The Kentucky Derby and Preakness are behind us, the Belmont
is this weekend, and once again horse racing will be without a Triple Crown
winner. The Triple Crown, the most
prestigious and rare (there hasn’t been one since 1978) accomplishment in horse
racing, is such a captivating achievement that its terminology has spilled over
into a countless number of other forms of competition, and naturally this
includes Motorsports. From a
historical standpoint, the Triple Crown of Motorsport has been understood as
the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Monaco Grand Prix. This is more a nod to the fact the historical
significance of these races, however, and competing in all three races within
the same year would be a near impossibility, especially since the Indianapolis
500 and Monaco GP are often held on the same day. In fact, only one person, Graham Hill, has
won all three races in his career.
During the 1970’s IndyCar attempted to promote its own Triple Crown of
the 500 mile races at Indianapolis, Ontario, California, and the Pocono Raceway
in Pennsylvania, but only the Indianapolis race was seen as the truly
prestigious race and the Ontario and Pocono races were eventually dropped from
the schedule (although a return to the Poconos is scheduled for this
season). For many years, NASCAR had a de
facto Triple Crown, as the season opening Daytona 500, Memorial Day Weekend
World 600, and Labor Day Weekend Southern 500 were seen as the circut’s “major”
races and were guaranteed to garner the most media attention. This too has fell by the wayside, however, as
expanded media coverage and changes in the traditional scheduling arrangement
by NASCAR, highlighted by the fact that the circut no longer races in
Darlington, South Carolina on Labor Day Weekend, means that this too has fell
by the wayside.
So what about hydroplane racing? I would argue that a Triple Crown has always
been there, even if it has rarely if ever been given its deserved
recognition. Since the formation of the
URC in 1957, three race sites have appeared on the schedule every single year:
Madison, Detroit, and Seattle. Although
they have had differing levels of prestige through the years (for its first
years the Madison race was seen as little more than just another small town
race) and have all had financial and logistical issues threaten their spot on
the schedule through the years, the fact that all three races have endured for
over a half century now means that all three hold their own special place among
hydroplane fans, observers, and of course competitors. Let’s take a look at the men and boats who
have won all three of these historic and prestigious races in the same season. It should also be noted that for the purpose
of this post I am counting the Silver Cup/Spirit of Detroit Race as opposed to
the Detroit Memorial Regatta as the leg of the Triple Crown in the years when
both races were run, as the Spirit of Detroit race is the one with the most
direct connection with the race that is still run to this day.
1962 Miss Century 21,
Bill Muncey: The first dynasty of the URC era was also the first team to
achieve the Triple Crown. The Willard
Rhodes-owned entry came into the 1962 season as the team to beat, having won
two championships and eight races in the previous two seasons. After a win in the season opening Diamond
Cup, the Century 21 team won all three heats in the Seattle Gold Cup at a race
that was more widely remembered for an accident that saw the Miss Seattle Too
disintegrate at the Start/Finish line on the first heat of the day. The Century 21 team was briefly challenged by
Bill Cantrell and the Gale V before they succumbed to mechanical issues and
Muncey went on to another perfect day on another rough course at the Spirit of
Detroit Regatta. At the Indiana
Governor’s Cup, the Century 21 team was once again largely unchallenged as they
won all three heats and hydroplane racing had its first Triple Crown winner.
1972 Atlas Van Lines,
Bill Muncey: Ten years after winning the first Triple Crown, Bill Muncey
repeated the feat with another team.
Muncey’s career was largely in limbo in the late 1960’s. Although he finally found a stable ride with
the Gale Enterprises entry in 1970, he found himself chasing the Miss Budweiser
for two seasons. His fortunes changed in
1972 and he had what was arguably the most dominant season in the history of
Unlimited racing, winning six of the season’s seven races and finishing second
in the seventh race. The Atlas Van Lines
team scored a convincing win at the Gold Cup in Detroit in a race in which
hardly anyone left unscathed, including Muncey himself who had to miss the Gold
Cup celebration in order to nurse sore ribs.
