The Winged Wonder: Hydroplanes Sprout Wings

Reprinted from Unlimited NewsJournal, October 2016

The Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent, Washington, has restored several hydroplanes that played a significant role in the history of the sport. Recently, for example, the museum restored Bill Muncey’s “Blue Blaster” Atlas Van Lines. Now, the volunteers at the museum are nearing the end of another important project: the restoration of the Pay ‘n Pak, which was built in 1973 and would win four straight national titles. The boat was also significant for introducing the sport to the horizontal stabilizer, a component that is now standard on all boats. NewsJournal Editor Andy Muntz has written a book about the history of the sport titled “At the Ragged Edge.” Below is an excerpt from Chapter 27 of that book.

Stanley S. Sayres Memorial Park is a peaceful place most of the year. An asphalt peninsula built in 1957 on the western shore of Lake Washington about a mile and a quarter south of the Interstate 90 floating bridge, the park provides a gentle ramp for launching small boats, 14 low wooden piers on the north and east sides, and plenty of parking for cars and trailers. It is a perfect spot for sockeye fishermen and water skiers to begin their fun. It’s also a quiet place where one can sit on the wooden piers, hear the rippling waves lap against the pilings, and watch a family of ducks swim by.

But, during the first week in August, the place becomes the nerve center for unlimited hydroplane racing. The calm is replaced by the sounds of fun and excitement: the clatter of helicopters overhead, the din of thousands of race fans, the throaty rumble of monster hydroplane engines being tested, and the buzz of electric generators. Chain link fencing is placed on the pavement to corral the huge crowds and tall scaffolding towers are erected for the television cameras. Trucks and motor homes are scattered about, vendors hawk Seafair pins and programs, and the place smells of grease and cotton candy.

Sometimes the serenity of Stan Sayres Park also is disrupted at other times of the year, especially during the spring. As each new hydroplane racing campaign draws nearer, it becomes a favorite spot for race teams to see if the boat performed better with the sponson changes they made over the winter, or if the new driver could get comfortable with the boat’s handling. It also is a place where new boats are launched—where beauty queens smash a bottle of champagne across the bow and where owners, designers, and crew members watch anxiously as their new hydroplane rumbles into action for the first time.

The tranquility of Stan Sayres Park was interrupted for just such an occasion on the afternoon of April 9, 1973, when a crowd of hydroplane groupies and reporters gathered near the familiar wooden piers to witness the christening of a hydroplane that promised to introduce the latest in boat technology: a glistening white craft named Pay ‘n Pak.

Owner Dave Heerensperger, driver Mickey Remund, and crew chief Jim Lucero.

The new boat was the latest in a string of hydroplanes campaigned by Dave Heerensperger, a man with an easy grin, a receded hairline, large dark-framed eyeglasses, and a sometimes abrasive demand for perfection.

The story of Heerensperger’s involvement in unlimited hydroplane racing began in early 1963 as an act of civic charity when the community organizers who campaigned Miss Spokane issued a plea for sponsorship money so they could keep their effort going. The owner of a small chain of electrical supply stores in the Spokane area, Heerensperger saw this as an opportunity to advertise his business, gave the group $5,000, and asked that the boat be renamed Miss Eagle Electric.

After spending another $28,000 over the next two years, more than his business was worth at the time, and having little to show for the investment, he decided he couldn’t afford to stay involved. Yet, the racing bug had bit.

Dave Heerensperger

Less than two years later, toward the end of the 1967 season, Heerensperger purchased the old $Bill, a boat that had competed since 1962 with no race victories to its credit—even despite having drivers such as Bill Muncey, Rex Manchester, and Bill Schumacher in its cockpit—and put a hard charging former Air Force fighter jet pilot named Warner Gardner behind the wheel. Suddenly, he had a winner.

Gardner, who over the past few years had used his heavy foot to coax race victories out of marginal boats such as Mariner Too and Miss Lapeer, drove Eagle Electric to victory in the 1968 season opener in Guntersville, Alabama, and added wins at the Atomic Cup and the President’s Cup before heading to the Gold Cup in Detroit. There, during the final heat, Gardner gave chase to Bill Sterett in Miss Budweiser heading into the hairpin turn at the upstream end of the course and, when he cranked the steering wheel to the left, Eagle Electric pitched into its right side, rolled over, and landed upside down in a blast of spray. Gardner was pulled from the water with severe head injuries and died in the hospital the next day.

Gardner’s death hit Heerensperger particularly hard because he had already started talking to Les Staudacher about plans for a radical hull that promised to solve the stability problems that plagued the sport. Before this new boat took to the water, however, Heerensperger had become the president of a new chain of stores that resulted from the merger of his Eagle Electric stores with the Buzzard, Falcon, and Pay ‘n Pak store chains. It meant that his new boat would carry the name Pride of Pay ‘n Pak.

For all the hoopla it attracted, the new hydroplane may have been one of the most disappointing boats  of its era. It was essentially a trimaran outrigger, with the cockpit and the engine set in a narrow section of hull and with its sponsons several feet to either side, attached by two beams. “She looked like a South Seas war canoe bobbing on the choppy river,” wrote Pete Waldmeir of the Detroit News. “You keep expecting a dozen guys with spears to come pouring out of the fuselage.”

1969 Pride of Pay 'n Pak

The team could have used those warriors and especially their paddles. Except for a third place finish in the Tri-Cities, the boat did terribly. Driver Tommy Fults said, “it was like driving your car with the emergency brake on.” Others were less kind, suggesting that the best way to solve the boat’s problems would be to drill holes in it and let it sink. The team pulled the boat from the circuit before the 1969 season ended.

Never one to shy away from the edge, Heerensperger’s next venture was every bit as risky, but much more successful. He contacted Ron Jones and convinced him to design a new Pride of Pay ‘n Pak that would feature the most cutting-edge innovations. The boat not only had the driver sitting in front of the engine, but also was powered by a pair of Chrysler Hemi automotive engines.

The new boat had been troublesome during the 1970 season. Its two engines seemed to go lame regularly and were expensive to maintain, leaving the crew so busy just keeping the engines alive that they didn’t have time to address its serious handling problems. Consequently, when the season ended, Heerensperger decided to dump the Chryslers and go back to the tried and true Rolls Royce Merlin.

Led by their talented crew chief, Jim Lucero, who had joined the organization midway through the 1970 season, the team made the switch during the following winter. In order to keep the hull’s balance intact, they also were forced to abandon the cabover cockpit and move the driver’s seat behind the engine.

The change did wonders. Pride of Pay ‘n Pak won the last three races of the 1971 season with Bill Schumacher at the wheel and, with Schumacher and Billy Sterett, Jr. sharing driving duties in 1972, took runner-up honors in the national standings.

1971 Pride of Pay 'n Pak

Meanwhile, Bernie Little’s three-time national champion, Karelsen-designed Budweiser had begun to show its age, managing only two second-place finishes that year, so Little made a deal. The day after the season’s final race, he 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.

A few details about the new Pay ‘n Pak began to emerge from Ron Jones’ Costa Mesa, California, shop while the thing was still under construction early in 1973. A press release said that it would be “new and revolutionary” and that it would look deceptively like Heerensperger’s previous boat, but much stronger and with other changes, such as aerodynamic cowlings. The biggest innovation was under the decking, though. Reports said the entire structure had been built with a strong but lightweight material called Hexcel, a sort of aluminum sandwich with thin sheets of the metal on the top and the bottom and a core made of aluminum set on-edge in a honeycomb pattern.

