Fred and Al: Remembering two of the good guys

Unlimited Hydroplane Racing's most valuable asset has always been its people, and the sport lost two of its most valuable assets this week.  The sad news broke this week of the passing of hydroplane "lifers" Fred Leland and Al Thoreson.  These two great men have been eulogized on numerous hydroplane websites so that is not my intention here.  I also won't be writing a comprehensive history of their involvement in the sport, as I have covered that in large part in previous posts on  (see the archives) and once again that has been done on other websites.  For more information on the lives and careers on Thoreson and Leland I would recommend reading Fred Farley's fine writeups that have recently been posted on the H1 Unlimited website.  Instead I would like to offer a few thoughts and personal memories of these two great figures in hydroplane racing.

A term that is thrown around way too much in coverage of sports is calling a person or team a "throwback."  It is usually meant to perpetuate an image, real or perceived, that a person or persons is a gritty hardworker that reminds people of a previous era that presumably had similar gritty hard workers.  Although it is a tired out phrase, Fred Leland truly was a throwback.  Not because he was a gritty hard worker (although he was without a doubt one of the hardest working men in the sport over the last four decades) but also because of what he represented.  Leland's involvement in the sport hearkened back to an earlier era when a number of owners would show up with boats they built themselves in the backyard operating with a few (usually volunteer) crew members and a shoestring budget.  Fred Leland was, for many years, such an owner and his Miss Rock hydroplanes even developed something of a cult following in the Washington races, as they were almost always at the back of the pack but the crowd would give an ovation just at the event of the boat finishing a heat.  That all began to change in 1992 when Leland switched to turbine power and join the national tour then  in 1994 he got strong financial backing for the first time in his career.  It was with this partnership with Pico that Leland was able to show his abilities as a master boatbuilder and innovator within the sport.  Fred Leland unveiling a new hull became almost an annual event for much of the 90's, and a couple years he even would take the unheard of step in the modern era and debut two boats in the same year.  Although he lost Pico's backing after the 1999 season Leland continued his tireless involvement in the sport, continuing to run a national tour although a limited budget meant that success was often hard to come by.  I had the chance to meed Fred Leland once.  It was a chance meeting one year at the Madison Regatta (I can't remember the year) when I was walking past the RV section on my way to Broadway one night after the music on the waterfront and saw him getting into his SUV.  Although he clearly had places to be, he still talked with me for a few minutes.  Needless to say, I probably learned more in that three minute conversation about hydroplane racing than I had in reading a number articles on the sport and it upheld everything I had everything I had ever heard about Fred Leland: a very smart but very approachable man who truly loved hydroplane racing.

Speaking of the previous era of shoestring budget owners that Fred Leland hearkened back to, one of those owners was Al Thoreson.  After being a crew member and crew chief on a number of smaller Allison powered teams for the better part of four decades, Thoreson became his own owner, launching the U-7 Thor Racing team.  The team raced under a number of names during their involvement in the sport, most notably Jackpot Food Marts, Paddock Pools, and the Miss Sundek.  Thoreson's small budget team used an outdated hull (the former Squire Shop hull that is noted for carrying Chip Hanauer to his first couple of Unlimited race wins) powered by an Allison that also held the distinction of being one of the last open cockpit hulls to compete in the Unlimited class, not installing a canopy until the rules required it at the beginning of the 1989 season.  As if the outdated Allison craft wasn't already at enough at a disadvantage, the fact that it raced in the era in which the turbine powered boats raced with no fuel restrictions or N2 restrictions meant the boat was relegated to back of the pack for nearly the entirety of the team's existence.  Seeing the boat getting lapped by its turbine competitors was a common site during much of the late 1980's and early 1990's.  Despite its reputation as a tailender, I always liked the U-7 team.  This team was getting its start at the same time that I was coming of an age that I could watch the sport with some knowledge of what was going on so the Paddock Pools held a place, along  with boats like the Mr. Pringles, Miller American, and Holset Miss Madison as some of the first boats that I remember.  That and the fact that the boat always seemed to be in last place made me cheer for the boat even more, and yell "give him a chance!' at times.  The team hung around until 1992, in the process becoming one of the last piston powered teams to run alongside the U-3 in the Unlimited class.  Although I never met Al Thoreson in person, in later years I have found Jerry Hopp to be one of the friendliest people involved in the sport.  So all of this meant that the Al Thoreson's U-7 Thor Racing will hold a special place in my memory of hydroplane racing.

So Unlimited Hydroplane racing has lost two of its most respected owners this week.  Whether it was Leland, who was an owner for parts of four decades with seventeen wins, a very memorable championship season in 1996, and countless innovations, or Thoreson, whose career as an owner was brief and met with little success, both of these men represent a commitment to the sport that has been present throughout the history of hydroplane racing.  And on a personal level, I would like to thank both of them for being part of a number of great memories I have had in following the sport.  Godspeed Fred and Al.

Swapping Paint: Other Memorable Sponsorship Shifts Through the Years

As I'm sure anyone reading this has heard, USA Racing Partners has announced their return to Unlimited racing for the 2012 season,  This is, of course, welcome news for anyone involved in the sport, as the Gregory family has consistently been on of the most competitive and respected teams since they joined the Unlimiteds in 1998.  After a three year hiatus, the Gregory family is returning largely thanks to the support of Degree Men, who chose to transfer their sponsorship support from Schumacher Racing to USA Racing Partners for the upcoming season.  While this will no doubt be a point of confusion for more casual followers of the sport (as well as a possible point of rivalry between the two camps) having the Gregories back in the Unlimited pits is no doubt a welcome site.  For this post, I've decided to look at some other shifts of sponsors throughout the years.  These shifts have taken multiple forms, and have had a duration as short as one heat and as long as two decades.  I don't intend this to be a comprehensive list of every change of sponsors in Unlimited Hydroplane history, but instead a look at a handful of these shifts that have stuck out to me.

As the 1950's progressed and corporate sponsorship became more of the norm in Unlimited Hydroplane racing, a Washington based oil company decided to jump into the sport.  Ole Bardahl, who had already sponsored a number of successful Indycar teams, decided to sponsor Norm Christiansen's Tempest entry for 1957.  The Christiansen entry was driven by Norm Evans and only entered three western races on the season, including the Seattle Gold Cup where it finished twelfth.  Despite these modest beginnings, Ole Bardahl decided to drastically increase his involvement in the sport for 1958.  Ole Bardahl started his own team and ordered a hull from Ted Jones' boat shop.  The new Miss Bardahl, which would hold the distinction of being the first boat built by Ron Jones, would win three races in 1958 en route to winning the High Point championship on the year.  One of the most successful dynasties in Unlimited history was launched.  The Ole Bardahl owned Miss Bardahl entry would go on to win six High Point championships and five Gold Cups in the twelve years that Ole Bardahl was involved as an owner.

As the Miss Bardahl dynasty was drawing to a close, Atlas Van Lines was beginning to dip its toes in the water as an Unlimited Hydroplane sponsor.  Largely due to the efforts of O.H. Frisbie, Norman Manson's U-22 entry (the former Maverick hull) would wear the Atlas Van Lanes colors for the 1967 season.  The Atlas board was pleased with the positive press that came with its support but looking for a stronger team to back, Frisbie and Atlas Van Lines chose to shift their support to Bob Fendler's team, but once again the team only had modest success, its peak being two second place finishes over three years of competition.  After four years, two teams, and no first place finishes, Atlas Van Lines was once again looking for another team to back when a bit of fate happened.  Stephen Garey's "Bill Muncey: Boat Racing Legend" tells the story of O.H. Frisbie looking out the window of his Detroit apartment when he heard and saw a boat testing on the Detroit River.  The boat was Lee Schoenith's Gale Enterprises boat, who was without a sponsor for the upcoming 1971 season.  After a meeting between Schoenith, Frisbie, and driver Bill Muncey, a sponsorship deal was struck and the Atlas Van Lines colors were on its third team in five years.  The new sponsorship paid almost immediate dividends, as Atlas Van Lines got its long awaited victory in the second race of the season in Washington, DC.  Muncey followed that with a victory in Owensboro, then in 1972 the Gale/Atlas Van Lines team had what was arguably the most successful season in Unlimited Hydroplane history, winning six of seven races on the season and finishing second in the one race they didn't win.  Atlas Van Lines would make one more sponsorship shift, following Bill Muncey when he started his own team in 1976.  The relationship would continue after Muncey's death in 1981 when Fran Muncey continued the team until Atlas made the decision to end its sponsorship in 1984.  After coming to Bill Muncey looking for a win, Atlas Van Lines left the sport with six High Point Championships and as one of the most recognizable sponsors in the sport of Unlimited racing.

While the Atlas Van Lines-Bill Muncey relationship was probably the longest and most fruitful arrangement that came from a sponsorship shift, what was probably the shortest shift happened at the 1988 Gold Cup in Evansville.  In Heat 3B, the Miss Budweiser flipped and was unable to compete in the Final.  The Gold Cup was a Budweiser sponsored event that year, there was a desire to have a Budweiser boat on the water for the Final.  Rich Sutphen, owner of the unsponsored Sutphen Spirit (the former Pay N Pak turbine hull) volunteered to carry the Budweiser name.  Officially racing as "Sutphen-Miss Budweiser" and with some hastily applied Budweiser decals, the team did its new sponsor proud, as Mike Hanson drove the boat to a second place finish in the Gold Cup.  The arrangement became a footnote in history but was thrown back into the limelight after the 2009 Evansville race.  When Ellstrom racing chose to "rent" the U-17 Our Gang Racing boat after their own boat flipped in the first heat, the 1988 arrangement between Sutphen and the Budweiser team was incorrectly pointed to by many sources as another example of a team using another boat already in competition after the race had already began when, in fact, the Sutphen-Miss Budweiser was merely a way to ensure that there would be a Budweiser-sponsored boat on the water for the Final Heat of the Budweiser APBA Gold Cup.

