Bud wins by (—) that much

Pak edged at Detroit

Reprinted from The Seattle Times, July 1, 1974

DETROIT— (Special) — George Henley ran out of time in his game of "catch up" with Howie Benns, but the unlimited hydroplane jockey from Eatonville, Wash., still leads in the chase for national high points honors.

Howie Benns, Miss Budweiser driver, after a heat victory. Photo by Bill Knodell.

Henley, at the wheel of the Pay 'n Pak, was washed down by Benns in the Budweiser as the two boats battled for the lead late in the second lap of the winner-take-all final heat of yesterday's Gar Wood Trophy Race on the stormy Detroit River.

The splash pushed the Pak inside the buoy line and allowed Benns to build a commanding lead.

But Henley circled back to pick up the missed buoy and methodically gained on Benns to set up one of the most exciting finishes in the long history of hydro racing on the Motor City.

The two boats were side by side in the backstretch of the fifth and final lap, but Benns had the inside lane and held it through the final turn. Benns' margin of victory was three tenths of a second (about one boat length).

"I had to eat his water," Henley said of the incident. "But that's all part of the game."

Henley, trailed Benns by about four boat lengths at the apex of the turn, headed for the inside. But Benns had the necessary lead and cut for the exit buoy and Henley ran through the Budweiser's roostertail.

"We don't play any dirty game," Benns said when questioned about a possible infraction. "I wouldn't do anything like that and to him and he wouldn't to me."

Benns, a 35-year-old rookie from Grand Island, N.Y., received high praise from his boss, Bernie Little, owner of the Bud.

"It took him about three races to really get with it," Little said. "But he's a thousand percent better. You should have seen the move he put on Muncey in 1B."

Bill Muncey, winningest driver in unlimited history, ran forth in Heat 1B and did not finish 2B.

It was a Pak-Bud race all the way. Savair's Probe, driven by Bob Miller, ran third in the final but its speed was more than 10 miles an hour under the second-pace Pak. Tom Kaufman ran forth with his Mister Fabricator and Roger D'Each placed fifth in the Miss Cott's Beverages.

Benns' speed was announced at 109.800 m.p.h. But, in actuality, it was much slower. The Detroit course was shortened during time trials. Bill Newton, chief referee, ordered the sharp turns to be "rounded off" and this the course is about 2¾ miles. But a three-mile speed chart was used "for comparison purposes only."

The Pak leads in the points race with 3,750. Budweiser closed to 3,694.

Next stop on the unlimited circuit will be the World Championship Regatta in the Tri-Cities on July 21.

Billy talks Pride of Pay 'n Pak

By Craig Fjarlie
Reprinted from unlimitednewsjournal.net

Billy Schumacher

UNJ: After the 1970 season, did you know you were going to have the Pay 'n Pak ride the following year?

Schumacher: I have a shortness of memory when it comes to 1971. I don’t know if I raced.

Yes, you won the last few races. 

Oh, that was with Pay 'n Pak.

Yeah.

That’s right, that was Pay 'n Pak year.

And in ’72 you raced until Madison and quit because of the debris in the water.

Right.

But in ’71, Jim Lucero was crew chief. How was he for you to work with?

Fabulous.

Yeah?

With the Bardahl I had to watch the manifold pressure constantly. Of course, a lot of that was our high-dome pistons. We built quite a few engines in 1968 and that accounted for a couple of races that I lost, too. Once again, that year my starts weren’t the best and I’ll admit it, but I felt I had a good enough boat to pass anybody anyway. And I did. But we broke engines because of my pushing the boat harder than I should have, but I felt they were gonna live like they did in ’67, and then unfortunately, they didn’t. We blew up a few. Mostly manifold pressure, I think, that caused a lot of that. When I got to the Pay 'n Pak with Jim Lucero, I said, “How much manifold pressure should I look for, and where should I stop?” He said, “Manifold pressure? I don’t want you to even look at the gauge. Just stare at where you’re going and win the race.”