Soon it came time for the boat’s christening, which interrupted the calm at the Stanley S. Sayres Memorial Park on that sunny Monday afternoon in early April 1973. At their first sight of the boat, the crowd that had gathered for the occasion saw that it had a wedge shape, an effect created by the aerodynamic cowling that seemed to enclose the cockpit more than usual. The color scheme also was eye-catching, brilliant white decks with the name “Pay ‘nN Pak” painted in large orange and black letters.

What really caught their eye, though, was something that hadn’t been discussed in the accounts of the boat’s construction: a wing. Standing about five feet above the deck and resting atop two vertical tails was a horizontal stabilizer, a four-foot wide slab of honeycomb plastic and epoxy that was as long as the transom was wide.

1973 Pay 'n Pak

According to crew chief Jim Lucero, who played a significant role in the design, the wing had two purposes: to give the rear end of the boat some lift and to be a safety device, to help give the hull better directional stability and control. It also grabbed attention. Fans argued over the merits of the wing. Would it cause the boat to become airborne? Would it come off when the boat hit high speed or ran into a large swell? It was just the kind of debate the sponsor side of Heerensperger dreamed about.

During a boat’s first season, especially a boat as innovative as Pay ‘n Pak, there typically is a period of fine-tuning. The crew will try different props, shift the weight around a little, and make small changes to the sponsons in an effort to get its ride just right. So, while the Pay ‘n Pak team and the boat’s driver, Mickey Remund, worked on these things in 1973, their old boat, now painted Budweiser gold, red, and white and with Dean Chenoweth back in the team’s cockpit, played the role of chief nemesis—always there and always a threat.

Remund and Chenoweth were locked in a struggle throughout the 1973 campaign. The Pay ‘n Pak won the first race it entered, the Champion Spark Plug Regatta in Miami, then Chenoweth took his turn at the winner’s circle by winning in both Owensboro, Kentucky, and at Detroit. Remund was never far behind, though. He finished second behind Chenoweth at Detroit then the two switched positions as Remund won and Chenoweth placed second in Madison, Indiana.

Perhaps the best battle of the year took place during a gray and drizzly Seafair World Championship Trophy race on Lake Washington, when Chenoweth and Remund raced side-by-side for three heats. Their duel then continued through the remaining two races of the season and in the end, when all the points were tallied, Pay ‘n Pak came out on top by a mere 275 points, giving Dave Heerensperger his first national championship. Although the points race had been close, the record book was one-sided in favor of the new hydro. During the year, Pay ‘n Pak had shattered 26 of 29 existing speed records.

There is something of a pack mentality among the unlimited race teams. If somebody builds a hydroplane that is superior to the others, there will be an immediate rush of orders for boats of its same ilk. During the winter of 1973-74, Jones received orders for four new hydroplanes to be made of lightweight Hexcel and to feature a horizontal stabilizer just like Pay ‘n Pak. The wing had already become standard equipment.

Postscript

In the years that followed, the Winged Wonder would win another national title in 1974 with George Henley behind the wheel and another the following year with Henley and Jim McCormick sharing the driving duties. Then, Heerensperger pulled off another stunning deal, this time selling his entire team to Bill Muncey. In 1976, the boat won its fourth straight national title, this time with the name Atlas Van Lines painted on its hull.

In 1977, while Muncey raced his new boat, the Blue Blaster, the boat appeared in the two Pacific Northwest races as the Pay ‘n Pak, but was showing its age. The sponsons came apart twice. It was then was sold to the City of Madison, Indiana, the following winter and spent the next 11 seasons as either the Miss Madison or carrying the names of various sponsors, such as Dr. Toyota, Frank Kenney Toyota/Volvo, American Speedy Printing, Miss Ching Group, and Holset/Miss Madison. Sitting in the driver’s seat were people such as Jon Peddie, E. Milner Irvin, Tom Sheehy, Andy Coker, and Jerry Hopp.

The boat’s only race victory during this time was the 1983 season-opener, the Missouri Governor’s Cup in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. There, Ron Snyder, the man who may have logged the most time in the boat’s cockpit, drove Rich Plan Foodservice to victory in the final heat, largely because the Budweiser failed to start and the Atlas Van Lines was dead in the water with battery woes. The boat’s last appearance came at the 1988 Miller High Life Thunderboat Classic in Syracuse, NY. with Ron Snyder at the controls.

Turbines May Alter Hydroplane Racing

By Joanne A. Fishman
Reprinted from The New York Times, January 29, 1984

Unlimited hydroplane racing took a strong new tack last week with the announcement of plans for two turbine- powered craft for the 1984 national circuit. The use of turbine engines in the boats, both being built by major teams, is a departure from the traditional means of propulsion, the Rolls- Royce aircraft engines.

Some believe turbine engines, which had met with only marginal success in unlimited competition since first being used a couple of years ago, will now become the primary power source.

Lycoming T-55 L-7 turbine engine.

With these two new craft, one from Atlas Van Lines and the other from the Miller Brewing Company, which is making its debut as an unlimited sponsor, there are expected to be eight highly competitive teams on hand when the 10-race circuit opens June 10 in Miami. A race in Seneca, N.Y., is scheduled for June 17.

In recent years, the Atlas Van Lines and Miss Budweiser teams have dominated the sport, which usually has 12 to 15 teams. But this dominance is expected to be challenged with an influx of new, better designed and faster craft. Almost Airborne

The unlimiteds, 28 feet long, are the fastest boats afloat, capable of reaching speeds of more than 200 miles an hour. They become almost airborne, riding on the tips of two sponsons, and the propeller. Delicate and innovative, these craft combine principles of aerodynamics and hydrogen dynamics. And, having no neutral gear, they idle at about 40 or 50 m.p.h.

Three of the four new boats on this year's circuit, including the new Atlas Van Lines and Miller's Lite Beer, have been designed and built by Jim Lucero of Seattle. The fourth boat is the new Miss Budweiser being built by Ron Jones.

Lucero was the first to use turbines in Pay 'N Pak a couple of years ago. From that experience, he said, he learned that ''the engines never let us down. Whenever he had motor problems, it was through our own mistakes.''

The advantage of the turbine engine is that it provides greater horsepower for its weight than does a piston engine. And for unlimited racing, one doesn't need "a stable full of engines, hopefully," Lucero said. Normally each unlimited team has 10 engines that it constantly rebuilds, using them at the rate of one a race. But often they only last for one heat. Atlas Van Lines, on the other hand, will have four turbine engines on hand this year. More Efficient Motion

The turbine engine is the more efficient engine because it has a rotating type of motion, whereas the piston engine must first convert linear motion into rotating motion, Lucero explained. The turbine also has constant combustion, but in a typical four- stroke engine, such as that in a car or a more conventional boat, only one stroke produces power and the other three are users of power. With the turbine, all motion produces power.

The Miller Lite boat will be driven by Tom D'Eath and campaigned by the R. B. Taylor racing team. The craft has a General Electric T-64 turbine engine capable of producing more than 4,000 horsepower.

Atlas Van Lines, driven by Chip Hanauer, the defending national champion, is powered by an Avco- Lycoming turbine that generates more than 3,000 horsepower.

Last year, using the small block, 1,650-cubic-inch Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, Atlas Van Lines set the fastest lap recorded on a two mile oval - 133.7 m.p.h. At 5,000 pounds race- ready, the new boat weighs 10 percent less than last year's boat. Lucero estimates this should add 5 m.p.h. on the race course.

With the trend toward lighter and faster boats, builders are also trying to make them safer. Lucero, for instance, took a cue from the aerospace industry and incorporated an aerodynamic trim device on the new Atlas Van Lines to help prevent it from becoming airborne and flipping over. The device is similar to the spoilers on an airplane wing, which affect the plane's lift.

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.

The "Winged Wonder" flies again

Reprinted from http://thunderthebridge.blogspot.com.

