July 21, 1968: Eagle Electric/Dave Heerensperger win.
Reprinted from the Tri-City Herald
Dave Heerensperger brought unlimited hydroplane fans the Pay ‘N Pak during its glory years of the 1970s.
But before Pay ‘N Pak, there was Eagle Electric. And during the third running of the Atomic Cup, Heerensperger’s driver, Col. Warner Gardner, drove the Miss Eagle Electric to victory, knocking off Miss Bardahl.
Eagle Electric owner Heerensperger — who someday would lead the wave of turbine expansion — picked up his first victory on the Columbia River.
There were some interesting notes that week.
Water Follies officials warned people to stay out of Columbia Park between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. on race day Sunday. Any unauthorized cars would be towed at the owner’s expense. And for God’s sake, don’t throwing anything into the water when the boats are racing.
The Atlas Van Lines was the first boat out on the water ... on Tuesday. Back then, the boats could hit the water early in the week, and qualifying ran Thursday through Saturday.
Gardner was out on the course at midweek when he noticed two dead cows were floating down the river. Another one was found the next day.
Race officials named the consolation race — the second-fastest five — the Mira Slovak Trophy race for Sunday in honor of the driver of Harrah’s Club, who missed the race because he was recovering at home from a plane crash. ... It was the third one he had been involved in to that point.
And Bill Muncey, who was driving the Miss U.S., didn’t make the race because he hit a houseboat on the Ohio River during the Indiana Governor’s Cup in Madison, Ind.
Gardner had driven the Eagle Electric, based out of Spokane, to a win in the Dixie Cup in Guntersville, Ala., earlier in the season.
And on this day in the Tri-Cities, he outran the 12-boat field and swept all of his races toward the victory, marking the third straight time in the three years of the race that the winner had done so.
Gardner overtook Miss Budweiser driver Bill Sterett at the end of the first lap and was never threatened again. Race favorite Billy Schumacher in the Miss Bardahl, the defending Atomic Cup champion, broke down in the final and was never a factor.
“I was with them at the start,” Schumacher said. “but Warner and Bill had too much speed for me. I froze a cylinder in a new engine and just couldn’t run with them.”
Race officials estimated 60,000 people watched the race. The formula? They counted 13,569 cars going through the admission gates and estimated an average of 4 people in each vehicle.
Showing posts with label Warner Gardner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warner Gardner. Show all posts
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Friday, October 17, 2008
Spokane hydro sweeps to second win; Eagle Electric is Atomic Cup champion
By Tom Burnside
Reprinted from Tri-City Herald, July 22, 1968
Col. Warner Gardner proved his opening hydroplane victory of the season was no fluke and took another step toward a national title while maintaining the winning monopoly for Washington State Sunday in the Tri-Cities.
Gardner piloted the Spokane-based Miss Eagle Electric to two straight elimination heat victories, then left the rest of the field in his wake in the final to capture the championship in the third running of the Atomic Cup unlimited hydroplane race on the Columbia River.
The Inland Empire Eagle outran former Atomic Cup winner Miss Budweiser in the finals, while favored defending champion Miss Bardahl sat dead in the water, to take the $5,000 first prize and post its second win in four tour stops this season.
The annual Tri-City spectacular came off like clockwork under ideal racing conditions before a crowd estimated by Water Follies officials at 60,000, which jammed both shores of the Columbia.
Gardner's 45-mile average established a record 102.913 mph, eclipsing the mark of 101.234 set last year by Miss Bardahl with Billy Schumacher behind the wheel. Eagle also recorded top 2 1/2-mile lap speed of 109.400.
It marked a bitter defeat for Seattle's Bardahl, which had won two consecutive races on the tour and was an easy victor in its first two heats. But the defending champion went dead in the backchute with a blown engine while making a charge at Eagle Electric in the second lap of the finals.
Ironically, the consolation Mira Slovak Trophy Race was won by Jim McCormick in Harrah's Club - the same boat Slovak was supposed to drive on the unlimited circuit this year before he was seriously injured in an airplane crash.
