By Bill Center
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 14, 2006

DON KOHLBAUER / Union-Tribune Miss Elam, driven by Dave Villwock, leads the Unlimited Hydro Bill Muncey Cup final on Mission Bay in 2005. In the background is Llumar Window Film which finished second.

Not all anniversaries are worth celebrating.

Unlimited Hydroplane racing is dealing with two of those this season. Forty years ago this past June 19 is remembered as Black Sunday. On that Father’s Day afternoon on the Potomac River in Washington, three drivers – Ron Musson, Chuck Thompson and Don Wilson – died. Twenty-five years ago this Oct. 18, Unlimited racing’s greatest driver, La Mesan Bill Muncey, died in an accident at Acapulco, Mexico. Sandwiched in between those two tragedies were 15 years that many aficionados of powerboat racing believe to be the glory days of Unlimited Hydroplanes, a sport that once was afforded more national attention than NASCAR. One of the greats of that era will be in San Diego this weekend, looking back on an anniversary of his own while concluding the opening pages of a new chapter in his life. Continue Reading…

By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times staff reporter

Jean Theoret leads the field in Heat 2B - Image by Walt Ottenad - www.nwspeedshots.com

Miss Beacon Plumbing driver Jean Theoret, on Dave Villwock of the Miss Ellstrom Elam Plus “He got the inside lane, so I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got to make the start, I’ve got to make it perfect, if I want to beat Dave.’ ” Billy Schumacher told a newspaper reporter this week that he and wife Jane might remain as owners of the U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing unlimited hydroplane for only three to five years. Jane Schumacher took slight umbrage, saying the comment was taken more literally than it was meant.

“They [competing unlimited owners] are going to wish we were only in it three to five years,” she said. “We’re in it for the long haul.” A long haul that might yield deep rewards if Sunday’s Chevrolet Cup at Seafair is any indication.

Keyed by a marvelous performance by driver Jean Theoret in the winner-take-all final heat, the U-37 dominated activity on Lake Washington this weekend, giving Billy Schumacher a victory in his first race as an owner in his hometown. Theoret won the final with a speed of 141.880 mph. Steve David in the Oh Boy! Oberto was second at 134.320 and pre-race favorite Dave Villwock in the Miss Ellstrom Elam Plus was third at 131.068. Continue Reading…

Gilles Vachet
Le Journal de Montréal
08/07/2006 06h28

Comme c’est le cas chaque année, Jean Théorêt est le centre d’attraction aux Régates de Valleyfield.Hier, Théorêt a encore signé de nombreux autographes dans les puits. «Je suis toujours heureux de revenir dans mon patelin, a déclaré le pilote originaire de Maple Grove. Les gens sont gentils à Valleyfield et je me sens appuyé à cent pour cent.» L’an dernier, il est sorti de sa retraite pour conduire le bateau de classe Unlimited de l’Américain Bill Wurster, le Llumar Window Film U-8.

À Valleyfield, l’embarcation était toutefois en démonstration à cause du parcours trop court (un mille au lieu de deux milles) pour ces gros bateaux. Cette année, les bateaux Unlimited participent à la compétition à la suite de la décision de l’American Boating Racing Association d’inscrire le programme des Régates de Valleyfield dans son calendrier de courses. Il va sans dire que Jean Théorêt aimerait bien remporter la victoire devant ses partisans, demain après-midi, dans la baie Saint-François. «Je vais tout faire pour gagner, mais comme je l’ai toujours fait, je m’en remets à Dieu», a-t-il déclaré. Continue Reading…

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Billy and Jane Schumacher plan on staying in the sport as an owner for three to five years, then getting out so they can spend summers in St. Tropez.

By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times staff reporter

KENNEWICK — Upon being introduced as the owner of the U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing at a news conference earlier this week, Billy Schumacher asked that his wife, Jane, join him at the podium. “I’d like to introduce the real owner,” he said, pointing to Jane. To those who don’t know any better, it seemed like playful banter. Just a little self-deprecating humor. But ask Schumacher, and the return of the legendary “Billy the Kid” to the pits would not have happened if not for his wife of almost five years, who carved out a sizeable nest egg of her own as an investment broker. “I just didn’t have the wherewithal to do it before,” said Schumacher, who along with Jane bought the former Miss Llumar Window Film boat and equipment from Bill Wurster earlier this year. “With Jane, it became possible.” Continue Reading…

ELIZABETH CONLEY / AP Jean Theoret, center, raises the Gold Cup with the help his son, Pierre, left, and the rest of his crew after winning the race on the Detroit River on Sunday.

