Construction of the Pay 'n Pak, 1980

 Building a Thunderboat

Building a national champion unlimited hydroplane is a little like cooking up a good Irish stew. It takes a number of prime ingredients that must be prepared with tender loving care; it takes a chef to oversee the preparation and cooking of the ingredients and, finally, it takes time.

The first step in building an Unlimited Hydroplane sees the bottom laid out. After the bottom has been carefully laid out, the frames are attached to the bottom. Here Jim Lucero and John Walters confer during assembly of the boat.

If done properly the stew is an epicurean delight which far surpasses in taste that of a single ingredient. When all the pieces are put together properly, the unlimited hydroplane also far surpasses in speed, excitement and beauty that of a single piece of material that went into the construction of the hull.

John Walters cuts a piece of honeycomb which will be used as a frame on the hull. The honeycomb material offers a great savings in weight while giving up no loss in strength. The hull is then turned over at which time the non-trip frames and the non-trip are attached to the hull. Next the sponson frames are attached and the sponsons are constructed. Here John Walters works on attaching the non-trip to the non-trip frames. The sponson frames have yet to be attached to the hull.

Today there are only a handful of craftsmen in the world who can “cook up" a boat that large - a minimum of 28 feet long — and get it to “dance” across the water at a graceful 180 miles per hour.

The Pay ’n Pak team has campaigned hulls built by many of those builders, but the most success that the team has had was during 1973,1974 and 1975 seasons when the Pak virtually ruled the waters garnering consecutive national championships with a hull that was designed and built by crew chief and team manager Jim Lucero and the famous Jones family, Ron and father Ted.

Jim Lucero measures up a section of non-trip prior to fitting the final piece on to that section of the boat.

That boat was virtually the beginning of a new era in unlimited hull construction. The hull was not only the first boat to be constructed from space-age honeycomb aluminum, but was also the first boat to sport a rear horizontal stabilizer similar to Indy and Grand Prix cars. Since that time both have become standards in boat building.

Lucero has gone on to build the most successful unlimited hydroplane in the history of the sport, now campaigned as Bill Muncey's Atlas Van Lines.

When the boat is turned right-side up again it finally begins to look like a hydro is supposed to. At this time the battens are added to the top of the hull to make ready putting the deck down. Prior to the deck going on all internal hardware is installed and any "plumbing" that needs to be done is completed.

In 1980 the Lucero team launched another unlimited hydroplane and perhaps another era with the turbine-powered Pay 'n Pak, a refinement of the Atlas Van Lines hull with an all new power plant. Lucero, owner Dave Heerensperger and driver John Walters hope the craft will get the Pak team back into the winner’s circle after a five year hiatus from the sport.

The turbine-powered boat also utilizes honeycomb aluminum as an integral part of its skeletal frame. The advantage of this material, which can be described as two thin sheets of aluminum bonded to and separated by a honeycomb aluminum core, is that of light weight and extremely high strength.

John Walters works in securing battens to the hull of the newest Pay 'N Pak.

Of course this latest Pak, as do most unlimited hydroplanes, actually was conceived on Lucero's drawing table many months before the first piece of honeycomb was ordered for the boat.

Actual construction of the hull was done at the Pak shop by the Pay 'n Pak crew. In fact, the Pay 'n Pak racing team is unique among unlimited racing teams at this time in that it can do virtually 95% of all work on the boat right in its own shop.

The skin, which is fiberglass, if then laid on the deck. After the deck is on the motor mounts are installed, the cowling for the boat is added and the boat is painted.

Housed in the Pay 'n Pak shop are a complete machine shop, a fiberglass shop, a complete motor shop, and tools and floor space for the building maintenance of a hull. It is a great source of pride for both Lucero and the crew.

A most complete shop, members of the Pay 'n Pak crew can do virtually 95 percent of all work on the hull. Here we see a crew member working on some of the fiberglass parts of the boat.

The newest Lucero design to be raced weighs an amazingly light 5200 pounds, thanks to the honeycomb aluminum used in the boat and other Lucero building techniques, which coupled with the Pak’s turbine that is lighter than a Rolls Royce or Allison aircraft engine, should give the “whoosh” machine an advantage in the power-to-weight department.

The final look, the Pay 'N Pak U-25 Unlimited Hydroplane on the trailer.

While the new boat has all of the Lucero design concepts of previous boats, besides sporting a rear horizontal stabilizer the hull is designed to accept a pair of front stabilizers which will be used to help control the attitude of the boat at racing speed.

Ready to go racing.

Currently Lucero’s last hull, which is being run by Bill Muncey and the Atlas Van Lines team, is the winningest hydro in the history of unlimited hydroplane racing. But records are made to be broken, and when it is Jim Lucero that is doing the cooking, you know that the results have to spell winner.

Remembering Jim Lucero

The sport loses one of the great ones.

Reprinted from the Unlimited NewsJournal, June 2023

Only a small handful of people are among those who have had a transcendent influence on the sport of  unlimited hydroplane racing. Gar Wood would certainly be a member of that elite group, as would Bill Muncey, Ted Jones, and Bernie Little. Another in that category is Jim Lucero, who not only served as the crew chief for many of the top race teams during the 1970s, ‘80s, and into the mid-’90s—Pay ‘n Pak, Atlas Van Lines, Miller American, Winston Eagle—but also was at the center of such innovations as wings, cabover hulls, enclosed cockpits, and turbine power.

Jim Lucero

Jim Lucero passed away at a hospital in Federal Way, Washington, on April 29. Born in Bremerton, Washington, on May 29, 1945, he was a month shy of his 78th birthday. Though he is best known for his career in boat racing, he was so much more than that. He loved his family deeply and left behind his wife, Judy, and two daughters, Jennifer and Kristine.

But it was his involvement with the fastest of race boats that we now honor. During his career in unlimited hydroplane racing, Lucero was credited with 69 race victories, including 10 Gold Cups, and led his race teams to eight national championships. He was inducted into the Hydroplane Hall of Fame in 1980.

The Unlimited NewsJournal interviewed Lucero many times, both in a formal question-and-answer format and to get background for various purposes over the years. The first of those formal interviews came in 1974, when Lucero was only 27 years old. While much of his success in the sport had yet to happen, he was already standing at the pinnacle of success when he sat down with Dave Speer and Bill Osborne of the NewsJournal staff. This interview was first published in the November and December 1974 issues of this publication.

Jim Lucero’s first involvement with Unlimited racing came
on the crew of Notre Dame.

UNJ: What was your first Unlimited thing?

Lucero: It was strictly an accidental thing. I happened to be working nights and the Notre Dame crew needed part time help to wash engine parts. I thought it looked like a fun deal. I started working for them when Rex Manchester was driving.

Had you ever done any limited racing?

Never. Never even been to a limited race. I was an avid fan of the Unlimiteds for years, although I was beginning to lose a little interest by that time.

Was the Notre Dame camp typical of Notre Dame camps? A loose camp?