Joining the tour's hot boats -Eagle Electric, Bardahl and Budweiser - in the finals were Bob Miller in Atlas Van Lines and Jack Regas in Notre Dame.
The start of the final heat was a dandy, although Bardahl was a little late getting into position and got shoved to the outside. All five boats bit the line at full bore, but Budweiser held a slight edge and was ahead out of the first turn, followed closely by Eagle and Bardahl.
The Spokane boat charged up the outside, took over the lead in the backchute and led the field at the end of the first lap. Eagle and Bud were tight out of the turn and Bardahl started making its move up the inside when the engine blew.
Budweiser remained close on the heels of Eagle Electric for another lap, but Gardner starting pulling away in the straight-aways and opened a good lead after four laps. The Eagle kept increasing the distance the rest of the way and crossed the finish line with an average speed of 105.882 mph just as Bud was starting its entrance into the last turn.
In overall standings, Bill Sterett and the Bud took second place for $3,700, Notre Dame was third for $2,700 and Bardahl fourth for $2,100. Bardahl and Schumacher retained their leads in national point standings, while Gardner and the Eagle advanced from fifth to second, 600 points off the pace.
In the Slovak Trophy Race, My Gypsy, Parco's O-Ring Miss, Gale's Roostertail and Savair's Mist all jumped the gun - which unknowningly made things easy for the winning Harrah's Club because the other four had to make an extra lap.
Roostertail led for the first two laps, with Harrah's hanging back in fourth place. Gypsy running as a alternate when Smirnoff elected not to compete because of handling problems, overtook Roostertail on the far turn and zoomed past on the outside to take the lead to stay. Harrah's, who had fast time of 104.651 in the fifth lap, gradually moved up to challenge after passing Roostertail and Savair but never caught up.
Eagle Electric led all the way in winning Heat 1-C, with an average speed of 106.635. Eagle got a flying start and led out of the first turn by a comfortable margin. Rookie Tommy Fults spun out in the corner and nearly flipped, tearing chrome stripping off the right sponson and knocking the boat out of the second heat. Notre Dame challenged briefly in the third lap, but Gardner stepped on it and ran away.
The Eagle also led all the way in winning Heat 2-A, but had a scare at the finish. Eagle was running rough, coughing and sputtering, and nearly conked out in the first turn of the fourth lap. Atlas was coming on strong and was right on Gardner's tail when he finally got the Spokane boat churning again.
Eagle pulled ahead on the backchute of the last lap only to lose power again just 200 yards from the finish line. Gardner was trying desperately to get the boat across the finish while Atlas came charging down the stretch. Eagle managed to nose out the win by a scant two seconds.
Bardahl easily won heats 1-B and 2-B, posting averages speed of 105.592 and 101.427, respectively, without being pressed in either. Fascination, Bob Gilliam's Seattle latecomer which finally qualified early Sunday morning at 95 mph, sheared a propeller pin after two laps in last place in the second heat and never ventured back onto the course.
Notre Dame was the winner of the other elimination race, Heat 2-C, with an average speed of 104.976.
Reprinted from Tri-City Herald, July 22, 1968
Col. Warner Gardner proved his opening hydroplane victory of the season was no fluke and took another step toward a national title while maintaining the winning monopoly for Washington State Sunday in the Tri-Cities.
Gardner piloted the Spokane-based Miss Eagle Electric to two straight elimination heat victories, then left the rest of the field in his wake in the final to capture the championship in the third running of the Atomic Cup unlimited hydroplane race on the Columbia River.
The Inland Empire Eagle outran former Atomic Cup winner Miss Budweiser in the finals, while favored defending champion Miss Bardahl sat dead in the water, to take the $5,000 first prize and post its second win in four tour stops this season.
The annual Tri-City spectacular came off like clockwork under ideal racing conditions before a crowd estimated by Water Follies officials at 60,000, which jammed both shores of the Columbia.
