July 21, 1974, Kennewick, Wash., (AP) — Dave Heerensperger, owner of the Pay 'n Pak unlimited hydroplane, has seen $3,000 worth of his propellers sink to the bottom of the Columbia River this week.
But, with Heerensperger and the rest of the Pak's racing team here for today's World Championship Regatta, it isn't the money but the principle of the thing that bothers them.
The Pay 'n Pak, like most other unlimited hydros on the circuit, use props — also called "wheels" that are hand-forged in Italy and cost about $1,500 each. The Pak lost two in the first two days of qualifying for today's regatta.
"We're not breaking them," Heerensperger said. "They're just coming off."
Pay "N Pak driver George Henley said, "we've had no problem all season until this week."
The problem, Heerensperger and crew chief Jim Lucero decided, must be in the propeller shaft rather than the prop itself. So, they decided late Friday to switch to a different kind of shaft — a kind Heerensperger feels is potentially weaker and more likely to lead to a break in the prop were it connects with the shaft.
But, "we can't take the chance it will happen again," Heerensperger said as he discussed the disappearing propellers.
Showing posts with label UIM World Championship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UIM World Championship. Show all posts
Monday, April 24, 2017
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Pak breaks world mark in qualifying
By Del Danielson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 5, 1973
With the fun and games of the "fan plan follies" completed and a world record tucked in Mickey Remund's locker, the nation's unlimited hydroplane fleet today is poised on Lake Washington's shores awaiting the noon start of the $50,000 World Championship regatta.
Fourteen boats met a somewhat nebulous qualifying standard. Two hydros - including the U-95 turbine boat - are NOT official entries. The U-95 arrived in the pits after the course closed yesterday and a request for qualifying time this morning was denied.
Remund fell short of the much talked about time-trial average of 130 miles an hour. He did, however, drive the Pay 'N Pak to a world mark for the fastest qualifying speed ever - 126.613 m.p.h.
Remund's speed topped the qualifying ladder used to determine the heat assignments for today's race. The fan-plan rules put the top qualifiers in the same heat, 1C; the "middle boats together and the slow craft in a third flight.
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 5, 1973
 |
| The Pay 'N Pak threw up a long roostertail on Lake Washington as Donald Writesman, Coast Guard petty officer from Port Angeles, kept a watchful eye on the record run from his perch in the rescue helicopter circling the three-mile race course. Fourteen boats will start in pursuit of the $50,000 in prize money at noon today. |
With the fun and games of the "fan plan follies" completed and a world record tucked in Mickey Remund's locker, the nation's unlimited hydroplane fleet today is poised on Lake Washington's shores awaiting the noon start of the $50,000 World Championship regatta.
Fourteen boats met a somewhat nebulous qualifying standard. Two hydros - including the U-95 turbine boat - are NOT official entries. The U-95 arrived in the pits after the course closed yesterday and a request for qualifying time this morning was denied.
Remund fell short of the much talked about time-trial average of 130 miles an hour. He did, however, drive the Pay 'N Pak to a world mark for the fastest qualifying speed ever - 126.613 m.p.h.
Remund's speed topped the qualifying ladder used to determine the heat assignments for today's race. The fan-plan rules put the top qualifiers in the same heat, 1C; the "middle boats together and the slow craft in a third flight.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Henley forgotten man in hubbub following victory
By Jini Dolan
Reprinted from the Tri-City Herald, July 22, 1974
“Hey Daddy - I cut my arm on a propeller.”
That was the victory greeting George Henley received from daughter Lori, 8, after winning the World Championship of unlimited hydroplanes Sunday.
And the reception in the pits for the Eatonville driver of Pay ‘N Pak continued in that vein.
The winner was the forgotten man in the brouhaha that followed the seven-boat final heat and the collision of the U-95 that no one can agree was a collision.
Owner Dave Heerensperger, however, jubilant in his third victory on the Columbia River course, had a magnum of champagne cooling for Henley.
He’d confidently placed it in the refrigerator that morning.
For Heerensperger, the win was a sweet one after watching his picklefork lose a propeller as it headed for the checkered flag in last year’s Gold Cup with Mickey Remund at the wheel.
He was sure he had it Sunday after the first heat in which Pak lead the pack, including the U-95.
Heerensperger gold Henley to cool it in the second heat, “go for a second or third” but when the epic five-lap duel with the U-95 started, the boat owner was noisily rooting for a U-1 victory.
Of Henley, Heerensperger said, “He drove a good race - and he stayed out of the trouble (in the final heat).”
Henley described his tight turns in Heat 2-C as he strove to compensate for the speed the U-95 was picking up on the straightaways.
“I felt like I could reach right out and touch the green buoy,” he said.
Disappointed U-95 driver Leif Borgersen described his impressions of starting a race amongst seven thunderboats:
“It was like being in one of those desert road races where 15,000 motorcycles take off at the same time - and all of a sudden they go into a funnel.”
Borgersen has been a driver for six years and has never won.
Chuck Lyford, U-95 crew chief reminded Heerensperger of his debt to the turbine team:
“Hey, remember that’s our prop, David,” he said after the race.
The Pak had borrowed the propeller on several other occasions.
Bad luck plagued several other camps.
On Saturday the Miss Madison caught fire.
On Sunday, electrical problems, after effects of the fire, kept the community-owned hydro from starting the first heat and contributed to a blown engine in the consolation race.
The crew of the Lincoln Thrift, damaged by an explosion late Saturday, worked in shifts until 6 a.m. Sunday to get the Phoenix-based boat running.
Owner Bob Fendler got permission to put it in the water for testing just before the race - but after that, it completed only one lap.
“It’s really tough.” said the dejected attorney. “We still have some kind of fuel problem but we honestly can’t figure out what’s wrong.”
The crew of the Solo from Australia watched from the official barge.
This is a spectacular sight,” said Colin Winton, the boat’s designer.
“Every once in a while I have to pinch myself to prove I’m really here. I’ve been reading about this for years,” he said.
Before the race, Henley said, “This is my favorite place to race.”
And afterward, finding himself 800 points ahead of the Budweiser in the national standings following his first win here. “Now I like it better than ever.”
“This is home.”
Reprinted from the Tri-City Herald, July 22, 1974
“Hey Daddy - I cut my arm on a propeller.”
That was the victory greeting George Henley received from daughter Lori, 8, after winning the World Championship of unlimited hydroplanes Sunday.
And the reception in the pits for the Eatonville driver of Pay ‘N Pak continued in that vein.
The winner was the forgotten man in the brouhaha that followed the seven-boat final heat and the collision of the U-95 that no one can agree was a collision.
Owner Dave Heerensperger, however, jubilant in his third victory on the Columbia River course, had a magnum of champagne cooling for Henley.
He’d confidently placed it in the refrigerator that morning.
For Heerensperger, the win was a sweet one after watching his picklefork lose a propeller as it headed for the checkered flag in last year’s Gold Cup with Mickey Remund at the wheel.
He was sure he had it Sunday after the first heat in which Pak lead the pack, including the U-95.
Heerensperger gold Henley to cool it in the second heat, “go for a second or third” but when the epic five-lap duel with the U-95 started, the boat owner was noisily rooting for a U-1 victory.
Of Henley, Heerensperger said, “He drove a good race - and he stayed out of the trouble (in the final heat).”
Henley described his tight turns in Heat 2-C as he strove to compensate for the speed the U-95 was picking up on the straightaways.
“I felt like I could reach right out and touch the green buoy,” he said.
Disappointed U-95 driver Leif Borgersen described his impressions of starting a race amongst seven thunderboats:
“It was like being in one of those desert road races where 15,000 motorcycles take off at the same time - and all of a sudden they go into a funnel.”
Borgersen has been a driver for six years and has never won.
Chuck Lyford, U-95 crew chief reminded Heerensperger of his debt to the turbine team:
“Hey, remember that’s our prop, David,” he said after the race.
The Pak had borrowed the propeller on several other occasions.
Bad luck plagued several other camps.
On Saturday the Miss Madison caught fire.
On Sunday, electrical problems, after effects of the fire, kept the community-owned hydro from starting the first heat and contributed to a blown engine in the consolation race.
The crew of the Lincoln Thrift, damaged by an explosion late Saturday, worked in shifts until 6 a.m. Sunday to get the Phoenix-based boat running.
Owner Bob Fendler got permission to put it in the water for testing just before the race - but after that, it completed only one lap.
“It’s really tough.” said the dejected attorney. “We still have some kind of fuel problem but we honestly can’t figure out what’s wrong.”
The crew of the Solo from Australia watched from the official barge.
This is a spectacular sight,” said Colin Winton, the boat’s designer.
“Every once in a while I have to pinch myself to prove I’m really here. I’ve been reading about this for years,” he said.
Before the race, Henley said, “This is my favorite place to race.”
And afterward, finding himself 800 points ahead of the Budweiser in the national standings following his first win here. “Now I like it better than ever.”
“This is home.”
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Pay 'n Pak Sweeps to World Championship Victory
Reprinted from Pay 'N Pak Racing News, August 1974
Over 80,000 hydro maniacs were treated to the greatest thunderboat racing in history on the sun-streaked, breeze-dappled course on the Columbia River at Tri-Cities, Washington, on Sunday, July 21, 1974.
After three days of total frustration the big boats ran like a script on Sunday with the Pay 'N Pak (mentioned as a 3rd place boat by Charles Lyford of the U-95 camp) winning it wire to wire as though anyone could catch the George Henley piloted rocket the way she was running.