The following week’s Madison race could be seen as nothing more than a
major letdown, especially in comparison to the seeming unattainable high of the
1971 Madison Gold Cup Race. The field
had already dwindled to eight entries due to multiple teams taking the week off
to do repairs because of the previous week’s Detroit race. This included the Miss Madison, which sank in
the Detroit River during qualifying and would have to miss its home race for
the first (and to this point only) time since its debut in 1961. Tumultuous river conditions forced the race
to be delayed until Tuesday, and even then it could only be run when a recruited
armada of over fifty pleasure boats cleared debris to the best of their
ability. Despite the numerous setbacks,
Bill Muncey won the two preliminary heats that he entered and was awarded the
Indiana Governor’s Cup (which doubled as the UIM World Championship that year)
based on points after the Final had to be cancelled. The season finale at Seattle lacked the
tumultuous water conditions of Detroit and Madison, but Muncey found himself in
unfamiliar territory after engine problems forced him to a second place finish
to the Miss Budweiser in the first heat , but Muncey and the Atlas team
rebounded and won the Final Heat going away.
At the dock, Muncey acknowledged that this was indeed his greatest
season. The good times would not last
long , however, as the remaining three years of Muncey’s time with Gale
Enterprises would be filled with no wins and lots of frustrations. Much like the Chicago Bears had a
historically dominant season in 1985 that was sandwiched between a number of
good but not great Bears teams, the 1972 season domination would prove to be
the lone season in which the Bill Muncey/Gale Enterprises union would reach
such a level of dominance.
1978 Atlas Van Lines,
Bill Muncey In 1976 Bill Muncey became owner of his own team and subsequently
went on to his first championship since 1972.
In 1977 his team debuted a revolutionary new cabover hull and, despite
the fact that the time it took to dial the new boat in allowed the Miss
Budweiser to score enough points to win the title, it was no secret that the
Atlas Van Lines “Blue Blaster” hull was the class of the field. In 1978 Bill Muncey Racing was ready to
dominate. As if the best driver, best
crew chief, and best boat seen up until that time weren’t advantage enough for
the team, the fact that the rest of the field was having a low ebb moment meant
there was little in the way of Bill Muncey winning seemingly every trophy out
there. An omen of how the rest of the
season would go happened in the season opening Miami race, when Bill Muncey was
the lone starter for the Final Heat and would run five uncontested laps on his
way to the win. The following race was
the Spirit of Detroit Regatta and Bill Muncey was top qualifier and coasted to
two easy heat victories. In the Final
Heat Muncey was briefly challenged by Chip Hanauer in the Squire Shop, but
would eventually open up to a pretty comfortable victory with Hanauer finishing
second. Two weeks later at Madison
Muncey was once again top qualifier but also showed that he wasn’t invincible
with a DNF in his second heat. Despite
the setback Muncey would win the Indiana Governor’s Cup Final Heat going away
for his fourth straight win on the year.
A few weeks later in Seattle, Muncey would come into the pits coming off
his first loss of the year when a blown engine in the Final Heat of the
Columbia Cup resulted in a DNF.
Seemingly determined to show that the loss the previous week was a
momentary fluke, Muncey piloted the Atlas Van Lines to a qualifying record of
125 MPH on the two mile course. On race day, Muncey would suffer another
setback in the preliminary heats as a penalty relegated him to a third place
finish on the first heat of the day. In
the Final all the drivers on the course had to deal with an added obstacle
after a smoking engine from the Squire Shop II hull driven by Pete LaRock meant
that visibility on the course was nearly zero.
Despite the setbacks and obstacles, Muncey was able to cruise to an easy
victory in the Final, crossing the Finish Line more than thirty seconds before
the second place Miss Budweiser. The Atlas
Van Lines clinched the championship on that day, and Bill Muncey had his third
Triple Crown.
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1979 Atlas Van Lines, Bill Muncey Although the field was more competitive
on paper in 1979 than it was the previous year, there was little stopping Bill
Muncey behind the wheel of the Blue Blaster.
While the quality of the field might have seen a slight uptick in 1979,
the quantity of the field was dwindling as access to World War II era aircraft
engines were becoming more and more difficult to come by. At the 1979 Spirit of Detroit race, only six
Unlimiteds showed up in the pits, a far cry from the post war years when boat
counts for the Detroit race would sometimes approach twenty. Muncey would win the two preliminary heats
and the Final with relative ease. With
The Squire Shop and Miss Budweiser boats missing the Detroit race that year,
only Jack Schaffer and the Myrna Kay was there to offer resistance and he
trailed the Atlas in every heat. The
following week at Madison, which was hosting the Gold Cup that year, would see
a larger field of ten boats as the Miss Budweiser, Squire Shop, and Miss
Madison would all rejoin the field. Muncey would set a Gold Cup record in
qualifying with a lap of over 121 MPH but would actually finish second in one
of his qualifying heats to Steve Reynolds in the Miss Circus Circus. The Circus Circus and Squire Shop would
provide the Atlas its toughest competition in the Final as the Miss Budweiser
boat, which was still trying to figure out its new Griffon powered hull, fell
by the wayside in the preliminary heats.
