Engine Gamble Paid Off

By Don Fair
Reprinted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 5, 1974

That hometown Pay ’n Pak gang kept yesterday’s silver anniversary Seafair from becoming a marathon Seafarce.

Comprised in equal parts of owner Dave Heerensperger, driver George Henley and crew chief Jim Lucero, the Pak was so thorough, so good in its Gold Cup performance that all the day’s colossal blunders, mistakes, charges and counter-charges paled in the wake. .

And maybe Lucero was the key guy in the Pak’s domination of the dusty, dingy Sand Point race site.

It was his decision to change engines in the final heat, one which neither Heerensperger nor Henley particularly felt necessary. That was a calculated gamble, but the Pak never missed a victory beat on its six-lap winning ride which ended just about the time the gals had shifted from bikinis to bathrobes or bath towels or anything which a was a mite warmer to the skin.

"Personally. I wouldn’t have changed the engine that final heat," Heerensperger admitted. "We went to one we’d never used before, but Jim figured it was best. Be figured we needed six hard laps to win it."

"The other engine had run four heats," Lucero explained. "You just don’t know whether it’s right to change. Henley said the old engine was running good. But I decided to try the new one."

The fact the Pak ripped through everybody on the course yesterday is a tribute to thorough preparation.

"The crew is very organized," Heerensperger said. "They worked on the boats until 8:30 Saturday night. The way it rides in the water is a tribute to Jim Lucero.

"We tried a lot of things on Thursday which didn’t work. We, frankly, weren’t happy with our qualifying. Lucero is the one who engineered the changes for today."

There’s no way one can criticize Henley ‘s sure-handed job as skipper. When he brought the Pak out of the north turn and into the lead on the third lap of the final heat, his boss, Heerensperger positively leaped from his lounge chair atop the team bus. That’s where the owner watched the final — and ended nine years of Gold Cup frustration.

"I had to do it (make his move) then." Henley said. "I didn’t know if I could get by the Budweiser, but I had to find out. We were getting too far along in the heat to wait any longer.

"So it was go and hope. Anyway, you have to stay right side up, you have to go to the limit to win. That’s when I had to find out."

What did Henley think about when he took the permanent lead in the final heat?

"Just finish," he answered with that winning smile.

If the Pak victory was extra sweet to Heerensperger, he was prepared. His orange-and-white hydro had hardly crossed the finish line before he fled the top of the bus — bottle of champagne and plastic glasses in hand — and ran to Lucero.

First he gave his crew chief a big hug and then pored him some champagne.

"Finally, after nine years," Heerensperger yelled. Then back to the more serious business of pouring champagne, hugging crew members hugging Henley’s wife, hugging well-wishers.

"I’ve had that champagne for two months," Heerensperger admitted. "This was a very important race for us because it’s in Seattle, and, besides,I always have a little champagne somewhere on that bus."

This incidentally was the first Gold Cup victory for Heerensperger, Lucero and Henley. They agreed it was their best hydro moment.

Until the Pak’s last parade to the victory circle — its fourth win of the long afternoon and night — there was little to recommend the 1974 event.

Except, perhaps for Cathy," the gal in the see-through blouse. But Cathy left early, and that left one with only weird happening.

It started before a heat result, when the Lincoln Thrift withdrew. Owner Bob Fendler listed the reason as "perhaps an aerodynamic problem, something different than we’re used to." Thrift driver Mickey Remund stuck to a "no comment" format.

This meant that the hydro resembles an untamed bronc in the water.

Then came the competition itself, and boats began disappearing in wholesale lots. In the first heat, three didn’t last two laps. One didn’t get started for the second heat, and the U-95 went to the bottom in a try at heat 1-C.

That was just a warm-pup.

In the re-run of heat 1-C. Miss U.S. caught fire and driver Tom D’Eath wound up blasting the fire-fighting crew ... "If they had done the job, tried to put out the fire right away, we could have saved the boat for this season. That’s what happens when they move the race to a ghetto."

The engine blew, we got some oil in the bilge, and nobody wanted to get close enough to put it out right away," the U.S. driver added heatedly. "It took nearly 10 minutes for anybody to do anything."

Then things began to deteriorate rapidly.

