Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum
We're racing through history!
By Georg N. Meyers
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 6, 1973
It was the greatest unlimited-hydroplane race nobody ever saw.
If it had been a baseball game, you would have gone home with a raincheck.
It looked like a scene from a Hitchcock movie — eerie shapes snorting out of a drifting fog.
A visitor from another planet,…
ContinueAdded by Hydroplane Museum on July 29, 2013 at 7:43pm — No Comments
In a wild windup, Chip Hanauer won the hydro title.
By Shelley Smith
Reprinted from
Sports Illustrated, October 1, 1990
Chip Hanauer was rounding the first turn in the third heat of the Budweiser Las Vegas Silver Cup on wind-chopped Lake Mead at 120-plus mph when he felt his 6,000-pound, jet turbine-powered Miss Circus Circus boat flip sideways and into the air. A four-time national hydroplane driving champion, the 36-year-old Hanauer…
ContinueAdded by Hydroplane Museum on May 7, 2012 at 9:00pm — 1 Comment
By Fred Farley - H1 Unlimited Historian
A boat racer since age 16, Dave Villwock accepted his first Unlimited Class assignment in 1989 as crew chief for Bill Bennett's MISS CIRCUS CIRCUS. Chip Hanauer was its driver. In 1990, Chip and Dave emerged as National High Point Champions with six wins in eleven races.
Following years of success in the flat-bottom inboard category, Villwock was High Point Champion in the 6-Litre Hydroplane Class in 1988 with Jerry Yoder's SUNSET…
ContinueAdded by Hydroplane Museum on December 4, 2010 at 1:30pm — No Comments
By Fred Farley - H1 Unlimited Historian
The Rolls-Royce Griffon-powered MISS BUDWEISER of 1980 is one of the sport's legendary champions. Nicknamed the "Juggernaut," the Griffon BUD won 22 races and defined the state of the art in Unlimited racing between 1980 and 1984.
There were actually three Griffon MISS BUDWEISERs. The first appeared in 1979 and the last in 1985. But it is the "Juggernaut" that inspires awe.…
ContinueAdded by Hydroplane Museum on November 28, 2010 at 10:00pm — No Comments
An ill-starred love affair
The date was set for Tuesday, October 23 1979, on Lake Washington. Like Bill Muncey, who had been a lot less than enthusiastic back in 1960 when Miss Thriftway owner Willard Rhodes wanted a shot at the propeller-driven water speed record, Dean Chenoweth didn't really want to have a go. But, like Muncey, he was a pro who was…
ContinueAdded by Hydroplane Museum on November 10, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments
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