Motor Racing : Hanauer Is Shooting for Eighth Straight Win in Gold Cup Boat Race

When you check the records, you find that no driver has been able to win consecutive Indy 500s since Al Unser did it in 1970 and ’71. And that he and A.J. Foyt are the leaders with four victories each.

You learn that until Curtis Strange did it the last two years, no golfer had been able to repeat as U.S. Open winner since Ben Hogan in the ‘50s.

That sort of puts in perspective one of the outstanding records in motorsports, or almost any sport.

When Chip Hanauer, 35, a hydroplane racer from Seattle, straps himself into his turbine-powered Miss Circus Circus this weekend on San Diego’s Mission Bay, he will be going for his eighth straight victory in the American Power Boat Assn.’s Gold Cup race, the most prestigious event in the sport.

“Even I find it incredible when I think about it,” Hanauer says. “When I first started, my only goal was to win one Gold Cup. I never dreamed I could win more than one.”

But since 1982, nobody else has been in the Gold Cup winner’s circle.

“I think I have won the race just about every way possible,” Hanauer said. “I won when I have outdriven everybody, I’ve won when my crew has given me an unbeatable piece of equipment, and I’ve won when I have been just plain lucky.”

Hanauer said, though, that if he is to extend his string this weekend, he will need a lot working in his favor.

First there is the course, the 2.5-mile saltwater Bill Muncey Memorial Course named after the seven-time national champion from San Diego.

“It is the fastest course we race on, and I am certain we’ll see a 160-m.p.h. qualifying lap this weekend,” he said.

“I think that Miss Budweiser is capable of it. (Driver) Tom D’Eath holds the course record at 156.169. If we can get our boat dialed in, we also should be able to do it.”

And getting dialed in is the key to whether he can win No. 8 he says.

The boat he’ll be driving this weekend is one that he crashed at Syracuse, N.Y., earlier this year.

“After debating, we decided that we would rebuild it,” he said. “We had to cut the back end off aft of the sponson and add a new piece. All of this took time and when we first tested it, it just wasn’t the same as before.

“If I have to tell you how I will do now, I just don’t know. If we can get it balanced the way it should be, it will be fine. If not, it might be a long weekend.”

If not having his boat set up the way he wants it isn’t enough, there are also the saltwater problems that have plagued the turbine powered boats.

“Maybe we have it solved and maybe we don’t,” Hanauer said. “It worked perfect earlier in the year at Miami, but when we tested our saltwater setup last week, it was nothing but troubles.

“We and the other turbine boats are gaining on it and it’s just a matter of time before we perfect the system to keep the salt out of the engines. Last year here, nothing went right and I didn’t even complete a lap, so you never know.”

Hanauer’s boat wasn’t the only turbine plagued by the salt in 1988. In fact, all of them failed, and George Wood in the piston-powered boat Oh Boy! Oberto won the event here.

Although Hanauer is far ahead in the driver standings, he trails Miss Budweiser in the overall point battle, with the Gold Cup and a race at Las Vegas next week left in the season.

Hanauer, who has two victories this year, believes he could be much closer.

“I lost two races that I finished first, once by jumping the guy and the other for hitting a buoy,” he said. “And then, there was the blow over at Syracuse. In that one, I was leading and I guess I just pushed it a little too hard, a gust of wind got me and away I went.”

Hanauer was saved by a device that he believes has saved the sport of hydroplane racing--the protective cockpit capsules that are now required on every boat. Instead of unprotected drivers being thrown from flipping boats, the capsules are thrown.

“It saved me this year,” Hanauer said. “And it has saved 10 to 12 other drivers, and we are still learning about driver safety through the capsules.

“Obviously, they didn’t come soon enough or we wouldn’t have lost Bill Muncey and Dean Chenoweth, but I seriously doubt that the sport would have survived without (the capsules).”

Two drivers in last year’s San Diego race, John Prevost and Ron Snyder, escaped injury when their boats flipped simultaneously in a heat. Another driver, Scott Pierce in Mr. Pringles, has gone over four times in the last two years.

“I would have been in big trouble without the capsule,” Pierce said.

Motor Racing Notes

SPRINT CARS--Chuck Gurney of Livermore, Calif., who is having one of his biggest years, will try to add a victory in the CRA/Parnelli Jones sprint car series Saturday night at Ascot Park. Gurney, who wrapped up his second United States Auto Club dirt-track series with a Labor Day win at Du Quoin, Ill., is coming off a second to Lealand McSpadden in last Saturday night’s Ascot event.

