters admitted that flashbacks to last year's accident had occurred.

"Leading up to racing her, I thought about the flip," said the 27-year-old Renton resident. "On the beach, waiting for my first time out, I thought about it again. When I reached the starting line, I had some flashbacks. But during the course of the run, my mind was occupied enough. I didn't have time to wander off and think about the accident. Plus, the ride was stable enough that I had no insecure feelings."

Rib contusions suffered as Walters was tossed against the driver's seat when the Pak hit two swells in the Ohio River during a  preliminary heat in Evansville two weeks ago, added to the discomfort.

"I had some trouble on the turns," Walters said. "It did hurt trying to make the corners. It wasn't a constant pain. It shouldn't affect me in the race."

Experimentation with the turbine engines from Vietnam-era helicopters began but failed with the U-95 in 1973. The use of turbine engines is considered revolutionary because they are about one-third the weight of the Allison and Rolls-Royce engines used in most hydros today.

The Pak hull was built extra light so the boat's total racing weight is 5,200 pounds — 1,000 to 1,500 pounds lighter than most boats on the circuit.

Considered even more important than its weight is the engine's longer life expectancy and low maintenance. Though the use of turbines commands a larger startup cost than other power-plants, the cost of maintaining a set of them over a season will be considerably lower.

Jim Lucero Pak crew chief and designer, spend the off-season pouring over videotapes of the flip with Walters in an effort to determine the cause of the accident and methods to prevent its recurrence. What the Pak team discovered was that the head created by the engine's hot startup process caused the machinery to flex and deform. The pressure began loading up in the stabilizers and the wing folded up. Now, the engine is never started without the placement of a thermal blanket on the wing.

"I'll be the first to admit that our testing regimen was considerably slowed because of what happened," Walters said. "We were extremely cautious in our testing. Instead of increasing speeds by 5-10 mile an hour increments, we increased by 2-5.

"But I think we're benefiting by it. It took a little longer to get the kind of results we wanted. But we also got more time on the equipment and I got more time in the boat."

Lucero, for one, has put the past behind him.

"We are not consumed by the accident," he said. "We've come into a new season looking forward to new things. We have to get to the business of winning races."

This amounts to a hometown race for the Pak with hundreds of the chain's employees and longtime Pak fans on the shore. With such a winning tradition (three national championships in earlier boats), there are high expectations for the Pak here.

Those expectations were heightened by Walter's 2-mile world qualifying record set at Evansville.

"The record is kind of a compromise situation," said Walters. "It did raise expectations for us. But the fact that I went out and did it hopefully helps other drivers believe I'm qualified enough to handle the equipment. The very best thing that came from the record is that it boosted team morale considerably. We had put a lot of work into this boat, but we were thrashing about, suffering setback after setback. Not that anyone lost any confidence in the project but it gave us a chance to savor a moment of glory for a change."

A good showing in today's race will at least establish some consistency in the seemingly snake-bitten Pak program this year. The season began auspiciously enough for the team with a second-place finish in the circuit's opener in Miami. But the engine was doused with water in the first heat in the next race in Detroit and the Pak couldn't muster the points to make the final. In Madison, the next week, the Pak suffered the same kind of mishap in the final and Walters was forced to shut down in a preliminary heat due to an abnormally high reading on his exhaust-temperature gauge. Then where was the sponson damage and Walter's resulting injury in Evansville.

Pay 'n Pak 'salts' away second place in Miami

Reprinted from Pay 'n Pak Racing Team News, July 28, 1981

"For today, second place is not all that bad," said Dave Heerensperger, owner of the turbine-powered Pay 'n Pak unlimited hydroplane after driver John Walters guided the boat to a second place in the first race of the season at Miami, FL, in the eleventh annual running of the Champion Spark Plug Regatta.

Walters, running in his first unlimited race ever, and driving the Pak in its maiden race, picked up a win in the first heat of competition, and then with a little luck in the final finished second to the powerful Miss Budweiser when Bill Muncey in the Atlas Van Lines went dead in the water after the first lap.

Emotions at Miami ran the gamut from deep frustration when the team had
problems getting motors running to jubilation when the Pak took a second
place finish in the final. Photo by Bill Moore.