Muncey, despite two heat wins, admitted, "I’d rather race for $30,000 at Seward Park (the old race site) than for $50,000 here."

Budweiser driver Howie Benns lost a tremendous Heat 1-C duel with Henley when his "foot slipped off the throttle." That lapse gave Henley a lead which stood up.

The next time the Bud and Pak dueled, Heat 2-C, it was a "15 cent spring in the throttle" which went haywire. Benns went for speed, got nothing, and Henley zipped into a big lead.

Heat 3-B was red-flagged to a halt because the official time clock wouldn’t work.

One Northwest Tank Service person reportedly, drew a $50 fine for "shoving" a race official.

Then came a delay in a heat when nobody got gasoline to the Red Man.

There was heat in which veteran Fred Alter blew a plug, had to use his gloved hand to try to stop the oil spurt, and finished the race. That made 45 gallons of oil used by Alter in his Pizza Pete, so owner Lee Schoenith went to Fendler ‘s Thrift for more oil.

Or Kirby Classic driver Bill Wurster lost track of laps, tried to finish too soon, and had to make another circuit. As he said, "It was embarrassing."

Or the time someone asked Budweiser boss Bernie Little what was going on as the delays and mishaps compounded. Little answered. without a hesitation, "I certainly don’t know. I wonder who does?"

Whatever was happening at Lake Washington yesterday — when it was happening which was seldom — wasn’t much to stir the imagination.

At least until the Pak went into action. Heerensperger, Henley, Lucero and Co. kept Seafair afloat.

Pak Wins as Bud Goes Stale

By Del Danielson
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 5, 1974

August 17 has been proclaimed George Henley Day in Eatonville, but it is safe to assume citizens of the small Pierce County community began their celebration last night.

Eatonville’s No. 1 son yesterday emerged from a problem-plagued Gold Cup with a clean-sweep victory in the Seattle hydroplane, Pay ‘n Pak.

Henley and the Pak were a couple of roses in a bed of thorns. Almost nothing went right. Nothing, that is, but the Pak.

Henley swept all four heats and provided the Pak’s owner with a whiz-bang of a wedding present — his first Gold Cup in nine years of winning everything but.

One boat sank during the eight-hour snafu, and another was destroyed by fire. A clock malfunction and assorted other delays prolonged the final heat until near darkness.

Henley’s only real competition web Howie Benns in the Budweiser. The two were matched seven times (including three starts erased by accidents and a "stuck" starting clock). Henley came out ahead the four times they were allowed to continue.

Heat 1C was the day’s big hangup.

Tom D’Eath, in the super-quick Miss U. S., got the jump on Benns and Henley to lead the fleet across the line and through the first corner.

D’Eath led for two laps, until Leif Borgersen abandoned the U-95 in the south turn and the race was stopped.

The U-95 had stalled during the first lap when a T-wheel exploded out of the turbine-powered boat’s left engine. Shrapnel from the blown engine punctured the U-95’s underside. Leif tried to fight a small fire, but dived in when the boat started to go down.

For a few minutes, only the points of the U-95’s pickle-forked sponsons were visible. Two small patrol boats got lines on the craft, but could not hold on when the 6,000-pound, $500,000 boat decided to go to the bottom.

The heat was restarted, and Benns and Henley put on one of their patented side-by-side duels for two laps. Red flares halted the action again when Tom D’Eath leaped into the water after an oil fire flared up in the engine hole of the U. S.

The blaze, whipped by a north wind, spread and the new hull was "totaled."

In the second restart, only the Bud and Pak still were running. The Valu-Mart, driven by Bill Schumacher, was withdrawn after the first rerun because of a caved-in sponson.

Benns and Henley resumed their classic battle, trading the lead several times. Neither could get more than half a roostertail ahead until Benns’ foot slipped from an oil-slickened throttle coming out of the south turn on the final lap. It cost the Bud about 1 second, but that’s all the time Henley needed to scoot to open water.

Benns gave Henley’ a tussle for one lap in Heats 2C and 3B, but backed off both times and was content to wait until the winner-take-all final.

The lineup for the final heat was not exactly what shorebirds had expected when the afternoon began.

