Harold Mills featured in African American Sports Magazine.

 

Former UL-40 driver Harold Mills is featured in the current issue of African American Sports Magazine, written by George Fosty.

 

What we see often depends on what we are looking for. Ask most marketing experts and they will tell you that Harold Mills is not the kind of athlete corporate sponsors seek out when it comes to "promoting" their products or company name.

 

First of all, Harold Mills is a solid family man - he has been married to his wife, Vicki, for almost 30 years and is the father of three successful children. Second, he is a soft spoken, well mannered gentleman - a difficult concept to market in an age where marketability is defined often in terms of outlandish behavior. Third he is 51 years of age, a symbol of endurance over youthfulness, a curse in the eyes of those who believe old age begins at 19. And fourth, he is an African American.

 

Mills, one of only a handful of Unlimited Lights Hydroplane drivers who has obtained national recognition, lives a modest life in Renton, Washington. During the week he works as a delivery driver for DHL Airborne Express. On weekends, however he spends much of his time performing in the Unlimited Lights circuit. In a recent article, Tri-City Herald Reporter Jahmal Corner wrote:

 

"Harold Mills is not a token African American hydroplane driver. He isn't part of the Unlimited Lights circuit just to make history, to become the first black driver to compete at the Columbia Cup, or to garner the same honor at Seafair...though he did, and he will...He's paid his dues to get here, and it's paying off. And that alone might mean as much to Mills as any racial significance his being in the sport of hydroplane racing has."

 

Mills goes one step further. He states: "If you receive something just because of your race or gender, then you haven't really made it in my opinion. (The sport of hydroplaning) has kept affirmative action out of it. You have to earn what you get."

 

Harold Mills has raced hydroplanes for over 20 years. As a youngster growing up in Renton, a sleepy community near Seattle, he frequently watched hydroplane races on Lake Washington. He and the neighborhood kids often would venture down to the shoreline to view the boats up close and seek the autographs of the drivers. Nobody told Harold that the sport was "a white domain". There were no organized efforts to keep him at bay or to limit his dreams.

 

"When I was a little kid hydroplane racing was the only major league sport in town," Mills said. "All three television stations in Seattle broadcast the Seafair races. They even broadcast the time trials. It was very impressive." When other kids were playing baseball, Harold and his friends were organizing model hydroplane races on their blocks. "We had boats on the brain," he said. "I have great memories of those days."

 

In the late 1970s, up until 1985, Mills raced his own craft in the hydroplane circuit. From 1985 to 1989 he retired from driving, preferring to promote the sport as an organizer rather than as a driver. In 1989, he returned to racing, teaming up with his longtime friend, Nick Badolato, to race a 7-litre boat.

 

That same year, he witnessed the death of his closest friend Vern Haworth, when Haworth's boat crashed during a race. "He was like a brother," Mills said. "It was the hardest thing I've ever gone through...before the race I had asked him he would continue to race if anything ever happened to me. He said he would. He said if he had to go it would be great to go in a hydroplane race."

 

During the 1990s, Mills continued to race moving up to the Unlimited class as the first African American to pilot a turbine powered unlimited hydroplane. He is the first black man to race at Seafair as well as becoming the first ever black hydroplane national champion. In 2000, he won 23 of 26 races that he entered and has won more than 100 races in his career. In 2004, he was honored for his accomplishments by the Black Heritage Society of Washington State.

 

That same year, he escaped serious injury when the hydroplane, "Fast Freddy", which he was driving disintegrated during a race somersaulting 2 -1/2 times before coming to a stop. At the time of the accident, Mills was going almost 140 miles an hour. Undaunted by his close call, Mills spent part of the day autographing pieces of the wreckage for the fans.

 

During a recent telephone interview, Mills underplayed the dangers of the sport by emphasizing the positive aspects.

 

"The sport has been good to me," he said. ""I have no complaints". When asked about sponsorship (or lack thereof), he did acknowledge that problems exist. "Hydroplane racing is a regional sport and there is no national television coverage". As a result, it is difficult to raise the funds necessary to compete. Still, he remains optimistic. "The sport is growing...every year it gets better."