Mmm.

“I don’t want you to even look at the gauges.” He said, “You can do that during testing and let me know what’s going on but forget it in the race.” And you know what? In my whole career with Pay 'n Pak and Jim Lucero, I don’t remember breaking an engine. I don’t think we broke one single engine.

I don’t think you did.

I was able to put my foot on the floorboard I don’t know how many times and leave it there and use the nitrous before two laps were over. And never break an engine. Totally amazing to me, even to this day. I’m amazed at that. And you know, my accident with that boat set us back a few paces. It was turning left at 155 miles an hour, and that’s what caused that, because of the keyway in the rudder.

It took me a while to build confidence in it again. One of the races that year that I did win, in Dallas, I was going to the first turn testing and there’s a rockery. It was at the first turn, so if you didn’t make the turn you were gonna be in the rocks.

Oh, yeah.

I got down to that turn and turned for the corner and the steering wheel wouldn’t turn. It locked up. What happened was a bolt came out, vibrated out of the steering system, and when I went to turn it hit the frame in the boat. It wouldn’t do anything. It turned to the right but not to the left. So, I’m going pretty fast into that first turn and when that happened, I just turned off all the switches I could see and held on to the steering wheel and got up onto the deck, ready to jump off if I had to. But it stopped before the rocks. After my experience in Miami where I almost got killed, to have another steering problem happen in the same year, that was a big concern to me.

Sure.

I lost confidence. I really did. I lost confidence in the boat and some of the people working on it. Not mentioning any names, but it should have been corrected. Those things should not have been happening. So, all of that led to kind of an ill feeling between crew and driver.

And, you know, when the water was horrible in Madison [in 1972], I mean to the point of seeing tires and cows, stuff floating down the river—the river was dark brown, the buoys were laying on their sides from the current and you could see logs coming down. To race on that, I just said no. The rest of the drivers in the evening said no along with me. So, when race day came, they all said, “OK, I’ll do it.” Except me, I said no.

Yeah.

After the race when Sterett didn’t get killed, or nobody else got killed from hitting anything, there was some boat damage and stuff but nothing serious happened, then the crew started thinking that I was just afraid of the boat. After the race, that upset me to the point that I just got in my motor home and drove away.

Mmm, yeah.

I wasn’t very nice about it, but I figured the next race was a week or two away and they could find somebody else. I should have gone to Heerensperger or Lucero and said, “Look, I’ve had enough of this and I’m not gonna do it anymore,” but I didn’t. I just drove away. So, they hired Bill Sterett, Jr., to drive the next…

He finished off the season. You know, they won that race, I heard. I wasn’t there, but I heard the boat was completely out of shape many times, but he drove it hard enough to win. They were pretty proud of that fact that they won it. I wasn’t drivin’ it. So, there were some pretty bad feelings between Heerensperger and me.

The Pride of Pay 'n Pak team in 1971, from the left, crew chief Jim Lucero,
team owner Dave Heerensperger, and Billy Schumacher,

Yeah.

Actually, and Lucero, for a while.

To back up just a little bit to 1971, that was the year Madison—you were still coming off your accident in Miami—won the Gold Cup on their home water and then they won at Tri-Cities, the next race.

Yeah.

In Seattle you won, and you won a race in Eugene, and then Dallas. You finished off the season winning three races. Except for that incident in Dallas, things seemed to be better in ’71, the end of the year.

Yeah, the boat was faster. We had tried different skid fins and made it corner better. It was a goal of mine to set the course record in Seattle in qualifying, which we accomplished. Just barely, but we did it. I started liking driving it again. It was a fast boat that I could use the engines as hard as I wanted to use ‘em and I didn’t have to worry about breaking ‘em. That helped a lot, too.