News has broken recently that Ken Muscatel has purchased the former Pay 'N Pak "Winged Wonder" hydroplane with the intention of restoring it for the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum.  This is, no doubt, a fitting home for one of the most successful and innovative boats in the history of the sport.   In fact, with its record of four championships and twenty two race wins, the 1973-25 hull holds the distinction of being the most successful piston powered boat in the history of Unlimited Hydroplane racing.

On a more personal level, however, this boat holds the distinction of one of the first hydroplanes I have a personal recollection of.  To give away my age, I don't remember the boat's glory days of the 1970's because I hadn't been born.  As many readers of this blog will know, I grew up in Madison and make no secret of the fact that I am a fan of the Miss Madison team.  Because of this, the old Pay 'N Pak boat is effectively the first boat I was able to get up close and personal with, as it was the Miss Madison boat during the time I was growing up.  Therefore this post is going to be part history of the hull and part personal recollection with my main focus being on the boat's later years.

The story of the Winged Wonder began its life on the draftboards of master boatbuilder Ron Jones.  The number of innovations involved with this boat are numerous.  Although there had been a couple of Unlimited Hydroplanes that had sported the pickle fork design  since the 1960's, this boat represented the first true breakthrough for the design that would soon become the norm in hydroplane racing.  Seemingly overnight, the spoon nosed design was obsolete. It was also the first boat to use aluminum honeycomb as a primary building material, which made the boat much lighter than its competitors.  Most apparent, however, was its use of a horizontal stabilizer which immediately set the boat apart from everything else in the pits and gave the boat a decided advantage, especially in the turns.  Perhaps never before or never since has a boat represented such a separation from what was the conventional accepted design in the Unlimited class at the time, and went on to be an unheralded success.

This success came almost immediately.  When a new boat is built any team can expect a period of time to "work out the bugs" so to speak and hold judgment on the boat's success until the hull is dialed in.  As a sign of things to come, however, the "Winged Wonder" bucked this trend and won its very first race out of the box.  With Mickey Remund at the wheel the Pay 'N Pak won all three heats at the 1973 season opener in Miami, but then would face stiff competition the rest of the season from Dean Chenoweth and the Miss Budweiser.  At the end of the season, the Pay 'N Pak would win four races and edge the Miss Budweiser by less than 300 points to win the championship.

In 1974, the Pay 'N Pak took five of eight races with George Henley at the wheel and ended the season with a considerable lead over second place Miss Budweiser in the High Points.  Things didn't come as easy in 1975.  Jim McCormick was named the new driver of the Pay 'N Pak, but after he struggled in the season's first two races owner Dave Heerensperger coaxed former driver George Henley out of retirement to take over driving duties.

The bad luck didn't stop there, however, as the boat turned over at Owensboro and the boat didn't score any points.  Four races into the season, the Pay 'N Pak found itself with no race wins and was well behind the Miss Budweiser and Weisfield's in the High Point standings.  The season would turn after crew chief Jim Lucero returned the boat to the setup used in previous seasons and the team returned to its winning ways.  Winning five of the season's final six races of the season with victories in Madison, Dayton, the Gold Cup in Tri-Cities, Seattle, and San Diego, the Pay 'N Pak completed one of the most dramatic comebacks in Unlimited Hydroplane history and captured the championship.

1976 would bring more changes as Bill Muncey bought out Dave Heerensperger's team and the Winged Wonder got a new paint job and a new home.  Now racing as the Atlas Van Lines, the boat picked up where it left off and won five of nine races on the year, including a string of four straight first place finishes, on its way to the High Point championship.  After four years of racing, the Winged Wonder's spot in history had been solidified.  Its twenty one first place trophies made the boat the winningest hull in the history of the sport at that point.  It was also the only hull to win four consecutive High Point championships up to that point.  Although that feat would later be eclipsed by the T-3 then the T-5 and T-6 Miss Budweiser hulls, it should be noted that these hulls always won their titles in a "tandem" with the other hulls on the team whereas the Winged Wonder won all of its titles on its own.  In only four seasons, the 1973-25 had made its mark on the sport for years to come.

In 1977, a new Jim Lucero designed hull became the primary hull for Bill Muncey's racing team and the Winged Wonder found itself on the sidelines for the majority of the season.  The boat's only appearances for that season came in the Washington races, wearing the old Pay 'N Pak colors.  With inexperienced driver Ron Armstrong at the wheel and working with a limited crew, the Pay 'N Pak's appearance at the Gold Cup in Tri-Cities and the Seafair trophy in Seattle were expected to be little more than a cameo for the Winged Wonder.  In Heat 1A of the Gold Cup, however, the old Winged Wonder hull showed it was still a force, winning the heat going away.  Then in Heat 2-C the Pay 'N Pak once again found itself going head to head with the Miss Budweiser for three laps until it's day ended with a violent hook that damaged the hull's left sponson.  The following week at Seattle, Armstrong and the Pay 'N Pak won Heat 2A but then failed to finish the Final Heat on a day that was overshadowed by a tragic accident in Heat 1A involving the Squire Shop that ended the life of Jerry Bangs.

1978 saw another change of address for the Winged Wonder.  The Miss Madison team was in desperate need of upgrading their equipment so the decision was made to acquire the 1973-25.  The Miss Madison's previous hull, known as the Miss Madison III or 1972-06, was only a year older than the Winged Wonder but might as well have been built in a different era.  The third Miss Madison boat was never the same after an accident saw the boat sink to the bottom of the Detroit River of the 1972 Gold Cup.  The team spent the rest of the season in the garage repairing the badly damaged hull, then the next season the Winged Wonder debuted and the Miss Madison team found itself racing with a suddenly obsolete hull.  Indeed, the Miss Madison III would turn out to be the last hull to be built with the old spoon nosed design built for racing in the Unlimited class (although a few other spoon nosed replicas of hydroplanes have been built for the intention of vintage exhibitions).  Although I have never seen anything official in terms of the sale price, multiple sources have claimed that Bill Muncey effectively donated the boat to the Miss Madison team and sold the boat for $1.  No doubt this was an act of goodwill on the part of Muncey but it would be hard to claim that Muncey would miss the old hull.  In a bit of irony, the Miss Madison team was buying the hull that had made its previous hull obsolete, but that boat had itself been rendered obsolete by Bill Muncey's cabover "Blue Blaster" hydroplane, so once again the Miss Madison team would find itself racing with a boat that was certainly an upgrade over its previous hull but still dated in terms of Unlimited racing.  A new team also brought the most dramatic changes to the boat in its history, as the hull was refitted to be powered by an Allison powered engine as opposed to the Rolls Royce Merlin engine which the boat had been powered by up to that point.  With its new less powerful engine and the fact that the boat was now becoming dated as more and more cabovers were showing up in the pits, it is sometimes easy to forget about the old Winged Wonder's time with the Miss Madison team.  As is often the case in Unlimited Hydroplane racing, however, the hull had a long career long after it was at the front of the pack.  It should not be forgotten that of the sixteen years that the 1973-25 boat was in the pits and racing, for eleven of those years the boat was carrying the Seal of the City of Madison, Indiana.

1978 will always be remembered as a season in which Bill Muncey dominated the field in a fully dialed in Atlas Van Lines hydroplane.  The tone was set in the season's first race when the Atlas Van Lines was not only the winner but also the only starter of the Final Heat.  Muncey would win six of the season's seven races, his only loss coming due to a blown engine in the Final Heat at Tri-Cities.  So despite being overshadowed on that season the Miss Madison still turned in a decent season, with a second place in the Gold Cup in Owensboro with Madison native Jon Peddie at the wheel and a second place in Tri-Cities with Milner Irvin at the wheel en route to a fourth place finish in the High Point standings.