Speaking of Ellstrom Racing, they were involved in their own sponsorship shift in the 1990's.  In 1994, Ellstrom Manufacturing made the decision to sponsor one of the strangest boats to ever roll into the Unlimited pits.  The Glen Davis owned entry was an odd "four point" design that was driven by Ken Dryden that raced as Miss E-Lam Plus.  The boat failed to qualify at Tri-Cities, then in Seattle the boat was involved in one of the scariest accidents in Unlimited history as the boat got loose, went into the air higher than anyone could remember in any of the blowover accidents through the years, then slammed back into the water rightside up.  The project was abandoned and the boat was taken to the junkyard.

Undeterred, Ellstrom Manufacturing decided to start its own team in 1995.  Still racing as Miss E-Lam Plus, the Ellstrom family was not only the owner of their sponsored boat but the team took a rare step for a new team and built their own boat.  The team was exclusively a west coast entry for the first few years, but after winning at Tri-Cities in 2000, the team made the decision to build a new boat in 2001 (winning two more races along the way) then raced the full schedule starting in 2002. 

2006 saw yet another "sponsor becomes owner" arrangement, and this time it was a curious case of history repeating itself.  In 2005, Ted Porter lent his support of Formulaboats.com to Chad Sanderson's small scale entry on the season.  The next year, Porter followed the precedent set by Ole Bardahl nearly a half century before and went from sponsoring a small team to starting his own team on a large scale, buying both of the hulls of the recently retired Miss Budweiser team.  Much like Ole Bardahl, the team found immediate success, winning the championship on the first season.

Degree Men is only in its second full season of being an Unlimited sponsor, but ironically its first go round in the sport resulted in a sponsorship shift.  The 2010 San Diego race was put together thanks to a last minute arrangement and the support of the Air National Guard and Degree Men.  As part of the deal, there were to be boats wearing the Air Guard and Degree Men colors on the water.  The choice was made for the Ted Porter owned U-7 boat to race as the Air Guard and the Billy Schumacher owned U-37 entry to be the Degree Men.  The only catch was that both of these boats already had sponsors on the season.  Therefore, their sponsors went to other boats for the San Diego race.  Therefore, the U-7's sponsor of Graham Trucking went to its teammate on the U-5, who raced as the Graham Trucking presents Formulaboats.com for San Diego.  Meanwhile the U-37's sponsor of Peters & May was transferred to Ken Muskatel's U-25  for the race.  Ironically, both of these boats would wind up being sponsored by their "one race" arrangements in 2010 for the whole of 2011.  Graham Trucking's sponsorship was shifted to the U-5 for 2011 as teammate U-7 was sponsored by Valken, and after J.W. Myers and Scott Raney left the U-37 team and bought Ken Muskatel's boat, the Peters & May sponsorship backed the new U-11 team. 

So as can be seen, the shift of Degree Men to another team is nothing new in Unlimited racing.  There has been at least one in every decade since the 1950's.  One I left off was the Oh Boy! Oberto, who sponsored a number of different teams from the 1970's to the 1990's and then sponsored the Miss Madison team starting in 2000 after a hiatus from the sport.  Sponsors are always looking to get the most "bang for their buck" so to speak, so if they feel that can come from supporting another team then naturally they will look to support that team.  So while the Degree Men shift will be a point of confusion and controversy for some, it should not be forgotten that the sport is better because of support of such sponsors.  Here's to hoping that Degree Men's support will continue for years to come.

The "Winged Wonder" flies again

News has broken recently that Ken Muskatel has purchased the former Pay N Pak "Winged Wonder" hydroplane with the intention of restoring it for the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum.  This is, no doubt, a fitting home for one of the most successful and innovative boats in the history of the sport.   In fact, with its record of four championships and twenty two race wins, the 1973-25 hull holds the distinction of being the most successful piston powered boat in the history of Unlimited Hydroplane racing.

On a more personal level, however, this boat holds the distinction of one of the first hydroplanes I have a personal recollection of.  To give away my age, I don't remember the boat's glory days of the 1970's because I hadn't been born.  As many readers of this blog will know, I grew up in Madison and make no secret of the fact that I am a fan of the Miss Madison team.  Because of this, the old Pay N Pak boat is effectively the first boat I was able to get up close and personal with, as it was the Miss Madison boat during the time I was growing up.  Therefore this post is going to be part history of the hull and part personal recollection with my main focus being on the boat's later years.

The story of the Winged Wonder began its life on the draftboards of master boatbuilder Ron Jones.  The number of innovations involved with this boat are numerous.  Although there had been a couple of Unlimited Hydroplanes that had sported the pickle fork design  since the 1960's, this boat represented the first true breakthrough for the design that would soon become the norm in hydroplane racing.  Seemingly overnight, the spoon nosed design was obsolete. It was also the first boat to use aluminum honeycomb as a primary building material, which made the boat much lighter than its competitors.  Most apparent, however, was its use of a horizontal stabilizer which immediately set the boat apart from everything else in the pits and gave the boat a decided advantage, especially in the turns.  Perhaps never before or never since has a boat represented such a separation from what was the conventional accepted design in the Unlimited class at the time, and went on to be an unheralded success.

This success came almost immediately.  When a new boat is built any team can expect a period of time to "work out the bugs" so to speak and hold judgment on the boat's success until the hull is dialed in.  As a sign of things to come, however, the "Winged Wonder" bucked this trend and won its very first race out of the box.  With Mickey Remund at the wheel the Pay N Pak won all three heats at the 1973 season opener in Miami, but then would face stiff competition the rest of the season from Dean Chenoweth and the Miss Budweiser.  At the end of the season, the Pay N Pak would win four races and edge the Miss Budweiser by less than 300 points to win the championship.

  In 1974, the Pay N Pak took five of eight races with George Henley at the wheel and ended the season with a considerable lead over second place Miss Budweiser in the High Points.  Things didn't come as easy in 1975.  Jim McCormick was named the new driver of the Pay N Pak, but after he struggled in the season's first two races owner Dave Heerensperger coaxed former driver George Henley out of retirement to take over driving duties.

George Henley in the cockpit of the Pay N Pak

 The bad luck didn't stop there, however, as the boat turned over at Owensboro and the boat didn't score any points.  Four races into the season, the Pay N Pak found itself with no race wins and was well behind the Miss Budweiser and Weisfield's in the High Point standings.  The season would turn after crew chief Jim Lucero returned the boat to the setup used in previous seasons and the team returned to its winning ways.  Winning five of the season's final six races of the season with victories in Madison, Dayton, the Gold Cup in Tri-Cities, Seattle, and San Diego, the Pay N Pak completed one of the most dramatic comebacks in Unlimited Hydroplane history and captured the championship.

A Pennzoil print ad that ran in the mid-1970's featuring the Pay N Pak

1976 would bring more changes as Bill Muncey bought out Dave Heerensperger's team and the Winged Wonder got a new paint job and a new home.  Now racing as the Atlas Van Lines, the boat picked up where it left off and won five of nine races on the year, including a string of four straight first place finishes, on its way to the High Point championship.  After four years of racing, the Winged Wonder's spot in history had been solidified.  Its twenty one first place trophies made the boat the winningest hull in the history of the sport at that point.  It was also the only hull to win four consecutive High Point championships up to that point.  Although that feat would later be eclipsed by the T-3 then the T-5 and T-6 Miss Budweiser hulls, it should be noted that these hulls always won their titles in a "tandem" with the other hulls on the team whereas the Winged Wonder won all of its titles on its own.  In only four seasons, the 1973-25 had made its mark on the sport for years to come.


In 1977, a new Jim Lucero designed hull became the primary hull for Bill Muncey's racing team and the Winged Wonder found itself on the sidelines for the majority of the season.  The boat's only appearances for that season came in the Washington races, wearing the old Pay N Pak colors.  With inexperienced driver Ron Armstrong at the wheel and working with a limited crew, the Pay N Pak's appearance at the Gold Cup in Tri-Cities and the Seafair trophy in Seattle were expected to be little more than a cameo for the Winged Wonder.  In Heat 1A of the Gold Cup, however, the old Winged Wonder hull showed it was still a force, winning the heat going away.  Then in Heat 2-C the Pay N Pak once again found itself going head to head with the Miss Budweiser for three laps until it's day ended with a violent hook that damaged the hull's left sponson.  The following week at Seattle, Armstrong and the Pay N Pak won Heat 2A but then failed to finish the Final Heat on a day that was overshadowed by a tragic accident in Heat 1A involving the Squire Shop that ended the life of Jerry Bangs.

1978 saw another change of address for the Winged Wonder.  The Miss Madison team was in desperate need of upgrading their equipment so the decision was made to acquire the 1973-25.  The Miss Madison's previous hull, known as the Miss Madison III or 1972-06, was only a year older than the Winged Wonder but might as well have been built in a different era.  The third Miss Madison boat was never the same after an accident saw the boat sink to the bottom of the Detroit River of the 1972 Gold Cup.  The team spent the rest of the season in the garage repairing the badly damaged hull, then the next season the Winged Wonder debuted and the Miss Madison team found itself racing with a suddenly obsolete hull.  Indeed, the Miss Madison III would turn out to be the last hull to be built with the old spoon nosed design built for racing in the Unlimited class (although a few other spoon nosed replicas of hydroplanes have been built for the intention of vintage exhibitions).  Although I have never seen anything official in terms of the sale price, multiple sources have claimed that Bill Muncey effectively donated the boat to the Miss Madison team and sold the boat for $1.  No doubt this was an act of goodwill on the part of Muncey but it would be hard to claim that Muncey would miss the old hull.  In a bit of irony, the Miss Madison team was buying the hull that had made its previous hull obsolete, but that boat had itself been rendered obsolete by Bill Muncey's cabover "Blue Blaster" hydroplane, so once again the Miss Madison team would find itself racing with a boat that was certainly an upgrade over its previous hull but still dated in terms of Unlimited racing.  A new team also brought the most dramatic changes to the boat in its history, as the hull was refitted to be powered by an Allison powered engine as opposed to the Rolls Royce Merlin engine which the boat had been powered by up to that point.  With its new less powerful engine and the fact that the boat was now becoming dated as more and more cabovers were showing up in the pits, it is sometimes easy to forget about the old Winged Wonder's time with the Miss Madison team.  As is often the case in Unlimited Hydroplane racing, however, the hull had a long career long after it was at the front of the pack.  It should not be forgotten that of the sixteen years that the 1973-25 boat was in the pits and racing, for eleven of those years the boat was carrying the Seal of the City of Madison, Indiana.