I felt like we had something really going there. But, I don’t know, things happen in racing that you don’t expect. That thing in Miami really was an experience, you know. Going back to your thing about the Madison race and Tri-Cities, I think Jim McCormick got on a roll. They had, with that Madison boat, they had put nitrous in it. I think I could have actually won that Gold Cup, but he was faster than I expected him to be, and, uh, legitimately won the race.

Yeah.

I couldn’t really go much faster. I think I could’ve made a better start or something where he didn’t get the jump that he got and, uh, done better. It could’ve been driver error as much as anything but, my hat’s off to the way Jim McCormick drove the boat, and they had nitrous in it. He drove the pants off that boat, and it showed. Once you’re on a roll like he was in winning the Gold Cup in Madison, he showed everybody it wasn’t an accident and he did a really good job.

During those years—this is kind of an overview question—a lot of fatal accidents were happening. Were you worried about that being a possibility for yourself in racing as well? This is a dangerous game…

Constantly.

…can I survive this and still have fun?

That was mostly on my mind in the Bardahl days, because of what happened to Ron Musson and others in those years. I had a bucket of Bardahl that I would sit on in the truck, away from everybody, and I would just think about what I was gonna do and how I was gonna do it. How I was going to be concentrating on what I needed to do to win. Period. That was my goal. And I wasn’t the most  friendly guy in the world on my way to the boat when it came time to race. In other words, people needed to just get out of my way. I didn’t want a slap on the back, a slap on the hand. I didn’t want anybody saying anything to me. I was just tunnel-vision down to the boat and got in it.

The Pride of Pay 'n Pak heads out onto the Columbia River at the Tri-Cities, Wash., in 1971.

Yeah.

I didn’t even want crew guys sayin’ anything to me. I’d been on my bucket and I knew what I was gonna do, and I was thinking about it the entire time. I was very thankful to come back in one piece after every race.

A couple of times you were pretty lucky.

Yeah, that went through my, uh, I was lucky, probably, in my career, talking about Unlimiteds only, probably four or five times. And that’s what really led me to quit when I quit, at 36 years old. You know, that’s pretty young today, but my thought was one of these times my luck’s gonna run out.

Yeah.

There were several times when it was out of my control and I was just flat lucky. And so, there was a lot more I wanted to do in life other than race boats. That’s when I decided to quit. Those people who got killed were on my mind a lot.

Like every driver you think, well, if I’m watching my p’s and q’s, I’m gonna get through it OK where they don’t. We just think that. I still concentrated on every effort that I did to be safe about it, about the dangerous sport I was in. As safe as I could be and still do well. So, yeah, it was on my mind a lot. And you know, it’s tough when you see people, I mean, there were a couple of times when people got killed where I actually knew something was gonna happen. You just know.

Yeah.

In a couple instances I could tell that the driver’s not thinking clear. Just wasn’t thinking clear. The only thing on their mind was to win at any expense. That was never a problem with me. I did not have that attitude. I just knew that was not a healthy attitude, something could possibly happen. And it did. So, yes, it was on my mind constantly.

16 Cylinder Revolution

Reprinted from Pay 'n Pak Racing News, May 13, 1970

San Diego, California (Special) —A 16 cylinder revolution made its debut on Mission Bay here May 7. Despite nagging and frustrating last minute problems, the startlingly different hydroplane Pride of Pay 'n Pak wet her full for the first time and caused a cyclone of comments from unlimited hydroplane followers i this sunny community that will be home for the 1970 APBA Gold Cup.

The 1970 Pride of Pay 'n Pak. Photo by Roger Newton.

A scheduled May 6 christening was moved back one day due to a welter of problems which included a boat trailer that wouldn't accept the hull for which it was built, a maddening motor mount problem which consumed five hours and other frustrations, all unexpected but all commonplace when an intricate piece of machinery is involved.