The first year I was with them was when Rex was driving, and it wasn’t. Rex was the boss, and it was very obvious he was the boss. He had all the say-so and everything and it showed in the way the boat ran. That boat probably ran as well as any Notre Dame ever did, I think, because we all knew where we stood.

When you look back on that first experience with the Notre Dame, what did you get out of it? Did ideas start formulating?

Yes. Very definitely. Particularly on the hulls. At that time we had crashed a few boats and it was clearly obvious that there was a lot of work to be done. My Notre Dame experience taught me more about engines and being careful about general maintenance than anything else. I really didn’t get into the design aspects of boats until I started working on the Smirnoff.

Tony Bugeja Collection

So, that was your next stop? Working with Lee Schoenith on his radical new hull in 1968.

I worked on the boat for a year in all, and I guess I was the crew chief. At least that’s what I was called sometimes. Until it came to the decision-making part, and Lee made the decisions, which were usually wrong.

So, when you were with the Smirnoff, you started getting involved with the hull set-up?

I was hired primarily as an engine guy because they had just switched over to Merlins. But, I worked very closely with Dick Brantsner, who designed the Smirnoff, and learned a lot about just basic hull design. Brantsner is the guy who built the fuel-injected Allison for Gale the year before. He’s been involved in I don’t know how many things. Presently, he works as director of research and development for Lionel trains.

So, it was an entire new team?

Right. In fact that was the year Dean Chenoweth was a rookie. Freddy Dube did the constructing on it. Brantsner didn’t have too much to say about how the boat was constructed, which was unfortunate because the boat probably would’ve turned out a lot lighter if he had. But it was Dick’s design—no question about it.

Was it just overbuilt? Maybe it was in reaction to the new idea, the wind-tunnel shape, the pickle-fork, and all that?

Well, it was over reaction. See, the year before [actually in 1966] the old Smirnoff had dumped and Chuck Thompson was killed in it, and it had really worked over their heads. They felt the construction was too light and went way the other way until it was so heavy that you could drop it off the Empire State Building and it wouldn’t come unstuck.

What kind of things was Brantsner trying to do with the boat? What did it do?

He was trying to make the boat aerodynamically stable. Unfortunately, it was too stable. So stable it wouldn’t get free. It just wouldn’t break loose from the water and go fast. Mechanically the boat ran well, but whenever we ran into any slop, the boat would fall into the holes because it didn’t have enough aerodynamic support. After a while we decided to close off the aerodynamic venting and get the thing to cushion itself on the water. We got it to stabilize a bit. From there we tried other things.

Lucero’s next stop was with Bob Fendler’s race team and
the U-19 Atlas Van Lines.

That obviously took you one step further.

From there I went to work for Bob Fendler on the Atlas U-19. And that boat had some very definite handling problems. Fortunately, I got a chance to learn and try some of my ideas on the boat. The boat was horrendously bad on the straightaway. God, it was 13 years old or so. It could not run over 130 mph without being dangerous. We got the boat to run 165–170, maybe, in the straight. And do it very nicely.

How did you accomplish that?

We made sponson changes. We also made some propeller changes. We worked on that area quite hard.

Then you stuck it out with Fendler a while longer?

Yeah, I stayed with him during the winter. Then at the end of that season we decided to build a new boat and go to automotive power. Building the new boat was probably a smart idea, but going to the auto power was probably a horrible mistake. That was the U-29.

 Fendler’s team introduced a new Atlas Van Lines in 1970 that was
powered by twin Chrysler Hemi engines.

A lot of people share the common conception that the hull was designed and built by Fred Wickens.

No. It definitely was not. Dick Brantsner and I designed it. Primarily, I did. In fact we designed it at the Lionel factory at Hillside, New Jersey. Actually, the crew, the U-29 crew, built the boat. Fred was down there every day, right in there with us, and he advised us on a lot of things because he had more experience than all of us putting together in building boats. So, he was invaluable in that respect.

What were the things you were trying to make happen that weren’t happening on the other boats?

We were trying to improve the turning capabilities of the boat. The name of the game in boat racing, as in any other kind of racing, is to make up the time in the slowest part of the course. And, it was obvious the boats were really pigs around the turns. And, I mean really pigs. The boats that were running fast—like the Bardahl or Miss Budweiser—were doing good in the turns. But the others were just horrible.

Technically, or design-wise, how did you try to execute this idea?

Basically, we tried to move the aerodynamic center of lift closer to the center of gravity, which meant moving the break in the bottom further back. And, we used wide sponsons. We didn’t move the center of gravity too far back, it was back about 25 inches or so, maybe 30. That proved to be too far back, although the boat turned well. The engines [twin Chrysler Hemis] were a disaster. I think we made three races before I quit.

Now, own up to this: Who decided to put the engines in?

Well, I was a good part of it. Myself and Keith Newton. They looked like they could cut the program, and we decided that was the thing to do. They looked like the wave of the future

The engines just couldn’t last.

Oh yeah. We couldn’t make an engine last more than a few laps. We were working on such a limited budget that we couldn’t do the right things. Chryslers are not cheap. That’s what bit us basically. And, we were trying to do everything ourselves. Heck, we built the boat, built the trailer, and did all the engine work ourselves. It was just too much. There was too much pressure. Towards the end we were working 24-hour shots, three or four times a week, and the whole thing dissolved.

In terms of the boat’s potential, you were not unhappy?

In fact, I was very pleased with it. It had some problems on the straightaway. It was pretty goosey, but I think that could’ve been cured pretty easily. But it turned excellently. It was probably the best turning boat on the circuit, I think. We couldn’t turn over 120 on the straights and we were still turning 95 to 100 laps.

When Lucero joined the Pay ‘n Pak crew in 1970, his first assignment was to
oversee the operation for Pay ’n Pak ‘Lil Buzzard.

What was the next step?

I went to work with Pay ‘n Pak.

What first drew you to the team? Was it that you felt that maybe you were going to get another chance to express ideas? Was it that you felt Dave Heerensperger would be committed to spending the money to do the job?

OK. There were several things. One, was that there were several close friends of mine—Dwight Thorne, Dixon Smith, David Smith—working on the boat. People that I respected a lot. That was a great starting point. Also, it was obvious that Dave was willing to spend the money to make the boats right. That takes the financial pressure off of you, and I don’t care how you look at it, that’s a gigantic amount of pressure on a guy. If you’re conscientious at all you’re going to be looking at that to make sure you’re doing the right thing for the guy you’re working for. If he can’t afford to spend a thousand dollars for a particular thing, you’ll try to find some other way around it.

Would it be fair to say that was really the first time you didn’t feel that type of pressure?

Oh no. I didn’t feel the pressure with the Notre Dame. There was money to burn. But there was a distinct lack of talent and organization on that thing, too.

When you first went with Pak, what was your responsibility?

We were running both boats at that time. The Chrysler-powered boat and ‘Lil Buzzard. Dwight Thorne was kind of overall crew chief, and I was given the responsibility to sort of chief the Buzzard. It didn’t work out that way because we were all pretty much equals on the boat. Everybody had his area of responsibility.

