Dexter Lake, Dexter, Oregon, August 15, 1971

Eugene Register Guard Aug. 16, 1971

Seattle’s Billy Schumacher piloted Pride of Pay ‘n Pak around Dexter Lake’s 2½-mile unlimited course Aug. 15 to sweep all three heats and win the Oregon Emerald Cup, 1,200 points toward the national unlimited title and the lion’s share of a $15,000 purse. It was Oregon’s first unlimited event and was sponsored by the Eugene Jaycees.

Pride of Pay ‘n Pak moved into third place nationally behind Miss Budweiser (Dean Chenoweth) and Miss Madison (Jim McCormick), but he had a long way to go. As the season waned, Miss Bud had 6,996 points; Miss Madison, 6,313; Pride of Play ‘n Pak, 6,017, and Atlas Van Lines, Bill Muncey, 5,595. Continue Reading…

July 26, 1971: ‘Cinderella’ no longer

1971 Atomic Cup Program

By Bill Purcell, Herald sports writer

For the past three weeks after his first victory in unlimited hydroplane racing, Jim McCormick was almost apologetically referred to as the “Cinderella” winner of the Madison, Ind., Gold Cup. You can forget all that “fairy tale” nonsense now and stop wondering if McCormick’s Gold Cup victory was really a fluke. He is no longer the “Cinderella” pilot after winning the sixth annual Atomic Cup in Miss Madison on the Columbia River Sunday afternoon before an estimated 40,000 fans. His gold and brown boat roostertailing a shimmering wall of water behind him, McCormick won the championship by 22 seconds with an average speed of 100.558 m.p.h. to win the $5,875 first-place prize.

McCormick’s victory was an upset. But if someone with sour grapes tells you the 1971 Atomic Cup was really the race lost by Billy Schumacher instead of the race won by Jim McCormick, don’t listen to him. True, the Pride of Pay ‘N Pak hard-luck driver nearly had the Cup brimming with his own champagne before the championship heat was run after easily winning his first two heats. But Schumacher, who won here in 1967 in Miss Bardahl, was instead going to taste only a cold beer in the pits after drifting downstream under a 98-degree sun while the final heat was being run. Continue Reading…