Seven boats were in the flying start (reminiscent of the old six boat starts) when Bill Muncey, the alternate, joined the start as Valu-Mart had gone dead in the water. Little did Bill know that rookie Ron Armstrong had restarted the Valu-Mart before the one minute gun.
In the screaming first turn there were at least four boats and it was hairy. Pak, U-95 on her hip, Valu-Mart, Budweiser, and Atlas in there somewhere. In a 320 ton spray of roostertail something happened, the Pak came out leading by two boat lengths, the U-95 seemed to settle in the water and then the Valu-Mart, Bud and Atlas screamed after the Pak.
The action in that turn evoked a protest from Pamela Clapp, owner of the U-95, but race officials contended nothing illegal happened. However, from there on the second fastest qualifier (118 to the Pak's 119+) and the boat that set the fastest head time of the day (113.469 mph) was never really in it.
U-95 finally restarted and apparently running on one turbine managed a bad fourth. (The same place the U-95 crew had predicted for the Pak.)
The U-95 and the Pak went into the final championship flight in a dead heat with 700 points apiece. The Pay 'N Pak widened her National Points lead over (still second) Budweiser from 6 points to 837 points and the U-95 moved up within 813 points below the Bud.
The seven boat start was (as one reporter put it) fouled up. About six minutes before the final starting gun, flames spewed from the engine of the Valu-Mart and she headed into the infield - obviously out of the action. This spurred Bill Muncey in the Atlas Van Lines into life.
Apparently Ron Armstrong revived the Valu-Mart shortly before the one minute gun, but by now Bill was pass him and naturally couldn't see behind him. Bill must have been surprised when Ron zipped past him at the start. Muncey as fined $250.00 for not pulling off the course. What would you have done?
Over 80,000 hydro maniacs were treated to the greatest thunderboat racing in history on the sun-streaked, breeze-dappled course on the Columbia River at Tri-Cities, Washington, on Sunday, July 21, 1974.
After three days of total frustration the big boats ran like a script on Sunday with the Pay 'N Pak (mentioned as a 3rd place boat by Charles Lyford of the U-95 camp) winning it wire to wire as though anyone could catch the George Henley piloted rocket the way she was running.
Seven boats were in the flying start (reminiscent of the old six boat starts) when Bill Muncey, the alternate, joined the start as Valu-Mart had gone dead in the water. Little did Bill know that rookie Ron Armstrong had restarted the Valu-Mart before the one minute gun.
In the screaming first turn there were at least four boats and it was hairy. Pak, U-95 on her hip, Valu-Mart, Budweiser, and Atlas in there somewhere. In a 320 ton spray of roostertail something happened, the Pak came out leading by two boat lengths, the U-95 seemed to settle in the water and then the Valu-Mart, Bud and Atlas screamed after the Pak.
The action in that turn evoked a protest from Pamela Clapp, owner of the U-95, but race officials contended nothing illegal happened. However, from there on the second fastest qualifier (118 to the Pak's 119+) and the boat that set the fastest head time of the day (113.469 mph) was never really in it.
U-95 finally restarted and apparently running on one turbine managed a bad fourth. (The same place the U-95 crew had predicted for the Pak.)
The U-95 and the Pak went into the final championship flight in a dead heat with 700 points apiece. The Pay 'N Pak widened her National Points lead over (still second) Budweiser from 6 points to 837 points and the U-95 moved up within 813 points below the Bud.
The seven boat start was (as one reporter put it) fouled up. About six minutes before the final starting gun, flames spewed from the engine of the Valu-Mart and she headed into the infield - obviously out of the action. This spurred Bill Muncey in the Atlas Van Lines into life.
Apparently Ron Armstrong revived the Valu-Mart shortly before the one minute gun, but by now Bill was pass him and naturally couldn't see behind him. Bill must have been surprised when Ron zipped past him at the start. Muncey as fined $250.00 for not pulling off the course. What would you have done?
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Winged Wonder
By Fred Farley - Unlimited Unlimited Historian
The "Winged Wonder" PAY 'N PAK ranks among the all-time great Thunderboats with 22 race victories. It stands with designer Ron Jones, Sr.'s other big winner, the 1980 Rolls-Royce Griffon-powered MISS BUDWEISER, which likewise captured 22 first-place trophies.
The 1973 PAY 'N PAK, which became Bill Muncey's ATLAS VAN LINES in 1976, was the first hydroplane of any shape or size to be built of aluminum honeycomb, rather than marine plywood. According to Jones, "I had originally thought that I would use a honeycomb bottom. But after talking with the people from the Hexcel Company, I was very impressed and decided to use it everywhere in the boat that I possibly could for a weight saving of about a thousand pounds."
In planning the new PAK, Jones wanted very much to build a cabover. But Heerensperger insisted on a rear-cockpit hull and won out. Ron nevertheless utilized many of the cabover hull characteristics while still seating the driver behind the engine.
"But I did insist on the use of a horizontal stabilizer. Heerensperger agreed because it would give him a lot of publicity. And it did. Perhaps, by today's standards, the stabilizer was not everything it could have been. It was, however, a good running start on the widespread use of the concept. "And in all fairness to [crew chief] Jim Lucero, he certainly added to the boat's ultimate performance by preparing excellent engines, good gearbox/propeller combinations, and probably some fine-tuning on the sponsons."
Perhaps the most eloquent showcase of the talents of Ron Jones occurred at the 1973 World's Championship Race in Seattle. Despite mist and rain, the competition was superb and unforgettable. The honeycomb PAY 'N PAK and its 1970 predecessor (renamed MISS BUDWEISER) ran side-by-side. Drivers Mickey Remund and Dean Chenoweth shared the same roostertail en route to becoming the first boats in history to average better than 120 miles per hour in a heat of competition. A local newspaper labeled the PAK and the BUD as "the champion fogcutters of the world."
That 1973 campaign was the first season in which hulls designed by Ron won the majority of Unlimited races (eight out of nine). PAY 'N PAK and MISS BUDWEISER both had four wins and finished one-two in National High Points. In spite of being three years older and a thousand pounds heavier than PAY 'N PAK, MISS BUDWEISER was able to achieve parity with the PAK. This was due to driver Chenoweth consistently securing the inside lane in heat confrontations between the two entries.
The famous PAK/BUD rivalry continued into 1974. PAY 'N PAK won seven races and MISS BUDWEISER won four to sweep the eleven-race campaign.
The 1975 season was another banner year for the Ron Jones hulls. That's when the Billy Schumacher-chauffeured WEISFIELD'S (former VALU-MART) had the defending National Champion PAY 'N PAK on the ropes in the first three races. But PAY 'N PAK driver George Henley overcame an almost insurmountable point lead by winning five of the last six races of the season to retain the championship.
Never before or since has the momentum of one boat been so surely halted by the performance of another challenger.
1973 UIM World Championship Final Heat
The "Winged Wonder" PAY 'N PAK ranks among the all-time great Thunderboats with 22 race victories. It stands with designer Ron Jones, Sr.'s other big winner, the 1980 Rolls-Royce Griffon-powered MISS BUDWEISER, which likewise captured 22 first-place trophies.
The 1973 PAY 'N PAK, which became Bill Muncey's ATLAS VAN LINES in 1976, was the first hydroplane of any shape or size to be built of aluminum honeycomb, rather than marine plywood. According to Jones, "I had originally thought that I would use a honeycomb bottom. But after talking with the people from the Hexcel Company, I was very impressed and decided to use it everywhere in the boat that I possibly could for a weight saving of about a thousand pounds."
In planning the new PAK, Jones wanted very much to build a cabover. But Heerensperger insisted on a rear-cockpit hull and won out. Ron nevertheless utilized many of the cabover hull characteristics while still seating the driver behind the engine.
"But I did insist on the use of a horizontal stabilizer. Heerensperger agreed because it would give him a lot of publicity. And it did. Perhaps, by today's standards, the stabilizer was not everything it could have been. It was, however, a good running start on the widespread use of the concept. "And in all fairness to [crew chief] Jim Lucero, he certainly added to the boat's ultimate performance by preparing excellent engines, good gearbox/propeller combinations, and probably some fine-tuning on the sponsons."
Perhaps the most eloquent showcase of the talents of Ron Jones occurred at the 1973 World's Championship Race in Seattle. Despite mist and rain, the competition was superb and unforgettable. The honeycomb PAY 'N PAK and its 1970 predecessor (renamed MISS BUDWEISER) ran side-by-side. Drivers Mickey Remund and Dean Chenoweth shared the same roostertail en route to becoming the first boats in history to average better than 120 miles per hour in a heat of competition. A local newspaper labeled the PAK and the BUD as "the champion fogcutters of the world."
That 1973 campaign was the first season in which hulls designed by Ron won the majority of Unlimited races (eight out of nine). PAY 'N PAK and MISS BUDWEISER both had four wins and finished one-two in National High Points. In spite of being three years older and a thousand pounds heavier than PAY 'N PAK, MISS BUDWEISER was able to achieve parity with the PAK. This was due to driver Chenoweth consistently securing the inside lane in heat confrontations between the two entries.
The famous PAK/BUD rivalry continued into 1974. PAY 'N PAK won seven races and MISS BUDWEISER won four to sweep the eleven-race campaign.