 

Yet, regardless of all these potential marketing flaws, Mills continues to attract attention and admiration wherever he goes. Those in the hydroplane circuit realize greatness when they see it. Mills is the personification of how sports used to be seen and played before it was "packaged" for today's audiences. He is old school, the kind of athlete who shakes the hands of children and gives them his autograph without charging a fee. An ageless example of the way American sports was meant to be played, Mills is an inspiration to us all.

 

George Fosty.

 

 

African American Sports Magazine P.O. Box 6464, Oakland, CA 94614, 510-452-2693

e-mail: afrosportshall@aol.com, website: www.afrosportshall.com

Arif Khatib, Publisher.  African American Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, Director

We welcome Best Western  to the Unlimited Light Hydroplane Racing Association, Inc. 

ULHRA, Inc members will now be able to save when registering for Best Western accommodations.  It doesn't matter which Best Western Hotel you choose, and it doesn't have to be during racing season.  Anytime you need a hotel reservation, anywhere in the world, save with ULHRA and Best Western  You must be a current ULHRA member in order to utilize this money saving service and all members will be notified how to take advantage of this tremendous new opportunity. 

 

Best Western is the world's largest hotel chain with a worldwide standard for service and amenities. 

The mother of 2005 Unlimited Light Rookie of the Year, Wil Muncey, passed away after a lengthy health challenge.  "Kit" Muncey-McIntosh, former wife of legendary race driver Bill Muncey was well known herself in Unlimited Hydroplane circles.  Here is an article penned by ULHRA Historian Fred Farley, with comments from Debi Muncey, wife of Wil Muncey who worked with the late Mrs. McIntosh, and also an article penned by "Kit" for the Seattle Times, some 34 years ago. 

KIT MUNCEY REMEMBERED

By Fred Farley - ABRA Unlimited Historian

I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mary "Kit" Muncey-McIntosh, who passed away on February 14, 2006.

Kit Muncey was the first wife of boat racing great Bill Muncey. Kit's daughter-in-law, Debi Muncey, sent along the following note:

"She was the First Lady of boat racing for a number of years, having been married to Bill Muncey for 17 years. Her passing was not unexpected inasmuch as she had been battling an inoperable brain tumor for decades. Those who
knew her, knew what a strong and vibrant woman she was.

"She was a dramatic and dynamic influence on the racing scene in her day Sadly, in her prime, she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and the limelight was not the place for her any longer. I feel very fortunate that we and Wil's brothers were all able to be at her side when her time came."

Kit was a well-known and respected member of the Unlimited hydroplane community in the 1950s and '60s. She exuded a great dignity and was always a credit to her husband and to the sport. She was genuinely nice.

I had the opportunity to work with Kit in the early 1980s. She was remarried at the time to a wonderful gentleman named Wally McIntosh. I was associated with BOATRACING MAGAZINE, which was published by Wil Muncey, Jr. Wil
prevailed upon his mother to write a few columns for the magazine and assigned me to be her editor.

It was a rewarding experience. I found her to be incredibly talented. Kit really should have been my editor instead of the other way around.

In 1972, Kit wrote what is perhaps the most perceptive article ever written by a boat racing "insider" for THE SEATTLE TIMES. She and Bill had been divorced for three years. But nowhere is she petty or vindictive as she tells the compelling story of hydroplane competition from a wife's perspective.

Kit writes of a time when the safety technology was nowhere near as advanced as it is today--before the introduction (in 1986) of the F-16 canopy.

The following is reprinted in her honor.

14 YEARS ON THE SIDELINES: A WIFE'S VIEW OF ROOSTERTAILING

By Kit Muncey

The world of hydro racing as seen from the outside is one thing; from the inside, as a driver's wife, it is another thing altogether.

I spent 14 years of a 17-year marriage on the sidelines, watching the unlimiteds throw up roostertails, seeing bodies careening through the air, hearing sirens screaming from the pits, watching newsmen crane their cameras for a better angle of the victims and the survivors - in my case, the wife.