The Lincoln Thrift, second fastest qualifier, was withdrawn before any competition. Bob Fendler, its owner, said his boat was not riding smoothly and was potentially dangerous. The U. S. and Valu-Mart, entered in the fast flight of preliminary heats because of superior qualifying speeds, were beached by the fire and the wrinkled sponson.

Only the Pak and the Bud survived from the fast section.

The U-95 had "moved up" to the fast flight when the Lincoln was withdrawn, but it had been on the bottom of Lake Washingon seven hours when the finale finally got started at 8:10 p. m.

The Atlas Van Lines, Pizza Pete and Miss Madison provided three turbo-charged Allisons for the final (all from the "middle" group of qualifiers) and the Kirby Classic was the lone survivor of the slow section.

The final was a Pay ‘n Pak-Budweiser duel from the start, as everyone knew it would be.

Henley, conceding the inside lane to Benns, held a one-boat-length lead after one lap, but the two were within spitting distance all through the second go-round. When the Pak took a high bounce and lurched toward the Bud coming out of the north turn, Benns appeared to back off.

Henley took advantage of the hesitation and was off and flying.

The win was worth $11,900 to Heerensperger, who was married Saturday night. It was Henley’s fourth win this season and put the Pak a comfortable 1,287 points ahead of the Bud in the national championship race.

A crowd of 35,000 watched the Gold Cup on a new course, after 23 years of racing off Seward Park. An estimated 27,000 were inside the fences of Sand Point and 8,000 got their view from the log boom.

Pak Scuttles Bud for Gold Cup

By Bill Knight
Reprinted from Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 5, 1974

The half-million dollar U-95 turbine hydro was resting in 180 feet of water off Sand Point last night.

The new Miss U.S. turbocharged unlimited was severely damaged by fire.

One leading Gold Cup contender, Lincoln Thrift, withdrew before the first heat of battle and another, Valu-Mart, pulled out after running one heat.

With all of the other serious challengers struck down on this bizarre, marathon day of racing, the Pride of Pay’n Pak over-powered arch-rival Miss Budweiser — not once, but four straight times — to win boat racing’s premier event,

A chilly, north wind whipped the waters of Lake Washington when the winner-take-all finale finally got under way at 8:10 last night. After a two-lap, deck-to-deck duel, the Pak, driven by soft-spoken George Henley of Eatonville, took charge and won going away.

In the process, he got a good bounce — or, more precisely, Miss Bud driver Howie Benns got a bad one.

As the two boats straightened out for the straightaway dash after coming out of the No. 3 turn on the second lap, the Bud hopped violently and Benns was pitched from his seat.

"He kept hold of the wheel but his rear end was on the side of the cockpit," Bud owner Bernie Little said later. "It broke the side of the seat."

Considering yesterday’s demolition derby, it was a minor league mishap.

Henley took a commanding lead when the Bud faltered and all the Pak had to do was finish to give Henley and Pay ’n Pak owner Dave Heerensperger their first Gold Cup.

It was a perfect wedding present for the Pak owner, who was married Saturday.

"I wouldn’t say this is a happier moment than getting married but she’s been awfully lucky for me in racing," Heerensperger said later, between gulps of champagne.

The racing action started at noon in a blazing August sun and ended at 8:27 p.m. with spectators clad in beach wear huddling to keep warm.

It was wild and weird — just about normal for unlimited hydro racing, proving that a change of race course doesn’t alter the pattern of action.

Seafair officials estimated the Sand Point crowd at 27,000 ashore with another 8,000 on boats tied to the log boom.

The foreboding flash of red flares ringed the course the first time the hydros in the fast flight moved into action.

While the Pak and Miss Bud battled for the lead, one of the U-95’s turbine engines exploded as the boat bounced out of the second turn on the south end of the course.

Driver Leif Borgersen bailed out almost immediately and the boat began to sink as chunks of metal from the mangled engine ripped gaping holes in the boat’s hull.

With smoke still coining from the sinking hydro, a rescue helicopter picked Borgersen out of the water and patrol boats tried to get a line on the badly damaged craft. Unable to support the weight of the hydro, the rescue workers had to cut the lines and let the boat settle to the bottom of the lake.

"I think I’ll get out of this crazy sport," said the uninjured Borgersen, who has been involved in a couple of other mishaps in different hydros.

