Jeff Ayler (WORX 96.7 FM) and
Charley Wiggins (UL-10 Earl's Performance Products)
speaking on the evening of 4/13/00.

JA:  Joining us on the phone lines from NASCAR territory down in Gadsden, Alabama is Charley Wiggins.  Charley, good evening.

CW:  Hey Jeff, how are you doing tonight?

JA:  Ah doing great.  How did a guy from Winston Cup territory end up driving on the water? 

CW:  Well, that's a good question.  We're getting ready to go to the track this weekend for the Die Hard 500 here.  Talladega is right down the street from us practically.  My father grew up racing back when there was a lot of boat racing down in the southeast.  He came along from there and when I was fourteen, he got me started.  I get that question a lot, but at one time boat racing was pretty big in the southeast.

JA:  I tell you what Charley, I think you are excellent out there driving the UL-10.  Last year you campaigned Kim Gregory's former Wildfire.  That was a step up from the hull you had which was not too bad.  What was the difference between those two hulls?

CW:  The biggest difference between the hulls was the weight as far as performance.  This hull is quite a bit lighter than the one we had before.  It is also a Ron Jones design.  It's a little bit more state of the art with the composite materials and the canard wing on the front.  That let's you drive it in conditions that sometimes the other boat wouldn't go through.  Those are the biggest differences.  The boat really planes better than the other boat so we can approach the starting line at a slower speed and still grab the inside lane.  Sometimes we couldn't do that with the other boat.  That made a big difference.

JA:  Great season for you last year Charley.  Seven races on the ULRS series this year. It starts off in Lake Havasu May 19th through the 21st.  I'm sure you'll be at that second one up in Issaquah.  Do you plan trucking from Alabama to Washington state?  

CW:  Well we are still looking at that one as an option.  It's a really long way from home and right now we don't have the sponsorship to take us to that race, but we are still working on that.  Right now our plan would be to go to Havasu then come back and pick up the east coast.  I guess we would come on to Madison without the Evansville race having the Lights.  Previously we had kind of considered that our hometown race since it was the closest one to us.  If it's okay with the folks in Madison, we're going to adopt Madison as our hometown race.

JA:  That's no problem with me if the Wiggins family wants to name the Madison course their home course.  I tell you what Charley, this mile and two thirds here is tight.

CW:  It really is.  Last year... well, when we first came there I guess under the 7 liter boat campaign, we won that race.  I don't know if you remember that, but we did with the former hull that we had.  We really liked the course then although it was very tight.  I thought we had the setup last year to win again.  We struggled Friday and Saturday, but by Sunday morning we had a good setup.  Our testing lap was faster than anything that had been turned over the weekend.  We ended up having engine trouble and ran second.  We're working on some new things for Madison.  We really think we are going to have a good setup for that tight race course.

JA:  Charley, you've always run hard in the Unlimited Lights class.  When it started five years ago, did you think it would be where it's at today or is it beyond your expectation.

CW:  I really thought it would grow about like it has.  There seems to really be a lot of interest in the class over the last year, year and a half.  I really thought that would have caught on a little quicker.  It really seems to be getting some momentum now, it's a shame we lost a couple races.  I think we will rebound next year with the race sites.  We're going to have a good showing this year.  I think maybe in the long run that will really help us.  Because there is only a handful of races, we'll have a good showing at each of them.

JA:  Charley, as we've mentioned, you are one of the hot rides on the Unlimited Lights Racing Series.  Let's talk about equipment for your team.  You like to run up in the front and win races and with that, you can get a little breakage problem...  How many motors do you take to each race site?

CW:  We have one in the boat when we come.  Then we've got two backups in the truck.  Typically that's the way we run.  It's the way we ran all of last year.  By the time we got to Kelowna, we were on our third.  Nothing major with the other two, but it got to the point where we couldn't run them without causing major damage to them.  This year, if things work out, by Lake Havasu we'll have two in the truck, one in the boat and one at the shop.  Definitely by Madison we'll have four to swap around.  We'll make sure that we don't have any problems with any of the heats.

JA:  Four engines for an Unlimited Light team this year.  Is that at the top of the level or do maybe the Haas family or Larimore, do they carry more in the truck than you do?