Since it was a conventional-type hull, not innovative in any way, you were in sense taking a step backward?

Yes. Very definitely. It was obvious to me the Chrysler boat had, at least the hull had, considerably more potential than the ‘Lil Buzzard did. The ‘Lil Buzzard ran well, in fact it ran much better than it had any right to. In fact, that hull won one race that year and should’ve won a couple more. When Tommy [Fults] got killed in it, the boat was riding better than it had ever ridden before—but it was a very fluke deal.

Was the Buzzard pretty well set up when you got to it?

Oh no. No, it was a very bad-riding hull. We did a lot of things to it, and we talked a lot about it. I was working with very capable people, and I just couldn’t say “this and that” will work and we’d do it. We had to talk about it, and I had to prove myself right, or at least convince them that’s what should be done.

Try to give me an idea of the thought process involved in setting up a hull. Is it a matter of little steps? What is it?

You have to observe the boat. It’s really a trial and error deal. You set the boat up initially thinking that, well, these things should be right. But, it’s like test flying an airplane. There’s going to be little things that come up that you just don’t have any way of knowing about until you run. In boats it’s even worse because there is less science involved. Less known about what things really should be.

The people must play an important role, as well?

Very definitely. There’s a real problem in boat racing. Well, there’s a distinct lack of the kind of people in boat racing that have the capability to do what needs to be done to make the boats right. Just because it doesn’t pay well enough. It’s obvious that an aerodynamic or hydrodynamic engineer isn’t going to work for peanuts. I just happen to be lucky enough to have come up with, through trial and error, some things that will help the boat. But, that’s the only reason. It isn’t because I’m so much smarter than anyone else I’ve been reasonably successful.

Pride of Pay ‘n Pak appeared in 1970 as a cabover powered by
twin Chrysler Hemi engines.

While you worked on the ‘Lil Buzzard, did you have anything to do with the cabover hull?

I tried to stay completely away from that when I first went to work for Dave. I thought that I should stay away from it because it was Ron Jones’s thing. He did design it and I felt he wanted to work it out his way. He and I had some different ideas on things. Also, it was a Chrysler project—it was his design and he knew more about it than I did.

What did you feel he was trying to do with the boat? How did that work into your ideas for the boat?

Well, he and I were basically trying to achieve the same goals: Make the boat turn well. But we were going about it differently. We had different cures in mind. I like to work with the sponsons a lot because I feel there’s a lot to be improved there. They did a lot of work with props because Ron feels there’s a lot to be improved there. And he’s right. I felt there was too much weight on the propeller for the way the boat was reacting—there may have been, there may not have been. I don’t know.

With the cabover Pay ‘n Pak, was the center of balance back like the boats now, or had Ron gone that far?

It started out way back and then it moved forward. The longer we had the boat the farther the c.g. moved forward.

How did you become crew chief? And, how do you go about convincing somebody to turn their boat around so drastically?

Well, I was basically the only one left, kind of. But before that, David had offered me the job. After Seattle, we decided to give the Chryslers one more chance—which was San Diego. They did a good job for us, but they were horribly expensive and, for us, very maintenance high. Instead of spending time working out the boat, we were spending time trying to keep the engines running. So, at that time we decided, well we’ve got all these Merlins, we know they can run reliably, and we know they make a lot of horsepower. We decided to switch it to Merlin power at that point in time. And, the way the boat was set-up, we could not possibly put a Rolls in the boat and keep the engine in the front.

During the offseason, Lucero was instrumental in converting the boat to
Merlin power with the driver behind the engine.

The engines dictated the change more than the change dictated the engine.

Yes. Although, that’s the way I wanted it, anyway. So, it was very fortunate that it worked out that way

You don’t care where the cockpit is as long as the boat goes?

Not really. I feel it is somewhat safer to be in the back than in the front. The driver takes more of a beating. But to me, I don’t care. It’s not worth it to end up losing a driver by having him sit in the front. If the boat noses in, he’ll be pitched out instead of going down with the boat. If he feels comfortable in the front, we’ll put him there. The visibility is great up there. But, then again, George [Henley] hasn’t complained about visibility in our boat.

After the ’73 Gold Cup, was there a feeling that you wished you hadn’t sold the boat to Budweiser?

Oh, no. There were three different ways to look at it. One, we got a very fair price for the old boat. In fact, a darn high price. Granted it was an excellent-running boat. And, we also felt we could build something faster, and I think we pretty well proved that. I think that Bernie Little would’ve quit the sport if he hadn’t gotten a competitive-running hull, and I don’t think the sport can afford to lose him. He’s a colorful guy.

Jim Lucero is perhaps best known for his role creating the
“Winged Wonder” Pay ‘n Pak in 1973. Photo by Randy Hall.

When it came time for the new boat, who was the person to say what it would look like? What was Heerensperger’s role in the design? What did you say?

I’d say Dixon and myself because that’s all there was then. We knew what we wanted—a boat that ran like the old one but was 800 pounds lighter. That’s where the honeycomb stuff came up. Dave gave us a very free hand.

Whose idea was that?

Dixon’s and myself. We did all the research, talked with the Hexcel people, came up with the design specs for what we needed—the whole works. Fortunately, it worked. Generally speaking, we all worked together enough to know that when we want to do something we’d better have a good reason for it.

What was Ron Jones’s reaction when you went to him with this idea?

Well, I’d say he was less than enthusiastic about it. Ron is an independent guy and he’s got a lot of pride. It was basically his own design—basically the same thing as the old boat. People don’t like other people coming into their field of expertise and telling them what to do.

The shell was his design, but did the sponsons bear any resemblance?

No. They were pretty different. We’ve got some different ideas about how a hull should be set up. The old boat was set up my way and it worked successfully. So I naturally thought justified in calling the shots on the new hull.

Did he try to talk you into full length air traps?

Oh, we talked about it. I think the discussion went something like, “Do you want full air traps?” I said, “No.” He said, “OK.”

What about the wing?

I think the wing is an excellent safety device, but I don’t think it is absolutely necessary to the performance of the boat. As is evidenced by the Budweiser, and that boat runs pretty well without one. We can make minor changes in its performance by tuning the wing some. In fact, Dave Heerensperger had as much to do with that as anybody. He insisted on having a wing on the boat.

Is that right?

David was thinking of it from a publicity standpoint.

Lucero with Pay ‘n Pak driver George Henley.

Is there anything the present U-1 cannot do that you wish it could do?

I think that the boat isn’t quite as efficient in the straightaways as it should be. It’s pretty good in the turns, in fact probably better than anything else running right now. But I think we can improve the straightaway characteristics. By the way, on the wing, every time I turn around, I read some article that the Craig Breedlove Speed Team, whatever the heck that is, designed the wing. I’ve never met Craig Breedlove. He didn’t have an ounce of anything to do with this boat. I’d like to dispel that right now.