1979 saw the Miss Madison team race a partial schedule, not making any appearances after finishing sixth at the Gold Cup race in Madison.  In 1980 the team once again raced a full national schedule and,  after struggling through the season's eastern tour, turned heads with a string of four straight podium finishes that was highlighted by a second place finish in the only Unlimited race to take place in Ogallala, Nebraska.  1981 was another banner year for the Winged Wonder and the Miss Madison.  Despite no wins and only one second place finish in Evansville, the Miss Madison was a consistent finisher all season long, finishing on the podium in  seven of nine races and finishing second in the High Point standings.  In 1982 Tom Sheehy took over driving duties after Milner Irvin left racing for a year but the team continued its consistent ways, finishing second in Romulus, New York (ironically finishing behind the Pay 'N Pak, which was back in the sport after a hiatus and in the process becoming the first team to win with turbine power) and in Madison (the team's highest finish in its hometown race since that fateful day in 1971) en route to a fourth place High Point finish.

Ten years after its debut, the Winged Wonder had gone from the undisputed leader of the pack to a consistent if not spectacular racer on the Unlimited tour.  By 1983 it was no secret that the best days were well behind the hull, but the boat was still making its mark as a solid performer for the Miss Madison team.  In an era when the shelf life for many hydroplanes didn't exceed more than six or seven years, the Winged Wonder was finishing on the podium years after its initial construction.  As if to show the boat wasn't completely obsolete, the Winged Wonder scored what was undoubtedly its most unlikely and arguably its most memorable victory in the 1983 season opener at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.  At the Final Heat, Jim Kropfeld in the Miss Budweiser and Chip Hanauer in the Atlas Van Lines were so preoccupied with one another that the Bud blew its engine and the Atlas got off to an awful start.  Ron Snyder, driving the Miss Madison (sponsored by Rich Plan) wired a perfect start and led the race from the onset.  The Atlas Van Lines gave chase but succumbed to a blown engine of its own, giving the Rich Plan a clear path to victory.  A decade after its debut, the Winged Wonder had scored its twenty third and most unlikely victory.  It was also a race that solidified Ron Snyder's well earned reputation as a driver who was able to get the most out of underpowered equipment.  As for the rest of 1983, the Rich Plan finished second in Detroit and finished an overall fourth in the High Point standings.

1984 saw another name change as the Miss Madison team secured the sponsorship of American Speedy Printing for the duration of the season.  The season started well for the team with a third place finish in Miami and a third in Syracuse and the season ended well with a second place finish at the World Championship race in Houston.  The rest of the season, however, was an exercise in frustration that saw the team finish no higher than fifth and included a four race stretch where the boat failed to score point in three races and could only muster a twelfth place finish in the other race.  As a result of the dramatic mid-season swoon, the team finished seventh in the High Points and, for the only time in its history, found itself looking up in the standings at another Madison based boat.  Jim Sedam's U-22 finished fourth in the High Points in its debut season.  In 1985 the Miss Madison opened the season with back to back runner up finishes at Miami and Syracuse and closed the season with a third place in San Diego but was befelled by another midseason swoon (although not as dramatic as the season before) that relegated the team to a sixth place finish in the High Points, although it did earn the distinction of driver Andy Coker capturing the Rookie of the Year honors for that season.  Miss Madison opened 1986 with another second place finish, and continue the season as a consistent performer.  Driver Ron Snyder returned, but then was involved in an accident that saw him being thrown from the boat in Evansville.  Despite the accident, Snyder and the Miss Madison closed the season out with a third place finish at the season finale in Las Vegas and finished the season fourth in the High Points.

Holset returned as sponsor for 1987 and the Winged Wonder continued its consistent ways.  It was also about this time that I, as a resident of Madison, became aware of the hydroplanes.  As I am sure is the case with many hydroplane fans, I inherited much of my fandom from my dad.  At least once a year we would stop by the Miss Madison shop, where the crew has always welcomed visitors even to this day.  Because of this, the 1973-25/Winged Wonder/Miss Madison IV was the first boat that I ever saw up close, even sitting in the cockpit at one point.  The Holset Miss Madison turned in another solid season, although it scored only one podium finish, a third place in the Madison race that was cut short by the horrific accident involving the Cellular One that ended the driving career of Steve Reynolds. It was also announced during the season that the Miss Madison team would be debuting a new hull for 1988, so the 1987 season was meant to be something of a "farewell tour" for the historic craft.  For the final race of the year, the team even entered the hull as the "Holset Mrs. Madison" to signify that this would be the final race for the hull.  The Mrs. Madison finished fourth at the season finale in Las Vegas and its consistent performance throughout the season meant the team would finish third in the overall High Point standings.

Despite having what was supposed to be its "farewell" race at the season finale in 1987, construction delays to the new boat meant that the Winged Wonder would be pulled out of the garage for one final curtain call.  Once again Ron Snyder and the team got more than seemingly possible out of the now ancient hull by scoring a surprise second place finish in Miami.  After a fourth place finish in Detroit, the boat failed to make the cut for the Final Heat for the remainder of the Eastern tour.  The 1973-25, once the most advanced boat in hydroplane racing, now looked more like a museum piece.  The boat was the last conventional hull to race in the Unlimited class, and was one of the last boats to not have a canopy.  Despite the boat being terribly antiquated in comparison to its competitors in 1988, designer Ron Jones and others who had been involved in the Winged Wonder throughout the years had to take pride in the fact that many of the innovations that this boat represented, including the horizontal stabilizer and the pickle fork design, had now become commonplace in the sport.  The old hull had its last race at the 1988 Syracuse race, where the team failed to score any points.  Despite its underwhelming finale, the boat no doubt had made its mark on hydroplane racing as a whole.  After all, at the time of its retirement the boat still held the record for most race victories by a hull (that record would later be broken by the T-3 Miss Budweiser).  The new Miss Madison hull was ready in time for the Tri-Cities race and at long last, the Winged Wonder was retired.

Over the next few years the 1973-25 would largely do display work around Madison, then sometime in the early 1990's the boat was sold to Dave Bartush who was at the time building up a collection of hydroplanes and keeping them in a warehouse in Detroit.  It sat in the warehouse for the better part of twenty years, still in the Miss Madison colors.  Then earlier this year new begin to leak that Bartush was looking to sell off some of his collection, which is where the Ken Muscatel and the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum comes in.  With that the Winged Wonder now awaits restoration into its original form.  Although I have to admit I'll be kind of sad to see the Miss Madison paint come off the hull it's fitting that the boat will wear the colors that it made such a huge splash and broke so many records in the early 1970's.  Also, since H.A.R.M. makes a concerted effort to keep all of its boats in racing condition, the possibility of seeing the Pay 'N Pak "Winged Wonder" on the water again is certainly exciting.  So while the boat won its championships and made its history years before, for a generation of fans around Madison this was the first hull that many of us saw and will always hold a place in our hearts.

1970-72 Pride of Pay 'n Pak

The 1970 Pride of Pay 'n Pak was the second Unlimited Hydroplane designed & built by Ron Jones (the first was the ill-fated 1966 cabover Bardahl). This successful boat provided an early indication of the great competition record to come for future Jones boats. In 1970 she was configured as a cabover and powered by twin-hemi's, and had an unremarkable (winless) season.

Prior to the 1971 season, she was reconfigured in the conventional (driver behind engine) configuration with Merlin power. This "new" Pride of Pay 'n Pak finished the 1971 season with three consecutive wins. The boat achieved a total of 14 wins from1971-1975, changing owners in 1973 when purchased by Bernie Little's Budweiser team. Victories included Gold Cup in 1973, and three consecutive runner-up finishes in the National Points championship (1972-1974).

