8 Hydros and Debris on Hand for President's Cup Race

By Parton Keese
Reprinted from The New York Times, July 6, 1971

WASHINGTON, June 5 — A Potomac River swollen with debris from recent heavy rains has added to the problems suffered by the sensitive sport of unlimited hydroplane racing on the eve of tomorrow's final heat of the President's Cup regatta.

Since a 30-foot, 7,000-pound shell-flat hydroplane powered by aeroplane engines putting out nearly 4,000 horsepower could disintegrate if it hit log at 200 miles an hour, it is easy to understand the quick ruling of officials here that called off the qualifying trials and allowed the fleet that competed in Miami two weeks ago to compete here automatically.

Miss Madison, the senior entry in the six-boat fleet with 13 years of service, posted the fastest average speed despite today's humidity and still water with a time of 100.991 miles an hour. The pilot, Jim McCormick, managed only 2½ second margin, however, as Pride of Pay 'n Pak nearly closed the gap in the final mile.

Miss Budweiser, the two-time national champion and this year's point leader, driven by Dean Chenoweth, captured the first heat, averaging 99.557 miles per hour. Atlas Van Lines II, the new hydro with colorful Bill Muncey at the helm, was a distant second.

Hallmark Homes was in third place and Notre Dame with a “did not finish” to her name are the other boats in the fleet. Both, however, could take the cup with consistent performances tomorrow.

“I see a different winner in each race this season. For the first time in a long time,” he said. “I don't think one boat is going to walk away with the marbles so easily. Every boat here has the ability to win.”

For one thing there are three brand new boats in the fleet and their potential is unknown. They include Miss Timex, Atlas Van Lines II and Country Boy. Then there is Pride of Pay 'n Pak, which is in her second year of campaigning but has a revised design and new Rolls Royce engines.

“Hallmark Homes is the former national champion boat. Miss Bardahl,” Newton continued, “so she is a definite contender, as well as last year's Gold Cup runner-up, Notre Dame. That leaves the 13-year-old Miss Madison, and she only finished second in Miami last month.

“So you can see, everybody's got a great chance to take most of the $20,000 purse and the President's Cup,” Newton added.

For the 50-year-old Newton, the President's Cup will be his 86th unlimited race his sixth season as the only unlimited hydro referee in the sport that he has been a part of since 1951. A sales engineer for Huck Manufacturing Company in Detroit, Newton spends June through September, however camped out along lake and river shores across the United States, sleeping much of the time in aeroplane seats, stretched out when there's no crowd and bunched up in ball when it is S.R.O.

Why does Newton, the father of six children, travel thou sands of miles, bake under blistering sun, make thorny decisions and put up with all of the tensions and frustrations associated with being a sports arbiter?

“I wouldn't trade places with any one,” he said. “This sport keeps me sharp, alert and fresh for my own business. It's the perfect escape. To say I love it, isn't strong enough,” said the former Michigan State football blocking back and infielder.

Fleet Should Double

The unlimiteds move to Owensboro, Ky., next week, to Detroit on June 27 before the American Power Boat Association Gold Cup race is held July 4 at Madison, Ind. From there, the thunderboats head west for five more race on the coast and in Texas.

“The fleet should double in number by the time we hit the Columbia River in Washington State,” remarked Phil Cole, the executive secretary of the Unlimited Racing Commission.

“But it's too bad the eastern half of our 10-regatta schedule has to be so meager. There are many boats ready and willing to compete, but not able to be cause of rising costs,” he explained.

“Money is the name of the game for unlimiteds but it is ironic that in a sport that attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators at a single race, we have trouble convincing sponsors in other cities to par take of the thrilling spectacle that unlimited racing has be come.

“They just don't seem to want to shell out the $40,000 necessary to put on an unlimited hydroplane regatta, even when we tell them it's a sure money maker.

“It's getting to be a rough business, all right,” sighed Cole as he watched what looked like a couple of railroad ties floating down the two-and-a half-mile Potomac course.

Bill Sterett Jr. Wins on Potomac

Pay 'n Pak Substitute Does 109 M.P.H. -- Muncey Next in President's Cup Race

By Parton Keese
Reprinted from The New York Times, July 10, 1972

WASHINGTON, July 9—Little-known Bill Sterett Jr. put an end to Bill Muncey's reign in unlimited hydroplanes today when he drove Pride of Pay' N Pak to a record-breaking 200-yard victory in the President's Cup.