The incident likely will close — at least for a while — another chapter in unlimited racing. The late Jim Clapp pioneered turbine power and spent a fortune developing the U-95 but yesterday’s mishap likely will end the project. There were reports earlier, in fact, that money from Clapp’s estate was not budgeted for the U-95 to run past the Seattle race on the national circuit.

The boat probably will be salvaged, though, in hopes of selling the hull and certainly for the valuable exotic systems aboard.

With the field cut to four hydros, the hot dogs tried again as the racing program fell further and further behind schedule.

The Budweiser, given another chance after conking out before the U-95 accident, got the inside and was leading the Pak when the third-place Miss U.S. caught on fire after an engine explosion in the north turn.

Driver Tommy D’Eath gave up earlier attempts to douse the blaze himself and leaped into the water. Rescue boats converged on the scene but the U.S. continued to smoke. After a couple of minutes the smoke erupted into a bright orange blaze.

While flames licked away at the cockpit and deck of the Detroit hydro as driver D’Eath fumed a 65-foot Coast Guard boat finally moved into action and doused the fire with chemical foam.

D’Eath later voiced strong criticism of race officials for not moving faster. "The first boat there could have put it out with one little fire extinguisher," he said later. "If I had another boat I wouldn’t go out on this course."

Henley was all smiles — as usual — and used words like "beautiful, fantastic and unbelievable" to describe the race, the Gold Cup win and even the course, roiled by the early evening wind.

But Lee Schoenith was far from complimentary and Little agreed.

"I’ve never had my heart in my throat so much as I did in that final heat," Schoenith said. Little even suggested it would "make the Detroit River look smooth. Look at that current out there." But the Budweiser owner made it clear as long as there was a Seattle hydro race his boat would compete.

"Look, this is no excuse," he said. "George Henley drove one helluva race."

About a half-hour before the first heat of action, Lincoln owner Bob Fendler huddled with driver Mickey Remund and then announced the boat wouldn’t compete. While he wouldn’t say he felt it was too dangerous in so many words, that was the implication. After a smooth and speedy qualifying run Saturday, the Lincoln looked erratic in a morning test yesterday.

Billy Schumacher, returning to the hydro wars as the Valu-Mart pilot in a surprise move Friday, trailed the top boats in the first attempt to run off Heat 1-C.

With all the attention on 1) the Pak-Bud duel and 2) the U-95 sinking, the Valu-Mart slipped unnoticed back to the pits and was put on the trailer for the day. The Valu-Mart had suffered sponson damage and the crew didn’t want to risk more extensive damage by running.

The boat, with Schumacher driving, is expected to compete in both Phoenix and San Diego in September.

Victory was the fourth on the unlimited circuit for the Pay’n Pak this season in six races and boosted Henley’s lead over the Budweiser in the national standings to an overwhelming 1,287 points. Henley picked up a perfect 1,800 points for the afternoon.

Prior to the finale, the Pak and the Bud met three times in the Fan Plan race format which matches the fastest boats head-on-head. Each time it was a sizzler but the Pak always managed to prevail.

As the ill-fated top challengers were plucked off, one by one, it appeared as if boat racing’s winningest driver, Bill Muncey, might steal it all.

Muncey piloted the Atlas Van Lines to victory in both preliminary heats of the "middle" flight. But his engine conked out in his first run-in with the speedsters in 3-B and in the finale he slipped to fourth.

Thus ended his bid for a sixth Gold Cup Conquest.

While other boats faltered, the Kirby Classic of Seattle, Bill Wurster‘s low-budget operation made it to the final heat by coming all the way from the slow-poke qualifying section.

He almost blew it by miscounting a lap and heading for the pits a lap early in 3-B but crewmen waved him back for another turn and he collected enough points to move into the finals. And when Miss Madison fizzled to a stop, the Kirby boat sucked up fifth place money.

For winning the finale, Henley collected $7,500 of the $52,500 purse and he was the happiest guy in the pits. Otherwise, that distinction probably goes to Nell Carswell, 3315 W. McGraw St. Ms. Carswell had the Pak in the Seafair sweepstakes contest and won $10,000.

It was one of THOSE days for her, too.