Dave Heerensperger was arguably the most innovative Unlimited Hydroplane owner. Perhaps a few owners (like Jim and Pamela Clapp) may have made single accomplishments which were greater, but collectively no one owner has more consistently taken risks and reaped rewards from pioneering innovations than Heerensperger. Some of the areas explored included a reverse three-point boat, automotive power, rear wing, cabover design, turbine power, moving canard, honeycomb aluminum construction.

A few of the benchmark boats include the outrigger Pay 'n Pak (unsuccessful), the automotive powered cabover 1970 Pride of Pay 'n Pak (unsuccessful until converted to conventional configuration with Merlin power, 1 Gold Cup, 3 times runner up in National points), the 1973 "Winged Wonder" which introduced aluminum honeycomb construction and the rear wing (3 National Championships and 2 Gold Cups for Heerensperger, 1 National Championship for Owner Bill Muncey in 1976), the hull which became the famous cabover Atlas Van Lines "Blue Blaster", and the first competitive turbine boat (first to win a race in 1982).

During the 1970 season, the new Pride of Pay 'n Pak campaigned with Hemi engines. The boat finished a disappointing 7th place finish in national points, with the best race finish a 5th overall. Despite poor reliability, the boat was classified a finisher in every event it entered (the boat did not enter the Kentucky Governor's Cup). The lack of competitiveness lead to a reconfiguration to Merlin power and a conventional cockpit location (behind the engine) which proved a much more competitive package.

The reconfigured Pay 'n Pak suffered its only DNF of the 1971 season at the first race in Miami. She finished second at her next race in Washington, DC, but it would be the three consecutive wins at the end of the season (Seattle, Eugene, Dallas) that would distinguish this season. Despite the remarkable string of wins, the lack of good results earlier in the season would only support a third place finish in National Points.

1972 was the year of Bill Muncey and the Atlas Van Lines -- Bill and the Atlas would win 6/7 races that season. The Pride of Pay 'n Pak was the only other winner that season, winning the President's Cup at Washington D.C. The Pride gave the Atlas plenty of competition, again showing excellent dependability with only 1 DNF for the season. Muncey/Atlas won a well deserved National Championship, but the Pride of Pay 'n Pak earned a strong second place despite the lack of wins this season.

Pay 'n Pak team owner Dave Heerensperger decided he needed a more competitive boat be competitive, so he commissioned Ron Jones to build a new Pay 'n Pak -- a boat which would be called the "Winged Wonder" and would win the National Championship for the next four consecutive years.

Bernie Little learned the Pride of Pay 'n Pak was available, and quickly arranged to purchase it from Heerensperger. Renamed the Miss Budweiser, the boat was very competitive in 1973. With Dean Chenoweth driving, the boat won the Kentucky Governors Cup, the Gar Wood Memorial Cup, the National Championship Regatta, and the prestigious Gold Cup. The demonstrated a remarkable reliability record, finishing every race that season. The season was filled with tremendous duels between the new Pay 'n Pak and the Miss Budweiser -- fans remember several heats of deck-to-deck racing during both 1973 and 1974 as the two boats contended for both race victories and National Championship points. Ultimately it was the Pay 'n Pak narrowly defeating the Budweiser for the National Championship title, the Budweiser again the runner-up.

For the 1974 season, Howie Benns was driving the Miss Budweiser, otherwise the 1974 season was much like 1973 for the Budweiser. Again she won 4 races, this time at Miami, Detroit, Phoenix, and Jacksonville, and again she had no DNF's! Again there were several deck-to-deck battles with the Pay 'n Pak, and again the Pay 'n Pak collected just enough points to win the National Championship with the Budweiser again finishing second.

In 1975, Mickey Remund was driving the boat. The boat was beginning to show its age and the strain of competition, with the team suffering an unusual 3 DNFs out of 7 events. After two years of excellent reliability for the Budweiser Team, the need to push the boat harder began to affect reliability. In one instance, the starboard sponson blew out during a heat race and driver Remund managed to return the boat to shore before it sunk -- the crew worked around the clock to get the boat repaired for the next race.

Little could see the hull was becoming less competitive and decided to replace it at the end of the '75 season with a new boat. He sold the boat to Ron Burton of Ron Burton of Australia. The boat was campaigned under various owners in Australia until 1998.

In 1976 Bob Saniga drove the boat to victory in the Australian Griffith Cup at Lake Eppalock, which is the Australian equivalent of the Gold Cup. Thus this boat became the first (and so far only) to win both the American Gold Cup and Australian Griffith Cup. She also won the Eppalock Gold Cup, the Morwell Hazelwood Cup, the Yarrawonga Cup, and the Glenmaggie 500 for various owners including Burton, Joe and Steve Cooper, Vern White, and Ken Warby. The boat returned briefly to the United States in 1978, competing in the Tri-Cities and Seattle with Bob Saniga driving. Her duel with the Miss Madison (the former "Winged Wonder" Pay 'n Pak) brought back memories of the epic Pay 'n Pak/Budweiser duels of 1973-1975.

The boat was purchased from World Water Speed Record Holder Ken Warby by Eric Mann in 2001, and returned to the United States in the Summer of that year. It will be run at various historic Unlimited Hydroplane events organized by the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum under APBA sanction.

Turning on to Turbine Power

Reprinted from the 1981 Pay ‘n Pak Media Kit

When the U-95 turbine-powered unlimited hydroplane sank in the north turn of the Sand Point Lake Washington course after scattering one of its two engines during the 1974 running of the Seattle Seafair event, there were those who thought this sounded the death kneel for a turbine-powered hydroplane.

But not Dave Heerensperger.

Heerensperger saw the potential of the idea and in late 1978 when he was ready to return to the sport, he had made up his mind that he wasn’t coming back to the hydro wars without a turbine-powered boat.

“In the first place there wasn’t that much Rolls (Rolls Royce engines) equipment available and Jim (Crew Chief Jim Lucero) wanted the challenge of putting the package together.

“We knew that we needed a single engine installment and when the engine became available there was never any doubt about the direction that we would be taking in getting back into racing,” Heerensperger said.

After a year of research on the engine and its characteristics, Lucero and his team began the process of “putting together the package.” Prior to that Heerensperger had asked for and secured a moratorium from the Unlimited Racing Commission on any rule changes against the turbine power plant for four years from the time the boat ran in its first race.

Putting together the package entailed designing and building a hull and simultaneously acquiring the surplus turbine engines and then rebuilding them to make them race ready.

Design and building of the hull was perhaps the most familiar task to the Lucero team since this newest Pay ‘n Pak would be Lucero’s fourth hull. The power plant for the hull was an area where the team would be breaking new ground, however.

Chosen for the job was the Lycoming T-55 L-7 turbine, an engine that was used in the Chinook helicopters during the Vietnam war. Stan Hanauer, father of Squire Shop driver Chip Hanauer, was hired to be responsible for the detailing and maintenance of the engines. Together, Lucero and Hanauer spent two weeks as the turbine engine school learning about their new engines.

Putting the package together was no easy task. Before any construction could begin the Pak’s shop had to be fitted with the proper equipment, no small chore in itself when you consider that housed within the walls of the Pak shop are a complete machine shop, a fiberglass shop, the engine room and the boat building area.

Outfitting of the shop began during the summer of 1979 while Lucero was still working with the as Van Lines and continued through early 1980 when the last piece of the machine shop was put into place. Construction of the hull actually began in October of 1979 with the crew working simultaneously on finishing the outfitting of the shop.

Although the crew had hoped that the hull would be ready for the first race of 1980, construction and outfitting of the hull, complicated by outfitting of the shop and the building of special tools for the Pak’s turbine engines, took longer than anticipated. It wasn’t until July of 1980, after nearly two weeks of exhaustive round-the-clock work, that the crew dropped the boat into the water for its “maiden voyage”.