Gardner's 45-mile average established a record 102.913 mph, eclipsing the mark of 101.234 set last year by Miss Bardahl with Billy Schumacher behind the wheel. Eagle also recorded top 2 1/2-mile lap speed of 109.400.
It marked a bitter defeat for Seattle's Bardahl, which had won two consecutive races on the tour and was an easy victor in its first two heats. But the defending champion went dead in the backchute with a blown engine while making a charge at Eagle Electric in the second lap of the finals.
Ironically, the consolation Mira Slovak Trophy Race was won by Jim McCormick in Harrah's Club - the same boat Slovak was supposed to drive on the unlimited circuit this year before he was seriously injured in an airplane crash.
Joining the tour's hot boats -Eagle Electric, Bardahl and Budweiser - in the finals were Bob Miller in Atlas Van Lines and Jack Regas in Notre Dame.
The start of the final heat was a dandy, although Bardahl was a little late getting into position and got shoved to the outside. All five boats bit the line at full bore, but Budweiser held a slight edge and was ahead out of the first turn, followed closely by Eagle and Bardahl.
The Spokane boat charged up the outside, took over the lead in the backchute and led the field at the end of the first lap. Eagle and Bud were tight out of the turn and Bardahl started making its move up the inside when the engine blew.
Budweiser remained close on the heels of Eagle Electric for another lap, but Gardner starting pulling away in the straight-aways and opened a good lead after four laps. The Eagle kept increasing the distance the rest of the way and crossed the finish line with an average speed of 105.882 mph just as Bud was starting its entrance into the last turn.
In overall standings, Bill Sterett and the Bud took second place for $3,700, Notre Dame was third for $2,700 and Bardahl fourth for $2,100. Bardahl and Schumacher retained their leads in national point standings, while Gardner and the Eagle advanced from fifth to second, 600 points off the pace.
In the Slovak Trophy Race, My Gypsy, Parco's O-Ring Miss, Gale's Roostertail and Savair's Mist all jumped the gun - which unknowningly made things easy for the winning Harrah's Club because the other four had to make an extra lap.
Roostertail led for the first two laps, with Harrah's hanging back in fourth place. Gypsy running as a alternate when Smirnoff elected not to compete because of handling problems, overtook Roostertail on the far turn and zoomed past on the outside to take the lead to stay. Harrah's, who had fast time of 104.651 in the fifth lap, gradually moved up to challenge after passing Roostertail and Savair but never caught up.
Eagle Electric led all the way in winning Heat 1-C, with an average speed of 106.635. Eagle got a flying start and led out of the first turn by a comfortable margin. Rookie Tommy Fults spun out in the corner and nearly flipped, tearing chrome stripping off the right sponson and knocking the boat out of the second heat. Notre Dame challenged briefly in the third lap, but Gardner stepped on it and ran away.
The Eagle also led all the way in winning Heat 2-A, but had a scare at the finish. Eagle was running rough, coughing and sputtering, and nearly conked out in the first turn of the fourth lap. Atlas was coming on strong and was right on Gardner's tail when he finally got the Spokane boat churning again.
Eagle pulled ahead on the backchute of the last lap only to lose power again just 200 yards from the finish line. Gardner was trying desperately to get the boat across the finish while Atlas came charging down the stretch. Eagle managed to nose out the win by a scant two seconds.
Bardahl easily won heats 1-B and 2-B, posting averages speed of 105.592 and 101.427, respectively, without being pressed in either. Fascination, Bob Gilliam's Seattle latecomer which finally qualified early Sunday morning at 95 mph, sheared a propeller pin after two laps in last place in the second heat and never ventured back onto the course.
Notre Dame was the winner of the other elimination race, Heat 2-C, with an average speed of 104.976.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Pride and the Passion
By Dave Speer
Reprinted from Powerboat magazine, April 1976
Dave Heerensperger wound up may timepieces during eleven seasons as an unlimited owner, and none of them were Mickey Mouse. Beginning the day he assumed sponsorship of a ragamuffin community hydroplane called Miss Spokane and continuing until his announced retirement in January of this year, Heerensperger methodically shaped success: success in boat racing distinguished by innovation, expertise and victory.