CW:  I really don't know. Typically, I know Bob was carrying one spare.  I don't know what he keeps back at the shop.  Randy I think has one, always has one in the truck and Bud Gilbert always has one at his house ready to go it seems like.  We accumulate them over the years because we really don't break them that often, knock on wood.  We had a little problem last year, but no major problems.  Over the years, we've tried to build one new one each winter.  That's given us a nice arsenal there to really go after Randy and Bob and some of those guys. 

JA:  Charley, who do you think is your toughest competitor going into the year 2000?  The UL-16 is not there with the Allen stable.  It's in the Haas stable.  Randy said earlier tonight that they are going to start out with last year's craft.  He's definitely right up there with you as one of the front runners.

CW:  Randy is really going to be tough.  I guess I'm not too worried about him getting the other hull.  Their engine program is really strong.  I know they'll be fast if he can keep it right side up this year.  Bob's really going to be quick this year with their boat.  They've got a new lighter bottom in it.  There are really going to be some fast boats.  Phil Bononcini and Joe Frauenheim have a strong program when they get everything put back together.  When we were in San Diego there were about four of us that ran within about four miles an hour of each other in qualifying.  If we pick up where we left off last year, everybody's going to be fast.  It's really going to come down to who gets the best lane, who gets the good starts and who can really drive the course the best.

JA:  Charley we've talked about the engine program for the Unlimited Lights.  The propeller program's real important for the Unlimited hydroplanes back in the mid-80's when the turbine boats started to handle so much better.  They had to make changes in the propeller to make it hold up longer.  What's the story on propeller usage and durability in the Light class?

CW:  That's a good question.  Obviously, we would like to all be using the quality of propellers that the Unlimiteds are using, but the cost is so prohibitive.  They cost $9,000 or $10,000 a piece.  What most of us are using is a cast propeller.  Many of them start with a mercury casting.  For a cast propeller, your really doing well.  Mercury's made some adjustments to make the propellers last longer.  Basically you just have to buy new propellers and work on them and just watch the time on them.  You can't run them too long.  You've got to crack check them after almost every heat.  When you see a little crack starting that one becomes a paperweight.  I think the class, when the sponsorship money really starts to come in and the prize money gets up to where we need it to be, you will really start to see a lot of forged propellers start to show up.

JA:  Charley, you are a great driver in the Unlimited Lights Racing Series.  Of course this series is the stepping stone up to the Unlimiteds.  Is it a dream someday for Charley Wiggins to drive an Unlimited?

CW:  There's no question about that.  From when I started around 17 years ago.  Just like a kid playing baseball wants to make it to the major leagues, I've always wanted to get to the premiere class in hydroplane racing.  That being the Unlimiteds.  Unfortunately, up until now, that opportunity hasn't come along.  We haven't been able to put something together to get me to that level.  We hope and we dream in the future that will become a reality.

JA:  Talking about the Unlimiteds.  Do you have an Unlimited pilot that you've admired watching throughout his career or maybe a current driver in the series?

CW:  Well I guess if you walk in my bedroom from my hometown house in Gadsden, you'd see Chip Hanauer on the wall.  He was the hot driver when I was a kid growing up and watching him.  It's hard to point anyone else out with the success he's had.  I used to gauge my steps to the Unlimiteds to think that I had to try to be as good as him.  I wanted to be in the Unlimiteds at about the same age.  I think he got in one at about twenty-one.  There are very few people at twenty-one who have a chance to drive an Unlimited.  He's really done well and been very successful.  Dave Villwock in recent years has really shown what he can do with a race boat and with the team organizing  and managing the team.  Obviously those are the two that I would look to for guidance and would like to race against sometime.

JA:  Well Charley, we appreciate the call down from Gadsden, Alabama, just a few miles away from Talledega where the Winston Cup boys are racing this weekend.  When you go over there this weekend tell Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart that Jeff Ayler said hello and good luck.

CW:  I'll do it if I get a chance.  I'm sure we'll eat dinner or something. <laughter>

JA:  Well Charley, we appreciate the call tonight and good luck to you and the Wiggins family this year in the UL-10 on the Unlimited Lights Racing Series.

CW:  We thank you very much.

JA:  Charley Wiggins on the phone with us from Gadsden, Alabama, driver of the UL-10 Earl's Performance Products.