1995 Seafair Texaco Cup
Dank, Drizzly, Dark and Dangerous Texaco Cup
A remarkable series of events combined to make the Texaco Cup at Seafair, the 8th stop on the 1995 Hooters Unlimited Hydroplane Series, yet another memorable Seattle race -- even if not for all the proper reasons.
Not a whole lot of spectators made it from start to finish, giving up in the face of unrelenting rain. Few of the participants maintained their tempers throughout the day.
Even portions of the Key Bank Air Show had to be called off because of the low ceiling which existed in mid-afternoon. The Stanley Sayres Pits, and the configuration of same as ordered by Seafair officials, proved more crowded and unworkable than ever before.
But time will temper most of these memories. The 1995 Texaco Cup, which in the end saw Mark Tate's Smokin' Joe's out of contention but still in control of the Eagle Snacks Presents O'Doul's High Point standings (by 156 points), may be viewed in different ways.
Primarily, remember it as the event which produced the 100th career victory of Miss Budweiser owner Bernie Little. This achievement is signal in motorsports, accomplished over a 33-year span in which he has only been associated with a single primary sponsor, Anheuser-Busch, Inc., of St. Louis.
Secondarily, remember it as yet another tribute to the driving skills of Chip Hanauer, who won three heats, including the winner-take-all, five-lap final, and placed second in another, despite dealing with a great deal of public and private anger.
Much of the latter stemmed from an incident in the original running of Heat 2B. A course judge inadvertently sent off a red flare when the Miss E-Lam Plus, driven by Ken Dryden, and Miss Cascade Homes (Jerry Hopp) made contact entering the first turn of the first lap.
If it is possible to make a case for the boats maintaining their lanes THROUGHOUT the first turn, this is the film to watch. Although the three outside boats had a "legal overlap" (i.e., 150 feet ahead) and thus could legally move over, the resulting squeeze on the three inside boats resulted in the incident. Blinded by KMPS/Chaplins Bellevue VW's roostertail as Scott Pierce accelerated from lane 2, Dryden -- in lane 3 -- swerved in a search for daylight.
Hopp, trying to maintain the inside lane, was then clipped by the E-Lam, spinning out. The latter boat suffered irreversible damage to a vertical stabilizer, was disqualified from the heat, Dryden was fined $500 and the boat was through for the day. As the fire went out in Hopp's Cascade Homes, the course judge -- a 20-year veteran of limited racing, he told Commissioner Bill Doner in an apology the next day -- instinctively fired off the flare.
In unlimited racing, a red flare means stop (it was always used in the past when a driver was in the water; with safety canopies, this seldom happens these days). Chief referee Mike Noonan, in the helicopter above, attempted to "call off" the flare and red flags, knowing that the bumping and spinning had left noone in jeopardy. But word was relayed via URC officials to the teams' communications chiefs and the two lead boats, Miss Budweiser and KISW Miss Rock, momentarily slowed. They quickly got the word to "go" again, but by then Mike Hanson had moved into second in the DeWALT Tools entry. They finished that way, Bud-DeWALT-Miss Rock . . . but the KISW pilot, Mark Evans, wasn't having any of it.
After a long huddle, Commissioner Doner, ref Noonan and other officials made the correct, albeit delayed, call: the heat would be re-run. Hanauer became as angry as anyone can recall seeing him in public, owner Little was initially adamant -- "we took the checkered flag...what's done is done." But even as Hanauer and Doner stood jowl-to-jowl in a bleary, steady, near-downpour, the Bud crew went about its business -- hoisting their boat back into the water for a re-run -- which Chip promptly won. Evans finished second this time, with Hanson's DeWALT third, a placing which ultimately dropped him to trailer boat status in the final. A single point elevated Steve David's T-PLUS Engine Treatment ahead of the DeWALT, the consequence of a courageous ride by David in Heat 3B even as his wing flew off on the final lap.
The resulting series of delays caused consternation, especially for KIRO-TV producers, who were in the midst of what would become a 7½ hour live, local telecast (which attracted its customary, gigantic, nearly 50 percent share of the available audience). They pressured Seafair officials to get the show going, even as heavy fog and mist descended on the Ted Jones Race Course and URC officials scurried around in search of dry radios.
Doner, no stranger to such time exigencies back in the days when he promoted hundreds of major drag races up and down the West Coast, took over. As the fog began to lift, he put the boats on the water for Heat 3B (after a lengthy delay following Heat 3A), dropped the provisional heat from the schedule, ran off the Competition Cams Unlimited Light final (which included another, rather bizarre, boat-banging incident), and then sent the unlimiteds out for a rousing final by 5:15 p.m.
By this time, barely anyone remained on the shore of Lake Washington. Seafair officials later decreed that the crowd was "half" of the previous year's attendance, which was announced at 250,000.
After a spirited run to, and through, the first turn, with first Dave Villwock in the PICO and then Hanauer in the Bud taking the lead, Mark Tate in the Smokin' Joe's -- squeezed between those two from the flag drop -- finally surrendered when his boat spun out in the second turn. He restarted and finished fifth. Villwock, after giving chase, had to give up when his turbine engine ripped loose of its motor mounts (as it had done in the first heat at Madison, Indiana, five weeks' previous).
Plucky Nate Brown, in Bill Wurster's renamed U-8 (Pizza Time 'N Exide), thus got up for his second runnerup finish in two weeks, with Evans' KISW Miss Rock finishing third, also a repeat of the previous race result in Tri-Cities.
A finally happy Hanauer emerged to great cheers on the Budweiser dock, receipting for his fourth win in six starts this season and the 57th of his illustrious career -- bringing him ever closer to the late Bill Muncey's alltime high of 62 wins. Little, shaking his head over the travail which had preceded, nevertheless was a happy camper, too.
Everyone else connected with this long, long day in the rain took a deep breath and made for dry ground.
Perhaps appropriately, the Hooters Unlimited Hydroplane Series will take a six-week breather before resuming in (hopefully, sunny) San Diego Sept. 15-16-17.
(Reprinted from the URC Electronic Hydroletter, No. 22 August 10, 1995)