The 1975 season was another banner year for the Ron Jones hulls. That's when the Billy Schumacher-chauffeured WEISFIELD'S (former VALU-MART) had the defending National Champion PAY 'N PAK on the ropes in the first three races. But PAY 'N PAK driver George Henley overcame an almost insurmountable point lead by winning five of the last six races of the season to retain the championship.
Never before or since has the momentum of one boat been so surely halted by the performance of another challenger.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Remund Sets 126.613 Hydro Qualifying Mark
By Del Danielson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 4, 1973
Mickey Remund today set a Lake Washington record qualifying for tomorrow’s $50,000 World Championship unlimited hydroplane regatta.
Remund drove the Pay ‘N Pak to a three-lap average of 126.613 miles an hour, eclipsing the 125.874 mark set last year by Billy Sterett in another boat, Pride of Pay ‘N Pak.
It was Remund’s third qualifying run, upping his speed from a previous best of 124.568 m.p.h. Thursday he qualified at 122.728. Today, Remund was attempting to reach a 130-m.p.h., average.
A quick glance at the qualifying ladder might lead one to believe the Pay ‘N Pak and Budweiser are far and away the fastest of the 15 hydroplanes lining up for the race.
They are. And they aren’t.
The confusion is part of a little game called "fan plan follies" now in progress at the Stan Sayres Memorial Pits on the shore of Lake Washington.
The Fan Plan is the innovative format to match boats of like speed in preliminary heats, leading to a winner-take-all final.
Like cream, the Pay ‘N Pak and Budweiser went right to the top. After one day of qualifying, the Pak had a mark of 122.728 miles an hour. The Bud was close with a 121.901 m.p.h. average.
Nine other hydros were bunched between Pizza Pete at 100.022 m.p.h. and Shakey’s Special at 106.299 m.p.h. For all but a few of the hydro camps, the "sandbagger" label fits.
The numbers did spread out a bit yesterday, but there was no hurry to get into the "hot dog" flight, Mickey Remund moved the Pak’s speed up to 124.568 m.p.h.
The five fastest qualifiers will be in Flight-C tomorrow. The middle group will go in Flight B and the five slowpokes (or best sand-baggers) will start in Flight A.
Lee Schoenith, owner of the Pizza Pete and Atlas Van Lines, is an admitted sandbagger.
"There’s as much money up for winning Flight B as there is for running third in C. And the points are better."
As it stood this morning, Schoenith will send Bill Muncey out with the Atlas in Flight B. Fred Alter will pilot the Pizza Pete in the C section.
Schoenith may be trying to prove a point by keeping Muncey out of the speediest competition.
"I think the fan plan stinks," Schoenith said. "But I can play games too, if that’s what they want."
For a while, Muncey was in the top group with a qualifying average of 105.059 m.p.h.
When Tom Sheehy got the Miss Madison "in" with a two-lap average of 112.737 m.p.h., Muncey was dropped to fifth. And when Jim McCormick improved his speed in the Red Man I to 109.202 m.p.h., Muncey and the Atlas were put in the medium grouping.
"I got bumped!" Schoenith hollered in elation when McCormick’s speed was announced on the public-address system.
PIT STOPS: The average of 112.737 m.p.h. which put the Miss Madison in the fast flight did not bother Tom Sheehy, the driver. "We just go out and run and let the chips fall . . .," Sheehy said. "Sometimes you can over-engineer a project. Fool around with sandbagging too long and you can back yourself in a corner." . . . For some of the boat camps, it’s a matter of getting one problem solved and then finding something else to worry about. The Notre Dame blew an engine yesterday. The crew got things back in order and just as the crane lowered the craft to the water, the course was closed for the day . . .
Red Man II (former Country Boy) team solved an oil-pressure problem which had plagued George Henley on several test runs for a day and a half. With that fixed, the turbocharger attached to the big Allison engine decided to go "out of time." . . . Col. Jack Brown was scheduled to go through a driver’s qualification test today, running against the clock in a simulated start. If Brown doesn’t make it, Gene Whipp is the designated replacement to drive the Lincoln Thrift . . . Tomorrow's first heat of racing will begin at noon.
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 4, 1973
Mickey Remund today set a Lake Washington record qualifying for tomorrow’s $50,000 World Championship unlimited hydroplane regatta.
Remund drove the Pay ‘N Pak to a three-lap average of 126.613 miles an hour, eclipsing the 125.874 mark set last year by Billy Sterett in another boat, Pride of Pay ‘N Pak.
It was Remund’s third qualifying run, upping his speed from a previous best of 124.568 m.p.h. Thursday he qualified at 122.728. Today, Remund was attempting to reach a 130-m.p.h., average.
A quick glance at the qualifying ladder might lead one to believe the Pay ‘N Pak and Budweiser are far and away the fastest of the 15 hydroplanes lining up for the race.
They are. And they aren’t.
The confusion is part of a little game called "fan plan follies" now in progress at the Stan Sayres Memorial Pits on the shore of Lake Washington.
The Fan Plan is the innovative format to match boats of like speed in preliminary heats, leading to a winner-take-all final.
Like cream, the Pay ‘N Pak and Budweiser went right to the top. After one day of qualifying, the Pak had a mark of 122.728 miles an hour. The Bud was close with a 121.901 m.p.h. average.
Nine other hydros were bunched between Pizza Pete at 100.022 m.p.h. and Shakey’s Special at 106.299 m.p.h. For all but a few of the hydro camps, the "sandbagger" label fits.
The numbers did spread out a bit yesterday, but there was no hurry to get into the "hot dog" flight, Mickey Remund moved the Pak’s speed up to 124.568 m.p.h.
The five fastest qualifiers will be in Flight-C tomorrow. The middle group will go in Flight B and the five slowpokes (or best sand-baggers) will start in Flight A.
Lee Schoenith, owner of the Pizza Pete and Atlas Van Lines, is an admitted sandbagger.
"There’s as much money up for winning Flight B as there is for running third in C. And the points are better."
As it stood this morning, Schoenith will send Bill Muncey out with the Atlas in Flight B. Fred Alter will pilot the Pizza Pete in the C section.
Schoenith may be trying to prove a point by keeping Muncey out of the speediest competition.
"I think the fan plan stinks," Schoenith said. "But I can play games too, if that’s what they want."
For a while, Muncey was in the top group with a qualifying average of 105.059 m.p.h.
When Tom Sheehy got the Miss Madison "in" with a two-lap average of 112.737 m.p.h., Muncey was dropped to fifth. And when Jim McCormick improved his speed in the Red Man I to 109.202 m.p.h., Muncey and the Atlas were put in the medium grouping.
"I got bumped!" Schoenith hollered in elation when McCormick’s speed was announced on the public-address system.
PIT STOPS: The average of 112.737 m.p.h. which put the Miss Madison in the fast flight did not bother Tom Sheehy, the driver. "We just go out and run and let the chips fall . . .," Sheehy said. "Sometimes you can over-engineer a project. Fool around with sandbagging too long and you can back yourself in a corner." . . . For some of the boat camps, it’s a matter of getting one problem solved and then finding something else to worry about. The Notre Dame blew an engine yesterday. The crew got things back in order and just as the crane lowered the craft to the water, the course was closed for the day . . .
Red Man II (former Country Boy) team solved an oil-pressure problem which had plagued George Henley on several test runs for a day and a half. With that fixed, the turbocharger attached to the big Allison engine decided to go "out of time." . . . Col. Jack Brown was scheduled to go through a driver’s qualification test today, running against the clock in a simulated start. If Brown doesn’t make it, Gene Whipp is the designated replacement to drive the Lincoln Thrift . . . Tomorrow's first heat of racing will begin at noon.
Did Pak violate right-of-way rule?
By Del Danielson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
Delayed reports of a possible rule infraction during the final heat of yesterday’s World Championship unlimited-hydroplane race led to the suspension of an assistant referee last night.
Arnold Green of Seattle, a long-time competitor and boat-race official in the Pacific Northwest, was banned from unlimited-class officialdom by Bill Newton, chief referee.
Green did not relay to Newton a reported violation of the lane-change rule by Mickey Remund, winner of the $50,000 race.
"We cannot tolerate such action," Newton said when the matter was taken up several hours after the finish of the race.
Newton and Buddy Byers, unlimited commissioner, last night issued a statement which said four course referees reported to Green that the Pay ‘N Pak violated the right-of-way rule by cutting too sharply on the Budweiser in the fourth turn of the second lap.
Green, contacted at his home last night, said a course referee did call the barge, but "I did not talk to him. I got his report second-hand., And I was watching the north turn, I felt there was no violation of any rule, I believe I was in a better position to see than a judge in a boat and I did not relay the incident to Newton.
"I made a decision. I guess I should have passed it on and let Newton handle it."
Newton’s statement said the incident happened in the "second lap." Actually, Mickey Remund in the Pay ‘N Pak moved to the inside lane and forced the Budweiser to the outside on the fourth turn of the first lap.
"I saw the Pay ‘N Pak move in," Green said. "But in my estimation he left enough room for the Budweiser so I didn’t pass it on."
The Budweiser camp did not say anything about a possible violation nor did they file a protest after the race. Chenoweth did not complain about being "cut off" when he returned to the pits after the heat.
Newton said he was watching the Budweiser and Pay ‘N Pak at the point in question and saw no violation.
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
Delayed reports of a possible rule infraction during the final heat of yesterday’s World Championship unlimited-hydroplane race led to the suspension of an assistant referee last night.
Arnold Green of Seattle, a long-time competitor and boat-race official in the Pacific Northwest, was banned from unlimited-class officialdom by Bill Newton, chief referee.