Eleven of my friends are dead from this game, nine from hydros, and the two others violently; so I speak from a vantage point that is perhaps not so happy as for the fan sipping beer before his TV set or watching through binoculars above a sunny lake.

It began on our honeymoon when my husband said: "Honey, we're going to Fort Lauderdale."

"To visit your parents?"

"Nope! I'm gonna race a 225 hydro."

I should have known then. That should have given me a hint of what was ahead, warned me; but I was young, life was to be an adventure; and I wouldn't have believed how exciting, and exacting, or foreseen how taxing a life.

What began as a sport and a pastime became a preoccupation for him and then finally the most important thing in his life, as my husband graduated from small hydroplanes, which he owned himself and raced on the Eastern circuit, to unlimiteds which he eventually jockeyed all over the United States.

From a 16-foot boat driven by an automobile engine, to a 30-foot machine propelled by one and two airplane power plants; from speeds of 112, to a record-breaking mile run at 200 miles an hour, he fought his way through the speed and danger range.

Racing on the big circuit meant that we traveled a lot. We went to Las Vegas, Reno, Tahoe, Detroit, Washington, D. C., Seattle, Sacramento, San Diego, Coeur d'Alene, Chelan, to Kelowna in Canada.

There was variety. We went off alone water skiing on Lake Coeur d'Alene; plenty of smooth water, mountains, privacy. We gambled in Nevada's palaces beside millionaires and bums. We met gangsters and a President, movie actresses and actors, governors and clowns. We rode in parades, in a blimp, in countless jets, private planes, on motorcycles, in yachts, in chauffeured limousines. We were wined, dined and entertained from coast to coast.

Sometimes it was fun. Sometimes it was exciting, often enlightening, often illuminating, always varied.

But not at the race, not for me. The race was always a trial, a test of my fortitude and of my husband's courage, his skill.

A hydroplane is a boat that is designed to ride lightly over the water, with only three points of her hull actually touching when underway, and with her propeller one blade at a time in the water. Because the prop is surface riding, a long plume follows the craft, making a spectacular and dramatic picture. This plume is called a roostertail. It contains tons of water and becomes an obstacle, a weapon, a stratagem.

All sorts of ideas have been tried by designers to make hydros go faster. Boats have progressed from the oversize runabouts to hydroplanes; from cigar shape to pitchfork. Engines have been used singly, two in tandem and side by side. Aircraft engines have been converted, their gearbox changed from twisting a propeller through the air to screwing one over the water; from a 1-3 ratio to a 3-1 ratio.

Carburetors are modified for better breathing of the engine, ignition systems are altered to reduce the possibility of crossfire, and the cooling has to be changed to give more protection to engine parts that will be forced to higher speeds. Special fuels are created. Additives are combined until a boat is not a boat, not a plane, but a screaming power plant. It is held together with ingenuity and skill and maneuvered over the water by a man who has to have those qualities, plus guts.

While we were married, my husband, Bill Muncey, won every major unlimited event, many of them several times. He captured the Gold Cup four times, the Governor's Cup three times, the President's Cup four times. Other trophies filled our house and the Seattle Yacht Club with silver and gold as he went on to build a record that has not been equaled. All this attracts and creates a human environment out of the money and terror of racing, one in which you find yourself in a psychological pit that has little to do with servicing hydros, but a great deal to do with testing people.

The wives, or "ladies in waiting," are often extremely attractive. I enjoy knowing gals like Sandy Wilson who breeds, trains and shows horses; Penny Simon, who looks like a college girl, though she has 10 children; the beautiful Bardahl sisters; gracious Edith Rhodes; Betty Musson, the ex-model with the volatile temperament; the serene Faye Brow, and the wives of the crew members who thoughtfully make small talk to distract a driver's wife, and come to race after race to reinforce their men, spending long hours in tedium.

The world of unlimited-hydroplane racing is a unique environment, one in which you have to be an initiate, or you can't understand the language. "Who's she?" someone often asks at the race.