In the end, the Final would prove to be a runaway as Muncey would pull
away from the field in the first lap and the true race became the race for
second, although even there Reynolds and the Circus Circus would distance
itself from Hanauer and the Squire Shop.
Muncey had easily won what would prove to be the last Gold Cup of his
brilliant career. After wins in El
Dorado, Kansas and Tri-Cities, Washington, Muncey came into Seattle riding an
eight race winning streak and little signs of slowing down. Contrary to the small field which showed up
to the Eastern races, a field of fifteen Unlimiteds showed up to the Seafair
pits (although only ten would score points that weekend). The huge Seattle crowd, seemingly growing
tired of Muncey’s dominance of the sport, was briefly brought to its feet when
the Atlas Van Lines went dead in the water in Heat 2B allowing Chuck Hickling
and the underdog Tempus to capture the win in the heat. The crowd was momentarily excited again when
it appeared that Steve Reynolds wired a perfect start in the Circus Circus and
opened up a huge lead, but it was soon learned that Reynolds had jumped the
gun, giving the victory to Muncey and the Atlas over Dean Chenoweth and the
Miss Budweiser. Muncey had his ninth
consecutive win, but hopes for a perfect season were dashed the following race
at Ogden, Utah when the Atlas would go dead in the water, allowing Chip Hanauer
to win his first career race in the Squire Shop. After another DNF in the Final Heat in San
Diego for Atlas allowed Steve Reynolds to win his first race in the Circus
Circus, there were questions of whether Muncey’s near perfect season was
blemished. Despite the setbacks at the
end of the season, there was no denying that Muncey’s brilliant 1979 campaign,
capped by his fourth Triple Crown (and by extension the fourth Triple Crown for
the sport as a whole) would not soon be forgotten.
1981 Miss Budweiser,
Dean Chenoweth The first Triple Crown to be won by someone not named Bill
Muncey in Hydroplane racing would prove to be his main competition for much of
his latter years. Despite turning in
some solid seasons in the late 1970’s, Bernie Little, never satisfied with
anything less than first, looked for a new advantage for his team and turned to
the much more powerful Rolls Royce Griffon engines in 1979. That season would prove to be a learning
experience as the Miss Budweiser would be left out of the winners circle and
the boat would actually be destroyed after the conclusion of the season during
an attempt to break the mile straightaway record. The next season the Budweiser team would
debut another Griffon power hull and this time the team was ready to dominate,
winning a record twenty heats in a row en route to the championship. In 1981, the Miss Budweiser team would
continue its dominance and this time a Triple Crown would be part of its
accomplishments. At the Spirit of
Detroit race, Chenoweth and the Budweiser would win with relative ease as it was
top qualifier, heat winner in both of its preliminary heats, then won the Final
without much of a challenge as its perennial rival Bill Muncey was
disqualified. At Madison, the Miss
Budweiser would once again face little competition, especially after both the
Atlas Van Lines and the Pay N Pak would both go dead in the water in the
Final. With only the hometown Miss
Madison left to give any kind of pressure, Chenoweth would coast to another
easy victory. The Seattle Gold Cup race
appeared to be more of the same after the Budweiser boat would be top qualifier
by a considerable margin and easily win its two preliminary heats, but in the
Final it found itself challenged by a suddenly alive Pay N Pak hydroplane. Despite a valiant effort by John Walters and
using technology that would come to dominate the sport a few years later, the
day belonged to Dean Chenoweth and the Griffon Powered Miss Budweiser and the
Budweiser team had its first Triple Crown.
1993 Miss Budweiser,
Chip Hanauer In 1992 Bernie Little needed a new driver so he turned to the
man who he had worked so hard to beat over the previous decade. Chip Hanauer, who had left the sport in 1991
to try his hand at sports car racing, would return to drive the Miss Budweiser. There were some questions as to whether the
two largely successful but very proud individuals could coexist, but winning
proved to be the ultimate balm as the team started off the 1992 season with
five straight wins, including wins at the Detroit Gold Cup and the Indiana
Governor’s Cup. Only a horrific blowover
in qualifying at Seattle would deny the Budweiser team a Triple Crown in
1992. In 1993, despite a loss in the
season opening race in Texas to Steve David, there was little stopping Chip
Hanauer and the Miss Budweiser. At the
Gold Cup, Hanauer seemed little phased by a Detroit River that was its usual temperamental
self and coasted to a relatively easy victory.