What are you doing to a Rolls now, that you weren’t doing in 1970?

Today we try to take it easier on the engine. We try to make the boat work better so that the engine doesn’t have to work so hard. That’s why we sold the old boat. We knew it took a lot of horsepower to push it. They’ll probably get upset with me saying it, but the boat has never gone as fast since we sold it. We can make the new boat go that fast and kind of stroke it.

Have you reached that point where it is harder to get more out of your engines? Now, is it going to be a further perfecting of the hull?

No. I think we can get more horsepower, and the way to do that is the way the Allison guys are doing it—take the load off the engine. It’s just a question of going about things in the right manner. This year we haven’t needed it but in the future we may.

If you were to go to turbocharging, would you go to an Allison?

If we were to, and right now we don’t have any plans to, we’d turbo a Merlin because it would be economically unfeasible for us to turbo an Allison. We’ve got a lot of Merlins left. We know what we can do with them. We feel we can make them competitive. To sell them wouldn’t make good business sense.

If you were given a free hand to design and build a new boat, what would you come up with?

About six months ago I had it pretty well formulated in my mind what I’d want to do. But after watching the new Jones boats, I’m not so sure. I think it would be somewhat along the lines of this boat. We’d make some structural changes because the honeycomb has worked out very well in some areas and in other areas it hasn’t worked out well at all.

Who selects your drivers?

David and I. The number one criterion is what kind of job they do out on the race course. But no matter how good a job they do on the course, if he presents a bad image for the company we can’t afford to hire him. We’ll sit down and talk about potential drivers, who’s available and who would do the best job for us.

You’ve often been critical of many drivers.

Well, one area where there is room for improvement is driving. I think there are too many drivers that are just seat-of-the-pants guys who don’t relate worth a damn to the crew. They come in and say the boat is “yacking,” or something like that. What the hell is a “yack”? Too many don’t approach their driving in a professional manner. To me, if a driver isn’t doing his thing on the course, he ought to be doing it on the beach—watching other drivers, mapping strategy, improving their skills. They feel that once they get the ride that all they need to do is jump in the boat and drive it. And that stinks. There’s too many of those guys around.

George is pretty good about this, isn’t he?

Yes. He thinks a lot about what’s going on out there. Early in the season George had some troubles with the boat. He’ll admit this. He was either going into the turn too fast, too slow, or in the wrong lane. We were able to help him by showing him video tape of what was going on. I don’t know of anyone else who does this. When everything is right, I want him to go out there and drive the hell out of it. He thinks a lot about what’s going on. What he’s going to do. Many camps seem totally, or at least borderline, disorganized and they never get the same combination twice while testing.

Do you feel a lot of that going around?

Oh yes. Most of that stems from inexperience. I was the same way when I started boat racing, and I hope I’m not that way now. People just don’t have the background to do the things they need to do—and I don’t know where they can get it readily. We try to come up with accurate data on what we’ve done in the past, and why, so that we can judge for the future.

What about the sport itself?

We need to work harder to put on a good show. I can remember, a ways back, thinking this sport had about a year and a half to go because there were only six or eight boats, but God, about three races this year we’ve had 15 boats. That’s not bad. I don’t know if we can handle any more. We need more competitive boats, but I think that’ll come. Next year I look for probably seven competitive boats, whereas this year there’s been basically four, off and on.

How many races a year is too many?

I think that 10 races is plenty. I’d like to see 10 races with a little more prize money. And be more selective about the places to run. I don’t think driving across country is a big deal. It’s a little hard on the crews, but we can bear it. The most important thing is to get quality race sites. Detroit has had boat races for years and years and years, but I still think it is a crappy place to race. I don’t care what they say about Sand Point, there’s no way Sand Point can even come close to Detroit. On a good day Detroit is horrible.

What about the people that run the sport?

I’d like to see improvement made as far as technical and safety committees go. I don’t feel that the people in those areas are qualified from a practical point of view—to do the job they are doing. I think the sport has made a good move in hiring professionals to promote the sport. I would like to see them work harder at promoting the race sites. Not just getting a site, but helping people at the race to put it on. Muncey did an excellent job at San Diego—at least I assume he had a lot to do with it. And Gene Whipp did a bitching job at Dayton. We need more of that. I think we also need better press relations.

Maybe we’ll see a change soon?

I doubt it. The owners are a pretty tough group. All those guys, Lee and Bernie, and David. It would be pretty hard for anybody to tell those three, hey, this is the way it is going to be. Period! I don’t know if there’s anybody who can do that. Personally, I would like to see the format so that the winner of the final heat was the winner of the race. That’s easy for the fans to understand. I don’t know of a single type of race that isn’t that way.

Yet the Fan Plan, the way it worked this year, has been less than ideal.

Right. But I think you’ll find that the top running boats, no matter who they are, go out to win. Perhaps the answer is an elapsed-time thing? Look at what some of the other sports are doing. And make the qualifying mean something. That used to be a big deal. Now it’s nothing.

What about next year? What about your future?

As far as I can see I’ll be working for Pay ‘n Pak for a good long time. They’re good people to work for. I don’t anticipate any changes. If we do build another hull, it isn’t going to be an over-the-winter project because I want ample time to test.

What motivates you? What makes Jim Lucero tick?

I dig boat racing. I like to compete. I think this is one reason David and I get along so well—because he loves to compete. The whole company is like that. I like the people, too. I’ve found that I can compete well and satisfy my desire. On the other hand, the way I look at it, I’m earning my living doing this stuff and if I come up with something that gives our operation an advantage, there’s no way I’m going to let it leak out. That’s not the name of the game. The name of the game is for Pay ‘n Pak to win—not Budweiser or somebody else.

Hydroplane Owners Gambling

May, 1973

Multimillionaires David Heerensperger of Seattle and George Simon of Detroit are out to shake up the Old Guard when the 1973 unlimited hydroplane season opens May 18-20 with the $25,000 Champion Spark Plug Regatta at the City of Miami Marine Stadium.

Sparing no expense in the costly fight to rule the waves, both tycoons are gambling on a bold and innovative approach to Gold Cup warfare this year.

Heerensperger's Pay 'n Pak and Simon's Miss U.S. reflect the latest approach to the aerodynamics of high speed water racing. Utilizing lightweight construction materials such as titanium, magnesium and aluminum, both rigs are between 500 and 1,000 pounds lighter than most other boats on the circuit.

Improved cornering ability and acceleration off hairpin turns like those at the Marine Stadium are the primary goals rather than top straightaway speed.

Built by Ron Jones of La Habra, Calif., Pay 'n Pak utilizes Hexel honeycomb aluminum desk structure and and cowling designed by the Craig Breedlove speed team. The Seattle-based thunderboat also boosts a horizontal stabilizer bar, on the stern. The top wing is about 20 square feet in area and can  be adjusted when the boat is in the pits.

Pay 'n Pak crew chief Jim Lucero explains, "The horizontal stabilizer wing is a safety device to trim the boat. If the nose is too high, the wing should correct the boat's attitude."