Miss Spokane, built in 1956 on the same jig as the fast and famous Wahoo and Shanty I, never won a race. Its performance, or non-performance, earned little more than wide-eyed loyalty from the fans as rookie drivers demonstrated their remarkable propensity for near-miss accidents. Out of mothballs in 1963, Heerensperger's renamed Miss Eagle Electric fared no better; a white and lavender paint scheme was pretty, but that was all. When the electrical doodad merchant closed his racing cash register after two mundane seasons, what they didn't know was that Heerensperger didn't care for 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th or 10th place finishes.
Bill Schuyler, a California outboarder from way way back, a tinkerer, a hobbyist, owned the $Bill. Norm Evans, one of those rookies with an attraction for the unusual, drove . . . except when under suspension. A good story heard in the pits recounts the '66 Gold Cup when Evans fired up his engine while still hanging over the water. "Well, Norm's a swell guy and all that," the nervous ref laughed. "but when he gets near the water something crazy happens." Evans was booted and Warner Gardner filled in. Two years later Gardner and Heerensperger returned for another try.
Miss Eagle Electric, the former $Bill, now decked out in metallic Indian red, black and gold leaf, one the 1968 opener . . . Alabama's Dixie Cup. At Pasco, Warner Gardner won again. When the "Screaming Eagle" was Seafair's fastest qualifier at 120, her owner commented, "We missed the record by a tick of the watch, but that speed's not too bad for us country boys.
And they won the President's Cup, too.
Miss Bardahl and Billy Schumacher were defending national champions that year. The Bardahl was the latest in 3-point evolution, sleek and wide, exceptionally quick in the corners. In contrast, Eagle Electric was a six year old hull built by Les Staudacher, a typical Ted Jones-influenced design of the day with narrow afterplane, high crown deck and dinky non-trips; by all measures a boat that should have been well passed its prime.
Gardner, a retired flight officer, had won his very first unlimited race in the old Miss Spokane repainted and remembered as Fifi Lapeer. He was a charger, yet was aware of the limitations of his equipment and got more out of it than any of his contemporaries. Never one to frown on a little spray aiming, his style included chopping off here and there, delivered with class, in a good natured way, with a sense of humor.
Jack Cochran built high revving Rolls power plants that were also dependable. Other crew chiefs knocked their heads against each other to try to figure his secrets out.
Against Gardner's and Cochran's Eagle, Schumacher couldn't win like before. Schu could turn faster than anybody, but Gardner was nearly as fast. When one broke the other didn't. Ether way, the Kid and the Colonel were 3 - and - 3 going to Detroit's Gold Cup and a showdown for the 1969 national title.
One the third lap of the final heat, Gardner's boat became airborne and out of control. He never had a chance. The hull shuddered, tripped to the right and rolled. Suddenly the Colonel was gone. Gone, too, was the last of the conventional 3-pointers that won big.
Even in defeat and sorrow, Heerensperger had a new business, a new boat and new steps to a championship team. Planned and promoted prior to Gardner's death, the Pride of Pay 'n Pak resembled Donald Campbell's jet Bluebird and Staudacher's Miss Stars and Stripes II. Christened a "trimaran", the 30-footer had outrigger sponsons, nothing less than radical. Detroit News columnist Pete Waldmeir scribed a more colorful description: "She looked like a South Seas war canoe bobbing on the choppy river. You keep expecting a dozen guys with spears to come pouring out of the fuselage."
At launching, driver Tommy Fults smiled. "She runs as though she were on rails, hits a turn, sets up easy and moves around fast." Pay 'n Pak moved to Guntersville, Alabama, for a crack at the world's 200-plus mile. Being kind, the attempt was a bust!, clocking only 162. The crew said something about the speedometer needing calibration. Then, the Pak barely qualified for Guntersville's Dixie Cup. Testing props, testing rudders, testing everything followed. After the particularly wild run that inspired Waldmeir's sketch Fults claimed, "I shook hands with St. Peter on that one." As the season wore out, so did Fults. He finally admitted "it was like driving your car with the emergency brake on." Unquestionably the Pride was admired for bold design, but one driver suggested the best solution was to drill large holes in the bottom and let it sink. With only a single race left on the season the exhausted Pak was traded for 'Lil Buzzard. In debut, Fults drove with all the verve his hot rod and drag boat background could muster and won two Gold Cup heats and blew two engines.
