1995 Detroit APBA Gold Cup
Miss Budweiser Triumphs
DETROIT, MI -- In the 33 years since Bernard Leroy Little decided that these Buds were for him, there have been 20- no, make that 21-- different unlimited hulls to wear the proud name of Miss Budweiser.
Don't look now, but the latest edition of this long line of remarkable drafts may be the best of 'em all.
Of course, even as Bernie and his merry band of men dressed in bright red did a victory dance atop his U-1 in the Horace E. Dodge Memorial Pits, there was an academic argument a-bubbling as to whether Little's tenth APBA Gold Cup winner was, by purest definition, a "new" boat.
One thing is for sure about this sleek, red turbine-powered speedster that Lee (Chip) Hanauer so relentlessly and perfectly flung around the 2.5- mile Detroit River course June 3 and 4: it's got a powerful attraction to checkered flags.
The winningest team in unlimited history was cheered mightily by a Sunday throng generally estimated to be 400,000 as it sped, virtually unchallenged, through a final, 12.5-mile heat to give not only the owner his tenth share of the venerable Gold Cup but the driver his record tenth as well.
And don't forget crew chief Ron Brown: he supervised a weekend full of repeated repairs, including a tricky, last- minute change of gear boxes before the championship heat, to put in his fifth claim to powerboating's oldest and most prestigious trophy. This, despite just recently getting back on his feet after a series of leg operations that had him "phoning" in the first Budweiser win of the season (at Phoenix) from a Seattle hospital bed.
For those who came in late to this incredible marriage of thunderboat tacticians, Little has 98 career victories as an owner, 69 more than the nearest man on the all-time list; Hanauer, at 55 lifetime wins, is but seven shy of the late, great Bill Muncey on the driver list; and Brown, with a total of 46, is beginning to close within shouting distance of the winningest crew chief, the still-active Jim Lucero.
After qualifying at the top of the ladder with the second fastest two-lap Gold Cup time speed (168.289mph) in history, Hanauer and the almost all-new Bud (only a sponson remains from the "Turbine III" craft that blew over on him in qualifying at last year's Texaco Cup at SEAFAIR) picked right up where they had left off at Phoenix.
Thereafter leading the qualifiers, they had stormed to three straight match-race-format victories to win the Gila River Casino Unlimited Cup. Here, they quickly won two, three-lap heats on Saturday, including one in which they doused the challenge of defending Gold Cup winner Mark Tate and the Camel-powered Smokin' Joe's.
Rough water in the never calm Detroit River sent the Bud flying--and bouncing back in slam-bang-fashion--at several points around the course. Subsequent investigation revealed some damage to the boat's bottom, necessitating on-the-spot refurbishment. That mission accomplished, the Budweiser and nine other gleaming unlimiteds greeted a gorgeously bright and sunny afternoon with their Sunday best.
At one time or another, Tate in the Smokin' Joe's (with a new Gold Cup, five-lap standard of 152.120 mph), Dave Villwock in the PICO American Dream (a hot Heat 1-A lap of 155.817 mph), and Mark Evens in Fred Leland's other underrated entry, The Wellness Plan (a second and three thirds in preliminary heats) showed flashes of being up to the challenge.
But when time came to write the history, the pen was in the steady hand of Hanauer, already destined for induction in the Motorsports Hall of Fame three nights beyond this event. Chip was a study in cool brilliance, eating up his foes in two more preliminary heats and then stowing away the hardware with what he called "five perfect laps" in the winner-take-all final. Villwock stayed with him for just over a lap, but admitted that Hanauer kept painting him into a veritable corner whenever there was racing to be done. He wound up, he said, "defending second place." Fellow Leland pilot Evans, cornering as well as anyone, got the Wellness Plan home for the show spot.
Tate, always figuring as Hanauer's principal opposition, miscalculated inside the one-minute gun (the Gold Cup is the last bastion of the clock start along the unlimited circuit) and found himself forced to let off the throttle as the boats maneuvered for position on the backstretch. This, he admitted with a tearful eye to reporters afterward, was done in too abrupt a fashion, causing him to lose power.
By the time he got the Smokin' Joe's back up onto a plane, the rest of the field was around the Roostertail turn and bearing down on the start. Only because Steve David suffered a broken prop with the T-Plus Engine Treatment did he finish fourth. The reliable, noisy old U-3, running as Miss D.O.C. here, completed his eight straight heat of the season in fifth place under Mitch Evans' direction.
Sunday's only dangerously untoward mishap happened in Heat 3-A, the first event of the afternoon, when Mike Hanson--about midway up the stretch--saw the right side of his Miss Jasper Engines & Trensmissions (the former Miss Madison) begin to lift. He attempted to bring the boat back down but it was too late. He tilted toward port, rose some 10 or 15 feet in the air, blew over backward and then bounced once or twice before being deposited bottom up. Hanson, who suffered only skinned knees in the fracas, then hugged his oxygen mask for dear life until the Unlimited Racing Commission rescue boat and divers hurried to the scene and removed him from a dislocated canopy via the escape hatch.
The other starters in this 87th Gold Cup suffered a variety of minor ills throughout the week-long Thunderfest, which is said to draw a total crowd of more than a half-million spectators. Ken Muscatel's U-14 (formerly U-55) Miss Belle Tire was plagued by sponson and ballast woes and failed to finish two heats. But, aside from Hanson's flip and David's propeller loss in the final, every other boat completed every heat-- an astounding 91 percent heat completion rate never before approached in 92 seasons since this hoary old event was inaugurated on New York City's Hudson River in 1904.
