Reprinted from The Daily Colonist, July 29, 1980
KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) — "You can't win if you don’t play,” said Pay 'n Pak hydroplane driver John Walters after a first-run test of his new machine on the Columbia River one day before the Columbia Cup race.
He may have played too hard. The boat that had electrified a large crowd on Saturday horrified those gathered for the race Sunday.
Walters took the Pay 'n Pak for a test spin around the course prior to the day’s first scheduled heat.
Accelerating hard down the straightaway in front of the south bank of the river, the boat was caught by the wind, turned on its heel and went hurtling 30 feet into the air. The boat flipped backward 2½ times, hit the water on its nose and flipped backward again, coming to rest upside down in the water.
Walters was ejected on the first flip. The rescue barge was at his side 55 seconds after the start of
the crash. Divers were in the water helping the injured driver 10 seconds later.
Walters, an experienced young limited hydroplane driver making his debut on the unlimited circuit, was rushed to hospital where he was treated for a broken hip socket and a rash of cuts, bruises and sprains.
Damage to the boat was concentrated on its right side, where the front portion of the sponson was sheared off. The top was smashed. Crew and designer Jim Lucero estimated damage at $30,000 but said the boat was not a total loss.
Owner Dave Heerensperger said Walters was running the course to get his timing down against the start clock and evidently got moving too fast for the tail wing and sponsons to handle.
Friday, April 5, 2019
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Dazzling Look Alikes
Reprinted from Overdrive, January 1982
Trucks come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They can carry almost anything. It is simply a matter of matching a truck to a particular load.
 |
| Pay 'n Pak's Kenworth K100 Aerodyne hauler. |
Trucks come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They can carry almost anything. It is simply a matter of matching a truck to a particular load.
Needless to say, truck transportation is not as uncomplicated as it sounds. Problems do arise.
As a case in point, what type of truck would you use to shuttle a renowned hydroplane racer? The answer, according to Pay 'n Pak, a Pacific Northwest consumer goods chain, is to take a top of the line truck and refashion it especially for the function.
Pay 'n Pak owns a turbine-powered hydroplane which competes on the unlimited hydroplane racing circuit. The "thunderboat," another name for hydroplane, recently won three straight national championships.
Pay 'n Pak chose a K100 Aerodyne VIT to haul its hydroplane. The truck, a custom rig, is color coordinated to match the dramatic appearance of the company's racer.
The Kenworth sports a 197-inch wheelbase with modifications in the rear of the chassis to accommodate an 18-foot dromedary box. The box, a complete on-the-road workshop has been designed to carry extra engines, tools, compressor, generator and assorted electrical equipment needed to keep the hydroplane performing.
There are other special features that make the truck a true standout. For example, the Kenworth has two extra fuel tanks, with a combined 300-gallon capacity, used to carry fuel for the racer. The air cleaner, a 65-tube stack panel, is mounted out of sight behind the cab, along with the horizontal exhaust stack, thus enhancing the truck's aerodynamic appearance.
Pay 'n Pak's truck, which has a combined gross vehicle weight of 83,000 pounds, is powered by a Detroit Diesel Allison 6V92TA that delivers 335 horsepower at 2100 rpm. It is coupled with a Fuller RTO-9509A transmission and single Ross power steering.
The front axle is a Rockwell with a 10,000-pound capacity. The rear axle, also a Rockwell, is rated at 23,000 pounds. The truck has a Kenworth Airglide 100 suspension.
The interior of the Kenworth is just outstanding, with such appointments as upholstered walls and headliner, Air Rider seats, AM/FM stereo, 40-channel CB, climate control and refrigerator
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
1st Turbine Victory Celebration
In 1982 at 'Thunder In The Park' on Seneca Lake H1 Unlimited Hydroplane race at Romulus, New York, John Walters (r-l) accepts the trophy at Sampson State Park with crew chief Jim Lucero, turbine engineer Stan Hanauer and crewman Gary Walters. The was a first. First time a non-internal combustion-powered hydroplane scored a victory etching John Walters name boldly in the hydroplane record book.
Friday, March 1, 2019
It’s a local thing: hydroplanes echo through Seattle history
By Feliks Banel
Reprinted from MYNorthwest.com, July 25, 1025
It’s a noisy summertime tradition and popular spectator sport here in Seattle and it has been for decades. But old-timers say that the new arrivals just don’t get it, that they don’t appreciate the heritage and the meaning of a contest that’s still near and dear to so many local hearts.