Looking for a winner, Heerensperger talked Ron Jones from the designer's self-imposed U-boat exile. "I won't say Dave begged me," recalls Ron, "but he talked for hours trying to get me to build the Pay 'n Pak with two Chryslers in it. I didn't want to build it. I told him all the reasons about all the gas I got over the '66 Bardahl accident and Ronnie Musson's death. Finally, with a lot of thrashing, I said OK." The owner was rolling for aces, branching out again, being different, trying, and gambled on a fork-nosed cabover. After only three races, Fults was disenchanted with the progressive design; he jumped ship back to the conventional round nose 'Lil Buzzard.
Tommy Fults was ahead of his time in a way, an easy spirit with surfer's long blond hair in a traditionally conservative sport. Though he used a lot of pedal and showed no fear, corners were his weakness; maybe he didn't really know how to drive a hydroplane. The Colonel had befriended Tommy and urged discipline in place of Fults' frivolity. (Tommy wanted no one to pass him . . . even in warm ups.) At the 1970 Atomic Cup, Fults carried opening heat wins into the finale. All he had to do was finish. Characteristically, Fults made a run at Notre Dame. Everybody heard Heerensperger storming down and back yelling, "Oh, if I had a walkie-talkie, or a hammer!" Tommy did win the trophy.
With his victory on the Columbia River and the fastest heat of the year at Seattle, the twenty-nine year old driver looked forward to San Diego's fast track. Testing mid-morning he circled back towards the pits. The water was sticky and a sponson dug in at flank speed. In a accident that shouldn't have happened, "Was Tommy Tucker" died. A fluke, they said.
When Fults quit the cabover, flat-bottomed inboard champion Ron Larsen stepped into the cockpit. Improvements came, but low torque (compared to a V-12 aircraft engine) was the stumbling block to higher performance. "There's another way," one of the crew members said. So, over the next winter Jim Lucero yanked the V-8's and moved the steering wheel behind a Rolls Merlin: a daring and simple solution? Would it work? Billy Schumacher won the last three races of 1971 in the turned-around Pride of Pay 'n Pak . . . an amalgam of Ron Jones' aerodynamics and Lucero's probing logic . . . but 1972 fizzled, a year marked by the bitter defection of Schumacher who refused to drive in a storm-tossed Ohio River filled with everything but liquid. Billy Sterett, Jr., provided the only relief to the long season of second places to Bill Muncey. He scored a fast paced upset of Muncey's until-then invincible Atlas Van Lines as Washington, D.C.
The ultimate Pay 'n Pak . . . barring a future change of heart . . . was the best. It was another Ron Jones boat, with a share of Luceroisms thrown in for measure. The tail was different with a wing perched upon twin fins, an idea borrowed from cloth and wire biplanes, sprint cars and maybe one of Tommy Fults' dragsters. Beneath, another unique idea in boating: honeycomb sandwich construction. The hull was a hummer, deceptively efficient, and like wine improved with age. Nine 1973 races later, Heerensperger, Lucero and drier Mickey Remund had their first national title. The best moments were shared with the ex-Pak, Miss Budweiser, as both pickle-forks seesawed and thundered in front with all others lagging far behind. In '74, George Henley winning 7 of 11 and another U.S. 1, also captured what Heerensperger wanted the most - the Gold Cup.
