Great unlimited drivers

[Jim Recker Jr.]

Muncey, Chenoweth, Tommy D'Eath, Kropfeld. Who am I missing? Must have been a ton of drivers from the 50's and 60's

 

[Bill Gibson]

Muncey, Chenoweth, Tommy D'Eath, Kropfeld. Who am I missing? Must have been a ton of drivers from the 50's and 60's

Ron Musson, Mickey Remond, Chip Hanauer, Jack Regas, Mira Slovak, like him or not Dave Villwock...........there are more....my spelling is terrible when it comes to names!

 

[Jim Recker Jr.]

Hanauer dammit knew I missed somebody recently

 

[TomMason]

Steve Reynolds, Mark Tate

 

[Mike Cathey]

Gar Wood, Jim McCormick, Billy Shumacher, Steve David

 

[Joe Flynn]

Chuck Thompson, Bill Brow, Warner Gardner

 

[John Beardslee]

Jim are you old enough to remember when all the drivers would stop by the Mini Gold Cup. Wild Billy Cantrel absolutely loved toy boats. One of our Wolverine Club members had a slow running deep vee that we’d let any of the unlimited drivers give it a try.

 

[John Beardslee]

One Detroit local drivers that always drove a locally sponsored boat was Freddy Altar. The other two drivers that die on the Patomic in 1966 besides Musson, was Manchester and Wilson.
Mike, I didn’t know Billy Schumacher drove an unlimited, thought he was only F1 auto

 

[Bob Blazer]

Now, who do you think was the best?

 

[Joe Flynn]

I think it has to go to Chip Hanauer with a close second to Tom D'Eath.
Chip could have surpassed Muncys win total but retired and stopped short of it in respect to Bill.
Tom D'Eath is a local favorite here in Motown. He was and is an intelligent and fearless driver. He is still at it having just restored the Lauterbach Miss Washington DC and running it on the vintage circuit.

 

[Joe Flynn]

Also don't forget Ron Snyder, perhaps one of the best starters of all time.

 

[Mike Cathey]

One Detroit local drivers that always drove a locally sponsored boat was Freddy Altar. The other two drivers that die on the Patomic in 1966 besides Musson, was Manchester and Wilson.
Mike, I didn’t know Billy Schumacher drove an unlimited, thought he was only F1 auto

I believe you are thinking of Michael Shumacher. Billy "The Kid" drove the $ Bill, 67-69 Bardahl, The Oly Beer and the Weisfield. He and Jane had a fair amount of success as owners having purchased the Bill Wurster U 8 operation lock, stock and barrel.

As a side note my dad purchased a 19' Thunderbird Formula (the Cathedral Deep Vee hull being a new concept at the time) from Jacobsen's in Ballard that Billy was set to drive in the Sammamish Slew race in 1966. My dad had replaced the aluminum block Buick V 6 with a 327 Vette motor with a reground marine cam and a bigger outdrive and prop. This thing was a bad ass hot rod to go salmon fishing in. Jacobsen's asked if my dad if they could borrow the boat for the race and he did after the insurance was put in place by Jacobsen's. I believe he was first in whatever that class was way back then. I talked to him at the UNW Banquet about it years ago and he remembered doing it. I had brought my Checkerboard Bardahl and he signed the bottom.

 

[Jeff Barnes]

Yah the old boy is still driving my 67

 

[John Beardslee]

I believe you are thinking of Michael Shumacher. Billy "The Kid" drove the $ Bill, 67-69 Bardahl, The Oly Beer and the Weisfield. He and Jane had a fair amount of success as owners having purchased the Bill Wurster U 8 operation lock, stock and barrel.

As a side note my dad purchased a 19' Thunderbird Formula (the Cathedral Deep Vee hull being a new concept at the time) from Jacobsen's in Ballard that Billy was set to drive in the Sammamish Slew race in 1966. My dad had replaced the aluminum block Buick V 6 with a 327 Vette motor with a reground marine cam and a bigger outdrive and prop. This thing was a bad ass hot rod to go salmon fishing in. Jacobsen's asked if my dad if they could borrow the boat for the race and he did after the insurance was put in place by Jacobsen's. I believe he was first in whatever that class was way back then. I talked to him at the UNW Banquet about it years ago and he remembered doing it. I had brought my Checkerboard Bardahl and he signed the bottom.

Thanks Mike, I stand corrected.

 

[John Beardslee]

The best, I lean toward Tom D’Eath. I’m prejudiced, he was a student of a teacher friend of mine and I got to know him.

 

[Joe Wiebelhaus]

Local Favorites (Detroit) Bill Cantrell & Danny Foster, knew them personally, watched Bill crash and die in front of me as a kid.

Overall favs, Bill Muncey & Chip Hanauer, (yes I know Bill was from Detroit)

 

[Don Ferrette]

Now, who do you think was the best?

Hanauer without a doubt, runner up Muncey.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Ron Musson, Mickey Remond, Chip Hanauer, Jack Regas, Mira Slovak, like him or not Dave Villwock...........there are more....my spelling is terrible when it comes to names!

Sorry Bill, I wouldn't put Dave Villwock in the top 10. Granted, he won a championship with a Fred Leland boat but, that said, Mike Hanson won a Gold Cup with the U-9, one of the lowest funded boat teams that year. You take Villwock out of the Bud and Elam boats, he's just another driver.

 

[Mike Cathey]

Sorry Bill, I wouldn't put Dave Villwock in the top 10. Granted, he won a championship with a Fred Leland boat but, that said, Mike Hansen won a Gold Cup with the U-9, one of the lowest funded boat teams that year. You take Villwock out of the Bud and Elam boats, he's just another driver.

Perhaps not in the drivers seat but one of the reasons the Bud and Elam/Qatar were so fast was Villwock's ability to set up gearbox and prop combinations. I couldn't believe how much faster the U 37 was when he got his hands on it. Unfortunately he was hitting everything but the scoring barge and washing down too many people and they had to pull him out of the boat.

The dude is an awesome RC plane pilot.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I totally agree, Mike. In that regard Dave is very similar to Mike Hanson, they are wizards when it comes to setting up a boat. You could see the difference in the 1990 Circus boats, they were more than a match for the Budweiser in many cases while Mike had the Madison running with the hot boats from the moment he became the crew chief. Has to say something when, driving one of the oldest boats in the fleet, Steve David gets two or three drivers championships after Mike started calling the shots.