Driving at an average speed of 109.090 miles an hour for the six-lap, 15-mile race, Sterett set a record for a 2½-Mile course. He had to—Muncey's second-place finish at 108.324 also broke the mark he himself had set here yesterday.

The 24-year-old Sterett surprised Muncey as well as 80,000 spectators lined along the Potomac shore. He was given the helm after the two-time national champion, Billy Schumacher, quit last week, apparently tired of catching Muncey's roostertail spray during race after race.

The Muncey-Sterett duel gave a shot in the arm to the President's Cup race, which had been lacking luster throughout the weekend because of a curtailed fleet that was battered and torn by the Gold Cup race two weeks ago. Four damaged boats were missing, leaving seven to race here, only three of which had any zip.

A Family Affair

Sterett is one of two driver sons of Bill Sterett of Owensboro, Ky., who twice won national titles in Budweiser. Terry Sterett, 25, has been driving Budweiser this season and finished third today, a half-mile behind the leader.

“They made an agreement with me last year,” the senior Sterett said, “that they would race unlimited only two years and then retire. Billy was sit ting this year out to race next season, so I guess we won't count this as a full season.”

Asked if the new driver had made the difference in Pay ‘n Pak's becoming a winner rather than an also-ran, Dave Heerensperger the owner, said. “Well, we didn't change anything else. Does that answer your question?”

Muncey, who had won 13 of 14 races and had set three speed records while winning all four this season in Atlas Van Lines, got a good start, but could not pass Billy Sterett, who stayed a length in front for 2½ laps.

When Muncey shot by Sterett on the far turn and took a 100-yard lead, it looked like the excitement was over. But in a marvelous stretch battle, Sterett proved Pay ‘n Pak slightly faster on the straightaway and won going away.

Muncey, No Longer No. 1, Will Try Harder

By Parton Keese
Reprinted by The New York Times, June 3, 1973

The question this year in unlimited hydroplanes is: Can Bill Muncey come back? Last year the question was: Can Bill Muncey be stopped? He wasn't much last year — winning every race except one in the Atlas Van Lines boat, but this year Muncey was beaten in the opening race at Miami after an extra curricular effort in an outboard had resulted in several broken ribs.

With at least eight of the 200-mile-an-hour thunderboats convening on the Potomac River in Washington this weekend for the President's Cup regatta, the new hero, so far, is Mickey Remund. He won the Champion Spark Plug regatta in Miami and set a course record doing so, 119.363 miles an hour for one lap and 119.048 for a five-lap average.

Remund has the helm of Pride of Pay 'n Pak, the new Ron Jones‐design. Also in the race are the two hydros that gave Remund his toughest competition before succumbing to engine trouble: Miss Budweiser (last year's Pride of Pay 'n Pak) and Lincoln Thrift, now with a new driver, Gene Whipp of Dayton, Ohio.

Others running are Gale's Roostertail, Red Man, Notre Dame (new driver, Ronnie Larson), Miss Madison and Atlas, with Muncey reportedly recovered from his wounds. Not entered are Miss U.S. and Valu-Mart.

For a new boat on the seven-race circuit, victory in the first regatta is a surprise, while a record is shocking. There were even a few snickers in the pits when the Pay 'n Pak crew announced that the low-profile pickle hull had been clocked unofficially at 119 miles an hour-plus on her first practice run.

“Don't you think that's exaggerating just a little bit?” replied one of the other drivers. This is a pretty tight course. Are you trying to tell me Remund broke Muncey's record by an honest 6 miles an hour?”

Mickey answered his critics later, of course, when he made the record official. Although Muncey drove despite his aching body, Pay 'n Pak's most serious challenger turned out to be Dean Chenoweth, the former national champion, in Budweiser.

In the second heat at Miami, Remund and Chenoweth tangled in a thrilling three-lap duel, which ended when the Bud's engine blew in a sheet of flames on the back stretch.

In the Atlas Van lines camp, there were signs that all was not well beside Muncey. The new fuel-injection system developed by Jim Kerth and Lee Schoenith, the owner, was one source of problems.

“With the cold weather we've been having up in Detroit,” Schoenith said, “we have not had a chance to do enough testing. I would say that we're 90-percent home free, and I'm sure we'll have it worked out as the season goes on.”

Another new boat that has caught spectators' attention is Lincoln Thrift, a turbocharged cabover design. Although it had its problems trying not to spin out on the tight Miami Stadium turns, it is tremendously fast. If Lincoln can straighten out and Budweiser's engine holds up and Pay 'N Pak continues hot and Muncey gets back in the winning groove, the Potomac could be boiling before the day is over.