Of course, the “spectator sport” and “contest” of which I speak is the annual debating of the relevance of the Seafair hydroplane race.
Back in 1975, a Seattle Times editorial asked, “Are the hydroplanes passé?” In August 2003, a Seattle Times headline questioned, “Have we outgrown Seafair hydros?” For that 2003 article, a numbskull was quoted saying, “The hydro races have been losing relevance for a long time. Not to denigrate it, but people’s tastes change.”
We’ll come back to that numbskull in a minute. First, the reason for that 1975 editorial is worth taking another look at. That year, for the first time, Seattle’s annual thunderboat races were in real danger of not happening at all.
It was one year earlier, in 1974, that the hydro races were held in a new location. Seafair, the community organization with roots in Seattle’s post-war boom years and the city’s centennial celebration in 1951, moved the race from south of the I-90 bridge near Stan Sayres Memorial Park to what’s now Magnuson Park. Back then, the area was known as Sand Point and it had been a Navy base for decades.
In 1974, the city was in the process of taking over the old base from the Navy to turn it into a park. The move to Sand Point happened because Seafair had been losing money on the races for years and expenses were going up.
For all previous years of the race, from 1951 to 1973, there was no charge to watch the races at Stan Sayres. In 1974, Seafair wanted to charge admission to help cover their increasing costs. Sand Point, as a former Navy base, had a fence around it, which made it easier to control than the shore around Stan Sayres. Race fans got into Sand Point for $6 a carload.
The 1974 Seafair races weren’t exactly a disaster, but many spectators and hydro teams weren’t pleased. The course was shorter, so the boats couldn’t reach the high speeds they could at the old location, and some say it was windier and the water choppier. And since Sand Point was not yet a park — it was an old Navy airfield — it lacked the amenities of Stan Sayres, there were no trees and no shade, and the view for most of the spectators turned out to be not very good.
“It was a bad idea,” says legendary broadcaster, concert promoter and raconteur Pat O’Day of the move to Sand Point. O’Day, who did play-by-play for the hydros for decades, broadcast the races for KJR that year and he remembers that the place was called Sand Point for a reason.
“Sand Point is a point,” O’Day said, “And as a result, half of the crowd could only see the south end of the course and the other half of the crowd could only see the north end of the course because the pits were right on the point itself, along with the start-finish line tower.”
The winner that controversial year was the Miss Pay 'n Pak, driven by Smiling George Henley of Eatonville.
As it came time to plan for the 1975 races, the Unlimited Hydroplane Commission refused to sanction the Sand Point location for a return engagement, saying that the course was too windy and not conducive to holding a good race. Then, Seafair said it couldn’t afford to hold the races at Stan Sayres if they couldn’t charge admission. It turned into a standoff.
The UHC threatened to bypass Seattle that season and sanction a hydro race in Dallas instead. It looked pretty grim for a while. But, at the last moment — just weeks before the race — the Seattle City Council stepped in and provided support in the form of an additional $20,000, boosting the city’s contribution to $56,000, and then two local hydro owners pledged $17,000 to help defray costs. The races went back to Stan Sayres where they’ve been held ever since.
And good thing, according to O’Day. He says that the original race location is, “memorable because of one thing: Stan Sayres pits is magic. It’s a beautiful race course, with Mount Rainier smiling down at everybody. That’s a magical, magical event.”
But the business of professional hydroplane racing has changed and many people say that the sport is not as popular as it once was in Seattle and other communities. As recently as the 1980s, local kids all over Puget Sound made their own miniature plywood hydroplanes and towed them behind their bicycles in neighborhood races. If that still happens, I personally haven’t seen it recently.
The truth is, hydroplanes had their biggest years in Seattle long before the Seahawks and the Mariners ever made it to the playoffs (and earned a spot in our professional sports-hearts and sucked up all those sponsor and ticket dollars). O’Day also says the current crop of turbo-powered boats lack the thrills and especially the sounds of the old piston-engine boats that dominated the sport from the 1950s through the 1970s, and he hopes that the industry will shift back to the more retro boats.
As for that numbskull quoted by The Seattle Times in 2003, he went on to redeem himself a bit later in that article by saying, “Seattle is at a stage where it is wrestling with being a small, out-of-the-way city vs. a big city connected to the rest of the world. As a result, there will always be debates and questions over whether Seafair is relevant or worth keeping.”
