The Miss Bardahl Story - Part 2

By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian

Ole Bardahl ordered a radically designed cabover hull from the drawing board of Ron Jones. Ron's father Ted had retired from Unlimited racing. And the younger Jones had a concept for a forward-cockpit boat that had worked very well in the smaller classes. Ron was anxious to try the new design in the Unlimited ranks. And Bardahl was willing to give it a try.

But when the gearbox didn't arrive in time to start the 1965 season, Bardahl brought the 1962 hull back for a final curtain call.

"My tired, weary old boat," as Musson described her, didn't run at Guntersville. And she was ill-prepared for Coeur d'Alene, where the "Green Dragon" finished third behind Brow in MISS EXIDE and Manchester in NOTRE DAME.

But at Seattle, MISS BARDAHL was her old competitive self again and won a third consecutive Gold Cup. This hadn't happened since George Reis made it three-in-a-row in 1933-34-35 with EL LAGARTO.

Between EL LAGARTO and MISS BARDAHL, only MY SIN/TEMPO VI (in 1939-41-46) and SLO-MO-SHUN IV (in 1950-52-53) had three victories in the race of races.

The only boat to win more than three Gold Cups is the ATLAS VAN LINES/MILLER AMERICAN, which won four in a row, starting in 1984, with Chip Hanauer as driver.

Following her Gold Cup triumph, MISS BARDAHL won three races and TAHOE MISS won two. Musson had apparently won at Madison but was penalized an extra lap after a disputed call.

At the final race of the year in San Diego, the MISS BARDAHL crew pulled out all of the stops. Ron held nothing back and set long-standing world records for the 3-mile, 15-mile, and 45-mile distances with speeds of 117.130, 116.079, and 115.056 respectively on the salt waters of Mission Bay.

In the words of hydroplane historian David Greene, "It became clear that no boat in history could run at the same competitive speed as the MISS BARDAHL. She raised the heat record almost four miles per hour faster than any other boat had ever recorded.

"In addition, the BARDAHL ran up fourteen victories during her career, which was the top for any boat that had ever competed for the Gold Cup" up until that time.

Following the greatest race of her career, the third MISS BARDAHL entered retirement and vanished forever from the Unlimited scene. She never ran in competition again. Although for a time, the BARDAHL people considered the possibility of campaigning two "Green Dragons." (The new boat would be theU-40 with Musson as driver, while the 1962 hull would be the U-1 with young Billy Schumacher in the cockpit.)

But as the 1966 season neared, Leo VandenBerg and his crew focused all of their energies on the cabover hull, while the defending National Champion remained in mothballs.

During spring testing, MISS BARDAHL the fourth experienced difficulty in that she carried too much weight in the rear end. But the crew shifted some of the weight forward to help alleviate this problem.

The boat appeared at the season-opener in Tampa, Florida, and created quite a sensation. Not since THRIFTWAY TOO, which last raced in 1960, had an Unlimited hydroplane seated its driver ahead of the engine.

But unlike THRIFTWAY TOO, MISS BARDAHL was wider and flatter and less box-shaped to allow for more effective cornering. The design had worked well for TIGER TOO, a Ron Jones-designed 225 Class hull, in 1961. But the concept had yet to be proven in the Unlimited Class. And there was a lot of prejudice against cabover hulls at the time.

MISS BARDAHL's debut had to be delayed a week because of a gearbox that kept overheating. But the advance word on the new boat was favorable. According to VandenBerg, the BARDAHL ran quite well in tests and could corner at over 100. (This was at a time when most Unlimiteds could do 175 or more on the straightaway but were unable to exceed 90 in the turns.)

This was good news for designer Ron Jones.. His fervent hope was for the 1966 MISS BARDAHL to be a trendsetter in the tradition of SLO-MO-SHUN IV, which his father had introduced so successfully in 1950.

At the ill-fated 1966 President's Cup, MISS BARDAHL, running in competition for the first time, dominated the field in Heat 1-C. Musson crossed the finish line 33 seconds ahead of second-place Don Wilson in MISS BUDWEISER, the former MISS EXIDE.

