It's Speed

Reprinted from Sea and Pacific Motor Boat, April 1969

Can new designing solve the problem of the big hydroplane racing boats becoming unduly airborne at high speeds? In what Dave Heerensperger calls "the flying problem," he does think he has the answer. APBA officials say that his new Miss Eagle Electric out of Spokane, Wash., is a definite threat to the field this year. They call his design "a dramatic departure." It will be recalled that driver Warner Gardner lost his life at Detroit last December when the aging Miss Eagle Electric crashed.

The owner and Spokane businessman Heerensperger, who has nearly twice as many "e's" in his name as there is in his boat's name, says this, "It was before the fatal accident that Warner and I had decided to build this new boat. She has outrigger sponsons and other design changes. Now it is a memorial to my good friend, the late Warner Gardner.

"She is shorter than 30 feet and a foot wider than most of the others. She is made up of three structural members in one.

"The hull itself is about four feet wide. Extending from each side are struts which connect to outrigger sponsons upon which the boat rides at competitive speeds. These outriggers are about two feet across and are built to withstand high speed stress and load.

"When we first tested the boat, Tommy experienced so much torque that it actually ran lopsided. Since that time, the crew changed the angle of attack to correct that problem," Heerensperger said.

He cited as another riddle, having water spray into the engine well from the left outrigger when the boat was turned. A deflection device ended that worry.

"It's hard to tell how you're doing without competition, but the new boat has tremendous straightaway speeds. It turns tighter than any boat I've owned, and I've had three. Tommy Fults takes the boat into the turns and just walks it around. The engine doesn't have that overworked, `boring out' sound, but boat speed stays up. On straightaways, the negative lift factors resulting from the lack of trapped air cause the hull to run flat and with no kiting. Of course, we have a lot of testing to do before the start of the season, but right now we are happily anticipating the first race at Guntersville, Ala., June 8," Heerensperger concluded.

They are calling the new one Spreadwing Eagle and attempts were being made in late February, amid ice floes, to test her out on the Columbia River, near Pasco.

New Hydro Will Try for World Record

Reprinted from The Seattle Times, March. 30, 1969.

SPOKANE -- Tommy Fults, driving Dave Heerensperger's new, revolutionary unlimited hydroplane, Pride of Pay 'N Pak, will shoot for a mile straightaway speed record this spring on Lake Guntersville, Alabama.

The record is 200.419 miles an hour for a propeller-driven hydro. It was set on Lake Guntersville, April 7, 1962, by Roy Duby driving George Simon's Miss U.S. A new Miss U.S. presently is based in Seattle and driven by Bill Muncey.

The sanction period for the record attempts is May 19- 24.

The Spokane owner of the Pride of Pay 'N Pak, who has expanded his electrical-and-plumbing supply holdings to Denver and Seattle during the winter, plans to send the boat to Kawkawlin, Mich., for last-minute modifications and refinements by the builder, Les Staudacher, before the record runs in Alabama.

The new hydro, a replacement for Heerensperger's Miss Eagle Electric, was designed for straightaway-record attempts. The hydro, except for test runs this winter on the Columbia River in Tri-Cities, is untested, however, in competition.

"We're not going to Alabama simply to break the record," Heerensperger said. "We're determined to put the record out of reach for the next ten years."

Heerensperger purchased the unconventional hydro -- outrigger sponsons jutting out from the hull -- when the Eagle Electric was destroyed and Col. Warner Gardner killed in last summer's Gold Cup race on the Detroit River.

Hydro Happiness Is a Special Italian Propeller

By Don Fair
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.

Consistency: Pit Crew Key To Pak’s Success

By Steve Ellis
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 4, 1975

Imagine waves lapping on a sandy shore rather than asphalt, a palm grove spreading cool shadows rather than a tractor-trailer rig.

In that pleasant setting, George Henley, sitting in a lawn chair on the edge of Lake Washington, appeared more like a Wall Street businessman vacationing in Tahiti than a boat driver who only a short time before had outlasted eight other entries to win his fourth straight unlimited-hydroplane race in the Pay ‘n Pak.

"Every time I push the starter button, the boat runs," Henley said, emphasizing the key to his success.

As other boats fell apart, the Pak cruised to two preliminary-heat victories. It then finished a necessary second to the Weisfield’s and Billy Schumacher in the final heat of the Seafair Trophy Race yesterday on Lake Washington.

"Consistency is what these guys do," said Henley, referring to his crew.

Despite the apparent ease of the victory, Henley and the Pak overcame several obstacles.

Just before Heat 1A began, Henley and the Hamm’s Bear, driven by Jerry Bangs, bumped.

"It went crunch, crunch," Henley said. "I knew we were hit pretty hard. It was just one of those things in no-man’s land.

"I went way outside and quit fighting for position."

The Pak’s left sponson and left rear side of the hull were damaged.

"I couldn’t believe they got it fixed." Henley said of the crew. "It wasn’t a patch job."