And yes, that numbskull was me, when I was deputy director of the Museum of History & Industry. Informed debates about what’s important to a city and region and how that can change over the years are critical conversations to have, officially and unofficially, if we want to live in this ever-changing place and have some say in choices that are made. Let’s keep Seattle’s present in dialog with its past as a means of preparing for the future.
But let’s give O’Day the final optimistic word on the hydros’ role in Seattle’s future, as he says it simply, and he says it best.
“Seafair was a nice community event, but the hydroplanes made it explode,” O’Day said. “The community needs the race and the sport needs the community.”
Reprinted from MYNorthwest.com, July 25, 1025
It’s a noisy summertime tradition and popular spectator sport here in Seattle and it has been for decades. But old-timers say that the new arrivals just don’t get it, that they don’t appreciate the heritage and the meaning of a contest that’s still near and dear to so many local hearts.
Of course, the “spectator sport” and “contest” of which I speak is the annual debating of the relevance of the Seafair hydroplane race.
Back in 1975, a Seattle Times editorial asked, “Are the hydroplanes passé?” In August 2003, a Seattle Times headline questioned, “Have we outgrown Seafair hydros?” For that 2003 article, a numbskull was quoted saying, “The hydro races have been losing relevance for a long time. Not to denigrate it, but people’s tastes change.”
We’ll come back to that numbskull in a minute. First, the reason for that 1975 editorial is worth taking another look at. That year, for the first time, Seattle’s annual thunderboat races were in real danger of not happening at all.
It was one year earlier, in 1974, that the hydro races were held in a new location. Seafair, the community organization with roots in Seattle’s post-war boom years and the city’s centennial celebration in 1951, moved the race from south of the I-90 bridge near Stan Sayres Memorial Park to what’s now Magnuson Park. Back then, the area was known as Sand Point and it had been a Navy base for decades.
In 1974, the city was in the process of taking over the old base from the Navy to turn it into a park. The move to Sand Point happened because Seafair had been losing money on the races for years and expenses were going up.
For all previous years of the race, from 1951 to 1973, there was no charge to watch the races at Stan Sayres. In 1974, Seafair wanted to charge admission to help cover their increasing costs. Sand Point, as a former Navy base, had a fence around it, which made it easier to control than the shore around Stan Sayres. Race fans got into Sand Point for $6 a carload.
The 1974 Seafair races weren’t exactly a disaster, but many spectators and hydro teams weren’t pleased. The course was shorter, so the boats couldn’t reach the high speeds they could at the old location, and some say it was windier and the water choppier. And since Sand Point was not yet a park — it was an old Navy airfield — it lacked the amenities of Stan Sayres, there were no trees and no shade, and the view for most of the spectators turned out to be not very good.
“It was a bad idea,” says legendary broadcaster, concert promoter and raconteur Pat O’Day of the move to Sand Point. O’Day, who did play-by-play for the hydros for decades, broadcast the races for KJR that year and he remembers that the place was called Sand Point for a reason.
“Sand Point is a point,” O’Day said, “And as a result, half of the crowd could only see the south end of the course and the other half of the crowd could only see the north end of the course because the pits were right on the point itself, along with the start-finish line tower.”
The winner that controversial year was the Miss Pay 'n Pak, driven by Smiling George Henley of Eatonville.
As it came time to plan for the 1975 races, the Unlimited Hydroplane Commission refused to sanction the Sand Point location for a return engagement, saying that the course was too windy and not conducive to holding a good race. Then, Seafair said it couldn’t afford to hold the races at Stan Sayres if they couldn’t charge admission. It turned into a standoff.
The UHC threatened to bypass Seattle that season and sanction a hydro race in Dallas instead. It looked pretty grim for a while. But, at the last moment — just weeks before the race — the Seattle City Council stepped in and provided support in the form of an additional $20,000, boosting the city’s contribution to $56,000, and then two local hydro owners pledged $17,000 to help defray costs. The races went back to Stan Sayres where they’ve been held ever since.
And good thing, according to O’Day. He says that the original race location is, “memorable because of one thing: Stan Sayres pits is magic. It’s a beautiful race course, with Mount Rainier smiling down at everybody. That’s a magical, magical event.”
