The Parco's O-Ring Miss Story

By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian

PARCO'S O-RING MISS represented the hopes and dreams of Laird Pierce (father of Scott Pierce) and also the Plastic And Rubber Products Company (PARCO) of southern California.

Pierce (together with his partner Earl Noyes) entered Unlimited racing in 1966 with MISS DIXI COLA (the former second BLUE CHIP). MISS DIXI COLA was a terrible riding boat that was abandoned at season's end. Although, by some miracle, she managed to finish second in the 1966 Gold Cup at Detroit on the strength of four second-place heat finishes with Fred Alter at the wheel.

Laird enjoyed considerably more success in the Limited ranks than in the Unlimiteds. His 266 Cubic Inch Class MISS PARCO won the 1966 Inboard Nationals on Seattle's Lake Washington with Wayne Thompson driving.

For 1967, Pierce ordered a new Unlimited hull, designed by Chuck Hickling and built by Bob Patterson, to be named PARCO'S O-RING MISS. The boat debuted late in the season but demonstrated considerable promise when Alter guided her to second-place in the San Diego Cup with a victory in the Final Heat.

The consensus after San Diego was that a bona-fide contender had arrived on the Unlimited scene and would figure prominently throughout 1968. But nothing could have been further from the truth as PARCO'S O-RING MISS emerged as one of the biggest disappointments of the year.

The PARCO failed to qualify for a single Final Heat in 1968. She was never competitive and blew a lot of engines. An eighth-place finish at Phoenix was the team's best performance.

For 1969, Alter was gone and Norm Evans took his place. But even the change of drivers did not turn things around. In desperation, Pierce ordered a new Karelsen hull for 1970.

Ed Karelsen turned out some truly outstanding Unlimiteds in those days (i.e., the 1967 MISS BARDAHL, the 1968 MISS BUDWEISER, and the 1969 NOTRE DAME). Unfortunately, the 1970 PARCO'S O-RING MISS wasn't one of them.

On paper at least, this should have been a great boat. In addition to Karelsen's participation, Billy Schumacher (late of MISS BARDAHL) was hired as the driver. The PARCO also benefited from the recently disbanded MISS BARDAHL team's Rolls-Royce Merlin engine inventory as well as several former MISS BARDAHL crew members.

PARCO'S O-RING MISS performed adequately at Washington, D.C., and actually turned the fastest heat of the President's Cup. But it was all down hill from there. The boat vibrated so badly--and the ride was so rough--that Schumacher would return to the dock with no feeling in his legs and would have to be helped out of the cockpit.

Billy even asked his friend Leif Borgersen to test drive the errant craft. But Borgersen likewise could hardly walk once he returned to the dock.

I've heard different explanations as to why the 1970 PARCO was such a disappointment. The story that I hear most often is that the boat was built narrow because the shop in which it was built was rather small. But this has always sounded ludicrous to me. If Laird Pierce was going to spend all that money on a boat, why would he have it built in such an inadequate facility?

The explanation that makes the most sense is the one advanced by Jim Harvey, who crewed on the boat two years later when it was Jim McCormick's MISS TIMEX II. According to Harvey, the 1970 PARCO was fitted with a faulty fuel tank--the same one used in the 1968 Jon Staudacher NOTRE DAME, which was likewise a bad-handling boat. The fuel would slosh around in the tank and adversely affect the balance of the boat.

Harvey claims that once the problem of the fuel tank was discovered and corrected, the boat ran adequately.

Whatever the explanation as to why PARCO'S O-RING MISS performed so poorly, Laird Pierce threw in the towel after the 1970 season finale in San Diego. After five years and three boats, he had never cracked the winner's circle.

Within about a year of his departure from racing, the PARCO Company went bankrupt and Laird himself died shortly thereafter. It was all very sad.

But at least Laird's son Scott achieved success in the sport as a driver and won quite a few races for a number of prominent teams. I'm grateful for that.