Thunderboat Regatta : Course Record Is Set by Miss Budweiser

Hanging from the Miss Budweiser team truck parked in the pits at Mission Bay are two cardboard pigs with wings.

Flying pigs have become the good-luck charm of Miss Budweiser, which Tom D’Eath drove to the fastest lap ever--156.169 m.p.h.--in a qualifying run Friday for Sunday’s Miller High Life Thunderboat Regatta.

The flying pigs date back to the Gold Cup race at Evansville, Ind., in June, when D’Eath flipped in Miss Budweiser and landed upside down, tearing up the boat’s front end. A crew member took one look at the boat, which was scheduled to race a week later at Madison, Ind., and said something like, “If that boat works in Madison it’ll be the day pigs fly.”

Working around the clock, the crew fixed Miss Budweiser in time for race day. Since, the pigs have been on every trip.

“We’re old pig farmers from Ohio,” said Miss Budweiser owner Bernie Little, laughing. “What can I say?”

He can’t say enough about his crew, that’s certain. He gives it a lot more credit than the flying pigs for putting Miss Budweiser on top of the circuit in points.

“They don’t complain,” he said. “They just do what they’ve got to do. You just can’t believe how bad that boat was wrecked. It was impossible to do what they did.”

Friday, D’Eath set the standards for the rest of the boats in the morning, cutting through the thick salt water without problems en route to clocking a faster lap than the course and world record of 155.979 set by Chip Hanauer in the Miller High Life boat last year.

It won’t be considered a new record, though, because the rules of unlimited racing state a record has to be bettered by 1% to be official, but it is a new course record.

Miss Budweiser crew chief Ron Brown said the best is probably still to come. He said the engine was set to run approximately 10 m.p.h. below its maximum capabilities. Nobody was expecting a record time.

“It threw us for a loop that (D’Eath) even went that fast,” Brown said. “To average 156 and to only go 170 on the straightaways is just incredible. We’re certainly capable of speeds a lot faster than that.”

D’Eath, who hasn’t driven the boat in five weeks, thinks so, too.

“I probably could have gone faster,” he said. “It takes a little time for the driver to get used to how that feels again.”

The Miss Budweiser team encountered some minor problems after the record. Brown tried an experiment on the second run, putting alcohol in the inlet of the engine in an attempt to add boost. It didn’t work, and the engine heated up, causing a malfunction.

Team Budweiser’s problems were minor compared to those of other boats. Mr. Pringles, driven by Scott Pierce, ran the second fastest lap at 147.517 m.p.h. but had problems on the second run. Mr. Pringles’ rear wing came loose in a turn on a lap that could have been close to Miss Budweiser’s record. Pierce returned to the dock immediately for repairs.

“We had a good number going on that run,” said Pierce, who is the driver standings leader. “It’s tough because we thought we had made some good adjustments. Now we’re going to have to get the boat ready for (Saturday).”

The Miller High Life boat never finished a lap. The boat wasn’t put into the water until 4 p.m. because the team drove all night to get here from Seattle. When Hanauer pulled the boat away from the pits, it stalled. He managed to start it, but it stalled again just as he got to the course.

“It just felt like somebody pulled the plug,” he said.

Miller High Life team manager Charlie Lyford said he was testing his boat’s new salt-water system for the first time and water was ingested into the engine. Lyford thinks the boat can be fixed for today’s run, but Hanauer is aware that it will take more than a mechanically sound boat to end Miss Budweiser’s three-regatta win streak.

“I’d say that’s the best I’ve seen their team in 10 years,” he said. “They’re very difficult to beat. I think they’re reaping the benefits of testing projects that were started two years ago.”

Little confirmed that. He said Brown told him he changed just about every part on the boat before this regatta, adding: “And I know he’s telling the truth because I pay the bills.”