Green did not relay to Newton a reported violation of the lane-change rule by Mickey Remund, winner of the $50,000 race.
"We cannot tolerate such action," Newton said when the matter was taken up several hours after the finish of the race.
Newton and Buddy Byers, unlimited commissioner, last night issued a statement which said four course referees reported to Green that the Pay ‘N Pak violated the right-of-way rule by cutting too sharply on the Budweiser in the fourth turn of the second lap.
Green, contacted at his home last night, said a course referee did call the barge, but "I did not talk to him. I got his report second-hand., And I was watching the north turn, I felt there was no violation of any rule, I believe I was in a better position to see than a judge in a boat and I did not relay the incident to Newton.
"I made a decision. I guess I should have passed it on and let Newton handle it."
Newton’s statement said the incident happened in the "second lap." Actually, Mickey Remund in the Pay ‘N Pak moved to the inside lane and forced the Budweiser to the outside on the fourth turn of the first lap.
"I saw the Pay ‘N Pak move in," Green said. "But in my estimation he left enough room for the Budweiser so I didn’t pass it on."
The Budweiser camp did not say anything about a possible violation nor did they file a protest after the race. Chenoweth did not complain about being "cut off" when he returned to the pits after the heat.
Newton said he was watching the Budweiser and Pay ‘N Pak at the point in question and saw no violation.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Hydro Happiness Is a Special Italian Propeller
By Don Fair
Reprinted from Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 6, 1973
Reprinted from Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 6, 1973
The difference between victory and defeat yesterday on Lake Washington was as simple as the difference between a borrowed propeller and a faulty nitrous button.
And it all happened on a day when, many drivers agreed, the Seafair World Championship Race never should have been run.
Pay ’n Pak owner Dave Heerensperger, driver Mickey Remund and crew were the recipients of the propeller — from yet-to-race U-95.
It’s a special Italian model, costing somewhere between $1,200 and $1,500. The Pak and its very own Italian prop parted company as it was losing by an eyeblink to the Budweiser in Heat 1-C.
"We had asked Jim Clapp (U-95 owner) about borrowing his propeller beforehand," Heerensperger recounted. "We started this season with six such models and the last one went in that first heat.
"I don’t think Jim really knows what he did for us. Without that prop, we would have had to use a type made in Southern California. It’s OK, but the boat doesn’t handle nearly as smooth in the corners."
"The California model is even shaped differently," Pak crew chief Jim Lucero confirmed. "We could have used it, but the boat doesn’t handle nearly as well."
To which Clapp could only add, "Well, I know that I won’t need to test that propeller." Everything else about the turbine U-95 does need testing. It was in the pits for viewing, but correcting the bugs is still ahead.
Heerensperger, Remund & Co. are happy it was within borrowing distance — which in this case happened to be right next to the Pak pit area.
As for that faulty nitrous button, Bud chauffeur Dean Chenoweth told that tale:
"In that final heat, my nitrous didn’t work at all for the first turn or the final two laps."
For the uninitiated, nitrous is the hydro equivalent to Kickapoo Joy Juice. A shot here and there puts more speed in the supercharger, and therefore could have erased that narrow Pak victory margin.
"When he (Remund) took the lead on the first turn of the first lap, I pushed the nitrous and nothing happened," Chenoweth explained. "I didn’t have any the last two laps either. The system just wasn’t working.
"We had to change engines pretty quick to get ready for the final heat, and I don’t know what happened. I gained on the Pak on the final straightaway just by applying the accellerator.
"Skip that as an alibi, however. I knew I would have one shot and one shot only to catch Mickey. I figured it was on the final lap and I just missed."
Remund admitted, "I didn’t know if I had won until I came back to the pit and everybody was sure I was first until then. "I kind of puckered up a little when I realized how close Dean came. I had no idea he was that close. I thought he was three-four boat lengths away.
"We had no chance to test the borrowed prop and it had a tendency to force the nose up. So the Pak was sort of flying. If I’d had to run 8-10 m.p.h. faster, I’d have had a real problem."
Heat 1-C, featuring the same duel with a different finish, proved just as dramatic, perhaps more so because of record speeds and a closer duel from start to finish.
The Chenoweth-Remund camaraderie was evident when it ended, and the latter made a trip to the Bud camp to offer congratulations.
"You’re beautiful." Remund said as he embraced Chenoweth. "Gawd damn, you, you’re great. We were close enough to touch out there. If I have to run second, that’s the way I want, fast and second to you."
Remund added. "When you race Dean, you have to go fast. Yup, a couple times a yardstick would have touched both our boats. We were that close and yet I felt safe because of Dean. Some drivers I wouldn’t want within 100 feet of me at those speeds."
Chenoweth said of that first duel, "I had my foot clear down to the wood. The boat wouldn’t go any faster. I didn’t think we would go out that quick, but that’s the way Mickey wanted it. I felt he’d let up a little bit, but he never did.
"I can’t go any faster. We were only 100 season points apart going into that race, and the competition is what made it. I accepted the challenge and Mickey did a fine job."
The Bud driver also admitted that for the first time in his unlimited experience he switched from a blue-tinted helmet visor to a clear visor "to help my visibility."
Visibility was a worry almost from the start on the dank, dark, dreary, foggy, wet day.
Winner of the day’s first heat, Bob Gilliam, sounded a warning, which fortunately, never happened, when he said, "The only way I could see was to follow another roostertail. I would say they should postpone this race. I like to race but this is the worst I’ve ever run in, and somebody can get hurt."
Miss U.S. driver Tommy D’Eath admitted the rain felt like B-B’s on my face. I couldn’t even see the judges stand. I went by it twice with my thumbs down (supposed to stop a race according to announcements), but the officials did nothing. Instead they fired the one-minute warning signal."
Still later, when the mist turned into a steadier rain, D‘Eath added, "Damn right they should stop this."
After his first heat, Chuck Hickling of the Ms. Greenfield Galleries had no complaints. Later, he pronounced, "I can’t see anything. It’s really dangerous. The water works behind your goggles. I was really lost out there off the exit on the south turn once. I didn’t know where I was and went inside a couple buoys before I got my bearings."
"In 11 years of driving unlimiteds, this is the worst — although the water isn’t bad. When you can’t see, you'll hurt somebody or yourself."
Bill Muncey, Jim McCormick and even Remund and Chenoweth agreed visibility was not great. None however said the race should be halted.
Tom Kaufman, pilot of Mr. Fabricator, best put the plight of the drivers when he said, "The people came to see a race . . . so we’re racing."
Muncey added, "You don’t want to disappoint all the fans who have come to watch, although I’m not sure they can see the race under these conditions."
McCormick labeled driving conditions "poor to horrible."
Last year’s champ, Muncey, was a forgotten man, despite two heat victories. He was away-back third in the showdown, and when asked if he was aware of Muncey at all, the victorious Remund snapped, "Oh, yeah, I knew he was there because I waved to Bill before the last race."
As Heerensperger savored his first Seafair title, he mused, "Ron Jones (Pak designer) told me three years ago to get Remund as my driver. Well, I got him this year after three months of convincing."
That salesmanship feat ranks right up there with the one Heerensperger used to obtain that Italian propeller.
A hydro champion is only as good as his equipment — new, used or borrowed.
Should Pak Have Been Disqualified?
By Bill Knight
Reprinted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 6, 1973
Reprinted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 6, 1973
The Pride of Pay ’n Pak’s Seafair victory on rain-drenched Lake Washington yesterday carried international, national and local overtones . . . and one murmur of protest.
Unlimited referee Bill Newton last night revealed a possible rules violation — one which might have disqualified the Pak — had gone unreported to Newton.
Newton said the outcome of the race, with the Pak barely surviving a late charge by Miss Budweiser at the wire in the final heat, will not be changed.
Newton said, though, as a result of the incident, he has suspended indefinitely assistant referee Arnold Green of Seattle.
Newton said four different course referees reported to Tom Winter, operating the telephone unit on the official barge, that the Pay ’n Pak had violated the unlimited right of way rule on the second lap of the final heat.
Newton said Green received the reports from Winter but didn’t pass them along to Newton. Green told him he did not feel the reports to be serious enough to relay to Newton and therefore he disregarded them, Newton went on.
On the north turn of the second lap, the Pak, leading the Budweiser, cut close to the turn buoys and forced the Bud to go through his wake.
Bud driver Dean Chenoweth offered no protest of the incident when he talked to reporters at length following the race.
Newton said the race finish is final once the checkered flag goes down but said he "feels strong sympathy for all parties involved."
Green is being suspended, Newton said, "not because of any lack of confidence in him but to reinforce the concept that the assistant referee must report all transmissions from course referees to him at once."
Two weeks ago at the Gold Cup in Tri-Cities, there had been reports of a Pak lane-change violation but the boat fell out of the race with propeller problems. Newton said later he hadn’t learned of the course judge’s report until after the heat ended.
The Pak won the world championship, took the national point lead and captured the hearts of soggy Seafair fans.
Victory in the final heat gave the Seattle-based Pak the top prize in the $50,000 Seafair World Championship Regatta and it was a popular win here. The drizzle, which never let up all afternoon, sent the vast majority of the fans who arrived for the noon start scurrying for cover before the final heat.
The win here boosted the Pak into a 350-point lead over Budweiser in the national point standings.