Heerensperger has named Mickey Remund, a record holding limited hydroplane driver, to drive the new Pay 'n Pak. Remund impressed a full house at Marine Stadium last summer by racking up a local speed record with his five litre hydro "Goin' Thing."

Remund's crash helmet is equipped with a two-way radio so that he's in constant touch with Lucero. Should the boat's 12-cylinder supercharged Roll Royce power plant quit during the race, Lucero can relay instant instructions to Remund.

Heerensperger isn't the only owner who's making waves with dramatic changes in 1973. On the Eastern front, U.S. Equipment Company magnate George Simon is unveiling the latest in a distinguished line of "Miss U.S." thunderboats. The new beauty is a Staudacher hull constructed of titanium and magnesium that tips the scale at just under 5,000 points and is expected to be the lightest rig on the tour this season.

Besides Pay 'n Pak and Miss U.S., the lineup of the Champion Spark Plug Unlimited Regatta includes defending champion Atlas Van Lines with Bill Muncey at the helm, Miss Budweiser drive by Dean Chenoweth, Red Man piloted by former Gold Cup winner Jim McCormick, Miss Madison with Miamian Charlie Dunn, Jr. at the control and Lincoln Thrift and Loan chauffeured by George Henley of Eatonville, Wash.

Official testing gets underway on May 17, with qualifying runs slated on May 18-19. Race action begins at noon on May 20, with a non-stop action program that alternates limited heats of hydroplanes and runabouts with the world's fastest unlimited Gold Cup thunderboats.

Bowing Out a Winner

By Bill Knight, Boating Editor, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Reprinted from Pipe Yard Gazette, January/February 1976

In 1964, Dave Heerensperger got out of unlimited hydroplane racing, vowing he’d be back.

The other day, the owner of the Pay ‘n Pak camp winner of the last three national championships, sold his boats and equipment and retired again, suggesting the challenges of the sport - at least for him - was gone.

Timing was critical on both occasions.

When he departed the first time, Heerensperger lacked the resources to campaign a competitive boat. “I couldn’t play their game,” he explained later.

More recently, it was a matter of bowing out while he was still at the pinnacle in a sport the Pak racing team has dominated to the point of his losing enthusiasm fo fit.

“I’ve had a lot of fun but the challenge is not there anymore,” he said candidly. “Besides, where to we go from here? What more can we do? We’ve won three straight national championships. After we got our act together last season we took everyone on head on and trounced ‘em.”

A couple of other factors played a part in the decision, which caught most of the boat racing world by surprise.

— Added responsibilities, demanding more of his time, in the management of his growing empire of building supplies, auto and sporting goods stores.

— Growing concern over the possibility of a backlash against the Pak camp because it has won so much in recent years. It’s the same undercurrent which prompts many to cheer against a big winner, regardless of the endeavor. Maybe it’s because more people identify psychologically with undergoes than champions. Heerensperger has been wary of this since the Pak hit the top and, in face, has often voiced concern over the lack of opposition.

— Billy Muncey’s offer - with the support of five-year financial backing by Atlas Van Lines - to buy all of Heerensperger’s boats, engines, props, gearboxes and the like.

Sport in Decline?

What Heerensperger didn’t say - he’s not the type to take a blast at the sport which has treated him well - is something that which could be even more critical in his decision. With the emergence of major league sports in the Seattle area, boat racing could decline to the point where the exposure it will get via press and TV won’t justify the rising cost of putting an unlimited on the circuit.

Highly regarded in the sport, Heerensperger’s departure is hardly a good omen. An innovative type, he will best be remembered for leading the sport into a new era of low profile, picklefork hulls which were faster and safer. The Pak hydro which finished its third season last year is the winningest hull in the sport’s history - 16 wins in 30 races.

He pioneered the use of honeycomb aluminum in hydros and the “wing” tail section and the rest of the fleet followed his example. Not all of this experiments worked. The “outrigger” was a dismal failure. His twin-automotive engine cab over was a flop at first. But Heerensperger didn’t flinch at trying new ideas and his innovations paid off.

Jim Lucero, the Pak crew chief Heerensperger credits with much of the team’s success, converted the twin-Chrysler hydro into Rolls power and rebuild the bottom and it became the hottest boat on the circuit.

Winningest Hydro

But the next Pak, new in ‘73, was even better and Heerensperger rates the boat - his 6th hull in 10 seasons - as his greatest contribution to the sport. The hull smashed records all across the country and won more races than any single boat, more than any of the legendary Slo-Mo’s, Thriftways, Gales, Tempo’s, or Bardahls. Before the next season, build Ron Jones was flooded with orders to duplicate the ‘73 Pak.

It brought  Heerensperger his first national championship and his first Gold Cup.

Yet Heerensperger’s most emotional achievement goes back to 1968 when he was still campaigning the Eagle Electric out of Spokane.

“We went to Guntersville, Ala., in the first race of this season with Colonel Gardner driving and we won the Dixie Cup” he recalls. “When we came back to Spokane there was a crowd of 500 to 1,000 people at the airport to greet us and the Shadle Park High School band was playing. I’ll never forget that one.”

Heerensperger will devote more time to the business now and he’s in the process of building a new home. He plans to attend the hydro races in Tri-Cities and Seattle as a spectator. “I won’t be upset and nervous and as ugly to live with,” he chucked.

He said the Pak will continue to sponsor a softball team with is “a pitcher and one or two players away from a national championship.”

But Dave Heerensperger is bowing out of boat racing as a winner and the sport is the loser.

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.

Hydroplane Racers Seek Greater Safety

By Joanne A. Fishman
Reprinted from The New York Times, May 22, 1983

Unlimited hydroplane racing is without question a high-risk sport. The light boats are the fastest afloat, propelled by massive airplane engines to speeds approaching 200 miles an hour. Yet, after the death of Bill Muncey and Dean Chenoweth, the sport's foremost drivers, within a year of each other, some wondered whether the risk justified the rewards.

After replacing Muncey as the driver for the Atlas Van Lines team last season in a new boat, Chip Hanauer succeeded beyond expectations, winning the national title. But he, too, had his doubts at the end of the season.

Hanauer decided he would continue driving, but he would seek to reduce the risks. During the offseason, Hanauer, who has been racing power boats since the age of 9, and Jim Lucero, the boat's designer and builder, redesigned Atlas Van Lines, making it aerodynamically cleaner and incorporating unusual safety features.

As a result, a safer and faster Atlas Van Lines will compete today in the opening of the 10-race unlimited circuit, the $100,000 Missouri Governor's Cup Race in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.

The cockpit was lowered below deck level to give the driver a better chance of surviving a serious accident. Also, a five-point seat belt system was added, similar to the one used by Indianapolis Raceway car drivers.

Hanauer said that he and Lucero had studied the last few fatalities in the sport. In Muncey's case, he said, the boat flipped, landing on top of him, with his body absorbing the impact. The force of the water then pushed him through the dashboard and cockpit cowling.