At Madison, the Miss Budweiser was once again dominant, winning by a
considerable margin despite having Mark Tate and the Winston Eagle nipping his
heels all the way. The only real
attrition came after the racing for the day was over, as the escape hatch blew
out of the Miss Budweiser during the cool down lap after the Final Heat. After
a brief trip to the hospital, Chip Hanauer was cleared to compete and the winning
ways continued. In Seattle the Miss Budweiser ran into some attrition in the preliminary heats and was assigned to lane five for the Final. Mark Tate steered the Winston Eagle to the lead, but suffered a high blowover in the second lap and its day was over. On the restart the Miss Budweiser opened up a lead at the start and didn't look behind as he coasted to a runaway win with Mike Hanson and the U-6 Kellogg's Frosted Flakes-Miss Madison finishing second.
Another win in Seattle
gave Miss Budweiser its second Triple Crown, and Chip Hanauer his first and
ultimately only such accomplishment.
After a 1992 and 1993 where there appeared to be little stopping the
Hanauer-Budweiser combination, many hydroplane observers expected a number of
years of continued dominance, but it wouldn’t come to be. Despite winning the next two championships, a
number of accidents that resulted in multiple trips to the hospital for Hanauer
meant that Mark Tate would take home the Driver’s championship both years and
the team as a whole would eek out championship wins over the Tate-driven Steve
Woomer entry. After another injury
causing accident in 1996 in Detroit, Hanauer resigned from the Budweiser
team. Despite the connection being brief
and not leading to the multiple years of unprecedented dominance that some had
predicted, the record breaking and dominant 1992 and 1993 seasons, capped off
by a Triple Crown win in 1993, was proof of what two highly talented but highly
proud people like Bernie Little and Chip Hanauer can accomplish when they put
their egos aside and work toward the same goal.
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1998 Miss Budweiser,
Dave Villwock Despite winning the championship the year before, the Miss
Budweiser team came into the 1998 season with a lot of question marks. Long time Crew Chief Ron Brown was gone,
being replaced by a then relatively unkown Mark Smith. Dave Villwock was returning from a horrific
accident in Tri Cities where he had to be resuscitated on the deck of his boat. Externally Mark Evans and the Pico American
Dream team had rattle off four straight wins in Villwock’s absence in 1997 and
looked poised to challenge the Budweiser team for its throne. With all these questions, the Budweiser team
responded with a historically dominant 1998 season. After a dominant win in the season opener at
Evansville, Villwock was top qualifier at the Gold Cup in Detroit but hit a
snag in Heat 2A when it was determined that the Budweiser jumped the gun and
was forced to run an extra lap. After
arguing with officials for an hour after the heat, Villwock acknowledged the
right call was made after reviewing the video and went on to race the following
day. This time Villwock stayed safely
behind the line and went on to comfortable wins in the third and fourth heats
as well as a convincing win in the Final Heat with Steve David and the Chrysler
Jeep trailing. The Pico team, perhaps
spread a little too thin as Leland Unlimited had three entries in the Detroit
race, recorded a DNS in the Final.
At
Seattle, the Final Heat looked it was shaping up to be a showdown between
Villwock and the Miss Budweiser and Mitch Evans and the Apian Jeronimo. Drawn into separate heats all day, the
Jeronimo won all three of its heats while the Budweiser won two and jumped the
gun in another heat. The expected
showdown at the Final wouldn’t come to fruition, as the Jeronimo boat would be
disqualified for cutting off the field at the first turn of the first lap. The Pico would lead the first couple of laps, but Villwock would overtake him and open up a decent lead at the end with Evans trailing. Despite the protests of Mitch
Evans, the penalty against him was upheld.
Next up was the Madison race, which had to be postponed to Labor Day due
to high waters on its scheduled date. The
late season race meant that many of the Washington based teams would choose to
stay home instead of make the long trek back east and only seven teams were in
the pits. The Apian Jeronimo, perhaps
still upset over their back to back Final Heat disqualifications, skipped the
trip. So did perennial contender U-8
Llumar Window Film. Despite the small field, the day was once again looking to
be a duel between two boats, Villwock and the Miss Budweiser, and this time
Mitch’s brother Mark Evans in the Pico boat.
