One Hydro Driver Is Out With 4 Broken Toes

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.

Continue reading for X-Ray view of repairs:

Continue Reading…

Jon gets into the U-37 for first run at Seafair

Jon Zimmerman took the U-37 Miss Peters & May for his first laps ever on the Lake Washington course this morning, doing some timing laps and a turning a top speed of 134.712 mph.

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.

Reservations suggested – call 206-243-5200.

At the BluWater Bistro, of course…

Heat 1B:

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Heat 3B:

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Jon Zimmerman’s first heat in the U-37 resulted in a wild ride (at 6:35), sustaining what he called the hardest hit he’s ever taken in boat racing.

Jamie Nilsen rolls into turn 1...

Jamie Nilsen got familiar with the U-37 with a total of six laps resulting in a top speed of 148.571 mph.

Billy Schumacher said “Jamie did an excellent job in his 1st time in an Unlimited hydroplane. He executed our game plan EXACTLY as we discussed in the truck before the run and was very calm and composed doing it.”

Lap speeds:
lap 1: 130.701
lap 2: 140.946
lap 3: 140.953
lap 4: 148.571
lap 5: 147.982

Jamie Nilsen

Jamie Nilsen form Edgewood, WA will be taking the U-37 Miss Peters & May out on the Columbia River this morning for some test runs.

Jamie, 25, started racing J Stock hydros at age 12. He has since driven tunnel boats, outboards and 1 liter hydros.

JW Myers recommended Jamie as a skilled driver whom he would like to see get some seat time in an Unlimited hydroplane.

Jamie says “I’m excited and honored to have this opportunity, and I’m flattered J-Dub thought of me. I am glad he’s doing alright, but I wish this was under different circumstances.”

The footage from all three cameras that rode aboard the U-37 in Detroit are synced in this clip

Jon Zimmerman - Photo: Jim Simpson

The U-37 Miss Peters and May Race team is proud to announce Jon Zimmerman will be filling in for JW Myers for the remainder of the 2010 season. Jon is a 5 Litre world record holder and previously ran this season for Ken Muscatel and the U-25 team in Madison Indiana.

Billy and Jane Schumacher would like to thank Ken Muscatel for the opportunity to work with Jon Zimmerman. “We thought Jon looked great running the U-25 in Madison and are very excited for him to join our team.”

JW Myers who was injured in an accident in Detroit and will sit out the next few races felt Jon was a good fit for this team. “I have watched Jon race for several years and he has done a great job in anything I have seen him race. He doesn’t open himself up for mistakes.”

Jon is excited to fill in for JW in the “Red, White and Blue” Leland hull the U-37 team is leasing for the rest of the 2010 season. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with crew chief Scott Raney on a professional level after racing inboards with him for years. I would also like to thank Ken Muscatel for allowing me to work with the U-37. He gave me a chance to pursue my dreams with the U-25 team and I’m very grateful for that.” Jon who is 45 years old lives in Maple Valley, Washington with wife JoAnne and 4 year old son Jack. Please go to www.u-37.com for more information on Jon’s driving career.

Jon started racing scale electric hydroplanes in 1991.  I still have a 1/10th scale Vacationville that I try to race a couple of times a year as time permits.

Later raced  A stock style hydroplanes with a group of friends Thursday evenings in the summers at Stan Sayers.  We only had two rules.  You had to run an 18HP fishing boat motor and it had to be painted like an Unlimited.  I had a Renault and the Miss Rock.  Lots of fun.

In 1994 My friend Dave Bibby traded his A stock outboard for a 2.5 stock inboard.  You can imagine how nice that boat was.  We worked on it for a couple of months before keeping the trailer and throwing the boat in the landfill.  Dave bought a 2.5 that was built by John Watkins in the eighties and we raced that for a year.  We had no idea what we were doing.  I think I was disqualified the first four times because I couldn’t figure out how the start worked.

After that I bought my own 2.5 stock, a boat built by the Campbell brothers in the eighties.   Over the years I figured a few things out, rebuilt the boat a few times, and it became one of the fastest boats in the country.  We won four regional championships and finished second in the nation a couple of times.  That boat is now owned by Brian Perkins.

In 2004 Ron Jones Jr. opened the doors of his shop to me so I could build a new 5 liter.  We have set all four world records with it and missed a national championship by 13 points.  That number 1 is elusive.