But the business of professional hydroplane racing has changed and many people say that the sport is not as popular as it once was in Seattle and other communities. As recently as the 1980s, local kids all over Puget Sound made their own miniature plywood hydroplanes and towed them behind their bicycles in neighborhood races. If that still happens, I personally haven’t seen it recently.
The truth is, hydroplanes had their biggest years in Seattle long before the Seahawks and the Mariners ever made it to the playoffs (and earned a spot in our professional sports-hearts and sucked up all those sponsor and ticket dollars). O’Day also says the current crop of turbo-powered boats lack the thrills and especially the sounds of the old piston-engine boats that dominated the sport from the 1950s through the 1970s, and he hopes that the industry will shift back to the more retro boats.
As for that numbskull quoted by The Seattle Times in 2003, he went on to redeem himself a bit later in that article by saying, “Seattle is at a stage where it is wrestling with being a small, out-of-the-way city vs. a big city connected to the rest of the world. As a result, there will always be debates and questions over whether Seafair is relevant or worth keeping.”
And yes, that numbskull was me, when I was deputy director of the Museum of History & Industry. Informed debates about what’s important to a city and region and how that can change over the years are critical conversations to have, officially and unofficially, if we want to live in this ever-changing place and have some say in choices that are made. Let’s keep Seattle’s present in dialog with its past as a means of preparing for the future.
But let’s give O’Day the final optimistic word on the hydros’ role in Seattle’s future, as he says it simply, and he says it best.
“Seafair was a nice community event, but the hydroplanes made it explode,” O’Day said. “The community needs the race and the sport needs the community.”
Pak hydro wins in Kentucky
U-95 sets heat record
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, June 17, 1974
The Pay 'n Pak of Seattle, driven by George Henley, today won the delayed Kentucky Governor's Cup unlimited hydroplane race for its second successive triumph on the thunderboat trail.
Pay 'n Pak, which also won the President's Cup in Washington, D.C., a week ago, won the final heat with an average speed of 104.384 miles an hour. The Pak accumulated 1,100 points in winning one heat and placing second to Budweiser in another.
Another Seattle-based boat, U-95, placed second with a time of 101.328 in the final heat. Atlas Van Lines was third at 89.794 m.p.h., followed by Budweiser and Sunny Jim.
The U-95, driven by Leif Borgersen, clocked off an Ohio River course record in winning Heat 1A at 112.952 m.p.h.
Pay 'n Pak won Heat 1B, Budweiser turned back the Pak in a rousing race to win 2A and Atlas Van Lines placed first in 2B.
Racing was postponed yesterday when unseasonable northwest winds whipped the course into a frothy ferment.
The race did get started, but an accident in the second lap of Heat 1A sent Charlie Dunn to the hospital and race officials into a quick huddle to mull over the weather situation.
Dunn, driver of the Just-A-Pest, spun out in the first corner of the second lap and the Pest was run over by Tom Kaufman in his Mister Fabricator. Dunn was pinned between the boats. He suffered an cracked rib, pelvic bruises and took some water into his lungs. He was listed in stable condition late last night at Owensboro-Davies County Hospital.
The Just-A-Pest sank to the bottom of the Ohio.
Race officials delayed the race, hoping the wind would calm down. But at 5:30 p.m. the decision was made to put the race over to today.
"The wind is out of the northwest," reported Dick Toth, a race official. "That's really rare here. The wind is blowing just opposite of the current, so it's pretty choppy out there. Lots of whitecaps."
Several drivers reportedly refused to go on the course when the wind came up.
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, June 17, 1974
The Pay 'n Pak of Seattle, driven by George Henley, today won the delayed Kentucky Governor's Cup unlimited hydroplane race for its second successive triumph on the thunderboat trail.
Pay 'n Pak, which also won the President's Cup in Washington, D.C., a week ago, won the final heat with an average speed of 104.384 miles an hour. The Pak accumulated 1,100 points in winning one heat and placing second to Budweiser in another.
Another Seattle-based boat, U-95, placed second with a time of 101.328 in the final heat. Atlas Van Lines was third at 89.794 m.p.h., followed by Budweiser and Sunny Jim.
The U-95, driven by Leif Borgersen, clocked off an Ohio River course record in winning Heat 1A at 112.952 m.p.h.
Pay 'n Pak won Heat 1B, Budweiser turned back the Pak in a rousing race to win 2A and Atlas Van Lines placed first in 2B.