The new hull was christened at Stan Sayres pits with the traditional bottle of champagne by Dave’s wife, Jill Heerensperger, and Arlene Walters, wife of driver John Walters, on the Thursday prior to the running of the Tri-Cities, Washington, Columbia Cup. After the short ceremony before almost 3000 unlimited fans, John Walters took the newest ‘Pak out for its shakedown cruise.

Although the boat never went over 125 mph, the initial test runs at Lake Washington were impressive even by the critic’s harshest standards, and by Saturday the boat was in the Tri-Cities, Washington pits to attempt to qualify for the Columbia Cup.

Word of the Pay ‘n Pak’s success spread rapidly to the Tri-Cities area and the new craft caused quite a stir among local race fans. Radio stations in the area were breaking into their regular programming with progress reports on the boat’s trip on the way down from Seattle.

The excitement created in the pit area on the arrival of the new Pay ‘n Pak reminded may old-time observers of the sort of excitement that was generated by the Slo-Mos some 30 years earlier when the thunderboats first came to Seattle.

The boat not only looked fast on the trailer, but Walters and the ‘Pak proceeded to turn in a qualifying lap just a few ticks of the clock shy of 125 mph, which considering it was just the second time the boat had been in the water, was a remarkable feat.

Even with that speed, however, Lucero indicated that the team really didn’t come to the Tri-Cities with the intention of racing.

“We simply want to get some test time in race-like condition. We certainly did not come here with the idea of knocking off the Budweiser, Atlas Van Lines, Circus Circus or the Squire Shop.

“We want John to get some time in the boat and see what will happen running against other boats. If we finish third or fourth that will suit our team just fine,” said Lucero.

But Heerensperger, Lucero, Walters, and the rest of the Pay ‘n Pak team never got a chance to get the boat into competition. In a pre-race test run of the boat with Walters at the controls, the boat flipped in a spectacular 165 mph, one-and-three-quarter loop, that severely damaged the boat, injured Walters, and brought an early end to the 1980 Pay ‘n Pak racing hopes.

Just exactly what caused the accident will probably never be known. But there is evidence to support a theory that the flip was caused by several factors acting together. Any one of these factors acting by itself probably would not have been enough to cause the accident.

One of the factors was the loss of the microphone from Walter’ helmet on Saturday. That happened when Walters and the ‘Pak crew were virtually mobbed by fans and media people on the dock after the first test run. The microphone was inadvertently knocked off his shoulders and into the water.

What that meant was during the Sunday test run, instead of relaying information to Lucero via the radio, Walters had to keep track of all of the systems so that they could be charted when he got back to the pits.

Not a big thing in itself, but just one of those minor distractions that may have caused John to loose track of how fast he was going.

Another factor that should be considered was just the fact that Walters and the rest of the crew had not had much rest getting the boat ready for its first race during the previous two weeks.

“Saturday night I got out of the pits early, had dinner and tried to go to sleep. But I was really excited and really didn’t sleep all that well,” he said.

For Sunday the game plan was to try and run just a little faster than Saturday and one of the things that Walters was doing when the boat got airborne was making his timing run on the starting clock.
Still another factor hat may have contributed to the accident was the failure of the rear wing. It appears that excessive head from the exhaust pipe may have caused the wing to become weakened and then in a stressed state, it failed.

Walters recalls, “I was making a run on the clock to time my start and I had put down a throttle setting of what I thought would give me 150 mph. I check the instruments and tach just like it was a real start.

“About 50 yards before the starting line the boat rattled over the wake of a patrol boat. I looked up and the boat recovered from that easily. I glanced back at the speedometer and I was going faster than I wanted to be – just above 155 mph.

“Then the nose got high and hung up there. I didn’t think it was a problem, but I realized that I was going faster than I wanted to be and I got slightly off the pedal. The boat climbed more, the speed was close to 160 mph, and I was just kinda coasting along.

“The boat pitched up some more, but it still didn’t seem like it was any big problem. Then all of the sudden it seemed like someone kicked a jack stand out from underneath the back of the boat. The bridge disappeared, the horizon disappeared and I tried to bury myself as far back in the cockpit as I could,” he recalled.

The “jack stand” being kicked out from underneath the boat is what many think is the rear wing failing. That wing functions to hold the tail of the boat up; and in doing so keep the nose down. When the wing failed at such a high speed there was only one thing that was going to happen – and it did spectacularly!

It was a long fall and winter for Walters and the Pay ‘n Pak team as they regrouped to put the ‘Pak back together. Walters broke his hip in the accident and had multiple minor injuries.

The boat broke the right sponson as well as stripping the deck of the cowl, uprights and horizontal stabilizer. The crew stripped the boat of the deck before repairs begin to ascertain whether there was any other damage to the hull.

“Surprising enough, the boat came through the accident quite well. There was some minor damage to the superstructure, but with the exception of the sponson the integrity of the hull remained pretty much intact.

“We beefed up several sections of the hull and made some other minor modifications to the hull, but other than that the boat is pretty much like it ran at Pasco,” Lucero said.

“Modifications that were made to the ‘Pak include a set of wings in front of the boat. It was hoped that these wings would allow adjustment to be made in the riding attitude of the boat at high speeds. Although they were taken off the boat during testing prior to the season, Lucero said there was a chance that they might return to the hull later in the season.

Pre-season testing has been extensive for the Pay ‘n Pak as the team has patiently worked the bugs out of the hull and engine, trying not to go too fast too quick.

“Working under the pressures that we were last summer, I think that one of the things that led to the accident was that we went too fast too quickly. Testing during the winder has allowed us the luxury that we didn’t have last summer time,” Lucero said.

And whether or not the Pay ‘n Pak is a winner – only time will tell and as Lucero notes, “That’s why we go racing.”

Nevertheless, there are still those who are skeptical about the use of a turbine engine in an unlimited hydroplane and while Lucero and the rest of the ‘Pak crew are quite certain that there is enough power in the turbine (the L-7 is rated at 2650 hp) to make the boat a contender, there are some questions that Lucero thinks will only be answered through running the boat in competition.

“We are concerned about the reaction of the boat to being hosed down. Quite frankly we are not sure what is going to happen if John has to drive through a roostertail.

"The air intake is designed so that any water that might be taken in must go through three 90-degree turns to get to the motor, so it shouldn’t be a problem. But there is always the chance that we might take in more water than the system was engineered for and in that case it is conceivable that we could break a blade on the turbine - which probably would cause us to scatter a motor and could lead to the same kind of problems that the U-95 had,” he said.

Another worry of Lucero’s is the possibility of “foreign object damage.” That is the sucking into the turbine of something other than air or even a little water.

“The turbine is much more sensitive to balance and if we had that kind of problem there is again a chance for serious damage to the engine and boat,” Lucero said.

However, even with all of those worries face fans should remember that the T-55 turbine that the Pay ‘n Pak is running has some 3.3 million hours of airborne experience (if you will pardon the phrase), many of those under combat conditions.

And there are some other factors which make the turbine power plant a very enticing proposition for an unlimited hydroplane.

Like power-to-weight radio. The turbine will weigh about 500 pounds less than the Rolls or Allison engines which are being turned at rpm’s that are almost double that for which they were originally designed.

The turbine engine on the other hand was designed to be turned at between 15,000-16,000 rpm’s and then geared down, so it will be operating under normal factory specifications, even when the boat is performing at top speed – of about 170 mph.

And this is perhaps one of the best things about the engine, in terms of long term operating costs, the engine should require a great deal less maintenance, last longer, and in the long run make the cost of racing less expensive.