If it wasn’t for JR I would still be running in the middle of the pack in a wooden boat.  He has taught me things about construction and set up that I would have never figured out.  If you want a fast boat go see JR.

JR also convinced Ken Muscatel to give me an opportunity in the U-25.  He drove the U-25 Unlimited Hydroplane in Madison Indiana this year.  That opportunity led to his driving the U-37 Miss Peters and May in Tri-Cities and Seattle.

NOTE: The Miss Peters and May team is very excited to have Jon on board!

J-Dub's CAT scan

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…

From the Detroit Free Press:
BY MIKE BRUDENELL
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

Injured Unlimited hydroplane driver J.W. Myers rushed to the Detroit River after his release from the hospital Sunday. He wanted to be with his team to watch the Gold Cup final, he said.

Sitting in a lawn chair near his race hauler, Myers said he felt lucky to survive his huge crash on the Detroit River on Saturday during heats of the APBA Gold Cup.

“To walk away from that — it was a big impact. Six-thousand pounds of boat at 100 m.p.h. That says it all.”

Myers, 36, knew he was in trouble after his skid fin broke.

“We were hauling (butt),” he said. “We obviously had an issue. I tried to do a right-hand spin to slow it down. I remember the (Roostertail) wall getting really big. You should have heard the impact from where I was sitting.”

His U-37 Miss Peters & May boat slammed into the seawall of the Roostertail restaurant. The Burien, Wash., native sustained broken bones in his left foot and was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Detroit. The hydroplane was heavily damaged, the cockpit split open.

Team manager Shannon Raney confirmed Sunday that Myers was still in extreme pain.

“But he’s a tough driver,” said Raney. “Don’t count him out racing again this year.”

Raney said Myers fought for control of his boat after the equipment failure sent him skimming across the water in the tight Roostertail turn toward the pits.

“He saw the hit coming, and it wouldn’t have been a good deal,” Raney said. “He manhandled the boat so he wouldn’t hit anybody on the shore. J.W. knew he was out of the race and he just didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Myers appeared to turn the boat right with the rudder, scrub off speed across the river and deliberately miss slamming into the pits. Instead, he smacked the concrete and steel Roostertail wall.

No one apart from him was hurt.

JW Myers

The skid fin is a long, stationary metal blade mounted behind the left sponson about the middle of the boat. The skid fin helps the boat through turns and keep the hull lined up in the straight-aways. When it breaks or fails, it’s very, very bad because the boat loses it ability to quickly turn or maintain a path.

That’s the situation U-37 driver JW Myers found himself in. When the skid fin on the boat gave way, Myers found himself going through the turn and in the worst possible position on the Detroit River. Headed directly for the pit area, full of docks, boats, and people. And he was headed there in a boat weighing more than three tons and going more than 150 miles an hour.

In seconds, Myers made a decision. He needed to muscle the boat away from the docks and the crowds. But he did it at great personal risk. To the right of the pits is the famed Roostertail wall, a roughly 10 foot concrete wall along the edge of the course. As people scrambled atop the wall, Myers’ boat hit the wall hard, sending parts flying off the boat and into the air.

Myers managed to get out of the boat quickly, and laid down on the deck waiting for rescue crews to get to him. Nobody on shore was hurt, but Myers was. He was taken to St. John Hospital in Detroit, where they found multiple fractures in his left ankle.

The Roostertail turn where the skid fin failed is the tightest turn in all of Unlimited Hydroplane racing. It’s tough to manage as it is, let alone when equipment fails. “If you miss, there is a stone wall there on the exit of the turn and it’s going to hurt,” said U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto driver Steve David before the race started.

“JW had to be going 175, 180 miles per hour before that turn,” U-13 Miss DYC driver Cal Phipps told the Detroit News. “He had to hit that seawall at 100 to 120 miles-per-hour.”

U-96 Spirit of Qatar driver Dave Villwock was driving in the same heat, but had moved well past that point on the course when it happened. Still, an accident like that stays in your mind. “I was worried a little after what happened to J-Dub earlier,” said Villwock after racing again.

“I’m glad to hear J-Dub’s OK,” said U-100 Jarvis Restoration driver Greg Hopp. “You think about it when you’re on the course, but you have to just put it aside.”

“You just have to toss it out of your mind and continue to remain calm,” David told the Detroit News. “It does say a lot about the boats though how he got out and escaped injury.”

Some witnesses on the shore called Myers a hero for his actions. You won’t get an argument from the race teams or the other drivers.

Photos: Jim Simpson