The Pak wins 3rd title on Mission Bay

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After two back-to-back titles for Dave Heerensperger's Winged Wonder Pay 'N Pak, one with Mickey Remund in 1973 and the other with George Henley in 1974, the Pak was looking to three-peat in 1975, but after Smilin’ George decided to retire, the seat was left open. Former Pak driver Mickey Remund already had a seat with the Miss Budweiser team, so Heerensperger had to go fishing for a new driver. He decided to go with veteran driver Jim McCormick who took the reins at the 1975 season opener in Miami. Unfortunately, the Pak underperformed and was not even able to make the final heat by scoring only 394 points. The following race at the Presidents Cup was also not good as McCormick finished in dead last during the first heat of the day.

Photo by John Woodward

The two sub-par performances by the veteran McCormick did not sit well with Heerensperger so he coaxed Henley out of retirement who then went out and had one of his worst career races scoring zero points in the Pak at the Kentucky Governor’s Cup in Owensboro with a DNS and a DNF. Meanwhile, Billy Schumacher in the U-74 Weisfield’s was making plenty of waves by winning two of the first three races of the 1975 season. Well, you can only imagine that there was a team gathering after the Owensboro race on how to turn the season around. Henley righted the ship and picked up a 3rd place podium finish in Detroit and then proceeded to go on a rampage by winning the next 4 races and putting the Pak right back in the national title race.

Two other hulls had also found the winner’s circle; the Budweiser won on the Potomac River and would win again in Phoenix, and Tom D’Eath in the U-2 Miss U.S. picked up a big win on her home turf in Detroit. Other noteworthy hulls were the U-55 Lincoln Thrift with Milner Irvin, and the U-6 Miss Madison/Hamm’s Bear driven by Jerry Bangs for their consistency in making nearly every final heat of the season. Everyone’s nemesis seemed to be Bill Muncey in the U-71 Atlas Van Lines (7), the Staudacher built lemon that kept Muncey off the top step of the podium for the third consecutive year. Controversy swirled around Muncey’s interpretation of the rule book as he kept searching for a race win that continued to elude the Atlas camp.

Photo by John Woodward

As the fleet headed into the last race of the 1975 season in sunny San Diego, the Weisfeld’s held a slight 249-point lead over the Pak. Schumacher had already wrapped up the driver’s title and was looking to add another national title to his already impressive resume. After the first heat, the lead had dwindled to 149 points after Henley narrowly defeated Schumacher to take the crucial 400 points away from the Weisfield’s. Then the wheels fell off as the Weisfield’s suffered engine failure and was unable to finish the second heat thus taking Schumacher out of the final and out of the national title race.

The Pak took the Lincoln Thrift to the finish line in heat 2B to barely squeak out the win by inches, and then in the final heat, the Pak had another amazing deck to deck battle, this time with Remund in the Budweiser. However, Henley in the Pak found a way to outduel the Budweiser to the finish line and win by a mere few seconds. The final two heats of the 1975 season at the San Diego Weisfield’s Trophy race gave the U-1 Pay n Pak enough points to leapfrog the U-74 Weisfield’s and claim their 3rd consecutive National Championship. Winning the driver’s title for Billy was nice but I’m sure that losing the team title had to sting a little. George Henley decided to hang it up for good after the season was over while Schumacher stayed on for one more year to drive the U-74 Olympia Beer.

The mighty Winged Wonder’s dominance rolled over to a 4th year as Bill Muncey would purchase the hull when Heerensperger decided to step away from the sport. This famous and innovative hydroplane designed and built by the master Ron Jones went on to win the 1976 title as the U-76 Atlas Van Lines and became the first hull in hydroplane history to win 4 straight titles on its way to 22 total career victories.

Pak Wins 3rd Straight National Championship In Exciting Season

Reprinted from Pipe Yard Gazette, September/October 1975

It was a hectic season and as you’ll see by our point’s chart elsewhere in this issue. Pay ‘n Pak won by a mere 649 points when last year we won by a more comfortable 1,764 points.