1978 will always be remembered as a season in which Bill Muncey dominated the field in a fully dialed in Atlas Van Lines hydroplane.  The tone was set in the season's first race when the Atlas Van Lines was not only the winner but also the only starter of the Final Heat.  Muncey would win six of the season's seven races, his only loss coming due to a blown engine in the Final Heat at Tri-Cities.  So despite being overshadowed on that season the Miss Madison still turned in a decent season, with a second place in the Gold Cup in Owensboro with Madison native Jon Peddie at the wheel and a second place in Tri-Cities with Milner Irvin at the wheel en route to a fourth place finish in the High Point standings.

1979 saw the Miss Madison team race a partial schedule, not making any appearances after finishing sixth at the Gold Cup race in Madison.  In 1980 the team once again raced a full national schedule and,  after struggling through the season's eastern tour, turned heads with a string of four straight podium finishes that was highlighted by a second place finish in the only Unlimited race to take place in Ogallala, Nebraska.  1981 was another banner year for the Winged Wonder and the Miss Madison.  Despite no wins and only one second place finish in Evansville, the Miss Madison was a consistent finisher all season long, finishing on the podium in  seven of nine races and finishing second in the High Point standings.  In 1982 Tom Sheehy took over driving duties after Milner Irvin left racing for a year but the team continued its consistent ways, finishing second in Romulus, New York (ironically finishing behind the Pay N Pak, which was back in the sport after a hiatus and in the process becoming the first team to win with turbine power) and in Madison (the team's highest finish in its hometown race since that fateful day in 1971) en route to a fourth place High Point finish.

Ten years after its debut, the Winged Wonder had gone from the undisputed leader of the pack to a consistent if not spectacular racer on the Unlimited tour.  By 1983 it was no secret that the best days were well behind the hull, but the boat was still making its mark as a solid performer for the Miss Madison team.  In an era when the shelf life for many hydroplanes didn't exceed more than six or seven years, the Winged Wonder was finishing on the podium years after its initial construction.  As if to show the boat wasn't completely obsolete, the Winged Wonder scored what was undoubtedly its most unlikely and arguably its most memorable victory in the 1983 season opener at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.  At the Final Heat, Jim Kropfeld in the Miss Budweiser and Chip Hanauer in the Atlas Van Lines were so preoccupied with one another that the Bud blew its engine and the Atlas got off to an awful start.  Ron Snyder, driving the Miss Madison (sponsored by Rich Plan) wired a perfect start and led the race from the onset.  The Atlas Van Lines gave chase but succumbed to a blown engine of its own, giving the Rich Plan a clear path to victory.  A decade after its debut, the Winged Wonder had scored its twenty third and most unlikely victory.  It was also a race that solidified Ron Snyder's well earned reputation as a driver who was able to get the most out of underpowered equipment.  As for the rest of 1983, the Rich Plan finished second in Detroit and finished an overall fourth in the High Point standings.

1984 saw another name change as the Miss Madison team secured the sponsorship of American Speedy Printing for the duration of the season.  The season started well for the team with a third place finish in Miami and a third in Syracuse and the season ended well with a second place finish at the World Championship race in Houston.  The rest of the season, however, was an exercise in frustration that saw the team finish no higher than fifth and included a four race stretch where the boat failed to score point in three races and could only muster a twelfth place finish in the other race.  As a result of the dramatic mid-season swoon, the team finished seventh in the High Points and, for the only time in its history, found itself looking up in the standings at another Madison based boat.  Jim Sedam's U-22 finished fourth in the High Points in its debut season.  In 1985 the Miss Madison opened the season with back to back runner up finishes at Miami and Syracuse and closed the season with a third place in San Diego but was befelled by another midseason swoon (although not as dramatic as the season before) that relegated the team to a sixth place finish in the High Points, although it did earn the distinction of driver Andy Coker capturing the Rookie of the Year honors for that season.  Miss Madison opened 1986 with another second place finish, and continue the season as a consistent performer.  Driver Ron Snyder returned, but then was involved in an accident that saw him being thrown from the boat in Evansville.  Despite the accident, Snyder and the Miss Madison closed the season out with a third place finish at the season finale in Las Vegas and finished the season fourth in the High Points.

Holset returned as sponsor for 1987 and the Winged Wonder continued its consistent ways.  It was also about this time that I, as a resident of Madison, became aware of the hydroplanes.  As I am sure is the case with many hydroplane fans, I inherited much of my fandom from my dad.  At least once a year we would stop by the Miss Madison shop, where the crew has always welcomed visitors even to this day.  Because of this, the 1973-25/Winged Wonder/Miss Madison IV was the first boat that I ever saw up close, even sitting in the cockpit at one point.  The Holset Miss Madison turned in another solid season, although it scored only one podium finish, a third place in the Madison race that was cut short by the horrific accident involving the Cellular One that ended the driving career of Steve Reynolds. It was also announced during the season that the Miss Madison team would be debuting a new hull for 1988, so the 1987 season was meant to be something of a "farewell tour" for the historic craft.  For the final race of the year, the team even entered the hull as the "Holset Mrs. Madison" to signify that this would be the final race for the hull.  The Mrs. Madison finished fourth at the season finale in Las Vegas and its consistent performance throughout the season meant the team would finish third in the overall High Point standings.

The Race that was supposed to be the Winged Wonder's "farewell" race.  Note that the boat is referred to as the Holset Mrs. Madison

Despite having what was supposed to be its "farewell" race at the season finale in 1987, construction delays to the new boat meant that the Winged Wonder would be pulled out of the garage for one final curtain call.  Once again Ron Snyder and the team got more than seemingly possible out of the now ancient hull by scoring a surprise second place finish in Miami.  After a fourth place finish in Detroit, the boat failed to make the cut for the Final Heat for the remainder of the Eastern tour.  The 1973-25, once the most advanced boat in hydroplane racing, now looked more like a museum piece.  The boat was the last conventional hull to race in the Unlimited class, and was one of the last boats to not have a canopy.  Despite the boat being terribly antiquated in comparison to its competitors in 1988, designer Ron Jones and others who had been involved in the Winged Wonder throughout the years had to take pride in the fact that many of the innovations that this boat represented, including the horizontal stabilizer and the pickle fork design, had now become commonplace in the sport.  The old hull had its last race at the 1988 Syracuse race, where the team failed to score any points.  Despite its underwhelming finale, the boat no doubt had made its mark on hydroplane racing as a whole.  After all, at the time of its retirement the boat still held the record for most race victories by a hull (that record would later be broken by the T-3 Miss Budweiser).  The new Miss Madison hull was ready in time for the Tri-Cities race and at long last, the Winged Wonder was retired.

Over the next few years the 1973-25 would largely do display work around Madison, then sometime in the early 1990's the boat was sold to Dave Bartush who was at the time building up a collection of hydroplanes and keeping them in a warehouse in Detroit.  It sat in the warehouse for the better part of twenty years, still in the Miss Madison colors.  Then earlier this year new begin to leak that Bartush was looking to sell off some of his collection, which is where the Ken Muskatel and the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum comes in.  With that the Winged Wonder now awaits restoration into its original form.  Although I have to admit I'll be kind of sad to see the Miss Madison paint come off the hull it's fitting that the boat will wear the colors that it made such a huge splash and broke so many records in the early 1970's.  Also, since H.A.R.M. makes a concerted effort to keep all of its boats in racing condition, the possibility of seeing the Pay N Pak "Winged Wonder" on the water again is certainly exciting.  So while the boat won its championships and made its history years before, for a generation of fans around Madison this was the first hull that many of us saw and will always hold a place in our hearts.

All images taken from the web.  Thanks to Leslie Field's website, Jim Sharkey's "Hydro's Who's Who," and Fred Farley's articles on Ron Jones and Jim Lucero for the information that was used in this post.

The Last Days of the Gold Cuppers

Whenever there’s a major breakthrough in innovation in Unlimited Hydroplane racing, there are always those teams who are slow to adapt to the change.  More often than not, these slow adapters are small budget teams forced to race with outdated equipment and meet with little or no success on the water.  With this in mind, it comes as a surprise that this trend did not begin with the introduction of Allison and Rolls Royce Merlin engine powered modern hydroplanes into hydroplane racing, not right away at least.  The Gold Cuppers built years before the Unlimiteds that were on the water at the same time, more than held their own against the Unlimiteds at the time.  Although major race wins such as the Gold Cup often went to modern Unlimited Hydroplanes during this era, a boat with a “G” designation was always there and won at least one race every year but one between 1946 and 1955.

                On paper, the Unlimited Class was officially born in 1946 when the cubic inch piston limitation, along with most restrictions on the length, width, and weight of a boat, were abandoned in order to take advantage of the newly available aircraft engines from fighter planes used during World War II.  Despite the new unrestrictive rules, however, there was not a wealth of new boats using the new power sources right away.  In fact, only two boats in the 1946 Gold Cup used these modern power sources: the Miss Windsor, a Merlin powered craft that was unable to start a heat in the race, and the Miss Great Lakes, an Allison powered craft which made a strong showing for the Allison’s debut in powerboat racing.  For the first two heats, the Miss Great Lakes finished second behind the Tempo VI, then in the third heat the Great Lakes jumped out to a big lead before blowing its engine and allowing the Tempo VI to win the heat en route to a Gold Cup victory.  The Tempo VI was a boat that was definitely a representative of the sport’s pre-World War II era.  The boat was actually the former “My Sin” which had previously won the 1940 and 1941 Gold Cup races but was renamed Tempo VI after being bought by famed bandleader and inboard racing veteran Guy Lombardo.  Despite the new name and owner, the Tempo kept the same setup as it had while racing as the My Sin along with its Miller engine.  So while the Miss Great Lakes grabbed headlines with its record breaking speeds on that first national race after the end of World War II, the winner on the day was a pre-War relic and a sign that the Gold Cuppers could hold their own against modern engines.

