Miss Bahia Beats Favorites in Thunderboat Regatta

Sunday certainly wasn’t Miller Time. And Miss Budweiser lost out on an excellent opportunity to take over the points lead from its perennial rival, Miller American.

A lot of beer was consumed on the shores of Mission Bay Sunday, but two hydroplanes representing major breweries encountered a bad day on the water before a crowd of more than 100,000.

It was a rough day for the favorites and an exciting day for Miss Bahia and Ron Armstrong, who combined to win the Miller High Life Thunderboat Regatta with a speed of 118.692 m.p.h.

Miss Bahia, which hadn’t raced in two years and had put in only four practice laps before the weekend, was the first hydroplane other than Miller American and Miss Budweiser to win in eight races this season.

The Van Nuys-based Miss Bahia, sponsored by the Bahia Hotel in San Diego, led from start to finish to give Armstrong, of Lakewood, and the 17-year-old hydroplane their first victories ever.

It helped Miss Bahia that two hydroplanes did not start and two did not finish in the six-plane final. Not having any turbine engine hydroplanes start the final race was also a big boost for Miss Bahia, which uses a turbo Allison-powered engine.

“Obviously we can’t keep up with those turbine boats,” Armstrong said. “We’re not in their league. But we felt really strong with the rest of the piston boats.”

Entering Sunday’s race, the next-to-last one on the circuit, Chip Hanauer’s Miller American led Jim Kropfeld’s Miss Budweiser by 569 points. Both have turbine engines.

By the end of a very strange day, Hanauer--who has the won the points championship three of the last four years--still led by 269 points.

That’s because funny things tend to happen on salty Mission Bay.

Early Sunday morning, in a last-ditch effort to qualify, Miller American encountered fuel problems and did not gain the necessary qualifying speed of 105 m.p.h. Miller American’s top speed in three days of qualifying was 99.108 m.p.h. on Friday.

Hanauer’s quest ended when Miller American caught on fire late in the morning. The fire did not result in any injuries or cause damage to the hydroplane, but it forced Hanauer to the sidelines.

This was the first time that Hanauer had failed to qualify since his first unlimited race in Miami in 1976.

And this year, the saltwater in the bay wasn’t to blame for the poor performance of Hanauer’s turbine engine. In the past two years, Hanauer’s boat failed to finish the final races in Mission Bay because of problems caused by the saltwater.

This year, the blame was placed on fuel purchased by Miller American from a supplier in Camden, N.J. This was the first time that Miller American used this fuel, which had methanol in it.

“I can’t seem to find the gremlin that found its way into our boat,” Hanauer said. “There is no indication that salt caused the problem. We’re really baffled, but we tend to believe it’s fuel-related.”

By the time Miller American replaced the fuel in its three fuel controls that went bad, “the damage was already done,” said Miller American owner Fran Muncey.

With the winners of each of two heats and the final race getting 400 points apiece, Hanauer was resigned to be trailing Miss Budweiser heading into the season finale at Lake Mead next week.

After all, Miss Budweiser had won in saltwater in Miami earlier this year. Its team was wearing “Salt-Buster” T-shirts and its motto was “We Ain’t Afraid of No Salt.”

Then came the races.

Miss Budweiser finished second to Miss 7-Eleven in Heat 1-A and picked up 300 points. But in Heat 2-A, Miss Budweiser did not finish after leading by more than half a lap going into the last lap. It blamed its problems on a broken prop.

Not only did Miss Budweiser come up with zero points, but after Heat 2-B was run Kropfeld found out that he did not qualify for the six-boat final race. When Miss Budweiser had a chance to enter the final race as an alternate, throttle failure kept it from starting.

After the heats were completed, Kropfeld had no comment. Hanauer was as pleased as he was surprised.

“Unbelievable,” Hanauer said. “We certainly can’t take any credit for what happened. To come out of here with even a shot at the championship is a real gift.”