George Henley, who came out of retirement after two races this year were lost, had to go down to the last race to win it all. However, George should be awarded the come-back of all times and broke a record by winning 12 races in less than 2 years and making it a record 16 races for one hull.

Pay ‘n Pak won the third straight title only by winning the last race, ironically the Weisfield’s Trophy Race, on Mission Bay in San Diego on Sunday, September 21, 1975.

May we quote from the San Diego Los Angeles and Seattle papers: From the Seattle Times, the lead line - “Billy Schumacher ran out of ‘Laughing Gas’ yesterday and George Henley and the Pay ‘n Pak crew ‘giggled’ all the way home.” The reference to laughing gas is the nitrous oxide that Schumacher had to use up all year just to run with the Pak.

Henley scored come-from-behind victories in all three heats on Mission Bay to win the Weisfield’s Cup Trophy and the National Championship.

Weisfield’s U-74 came into the race 249 points ahead. There were only two ways Pay ‘n Pak could win. (1) To draw Weisfield’s in every heat and finish first so the best Weisfield’s could do would be second. Then the Pak would pick up 1,200 points and Weisfield’s not more than 900. If that happened the Pak could have one with 51 points. (2) Weisfield’s would have go break in at least one heat while the Pak won at least 2 heats.

A little of both happened. George drew Weisfield’s for heat 1B and hung on Shumacher’s hip for the entire heat then passed the lead boat in the very final turn of the heat to take Weisfield’s in Heat 1B. “The nitrous tank just flat went dry”, Schumacher said about the lead change when the Pak shot forward as Weisfield’s ran out of power. The heat set a course record average speed of 116.099 miles per hour.

George Henley then did the same thing to Lincoln Thrift in Heat 2B and Miss Budweiser in the final heat.

Schumacher dropped out of Heat 2A, losing his spot in the final and losing the National Championship possibility when his boat lost its oil pressure. As he shut the engine down, it blew a rod.

The Pak now joins legendary Bardahl and Budweiser as the hydro racing world’s only three-time national Champion. Can we make it four-in-a-row?

Unlimited Hydroplane - National Points Standings - End of Season

Position	Boat	1975	Last Year
1st	Pay ‘n Pak	8,864	1st - 11,527
2nd	Weisfield’s	8,213	7th - 3,087
3rd	Lincoln Thrift	8,103	Not in Top 10
4th	Miss Budweiser	6,677	2nd - 9,763
5th	Madison/Hamms	5,203	4th - 3,865
6th	Miss U.S.	4,795	9th - 1,694
7th	Atlas Van Lines	4,017	3rd - 6,030
8th	Miss Vernon’s	3,384	Not in 1974
9th	Vans P-X	972	Not in 1974
10th	Miss Valvoline	844	Not in 1974

Pay 'n Pak wins 3rd straight hydro title

Reprinted from The Seattle Times, September 22, 1975

SAN DIEGO — (Special) — Billy Schumacher ran out of "laughing gas" yesterday, and George Henley and the Pay 'n Pak giggled all the way home.

Henley scored come-from-behind victories in all three heats on Mission Bay to win the Weisfield's Cup trophy and the 1975 national championship.

The win was Henley's 12th in less than two seasons as the Pay 'n Pak pilot and a record 16th for Dave Heerensperger's boat, the national champion the past three seasons.

Heerensperger has announced plans to campaign a new hull in 1976.

Henley, lured out of retirement after two races this season, passed the lead boat in the final turn of each five-mile heat to overtake the Weisfield's in national point standings in the season's final race.

Pay 'n Pak wound up with 1,200 points here and a season total of 8,864. Weisfield's, unable to qualify for the final heat after blowing an engine in a preliminary face, finished the season with 8,213 points.

Henley and Schumacher waged a side-by-side duel for 4½ laps in Heat 1B before the Pak shot in front as Weisfield's lost acceleration coming out of the final turn.