The Pak-Bud rivalry totally dominated the action of an otherwise lackluster program of racing, Chenoweth and Remund played a hydro version of Me and My Shadow for three heats and the Pak pilot came out on top twice, including the critical finale.
The deck-to-deck duel of the Pak and Bud in heat 1-C went five laps, wire to wire — one of the finest races ever seen here, and the fastest anywhere.
Chenoweth was clocked in a scorching 122.504 miles per hour for the 15-mile heat. Yet Remund’s third lap, 124.424 mph, was the fastest single turn of the course and also smashed the world record.
Yet the co-favorites had their anxious moments, too.
Just as he crossed the finish line in 1-C, the Pak settled into the water with what was later diagnosed as a broken shaft. The Pak’s best prop went to the bottom of the lake.
In their second clash, the Bud threw a rod, flames came spewing from the stacks and the boat stopped nearing the end of the third lap.
But the Pak crew borrowed a propeller from the U-95 crew and the Budweiser gang put in a new engine going into the final.
Both moves were decisive in the final outcome. The borrowed prop worked perfectly while the engine changeover in the Bud left the nitrous system functioning only spasmodically.
"I hit the nitro button coming out of the first turn and nothing happened," Chenoweth said later. "It worked on the second and third laps but not on the fourth or fifth." The Bud driver still figured he’d come close in the belated charge at the finish.
"I thought possibly we might have got him," he grinned.
For Pak owner Dave Heerensperger, who watched in frustration as his boat failed to finish a heat a year ago here, it was a satisfying win.
"After last year this is fantastic," he said. "It looked like Mickey was losing power at the end there. I thought Bud might catch him."
Remund explained later that the new prop caused the boat to ride slightly different, "I had to concentrate on keeping the nose up," he explained.
There was a drizzle when the first heat of the afternoon got under way 15 minutes late — thanks to the bad visibility from the haze. It was a slow-poke heat and the race matched the caliber of boats. George Henley in the cabover Red Man II led for two laps, then fizzled. So did Miss U.S.
That left it open to Bob Gilliam’s Valu-Mart with Ms. Greenfield Galleries second. The others didn’t even start.
Bill Muncey‘s Atlas breezed to a no-contest win in 1-B as the crowd yawned again.
All was forgiven, though, in 1-C. In the charge to the starting line, Budweiser got the inside lane with Pak running on the adjacent track. Coming out of the first turn the Bud and Pak were deck to deck and it was that way for five torrid laps.
The Pak took the lead coming out of the north turn a couple of times, leading at the end of laps No. 2 and No. 3. The Bud regained command each time, though, coming out of the south turn and at the end of the fourth lap held a five-length lead.
Chenoweth never let up and won as both broke the 15-mile heat record of 116.079 m.p.h. set by the late Ron Musson in Miss Bardahl in 1965. The Pak’s 45-mile race average of 117 m.p.h. plus also broke a Bardahl record.
Back to the slowpokes for 2-A, Ms. Greenfield was the lone finisher — thus the Chuck Hickling boat made it to the finals having not beaten a single hydro in two heats. Muncey coasted again in 2-B and Jim McCormick’s Red Man also advanced to the final.
When Bud and the Pak got together again in 2-C, Chenoweth had the lead for almost three laps when the Bud’s engine broke.
"All of a sudden it let go with a loud explosion," Chenoweth said later. "I shut off both fuel pumps and shut off all the fuel in the carburetor. I thought it would burn itself out. I didn’t want to make a big mess with the fire extinguisher."
Heerensperger looked on that mishap as something of an omen.
"Maybe we’re going to get a break or two," he said. "We were lucky. We backed into that one."
The mortality rate, by the way, was one of the worst ever here with only 20 of a possible 34 finishers making it across the line. Five of the 14 boats went pointless.
Not All Drivers Were In Favor Of Racing in Rain
By Chuck Ashmun
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
The show-must-go-on opinion prevailed on Lake Washington yesterday. But if a couple of unlimited-hydroplane drivers had their way, the soggy Seafair saga would have been stopped long before the final heat.
"I went by the stand twice with my thumb down and pointed at my eyes," said Tom D’Eath, rookie driver of the Miss U. S.
The drivers had been told before the initial heat of the World Championship regatta that a thumbs-down signal to the official barge would mean to stop the race because of the rain.
"The third time around, I went by on the inside with my thumb down," continued D’Eath, "and they went ahead and fired the one-minute gun anyway.
"That rain felt like being shot in the face with a BB gun. The visibility couldn’t have been more than a couple of feet. You couldn’t see down the course at all."
Asked if he had seen the driver’s down-turned thumb, the race referee, Bill Newton, responded affirmatively.
"But there are other drivers out there, too," said Newton. "I have to go with the majority, don’t I?"
Chuck Hickling and. Bob Gilliam, two veteran North-west drivers who were in that first heat, displayed no thumbs-down signals. But both later indicated the course was unsafe for racing.
Bill Muncey, Atlas Van Lines driver, described the visibility as "virtually nil." But he thought officials were right in keeping the boats going.
"There’s an awful lot of people who came out here to see a race," Muncey said. "These drivers are professionals, smart men. As long as they drive within the limitations..."
Dean Chenoweth, who made his world-record run in the Miss Budweiser in Heat 1C, credited a blue-tinted mask with helping him see.
"It’s the first time I’ve ever used it," he said. "We were afraid the clear one would fog up. With the blue one, I didn’t have too much trouble reading the water."
"This is the worst I’ve ever raced in," Gilliam said after winning the heat in the Valu-Mart I and returning to the pits. "When that water gets on your visor and gets mixed with a drop of oil, all you can see is a smear. The only way I could tell where I was by following the roostertail in front of me."
Hickling, who followed Gilliam’s roostertail across the finish line, seemed unconcerned about the visibility after that first heat.
"I don’t think it was that bad," he said. "I had trouble seeing the clock, but I got a glimpse of the green flag."
However, the Ms. Greenfield Galleries driver was singing a decidedly different tune after his second heat.
"It’s really dangerous," Hickling said. "Somebody’s going to get hurt out there. They should hold up the race."
Hickling missed two buoys but was awarded the heat win anyway, since no other boat finished the heat.
"I was really lost out there," he said. "I couldn’t see a thing. I had no idea which way to steer, and that’s scary."
Hickling said he planned to send word to the barge that further racing should be delayed, if not canceled.
Newton said if such a message was sent, it never reached him.
Other drivers voiced complaints about the poor visibility but made no objections beyond the pit area.
"One thing about this ‘sport," said Mickey Remund, the eventual winner in the Pay ‘n Pak, "is that you never can see really well. You have only about 80 per cent visibility on a clear day.
"In my first heat, it seemed like the raindrops were bigger, and the wind would blow them right off your facemask. Later on, it was more like a mist and I had trouble seeing."
"About the limit," said George Henley, driver of the Red Man II.
"Poor to horrible," echoed Jim McCormick, the Red Man I pilot.
So the comments went, while the racing continued.
Tom Kaufman, owner-driver of the Mister Fabricator, said his speed was slow enough that the rain presented no problem in Heat 1B.
In 2B, Kaufman caught a sponson in the north turn and spun out. But the problem was inside the boat and had nothing to do with poor visibility.
"I went into it a little fast," Kaufman said, "and then the seat popped loose. It threw me off balance, and my foot went down on the accelerator. It lifted the back end up and hooked the boat around.
"That’s as close a call as I ever want to have. I had 9,000 gallons of water coming up right under my armpit."
Kaufman had no trouble seeing those "9,000 gallons."
Friday, February 17, 2012
Floorboard is the Floorboard
By John Owen
Reprinted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 6, 1973
The refugees clogged the roads, in a shambling procession of despair. Even in benumbed shock, they clutched their worldly possessions: chests, blankets, sacks of sodden food. Tired women carried exhausted babies, the men wore hunted expressions. They were cold, wet, dirty, disheveled. They might have been stumbling down a rural road in France, victims of the Nazi blitzkrieg. Their sodden shoes and muddy cuffs seemed to suggest the Bay of Pigs.
And, in fact, they had been eyewitnesses to one of the classic naval battles of all time, fought out on the storm-tossed waters of Lake Washington, under a grey and weeping sky.
It was a three-act showdown between Mickey Remund and Dean Chenoweth. Remund’s frigate was damaged in the first exchange of firepower. At the end of the second volley, Chenoweth was floating dead in the water, his cruiser flashing with flames.
But both returned to action for yet a third time, and Remund’s hydro screamed across the waves to victory, with Chenoweth on his shoulder, half-a-second back at the finish, his thumb jammed down on the nitrous oxide button, still charging at the end.
And then everybody went home, having witnessed a bit of history, on a decidedly uncomfortable afternoon.
Chenoweth’s Miss Budweiser had established a new record speed of 122.504 m.p.h., in Heat 1-C of yesterday’s World Championship Seafair Trophy Race. Remund’s Pay ‘n Pak hydro had set a new lap record of 124.4, in that same heat of competition. And after winning the final, winner-take-all sprint, the Pak Was Back, once again out in front of Miss Budweiser in the race for the national championship.
That was it, a two-boat race, but a classic.
Defending national champion Atlas Van Lines had never been a factor, even though that camp generated more noise’ and more controversy, than all others combined, during the week leading up to yesterday’s finale.
Atlas owner Lee Schoenith, a persistent critic of the "Fan Plan" format, said it would not provide spectators with the best-possible show. And then he set about trying to insure that his prediction would come true.