Both were drawn into separate heats all day. Evans and the Pico won all three of its heats,
and did Villwock and the Budweiser but not without controversy. In Heat 3B the
Miss Madison wired a perfect start and appeared to have the heat in hand after
the Miss Budweiser struck a buoy. It was
determined, however, that the Miss Madison had encroached on the Budweiser,
thus forcing Villwock into a buoy and resulting in a disqualification for the
Miss Madison and Mike Hanson. The few
fans who did attend the postponed race showed their displeasure, and even the
WORX radio crew got Mark Allen, who was in his first and last race serving as
the UHRA commissioner, to admit on the air that he had not seen the video which
had led to the call. The Final Heat was
expected to be a showdown between Evans and Villwock, but once again
controversy ensued. As the field creeped
up to the line for the Final, Evans broke from the field and wired a perfect
start, then widened his lead on the backstretch. Coming out of the second turn on lap one,
Evans made the course as wide as possible for Villwock with his roostertail,
and once again the Miss Budweiser struck a buoy and once again it was
determined that the other boat had “forced” the Budweiser into the buoy, thus
giving the Pico a one lap penalty and giving the Budweiser an easy route to
victory. Behind him, more attrition
happened as the Steve David in the U-2 Freddie’s Club spun out in the last
turn, thus giving longtime competitor Ken Muskatel his first and only podium
finish as he came in second. Miss
Madison, which had started as the trailer, finished third.
Despite the controversy that arose from
having a rarely called penalty called two, and both to the benefits in a row,
and both to the benefit of the Budweiser team, there was no denying that the
Miss Budweiser had a dominant season with a record eight race wins that was
capped off by a Triple Crown.
2000 Miss Budweiser,
Dave Villwock Unlike 1998, the only question coming into 2000 for the Miss
Budweiser team was whether or not anybody could stop them. They had introduced the T-6, a hull that was
the class of the field the moment its sponsons got wet and only seemed to get
better from there. Their rivals in the
Leland Unlimited camp were undoubtedly facing a season of transition, as driver
Chip Hanauer retired and they lost the longtime support of Pico. Also going through a time of transition was
the U-2 Harvey Motorsports as they parted ways with longtime driver Steve
David. As if that wasn’t enough of an
advantage, there was a rumor going around that Bernie Little was looking to “buy”
the sport as a whole. Although nobody
seemed to know what that meant at the time, it made everyone a little
uneasy. On the water, there was little
stopping Dave Villwock and what was arguably the best crew put together in the
history of the sport. After easy wins in
Lake Havasu, Arizona and Evansville, the tour rolled into Madison with two less
entries as the Leland team was mysterious in their absence. Of the nine boats who did compete in Madison,
the Miss Budweiser was seemingly the only boat that escaped unscathed as the
Ohio River was its usual ornery self.
The York Heating & Air, driven by Mark Weber, lost a rudder in
qualifying after striking a piece of debris.
Second fastest qualifier Mark Tate in the U-2 Freddie’s Club lost a
gearbox prior to the start of its first heat and it was done for the day. The Miss Budweiser wired a perfect start in
the Final and didn’t look back en route to its record tying ninth consecutive
race win, being trailed by Mark Weber in the U-10 York (with a new rudder) and
Mike Hanson in the U-9 Jones Racing.
The following week at Detroit, the Leland team was once again absent and
once again the biggest challenge to the Budweiser would seem to be the course
itself, as the Final had to be delayed four hours due to high winds. Despite the conditions, the Miss Budweiser
was able to plough through with little resistance, in the process winning a
record breaking tenth consecutive race and giving Villwock the honors of being
the all-time winningest Miss Budweiser driver.
Mark Weber in the York trailed while his teammate George Stratton, who
had garnered attention earlier in the day by barely missing a boat that was
dead in the water and the Detroit seawall, finished third.
As the tour made the trek west, news broke
that Bernie Little, in partnership with Gary Garbrecht, was indeed buying the
sanctioning rights of Unlimited Hydroplane racing and the following year would
launch a new sanctioning body known as Hydro-Prop. For the time being, however, the focus was on
whether or not the Miss Budweiser would achieve the elusive perfect season, as
it seemed that only a catastrophic event would stop the Miss Budweiser. As it turned out, a catastrophic event would
happen in the following race in Tri-Cities.