Some members of the MISS BARDAHL crew had feared that the 8000-pound craft would be hard on engines. But that wasn't the case in Heat 1-C. On the contrary, MISS BARDAHL handled the Potomac River with ease, an instant contender, just as TIGER TOO had been. The U-40 posted the fastest heat (101.218) and 2-1/2-mile lap (102.975) of the entire race. The much-maligned cabover concept of Ron Jones all of a sudden had credibility

But then, in Heat 2-B, disaster struck. MISS BARDAHL was battling Manchester in NOTRE DAME for the lead. At the end of lap one, Ron and Rex were running head to head. Then, according to Jones, the "Green Dragon's" propeller sheared off. The boat became airborne, took a nose dive, and disintegrated right in front of the Judges' Stand. When the spray cleared, MISS BARDAHL had broken cleanly in two, just behind the cockpit. Ron Musson was found floating face down in the water. He never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Jones blamed the propeller for the crash, although MISS BARDAHL crew member Dixon Smith speculated that the boat may possibly have struck a log. There was no way to tell what had really happened, although everyone seemed to have a different opinion about it. But there could be no doubt of the end result. The sport had lost its most prominent personality. And the boat that had debuted so promisingly was a shattered wreck.

It was a day that came to be known as "Black Sunday." Three hours later, during the running of the Final Heat, NOTRE DAME and MISS BUDWEISER crashed into each other. Drivers Manchester and Wilson were likewise stricken from the list of the living.

The loss of Musson, Manchester, and Wilson shook the boat racing world to its foundation. The impact would have been similar if Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, and Dan Gurney had been lost in a single afternoon.

The MISS BARDAHL's crash served to re-enforce the myth about cabover hulls being unduly hazardous. Ron Jones kept insisting that the accident that took Ron Musson's life had nothing to do with the fact that the boat was a cabover-but it was associated with a cabover. And that made the concept difficult to sell for many years to come.

Ole Bardahl chose to withdraw from further participation in 1966, following the deaths of his driver, relief driver, and son-in-law. After much soul searching, Bardahl announced that his team would return in 1967 with a new hull that would be driven by Billy Schumacher, Musson's handpicked successor.

The fifth and final MISS BARDAHL was designed and built by Ed Karelsen of Seattle. Karelsen had been responsible for the short-lived original MISS EXIDE of 1963, which fell apart in its second race. Karelsen had a winning reputation in the Limited ranks and was anxious to vindicate himself in the Unlimited Class.

The new MISS BARDAHL was a low-profile conventional hull with the driver seated behind the engine. The boat nevertheless incorporated some of the characteristics of a cabover hull. This included extra non-trip area to help in cornering.

When Ron Musson died, the team's trademark green color scheme died with him. Painted yellow with black lettering, the former "Green Dragon" was now the "Blonde Bombshell." Leo VandenBerg had retired from the MISS BARDAHL team. His young assistant, Jerry Zuvich, was now crew chief. The crew, including driver Schumacher, were all young men in their twenties. The press quickly labeled them the "teenybopper crew."

Schumacher had an excellent competitive record in the smaller classes. He had won with everything from JU outboards to 7-Litre inboards.

Billy qualified as an Unlimited driver in 1961. He had handled such perennial tailenders as CUTIE RADIO, MISS TOOL CRIB, and # BILL and achieved mediocre results. He was the only person other than Musson to drive the cabover MISS BARDAHL in a test run.

Beginning in 1967, Evelyn Bardahl Manchester, Rex's widow, played a more visible role in the day-to-day operation of the team. But there was never any doubt that Ole Bardahl was still the man in charge who expected results.

And he got them. The 1967 season witnessed one of the great comebacks in racing history.

MISS BARDAHL won six out of eight races and finished second once. She scored a clear cut victory in the APBA Gold Cup at Seattle and won the National High Point Championship hands down.

Up until that time, no Unlimited hydroplane had ever won six High Point races in the same season. (HAWAII KAI III in 1957, MAVERICK in 1959, and MISS CENTURY 21 in 1962 had each won five races.)

Schumacher and company turned the fastest heat of the year at 107.784 on a 2-1/2-mile course at San Diego. The team also ran the fastest 2-1/2-mile competition lap of the year at 110.150 at San Diego.

