Gold Cup : 400,000 See Hanauer Bag Another Gold Cup at Lake Washington

When the battle of the turbines failed to materialize Sunday, Chip Hanauer drove the Miller American hydroplane to the easiest of his four straight Gold Cup championships on choppy Lake Washington, witnessed by about 400,000 spectators.

Hanauer, who drove his first boat race in Seattle at age 12, became the first driver to win four Gold Cups in a row since Gar Wood in Miss America won five from 1917 to 1921.

Not Bill Muncey, Dean Chenoweth, Ron Musson, Lee Schoenith nor Billy Schumacher, all giants of hydroplane racing, could ever win four back-to-back.

In four six-lap (15-mile) races--three heats and the Gold Cup championship race, Hanauer was never challenged. He was half a lap ahead of runner-up Scott Pierce in the Executone Telephone boat, and in his second heat he lapped every other boat.

The race was touted as a duel of the two turbine-powered boats, the Miller American and the 7-Eleven, driven by Steve Reynolds. But Reynolds’ boat was damaged in his first heat and although it was ready for the final race, it dropped out after less than a lap with a broken gearbox coupler.

The eight boats were piston-powered and none came close to being competitive with the turbines. Only three boats finished the final race with Executone Phone second and Cellular One, driven by Todd Yarling, third.

“It was the easiest Gold Cup, as far as the races were concerned,” Hanauer said, “but for me personally, it was the toughest. I got up this morning scared, there was so much buildup to the whole thing.

“The knot in my stomach never went away, not even after Steve stopped in the final.”

Reynolds, whose boat appeared to be the only one capable of running with Hanauer, led three-quarters of the first lap when he suddenly stopped. The breakdown with the couplers, which connect the engine to the gearbox and absorb the torque of 4,000 r.p.m. was caused when the propeller hopped out of the water and when the blade hit water again the force of the engine twisted the coupler.

“There I was all alone after Steve’s boat quit and more afraid that ever,” Hanauer said. “I don’t know how long it takes to run five laps (about six minutes), but it felt like hours. I had heard so much all week about my making history if I won that it overwhelmed me.”

That Reynolds, another homegrown driver from Kirkland--just across the lake from the 2 1/2-mile hydroplane course--was even in the final was a minor miracle. In winning his first heat, he apparently hit a submerged object that ripped a hole in the right sponson and damaged the rear wing upright.

Crew chief Jerry Verheul, with the help of hull fabricators from several other teams, literally built an entirely new bottom on the right side of the boat between the first and third heats. The team even dispatched a crewman, with a police escort, to downtown Seattle for wood and parts.

Miss Budweiser boat owner Bernie Little and his crew received a good sportsmanship award for helping repair the 7-Eleven boat.

“Hell, it’s what this sport is all about, helping one another,” Little said. “It’s one big family.”

Cynics among the unlimited crowd noted, however, that Bernie Little would rather have a soft-drink boat win than a rival beer.

Reynolds had to finish at least second in his final heat to qualify for the six-boat final. He was drawn into a heat with Hanauer and Miller American.

As he did in the final, Reynolds got the jump on Hanauer at the start and led for a little more than two laps. At that point, realizing all he needed was a second place finish and he had a patched up boat that needed careful handling, Reynolds backed off and cruised along behind Hanauer for second place and a position in the finals.

Between the last heat and the final 6-lap main event, the 7-Eleven crew changed engines, going to Big Willie, an L-11 helicopter engine with substantially more horsepower than the L-7 used in the heats.

“Steve (Reynolds) had him (Hanauer) covered in the final,” boasted 7-11 boat owner Steve Woomer. “Steve called in and said he was using only about 92 % of his power. He was ready for Hanauer until that damn coupler broke.”

The same problem knocked Reynolds out last Sunday in Tri-Cities, Wash., after he and Hanauer had raced at record speeds of more than 140 m.p.h. in a heat race on the Columbia River.

Hanauer, who also had the larger L-11 turbine for the final, admitted that Reynolds would have been tough to beat but felt he would have won.

“I got a bad start when Reynolds got the inside and I had to move out and Tom D’Eath (in Squire Shop/Brittania) made it hard on me when took me nearly to the bridge. I was about (the length of) a rooster tail behind when he hit the starting line. I was just pulling up alongside his bow when I saw him go down. I knew no one else was around so I backed off to save the equipment.”

Jim Lucero, co-owner with Fran Muncey of the Miller American team, also built the 5,100-pound hydroplane and is its crew chief. He didn’t think the overwhelming win was all that easy.

“I had two all-nighters this week getting the boat ready,” Lucero said. “We won because we were better prepared. We had a reasonably good day today because we were well prepared. But you wouldn’t have thought that last Thursday night.”

When Hanauer got on Lake Washington for the first time late Thursday afternoon for a qualifying run, he was beginning to pick up speed when a fire broke out in the turbine and damaged the engine compartment.

“We were fortunate that day that we were in Seattle because we loaded up the boat and took it to our garage in Kent. It would have been terrible if we’d had to do all that work in the pits.”

The pressure of racing in Seattle, known as Hydro City USA, as well as being his hometown, made winning more difficult--but also more gratifying--to Hanauer.

“There’s something about Lake Washington and the people in Seattle,” he said. “If you lose every race and win here, you’re a hero. But if you win every race and lose here, you haven’t accomplished anything, as far as they are concerned. That, and having everyone tell me that I would make history if I won my fourth straight, made this a pretty tense week.”

Choppy water, a lack of competition and the tight Lake Washington course combined to produce relatively slow Gold Cup speeds. Hanauer’s fastest race lap was 132.625 m.p.h. in the third heat when he caught and passed Reynolds. In the Gold Cup final he hit 127.786 on the first lap but once Reynolds was out he slowed and finished with a 117.985 average for the 15 miles.

By winning all four of his races, Hanauer picked up a maximum of 1200 points and moved past Pierce into the season points lead. With two events (Greater Oklahoma Thunderboat Classic Aug. 25 at Oklahoma City, and the Miller High Life Thunderboat Regatta Sept. 15 in San Diego’s Mission Bay), Hanauer has 5,500 points to 5,119 for Pierce and 4,600 for Reynolds.

“I kept hearing how everybody was counting us out of the points after we failed to score in the first two races,” Hanauer said. “But we kept our heads down and worked hard to get where we are today.”

Hanauer won the national championship in 1982 and 1983 with Atlas Van Lines after replacing the late Bill Muncey as the team driver. This year only the name has changed as the Lucero-Muncey team switched to Miller American sponsorship after Atlas withdrew from boat racing.