A collision with Ken Muskatel badly damaged the Miss Budweiser and,
despite finishing the heat, it was determined that the boat was too damaged to
finish the race. The streak was
over. So was the T-6 for the year. Coming into Seattle with the T-5, the Miss
Budweiser suddenly looked human, especially after it lost all three of its
preliminary heats. The boat lost its
canard wing in its first heat and Villwock was forced to slow his boat down for
a third place finish. Bad starts in the
second and third heats, along with a much stronger field than what started off the
year with a return of the Leland boats and the Miss E-Lam Plus, meant that the
Budweiser would finish third and second respectively. Despite this, Villwock wired a perfect start
in the Final and won the Final Heat going away.
Mike Hanson was able to pick up a surprise second in the U-9 entry.
Despite being denied in their bid for a
perfect season, the Miss Budweiser team could lay claim to having the closest
thing to such an accomplishment in the turbine era and their fourth Triple
Crown.
2009 Miss E-Lam Plus,
Dave Villwock The most recent Triple Crown winner is also a rarity among
teams who have accomplished this feat: A
team that won the Triple Crown despite not having a dominant season, not
winning the championship, or even any other races outside of the three classic
race sites. The E-Lam was indeed looking
like the team to beat heading into 2009.
After running an abbreviated schedule in 2008, the E-Lam team rolled
into Madison with the U-1 stickers still attached, a clear message that they
still saw themselves as the top team in the sport. Madison left little doubt to these boasts, as
the E-Lam Plus won all three of its preliminary heats, beating newly minted U-1
Oh Boy! Oberto-Miss Madison in all three heats.
In the Final Villwock opened up a decent lead in the first lap then was
able to push J. Michael Kelly in the Graham Trucking to the outside en route to
victory. Kelly finished second while
Steve David was able to take advantage of the Formula Boats entry suffering
engine problems and the U-3 going dead within feet of the Finish Line to claim
third.
In Detroit, perennial rivals
David and Villwock were drawn into separate heats in all four preliminary heats
and it looked like David might have the upper hand (as well as the inside lane)
after a penalty in heat 4A was called on the Ellstrom entry. Despite having the inside lane, however,
Villwock was able to win the Gold Cup going away, giving Villwock his sixth
Gold Cup and a very memorable picture of Steve David sitting dejected on his
boat in the next day’s edition of the Madison Courier. All thoughts of E-Lam invincibility were
lost, however, after numerous penalties against them in the Tri-Cities race
meant that not only had they lost their first race of the year but would lose
the High Point lead coming into Seattle.
After claiming top qualifier, Villwock would edge David in the first
heat. After finishing behind Jimmy King
in the U-3 and Steve David in the U-1 in heat 2A, Villwock would win over King
in heat 3A while David took heat 3B. The
Final was shaping up to be a three way race.
Villwock jumped out to a lead in the Final, but was challenged early by
Steve David. In the last lap David,
which seemed comfortable to take second place points in life to fight another
day, came high out of the water and came down hard, resulting in the engine
overheating and the U-1 losing multiple spots on the course. This allowed Jimmy King to finish second in
the U-3. Villwock won the race and,
despite still trailing the Oberto in points, apparently had the momentum going
into the final two races of the year, but a blowover in Evansville and a badly
compressing engine in Doha gave Steve David and the less spectacular but more
consistent Oh Boy! Oberto-Miss Madison just enough daylight to claim the
championship. So while Villwock and the
E-Lam team won the Triple Crown in 2009, the big crown stayed in Madison.
Much
like the “real” Triple Crown has only been won eleven times, the fact that
Hydroplane Racing’s own version of the Triple Crown has only been won nine
times shows the significance of its achievement. It should also be of note that the only four
drivers to accomplish this feat are the top four on the list of all time race
winners in the sport, so it’s certainly an achievement meant for the upper
echelon. Also, I realize that other
races can rival these three in terms of prestige, especially the Washington, DC
President’s Cup race in earlier years and the current Doha Oryx Cup race in
modern times, but it should be noted that the longevity of the Madison,
Detroit, and Seattle races only add to their prestige and thus set them apart
from other races on the schedule in their own special way. If a driver and team win the Triple Crown,
they certainly have accomplished something.
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