Last season, Pay 'n Pak make a false start and struggled from oblivion to championship urged by Henley's persistent foot and an equally persistent crew. Stanley Terraplane, chronicler of unlimited racing's sociology and speedy deerring-do writes . . . "Pay 'n Pak was the story . . . summer in Hoosierland the first week in July. Those who watched carefully knew that the U-1, testing, testing, would now do what Henley and Lucero wanted." A week later at Dayton's grand gravel pit, "Weisfield's was so strong it hurt itself and Pak won . . . At Pasco's Gold Cup Weisfield's lost blowers, Budweiser came unstuck again, U.S. and Lincoln Thrift had a wonderful duel, Shenandoah produced a smoke screen impenetrable . . . Pay 'n Pak won the day , of course, so easily that the final held no suspense."
When evening fell at Seattle, Lucero added up the times he'd been crew chief for the winners . . . George sat nearby, peeling off his socks. "Every time I push the button, she goes," he marveled. "Every time."
"San Diego's fog, faint but persistent, hung on past noon this year . . . the crowd probably saw the best unlimited race ever . . . Pay 'n Pak, behind by 249 points, lead only thrice all day, but each time at the finish line. Three times Pak came off the last turn like a slung stone, passed the leader, and won . . . the race, and the high point championship. George didn't want to drink the lousy water; he got champagne that night."
Dave Heerensperger bows out a leader. His Eagles, Buzzard, and Pay 'n Paks rolled and cajoled to 25 team victories, 16 by the amazing U-1. Heerensperger was a flamboyant and demanding owner, a man who understood winning best. Outgoing, he sought what was best for his team. Some people say they won't miss his sharp, often abrasive businessman's approach to boat racing; but everyone will miss all he brought with him: commitment, expertise, high drama and superb boat racing.
Knowing his past in manners financial, one suspects Heerensperger profited a nickel when he sold his camp to Bill Muncey. In trade, Atlas Van Lines adopts the finest unlimited team on the circuit, a team of pride and passion. Now, I suppose, Dave will spend his spare change acquiring another double windup pitcher for Pay 'n Pak's softball team? He'll be expected to win.
Reprinted from Powerboat magazine, April 1976
Dave Heerensperger wound up may timepieces during eleven seasons as an unlimited owner, and none of them were Mickey Mouse. Beginning the day he assumed sponsorship of a ragamuffin community hydroplane called Miss Spokane and continuing until his announced retirement in January of this year, Heerensperger methodically shaped success: success in boat racing distinguished by innovation, expertise and victory.
Miss Spokane, built in 1956 on the same jig as the fast and famous Wahoo and Shanty I, never won a race. Its performance, or non-performance, earned little more than wide-eyed loyalty from the fans as rookie drivers demonstrated their remarkable propensity for near-miss accidents. Out of mothballs in 1963, Heerensperger's renamed Miss Eagle Electric fared no better; a white and lavender paint scheme was pretty, but that was all. When the electrical doodad merchant closed his racing cash register after two mundane seasons, what they didn't know was that Heerensperger didn't care for 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th or 10th place finishes.
Bill Schuyler, a California outboarder from way way back, a tinkerer, a hobbyist, owned the $Bill. Norm Evans, one of those rookies with an attraction for the unusual, drove . . . except when under suspension. A good story heard in the pits recounts the '66 Gold Cup when Evans fired up his engine while still hanging over the water. "Well, Norm's a swell guy and all that," the nervous ref laughed. "but when he gets near the water something crazy happens." Evans was booted and Warner Gardner filled in. Two years later Gardner and Heerensperger returned for another try.
Miss Eagle Electric, the former $Bill, now decked out in metallic Indian red, black and gold leaf, one the 1968 opener . . . Alabama's Dixie Cup. At Pasco, Warner Gardner won again. When the "Screaming Eagle" was Seafair's fastest qualifier at 120, her owner commented, "We missed the record by a tick of the watch, but that speed's not too bad for us country boys.
And they won the President's Cup, too.
Miss Bardahl and Billy Schumacher were defending national champions that year. The Bardahl was the latest in 3-point evolution, sleek and wide, exceptionally quick in the corners. In contrast, Eagle Electric was a six year old hull built by Les Staudacher, a typical Ted Jones-influenced design of the day with narrow afterplane, high crown deck and dinky non-trips; by all measures a boat that should have been well passed its prime.