Schumacher retirement bolsters Muncey's lot

Reprinted from Tri-City Herald, July 9, 1972

Even if Bill Muncey doesn't win today's President's Cup Regatta on the Potomac River, the 44-year-old unlimited hydroplane veteran is virtually assured of this fourth national championship.

The only unlimited pilot with a real chance of catching Muncey for the national points standings was Billy Schumacher, who stunned hydroplane racing last week with his resignation from the crew of Seattle-based Pride of Pay 'n Pak.

Schumacher's decision to call it quits, at least for the seven-race, 1972 schedule, leaves him with 3,725 points. Muncey, two-time defending President's Cup champion, has 4,700. No other driver is close to Muncey's leading point total.

Schumacher was openly critical of racing conditions during the last two events. The Detroit Gold Cup was held on the flood-swollen waters of the Detroit River, and last Tuesday's Madison, Ind., World Championship Race was postponed from Sunday because of floating debris on the Ohio River caused by tropical storm Agnes.

Schumacher, a five-time world champion at only 29, will probably be replaced by either Bill Sterett, Sr., who came out of retirement to pilot the Pay 'n Pak at Madison, or by Billy Sterett, Jr., whose brother Terry drives Miss Budweiser.

Schumacher, of course, will not be here for the seventh annual Atomic Cup on the Columbia, July 23. Schumacher won the Atomic Cup aboard Miss Bardahl in 1967 and last spring set an unofficial lap record while testing the Pay 'n Pak on the Columbia.

The Pay 'n Pak went into the 1972 unlimited season as just about everybody's favorite to end Miss Budweiser's string as national champion at three years. Schumacher had finished the 1971 season by winning the last three races.

But in Detroit, the Atlas Van Lines crew, headed by former driver Bill Cantrell, spent the winter putting modifications on Muncey's boat. Atlas won the first three races of 1972, setting speed records wherever it went.

Muncey, who has never won the Atomic Cup, is the clear favorite to win his sixth President's Cup overall. His stiffest competition is expected from Pay 'n Pak, Miss Budweiser and the GoGale, the Atlas sister ship out of Detroit which is also listed as Atlas Van Lines II to distinguish it from Muncey's boat.

Other boats checked into the pits by late Friday afternoon were Timex, Towne Club, and Country Boy.

There had been some concern whether debris on the Potomac could be cleared in time for the regatta. Apparently it was.

Al Bauer, one of the race officials, said Friday, "The river's in better shape than I've seen it in 38 years."

Maiden voyager Billy Sterett steers by Muncey to win President's Cup

July 10, 1972, WASHINGTON (AP) - Billy Sterett Jr. of Owensboro, Ky., driving the Seattle-based Pride of Pay 'n Pak for the first time in competition, defeated previously unbeaten Bill Muncey and the Atlas Van Lines yesterday in the President's Cup unlimited hydroplane regatta at Washington, D.C.

Sterett, who just drove the boat for the first time Friday, beat Muncey by only 3½ seconds after securing the lead on the next-to-last turn.

The Sterett brothers: Terry (left) and Bill Jr. (right).

Yesterday's program consisted of two other 15-mile preliminary heats plus the final. Sterett and Muncey, who is from San Diego, Calif., went into the final heat tied with 800 points.

Sterett led the fleet at the start and was first out of the initial turn. Muncey took the lead coming out of the second of the six laps. The two battled bow to bow for the next three laps before Sterett took command.

The next race on the circuit is the Tri-Cities Atomic Cup at Pasco, Wash., July 23.

Pak ended up with 1,200 points to the Detroit-based Atlas Van Lines' 1,100. Third was Miss Budweiser with 825, followed by Pizza Pete with 619.

Sterett and Muncey won the two President's Cup heats contested Saturday. Muncey was seeking his fifth cup victory of the season in the races on the Potomac River. Sterett won the final heat at an average speed of 109.090 mph.

Sterett, who drove the Notre Dame hydro in 1971 but didn't have a driving assignment for the first four races this year, was hired to guide the Pay 'n Pak after veteran Billy Schumacher announced his retirement Friday.

Other point winners in the race were Towne Club of Detroit with 525 and Miss Timex of Owensboro, Ky. with 300.

Despite the setback, Muncey and the Atlas still hold a comfortable lead in the national championship battle, owning 5,800 points to the second-place Pay 'n Pak's 4,925.

Sterett drives 'Pak' to victory

Washington, DC, July 10, 1972 - (Special) - Bill Sterett, Jr., earned himself a permanent ride in the Pride of Pay 'N Pak yesterday scooting away from Bill Muncey on the final lap of the final heat to win the President's Cup unlimited-hydroplane race.