MISS BARDAHL demonstrated a lot of class at the Tri-Cities (Washington) Atomic Cup. In the Final Heat, the automotive-powered MISS CHRYSLER CREW and driver Bill Sterett were the early leaders. But Schumacher finally overtook Sterett and went on to claim the victory, 104.448 to 102.583.

The single most memorable performance by the MISS BARDAHL in 1967 had to be her second-place finish at Kelowna, British Columbia. Schumacher and MISS BUDWEISER driver Mike Thomas ran side-by-side for five of the six laps in the British Columbia Cup Final Heat. Thomas won the race but only after a titanic struggle. The BUDWEISER/BARDAHL battle of 1967 foreshadowed the many great PAY 'n PAK/MISS BUDWEISER duels of the 1970s.

The MISS BARDAHL team had rebounded from the ultimate downer. And they had done so in championship fashion. Ron Musson would have been proud. Another Gold Cup and National Championship followed in 1968 for the Bardahl/Schumacher/Zuvich combination. It was a very competitive season with no one boat winning the majority of races. But in the end, it was still the MISS BARDAHL that prevailed.

For what would prove to be his final year of full-time participation, Ole Bardahl opted for the racing number U-1, which was indicative of his team's status as defending National Champion.

The color scheme was changed again, this time to a gaudy combination of yellow and black checkerboards. The new paint scheme was eye-catching to say the least, a masterpiece. The "Blonde Bombshell" was now the "Checkerboard Comet."

As the 1968 season got underway, MISS BARDAHL found herself being seriously challenged by Warner Gardner and MISS EAGLE ELECTRIC. On opening day, at Guntersville, Schumacher and Bardahl were fairly and squarely beaten by Gardner and the "Screaming Eagle," which won all three heats. Ironically, MISS EAGLE ELECTRIC was the former "also-ran" $ BILL that Schumacher had driven during 1963 and 1964.

In 1968, MISS BARDAHL was strangely inconsistent in regard to her performance in Final Heats. At Guntersville, the Tri-Cities, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., she failed to finish. At Guntersville, Madison (Indiana), and the Tri-Cities, Schumacher made particularly bad starts in the last heat of the day.

At the President's Cup, Billy accused MY GYPSY driver Tommy Fults of illegally "cutting him off" in the Final Heat. But no official action was taken against Fults.

Still, when she was running right, MISS BARDAHL was clearly the dominant boat. Only one team, the HARRAH'S CLUB with driver Jim McCormick, was able to defeat the "Checkerboard Comet" three times in heat competition. This happened twice at Seattle and once at Phoenix, Arizona.

Heading into the Gold Cup at Detroit in early September, the MISS BARDAHL and the MISS EAGLE ELECTRIC had both won three races. BARDAHL had the Wisconsin Cup, the Indiana Governor's Cup, and the Diamond Cup, while EAGLE had the Dixie Cup, the Atomic Cup, and the President's Cup.

The fans looked forward to a classic confrontation between Schumacher and Gardner on the historic Detroit River. But the 1968 Gold Cup emerged as one of the more tragic chapters in Thundrboat history.

MISS EAGLE ELECTRIC, which had finally come alive after so many years of mediocrity, disintegrated on the backstretch of the third lap of the Final

Heat. She was leading MISS BARDAHL and challenging MISS BUDWEISER. Then, the EAGLE became airborne and cartwheeled itself to pieces in the vicinity of the Detroit Yacht Club. Warner Gardner suffered fatal injuries.

In the space of three seasons, six of racing's finest had been lost while driving Unlimited hydroplanes: Ron Musson, Rex Manchester, Don Wilson, Chuck Thompson, Bill Brow, and now Gardner. It has been speculated that the many deaths may have been one of the factors that prompted Ole Bardahl to announce his retirement from Unlimited racing a few months later.

But that didn't prevent Billy Schumacher from driving the race of his life and claiming his second--and the team's fifth--Gold Cup on that memorable day in the Motor City.

In the re-run of the Final Heat at Detroit, Schumacher and MISS BARDAHL staged one of the most electrifying duels in boat racing history. The challenger was Bill Sterett and the new MISS BUDWEISER, another Karelsen hull and a virtual clone of the BARDAHL.