"A lizard," is a common reply. Though not easily translated, it is a precise enough term.

These are strictly amateur women whose dedication to the sport is evidenced by their presence in the guarded, exclusive areas of the pits. They lounge behind roped-off sections and in private viewing stands.

They wear badges which prove their right to be close to the boats - and to the men who own, manage and run the boats. It's these badges that separate the participants from the spectators, the men from the boys, the friends from the fans.

Wives can spot pit lizards at 500 yards. Fortunately for me, my husband was a moral, deepwater Baptist, and these creatures were part of the scenery.

There were all kinds of feminine flora and fauna. For instance, there was Mary. She was usually called "Big" Mary, because she was a smashing six feet of pulchritude who wore striking clothes, and - always - a large hat. One year one of the boat owners, a man of robust reputation, paid Big Mary $100 a day to wear a bathing suit with a big hat. No one wore bathing suits in the pits, but she did and went everywhere.

The lizard that would raise the hackles on any wife's neck I met one evening at the Seattle Yacht Club, posed against the bar flaunting a sable boa. Not married, she was dramatic, dark and devastating. Black Russian in hand, she announced: "I'm with that driver over there."

She pointed to a man I knew well. Laughing, she proclaimed that: "His wife's here in town but, Honey, she won't be allowed in the pits or near the boat."

That was part of this female's particular terms, her victory and claim to fame.

There is something about sudden death in racing that upsets people. Even the men who court it. It's bad enough when it is a distinct possibility; but quite another when it starts happening to one after another of your friends, as it did in unlimited racing several years ago.

I remember the accidents. I remember the funerals. I remember running a long distance from a barge on Lake Washington along a floating rampway to reach an ambulance before a thrashing rescue helicopter set down when Bill Muncey's Miss Thriftway hit a Coast Guard picket boat.

I made it with the help of many uniformed and anxious people who cleared the way. I remember their faces saying: "Hope he lives!"

The rocketing ride to the hospital with three motorcycle-police escorts was a scene from Mission Impossible. The emergency-room routine is a nightmare; harried aides in blood-spattered white hand out pieces of clothing as they are cut off.

Later, Bill addressed the press from his hospital bed. Exhausted, his best friend perhaps dead, his boat damaged, he faced the cameras and made a speech to the effect that he would be out there next week.

"A little rest, a new boat, a few bandages and I'll race again. Certainly."

Well, a hero is a hero. Everything he says has to reflect happy resolution, defiant courage, complete confidence. The lot of the warrior who remains standing is not all easy. He has to learn to act.

When confronted with the carnage of the past few years, a racer has to come to some private appraisal or reappraisal of his choice of livelihood. The sport itself makes an effort at self-preservation, establishing safety-study committees. Every competitor has to belong to the American Power Boat Association. Drivers have to take yearly physicals, produce a pilot's certificate and qualify in their boats before a first race.

The boats are checked by measurers and by a safety committee. Owners have vital engine parts dye-checked and x-rayed. The A. P. B. A. requires compulsory insurance for drivers, and many owners add to this.

My husband was insured with Lloyds of London for $100,000. I have no idea what the premium on that one was. Owners usually contract to pay all hospital bills.

The families stand the tab for the funerals, take care of the maimed and visit the graves.

A racer remains aloof, however, throughout the funerals (he never fails to attend, even if it means hiring a jet to get there), through the interviews, through the stints on special committees where, in the name of research, he sees reels of TV and movie film, enlarged photos (especially the ones with the little arrow showing what part of the exploding debris is the driver's body flying through the air).

He inspects the remains of the risen craft, the torn remnants of the victim's clothing, the parachute that didn't open, the helmet that whipped a head back to break a neck, life jackets that were not buoyant, life jackets that were but floated a man face down. He reviews the entire expert, detailed testimony of rescue workers and medicine men.

He has to help decide why the boats crash. Why so many accidents? The first year, all the explanations got used up. Veterans became hard pressed to find reasons the public would buy. New ones, that is. Now they are silent. It is fate. Kismet is the additive in every gas tank.