Gardner, a retired flight officer, had won his very first unlimited race in the old Miss Spokane repainted and remembered as Fifi Lapeer. He was a charger, yet was aware of the limitations of his equipment and got more out of it than any of his contemporaries. Never one to frown on a little spray aiming, his style included chopping off here and there, delivered with class, in a good natured way, with a sense of humor.
Jack Cochran built high revving Rolls power plants that were also dependable. Other crew chiefs knocked their heads against each other to try to figure his secrets out.
Against Gardner's and Cochran's Eagle, Schumacher couldn't win like before. Schu could turn faster than anybody, but Gardner was nearly as fast. When one broke the other didn't. Ether way, the Kid and the Colonel were 3 - and - 3 going to Detroit's Gold Cup and a showdown for the 1969 national title.
One the third lap of the final heat, Gardner's boat became airborne and out of control. He never had a chance. The hull shuddered, tripped to the right and rolled. Suddenly the Colonel was gone. Gone, too, was the last of the conventional 3-pointers that won big.
Even in defeat and sorrow, Heerensperger had a new business, a new boat and new steps to a championship team. Planned and promoted prior to Gardner's death, the Pride of Pay 'n Pak resembled Donald Campbell's jet Bluebird and Staudacher's Miss Stars and Stripes II. Christened a "trimaran", the 30-footer had outrigger sponsons, nothing less than radical. Detroit News columnist Pete Waldmeir scribed a more colorful description: "She looked like a South Seas war canoe bobbing on the choppy river. You keep expecting a dozen guys with spears to come pouring out of the fuselage."
At launching, driver Tommy Fults smiled. "She runs as though she were on rails, hits a turn, sets up easy and moves around fast." Pay 'n Pak moved to Guntersville, Alabama, for a crack at the world's 200-plus mile. Being kind, the attempt was a bust!, clocking only 162. The crew said something about the speedometer needing calibration. Then, the Pak barely qualified for Guntersville's Dixie Cup. Testing props, testing rudders, testing everything followed. After the particularly wild run that inspired Waldmeir's sketch Fults claimed, "I shook hands with St. Peter on that one." As the season wore out, so did Fults. He finally admitted "it was like driving your car with the emergency brake on." Unquestionably the Pride was admired for bold design, but one driver suggested the best solution was to drill large holes in the bottom and let it sink. With only a single race left on the season the exhausted Pak was traded for 'Lil Buzzard. In debut, Fults drove with all the verve his hot rod and drag boat background could muster and won two Gold Cup heats and blew two engines.
Looking for a winner, Heerensperger talked Ron Jones from the designer's self-imposed U-boat exile. "I won't say Dave begged me," recalls Ron, "but he talked for hours trying to get me to build the Pay 'n Pak with two Chryslers in it. I didn't want to build it. I told him all the reasons about all the gas I got over the '66 Bardahl accident and Ronnie Musson's death. Finally, with a lot of thrashing, I said OK." The owner was rolling for aces, branching out again, being different, trying, and gambled on a fork-nosed cabover. After only three races, Fults was disenchanted with the progressive design; he jumped ship back to the conventional round nose 'Lil Buzzard.
Tommy Fults was ahead of his time in a way, an easy spirit with surfer's long blond hair in a traditionally conservative sport. Though he used a lot of pedal and showed no fear, corners were his weakness; maybe he didn't really know how to drive a hydroplane. The Colonel had befriended Tommy and urged discipline in place of Fults' frivolity. (Tommy wanted no one to pass him . . . even in warm ups.) At the 1970 Atomic Cup, Fults carried opening heat wins into the finale. All he had to do was finish. Characteristically, Fults made a run at Notre Dame. Everybody heard Heerensperger storming down and back yelling, "Oh, if I had a walkie-talkie, or a hammer!" Tommy did win the trophy.