Racing was postponed yesterday when unseasonable northwest winds whipped the course into a frothy ferment.
The race did get started, but an accident in the second lap of Heat 1A sent Charlie Dunn to the hospital and race officials into a quick huddle to mull over the weather situation.
Dunn, driver of the Just-A-Pest, spun out in the first corner of the second lap and the Pest was run over by Tom Kaufman in his Mister Fabricator. Dunn was pinned between the boats. He suffered an cracked rib, pelvic bruises and took some water into his lungs. He was listed in stable condition late last night at Owensboro-Davies County Hospital.
The Just-A-Pest sank to the bottom of the Ohio.
Race officials delayed the race, hoping the wind would calm down. But at 5:30 p.m. the decision was made to put the race over to today.
"The wind is out of the northwest," reported Dick Toth, a race official. "That's really rare here. The wind is blowing just opposite of the current, so it's pretty choppy out there. Lots of whitecaps."
Several drivers reportedly refused to go on the course when the wind came up.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Pay 'n Pak White Lightening
By Steven Sheppard
Reprinted from The Norberg Custom Boats
Perhaps the most notable of the early Dave Knowlen-Norm Berg collaborations was the project that followed the Spirit of ’76. It was the designing and building of a hull for a young Seattle boat racer named Steve Reynolds. That project would become the highly successful 225-class N-10 "White Lightning."
Reynolds had enjoyed moderate success with "Sundance Kid." Dave Knowlen had built that hull and raced it as a conventional 280-class limited in the mid-to-late 1960s. Dave sold it to two gentlemen who in turn sold the boat to Steve after altering it to race as a 225-class hull. Perhaps too heavy to compete well in the lower classification, the "Kid" failed failed to win any trophies for Reynolds, and left him wanting more.
Focused on eventually moving up to the unlimited class, the young driver decided to upgrade his ride after a particularly frustrating day of racing. He arduously saved his money over the course of a year to have a new, more competitive boat constructed.
When he had assembled the needed funds, he at first contacted Ron Jones to design and build the craft, but an anticipated wait of seven to eight months to begin construction of the Jones-crafted hull led the young racer to look elsewhere.
As luck would have it, Reynolds ran into Dave Knowlen, who had heard that Reynolds had been looking to have a boat built. Knowlen showed Steve his latest design prints and then took him to the NCB shop to meet with Berg.
Impressed with Berg’s craftsmanship, it is said that Reynolds reportedly declared aloud that Berg’s wood working was every bit as good as that done on Ron Jones’ hulls, to which Berg reportedly responded by telling Reynolds of his years spent working in the Jones’ shops in California.
Subsequently, Reynolds and the NCB partners settled on a price, and Norm began construction from Knowlen’s plans. The result was a bright blue and white cabover powered by a Buick engine — emblazoned with a big N-10 and the name "White Lightning". Notably, one of the major innovations that Knowlen applied to the design of that boat was a horizontal stabilizer wing — the first ever to be used on a 225-class hull.
"I kept the boat in my Parents Garage/Workshop on Mercer Island," Reynolds recalled of his new acquisition. "My first sponsor was actually an old friend of mine and my fathers who owned the Shell Gas Station on Mercer Island."
The boat became a front-runner almost immediately, winning six races in a row while winning every preliminary heat that the boat entered. It was about this point that the team was to become even better.
The catalyst for that improvement would be the addition of Jim Harvey to the "White Lightning" team as crew chief.
Harvey and Reynolds had a mutual friend who saw the potential in the two joining forces to race Steve’s new boat. A meeting was soon arranged, and Steve and Jim hit it off almost immediately. After taking Harvey to see the boat, Reynolds invited him to head his crew.
While Reynold’s father was a big help, the grind of Reynolds having to race the boat, put it back on the trailer, refuel it for the next heat, put it the water, race it again, put it back on the trailer, tie it down, load the truck with equipment, tow the boat to the shop, go through the hull and check for needed repairs, put away all support equipment (i.e. tools, gas cans, slings, ropes. etc.), and then to drive home for work the day after a race was wearing young Reynolds out. He needed help to carry the load so he could focus on winning.
Reynold’s made it clear that night that he felt that Harvey was the man to provide that help. He could be that someone that was needed to manage and take care of the boat—that someone who would become Reynolds’ crew chief.
Harvey accepted the position and quickly made it clear that Reynolds had made the correct choice.
