San Diego History Notes

By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian

The San Diego race course has been kind to National High Point Championship teams. Of the 39 race winners since 1964, 20 of these won National Championship honors in the same year:

1965 - MISS BARDAHL
1967 - MISS BARDAHL
1969 - MISS BUDWEISER
1970 - MISS BUDWEISER
1974 - PAY 'n PAK
1975 - PAY 'n PAK
1977 - MISS BUDWEISER
1978 - ATLAS VAN LINES
1981 - MISS BUDWEISER
1982 - ATLAS VAN LINES
1983 - ATLAS VAN LINES
1984 - MISS BUDWEISER
1989 - MISS BUDWEISER
1990 - MISS CIRCUS CIRCUS
1991 - MISS BUDWEISER
1998 - MISS BUDWEISER
1999 - MISS BUDWEISER
2000 - MISS BUDWEISER
2004 - MISS BUDWEISER
2005 - MISS E-LAM PLUS

With 1700 National Points up for grabs at the 2006 Bill Muncey Cup in San Diego, six teams have a mathematical chance of winning the National Championship this year on Mission Bay: U-6, U-7, U-1, U-3, U-37, and U-5.

Never before have six teams been so close in National High Points with one race remaining on the Unlimited calendar.

MISS BARDAHL, the 1965 San Diego champion, set long-standing speed records for a 3-mile course with Ron Musson driving.

This was the first time that a boat did a competition lap of 117 miles per hour, a 15-mile heat of 116 MPH, and a 45-mile race of 115 MPH.

The world lap record for an Unlimited hydroplane on a closed course is 173.384 miles per hour, set Dave Villwock in MISS BUDWEISER during qualification on a 2.5-mile course in 1999 on San Diego's Mission Bay.

All of the San Diego winners between 1964 and 1977 were of the old-style rear-cockpit/forward engine hull design.

The first "cabover" or forward-cockpit winner in San Diego was Bill Muncey's ATLAS VAN LINES "Blue Blaster" in 1978.

Since 1978, all of the San Diego winners have steered from the front.

The first boat to seat its driver (Jim Kropfeld) "indoors" with an enclosed safety canopy was the 1985 San Diego champion MISS BUDWEISER, the so-called "Bubble-BUD." Crew Chief Jeff Neff had installed a vacuum-drawn bubble made of plexiglass.

The boat's designer, Ron Jones, Sr., did not endorse the plexiglass bubble because of concerns that plexiglass can be very brittle. The following year, Jones installed an F-16 fighter plane canopy on another MISS BUDWEISER.

The Unlimited Racing Commission (URC) was quick to recognize the life-saving value of the F-16 canopy.

Beginning in 1987, all new boats in the Unlimited Class had to be so equipped; the older boats were given until 1989 to make the change-over.

The 1986 San Diego champion MISS BAHIA, owned by Bob Patterson and driven by Ron Armstrong, was the oldest boat ever to win an Unlimited race.

Designed by Chuck Hickling and built by Patterson, the craft first entered competition in 1967 as PARCO'S O-RING MISS, originally owned by Laird Pierce. It finished second at San Diego in 1967 with Fred Alter in the cockpit.

MISS BAHIA is the only Unlimited hydroplane to win a race 19 years after its competition debut.

The first turbine-powered San Diego winner was Fran Muncey's MILLER AMERICAN, driven by Chip Hanauer, in 1987.

Since 1987, only two San Diego winners have used a reciprocating engine for power: OH BOY! OBERTO (Rolls-Royce Merlin) in 1988 and LLUMAR WINDOW FILM (turbocharged Allison) in 2003.

One of the most unusual Unlimited hydroplanes of all time showed up at San Diego in 1987. This was the ARCADIAN, owned and driven by Fred Hauenstein and designed by Marcelle Belleville.

ARCADIAN featured one short sponson and one long one. It was powered by eight Mercury V-6 outboard powerheads, mounted inboard, rated at approximately 300 horsepower each, connected to one propeller shaft. The boat must have been an engineering nightmare.