Jim Lucero, the crew chief, said drawing Heat 2B gave his men helpful time.

"If we’d not gotten the draws that we did, it would have been a patch job," Lucero said.

Henley said he had an oil leak during the final heat.

"Billy got his boat going pretty good," Henley said of the Weisfield’s. "If I’d have had to do it (win the heat), I probably would have gone kaput."

Schumacher said he was satisfied with his boat’s final heat.

"We looked good, anyway," said Schumacher. He trails Henley by 131 points, in the national standings with the Phoenix and San Diego races tentatively remaining.

"It surprised me that we didn’t burn another piston," Schumacher said. A burned piston in the second heat resulted in a third-place finish, giving the Pak the necessary edge in the finale.

Unlimited Hydroplanes ‘73: A Period of Experimentation

Turbines, turbo-charging, space-age materials, wing stabilizers — it’s an interesting year for the unlimited hydroplanes.

For the past 20 years, no one has been able to find a better power plant for unlimited hydroplanes than World War II aircraft engines. Perhaps this will be changing?

The supply of the big 12-cylinder V-type aircraft engines which gave the free world air superiority in World War II is still surprisingly good. One of the major problems is finding enough mechanics and crew members who are skilled at working on the engines. After all, there aren’t too many other calls these days for people to work on World War II aircraft engines!

Even putting an aircraft engine into a hydro isn’t simple; major changes are necessary to adapt an engine to water usage. First, the engine as it was set up for airplane use, is reversed. The front becomes the rear, and vice versa. Second, the supercharger is turned upside down, so that carburetor sits on top of the engine instead of on the bottom. (Fighter planes had air intakes on the bottom of the fuselage and the carburetor was mounted upside down). Third, the propeller gears are removed and a special gear box manufactured especially for racing is installed. This gearbox delivers three times the speed of the engine to the propeller—when the engine is turning 4,000 RPM’s the propeller is turning over 12,000 RPM’s.

The mortality rate among engines is fearsome. In fighter aircraft, these engines were overhauled every 300-400 hours. In hydroplanes, an engine cannot be operated for more than one hour without being completely disassembled. Many engines last less than one 15-mile heat due to the terrific strain.

Turbo-charging akin to that of the Indianapolis 500 cars is an innovation in the Lincoln Thrift and Miss U.S. boats.

Most boats use a gear-driven fan to compress air for faster engine operation. Since the fans operate at supersonic speeds above 35,000 RPM’s they can be a source of constant problems.

In turbo-charging, exhaust gases are pumped back through the engine to turn the fan. The exhaust is recycled with new fuel and the result is greater acceleration off the turns.

The two Schoenith-owned boats, Atlas and Gales’s Roostertail, are using a new fuel injection system that "sprays" fuel directly into the cylinder in a search of greater fuel efficiency and better acceleration.

The exotic metals and materials of today are being utilized in at least two of the unlimited hydros to keep the weight down.

George Simon’s new Miss U.S. tips the scales at just under 5,000 in racing trim compared to 6,500 to over 7,000 pounds for some boats. Miss U.S., utilizing lightweight titanium and magnesium in hull construction to keep the weight down, is probably the lightest boat in the ‘73 fleet.

The new Pay ‘N Pak weighs in at about 6,000 pounds, also considerably lighter than most boats. The new Pak utilizes honeycombed aluminum that is actually two sheets of aluminum bonded and separated by a honeycombed aluminum core.

Boat owners seemed to be satisfied that they are reaching maximum safe speeds on the straightaways. Their challenge now is to develop a boat design and power source that can make better time around the corners.

Hydroplane hulls are designed so that air pressure on the top of the curved front deck keeps the boat down, while air pressure in a tunnel between the sponsons lifts it up. One compensates for the other in a properly balanced boat.

As the boat rises on a column of air, it "walks" on its two sponsons, spilling out air, keeping the boat from becoming airborne, but just barely touching the water. Obviously, the delicate balance is a hard thing to achieve.

The "wing" or horizontal stabilizer on the tail fin of Pay ‘N Pak is adjustable. If the boat is not riding quite right because of water conditions, the pitch of the stabilizer can be adjusted to improve the riding characteristics of the boat.

The Pay ‘N Pak crew uses a video tape machine to record the performance of their boat for "playback at a more convenient time" for study. The driver also has a radio receiver in his helmet to pick up information relayed from the beach.

Somehow, the use of automotive power for the unlimiteds is not being mentioned very much during the ‘73 season. For one thing, the hydro people have been reluctant to drop the length and weight restrictions that would be necessary for auto engines to be competitive. Now a boat must be at least 28 feet long and weigh over 4,000 pounds—and most designers say that’s too long and too heavy for efficient use of automotive power.

And now, the biggest news is a turbine-powered boat that hopefully will make its first racing appearance in the Gold Cup.

Lighter boats? New power plants? What changes will be forthcoming in the 1974 unlimited fleet?

Should Pak Have Been Disqualified?

By Bill Knight
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

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."