Marion Cooper and Miss Madison

By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian

The community-owned MISS MADISON from southern Indiana has competed for more consecutive seasons than any other Unlimited hydroplane team-39 years, starting in 1961.

The original MISS M was a gift to the city by industrialist Samuel F. DuPont of Wilmington, Delaware. DuPont had raced the hull during 1958, 1959, and 1960 as the NITROGEN with Bob Hayward, Fred Alter, Don Dunnington, and Norm Evans as drivers.

When NITROGEN assumed the MISS MADISON identity, Graham Heath of Madison became the crew chief and Marion Cooper of Louisville, Kentucky, was appointed as driver.

Cooper had been racing boats since the 1930s. He had been the back-up driver for SLO-MO-SHUN IV and SLO-MO-SHUN V in 1955 and had handled MISS ROCKET in the 1957 Gold Cup at Seattle.

In a 1973 interview with this writer, Marion recalled his tenure as the original MISS MADISON pilot.

"I had often driven for Neal Cahall and Dick Cox in the 225s and 266s. They were involved in the MISS MADISON organization when Sam DuPont gave them the first boat. They called me and wanted to know if I'd drive it and, of course, I was happy to do so.

"During the first year, they didn't have another stock Allison. So the same engine was run the entire season. We tried to hold the RPMs down to around 4000 or 4100. If it went above that, it was only for a short time. We didn't figure it would run very long above that.

"At the end of the season, since the Madison Regatta was the last race, the organization said I could let it go. So I did and took fourth in an eleven-boat field."

During his two seasons as MISS MADISON's pilot, Cooper also took fifth in both the 1961 Detroit Memorial Regatta and the 1961 President's Cup, sixth in the 1962 Gold Cup, fourth in the 1962 Spirit Of Detroit Trophy, and third in the 1962 Madison Regatta. Marion finished every heat in which he started with MISS M and scored points in all but two.

Cooper's most memorable race with MISS MADISON occurred on the warm and sunny afternoon of August 5, 1961, during the Seafair Regatta on Lake Washington. Three races of 45 miles in length were run that day for fast, middle, and slow qualifiers. MISS M triumphed in the intermediate race for the Seattle Trophy with heat speeds of 99.046, 98.937, and 100.074. Each heat was five laps around a 3-mile course.

"In the First Heat, I got up to the starting line a little too early and had to back off. By the time I got on it again, the others had all gone by me. I stayed back there in all that rough water until about the last lap when I went by two of the three boats ahead of me on the outside and took second-place points.

"In the next two heats, I got good starts and won both of them. Although, in the Second Heat, the exhaust stack broke off on the right side and was firing into the hull, which finally started to blaze. Then a three-quarter inch water plug on the right bank blew out. And the water from that plug started hitting and putting the fire out. The resulting steam was flying about seven or eight feet in the air. And I think everybody thought that the engine was cooking. But it wasn't. I watched the temperature gauge, but the water from that plug kept the fire down until we finished. Of course, for the Final Heat, they put another exhaust stack on and another plug in it, and everything was all right again.

"The memory of that race is especially fond, due to the enormous crowd and because the race in Seattle was a big deal-more so than anyplace else in the country."

Following his retirement from competition, Cooper remained a familiar and popular boat racing figure. He always attended the annual Madison Regatta until his death in 1986.

The MISS MADISON organization used to call upon Marion to "break in" the new drivers for the team. When Buddy Byers was named pilot in 1963, Cooper took the boat out, checked the systems, and then turned the wheel over to Buddy. Marion did the same thing three years later when rookie Jim McCormick became driver of MISS M.

In counseling new drivers just starting out, Cooper believed that "If a rookie can get into an Unlimited, then that's the thing to do. He could learn to drive in that just as easy as he could by starting in a Limited. That's because they drive entirely different. Of course, that doesn't happen very often, but it does happen occasionally. And I'd say he would be as good a driver as one who started small and then worked his way up.

"The two hard points about driving an Unlimited are in going way back at the start and in keeping the transom up going around the turns. If you let it drop, you may as well forget about it on account of the three-to-one gear ratio."

When asked about the changes that he had observed in the sport since his departure from it, Marion was one of the first to recognize the potential of the horizontal stabilizer wing that the Ron Jones-designed PAY 'n PAK introduced to good effect in 1973: "You'll see more of those lift wings stuck on the back ends of more boats. They're a big help in getting around a corner."

Cooper saw no future in the repeated attempts at twin-automotive power in the APBA Unlimited Class.

On the subject of the great drivers of the past and present, Marion felt it was "pretty much of a draw. Bill Cantrell was rough. But of the new ones, I would just as soon risk Dean Chenoweth with a boat as any at all."

Cooper will always be remembered as being the first in a long and distinguished line of MISS MADISON drivers over the past four decades.

Following in Marion's footsteps are Byers, McCormick, Morlan Visel, Ed O'Halloran, Charlie Dunn, Tom Sheehy, Milner Irvin, Jerry Bangs, Ron Snyder, Jon Peddie, Andy Coker, Jerry Hopp, Mitch Evans, Mike Hanson, and Todd Yarling.