Miss Budweiser and Hanauer emerged with the season's Eagle Snacks Presents O'Doul's High Points Standings lead of 3,280 to 2,729 for Smokin' Joe's, followed closely by PICO American Dream and Villwock with 2,596. All ten boats were expected to compete in the mid-June Kansas City Hydrofair and, then, in successive weeks, at Pontiac Thunder On the Ohio in Evansville and the Budweiser Indiana Governor's Cup at Madison.
APBA GOLD CUP RESULTS At Detroit, Michigan
Heat 1-A 1. Chip Hanauer, Miss Budweiser, 152.526 2. Steve David, T-PLUS Engine Treatment, 138.135 3. Dave Villwock, PICO American Dream, 132.201 4. Jerry Hopp, Carpenter Communications Presents Miss APBA, 97.635 Ken Muscatel, Miss Belle Tire, DNF FAST LAP-- Villwock, PICO American Dream (1st lap), 155.817.
HEAT 1-B 1. Mark Tate, Smokin' Joe's, 148.026 2. Mark Evans, The Wellness Plan, 138.039 3. Mitch Evans, Miss D.O.C., 118.974 4. Mike Hanson, Miss Jasper Engines &Transmissions, 116.505 5. Scott Pierce, D.O.C./ Acuvue, 115.320 FAST LAP-- Tate, Smokin' Joe's, 153.331 (2nd lap)
HEAT 2-A 1. Chip Hanauer, Miss Budweiser, 151.659 2. Mark Tate, Smokin' Joe's, 144.519 3. Steve David, T-PLUS Engine Treatment, 139.914 4. Mitch Evans, Miss D.O.C., 108.537 5. Ken Muscatel, Miss Belle Tire, 101.464 FAST-LAP - Hanauer, Miss Budweiser, 155.446 (1st-lap)
HEAT 2-B 1. Dave Villwock, PICO American Dream, 139.848 2. Mike Hanson, Miss Jasper Engines &Transmissions, 132-621 3. Mark Evans, The Wellness Plan, 123.243 4. Scott Pierce, D.O.C./Acuvue, 105.129 5. Jerry Hopp, Carpenter Communications Presents Miss APBA, 102.954 FAST LAP-- Villwock, PICO American Dream, 147.425 (1st lap)
Heat 3-A 1.Chip Hanauer, Miss Budweiser, 149.451 2.Dave Villwock, PICO American Dream,139.890 3.Mitch Evans, Miss D.O.C. 120.820 4.Jerry Hopp, Miss APBA, 108.471 Mike Hanson, Miss Jasper Engines & transmissions, DSQ FAST-LAP-- Hanauer, Miss Budweiser, 152.708 (1st lap)
HEAT 3-B 1.Mark Tate, Smokin' Joe's, 152.120 2.Steve David, T-PLUS Engine Treatment, 140.897 3. Mark Evans, The Wellness Plan, 135.960 4. Scott Pierce, D.O.C./ Acuvue, 118.555 Ken Muscatel, Miss Belle Tire, DNF FAST-LAP- Tate, Smokin' Joe's, 156.959 (3rd lap)
HEAT 4-A 1. Chip Hanauer, Miss Budweiser,147.530 2. Mark Tate, Smokin' Joe's, 144.065 3. Mitch Evans, Miss D.O.C., 117.935 4. Scott Pierce, D.O.C., Acuvue, 103.240 5. Jerry Hopp, Carpenter Communications Presents Miss APBA, 85.440 FAST LAP-- Hanauer, Miss Budweiser, 152.972 (1st lap)
HEAT 4-B 1. Dave Villwock, PICO American Dream, 142.425 2.Steve David, T-PLUS Engine Treatment, 139.775 3. Mark Evans, The Wellness Plan, 138.590 4. Ken Muscatel, Miss Belle Tire,83.900 FAST LAP -- Villwock, PICO American Dream 147.888 (1st lap)
CHAMPIONSHIP 1. Chip Hanauer, Miss Budweiser, Seattle, Wash.,149.160 2. Dave Villwock, PICO American Dream, Seattle, Wash. 140.616 3. Mark Evans, The Wellness Plan, Seattle Wash. 138.083 4. Mark Tate, Smokin' Joe's, Auburn, Wash. 134.136 5. Mitch Evans, Miss D.O.C., Evansville, Ind., 109.348 Steve David, T-PLUS Engine Treatment, DNF FAST LAP- Hanauer, Miss Budweiser, 152.646 (2nd lap)
O'DOUL'S SEASON HIGH POINTS (Boat)
1. Miss Budweiser, 3,280 2. Smokin' Joe's, 2,729 3. PICO American Dream, 2,596 4. T-PLUS Engine Treatment, 2,024 5. The Wellness Plan, 1,735 6. Miss D.O.C., 1,623 7. D.O.C./ Acuvue 647 8. Miss APBA, 592 9. Miss Jasper Engines & Transmissions, 486 10. Miss Belle Tire, 306
O'DOUL'S SEASON HIGH POINTS (Drivers) 1. Chip Hanauer, Seattle, 3,280 2. Mark Tate, Wayne, Mich., 2,729 3. Dave Villwock, Sumner, Wash., 2,596 4. Steve David, Pompano Beach, Fla., 2,024 5. Mitch Evans, Lake Chelan, Wash. 1,623 6. Mark Evans, Wenatchee, Wash., 1,210 7. Scott Pierce, Seattle, Wash. 647 8. Jerry Hopp, Snohomish, Wash. 592 9. Tom Hindley, Spokane, Wash., 525 10. Mike Hanson, Madison, Ind., 486 11. Ken Muscatel, Seattle, Wash. 306
(Reprinted from the Electronic URC Hydroletter, Vol. 1, no. 13)