With his victory on the Columbia River and the fastest heat of the year at Seattle, the twenty-nine year old driver looked forward to San Diego's fast track. Testing mid-morning he circled back towards the pits. The water was sticky and a sponson dug in at flank speed. In a accident that shouldn't have happened, "Was Tommy Tucker" died. A fluke, they said.
When Fults quit the cabover, flat-bottomed inboard champion Ron Larsen stepped into the cockpit. Improvements came, but low torque (compared to a V-12 aircraft engine) was the stumbling block to higher performance. "There's another way," one of the crew members said. So, over the next winter Jim Lucero yanked the V-8's and moved the steering wheel behind a Rolls Merlin: a daring and simple solution? Would it work? Billy Schumacher won the last three races of 1971 in the turned-around Pride of Pay 'n Pak . . . an amalgam of Ron Jones' aerodynamics and Lucero's probing logic . . . but 1972 fizzled, a year marked by the bitter defection of Schumacher who refused to drive in a storm-tossed Ohio River filled with everything but liquid. Billy Sterett, Jr., provided the only relief to the long season of second places to Bill Muncey. He scored a fast paced upset of Muncey's until-then invincible Atlas Van Lines as Washington, D.C.
The ultimate Pay 'n Pak . . . barring a future change of heart . . . was the best. It was another Ron Jones boat, with a share of Luceroisms thrown in for measure. The tail was different with a wing perched upon twin fins, an idea borrowed from cloth and wire biplanes, sprint cars and maybe one of Tommy Fults' dragsters. Beneath, another unique idea in boating: honeycomb sandwich construction. The hull was a hummer, deceptively efficient, and like wine improved with age. Nine 1973 races later, Heerensperger, Lucero and drier Mickey Remund had their first national title. The best moments were shared with the ex-Pak, Miss Budweiser, as both pickle-forks seesawed and thundered in front with all others lagging far behind. In '74, George Henley winning 7 of 11 and another U.S. 1, also captured what Heerensperger wanted the most - the Gold Cup.
Last season, Pay 'n Pak make a false start and struggled from oblivion to championship urged by Henley's persistent foot and an equally persistent crew. Stanley Terraplane, chronicler of unlimited racing's sociology and speedy deerring-do writes . . . "Pay 'n Pak was the story . . . summer in Hoosierland the first week in July. Those who watched carefully knew that the U-1, testing, testing, would now do what Henley and Lucero wanted." A week later at Dayton's grand gravel pit, "Weisfield's was so strong it hurt itself and Pak won . . . At Pasco's Gold Cup Weisfield's lost blowers, Budweiser came unstuck again, U.S. and Lincoln Thrift had a wonderful duel, Shenandoah produced a smoke screen impenetrable . . . Pay 'n Pak won the day , of course, so easily that the final held no suspense."
When evening fell at Seattle, Lucero added up the times he'd been crew chief for the winners . . . George sat nearby, peeling off his socks. "Every time I push the button, she goes," he marveled. "Every time."
"San Diego's fog, faint but persistent, hung on past noon this year . . . the crowd probably saw the best unlimited race ever . . . Pay 'n Pak, behind by 249 points, lead only thrice all day, but each time at the finish line. Three times Pak came off the last turn like a slung stone, passed the leader, and won . . . the race, and the high point championship. George didn't want to drink the lousy water; he got champagne that night."
Dave Heerensperger bows out a leader. His Eagles, Buzzard, and Pay 'n Paks rolled and cajoled to 25 team victories, 16 by the amazing U-1. Heerensperger was a flamboyant and demanding owner, a man who understood winning best. Outgoing, he sought what was best for his team. Some people say they won't miss his sharp, often abrasive businessman's approach to boat racing; but everyone will miss all he brought with him: commitment, expertise, high drama and superb boat racing.
Knowing his past in manners financial, one suspects Heerensperger profited a nickel when he sold his camp to Bill Muncey. In trade, Atlas Van Lines adopts the finest unlimited team on the circuit, a team of pride and passion. Now, I suppose, Dave will spend his spare change acquiring another double windup pitcher for Pay 'n Pak's softball team? He'll be expected to win.
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