Premiere Date: 12/21/2010
Air Times: 8:00pm EST and 11:00PM EST
Get behind the wheel and take control of the some of the largest, fastest, most powerful machines on the planet. These aren’t your average vehicles–and handling one of these rides is unlike anything else. But you need more than just a learner’s permit to take control of these vehicles…you need training, experience, and above all, guts–if you plan to sit in the Driver’s Seat.
Portions of this show were filmed at the Air Guard Championship presented by Degree Men in San Diego in September.
Posted: December 21, 2010 at 5:17 pm in San Diego.
Billy Schumacher Racing L.L.C is officially announcing that the primary driver for the U37 Miss Peters and May will be J.W. Myers for the upcoming race in Doha Qatar. Myers started the season as the primary driver but was sidelined in mid July due to the accident at the Detroit Gold Cup, where his skid fin broke loose at about 180mph sending the boat toward the pits in the famed Rooster Tail Turn. Myers did everything in his power to keep the boat away from fellow racers in the pits, at the cost of hitting the sea wall at almost 100 mph.
J.W. suffered a shattered left foot and had to undergo surgery to repair the broken bones this past summer, but has recovered very well and is ready to get back to racing. “I’m really excited about getting back in to the cockpit. Of course I wish I was getting back in to the T4 but thankfully Fred Leland had equipment we were able to borrow so we’ll take what we’ve got to work with and see what kind of results we get in Doha.” said JW when asked about his return to racing.
Jon Zimmerman started out the season driving for Ken Muscatel’s U25 but since Detroit has been serving as JW’s backup in the U37 cockpit. Zimmerman had good success in the replacement boat that Schumacher racing borrowed from Fred Leland. He finished all of the heats he competed in and made the final in Tri Cities, Seattle and San Diego. Jon Zimmerman will be on hand in Doha Qatar to serve as an available back up driver should anyone require his services. He will also be the serving as the H1 Drivers’ Representative at the Doha race site.
Posted: November 9, 2010 at 3:34 pm in Jon Zimmerman.
U-37 driver JW Myers will be racing in the O-350 class at the UIM Outboard World Championships this weekend at Lake Alfred, FL. Myers will be sponsored by Peters & May USA and will be facing the top American drivers in the 100 mph 350cc class as well as racers from Austria, Germany, England, China and Italy. Dave Holley of Peters & May USA will be in attendance as well.
KIRO-TV’s Chris Egert interviewed JW Myers about the crash at the 2010 Gold Cup in Detroit
One of the hydroplane drivers you won’t see on Lake Washington for Seafair is the U-37′s J.W. Myers.Myers is recovering from a crash that broke 4 of his 5 toes in Detroit. The APBA Gold Cup on July 10 started out like any other race for Myers, driver of the Schumacher Racing U-37.“
I was racing Mike Kelly pretty hard,” Myers said, “Villock had already pretty much checked out on us, it was a race for second and I was gaining some ground on Mike.”
But then on the famed Roostertail turn, the narrowest turn in the entire series, things took a nasty turn for the Burien racer. Somehow the skidfin on the boat broke loose.
“With no skid on the boat, which is up on the forward left, I have minimal steering control. I have the rudder, but without anything to turn against the amount of control is extremely limited,” Myers said.
His Miss Peters and May boat was headed straight for the pits, it was a driver’s worst nightmare.“I see people everywhere and I am like ‘Oh my God, what do I do?’” Myers said, “Had I gone straight, there were people on docks and other racers, other boats preparing for the next heat right smack in front of me.”
He managed to avoid slamming into the pits and shot for a seawall instead. He crashed into the wall at just under 100 miles per hour.
“I just remember seeing that wall get really big. We hit the wall and changed direction, and it was all over,” Myers said.Even before the boat stopped, he jumped out.
Myers said he didn’t feel anything immediately, but soon found out that he broke four toes.”I messed it up. We have multiple fractures in all of my metatarsals. My number one, my big toe, was dislocated, near my ankle was displaced. It wasn’t broken, but the 2, the 3, the 4 were broken up. Overlake rebuilt it, and it feels great,” Myers said.
He said he won’t let this crash keep him away from the sport he loves.”There was a brief time in back of the ambulance that I was thinking maybe I should quit doing this but, I figure out, this is what I do,” he said.
While he’s not racing across the waters of Lake Washington this year, he said he’ll be eager to take the controls back from the U-37′s rookie replacement driver, John Zimmerman in time for the World Championship Oryx Cup in Qatar in November.
L-R: Jeff Bernard, N. Mark Evans, Jon Zimmerman, Kip Brown, Mike Webster, J. Michael Kelly, Kayleigh Perkins, Ken Muscatel, Duke Moscrip, Dave Villwock, Brian Perkins, Greg Hopp & JW Myers
Jon Zimmerman & JW Myers will help serve dinner tonight at Duke’s Chowder House at Southcenter tonight. Also joining him will be: Dave Villwock, Jeff Bernard, Mark Evans, J Michael Kelly, Greg Hopp, Brian or Kayleigh Perkins, Ken Muscatel, Kip Brown & Mike Webster. They will also be giving some of their customers hats, t-shirts, gift certificates and other prizes.
A portion of all revenue and tips will benefit the Driver’s Fund Charity which aids the families of drivers who are injured. Dinner starts at 5:30 at Duke’s at Southcenter.
According to J-Dub, he will be scheduling surgery for next week – we don’t think he’ll make it through airport metal detectors when this is finally fixed…
