It’s Not 170, but He’ll Take It : Hydroplanes: Chip Hanauer fails to record a 170-m.p.h. lap but still sets a record to earn the inside lane for today’s race.

Chip Hanauer and Miss Budweiser ran the fastest official lap in history for unlimited hydroplanes on a closed course Saturday as 35,000 watched from the shores of Mission Bay, but the lap fell short of the 170-m.p.h. mark that they had reached during practice Friday.

The six-time Unlimited Racing Commission champion took his turbine-powered boat around the 2 1/2-mile Bill Muncey Memorial saltwater course at 169.802 m.p.h. to gain the inside lane for today’s Budweiser Cup. That bettered the three-month-old record of 169.523 Hanauer set during the Gold Cup last June on the Detroit River.

It also was the fastest official time recorded on Mission Bay, which has traditionally been the fastest course in the world because of its long, sweeping turns. Hanauer set the old San Diego record of 168.128 two years ago in Miss Circus Circus.

“Close, but no cigar,” the 38-year-old Seattle driver said. “We wanted 170, no doubt about it, but the bottom line is we’ve got to be happy. We came here to win the boat race. Getting 170 would have been nice, but that was not our main purpose.”

It was the seventh consecutive time this season that Hanauer had set a course record during qualifying.

Even at Seattle, where he crashed and missed the race, Hanauer had the fastest time before the accident occurred.

He has won all six races he has run.

Hanauer recorded a lap of 170.925 m.p.h. in a second Miss Budweiser boat Friday morning to become the first unlimited hydroplane over that mark, but it was not done during an official qualifying session.

“The water was a little bumpy today and every time the boat hit a little bump it scrubbed off a little speed,” he said. “Yesterday, the water was like glass and the boat rode smoother. The best news, though, is that the boat was handling very well going into (today’s) race.”

After running 169.802 on the first lap, Hanauer took two more laps in search of the elusive 170 but each time his speed got slower--169.231 and 167.973.

Bernie Little, owner of the Miss Budweiser boats, blamed himself and crew chief Ron Brown for not getting the 170-m.p.h. lap.

“Chip did everything he could, but this morning we decided to remove the salt filter and give him another 2% in performance,” Little said. “The filter is heavy and we thought lightening the boat would help, but we failed to make the tiny changes caused by the change in weight.”

Mark Tate, who won last year’s unlimited driving championship in Hanauer’s absence, lapped at 161.832 in the Winston Eagle, and George Woods Jr. reached 160.917 in The Tide to pose the most serious threat to Hanauer.

“The truth is, we’re running for second behind the Bud boat,” said Steve Woomer, owner of the Winston Eagle. “What else can you say after what’s happened all year?”

The Eagle is the same boat in which Hanauer set the world record two years ago when it was Miss Circus Circus. After Circus Circus withdrew from the sport and Hanauer retired at the close of the 1990 season, Woomer purchased the boat.

Woods, who won at Seattle in the race Hanauer missed, is more optimistic about what might happen in today’s five-lap championship heat.

“Race-day conditions have a tendency to equal out speeds,” Woods said. “Choppy water, the way it usually is here late in the afternoon, can bring speeds down to 140 and there are a lot of boats here capable of 140. Things can even out by the final heat.”

Woods is also the only driver entered other than Hanauer to have won at Mission Bay. He won in 1988 driving Oh Boy! Oberto for Jim Harvey. It was the last piston-powered boat to win here as turbines have taken over

Hanauer, with 4,190 points, clinched the championship last month in Kansas City, but the battle for second place is close. The Tide is second with 2,848, followed by Winston Eagle with 2,176.