1998 Season Review
Season Review '98
The '98 season is easy to sum up. It was domination from the word go. Dave Villwock walked away from his competitors and never looked back. He easily picked up his second driver's championship and first while driving the king of boats, Miss Budweiser. This team won eight of the ten events and wrapped up the title with two races to spare, which left no doubt as to the boat to beat for now and the foreseeable future.
The season itself began on a downer as popular owner Steve Woomer suffered a heart attack and passed away just days before the opening exhibition race in Phoenix. His team had been prepared better than ever, with Mark Tate ready to defend his 1997 driver's title. The equipment then was put up for sale and would not emerge from storage until late in the season. Mark Tate got a one-race deal for the Gold Cup but was a spectator for the remainder of the year.
The surprise team of the year had to be Jim Harvey's U-2, which featured multiple name changes with different sponsors. Right from the start in the first race of the year at Evansville, it was apparent that driver Steve David had the ability to fight Mark Evans, in Fred Leland's PICO American Dream, for second place.
The APBA Gold Cup at Detroit featured a rare three-boat team as Fred Leland put Tate in a second PICO boat in addition to Evans in the U-100 and Rick Christensen in the U-99. Even with three boats, nobody could touch Villwock, who walked away with his third Gold Cup in three years.
Because of high water at Madison, Indiana, that race was rescheduled for Labor Day weekend, and the eastern swing was instantly reduced to three races. The race at Norfolk for some reason was scheduled a week before Tri-Cities and required a cross-country trip in just a few days. Predictably, it was not well attended; a scant six teams showed up. With mechanical problems hitting the few teams that were there, the piston-packing U-3, with Mark Weber driving, managed second in the final-only one other boat finished.
The biggest turnout of boats arrived in Tri-Cities, Wash., for the annual Columbia Cup. The biggest surprise was the Ellstrom family's Miss E-Lam Plus. Jimmy King won two heats and placed third in the final. Mitch Evans in Appian Jeronimo, which showed speed in its previous outings, posted a fast qualifying speed of 160.7 but got washed out in the setup for the final. This team entered the season with high hopes after extensive pre-season testing. Owner Jerry Rise had the drive to derail the powerful Miss Budweiser, which, however, ran its win streak to four.
Kelowna, British Columbia, provided the most colorful and interesting race of the year. After losing his first heat since Detroit, Villwock accused David of running him wide into the spectator fleet. David and Villwock then tossed verbal harpoons at each other, making colorful quotes for radio and TV. The final produced an even wilder scenario as penalties were called and seemingly rescinded, and it appeared David had won the race. However it turned out that Mitch, not Mark, Evans got the penalty for a lane violation, and Mark Evans was credited with victory, David second, and Villwock third.
Until the Texaco Cup at Seafair, the season had been remarkably accident free. That lucky streak changed with qualifying. Lindsey Emmons, in an attempt to put Mike Jones' backup boat in the race, crashed while he struggled to contain the ill-handling tandem-wing craft. Emmons was unhurt, but the boat would not be seen or heard from again. Then, during the race David caught a roller in the north turn and went over. Freddie's Club broke in half; David suffered nothing more than a broken toe. The final of this one was close for a lap, but then Villwock passed Mark Evans and ran away with the event.
A small fleet of seven made the trek back to Madison for the Indiana Governor's Cup. The only bright spot was Miss Madison, taken out of mothballs for this one race. The excitement was short lived as driver Mike Hanson was penalized for chopping Miss Budweiser in a prelim.
In the final, a penalty was assessed to Mark Evans for pushing Miss Bud into an outer marker. Evans had to run an extra lap, which allowed Villwock to take race six out of seven.
Before the unlimiteds ventured to southern California, a new owner entered the circuit. Kim Gregory of Las Vegas, Nevada, owner of the Wildfire Lights team, purchased the U-10 from the Woomer estate. He also showed he was not here to mess around when he hired Jim Lucero to prepare the boat and Mark Weber to drive.
The crashes resumed in San Diego. Ken Muscatel destroyed his boat before the race and was done for the season. The final featured a blowover in the turn, where Nate Brown lost control of Bill Wurster's U-8 LLumar.
Brown was unhurt, and the crew worked overtime to get ready for the finale in Hawaii. Villwock ran away with the re-start with Mitch Evans second. Villwock wrapped up the driver's title, and the Budweiser team clinched that championship with two races to spare. The big news afterwards was that Fred Leland, penalized for N2 violations, decided not to compete in the last two races.
The race in Las Vegas was an exercise in futility. Only six boats showed up. Everyone present was in the final, won by Budweiser with Appian Jeronimo second.
Hawaii attracted seven teams. The results could very well have been the same as 'Vegas, but both Villwock and Mitch Evans jumped the gun. Weber in Wild FIRE took the victory in just the team's third race.
The season can be summed up in one word: domination. The Budweiser team and Dave Villwock thoroughly routed everyone, and the chase was never close. Villwock won 8 of the 10 races and increased his career total to 21. The remainder of the fleet could not mount a challenge. Even Mark Evans suffered through a down year with many mechanical problems. His brother Mitch had a fast ride but just couldn't put a full race together.
In view of the numbers of competitors and the lack of any kind of close races, 1998 will go down as a very down year for the sport. Whenever you have so many races where there is no need to run the preliminaries because the handful of teams that bothered to show up will automatically make the final, the season can't be considered any sort of success.
The sport featured problems in leadership and had three different commissioners during the course of the season, which just happened to be the same as the number of race winners. The average number of qualifiers at each race was eight. From this angle, 1999 appears to be more of the same. Be ready next spring for the Swami to inform you of the upcoming insanity.
(Unlimited NewsJournal)