Even after it arrived the Pride of Pay 'n Pak went through pre-christening trauma, with small fuel leaks found around main tanks and an electrical problem disrupting first testing efforts. But at 1:15 p.m. 1970 Gold Cup Queen Sharon Yettra smashed a flagon of champagne on the Pay 'n Pak bow and the first auto-engine, low-profile hydro was in business.

Pay 'n Pak Stores Chairman of the Board Dave Heerensperger, who is APBA owner of record for the boat, was almost as nervous as builder Ron Jones who, in turn, rivaled engine wizard Keith Black in goose pimples. Driver Tommy Fults and crew chief Dan Olsen shared in the butterflies.

Butterflies, however, have a way of disappearing in direct proportion to departure of bugs that complicate the successful debut of a racing machine into competition.

One thing was for sure in San Diego. The new Pride of Pay 'n Pak caused a lot of "gee whiz" type of admiration among onlookers. Throw out any preconceived notions about how a hydro looks. The Pay 'n Pak for all its 28 feet 6 inches in length, looks short and wide -- and formidable. Her two Chrysler Hemi engines squad behind driver Fults, who sits at the rear of a pickle-fork nose section.

The Pay 'n Pak tail fin is a classic jet design -- much like a 707 tail. And, though her profile is low, she looks thick and tough and strong.

Her maiden appearance at San Diego was in construction colors. Only the tail fin was painted in the luminescent gold that will be a principal color. The rest of the boat was in plain raiment. When completed, the Pay 'n Pak will be gold and orange and will be one of the most colorful of the thunderboat fleet.

"We think we've found most of our pre-launching bugs," said owner Heerensperger, continuing "just getting the boat on the trailer and in the water erases many problems. Now, we'll begin our test program, iron out our problems and get ready for the first race."

Prior to her appearance at Tampa, Florida, for the May 31 Tampa Suncoast Cup event, the new creation will be fitted out complete and all systems perfected, Heerensperger said.

He pointed out that in case any bugs develop in the planned program, the Pay 'n Pak Lil' Buzzard waits in the wings. "We don't plan to campaign the Lil' Buzzard until the Tri-Cities Atomic Cup in mid-July, but she is available in case we feel she's needed before that time," Heerensperger said.

Pride of Pay 'n Pak represents all the stores in a growing group of electrical, plumbing home and auto supplies retail outlets in Washington, California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.

Home office for the organization is in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington. The boats are also headquartered in the Seattle area.

Nothing New in Miami

By Bob Greenhow
Reprinted from the Unlimited NewsJournal, June 1982

For the third year in a row Miss Budweiser and Dean Chenoweth took top honors at the season opener in Miami, Florida. The victory, on June 6, was Chenoweth's fourth at the Champion Spark Plug Regatta.

John Walters pilots the Pay 'n Pak around the course in Miami.

Seven boats came to the pits to open the '82 campaign. Testing did not commence until Friday afternoon, due partially to the short-lived [hurricane] Alberto. Bud was first out and promptly romped around the course at 122 plus — just fast enough to show the others that this team means business. But several hours later out came John Walters in Pay ‘n Pak. Surprise! Pak’s best was 124.48.

On Saturday morning Chenoweth was back out. He turned a quick one — 126.050, then cut the course and returned to the pits. By mid-day Walters had matched the mark. Both Pak and Bud tested during the afternoon, but neither made any more record attempts.

Meanwhile the rest of the field was also busy. George Johnson did a great deal of running in Executone, finally qualifying at better than 105 mph. The very same speed achieved by Tom Sheehy in Miss Madison which is sponsored by Rich Plan Food Service.

Atlas Van Lines was probably the most observed boat at Miami. The boat arrived in town still untested. She ran briefly on Friday, then Chip Hanauer qualified her on Saturday in the 112 range. On race day morning man and machine pounded out laps of 123 plus and 125 even. At those speeds the boat appeared light with a veering front end.

Captran Resorts, despite persistent engine problems slipped around the course at a bit over 92 mph. Fred Giese, son of the crew chief, was making his debut at the wheel.