"The nitrous tank just fat ran dry," Schumacher said later. The drivers used nitrous oxide, an exotic fuel also known as laughing gas, to boost acceleration.

Henley, of Eatonville, Wash., made similar last-lap charges to edge Lincoln Thrift in Heat 2B and Miss Budweiser in the final heat.

In the final, the Pay 'n Pak darted past Mickey Remund in the Miss Budweiser when Remund had to slow temporarily as his craft overtook another, slower-moving boat in the inside lane of the course.

Henley said he planned no come-from-behind strategy in his battle with Schumacher, which he won in a course-record average speed of 116.099 miles an hour around the 2½ mile circuit.

In other heats, "we wanted to make sure we would finish," Henley said, indicating he did not push the Pak quite as much.

Schumacher dropped out of Heat 2A, losing a shot in the final heat, when his boat lost oil pressure. He shut it down just as the engine threw a rod.

"I'm getting pretty tired of being passed in the last turn," said the Seattle driver, who finished on top in points standings for drives for the third time in his unlimited career.

Henley's win here successfully defended his title in the Mission Bay regatta. He earlier scored victories at Madison, Ind., Dayton, Ohio, Tri-cities, Wash., and Seattle — repeating 1974 wins at each of those sites.

Pak's 122.616 is '74 top qualifying speed

Reprinted from The Seattle Times, September 21, 1974

SAN DIEGO — George Henley yesterday pushed the Pride of Pay 'n Pak to the fastest qualifying time of the current unlimited hydroplane season in qualifying for tomorrow's San Diego Cup regatta.

Henley qualified the Pak at 122.616 miles per hour, bettering his mark set on the Gold Cup course at Seattle by one-tenth of a mile per hour.

Yesterday saw Dean Chenoweth back in the cockpit of the Miss Budweiser, the boat he piloted to national honors in past seasons before retiring. Chenoweth returned to active duty as a hydro jockey when Howie Benns, Budweiser driver, was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident earlier this month.

Chenoweth was on the course four times, but the best he could do in a qualifying run was 110.089 mph. He tried different propellers each time and still isn't satisfied he's found the proper one for the course here, which is considered to be the fastest on the circuit.

Qualifying speeds: Pay 'n Pak, 122.616; Valu-Mart, 120.321; Atlas Van Lines, 119.363; Red Man, 112.219; Miss Budweiser, 110.089; Sunny Jim, 101.810; Miss Technicolor, 100.223; and Kirby Classic, 98.908. Lincoln Thrift and Super Cinder have not qualified yet.

Fults' Dream Ends in Death

September 17, 1970. San Diego, Calif. - (AP) - Speedboat driver Tommy "Tucker" Fults said the Mission Bay course here was his favorite and had told crewman and opponents, "This is my year in the Gold Cup."

Tommy Fults and the 'Lil Buzzard at the 1970 Atomic Cup.

Fults' dream ended Wednesday when he was tossed out of his unlimited hydroplane and killed in a freak accident only moments after the course was opened for practice runs.

First on the water in his sleek, Pay 'N Pak 'Lil Buzzard, Fults, 29, of Seattle, Wash., was fatally injured when his boat buried its right sponson under a wake while in  a sweeping turn, pitched violently and threw him out.

His heart was still beating when he arrived at Scripps Memorial Hospital but doctors said he was clinically dead from the instant of the crash with a severed spinal cord.

"An accident like that wouldn't happen again in 20 years," Fults' teammate Ron Larsen said. "When the wake he hit he was, not moving fast enough to either clear or put his life support system into use. That couldn't happen again."

His death, however, resulting in a life-saving drama.

Late Wednesday, with the consent of the racer's wife, Susan, Fults' kidneys were transplanted to a man and a women at Scripps Hospital.

Henley sets 2 world records as Pak nears national crown

San Diego, September 23, 1974 - (AP) - Pay 'N Pak, piloted by the national point leader, George Henley of Eatonville, set two world records and roared to her sixth victory of the hydroplane season in the San Diego Unlimited Regatta yesterday.