"Jim was definitely the RIGHT MAN for the job! He'd stop by my folks’ garage after work everyday. He and my Dad babied the White Lightning, treating her with kid gloves", Reynolds said. "In the process Jim became like a second son to my Dad. They got along so well, and he was there so often."
Harvey, Reynolds, and Reynolds’ father then joined forces with another of Steve’s friends — engine builder Bill Grader — to set two world competition records and to remain undefeated in competition for two and one-half years, dominating the 225 class in Region 10 if not the entire West Coast.
Through it all, the centerpiece of the success was the 18’ cab over limited hydro with the innovative large rear wing crafted by NCB, and this was not lost on Reynolds. He recently commented on the "White Lightning" and his perspective on the work of Berg in a Facebook posting about another of Berg and Knowlen’s other hulls:
"Norm's boats were pieces of finely built works of art." Reynolds said. "He was truly one of the finest craftsman in boat building. His craftsmanship was second to NONE!" Reynolds then embellished that observation with a smiley emoticon to further emphasize his pleasure with Berg’s work.
Perhaps by chance, Reynolds drew a new, more influential sponsor to the N-10 camp with his success.
"Dave Heerensperger, owner of the Pay 'n Pak unlimited, was living on Mercer Island at the time, and he saw a picture of the White Lightning on the wall in the gas station," said Reynolds of the origins of the new sponsor arrangement.
"Heerensperger then told the station owner that if I was interested in him sponsoring me that I was to contact him at his office in Kent for a meeting, and we'd discuss sponsorship."
"I called Dave, set up a meeting, and then met him at his office. I walked out two hours later with a Pay 'n Pak sponsorship. I believe that was the first limited hydroplane, in Region 10 anyway, to have a contending unlimited hydroplane sharing sponsorship with a limited hydroplane."
Reynolds said he ran the N-10 hull four or five races as the Pay 'n Pak previous to a flip on Green Lake that nearly destroyed the boat and injured Reynolds.
Norm Berg rebuilt and repainted the boat while Reynolds was recuperating from the Green Lake accident. After the repairs were completed, Heerensperger contacted Reynolds, and told him that he wanted the boat to run in an exhibition race featuring local limited boats during Seattle's unlimited Seafair race.
"I was on crutches for Seafair and couldn't drive," Reynolds said of the situation. "I told Dave I thought the water conditions on Lake Washington were far too rough for my little 18' boat. Dave wanted it to run anyway, and he told me that if I couldn't drive it myself then I was to find another driver — but he wanted it there!"
"I got another driver for Seafair, and my boat ran in the exhibition race. But as I feared and predicted, it cracked open a sponson in that rough water and had to be towed back to the pits. As can be imagined, I was NOT happy about it, and that ended my sponsorship arrangement with Pay 'n Pak right on the spot!"
As Reynolds transitioned into the unlimited ranks shortly after the Pay 'n Pak accident (he said that he was still quite stiff when he assumed that role), he divested himself of the "White Lightning", selling the engine to Brad Mosure and the hull to Roby Ottwell. It then became the "Honey Hush" according to Reynolds, and Ottwell ran the boat for a season before destroying it in a blow-over accident on Green Lake.
Note: Parts of the "White Lightning" reportedly still remain, however. The nose cowling of the N-10, with Reynold’s name on it, is currently part of the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum collection in Kent and is in currently in storage for possible display at a later date.
Reprinted from The Norberg Custom Boats
Perhaps the most notable of the early Dave Knowlen-Norm Berg collaborations was the project that followed the Spirit of ’76. It was the designing and building of a hull for a young Seattle boat racer named Steve Reynolds. That project would become the highly successful 225-class N-10 "White Lightning."
Reynolds had enjoyed moderate success with "Sundance Kid." Dave Knowlen had built that hull and raced it as a conventional 280-class limited in the mid-to-late 1960s. Dave sold it to two gentlemen who in turn sold the boat to Steve after altering it to race as a 225-class hull. Perhaps too heavy to compete well in the lower classification, the "Kid" failed failed to win any trophies for Reynolds, and left him wanting more.
Focused on eventually moving up to the unlimited class, the young driver decided to upgrade his ride after a particularly frustrating day of racing. He arduously saved his money over the course of a year to have a new, more competitive boat constructed.
When he had assembled the needed funds, he at first contacted Ron Jones to design and build the craft, but an anticipated wait of seven to eight months to begin construction of the Jones-crafted hull led the young racer to look elsewhere.