They do what they can to redesign the boats, revise rules and equipment and give this information to the press, turning their backs on the truth. Indeed, as in war, the only thing to do is to walk away, with calm deliberation, from the facts that cannot be changed. For the true problem is the battlefield.

Unlimited contests were set up years ago with slower boats owned by rich playboys, using "backyards," courses arranged near the exclusive yacht club and the cocktail lounge; and later by the people who wanted to see everything, wanted a theater, a place to watch.

Then it became public entertainment, like the Roman circuses. The battlefields eventually were enshrined by the media and by tradition until their real value as race courses was secondary. Races were set on courses obviously like Detroit because of public demand. Today there is no way to change this institutional pattern of the regattas. They are often run in unlikely, unsafe places on waters not fit for ice breakers or ocean tugs.

Drivers have come to realize that there is no way to change these sites. Furthermore, they must seek more places to run, new sponsors, and new waters. They have succeeded in adding to their circuit. Though cities have abandoned regattas because of annoyances like riots, no city calls off a race because of a driver fatality. This adds to its spectator appeal and increases the gate.

I always was asked by interviewers if I worried, if I feared for my husband's life. I did not. But there were others twisted by anxiety. I secretly felt they did not belong in racing and pitied them. People would tell me it was a miracle that Bill had survived his accident in Madison, Ind., when his boat disintegrated at 180 miles an hour. In photographs, it looked like an explosion. Or when he rammed the Coast Guard boat on Lake Washington at 175, sinking both boats.

I agreed. It did not take grit to be me; it only took faith in God.

For my husband, and for many others, it took valor to keep going out on courses that had taken and broken men like themselves - often.

Today I wonder about that moment when his boat floats free, away from the dock, the five-minute gun is about to be fired and it is time to start up the engine; that moment when he is completely alone, and fear fills his whole consciousness. I wonder which old friend helps him reach out for the starter, which phantom is there with him?

Now there is a whole new group of people in racing. This is good because as more and more new faces appear, the ghosts of the others fade. Crew chiefs who saw blood on their hands have left the sport to others, to drivers who are so new they know names like Brow, Campbell, Fageol, Fults, Gardner, Manchester, Musson, Stead, Thompson only as engravings on trophies.

The new racers are strapping on helmets and pulling the primers on craft that sometimes are untested, fresh from the paint shop and design board, and going out to win.

Fortunately these men do not remember. The veteran is unique, and I imagine that the throng of people around him must fill the pit area with enthusiasm, anticipation and excitement, closing out the ghosts.

Or can they?

[Kit Muncey is the former wife of Bill Muncey. They were divorced in 1969.]

Reprinted from THE SEATTLE TIMES, July 30, 1972)

More Gold Cup Video "lighter side"
 

QUICKSILVER HYDROPLANE RACES ANNOUNCE BENEFICIARY AND MARKETING PARTNERS

 

Darla D. Murker

Communications Coordinator

Silverdale Chamber of Commerce

3100 Bucklin Hill Road, Suite 100
PO Box 1218

Silverdale, WA 98383

(360) 692-6800     Fax (360) 692-1379

www.silverdalechamber.com

communications@silverdalechamber.com

Gold Cup Video shares the "lighter side"
 

Becker Splash	Fight	Fill in your own Caption	Gorgeous	Jim's dress	Kevin Autograph

A champion hangs up his helmet.

 

Second generation driver Doug Brow of Friday Harbor WA  has decided to call it a career as a hydroplane race driver.  Brow, son of champion driver Bill Brow, says because of his father's involvement in racing he's really been part of hydroplaning his entire life.  Now it's time for something else.

