Harrah's Club Question

By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian

QUESTION:

What can you tell me about the 1968 HARRAH'S CLUB with the really deep pickle-fork bow configuration? Did it only run in one race like that? - Pete Schille

ANSWER:

The 1968 HARRAH'S CLUB featured the picklefork bow at the first four races of the season (Guntersville, AL, Madison, WI, and Madison, IN, with Burnett Bartley, Jr., at the wheel; and the Tri-Cities, WA, with Jim McCormick).

With Bartley driving, the boat was a tail-ender; with McCormick in the cockpit, it was a contender.

I remember watching HARRAH'S CLUB at the the Tri-Cities race that year. The ride was terrible. The 1967 NOTRE DAME aside, it was the worst-riding Unlimited that I had ever seen. McCormick did a good job. But in one heat, the boat almost spun out in the middle of the front straightaway.

The team then decided to fill in the pickle-fork for the Seattle race. When they did that, the ride improved tremendously. And if not for the engine change rule, I believe that McCormick and HARRAH'S CLUB would have won the 1968 Seattle race.They were really on a roll that day with Rolls-Royce Griffon power.

In fact, McCormick and HARRAH'S CLUB were the only team to defeat the National Championship combination of Billy Schumacher and MISS BARDAHL three times in heat competition in 1968 (twice at Seattle and once at Phoenix).