Sterett, a substitute driver for his father, Bill, Sr. in the Seattle-based Pride, scored a 1,200-point sweep and stopped Muncey's 1972 string at four straight victories.

Sterett and Muncey were tied with 800 points apiece going into the final heat on the muddy and wind-chopped Potomac River.

The two drivers battled side by side for five laps. Coming out of the first turn on lap six, the boats ran into traffic - Bob Gilliam in the Pizza Pete was just starting lap five. Sterett swung wide in the Pride and zipped pass Gilliam with no trouble. Muncey was caught behind Gilliam and had to let off and move around the Pete. The lapse allowed Sterett to open a three-second lead he carried to the finish line.

"There's no doubt who my driver is from now on," Dave Heerensperger, owner of the Pride, said. Heerensperger earlier had indicated that Bill Sterett, Sr., would drive in West Coast races.

The unlimiteds are en route to Pasco for the Tri-Cities' Atomic Cup July 23.

Muncey, driver of the Atlas Van Lines, was the odds-on favorite going into the seven-boat race after winning the Miami, Owensboro, Detroit (Gold Cup) and Madison regattas.

The Atlas still leads the national points chase with 5,800. The Pride has 4,925. The Budweiser, which placed third here yesterday, is third with 3,379. Gilliam's Pizza Pete ranks fourth with 3,016.

Pride of Pay 'n Pak Cup Winner

June 10, 1974. WASHINGTON (AP) - Defending national champion Pride of Pay ’N Pak, driven by George S. Henley of Eatonville, Wash., won the 43rd President’s Cup Regatta for unlimited hydroplanes Sunday although she finished third behind Miss Budweiser in the final heat.

Pay ’N Pak scored 1,025 points in winning first place in the heats on Saturday and earlier Sunday to edge Atlas Van Lines, driven by Bill Muncey, of San Diego, which scored 900 points for finishing second in three heats, including the final one.

Miss Budweiser, with rookie Howie Benns of Grand Island, N. Y., at the wheel, won the final heat and the 400 points that goes with it to enable her to move into fourth place behind U-95 in the final standings. Budweiser, winner of the initial regatta of the season last Sunday in Miami, won a heat Saturday but broke a supercharger linkage during the second lap of an early heat Sunday and did not finish the race.

The pit crews, however, were able to repair the trouble in time to get the thunderboat back into the final heat. U-95, driven by Leif Borgersen of Seattle, Wash., finished fifth in the final heat but placed third overall in the regatta after winning the first heat of her career earlier Sunday on top of a 2nd-place finish Saturday which gave the ship 827 points.

The final standings for the President’s Cup were Pay 'N Pak, winner two years ago here, 1,025 points; Atlas Van Lines, 900; U-95. 827; Miss Budweiser, 800; Mr. Fabricator, driven by Tom Kaufman of Carrollton. Ohio, 489; Miss U.S.£ driven by Tom D’Eath, Detroit, 225; Lincoln Thrift, driven by Mickey Remund of Palm Desert, Calif., 225; and Sunny Jim, driven by Tom Martin, Bellevue, Wash., 169.

Lincoln Thrift was withdrawn from the final day’s heats because owner Bob Fendler said the ship was having handling problems. Fendler said the boat would return to Costa Mesa. Calif., for modifications before the new hydroplane was returned to the circuit, probably at Detroit.

...and Bombers Hit The River

Reprinted from Sports Illustrated, July 17, 1972

In one of the most unexpected upsets—and thrilling races—unlimited hydroplanes have known, a man who had never won before seized the President's Cup on the Potomac from the sport's last hero.

Sunday on the Potomac. The thought of it seems to travel with a picture of a tranquil glade, a promise of stillness. A place where you can lie back on a blanket and ponder the birth of a nation, try to imagine old Tom Jefferson over there in his study dipping his quill pen. Ah, the Potomac: a river of the gods. Long ago, that is. For the Potomac today is a nastier place, a place where you can be poisoned, perturbed and—this since 1926—have your meatus acusticus externus and your ductus cochlearis torn apart.

Winner Bill Sterett Jr. bounces a few decibels off the Capital on the way to victory.

These are parts of the ear, and last Sunday on the banks of the Potomac they were assaulted once more as 53,000 persons audited the 41st annual President's Cup unlimited hydroplane race. In a way it was an unusual race as far as hydroplanes are concerned; nobody got killed. It was even more unusual for other reasons. Bill Muncey, the overwhelming favorite, did not win, and it was perhaps the best and most dramatic race in the history of the sport.