 

In the ULHRA world Brow made headlines driving "The Little Boat That Could"; the original UL-3 Bounty Hunter of owner John Hogan.  This craft debuted in Unlimited Lights racing as the Miss Seafirst of original owner-driver Brian Reynolds in the mid 90's and was built by Nate Brown.  The Hogan-Brow team proved quite competitive, and as Brow noted, "driving that short little underpowered boat for John Hogan, once we got the bugs worked out of it that boat was probably one of the sweetest driving boats I have ever driven.  I don't think I will ever forget that day in San Diego when we had it dialed in and I don't think I have ever driven harder knowing that I had a lot less under me then the guy's that would eventually get by me". In that race in 2002, Brow grabbed the lead at the start and held off eventual winner Jerry Hopp in the UL-15 Mike's Hard Lemonade for nearly 2 full laps.  On the last straightaway Brow, driving the boat which was aptly named The Little Store at Friday Harbor, was also edged at the line by second place finisher Cal Phipps in the UL-10 Frazee Paint.  However, it was an amazing performance in front of tens of thousands of fans along both sides of Mission Bay in San Diego and matched Brow's career best of 3rd place in Unlimited Lights competition set in Seattle in 2000.  Today, that same hull continues as a strong Unlimited Lights entry, even winning at Evansville IN 2005, although we no longer refer to it as The Little Boat That Could.  Today, it's 2 feet longer and a foot wider with a bigger engine and we call it the "All Black, All the Time" UL-929 of owner driver Vince "X-Man" Xaudaro. 

 

2002 was an excellent final season for the Brow & Hogan collaboration as they also went on to win the Grand National Hydroplane World Championship in Hampton VA.  Brow says that victory was all the more rewarding because it was for "John Hogan who deserved it as much as anyone for the time he put into this sport." Hogan and Brow competed part time on the ULHRA circuit.  Their best seasons found Doug finishing in 8th place in the driver's standings both in 1999 and 2000. 

 

Brow is among a select group of race drivers who've competed in every class of inboard hydroplane throughout their careers. He began in 1980 driving for current ULHRA Lighter than LIGHTS team owner Armand Yapachino in the then 280 class "Joya Mia".  Brow went on to earn Rookie of the Year honors in 1980, was a two time Western Division Champion in 2.5 liter hydroplane, and says his best year was 1985 "winning 24 of 34 races entered. I won the Region 10 High Point Championship and finished 2nd in National High Points, missing out on first place by only 150 points and the person that beat me ran 9 more races then I did."

 

Doug Brow also had the opportunity to follow his late father into the Unlimited ranks, beginning in 1997 when he qualified and raced as driver of the Miss Exide.......the same name of the boat that his father drove from 1963 through 65 for the Stoen Brothers of Seattle who later sold the entire team to Bernie Little.  That's how Bill Brow came to drive for the Miss Budweiser team. Doug's first heat victory came in front of friends and family on Seattle's Lake Washington, driving for Fred Leland in 2003.  He also crewed "on many different unlimited hydroplanes for friends like Steve Lacava, Steve Reynolds, Mark Evans and Fred Leyland".

 

Brow went on to say, "there are many many memories that I will never forget but one of my fondest is one day at Lake Spanaway near Tacoma WA where I was racing my 2.5 liter.  Bud Burns approached me and asked me if I wanted to drive the Shady Lady as a Division One 7 Liter hydroplane, so me not being one to turn down a ride got in the boat for 2 heats and in the second heat set a word record on the 1 1/4 course.   Well with my luck one of the boats wound up being disqualified and with not enough boats in the water the record did not stand. I remember that Bud had a rather ample waistline, and this was before the days of enclosed cockpits.  I had to wedge myself into the seat because every time I put the boat into the turn it wanted to throw me out!" 

 

Today, February 15, 2006, Doug Brow turns 50 years of age and "as far as I'm concerned I have been involved in this sport in one way or another for 50 years. I know that there is one whole helluva lot more memories, some of them I don't ever want to forget and others I would just rather forget, but the bottom line is this.  I have made more friends in my life being involved in this sport then I can even begin to count or even try to remember. I have lost friends to this sport and even my Dad, but I know in my heart that they died smiling because when they died they were doing something that they loved doing as much as anything.  I want to thank everybody that has ever been involved with supporting this sport that we all love so much and especially all my friends and family that stood behind me through all the bad times and all the good times because in the end they were all good times".