"Look what happened," Schoenith said yesterday. "During the week everybody went out to run as slow as they could in qualifying, to avoid the fast heat."
Yet in the last analysis, "Everybody" consisted of Atlas Van Lines, and driver Bill Muncey, who purposely qualified a full 10 miles below his boat’s potential, to avoid a premature confrontation with the Bud and the Pak. The Atlas strategy was self-serving, and certainly did nothing to provide a better race for the fans.
Of course, the Atlas team hoped the two hot boats would eliminate each other mechanically, in the blistering opening heats. And in fact the Pak did throw a prop in heat 1-C, and the Bud threw a rod in 2-C. But even though the Bud ran the final with its second-best engine, and despite the fact that the Pak had to use a borrowed propeller, they both ran away and hid from Atlas in the finale. As events transpired, Muncey had earlier been racing just where he belonged, in a second-class heat with a second-class entry.
Meanwhile, Remund and Chenoweth insured the success of the show, holding nothing back, from the first day of qualifying to the final second of competition.
The weather was lousy, visibility marginal at 160 miles an hour. Yet Chenoweth said after the record-breaking heat 1-C that, "We couldn’t have turned any faster with improved visibility. The floorboard is the floorboard, and that’s where I had my foot."
And when they flashed across the line for the final time, in the fading light of the day, the Pak was only a boat-length ahead of the accelerating Budweiser.
"If the race had lasted enough seconds, we might have beaten him," Miss Budweiser owner Bernie Little sighed. "But Dean did a helluva job. And that’s boat racing."
It sure was.
Reprinted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 6, 1973
The refugees clogged the roads, in a shambling procession of despair. Even in benumbed shock, they clutched their worldly possessions: chests, blankets, sacks of sodden food. Tired women carried exhausted babies, the men wore hunted expressions. They were cold, wet, dirty, disheveled. They might have been stumbling down a rural road in France, victims of the Nazi blitzkrieg. Their sodden shoes and muddy cuffs seemed to suggest the Bay of Pigs.
And, in fact, they had been eyewitnesses to one of the classic naval battles of all time, fought out on the storm-tossed waters of Lake Washington, under a grey and weeping sky.
It was a three-act showdown between Mickey Remund and Dean Chenoweth. Remund’s frigate was damaged in the first exchange of firepower. At the end of the second volley, Chenoweth was floating dead in the water, his cruiser flashing with flames.
But both returned to action for yet a third time, and Remund’s hydro screamed across the waves to victory, with Chenoweth on his shoulder, half-a-second back at the finish, his thumb jammed down on the nitrous oxide button, still charging at the end.
And then everybody went home, having witnessed a bit of history, on a decidedly uncomfortable afternoon.
Chenoweth’s Miss Budweiser had established a new record speed of 122.504 m.p.h., in Heat 1-C of yesterday’s World Championship Seafair Trophy Race. Remund’s Pay ‘n Pak hydro had set a new lap record of 124.4, in that same heat of competition. And after winning the final, winner-take-all sprint, the Pak Was Back, once again out in front of Miss Budweiser in the race for the national championship.
That was it, a two-boat race, but a classic.
Defending national champion Atlas Van Lines had never been a factor, even though that camp generated more noise’ and more controversy, than all others combined, during the week leading up to yesterday’s finale.
Atlas owner Lee Schoenith, a persistent critic of the "Fan Plan" format, said it would not provide spectators with the best-possible show. And then he set about trying to insure that his prediction would come true.
"Look what happened," Schoenith said yesterday. "During the week everybody went out to run as slow as they could in qualifying, to avoid the fast heat."
Yet in the last analysis, "Everybody" consisted of Atlas Van Lines, and driver Bill Muncey, who purposely qualified a full 10 miles below his boat’s potential, to avoid a premature confrontation with the Bud and the Pak. The Atlas strategy was self-serving, and certainly did nothing to provide a better race for the fans.
Of course, the Atlas team hoped the two hot boats would eliminate each other mechanically, in the blistering opening heats. And in fact the Pak did throw a prop in heat 1-C, and the Bud threw a rod in 2-C. But even though the Bud ran the final with its second-best engine, and despite the fact that the Pak had to use a borrowed propeller, they both ran away and hid from Atlas in the finale. As events transpired, Muncey had earlier been racing just where he belonged, in a second-class heat with a second-class entry.
Meanwhile, Remund and Chenoweth insured the success of the show, holding nothing back, from the first day of qualifying to the final second of competition.
The weather was lousy, visibility marginal at 160 miles an hour. Yet Chenoweth said after the record-breaking heat 1-C that, "We couldn’t have turned any faster with improved visibility. The floorboard is the floorboard, and that’s where I had my foot."
And when they flashed across the line for the final time, in the fading light of the day, the Pak was only a boat-length ahead of the accelerating Budweiser.
"If the race had lasted enough seconds, we might have beaten him," Miss Budweiser owner Bernie Little sighed. "But Dean did a helluva job. And that’s boat racing."
It sure was.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Borrowed Prop Pushed Remund’s Pak To Victory
By Chuck Ashmun
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
Seattle’s longtime love affair with unlimited-hydroplane racing has survived another series of squabbles, and this time the favorite hometown couple marched to the altar.
Mickey Remund and Dave Heerensperger successfully combined something old, new, borrowed and blue and kept their vows to secure the World Championship race title for the Pacific Northwest.
Had it not been for the borrowed item, however, Heerensperger’s Pay ‘n Pak, piloted by Remund, might have wound up a bridesmaid.
The owner of the new turbine-powered U-95, Jim Clapp, contributed the borrowed part — the propeller that pushed Pay ‘n Pak to victory in yesterday’s final heat on Lake Washington.
"Thanks for testing my new equipment," Clapp told Heerensperger with a grin after Remund had nosed out Dean Chenoweth, driving the Miss Budweiser, at the checkered flag.
"You may never get it back," responded the Pak’s owner.
"We started the season with nine propellers," Heerensperger said. "I think we’re down to about three now. No, make that four, counting Jim’s."
The Pak’s propensity for dropping props cropped up again in yesterday’s first "hot boat" heat.
Remund, who had staged a five lap duel for the lead with the Budweiser in hydroplaning’s fastest heat ever, coasted across the finish line in second place. The Pak’s driveshaft had snapped, and the propeller was left to sink somewhere between the north turn and the finish line.
"That’s the finest race I’ve ever been in my life," said Remund. "A 125 lap, and no visibility."
He amended that later, saying that he could see far enough to grin at Chenoweth while skimming through the rain at 125 miles an hour.
"I had a big smile on my face — and I was running second," he said. "I looked over and said, ‘Hi, Deaner,’ I’m sure we weren’t more than three feet apart."
The closeness continued through the final beat. "You’re required to give him a 20-foot lane," related Remund. "But I wasn’t about to give him 21 feet.
"By holding my position, it meant Deaner had to turn a little tighter, and it cost him a couple of miles per hour in exit speed."
The Bud remained in challenging position however, and made a final attempt to overtake Remund on the last lap.
"I knew I had one shot left, so I floorboarded it," said Chenoweth.
Remund, advised he had won by less than a boat length, said, "I didn’t know he was that close. I thought I had about three or four boat lengths on him. Things get a little hectic out there."
The "old" item was the Pak’s engine, which held up through three hot heats while the power plants of other boats faltered and hastily were replaced.
"I would have changed it," Heerensperger said. "But Jim made the decision."
Jim Lucero, Pay ‘n Pak crew chief, said he was confident the motor would last. "I’m just glad a Seattle boat won it," he said with a sigh.
"You’re going to send some people back to the drawing boards," an admiring spectator told Lucero, referring to something new — the Pak’s horizontal stabilizer.
The Remund-Heerensperger courtship started last November.
"Ron Jones told me three years ago that Mickey was the guy I oughta have," Heerensperger said. "I first talked to him in November, but he’s a hard guy to convince. I didn’t get an answer until February."
Remund, a former limited-hydro champion, insisted he was not wooed into the unlimited ranks. "It was the other way around," he said, indicating he had to convince Heerensperger that he should pilot the Pay ‘n Pak.
Why, then was the owner left waiting for an answer? "Well, that’s what you call negotiatons," Remund said with a smile.
Jones, the unquestoned leader in designing unlimiteds, was the day’s "best man." He conceived the new-look craft which won, plus the second-place finisher.
Some soggy spectators were chilled almost to a blue hue, but the bluest of the blue was Lee Schoenith.
"I still don’t like the fan plan," said Schoenith, the Seattle dew dripping off the Detroiter’s Stetson. It’s not fair for the spectators who come out here all week and . . ."
Few were listening. Schoenith’s week-long complaints about the race’s format had been drowned out.
But the Detroit-Seattle stew still simmers.
Asked if he had seen Bill Muncey, who drives the Atlas Van Lines for Schoenith, during yesterday’s final heat, Remund wryly replied:
"Yeah, I waved at him before the race started."
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
Seattle’s longtime love affair with unlimited-hydroplane racing has survived another series of squabbles, and this time the favorite hometown couple marched to the altar.
Mickey Remund and Dave Heerensperger successfully combined something old, new, borrowed and blue and kept their vows to secure the World Championship race title for the Pacific Northwest.
Had it not been for the borrowed item, however, Heerensperger’s Pay ‘n Pak, piloted by Remund, might have wound up a bridesmaid.
The owner of the new turbine-powered U-95, Jim Clapp, contributed the borrowed part — the propeller that pushed Pay ‘n Pak to victory in yesterday’s final heat on Lake Washington.