Henley, Benns Saved the Day

By Chuck Ashmun
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 5, 1974

The inauguration ceremonies at Sand Point appeared doomed yesterday until George Henley and Howie Benns performed a resurrection.

Had it not been for the side-by-side racing duels of Henley’s Pay ‘n Pak and Benns’ Budweiser in the Gold Cup race — premier event of the unlimited-hydroplane season, even the most diehard fans might have been scurrying for the exits early.

The troubles had little to do with the new race site. Failures cropped up in everything from the starting clock to a fireman’s extinguisher.

"I can see it now," muttered one disgruntled fan, observing the high rate of attrition among boats and the confusion over delays. "When they get to the final heat, they’re going to have two sailboats out there, heading off into the sunset. We never will find out which one won."

The official clock failed shortly before the start of Heat 3-B. That was one of four occasions when red flags flew, signifying a race was being stopped and drivers would have to head back to the pits and wait.

While drivers waited, so did sunburned fans, not all of whom found the new accommodations at Sand Point as attractive as those at Seward Park, site of Seattle’s previous hydro extravaganzas.
Some — drivers and fans — departed early, although not all chose conventional methods.

Tom D’Eath decided to take a swim. Even that did not cool off the driver of the Miss U. S.
Boats failed to start or finish a heat on 13 different occasions.

Arguments cropped up over officials’ decisions frequently.

Even the battles between the Pay ‘n Pak and Budweiser were spoiled somewhat by the absence of any other boats in two different heats.

D’Eath and his hydro still were smoking when they arrived back in the pits following an aborted rerun of Heat 1C.

"If these guys continue racing under these ghetto conditions, they’re crazy," fumed the Detroit driver. "All I had was a minor oil fire in the bilge, but I couldn’t get anybody to put it out.

"When I jump in the water and there is a fire in the boat, I want firefighting equipment there. I don’t want a bunch of dummies yelling, ‘Stay away; It’s gonna blow!’

"I swam to a patrol boat, climbed in, took off my helmet and jacket, grabbed a fire extinguisher and had to threaten the guy to take me over to my boat!"

As volunteer patrol boats circled the burning craft, a Coast Guard fire boat chugged up from the center of the course. Flames engulfed the engine hole and cockpit before a fire hose was turned on.

Smoke still rose from the heavily damaged craft after it was towed into the pits, where the fireman’s extinguisher failed before a firehouse did the job.

One race was halted when the U-95 blew an engine, "sending shrapnel all over the place," according to its driver, Leif Borgersen.

The explosion blew a hole in the boat’s under side, and it sank 192 feet to the lake bottom after rescuers abandoned attempts to keep tow lines connected. Recovery operations were scheduled to begin this afternoon.

Delay after delay put back the start of the final heat from 5 p. m. until 8:10 p. m., prompting the driver of the Atlas Van Lines, Bill Muncey, to observe: "We may have to put running lights on these sleds."

"This isn’t the latest we’re raced," said Lee Schoenith, the Atlas owner. "One year in Coeur d’Alene (1968), it got so dark all you could see was the fire coming out of the exhaust stacks."

Drivers’ complaints about rough water were not as predominant as they were during qualifying runs earlier in the week. Muncey was displeased with the way his craft handled in the chop, and Benns broke the Budweiser’s seat while bouncing around in the final heat.

But Henley, who took advantage of Benns’ ill fortune to capture the Gold Cup, found the water "just beautiful." Of course he had a sly grin when he said it.

Notes and quotes:

Bernie Little, owner of the Budweiser, was upset by the rough water, whipped up by a late-afternoon north wind. "This makes the Detroit River look smooth," Little said.

Lee Schoenith, Atlas owner, found the pit facilities a bit lacking. "It’s impossible to work here," Schoenith fumed. "It’s a garbage dump. The commission could deny Seattle a race unless they move back to the Stan Sayres pits!"

George Henley, Gold Cup winner and man of few words: "That doggone crew of ours, it’s got to be the greatest."

Dave Heerensperger, Pay ‘n Pak owner, sipped suds and accepted congratulations from Bernie Little with: "Here, Bernie, have a second-place beer!"

Schoenith, on the condition of the water: "This is worse than Detroit. There, you know where the swells are and you’re ready for ‘em. Here the funk moves all over the place."