By Eric Sharp
Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — It was 38 years ago that a young boat driver named Billy Schumacher won the Gold Cup unlimited hydroplane race on the Detroit River. On Sunday, beaming boat owner Schumacher watched driver Jean Theoret pilot the Miss Beacon Plumbing to victory in the 2006 Chrysler Jeep Gold Cup, becoming the third non-American to win.

“I believe in miracles, and I believe in this team,” Theoret said, shrugging off suggestions that the Miss Beacon’s mechanics had somehow found new speed before he won the fourth qualifying heat and the Gold Cup final.

“We’d been hurt so much in the heats before, I guess the confidence goes away. And when the confidence goes away, you start to make mistakes, and you don’t drive as well.”

Theoret, the 2005 rookie of the year from Maple Grove, Quebec, won at an average speed of 142.441 mph.

Jimmy King of Memphis, Mich., finished second in the Miss Chrysler Jeep, the only piston-powered boat in the 11-hydro fleet. Steve David of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was third in the Oh Boy! Oberto.

Theoret was the next-to-lowest points accumulator in qualifying for the five-boat final. He got penalties in all three of his qualifying heats, the four infractions ranging from destroying turn buoys to jumping the starting gun. Continue Reading…

June 26, 2006
DAVE JOHNSON, Executive Sports Editor
Evansville Courier-Press

Billy Schumacher retired from boat racing nearly 30 years ago, but part of him will always be in the cockpit. “I get more nervous watching than driving,” said the legendary driver-turned-owner. “It’s nerveracking.” Especially when something goes wrong, like it did Sunday during Thunder on the Ohio. Schumacher could only look on helplessly when the unlimited hydroplane he owns, the U-37 Miss Seattle, hit a wake in the first turn of Heat 3-A and barrel-rolled into the air. The boat sustained enough damage to keep her from running the rest of the day. The driver, Jean Theoret, escaped injury.

But Schumacher knew as well as anyone that it could have been worse – a lot worse. During his 24-year racing career, the driver they called “Billy the Kid” had his share of mishaps – and at least three life-threatening near-misses. There was the 1971 race in Washington, D.C., when he headed into a corner with Bill Muncey on his hip. “I hit a wave and the boat started to tip over. My shoulder actually dipped into the water,” Schumacher recalled. “How the boat ever righted itself, I’ll never know. “Muncey told me later that he did everything he could just to keep from running over me. I was really lucky.”
Continue Reading…

By Jack Broom

GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES/2005

Jean Theoret won last year’s Seafair Trophy in the U-8 Llumar Window Film, above. He plans to be in the cockpit again this year when the boat competes as U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing. It’s enough to shiver your timbers: the Seafair Pirates are adopting a hydroplane. No, they won’t use it to pillage and plunder, but they do hope it will boost their visibility at one of Seafair’s premier events.

Pirates officials today will announce they’re “laying claim” to the new U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing, which will race outside the state as the Miss Seattle. Continue Reading…

By Michael McLaughlin
Reprinted from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 14, 2006

Few unlimited hydroplane drivers enjoyed as much success as William “Billy” Schumacher. Dubbed “Billy the Kid” at age 8 when he raced his first outboard, Schumacher won virtually every boat-racing class he competed in.

During his 24-year racing career, he set 12 world speed records, ranging from outboards to Unlimiteds. Schumacher won eight American and Canadian national titles, established three unlimited hydroplane closed course world speed records, and won two unlimited hydroplane national championships, three national driver championships and two Gold Cup titles.

Raised in North Seattle on the shores of Lake Washington, Schumacher dominated the Unlimiteds in the late 1960s and became the youngest national champion in 1967 at age 25 while piloting the Miss Bardahl, one of the most popular Seattle hulls of all time.

Schumacher won his final national drivers championship in 1975 and officially retired from the sport in 1977. Nearly 30 years later, Schumacher and his wife, Jane, have returned to the Unlimiteds after buying the former U-8 Llumar Film hydroplane and taking control of the team operations for the 2006 season. Continue Reading…