"Thanks for testing my new equipment," Clapp told Heerensperger with a grin after Remund had nosed out Dean Chenoweth, driving the Miss Budweiser, at the checkered flag.
"You may never get it back," responded the Pak’s owner.
"We started the season with nine propellers," Heerensperger said. "I think we’re down to about three now. No, make that four, counting Jim’s."
The Pak’s propensity for dropping props cropped up again in yesterday’s first "hot boat" heat.
Remund, who had staged a five lap duel for the lead with the Budweiser in hydroplaning’s fastest heat ever, coasted across the finish line in second place. The Pak’s driveshaft had snapped, and the propeller was left to sink somewhere between the north turn and the finish line.
"That’s the finest race I’ve ever been in my life," said Remund. "A 125 lap, and no visibility."
He amended that later, saying that he could see far enough to grin at Chenoweth while skimming through the rain at 125 miles an hour.
"I had a big smile on my face — and I was running second," he said. "I looked over and said, ‘Hi, Deaner,’ I’m sure we weren’t more than three feet apart."
The closeness continued through the final beat. "You’re required to give him a 20-foot lane," related Remund. "But I wasn’t about to give him 21 feet.
"By holding my position, it meant Deaner had to turn a little tighter, and it cost him a couple of miles per hour in exit speed."
The Bud remained in challenging position however, and made a final attempt to overtake Remund on the last lap.
"I knew I had one shot left, so I floorboarded it," said Chenoweth.
Remund, advised he had won by less than a boat length, said, "I didn’t know he was that close. I thought I had about three or four boat lengths on him. Things get a little hectic out there."
The "old" item was the Pak’s engine, which held up through three hot heats while the power plants of other boats faltered and hastily were replaced.
"I would have changed it," Heerensperger said. "But Jim made the decision."
Jim Lucero, Pay ‘n Pak crew chief, said he was confident the motor would last. "I’m just glad a Seattle boat won it," he said with a sigh.
"You’re going to send some people back to the drawing boards," an admiring spectator told Lucero, referring to something new — the Pak’s horizontal stabilizer.
The Remund-Heerensperger courtship started last November.
"Ron Jones told me three years ago that Mickey was the guy I oughta have," Heerensperger said. "I first talked to him in November, but he’s a hard guy to convince. I didn’t get an answer until February."
Remund, a former limited-hydro champion, insisted he was not wooed into the unlimited ranks. "It was the other way around," he said, indicating he had to convince Heerensperger that he should pilot the Pay ‘n Pak.
Why, then was the owner left waiting for an answer? "Well, that’s what you call negotiatons," Remund said with a smile.
Jones, the unquestoned leader in designing unlimiteds, was the day’s "best man." He conceived the new-look craft which won, plus the second-place finisher.
Some soggy spectators were chilled almost to a blue hue, but the bluest of the blue was Lee Schoenith.
"I still don’t like the fan plan," said Schoenith, the Seattle dew dripping off the Detroiter’s Stetson. It’s not fair for the spectators who come out here all week and . . ."
Few were listening. Schoenith’s week-long complaints about the race’s format had been drowned out.
But the Detroit-Seattle stew still simmers.
Asked if he had seen Bill Muncey, who drives the Atlas Van Lines for Schoenith, during yesterday’s final heat, Remund wryly replied:
"Yeah, I waved at him before the race started."
The Champion Fog Cutter of the World
By Georg N. Meyers
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
It was the greatest unlimited-hydroplane race nobody ever saw.
If it had been a baseball game, you would have gone home with a raincheck.
It looked like a scene from a Hitchcock movie — eerie shapes snorting out of a drifting fog.
A visitor from another planet, aghast at the huddled masses in oozing mud under dripping trees, would have radioed reports of fugitives fleeing some cataclysmic disaster.
Why else would 65,000-odd (the term is explicit) earthlings subject themselves to the croup on a mired shoreline in a relentless downpour?
In fact, thousands smartened up early, slogging soggily homeward to the family hearth and a flickering screen.
And slick Mickey Remund, in quick Pay ‘n Pak, won $10,300 and the title of World Champion Fog Cutter before the sparsest throng ever to witness the finish of an unlimited-hydroplane regatta.
Five moist hours earlier, nobody would have bet a bent kopek that the World Championship Seafair Race ever would finish — or start.
Visibility was scant. After a 15-minute delay, it was only a little worse, so Referee Bill Newton thumbed the boats onto the lake.
George Henley, in Red Man II, set a fearful pattern for the day. In the opening heat, he vanished into the vapors. Rumor swept the official barge that he took a wrong turn in the fog and skidded into the Seward Park bath house.
Radar-equipped rescuers found George parked in the south turn, cussing out a dead engine.
By then, everybody on the water should have been ticketed for driving without lights.
Apprehensive drivers were advised, in their warm-up runs after the 5-minute gun, to vote whether to continue racing — thumbs up, yes; thumbs down, no.
Since no thumbs were visible through the mist, the race continued.
The field was trisected into exclusive heats for Hot Dogs, Near Misses and Also Rans.
That was supposed to make it more fun. It did — especially for Chuck Hickling in Ms. Greenfield Galleries.
Chuck amazed the dissolving multitude by graduating into the Grand Finale as the only Also Ran to finish two heats. In fact, in the only boat still running in his second heat. Chuck really finished seventh — behind six startled ducks that overtook the Ms. in the homestretch.
Several veteran hydroplane reporters, accustomed to heightening their summer tans on Seafair Race Day, capitulated to the elements. Their ballpoint pens, alas, would not write under water.
Still, in spite of the most horrendous weather ever visited on the intrepid rascals who risk their necks for glory afloat, what took place out there in murky privacy was the swiftest thunderboat race ever.
Credit Remund for that paradox.
Mickey served notice of scurrilous intent by blazing to a qualifying record of more than 126 miles an hour and then chased daring Dean Chenoweth in Miss Budweiser to the fastest 15-mile heat since the invention of the quill shaft — a foamy 122½ miles an hour.
That heat will go down in legend, though soaked shorebirds scarcely were able to discern the boats through the liquid haze.
For four laps, Bud and Pak shared the same roostertail. Melodramatically, as Remund crunched the throttle in a last-gasp try to beat Chenoweth to the checkered flag. Pak threw a propeller and shattered its shaft.
Pak thus racked up another record: This season she also dropped one propeller each to the bottom of the Detroit River and the Columbia.
In effect, that mishap — comparable to a pulled hamstring and a severed Achilles tendon for a basketball player — promoted a fractional debut for the U-95, the turbine-powered mystery skiff which was not ready for baptism here.
The Pak returned to action with a propeller loaned by the U-95. Though fitting and adjusting a propeller is one of the most sensitive operations in thunderboating, Remund drove as though the "wheel" were custom-built for Pay ‘n Pak.
Mickey’s climactic comeback victory over Chenoweth in the payoff sprint, coupled with heat earnings and $1,600 for the top qualifying speed, packed $10,300 into the Pak’s petty-cash fund.
That just about will pay for the propellers at the bottom of the Detroit, the Columbia and Lake Washington.
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
It was the greatest unlimited-hydroplane race nobody ever saw.
If it had been a baseball game, you would have gone home with a raincheck.
It looked like a scene from a Hitchcock movie — eerie shapes snorting out of a drifting fog.
A visitor from another planet, aghast at the huddled masses in oozing mud under dripping trees, would have radioed reports of fugitives fleeing some cataclysmic disaster.
Why else would 65,000-odd (the term is explicit) earthlings subject themselves to the croup on a mired shoreline in a relentless downpour?
In fact, thousands smartened up early, slogging soggily homeward to the family hearth and a flickering screen.
And slick Mickey Remund, in quick Pay ‘n Pak, won $10,300 and the title of World Champion Fog Cutter before the sparsest throng ever to witness the finish of an unlimited-hydroplane regatta.
Five moist hours earlier, nobody would have bet a bent kopek that the World Championship Seafair Race ever would finish — or start.
Visibility was scant. After a 15-minute delay, it was only a little worse, so Referee Bill Newton thumbed the boats onto the lake.
George Henley, in Red Man II, set a fearful pattern for the day. In the opening heat, he vanished into the vapors. Rumor swept the official barge that he took a wrong turn in the fog and skidded into the Seward Park bath house.
Radar-equipped rescuers found George parked in the south turn, cussing out a dead engine.
By then, everybody on the water should have been ticketed for driving without lights.
Apprehensive drivers were advised, in their warm-up runs after the 5-minute gun, to vote whether to continue racing — thumbs up, yes; thumbs down, no.
Since no thumbs were visible through the mist, the race continued.
The field was trisected into exclusive heats for Hot Dogs, Near Misses and Also Rans.
That was supposed to make it more fun. It did — especially for Chuck Hickling in Ms. Greenfield Galleries.
Chuck amazed the dissolving multitude by graduating into the Grand Finale as the only Also Ran to finish two heats. In fact, in the only boat still running in his second heat. Chuck really finished seventh — behind six startled ducks that overtook the Ms. in the homestretch.
Several veteran hydroplane reporters, accustomed to heightening their summer tans on Seafair Race Day, capitulated to the elements. Their ballpoint pens, alas, would not write under water.
Still, in spite of the most horrendous weather ever visited on the intrepid rascals who risk their necks for glory afloat, what took place out there in murky privacy was the swiftest thunderboat race ever.
Credit Remund for that paradox.