Tom D’Eath, driver the fire-gutted Miss U.S.: "A $50,000 boat was ruined because they had a bunch of chickens on the course handling the fire equipment."

Bill Wurster, driver of the Kirby Classic who turned off the course one lap short of completing Heat 3B when he saw a checkered flag (intended for the Budweiser): "No harm done. But it was very embarrassing."

Pam Clapp, owner of the ill-fated U-95, was asked if this means the end of the turbine boat. "I really can’t say," she said. "I sort of would like to have won one before I quit. Maybe that’s why some people are in it so long."

Stan Jones, co-owner and co-driver of the Australian boat, Solo, which failed to finish a heat: "I guess Lady Luck just wasn’t with us."

Floorboard is the Floorboard

By John Owen
Reprinted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 6, 1973

The refugees clogged the roads, in a shambling procession of despair. Even in benumbed shock, they clutched their worldly possessions: chests, blankets, sacks of sodden food. Tired women carried exhausted babies, the men wore hunted expressions. They were cold, wet, dirty, disheveled. They might have been stumbling down a rural road in France, victims of the Nazi blitzkrieg. Their sodden shoes and muddy cuffs seemed to suggest the Bay of Pigs.

And, in fact, they had been eyewitnesses to one of the classic naval battles of all time, fought out on the storm-tossed waters of Lake Washington, under a grey and weeping sky.

It was a three-act showdown between Mickey Remund and Dean Chenoweth. Remund’s frigate was damaged in the first exchange of firepower. At the end of the second volley, Chenoweth was floating dead in the water, his cruiser flashing with flames.

But both returned to action for yet a third time, and Remund’s hydro screamed across the waves to victory, with Chenoweth on his shoulder, half-a-second back at the finish, his thumb jammed down on the nitrous oxide button, still charging at the end.

And then everybody went home, having witnessed a bit of history, on a decidedly uncomfortable afternoon.

Chenoweth’s Miss Budweiser had established a new record speed of 122.504 m.p.h., in Heat 1-C of yesterday’s World Championship Seafair Trophy Race. Remund’s Pay ‘n Pak hydro had set a new lap record of 124.4, in that same heat of competition. And after winning the final, winner-take-all sprint, the Pak Was Back, once again out in front of Miss Budweiser in the race for the national championship.

That was it, a two-boat race, but a classic.

Defending national champion Atlas Van Lines had never been a factor, even though that camp generated more noise’ and more controversy, than all others combined, during the week leading up to yesterday’s finale.

Atlas owner Lee Schoenith, a persistent critic of the "Fan Plan" format, said it would not provide spectators with the best-possible show. And then he set about trying to insure that his prediction would come true.

"Look what happened," Schoenith said yesterday. "During the week everybody went out to run as slow as they could in qualifying, to avoid the fast heat."

Yet in the last analysis, "Everybody" consisted of Atlas Van Lines, and driver Bill Muncey, who purposely qualified a full 10 miles below his boat’s potential, to avoid a premature confrontation with the Bud and the Pak. The Atlas strategy was self-serving, and certainly did nothing to provide a better race for the fans.

Of course, the Atlas team hoped the two hot boats would eliminate each other mechanically, in the blistering opening heats. And in fact the Pak did throw a prop in heat 1-C, and the Bud threw a rod in 2-C. But even though the Bud ran the final with its second-best engine, and despite the fact that the Pak had to use a borrowed propeller, they both ran away and hid from Atlas in the finale. As events transpired, Muncey had earlier been racing just where he belonged, in a second-class heat with a second-class entry.

Meanwhile, Remund and Chenoweth insured the success of the show, holding nothing back, from the first day of qualifying to the final second of competition.

The weather was lousy, visibility marginal at 160 miles an hour. Yet Chenoweth said after the record-breaking heat 1-C that, "We couldn’t have turned any faster with improved visibility. The floorboard is the floorboard, and that’s where I had my foot."

And when they flashed across the line for the final time, in the fading light of the day, the Pak was only a boat-length ahead of the accelerating Budweiser.

"If the race had lasted enough seconds, we might have beaten him," Miss Budweiser owner Bernie Little sighed. "But Dean did a helluva job. And that’s boat racing."
It sure was.