Earlier in the year, Gurney won the biggest annual open-competition midget event, the Bellville Nationals at Bellville, Kan., beating many of the same drivers he defeated last Thanksgiving Night at Ascot in the annual Grand Prix midget event.

Also scheduled to continue this Saturday night is the seesaw battle for second place between Ron Shuman and Rip Williams of Yorba Linda. Williams took over the spot with a fourth-place finish. Point leader Jerry Meyer, who was driving with splint on the finger he injured in a crash at Phoenix, finished sixth after having the fastest qualifying run.

STOCK CARS--Saugus Speedway holds it annual Fan Appreciation Night Saturday when the NASCAR sportsman and street stocks compete. There also will be an officials’ race and the final ego challenge of the season. . . . Marcus Mallet continues his late-season challenge of point leader Jerry Meyer in Sunday night’s NASCAR Winston racing series at Ascot. Also racing Sunday night will be bomber and mini stocks plus bombers on the Figure 8 course.

Dan Press of Frazier Park, who record his record seventh NASCAR Southwest Tour win last Saturday at Ascot, headlines the field when the Tour moves to Northern California’s Roseville Saturday night with a 100-lap event on tap. Ed Hogge, a 35-year-old Salinas driver, is the 1989 Pacific Coast Region winner in the NASCAR Winston Racing Series and will collect $22,500 for his 15 wins and 3,550 points out of a possible 3,600.

Street and mini-stocks compete Friday evening at Ventura Raceway. . . . Dave Scheidecker, the season-long point leader at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino who thought he lost his bid with an early exit last Saturday, became the champion anyway when winner Dennis Woolridge was disqualified.

MOTORCYCLES--Scott Parker set two goals for himself this year--to win 10 dirt-track races and the Camel Pro championship. He will try to take a step closer to each Sunday when he continues his battle with Harley-Davidson teammate Chris Carr on the San Jose mile track. Seven of Parker’s eight victories have been on mile tracks and after San Jose, the American Motorcyclist Assn. series moves to Ascot Park on Sept. 30 and winds up Oct. 7 at Sacramento. Starting Sunday’s event, Parker has a 32-point edge on Carr and a win would tied him with Bubba Shoebert, who set the record for most wins in a season with nine.

Eddie Lawson of Ontario needs only to finish 11th or better in Sunday’s final 500cc grand prix at Goiania, Brazil, to wrap up his second consecutive World Championship. Starting the event, Lawson has a 15.5-point lead over fellow Californian Wayne Rainey of Norwalk in his bid for his fourth world title in seven years. A win also would make him the winningest American 500cc rider ever with 30 victories.

Bobby Schwartz and Phil Collins, the top two riders in the recently completed set of qualifying races for the U.S. Speedway Nationals at Costa Mesa, will continue their season battle at South Bay Speedway tonight. Racing is also scheduled at Costa Mesa on Friday night and at Victorville on Saturday night. . . . The Continental Motosports Club holds its weekly races Friday night at Ascot Park.

MIDGETS--When the midgets and three-quarter midgets of the United States Auto Club compete Saturday for the fourth time this season at Ventura Raceway, they will find things bigger and faster. The track has been enlarged to a quarter-mile oval. Robby Flock, fresh from a win last Sunday night at Ascot after a final-lap tangle eliminated Terry Farrar and P.J. Jones, has a two-point lead over Sleepy Tripp in their battle for the Jolly Rancher Western States championship. In the TQ race, Kara Hendrick will try close in on leader Gary Howard in her bid to become the first women ever to win a USAC championship. She is currently 42 points behind.

DRAG RACING--The NHRA Pacific Division of the Winston Series will hold the fifth of six 1989 championship meets in which sportsman drivers can earn points toward divisional championships this weekend at L.A. County Raceway in Littlerock. More than 350 cars are expected to compete in eight divisions. Qualifying is scheduled on Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. with the eliminations beginning at noon on Sunday.

SUPER-MODIFIEDS--The fastest oval-track racing machines on the West Coast will compete Saturday night when Cajon Speedway holds a rare open-wheel show on the three-eighths-mile paved oval. Joining the Super Modified Racing Assn. cars Saturday night will be the American City Racing League full-bodied sports racers. Track record holder Ken Nichols, last year’s race winner Mike Swanson and Davey Hamilton are expected to headline the super entries.

OFF-ROAD--Roger Mears, who has had to take a back seat to Robby Gordon, Ivan Stewart and Walker Evans, will try for his first stadium truck racing victory since 1987 when Round 8 of the 10-race Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix is held Saturday night at Mile High Stadium in Denver.