San diego hydroplane races 2011

Turbines, as a hydroplane power source, were considered in the realm of science fiction at the time. Nicknamed the "Green Dragon," the craft became the first to do a competition lap of miles per hour, a mile heat of MPH, and a mile race of MPH. The Miss Bardahl has, in recent years, been restored to its former glory by crew member Dixon Smith and makes occasional exhibition appearances at Unlimited events.

Since , all of the San Diego winners have steered from the front. A rash of fatalities shook the sport to its foundation. But the level of competition remained commendably high.

And in , Miss Bardahl driver Billy Schumacher proved himself an able replacement for Ron Musson who likewise had been lost at the previous year's President's Cup. Schumacher finished first in six out of eight races, which included a victory in the San Diego Cup, and was National High Point Champion.

Musson would have been proud. His motor sports background consisted of straightaway runs with drag boats and drag cars—not with closed-course Unlimited hydroplanes. This had happened during Heat 1-A and gone undetected at the time by the judges. But by then the results had already been declared official and couldn't be changed. Despite the competitive success of the San Diego race, the sponsoring organization experienced financial difficulties and dissolved. San Diego was dropped from the Unlimited schedule for several years.

Hydro historians look upon the middle-seventies as the Ron Jones Era. The Jones hulls indeed displaced the previously dominant Karelsen hulls as the state of the art in Unlimited racing. Lap speeds at over miles per hour were now commonplace. The boats designed by Ron Jones, Sr. But they were wider and flatter and could corner better and faster than their predecessors. All of the San Diego race winners between and were Jones hulls.

At many venues, Muncey would triumph again and again. Surprisingly, only two of Bill's victories occurred in San Diego. And these were late in his career—in and Muncey purchased the equipment inventory of Dave Heerensperger's Pay 'n Pak organization in and set up a racing team of his own under the aegis of Atlas Van Lines.

He would have won at San Diego in if he hadn't jumped the gun. Bill finally achieved the top of the podium at Mission Bay with the famed Atlas Van Lines "Blue Blaster," which dominated Unlimited racing in the late-seventies.

Co-designed by Jim Lucero and Dixon Smith, the "Blaster" represented the next generation of hull design, although Lucero insisted that the boat was "more evolutionary than revolutionary. In his very first Unlimited appearance, Steve finished third in the San Diego race. Reynolds went on to achieve Rookie-of-the-Year honors and finished first at San Diego in Hanauer wanted to slide wide, but Reynolds wouldn't let him.

The Circus pulled away from the Squire and was never headed. Steve took the checkered flag and won by a wide margin. The Griffon engine, which is much more powerful than the Merlin or the Allison, had rarely been used in the Unlimited Class.

The Griffon had last been used in in Budweiser Malt Liquor. Jones incorporated numerous design innovations into the Griffon Budweiser. According to Ron, "I determined that one of the major advances could be in sponson shapes, afterplane shapes, non-trip shapes, things that contribute to the hydrodynamic cornering of the boat.

Another thing we did was move the mass weight of the engine considerably to the left, which we had done to a lesser extent on Lincoln Thrift.

I also feel that it accelerates better and hold the boat in attitude. Bill Muncey and Atlas Van Lines won two preliminary heats but failed to finish the finale. Bill was fatally injured at Acapulco in , while Dean perished at the Tri-Cities, Washington, in Both died in "blow-over" accidents. This was before the introduction in of the F safety canopy that is now mandatory in Unlimited racing.

Fran Muncey Bill's widow took over leadership of the team. Chip Hanauer was now the driver. And Jim Harvey replaced the retiring Dave Seefeldt as crew chief. In , the re-organized Atlas team unveiled a new Rolls-Royce Merlin-powered hull, designed and built by Jim Lucero. Who would have thought that a team leaderless at the end of and its boat destroyed at Acapulco could have fired back every bit as strong the following year with a new boat, a new driver, and a new crew chief.

Bill would have been proud. Hanauer won at San Diego in and , while Kropfeld triumphed in and Chip and Jim proved themselves able replacements for their predecessors Bill Muncey and Dean Chenoweth. It finished second at San Diego in with Fred Alter in the cockpit.

Miss Bahia is the only Unlimited hydroplane to win a race 19 years after its competition debut. The Lycoming engine was originally intended for use in Vietnam era helicopters. Since , only two San Diego winners have been powered by a reciprocating engine.

These are Oh Boy! But it took a few years for the turbine teams to fully adapt to salt water, which did all sorts of nasty things to sophisticated turbine engine parts.

This was the former Atlas Van Lines hull on which Harvey had served as crew chief, starting in Oh Boy! Oberto took first-place at both of the salt water Unlimited races of But Woods was making a bid. Budweiser's speed for lap-five was only miles per hour, compared to for Oberto. Both drivers realized that 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. The race certainly reaffirmed that old saying, "It isn't over 'til it's over. Indeed, the High Point Championship wasn't decided until the last day of the season.

It was an uphill struggle all the way for Hanauer's team. Then, in the last month and a half of the season, Hanauer and crew chief Dave Villwock won four of the next five races and finished five-hundred points ahead of rival Miss Budweiser. An anticipated Final Heat confrontation between Hanauer and D'Eath did not materialize when Miss Budweiser failed to start due to mechanical difficulties and never left the dock.

This left the field open for Miss Circus Circus to win the race with a distant-running Winston Eagle and Jim Kropfeld finishing second. For a year, Scott waited in the wings, ready to step into Miss Bud's cockpit at a moment's notice should the need arise. The moment arrived a few days prior to the the start of the season. Tom was involved in an accident and suffered a broken neck, which effectively ended his driving career. Pierce was called upon to replace him.

Scott had occasionally test-driven Miss Budweiser but lacked the sharpening of a recent race competition as the Unlimited season got underway. The first race was staged in thanks to the foresight of the great Unlimited hydroplane racer Bill Muncey. Muncey was the driving force behind Bayfair and getting the racecourse built to host the event. The 2. Villwock has won a record nine Bill Muncey Cups, including his first ever Unlimited hydroplane race victory on the waters of Mission Bay.

Over the years, more than 5 million people have enjoyed the races on Mission Bay. Bayfair has grown from just a hydroplane race in to an event that featured drag boats, international competitors, live music and aerial demonstrations.

For more than 40 years, the San Diego community has welcomed in the holiday season by celebrating the annual December Nights in Balboa Park. But lady luck played her part in the final.

Lanes were determined by a random draw and David's Oh Boy! Oberto got an outside lane, while Brown and Villwock occupied the inside lanes. David started in third place and was never able to make up the ground. Villwock and his boat are a rare combination in sports history, both at the top of their sport.