1971 Oregon Emerald Cup

Reprinted from Yachting, October 1971

Dexter Lake, Dexter, Oregon, August 15, 1971

Seattle's Billy Schumacher piloted Pride of Pay 'n Pak around Dexter Lake's 2½-mile unlimited course Aug. 15 to sweep all three heats and win the Oregon Emerald Cup, 1,200 points toward the national unlimited title and the lion's share of a $15,000 purse. It was Oregon's first unlimited event and was sponsored by the Eugene Jaycees.

Pride of Pay 'n Pak moved into third place nationally behind Miss Budweiser (Dean Chenoweth) and Miss Madison (Jim McCormick), but he had a long way to go. As the season waned, Miss Budweiser had 6,996 points; Miss Madison, 6,313; Pride of Pay 'n Pak, 6,017, and Atlas Van Lines, Bill Muncey, 5,595.

Schumacher toured the Dexter course at 109 m.p.h. in the final heat but was under his qualifying mark of 112 m.p.h. set the day before. He announced then that he intended to win the Dexter races, where his only real competition was McCormick, who drove the community-owned 13-year-old Miss Madison for three second places and 900 points. Schumacher ruled in heats 1A and 2A and Chenoweth and Muncey took heats 1B and 2B, respectively. Bill Muncey was fined $200 for violation of an APBA rule concerning unsportsmanlike conduct after an argument with referee Bill Newton.

The Beautiful People - Henley Bubbles About Pak Pit Crew

By Chuck Ashmun
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 5, 1974

Unlimited hydroplane racing’s survival of the fittest came down to a coin flip yesterday.

Jim Lucero’s coin came up tails, and Dave Heerensperger headed for the champagne.

Lucero, crew chief of the Pay ‘n Pak, the boat which won yesterday’s Gold Cup race on Lake Washington, almost was outvoted until coming up with the coin-flipping idea and a last-minute engine change.

Pay ‘N Pak’s driver, George Henley, was pleased with his engine’s performance in the next-to-last heat of the nine-hour regatta and suggested the crew leave the same motor in the boat for the final heat.

Heerensperger, Pay ‘n Pak owner, agreed, "but I told Lucero the final decision was up to him."

Considering the way other boats’ engines had been flying apart all day, Lucero wasn’t certain he wanted to take a chance.

"The engine that was in the boat had four heats of racing on it, and you never know when one of these things is going to break," said the crew chief. "We had this other engine which had no racing time whatsoever on it.

"Tails was the new engine, heads the other one. When it came up tails, we switched."

Heerensperger, who said he was hauling the champagne around "just in case" Pay ‘n Pak won, popped the cork after the race and bubbled about Lucero:

"Since I first hired Jim, we’ve won 10 of 18 races. He’s got to be doing some-thing right."

Henley, tired but beaming, couldn’t seem to conjure up enough compliments about Lucero and the rest of the Pay ‘n Pak crew.

"You should have seen the way they worked all day," said Henley. "They made three engine changes, the last one in about 15 minutes. They’re really beautiful."

"George is by far the easiest driver to work with I’ve ever been with," Lucero said in return. "He does everything you ask, and, besides, he’s a super guy.

Then came Heerensperger’s turn:

"Our crew was very prepared. They worked down here until about 8:30 last night, checking everything over. They wanted to give me this as a wedding are sent, and who could ask for a better one? I’ve waited for this for nine years."

Heerensperger, who was married Saturday night, never before had won a Gold Cup, although his boats had won every other major hydroplane race in the country. The win also was Henley’s first in a Gold Cup race and came in his first year as the Pay ‘n Pak driver.

"We weren’t satisfied with the way the boat was performing after Thursday’s qualifying," said Lucero. "We worked on it a lot to improve the handling and changed the gear ratio in one engine which wasn’t snappy enough."

From then on, things went smoothly in the Pay ‘n Pak camp—so smoothly that some of the crewmen found time for a Frisbee-throwing contest yesterday while other crews frantically worked to get their boats back into the action.

The Pak finished first in every heat in which it raced, and the skywriting plane did a splendid job of spelling out "Dave and Jill" with accompanying heart.

"I guess," said Lucero, "you could call that a perfect day."