Chenoweth was thrown from the boat and then ''got tangled up with his boat as it tumbled across the water,'' said Hanauer, a 28-year old former school teacher.

Two other drivers, Tom Fults and Jerry Bangs, were killed in recent years when they were thrown from their boats. Last season, John Walters, driver of the Pay 'n Pak turbine-powered hydroplane critically injured when he was thrown out of his cockpit in Seattle. In every case, with the exception of Muncey's, the cockpit remained intact.

''That leads us to believe if the driver stays in the cockpit, he stands a good chance of surviving the accident,'' Hanauer said in a telephone interview before a preliminary heat Friday.

The redesigned cockpit affords greater protection. Formerly, Hanauer was sitting above deck level, surrounded by an eighth-inch layer of non-protective fiberglass designed merely for effective airflow. With the cockpit below deck level, the engine and the deck, rather than the driver, absorb the impact. And the fiberglass cowling has been replaced by a strong honeycomb aluminum shell.

Changes to the front end to improve straightaway speed combined with the lower center of gravity caused by lowering the cockpit have given the craft far greater stability and less drag. Atlas Van Lines, 28 feet long, is powered by a supercharged Rolls-Royce Merlin engine generating 2,800 horsepower.

Last year, Hanauer said that he couldn't run more than 135 miles per hour without using ''fences.'' These are plastic pieces directing air flow downward to prevent a blow-over. They also cause drag. In his first preliminary run Thursday, Hanauer said he went more than 170 m.p.h. without needing fences.

Hanauer should face strong competition from Miss Budweiser, driven by Jim Kropfield. Renault, the French automaker, is making its debut in unlimited competition this season with Miss Renault, driven by Milner Irvin and built by Jon Staudacher, whose boats hold most of the current limited-class hydroplane records. The only unlimited race in the northeast is the Atlas Van Lines Cup scheduled for June 12 on Lake Seneca at Sampson State Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

As Hanauer seeks to defend his title, he says he has accepted the dangers of the sport. What makes it worthwhile, he says, is ''the concentration, the intensity, the competition. If it wasn't difficult, it wouldn't be worth it. But it's a tremendous challenge: myself against the other drivers and the challenge to reach my own potential, to drive the perfect race.''

Hydroplane driver hurt in spectacular flip

Reprinted from The Daily Colonist, July 29, 1980

KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) — "You can't win if  you don’t play,” said Pay 'n Pak hydroplane driver  John Walters after a first-run test of his new machine on the Columbia River one day before the  Columbia Cup race.

He may have played too hard. The boat that had electrified a large crowd on Saturday horrified those gathered for the race Sunday.

Walters took the Pay 'n Pak for a test spin around the course prior to the day’s first scheduled heat.

Accelerating hard down the straightaway in front of the south bank of the river, the boat was caught by the wind, turned on its heel and went hurtling 30 feet into the air. The boat flipped backward 2½ times, hit the water on its nose and flipped backward again, coming to rest upside down in the water.

Walters was ejected on the first flip. The rescue barge was at his side 55 seconds after the start of
the crash. Divers were in the water helping the injured driver 10 seconds later.

Walters, an experienced young limited hydroplane driver making his debut on the unlimited circuit, was rushed to hospital where he was treated for a broken hip socket and a rash of cuts, bruises and sprains.

Damage to the boat was concentrated on its right side, where the front portion of the sponson was sheared off. The top was smashed. Crew and designer Jim Lucero estimated damage at $30,000 but  said the boat was not a total loss.

Owner Dave Heerensperger said Walters was running the course to get his timing down against the start clock and evidently got moving too fast for the tail wing and sponsons to handle.

1st Turbine Victory Celebration

In 1982 at 'Thunder In The Park' on Seneca Lake H1 Unlimited Hydroplane race at Romulus, New York, John Walters (r-l) accepts the trophy at Sampson State Park with crew chief Jim Lucero, turbine engineer Stan Hanauer and crewman Gary Walters. The was a first. First time a non-internal combustion-powered hydroplane scored a victory etching John Walters name boldly in the hydroplane record book.

Pay 'n Pak will return with turbine

Reprinted from The Seattle Times, November 19, 1978

The Pak will be back — with turbines.

David Heerensperger, chairman of the Pay 'n Pak corporation, has announced plans to re-enter unlimited hydroplane racing with a turbine-powered boat in the 1980 season.

The new boat will be built by Jim Lucero, now crew chief of the Atlas Van Lines, last season's national champion. Lucero will remain with the Atlas camp for the 1979 season.

The new turbine boat will be powered by a Lycoming T-55 L7 gas turbine, originally developed for military helicopters.

Chuck Lyford, who served a crew chief on the turbine-powered U-95, will be a consultant to the Pak camp. In 1974 the U-95 was heralded as the "boat of the future" but failed to win a race and sank after an accident at the Seafair Regatta. The turbine project was abandoned later when the boat's owner, Jim Clapp, died.

Heerensperger's Pay 'n Pak won national titles in 1973, '74 and '75. Heerensperger dropped out of hydroplane racing after the 1975 season, selling his boat and equipment to Bill Muncey. Racing under Atlas Van Lines sponsorship, Muncey won the national title in 1976. The boat raced last season as Miss Madison.

Heerensperger ranks fourth on the all-time list of owners' victories with 24.

The way for Heerensperger's re-entry into hydro racing was cleared at the recent Baton Rouge, La., meeting of the Unlimited Racing Commission. A rule was passed allowing turbine racing "without restrictions" for a four-year period beginning with the first season Heerensperger's new boat races, according to Sue Sponnoble, executive secretary of the commission.

A total of 10 races are on the 1979 unlimited schedule. New sites are Long Beach, Calif., a site outside Salt Lake City and El Dorado, Kansas. Dropping from the circuit is Owensboro, Ky., site of last year's Gold Cup.

The Seattle unlimited race will be held August 5.

The sport meets a “Winged Wonder”

Reprinted from Unlimited NewsJournal, January 2019

The tranquility of Stan Sayres Park was interrupted on the afternoon of April 9, 1973, when a crowd of hydroplane groupies and reporters gathered to witness the christening of a craft that promised to introduce the latest in hydroplane technology: a boat named Pay 'n Pak.

Dave Heerensperger, owner, Mickey Remund, driver, and Jim Lucero at the unveiling the revolutionary new Pay 'n Pak hydroplane in 1973. The "Winged Wonder" was the first hydroplane constructed of Hexcel honeycomb aluminum and to sport a horizontal stabilizer wing.

A few details about the new boat 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 like Heerensperger’s previous boat, but much stronger and with other changes, such as aerodynamic cowlings.

But, the biggest innovation was under the deck. The entire structure was built with a strong but lightweight material called Hexcel, a sort of aluminum sandwich, thin sheets of the metal on the top and the bottom and a core made of aluminum and set in a honeycomb pattern.

As the boat arrived for the christening, the crowd 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 'n 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 Hexcel, plastic, and epoxy that was as long as the transom was wide.