In fact if there is one thing that has drawn Heerensperger to the engine, it is the fact that it is not only a proven power plant, but in comparison to a reciprocating piston engine they are a great deal more simple and more efficient.

The gas turbine, as a generic engine, has been around since 1791 when John Barber proposed and patented the first one. However, it has only been within recent years that the gas turbine has attained a state of development as a power plant where it has become practical as a primary power source.

During the years between 1792 and 1950 many scientists attempted to refine gas turbine principles with little or no success. The idea of obtaining continuous rotary motion directly from a combustible mixture without utilization of a steam boiler or reciprocating mechanism was always intriguing, but one that defied practical realization.

To really understand the way a turbine works, one has only to understand Newton’s third law of motion which states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Picture a garden hose without a nozzle. Water at normal hose pressure flows freely from the open end of the hose. Attach a nozzle, preset the nozzle to spray at the greatest distance possible and turn on the water. The reaction of the water flowing through the nozzle can be felt as a force at the nozzle in a direction opposite to the water flow.

If you’ve ever been squirted by your own garden hose when you have turned it on with an open nozzle, you have directly experienced Newton’s third law of motion.

In thinking about the above model there are three stages to keep in mind: First the system is charged, in this case by turning the faucet. Second, the gas in the system (and in this case our gas is water) is compressed. This is done by keeping the hose nozzle closed. Third, the nozzle is opened to release the pressure, and there is a reaction in the opposite direction of the water.

With the turbine that drives the Pay ‘n Pak there are basically the same three stages.

When the engine is started, it is started much like a car engine in that a battery-run starter is used to initially spin the compressor.

Like turning on the faucet, the compressor sucks in air and compresses it to approximately 100 pounds per square inch, or roughly seven times normal. When the boat is running, the two scoops that are adjacent to the driver’s compartment assist the compressor in sucking air into the engine. Remember, the faster you want to turn the engine, the more air that is going to be required.

The compressed air could be used by itself to power a turbine wheel, but to make the system more efficient, the compressed air is combined with fuel and ignited. The product of this combustion is a gas under significantly higher pressure than before combustion. At this point, like our hose whose nozzle has not been opened, we have a pressured system.

Remember in the turbine engine there is no nozzle to open. The escaping gas is directed through a series of three power wheels or turbines. The first of these three wheels drives the compressor so that the battery can be disconnected. The second and third power wheels provide the power to turn the propeller.

The greatest difference between the turbine engine and the reciprocating engine is that the piston powered engine takes up and down motion and turns it into circular motion, while the turbine engine simply generates circular motion. This in itself is one of the chief reasons that the turbine is a comparatively more efficient engine.

The efficiency and simplicity of the turbine are the things which lead the aircraft industry to use it. It has been proven over and over again as a power plane for helicopters and airplanes.

And if things go according to plan, it will be proven as a power plant for a hydroplane in 1981.

History of Pay 'n Pak Racing

The first boat associated with Dave Heerensperger was originally the Miss Spokane. This Ted Jones designed boat was purchased by Bob Gilliam in 1962 -- the boat was sponsored by Heerensperger's Spokane-based Eagle Electric and Plumbing for the 1963-1964 seasons. The first Miss Eagle Electric was not very competitive, and was sold to Jim Herrington at the end of 1964. She would run as Herrington's Detroit-based Miss Lapeer through 1967.

Heerensperger became a boat-owner himself when he purchased the second $-Bill during the 1967 season. The Staudacher designed boat, originally built in 1962 and campaigned as the $-Bill from 1962-1967 was renamed Miss Eagle Electric after the August purchase and completed the season as an also-ran with Norm Evans driving. Over the winter the team rebuilt the boat, and when she emerged for the 1968 season, the second Miss Eagle Electric was a top contender, challenging for the 1968 National Championship with retired Air Force Colonel Warner Gardner behind the wheel. The "Screaming Eagle" as this boat was nicknamed scored victories at the Dixie Cup, the Atomic Cup, and the Presidents Cup. Unfortunately, Gardner was killed in September during the final heat of the postponed Gold Cup in Detroit. While attempting to gain the lead from Miss Budweiser on the third lap, Gardner drove the boat deep into the roostertail turn. The boat got out of attitude and the left sponson began to lift, resulting in a slow roll and the boat crashing back into the water upside down. The boat was destroyed in a shower of splintered wood and water, the crash also taking the life of popular Colonel Gardner.

Heerensperger made the difficult decision to press on, ordering a radical outrigger hydroplane which eliminated air-traps between the hull and sponsons, reducing lift and chance the boat might take flight. This design marked the first of several significant departures from mainstream boat design, exemplifying the innovative character of Heerensperger. The boat also had a new name, the "Pride of Pay 'n Pak" named after the Northwest "Pay 'n Pak" hardware store chain which Heerensperger had purchased. Perhaps the outrigger was a little too radical to be successfully developed during the heat of battle -- after struggling with the boat for the first half of the 1969 season, the first Pride of Pay 'n Pak gave way to a conventional Staudacher Hull which ran for the first time at the Gold Cup in San Diego. The first Pride of Pay 'n Pak was retired after the '69 season.

The second Pride of Pay 'n Pak was a conventional Staudacher Hull which competed in the 1969 San Diego Gold Cup, replacing the first outrigger "Pride". While the team was constructing a new Hull for 1970, the Staudacher Hull underwent a significant overhaul. David Smith applied his unique design talent to the cowling and tail of the boat, including a truncated headrest. The boat was renamed "Pay 'n Pak's 'lil Buzzard and was intended to be a backup to the new automotive cabover boat. As it turned out, the automotive boat was not as competitive as hoped, so during the season primary driver Tommy Fults switched to the U-00 Buzzard, winning the 1970 Atomic Cup to earn his second career victory. Unfortunately, Fults was killed during qualifying for the Gold Cup in San Diego when he was thrown from the boat during qualifying. The Buzzard was scrapped following the accident.

The third Pride of Pay 'n Pak was built over the '69/'70 winter and was another innovative and radical design. Powered by two Keith Black Chrysler 426 cu-in supercharged Hemi engines with the cockpit ahead of the engines in the cabover configuration, Heerensperger was again expanding the limits of conventional Hydroplane wisdom. The boat was designed and constructed by Ron Jones, marking the second unlimited design for Jones. However, the boat gained considerable advantage from the advances Jones had been making with a number of very successful 7-liter limited designs. Crew Chief Dwight Thorne is regarded as one of the best engine men in the business, but even he and his talented crew were unable get enough power and reliability out of the Hemi's to compete with the Aero engines of almost twice the displacement. The engines had to be pushed too hard to move the big boat around, resulting in disappointing results. After two races Fults switched to the "backup" U-00 Pay 'n Pak 'lil Buzzard, and Ron Larson was brought aboard to campaign the struggling Hemi Pride. Most of the crew focused their attention on their primary driver and the 'lil Buzzard, so perhaps some of the potential performance improvement left in the Hemi boat went unrealized despite Larson's attempts.

Jim Lucero was named crew chief of the Pay 'n Pak team in prior to the start of the 1971 season. One of the most successful crew chiefs of all time, and one of the true pioneers advancing the art of Unlimited Hydroplane engineering, Lucero shared the same spirit of innovation with Heerensperger. With Heerensperger's support, Lucero would introduce several successful innovations, but first he had to start small. During the off-season, the cabover Pride of Pay 'n Pak was reconfigured with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine and the driver behind the engine. New cowlings were constructed, including a very distinctive David Smith headrest which extended from the cockpit to the tail in a cone shape. The tail included vestigial horizontal elements for aesthetics. This beautiful "new" boat made her debut in 1971 with Billy Schumacher at the wheel. The boat showed promise early in the season, but experienced the normal setbacks as the team worked to dial the boat in. Her promise was realized when she won three consecutive wins races at the end of the 1971 season.