Guy Lombardo driving the Tempo VI to victory in the 1946 Gold Cup.  Photo taken from the web

                1947 saw the birth of the national tour, although Hydroplane racing was still very much a regional sport and would continue to be so for the next decade or so.  Once again, however, much of the attention and most of the trophies were grabbed by a pre-World War II boat.  The Dossin-owned entry, built in 1939 and ran previously as the So Long, underwent a major conversion previous to 1947.  The boat was converted to Allison power and changed its name to Miss Peps V.   The new name represented something else new in hydroplane racing at that time: sponsorship.  The boat became something of a representation of the transitions happening around hydroplane racing at the time, the boat being a Gold Cupper that converted to a modern power source and taking advantage of the new rules put in place for the Unlimited Class.  Carrying the Pepsi colors, the Miss Peps V won five of the seven races it entered that year, including the Gold Cup at Jamaica Bay.  Other races that year were won by the Tempo VI and the Notre Dame, meaning that seven of the nine official Unlimited races were won by pre-World War II Gold Cuppers that year.  Despite this, it should be noted that most of the boats carrying “G” designations were taking advantage of the rules of the Unlimited class and were using Allison or Merlin powerplants, so they weren’t pure “Gold Cuppers” as was understood in the pre-World War II era.  The following years would see more of these boats carrying “G” designations while using modern powerplants find more success in Unlimited Hydroplane racing.

                1948 saw the first boats to officially carry the “U” designation into Unlimited hydroplane competition.  It also was the beginning of a string of years that were unique at the top level of hydroplane racing.  From 1948 through 1953, separate championships were awarded for the Gold Cup class and the Unlimited class although they competed at races simultaneously, much in the same way that separate offshore classes will often be on the water at the same time at races in the modern era.  Three Unlimiteds (along with one pre-World War II boat carrying a U designation, the Hi Barbaree) made their debut in 1948, but only one managed to score any points that year.  The Jack Schafer owned U-1 Such Crust finished second and won the first major race for the newly-christened U-Boats, capturing the 1948 President’s Cup to go along with a second place finish in the Gold Cup that year.  The year, however, belonged to the Gold Cuppers once again.  Compared to the lone points scorer for the Unlimiteds, a fleet of twelve Gold Cuppers scored points in at least one race in 1948, including Allison powered Miss Great Lakes winning the Gold Cup after just falling short the previous two years.  This would prove to be the last Gold Cup win for a "Gold Cupper" hydroplane.  The G-13 Tempo VI won the Detroit Memorial regatta en route the overall National Championship for the season. 

A Monel Metal advertisement featuring the 1948 Gold Cup Champion the G-4 Miss Great Lakes.  Photo taken from the web.

1949 once again saw the “split” format used in awarding a Gold Cupper class champion and an Unlimited class champion, but after only one season the tide had definitely turned in favor of Unlimiteds.  Compared to the previous year when only one Unlimited managed to score championship points, ten Unlimited Hydroplanes scored points in 1949.  Most dominant among the Unlimiteds was the My Sweetie.  Piloted by the legendary Bill Cantrell, the My Sweetie won the APBA Gold Cup and five other races en route to the National Championship.  As for the Gold Cuppers, the field had dwindled to six point scorers after a string of strong seasons.  The G-boats still made their presence felt, however.  The G-60 Lahala, a New Jersey based Allison powered boat driven by Harry Lynn, won the New Jersey Governor’s Cup and the Cambridge Gold Cup, the latter being the second time the Lahala captured the race in a venue better known for rowing regattas.  Once again, however, Guy Lombardo’s Tempo VI was the class of the Gold Cupper field.  The eleven year old hull won in Baltimore and was a consistent finisher throughout the season to capture the national championship.

The G-13 Tempo VI, shown here many years later after it was preserved by H.A.R.M.  Photo taken from the web

1950 signaled the beginning of the end on a number of levels for the Gold Cuppers.  Only four G-Boats competed this year, with three of those four scoring any points.  Furthermore, this year saw the debut of the revolutionary propriding Slo-Mo-Shun IV designed by Ted Jones.  The impact this hull had on hydroplane racing cannot be overstated and has been covered by a number of hydroplane writers through the years, but for the purposes of this article the focus should be on how quickly the craft made every hydroplane built before it obsolete.  In scoring a dominant victory at the 1950 Gold Cup (which was still the only true national race at that point), the Slo-Mo-Shun IV deemed even Unlimiteds built a year or two before as obsolete, so it was no secret that the tail dragging pre-World War II hydroplanes’ days were numbered.  Despite the changing times, the Tempo VI once again had a solid season.  Guy Lombardo’s entry won four races on the year, including the National Sweepstakes Regatta and the Red Bank Gold Cup (both in Red Bank, New Jersey), the Buffalo Launch Club Regatta, and a repeat win at the Star Spangled Banner race in Baltimore.  The Canadian-American’s Freeport, New York based entry would continue to be one of the most prominent boats on East Coast races for the following years.

1951 saw an increase in Gold Cupper entries compared to previous years.  One of the best performances of the year by a G-Boat was turned in by Bill Cantrell driving Horace Dodge’s Hornet entry at the Seattle APBA Gold Cup.  The former “Why Worry” finished second in two heats and finished an overall second on the day, finishing second in the first two heats to the Slo-Mo-Shun V.  The Hornet went dead in the water during the third and final heat, but that heat was stopped after the tragic accident involving the Quicksilver which resulted in the loss of life to driver Orth Mathiot and riding mechanic Tom Whitaker, another Gold Cup boat which made its debut in 1951 but was built in a style that was more representative of the pre-World War II era.  The Hornet would go on to finish third in the President’s Cup race and finish third overall in the National High Points as well as the championship for the Gold Cup Class.  The only race won by a Gold Cupper that year was once again Guy Lombardo in the Tempo VI at the National Sweepstakes Regatta in Red Bank.

Two generations of hydroplane design competing side by side.  The G-31 Hornet is in the background and the U-37 Slo-Mo-Shun V is in the foreground.  Photo taken from the web.

Four Gold Cuppers scored points in 1952.  The Such Crust IV, a new boat from the Jack Schafer camp, won the Steel Cup in Pittsburgh with Bill Cantrell at the wheel.  At the APBA Gold Cup in Seattle, the G-2 Hurricane IV finished second in the first heat and failed to finish the last two heats, but that was good enough for an overall third in one of the strangest Gold Cup races in history that saw only one boat (overall winner Slo-Mo-Shun IV) finish the last two heats.    The Dee Jay V, a Ventor style hull on again off again competitor since its 1950 debut, had an adventurous day at the Imperial Gold Cup in New Martinsville, West Virginia.  In the first heat the G-66 Dee Jay V drove to an easy victory over the 7-litre Mercury driven by Oliver Elam after the Miss Pepsi went dead in the water.  In the second heat, the Dee Jay V caught fire but amazingly driver (and boat designer) Norman Lauterbach continued to drive a few laps until finally being flagged off the course by boat owner Daniel Murphy.  Despite being outscored by the 7-litre hydro Mercury, the Dee Jay V was awarded the “win” as account of being the only Unlimited class boat to score points on the day.  The race would prove to be the last for the colorful boat.  The G-31 Hornet-Such Crust, driven by Lou Faegol, finished first in the first heat en route to an overall second at the Detroit Silver Cup and finished all three heats in fourth place to place fourth overall at the President’s Cup Regatta in Washington, DC.  Despite these being the only two races the Hornet-Crust boat entered, it proved to be enough to capture the Gold Cup Class championship for the boat in 1952.  Of course, this was indicative of how hydroplane racing was conducted at the time.  Consider that overall High Point champion Miss Pepsi only entered five of the twelve races in 1952.

1953 saw the Gold Cuppers take home three more first place trophies.  The G-8 Short Snorter, a boat that made its debut in 1939 driven by Stan Dollar, entered only two races on the season but made them count.  First the boat won the Lake Tahoe Regatta then won the Mapes Mile High Gold Cup, also held on Lake Tahoe.  The Tempo VI returned to competition and was once again a winner in Red Bank, capturing the Red Bank Gold Cup.  The G-22 Such Crust III, another Jack Schafer entry driven by Chuck Thompson, was the only G-Boat to enter the Gold Cup that year and finished an overall third.  The Such Crust III went on to finish second in the Silver Cup in Detroit and the President’s Cup in Washington, DC to win the Gold Cup class championship.  This would prove to be the third straight year when the Gold Cupper championship was won by a boat that did not win a race on the year (despite the fact that multiple races were won by other G-Boats all three of those years), and it would also be the last year that the APBA would award a separate championship for the Gold Cup class.  With the Unlimited sport inching toward becoming a more professional endeavor and the loss of their championship; it was only a matter of time before the Gold Cuppers, more representative of the amateur past of the sport, would be a thing of the past.  Despite the slowly dwindling number of G-Boats, a few entries would soldier on for the next few years.

The G-8 Short Snorter en route to victory in the 1953 Mapes Mile High Gold Cup.  Photo taken from the web.