It became that when Bill Sterett Jr., driving a boat called Pride of Pay 'N Pak, tore into a six-lap final-heat thriller with Muncey, who was at the wheel of Atlas Van Lines. They had come out of the preliminary heats dead even, and as they roostertailed upstream and down, sometimes side by side, one wondered how Cal Coolidge, for whom the cup was named, could have taken a fancy to the sport. The Silent One abhorred noise, even the sound of his own voice. It was a stubborn riddle that would not dissolve as Muncey and Sterett turned loose their enormous, bellowing hogs on the rain-swollen river.

Nobody had given Sterett much of a chance. He was a substitute driver who had never won a race. He replaced Bill Schumacher, the ace who had quit a few days earlier, deriding the boat and damning the river as a harbor of debris. Like, say, a refrigerator that once floated down to a point smack in the middle of the course. "Call it the river you can walk across," said Schumacher. There was also one other hard fact not in the substitute's favor: Bill Muncey and the thunder under him.

No matter how you cut it, no matter how repellent his ego is to some, Muncey is hydroplane racing, this year more than ever. No one had been able to come close to him this season, even though he and the Atlas had suffered a disappointing campaign last year. "We just couldn't seem to come up with the right combination of equipment for him then," said one of his aides, dwelling on things like proper spark plugs, gearboxes, propeller sizes. "It's all machinery," he said. "That's what this sport is about. Add Muncey to the right machinery, and you're almost unbeatable."

Going into this President's Cup—second in hydroplane prestige only to the Gold Cup—Muncey was after his fifth straight victory and his sixth on the Potomac. He is the last of the big name drivers, so many of whom have been killed off—three in a President's Cup race one grisly year.

None of this seems to bother Muncey, but his career does not enthrall his wife. "He can quit anytime," she says. "I'm ready, that's for sure." Says Muncey: "I guess I stay on because it's an ego trip for me now. I need it. The money surely isn't worth the risk, and there must be a hundred easier ways to gain fame."

The wave you cannot avoid, the sudden mechanical failure that can blow you to the sky, the memories of friends ripped apart internally and not a scratch on them—all of this moves through his mind. "I have a low pain level, a low fear level," he says. Twice he has been blown out of a boat, "but I can't even tell you what it felt like." No longer young—he's 43—and never a thrill freak or a roughneck on the course, Muncey drives mostly with his head now as he gets on toward the 20th year of a dazzling career.

So it figured that with the Atlas under him—plus his complete grasp of what he does—Muncey could play the flute or clarinet in the cockpit (he has sat in with the Gene Krupa band and the Seattle Symphony) and still obliterate the kid Sterett, leave him so far back that he would have his hands full just trying to fight the massive wash from the Atlas. Anyway, that was the talk among the more informed on the Potomac banks as the afternoon wore away, helped along by Guy Lombardo—good old Guy, once a hydroplane owner himself, climbing up on the bandstand and directing his way through, yeah, you guessed it, Auld Lang Syne. Moved, the announcer then delivered a verse about a grocer: "My, how his business prospered/Folks were always in his store/For he'd give an honest measure/Then he'd add just a little bit more."

The message of the verse was as elusive as the lead in the final heat for the cup. Sterett and Muncey went into it with 800 points apiece. They battled on each other's hip for the first three laps, with neither boat gaining a substantial advantage. Then Sterett seemed to fall behind for a lap. But he quickly moved back up alongside Muncey on the fifth lap, and they stayed that way until the first turn on the sixth, when Sterett drew ahead. Then Muncey and the Atlas ran into traffic in the form of a boat named Pizza Pete. Sterett seized the moment and gunned into the lead to stay, flashing across the finish line just 3 seconds ahead. Sterett's fastest heat of 109.090 mph came near the 1962 record of 109.157 clocked by Muncey. The entire race, and especially the finish, left the crowd buzzing and hydroplane officials ecstatic.

"It's the best race I've ever seen in 25 years of watching," said O.H. Frisbie, president of the company that sponsors the Muncey team.

"Hey, boys," an official shouted to the press. "Great balls of fire! You'll never overwrite this one."

The officials had a right to be jubilant. A race such as this gives them something to talk about, like back in the grand old days when the only time you ever saw a hydro was in the newsreels, and there were good old Guy and Horace Dodge, with ascots around their necks, waving jauntily to the cameras.

Why, maybe even Calvin Coolidge, too.