 

John Lynch

"Voice" of the Unlimited Lights

Update on the new UL-17.

 

Work is progressing on the brand new UL-17 Unlimited Light Hydroplane at Ron Jones Jr's shop in Sumner WA.  The newest UL entry is being built for Rick and Shawn Bridgeman of Olympia WA and their Miss Ted's Red Apple Market team. 

 

Progress is swift with engine stringers going in this week.  According to Shawn Bridgeman the boat will be ready for Spring Training, May 20th on the Columbia River at Tri Cities WA.  The season opener, Tastin n Racin, will follow on June 9-11 at Lake Sammamish in Issaquah WA. New UL-17 Progress Photos

 

Meantime, former UL-9 Team Manager Jim Mowrey is hard at work to complete repairs to the G-17 hull that was damaged in that spectacular blowover accident at Tri Cities last July.  One of the challenges being faced is one that several teams have had to deal with; cockpit glass.  Getting glass work that fits the canopies of Unlimited Lights is difficult because not all canopies have the same window size, or shape, so the work is a custom specialty performed many hundreds of miles away from the race team shops.  If that issue is resolved and the rest of the repairs continue on pace, the G-17 is also expected for Spring Training, and possibly sooner. 

 

John Lynch

"Voice" of the Unlimited Lights

Another new Unlimited Lights team

Story: Two time U.S. National Modified Champion Mike Webster confirms that his family owned Red Hot Racing Team will be on the Unlimited Lights tour in 2006. The UL-2 Red Hot team has been working diligently during the off season to get ready for the upcoming racing season. The UL hull, the former seven liter Southern 7, is currently right side up and undergoing sponson frame repair. The capsule is ready for final fittings and hardware.
 

Webster says "Negotiations with sponsors are still ongoing for the 2006 race season, but the Red Hot team is still looking for a primary sponsor. The team plans to makes its debut at Thunder on the Ohio in Evansville, Indiana. From there off to Valleyfield, Quebec and then Detroit. The team plans to travel West, but the extent of their stay depends largely on the help from sponsors."

This marks 6 new Unlimited Lights teams for the 2006 season, with the potential of more new teams leading up to ULHRA's annual Spring Training open test session, May 20th at the Tri Cities Columbia River course in southeast Washington State.

Update on Who's Who on the Silver Cup.

 

Valleyfield's Pierre Vezina checks in with a clarification about one of the winners of the Silver Cup.  Vezina writes that the winning driver in 1989 on the Detroit River was Daniel Brossoit, driving for Michel Favreau in the GP-11 Executif III.  Vezina notes that Brossoit had previously driven a 7 Liter hydroplane in GP competition but in the 1989 running of the Silver Cup "it was his first GP event in a GP hull" and he won.  Brossoit won once more in GP competition before he was tragically killed in a racing accident in 1991.  This was prior to the advent of enclosed cockpits which are now required for Unlimited Lights racing.  Vezina notes that "Daniel's last victory was the 1990 U.S. Nationals in the 2.5L stock class, driving the Why Not CS-57 for Warren Haworth, father of part time Unlimited Lights driver Patrick Haworth". 

 

In 2006, the Executif III returns to competition after a lengthy hiatus.  This is the craft that was purchased by Ryan Butler from the UL-40 team, and Lighter than LIGHTS driver Charles Xaudaro, brother of UL-929 owner-driver Vince "X-Man Xaudaro.  Ryan and Charles are converting the ex GP-11 for Unlimited Lights competition with Charles set to drive.

 

John Lynch

P.R. Director, ULHRA Inc.

WHO'S WHO on the Silver Cup:

ULHRA Historian Fred Farley reports there are quite a few notables on the O.J. Mulford Silver Cup which the Unlimited Lights will race for in 2006.   Fred tells us that " the first Silver Cup race was run in 1946 as an aftermath for those boats that didn't make the final cut for the last heat of the Gold Cup. The Silver Cup winner that year was Lou Fageol in SO-LONG, JR. Although nominally an Unlimited, SO-LONG, JR. was the prototype for the yet-to-be-organized 7-Litre Class. It used a Fageol bus engine, which became the engine-of-choice when the 7-Litres officially got going in 1947.