Seventeen boats scored points in 1954, but only two of those boats carried the old “G” designation.   The Short Snorter once again entered the two Lake Tahoe races, but this time had to settle for second and third place finishes.  Also competing in the Mapes-Mile High Gold Cup was the Hurricane IV, who finished second in the only race it qualified for that year.  For the first time in post-World War II racing, no Gold Cupper boat won a top level hydroplane race and no Gold Cupper competed in the APBA Gold Cup.

After the cancellation of the Gold Cup class championship in 1953 and the G-Boats failed to make much of a showing in 1954, it perhaps looked as if the Gold Cuppers were dead.  In 1955, however a new G-Boat debuted and had perhaps the best season ever by a Gold Cupper in the modern era.  Not surprisingly, it was the owner and the team that was the most successful G-Boat over the past decade.  Guy Lombardo came out of semi-retirement in 1955 and debuted a new hull, the G-13 Tempo VII.  The boat was still built within the pre-World War II specifications to qualify as a “G” boat although it did use Allison power.  After an inauspicious beginning where the boat only entered two of the season’s first five races, one of which was the Gold Cup race in Detroit where the boat failed to finish a heat and saw driver Danny Foster suffer injuries, the boat went on one of the most memorable streaks of the 1950’s.  Danny Foster returned to the cockpit and went on a tear where the boat won five consecutive races it entered: The Copper Cup in Molson, Montana, the Silver Cup in Detroit, the President’s Cup in Washington, DC, and the Governor’s Cup in Madison which would give the Tempo VII the distinction of winning the most races in 1955.  The President’s Cup Regatta, then considered second in prestige only to the Gold Cup, saw the Tempo VII make an incredible come from behind victory.  Going into the Final Heat the Tempo VII was fourth in points and 231 points behind the Miss Pepsi that had won its previous two heats.  In the third and final heat, however, everything went the Tempo’s way as the Miss Pepsi went dead in the water and the Tempo VII went on to victory and the right to meet President Dwight Eisenhower.  After winning in Elizabeth City, the Tempo VII won the Governor’s Cup in Madison, which at that time was in only its second year as a National Unlimited Hydroplane tour race but became a representation of the changing times: this would prove to be the last victory in the Unlimited Class for a boat carrying a “G” designation.  Despite the Tempo’s incredible run, its late start probably prevented any chance of the boat capturing the National High Point championship for 1955 and Lombardo, Foster, and the Tempo VII team had to settle for second in the High Points behind the U-55 Gale V.  It should be noted however, that the Tempo VII finished ahead of the Gale V on a routine basis in 1955 and the Gale V entered and finished on the podium in all five races that the Tempo VII won.  Despite its late start, Lombardo’s Tempo VII was definitely the boat to beat in 1955. 

Almost to prove that the Tempo VII’s success wasn’t a fluke, another Gold Cupper, the G-22 Such Crust III also had a stellar season in 1955 and won the St. Clair International Boundary race.

Unfortunately, neither the Tempo VII nor the Such Crust III was able to repeat their success in 1956.  The Tempo VII entered the season opening Maple Leaf Trophy race in Windsor, Ontario, but sustained damage and was unable to start a heat.  The only other race it entered was the season’s penultimate race: the Governor’s Cup in Madison where the boat finished fourth.  The Such Crust III found itself plagued with mechanical difficulties throughout the season and saw its best finish as a third place (in a field of four) at the St. Clair International Boundary race.  The hydroplane racing world around them was also changing.  By 1956, many of the top flight teams were converting from Allison engines to the more powerful Rolls Royce Merlin engines and within a few years it became no secret that a team would need a Merlin engine if it expected any type of long term success (although a handful of teams used Allison power throughout the thunderboat era of Unlimited racing).  The Gold Cup boats, already considered by many to be too small to carry an Allison engine, was way too small to handle the horsepower of the Merlin and an already dying design option became completely obsolete.  Also, the sport was becoming more professional with the formation of the Unlimited Racing Commission in 1957.  The Gold Cuppers, more representative of the sport’s amateur days of being an expensive and adventurous hobby for those who had the means and the will to throw a lot of money around, found themselves as a square peg in the round hull of the newly professionalized Unlimited sport.  So when the Unlimited Racing Commission had its first season in 1957, the Gold Cuppers were left in the past.  A decade after the new relaxed rules and the creation of the Unlimited class planned their obsolescence, the Gold Cuppers were finally no more.  It should be noted, however, that the two remaining G-Boats did compete for a few more years as U-Boats.  The Such Crust III continued for three years under the same name as the U-60 and the Tempo VII was sold, the name changed to the U-99 Miss Detroit, and had a couple of stellar seasons topped off by a 1960 President’s Cup victory.

After 1956, the G designation was no more in the Unlimited Class.  Every now and then over the last few decades there is talk of recreating the “G” Class as a step down from the Unlimiteds on the hydroplane ladder or perhaps as a substitute for the Unlimiteds by some ambitious souls.  Most notably, during the back and forth between the two competing Unlimited sanctioning bodies in 2004, both the Hydro-Prop and the Unlimited Lights (who had sanctioned the “outlaw” Unlimited races that year) leadership claimed to have tentative plans of creating a G Class.  Currently there are a handful of boats carrying this designation, but they are a few and the sanctioning North American Challenge Cup Series has never really gotten off the ground.  It has been more than a half a century now since the last time a G-boat competed alongside the Unlimiteds, and really their story has never been told.  It was not uncommon for over twenty Unlimiteds to compete over the course of the season in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, so the loss of a couple boats built to obsolete specifications was hardly remised during this era.  The accomplishments of the boats owned by Guy Lombardo, Jack Schafer, and the other G-Boats, however, show that even when facing the new innovative boats these smaller hulls could still compete and grab its share of victories.

My thanks to Jim Sharkey’s “Hydros Who’s Who,” Leslie Field’s Hydroplane History website, and various articles by Fred Farley available through the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum for the information provided for this post.

Looking Ahead to the H1 Meetings: Some Rule Changes I'd Like to See

It's hard to believe, but we're less than a week away from the annual H1 Meetings & Banquet. If you haven't read the official release yet you can go here:

http://www.h1unlimited.com/2011/12/h1-meetings-banquet-set-for-seattle-westin/

There are always plenty of interesting developments coming out of the meetings, ranging from rule changes to new teams to new sponsors or race sites.  I'm not sure what to expect out of this year's meetings, but no doubt it will be something worth commenting on here once the meetings are concluded.  Compared to recent years, the annual "silly season" in the hydroplane world has been relatively quiet this year with the obvious exception of the news that Ted Porter is leaving the sport.  While what will happen to the equipment of Precision Performance Engineering is left to be seen, much of the anticipation around this year's meetings circles around the possibility of last year's exhibitions in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. growing into full races for the 2012 season.  For this post, however, I'm going to focus on rule changes I'd like to see.  First off, I should make it a point that I don't anticipate all or even any of these rules to be employed in this year's meetings.  These are merely things that I, as a fan, would improve the overall quality of an  already great sport.  So without further adieu here are some rule changes I'd like to see, broken down by category:

Specs


Lower the minimum weight for an Unlimited:  This is something I wanted for a long time.  The minimum wet weight is, in my opinion, set much too high at 6,500 pounds.  I have a few reasons for believing this.  First off, when compared to other hydroplane classes the Unlimited's already high minimum weight looks astronomical.  Consider that the Unlimited Light and Grand Prix classes, which are the step below Unlimiteds on the hydroplane ladder, both have a minimum weight of 2,700 pounds.  So an Unlimited Hydroplane is quite literally more than twice as heavy as a hydroplane in any other class.  Another reason is that when a new Unlimited is built one will almost inevitably hear of how they needed to add extra weight to the boat in order to meet the minimum weight requirement.  Now, I'm guessing this would be the case no matter how low the minimum weight is set (there are, after all, very skilled people working on the Unlimiteds) but the fact that they are forced to sometimes add hundreds of pounds of weight to a boat shows that the technology and design is there to race at much lower weights.  So let's put all the Unlimiteds on a diet and lower the minimum weight by a few hundred pounds.

Allow more development with turbine engines With the competitive results over the last twenty years and the way the rules are written now, the Unlimiteds are pretty much limited to racing with one type of turbine engine.  Although the rule book is left wide open for automotive engines (no doubt as a means to encourage development) nearly every team has gone the turbine route over the last two decades.  Historically, the Unlimited class has been one of research and development, a place where new ideas are tried out in a competitive setting.  Many of these ideas fail, but there have also been a number of breakthrough innovations to come from the Unlimited class due to this tradition .  Innovation still rules the day in Unlimited Hydroplane racing, but the combination of restrictive rules on engines and competitive results while using these restricted engines means that for nearly twenty years now every team except Ed Cooper's U-3 team has been limited to a Lycoming T-55 L7C engine.  Now, just to clarify I'm not advocating getting rid of fuel restrictions or N2 restrictions, which are necessary for the sustainability of these engines, but instead I'm advocating for the rules to allow teams to use turbine engines other than the Lycoming T-55.  The rules should be relaxed in order to allow teams to experiment with other turbine engines and different setups for said engine.  With the right ingenuity, a team could develop the next go to engine for the sport.

Curbing the competitive advantage of the "thin prop" Speaking of innovations, the biggest development spec-wise in the sport over the last decade or so has no doubt been the use of thinner and thinner propellers.  Sure, its importance is sometimes overstated  (and the accusations that some of the bigger budget teams use a prop for one heat then throws it away are down right ludicrous) but no doubt thin props have been at the forefront of innovation in recent years.  At the same time, however, it has also represented a gap between the haves and the have nots in the sport.  While some teams could use the more brittle thin props knowing they have spare propellers in case it breaks or is unusable for future heats, other teams are forced to go with more sturdy props, as they usually do not have the luxury of burning through multiple propellers that can cost in excess of $10,000.  One proposal I've read  which makes a lot of sense is instituting a minimum weight for propellers, which would effectively ban the thin prop.  Another rule which I think might be worth a try is something similar to NASCAR's one engine per race weekend rule, only instead of engines, make it so that a team has to use the same propeller through the weekend.  If a team changes a prop due to damage or any other reason during the weekend, make it so they have to start from the outside lane for the rest of the weekend (similar to how a NASCAR team starts at the back of the field if they change engines during the weekend).  I'm not sure if such a rule would be viable in Unlimited Hydroplane racing, but I think it's at least worth looking into.