Through Heerensperger’s most successful years of racing hydroplanes, Jim Lucero was there at his side as his crew chief. Known as one of the most innovative technicians the sport has ever known, Lucero washed parts for the Notre Dame crew in 1965, served on the crew of the radical Smirnoff, then joined the Heerensperger team midway through the 1970 season. The following winter, at only 24 years old, Lucero led the effort to transform the Pride of Pay ‘n Pak to Rolls Merlin power and would thereafter play a key role in fulfilling each novel idea Heerensperger would have until he left the sport in 1982.

According to crew chief Jim Lucero, who played a significant role in the boat’s design, the wing had two purposes: to add some lift to the rear of the boat and provide 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, and make small changes to the sponsons. So, while the Pay 'n Pak team and the boat’s driver, Mickey Remund, worked on these things in 1973, their chief nemesis was their old boat, now painted Budweiser gold, red, and white and with Dean Chenoweth back in the team’s cockpit.

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. And, so it went all year, with both boats winning four races. but, 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.

George Henley was the most successful driver Heerensperger would have, winning a total of 12 races.
Photo by Bill Osborne.

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. In three years of racing, the boat had won a total of 16 races.

Heerensperger pulled off another stunning deal after the 1975 season, this time selling his entire team to Bill Muncey. With the boat’s new owner behind the wheel in 1976, it won its fourth straight national title, this time with the name Atlas Van Lines painted on its hull.

In 1977, while Muncey raced a new boat, the Winged Wonder appeared in the two Pacific Northwest races as the Pay 'n Pak, but was showing its age. The sponsons came apart twice. Then it was sold to the City of Madison, Indiana, and spent the next 11 seasons as either the Miss Madison or carrying the names of various sponsors.

Pak won't be back—Heerensperger says 'I quit'

By Glenn Nelson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 11, 1982

Unlimited-hydroplane racing received another jolt yesterday when Pay 'n Pak owner Dave Heerensperger announced he was pulling out of racing.

Driver John Walters sits dejectedly on the hull of the Pay 'n Pak after the boat went dead in the water during testing before crashing in Sunday's Emerald Cup on Lake Washington. Yesterday, Pak owner Dave Heerensperger decided to retire from unlimited racing.

Heerensperger's decision came two days after his driver, John Walters, was injured in a three-boat crash during an early heat in the Sea Galley Emerald Cup on Lake Washington.

Walters was seriously injured when the Pak ran over Executone, which had gone out of control and struck The Squire Shop.

The 28-year-old Pak driver's condition is serious but has steadily improved, doctors at Harborview Medical Center said yesterday. Walters will remain on a ventilator until doctors can determine the extents of injuries to a lung.

Walters suffered a fractured right elbow, broken left knee, three broken bones in the cheek, all of which were set in surgery at Harborview Sunday night. He also had compression fractures of three vertebrae, but no paralysis.

"It was just the accident," said Heerensperger, explaining his decision. "It was an uncontrollable thing but the bad publicity and with John hurt and the boat wrecked ... and we'd lost Dean Chenoweth one weekend and one week later, I almost lost my own driver. When Muhammad Ali hits you in the face one or two times, you don't need the third. I'd had enough.

"If I hadn't won any national titles or any Gold Cups, that would be one thing. but I've done everything in this sport. I don't need anymore. Whenever you leave a sport that's been so good to you, sure you might have some regrets.

But I left in 1975, I left because we had just on three national championships. After winning the '75 title, (Pak driver) George Henley said, 'We've done everything. I think I want to get out.' I agreed. I sat on the beach for five years and it didn't bother me. I came back with the turbine to help the sport.

"The upside of racing is winning races. The downside is that I almost lost a driver and a friend. When I see the accident and get a queasy feeling in my stomach, it's time to get out."

With 25 victories spanning the period from 1968 to 1975 and 1980 to the present season, Heerensperger is the fifth winningest owner in the sport's history.

He captured national championships in 1973, '74, an '75 and Gold Cups in '74 and '75. Heerensperger won four races in Seattle and four in Pasco. The Pay 'n Pak Corp. sponsorship is fourth in career wins.

Heerensperger is chairman of the board of Pay 'n Pak, a Kent-based chain of plumbing and electrical stores. He had been one of the top innovators in the sport, credited with introducing stabilizer tail-fins, rear-mounted engines, trimaran hulls and the turbine power plant.

Heerensperger said he was also disturbed by the current trend of blowover-type accidents that claimed the lives of Chenoweth and Bill Muncey, two close friends.

"After what happened to Dean, I thought we should all meet in the winter and do something about safety," said Heerensperger. "Maybe shorten the courses, limit manifolds and maybe the sport would be called 'semi-limited." Something has to be done to make it safer. The sport has got to do some serious governing. It can't go on like it has. I think the sport itself will die if it does.

"I hope the sport can keep going. I'm sure it will, but without us. But this is a resilient bunch. Someone will step in and the sport will be back where it was."

According to Pak crew chief Jim Lucero, Heerensperger had hinted at the decision Sunday night.

"At the time, it was maybe yes, maybe no," Lucero said. "He probably didn't make the decision just because of the accident — though it was the biggest factor. Boat racing is an expensive thing to do. I don't think expenses was the major issue, however.

"I can understand the decision. We had two major accidents in the past two years. And there was nothing we could do about Sunday's. I felt we had reached the point where we were running better and safer than we had ever run.

"The Pay 'n Pak people feel real responsibility to Arlene (Walter's wife) and his two kids (Katrina and Marciva). I think they don't want to go through that again."

"We put together the best and safest equipment we could," Heerensperger said. "The accident wasn't related to going too fast or flying. It was an unfortunate accident — who knows what happened? If you noticed, John was behind everybody — exactly where we told him to be. We felt we could stay behind and that it would be no problem to pick off the rest one at a time, finished second because the Budweiser couldn't outrun us, and give a good show. If water conditions improved, which I understand they did, then give it a shot in the final."

Lucero, the all-time winningest crew chief in unlimited history with 45 victories, said he would continue in his advisory position with the Atlas Van Lines, which he designed and built.

"I have a commitment with them and I'll stick to it," he said. "But as for what I'll do on a full-time basis, I think I'll sit back and see what develops. Meanwhile, I'll do whatever I can to help the other teams — especially from the aspect of safety,

Heerensperger had left unlimited racing before. After campaigning Miss Eagle Electric, Pride of Pay 'n Pak and Pay 'n Pak 'Lil Buzzard for eight years, he sold his three boats and equipment in 1975 to Muncey. Racing under the Atlas sponsorship, Muncey won the national title in 1976.

The 45-year-old Pak owner returned to the sport in 1980 with the turbine-powered hydro that crashed at Seattle on Sunday.

In the boat's first race at Pasco that year, Walters flipped in spectacular fashion during a pre-race test lap. He was hospitalized for two weeks with a fractured hip socket and sprains to his left shoulder, elbow and knee.

