1958 International Cup
Jim Venner, Classy ‘Too Much’ Return Here In HPBA Regatta
By Bob Moskowitz
The F Service Runabout Will Race Here In HPBA Regatta July 5-6.
A triple-play combination of a blonde, a Chippewa Indian and a Cadillac motor spelled Too Much for F. Service Runabout competitor, in 1957 and the situation doesn't appear to be less serious this racing season.
Dapper Jimmy Venner, a 37-year-old conveyor company field superintendent made boating history last year in his first season of racing as he blasted his classy craft, Too Much, to national recognition.
Venner's Cadillac-powered 300 horsepower boat bettered the existing world record four times last year — twice when it didn't count. One such instance was in the Langley Air Force Base Powerboat Regatta to which he’ll return this year following his highly-anticipated appearance in the 31st annual Hampton Power Boat Regatta off the Fort Monroe banks.
Venner, a part Chippewa Indian who grew up on a Minnesota reservation, will be here Sunday, July 6, when the most impressive field in the regatta’s colorful history will cut through Hampton Roads in the second day of the two-day affair. The outboards will cavort on Saturday the 5th.
Actually undefeated in seven 1957 races, Venner lists one loss on his slate and that was at Urbanna [Virginia] when he developed engine trouble in the first heat.
His first officially accepted world mark was clocked at Cambridge, Md., when he was timed in 60.101 m.p.h. He bettered this performance at Elizabeth City, N.C., in the last race of the season with a now listed 63.135 timing.
Since then he won the endurance race in this past December with a record average of 43.797 over a nine-hour grind during which time he alternated driving with Don Dunnington, the Bethesda. Md., giant who’ll also be here for the HPBA activity. Dunnington drives in the 225 and 226 cubic inch classes.
Venner and his shapely blonde wife, Marsie, have a 15-year-old son, Jim Jr., who rode part-time as mechanic in the endurance triumnh.
New Seats This Year
Too Much, a pretty pink boat edged in charcoal gray, weighs some 2,200 pounds and is 19 feet, six inches long with a motor displacement of 365 cubic inches. The craft will have new cockpit-type seats this year.
Riding with Venner usually is his trusted mechanic, Jimmy Aiello, whose wife named the boat when she first saw it and learned of its cost which is between $5,000 and $6,000. “It’s too much,” she said, and "Too Much,” it is.
Venner, who now resides in Plainfield, N.J., also receives generous help from another mechanic, Stanley M. Kotarsky, who doesn't make the tours as Aiello does.
Hunting had been dapper Jim’s first love before his investment in Too Much. He had raced briefly is small inboards before his ’57 inauguration in the F Runabout class
Venner also carded victories at Washington. D C. (where an unofficial world record was also set). Barnegat Bay., N.Y. and Hopatcong, N.J.
— May 25, 1958