On the shore


Implement the Hughes Plan at all races Something that was tried at Madison for a few years (as well as Nashville for its lone event in 2005) was something known as the Hughes Plan.  Named after Miss Madison owner rep Bob Hughes who came up with the idea, the way it worked was that boats were assigned to heats based on their spot on the qualification ladder.  The intention was to take the randomness of the heat draw and make it so every boat faced every other boat at least once in heat competition.  Although it didn't gain wide acceptance, personally I would like to see this used for all races.  With how tight the competition is on the water now, the Hughes plan is a perfect way of  ensuring that all the top teams will face each other at least once in the prelims.  Likewise it also ensures that no teams will be able to take a backdoor way into the Final Heat by getting easy heat draws throughout the prelims.  Most importantly in my opinion, however, is that the Hughes plan takes away any possibility of the High Point championship being influenced in any way by the drawing of ping pong balls.  The Hughes plan does have some criticisms, one which holds some merit is that if a boat withdraws then that boat's heats will have one less boat in its already determined heat draws.  I would say though that that one demerit is not enough to toss out heat assignments in favor of deciding participants by drawing ping pong balls out of a bucket.

On the Water


Starting Procedure Seemingly every possible starting procedure has been used in Unlimited racing throughout the years, ranging from clock starts to flag starts to fighting for lanes to assigning lanes by seemingly every method thinkable to off plane rules to score up buoys.  I'll start off by saying that I prefer fighting for lanes, and I think the majority of fans prefer this.  Also, although many fans groan about it, I've never had a huge issue with the "crawling starts" with boats slowing down, sometimes for minutes at a time, in order to hold the lane they want behind the starting line or score up buoy.  To me this is all part of the strategy of hydroplane racing, just like leapfrogging a slow boat is also part of the strategy.  I have to say, of all the starting procedures that Unlimited hydroplane racing has used throughout the years, my favorite just might be the one that was used for the first four races this season.  With its four checkpoints (crossing the starting line at speed during the milling period, the one minute score up buoy at the exit pin of the first turn, the lane commitment buoy at the entrance pin of the second  turn, and of course the starting line as time expired) gave drivers no shortage of things to do before the race began and in turn gave the fans no shortage of things to watch.  I realize the trolling behind the score up buoy received  lot of criticism but as I said above it is all part of the strategy and as Steve David showed in Seattle this year it's a strategy that's susceptible to an outside boat willing to take a chance and leapfrog the field.
So while I loved the starting procedure used in the first four races, I was in no way a fan of what was used for the last two races of basing lane choice based on the order in which boats were drawn.  I wouldn't call it my least favorite starting procedure ever used (nothing is as bad as the flag start) I felt it was a way of cheapening the results and taking the race out of the drivers' hands.  Sure, there were complaints about the starting procedure, but I felt what was put in its place was an overreaction and there's no reason that they couldn't have gone back to the lane assignment format that was used in 2009 and 2010.
So it's left to be seen what starting procedure will be approved for 2012.  First off, I think it goes without saying that the sport should have one starting procedure for all races and not have freshwater rules and saltwater rules.  I would hope that fighting for lanes returns in some form, but if we must have lane assignments then the format used in 2009 and 2010 of inverting the order for the second set of heats while giving lane choice to the highest in points for the other heats worked well.  I don't think that minimum speed or off plane rules, which have been proposed or implemented, will not work because it leaves too much to judgment (how long was the boat below the normal speed? was the boat going off plane caused by another boat? if so who is penalized?).  At the end of the day, perhaps it wouldn't be the worst idea to turn back the clock to the time before score up buoys or off plane rules and just make it a free for all fight for lanes.

Make all heats 5 laps Doesn't really need much explanation.   Extending the length of preliminary heats has been toyed with in the past and should be something that's made full term.  Three laps for prelims just seems too short, and for whatever reason five laps for any hydroplane heat just seems to work out nicely.  Just to be clear, I don't want to make the Final Heat any longer, but instead making all heats five laps.

Double the points awarded for the Final Heat Something that's always kind of stuck in my craw is the fact that the same amount of points is awarded for the Final Heat as they are for the preliminary heats.  To understand why this is one has to look at how the format for Unlimited races has evolved over the years: Three heats involving all boats entered with the winner being the boat that scored the most points in all heats, two split heats and a Final with the winner being the boat that scored the most points in all heats, two split heats and a Final with the winner being the winner of the Final Heat, to our current format of three split heats and a Final with the winner being the winner of the Final Heat.  So while the race format has evolved over time, the format for awarding points is still a relic of the time when all three heats were of equal importance.  First off, I love the APBA's format of points descending in three fourths intervals so I don't want to change anything there.  So with that in mind I think the best choice is to double the points for the Final Heat (800 for first, 600 for second, 450 for third, etc.).  It goes without saying that the Final Heat is the most important heat of the day and the one in which most fans and people involved with the sport judge the race and one's importance, so the points should reflect this.

So there is my list of rule changes or modifications I'd like to see.  I welcome your comments or anything you might want to change yourself.  I doubt that any of these will be implemented for 2012 (the only major rule alteration I expect for 2012 is a clarification on the starting procedure) but maybe some of these will be considered down the road. Unlimited Hydroplane racing is a fantastic form of motorsports that continues to head in the right direction under the leadership of H1 Unlimited, but as the old saying goes, there is always room for improvement.

It takes two (or three): Leland Unlimited, 1992-2002

For this post I’ll be concentrating on the Leland Unlimited team.  Instead of writing a comprehensive history, however, this post will concentrate on one decade of the team’s long involvement in Unlimited Hydroplane racing.  It was no doubt the most successful decade in the history of the team, made even more emphatic by the fact that it is sandwiched in between two eras in which the team was a consistent competitor but was by no means a frontrunner.  Also during this era Fred Leland embarked on an unprecedented pace of boat construction and would often bring multiple hulls to a race site.  Despite facing better financed teams with better known sponsor throughout this era, Leland Unlimited often found itself at the front of the pack due to shear ingenuity and some of the most skilled crew members and drivers of that time.

Since his debut as a driver in 1976, Fred Leland has essentially been a regular figure around Unlimited Hydroplane racing over the last five decades.  His driving career spanned nine years but was largely unremarkable, mostly having to make do with small budget teams using outdated equipment.  Leland became an owner in the 1980’s but the team was still an also ran, usually only making appearances in the west coast races.  Usually racing as the Miss Rock as a nod to the radio station that sponsored the team, Leland’s hydroplanes were noteworthy for being one of only a handful of boats in Unlimited history to use a Packard engine.  As with most piston teams of that era, however, Leland’s operation was largely an underfunded also ran on the Unlimited tour.

In 1992 the groundwork was laid for all of this to change.  Leland Unlimited joined the modern era by breaking out a new turbine powered hydroplane as well as racing the full national tour.   It also marked the Unlimited debut of Nate Brown, who also doubled as the team’s Crew Chief.   Despite racing a national tour, the team kept its distinctive U-99.9 number as a nod to the radio station that sponsored the team for the Washington races.  After a shaky start where the team missed the season opener in Miami, failed to score any points in Detroit, and struggled to get up to speed in Evansville and Madison, the Leland team rebounded to have a solid west coast swing, qualifying for the Final Heat in Tri-Cities and even finishing on the podium in Seattle and San Diego.  The performance was good enough to earn Nate Brown Rookie of the Year honors.  Despite early struggles, the late season swing gave a glimpse of what the Leland team could achieve with turbine power.

1993 brought more changes.  Nate Brown parted ways with the team to join Bill Wurster’s Tide team as a crew member and took over for driving duties for the U-8 when primary driver George Wood Jr. was injured in an accident in Kansas City.  In his absence Mark Evans joined the team as driver.  To make matters confusing the Leland team adopted the name American Spirit, which was the same name used by Mark Evans’ previous ride owned by Ron Jones.  As is usually the case, Mark Evans got the most out of the equipment underneath him, qualifying for the Final Heat at nearly every event in 1993 and scoring a second at Evansville and a third in Seattle.  The American Spirit also had a shot to win in San Diego but saltwater caught the engine and the boat scored a DNF in one of the wildest Final Heats in Unlimited Hydroplane history.  Overall the team finished a respectable sixth in the High Point standings.  Although the U-100 American Spirit used the hull that Leland Unlimited debuted in 1992, the team introduced another hull in the midseason that raced as the U-99.9 under various names.  This was the beginning of a time of impressive participation (as well as the inspiration for the name of this post) by the Leland Unlimited team.  In an era when many of the bigger budget teams would bring multiple boats into the pits but only enter one boat into competition, Fred Leland would bring multiple boats into the pits and race all of them.  The debut of Leland’s second team might be one they would rather forget, however.  In the boat’s maiden race in Madison, the boat didn’t get into the water until the provisional Heat and then only did one warm up lap before coming back to the pits.  This set the tone for a season that saw the U-99.9 only score points in Tri-Cities and Honolulu and wound up flipping in Seattle.

