Villwock Closer to Title

Five-time driver’s champion Dave Villwock and 21-time owner’s champion Bernie Little moved closer to another Unlimited Hydroplane World Championship on Saturday when Villwock, in Miss Budweiser, won one of two heats in the San Diego Thunderboat Regatta.

Two more four-lap heats and a five-lap final will be held today on the 2.5-mile Bill Muncey Memorial Course in Mission Bay. All Villwock and Little need to pop the champagne once more is for Miss Budweiser to finish second or better in one of today’s three races, even if Nate Brown, in Miss Elam Plus, won everything else and Miss Budweiser failed to finish its other races.

Saturday’s heat win was worth 40 points and Villwock needs only 29 to clinch the title in the six-race series. Villwock has won three previous races and Brown two.

Brown, who is defending champion, tried to pressure Miss Budweiser, but after Villwock led off the starting line, there was little doubt which three-ton boat would win as the roostertail from Villwock’s big red craft pulled easily ahead.

Miss Budweiser’s winning four-lap speed of 149.350 mph was helped by an opening lap of 153.964 mph.

Mike Hanson, driving Sunharbor Mortgage, the only other driver with a mathematical chance of winning the championship before Saturday, fell out early when he finished dead last in the other heat. Mike Weber, in Miss Emcor, won in 142.852 mph.

A Villwock-Little win would be nothing new for San Diego hydroplane fans. Little’s boats have won 13 times here, starting with Bill Brow in 1966. Villwock has won four of them and also won in 1992 with Coors Dry.