Mickey served notice of scurrilous intent by blazing to a qualifying record of more than 126 miles an hour and then chased daring Dean Chenoweth in Miss Budweiser to the fastest 15-mile heat since the invention of the quill shaft — a foamy 122½ miles an hour.
That heat will go down in legend, though soaked shorebirds scarcely were able to discern the boats through the liquid haze.
For four laps, Bud and Pak shared the same roostertail. Melodramatically, as Remund crunched the throttle in a last-gasp try to beat Chenoweth to the checkered flag. Pak threw a propeller and shattered its shaft.
Pak thus racked up another record: This season she also dropped one propeller each to the bottom of the Detroit River and the Columbia.
In effect, that mishap — comparable to a pulled hamstring and a severed Achilles tendon for a basketball player — promoted a fractional debut for the U-95, the turbine-powered mystery skiff which was not ready for baptism here.
The Pak returned to action with a propeller loaned by the U-95. Though fitting and adjusting a propeller is one of the most sensitive operations in thunderboating, Remund drove as though the "wheel" were custom-built for Pay ‘n Pak.
Mickey’s climactic comeback victory over Chenoweth in the payoff sprint, coupled with heat earnings and $1,600 for the top qualifying speed, packed $10,300 into the Pak’s petty-cash fund.
That just about will pay for the propellers at the bottom of the Detroit, the Columbia and Lake Washington.
Remund Wins It All — By 25 Feet
By Del Danielson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
On an afternoon fit for frogs, Mickey Remund leaped to the biggest win of his boat-racing career.
Ignoring a pelting rain which cut visibility to almost zero, Remund and Dean Chenoweth yesterday put on the wildest, woolliest duel in 23 years of unlimited-hydroplane racing on Lake Washington.
Remund needed every ounce of the mind-bending speed produced by the pickle-forked Pay ‘n Pak. His margin of victory — after 15 final-heat miles — was 25 feet.
"Another 50 yards and Chenoweth would have won," one regatta official said of the storybook finish. Chenoweth pushed the Bud to its limit in trying to catch Remund on the final lap.
The Bud trailed by about 500 feet as the two boats rounded the exit buoy, one third of a mile from the finish line.
"I tried, boss," Chenoweth said to Bernie Little upon arrival in the pits a few minutes later. "I really put my foot in it. I thought I might flip, but I had to try "
Little, owner of the Budweiser, congratulated Chenoweth as though he had won."No apologies or excuses are necessary after a boat race like like that," Little told his driver. "You were fantastic."
Remund, beaten by Chenoweth in an earlier, equally suspenseful heat, had the upper hand in the winner-take-all final. He nosed the Pay ‘n Pak ahead coming out of the first turn and maintained about a 10-foot lead as the two boats whistled down the backstretch at 160 miles an hour.
Remund increased his lead in the north turn and rounded the corner first. Chenoweth moved to the outside, but he had to cross Remund’s wake to reach a clear lane.
"As soon as you have to cross a wake, that costs you a lot of time," Jim Lucero, Pak ‘n Pak crew chief said. "That’s why they lost the race."
The maneuver did put the Bud about four seconds behind and it took Chenoweth four full laps to close the gap and set up the nip-and-tuck windup.
The speeds attained by the Bud and Pak were almost unbelievable and even more incredible considering the weather conditions.
In Heat 1-C, the hot-dog section of the fan-plan race, Chenoweth won with a record average of 122.504 miles an hour. That easily erased the eight-year-old mark of 116.079.
In the same heat, Remund set a single-lap record of 124.424 m.p.h. to eclipse Bill Muncey’s standard (117.137 m.p.h.), set here last year.
The 1-C duel may go down as the classic hydroplane race. Chenoweth had the inside lane — his favorite spot — at the start. Remund passed the starting buoy first, but Chenoweth held the inside lane and the boats were side by side for the first three miles. The Bud’s lead after one lap was 30 feet.
Remund, still on the outside, gained slightly in the corners and had a 50-foot edge after two laps.
Had the race ended after three laps, it would have been a dead-heat finish.
Using his inside-lane position to full advantage, Chenoweth opened a slight edge the fourth time around the three-mile course. At the finish, the margin was about two roostertails. Neither driver went under the 120 mark on any of the five laps.
The Bud clearly was ahead as the two record-setters rounded the final turn of the heat, but Chenoweth’s margin of victory would have been less had the Pak not lost a propeller and part of its drive shaft.
Remund coasted across the finish line, then turned to the infield and asked for a tow.
Lucero’s crew replaced the shaft, borrowed a prop from the U-95 team next door and had the Pak back in business for Heat 2-C another match up with the Bud.
Chenoweth quickly moved to the lead in 2-C, but a blown supercharger near the finish of the third lap stalled the beer wagon and opened the door to an easy win for Remund.
Chenoweth and Remund provided 99 per cent of the day’s racing.
Muncey, in the "medium fast" heats (1-B and 2-B) by virtue of Lee Schoenith’s sandbagging tactics during qualifying, was a distant third in the final.
Schoenith, who owns the Atlas Van Lines which Muncey drives, felt he had a better chance at national points and money by not running Muncey against Chenoweth and Remund. Schoenith did put his second-best boat (Pizza Pete, driven by Fred Alter) in the hot-dog flight.
As it turned out, Schoenith’s double entry earned $13,600. Had Muncey run with the speedsters, Lee would have pocketed $13,300.
For the victory, the Pay ‘n Pak team collected $10,300 (including $1,600 in qualifying money).
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
On an afternoon fit for frogs, Mickey Remund leaped to the biggest win of his boat-racing career.
Ignoring a pelting rain which cut visibility to almost zero, Remund and Dean Chenoweth yesterday put on the wildest, woolliest duel in 23 years of unlimited-hydroplane racing on Lake Washington.
Remund needed every ounce of the mind-bending speed produced by the pickle-forked Pay ‘n Pak. His margin of victory — after 15 final-heat miles — was 25 feet.
"Another 50 yards and Chenoweth would have won," one regatta official said of the storybook finish. Chenoweth pushed the Bud to its limit in trying to catch Remund on the final lap.
The Bud trailed by about 500 feet as the two boats rounded the exit buoy, one third of a mile from the finish line.
"I tried, boss," Chenoweth said to Bernie Little upon arrival in the pits a few minutes later. "I really put my foot in it. I thought I might flip, but I had to try "
Little, owner of the Budweiser, congratulated Chenoweth as though he had won."No apologies or excuses are necessary after a boat race like like that," Little told his driver. "You were fantastic."
Remund, beaten by Chenoweth in an earlier, equally suspenseful heat, had the upper hand in the winner-take-all final. He nosed the Pay ‘n Pak ahead coming out of the first turn and maintained about a 10-foot lead as the two boats whistled down the backstretch at 160 miles an hour.
Remund increased his lead in the north turn and rounded the corner first. Chenoweth moved to the outside, but he had to cross Remund’s wake to reach a clear lane.
"As soon as you have to cross a wake, that costs you a lot of time," Jim Lucero, Pak ‘n Pak crew chief said. "That’s why they lost the race."
The maneuver did put the Bud about four seconds behind and it took Chenoweth four full laps to close the gap and set up the nip-and-tuck windup.
The speeds attained by the Bud and Pak were almost unbelievable and even more incredible considering the weather conditions.
In Heat 1-C, the hot-dog section of the fan-plan race, Chenoweth won with a record average of 122.504 miles an hour. That easily erased the eight-year-old mark of 116.079.
In the same heat, Remund set a single-lap record of 124.424 m.p.h. to eclipse Bill Muncey’s standard (117.137 m.p.h.), set here last year.
The 1-C duel may go down as the classic hydroplane race. Chenoweth had the inside lane — his favorite spot — at the start. Remund passed the starting buoy first, but Chenoweth held the inside lane and the boats were side by side for the first three miles. The Bud’s lead after one lap was 30 feet.
Remund, still on the outside, gained slightly in the corners and had a 50-foot edge after two laps.
Had the race ended after three laps, it would have been a dead-heat finish.
Using his inside-lane position to full advantage, Chenoweth opened a slight edge the fourth time around the three-mile course. At the finish, the margin was about two roostertails. Neither driver went under the 120 mark on any of the five laps.
The Bud clearly was ahead as the two record-setters rounded the final turn of the heat, but Chenoweth’s margin of victory would have been less had the Pak not lost a propeller and part of its drive shaft.
Remund coasted across the finish line, then turned to the infield and asked for a tow.
Lucero’s crew replaced the shaft, borrowed a prop from the U-95 team next door and had the Pak back in business for Heat 2-C another match up with the Bud.
Chenoweth quickly moved to the lead in 2-C, but a blown supercharger near the finish of the third lap stalled the beer wagon and opened the door to an easy win for Remund.
Chenoweth and Remund provided 99 per cent of the day’s racing.
Muncey, in the "medium fast" heats (1-B and 2-B) by virtue of Lee Schoenith’s sandbagging tactics during qualifying, was a distant third in the final.
Schoenith, who owns the Atlas Van Lines which Muncey drives, felt he had a better chance at national points and money by not running Muncey against Chenoweth and Remund. Schoenith did put his second-best boat (Pizza Pete, driven by Fred Alter) in the hot-dog flight.
As it turned out, Schoenith’s double entry earned $13,600. Had Muncey run with the speedsters, Lee would have pocketed $13,300.
For the victory, the Pay ‘n Pak team collected $10,300 (including $1,600 in qualifying money).
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