Viewers of ABC-TV's "Wide World Of Sports" watched in disbelief as Schumacher and Sterett battled for the lead. They went all out, running deck-to-deck and only a few inches apart on the always-formidable Detroit River. Lap after lap, the incredible competition continued. First it was BARDAHL in the lead, then BUDWEISER, and then BARDAHL again, back and forth.

One slip on the part of either driver and the result most certainly would have been catastrophic for both men. They were that close. Even after three decades, a videotape replay of the race can be unnerving. The sight of MISS BARDAHL and MISS BUDWEISER literally sharing the same roostertail is downright chilling, this being in the days before safety canopies and reinforced cockpits.

Be that as it may, it was a day of triumph for MISS BARDAHL and a day of frustration for MISS BUDWEISER, which faded from contention with a mechanical problem late in the race. MISS BARDAHL the fifth had scored her tenth victory in two years. The 1968 Gold Cup was the 27th and final win for Ole Bardahl who would very soon be calling it a career.

"Billy the Schu" and MISS BARDAHL appeared in two more races together after the Gold Cup. They conked out in the first heat and won the next two at San Diego, but lost the race on points to MY GYPSY.

MISS BARDAHL finished second and was decisively beaten by MISS BUDWEISER in the Arizona Governor's Cup at Lake Pleasant. Bernie Little's "Beer Wagon" had been plagued with the "bugs" of newness for much of 1968, but was now clearly in the same speed range as MISS BARDAHL.

The Karelsen BUDWEISER shaped up as MISS BARDAHL's heir apparent. MISS BUDWEISER indeed went on to claim the National High Point Championship shield for 1969-70-71. She also won the next two Gold Cup races.

MISS BARDAHL concluded 1968 with a total of 9300 points, compared to 6988 for MY GYPSY, 6600 for MISS EAGLE ELECTRIC, and 6551 for MISS BUDWEISER. In all, a memorable campaign.

It would be well to consider 1968 as the end of the MISS BARDAHL saga. But two final curtain calls followed in late-season 1969.

In deference to his hard-working crew, Mr. Bardahl allowed Jerry Zuvich and the gang to "unretire" the checkerboard U-1 for Seattle and San Diego. Billy Schumacher, unfortunately, was no longer available to drive. He was replaced by veteran Fred Alter who had had a dismal 1968 season with PARCO'S O-RING MISS.

MISS BARDAHL was still quite fast and scored two heat victories at Seattle. But "Fearless Fred" managed to blow quite a few Rolls engines, both in qualification and in competition. The BARDAHL team placed third in the Seafair Regatta and a very disappointing sixth in the San Diego Gold Cup. It was a sad farewell indeed for one of racing's most celebrated dynasties.

At the end of 1969, Ole Bardahl made his retirement official by selling the boat to Bernie Little (who needed a back-up hull) and the engines to Laird Pierce (for use in a new PARCO'S O-RING MISS).

The last MISS BARDAHL competed as MISS BUDWEISER II and MISS U.S. in 1970. Her career ended in 1971 when she crashed to the bottom of the Ohio River at Madison, Indiana, as HALLMARK HOMES.

Ole Bardahl's team was one of the very first in Unlimited history to represent a corporate sponsor on a truly national scale. MISS BARDAHL's tremendous popularity proved that the public would indeed support boats that were intended more for advertising than as a rich man's hobby.

The success of MISS BARDAHL and other commercially sponsored hydroplanes of yesteryear helped to transform Unlimited racing from an amateur endeavour to the professional status that it enjoys today.

And even after many years of retirement, the MISS BARDAHL boats are not forgotten. The 1958 hull has been a star attraction at the Good Will Industries Museum in Seattle for many years and is now scheduled for restoration by the Hydroplane And Raceboat Museum, also located in Seattle.

The 1962 hull is currently in the possession of a member of the Antique And Classic Boat Society. In the not too distant future, the legendary "Green Dragon" may take to the water once again and demonstrate her classic form to a new generation of Unlimited hydroplane fans. May that day come soon!

NOTE: The author is indebted to David Greene, the Associate Unlimited Historian, who contributed to this article.