The orange-painted craft was reportedly clocked at over 150 miles per hour on the straightaway in testing but none of that was apparent in any of its appearances on the Unlimited circuit.

ARCADIAN posted a test lap of 110.024 at San Diego in 1987 but never started in a heat of competition.

Tommy "Tucker" Fults was a spectator at San Diego in 1967.

In 1968, he won the race and was Unlimited Rookie of the Year as driver of Jim Ranger's MY GYPSY.

"Tucker" appeared on the threshold of a long and successful Unlimited career but was fatally injured in a testing accident on Mission Bay in 1970 while driving PAY 'n PAK'S 'LIL BUZZARD.

MISS BEACON PLUMBING (U-37) owner Billy Schumacher is a two-time winning driver at San Diego. His first win was in 1967 with MISS BARDAHL (U-40). After winning the 1976 race with OLYMPIA BEER (U-74), Billy announced his retirement from competition.

The 1969 San Diego race, which featured the APBA Gold Cup, had a curious postscript. When the ABC-TV WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS broadcast of the race aired a few weeks later, the winner MISS BUDWEISER and driver Bill Sterett, Sr., were clearly photographed inside the buoy line and missing at least one buoy. This had happened during Heat 1-A and gone undetected at the time by the judges.

After the broadcast, APBA President Les Brown was inundated with telephone calls from irate viewers demanding that MISS BUDWEISER be disqualified but by then the results had already been declared official and couldn't be changed.

The most exciting finish of a San Diego Unlimited hydroplane race is arguably the 1989 classic, which offered as its the top prize the sport's Crown Jewel, the APBA Gold Cup.

With five down and one lap remaining in the winner-take-all Final Heat, MISS BUDWEISER driver Tom D'Eath had a clear lead over second-place George Woods and OH BOY! OBERTO. But Woods was making a bid. BUDWEISER's speed for lap-five was only 115 miles per hour, compared to 118 for OBERTO.

Both drivers realized they were dangerously low on fuel. In the first turn of lap-six, Woods went by the faltering D'Eath.

MISS BUDWEISER picked up the pace and charged down the backstretch, narrowing the gap. Both boats entered the second turn virtually dead even.

It was a drag race, with the Gold Cup at stake, to the finish line with BUDWEISER taking it by 2.14 seconds over OBERTO, 124.953 miles per hour to 123.983.

The 1989 race certainly reaffirmed that old saying, "It isn't over 'til it's over."

Driver Dave Villwock scored his first-ever victory as an Unlimited driver at San Diego in 1992 at the wheel of COORS DRY, owned by Ron Jones, Jr. This was also the first Unlimited race that Villwock ever drove.

Very few drivers have ever won their very first Unlimited race. Prior to Villwock, the most recent rookie to accomplish this feat was Howie Benns, who won at Miami, Florida, in 1974 with Bernie Little's MISS BUDWEISER. Gene Whipp did likewise in 1973 at Washington, D.C., with Bob Fendler's LINCOLN THRIFT'S 7-1/4% SPECIAL. So did Jack Regas in 1954 at Tahoe City, California, with Henry Kaiser's SCOOTER.

Villwock now has 51 Unlimited wins. On the all-time victory list, Dave trails only the late Bill Muncey (who has 62) and the retired Chip Hanauer (who has 61).

Mike Hanson's victory at San Diego in 1993 with KELLOGG'S FROSTED FLAKES (alias MISS MADISON) was indeed an unusual one. Mike had to start from the "trailer-boat" position, outside and well behind the other boats in the Final Heat.

The trailer-boat spot is the worst position on the race course and is reserved for the boat accumulating the fewest points in the preliminary heats. Never in the history of Unlimited racing had any boat ever won from the trailer-boat position, but that's exactly what happened at San Diego in 1993.

Hanson worked his way up through the field, through the battering wakes of the other boats. Mike passed one entry and then another...and another...and another. After five laps, KELLOGG'S FROSTED FLAKES was in the lead, taking the checkered flag.

"I felt we had no chance to win," proclaimed a jubilant Hanson, "but I proved myself wrong."