In 1994 two names joined Leland Unlimited that would bring the team unheralded success.  Detroit based Progressive Tool & Industries Company came aboard as primary sponsor, alas bringing the usually small budget team a national sponsorship.  To drive the Pico American Dream (as the boat would be known) Leland turned to Dave Villwock, who like Mark Evans before him had previously driven for Ron Jones Jr. racing.  Villwock at that time had only driven portions of two seasons but in his still budding career he had experienced the highest of highs in winning his debut race in San Diego in 1992 as well as the lowest of lows in experiencing horrific blowovers in Detroit and Tri-Cities in 1993, the first flip causing Ron Jones Jr.s’ innovative new hull to be shelved for the season and the second flip leading to Circus Circus pulling out as a sponsor.   Another change for 1994 was the U-100 and the U-99.9 switched boats for 1994, each using the boat that the previous team did in 1993.  For the first of the season, the U-100 team struggled with its highest eastern finish being a sixth place in Detroit and failing to score any points in Evansville.  It was in Evansville where the U-99.9, driven by colorful Limited veteran Jack Barrie, scored a surprise third place finish.  As the tour shifted west, the fortunes of the U-100 shifted dramatically.  In Seattle, Dave Villwock and the Pico boat took advantage of some misfortune for the Miss Budweiser and the Smokin’ Joe’s teams then held off a late charge by Mark Evans in the Miss Exide to score the victory for the Pico American Dream.  After being involved in the sport for eighteen years, Fred Leland had his first win.  

Then, as if to prove that they were for real, Villwock and the Pico American dream repeated in the next race in San Diego.  This time the boat beat the Miss Budweiser head to head and with Hanauer holding the inside lane, something unheard of during that period of Unlimited racing.  

The U-100 finished the season with a fourth place finish in Honolulu to finish fifth in the High Point standings.  The U-99.9 struggled through much of 1994 after its surprise third place in Evansville and skipped the San Diego and Honolulu races.

1995 brought no victories for Leland Unlimited but the team had an overall more consistent season.  Dave Villwock finished on the podium in six of ten races in the Pico American Dream including seconds in Detroit, Evansville, and Madison.  The U-99.9 finished on the podium in five of ten races with a second in San Diego.  The U-99.9 was driven primarily by Mark Evans that year although Jimmy King filled in for the two Indiana races as Mark Evans briefly left to drive the Miss Budweiser.  Perhaps most impressively, the team finished two-three at Detroit and Madison.  Despite this success it was largely in the shadows, as 1995 proved to be the culmination of the intense rivalry between the Miss Budweiser and Smokin’ Joe’s teams who swept all of the race victories that season and went into the Final Heat of the final race of the season with the High Point title still in doubt.  So while much of the attention went to the top two teams in the sport that year, the U-100 and U-99.9 finished third and fourth respectively in the High Points that year.  The groundwork was laid for the team to make the big jump.

Coming into the 1996 season, much of the anticipation of the fans and media was once again expecting a head to head yearlong battle between Chip Hanauer and the Miss Budweiser and Mark Tate and the Smokin’ Joe’s.  The first race of the year, which instituted a tournament style match race format on Firebird Lake outside of Phoenix, seemed specifically designed to open the season with the excitement of a matchup between these two juggernauts.  As the event unfolded, however, a funny thing happened on the way to the showdown in the desert.  Dave Villwock defeated Mark Tate in the semifinal, then took advantage of a mistake by Chip Hanauer  in the final match race (he hit a buoy in the warmup period, effectively ending the race before it even started) to capture the win in Phoenix.

Phoenix would merely be a prelude, however, for what would happen the next race in the Gold Cup.  The Detroit River course was rough even by its own standards over that weekend.  On the last heat of Saturday action the two boats who had received the lion’s share of attention up until that point in the 1990’s were involved in a horrific accident.  The Miss Budweiser and Smokin’ Joe’s collided, with both boats suffering considerable damage.  

The next day the Leland team was in the spotlight.  Mark Evans, which had started that season driving Leland’s U-99.9, transferred to the Miss Budweiser team and finished second in the Final Heat that weekend in a repaired boat.  Evans’ second place was well behind his now ex-teammate, however.  Villwock had driven the Pico American dream to the first Gold Cup for the Leland team and for himself as a driver.  

In retrospect, the 1996 Gold Cup race was the turning point of the 1990’s for hydroplane racing.  The two drivers who were so dominant up until that point in the decade saw the trajectory of their careers change after their collision.  Chip Hanauer would never again drive the Miss Budweiser and would stay out of the sport completely for nearly three full seasons.  Mark Tate would only win three more races, none after the untimely passing of owner Steve Woomer following the 1997 season.  In their stead came into Dave Villwock, who would go on to have one of the most dominant and most impressive five year runs the sport would ever see.  None of this could be known at the time of course and for the Leland team they were just enjoying the thrill of winning the first two races of the season and looking for what the rest of the season had to bring.

As it turned out, 1996 would be an amazing ride for Fred Leland, Dave Villwock, Crew Chief Dan Walters, and everyone involved with the Pico American Dream team.  The U-100 would finish second in Kansas City, win again in Evansville, and finish third in Madison to close out the eastern tour with a considerable lead in the High Point standings.  Their lead only expanded on the tour’s Pacific Northwest swing as Villwock and the U-100 would win in Tri-Cities, Seattle, and a return event for that year in Kelowna, British Columbia.  Heading into San Diego, the team only needed a few points to clinch the championship on the year, and did just that despite not being able to make it to the Final Heat.  It had happened, the underfunded but highly talented team had put it all together for one year and captured the elusive High Point title.

The other Leland entries had a respectable although ever changing season.  The U-99’s driver’s seat became part of a game of musical chairs.  After Mark Evans left for the Miss Budweiser team, Mike Eacrett was tabbed to drive the U-99 (although Jimmy King was initially announced and listed in the 1996 Madison Regatta program as the U-99 driver).  At Madison Eacrett, who had suffered a horrific flip in his own boat the previous year, gave up the seat citing his ribs which steal needed healing.  In his place, regular U-3 driver Mitch Evans took his seat for the Final Heat in Madison.  In Tri-Cities veteran driver Larry Lauterbach was tabbed as U-99 driver who teamed with another Leland hull, the U-98 driven by Scott Pierce.  As the boats left Washington, Scott Pierce took over driving the U-99 for San Diego and Honolulu.  Despite the seemingly unending revolving door, the U-99 and U-98 teams had a respectable year in 1996, collecting four fourth place finishes along the way.  Although the focus for the Leland team in 1996 was clearly on the U-100 camp, the “sidekicks” to the Pico American Dream had a season that was respectable season in their own right.  Also in 1996 the Leland team did something all but unprecedented in Unlimited racing when they built and simultaneously raced two brand new hulls that season.  Although the Pay N Pak team also debuted two newly built hulls in 1969 the two boats never raced simultaneously and one was effectively a replacement for the other (the first was the experimental “outrigger” hull that failed as a competitor and was retired).  Not only was Fred Leland’s shop building new boats at a rapid pace, other Unlimited shops were looking to copy the low profile wide sponson Leland style with their hulls as well.  The Leland team was at the pinnacle of the sport and at the forefront of hydroplane innovation, and the 1996 championship was the ultimate proof of that.

The excitement of the championship was short lived, however.  Before the boats had made their way to the season finale in Honolulu, there was already talk of Dave Villwock leaving the Leland team to take over driving duties of the Miss Budweiser.  Those rumors were confirmed with an announcement by Bernie Little after the Final Heat in Honolulu.  The boats hadn’t even left the pits of the 1996 season finale and the man behind much of the success of the 1996 championship had switched teams. 

  Upon Villwock’s departure, Mark Evans returned to Leland Unlimited to drive the Pico American Dream.  The U-99 once again planned to race the full season, and this time Leland tabbed 1996 co-rookie of the year Mark Weber as the team’s driver.  In the garage things around the Leland shop were as busy as ever.  Another new hull debuted in 1997 although it was relegated to the role of backup hull almost from the beginning, but the true excitement was around some experimental concepts coming from the Leland camp.  The 1997 UHRA season preview magazine mentions a hull the team was planning that would actually seat the driver within the left sponson.  Although this boat was never built, it shows the experimenting nature around the team at the time and I’m sure the concept drafts of the hull were a sight to see (if anyone has seen these drafts, let me know).

 The Eastern tour was a struggle for the team as a whole.  The Pico team, despite finishing third in Phoenix and second in Evansville, was hampered by back to back Final Heat DNF’s at Madison and Norfolk and was a considerable distance behind Dave Villwock and the Miss Budweiser, who had swept the Eastern races, in the High Point standings.  Mark Weber, still getting his feet wet in the Unlimited class, showed some flashes of brilliance, especially in Madison where he finished third overall.  In Tri-Cities the season made a dramatic turn.  Dave Villwock was involved in a horrific accident in the first run of the Final Heat where he had to be revived after being pulled from the boat, badly damaging the T-5 and causing Villwock to miss the rest of the season due to the injuries sustained.  Mark Evans would win the Final Heat rerun and suddenly the Leland team was once again the team to beat. 

  For the second straight year, Bernie Little would turn to the driver of the U-99 to fill in for his injured driver and Mark Weber left the Leland team to drive the Miss Budweiser.  Without a driver, the U-99 would miss the following race in Kelowna, but Mark Evans would drive the U-1 Pico American Dream to victory for the second straight week. 

The 1997 Seattle race was another high water mark for the Leland team as a whole.  The beginnings were not bright, as Mark Evans flipped upside down in heat 2A.  Getting back into the water is always tough after a blowover, but the Leland team got a little extra time to do repairs thanks to one of the most unusual accidents in Unlimited history.  In the first rerun of heat 2A, the Miss E-Lam Plus got airborne and actually landed on top of the Miss Budweiser, where Mark Weber had to spin the boat in order to not run into the boats on the log boom. 

Repaired for the Final, Mark Evans jumped out to a big lead on the first lap and never looked back on his way to victory.  This was the first time in history where a boat would be involved in a blowover then go on to win the race.  Suddenly, “flip n’ win” became a part of the vocabulary of the hydroplane community.  Trailing behind Mark Evans in that final were the U-99 Stihl, driven by Mitch Evans (although Scott Pierce drove the boat in the preliminary heats) in fourth and another Leland hull, the U-98 Graham Trucking, driven by Jerry Hopp to a sixth place finish.  This was the first time in Unlimited racing’s modern era where three boats from the same owner started, and finished, the same Final Heat.  All in all the 1997 Seattle race a historic day for Leland Unlimited. 