The team had high hopes for 1972 and got off to a great start, winning the season opening Presidents Cup. The team could only place second in national high-points, however, as the Bill Muncey and the Atlas Van Lines won the rest of the events in 1972, winning 6 of 7 races and the national championship. Heerensperger released Schumacher at Detroit when Billy refused to race in terrible conditions present on the Gold Cup course, Billy Sterret Jr. replaced Schumacher for the rest of the season. After just 4 wins in 2 seasons, Heerensperger decided he would need a bigger hammer to be competitive in the 1973 season, so he commissioned a new Ron Jones boat to replace the third Pride of Pay 'n Pak.

Bernie Little learned the Pay 'n Pak team was building a new boat, and persuaded Heerensperger to sell him the Pride. The seventh boat to wear the Miss Budweiser banner, Little campaigned the boat from 1973-1975 winning a total of 10 races including the 1973 Gold Cup with Dean Chenoweth at the wheel. The boat finished second in National Points in 1973 and 1974. While owned by Little, the boat was driven by Chenoweth, Howie Benns, and Mickey Remund. Bernie had a new hull built for the 1976 season, and sold the boat to Ron Burton of Australia, where she campaigned as Miss Bud until 1998.

In 1976 Bob Saniga drove the boat to victory in the Australian Griffith Cup at Lake Eppalock, which is the Australian equivalent of the Gold Cup. Thus this boat became the first (and so far only) to win both the American Gold Cup and Australian Griffith Cup. She also won the Eppalock Gold Cup, the Morwell Hazelwood Cup, the Yarrawonga Cup, and the Glenmaggie 500 for various owners including Burton, Joe and Steve Cooper, Vern White, and Ken Warby. The boat returned briefly to the United States in 1978, competing in the Tri-Cities and Seattle with Bob Saniga driving.

This boat is currently owned by Eric Mann and is part of the Unlimited Excitement collection. It returned to the United States in August 2001, and is retired from competition but is still run and exhibited at various classic and historic Unlimited Hydroplane events. It is the oldest existing Pay 'n Pak boat.

For the 1973 season, a new Ron Jones designed and built Hull was constructed, with Crew Chief Jim Lucero's oversight. Originally designed as a cabover, Heerensperger insisted the boat be built as with a conventional layout due to the teams experience with the '70 cabover. The boat's revolutionary horizontal stabilizer lead to the nickname "Winged Wonder". The boat was also constructed from honeycomb aluminum, marking the first use of this aircraft material in an Unlimited hull. Soon this construction technique would replace the traditional wood construction methods. This boat was simply named Pay 'n Pak, becoming the first boat with this name.

This boat was an immediate success, scoring victories in 1973 at Miami, Madison, Seattle, and Toledo for driver Mickey Remund. She would have won the Gold Cup that year but for a lost prop while leading the last lap of the final. The Winged Wonder did win the first of three consecutive National Championship for Heerensperger, setting a number of competition records along the way. 1974 was similarly successful with George Henley driving to victories at Owensboro, the Tri-Cities, Seattle's Gold Cup, Dayton, San Diego, and Madison on the way to the second National Championship. For 1975, some major changes were made to the hull and the handling was off, particularly in the corners. Henley retired at the end of the '74 season, so Jim McCormick was hired to drive for the 1975. McCormick was unable to be competitive with the poor cornering of the boat, causing him to be replaced after the second race by Henley who was brought out of retirement by Heerensperger. After Henley also was unable to control the boat, the boat was reconfigured to the '74 settings and after mediocre results in the first four races of the season, the boat was back to her old self winning the next 5 of 6 events, including another Gold Cup and the National Points Championship. Having risen to the top of Unlimited's Racing ladder with few mountains to climb, and tiring from criticism he was becoming too successful, Heerensperger chose to sell his entire team to Bill Muncey. Heerensperger did sponsor the Winged Wonder at the Northwest events in 1977.

Muncey drove the Winged Wonder, now the eight boat known as Atlas Van Lines, to another National Championship in 1976. Thus in the first four seasons of competition, this boat won four national championships! Muncey concentrated his effort on the new 9th Atlas Van Lines hull for the 1977 season (the cabover "Blue Blaster", an unfinished hull included in the Heerensperger team sale), with the grand Winged Wonder competing at only two races thanks to the sponsorship of Heerensperger and Pay 'n Pak. Ron Armstrong piloted the boat at both the Tri-Cities and Seattle Washington with the familiar Pay 'n Pak name on her sponsons.

Following the 1977 season, Muncey sold the boat to the Miss Madison organization. She was converted from Rolls-Royce Merlin power to turbo-Allison, and performed reasonably well for the limited-budget team amidst tough competition in 1978, finishing 4th in National points including second place at the Gold Cup and Columbia Cup. The boat was retired after the 1988 season, and is now in Detroit, owned by Dave Bartush of the Detroit Hydroplane Museum.

The second (and last) Pay 'n Pak again revolutionized the sport. Heerensperger had been out of the sport (except for briefly sponsoring the old Pay 'n Pak in 1977) since 1976 but Jim Lucero had come to him in 1979 with a proposal for a Turbine-powered Unlimited. Several years earlier the star-crossed U-95 had shown brief moments of brilliance, but had not established turbine-powered hydroplanes as truly viable. Heerensperger with his forward thinking and inventive character decided to back Lucero's effort. Lucero tried to continue as crew chief for the Atlas team while building the boat -- this proved too difficult and he resigned from the Atlas team at the end of the 1979 season to concentrate on building the Turbine Pak and serve as crew chief.

Construction delays resulted in the boat missing the early part of the 1980 season. The boat managed to qualify at the Tri-cities, but was very difficult to drive with a lot of dialing-in yet to go. While testing the morning of the race, the boat flipped during a quick lap, the boat sailing above the water, ultimately performing 1-3/4 somersaults. Driver John Walters was injured, and the boat was out for the remainder of the season. It was clear from video and other evidence that the horizontal wing had failed, buckling upwards at the center which upset the boat's center of lift. It was later determined that exhaust heat from the turbine had weakened the wing.

The boat showed promise in 1981, with a second place finish at the Gold Cup in Seattle, but never managed to find the winners circle. Damage to the boat in the Midwest required significant repairs that limited the boats competitiveness. 1982 marked a milestone for Turbine power -- the Lycoming T55 became the first turbine to win a race when Walters drove around Dean Chenoweth and the Miss Budweiser at the season's second race in Romulus, NY. Various mechanical problems kept the boat out of the winners circle again until the team's season came to an abrupt and early end at Seattle. The Executone boat lost control and collided with the Squire Shop at the start of a heat race. Walters was at full speed when the boats suddenly crossed in front of him -- he was unable to avoid the inevitable collision and impacted the other boats, being violently catapulted from his boat after it sailed high in the air and crashed heavily into the water on its side. Heerensperger was so shocked at what he had seen he suffered a mild heart attack. Walters was revived and after several week in the hospital and months of physical therapy largely recovered. He suffered leg and back injuries which result in a permanent limp. Heerensperger decided to retire for good, selling the team to Steve Woomer of Competition Specialties.

In 1984 when Woomer's primary Miss Tosti Asti was seriously damaged at Evansville due to a propeller failure, the crew worked around the clock to press the former turbine Pak into service for the following week's Madison Governors Cup race. The hard work paid off, with the boat finishing a respectable third in Madison. The boat was again idle until 1987, when the boat was purchased by Rick Sutphen, who campaigned it in 1987 and 1988 at the Sutphen Spirit with Mike Evans driving. The boat is now owned by Dave Bartush, and is awaiting restoration by his Detroit Hydroplane Museum.