1987 Budweiser Unlimited Hydroplane Championship
Hydroplane anxiety
Miss Budweiser's Jim Kropfeld has few worries
Marty Klinkenberg, Miami News Reporter
Jim Kropfeld wasn't nervous when he locked himself into the Miss Budweiser's enclosed F-16 cockpit yesterday. Forget that he had flipped the hydroplane at 140 miles per hour during testing only a month earlier.
No, there is no room for high anxiety in a hydroplane.
"I've been driving these boats so many years — and have gone sideways so many times — that I think it is built into me that every time I get in a boat I know something can happen," the 46-year-old Kropfeld said after qualifying his turbine-powered craft at a near-record 125.864 miles per hour for tomorrow's 17th Annual, $121,000 Budweiser Unlimited Hydroplane Championships. "But it's something I can’t think about.
"For me it’s the same as an Indy driver hitting a wall one day and getting back into the car again the next. Being a hydroplane racer is a lot like driving a taxi cab. If you are a taxi driver, you expect to have an accident sooner or later.
"If I was afraid of it happening, I'd hang it up."
Kropfeld's Miss Budweiser, the defending national and 1986 Miami race champion, was by far the fastest of three boats cracking the 95 mph minimum lap qualifying speed yesterday on Marine Stadium's 1⅔-mile course. The only other competitors to qualify were Pantry Pride and the as yet unnamed U-15.
Pantry Pride, driven by Todd Yarling, toured the course at 105.082 mph on fuel-injected, turbocharged Allison engines.
"The boat is handling fantastic," Yarling said. "We’ll be one of the boats to contend with in the finals. It looks like we are in the hunt. It's a big relief running as well as we did in our first shot out in qualifying. I started it and all systems were go."
The unsponsored U-15, driven by Jack Schafer Jr., averaged 95.840 mph. also with souped-up Allisons. But the rest of the field proved to be amazingly inefficient. Testing and qualifying will continue today and tomorrow, with the winner-take-all championship scheduled for 4:10 p.m. Sunday.
Chip Hanauer's turbine-powered Miller American, which goes like a bat out of hell everywhere but Miami, struggled through laps of 91.882, 89.412 and 92.160 mph. Its Lycoming T-55 helicopter engine kept sucking salt from Biscayne Bay and depositing crystals on the turbine blades, thus causing overheating.
"You have it licked in testing and come down here and have the same problems all over again," Miller American spokesman Bill Weber said. "What’s frustrating is that one of the other turbine competitors has found a way around the problem. If we don't come up with a similar solution, this race is going to amount to a Sunday afternoon drive for Jim Kropfeld."
Thor Racing’s 2,500-horsepower Allison, driven by Jerry Hopp, ran one lap at 82.416 mph. That’s better than last year, when the boat failed to get on the course in time to qualify.
Arcadian Racing's odd-looking 31-foot U-86. which is constructed of marine plywood and powered by eight Mercury outboard engines, had a disastrous day. completing a single lap at 72.061 mph.
Driver Jim Hauenstein was treated to several mechanical miseries. An electrical short kept causing the boat's kill switch to go off, thus shutting down the engines. Later, smoke billowed from the engine compartment and Hauenstein set off his $1,000 extinguishing system while on the course. It turned out there was no fire and late yesterday Arcadian Racing was in search of freon with which to replenish its system.
The Holset/Miss Madison, owned by the citizens of Madison, Ind., and powered by turbo-charged Allisons, failed to complete a lap. Driver Ron Snyder said leaking oil was the culprit.
Two other tentative entrants, the turbine-powered Cellular One and The Eliminator, were not present Cellular One driver Steve Reynolds said the boat was en route from Seattle and was expected to attempt to qualify tomorrow morning. The Eliminator, a brand new boat to the circuit out of North Fort Myers, had also yet to arrive.
Which directs the attention back to the Bernie Little-owned Miss Budweiser, which breezed around the course with ease. Kropfeld surpassed the 95 mph barrier on eight different laps.
"We’re prepared to go racing," said Little, a Lakeland beer distributor who is hydroplane racing’s winningest owner with 56 career victories. "I think we could run 130 mph here and it wouldn't be a problem. Then again, in boat racing, everything can go to hell in a hurry."
Yesterday’s testing and qualifying session afforded Little a first look at his brand new boat, which has been reassembled since Kropfeld’s May 12th accident in Washington. Little, who underwent triple bypass surgery four months ago, suffered through anxiety yesterday even if Kropfeld didn't.
"This morning I gathered the crew and told them to make sure our No. 1 priority is to keep Jim alive," said Little, who has had the misfortune of having drivers Dean Chenoweth, Don Wilson and Bill Brow die in his hydroplanes over the years. "I told them that whether we win or not, being safety conscious was the way it would have to be. As an owner you get close to your driver and want to take care of him."
Kropfeld has taken good care of Little, winning 15 races since joining the Budweiser stable in 1982. He appears poised for No. 16.
"Hopefully we'll do as well or better than last year," said Kropfeld. who was wearing a "Salt Buster" T-shirt beneath his driving suit. "We’re making a lot of adjustments so we don't want to go full speed. I'm just getting used to the boat's handling and I'm building my confidence."
Kropfeld said boats have to be able to run 175 mph in straights In Miami to be competitive. But he won’t go that fast tomorrow if it isn’t necessary.
"The idea is to go as slow as you can and still win the race," Kropfeld said. "It saves the equipment, and more importantly, it saves your butt."
(Reprinted from the Miami News, June 13, 1987)