Putting a Lid on Danger : Chip Hanauer Sets Unofficial Record in Practice Run as Hydroplane Racing Improves Safety

Chip Hanauer crossed another speed barrier here Friday when he ran unlimited hydroplane racing’s first 170-m.p.h. lap.

Hanauer, the six-time national champion from Seattle, drove a 3-year-old Miss Budweiser over the saltwater Mission Bay course at 170.9 during practice for Sunday’s Budweiser Cup. The record will not be accepted as official, however, because it did not occur during formal qualifying runs.

Later, Hanauer took out another Miss Budweiser--one completely rebuilt after a serious accident last month on Seattle’s Lake Washington--and ran an official 168.016 m.p.h. Both boats were powered by Lycoming T-55 turbine engines.

This morning, Hanauer will be in the rebuilt boat in an attempt to break 170 officially.

“I felt much better about running 168 under windy conditions in the second boat than the 170 felt in the morning under ideal conditions,” Hanauer said.

As racing speeds for unlimited hydroplanes moved upward over the last 40 years from 120 m.p.h. to 170 m.p.h., the plateaus were usually measured by improvements in hull design, use of space age materials, changes in wings, propellers and increased horsepower.

This time, however, the motivating factor could be safety, although Hanauer claims the elite drivers of unlimited hydroplanes were never inhibited by fears of danger--even before the evolution of the enclosed capsule, or canopy cockpits that have radically reduced fatalities and serious injuries.

“They do give you a certain comfort zone we didn’t have before, but it’s more after the fact,” Hanauer said. “I don’t see any difference in my mind-set when I get in a boat with a canopy than I did before. After something happens, then you realize how much better off we are.”

Hanauer knows first-hand the importance of the F-16 jet fighter canopy that protects the driver from either being killed or maimed by impact with the water or from drowning. The canopy is attached to a roll cage similar to a race car’s and the driver is also protected by a double layer of aluminum honeycomb. He also has an independent air supply in case the boat sinks.

Last month, on Lake Washington, Hanauer suffered what he called “by far the most violent accident of my career,” an accident that almost destroyed one of the 6,000-pound Miss Budweisers.

“I was just bending into a corner on a qualifying run when the propeller broke and the back end of the boat dropped,” Hanauer said. “The front end came up, but it wasn’t a typical blowover, where the boat sails in the air. It kind of snap-rolled violently, hitting the water so hard that it broke the engine mount and the engine shot out the end of the boat.

“Everything back of the cockpit was totally destroyed. All that was retrieved was the canopy and one of the sponsons. I would have had no chance, none at all, before the canopy era. I came out of it relatively unscathed (four broken ribs) and it was far more violent than the accidents that killed Bill Muncey and Dean Chenoweth. By today’s standards, neither of their crashes would have been life-threatening. If they had had canopies at the time, both would still be with us.”

Muncey, for whom the Mission Bay course is named, was killed in a race in 1981 in Acapulco, Mexico, and Chenoweth was killed a few months later at Tri-Cities, Wash. Between them, they had won 87 unlimited hydroplane races.

Their deaths triggered the change from open-cockpit boats to driver capsules. Bernie Little, owner of the Miss Budweisers, developed the canopy in 1985 and four years later it was made mandatory by the Unlimited Racing Commission.

Hanauer’s 170-m.p.h. run is only the latest in a yearlong list of accomplishments since he and Little joined forces in a move that stunned the racing world. For years, they had been the bitterest of enemies while dominating the sport.

Every year since 1980, the Unlimited Racing Commission championship has been won either by a boat driven by Hanauer or owned by Little. This year they have already clinched the owner and driver titles--Little’s 13th and Hanauer’s sixth.

Hanauer has won every race he has run this year. Miss Budweiser’s only defeat in eight races was at Seattle after Hanauer was injured and George Woods Jr. won in the Tide boat.

Hanauer returned for the next race, at Kansas City, and drove the Miss Budweiser backup boat to a victory that assured his team of the championship. That is the older boat that broke the 170-m.p.h. barrier here Friday.

“The boats are quite different, but the backup boat proved its worth last year when it won the championship with Scott Pierce driving,” Hanauer said.

“I feel very comfortable in it, but after testing the new boat in the wind, I’m leaning toward the rebuilt one.”

Little says it actually comes closer to being a new boat than a rebuilt one. The only parts remaining, he said, are the canopy and one sponson.

“It was a real crash program, getting it ready for this race,” Little said. “I offered the crew a $10,000 bonus if they had it ready for San Diego and here it is. They earned the money.”

As an indication of how far Little and Hanauer are ahead of the opposition, the next-fastest boat during two rounds of qualifying was Woods in the Tide at 160.917 m.p.h. Only three other boats bettered 150.

Two more rounds of qualifying today will set the field for Sunday’s race, the eighth of a nine-race season.

“I know we’ve won a lot this year, but that doesn’t reflect how close the other teams are to us,” Hanauer said, sounding like a publicity man. “People keep asking me if it’s good for the sport to have us winning all the time, but I always say I don’t think we’ll keep winning. I’m real proud of how we’ve come together this year, but it can’t last forever.”

How about the long-anticipated conflict between Hanauer and Little, two independent thinkers who have been the towers of their sport?

“I’ll admit, I had apprehensions about how well we would get along,” Hanauer said. “I had always pictured Bernie as an owner who put extreme external pressures on his drivers, but I haven’t felt any of that.

“Of course, when you’re winning, it’s easy to get along. The test will come when we start losing, having bad races and arguing over why.”

The marriage seems secure, though, because nothing indicates that will happen soon, if ever.

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If Hanauer--who retired a year ago when he said he was burned out after winning his fifth national title in the Circus Circus boat--had his druthers, he would still be racing a Toyota MR2 Turbo in the Firestone Firehawk racing series instead of piloting a boat at record speeds.

The only reason he returned to unlimiteds is that Toyota pulled the plug on its sponsorship before the 1992 season began and Hanauer was left without a sponsored ride.

“I was really bummed out when Toyota made their decision,” Hanauer said. “I felt I had been making good progress. I was fast qualifier in my fourth race and I won my fifth race, so I was looking forward to another year and then maybe moving up to a faster car. I suffered through a long, hard winter before I made the decision to join Bernie.”

No decision has yet been made by Hanauer for 1993, but he indicated that the only major hurdle could be his insistence that he also drive a race car when the opportunity arises.

“I drove with Dennis Aase in a Firehawk race last July for a private team at Laguna Seca and finished third, but Bernie wasn’t too happy about it. He doesn’t seem to understand just how safe the Firehawk cars are. He’s afraid I’ll get hurt racing cars.”