Mark Evans would win his fourth consecutive race in San Diego, but a penalty in the Final Heat at Las Vegas would bring their incredible streak to a close.  In the season finale in Honolulu, Mark Evans would flip the Pico during testing.  The team made the decision to race the 1996-98 hull, initially slated to race as the U-99 that week, transferred to the U-1 team and finished an overall second.  Despite the incredible run to close out the year, the Pico American Dream would finish third overall in the High Points that year, and Mark Evans would lose the driving title to Mark Tate, who would finish more consistently across the season as a whole.

Heading into 1998, the Leland team was thinking championship for the U-100, but the season as a whole would turn out to be an exercise in frustration.   Once again the team debuted two hulls, one was a conventional hull which would serve as the primary hull for the U-100 for the majority of the season, and another new hull, an experimental design that placed the air intake below the driver.  The “dustbuster” as it came to be known, would serve as the primary hull for the U-99 with Rich Christensen behind the wheel.   In Detroit, along with Mark Evans and the U-100 and Christensen in the U-99, the team added a third entry, the U-101 Pico American Dream II, driven by Mark Tate, who was left without a ride after the untimely passing of owner Steve Woomer.  Not since the days of the “Dodge Navy” had so many boats under the same owner competed for the Gold Cup in Detroit.  The team wound up having a day where all three boats would struggle, finishing an overall sixth, seventh, and eighth overall respectively.  After Detroit, the dustbuster hydro experiment was abandoned and the efforts of the team became solely focused on the U-100 team.  The Pico boat had a bit of a rebound, winning in Kelowna after a fantastic start by Mark Evans and finishing second in Seattle. 

  It looked like the rebound would continue after Mark Evans made another on the wire start at Madison (the Madison race was in September that year) but the U-100 was given a controversial one lap penalty after it was determined that Evans had pushed out Villwock and the Miss Budweiser, causing them to hit a course marker.  The U-100 would wind up finishing fourth in Madison, then in San Diego the U-100 was penalized again, disqualified in the Final due to an N2 violation.  After this, the Leland team decided to take its losses and not enter into the final two races of the season.  Despite the bumps along the way, the U-100 would wind up finishing fourth overall in the 1998 High Points, although that is more indicative of the state of the field as a whole in 1998.

After a frustrating 1998, Fred Leland decided to go “all in” for 1999.  Chip Hanauer, inactive for nearly three full seasons, was lured out of retirement to take over driving duties for the U-100.  Despite not having an official teammate, the new U-15 Hopp Racing entry, which campaigned the 1996 Leland hull, was effectively the second Leland entry that season.  Hanauer wasted no time getting back to business, winning the season opener in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.   Rookie Greg Hopp turned heads by finishing third in the U-15.  After bad starts in Barrie and Evansville, Hanauer would find himself at the top of the podium again in Madison.  

Then in Detroit Hanauer would drive the Miss Pico to one of the most memorable Gold Cups in the history of that fabled trophy.  I have already covered this race in detail (see the archives) but this race was another high water mark for the Leland team, perhaps the highest of highs they would reach at any individual race.  It was also Hanauer’s 61^st victory, putting him one shy of tying the all-time record of Bill Muncey.

  It seemed like it was only a matter of time before Chip Hanauer would make history in the Miss Pico.  It would never come to be.  At the following race in Norfolk the Miss Pico would record a DNS in the final then was involved in a horrific blowover at Tri-Cities.  Greg Hopp would take over driving duties for the Miss Pico for the next two races and continued his fine rookie season by finishing second at both Seattle and Kelowna.  In San Diego, Chip Hanauer was back and, in a repeat of that year’s Detroit race, engaged in a deck to deck duel in the Final Heat with Dave Villwock and the Miss Budweiser.  Only this time, the Miss Budweiser came out on top.  In the season finale in Honolulu, the U-100 scored a DNF in the second set of heats then saw the Miss Budweiser fall back in the field of Heat 3A, allowing other boats to pass him and scoring enough points to mathematically eliminate the U-100 from any chance of making the Final.  As a result, the U-100 withdrew from the race before it ran in heat  3B, meaning that Chip Hanauer’s brilliant career officially ended with a DNF, a DNS, and an overall seventh place finish.  Despite the disappointing close to the season, the U-100 would finish second overall in the High Points.  The U-15, racing under a variety of names, would finish third in Havasu and Evansville, fourth in Barrie, Detroit, Norfolk, and Tri-Cities, and fourth overall in the High Points.  Along with the U-100 and the U-15, the U-20 and U-19 both raced former Leland hulls, while the U-3 raced a hull that was essentially a carbon copy of the Leland design modified to carry an Allison engine.  So the pits at this time were effectively wall to wall with Leland built hydroplanes.

A new century brought a number of changes around the Leland camp.  First, longtime sponsor Pico ended its relationship with Leland Unlimited.  Chip Hanauer also decided to retire for good, and in a move that shocked no one Greg Hopp took over as driver of the U-100.  For the season opener in Lake Havasu City, the U-100 raced as Miss Project X and finished fourth.  In Evansville the U-100, now racing as Znetix after securing sponsorship from the Seattle based Technology Company and debuting yet another new boat, appeared to finish second but was disqualified due to a fuel violation in the Final.  The decision was made then to skip the next two races, and although the reasons for this were never fully learned it meant that the U-100 team was not there to defend its two biggest race wins of the previous year.  In Tri-Cities, the U-100 was back and so was the U-99 Znetix II with rookie Terry Troxell as driver.  The Znetix II would finish fourth in Tri-Cities, while the Znetix would finish fourth in San Diego.  Overall, the U-100 would finish eighth overall in High Points and the Leland team would go a year with no podium finishes for the first time since 1991. 

Znetix returned as sponsor and the Leland camp once again decided to race two teams for the entirety of the 2001 season.  Both Hopp and Troxell were back.  Instead of having a clear primary team and a clear secondary team like in previous years, Leland Unlimited effectively raced the two teams with a near equal focus and nearly equal resources.  At the season debut in Evansville, Hopp finished third in the Znetix I, while Troxell had a minor accident and finished an overall eighth.  Troxell had an adventurous day in Madison that year.  First, he collided with the U-9 driven by Mike Hanson.  Then he veered into Greg Hopp’s lane, nearly blowing over the U-100 and incurring a one lap penalty, perhaps the only time in Unlimited history that a driver has been penalized for an infraction committed against his teammate. In the Final Heat Troxell was so early to the line that other teams suspected that he was trying to intentionally draw the rest of the field across the line so that his teammate Greg Hopp (starting as the trailer) could win the race.  In the end two other boats jumped the gun with Troxell but Steve David and the Oh Boy! Oberto made a legal start.  The U-100 challenged the U-6 briefly but eventually finished second while the U-99 finished fourth overall.  The U-100 would be runner-up again in Detroit with the U-99 finishing fifth.  Then in Tri-Cities the two teammates ran one-two for much of the Final Heat.   The Miss Budweiser eventually overtook Greg Hopp, but Troxel was able to hold off Villwock and the Znetix II scored the victory.  Once again, the Leland team was able to occupy two spots on the podium of a race. 

For the season the Znetiz I finished third overall in the High Points while the Znetix II finished sixth. 

2002 marked the end of an era for Leland racing.  Znetix got caught up in many of the corporate scandals happening in the early 2000’s and was out as sponsor.   Although Leland still campaigned two teams, they would need to rely on local sponsors, and when none could be found the U-100 would run as the Miss US (as a nod the explosion in patriotism in the aftermath of 9/11, they also returned the patriotic colors from the Leland golden era) while the U-99 raced under the amusing name Miss Troxzilla.  Troxel had a brilliant start to the season, finishing second in each of the first three races.  The U-100 would find the entire 2002 season to be a frustration, with its highest finish (and only Final Heat) being a seventh in Seattle.  The U-99 would finish fifth overall in points, while the U-100 finished tenth.  2002 would also be the last time that Leland Unlimited would campaign two boats on the full national tour.  As the 2000’s progressed, the U-100 would become an also ran on the tour for the most part.  Greg Hopp stayed with the team, as did many of the crew members who were there during the team’s heyday, but limited resources, lack of major sponsorship, and Leland’s own health issues prevented the team from achieving the same success they did in the 1990’s.  Despite this, the team deserves credit for being one of a handful of teams who have stayed pat during some tumultuous years around the sport and making it to nearly every race site.

In a decade, Leland Unlimited went from also ran, to an innovative but underfunded second tier team, to the team at the top of the sport, to a team that continued to win races and be a thorn in the side of better funded rivals, to also ran once again.  One thing I hope will never happen is that Leland Unlimited’s achievements in the 1990’s are somehow discredited by the struggles the team has had in recent seasons.  In many ways, Leland Unlimited of the 1990’s are like the Oakland A’s of the same era.  The A’s were a low revenue team who had to use innovative methods and search for talented but overlooked players to achieve success.  After this approach proved fruitful, many other teams with more resources in baseball adopted the A’s methods of assessing players while relegating Oakland to second division status.  Much in the same way, other teams in Unlimited Hydroplane racing began adopting the methods used by Leland Unlimited, or simply brought some of the key figures in the Leland team into their camp, all the while leaving the team from which many of these innovations originated to make do with limited resources.  The Leland’s legacy lives on, however, with the most visible aspect of this legacy being the unprecedented output of new hulls.  Between 1992 and 2000 the Leland team debuted eight new hulls, nine if one counts the Leland-inspired 1997 U-3 hull.  For a comparison, the rest of the fleet combined built and raced ten new hulls over that time, meaning that nearly half of all boats built during this time were built by the Leland team or a Leland design.  Whether it’s the constant output of new hydroplanes, innovations in racing, or being the breeding ground  or a number of drivers and crew members who would go on to bigger and better things, Leland Unlimited from 1992-2002 made a large positive impact on the sport as a whole.