Miss Bardahl Wins San Diego Cup

Mission Bay, San Diego, California, September 24, 1967

Tri-City Herald Sept. 24, 1967

Miss Bardahl’s domination on the unlimited circuit continued at the season’s finale on Mission Bay in California, Sept. 24. The national champion outclassed a field of 13 contenders to win the fourth annual San Diego Cup before an estimated crowd of 55,000 with an average speed of 100.062 m.p.h. for the 45 miles.

Young Schumacher posted his sixth win of the eight-race circuit this year with such ease that lie had a margin to spare even after jumping the gun in the final contest. The error cost the 24-year-old driver an extra lap and a perfect heat record in the regatta. Two preliminary heat wins plus a second in the final event gave Miss Bardahl the most impressive record in modern unlimited history.

Fred Alter driving the new Parco-O Ring Miss finished a surprising second in the regatta with Miss US piloted by Bill Muncey taking third. Both boats tied on total points but the California-based O-Ring entry had the nod on total elapsed time.

Billy Schumacher showed his boat’s capabilities in the opening heat. He steered Miss Bardahl into the lead at the start, powered to a record lap speed of 110.15 the first time around, then finished the contest 27.8 seconds ahead of second place Miss Budweiser. Twin hemi-powered Miss Chrysler Crew trailed by 3.5 seconds. Continue Reading…

Miss Bardahl Captures Unlimited Hydro Crown

Lake Folsom, Sacramento, California, September 17, 1967

Tri-City Herald Sept. 17, 1967

Sacramento, Calif., Sept. 17 [1967] (AP) — Miss Budweiser won the cup, but Miss Bardahl captured top honors today in the $25,000 Sacramento Cup race for unlimited hydroplanes.

Miss Budweiser gained the cup by winning the final heat. However, Miss Bardahl, with Billy Schumacher at the helm, won the national championship. She averaged 98.79 miles an hour as she took the first two heats and placed second in the final to clinch the crown.

(From the Associated Press)

(courtesy www.lesliefield.com)

The Spokesman-Review - Aug 7, 1967

Continue Reading…

Miss Bardahl Wins Gold Cup

Lake Washington, Seattle, Washington, August 6, 1967
by Bob Brinton

Ellensburg Daily Record: Aug. 7, 1967

The 59th race for America’s oldest powerboat trophy, the Gold Cup, went to Miss Bardahl driven by Billy Schumacher, The reported 160,000 spectators around the Lake Washington course in Seattle witnessed a one-sided performance by the winner plus one of powerboating’s most spectacular accidents just six seconds after the starting gun in the initial heat. For her winning effort Miss Bardahl earned $11,250 of the $55,000 purse. Second place Miss Lapeer piloted by Warner Gardner won $7,900. Seeking his 5th Gold Cup victory, Bill Muncey steered Miss U S to third overall and $5,500 in prize money. Most spectacular but near tragic highlight of the 60-mfle event was the destruction of two leading contenders in the opening moments of the first heat. Veteran drivers Jack Regas and Chuck Hickling were hospitalized with serious injuries following the violent accident. Continue Reading…

Bardahl, Billy the baker win Atomic Cup

July 24, 1967

By Charlie Van Sickel, Herald sports editor

Modesto Bee July 24, 1967

Billy Schumacher, the brash baker boy from Seattle, is earning a reputation as the brightest thing to hit the unlimited hydroplane racing scene since Mira Slovak defected from Communist Czechoslovakia a decade ago. Schumacher enhanced that reputation here Sunday when he streaked to three straight heat victories and walked off with the second running of the Atomic Cup unlimited hydro regatta.

Crowds estimated at 80,000 by Tri-City Water Follies officials watched Bardahl out-duel Bill Sterett in Miss Chrysler Crew and Jim McCormick in Wayfarer’s Club Lady for the $5,000 first-place prize money.

The victory pushed Schumacher and Bardahl into the lead in national point standings in the American Power Boat Association. Schumacher, who has won three of four races on the 1967 circuit, has 3,625 points to runner-up Jim Ranger’s 3,083. Sterett now is third with 2,852 and McCormick has 2,688.

The crowd record – 20,000 more than last year’s inaugural turnout – wasn’t the only record established in yesterday’s seven-heat program. Continue Reading…

At Madison: The Governor’s Cup

Ohio River, Madison, Indiana, July 9, 1967

Tri-City Herald July 10, 1967

There was just enough wind to ruffle the waters of the Ohio River and provide nearly ideal racing conditions for the thunderboats around the 2½ mile course of the Governor’s Cup race at Madison, Ind., on July 9. Ole Bardahl’s Miss Bardahl from Seattle, driven by 24-year-old Billy Schumacher, emerged the winner with 1,100 points.
Going into the final heat Miss Bardahl was tied at 700 points with Detroiter Jim Herrington’s Fifi Lapeer with Warner Gardner, retired Air Force colonel, as her driver. When the starting gun fired for that deciding heat, Fifi Lapeer was drifting down the Ohio River, out with magneto difficulty. The finale quickly settled into a duel between Bardahl and Harrah’s Club, with the veteran Chuck Hickling driving Bill Harrah’s Reno, Nev., entry. Miss Bardahl accelerated faster out of the turns and got away from Harrah’s Club during the third circuit of the six-lap race to win at 94.736 m.p.h. Harrah’s Club finished second to place second in point standing for the Cup, with 925.’ Jim Ranger’s My Gypsy, of Detroit, was third over the line and placed third overall, with 794 points. Bob Fendler’s Wayfarer’s Club Lady, with Jim McCormick at the wheel, finished fourth with a score of 769. Continue Reading…

Bill Brow Killed in Tampa Race

Tampa, Florida, June 11, 1967

The Evening Independent - Jun 12, 1967

The 1967 unlimited hydroplane racing season was precisely one minute old when tragedy, the seemingly unshakable spectre that rides the roostertails these days, struck in the circuit opener, the Tampa Suncoast Cup race, June 11. Miss Budweiser, driven by Seattle dairyman Bill Brow, 41, went out of control while in the lead on the first backstretch. Brow was thrown from the boat and despite heroic, swift medical measures, died two hours later without regaining consciousness.

He was the fifth unlimited driver to be killed in nine races dating back to the 1966 season. Some 12,000 spectators gasped as Miss Budweiser, estimated to be running close to 170 m.p.h., became airborne after briefly bouncing over a choppy portion of the course. The boat teetered from left to right a couple of times just before she took off, fluttering like a bird in flight that had been hit with shot and crippled. Bernie Little’s hydro climbed skyward, rolled to the left and came clown on the water with a crash. The racer seemingly hooked, became airborne again as she turned 180 degrees. The boat was breaking up at that point and it was then that Brow was thrown. The second time Miss Budweiser smashed down, she cartwheeled and went to the bottom. Continue Reading…