In other words, SO-LONG, JR. is the direct fore-runner of every 7-Litre, GP, GNH, UL, etc., that has ever wet a sponson.  It was in a Silver Cup race that Bill Muncey made his first start as an Unlimited driver in 1950. He got a DNF. (That's when the bottom fell out of the MISS GREAT LAKES.) Interestingly enough, although Muncey won many races on the Detroit River, he never won a Silver Cup race. Bill's highest finish was a second-place in 1957 with the original MISS THRIFTWAY.  Jack Regas won that year with HAWAII KAI III.

The Silver Cup was run every year for Unlimiteds from 1946 to 1961, sponsored by the Detroit Yacht Club. The Unlimiteds raced for it one more time in 1981. Dean Chenoweth won it that year with the Griffon powered MISS BUDWEISER.  The most recent "notables on the storied trophy.  None other than ULHRA's father and son tandem of Jerry & Greg Hopp.  In a special invitation race conducted the past two years on the Detroit River, Jerry won in 2004 and Greg won in 2005.  Also of note, Greg was ably assisted by new UL-40 Miss Red Dot Corporation driver Brian Perkins who drove to two preliminary victories at Detroit last summer before Greg took over in the Final.  Greg pulled "double duty" that weekend; also driving a Fred Leland Unlimited Hydroplane.

The drivers and when they won the Silver Cup at Detroit:  

1946, So Long Jr., Lou Fageol, Lou Fageol

1947, Notre Dame, Dan Arena, Herbert A. Mendelson

1948, Miss Canada III, Harold Wilson, E. A. Wilson

 

1949, My Sweetie, Bill Cantrell, Horace E. Dodge

 

1950, Such Crust I, Danny Foster, Jack Shafer

 

1951, Miss Pepsi, Chuck Thompson, Walter and Roy Dossin

 

1952, Gale II, Danny Foster, Joseph A. Schoenith

 

1953, Gale II, Lee Schoenith and Danny Foster, Joseph A. Schoenith

 

1954, Dora My Sweetie, Jack Bartlow, Major Horace E. Dodge 

 

1955, Tempo VII, Danny Foster, Guy Lombardo

 

1956, Miss U. S. II, Don Wilson, George Simon

 

1957, Hawaii Kai III, Jack Regas, Mike Welsch

 

1958, Maverick, William M. Stead, W. T. Waggoner Jr.

 

1959, Maverick, William M. Stead, W. T. Waggoner Jr.

 

Rededicated 1989, Grand Prix Class

 

1989, Executif III , Daniel Brossoit,  Michel Favreau

 

1990, Thundercraft (was the UL-51 in 2003 & 2004, now the G-329 Thunderboat Class entry of David Warren), Pierre Levigne

 

1991, Shopsmith, Ron Brunner

 

1992, Race Rock, Jim King

 

1993, Export “A” Inc., Jeff Richards

 

1994, Casino de Montreal, Jean Theoret

 

1995, Baker Racing, Tom Barker

 

1996, Pleasure Seekers, Jimmy King

 

1997, Casino  D’Montreal GP-7, Jean Theoret

 

2004, Mike’s Hard Lemonade/Happy Go Lucky, Jerry Hopp

 

2005, Mike’s Hard Lemonade/Happy Go Lucky, Greg Hopp
 

Jerry 2004	Silver Cup 2004	BrianPerkins photo by Jack Lowe	BrianPerkins photo by Jack Lowe	Greg 2005

Who's name will be added to this celebrated list?  Be along the shores of the famous Detroit River, July 14, 15 & 16 and find out, or log on here for our ULHRA, Inc. exclusive live video web streaming which we will present at all of our venues, starting at Spring Training on May 20th.

 

John Lynch

P.R. Director, ULHRA Inc.