Bob Miller was not able to test the Miss Rock until Sunday. Twice on Saturday the black boat refused to start.

Several laps were turned the next morning, the best at 92 plus, and Miller was in the race. But his problems were not over. After spinning in the lower turn, Miller hit a sandbar while returning to the pits. The boat was refloated, undamaged. Bob must have suffered some embarrassment.

With all seven boats qualified, the top five were slated to run in the first two heats. Then the consolation heat (scored at half-point value) would feature Captran Resorts and Miss Rock along with the two lowest point-earners out of the top five. The top two from the consolation would join the top three in the final.

Early during race week Miami was in the midst of a wet spell. However, starting with Friday some improvement was noted each day. But the ever-present cumulus clouds were just that when action was taking place. Heat one found Miss Budweiser returning to the pits at about two minutes before clock zero with a broken rod. Miss Madison and Executone could not be started. Pay ‘n Pak defeated Atlas Van Lines by a half a lap and averaged 117.995 in the process-a new record by nine and one-half miles. Sheehy was assessed a $100 fine for trying to start his boat during the heat.

Heat two was another duet. This time the participants were Budweiser and Executone. They started and finished in the above order. The others could not start at all: Atlas due to prime system woes and Pay ‘n Pak because of hull damage. Madison was unable to fire up. The winner's average was 105.448.

So Miss Madison and Executone filled out the field for the consolation heat. After leading at the start, Captran Resorts slowed down and was passed by Executone. George Johnson cruised to an easy win at a slow 75.308. Miss Rock, after starting third, eventually took over second after Captran died on the fourth backstretch. Earlier Miller had hooked on the upper turn. Miss Madison again failed to start.

Hopes were high for a Pak-Bud showdown in the finale. Not so. Pak developed engine trouble and stopped after going through the Atlas roostertail. She later re-started and and made it across the starting line, but went dead again shortly afterwards. Meanwhile Bud and Atlas made a fast legal start with the U-1 owning the inside and the lead. Chenoweth stayed in front to the finish, averaging 109.656. Hanauer, Johnson and Miller followed in that order.

The victory was number 12 in 15 race day efforts for the Miss Budweiser. But there remained the challenge of the Pay ‘n Pak and eventually the Atlas Van Lines.

You know... it just could be an interesting year.

Driver Pitched from Boat during Regatta

June 2, 1974, MIAMI — Tragedy nearly struck during the first heat at yesterday's Champion Spark Plug Regatta at Miami Marine Stadium, as Leslie Rosenberg's new Valu-Mart unlimited hydroplane lost its rudder in a close race with the Pay 'n Pak, driven by George Henley.

Driver Ron Armstrong (lower right) was thrown from his boat, the Valu-Mart, when it lost a rudder and crashed near the finish line during Heat 1A of yesterday's Champion Spark Plug Regatta at Miami Marine Stadium.
Photo by Bill Reinke, Miami News staff photographer.

Valu-Mart driver Ron Armstrong was thrown out as the boat hooked and spun to the right. Miraculously, Armstrong was not seriously injured, suffering only a bruised neck. His boat, however, was not so lucky. With its transom completely torn out, the boat sank before it could be retrieved.

Two Test Turbines

From Facebook

Here are two great images of the Pay 'n Pak turbine-powered hydroplane. The first photo is from 1980 at Tri-Cities, Wash., prior to the renown flip.

Photo from the Kirk Pagel collection.

The second photo is of the rebuilt Pay 'n Pak, on Lake Washington in March of 1981, during testing session.

Photo from the Kirk Pagel collection.

Notice the difference? There is a design iteration — a significant one. The 1981 hull sported a new front canard.

"(The 1981 hull) was a handful," reflected Pay 'n Pak driver John Walters. "The modification was an improvement. The plan was to add driver controlled canards. In hindsight, if we would have removed another two feet or so, it probably would have been more the result we looked for. The trailing edges of the forward wings were too close to the leading edge of the main wing section to work properly.