Beset by a number of problems from the opening day of testing and qualifying, Walters gave a great deal of credit to the crew, noting, "We had a lot of problems and the crew did a hell of a job. They could have quit a number of times but they just kept plugging away. Without their dedication I don't think we would have made it out of the pits."

Trouble for the Pak stemmed from salt water, high temperatures, and humidity resulting in numerous motor failures during testing and qualifying. Salt water was the major problem, as the salt in the water crystallized on the blades of the compressor causing what is known a a compressor stall in the world of turbine engines.

After a day of thrashing on the boat Friday, the team got the boat running well enough to get the "whoosh" machine to qualify at just of 95 mph. later in the day Walters upped that to just over 105 mph; and on Sunday prior to the race, upped that speed to just under 107 mph.

And just for the sake of definition, a thrash, in this instance, means that Walters, the crew, and crew chief Jim Lucero, had the boat in the water 17 times for test runs prior to the running of the first head of racing on Sunday.

Changes that were made for racing in the salt water of Miami included sealing the ram scoops in the front of the boat and running the boat without the cowling.

The Pak did get the luck of the draw, which saw the Budweiser and Atlas Van Lines matched in both preliminary heats. Walters won his first heat, but failed to start in the second due to an engine that the salt had overcome.

In that first heat, Walters started on the outside and went into the first furn with Miss Madison and Michael's Pride and faltered momentarily when he ran into another compressor stall. This time the motor stayed lit, however, and Walters reeled in both Miss Madison and Michael's Pride much to the favor of the 16,000 fans on hand for the event.

In the final head, Walters found himself on the inside, in a place where he didn't want to be, and he backed off going into the first turn to make sure that he didn't get "washed down" - something that would have been fatal for the Pak since it was running without its cowling.

Meanwhile, Bill Muncey in his Atlas Van Lines and Dean Chenoweth in the Bud were battling for the lead with Muncey holding the upper hand until the two exited turn four and Muncey's engine gave way leaving the lead to the Bud. Walters passed the Madison going up the back stretch earning second place when Muncey went dead in the water.

"The Budweiser was obviously the boat to beat in the final so our strategy was to take the safe lane into the first turn with a good start and make the motor live," said Walters.

Both Heerensperger and Lucero had praise for Walter's driving performance, as he not only kept the boat out of trouble on the race course but showed plenty of skill in guiding the turbine-powered hull to first and second place finishes.

Heerensperger also gave credit to Lucero and his Pak crew for their notable performance at the Miami race. "Our crew really busted their tails to get the boat in the race, and I just can't say too much about their performance, "Heerensperger said.

Turbine Hulls and Configurations

1980 Pay 'N Pak

This is the original Pay 'N Pak turbine unlimited hydroplane. It blew over during qualifying in Tri-Cities, Washington and was done for the year.

1981 Pay 'N Pak

During the winter, Jim Lucero redesign the front of the boat to have adjustable canards to help hold the boat down. The team ran the front wings at some times, but mostly the boat ran without them.

To add a bit more to the story, the canard arrangement was found to be more of a problem than running without it.  What was discovered was that due to the short distance between the rear of the canard and the bull nose, it actually increased the generated lift at the front of the boat. 

As explained by driver John Walter, "We tried this in an effort to give a little more control of the boat ride. As you can see, they are very close to the leading edge of the hull. So close in fact they acted more like a fence or air dam. They disturbed the air flow to the point it was more difficult to control and in some cases had the opposite effect. We removed them and found that just removing that much surface area made the boat better than using the wings."

The following year, Jim Lucero built the new Atlas Van Lines using a larger spacing between the rear of the fixed canard and bull nose.  It was not only found to work, it set the pattern used on almost all new boats until the mid 90's.

1982 Pay 'N Pak

After running on saltwater race courses they found that the front intakes caused problems with water ingestion. So during the winter they redesigned the front cowling intakes and added a top intake with head rest.

The same hull ran all three years. A second hull was built in the 1982 and was planned to be run in 1983. However, in 1982 at Seattle, the original hull suffered a devastating accident. The accident severely injured driver John Walters and owner Dave Heerensperger suffered a heart attack due to the accident. After that, the team went up for sale and was bought mid season 1983 by Steve Woomer. In 1984 the new hull was run as the Tosti Asti.