Villwock Engineers His Way to the Top

Four years ago, on San Diego’s Mission Bay, Dave Villwock won the first unlimited hydroplane race he ever drove. This Sunday, in the Bayfair Muncey Cup, on the same patch of water, the 6-foot 6-inch driver from Auburn, Wash., could win his first Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Assn. championship.

Villwock, 41, driving the PICO American Dream for veteran hydroplane owner-builder Fred Leland, has won six of the eight races this season, including the prestigious Gold Cup on the Detroit River, and needs to finish second or better in three heats and the championship final to clinch the title. One race remains after San Diego, Oct. 13 in Honolulu.

Villwock, crew chief on Chip Hanauer’s championship boat, Circus Circus, in 1990, credits his sponsor’s engineering expertise with making the boat a winner this year. PICO is Progressive Tool & Industries Co., a Detroit-based firm that supplies automotive parts.

“Over in Madison Heights [a Detroit suburb], they have 55,000 square feet of nothing but engineers, a lot of brain-trusters,” Villwock said. “If there’s an overlying question about anything we need, we’ll get an answer--metallurgically, mathematically or a machine job. There isn’t a question they can’t get an answer to.

“It’s amazing. Some of these guys are rocket scientists and they look at our little program and say, ‘Let us help you with that.’ We are very fortunate to have their input, and you can see the results on the water.”

Villwock has 11,296 points to 9,233 for 1995 champion Mark Tate, in Smokin’ Joe’s, and 8,252 for Mark Evans, who replaced Hanauer in Miss Budweiser after an accident at Detroit on June 1.

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No one has raced a quarter-mile in a top fuel dragster faster than Blaine Johnson. His 4.592-second pass at Topeka last July is the National Hot Rod Assn. record.

Milliseconds before he crashed to his death during qualifying for the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park two weeks ago, Johnson’s dragster stopped the clock at 4.612 seconds, faster than anyone in the field. His speed was 309 mph.

Blaine’s brother, Alan, was his crew chief.

“Blaine knew the risks of his sport, his chosen profession,” Alan said at services for his brother last Saturday in Santa Maria. “He pursued a dream with me, my dad and our whole family with great passion and commitment. He was on the gas all the time to be the best . . . and he was.”

Besides his brother, Blaine was survived by wife Kym, son Tyler, mother Agnes, father Everett and sister Pam Rowland. All worked on the family racing team.

A memorial fund to benefit his family has been established: Blaine Johnson Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 5546, Santa Maria, Ca., 93456.

Motor Racing Notes

INDY CARS--Indy Racing League cars and drivers, led by Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier, will help open the new Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. Practice for the Las Vegas 500K will start today, followed by qualifications Saturday and the 310-mile race at 1 p.m. Sunday. Also on the inaugural program will be Formula Ford, Shelby Pro Series and Formula Mazda races. Robby Gordon, who will switch Winston Cup stock cars next season, will make his final Indy car appearance with Derrick Walker’s team. . . . Car owner and builder Dan Gurney is the latest to be named a PPG Colorful Character for the 1996 season.

SPRINT CARS--Rip Williams, who won his 10th Sprint Car Racing Assn. main event last week in Bakersfield, will miss Saturday night’s feature at Perris Auto Speedway to compete in a U.S. Auto Club Silver Crown race in Springfield, Ill. Troy Cline, who suffered a compressed vertebra in an accident at Bakersfield, will also miss the race. . . . Two World of Outlaws winged car races, Oct. 30 at Perris and Nov. 3 at Pomona have been canceled and two new races, Nov. 2-3 at Perris, have been added to the West Coast swing. Plans to build a dirt track inside the Pomona Fairgrounds horse racetrack have been delayed, so brothers Cary and Chris Agajanian moved their Outlaws event to Perris.

STOCK CARS--Veterans Jerry Gay and John Borneman will decide the Winston Racing Series sportsman car championship Saturday night at Cajon Speedway. Gay has a narrow lead going into the season’s final points race. . . . Street stocks and IMCA modifieds will race tonight at Perris Auto Speedway and Saturday night at Ventura Raceway. . . . Victorville Speedway will feature IMCA modifieds and a demolition derby on Saturday night. . . . Blythe Speedway returns to action Saturday night with all divisions racing.

MOTORCYCLES--The weekly season finale at Costa Mesa Speedway for speedway bikes and side cars will take place tonight on the Orange County Fairgrounds oval. The U.S. Speedway Nationals will be held on the same track Sept. 28. . . . The Willow Springs Motorcycle Club will conduct a series of road races Saturday and Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway.

MOTOCROSS--Jeff Emig of Riverside upset Jeremy McGrath of Menifee, Calif., to win the national 250cc championship even though he had only four wins to seven for the defending champion. Emig, riding a Kawasaki, won by sweeping both motos in the final event at Delmont, Pa. . . . Emig, McGrath and 125cc champion Steve Lamson, also of Riverside, will ride in the Motocross des Nations on Sept. 22 in Jerez, Spain. The United States had won 13 years in a row before losing in 1994 to England and again last year to Belgium.

LAND SPEED--The Southern California Timing Assn. will hold time trials Sunday at El Mirage dry lake. . . . Because of a delay in obtaining carbon fiber tires, Craig Breedlove has delayed the start of his land speed record attempt at the Bonneville Salt Flats until October.