Lucero and the Pak crew last year completed a new Pay 'n Pak hull that was the prototype for this year's version of the successful Atlas Van Lines. Heerensperger said he will sell all his equipment but has not yet talked to anyone about the sale.

It has been speculated that Squire Shop owner bob Steil is interested in the boat, but Steil could not be reached for comment.

Two drivers have died under Heerensperger's employ. Col. Warner Gardner died in the Miss Eagle Electric at the 1968 Gold Cup in Detroit. Tommy Fults was killed during testing in Pay 'n Pak's 'Lil Buzzard four days before a 1970 race in San Diego.

"I had a real low feeling then," said Heerensperger. "But those were different type accidents. I didn't feel they had to do with anything safety wise with the sport. With the colonel, it was driver error."

Pay 'n Pak Corp. was founded in Longview in 1953 by Stan Thurman. Heerensperger got into the business under Thurman when he established a chain of stores known as Eagle Electric in Spokane. Heerensperger and Thurman merged their operations with John M. Headley's Seattle-based Buzzard Electric in 1969 under the Pay 'n Pak name.

Hydro folk to draught beer-firm sponsor?

By Glenn Nelson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, October 13, 1982

It may be Miller Time for the unlimited-hydroplane circuit.

Budweiser and Miller Brewing Co., at lager-heads over the beer market for some time, have embodied their competition in the spirit(s) of athletic endeavor.

Last night, the St. Louis Cardinals, owned by Bud chairman Auggie Busch, and the Brewers, who play in Milwaukee, home of the Miller corporation offices, opened baseball's World Series.

Next year, the two may take their stout rivalry to the waters.

Pay 'n Pak crew chief Jim Lucero made two trips to Milwaukee last summer to propose an unlimited-hydroplane sponsorship the the Miller people.

According to sources in both the boating and beer caps, Miller would not have allowed Lucero to travel all the way to Milwaukee if there was no interest in what he had to say.

Lucero has been actively recruiting new ownership for Pak president Dave Heerensperger's two hulls (one which has not tested competitive waters), his arsenal of turbine engines, assorted equipment and out-of-work crew.

Heerensperger retired from hydro racing shortly after an accident involving his driver, John Walters, in the Aug. 8 Seattle regatta.

Heerensperger said he has not been approached by Miller, but has received feelers from others not associated with Miller.

"Jim Lucero" has been talking to some people, but it's not his equipment to sell," he said. "They have to talk to me. It's my equipment."

The sponsorship would take a big gulp of of Miller's corporate coffers. The value of the Pak equipment has been estimated to be in the $500,000 to $1 million range.

What appears to be holding up the venture is the lack of an outside owner who would buy the boat with Miller's backing.

The development at least had Bernie Little, owner of the Miss Budweiser, foaming over the possibilities.

"If another beer company got into the sport, it would be a great challenge," he said. "I'm all for it. Let's go!"

Miller's entry into unlimited racing would shake up an already brewing rivalry with Budweiser. Miller High Lift sponsored an offshore race this year and Lowenbrau, a Miller subsidiary, has sponsored an offshore boat. Budweiser has been involved in offshore boat racing for some years, though its boats have not gone head-to-head with Lowenbrau's.

Turbos could steal the show in Pasco — Heerensperger

By Del Danielson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, July 3, 1974

The first four races on the 1974 unlimited-hydroplane calendar have been strictly Pay 'n Pak — Budweiser duels, but the owners of the front-running Pak think the next outing could be won by an of one of a half dozen boats.

"I think there are six boats that could win in Pasco," Dave Heerensperger said earlier this week after returning from Detroit, where his boat ran second to the Bud.

Despite the dominance of the Budweiser and his Pak, Heerensperger feels "this is the best field I've ever seen." The affable owner thinks the turbine-powered U-95, Miss U.S., Atlas Van Lines, or Lincoln Thrift could steal the show from the two boats which, together, have triumphed in 11 straight hydro starts over the past two years.

Next stop is the World Championship Regatta on the Columbia River at Pasco, July 21.

"The water will be better in Pasco," Heerensperger said. "That's always a great course and we had the usual junk water back east."

The U.S., Atlas and Lincoln Thrift are powered by turbocharged Allison engines. That's why Heerensperger feels they have a chance at victory.

"They've got to have more power than we've got - if everything is running right," said Heerensperger, who hinted that he might be thinking about the turbo setup as a future power plant for his boat.

So far, the turbos have been plagued by minor engine problems. "If they get everything worked out, they're plenty tough," the Pak owner added.

For now, Heerensperger will stick with the Rolls engines which have pushed his boat 56 points ahead of the Bud in the race for the national points championship. The Pak has 3,750 and the Bud 3,694.

George Henley, driver of the Pak, and Jim Lucero, crew chief, get the lion's share of the credit for the success of the Pak.

"George is some kind of driver," Heerensperger said. "He does everything we ask, tells us exactly what we need to know about the handling of the boat out there. He really knows what he's doing.

"I tried to hire Dean Chenoweth who I think is the best driver in boat racing. But dean was tied to business commitments and can't drive for anybody.

"George has been a very pleasant surprise. he's going to be as good as Chenoweth. he's not very far from that right now, really."

The Pak owner beams when asked about Lucero. "He's an unbelievable guy as far as devotion and wanting to win and what he knows about hulls and engines. Jim and Dax Smith are the main engine guys for u and we haven't busted an engine yet."

Heerensperger has mixed emotions about the move of the Gold Cup from the Stan Sayres Park area to Sand Point.

"I think the idea is right to charge admission," he said. It's the only way to keep big-time boat racing here and build big purses.

"But the Sayres course is better. I don't know why they don't just invest $50,000 in a big snow fence and put it up every year down there and keep the people off the streets like they do in Madison, Ind.

"The pits are great and the course is ideal!"

The boss of the Pak team hedged on the number of "true" contenders for the Gold Cup. "I said six boats could win in Pasco. Well, I think it will be limited to few real contenders here because of the rough water at Sand Point. But I don't want to be too negative on the Sand Point thing because charging is the only way we can build big purses."

Heerensperger would like to see another Northwest race on the unlimited slate. "We need another race out here real bad. We've added races in San Diego and Phoenix and Jacksonville and Dayton, all over the place. Everybody wants us to come and race. But if we had another race in the Northwest I think we could get another four or five boats. The sponsors would go for it.

"Portland, Eugene, Coeur d'Alene or Spokane . . . I'd really like to get one going in Spokane. They tell me there might be room for a course on Long Lake."

Heerensperger is not so interested in adding a big-market site in California as he is in his home area, the Pacific Northwest. "This is where all the enthusiastic people are," he said.

"The interest in unlimited racing is here in the Northwest. It's like Class C baseball and the major leagues when you compare this area with the Eastern race cities.

"This is where it's at."

Heerensperger plans to be married on August 3, the eve of the Gold Cup race here.

"It's going to be one helluva weekend, I'll tell you that."