Henley set a heat record of 114,942 miles an hour in his run fix times around the 2-1/2 mile course and a 45-regatta record of 110.859 m.p.h. for the three-heat race.

Miss Budweiser, driven by Dean Chenoweth, former two-time national champ was only 100 points behind Henley going into the final heat, but ran into engine trouble and had to settle for second place in the race on San Diego's Mission Bay.

Henley scored 1200 points during three heats to win the regatta. Chenoweth had 925 while Mickey Remund finished third in Lincoln Thrift at 600.

Henley gathered another 1200 points towards the 1974 unlimited hydroplane championship. He has 10,327 points. Miss Budweiser is far behind in second with 8,736.

Chenoweth had only been at the wheel of Miss Bud 48 hours after being flown in from a year's retirement after Miss Bud's driver broke a leg.

Atlas Van Lines, driven by Bill Muncey of San Diego was fourth at 569. Sunny Jim of Seattle, driven by Tom Martin, was fifth with 525 points.

Pay 'n Pak Breaks Hydroplane Marks

San Diego, Sept 23, 1974 (UPI) Pride of Pay 'N Pak set two world records in winning the San Diego Cup unlimited hydroplane race yesterday.

The victory was the boat's sixth in nine starts this year and moved its driver, George Henley, closer to the national title.

He took the championship final in 114.942 miles an hour to break the world record for a 2½-mile course of 111.386 set by Miss Budweiser last year. The final covered 15 miles.

The boat also broke the world record for a 45-mile regatta on a 2½-mile course by averaging 110.859 mph for its three races. The record was set by Atlas Van Lines at 108 mph in 1972.

Pak wins 3rd straight title, Henley says he'll go for 4th

September 22, 1975, SAN DIEGO - After driving Pay ‘N Pak to its third straight unlimited national championship George Henley promised owner Dave Heerensperger he would be back to drive the boat next year.

Henley made the announcement Sunday night at the awards banquet following the Pay ‘N Pak’s come-from-behind victories in all three heat to win the Weisfield’s Cup unlimited hydroplane race on Mission Bay.

Going into the dramatic finale of the 1975 season the Pak trailed Weisfield’s by 249 points. The 1200 points from Sunday’s victory gave the Pay ‘N Pak a finale score of 8,864 points. Weisfield’s was second with 8,213 and Lincoln Thrift third with 8,103.

Weisfield’s, driven by Billy Schumacher, lost a narrow decision to the Pak in the first heat. A faulty oil line put the Weisfield’s out of the race in the second heat and with only 300 points out of the championship final.

Not only did Henley nail down the national title for the Pak but he set five course and national records in the process. The Pak’s 113.621 mph average was a national record for a 37 ½ mile race on a 2 ½ mile course. The Pak now holds all eight national records for the fast San Diego course.

Despite the face the Pay ‘N Pak won the national championship, Schumacher, driver of the Weisfield’s, won his third national driving title. Henley, who retired following the 1974 season, missed the first three faces of the year before Heerensperger lured him back into the cockpit.

In each of the races, Henley trailed until the field turned for home. Then the Pay ‘N Pak pulled ahead for narrow triumphs. The third conquest earned Pay ‘N Pak a third unlimited national championship in a row. And the three firsts give the boat 16 consecutive wins, a record for a single hull.

Second in the final standings of the Weisfield’s Cup was Miss Budweiser, driven by Mickey Remund of Palm Desert, Calif. Third overall was Lincoln Thrift driven by Milner Irvin of Phoenix, Ariz.

Going into the championship heat, Pay ‘N Pak and Miss Budweiser both had perfect records with two firsts and Budweiser led until the final turn. However, heavy traffic cost Remund time and Pay ‘N Pak, racing outside, pulled ahead.

Pay ‘N Pak recorded the fastest time, 116.099 miles per hour run in the first heat. Weisfield’s, which lead through all but the final straightaway, was second with a 115.920 Pay ‘N Pak averaged 111.414 for the final. Miss Budweiser averaged 111.139.