As luck would have it, Reynolds ran into Dave Knowlen, who had heard that Reynolds had been looking to have a boat built. Knowlen showed Steve his latest design prints and then took him to the NCB shop to meet with Berg.
Impressed with Berg’s craftsmanship, it is said that Reynolds reportedly declared aloud that Berg’s wood working was every bit as good as that done on Ron Jones’ hulls, to which Berg reportedly responded by telling Reynolds of his years spent working in the Jones’ shops in California.
Subsequently, Reynolds and the NCB partners settled on a price, and Norm began construction from Knowlen’s plans. The result was a bright blue and white cabover powered by a Buick engine — emblazoned with a big N-10 and the name "White Lightning". Notably, one of the major innovations that Knowlen applied to the design of that boat was a horizontal stabilizer wing — the first ever to be used on a 225-class hull.
"I kept the boat in my Parents Garage/Workshop on Mercer Island," Reynolds recalled of his new acquisition. "My first sponsor was actually an old friend of mine and my fathers who owned the Shell Gas Station on Mercer Island."
The boat became a front-runner almost immediately, winning six races in a row while winning every preliminary heat that the boat entered. It was about this point that the team was to become even better.
The catalyst for that improvement would be the addition of Jim Harvey to the "White Lightning" team as crew chief.
Harvey and Reynolds had a mutual friend who saw the potential in the two joining forces to race Steve’s new boat. A meeting was soon arranged, and Steve and Jim hit it off almost immediately. After taking Harvey to see the boat, Reynolds invited him to head his crew.
While Reynold’s father was a big help, the grind of Reynolds having to race the boat, put it back on the trailer, refuel it for the next heat, put it the water, race it again, put it back on the trailer, tie it down, load the truck with equipment, tow the boat to the shop, go through the hull and check for needed repairs, put away all support equipment (i.e. tools, gas cans, slings, ropes. etc.), and then to drive home for work the day after a race was wearing young Reynolds out. He needed help to carry the load so he could focus on winning.
Reynold’s made it clear that night that he felt that Harvey was the man to provide that help. He could be that someone that was needed to manage and take care of the boat—that someone who would become Reynolds’ crew chief.
Harvey accepted the position and quickly made it clear that Reynolds had made the correct choice.
 |
| A view of part of the damage done to the N-10 Pay 'n Pak from its blow over on Green Lake. |
"Jim was definitely the RIGHT MAN for the job! He'd stop by my folks’ garage after work everyday. He and my Dad babied the White Lightning, treating her with kid gloves", Reynolds said. "In the process Jim became like a second son to my Dad. They got along so well, and he was there so often."
Harvey, Reynolds, and Reynolds’ father then joined forces with another of Steve’s friends — engine builder Bill Grader — to set two world competition records and to remain undefeated in competition for two and one-half years, dominating the 225 class in Region 10 if not the entire West Coast.
Through it all, the centerpiece of the success was the 18’ cab over limited hydro with the innovative large rear wing crafted by NCB, and this was not lost on Reynolds. He recently commented on the "White Lightning" and his perspective on the work of Berg in a Facebook posting about another of Berg and Knowlen’s other hulls:
"Norm's boats were pieces of finely built works of art." Reynolds said. "He was truly one of the finest craftsman in boat building. His craftsmanship was second to NONE!" Reynolds then embellished that observation with a smiley emoticon to further emphasize his pleasure with Berg’s work.
 |
| A view of part of the damage done to the N-10 Pay 'n Pak from its blow over on Green Lake. |
Perhaps by chance, Reynolds drew a new, more influential sponsor to the N-10 camp with his success.
"Dave Heerensperger, owner of the Pay 'n Pak unlimited, was living on Mercer Island at the time, and he saw a picture of the White Lightning on the wall in the gas station," said Reynolds of the origins of the new sponsor arrangement.
"Heerensperger then told the station owner that if I was interested in him sponsoring me that I was to contact him at his office in Kent for a meeting, and we'd discuss sponsorship."
"I called Dave, set up a meeting, and then met him at his office. I walked out two hours later with a Pay 'n Pak sponsorship. I believe that was the first limited hydroplane, in Region 10 anyway, to have a contending unlimited hydroplane sharing sponsorship with a limited hydroplane."