"They were removed and never ran in competition.

"I think the boat still had way too much bottom area. The sponsons were too wide and too lively for the hulls light weight, especially when you consider we were still running two blade props. Running three blades in itself could have made a huge difference."

The first time in the water, the Pay 'n Pak only weighted 4,269 pounds. That's a pretty hefty horsepower-to-weight ratio, especially given the extra bottom area of the hull.

"We broke the fiberglass shaft log last run of the first test", Walters continued. "We weighed it as we put it back on the trailer after the repairs to go to Tri-Cities. It probably had 20 gallons of fuel in it
too.

"Honestly it was maybe a little ahead of it’s time in some ways! We tried to do so many 'new things' all at the same time. It was hard to keep up with the ones that worked and difficult to make the needed adjustments to the others!"

Miss Budwesier outruns Pay 'n Pak at Detroit

July 2, 1973 — Detroit (AP) — The stage is set for a showdown between Miss Budweiser and Pay 'n Pak in Sunday's Madison (Ind.) Regatta.

Or what it actually will be, if it materializes, is Chapter Two in unlimited hydroplane's hottest 1973 rivalry.

The two went at it on the Detroit River yesterday and when the smoke cleared, Miss Budweiser and driver Dean Chenoweth owned the Gar Wood trophy.

Dean Chenoweth drives Miss Budweiser to a Detroit victory.

But just barely. It took a victory in the final heat for the Budweiser-Chenoweth duo to master Pay 'n Pak, piloted by Mickey Remund.

The rivals entered the finale with 700 points each after swapping first-place efforts in two preliminary heats. Pay 'n Pak won Heat 1-B, finished about 13 seconds ahead of Miss Budweiser and then Miss Budweiser averaged 102.369 miles per hour to Pay 'n Pak's 101.199 in winning Heat 2-B.

In the final heat, the boats were never more than 10 lengths apart, with Chenoweth and Budweiser prevailing by about four seconds. Miss Bud covered the 15 miles at a 105.980 clip while Pay 'n Pak averaged 104.489.

Miss Budweiser wound up with 1,100 points to Pay 'n Pak's 1,000. Surprising Gale's Roostertail, driven by Fred Alter, also had 700 points going into the finale and then ran third for a day's total of 925.

Red Man, with Jim McCormick of Owensboro, Ky., at the wheel, had a first and two fourths to take forth place in the overall standings with 738.

Other totals: Miss. U.S 652, Atlas Van Lines 450, Miss Madison 394, Lincoln Thrift 169, Mr. Fabricator 169, ValuMart 127.

Community-owned Miss Madison, driven by Tom Sheehy, was third in Heat 1-A, behind Gale's Roostertail, and Miss U.S., and then forth in 2-A, behind Red Man, Gale's Roostertail and Miss U.S.

In the sami-feature, for boats not making the final, ValuMart and Bob Gilliam triumphed with Miss Madison second and Mr. Fabricator third.

Boats Escape Damage

Average speeds were well below the course record of 121 m.p.h. because of rough water conditions. In contrast to last year's race, when a number of hydros were damaged, all came out of the Gar Wood competition in reasonably good shape and will move on to Madison.

Pay 'n Pak's strong effort was a mild surprise since the Seattle-based boat had sustained minor damage during a trial run Thursday. Owner Dave Heerensperger had repair materials flown to Detroit by charter, and the crew was able to ready the craft by race time.

Despite yesterday's runner-up performance, Pay 'n Pak continues to lead the national championship battle after four races, with 3,738 points to Miss Budweiser's 3,638. Red Man is third with 2,934.

Miss Bud has won two straight races, its previous success coming at Owensboro June 17. Pay 'n Pak won the opener at Miami and Lincoln Thrift took the second stop at Washington D.C.