Reynolds said he ran the N-10 hull four or five races as the Pay 'n Pak previous to a flip on Green Lake that nearly destroyed the boat and injured Reynolds.
Norm Berg rebuilt and repainted the boat while Reynolds was recuperating from the Green Lake accident. After the repairs were completed, Heerensperger contacted Reynolds, and told him that he wanted the boat to run in an exhibition race featuring local limited boats during Seattle's unlimited Seafair race.
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| A view of part of the damage done to the N-10 Pay 'n Pak from its blow over on Green Lake. Photo Credit: Bob Bolam Collection |
"I was on crutches for Seafair and couldn't drive," Reynolds said of the situation. "I told Dave I thought the water conditions on Lake Washington were far too rough for my little 18' boat. Dave wanted it to run anyway, and he told me that if I couldn't drive it myself then I was to find another driver — but he wanted it there!"
"I got another driver for Seafair, and my boat ran in the exhibition race. But as I feared and predicted, it cracked open a sponson in that rough water and had to be towed back to the pits. As can be imagined, I was NOT happy about it, and that ended my sponsorship arrangement with Pay 'n Pak right on the spot!"
As Reynolds transitioned into the unlimited ranks shortly after the Pay 'n Pak accident (he said that he was still quite stiff when he assumed that role), he divested himself of the "White Lightning", selling the engine to Brad Mosure and the hull to Roby Ottwell. It then became the "Honey Hush" according to Reynolds, and Ottwell ran the boat for a season before destroying it in a blow-over accident on Green Lake.
Note: Parts of the "White Lightning" reportedly still remain, however. The nose cowling of the N-10, with Reynold’s name on it, is currently part of the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum collection in Kent and is in currently in storage for possible display at a later date.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Turbine Pak - Strengths and Weaknesses
A question for John Walters - reprinted from Facebook.
Question: John Walters, it would be so interesting to hear your thoughts on what were the strengths and weakness of the design of the total package: power plant and the hull. Obviously the package was on the cutting edge.
John Walters: "You know, I think there were just so many new and different things to work out all at the same time. Any one would in my opinion have been successful, but together it was too much. In time we would have gotten it sorted out.
"The engines were a big advantage. So much power in a light small package.
"The hull was super light. Ready to run at 4300 pounds. Composite materials, foam decks, titanium hardware.
"Aerodynamics were very streamlined for low drag. Lots of bottom area for lots of lift. Wide multi-surface sponsons that were very lively. Both of which were too much at times and unpredictable most times.
"That engine package in a more conservative hull would have probably been successful. A heavier more conservative power plant in that hull, may have been more successful?
'There were just too many things to figure out while racing.
"But, the Owner (Dave Heerensperger, Crew Chief (Jim Lucero), Driver (John Walters) and Crew wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s who we were and how we worked.
"We were getting better every time we ran. The second boat came out of the box faster and more predictable. It was a winner right away. Most of the boats today are so good as a result of many of those ideas. Some that worked, some that didn’t at first.
"It was fun and exciting. So proud of the people, and the effort!"
Question: John Walters, it would be so interesting to hear your thoughts on what were the strengths and weakness of the design of the total package: power plant and the hull. Obviously the package was on the cutting edge.
 |
| 1981 test session on Lake Washington. Photo by Roger George |
John Walters: "You know, I think there were just so many new and different things to work out all at the same time. Any one would in my opinion have been successful, but together it was too much. In time we would have gotten it sorted out.
"The engines were a big advantage. So much power in a light small package.
"The hull was super light. Ready to run at 4300 pounds. Composite materials, foam decks, titanium hardware.
"Aerodynamics were very streamlined for low drag. Lots of bottom area for lots of lift. Wide multi-surface sponsons that were very lively. Both of which were too much at times and unpredictable most times.
"That engine package in a more conservative hull would have probably been successful. A heavier more conservative power plant in that hull, may have been more successful?
 |
| John Walters with Jim Lucero (right). Photo by Roger George. |
'There were just too many things to figure out while racing.
"But, the Owner (Dave Heerensperger, Crew Chief (Jim Lucero), Driver (John Walters) and Crew wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s who we were and how we worked.
"We were getting better every time we ran. The second boat came out of the box faster and more predictable. It was a winner right away. Most of the boats today are so good as a result of many of those ideas. Some that worked, some that didn’t at first.
"It was fun and exciting. So proud of the people, and the effort!"
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